Re: Throughput and storage requirements questions for modern vs old database processing apps

"Jim Kennedy" <kennedy-family_at_home.com> wrote in message news:MmQL7.68844$XJ4.38953129_at_news1.sttln1.wa.home.com...
> In this case adding an index won't help unless they have access to source
> code. In Clipper you have to specify what index to use when you are
looking
> for data. (no really you do.)
> I would be very careful replacing the server with w2k. The program may
stop
> working if you do. Clipper was written to specific api's and w2k may
> support those api's differently. Since this is really a client
application
> your best bet is to probably see if it is possible to upgrade to 100 MB
> network. However, what you need to do in any event is find the cause of
the
> slowness.

Exactly. It is nice to *nail* a problem. I have one modern workstation in place, running W2K Pro, and it has a direct 100 Mb pipe to the server. I even installed a bar-code scanner on this workstation. I have implored the customer for many months to run a speed test from this workstation, but this test has yet to be performed. (I've never been there during the busy times.) To be honest, this fast workstation is physically inconvenient for such a test...so I can only wonder if a fast workstation and a 100 Mb pipe will make a difference. The peak load occurs when rented items are brought to the site en masse for return. The employees scan them in "at the dock" either at the front or rear of the building. The fast computer is in the center! Hmmm...I just thought of something. $50 will buy a 100 foot CAT5e patch cable. That

might allow me to relocate the workstation for an experiment...But again,
they usually don't want me around there when they're real busy.  And I
surely could not leave a trip hazard like that around for long...I think

> Is the CPU working hard at peak times (probably not) (do a "load monitor"
on
> the server to look at statistics on that.)
> Are there a lot of packet collissions (again the monitoring app on the
> server has those statistics)
> Is the disk drive IO saturated? Listen to the drive or look at the light
is
> it always on?
> If you have some spare ram then putting more in the server might help a
lot.
> Netware was always good at file cacheing.
> Jim
> "David Cressey" <david_at_dcressey.com> wrote in message
> news:s_OL7.11$P_6.1473_at_petpeeve.ziplink.net...
Received on Sun Nov 25 2001 - 03:31:24 CET