1. contentXXL: performance analysis and optimization

2. Table of contents Overview / Intro
Chapter 1: Server Hardware – System Requirements
Chapter 2: Operating System Configuration
Chapter 3: Internet Information Server Configuration
Chapter 4: SQL-Server Configuration
Chapter 5: contentXXL Configuration
Chapter 6: http Traffic Monitoring
Chapter 7: Performance Monitoring
Chapter 8: Load Simulation
Appendix: Tools used for analysis and optimization

3. [ Overview / Intro ]

4. Overview / Intro
The following chapters describe step by step how to analyse and tune up your contentXXL installation.
All knowledge and information in this documentation is based on contentXXL
These components are most responsible for the performance of contentXXL:
Server hardware
(processors, memory, disk drives)
Operating system configuration
(service pack status, virutal memory, network, 3rd party software)
Internet information server configuration
(application pool, http headers)
SQL-Server configuration
(memory management)
contentXXL configuration
(output cache, general portal settings)
Note: Only an inter-balanced system (of all components) can roll out its full achievement potential!

5. Chapter 1 [ Server Hardware – System Requirements ]

6. Chapter 1: Server Hardware – System Requirements
The hardware must meet the requirements for Microsoft Windows Server and especially Microsoft SQL-Server:
Microsoft Windows Server system requirements:
Microsoft SQL-Server system requirements:
The hardware must meet the requirements for contentXXL (see Installation Manual for details):
Please consider that an adequate performance can never be reached with a minimum system configuration.
Type
Minimum
Typical
Optimal
Memory
1 GB RAM
4 GB RAM (6 GB for 64-bit ssytems)
min. 4 GB RAM (8 GB for 64-bit ssytems)
Processor
1 x 2,8 GHz CPU
2 X 3 GHz CPU   (if the database operates on the same machine.)
2 x 3 GHz CPU (database should be operated on separate server)
Hard disk
30 GB hard disk
Hard disk according to
data quantity
Hard disk according to data quantity
Operates in
Sales / Präsentation / Development
B2B, Low number of visitors, portals and registered users
Many visitors, portals and registered users.

7. Chapter 2 [ Operating System Configuration ]

8. Chapter 2: Operating System Configuration (part 1)
On operating system side the following things should be checked:
/3GB Switch
A 32-bit Windows systems with more than 3GB of physical RAM must have the /3GB switch set within the boot.ini More information:
Virtual memory / pagefile
Have the initial size be at least 1.5 times bigger than the amount of physical RAM. Do not make the Pagefile smaller than the amount of physical RAM you've got installed on the server.
Set the initial size as big as the maximum size.
If possible move the pagefile off the disk that holds system and boot partitions to another fast and dedicated hard disk. If possible avoid putting a pagefile on a fault-tolerant drive, such as a mirrored RAID-1 volume or a RAID-5 volume.
Processor sheduling and memory usage
Processor sheduling must be set to: „Adjust for best performance of: Background services“
Memory usage must be set to: „Adjust for best performance of: System cache“
Update / patch status
We recommend: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 should be installed.
We recommend: Microsoft SQL-Server 2005 Service Pack 2 should be installed.
Check the Windows Update Website for critical system updates.

9. Chapter 2: Operating System Configuration (part 2)
Check out the event log for possible errors
In application log especially take care about ASP.NET errors. Most of this errors are returned as http error 500 (Server Error in Application) to the client.
In security log take care about authorization failures. Authorization errors can happen e.g. if asp.net impersonation is used with incorrect username or password.
In system log especially take care about Service Control Manager errors. If a Windows Service can not be started or is terminated abnormally a Service Control Manager error is logged.
Test the network connection between the web server and the sql or file server Performance problems in contentXXL can be caused by a poor network performance e.g. between web and sql server.
Different tools can be used for testing the network connection and bandwidth between a client and a server.
One example: How to test a network connection with iperf.exe:
copy the iperf.exe to a folder on the client and the server e.g. c:\temp
open a comand line window on the server an execute iperf.exe with the following parameters: iperf.exe -s -w256k
on your test client execute iperf.exe with the following parameters: iperf.exe -c w256k (use the servers ip adress)
after 10 seconds iperf displays a small bandwidth statistic. Use it to find out bottlenecks within the existing configuration. x
Fig.: the connection between the client and the server is perfect. Nearly 1GB/s.

10. Chapter 3 [ Internet Information Server Configuration ]

11. Chapter 3: Internet Information Server Configuration (part 1)
IIS Application Pool settings (recommendations)
Try to use as few application pools as possible. Note: each application pool consumes memory!
Disable the automatic process recycling. Use fixed sheduled recycling times instead. E.g 3:00 a.m.
Configure the value for „Maxium used memory“. Recommendations:
On a dedicated contentXXL server, 32Bit Windows/Framework, 4GB RAM, running SQL-Server: ~2500 MB
On a dedicated contentXXL server, 32Bit Windows/Framework, 4GB RAM, seperate SQL-Server: ~3000 MB
On a dedicated contentXXL server, 64Bit Windows/Framework, 8GB RAM, running SQL-Server: ~4000 MB
Disable the process shutdown in idle mode.
Set Request Queue Limit to a value between 1000 and Normally 1000 should be enough.
Disable process CPU monitoring.
Use only 1 worker process in the web garden configuration.
Disable process pinging and rapid-fail protection.
Set startup limit to 60 seconds and shutdown limit to 120 seconds.
Process idendity configuration should be set to „Network Service“.

12. Chapter 3: Internet Information Server Configuration (part 2)
Virtual web server settings
Disable W3SVC logging if possible. This reduces the I/O on the hard drives. If it can not be disabled place the logfile directory on a fast hard disk drive.
Activate „content expiration“ in http header settings for the following directories. Set the expiration time to 1 day.
This will enable the client to cache the sitemanager components (buttons, gifs, etc.).
/aspnet_client/
/componentart_webui_client/
/contentxxl/admin/
/contentxxl/images/
/images/
/webctrl_client/
/_calendar/
Use a custom http header for the desktopdefault.aspx.
This will enable the client to cache the desktopdefault.aspx.
Recommended values are:
Cache-Control = private, must-revalidate, max-age=0
Vary = User-Agent

13. Chapter 4 [ SQL Server Configuration ]

14. Chapter 4: SQL Server Configuration
Set a memory limit for SQL Server
In most environments it makes no sense to assign unlimited memory to the SQL Server. Unusually it will increase the performance of contentXXL. A value between MB should be enough, 500 MB if you are in a low memory situation.
Backup the transaction log regularly
A huge transaction log file can result in a poor SQL performance so make sure to have a sheduled backup of the transaction log.
Index reorg sinnvoll?

15. Chapter 5 [ contentXXL Configuration ]

16. Chapter 5: contentXXL Configuration (part 1)
Page Output Cache
Create a page output cache configuration file and optimize it for the server environment.
More information:
Set the page output cache timeout in the portal settings of the sitemanager. To set a perfect timeout value
all of the following parameters should be considered:
…amount of memory configured for the application pool.
…amount of pages in the portal which should be cached.
…amount of baseurls in the portal.
…amount of userroles which should be cached.
If configured correctly a page output cache is generated for…
…each browser type.
…each baseurl.
…each user (if caching is configured for logged on users).
Dataset cache
Set the dataset cache timeout in the web.config. Standard value should be 600 (seconds).
Check the results of the caching configuration with the performance monitor (described later in this documentation).

17. Chapter 5: contentXXL Configuration (part 2)
Complete the portal settings
Enable „Replace RAID by absolute path“. > Needed to cache resources on client side.
Enable „Generate static css files“. > Needed to cache the css files on client side.
Always disable the usertracker if not needed. This decreases the database load.
Checkout the web.config
Cleanup unused entries (especially the old http compression module).
Use the qw_usepolicyonly key if possible.
Disable the compilation debug mode.
Use the contentXXL binaries compiled in RELEASE MODE (AnyCPU).
The release mode binaries run a little bit faster and consumes less memory the debug mode dlls.
To switch into release mode:
Empty the /bin folder (except custom dlls)
Copy all files from /bin/release subdirectory to /bin.
Restart the IIS services.

18. Chapter 6 [ http Traffic Monitoring ]

19. Chapter 6: http Traffic Monitoring
Use the Fiddler Tool to monitor the http traffic of between the web server and the client.
Take care about 40x and 50x errors. If client chaching is used the Fiddler protocol should display only a few entries if a page is refreshed.

20. Chapter 7 [ Performance Monitoring ]

21. Chapter 7: Performance Monitoring
Use the Windows Performance Monitor to check out the behavior of the system.
Counters used:
More information about the results and how to read them:

22. Chapter 8 [ Load Simulation ]

23. Chapter 8: Load Simulation
For stress test and load simulation we recommend using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tester Edition.
A free 180 day trial is available here:
For more information about Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 please contact Microsoft.

24. Appendix [ Tools ]

25. Appendix: Tools used for analysis and optimization
Iperf (Network testing tool):
Fiddler Tool (http debugging proxy):
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite – 180 day trial:

26. contentXXL
Thank you!