SIMS.NET Running slow and causing network to freeze

[techyphil]

Is anyone else having issues with the exams module?

 

Every time the exams officer uses exams, the server max's out. Now we thought it was a dodgy switch as the majority of machines suddenly crawl and this occurred once before as a result of a dodgy switch. After many days of trying to figure this out, it turned out to be SIMS.

 

.ICT have issued a patch to fix this but it hasn't worked. I wish they'd release a "KNOWN ISSUES" list by email. People working in excel seem to get hit hardest! Not sure why but it does.

 

Now is there a problem with Office 2003 as well? SIMS's is crawling these past few weeks.

 

Thanks

[adamf]

the server max's out

 

What do you mean? All the RAM is being used up, processor usage??

[PhilNeal]

The only part of Exams that I am aware of that can run sowly is seating and that is only on the workstation concerned.

[techyphil]

It's a dual core XEON 2Ghz - 4GB RAM.

 

Yes Exams seating is a problem and there was supposed to be a patch to fix it. It hasnt worked. The CPU hits 50% when it runs a query allowing anything else to be processed on the other core. However, when she does exams, it maxes out both cores and anyone with a file open on a share located on the server is affected as well as sims users.

 

.ICT's advice is to a) Create the exams season again b) run the seating over night. We can't do B as there are looads and they all need to be done one at a time.

 

.ICT are looking into this.

 

Cheers

[penfold_99]

our sims isn't running slow, but i have noticed that the sql server in using 1.7gb of memory.

 

has anyone else got this high memory usage?

[vikpaw]

I may be wrong but that 1.7GB may just be the size of the database. In which case having it all in memory should make things run quicker. How big is your sims .mdf file?

 

The maxing out of CPU and also increased memory is normal i think, it just shouldn't last long. I thought SQL was designed to use as much resource as was available to get the job done sooner.

 

If we do something on our server CPU spikes and then drops back down again.

[localzuk]

Quick question to the op, what spec is the machine you're running this on? And is it dedicated purely to SIMS?

[penfold_99]

@localzuk

 

if your question was aimed at me then it,

 

Win 2k3, quad core 2.33 Mhz, 3.25 Gb of ram, our CPU usage never its more that about 49% on any core.

[localzuk]

@localzuk

 

if your question was aimed at me then it,

 

Win 2k3, quad core 2.33 Mhz, 3.25 Gb of ram, our CPU usage never its more that about 49% on any core.

 

It was aimed at the original poster

 

1.7Gb isn't a lot for an sql server to be using memory wise. It just means your SIMS database is loaded into memory, so access times will be a lot quicker.

[techyphil]

HP ProLiant ML350

It's a dual core XEON 2Ghz - 4GB RAM

 

.ICT are trying to resolve these issues for us.

 

We're planning on upgrading anyway to a HP ML370 G5 and would love to run Windows 2008 64bit and if possible SIMS on top of that. However, if its going to be an issue, i'd like place SIMS in a virtual machine so its easier for .ICT to take away the image and debug any further issues we have. Plus the benefits of being able to snapshot and duplicate the entire disk.

Edited March 9, 2009 by techyphil

[Stuart_C]

It was aimed at the original poster

 

1.7Gb isn't a lot for an sql server to be using memory wise. It just means your SIMS database is loaded into memory, so access times will be a lot quicker.

 

Ahhh... that might explain why I have an SQL server instance running using a similarly rediculus amount of memory. CAPITA suggest a qucik reset of the SQL service to fix however if it's going to make SIMS run faster and I'm only using the server for SIMS and a little bit of file storage I might not bother for the moment.