Hi, I need your help in resolving performance issues.

Situation:
I am newly hired in a company that uses Progress Server ver. 8.3B and Client
ver. 8.0A. The whole information system is based on programs written in 4GL
and run on one database located on one system. My background and knowledge
with Progress is more and less negligible.

Issues:
My challenge is at some periods of almost everyday, the database system
slows down to almost becoming standstill. A report that normally takes a
couple of minutes to run extends the execution to about 45 minutes causing
at least 30% productivity drop in users work.

Questions:
What are the factors I need to think about to work on and if there are some
tests that I can run to have a better handle of the problem?
If I break the database to 2 or 3 smaller databases, would I get a better
performance and what are the ins and outs of this action.
Any thoughts, recommendations and ideas helping me in this difficult
situation is greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Mike

"Michael Cello" <mike1210000@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:dreucq$k8g$0@pita.alt.net...
> Hi, I need your help in resolving performance issues.
>
> Situation:
> I am newly hired in a company that uses Progress Server ver. 8.3B and
Client
> ver. 8.0A. The whole information system is based on programs written in
4GL
> and run on one database located on one system. My background and knowledge
> with Progress is more and less negligible.
>
> Issues:
> My challenge is at some periods of almost everyday, the database system
> slows down to almost becoming standstill. A report that normally takes a
> couple of minutes to run extends the execution to about 45 minutes causing
> at least 30% productivity drop in users work.
>
> Questions:
> What are the factors I need to think about to work on and if there are
some
> tests that I can run to have a better handle of the problem?
> If I break the database to 2 or 3 smaller databases, would I get a better
> performance and what are the ins and outs of this action.
> Any thoughts, recommendations and ideas helping me in this difficult
> situation is greatly appreciated.
>
> Thank you,
> Mike
>

You failed to mention what OS this runs under. That would certainly come
into the picture. Both Windows and *nix systems have 'time services' tables
to start programs at specific times throughout the day, and this would be my
first point of call. Check to see if there is anything started around the
time of day your slowdown begins. My guess is there is some type of
cleanup, archive, compression, or what have you that runs automatically and
that is saturating the hard disk access times. It may even be a Progress
related function to clean up the database, but if you didn't start it,
someone else had to. That can be either a 'user' kicking off a large report
or process, or, the system kicking off some type of background activity.
In any event, that's the logical place to start.

J Piper

"JP" <piperent@swbell.net> wrote in message
news:e1MCf.14963$_S7.13541@newssvr14.news.prodigy. com...
>
> "Michael Cello" <mike1210000@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:dreucq$k8g$0@pita.alt.net...
>> Hi, I need your help in resolving performance issues.
>>
>> Situation:
>> I am newly hired in a company that uses Progress Server ver. 8.3B and
> Client
>> ver. 8.0A. The whole information system is based on programs written in
> 4GL
>> and run on one database located on one system. My background and
>> knowledge
>> with Progress is more and less negligible.
>>
>> Issues:
>> My challenge is at some periods of almost everyday, the database system
>> slows down to almost becoming standstill. A report that normally takes a
>> couple of minutes to run extends the execution to about 45 minutes
>> causing
>> at least 30% productivity drop in users work.
>>
>> Questions:
>> What are the factors I need to think about to work on and if there are
> some
>> tests that I can run to have a better handle of the problem?
>> If I break the database to 2 or 3 smaller databases, would I get a better
>> performance and what are the ins and outs of this action.
>> Any thoughts, recommendations and ideas helping me in this difficult
>> situation is greatly appreciated.
>>
>> Thank you,
>> Mike
>>
>
> You failed to mention what OS this runs under. That would certainly come
> into the picture. Both Windows and *nix systems have 'time services'
> tables
> to start programs at specific times throughout the day, and this would be
> my
> first point of call. Check to see if there is anything started around the
> time of day your slowdown begins. My guess is there is some type of
> cleanup, archive, compression, or what have you that runs automatically
> and
> that is saturating the hard disk access times. It may even be a Progress
> related function to clean up the database, but if you didn't start it,
> someone else had to. That can be either a 'user' kicking off a large
> report
> or process, or, the system kicking off some type of background activity.
> In any event, that's the logical place to start.
>
> J Piper
>
>

Thank you for your response. The OS is Win2K Advanced Server. I have not
been able to find a pattern in what part of the day this problem occurs.
Everyday, at some part of day, the whole system comes to halt. Any further
hints and guidelines are truly appreciated.

Michael Cello wrote:

>
> "JP" <piperent@swbell.net> wrote in message
> news:e1MCf.14963$_S7.13541@newssvr14.news.prodigy. com...
> >
> >"Michael Cello" <mike1210000@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> > news:dreucq$k8g$0@pita.alt.net...
> > > Hi, I need your help in resolving performance issues.
> > >
> > > Situation:
> > > I am newly hired in a company that uses Progress Server ver. 8.3B and
> > Client
> > > ver. 8.0A. The whole information system is based on programs written in
> > 4GL
> > > and run on one database located on one system. My background and knowledge
> > > with Progress is more and less negligible.
> > >
> > > Issues:
> > > My challenge is at some periods of almost everyday, the database system
> > > slows down to almost becoming standstill. A report that normally takes a
> > > couple of minutes to run extends the execution to about 45 minutes causing
> > > at least 30% productivity drop in users work.
> > >
> > > Questions:
> > > What are the factors I need to think about to work on and if there are
> > some
> > > tests that I can run to have a better handle of the problem?
> > > If I break the database to 2 or 3 smaller databases, would I get a better
> > > performance and what are the ins and outs of this action.
> > > Any thoughts, recommendations and ideas helping me in this difficult
> > > situation is greatly appreciated.
> > >
> > > Thank you,
> > > Mike
> > >
> >
> > You failed to mention what OS this runs under. That would certainly come
> > into the picture. Both Windows and *nix systems have 'time services' tables
> > to start programs at specific times throughout the day, and this would be my
> > first point of call. Check to see if there is anything started around the
> > time of day your slowdown begins. My guess is there is some type of
> > cleanup, archive, compression, or what have you that runs automatically and
> > that is saturating the hard disk access times. It may even be a Progress
> > related function to clean up the database, but if you didn't start it,
> > someone else had to. That can be either a 'user' kicking off a large report
> > or process, or, the system kicking off some type of background activity.
> > In any event, that's the logical place to start.
> >
> > J Piper
> >
> >
>
> Thank you for your response. The OS is Win2K Advanced Server. I have not been able to find a
> pattern in what part of the day this problem occurs. Everyday, at some part of day, the whole
> system comes to halt. Any further hints and guidelines are truly appreciated.

If this is happening sporadically, I would check two things:
1) The database log for any anomalies there (progress backups, etc), and to find out who was logged
into the database; and
2) What code (if any) was being executed on the system at that point.

You should also try running 'promon' to view the database activity (updates, reads, deletes) etc.
to try and narrow the cause.

--

"Michael Cello" <mike1210000@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:drhfk0$f2e$0@pita.alt.net...
>
> "JP" <piperent@swbell.net> wrote in message
> news:e1MCf.14963$_S7.13541@newssvr14.news.prodigy. com...
> >
> > "Michael Cello" <mike1210000@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> > news:dreucq$k8g$0@pita.alt.net...
> >> Hi, I need your help in resolving performance issues.
> >>
> >> Situation:
> >> I am newly hired in a company that uses Progress Server ver. 8.3B and
> > Client
> >> ver. 8.0A. The whole information system is based on programs written in
> > 4GL
> >> and run on one database located on one system. My background and
> >> knowledge
> >> with Progress is more and less negligible.
> >>
> >> Issues:
> >> My challenge is at some periods of almost everyday, the database system
> >> slows down to almost becoming standstill. A report that normally takes
a
> >> couple of minutes to run extends the execution to about 45 minutes
> >> causing
> >> at least 30% productivity drop in users work.
> >>
> >> Questions:
> >> What are the factors I need to think about to work on and if there are
> > some
> >> tests that I can run to have a better handle of the problem?
> >> If I break the database to 2 or 3 smaller databases, would I get a
better
> >> performance and what are the ins and outs of this action.
> >> Any thoughts, recommendations and ideas helping me in this difficult
> >> situation is greatly appreciated.
> >>
> >> Thank you,
> >> Mike
> >>
> >
> > You failed to mention what OS this runs under. That would certainly
come
> > into the picture. Both Windows and *nix systems have 'time services'
> > tables
> > to start programs at specific times throughout the day, and this would
be
> > my
> > first point of call. Check to see if there is anything started around
the
> > time of day your slowdown begins. My guess is there is some type of
> > cleanup, archive, compression, or what have you that runs automatically
> > and
> > that is saturating the hard disk access times. It may even be a
Progress
> > related function to clean up the database, but if you didn't start it,
> > someone else had to. That can be either a 'user' kicking off a large
> > report
> > or process, or, the system kicking off some type of background
activity.
> > In any event, that's the logical place to start.
> >
> > J Piper
> >
> >
>
> Thank you for your response. The OS is Win2K Advanced Server. I have not
> been able to find a pattern in what part of the day this problem occurs.
> Everyday, at some part of day, the whole system comes to halt. Any further
> hints and guidelines are truly appreciated.
>
>
>
1) Check your 'Scheduled Tasks' under Start/Programs/Accessories/System
Tools. You can see if any background programs are automatically kicked off
thru-out the day.

2) When it occurs, go to the 'task manager' (cntl-alt-del one (1) time) and
display existing processes. Look for something with a high CPU count
(saturating the processors time).

3) Have you run any type of virus/trojan/adware/spyware detection program to
detect the presence of any of these. Could be you have a piece of spyware
that is calling home. I've even seen some of the so-called preventive
applications (virus protectors, firewalls) that cause more problems than
they solve.

Just a few other things to look at.

JP