sims.net on sql server 2008_windows 2003

Hi all my sims server is currently given me a load of grief, maxing the processor. Its on a Citrix xen virtual server with 4 vcpus and 4gb of RAM and it appears that this problem only really started to surface when we upgraded the sql install from sql 2005 to sql 2008. I am presuming that sql server 2008 is more resource hungry and i need to fine tune the performance.

Does anyone have any tips for ensuring best possible performance both from a sims point of view and a sql server 2008 point of view? i have ran through some maintenance tasks in sql server but to be honest its a bit of guess work at the moment..

Thanks in advance

Did you do an in-situ upgrade of the SQL? I moved to a new server when i did my recent upgrade and inadvertently used a base VM that only had 1 vCPU when i thought it had 4. CPU spiked a bit in testing!

Other than a silly mistake like that, it could be wanting more RAM, as 4GB sounds low. The sum of my .mdf and .ldf is greater than 4GB at the moment. If RAM / disk access is slowing it down, it might hold on to the CPU a bit longer, or appear to. I know at peak times ours maxes out and runs a little slow.

Also, have you turned off the old instance if you did go with installing a 2008 instance onto old server.

I took some advice on possible tweaks, and was advised that SQL should be able to handle itself, so unless you are running other DBs / instances on the same server, or if the xen host itself is pretty full, you shouldn't need to do any tweaking.

From the SIMS side, there have been quite a few reports of the home page panels causing a general slow down, if you look on SupportNet there are a few threads related to that. Do you have widespread use of the panels, i know it causes a delay on load up when i log in with my account that has lots of panels.

It's on my todo list still, but there were some free analysis tools mentioned in this thread
http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-sy...onitoring.html

Other advice on similar issues here
http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-sy...ql-2008-a.html
http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-sy...all-users.html

might be worth a read for the various troubleshooting tips.

Yes i did an in situ install so the old sql server 2005 was still present but i have turned off all the services etc (which did make a difference, i'm stalling on doing an uninstall as i have msde 2005 running for easytraces follow me print solution so don't wanna mess that up).

The problem i have with the RAM is i am on 32 bit 2003 so 4gb is my limit, the xen host itself could be a bit full so that is somewhere i could start, along with turning the panels off as you suggest. I will take a look at the links that you have posted and hopefully things will improve.

Thanks for your comprehensive reply and suggestions, most appreciated.

I was looking at some of my hosts today (vmware) and read a thread here about vCPUs on VMs. Made me look at some of ours, and i decided to drop the intranet server down from 2 to 1, as it maxes out at 350MHz. SIMS uses all 4 peaking at 10GHz ish, and also easily eats up the 10GB memory i throw at it. Especially when i ran a full class photo report to word for the whole primary school.

I would definitely consider starting a new clean server on 2008 R2, that's what i just did over easter, to get away from the old 2k3 which was probably a 2k before that too! You can then leave a low powered 2k3 for your print solution as long as you like.

Yeah that is a good idea, did you document the sims move to the new server? could do with a heads up if you did?

Sort of, not in office now, but will be around tomorrow. Mentioned it in a number of threads here though. Basically, clean install OS, then sql, download and install the spring 2010 installable iso from capita, upgrade it to spring 2011 or whatever version you are up to, then attach your db to it. everything golden. :) do all the tweaking regarding doc server and ports etc. only thing to hinder might be the need to remap server share for users and edit sims.ini if it's hardcoded with sharename.

thats a great start thanks did you say 64bit 2k8 ? or 32 bit ?

He said 2008 r2 64bit :)

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Originally Posted by Uraken

thats a great start thanks did you say 64bit 2k8 ? or 32 bit ?

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Originally Posted by pritchardavid

He said 2008 r2 64bit :)

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yep ^. R2 is 64bit

@Uraken - here's a link to a thread where i posted about some of the issues and the files needed between the old installable and the latest version, though there should by now be a current Spring 11 installable which would save some hassle. Also documented the issues with which ports to allow through firewall in 2008.
http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-sy...st-backup.html

Also, you might find this interesting, especially when it goes wrong: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-sy...st-2007-a.html

Thanks Vikpaw i will take a look through this, i know this is not best practice, but given that this is a xen server with very little bloat, i am toying with the idea of an in place upgrade from windows 2003 server to windows 2008 server so that i can take advantage of more RAM, i'm just researching any gotchas at the moment.

Change from full to simple logging (if you have good backups) helped alot!

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Originally Posted by irsprint84

Change from full to simple logging (if you have good backups) helped alot!

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Helps manage the transaction file better, and stops it exploding iirc.

@Uraken - no issue with in place upgrade, it's only, if something goes wrong that's your live server, now virtualisation will overcome that somewhat, but personally, if you have the capacity, i would take the time to prepare the new machine, and then have minimal downtime by just switching over. Obviously with the caveat regarding mapped drive changeover and potential need to update sims.ini files it's nicer.

It's just seems like a lot of effort to increase the RAM, and it might not be that which is causing your slowdown. It could just be the general issues with the latest upgrade that everyone is having.