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#50591 - 01/13/15 04:09 AM Slow performance running virtual
Ecomail Offline
OL Newbie

Registered: 01/27/14
Posts: 7
Loc: Spain
Hi all,

I run PPSuite 7.5.3.8067 on a virtual machine with 4 cores and 6 GB of RAM under Windows Server 2012.

I've recently processed around 6.000 invoices that ended up being around 18.000 printed pages. It took about 5 hours to process and CPU load never went higher than 27% and RAM 8%.

Is there anything I can tweak to run it faster?.

Thank you.

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#50592 - 01/13/15 07:04 AM Re: Slow performance running virtual [Re: Ecomail]
psedd Offline
OL User

Registered: 07/22/13
Posts: 100
Loc: Manchester
Depends on you're workflow.


You could multi-thread the process but like I mentioned above that would depend on your process structure.

in Single threaded mode 25% of 4 cores is 1 core so that makes 100% sense.
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#50604 - 01/15/15 06:43 AM Re: Slow performance running virtual [Re: Ecomail]
Ecomail Offline
OL Newbie

Registered: 01/27/14
Posts: 7
Loc: Spain
Thanks for the response.

So there's not a checkbox or something that I have to "check" right?

Is something related to the way PP processes the files or the way the workflow is designed.

Any documentation on this?

Thank you.

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#50607 - 01/15/15 03:03 PM Re: Slow performance running virtual [Re: Ecomail]
Philippe F. Offline
OL Expert

Registered: 09/06/00
Posts: 1984
Loc: Objectif Lune, Montreal, Qc
Double click on your process to open its properties (i.e. where the schedule is found). Then, tick the Self-replicating process option.
This will allow PlanetPress Workflow to clone the process in order to process files in parallel.


Edited by Philippe F. (01/15/15 03:04 PM)
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#50613 - 01/19/15 11:52 AM Re: Slow performance running virtual [Re: Philippe F.]
bminehart Offline
OL Newbie

Registered: 01/19/15
Posts: 3
Loc: VA
Try to use PP7 7.6.0.8990

We are experiencing a similar behavior as Ecomail. The operating system within the VM performs totally normally. Most functionality within PP behaves normally with the exception of PS to PDF conversion with PPAlambic. We're observing conversion rates that are 10x slower on a certain VM configuration (takes upwards of 15 seconds per file on the problematic config vs. 1.5 seconds on the non-problematic config). When we have the VHDX for the VM on an iSCSI LUN on a NetApp cDOT array which is using jumbo frames (9000 bytes) we get the extreme slowness. If we run the VM with the VHD connected to the exact same array, but with a standard MTU of 1500 bytes, the performance is completely normal.

VM Details:
OS: Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard
RAM: 4 GB
CPU: 2 cores
The VM is on a VHDX. There are no native iSCSI connections from within the VM.

HyperVisor Details:
Cisco UCS B-series blade
OS: Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter
NetApp FAS8040 array w/ cDOT -- all connectivity is iSCSI
Problematic LUN config: jumbo frames (9000+ bytes)
Non-Problematic LUN config: 1500 bytes

Any thoughts as to what the problem could be? We're holding off migrating from PP6 to PP7 until this can be resolved.

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#50614 - 01/19/15 12:10 PM Re: Slow performance running virtual [Re: Ecomail]
Philippe F. Offline
OL Expert

Registered: 09/06/00
Posts: 1984
Loc: Objectif Lune, Montreal, Qc
The VHDX should always run faster than the VHD, that's a given.
However, the jumbo frames might be the ones causing trouble. All hardware on both ends must be able to handle jumbo frames, otherwise you're actually slowing down everything.

Is it possible to run the VHDX using standard MTU values and see how that turns out?
_________________________
Technical Product Manager
I don't want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve immortality through not dying - Woody Allen

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#50617 - 01/19/15 12:51 PM Re: Slow performance running virtual [Re: Philippe F.]
bminehart Offline
OL Newbie

Registered: 01/19/15
Posts: 3
Loc: VA
Hi Philippe, thanks for the response.

We've actually already tried that, and when using a VHDX with the 1500 byte MTU, the workflow runs at a normal/acceptable speed.

I'm quite certain that our equipment, end-to-end, has jumbo frames enabled, and the frames are traversing our network in the jumbo size.

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#50618 - 01/19/15 01:05 PM Re: Slow performance running virtual [Re: Ecomail]
Philippe F. Offline
OL Expert

Registered: 09/06/00
Posts: 1984
Loc: Objectif Lune, Montreal, Qc
I'm afraid I can't be much help then: the issue is clearly linked to the use of jumbo frames but that's completely transparent to PlanetPress and its libraries.

One thing I can say that may help you is that the PS to PDF process generates a lot of read requests from the disk, and most of those read requests are for very small files. So in this instance, smaller MTU packets might do the job just as well as larger ones. But I would assume that this kind of management would be performed at the hardware level and that the array would be intelligent enough to cache HDD contents efficiently in order to avoid having to always perform those multiple reads. But then again, what do I know... :P

I'd be interested in learning what you find out, though. This is a new type of problem for me.
_________________________
Technical Product Manager
I don't want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve immortality through not dying - Woody Allen

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#50622 - 01/19/15 02:27 PM Re: Slow performance running virtual [Re: Ecomail]
bminehart Offline
OL Newbie

Registered: 01/19/15
Posts: 3
Loc: VA
We're opting to put the VM on a hypervisor that is not using jumbo frames for its iSCSI connectivity. We need to transition our production to PP7 very soon, and we don't have time to continue troubleshooting the problem.

If anyone else comes across this problem, especially with a solution, I'd love to hear about it.

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#50649 - 01/22/15 04:02 AM Re: Slow performance running virtual [Re: Philippe F.]
Ecomail Offline
OL Newbie

Registered: 01/27/14
Posts: 7
Loc: Spain
Originally Posted By: Philippe F.
Double click on your process to open its properties (i.e. where the schedule is found). Then, tick the Self-replicating process option.
This will allow PlanetPress Workflow to clone the process in order to process files in parallel.


Thank you!

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