Symantec Management Platform (Notification Server)

Hi, I am testing Altiris 7 for the moment, I think it's rather slow,
my setup is:
NS, windows 2003 r2 sp2, 2 gb ram
SQL, windows 2008 64-bit, SQL 2005 sp3 64-bit, 4 gb ram
I think somehow the sql performence is not good enough, can I check this ? run a test script ?
What are your expirence with the product, are Symantec planning a service pack for the system

/Keld, Copenhagen 

As I understand you have a seperate SQL box?

Just some recommandations for this:
- same timezone
- Gb NIC's (or higher) and when possible, together in one dedicated segment/vlan. So you have two NIC in every system and two of them are dedicated for SQL communication between NS and SQL)
- Altiris should be the only instance on the SQL server

NS7 looks pretty good to me so far. But most of my work is still NS6 related so I have not yet indepth customer information.
SP is promissed. I think there is even already a time-line, but I am not sure there.

in the knowlege base are some interesting articles on performance etc. kb.altiris.com

Good luck

Guido

Since moving to NS7 we've noticed that the console is really slow.  Apart from the issue in another thread where agents are opening hundreds of TCP connections, we also started having a lot of exceptions getting stuck in bad folders.  

Has anybody else noticed this since upgrading to NS7?

Greg 

I have installed a couple of NS 7 servers so far and they are performing pretty good, just a few things to keep in mind.

The 2 GB is really the mininum, I would prefer 4GB. 2Gb is ok for very small environments, but still a 4GB mininum is the way to go.
Also check your DotNet versions. Don't have 3.5 SP1 and 2.0 SP2 installed. I have seen strange behavior when those are installed. Only use 3.5.

If you allready have the 3.5 SP1 and 2.0 SP2 installed, then 1st uninstall 3.5 SP1 and then 2.0 SP2.

Ok, so we have 2.0Sp1, 3.0Sp1 and 3.5 installed.  So what sort of issues have you seen?  Should I uninstall all 3 then just reinstall 3.5?

Greg 

I made the same mistake. The fix is documented in AKB 46193

I do not know if it matters but according to this kb.altiris.com/display/1/index.asp NS 7.0 is not supported on 2003 R2 SP3. I am suprised you got it to install.
 

As long as you don't have 2.0 SP2 and or 3.5 SP1 installed you should be ok. What I have seen if you have the wrong versions is that everything installs fine, but no for example no tasks are executed.
For perfomance I would really go to 4 GB on your NS server.

How large is your NS Database? You may need more memory on your DB Server. We have 64GB (not a typo) and SQL is consuming most of that. Use the SQL Query "dbcc memorystatus" to return memory usage. Information on how to understand it is found in the MS KB Article - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/271624

That along with gpglang comments should help.
I found that it's not really the amount of traffic as much as the latency between the NS and SQL server that really improves performance. If it all possible get them on the same physical switch, on the same VLAN if nothing else.

Running your SQL Server on 64 Bit is great step foward.

Hope that helps!

We're fnding that there is a significant increase in hardware requirement as we move from 6 to 7 that we hadn't budgetted for

It does not depend that much on hardware. The most important configuration is, to distribute the SQL data files (mdf, ldf) to different volumes/disks. And don't forget the "tempdb". Put it also on a separate volume, because Altiris is heavily using it.

Do not use partitions on one disk, use independent disks or volumes on your SAN.

If your SQL Server is on-box, make sure the NSCAP-Share (inbox/queues) is NOT on the same volume as the SQL data files. Reading and writing at the same time on the same disk is never a good idea ;-)

4 Gigs RAM and dual CPU (if possible quad  - particularly for SQL) will do the rest.
To prevent the SQL data files to grow and grow, use simple recovery mode which is recommended by Symantec (search kb with "simple mode").

My experience shows me, that even on the biggest hardcore box, there is often a massive load (100%) on the webservice (w3wp.exe), especially while I'm working with filters and targets (SQL is NOT busy at that time). I think there has to be done some work at Symantec within the ASP.Net code :-)

If I have ASP.NET 2.0 SP1, 3.0 SP1 and 3.5 should I be okay, or do I need to remove them all and add 3.5?

With SMP 7.0 SP2, .Net 3.5 SP1 is fully supported (kb46349). So, if you're up to date with all the framework versions, I would say you're good to go.
The full package of 3.5 does nothing else than installing v2, v3 and v3.5 including some SPs.