(imported topic written by BenKus)
This post is meant as a discussion starter specifically for questions regarding BES Console responsiveness. Specifically, using the console to do normal console operations (excluding loading times and propagation times which we can deal with in another thread).
The BES Console should generally run very quick and respond to your clicks without delay. As a general rule, the BES Consoles will need to be more powerful in terms of memory and CPU for the more computers you manage, but it should continue to respond well as you grow to the very large deployments. The reason the BES Console uses lots of memory is because it helps scalability (moving the work from the server computer to your local computer) and because all the information you could want about your computers is “at your fingertips”.
If you start to see the BES Console “hang” for a long time or run very slowly, usually it is because you don’t have enough memory for the BES Console. Here are some indicators that you are low on memory:
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BES Console is slow to do operations like sorting lists or opening new windows.
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Your task manager shows the “peak mem usage” significantly higher than “mem usage” for the BES Console process (indicating that the memory was swapped to disk because another application needed the memory.
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In the task manager under “Performance” > “Physical Memory” > “Available”, the memory is less than 20% of the “Total” memory.
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When the BES Console is hanging, your hard drive is “chugging” (indicating that memory has been “swapped” to disk).
To make things generally faster, here are a few “best practices”:
a. Lower your BES Console refresh rate – This can be changed under File > Preferences. If you are using the default (15 seconds) and don’t know what to set it to, try 60 seconds or higher.
b. Keep the number of open windows low – The BES Console is a “Multiple Document Interface Application” which means that it keeps windows open “behind” the newest window. Close these extra windows to increase speed of refreshes.
c. Add memory – Memory is cheap and never hurts (you can ask BigFix for an “official vendor recommendation” for more memory for your computer if you can’t get your request approved). Hopefully some BES users will post their stories about how adding memory changed their performance significantly.
d. Delete old unnecessary actions – Helps keep console memory usage lower.
Feel free to post console responsiveness issues here.
Ben