[sims] Sims - slow performance

[dapaulio]

Trying to diagnose generally slow performance whilst running some reports (focus | run reports).

 

Sims is installed on Hyperv Vm with 4 logical processors, 36gb ram (using capita recommended algorithm based on database size)

 

Sims is installed on full sql 2016 installation fully patched. The database is in 2012 compatibility mode as recommended by capita.

 

We have a number of reports that take 40 mins to hour to run. The problems has only existed since summer 2021 and made no difference upgrading to autumn 2021. Before summer 2021 the report took no longer than 20seconds.

 

Since, we have been back and too with capita, uploading data and they respond nothing wrong with the data must be environment.

I can also confirm it is likely environment and more so maybe Sql configuration but when asking for further assistance/advice they no longer seem willing to be as helpful.

 

Further tests carried out

- Ran report as preview on the sims server and still takes just as long eliminating topology infrastructure

- Ran report on a non domain joined computer logged on as administrator eliminating group policy

- exported the report template and imported it in to two other sims environments that I have access too and the reports open within 10 seconds

- all sites are hyper v and the vm on the other sites are equally matched in resources. Few differences between sql version but all 2016 and one site vm os and sql is 2012 28gb ram, the other site was running sims on 2016 (sql and os) with 10gb ram with similar sized databases on both

- all capita performance patches installed

- log file shrunk

- archived attendance marks to last two years

- validate memberships

- database diagnostics ran

 

Any help from a sql or server side as I must be missing something

Thanks

[ITGURU]

Depends what you class as slow - how big is the SQL database and log files. What RAID is the VM Disks running on?

[dapaulio]

Database is 17gb

Log file has been shrunk

Raid not too sure but never considered the host as a factor as there are no sign of performance degradation anywhere else on the network or server for that matter.

 

Factored HV out As this has only really begun to happen this acedemic year with nothing having being done to the hyper visor. And the hardware spec of all hv environments I tested this on are somewhat similar

[ITGURU]

Database is 17gb

Log file has been shrunk

Raid not too sure but never considered the host as a factor as there are no sign of performance degradation anywhere else on the network or server for that matter.

 

Factored HV out As this has only really begun to happen this acedemic year with nothing having being done to the hyper visor. And the hardware spec of all the environments I tested this on are somewhat similar

Depends on the other servers - SIMS is SQL heavy, if you have nothing else working as intense then you wont notice a performance issue with anything else. Check % disk usage on the host when everyone is active.

 

We have SIMS at several schools, 2 on virtual servers, with the VM on RAID 10 array, one school has physical SIMS server. Physical one always finishes first even those the VMs have same RAM, underlying disk RAID level etc.

 

Also check on latest supported SQL service pack and that BOOST SQL PRIORITY is NOT set.

[milesla]

Hi,

 

There are two optimisation patches you may need to request - 20647 & 22573. We're not on SIMS anymore so I have no idea whether these are included in each release yet. They used to be available upon request. They should be run after every update and before validate memberships and database diagnostics.

 

Worth monitoring the size of the log files created when running the reports incase your running low on disk space during the process.

 

Goodluck

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Hi,

 

There are two optimisation patches you may need to request - 20647 & 22573. We're not on SIMS anymore so I have no idea whether these are included in each release yet. They used to be available upon request. They should be run after every update and before validate memberships and database diagnostics.

 

Worth monitoring the size of the log files created when running the reports incase your running low on disk space during the process.

 

Goodluck

[mthomas08]

I put SIMs on a new server and the performance has slightly improved but still ... SIMs is SIMs.

 

I know it isn't the server because I can deploy solus/updates much quicker compared to before. Previously, it could take up to an hour and a half to deploy the updates to all the machines - now it's about 15/20 minutes.

 

I've done all the patches and googled a long list of solutions and ideas (tons on EduLink if you look for them).

 

Things you can try, like the SIMs housekeeping and some of these could freeze up SIMs -

-Archive attendance (you can even set this as a scheduled task once a year)

-Unlinked document issues

-Unlinked parents

-System diagnostics

 

Ask the data manager if anything else could be cleared/cleaned. None of this made a single impact to the performance for us though.....

 

Our SIMs is still slow but we are leaving it and heading to Bromcom so I don't have to worry about this anymore. Every year it feels slower (after SIMs updates) which to me .. says it all.

Edited January 18, 2022 by mthomas08

[jonnykewell1]

Not sure if this is linked but we have a number of Academies who are experiencing performance issues with their SIMS servers currently. We've had this response from ESS:

 

Good afternoon All,

 

We are investigating a number of reports of deadlock errors at this time.

 

May I ask anyone experiencing this to ensure that a case has been logged with the following information please.

 

What process is being attempted when the error occurs

Time of day

Which school is impacted

Whether the school is hosted by anyone i.e. ESS, yourselves or another third party.

Many thanks

 

This looks like it may have been since the 2021 Autumn upgrade. I'll let you know if I hear anything else.

[ITGURU]

Not just slow, we've had missing register marks happening for ages, once the teachers save them, the marks disappear when attendance tell them they haven't save their register. Capita told us it was impossible, submitted our data, told us its because the server was full!! Now they've updated the case to say other schools are reporting the same issue!

[HarkNowHear]

I've logged a call with our support provider as since we rolled out the latest update we're consistently seeing our server running at 100% CPU. Even after shrinking log files etc it's still being absolutely swamped. It's a VM with 6 vCPUs running on a Xeon Silver 4210, however the chap I spoke to suggested this doesn't have the single core performance required for SIMS/SQL, and suggested upping the CPU count to 10! I think it's more likely we need some housekeeping/maintenance of the database, and for us it suspiciously became an issue after the Autumn 2021 release was deployed.

[mraerosmith]

We are currently experiencing a very similar issue relating to deadlocks, but our current testing seems to indicate it could be an issue with Wonde writing back attendance data from CC , does your school use CC

[jonnykewell1]

Sorry is that ClassCharts @mraerosmith?

[mraerosmith]

It is indeed

[jonnykewell1]

If so, we don't write back data into SIMS from Classcharts for attendance. We do use Wonde and Class charts for other things though but I believe it's only exports.

[mraerosmith]

Many thanks for that, our issue only seemed to appear after we started using CC for attendance, but we do write back into Sims as part of it.

 

We did upgrade to the autumn sims update a few weeks prior, but I hadn't been able to track any issues back to that, until I came across this posting.

[dapaulio]

Interesting read. Since my last post we have been back and to with capita.

 

We have determined that there is no infrastructure /server fault and from this put it back in capita /Ess court to determine as I said we have only begun see degradation within sims from September last year which ties in with the autumn update.

 

We too use classcharts but couldn’t say for certain whether we write back to sims. It’s something I’m going to have to check with the sims manager.

 

Interestly though one of the first things I did at the beginning of all this was disable all the extractor that was pulling data out of sims and it didn’t make any difference.

 

Now I never realised that CC writes back to sims so this is something I will look to pursue next time I’m on site

 

Please any one else having the problems i will be interested in your views

[3s-gtech]

Reassuring as we look to move to writing attendance back to SIMS from CC.

 

I will point at this thread, and walk away.

[ITGURU]

We dont use any software integration which writes back attendance marks, only behaviour.

[mraerosmith]

your CC will probably write back into Sims, thinking primarily about census , as your data team would likely do that from Sims and the data would have to be written back in from CC for it to exist

[enjay]

Interesting read. Our SIMS performance dropped dramatically after the Summer release. When we installed Autumn, we also went through a knowledge base article from our LEA about various performance improvements and things have been much better since (obviously don't know whether it was Autumn release, the tweaks or both). We have got a demo with ClassCharts next week though, so I will ask about performance impact of attendance write-back.

 

Those of you with issues, are you writing all lesson attendance back to SIMS or just AM/PM?

[SL_Thing]

We had the same issue, since summer update I have got more complaints, it was slow to begin with but now it is worse.

 

According to ESS our speed is correct for the school size and the size of our database which unfortunately is 75gb (we use SIMS a lot, more than most schools probably do, however a good fair chucnk of it is the intouch tables)

 

The only way to reduce our database size was to run the 'delete all intouch data older than a year' patch, which we cannot do as it would delete stuff we cant delete until such time as it isnt need (e.g. delete after the student reaches 25 years old)

 

Someone did suggest making a duplicate SIMS server for archive, and then run the patch on the current so we still have the data.

 

We may go down the other MIS route, but as amititgation for some slowness we are using EdulinkOne as a way to registers etc a bit quicker than waiting for SIMS to load :-)

 

All fun and games

[mraerosmith]

We have now rolled back and discontinued use of CC for attendance.

[enjay]

We have now rolled back and discontinued use of CC for attendance.

 

Maybe I'm missing something, but since attendance is visible in CC, why not just set it to write-back to SIMS once at 10pm, or at 9am and 2pm if you want them in SIMS a bit sooner? I'm not seeing why CC needs to write back all the time...

[mraerosmith]

You cant, its a constant Writeback, we considered that as well.

[enjay]

You cant, its a constant Writeback, we considered that as well.

 

We're about to start using CC. Can we use it to record attendance but not write it back to SIMS?

[3s-gtech]

We have now rolled back and discontinued use of CC for attendance.

Wow. Were you given any indicators to fix it other than ditching that part of CC? It's a very expensive module, with yearly commitments - we haven't quite sucked on that bullet yet but I know who'd be blamed when it goes pectorals to the sky...