Strange Slowness in Application "20-20 CAP Studio"

[goombawaho]

Ok - this is an unusual application that is slow to render drawings on the local computers connected to a SBS 2003. It's sort of an AutoCad type of program that is used to design office furniture layouts and place the cubicles, chairs, tables, etc. in the space provided.

http://www.2020technologies.com/Products/Office_Furniture/20-20_CAP/20-20_CAP_Studio/

It USED to open these documents quite quickly on the client PCs and now it just sits there and draws the drawings slowly when the document is opened. It draws them little bit by bit. It takes maybe 4 minutes to open the files. Other network files open quickly. The file being opened looks like it's only 3MB in size.

Server is a homebuilt Intel SE7230 NH1-E 2GB RAM 3.4GHz Pentium Dual Core with SBS 2003
Workstations have 1GB - 2GB RAM and Windows XP
Network switch is a Netgear 24 port 10/100 switch and it has been replaced as "the solution" but was not.

How would you go about troubleshooting this???

I'm not sure if I should focus on the server side, client side or network side (though the replaced switch should NOT be the problem).

Remember that with the same hardware on both client and server sides, it used to run quite nicely. Nobody knows of any event that preceded the slowdown.

 

[ShackDaddy]

What's the storage on the server look like? Single RAID5, mirror? How are the volumes distributed, and what are their sizes? Where's the page file?

And the file is stored on the server but opened on the workstations?

2gb memory isn't that much for the server if it's got a busy Exchange environment and any 3rd party apps, so it may spend a lot of time maxed out on memory and as a result send a lot of memory pages to the page file, which is probably set dynamically and probably generates a lot of disk fragmentation, particularly if you are getting low on disk space.

Run defrag analysis on the server and when it shows you the list of fragmented files, see if any of the CAD software files are listed as highly fragmented. It could be that the bottleneck is the server trying to read the data from disk.

Dave Shackelford MVP
ThirdTier.net

 

[goombawaho]

Single hard drive - C: D: E: partitions - none of them near full.

Don't know about pagefile yet.

File is stored on the server and opened on the workstation (a client/server app).

I know 2GB is not much and I plan to upgrade to the 4GB MAX for SBS 2003. I checked the processor and memory briefly and it wasn't breaking a sweat.

The file being opened looks to only be 3MB max, but I think it "calls" other files that get inserted into the drawing. You know, like cubicle model 555 here and desk 456 here and table 123 here - all elements need to be inserted/pulled into the drawing and (I assume) re-drawn when a change is made to the layout.

I'm starting to wonder if it could be something stupid like a video driver or directX. I don't have much experience with video stuff since I only do basic things on my PC requiring low horsepower video.

 

[ShackDaddy]

Have you ever used Performance monitor? Can you set up logging for Disk Read/Write Queue Length on Virtual Disk? Log it on all disks, since the cumulative total will be the amount used against the physical disk. I'm still thinking it's more likely a disk issue than a video issue. If it was video, it wouldn't degrade over time, and it would have nothing to do with the server.

I think it's probably disk contention: your server has a lot of files to find and provide back to the clients, and it's getting slower and slower and providing that data. Between OS, page files, Exchange transaction logs, and some of the native SQL stuff, there's a lot going on--way more than you'd have on a workstation. You could have a disk bottleneck and CPU and Memory could still look fine.

Dave Shackelford MVP
ThirdTier.net

 

[technome]

It USED to open these documents quite quickly on the client PCs" Were the data files local to the PC at the time or on the network?

Have you run a few different virus scans, Malwarebytes on serve and PCs.

Have you tested the throughput of the network, nifty throughput test below, have had it on a few servers no issues.

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/reviews/qcheck.htm

IF you try, download from...

http://www.ixchariot.com/downloads/qcheck.html

This would not explain the sudden slow down..
Google Slow network SMB signing and disable SMB signing



........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

 

[goombawaho]

ShackDaddy - I'll need a few more tips or a link on running Performance Monitor.

From what I hear, performance did not DEGRADE - it crapped out rather suddenly, but you know users - they don't pay close attention to what ELSE happened at about the same time (new software installed, updates, etc.).


Technome - As soon as I get access to the server, I plan on doing A/V + malware scans to make sure it's clean. I was then going to do a copy of a large file to and from the server, but I will look at your links as well.


I'm still betting it's not server related, but I don't know why I think that. I'll report back if I get the job of fixing it.

 

[ShackDaddy]

It may actually be your on-access AV software that's slowing things down. Try disabling AV on the client and running the software.

Dave Shackelford MVP
ThirdTier.net

 

[goombawaho]

Right - shouldn't be that, but COULD be that. Also, the A/V on the server has expired quite a while a ago, so don't know it that could be a factor.

Thanks for ideas. I'll post back.

 

[technome]

I was then going to do a copy of a large file to and from the server"
That should should be suffice, I would also do a directory of mixed file sizes.

As to AV, make sure the setting are correct for the server client as to files not to be scanned as per the software producer and Microsoft.

........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

 

[goombawaho]

Yeah - if I had to bet $100 on the solution to this problem, without having done very much troubleshooting on it yet, I would bet it's nothing PROFOUND like server, network. I imagine it's a setting or a conflict on the client side.