Re: I need help in asking the right questions

Craig wrote:
> For years my software has run quickly on a local drive but when there
are
> large files on network drives, it slows down terribly when moving from
> record to record.
> 
> I am going to approach our IT department about, but before I do, I need
to
> know what questions to ask.

There are all sorts of things that can make a fileserver-based system run
unexpectedly-poorly in a networked environment.  The first thing to check
is that your network-related configuration parameters are correct.  Then,
ask the IT people to help you monitor the actual disk I/O traffic that is
being generated by this application .. the locks that it is holding and
so-forth.

Also consider exactly how your program is doing what it does.  On a local
drive with sharing off, there's a lot that you can get away with because
so
much information winds up sitting in local memory caches.  You can troll
through a table sequentially, for instance.  In a networked environment
you
can't get away with that.

The IT Department is a good place to start:  ask them to help you
understand
what this application is doing as seen by their network.  Do not defend
either the application nor yourself, for neither of these are in-question.

----
ChimneySweep(R): Fast(!) table repair at a click of the mouse!
http://www.sundialservices.com