Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of mozalas
mozalas

asked on

GroupWise 6.5 Timeout issue...

We have implemented GroupWise 6.5 within our Wide Area Network.  It is working great, with the exception of one office within the WAN.  This one office keeps experiencing slowness when using the GroupWise Client.  What happens is, their client works fine...until they leave their computer sitting for a short time.  When they get back to their email and go to open a message, they get an hour glass.  If they sit and wait approximately 5 minutes, GroupWise will respond again as normal.  However, most of the people end the task and restart GroupWise since they are quite annoyed with the wait they have been experiencing from time to time.  None of our other offices are experiencing this issue, and these offices are all set up the same. We are a pure-IP environment running Netware 5.1 SP7 file servers and a full T gigabit network.  Our clients are all running Windows 2000 Sp4. Some unsuccessful attempts have been made to fix the problem listed below:

Re-install the GroupWise Client
Re-install the Netware Client (4.9 SP2)
Installed the latest GroupWise Client Service Pack (4)
Had the client authenticate to the GW server through internal IP addressing, external addressing, and URL addressing
Swapped out our gigabit switch to megabit
Swapped our file server's network card to megabit
Checked to see if there were any conflicting MAC/IP addresses through arp
Adjusted Antivirus settings to not scan email
Updated all critical patches on the Windows 2000 platform
The only difference between this office and the others is that it hosts the patch management server for the WAN...so I disabled the server to see if it was causing too much bandwidth
Ran a packet sniffer to check all packet traffic...everything seemed normal except found quite a bit of chit chat from old machines and printers using IPX...disabled those machines and printers from running IPX.

Thanks...
Avatar of PsiCop
PsiCop
Flag of United States of America image

Hmmm.... interesting. Sounds like the POA is timing out the client - I gather the POA is not local, but is across the WAN link, right?

Ummm... you ARE running the GroupWise Client in Client/Server Mode, right? Please don't tell me you're running in Direct Connection Mode.

Have you globally set how often the Client polls the server for now E-Mail? Try setting that to, say, 1 minute. Hopefully, you've split your various WAN-connected sites into different GroppWise Domains, and you can just make that change for that Domain.

Do the POA logs show anything indicating errors?
Avatar of mozalas
mozalas

ASKER


The POA is not local, it is across the WAN via a Full T1 IP/VPN.
 
It's not running in Cache mode if that's what you mean.  All 10 of our offices are setup this way..and this is the only office experiencing these problems.

The refresh intrerval on the client is 1 minute.  We only have one Domain.  
 
I don't see any errors.

Thanks...
No, Caching/Online/Remote is different than Client-Server/Direct Connection.

When the clients connect to the POA, do they do so via the POA's Domain Name/IP address, or via a MAPped drive to the PO subdirectory?
Avatar of mozalas

ASKER

They connect via the internal IP address...(however I have also tried the domain name, and external IP as well to no avail)..

Thanks!
OK, so you're using Client/Server mode. Good. Direct Connection is, to say the least, problematic.

How are these machines in terms of accessing other network resources? Can they access mapped drives without slowdown?

Does running GroupWise Notify on these make any difference?
Avatar of mozalas

ASKER

Everything else is fine...they access files on the LAN and WAN.  Sometimes there are time-outs when downloading large files from the Internet, but it isn't consistent.  Each workstation is running GroupWise Notify...
That's odd.

I assume none of the people having this problem have exceptionally large mailboxes? Say >1000 total items?

If not, then I think we've eliminated the GroupWise Client and also the WAN. I think we're back to the server - since you're not clear. I'll assume that the Post Office for everyone is on one server (even if the MTA and GWIA are elsewhere). Let me know what the architecture is if my assumption is not correct.

1) How many total GroupWise system users?

2) How many people typically logged in at once?

3) What's the server utilization like?

4) How is it fixed for memory?

5) The Volume where GroupWise resides - please tell me A) that it is NOT the SYS: Volume and B) It is an NSS Volume

6) Are deleted temporary files clogging the filesystem where GroupWise resides?

7) Have you set the WPCSIN and WPCSOUT directories for the POA and MTA to Purge Immediate?
Avatar of mozalas

ASKER

Well, if any of these factors were an issue...wouldn't this problem be occuring in all of our offices in the WAN and not just this one?
Dunno. I have no idea how many POs you have or how they are distributed relative to the WAN, or the size of the mailboxes of the affected users.

Is there a firewall between the WAN sites and the GroupWise POA server? Do all the WAN sites go thru the same firewall or is there one per WAN link?
Avatar of mozalas

ASKER

We only have the one PO, all the mailboxes vary in size...nothing different from the rest of our offices.  I haven't noticed any mailboxes that are excessive in size.

Nope, all the WAN sites go through the same firewall..but each office does have it's own Internet filtering system (St. Bernards)...
How many users total are in the PO?

Is the POA running on a server by itself, or are other services or GroupWise components hosted on the same server?

I'm not familar with St. Bernard's filtering software. Is that a firewall, or does it just filter web browsing?
Avatar of mozalas

ASKER

I would estimate that there is around 500 users on the PO.  The POA is running on a server by itself.  St Bernard's is just an Internet filter server...
"an Internet filter server"

Sorry, but that term is ambigious. That could be anything from a firewall to a web content filter. The Internet is a large collection of services. FTP, HTTP, IMAP, SMTP, SNMP, POP, DNS, NNTP, et. al., ad. nauseum...they all happen on the "Internet". So, could you please clarify *exactly* what St. Bernard is filtering.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of PsiCop
PsiCop
Flag of United States of America image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial