About Server Performance

Security and Server Performance

When security is enabled on a Host Integrator Server, the Server uses SSL for authentication and encryption. Because SSL requires significant CPU resources, enabling security can impact Server performance, depending upon your installation. Using LDAP for directory services can also impact performance.

To improve Server performance when security is enabled or you are using LDAP, try the following:

Use session pools
Install the Server on the least-loaded, fastest machine at your enterprise.
A dedicated machine for a Host Integrator server will provide optimal performance.
Configure your LDAP environment to minimize the round-trip time between AADS and LDAP.

Installing the Server on the least-loaded, fastest machine improves performance when security is enabled because SSL uses significant CPU resources during the process of connecting the Server to the host. The more CPU resources that are available, the faster connections can be completed.

Performance Tips

Configuring system parameters
The configuration of the system parameters may have a dramatic effect on the performance of the Host Integrator Server. Some experimentation may be required to get optimum performance for your particular system.

Use the performance monitors supplied with all Windows and UNIX systems to observe the Kernel and User CPU utilization. If the Kernel percentage of the CPU is consistently greater than 15% of the total CPU usage, you might want to experiment with these parameters.

Use the settings in the Server Configuration/Server Properties tree in the Administrative WebStation to configure the following:

If modifying a Windows based server with one CPU, set the host session thread count to two. If you are running on a multi-processor Windows machine, set the number of host session threads to one less than the number of CPUs on the machine (but not less than 2).
For a UNIX server, increase the Server Processes value by 1 for every 500 clients you expect to use.

Use session pools
Using session pools improves performance regardless of a Server's security setting. Sessions in a session pool can be configured with model variables and a starting entity, which allows faster host session allocation and access to the host system because the host sessions can be logged on and waiting at the host application's main entry screen (entity) when a Data Object is ready to use it. Session pool size should be set to 80-100% of the maximum number of concurrent clients you expect to support.

Limit the use of Recordset event handlers or any complex event handlers
Event handlers allow a great deal of flexibility, but some implementation options could degrade performance. See the information on event handler best practices.

Model only the entity traversals that are required
Extraneous entities in your models impact performance while providing no additional functionality. Using a home entity that requires the shortest number of entity traversal for data retrieval will maximize performance and limit load.

Consider using a domain server to load balance.
If you have a multiple server system, you can maximize the capability of each machine by using a domain server and load balance the servers.

Remember to disable diagnostic testing utilities when not in use
When not required, turn off options to log all messages or enable tracing.