We have a client running a virtual network (VM ware) with 3 citrix servers and 1 database server. OI 9.0 and UD4.5 (TCPIP settings) are installed on the database server. The user connects to the application using one of the 3 citrix boxes. The system runs fine until the 6 or 7th user logs in then the Citrix CPU spikes to 100% and everyone slows down. We have disabled the virus checker on the driver and turned off DEP for the datbase and citrix boxes. The database server is on the same LAN and domain as the Citrix box (in fact the servers are next to each other in the server rack). We have other clients running Citrix and Terminal Services just fine but this is the only Virtual Network. Any ideas why the CPU on the Citrix box would spike with only a few users? Thanks, Sandra

Hi Sandra,

I don't have any specific information. I found some google posts using "Citrix VmWare problem" and found other references to the same behavior without OI. They saw the behavior when running internet explorer or windows explorer, and had some suggestions about what to do, especially disabling hypercache/

With that in mind …

Can you tell if the slowdown hapeens when an OLE control is initialising in OI? That is similar to internet explorer?

or

Can you tell if the slowdown is happening when you are attaching / opening a lot of files? If so can you try putting a revaparam in every folder, see if that makes a difference?

- Bob

Is this the client site we looked at last week? If so, please confirm my understanding of the issue. If 6 of the users were one server and 1 user was on the second the performance for the last user on the second server was normal, right?

Sandra,

Some years ago, we had a similar problem with Citrix. That is, when more than 6-8 people logged in the system would die. We could duplicate this reliably. We had 2-3 citrix server. One hosted the OI database and the other two were used to power the clients coming in. The RTI Network services was residing on the server with the OI database. To remedy this problem (this was a long time ago), I think what we did was install another copy of the NT services on the other citrix server and this cured the problem.

FWIW. Hope this help and maybe provide a clue.

Ray Chan

Just checking, but have you set the Station Ids to be unique?

We have found this cures this problem in the past.

Colin

Thanks for all the responses. The station ids are set to unique. Working with out-of-process engines works well but of course the popups don't work with out-of-process engines. Soooo, it looks like we may have to go with installing the network service on each Citrix boxes. Unfortunately, this is only a temporary setup while we finish up the Web frontend so buying 3 extra network services seems extreme. Thanks again for your help.

Yes, this is the same client. I don't think we tested your scenario - 7th user on a different box so I don't know the answer. It does look like there are some issues with VMWAre and Citrix but that they were resolved in esx 3.0. I am checking to see if they have disabled hyperthreading on the host, disabled com ports, and lpt and usb ports on the virtual machine. Thanks.

Thanks, this sounds like the way to go.

In this setup, where was the oinsight.exe located? Did each of the front end presentation servers have a local copy of OI or did each server attach to a network share and load oinsight.exe from the database server?

Sandra, installing the Universal Driver service on the front end presentation servers won't have any influence on the situation. The Universal Driver only comes into use for accessing .LK/.OV linear hash files on the machine where it is installed. I think Ray Chan's setup is different than your setup - I suspect he had an OI installation on each presentation server.

What would be helpful is if you could profile your environment. Sysinternals Process Monitor might do nicely and it can be downloaded from Microsoft.

Setup the Process Monitor utility so it captures events from only OINSIGHT.EXE process. While Process Monitor is running start OI and do a common task. When you are finished with the task stop Process Monitor from capturing events and then view the various summary reports (check the "Tools" menu). If you compare between the Citrix environment and your lab you might be able to pin down a specific behavior or area where the Citrix environment is considerably slower (File IO, Network, CPU time, etc).

This assumes the Virtual Machine Citrix environment isn't the root cause of the issue.

Jared,

The latter.

Ray Chan

Installing the Linear Hash service on the presentation servers shouldn't have improved performance. Unless, during the install the application client driver or the revparam file was changed.

Is this environment still in use? What version of OI/LH Service?

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