Windchill performance improvement - most methodical way?

[Andy_Admin]

Hi,

the users are complaining about the "Windchill performance". There can be various reasons and there are various tools/knowledge hubs/cases from PTC to attack the problems hiding behind that general complaint.

I searched for a morning and got the links below. Unfortunately, that list is too big, too chaotic, has duplicates and crosslinks inside

Main question: Is there a recommended, methodical way to analyse and solve Windchill performance problems, by PTC/by you?

Side question: Is there a service by PTC that does it? What were your experiences? (result, cost, specified period, actual period, communication quality, responsiveness)

Thank you.

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Windchill-Performance

Lists 50+ cases to increase the performance

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/cs303555

General Performance Troubleshooting in Windchill PLM

Lists another ~50 cases to increase the performance. Downside: “Windchill Performance administrator must have strong skills and advanced knowledge of Java and the JVM.”

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/cs384986

Windchill System Performance Tuning

Description of specific actions and links to external sources.

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/CS153338

[Knowledge Hub] Windchill PLM – Profiler

Tutorial, how to capture a profile plus further links

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/cs54838

[Knowledge Hub] Windchill PLM - Search/Advanced Search Performance(beta version)

Links to search specific cases

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/CS391852

[Knowledge Hub] Windchill PLM - Application Server Performance

Lists six measurements in, described in other cases

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/cs358216

[Knowledge Hub] PTC Performance Advisor

Links to other cases, also to Creo Performance Advisor

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/cs358220

[Knowledge Hub] Windchill Workgroup Manager Interaction with PDMLink - Recommended Initial Performance Client Settings

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/CS140968

Recommended database indexes for Windchill 11.0 and later releases

Download of script needed, for Oracle and SQL, lists cases

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/CS262774

PTC System Monitor Resource Page

Documentation for diagnostic and monitoring solution by PTC

https://support.ptc.com/appserver/wcms/standards/support_resource_page.jsp?&im_dbkey=142899&icg_dbkey=917&source=Bloop

https://www.ptc.com/support/-/media/support/refdocs/PTC_System_Monitor/6,-d-,0/PSMInstallDeployGuide_Windchill_174031.pdf?sc_lang=en

https://www.ptc.com/support/-/media/support/refdocs/PTC_System_Monitor/6,-d-,0/PSMAdminUsageGuide_Windchill_174022.pdf?sc_lang=en

"Find in Structure" performance in Windchill

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/cs194963?source=ArticleViewerRelated

[Knowledge Hub] Windchill PLM - Oracle Database Performance

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/cs358210

[mmeadows-3]

That is a long list of articles.  The links below are not in the list above.

What version of Windchill are you using?  PTC and the third-parties fix performance issues when they can.  For example, the latest DB patches are always recommended and there aren't any articles for tuning Java in the latest releases. 

The users' complaint is too broad.  Performance to an end user is how responsive it is in their browser.  Local computer resources, client configuration, and network issues can make a smoothly functioning Windchill appear flaky and slow.  It may not have anything to do with Windchill.  I start by interrogating the end users' complains.  Is it everyone, select people, random?  What functional aspect of Windchill is being impacted? etc.  That helps me determine if it is a server, network, or client issue.

In general, Windchill performance tuning starts at the DB, then moves on to the Windchill-DB configuration, client configuration, and finally investigating potential network issues.

I like to tune the cache values periodically (~every 6 months).  Appropriate cache values change as the DB grows.  The WCA is a place to start and the On-Demand System Scan may highlight other cache values that need adjusting.

I run an On-Demand System Scan and upload the results to PTC.  It returns suggestions in a few minutes.  This ensures there isn't something obvious I'm missing.  FYI: I create a custom System Configuration Collector scan to capture most of the information the On-Demand System Scan wants.

Java tuning is also necessary if Windchill is running on Java 1.8 or earlier.  Getting these values correct can be tricky.

If none of this resolves the issue, I log a Windchill Performance related call with PTC's performance team.  They guide me through deeper troubleshooting and resolutions.

[Andy_Admin]

Hi,

wonderful, thanks a lot, especially for the additional links!

Our local supplier is only acting based on the method-server logs. I wish there  would be a more strategic way, a way that "hits every bush" (as we say in germany) to fix it. 

I agree, you need to ask the users to some extend, but at some point it's more efficient to ask the system itself. Most of the users neither have the knowledge nor the motivation to find sources of failures.

We're using 12.0.2.5.

Did you do before/after performance tests? How?

PTC's performance team: Is that more kind of an "one time call" for an hour, where they find one to three issues and fix them, or is that more kind of an "elaborate investigation"?

[mmeadows-3]

We typically don't do before/after performance validation.  We are resolving known performance issues with known performance fixes.

Performance baselining becomes relevant when we don't have confirmation from PTC of the limited impact of the resolution.  It can be useful if you are customizing your environment and need to confirm no adverse performance effects before going live.  True performance tuning (setting a target performance, baselining, changing the configuration, and measuring the improvement/degradation) is a tedious and time consuming process.  We try not to go there if we can help it.

PTC Tech Supt has a small group of people who know how to fix Windchill performance problems.  They have tools and experience to read DB performance table exports, Windchill Profiler results, and other requested performance analysis information.

You can start with a call to PTC Tech Supt and they will guide you through the process.  However, I try to resolve as many obvious issues as I can before logging a PTC Tech Supt call.  I feel it shortens the investigation time when Tech Supt isn't finding several obvious performance issues that I could have found on my own.

[Andy_Admin]

I learned sth. and will definitely try your way of problem solving. Thanks a lot for your time and effort.