Tuning a WebSphere Portal environment involves tuning and configuring the various systems and components of the environment like:

• Configuring the application server and the resources defined for that application server.
• Determining the cloning strategy for expanding or extending the environment.
• Tuning the database(s) and database server.
• Tuning the directory server and its database.
• Tuning the web server.
• Tuning the operating system and network.
• Tuning the WebSphere Portal services.

When tuning your individual systems, it is important to begin with a baseline, monitor the performance metrics to determine if any parameters should be changed and, when a change is made, monitor the performance metrics to determine the effectiveness of the change.