Tools

How to troubleshoot SPEED issues ( How to Speed Up OneSource )

Author: Steve Childs Reference Number: AA-02204 Created: 2014-10-17 15:10 Last Updated: 2019-03-20 08:46

0 Rating/ Voters

Written by Steve Childs, 10/17/14.
Last Updated by Steve Childs, 7/28/15.

If your copy of OneSource is running slow, there are a number of possible causes for the problem including server hardware issues, Windows operating system issues, OneSource user file corruption, OneSource Data file corruption, data that needs to be purged from certain tables, etc. The following is a list of things to check or assess to help track down the root cause of slowness in OneSource.

This step is probably the most important. You/we need to determine exactly what is slow. Here are a list of initial questions to ask to try to get to the bottom of exactly what the speed issue is (and isn't).

What is slow--exactly? What exactly are you doing (entering, clicking, etc) when the speed issue starts when using function X?
How many seconds (or minutes) is function X taking to complete?
How fast was function X before when it seemed to be functioning normally?
When did function X start to perform slower? Do you recall if any events preceded function X getting slower? (OneSource freeze or crash? Server crash? Power outage? Any MS Access Write Conflict errors--where prompted to Save, Copy to Clipboard, or Drop Changes?)
Is function X slow for ALL users or just 1 user? (If just 1 user, because that user is the only one to use that feature, is it slow when performed on another Windows and OneSource version? Meaning...walk over to another users desk and test it on their session of Windows and OneSource). If all users perhaps the problem related to your OneSource Company Data File? or perhaps the server? (If so, see Steps 2 and 3 below).
Are there any other functions that are now taking longer as well? Or is the problem generally just with function X?
Does the speed of the server seem to be functioning the same as usual? (See step 2 below).

Determining if the problem is related to the Server

Hard drive:

Speed of hard drive:

Copy and Paste a 100MB or 500MB or 1GB file and see how long it takes to copy and paste.

Older servers- 100 MB took about 10 seconds.
Newer servers - 100 MB, 500 MB, 1 GB can take 1-2 seconds (unless the processor is already working hard on some other issue)

Side question (what kind of hard drive is it? SAS drives? 15kRPMs? 10kRPMs? 7.2kRPMs? Solid State Device (SSD)? NOTE: We recommend 15K SAS drives (Serial Attached SCSI drives) or Solid State drives as they can be up to 10-50 times faster--depending on the process being executed.

Space available on hard drive:

How big is the hard drive? How much space is free?

If it is less than 10% free, and especially if the space if almost gone, the swap file (the hard drive space allocated to 'help' the memory) will start to have to work really hard--trying to mimic RAM memory--which the hard drive was not designed to do.

RAM (Memory)

Total Amount?
Amount Free?
Is your RAM maxed out? Is something gobbling up your RAM?

Processor

When opening up the Task Manager and clicking on the Performance tab what percent of CPU usage do you see? (Watch if for a while. You are looking to see if the overall CPU Usage (for all cores and processors combined, or for any single Core) is peaking at or near 100%. If so, click on the Processes tab and then on the column that shows the % of the CPU being used to see what 'Image Name' is gobbling up all the resources. If you don't see any images taking up an unusual amount, make sure you are logged in with Admin rights and click on the 'Show Processes from all users' so you can see ALL images (processes) for ALL users. Many viruses cause one or more processes to peak out--just to be annoying and disruptive to you.

Operating System

Have you rebooted your server lately?
Are all updates installed? Click Start > All Programs > Windows Update to see.
Open your system Event Viewer to see if you have any events with Red or Yellow icons. (Note: Event viewers can be really cryptic to view or understand. If you see a lot of Red or Yellow icons for events you may need to contact your network admin).

Performance Monitor. One way to monitor the Processor, Memory, and Hard Drive usage all at once in real time is to use the Windows Server Performance Monitor. This is a huge topic, but just a few hints are noted here:

Start > Run > Perfmon
MEMORY: select Pages/sec (make this one BLUE)
HARD DRIVE (PHYSICAL DISK): select Avg. Disk Queue Length (make this one GREEN)
PROCESSOR: % Processor Time (make this one RED)

Hardware Speed Test Tools:

https://www.trentonsystems.com/blog/list-of-computer-stress-test-software

Determining if the problem is related to the MS Access Company Data File.

If function x is slow for ALL users, it could be any of the components that affect all users (server hardware, etc). However, it could also be the OneSource Company Data File--since all users are linked to it. This is especially the case if all users were affected all at once and if it is slow in just one area of OneSource. If this is the case contact OneSource tech support to perform a data analysis on the tables related to the screen or functions that are slow.
Are you unable to search or add records of a particular type? If so, your company data file may have corruption. Start by making a back up of your company data file and then compact and repair the data file when all users are out of the file.

Determining if the problem is related to User X's copy of OneSource (MS Access) or Windows Remote Desktop Session

Is the issue primarily related to 1 user? If so, maybe their copy of OneSource has become corrupt. Start by trying the same processes on another users session of Windows (assuming you are logging into a Windows server using Remote Desktop). If that solves your problem try giving the affect user a known good/normal copy of OneSource.mdb. (Click Help > About OneSource to find the exact path of the the OneSource (User File). Copy and paste the known good copy of OneSource into the directory that has the known bad copy of OneSource.
In some cases MS Office get corrupted on a particular users Windows user account. You can try searching the web for tools to fix this problem, (but they usually don't work). We have found the best solution to this problem is to just make a new Windows user account for that user.

Is your data file getting too big or are any of the data or log tables getting too large? Is the process just slow, and always has been?

If you have 100,000's of Sales Orders, for instance, and/or a data file that is over 1.5 gigabytes, you may want to contact OneSource Tech Support to request a possible purging of certain types of records that are not crucial to have long term, such as Sales Orders (since you typically have an Invoice with that same data). Log files can slow significantly slow down processes if they get 1,000,000's of records in the log, such as in the tblLog file).
If you have a newer, fast server, plenty of processor and ram and hard drive availability, a data file that is not too large, etc maybe function X is just too slow and can be redesigned by OneSource to work faster. If you feel like this is case (assuming you have exhausted the steps above), please let us know exactly what you feel is too slow, including the exact steps you take when you perform this process and how many second (or minutes) the process takes.
The following tables, when paired way down WILL most assuredly speed up OneSource anywhere from a little to a LOT:

Sales Orders, Sales Order Lineitems. (These can easily purged using the Data Purging Utility located on the Administrative Utilities screen).
tblLog (These can easily purged using the Data Purging Utility located on the Administrative Utilities screen).
tblInventoryProductsLog (As of this writing, 5/12/18, this feature is coming in a future version of the Data Purging Utility).
Quotes and Quotations