[sims] SIMS Performance

[Rolo_1997]

Hi,

 

I have been looking into some SIMS Performance issues, i have tried a lot of obvious stuff but can't seem to get anywhere with it. it can take up to about 10 mins to log in and open a register. (the server performance is not too bad it takes about 1min to login and open a register)

 

I have logged this with Capita but this is a prime example of a "Not our problem" case, therefore i am not expecting much assistance from them.

 

 

So into the problems

 

I have identified a bottleneck on the network which is causing issues on at least 4 machines, it can take up to 30mins to transfer 200mb of data to the effected machines. i have tested this numerous times with the same result each time, and the IT provider is aware of this.

 

With that said i also know of 4 machines that are working exceptionally on the network with gigabit speeds, although these 4 machines are also reporting 10-15 mins to log in and open a register.

 

I am wondering if the 4 machines effected by the bottleneck would have a detrimental effect on the other machines across the school?

I'm not sure if there is an easy way for me to test this as i suspect in order to rule this out i would have to make sure the 4 slow machines are either turned off or not connected to the network.

 

 

At this point i am just looking for suggestions on what i can try as i have tried just about everything i can think of and i'm at a loss, we have had issues like this before at other schools but we were never able to resolve the issues.

 

 

Possible resolutions already tried

• Reindex patch
  
• Database diagnostics
  
• SQL memory usage is not restricted
  
• archive attendance marks
  
• shrinking log file
  

 

Server Details:

Virtual Windows server 2012 R2

 

SQL 2012 : 11.0.2100.60

Memory: 12GB

Intel Xeon CPU E5-2620 @ 2.1GHz

Plenty of Disk space

 

This is an MIS server, so only SIMS and 3rd part apps are installed on it.

 

I hope this makes sense and thanks in advance for any suggestions

[mthomas08]

Although not as bad - 30 minutes. When I started in my current role, it could take a while on a 100MB network.

 

Since upgrading to 1GB we had seen a massive boost in performance with SIMs. We find it still takes a moment but only because everything else is fast. SIMs takes up to 10 seconds for us - server and locally.

 

We are currently having a few random memory crashes for certain users. Working with Capita on this one but even I am at a loss now on what the issue is.

 

Edit: Also looks like you've tried the usual things we have. In the hope of solving our problems, we chucked a load (I mean a load) of memory in to the server.

[mukz]

Is your SQL disks on the same raid as everything else?

[Rolo_1997]

Thanks for your responses, we also chucked a bit of ram at the server and got the IT provider to up the allocated memory to 16GB but this didn't seem to make even the slightest of differences. Capita have got back to me and suggested running anti-virus on the affected machines and installing windows updates, although i can't see this making much difference.

 

and in regards to the disks being in Raid, we don't actually manage the server but from the looks of it on the virtual server it doesn't look like the disks are set up in raid, is this something that is done on the host server?

[synaesthesia]

The obvious thing to point out that regardless of how quick your server, network or clients are, SIMS is slow, period. Our server is dedicated, 64GB of ram and SQL can have as much of it as it likes, raid 10 solid state drives... and a report will still bring it to it's knees even just after clearing all the log files etc.

[ricki]

What would do is

Test with another user log in and Sims login

Try on different machine

Try machine in another part of network

Check nice card connect on server is 1 gig and not constantly negotiating

Is Sims login problems will all computers and users.

Try plugging server into another switch

Try computer in another switch

Is server windows 2008 or 2008 r2

[ricki]

Check nice card settings on client and server

Checks nslookups of severs name on server and client

Ping server from client

Scan server and client for viruses and malware

[ricki]

Check server for resource usage eg CPU and ram

 

Check raid have you got a drive down

 

Memory shortage make SQL run slow

[ricki]

Restart server

[PotNoodleTech]

So I think there is a problem with your actual network. 1. you say you do a test and get 200mb every 30 minutes (which is terrible) and 2. you say if you use SIMS on the actual SIMS server it is very fast. Both of those point to a problem with your network rather than your actual SIMS server.

 

Use an operating system .iso file, windows 10 is a good one as it's quite big, and use it to copy to various location on the server and back to the workstation to do a quick check of your network performance.

 

It's a really handy and quick way of identifying bottlenecks. I use it all the time - often to prove to external agencies that there is no problem with my network even when they say there is!

 

e.g here's one the other day just to prove there wasn't anything wrong with LAN speed.

 

 

As you can see there was no problem with speed here (when someone else was telling me there was) - 100 megabytes transferred every second on a PC that's in a building with a 1GB link. That's with 300 other computers turned on too and many wireless devices.

[Rolo_1997]

Hi,

 

Thanks for your Responses, there is a big bottleneck on the network I have been using a piece of software called LAN Speed test, it's quite a useful little tool, it lets you select a packet size and transfer it to a machine on the network, it will tell you the time per packet (reading and writing) and this is how i identified a problem with the network.

 

the IT provider is aware of this and are currently looking into upgrading it to sort it out, but i'm still confused about the machines that aren't being affected by the bottleneck because these machines are just as slow when using sims in any way shape or form. I'm just not sure if those being affected by the bottleneck could be slowing it down the rest of the network?

(I don't really know much about networks)

[PotNoodleTech]

Hi,

 

Thanks for your Responses, there is a big bottleneck on the network I have been using a piece of software called LAN Speed test, it's quite a useful little tool, it lets you select a packet size and transfer it to a machine on the network, it will tell you the time per packet (reading and writing) and this is how i identified a problem with the network.

 

the IT provider is aware of this and are currently looking into upgrading it to sort it out, but i'm still confused about the machines that aren't being affected by the bottleneck because these machines are just as slow when using sims in any way shape or form. I'm just not sure if those being affected by the bottleneck could be slowing it down the rest of the network?

(I don't really know much about networks)

 

Hi.

 

There are so many possible network configurations it is hard to tell, but if there is something wrong somewhere then it is possible that SIMS traffic is being directed through an area with the issue, in order to work its way over to whatever PC you are on. IT could be something like a broadcast storm, or faulty network card somewhere. Hopefully your it provider will be able to get to the bottom of it as I would brand your current network performance levels (from the measurements you've done) as "unacceptable".

 

Hope you get to the bottom of it!!

[Esteban_Child_of_the_Sun]

When you log in to SIMS, the client reads and write various pieces of information to the Document Management Server (DMS). The DMS is based on some very old technology (I believe it still needs the .net 1.1 framework installed to function) and as such hasn't been designed to cope with multiple requests in a particularly efficient manner. It wouldn't surprise me if the DMS was processing everything slowly using the slowest connection lowest common denominator principle. The speed of the DMS can also be heavily affected by disk speed especially if it is on the same disk as the SQL databases which aren't that fast read/write to start with. I don't have much hard evidence for this, but it is my current working theory for things like this and I have had instances like this in the past where moving the DMS to another server with it's own dedicated network connection and a suitable raid configuration has resolved similar issues with performance.

[Banjo]

You can also put the tick in SIMS for slow connections (under setups) - that might speed things up slightly.

[MrMat]

When you log in to SIMS, the client reads and write various pieces of information to the Document Management Server (DMS). The DMS is based on some very old technology (I believe it still needs the .net 1.1 framework installed to function) and as such hasn't been designed to cope with multiple requests in a particularly efficient manner. It wouldn't surprise me if the DMS was processing everything slowly using the slowest connection lowest common denominator principle. The speed of the DMS can also be heavily affected by disk speed especially if it is on the same disk as the SQL databases which aren't that fast read/write to start with. I don't have much hard evidence for this, but it is my current working theory for things like this and I have had instances like this in the past where moving the DMS to another server with it's own dedicated network connection and a suitable raid configuration has resolved similar issues with performance.

 

Following on from this...

 

Might not be related at all but worth mentioning. We've had issues in the past with slow logins and it's actually been the proxy/smoothwall etc. When you first open SIMS, the first thing it does it check the DMS which, by default, operates via HTTP. If you haven't got the MIS server (or whatever is hosting the DMS) within the Proxy bypass then it will go through the proxy which can really slow things down (a good few minutes to login).

 

Easiest test is obviously turn off the proxy on the machine and try logging in to SIMS again.

[Rolo_1997]

Hi Everyone,

 

Thanks for your posts on this i have a couple of things i can try now, I'll update this and let you know what happens!

 

Thanks Again!

[splattthecat]

When you log in to SIMS, the client reads and write various pieces of information to the Document Management Server (DMS). The DMS is based on some very old technology (I believe it still needs the .net 1.1 framework installed to function) and as such hasn't been designed to cope with multiple requests in a particularly efficient manner. It wouldn't surprise me if the DMS was processing everything slowly using the slowest connection lowest common denominator principle. The speed of the DMS can also be heavily affected by disk speed especially if it is on the same disk as the SQL databases which aren't that fast read/write to start with. I don't have much hard evidence for this, but it is my current working theory for things like this and I have had instances like this in the past where moving the DMS to another server with it's own dedicated network connection and a suitable raid configuration has resolved similar issues with performance.

 

On the same lines, if you test DMS from one of the affected machines how long does it take to respond. It may also, as a test, be worth changing the protocol DMS is using, and re-testing. The protocol will need to be changed for the DMS server service, and in SIMS.

[ricki]

Check all your switches are they all flashing together or do they twinkle if they all flashing together you could have a loop or a broken nice card on network