RE: AS400 Performance

["Greg Novak, Momentum" <gnovak@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Rick,

What kind of reports are you running?  Is this a new phenomenon or has
it gradually gotten worse?  What are the reports written with - RPG,
Query?  In other words, is there some new culprit?  Are the reports
inefficient?  Do you believe the machine is really underpowered?  How
much data are the reports accessing?

There are many factors that underlie poor performance, throwing more
hardware at it is not always the right answer.  Stopping people from
logging on sounds a lot like Query building temporary access paths or
badly tuned system.  Reports should be running at priority 50 and logons
at priority 20.

Regards,
Gregory Novak
Manager North American Technical Services
Momentum Utilities Pty Ltd
(630) 985-1736
gnovak@jacana.com
www.jacana.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Henson [mailto:Rick.Henson@seatons-uk.co.uk]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2002 2:58 AM
To: mapics-l@midrange.com
Subject: AS400 Performance


We are running MAPICS Version 4 on an S20 AS400.  When running reports
the machine is so slow it even stops people logging on.  This is getting
to be more than an irritation, it is now stopping people from doing
their work.  We have run the performance tools and an independent party
suggested changing some system settings in the way Batch and Interactive
jobs are handled. Quite frankly it made no difference at all.  The AS400
is about 4 years old, it has done an excellent job.  Now I am told we
could need a new AS400. I appreciate hardware has moved on a lot in 4
years.  Yesterday I was informed if we do get a newer model AS400,
MAPICS may charge more, because the annual fee is dependent on what
model AS400 it is runningon, i.e the faster the box the more I pay.  As
this was originally sorted out by Head Office Staff, who were made
redundant some time ago, I am trying to pick up the pieces.

Does anyone know what exactly MAPICS Pricing Policy is?  Is it related
to the speed of the processor/As400?  And is anyone else suffering with
poor performance?  Is it a simple matter of extra memory or whatever in
the AS400?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.


Rick Henson
John L Seaton & Co Ltd,
Hull,
Yorkshire
United Kingdom

e-mail:  rick.henson@seatons-uk.co.uk