Speed issues using FM 9 Server on Win2k3

Hi chaps,

We have just had setup a new CRM package based around Filemaker Pro 9.
However, the entire system runs like a dog. I mean slow, really slow.
A list of to-do items (coloured text) containing some 20 entries may
take around 2 minutes to appear in full. Each entry showing after
about 2 to 4 seconds.

We get lots of "not responding" when waiting for different screen
within the CRM app to load, which again can take minutes. One user
this morning timed how long it took to show a drop down menu list of
around 10 items from a form on one of the pages, that took 19 seconds
to fully show it's contents.

Now, we've been working with the CRM vendor who are miffed by the
speed issues. The FM server is running on a Windows 2003 R2 32 bit
server, 4GB of ram, Single Dual Core Xeon processor, lots of disk
space (250GB spare at the mo). The performance charts for the servers
processor, memory and disk queues (read and write) are so low as to be
non-existant (processor averages around 3%, memory averages around
900mb used and disk queues are averaging around 0.5) and it's fair to
say it's idling for most of the time.

The workstations are XP and Vista. Various specs from single P4 up to
multiple dual core processors, with 1GB minimum ram and up to 4GB.

We have setup a brand new workstation running nothing but XP Sp3 and
the CRM app (FM Pro 9). No AV, no search, no office. That also runs
like a hound.

We've updated all the drivers, firmware and bios on the server, and
the event log shows nothing wrong at all. All the diags for the disk
subsystem and network cards come back as fine, and we have also tried
all the three network cards that are on the server, in turn, and
clustered. We have also swapped out the switch (the sharp end of £1000
of 3com gigabit voip hardware) for another one and replaced all the
cables.

Given that neither us or the vendor can find an issue with the
infrastructure or hardware I think it has to be a server OS issue or a
FM9 issue.

Is there anything anyone can suggest from an FM point of view that we
could try ? The only thing I have found online so far is that we
should up the database cache to its max on the FM server which we have
done (its at 800mb and wont go higher).

HELP!?!

O.

On 2008-12-10 10:32:11 -0800, Hans Besjes said:

> This could be the source of (or part of) the problems you are
> experiencing. To test if this is the case (or at least a contributing
> factor), you might want to isolate your FileMaker network.
> Setup the FileMaker server and 1 FileMaker client on a totally separate
> network, either by using a separate switch (preferably not-managed, so
> there can be no wrong settings), or even by hooking them up directly
> via a cross-cable...

Good suggestions from Hans. In addition, if any of your switches have
an "auto-sensing" feature that is turned on, turn it off. Having it on
is a common cause of random disconnects.

Slow performance is often caused by poor database design such as having
summary fields on data entry screens, having a drop-down list populated
from a field in a table with too many source records, or viewing
portals with multiple-predicates, a complex portal-sort, and a lot of
records to display.

However, if this is a commercial product, I'm sure that all these
issues have been optimized.

In addition to the server/single workstation test above, you might
consider doing a totally stand-alone test with the CRM software
installed on a machine by itself. Some operations actually work faster
on a server than on a single-user machine, but in general, if it's a
dog on the network, it's going to be at least a puppy on stand-alone. A
badly designed database will show perceptible delays in single-user,
especially with high record counts. If it's lightning fast on
stand-alone, then the issue is indeed in server hardware/OS or network.
--
Lynn Allen
--
www.semiotics.com
Member Filemaker Business Alliance
Long Beach, CA