Lotus Notes and MetaFrame XP
Please forgive me for not asking a purely Notes question here, but I need some help! A colleague of mine has encountered an issue when using MetaFrame XP FR1 and Lotus Notes 5.08.
The MetaFrame XP FR1 servers have the following spec : IBM x330, Dual PIII 1.13GHz, 2GB RAM, 2x36GB disk (hardware mirrored), Gigabit Ethernet, 2x100MB Ethernet (1 unused, 1 teamed with Gigabit card).
The problem is as follows. Normally, Notes takes approximately 20 seconds to load for each user. This is true up until the 14th user, at which point Notes suddenly takes 5 minutes to load. This always applies to only the 14th user, the 13th is always OK.
However, when the problem occurs, the machine shows no signs of being heavily utilised. CPU is at 15-20%, memory usage is fairly high (but this would be expected with 13 other users connected), and Task Manager shows the usual Notes 'exe' files trying to execute but getting nowhere.
Has anyone else encountered this problem, or got any suggestions?
The MetaFrame XP FR1 servers have the following spec : IBM x330, Dual PIII 1.13GHz, 2GB RAM, 2x36GB disk (hardware mirrored), Gigabit Ethernet, 2x100MB Ethernet (1 unused, 1 teamed with Gigabit card).
The problem is as follows. Normally, Notes takes approximately 20 seconds to load for each user. This is true up until the 14th user, at which point Notes suddenly takes 5 minutes to load. This always applies to only the 14th user, the 13th is always OK.
However, when the problem occurs, the machine shows no signs of being heavily utilised. CPU is at 15-20%, memory usage is fairly high (but this would be expected with 13 other users connected), and Task Manager shows the usual Notes 'exe' files trying to execute but getting nowhere.
Has anyone else encountered this problem, or got any suggestions?
The problem is probably related to how many users can be on the MetaFrame XP FR1 simultaneously, before they become too slow.
I would start with monitoring them first.
I hope this helps !
I would start with monitoring them first.
I hope this helps !
Sorry Mark, SysExpert is true.
I confused your Citrix emulation software with a hardware description. Now it is all clear. Search first trough Citrix documentation about the limits.
From my point of view does not make any sense to drive multiple Notes clients on a server machine. But perhaps I did not catch something :)
I confused your Citrix emulation software with a hardware description. Now it is all clear. Search first trough Citrix documentation about the limits.
From my point of view does not make any sense to drive multiple Notes clients on a server machine. But perhaps I did not catch something :)
ASKER
I'm afraid it's not a normal loading issue, as this server as been proven to work and respond well with 28-30 scripted users connected.
The scripts for each user automatically logs them in, launches Word, PowerPoint and Notepad. Then every 15-20 seconds a sentence is typed and then deleted in each open application in turn. After 2 minutes of this, Excel is launched, a test spreadsheet is loaded, test calculations are executed, and then the spreadsheet saved to disk followed by closing Excel. The whole process then restarts.
During this scripted test the processor utilisation goes very high, as expected, but performance is still good.
However, even if just Notes is run, the 14th user always causes the very poor performance symptoms described in my first post. CPU is only about 15-20%, and the server is still only about 50% of its maximum user load.
The scripts for each user automatically logs them in, launches Word, PowerPoint and Notepad. Then every 15-20 seconds a sentence is typed and then deleted in each open application in turn. After 2 minutes of this, Excel is launched, a test spreadsheet is loaded, test calculations are executed, and then the spreadsheet saved to disk followed by closing Excel. The whole process then restarts.
During this scripted test the processor utilisation goes very high, as expected, but performance is still good.
However, even if just Notes is run, the 14th user always causes the very poor performance symptoms described in my first post. CPU is only about 15-20%, and the server is still only about 50% of its maximum user load.
ASKER
zvonko - in response to your statment about multiple server-based Notes clients....yes, it is odd!!! Unfortunately, it is a requirement of our customer that Citrix users have access to email.
I would look at RAM consumption, and swap file statistics, since Notes is a heavy RAM user.
In NT I would run Performance monitor to gather statistics, but I am not usre what to do on a CITRIX machine.
I hope this helps !
In NT I would run Performance monitor to gather statistics, but I am not usre what to do on a CITRIX machine.
I hope this helps !
ASKER
Update: Further testing seems to suggest that this is a network problem, either with the software redirector or possibly the hardware.
The user's Notes data is stored on a network drive. As Notes launches, it obviously tries to access this file. It turns out that under MF XP, 14 was the magic number of users to cause the problem. The same situation has been made to occur on a Windows 2000 Terminal Server, but it takes about 20 users to do so.
As a further test, a file copy was set to run (on the Terminal Server) just before User X connected. The file reported a copy time of 2 mins, when Notes User X logged in. 11 min later, the copy was still going.
Performance Monitor shows that at this time, the CPU utilisation drops to 0 and that network traffic occurs in only very short, sudden bursts about every 2 minutes.
This condition has been reported to Microsoft, and I will let you know the outcome.
The user's Notes data is stored on a network drive. As Notes launches, it obviously tries to access this file. It turns out that under MF XP, 14 was the magic number of users to cause the problem. The same situation has been made to occur on a Windows 2000 Terminal Server, but it takes about 20 users to do so.
As a further test, a file copy was set to run (on the Terminal Server) just before User X connected. The file reported a copy time of 2 mins, when Notes User X logged in. 11 min later, the copy was still going.
Performance Monitor shows that at this time, the CPU utilisation drops to 0 and that network traffic occurs in only very short, sudden bursts about every 2 minutes.
This condition has been reported to Microsoft, and I will let you know the outcome.
In XP and ME .dsk files are considered system files, and a backup copy is made everytime these files are opened (in other words every time notes is started).
More info and solution here:
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=203&q=dsk%2Bxp&uid=sim1579666cc902c808d85256bed005738d6
(If link doesnt work go to www.lotus.com, support, and search for "dsk xp")
More info and solution here:
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=203&q=dsk%2Bxp&uid=sim1579666cc902c808d85256bed005738d6
(If link doesnt work go to www.lotus.com, support, and search for "dsk xp")
Mark_R,
No comment has been added to this question in more than 592 days, so it is now classified as abandoned..
I will leave the following recommendation for this question in the Cleanup topic area:
RECOMMENDATION: Accept Mark_R's answer http:#7150190 and Refund
Any objections should be posted here in the next 4 days. After that time, the question will be closed.
Thanks,
Zvonko
EE Cleanup Volunteer
No comment has been added to this question in more than 592 days, so it is now classified as abandoned..
I will leave the following recommendation for this question in the Cleanup topic area:
RECOMMENDATION: Accept Mark_R's answer http:#7150190 and Refund
Any objections should be posted here in the next 4 days. After that time, the question will be closed.
Thanks,
Zvonko
EE Cleanup Volunteer
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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first assumption is that some kind of network problems for this connection occur. To check this, try the simple nping from here:
http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/sandbox.nsf/ecc552f1ab6e46e4852568a90055c4cd/4a60b6779e52c19c8525679100832651?OpenDocument
Or additional let Domino tell you connection status by entering this console command:
show stat net.tcpip.*
Try also this two Domino console commands:
sh stat server.sessions.*
sh stat server.users.*
Good luck,
zvonko