High CPU utilization

[neomodo]

So I'm trying to run FM Pro 5.5.2 on a Windows 2k Pro machine and it is hitting databases living on a couple of high performance Win 2k servers. When bringing up a particular database my CPU jumps up to 95 -100% useage. My understanding is that the particular file in question contains a bunch or relationships and this might be the root of the lousy performance. The servers don't even blip - they just chug along untainted by whatever is happening on the client side. On a Win98 box this performance problem is hardly even noticeable. On a G3 mac everything seems just fine...

This makes no sense to me - I am perplexed to the max - clues are welcome...

Pfmon log shows a bunch of these - (a ton of them actually)

SOFT: XResTypeToNResType+0x223d : 05c2000e

SOFT: XResTypeToNResType+0x2656 : 05c23ff2

and some of these

SOFT: RtlQueryTimeZoneInformation+0x27ac : 05c5fd20

SOFT: DebugActiveProcess+0x1b5 : DebugActiveProcess+0x000001B5

SOFT: EngTextOut+0x157f : a26c5000

SOFT: EngTextOut+0x157f : a26c6000

and these:

SOFT: EngTextOut+0x157f : a26d0000

SOFT: EngTextOut+0x157f : a26d1000

SOFT: XResTypeToNResType+0x223d : 05c2000e

SOFT: XNewString+0x14e : 05c28ffe

SOFT: XNWindowRoom::GetXNWindowPtr+0x34a8 : 05c240

configs:

=> win2k pro / fmpro 5.5.2/ - PIII 800mhz 256+ RAM - 10/100 nic - blah blah

=> win2k server /fmserver 5.5 / 2x2.4 ghz Xeon - 2 gb. Ram 160meg /sec scsi raid 5 - blah blah blah

=> Win98 box - identical to Win2k pro box

Servers on a gigabit backbone

thanks;

Wen

[LiveOak]

Are the high performance Win2K servers running FM Server or do theyjust host the FM files? If you are not using server AND you are the host for the files opened across the network, I'm not surprised if you have the most intense activity.

-bd

[neomodo]

FM Server 5.5 - is running

I also double checked by running on WIn XP Pro ...

The scoop is basically that this problem is occuring only in Win 2k - It boggles the mind to a certain extent but my understanding of XP / Win 2k is that the differences are mostly in the shell - one being more closely resembling 98/ME lineage... but there's also kernel and NTFS enhancements.. The long and short of whatever is going on is that I have soft page faults happenning like mad - someone else referred to this as a "portal" perhaps that means more to you guys than to me at this point.

Should I submit anything for perousal? My guess is that you'll either know exactly what I'm talking about because you've seen it or you won't - nonetheless it's a buggy difference between the different OS versions - whether at the core it is really a programatic issue....

[neomodo]

So here's the solution for the problem that I was experiencing. No one actually responded to my post with any info whatsoever or places that I might consider checking in order to resolve the problem. My guess is that this sort of thing has never happened to anyone for whatever reason or we happen to be doing something more complex (or convoluted) than most folks .

The long and short of it is that the files in question go through a great deal of calculation and there are several layers of relationships going on which enable us to update fare data in real time which gives us the ability to not only give clients accurate quotes for complex multi-stop international travel but it enables us to find the lowest possible prices at any give time. As you might imagine - a bunch of stuff has to happen in order for this data to wind up in the necessary fields...

When we upgraded the systems to WIndows 2000 it was a confusing and perplexing thing that the performance would degrade - after all a multi threaded operating system, ntfs, etc...

The Solution: this was a complete fluke since we had made the decision to skip over Win2k and go right to XP since we experienced no such problems. In the process of optimizing a Win2k box I ended up configuring it to

1. Unload DLL's automatically

2. Improve Core System Performance ( It keeps running apps in memory rather than disk swappage) - * there was an inordinate amount of swapping going on when we were testing the win2k box....

3. Optimize Disk cache size (512bytes)

4. Large System Cache ( from 4 to 512) * probably one of the more critical contributors to eliminating the problem.

5. Enabled L2 Cache size - * also definitely affects performance.

So for what it's worth you might keep this info in mind whenever you think you might need to improve the performance of your Filemaker App... because even though it may not appear to be an issue - filemaker still requires that a great deal of work take place at the client - During all of this, while the client was maxing out it CPU to 100% the servers that hosted the applications didn't even see 2% fluctuations.

I'm still a bit perplexed as to why the basic settings for Win 2k are so different than those in XP but I suspect that if I were to try to run the app on a WinNT4.0 system the same issue would occur. Leading me to conclude in a not so technical manner that despite the core elements of NT that carry over to XP, it certainly isn't in any of the ways described above. Sorry for the long windedness... Hope this helps someone - I'm off to seek the scientific explanation of this....