Why does my RTC plan take so long to load?

Authors: PerformanceTroubleshootingTeam
Build basis: RTC 4.x, 5.x

Depending on the size and complexity of the plan in IBM Rational Team Concert (RTC), plans may take some time to load.

Initial assessment

Symptoms

Accessing large plans in Rational Team Concert results in a long loading time.

Impact/scope

• On which type of client does it happen (Web UI, Eclipse, Microsoft Visual Studio)?
• Does it happen for all or multiple plans?

Recommended data gathering and subsequent analysis steps

• You can use HTTPWatch to determine exactly how long the plan takes to load. HTTPWatch will also gather and export information about the calls being made when loading the plan.
• Browser efficiency with relation to the CLM applications is directly related to the JavaScript engine. Try to load the plan in a different browser and see if the performance increases. For information about different browsers, see Browser Performance.
• Establish and document a baseline with HTTPWatch to measure any further progress against (document the poor behavior).

Possible causes and solutions

When using the Eclipse client

• If you are experiencing performance issues when loading plans in the Eclipse client, consider testing the same behavior in the Web UI. Plans are best viewed in the Web UI because the Eclipse based plan editor does not have all the latest features.
• In case you observe that the RTC Client runs out of memory while loading plans, you can attempt to increase heap size. If the RTC Client is installed standalone, you can make the changes in the file:

   <RTC_HOME>/client/eclipse/eclipse.ini file

  For example, to increase the maximum heap size to 1GB, you can add or modify the parameter -xmx after the parameter -vmargs.

  -Xms256m
  -Xmx1024m 

  If the RTC Client (Extension install) is installed in the same shell with other Eclipse-based IDEs, the eclipse.ini file will be located in the installation directory of the other IDE.
• You may increase the Maximum thread pool for RTC client operations. Follow these steps:
  1. Open the RTC Client and select Window > Preferences > Team > Jazz Source Control > Content Transfer
  2. Increase the value of Maximum number of Threads (the default is 10); increasing the thread count in increments of 5 or less. View performance statistics on each incremental change to find a balance between system resources and server availability.
  3. Select Show traffic statistics in status bar
  4. You can now open the Jazz Metronome UI found in the lower right corner of the RTC Client.
  5. Metronome will collect statistics allowing you to tune the threads and heap to optimal performance. See: RTC Client for Eclipse IDE: slow response

When using the Visual Studio client

The Rational Team Concert Client for Microsoft Visual Studio lets you create new plans and edit existing ones from an embedded web browser based plan editor. See: When using the Web UI.

When using the Web UI

When using the Web UI, you can improve performance by tuning your plans and by upgrading to version 4.0.1 or higher.

Tuning your plans for increased loading performance

The size and the complexity of the data contained in the plan influences performance and overall loading time. Tuning the plans for overall size, top level work items, grouping and sorting will all affect how the plan loads. You can reduce this size and complexity as described in technote How to Improve Performance while loading large plans in the Web UI.

There are also some product level enhancements in 4.0.3 which will change the layout of your plan and thus, load it much faster. For information on this tuning, see Fine Tuning Parameters for plans.

Plan improvements in Rational Team Concert

• In Rational Team Concert 4.0.1, significant improvements have been made to both loading work items in batch, as well as compressing the work item data which results in a performance increase of up to 25% faster in the web UI, especially in low bandwidth networks.
• In Rational Team Concert 4.0.2, there were no additional improvements to the planning component, so you can expect typically the same performance with plan loading as observed in 4.0.1 if you upgrade.
• In Rational Team Concert 4.0.3, you can expect to see an additional 40% improvement in plan loading due to the changes described in the article: Plan performance improvements in Rational Team Concert, Version 4.0.3

Related topics:

• Browser performance
• How to use HTTPWatch
• Why is the Rational Team Concert client slow?
• Performance troubleshooting

External links:

• How to Improve Performance while loading large plans in the Web UI: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21612656
• Getting Started with Planning in Rational Team Concert 4.0: https://jazz.net/library/article/593/
• Effective Planning with Rational Team Concert 4.0: https://jazz.net/library/article/594/
• Customizing the Agile Planning tools in Rational Team Concert 4.0: https://jazz.net/library/article/587/
• What's new in Rational Team Concert: https://jazz.net/products/rational-team-concert/whatsnew/

Additional contributors: None