isolating performance issues - syteline user group - home

1Copyright © 2018. Infor. All Rights Reserved. www.infor.comInfor Confidential

Isolating performance issues with CloudSuite Industrial (CSI) (aka SyteLine)

Amar Dhadli,

Director, Solution Consulting (Technical), IEMEA


Full Disclaimer

This presentation reflects the direction Infor may take with regard to the products or services

described herein, all of which is subject to change without notice. This presentation is not a

commitment to you in any way and you should not rely on any content herein in making any

decision.

Infor is not committing to develop or deliver any specified enhancement, upgrade, product,

service or functionality, even if such is described herein. Many factors can affect Infor’s

product development plans and the nature, content and timing of future product releases, all

of which remain in the sole discretion of Infor. This presentation, in whole or in part, may not

be incorporated into any agreement. Infor expressly disclaims any liability with respect to

this presentation.


What Can Affect CSI Performance?

• Environment

– Infrastructure

– Network

– Client Machines

• Application

– Auditing

– Reduce amount of information on a form

– Reduce amount of records returned in a collection

– Data Retention

– Personalisations

• Users!

– Re-educate users


On-premise vs Cloud

• Most operations can be done on both on-premise or Infor Cloud

• Some are NOT ALLOWED in Infor Cloud

– Those will be highlighted with a icon

5Copyright © 2018. Infor. All Rights Reserved. www.infor.comInfor Confidential 5Infor Confidential Copyright © 2018. Infor. All Rights Reserved. www.infor.com

Environment


Infrastructure – CSI Servers

• Server infrastructure is a key place to invest

• Server specifications should meet, ideally exceed, those in the Guide to Technology

– Disk I/O and RAM are areas to target

• Windows & SQL Updates, BIOS, firmware, drivers etc. are current

• Power Management

– Disable in BIOS and manage in Windows

• Power Options – change default (Balanced) to High Performance


Infrastructure – App / Web Servers

• Multiple Utility Servers to distribute load

– Native Round Robin

• One Configuration Server (single point of failure)

– Clustering the Configuration Server (not officially supported…but..)

• Active / Passive and round robin

– Front end load balancer (http/https)

• Each server has configurations defined

• Load balancer chooses session handoff


Infrastructure – SQL Server

• Single Instance of SQL Server

– Production system – recommend a single instance

• Exception is clustering etc. – size appropriately

• SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)

– Can be moved off to separate server

• Recommended when over 200 CSI users

• Or SQL Server is being used for multiple Infor applications

– * Being phased out in favour of Mongoose Reporting (CSI 10)

• Recommend separate “Taskman” server when over 200 CSI users


Infrastructure – SQL Server…

• Disk I/O on SQL Server

– Usually disk I/O bottle necks are a major cause of performance

– Multiple disks in RAID 10 will help performance

• More disk spindles, multiple controllers etc. = GOOD

• RAID 5 = BAD

– Using SSD storage can significantly improve the disk I/O and thus user experience



• SQL Server Allocated Memory

– Reserve minimum 4 GB for the OS and set the Maximum Server Memory to use the rest rule of

thumb…

• 8 – 16GB System memory: assign 70% to SQL

• 24 – 64GB System memory: assign 80% to SQL

• 64GB+ System memory: assign 90% to SQL

• Lock Pages in Memory (LPIM) – Must set SQL Memory settings

– Keeps OS from paging out SQL Server process

– Search KB for DisAllowPageLocks for Indexes for your version

• https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/918483 (paging buffer pool in X64 SQL)



• Database Settings

– Auto Shrink: Disable for all databases

• Schedule a DBCC SHRINKDATABASE or DBCC SHRINKFILE command instead

– Auto Update statistics: Enabled in most cases

• Under heavy load, can cause performance issues (schedule off peak times)

• TempDB Database files

– Use “½ rule”: i.e. 8 physical cores = 4 TempDB databases

– Stripe TempDB databases across multiple disks

• Fast I/O and ideally separate from user databases

– Set file growth to 10 – 15%

• Set Foreign Keys and Constraints to Trusted

– SQL Server may not be able to use them for query plans & optimisation otherwise

• KB 1943578


Infrastructure – Networking

• LAN / WAN settings between Servers and Client

• Ensure low latency for WAN based users

– Pure Internet

– Internet with Tunnel

– MPLS / Private circuits

• QOS (Quality of Service)

– Prioritisation of data

• ERP vs. video streaming!

• Printing / e-mail / VOIP / general internet browsing


Virtualisation

• Ensure Virtual HOST machines are correctly sized

• If your Guest VMs don’t fit, don’t overcommit!

– Processor

– Memory

– Resource Scheduler – queue / waits

– Snowball effect

• Use VMWare / Hyper-V Best Practices

– Setup OS and SQL Server Whitepapers

– Install VMware / Hyper-V tools and update when necessary


Keep Client Machines Current

• If using the Smart Client, the performance of the client machine will make a difference in

the performance of the CSI user interface

– Keep up to date with OS patches

– Defragment disk regularly

• Even Browser based clients will benefit


Browser Clients

• Users have seen Browser Clients perform better than Smart Client

– Recommend using Browser Client (ideally from CSI 9.01.x)

• Chrome handles refresh and display of large grids better than IE

– Chrome is our recommended browser for both performance and compatibility

• Microsoft Edge getting better!

• Add Utility Server URL to your trusted sites (in IE). Can improve performance by reducing

security checks

– See KB 1630662


Application


Application Performance


Audit Trails

• Audit Trails can be created on every field in every table

• Can create a tremendous amount of data and will impact on user performance

• Only create those audit trails that are useful / required


Information on Grids

• Reduce amount of information on a form

– Reduce the number of visible columns on complex forms

• You can Edit Grid Columns to turn off those columns that are not needed and this will improve the performance of the

form

– Right-click on the column heading to get the menu option

– An example would be the Item Master form which has 148 columns.


Record Caps

• Reduce amount of records returned in a collection

– The default record cap has always been 200

– The display of forms can be improved by reducing the record cap to 100 or even lower

– In CSI 9.01+, this setting will be preserved even after exiting the application


Max Record Cap

• Set the Max Record Cap

– On Process Default form you can set the Max Record Cap

• Recommend setting to between 3000 to 5000

– Will keep users from doing a “Retrieve All” and getting extremely large data sets

0 = Unlimited


Cache Forms

• The first load of a form is the slowest. Forms are cached once they have been used, so

will load faster on subsequent loads

• Improve performance by caching forms on login

– Preload the relevant forms

– Users have noted that there is little negative impact when logging in, but see significant gains when

(first) opening the form

• Don’t go mad and cache 10s of forms! Preload important ones


Explorer Properties

SETVARVALUES(InitialCommand=Refresh) FILTER(Item LIKE 'FA*')

• Tip: Have pre-filtered forms for quick access...


Remove Tile Forms

• Affects Items, Vendors, Customers and Employee forms

– These load Tile forms which may load graphics into the grids

– Turn off / remove the Tile form

• Applies to SyteLine / CSI versions 9.00.xx

– See KB 1469166 & KB 1515105


Personalisations

• Adding UETs

– Add to standard record (i.e. Items) or add into a new table?

• Ensure new tables are designed correctly

– Have correct indexes?

• Are custom features performing slower than when first implemented?

– Are unneeded records causing the performance reduction?

• Check reports and processes are reading the least number of records

– Set correct filters. E.g.

• Status = “Released”

• Posted = “No”

• Ensure BI queries are efficient


Multi-Site Replication Rules

• When using replication

– Set up an Intranet with a master site and share certain _all tables

– Allows other sites to use views into shared _all tables on the master site, reducing replication

traffic between the sites

• Create only the replications rules that are needed

• Pick the correct replication category for your Financial Data Replication & Reporting

– Three General Ledger Replication Categories

• G/L – Data Intensive because of Journal and Ledger tables

• Ledger Detail – Data Intensive (Matltran and Matltran_amt tables)

• Ledger Consolidation – Not Data Intensive, no large tables replicated

• See Multi-Site Planning Guide


Data Retention

• Formulate a plan for each area

– What is your company policy for retaining data?

– How long to retain data?

– Who will purge or compress records that are older than the planned retention period?

• Typically the two largest tables are Ledger and Material Transactions


Data Retention

• Key tables that contain transactional data:

– Ledger ledger, ledger_all, frl_trx_dtl_hist

– Material Transaction matltran, matltran_all, matltran_amt, matltran_amt_all

– Job Transactions jobtran

– AR Transactions artran, artran_all

– AP Transactions aptrxp, aptrxp_all

– Audit Logs AuditLog


Record Count & Storage for Each Table


System Administrator Home Form


Purge / Compress Unneeded Data

• Compress General Ledger Transactions

– By Day or by Period (Check with CFO)

• Delete Material Transactions

– Do this as part of year-end procedures

• Delete Job Transactions

• Delete A/P Posted Transactions

• Activate/Deactivate Posted Transactions – A/P

• Delete A/R Posted Transactions

• Activate/Deactivate Posted Transactions – A/R

• Delete Audit Logs


Turn off Diagnostics

• Users turn Diagnostics on to test and leave it on!


View | Diagnostics


Other User Actions

• Printing Reports with large ranges or no ending criteria

– E.g. Material Transaction Report for 10 month time frame, Starting Item and no Ending Item

– CSI 9 defaults ending filter

• Printing excessive reports


System Configuration / Tools


Taskman Service

• Affects Printing Performance

– Service Configuration Manager

• MaxCPUThreshold (75-80)

– Time a report takes to preview or print

– Intranets form

• Set Polling Interval (5000 (5 secs))

• Max Concurrent Tasks (try 5, 10, 15, 20)

• Max Report Tasks

• Taskman Services can be offloaded to a separate Server

– Usually on same server as Utility Server


Background Task Analysis

• Check System Administrator Home form for long running background tasks

– Shows Minimum, Average & Maximum times for tasks

• A specific long running report may be a one off…


Background Task Definitions

• Specify the maximum number of

concurrent instances of this task you

want TaskMan to allow

– Takes effect instantly

• Useful for limiting instances that spawn

off

– e.g. Purchase Order when Vendor

Document Profile is used

• Produces many ‘single’ reports that block the

overall queue

• Set Max Concurrent to 2

• Frees up other queues

• Set Max Concurrent back to 20


Application Event System

• AES can be resource intensive

– Remove it for configurations that do not need monitoring or reduce the frequency

– Each configuration can be edited

• Specify threads (5 – 10?)

– Event processes handled at one time

• Sleep Seconds (5 – 20?)

– Longer it sleeps, less resource intensive…

and less real-time processing that occurs


System Diagnostic Report

• Can run in the Cloud – but not much use without the Analysis Tool


SyteLine Analysis Tool

• Located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Infor\SyteLine on Utility Server


Summary


Maximise Performance

• Performance is often affected by many small things not one specific thing

– Environment / WAN

– Configuration / Deployment

– SQL Maintenance

– Data Retention Plans

– Inefficiently written Personalisations

– User Actions

– Excessive Replication

– Keep up on the Recommended Single Fixes

– etc…


Information on Infor Xtreme

• KB 1483857

• KB 686928

• KB 1462196

• KB 1470190

• KB 1478240

• KB 1511968

• KB 1512000

• KB 1542865

• KB 1561301

• KB 1582316

• KB 1587854

• KB 1614310

• KB 1614311

• KB 1472524

• KB 1588691

• …

There are multiple KB articles that reference performance…


Upgrading SyteLine / CSI

• Users reported that:

– SyteLine 8 was slower than SyteLine 7

– SyteLine 9 was slower that SyteLine 8

– CSI 9.01 better than SyteLine 9

– Major new releases seem to be slower than previous ones!

– More data, new functionality on forms; overall less clicks but longer to open form in first place

• Mongoose Toolset has been improved

– CSI 9.01 running Mongoose 9.3

– Currently on Mongoose 10.0.6

– From CSI 10, Mongoose toolset will be kept in sync; updated monthly

– There will be a 9.01.10 service pack to use Mongoose 10 toolset

isolating performance issues - syteline user group - home

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