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Network Operation Performance

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    Network Operation Performance

    Apart from the obvious of running shadowed what are your top tips for getting Alpha running at full speed on a LAN.
    We are currently running an app on a new Win 2003 server and even shadowed its dog slow. Is anybody aware of any special settings that should be made in the OS. I should add that normally we have apps running at a respectable pace on other LANS its just this one and affects all work stations.
    Cabling and hubs seem ok.

    Bob Whitaker
    Birmingham UK
    Bob Whitaker


    #2
    Re: Network Operation Performance

    Bob,

    You might have a network person check general saturation of the network bandwidth. I have one customer where this is an issue. If the tables have a lot of records, Alpha can push a lot of data for indexes, etc., even in shadowed mode. For my customers, Alpha is the most bandwidth intensive app they have, so it is not useful to compare with other apps to see if they seem slow as well. Although if other apps are slow that is a dead giveaway about a slow network.

    You mentioned hubs. vs. switches? Switches reduce network traffic. If you use hubs and one PC has a problematic network card, it can generate a lot of network traffic.

    The PCs themselves. Are they reasonably fast?

    Bill.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Network Operation Performance

      Thanks Bill,
      I will check as suggested - the machines are all pretty high spec and Alpha is not processing many records. I will also suggest a change of configuration if it seems appropriate.
      Do you have any knowledge of anti virus programmes causing such problems ?
      Bob
      Bob Whitaker

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Network Operation Performance

        No first hand knowledge of anti-virus problems, but I have seen discussions on this board. It often is a process of elimination. I am always concerned about that one wayward PC clogging things up, for whatever reason.

        Bill.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Network Operation Performance

          Bill,
          Do you use or know of any special tools / software for checking these things out ?

          Bob

          PS The cold and the rain have arrived !!!!
          Bob Whitaker

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Network Operation Performance

            That is when I call in a network guy. Actually I point my finger and say, "It's a hardware problem!". Hopefully some others here will chime in with tools that can be used.

            (It is still high 80s F here.)

            Bill.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Network Operation Performance

              Bob, is your antivirus package checking all reads and writes from / to the server?

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Network Operation Performance

                Hi Bob,

                Sometimes it's not your network, but your application that is the real cause of slowdowns. E.g.
                • Are you running any reports when it happens? Report locking, widows, orphans, not using Running totals and the like will slow the whole network down
                • Are you using LQO where possible for queries?
                • Are your algorithms optimized to minimize record accesses? e.g. running a report can be faster by copying needed records to local drive and running report there?
                • Do you have a lot of lookup?() in your code or calculated fields?
                All of these can cause major slowdowns.
                Regards,

                Ira J. Perlow
                Computer Systems Design


                CSDA A5 Products
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                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Network Operation Performance

                  Where you have tabbed objects for several child tables, and especially if you have conditional objects showing different embedded browses for child tables, using the command parentform.refresh_layout() or equivalent will have alpha refresh for every tab and every condition in the conditional object and cause a tremendous amount of data to traverse the network.
                  Cole Custom Programming - Terrell, Texas
                  972 524 8714
                  [email protected]

                  ____________________
                  "A young man who is not liberal has no heart, but an old man who is not conservative has no mind." GB Shaw

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Network Operation Performance

                    Thank you Bill, Tom, Ira and Martin.
                    I will look into all those points and report back in due course.

                    Bob
                    Bob Whitaker

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Network Operation Performance

                      If you have not done it already, make sure you disable opportunistic locking on the server and workstations. I don't know whether that will affect performance, but it will affect data integrity.
                      You didn't describe your network. Do you have hundreds of client machines or a dozen? Obviously if you have two hundred client machines then .dbf tables may not be the best solution and you may have to look at client-server approaches.

                      As for Alpha-related performance issues: in addition to tabbed forms, if you have complex sets for data entry, then network performance will be slow, particularly if you also use referential integrity. It's always a good idea to limit data entry forms to one or two tables and disable referential integrity. And my own opinion is that tabbed forms are more trouble than they're worth.

                      - Peter

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Network Operation Performance

                        What exacrly is slow?
                        Is it when opening and drawingand navigating in busy forms
                        Querying on large tables?
                        printing reports?
                        or Just opening the app?

                        Your best bet is to take the application and run it on another network.If it is still very slow, it may be in the design as Ira suggested. If it's significantly faster, then look to your network.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Network Operation Performance

                          Peter,
                          This is just a hunch, but.I would have guessed that disabling it would slow data intensive tasks down
                          John

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Network Operation Performance

                            Lets assume you have at a minimum PC's with 1ghz CPU with 128MB memory and 10gb+ hard drive running fast ethernet (100megabit/sec) to a switch running W2000/XP. Anthing less you are probably starting off slow to begin with.

                            Secondly, I have had issues with Anti-virus programs like Panda 2005 where it sometime uses 100% resources for a short period of time. Under XP check CPU util. Run Task Manager (ctrl alt del) performance tab and minimize it. Then watch icon showing CPU utilization while running a5v7.
                            Hope it helps.
                            Peter

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Network Operation Performance

                              I too am disappointed in AV's performance. I have a fast server w/2gigs memory, fast drives, etc..... The network only supports 5 AV users. If AV were in a race with outher DB's, it would finish dead last.

                              I did use the main form with tabs. But until reading this thread, I had not previously seen any recommendations against using tabs.

                              Comment

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