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DavidCo3
Level 10
May 9, 2016
Question

Performance - specifically browser freezing due to high CPU and high disk I/O

  • May 9, 2016
  • 21 replies
  • 3043 views
Hi, We have found a performance issue which I strongly believe is at the client end. This is not cloud-server or network related....it seems to be platform/browser related. On most small projects (less than approx 30 tasks), performance is normal and quite reasonable. However, on larger projects (e.g. 100 tasks), the browser (chrome or firefox) intermittently and significantly freezes when scrolling up and down, even after the initial list of tasks has finished loading. Once the list of tasks has loaded, and the user starts scrolling down the page, the freezing starts to occur. It freezes and unfreezes several times for 1 to 2 minutes (depending on how many lines there are). Whilst the freezing is occurring, you often hear the computer's CPU fan increase in speed as it is trying to cool the CPU. Looking at task manager, you can see increased CPU usage, steadily increasing RAM usage and high disk IO usage. Sometimes the Windows spinning blue circle appears whilst it is frozen. After the initial period of 1 to 2 minutes, the CPU fan quietens down, RAM stops increasing (although it has increased by 500-600MB during the freezing period) and performance returns to normal whilst you remain viewing that project. The issue recoccurs when you move to a different project. This issue is separate to the initial page load performance, which also takes longer with larger projects (greater than 50 tasks). Whilst users would obviously prefer if the initial page load was quicker, they can sort of understand the initial wait. However once the page loads and they start scrolling, the freezing issue really creates the frustration. While it is freezing it makes it very difficult to edit tasks and do normal work. It seems like there is something in the Workfront code which is causing the browser to work really hard - even after the initial task list has loaded. Note that my Chrome and Firefox browsers are both up-to-date. My PC runs Windows 10, Core i7 processor, 8GB RAM and has a SSD so hardware performance isn't an issue. The freezing issue occurs across other users/devices in our organisation. The larger the project, the worse this issue is. Does anyone else have experience with this issue? I have submitted it to Workfront support who said their developers are investigating but no fix has been identified yet. Regards, David.
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21 replies

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bradytimes_cs
Level 2
May 9, 2016
David, I'm not seeing this issue. Did WF support give any indication if this is a wide spread issues? Given that this isn't being reported by other customers, the first place I'd focus is on your views. Perhaps you have a custom column that is causing the CPU to get bogged down. Try changing your view and see if this keeps happening. If this fixes the problem, let the support team know which column is causing the problem. This would help the dev team reproduce and fix this issue for you. Workfront Implementation Consultant, CapabilitySource
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GregBe1
Level 9
May 9, 2016
Just as feedback, I went to a project that has 310 tasks and I did not experience any issues in scrolling thru the tasks. This is in Chrome. I just tried it in IE, and didn't really see any issues either.
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VikramPo
Level 2
May 9, 2016
Try Standard view with no grouping to speed up viewing. If you are using any specific view, share the name of the view and customization done by you. Vikram Potdar Project manager & Workfront Administrator ConnectiCare, Inc. & Affiliates 175 Scott Swamp Road, Farmington, CT 06032 ConnectiCare.com 860-677-3132 (office) 860-655-9075 (mobile)
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DavidCo3Author
Level 10
May 9, 2016
Scott, Greg and Vikram - thank you for your feedback. Workfront Support hasn't yet suggested anything regarding the views being the likely cause. I will have a play around with these and see if I can isolate the issue. It's good to know that it is something that could be easily fixable. Regards, David.
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DavidCo3Author
Level 10
May 10, 2016
OK - I have done some more testing and discovered the following: The browser freezing issue continues with existing projects, even if I change the task list view to have only one column (Task Name). There is no grouping or filter applied, nor custom formatting on the one visible column. However, if I create a new project with hundreds of new tasks, the performance is fine...no freezing. Even if I use one of our normal views, there is no freezing issue, so I believe this confirms that the view is not the cause. If I create a new project and copy across all the tasks from one of the existing problem projects, there is no freezing issue, so it doesn't seem to be something related to task data. If I create a complete copy of one of the existing problem projects, there is also no freezing issue, so this indicates that it is probably not related to project data. For some reason, the freezing only occurs with the existing projects. I don't know for sure, but the freezing issue may develop over time. It doesn't really make sense, but it's a big source of frustration for our users. I will update our support ticket and see if this helps Workfront support to work it out. Regards, David.
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bradytimes_cs
Level 2
May 10, 2016
David, that's very bizarre. Besides what you've done, I think think of any other workarounds. On Mon, May 9, 2016 at 8:21 PM, David Cornwell < globalforum@communitylists.workfront.com> wrote: > OK - I have done some more testing and discovered the following: > > - The browser freezing issue continues with existing projects, even if > I change the task list view to have only one column (Task Name). There is > no grouping or filter applied, nor custom formatting on the one visible > column. > - However, if I create a new project with hundreds of new tasks, the > performance is fine...no freezing. Even if I use one of our normal views, > there is no freezing issue, so I believe this confirms that the view is not > the cause. > - If I create a new project and copy across all the tasks from one of > the existing problem projects, there is no freezing issue, so it doesn't > seem to be something related to task data. > - If I create a complete copy of one of the existing problem projects, > there is also no freezing issue, so this indicates that it is probably not > related to project data. > - For some reason, the freezing only occurs with the existing > projects. I don't know for sure, but the freezing issue may develop over > time. > > It doesn't really make sense, but it's a big source of frustration for our > users. I will update our support ticket and see if this helps Workfront > support to work it out. > > Regards, David. > > -----End Original Message----- > -- Scott Brady, Integration Consultant CapabilitySource, Inc. Phone: 801-919-7375 email: *scott.brady@capabilitysource.com * home: www.capabilitysource.com -We simplify your work, so you can run your business-
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DavidCo3Author
Level 10
May 10, 2016
Yep - bizarre is the word! I just got one of my colleagues to do the exact same process on her PC and the result is the same..... Start with a poorly performing project....make a copy of the project, and then the new one performs fast like it should. Switch back to the original, and the freezing returns, RAM increases etc etc.
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JeffreyWa
Level 2
May 10, 2016
Here are a few items that may impact performance: Browser cache - esp Chrome activity - Number of windows / tabs open activity - any video activity - spam / security filtering System (client) CPU intensive activities Disk I/O RAM Note: any or all the above can impact browser performance System (Workfront) Most users are sharing a few large servers with multi-tenant ...so anyone consuming lots of CPU with large views and/or resetting dates for large projects may be artificially governed to minimize impact on the rest of the stack. (need to verify how governance is managed in the shared environment) Most users are doing very simple things (small projects, simple views, simple reports). Not sure the environment was designed for more advanced users (one or two...maybe, but not in any volume). Based on calls with support, I would assume that Workfront does not have tiered performance servers in place to accommodate larger projects (> 500 tasks). I am working with (IMO) moderate sized projects (~ 1000 tasks) and refresh rates can be as long as 30 seconds to 1 minute (maintenance for these projects takes an enormous amount of time). I would be interested in seeing how many organizations are interested in promoting a tiered service environment where either large projects can be migrated -or- the entire client installation can be migrated to ensure QoS.
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VernPh
Level 3
May 10, 2016
We have had consistent performance problems with Workfront (in Chrome - we don’t bother with IE because performance is too poor), especially when managing large (over 2000 task) projects. Since I work for a financial institution, we have strict firewall and other security mechanisms in place. Workfront claims that the issues are related to our security configuration, but doing in-depth cause analysis requires exposure of our network configuration (to support the analysis) that our network support and security group is not willing to provide. So, we have learned to live with a few idiosyncrasies and simply avoid certain activities when managing large projects. Although we have not seen your specific situation, it may be related to your network architecture. Vern R Phipps EDW Release Manager Zions Bancorporation Salt Lake City UT
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DavidCo3Author
Level 10
May 10, 2016

Thanks for the points, Vern. We certainly have issues with larger projects too. However, in this case, the strange issue is that on the same PC, with the same hardware, same Chrome browser, same network, etc the performance and client PC resource utilisation (especially RAM and CPU) is dramatically different between one of our "slow projects" and an identical copy of it. It defies any logic that I can think of, but I can replicate it time and again across multiple PCs and at different times of day.

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