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Hi Neil
 
We run bb on 6 application servers (logical domains) on T5220 machines (T2 processor running at 1.2Ghz). I spent almost 3 months (recently) with Blackboard looking at general perormance, this resulted in making many changes to the app servers, and database, with little improvement at the front end. We determined locally that the root cause was the T2 processor, which (depsite being recommended byBlackboard) is outdated, and runs at a speed which transaltes into poor web server response times. Blackboard inform us they will revise their (outdated) recommended hardware guide for Solaris in light of our findings.  
 
Overall, allocating more resource (vCPU/RAM) to your servers will most likely not result in any signifcant performance improvement at the GUI end. 
 
Note: we intend migrating this summer to machines hosting the sparc T4 processors (Toronoto run a massive Bb installation on this, excellent response times when comparing via google analytics), or move to x86 which implies changing from Solaris to the Linux operating system (many UK clients run on this platform, and response times are excellent when comparing via google analytics).
 
Hope this helps.
 
Naveed


On 6 March 2013 15:12, Neil McKeown <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hi Naveed,

Thanks for getting back to me. Our sys admins tell me we're:

The DB server is a solaris zone on a Sparc T3-1 with 16Gb Ram, and 16 cores allocated.
The main app server is a Sparc T3-1, with 32 Gb.
The other 2 app servers are Logical domains on a Sparc 5120. They have 12Gb ram and 28 vCPU's allocated....The 5120 is  a Sparc T2 processor.

Neil





On 01/03/2013 16:58, Naveed Hashmi wrote:
What hardware are the application servers running on? 

Naveed


On 1 March 2013 16:43, Neil McKeown <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Solaris 10, Oracle 11.2 and Blackboard 9.1 SP8

We've been having ongoing performance issues which we're struggling to bottom out. Our sys admin and Blackboard can't identify anything wrong and the servers appear to be under no load with plenty of resources. With a 'normal' number of enrolments (say 20) the service does seem to be noticeably sluggish since upgrading to SP8 but only marginally so and we have no metrics to definitively prove it. When a large number of enrolments are involved (say 400+) the system starts to grind to a halt and becomes close to unusable. I'm guessing that's why our most persistent complaints come from admin staff with a large number of enrolments. I've wondered if this has something to do with the 'course-to-course' navigation feature? Has anybody else experienced anything similar?

Also, does anybody have any opinions on whether the number of enrolments would/should significantly affect performance for a user? Are we unusual in having staff who need access to courses across a school and, as a consequence, have many 100s of enrolments?

Thanks,
Neil

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Neil McKeown

Learning Technologist

01274 233288

Virtual Office