Poor performance opening AE 5.4 M150

[ptc-953926]

In our move to AE 5.4 M150, many authors are reporting very poor performance when first launching the editor. I've confirmed this even when opening the editor without a document. It takes anywhere from 40 to 90 seconds, usually the first time you open the editor. If you immediately close and then reopen the editor (again, without a document), it opens in just a few seconds. Anyone have any idea what's going on during that initial open. It has nothing to do with our doctypes, etc., as it happens without opening a document. Maybe there are some default preferences that need to be unplugged?

Again, this was not an issue with AE 5.2 M130, our previous level.

Dave

[ptc-3050150]

Are you using 5.4 PE?

According to the PE docs, it is looking for configuration information and if you don't use DITA and (something else, I forget) you can delete their directories and that will help speed up a slow loading AE. I did since we don't use them but still end up waiting for up to a minute each morning...and some afternoons.

John T. Jarrett CDT
Senior Tech Writer, Integrated Logistics Support, Land & Armaments/Global Tactical Systems

T 832.673.2147 | M 832.363.7234 | F 832.673.2376 | x1147 | -<">mailto:->
BAE Systems, 5000 I-10 West, Sealy, Texas USA 77474
www.baesystems.com

[AndyEsslinger]

Dave,



Every version gets slower and you have skipped a bunch of versions and
maintenance updates. Jumping over these tends to make Arbortext look very
slow. The only thing I criticize is that PTC installs all of the features
and bloat (like XML, styler, and DITA) whether you need them or not. I
would love to be able to select and deselect supported features.



-Andy

\ / Andy Esslinger LM Aero Tech Order Data

_____-/\-_____ (817) 279-0442 1 Lockheed Blvd MZ 4285

\_\/_/ (817) 777-3047 Fort Worth, TX 76108

[ptc-953926]

What directories would I delete? From the install folder?

[ptc-3050150]

They recommend renaming or deleting the ptc\arbortext pe\application directory if you don't use DITA or SMA.

I think that helped, but it is still slow...

I agree that I wish there was a better way to turn all that off BEFORE it gets installed. Having to delete them from new file types, etc.

John T. Jarrett CDT
Senior Tech Writer, Integrated Logistics Support, Land & Armaments/Global Tactical Systems

T 832.673.2147 | M 832.363.7234 | F 832.673.2376 | x1147 | -<">mailto:->
BAE Systems, 5000 I-10 West, Sealy, Texas USA 77474
www.baesystems.com

[ptc-953926]

Nope, that didn't seem to help. Still taking 40 seconds or more to open AE without even referencing a document. It still seems odd that it's only the first open that's slow. Subsequent close and opens within a few minutes are very fast. I'm convinced AE 5.4 loads stuff in memory and as long as it stays there things are fast. Wait too long and the memory gets replaced and things slow down for the next open.

[JasonBuss]

Perhaps something to do with the JVM starting when you first start
Arbortext? Do you know what JRE you guys are using? Possible that in
5.2 the JRE was already started by the CMS client, but 5.4 uses a
different JRE?



I'm firing wildly in the dark here, I haven't experienced startups that
slow here, using 5.3 M040 on machines with 1GB RAM, usually 10-12
seconds on first startup, 2-3 secs after that. Using VPN or the first
startups from PCs can take up to a minute, but I haven't found a way to
improve it and left it as a cost of doing business on remote PCs over
questionable intertubes...

[JasonBuss]

Setting peservices=off and rebooting should tell you if connecting to PE
causes the issue.



Do you guys have a lot of custom ACL/Java code for the editor? And do
you use system paths for inserting image/file references, or do you use
PUBLIC IDs and catalog files to resolve entities.



I do know that if a user loses read access to the share that contains
our catalog files for image references, we have seen startup times of a
minute or more. Once we resolved the access issue, everything went back
to normal. If you have catalog files or items in your custom\init
directory that Editor needs to access but can't get to on startup, it
seems to wait for that network timeout before trying to continue
startup.

[JasonBuss]

You guys don't happen to start the Help Center when you startup editor
(by way of the consumerui.jar file)?



The help center is pretty useful, but that initial startup is
agonizingly slow.



Just throwing things around...

[ptc-953926]

No, we don't start the Help Center on startup (didn't know you could), at least no on purpose. Also, don't know what the consumerui.jar file is.

[Alessio]

Can you share the values of APT environment variables?

[ptc-953926]

The problem persists even if the CMS client is never opened. There are no java processes running prior to opening AE.

No one reporting this problem is using VPN or accessing remotely. I'm having the problem with a dual-core laptop with 2 Mbytes of memory. Should be adequate, no?

[ClayHelberg]

Hi David-



I don't know for sure, but I think it must be something to do with your
configuration. I can start up 5.4 M050 in about 3 seconds on my main
machine (Windows Vista), and in about 4 seconds on a Windows XP virtual
machine. This is on a pretty basic laptop (that's about 2 years old), so
I'm not "cheating" with a high-end workstation or anything like that.



If you don't have any code in your custom/init directory, then the only
thing I can think of is some kind of network issue, or maybe you're just
running into a hardware issue. Are these machines skimpy on RAM or CPU
power?



What happens if you turn off your customizations (i.e. remove the
APTCUSTOM environment variable)? Does it get faster then? If so, that's
a further indication that it's something to do with your configuration
rather than the application itself.



--Clay

[ptc-3050150]

We have the same with zero APT environment variables set on the local PC…and our setup sounds the same as David’s with file paths, only an instance.acl…and the random one-plus minute load times if editor has been off too long.

John T. Jarrett CDT
Senior Tech Writer, Integrated Logistics Support, Land & Armaments/Global Tactical Systems

T 832.673.2147 | M 832.363.7234 | F 832.673.2376 | x1147 | -<">mailto:->
BAE Systems, 5000 I-10 West, Sealy, Texas USA 77474
www.baesystems.com

[AndyEsslinger]

Dave,



Have you tried it on a PC or just the Laptop?



Have you tried to run everything locally to eliminate the network latency?



You should run from a PC if you are benchmarking things (or at least to
eliminate the laptop as a possible problem). Laptops have their own set of
problems. It takes my notebook 1-1/2 or 2 minutes to start Arbortext Editor
(2.2 GHz duo CPU with 4 gigs of RAM and Windows XP Pro). Some of the factors
are:



How fast the laptop CPU is running (regardless of what it is labeled.)

How fast the hard drive is (many or even most laptops have 5400 rpm or
slower HDs. The one I have now is 7200, the previous laptop was 4800.

What else is running (my laptop has 71 processes going when it finishes
boot; my work PC has 54 and my home PC has 33 and they have 2.2 GHz CPUs
with 2 gig of RAM).



I opened a case a long time ago about 5.3m040 taking too long to start (I
wish for fast times like 40 or 60 seconds). The resolution after a few days
of troubleshooting was "we'll fix it some future release."



I think you should open a ticket with PTC. I have a bookmark set to this
site: <">https://www.ptc.com/appserver/cs/call_logger/call_logger.jsp>