BES 7.0 Consoles have several new enhancements that help with performance. The most dramatic changes are:
Reduced load time.
Reduced memory usage.
Improved performance in certain console “hot-spots” where certain activities were slow.
Reduced database locking.
Part of these optimizations relied on the fact that the BES Console uses the disk cache more. This is very helpful because instead of loading up everything in to memory when the console loads, it can now defer loading certain properties until they are requested (like when you open an analysis).
However, it is important to note that the BES Consoles will now use more disk space. This hopefully will not be an issue because there tends to be a lot of free disk space on most computers, but it is important to note this new change (especially if multiple consoles are run from a single computer without a lot of free disk space). The amount of disk space used will vary by deployment, but our initial tests show that
disk space
needed by BES 7.0 Consoles is generally in the range of 2x the amount of
memory
used by the BES 6.0 Console (but will vary based on deployment characteristics).
We are using the BES console on Citrix terminal servers with loadbalancing. What would that mean for using the 7.0 console (Best practice)?
Will the local data saved in the profile of each user seperately or once for each computer? Does the usage of load balancing and therefore seperate profiles make sense?
Each BES Console user will have their own cache stored in their local user directory (usually something like: “C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\BigFix\Enterprise Console”).
Your Citrix loadbalancing will directly interfere with the 7.0 caching because of the fact that when a user logs onto Citrix, they have a chance of logging into a server that doesn’t have a recent cache for their user, which means that they need to load everything from the database. This will cause BES Console load times to be longer and it means more strain is put on the database during loading the console (the same thing would have happened in BES 6.0 btw, but in 7.0 it will be more noticeable because the cache is more important in 7.0).
I can’t tell you exactly what to do here, but I would recommend considering turning off loadbalancing for Citrix and assigning users to Citrix servers based so they can better utilize the caching system. This will help load times and reduce load on the BES Server.
We have more than 100 admins globally distributed which would mean we need many more terminal servers AND loose a redundant access point. Also from the point of administration this is a hell.
When we introduce BES 6.0 your advice was to use terminal services to access the console when we have remote users - and we have a lot!
Now this seems not be a good advice any more.
What about the performance working with consoles connecting accross WAN links? Is there now a better performance when working with BES 7.0 console and with local data? Do you already have experience with that?
One way to solve it is to move the users data folder to a shared volume, so you log into a different citrix box each time but each citrix server stores the console cache in the same place.
Also note that the storage location between 6 and 7 is the same, the only difference is that it uses more disk space. So, if the TS solution was working for you in 6.0 I don’t see why it would not in 7.0 as long as there is enough disk space available.
That could work. However, how would this apply to other users (existing and new) on the same system if this is setup the CURRENT_USER branch. Will it work in the HKEY_USERS or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Branch using a variable for the username to indicate a different folder for each user?