Server Optimization

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. System Specifications

2. Optimize your Server machine

3. Speed Test

4. OS/Software

5. Database

6. Page file

7. Reduce your database size

8. Other performance related server settings

9. Performance related user settings

1. System Specifications

Make sure your server specification is within the system requirements.

2. Optimize your Server machine

The following information is for experienced system administrators, so please ask your IT responsible to read the document as a checklist and try ALL of the settings. 

“3GB” Switch

The 3GB switch applies mostly to sites with Windows servers with large databases and with MySQL mirroring. But it could also help smaller sites.

Always back up all your data before changing any settings!

“Unable to alloc 12345 bytes”

If the farmerswife server crashes with a message “unable to alloc 12345 bytes”, it is likely that the VM size for your Farmers WIFE process gets close to 2 GB (monitor this with the Virtual Bytes performance monitor counter, or check manually with Task Manager > View > Select Columns).

If this is the case, add the switch “/3GB” to your c:\boot.ini – this allows Farmers WIFE to use up to 3 GB of user-mode memory. 

Example:

[Boot Loader]

Timeout=30 

Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT

[Operating Systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows Server 2003" /fastdetect /3GB

 boot.ini is a hidden, write-protected operating system file – be careful when editing it! Also, the “/3GB” setting may cause trouble on Windows 2000 Server Standard Edition.

Please follow this step by step guidance: Go to My Computer > Properties > Advanced > Startup and Recovery > Settings > System Start up > Edit

3 GB switch in Windows 2008 or Vista

To enable the 3GB switch on Windows Vista™:

1. Right-click Command Prompt in the Accessories program group of the Start menu. Click Run as Administrator.

2. At the command prompt, enter "bcdedit /set IncreaseUserVa 3072"

3. Restart the computer.

To disable the 3GB switch:

1. Right-click on Command Prompt in the Accessories program group of the Start menu. Click Run as Administrator.

2. At the command prompt, enter "bcdedit /deletevalue IncreaseUserVa"

3. Restart the computer.

For more information on the 3GB switch, refer to the following Microsoft MSDN article:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff556232.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff542202.aspx

And see the blog:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askperf/archive/2009/04/03/who-moved-my-3gb.aspx

3. Speed Test

• To perform a “Speed Test” from your farmerswife Server simply click on the button on the Server window. There is no need to disconnect users from the Server while performing the test.
• The log window shows the results and once the test is done you will be prompted to restart the server. All users connected will need to disconnect at this point.
• If you're unsure about the result, send an email to support@farmerswife.com including the log.txt from the server, (typically at C:\Program Files\farmerswife Server\system).
  
  

4. OS/Software

5. Database

MySQL 5 should run on a separate machine, see Hardware recommendations above.

6. Page file

System Properties > Performance Options >Virtual Memory: a typical setting for Farmers WIFE servers with large databases is

• Initial Size = 4000 MB
• Maximum Size = 9000 MB

You can experiment with larger “Maximum Sizes” as long as you have enough disk space. Note that there is no harm setting a big Maximum Size; it will simply allocate some more disk space. As a guideline for Maximum Size, look at Peak Commit Charge in Task Manager.

Please also ask your IT responsible to monitor the Windows Event Log. This often tells if something is not healthy on the hardware or OS level. Basically there should be no warnings and errors. If there are, they should be fixed immediately.

Remember to Always Keep your Hard Disk DE-FRAGMENTED!

7. Reduce your database size

• Archiving old projects

Through the archive process, booking data gets stored outside the FW database, but the Project data remains in the database allowing you to still search for Archived Projects. This operation will decrease the size of the database and improve performance. You can restore Archived Projects easily at any time since the ‘Archive’ and ‘Restore From Archive’ procedures are done directly from the Client Application. 

You can only archive Closed and/or Invoiced projects, so all the 'Active' projects which are old, should be first set to 'Active: No' (please see the new47_Archiving_Manual.pdf to guide you).

• Archiving old tasks

Tasks are Bookings NOT associated to a Project. By archiving Tasks, they will also be stored outside the database therefore reducing its size. This operation is done through the Server Application and requires that users are logged off (please see pages 10 and 11 of the new47_Archiving_Manual.pdf to guide you).

• Delete deleted bookings

All your deleted Bookings and Binders are stored within Deleted Bookings And Binders in your Toolbox.

It is strongly recommended that when this list becomes too big and contains old bookings that will never be restored, it should be emptied.

To perform this operation go to Toolbox > Deleted Bookings And Binders > click on the arrow on top > select Delete All

 You need the corresponding User Permission to be able to perform this operation.

N.B. For further information on reducing your database size, please refer to our article here:

Archiving in farmerswife - quick steps to optimising your db!

8. Other performance related server settings

In the Server Setup:

• De-activate Longform View On Login
  Disabled by default. Enable it to get the Long Form deactivated when logging in, to increase the speed of information displayed by the client application.
• Search With Hyphen Replacing (Slower)
  It is recommended to disable this option (default), so the searching will display results faster.
• Force Maximum Search Hits When Login
  To increase the speed of the system, it is recommended to enable this option, so when logging in clients will have a search limit according to the selected under Hits Limit (see below).
• Force Maximum Search Hits When Login (Advanced Search)
  To increase the speed of the system, it is recommended to set this option to Yes (default), so when opening any of the Advanced Searches a search limit applies according to the selected under Hits Limit (see below). There is also the option to select No (But Warn), so you get a warning before proceeding.
• Hits Limit
  Set the maximum hits limit here. Each client can then change this within their client (Toolbox > Settings > Miscellaneous> Maximum Hits When Searching). But when logging in, it will be re-set to this limit again.
• Force Shutdown
  If your farmerswife Server is installed on a PC, it is strongly recommended to configure the “Force Shutdown” option as displayed in the screenshot above, which will automatically shut down the program. By selecting the mode “Restart”, you can choose the time when the program shall be automatically restarted. By default it is set at 4 in the morning. But you can change this according to your needs.
• Disable Chat
  You can disable the chat functionality if is not used, since this will also improve the server performance (see the screenshot above).
• Collapse Longform Trees On Login
  It is recommended to have this option set to YES (see screenshot above). Every time a user logs in, any tree (Project tree, Object tree, Personnel tree, Classes Availability tree) that was showing some elements before logging out will be collapsed, thus improving performance, since the information will only be retrieved once it is needed, i.e. when you click on the tree to open it.

Toolbox > Settings > Web Share Settings check the Update Time for External Calendars... to min. e.g. every 60 min. or at a specific time per day (not 5/10min.)

9. Performance related user settings

Some of these tips are temporary, fast solutions in case your hardware would eventually change if not meeting the minimum requirements. Please see these server requirements at the beginning of this document. And also note that for the Client application certain minimal specs apply and depending on how this machine is being used, these changes are a pre-requisite to improving application side performance.

You might have to help your colleagues who are not as experienced users to apply these settings within their own user settings. 

• Maximum Search Hits

• Disable ‘Resolve Surrounding Conflicts When Bookings Change’

If enabled farmerswife will automatically change the ‘red’ coloring of a conflicting booking, after it has been resolved, for example by changing one of the conflicting bookings to ‘planning’ status.

If disabled, when resolving a conflict, the ‘red’ coloring of the conflicting booking will only change after manually confirming its status again.

Find it in Toolbox > Settings > Server Setup > Resolve Surrounding Conflicts When Bookings Change

• Disable ‘Auto Refresh Timeline When Server State Changes’

If you disable this option, you can always update your view of the Timeline by using the ‘Refresh’ button in the bottom left corner of the Client interface, whenever you need to.

• Reduce amount of projects shown in Long Form > Project Tree

If you have a long list of Projects in the Tree, try to reduce them. Be careful using In the 'Long Form' "Auto from Viewport / Calendar" function. If using it, use the Toolbox > Settings > Miscellaneous > Show Only Active Projects.