RES 3700 5.6.x/5.7.x on Windows Server 2016 VM Systems/Setup advice

[AndrewMcLean]

Our company is looking to move from RES 3700 5.4.x on Windows Server 2008R2 VM to RES 3700 5.7.x on Windows Server 2016. In both cases we leverage EM Server. We have been unsuccessful in 2 attempts thus far as Reports and Manager Procedures cause the CPU to spike to 100% and interrupt our payment process. We are primarily based in Canada and leverage a 3rd party integrated (load open checks and close checks) payment platform via Transaction Services (RESPosWebAPI). I'm looking for high level guidance on Systems/Application setup and configuration to validate our approach. We believe we have followed the installation guide to the letter and validated a number of settings based on information obtained here and Oracle Support.

Thanks,
Andrew

 

[Wildbar]

Have you tried 5.6? Are you using Eigen for payments? Is running reports and manager procedures on the server the issue? Workstations are ok running these? Or both cause the issue?

 

[AndrewMcLean]

We have tried 5.6.0 and 5.6.2. in both cases, the Servers will built from scratch following a know good process as of 5.5. Yes, we are using Eigen. When we run Manager Procedures or Reports, we start getting payment failures at our Eigen Terminals. Not sure (at the moment) what version of MiraServ we used but it was the latest version from Eigen and the RES version of 5.6.x was discussed with them during our prep phase.

 

[Wildbar]

Are you using any other third party interfaces with your Micros server? We saw an issue with third party app was causing the 100% line with the CPU when Managers Procedures/ reports were called, and like you say caused the Eigen to time out / fail. I will see if i can find some notes...was a couple years back. Can you see if any other processes that you might not recognize are running, even if not using much CPU.

 

[AndrewMcLean]

We are (normallY0 running other 3rd Party Services but have disabled them to minimize variables...it seems that just our default server setup suffers from performance issues related to Transaction Services/Reporting...even if we disable or do not use Eigen.

 

[Darren_H]

We had a similar issue on 5.6 with ESXI, changing the CPU to match the correct core count resolved that, we had the server set 4cpu in esxi but it was a 2 cpu 28 core box moving to 1cpu 4 cores in esxi resolved it. our issue was transaction analyzer pegging a core then operations slows on the POS systems. also check that the interfaces are not in developer mode, that will mess it up as well. odd fix as we never have that issue on any other servers, must be a Sybase thing. and good luck getting My Micros to work on server 2016, that was a a Java nightmare...

 

[jherrick]

On a non vm res 3700 5.7.2, dbsrv17.exe (v17.0.8.4148) spikes to 100% on processor 1 core 0 every 10 seconds, even under no load. This leads to a 2-4 second lag in signing in, or sending a ticket. Could this be a problem with the licensing of sybase sql, is it set for a single core only? Sybase SQL isnt spreading any of the threads to the other cores. I am running a x5670 6 core multi threaded x 2 processors on server 2016. Total processor usage is never above 10-15% during these spikes. In one of the upgrade docs this was noted:

Using Multi-Core Processors for Deployment You can now take advantage of multi-core processors to improve deployment performance. You must run the deployment executable from the command prompt to use the following arguments:
• If your organization does not use concept databases, use the command: Deployment.exe –MULTIPLE
• If your organization uses concept databases, use the command: Deployment.exe –CN NumberOfConcept -MULTIPLE

Not really sure if this applies to my server installation. Since this is such a critical part of our day to day, Im very skiddish when it comes to running commands that I dont understand. What is the difference between a concept database and a non-concept database?

 

[jdcorey]

AndrewMcLean, you had mentioned that you built servers and installed Micros "from scratch following a know good process as of 5.5". Would it be possible for you to share that information with me, maybe a documented procedure that you use at your company? Thanks in advance if you're able to share.

 

[Darren_H]

Wait... there is a command that lets the DB run multi core? this is news to me, as long as I can remember the DB has been single threaded.

 

[Wildbar]

@Jherrick. I believe "Concept database" gives the user the ability to swap databases in an EM environment for different types of stores.
@jdcorey the Oracle install notes are pretty detailed.

 

[AndrewMcLean]

@jdcorey

I'd be happy to share our documentation...I've asked my team to provide what we have available today and will post once I receive it. I'm hoping to connect with a few like-minded organizations and hopefully compile some best practices and an additional layer of support.

-Andrew