00949: PRO/5 Data Server for NT and Visual PRO/5 performance information

Title:

PRO/5 Data Server for NT and Visual PRO/5 performance information

Description:

There are a number of articles in our Knowledge Base that address performance problems and a variety of suggestions to try to resolve them. The most prominent of these is titled Addressing performance problems with the TCP/IP Client and the Data Server.

Pinging back and forth is not an indication of network performance because it is almost always fast, the important test with ping is to verify Reverse Name Lookup capability. The list of things that need to be checked can be quite extensive but there are some items that if done correctly could cause a notable increase in performance. One of the more basics to check is your network configuration on *each* workstation. Look at each workstation AND the server and verify that the latest service pack from Microsoft is installed. 

Check what network protocols are installed. Remove any unused protocols, specifically NetBeui has been seen to slow down performance. Remove IPX/SPX unless connecting to Novell Server. You can leave File and Printer Sharing for MS Networks but NetBeui and IPX/SPX slow down performance and usually aren’t needed. Virus checking programs can also impact performance on MS networks. If there is a virus checker installed, disable it and then do your performance tests. We cannot be responsible for the impact a virus scanning utility has on your network performance but we see this most frequently as a culprit in performance issues. We are not recommending that Virus detection software be removed but suggest contacting the vendor or maker of that program for tuning assistance. 

Start a Visual PRO/5 session that does not load an application program. Determining the area that is slow can point to areas that should be checked. Is it the initial load of Vpro5 that is slow? Check for licensing issues and verify hostname resolution. 

Is it the loading of a program that is slow? Is slow when the full path is given or only when relying on the prefix in the config file? Check the prefix line and confirm that invalid drives are DSKSYNned in the config,bbx file. 

Is it the first file open via the data server that is slow? Are you relying on the PREFIXes of the client config.bbx and the Data Server config.bbx? Ensure you have the appropriate DSKSYN’s in both the config.bbx for the client and the Data Server. Have you tried opening a file using the complete path (with data server notation) and filename? Is the second file open fast? Have you tried opening a file using the PERSIST mode? We added this mode specifically to assist in performance issues related to connections constantly being closed and then reopened almost immediately. (The above mentioned article discusses this in-depth.) 
                 OPEN(chan,mode=”PERSIST”)”/<server,port=1100>C:/BASIS/PRO5DataServer/fname”

where: 
        chan = a channel that will never be used in your application. 
                 We suggest a high number. 
        server = Your NT/2000 servers name; 
        port = 1100 is default (use whichever port you actually run the DS on); 
        C:/BASIS/PRO5DataServer/ = path to where you’ve created a dummy file to leave open all the time. This path MUST match your path on the data server – not how the workstations see it! 
        fname = whatever you called the above named file. 

If a file opened using the full path including Data Server syntax is fast then check the defined PREFIXes in both the client and data server config file. If only the first file open via the data server is slow, check the reverse hostname lookup resolution for the client and server. Check the hosts files on the server and the workstations. If you are using DNS, try disabling it temporarily to see if that’s where the delay occurs. 

Verify that the files are being opened via the data server and not a mapped drive by printing the fid of the channel of the open file. (PRINT FID(CH)) You should see the data server syntax
        /<server,pro5srv>file_name 
beginning in byte 9 of the FID() . 

Verify that the files are being opened via the data server and not a mapped drive in your application by printing the fid of the channel of the open file. (PRINT FID(CH)) You should see the data server syntax 

/<server,pro5srv>file_name 

The following articles may also be helpful: 
        http://www.basis.cloud/support/tips/dataserver_tcpip.html 
        http://www.basis.cloud/support/tips/nt_dataserver.html 

Last Modified: 06/18/2002 Product: PRO/5 Data Server Operating System: Windows NT/2000

BASIS structures five components of their technology into the BBx Generations.