howartp Posted October 23, 2009 Posted October 23, 2009 Hi, I've had a few reports lately that our SIMS server is running slower than usual. It's running on ESX virtual hosts so I gave it more memory to see if that helped, but it doesn't seem to have. Then yesterday I was at a Network Managers meeting and I heard people talking about their SIMS server having 8GB of memory - ours has 3GB... The SIMS virtual server has 2x 2.237GHz CPUs and 3GB memory. Database is 4GB, with 150+ users (of which probably 100 should be using it at a time for registers at the beginning of each lesson). It's currently Windows Server 2003 32-bit (not R2) so I know 4GB is the maximum there but if we need to install 2003 R2 or 2008 to up the memory then we can do - the hardware is 64-bit. Being virtual, we can increase the memory allocation easily - we have plenty spare capacity. How much memory should I be giving this server? Cheers, Peter
skunk Posted October 23, 2009 Posted October 23, 2009 (edited) You could try some of the suggestions on the supportnet site. The article covers lots of ways of increasing performance: KB89234 Loads of useful stuff there. We are using a similar setup to you, but have got 4Gb of memory on the virtual machine. I will be running through the performance increasing measures listed over half term. Edited October 23, 2009 by skunk 1
ctbjs Posted October 23, 2009 Posted October 23, 2009 Another addition to this list could be to get people to close down the widgets that appear on the home page of SIMS.net. We have found that these widgets are refreshing data constantly and if you imagine the number of connected workstations to your SIMS database during the course of the day and they are all refreshing then yes there is going to be some slow down. This has happened for us since the last upgrade of SIMS.net and I know it has affected quite a few schools. I'm hoping to use this as leverage to buy a new server though so it has it's benefits in the short term!!
matt40k Posted October 23, 2009 Posted October 23, 2009 Are you using the SQL Express? Cause if you are you've got 1x 2.2Ghz with 1gb ram. Be worth moving to x64.
ctbjs Posted October 23, 2009 Posted October 23, 2009 I think what he has there is fine and it should run on that spec quite easily. Mine has dual 3.0 GHz Xeons with 4Gb of RAM. I don't think it has anything to do with the servers at all. Like I said in my previous post prior to the August update things were running swimmingly now, the server seems to be drowning in these constant refreshes. I have asked staff to remove them from their home page and it has let up a little and crashing seems to have died down. Additionally you can open up the SQL Client Utility and move all the disabled protocols across to the right and tick the "enable Shared Memory" box and this seems to help a little also. I'm running my laptop on Windows 7 with the above configured and no widgets on the dash and it is working really well.
matt40k Posted October 23, 2009 Posted October 23, 2009 Number of people have said make sure you have 2x GB (both connected and teamed).
pete Posted October 23, 2009 Posted October 23, 2009 I aim for database size + 1-2GB for everything else.
ArchersIT Posted October 23, 2009 Posted October 23, 2009 If it has been slowing down recently I would strongly recommend looking at the widgets. The KB article that has sorted it for us is KB89941. This adds an index to the temporary tables which has restored performance back to what it should be HTH Jonathan
howartp Posted October 23, 2009 Author Posted October 23, 2009 You could try some of the suggestions on the supportnet site. The article covers lots of ways of increasing performance: KB89234 Loads of useful stuff there. We are using a similar setup to you, but have got 4Gb of memory on the virtual machine. I will be running through the performance increasing measures listed over half term. Thanks for that - I'll have a look. Another addition to this list could be to get people to close down the widgets that appear on the home page of SIMS.net. We have found that these widgets are refreshing data constantly and if you imagine the number of connected workstations to your SIMS database during the course of the day and they are all refreshing then yes there is going to be some slow down. This has happened for us since the last upgrade of SIMS.net and I know it has affected quite a few schools. I'm hoping to use this as leverage to buy a new server though so it has it's benefits in the short term!! That's a shame, because we're starting to push out more of the widgets for centrally. Missing Registers is compulsary and some of the piecharts are used regularly. I think what he has there is fine and it should run on that spec quite easily. Mine has dual 3.0 GHz Xeons with 4Gb of RAM. Interesting - others seem to disagree? Don't forget to check your SQL server memory allocation. SQL Server Management Studio>Right-click your instance>Memory>set minimum to a sensible amount. It's set at 0 - is this bad? I aim for database size + 1-2GB for everything else. That kind of ties in with what the guys were saying yesterday, which is why I was asking - but some of you are saying my 3GB should be ok. If it has been slowing down recently I would strongly recommend looking at the widgets. The KB article that has sorted it for us is KB89941. This adds an index to the temporary tables which has restored performance back to what it should be Thanks Jonathan - I've now requested the Patch. I'll up the server to 4GB over half term as well. Peter
howartp Posted October 23, 2009 Author Posted October 23, 2009 Maybe. Hmm, thanks. I'll have a look around.
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