FMSA 8 -- terrible mac performance-- why?

[Steven Cappiello]

Hi,

We just upgraded Filemaker Server 7 Advanced to version 8 Advanced.

I created a script that loops through all the records in a large database and measures the time it takes to complete.

I was astonished to learn that it repeatedly takes around 40 seconds to complete on macs (g4 and g5 machines) while it takes *1 second* ! to complete on windows 2000 and XP machines. All the machines are on the same LAN.

Could someone explain why this is and let me know if there is any way to improve the mac performance ?

Also, the mac performance got worse after the upgrade to version 8 server , and the PC performance improved. (what the ?)

It was tested with Filemaker client 8.5 set to 8Mb Cache on both PC and Mac. Increasing the mac client cache to 64mb seemed to help a bit but not much.

Any advice or insight anyone can provide would be wonderful.

Many thanks in advance.

[Ender]

Performance for a particular script to do an operation depends on many factors, primarily the operations being done in the script and the environment that the script is run in. There are also differences in the way certain versions interact with each other, especially when finding on unstored calcs. Because of caching, there are also dramatic differences between running an operation the first time and running the same operation subsequent times in the same session.

If you want useful help on this, we would need to know the exact versions of client and server that you are running, and the actual script that you are testing. Also, if the problem is machine specific, maybe you can tell us the model of the computers.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

OS specific behavior as well as client side cache influences this. As Ender said, we could do with some more information.

Steven

[Steven Cappiello]

The time to run the script was the first action taken each time Filemaker client was run.

The script was pretty simple:

Show All Records

go to first record

set $t = get(currenttimestamp)

loop

go to next record (exit after last)

end loop

show custom dialog that shows $t and the new

currenttimestamp

I ran the script on a 1Ghz G4, a 1.6 Ghz G5, several times using FileMaker Advanced 8 and FileMaker 8.5. It repeatedly took about 40 seconds to get through 3000 or so records.

The layout was in list view, and did have a few calculated graphics in unstored container fields on the layout.

The PCs repeately took 1 second to complete the script. I tested it on Windows 2000 and XP Pentium 4 machines. The PCs are pretty old (~3 years old) so I don't think they're speed demons.

The cache on all the FileMaker clients was set to 8Mb (default).

Do you think adjusting the cache on the server affect this performance ?

thanks again.

[Ender]

One second sounds too fast to me to run through 3000 records. Perhaps your PC clients aren't actually performing the entire script? Are they running FM 8 too?

[Genx]

Try adding

Freeze Window[] at the beggining of your script

[Steven H. Blackwell]

The layout was in list view, and did have a few calculated graphics in unstored container fields on the layout.

The PCs repeately took 1 second to complete the script. I tested it on Windows 2000 and XP Pentium 4 machines. The PCs are pretty old (~3 years old) so I don't think they're speed demons.

The cache on all the FileMaker clients was set to 8Mb (default).

Do you think adjusting the cache on the server affect this performance ?

Change to form view. Put a freeze window step at the beginnng. Up the cache from 8 to 12 MB on the client. Serevrside cache stays the same as whatever it is now.

Steven

[Steven Cappiello]

thanks for the tips. Why though is the mac performance slower?

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Because the computer may not be set up correctly for FMP usage. What happens after you implemted the recommendations I offered?

Steven