Usage Note 57654: Slow Performance in SAS® Forecast Server might be caused by configuration settings
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Slow performance in SAS Forecast Server might result from a combination of any of the following causes:
- Failure to follow general requirements and best practices for SAS Forecast Server. See SAS KB0036278: "Requirements and best practices for SAS® Forecast Server."
- SAS Forecast Server and/or system configuration issues.
- SAS Forecast Studio project settings or input data. For tips about slow performance that is related to project settings or input data, see SAS Note 57621: "Slow Performance in SAS® Forecast Server might be caused by project settings or input data."
If SAS Forecast Server performs slowly, then investigate these areas:
System requirements
- Reference the SAS® Forecast Server system requirements for server tier, middle tier, and client tier.
- Consider adjusting the following settings:
- Number of processors
- Physical memory (RAM)
- Location of libraries and input data sets
- Disk space available on the projects directory (sufficient disk space is considered to be 30-times the size of the input data set)
System administration
- Reference Top 10 Resources Every SAS® Administrator Should Know About for more information about guidelines for system administrators. Topics include, but are not limited to, these:
- Tuning Guidelines - Operating System
- Tuning Guidelines - Shared File Systems
- Tuning Guidelines - SAS Servers
- Tuning Guidelines - IO Subsystems
- Tuning Guidelines - Hardware
- Tuning Guidelines - Storage Arrays
- Reference SAS® 9.4 Web Applications Tuning for Performance and Scalability for more information about optimizing the performance of the web applications servers in the middle tier environment. Topics include but are not limited to these:
- Tuning SAS Web Application Server
- Tuning SAS Web Applications
- Tuning the Java Virtual Machine
- Tuning the Operating System
- Tuning the PostgreSQL Data Server
Memory
- SAS Forecast Server is single-threaded. Therefore, the client machine might become overloaded when generating forecasts for series that have a large number of data points. Consider adjusting the following settings:
- Java Virtual Machine minimum/maximum heap size on the client machine
- SAS memory parameters on the server machine (for example, MEMSIZE, SORTSIZE)
TCP keepalive
- SAS Forecast Server projects might fail to respond. One cause might be a connection time-out that occurs due to inactivity between the client tier and the server tier, or between the middle tier and the server tier. Consider adjusting the following settings:
- If you are working with the SAS Forecast Studio user interface, then enable tcp keepalive in the forecaststdo.ini file on the client tier. The file is located in C:\Program Files\SAS\SASForecastStudio\version.
- If you are working with the SAS Forecast Server batch macros, then enable tcp keepalive in the sasv9.cfg file on the middle tier. The file is located in !SASROOT.
Performance monitoring
- Monitor CPU usage to better understand whether resource stresses or bottlenecks exist during the execution of SAS processes. Reference the "Performance Monitoring" section in Top 10 Resources Every SAS® Administrator Should Know About for more information about performance-monitoring tools.
Reboot servers and services
- Reboot the SAS Forecast Server web application server. Rebooting sometimes resolves slow-performance issues. Rebooting also unlocks locked SAS Forecast Server projects.
- If rebooting only the SAS Forecast Server web application server does not improve slow performance, then when possible, reboot all SAS servers (in the appropriate order).
Hot fixes
- Ensure that hot fixes are up-to-date on all machines. You can use the SAS Hot Fix Analysis, Download and Deployment Tool to check the machines.
Logs
- The number of logs on the middle tier server grows over time, and consumes a considerable amount of disk space. The consumption might cause slow performance. Consider purging the logs from the following directories:
- Web application server logs: SAS Config/Lev1/Web/Logs
- KahaDB logs: SAS Config/Lev1/Web/activemq/data/kahadb
For more information about how to safely purge the KahaDB directory, reference SAS KB0036267: "Increasing numbers of Apache ActiveMQ journal log files in certain SAS® 9.4 Enterprise BI and SAS® Visual Analytics environments fill up disk space".
VPN*
- Performance might be slow when launching a SAS Forecast Server session over VPN. Occasionally, the VPN connection is lost, and projects become locked and in some cases corrupt. If either occur, then reboot the SAS Forecast Server web application server or re-create the project from scratch.
Remote desktop connection*
- Performance might be slow when launching SAS Forecast Server on a client machine that connects to a server machine that is located off site. Instead, consider using a remote-desktop connection to launch SAS Forecast Server on a client machine that is on the same site as the server machine.
Virtualization*
- SAS applications, such as SAS Forecast Server, can be deployed in different types of virtualization environments. SAS cannot test all software products in every available virtualization environment. The virtualization products claim to provide a functional equivalent to the physical environment. SAS requires this functional equivalence in order to operate correctly. SAS technical support might request that you reproduce any functional issues in a physical environment.
- See the following references for more information about virtualization:
Citrix*
- SAS applications, such as SAS Forecast Server, can be deployed on Citrix servers. Slow performance in such a deployment might occur because of the Citrix server on which the software is hosted. For more information about Citrix, reference: Citrix Blogs: "New" Citrix Best Practices.
*Diagnosing network issues is beyond the scope of SAS technical support services. If you encounter network issues, then engage your internal network-team to perform any troubleshooting.
I/O throughput
- HPFDIAGNOSE AND HPFENGINE are I/O-bound procedures. Therefore, test the I/O throughput to determine read and write performance of the file system. Then, compare the results to the specific file-system recommendations that are provided by SAS Enterprise Excellence Center, or to the general file-system recommendations that are referenced in the links below:
- Benchmarking SAS® I/O: Verifying I/O Performance Using fio
- SAS KB0039569: "Tool to test I/O throughput on Microsoft Windows platforms."
- SAS KB0036262: "Tool to test I/O throughput on UNIX platforms."
- Low bandwidth might impact I/O throughput. Example: if 128 Kb/s is being shared among 5 users, then the client response-time is very slow. Allocate at least 2 Mb/s per user.
- See the following references for more information about system requirements:
SAS® Grid Manager
- It is often desirable to forecast in-parallel for computational efficiency. SAS Forecast Server integrates seamlessly with SAS Grid Manager, which offers a centrally managed computing-environment for workload balancing, high availability, and faster processing. SAS Grid Manager requires a separate license.
References
For additional resources, reference SAS KB0036235: "Tuning guidelines and best practices for your hardware infrastructure (systems, storage, virtualization, file systems, and operating systems)."
Operating System and Release Information
| Product Family | Product | System | Product Release | SAS Release | ||
| Reported | Fixed* | Reported | Fixed* | |||
| SAS System | SAS Forecast Server | Solaris for x64 | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||
| Linux for x64 | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Linux | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| HP-UX IPF | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| 64-bit Enabled Solaris | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| 64-bit Enabled HP-UX | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| 64-bit Enabled AIX | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Windows Vista for x64 | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Windows Vista | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Windows 7 Ultimate x64 | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Windows 7 Professional x64 | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Windows 7 Professional 32 bit | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Windows 7 Home Premium x64 | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Windows 7 Enterprise x64 | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Windows 7 Enterprise 32 bit | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows XP Professional | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Std | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Std | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Datacenter | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2008 for x64 | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2008 | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2003 for x64 | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro x64 | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro 32-bit | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Enterprise x64 | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Enterprise 32-bit | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Pro x64 | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Pro 32-bit | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Enterprise x64 | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Enterprise 32-bit | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
| Microsoft® Windows® for x64 | 12.1 | 9.3 TS1M2 | ||||
Slow Performance in SAS® Forecast Server might be caused by configuration settings
| Type: | Usage Note |
| Priority: |
| Date Modified: | 2020-02-11 08:51:52 |
| Date Created: | 2016-02-15 14:49:29 |