I have an ASP application that was developed over 3 years ago using MS access as the back end. (running on a W2K virtual server)
It has grown quite a bit from its original state - in fact the Access DB in roughly 35 MB after compacting.
I know an MS DB this size is frowned upon, but things seemed to be running great last month... however the DB may have grown by 3-4 MB since. (Approx 100 tables, most fairly small though - maybe 10 users max at once, ODBC DB connection)
I've noticed lately, accessing any ASP page is PAINFULLY slow.
I'm not sure if this is an ASP issue, a DB issue, a server issue or what.
(When running the APP locally on my notebook, it's very fast.)
I've got a bunch of these errors lately as well: ASP 0113 / Script timed out errors
How should I be troubleshooting this in order to fine the exact problem?
Should I be planning to move this to a different backend?
Access was great, because its free to run on the server is MS SQL express an option?
Any advice would be very much appreciated!
Thanks,
E.D.
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>>ASP 0113 / Script timed out errors
Well, you clearly have a timeout error. So you should consider moving to db server (like MySQL => Free and reliable) or MSSQL Server (Not free)
In the meantime, to avoid that error, try increasing the execution time on the script in question by starting it with:
Server.ScriptTimeout=200 'if 200 secs is not enough try a bigger value
Did the ASP pages get slowly over time or did they kind of 'suddenly' become so slow?
- How big are the pages that the webserver is generating?
- Do you have enough free space on your W2K Virtual server?
- Do you have enough free space on your pc hosting the virtual server?
- Did you try using an OLEDB connection string?
- Are you destroying connection objects after usage?
- Run TaskManager on both the W2K virtual server and the pc hosting it.
Norush,
No, it seemed to be al of the sudden. However, this time of year is when the application gets used the most.
-most pages are small 5-10 KB although there are a few 50KB+. The slowdown happens on ALL ASP pages though... even the smallest ASP pages.
-virtual server info - I'm going to find out, I don't manage it. :-(
-the virtual machine seems fine re: free memory, processor, etc.
-haven't tried OLEDB yet. Would I notice a huge difference?
-destroying connection objects - yes
-TaskManager on VM machine looks good... I'll find out re: host box
Question 1. How many users is reasonable to connect at once for an app like this? (i.e. Access DB)
That's an area where I think might be an issue.
2. mySQL is an option. I understand MS SQL costs $$!
I've used MS SQL express before - but only for local dev. Any advanage here? I'm told I can expect to have more simultaneous connections without slowing the app down.
Thanks everyone!
You can try making a test asp page which connects to a newly created (small) access database and check if this page is slow or not.
If this page is not slow then you know for sure the other asp pages are slow because of the big database. (which is probably the case)
Trying out an OLEDB connection string is definitely a good choice.
You could also consider using the GetRows method of ADO. For info check http://www.asp101.com/samp
Look here for some discussions about the maximum connection to Access in an ASP environment.
http://www.experts-exchang
http://forums.codecharge.c
With MS SQL Express you can indeed have more simultaneous connections. Plus you can use stored procedures which will also help alot.
Access has an upsizing wizzard which can move youre access db to sqlserver quite easily.
Good Luck
Hmmmmmmm.....
I took a few suggestions, and here's what I found.
I trimmed the DB down to about 1/3 (from 35MB, down to about 15 MB) and pretty much the same behaviour - very LONG load time!
Also... I though that I'd include a bunch of 'timestamps' throughout the page to see if I could find long the query was taking OR WHAT was causing the slow down.
Here are the time stamps I used (using Time() ) :
StartPage - first line after VBSCRIPT line
AfterIncludes - line 16, after includes
Before1sQuery - before query.... :-)
After1sQuery - after...
Before 2ndQuery - same
After 2nd Query - same
BeforeBody - before body tag
BeforeWhile - before while loop -
AfterWhile - after loop
End of Page - end of page, before closing RS
Anyway... EACH result was the same...: 6:12:36 PM. Meaning, I think, all steps were competed in less than 1 second. (That sound right???) Page load times (for the same page) are anywhere from 5 seconds to 30 seconds!!!
Any opinions/thoughts on this?
Thanks everyone!
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by: cb1393Posted on 2008-09-17 at 13:10:57ID: 22503099
A couple of words come to mind though: "memory" and "leak". Especially with using Access. But I won't mention anything more about using Access. :-)
To run the traps, it would certainly help things to get direct access to the server.
I would first use taskman on the server to determine if it's CPU usage that's causing the slowdown and whether or not the culprit is the web service (since it may be something unrelated to the web site entirely). If the CPU spikes are web-related, it's likely due to a loop problem on a particular page, or excessive looping/calculations on multiple pages.
If the CPU is stable but the system is low on memory, it could be due to connections/objects not being destroyed, or excessive use of Session variables... or... well... you know. :-)