Any performance Tips

[jhamill]

we've succesfully migrated our exchange 5.5 server running on a old Pentium II on NT 4 over to the latest scalix community edition with around 20 users using the outlook connector.

Generally everything is working very well, but the one complaint I keep getting from users (and I do notice it myself) is the length of time it takes to send a message when composing a new message or replying. There seems to be a noticeable delay (from 2 to 45 seconds) when you hit send. Our VPN users (hardware VPN tunnel) notice it the most.

There wasn' tthis delay with the old exchange servers and no other network settings were changed apart from changing the mail server they are using.

Is there anything that;s happening at that point in the transaction that could be causing this delay? (and is there a tip to improve this performance). There doesn't seem to be the same kind of delay when using the webclient funnily enough.

[ScalixSupport]

we've succesfully migrated our exchange 5.5 server running on a old Pentium II on NT 4 over to the latest scalix community edition with around 20 users using the outlook connector.

Generally everything is working very well, but the one complaint I keep getting from users (and I do notice it myself) is the length of time it takes to send a message when composing a new message or replying. There seems to be a noticeable delay (from 2 to 45 seconds) when you hit send. Our VPN users (hardware VPN tunnel) notice it the most.

There wasn' tthis delay with the old exchange servers and no other network settings were changed apart from changing the mail server they are using.

Is there anything that;s happening at that point in the transaction that could be causing this delay? (and is there a tip to improve this performance). There doesn't seem to be the same kind of delay when using the webclient funnily enough.

Hi,

the delay you are referring to seems too long for me. While architecturally we do deliver mail differently from Outlook on Exchange, there still should not be that long of a delay. I believe there are DNS issues at play here. Can you open up a cmd.exe window and start nslookup. Then, type in the name of the Scalix server. That should come back instantly. If it does not, we need to look at your DNS setup.

Cheers,

Sascha.

[jhamill]

we've succesfully migrated our exchange 5.5 server running on a old Pentium II on NT 4 over to the latest scalix community edition
Is there anything that;s happening at that point in the transaction that could be causing this delay? (and is there a tip to improve this performance). There doesn't seem to be the same kind of delay when using the webclient funnily enough.

Hi,

the delay you are referring to seems too long for me. While architecturally we do deliver mail differently from Outlook on Exchange, there still should not be that long of a delay. I believe there are DNS issues at play here. Can you open up a cmd.exe window and start nslookup. Then, type in the name of the Scalix server. That should come back instantly. If it does not, we need to look at your DNS setup.

Cheers,


Comes back instantly with the DNS name with nslookup - in the remote sites we also have an entry in the hosts file.


john

[jg]

Sascha referred to "architectural differences" betwen Outlook with Scalix and Exchange. To elaborate, our current implementation of the MAPI service provider uses "tightly-coupled" message submission, what this effectively means is that the send operation is synchronous, i.e. the user doesn't get control back of the interface until the message has been sent to the server. Because of the nature of this operation the speed of reponse will be affected by the type and speed of network connection between Outlook and the Scalix server. On a local LAN the effect is generally not noticeable, but you say your users are running Outlook over a VPN connection so this may be the contributing factor.

By comparison, Exchange uses a "loosely-coupled" model, whereby the message is placed in the Outbox folder and then the MAPI spooler (OL9 and earlier) is informed and it then picks this up asynchronously and sends it.

You may want to consider using offline folder synchronision for users on "slower" links if this becomes a bigger issue. In the future we will be addressing the problem with a better working experience for Outlook users on the "edge" of the corporate network.

I know that doesn't fix the problem, but hopefully it explains it.

Cheers,
JG

[jg]

See also the discussion in:
http://www.scalix.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=480

[jhamill]

Thanks JG, this I think does explain exactly what's going on as you are right that it's noticeably slower sending over a 512KB link, rather than at the local Lan.

By comparison, Exchange uses a "loosely-coupled" model, whereby the message is placed in the Outbox folder and then the MAPI spooler (OL9 and earlier) is informed and it then picks this up asynchronously and sends it.

You may want to consider using offline folder synchronision for users on "slower" links if this becomes a bigger issue. In the future we will be addressing the problem with a better working experience for Outlook users on the "edge" of the corporate network.

I know that doesn't fix the problem, but hopefully it explains it.

Cheers,
JG