Few users experiencing Performance Lag in DOORs 9.3

Hi,

We provide administrative suuport for IBM Rational DOORs. We recently upgraded the version to 9.3 from 9.0. After the upgrade, few users (belonging to the same team) are facing a performance lag in Open, Edit, Save and search operation on the modules. But other users including us, the admin team, do not face this lag.

How can we check where the problem lies ?

Thanks,
Priya J
PriyaJ - Sun Jun 17 12:48:56 EDT 2012

Re: Few users experiencing Performance Lag in DOORs 9.3
Mathias Mamsch - Thu Jun 28 08:20:21 EDT 2012

That is generally a hard thing to do. We had performance issues with OLE objects, that were linked to a network ressource that was available for some users, but not available for other users. So it might not even be a DOORS update problem, but maybe coincidentally someone introduced such an OLE object in a module, and DOORS waits for the (non-optimally) configured windows network to return the error. So you really need to nail the exact circumstances that will make the error appear, which requires a lot of work, and then you need to try to nail the cause by exclusion. To test if the update was the problem, you might be able to let the same people connect with a DOORS 9.0 client, see if the problem goes away. Find out on which modules the lag happens (all of them)?. Try letting those users access from different machines, etc. Do network monitoring. Eventually you will find the cause. Regards, Mathias
Mathias Mamsch, IT-QBase GmbH, Consultant for Requirement Engineering and D00RS

Re: Few users experiencing Performance Lag in DOORs 9.3
llandale - Thu Jun 28 14:41:37 EDT 2012

First off make sure each client has about the same network connection. Open a cmd.exe window and type "ping <servername>" and see the average ms times each client PC has to the server.

Its possible that some users have a default view that slows things down, notably a layout that follows links. Remove all default Module/User views from the module and notice how long each operation takes when everyone is using the same "Standard view". This seems likely since some folks are having "search" lag, which has nothing to do with network connectivity.

Are all client PCs at the same DOORS version?

Is it possible some folks can see some Object trees and others not? You could count displayed objects.

Is it possible some folks can see certain Attributes, notably Attr-DXL?

-Louie

Re: Few users experiencing Performance Lag in DOORs 9.3
PriyaJ - Fri Jun 29 06:52:13 EDT 2012

First off make sure each client has about the same network connection. Open a cmd.exe window and type "ping <servername>" and see the average ms times each client PC has to the server.
Let me try this.

Its possible that some users have a default view that slows things down, notably a layout that follows links. Remove all default Module/User views from the module and notice how long each operation takes when everyone is using the same "Standard view". This seems likely since some folks are having "search" lag, which has nothing to do with network connectivity.
View should not be a problem as other users are able to access the same view without any issues.

Are all client PCs at the same DOORS version?
yes, all the users are facing this issue while accessing 9.3 client.

Is it possible some folks can see some Object trees and others not? You could count displayed objects.
Is it possible some folks can see certain Attributes, notably Attr-DXL?

The Performance lag is faced by only those set of users. All other can access the same module with the same view and perform same operations without any issues. They are not facing 'Some modules missing' issue.

Re: Few users experiencing Performance Lag in DOORs 9.3
PriyaJ - Fri Jun 29 07:07:33 EDT 2012

Thanks for both of your response.

Let me check the individual user's network and get back.

Thanks,
Priya J

Re: Few users experiencing Performance Lag in DOORs 9.3
llandale - Fri Jun 29 15:55:59 EDT 2012

PriyaJ - Fri Jun 29 06:52:13 EDT 2012
First off make sure each client has about the same network connection. Open a cmd.exe window and type "ping <servername>" and see the average ms times each client PC has to the server.
Let me try this.

Its possible that some users have a default view that slows things down, notably a layout that follows links. Remove all default Module/User views from the module and notice how long each operation takes when everyone is using the same "Standard view". This seems likely since some folks are having "search" lag, which has nothing to do with network connectivity.
View should not be a problem as other users are able to access the same view without any issues.

Are all client PCs at the same DOORS version?
yes, all the users are facing this issue while accessing 9.3 client.

Is it possible some folks can see some Object trees and others not? You could count displayed objects.
Is it possible some folks can see certain Attributes, notably Attr-DXL?

The Performance lag is faced by only those set of users. All other can access the same module with the same view and perform same operations without any issues. They are not facing 'Some modules missing' issue.

Just throwing out ideas.

Verify it's a "user" issue not a "client PC" issue by have two such users try on the same client PC; or the same user try on different PCs; including using the same PC login.

If users have drastically different response on the same machine opening the same module, then these are the things I can think of.
  • they are loading different views
  • the "dependant" view (if any) of the loaded view is not readable by some folks
  • slow users can "R" some things that the fast users cannot, and these things are being loaded with the module. <-- this is my guess
    • Objects
    • Attributes
    • Linksets
    • History (actually, this is a function of differences in Object and Attribute access)
  • "oleopenlimit" issue, where slow users are thrashing because it;s value is 0, 1, or 2; whereas the fast one use reasonable default of 5.
    • print (getenv("DOORSOLEOPENLIMIT")) "\n"
  • There is an "addins" issue:
    • print (getenv("DOORSADDINS")) "\n"
    • slow users have additional "addins", and it takes a long time to build those menus
    • slow users have "R" access to file system files associated with the Addins, but fast users cannot evey see those files.
  • They are actually accessing different databases or a different module.
  • Recent Supreme Court rulings have unbalanced the natural laws of the universe.

If users have drastically different response times on different machines but the same response on the same maching, then these are the things I can think of:
  • Machine is "far away" on the network. Try the "ping" thing.
  • Machine or firewall have restrictions (of which I am ignorant)
  • Machine doesn't have enough "virtual" or physical memory (or other such memory issues)
  • the "temp" directory has an issue
  • Addins values may point to the local "C" drive, which is different for different client PCs.
  • Addins referenced Mapped Drives (e.g. "G:\") which are mapped to different servers vis-a-vis Addins.
  • The DOORS install files are excessive on some clients.
  • Module has OLE diagrams that behave differently because the Client PCs have different versions of Office installed.
  • slow machines have additional "DOORS Integrations" installed.
  • slow machines have some virus or macro or something causing slowdown.

Maybe some other folks can think of some other things.

-Louie