[sims] SIMS very slow to log in

[enjay]

Since everyone came back last week, we've been experiences very slow login times, as in you enter your creds and clik login but SIMS doesn't open for several minutes, sometimes in excess of 10 minutes. Perf/resource monitor on the SIMS and SQL servers doesn't raise any alarm bells. We know of one other local school experiencing the same issue, is this something widespread and is there a solution? I've also emailed our County SIMS support team, but I've got SLT on my back about this (understandably so) so am going for the scatter-gun approach to finding a resolution!

[Boredguy]

We've had the slow logon since updating the 7.2 (so has the primary), so it's something that EES have done more so that your side.

[enjay]

We've had the slow logon since updating the 7.2 (so has the primary), so it's something that EES have done more so that your side.

 

I noticed the slow logon a bit over the summer, but it was only a few extra seconds. Since everyone came back last week, it is now many many minutes.

[chazzy2501]

oh good it's not my system. New laptops were super slow at SIMS... phew.

[3s-gtech]

I’ve not noticed any performance change with 7.200, and it doesn’t take long to open here. Quirk with something like the default printer? Dodgy connect.ini settings?

[ticktock]

I know it's a long shot but might be worth checking that the disks are healthy on the server. Also have a quick look at the network card just to make sure the speed hasn't dropped.

[Boredguy]

I know it's a long shot but might be worth checking that the disks are healthy on the server. Also have a quick look at the network card just to make sure the speed hasn't dropped.

if it was just 1 school with the issue, that would be something to check, but several sites with different equipment with similar slow loading after the recent update would point more to an issue with Pulsar.

[Guest Guest]

I've also noticed our SIMS doesn't seem to b le running as fast as it did (not that it's ever ran very fast) all our disks are fine and The Hypervisor is connected at 10Gbps

[willtech]

Some useful stuff in here: http://www.osmis.co.uk/advice-on-system-optimisation some bits I ignore.

 

Also if you run sql 2016: https://support.capitasoftware.com/csm?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0036825

Edited September 6, 2021 by willtech

[mf13tch]

Try changing the connect.ini settings on a test machine so that it only uses the connect.ini that it looks for first (usually located at C:\program files (x86)\SIMS\SIMS .net\connect.ini )....

Set this to use the IP of the SIMS Server rather than a hostname and see if that changes anything?

 

PS - I'm assuming this is a normal sims client and not some kind of hosted set up...

Edited September 6, 2021 by mf13tch
include PS

[enjay]

Some useful stuff in here: http://www.osmis.co.uk/advice-on-system-optimisation some bits I ignore.

 

Also if you run sql 2016: https://support.capitasoftware.com/csm?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0036825

 

Borough support suggested some of those too but as @Boredguy pointed out, other schools are affected too, so it seems unlikely this would be the cause. I'll run the patches anyway, because they can't hurt.

[willtech]

Borough support suggested some of those too but as @Boredguy pointed out, other schools are affected too, so it seems unlikely this would be the cause. I'll run the patches anyway, because they can't hurt.

 

Yeah sadly sims is always a bug bare.

[MrMat]

Always worth checking the DMS settings (Tools > Setups > Document Management) as well. If the Document Management Settings are wrong, SIMS client will spend a good minute or two looking for the DMS, before timing out/giving up and finally logging into SIMS. It's caught me out a few times in the past.

 

(Oh and also, make sure it's not trying to go through the proxy! - again caught me out before)

[enjay]

Always worth checking the DMS settings (Tools > Setups > Document Management) as well. If the Document Management Settings are wrong, SIMS client will spend a good minute or two looking for the DMS, before timing out/giving up and finally logging into SIMS. It's caught me out a few times in the past.

 

(Oh and also, make sure it's not trying to go through the proxy! - again caught me out before)

 

Those aren't settings which would randomly change though, are they?

[mthomas08]

Our SIMs has generally always been slow and we have been through the process of rebuilding the server and now migrated to a brand new virtual server. The server performance barely gets a scratch.

 

The only performance change is the installation process - this is now very fast compared to before. SIMs faster to load? nope.

 

Things I've tried to help the performance with no change:

SIMs performance patches I think they are the (22573) (20647)

Orphaned documents + document links cleaned up *edit* avoid pressing this during term time - ours actually freezes SIMs

Attendance data archived

SQL fully updated

Windows updated

Disks all fine

Plenty of memory

 

I am considering asking Capita to provide a patch to remove all old documents but looking at the research, this can actually break it...

 

Also add, I don't think this has anything to do with the ini files. They can copy over instantly - likewise for site wide deploying of updates (this process has now become very fast). The problem surely lies within or how SIMs accesses the SQL data.

 

Still, if anyone has anymore ideas......

[mf13tch]

(Oh and also, make sure it's not trying to go through the proxy! - again caught me out before)

This....

 

If you're getting load times of around two minutes as in the OP I reckon this is likely, especially if you're using an off site proxy of some description like a local LA or GfL. You can trace if the traffic is being proxied using (Process ??Monitor?? - might be Process ??Explorer?? from the MS sysinternals PSTools suite).

[psydii]

We're also seeing slower than usual logons this term. I had put it down to a lack of recent house keeping following year end and a couple of revisions of the timetable/cycle. I expect our MIS Manager will be runnign house keeping in the next week or so. Will report back if it makes a difference.

[mthomas08]

Now back on to my priority radar - inconsistent and seems to be getting a tad bit worse.

 

Something I didn't even think about (you can do this manually by deleting the SIMs folder in my documents). Improved my SIMs but we are now nearly end of day.

 

Login to SIMS .net as the affected SIMS user.

Go to: Tools > Setups > User Options.

Under panel 3 - Visual Settings, check the option 'Clear My SIMS Documents on Log Off' and click Save at the top.

Go to: Focus > Exit

 

Please bear in mind that the SIMS client can 'hang' and take longer than it usually does to close down. Please do not force the application to close and leave it until it has finished.

 

Once it has been closed down, if you then log back into SIMS .net and try saving the record or data again (that previously took a long time to save), then this should be noticeably quicker.

Additional Comments

Whilst you can leave this option enabled within SIMS .net, it might be best to un-check it again, as there is the possibility that this can cause the SIMS client to take longer to close down.

 

Two links here might help - from the capita support site. Going to be running through some bits at the weekend.

 

https://support.capitasoftware.com/csm?sys_kb_id=508df7b8dbbd0094003c4872ba96199e&id=kb_article_view&sysparm_rank=1&sysparm_tsqueryId=bb1949051b2e70d458418591f54bcbdc

 

https://support.capitasoftware.com/csm?sys_kb_id=66f7b6571b9f60107c9fed79b04bcb3e&id=kb_article_view&sysparm_rank=6&sysparm_tsqueryId=bb1949051b2e70d458418591f54bcbdc

[Boredguy]

Having a full or empty "My SIMS Documents" makes no real difference to the slowness of the login to SIMS.

When running reports maybe, but alas testing with a large Document folder, or a completely empty one still took 20-30 seconds for pulsar to load up the screen after completing the username box.

[haci]

Any of you managed to get to the bottom of this, we've also been suffering long log in times and generally poor performance since returning from summer when saving records etc.

Like others I've logged with capita and was given the laundry list of housekeeping reindex patch etc to complete I've completed all of these except for the attendance archiving (goes back to 2014) I've only not done this as i'm unsure of if we need to keep this data.

 

none of it made any difference, still takes a long time to log in and retrieving/saving records.

[enjay]

Our SIMS support sent us some patches which have helped, but not resolved it completely. Their next response was the same as you got, i.e. a KB about SQL versions, available RAM, dblog shrinking, etc. but those sorts of issues would be constant, wouldn't they?