Troubleshooting Performance Issues

  • Updated

This article is relevant for users experiencing performance issues in their Ektron environment.

To help troubleshoot a performance issue, gather information, which can be used to identify the problem. The nature of performance issues is varied, but if you follow the guidelines below, you will be in a better position to resolve the issue.

Get Some History
Understanding the background will provide insight to what kind of performance issue you are seeing.

  • Any recent changes to the Ektron environment?
  • How long has the issue been happening, and how often?
  • Has the problem gotten worse?
  • Does logging into the server and replicating the issue show the same behavior?
  • Does the issue occur consistently around the same time of day, week, month?
  • Does an Ektron operation trigger the issue?
  • Do you have a caching implementation in place to help with high-traffic content?

Get the System Specification
You need information about the Web server, database server, and other servers in the Ektron configuration.

  • Server specifications, including CPU, RAM, OS version, for example.
  • Compare these specs with your Ektron version on the Ektron System Requirements page. 
  • Copy the siteroot/web.config file for the site experiencing the issue.
  • What IIS version does the site use?
  • What .NET version does the application use in the application pool?

Which Part of the Site is Slow?
Identifying the source of a performance issue can be tricky, but these questions can shed some light.

  • Is the entire site affected?
  • Is just CMS workarea affected?
  • Does the performance slow down when when a particular page is hit?

Get Logging
Data makes it easier to identify the source of the issue.

  • Run the SQL Profiler tool to collect logging for database-related issues. SQL Profiler is a tracing tool that is used to see database events in real time and then saves them in a number of query friendly formats (such as a SQL table) so that those events can be analyzed. This tool is especially useful for long running queries that might be impacting database performance.  This is a sample SQL Server 2008R2 Profiler Template for Statements and Procedures. This will only be compatible with SQL Server 2008R2. For an performance issue that is specific to a single database please make sure to limit the tracing to only that database. This can be accomplished by looking at Trace properties > Events Selection tab > select show all columns. Under column filters, you should see the database name. Enter the database name for the Like section and you should see traces only for that database. 
  • The Ektron server's Event Viewer can show error messages, which can be both Ektron and non-Ektron related. That log can be exported.
  • Use the Performance monitor to track system usage and services.

It is important to note that system performance issues can be Ektron or non-Ektron specific. So, in any call with Ektron, it is useful to include people who are familiar with the server, developers (if templates are involved), and database admins (if database issues are prevalent). If you collect the information above, you may be able to identify and resolve the issue. At the very least, the information will come in handy when calling Ektron support.