SIMS Learning Gateway Problem

[JScott]

Hi All.

This is my first post so I hope it’s in the correct category!

 

We are using SIMS Learning Gateway (Capita Hosted) for electronic registration twice a day. We are having problems with the SLG timing out and in some cases taking 5min + just to load the main page.

 

Then, when a register is complete and the ‘save’ button is pressed it can take minutes for anything to happen and in most cases returns an error.

 

Is anyone else having problems like this with SLG?

 

Regards

Jim

[EduTech]

Are you using a wireless connection or wired? It is based on SIMS and i must admit it can run pretty slow during first login but thats more of a sharepoint thing rather the SIMS Learning Gateway.

 

We havent had any problems with regards to slowness, ours is not hosted by Capita though our LA Host ours.

 

James.

[PhilNeal]

We did have some reports of problems from a few schools today. The problem has been traced to loadbalancing and the team is working tonight to resolve this issue The fix will be applied tomorrow. The problem is unlikely to affect LA hosted schools.

[JScott]

Thanks for your replies.

 

We are using both wireless and wired connections. Both have the same problem with SLG speed/response time.

 

@PhilNeal

We are using the Capita Hosted service. Does the load balancing fix you mentioned apply to this service?

 

Regards

Jim

[meastaugh1]

It is based on SIMS and i must admit it can run pretty slow during first login but thats more of a sharepoint thing rather the SIMS Learning Gateway.

Unless I've misuderstood, I'm not entirely sure that it is a Sharepoint thing. I know there can be issues related to first-page loads with Sharepoint, but I've found that I can browse through pages on our self-hosted WSS server fine with page loads < 1 sec but when I hit an SLG page for the first time that session it takes inordinately longer (sometimes 10-15 secs) but will then load subsequent SLG pages within a second or two.

[PhilNeal]

Sorry been out of the office - yes it only applied to Capita hosted. Hopefully it has been OK for you today otherwise please log a call so we can help.

[garethEds]

Unless I've misuderstood, I'm not entirely sure that it is a Sharepoint thing. I know there can be issues related to first-page loads with Sharepoint, but I've found that I can browse through pages on our self-hosted WSS server fine with page loads < 1 sec but when I hit an SLG page for the first time that session it takes inordinately longer (sometimes 10-15 secs) but will then load subsequent SLG pages within a second or two.

 

Somebody told me that last week - that it takes time for some elements of a sharepoint page to wake up ready for display.

 

GJE

[meastaugh1]

Somebody told me that last week - that it takes time for some elements of a sharepoint page to wake up ready for display.

 

GJE

That's reassuring to hear. If it is an issue that is common across all SLG installations, I suspect Capita may be in denial. I'd be interested to hear the experience of other SLG self-hosted sites in this respect.

[PhilNeal]

Not sure about being in denial! There are three issues running in this thread I think.

 

Firstly the problem we had with Capita hosted SLG which was freezing in some schools - I'm told that this has been resolved.

 

Second, the first call to a web part is 10-15 secs but subsequent calls are fast. SQL does need to be woken up after it has dropped things from memory.

 

Third, it is possible for speed issues to occur if the wireless network in the school is overloaded.

 

Is there something that I'm missing?

Edited September 10, 2009 by PhilNeal

[meastaugh1]

Second, the first call to a web part is 10-15 secs but subsequent calls are fast. SQL does need to be woken up after it has dropped things from memory.

 

Third, it is possible for speed issues to occur if the wireless network in the school is overloaded.

 

Yeah sorry, I thought that might cause confusion, I appreciate that issue was separate from the one in the opening post.

 

I've disabled auto-close on all the SQL databases (this seemed to sort Sharepoint out when I initially came across these issues pre-SLG). Is there any way to get SLG to pick up the pace with first load of web parts, or is this a by-design thing? Thanks

[PhilNeal]

Is there any way to get SLG to pick up the pace with first load of web parts, or is this a by-design thing?

 

I'm not sure so will have to ask.

[apearce]

It sounds more like a connection issue between your SharePoint WFE/APP server to your SQL databases for both your SIMs and SharePoint. Check the loads of the services on both and ensure you have a good NIC speed between the two.

 

A.

[techie08]

We use the Hosted SLG here and we too experience time issues. Also on some of the web parts it displays the message-

 

An Error has Occurred

Detail:

Sorry but the requested information is currently unavailable.

Actions Taken:

The error has been logged

 

Also on one of the teachers, it displayes the timetable of someone completely different!

[meastaugh1]

It sounds more like a connection issue between your SharePoint WFE/APP server to your SQL databases for both your SIMs and SharePoint. Check the loads of the services on both and ensure you have a good NIC speed between the two.

 

A.

 

My setup is a single WSS server using the SQL internal database, so all on one box. The SIMS and WSS servers have a gigabit connection and are connected to the same switch. I'm not having any performance issues with Sharepoint or SIMS besides this.

Edited September 11, 2009 by meastaugh1

[PhilNeal]

To return to the question of the first load of a web part being slower than subsequent ones; I have been talking to the people that understand these details.

 

The very first time that a web part is used it will require the page to be built on the server; subsequent views will use a cashed version. If it is the first call on the SQL database that will also take longer.

[alastair]

This is not just a LA / Capita hosted problem, we self host MOSS , SIMS, and SLG, and registers in particular are slow to load.

 

We have implemented a few solutions which seem to work. I have listed them in order of ease.

 

1. MEMORY - put loads in your MOSS server, and SIMS server.

2. log onto Codeplex and download the SPwake.exe program, this wakes up sharepoint sites, according to a schedule (have a look in the application pool, they restart every night between 1 and 3 am) spwake preloads the app pool, so sharepoint is much faster to respond in the morning.

3. implement an ISA server, for 2 reasons, first it allows for better and more secure authentication, 2nd it speeds up sharepoint, and you can set cache sizes.

 

hope this helps