Concurrent users and server load

Gerard White

Hi there. I'm aware this is a "how long is a piece of string" question but here goes.


How many concurrent users do you guys usually expect/acheive from your NetCommunity installations? By users I mean end-users (customers/alumni etc)


I ran some tests recently uisng a 2GHz modern Xeon woth 4GB RAM on the BBNC server (a totally new server) and once about 10 people were loggin in concurrently, signin time took upto 30 seconds. This is quite slow; the CPU on the server was maxxed out at 100%


Other tests such as BBNC account registration took even longer. Are there any guidelines or official numbers on this?

Sandy Clinton

Just one--ME!  On RARE RARE occasions, 2 people but that's it.

Marsha Wynn

Yes, sorry for NetCommunity there are only 2 people that are logged in at the same time.  And usually only one of us are logged in at a time.

Tony Williams

Hi Gerard,


Performance will ultimately depend on the system resources available along with the needs of the organization. When Blackbaud NetCommunity is hosted by the organization and not by Blackbaud, there are multiple components that must have the approporiate resources depending on demand. These include the following in the recommended configuration:

 

• Blackbaud NetCommunity Web Server
  • 3 GHz Processor
  • 4 GB of RAM
• The Raiser's Edge Web Services Server (or REWS)
  • 3 GHz Processor
  • 2 GB of RAM
• Blackbaud NetCommunity (and/or The Raiser's Edge) SQL Server (Database Server)
  • 3 GHz Processor
  • 4 GB of RAM minimum but more memory may be needed for larger databases.
    
     

Each of these components work together in tandem. If any of the servers are being overly taxed, a cascading effect can be noticed on the other components. For instance, if numerous people are accessing data on the SQL Server without the necessary system resources in place for numerous connections , performance on the Blackbaud NetCommunity Web Server can be impacted. 


More information is available in our Blackbaud NetCommunity System Requirements Guide. The guide outlines the minimum resources needed for Blackbaud NetCommunity, but more might be needed depending on the size of your database and user activity.

Cary McDonald

This is simular to a post that was used as a reply to a CRM group group question, but the informaiton is also applicable for BBNC as well.  


When running Blackbaud BBNC, there are a few standard environmental best practices that can have an impact on overall BBNC performance.  A few of the following were touched on above, but these should be considered baseline settings for optimal performance that should be configured by your DBA or Systems administrators.  They should also be tested and monitored to make sure the configurations "stick" in all of your environments.    Often these settings are lost, not tuned in regards to system growth over time, or not configured when upgrading from old servers to new ones.  The configurations below should be tested, monitored and verified.

After the baseline is configured and tested, it is also important to monitor the SQL server and attempt to System I/O and look for missing indexes or poorly written queries.   


Baseline configuration considerations: 

1. High performance power policy on all Windows servers should be used. 

This power policy maximizes performance, using no power management features.
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/Perf_Best_Practices_vSphere5.1.pdf open link and search for POWER if you have questions about this. 

2. IIS tuning

• Compression enabled
  • http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17321131/compression-filter-for-web-api/17331627#17331627 
• Correct MIME types added  JSON, XML
  • Correct optimizations for IIS

http://byronpate.com/2014/01/iis-configuration-tips/ 
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17321131/compression-filter-for-web-api/17331627#17331627 
 

3. SQL Server tuning  

Read the FAQ for at this link:   http://ola.hallengren.com/ 
 

1. Install
2. Modify

Making the following modification to the “IndexOptimize - USER_DATABASES” Job step’s command.

 

Old step:

sqlcmd -E -S $(ESCAPE_SQUOTE(SRVR)) -d master -Q "EXECUTE [dbo].[IndexOptimize] @Databases = 'USER_DATABASES', @LogToTable = 'Y'" -b

 

Modified step:

sqlcmd -E -S $(ESCAPE_SQUOTE(SRVR)) -d master -Q "EXECUTE [dbo].[IndexOptimize] @Databases = 'USER_DATABASES', @UpdateStatistics='ALL', @OnlyModifiedStatistics='Y', @PartitionLevel = 'N', MAXDOP =0, @LogToTable = 'Y'" -b

3. Test manually
4. Schedule daily
5. Manage Fill factors to allow for completion during maintenance window

 

4. TempDB – Improperly configuration can have a large negative impact
   • Number files 8 CPUs or more start with 8 to be safe
   • Initially size correctly  and growth values
   • DBCC TRACEON (1118,-1) to take advantage of the tuned TEMPDB files configured as a startup trace flag

http://www.brentozar.com/sql/tempdb-performance-and-configuration/ 

5. SQL Server advanced tuning settings may vary with server workload but can have an impact on performance.

--In some cases based on the SQL Snaps and past SQL Server history, you may know your site is batch centric and may benefit from testing the following.
 
--EXEC sys.sp_configure N'cost threshold for parallelism', N'250'

•  

--EXEC sys.sp_configure N'max degree of parallelism', N'2'
--RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE

 
--If your DBAs change the default MaxDOP from 0, they need to make sure that database maintenance processes and any large data warehouse or ETL processes are configured on the connections to use MaxDOP = 0 to perform more efficiently.  
 

SP_CONFIGURE 'optimize for ad hoc workloads','1'

 

SQL Server