ES2 Performance Tuning

[#1]

Hi all,

Can someone help me with recommendations for effective tuning?

My VM Image starts in few seconds, but my ES2 Instance takes 18+ Minutes to start and has multiple Java exceptions on startup.

Questions I could use help with:

1) Are the exceptions expected?  How many? Which kind?

2) Where are the LC ES2 startup performance tuning options?  What should the settings be?

3) For the VM Ware tuning, I have tried varying both the CPU's and the Memory allocation, but this doesn't seem to make a difference.

4) Because of storage limitations, I am starting the VM Ware image from my 😧 Drive.  Does this make a difference?

5) Is there any inherent order of how things should be started that would make a difference?  For example, not starting Outlook until after the VM is started?  I have tried a few variations with no apparent difference.

My Startup Log file is attached as an aid.

Kind Regards,
Dan Gilliland

LCES_ServerLog_2009.09.21.txt ‏311 KB

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Hi guys

Let me share my experience with VMWare – my host's a MBP 17", 8GB, 1 CPU

• 2 cores -> better run on one for the host os, the other core for the VM (reduce resource scheduling fight)
• one os swaps!!! Be sure to have only host or guest swap! Swapping is disk bound (ref. below)!
• VMs are (especially boots) disk bound -> the faster the disk, the faster the boot – I use a firewire 800 or eSATA external disk for best results
• every configured VM I get from Adobe, I check first for fragmentation and I do it most of the time, then compact the VM disk; after install and config the stuff on Win is terribly fragmented
• Jboss expands all ears (LC stuff) from ear files in deploy folder to a temp location -> this means about a GB of file re-write with each launch!
  • expand the ear files in the deploy folder and the re-write stops
  • Avoka has got an expander app: ref. http://www.avoka.com/blog/?p=219 for the famous details
• Try to keep your disks (in the VM) limited in size! I always use C for the MS stuff (os et al); all the installs I do I put on a 2nd disk D
• for semi pro install create E drive for logs, temps, global dir (ref. Giovanni's entry) -> this makes you LC never block on full disk as it could happe with the SpringTech image

Last but not least, if resources allow (use something like Giovanni's MP!) separate the server and the client stuff. On my MBP I make the host file entries and use an XP for Workbench, Designer, et al, use my Mac Safari for Workspace and let the server run without touching it in the background! Tell and show the multi plaf story of Adobe to the audience – without mentioning the Workplace and Designer thing, of course 😉

[#3]

My 2 cents... ES2 turnkey starts up in 6-9 minutes.

• MBP 17" (late 2007 model), 6GB RAM, Stock 160GB HDD
• Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit
• VMWare Fusion 3.0.1 with Microsoft SVGA driver, so no Aero (had to uninstall VMWare SVGA driver because it was giving lots of BSOD)
• VM settings: 4GB RAM, 1 processor
• Used Avoka's tool to explode EARs
• Defragged, ran disk cleanup and VM shrink > ~20GB disk usage with everything installed

[#4]

Hello,

I've completed the migration of the VMWare image to an ESX server in Milan.

I've taken this opportunity to have a look at the detailed configuration of the guest machine and I've done the following changes:

1. Added an additional 50 GB virtual hd to free up C: that had less than 20% space available
2. Moved the paging file, which was smaller than the suggested size for 4GB RAM, to the new disk
3. Moved the GDS, the LC temp dir and the system temp dir to the new disk
4. Moved mySQL's data files to the new disk
5. Moved the MAX 2009 folder to the new disk

LiveCycle ES 2 takes less than 6 minutes to start up.

Best regards,

Giovanni

[#5]

I did manage to help with the overal VM Ware performance a little.  I reduced the memory footprint to 2 Gig ( I have 4 Gig in the actual machine) and reduced the processors from 2 to 1.  This helps with the VM Ware load and response times.

The LiveCycle start up time is still around 17+ minutes.

[#6]

FWIW, I also see sometimes the exceptions you're seeing, but they seem to be related to processes launched before the image was available to us. The startup time, in my case, is quite variable, from 8 mins to 15 mins, but so far I've done most test working at home where I can use my Mac Pro with 8 cores and 9 GB RAM, and therefore I usually have at least two VMW running at once. I reached the 8 mins running the image alone, 15 running it along with the standard "productivity" image (i.e. my current "Adobe PC" which I'm now using to type this message).

HTH.

Best regards,

Giovanni

-----

Giovanni Sarbia

Senior Systems Engineer

Enterprise and Developer Solutions

Adobe Systems Italia S.r.l.

Tel.: +39 039655036 (VOIP: 85036)

Mobile: +39 3480854502