Here is the gstat info...

Database header page information:
Flags 0
Checksum 12345
Generation 911108
Page size 8192
ODS version 10.1
Oldest transaction 894209
Oldest active 894210
Oldest snapshot 892992
Next transaction 911085
Bumped transaction 1
Sequence number 0
Next attachment ID 0
Implementation ID 16
Shadow count 0
Page buffers 3000
Next header page 0
Database dialect 1
Creation date Nov 25, 2006 0:25:30
Attributes force write

Variable header data:
Sweep interval: 20000
*END*

So using your formula that works out to 24000 for the page cache size,
significantly lower than the maximum you mentioned.

It hasn't even got a temp folder set so guess I'll be making some
changes tonight and see how it flies on Monday.

-- Richard


Richard Ap-Thomas wrote:

>
>
> Replies inline... (resending, dont think the last couple got through)
>
> Helen Borrie wrote:
> >
> >
> > At 05:45 PM 3/01/2008, you wrote:
> > >Hi Guys,
> > >I'm trying to troubleshoot a poor performance issue with a firebird DB
> > >based app for a client. They are running a 15 GB database, ~40 users, on
> > >a windows 2003 server (single drive, raid5),
> >
> > Raid5 on a single drive? Howzat? Are there external drives not
> > mentioned? If you *really* have only one drive, disable the Raid5
> > driver, in case it is hobbling the disk speed in some way.
> >
>
> Yes sorry I meant a single raid5 drive as seen by the OS, 3 physical
> drives (thanks Ivan). Actually partitioned into system and data.
>
> > >dual Xeon and 2 GB RAM.
> > >Currently it is in classic server mode, and I believe a default config
> > >file apart from the CPU affinity.
> >
> > "apart from the CPU affinity" - can you explain what you did? Reason for
> > question: CPU affinity isn't an issue for Classic. *If* a Classic
> > process can affine to a single CPU (and I'm not sure that it can), then
> > changing the default would make sense...
>
> I double checked the config file and it is actually running a vanilla
> firebird.conf with nothing set. Currently it is sitting with around
> 90-100 fb_inet_server processes with between 9-38 MB mem each.
> It is also currently on FB 1.5.2, I'm planning on updating that however
> it is a third party app and I'm waiting on them to perform some updates
> to the program so I don't change too much at once.
>
> > >Now I'm wondering if anyone can give me or point me in the right
> > >direction for a set of changes I should be making to the firebird.conf
> > >file as a baseline. I've had a hunt around and believe theres a couple
> > >of settings for max memory and temp dirs but was hoping for a complete
> > >list as a starting point.
> >
> > The most important one to look at for Classic is the default page cache
> > size. Because (unlike Superserver) each Classic connection has a whole
> > fb_inet_server process to itself, a database whose cache setting was
> > previously configured for SS will be a dog on Classic. 2 GB isn't a
> > whole lot of RAM for 40 processes. In case you don't know how to find
> > out the cache size, assume the server's hostname is tlcit and the
> > database alias is tenderlovin --
> >
> > (in firebird's \bin\ directory):
> >
> > gstat -h tlcit:tenderlovin
> >
> > Read the Page size and Page buffers figures and multiply them together
> > and divide by 1024. Something around 300K would be the maximum, but
> > probably less if the application is doing a lot of sorts (ordered
> > queries, groupings...).
> >
> > As for the whole gamut of things to tweak and twig...not usually a great
> > idea to fiddle about with all of them en masse. Every database is
> > different - you might find you need to configure more sort memory, if
> > you find a lot of sorts going into your temp sort space on disk...if so,
> > then with 2 GB RAM you'd need to lower your sights re page cache.
>
> I'll see if I can pull that info out and find out what it is.
>
> > It's a bit of a disadvantage running 32-bit Classic for 40 users with
> > only one hard drive and limited RAM. You lose the benefit of the
> > per-process extra resources available (up to 2 GB per process). Ideally
> > you'd want to ramp up the RAM because you actually *can* use it; and/or
> > have a fast ancillary drive for sorts that go to disk and configure
> > plenty of space on it.
> >
> > ./heLen
> >
>
> Server actually has 3GB RAM installed, it has a few other jobs but the
> FB DB is its primary. It is currently sitting with 1.9 GB RAM free - I
> figure firebird should be able to use more of this at the very least.
>
> Would it possibly be better to configure this as an SS install?
> The biggest issue I have here is that it is of course a third party app
> so not something I know all about, however we are trying to support the
> server so trying to get things working satisfactorily without knowing a
> lot about firebird (but learning).
>
> Thanks for the info heLen, I'll try and get that info and get back to
> the list.
> -- Richard