IceGrid startup performance and CPU usage "problem"

[kovacm]

Hi,

I like IceGrid, thank you for it! But I think that one minute startup time on Pentium 4, 2.26GHz is a little bit much. I know, that mostly IceGrid will be use on servers and will startup automaticaly with OS, but for example, our application have grid computing only as option and we use IceGrid every time as locator service which is started with starting of our application (when our application is not set for grid computing). So than our application starts up for more than minute - and it is not so much user friendly...

Other thing is, that if I look on IceGridGui on CPU usage my computer, there is written "100,0% 100,0% 100,0%", but it is not true!(first, it is growing from IceGrid startup time,but after some time it is this) Is it because I am not using load balancing? If yes, isn't it posible to show this information only if it is correct?

Thank you

[benoit]

Hi,

On which operating system do you experience these slow startup times? I will have a closer look at the CPU usage issue, it should work even if you don't use the load balancing.

Benoit.

[benoit]

I'm afraid I can't reproduce the slow startup problem you're seeing. It starts quickly on my Windows XP machine (first start after boot). Although my machine is probably faster than yours (AMD Athlon 64), I wouldn't expect such a difference in the startup time, it takes only few seconds for me to start.

Is it only IceGrid or do other Ice servers also take time to start? You could try to start the node with the following configuration:

icegridnode --Ice.Config=config --Ice.Trace.Network --Ice.Logger.Timestamp

If that's a network configuration problem, this might give us some clues.

Also, I'm unable to reproduce the CPU usage problem. Note that the numbers shown by the GUI are averages of the CPU utilization over the last minute, 5 minutes and 15 minutes so it's expected if it doesn't match the CPU utilization of your machine. However, these numbers should eventually go down if the CPU utilization is low.

Benoit.

[kovacm]

I have Windows XP. I am sending you also my configuration files.

[kovacm]

And only IceGrid starting is slow. IceBox startup then is OK.

[kovacm]

there is screenshot of CPU problem

[benoit]

For the startup performance issue, your configuration files looks fine. Please try the command I posted in this post. It would be interesting to figure out if it's the loading of the exe and DLLs that takes time or if it's the initialization of the service. How long does it take between seeing the first warning/trace and the startup of your service for instance?

As for the problem with the CPU usage, it looks like for some reasons the node can't retrieve the CPU utilization of your machine (if it can't retrieve this information, the node assumes that your machine is busy). If that's the case, the node is supposed to print one or several warnings with the reason of the failure. Are you seeing any warnings related to this on the standard error output or in the event log if you're using the event logger?

Thanks,

Benoit.

[kovacm]

I am starting IceGrid as service. When I start IceGrid from command line the startup time is OK (6 sec), but when started as service (with same parameters, only this one "--service FerdaIceGridNode" I see more)

To CPU problem. Yes, it writes this on output (I didn't see it before, because Im starting it as service):
icegridnode: warning: can't add performance counter:
.\PlatformInfo.cpp:59: Ice::SyscallException:
syscall exception: unknown error: -1073738824

[benoit]

Can you try the patch I posted on this thread? It's likely to fix the startup performance problem when IceGrid is used as a service.

Otherwise, it looks like the node can't find the "Processor(_Total)\% Processor Time" performance counter on your system. I'm not sure what the reason could be yet. You could try to take a look with the Performance tool (located in the Administrative Tools folder of the Control Panels) and see if you have access to this counter.

Benoit.

[kovacm]

Sorry, I will try the patch a liitle bit later...

About counter in Performance tool: I have this counter, but the name is localized, the name is:
"Procesor(_Total)\% času procesoru"

[benoit]

I see, that's why it doesn't work! I'll look into what is the recommended way to deal with localizations. Thanks for your help to investigate this problem!

Benoit.

[benoit]

Hi Michal,

I've posted a patch here that should address the problems you've mentioned on this thread. Let us know if this fixes your problems or not!

Benoit.