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NLINK provides several different ways of communicating with other systems. Depending on how a meta-database is configured and how various External Systems (e.g. SAP, SQL Server or any other system NLINK needs to interact with) are set up, the net throughput of NLINK can be greatly affected. This document provides some guidelines on troubleshooting performance related issues in NLINK deployment.
Microsoft Windows Operating Systems (2003, 2008, 2012 R2) comes with tool called “Perfmon”. Perform can be used to monitor the NLINK Server and its CoNNectors. See How to Collect Performance Statistics on tips for configuring Permon for NLINK and its CoNNectors. Make sure the sampling rate is set properly so that a long duration of data is captured (over hours or days rathers than minutes or seconds).
Various metrics gathered from Perfmon can be used to see where maximum resources and time are being spent and understand bottlenecks in systems. As a simple example, if the Perfmon log counter ”%Processor Time” for NLINK or all its CoNNectors together is a fraction of the overall time taken to run an Interace, then the other External Systems (e.g. SAP, SQL Server or any other system NLINK needs to interact with) might need monitored to get a better understanding of the performance issues. On other hand if the “Private Bytes” counter for NLINK Server or any of its CoNNectors are always increasing, it most probably indicates some sort of memory resource issue. In this specific condition it will need further analysis of meta-database and other NLINK logs/trace files to determine the cause.
NLINK is a multi-threaded application. Multi-threaded applications allow for concurrency, but it is also very challenging to troubleshoot performance issues in multi-threaded applications. The NLINK meta-database can be configured to allow multiple Interfaces to run at same time. Each of the Interfaces runs in its own thread. It is best to isolate the Interface of interest and troubleshoot only that Interface. Make sure (by temporarily modifying the meta-database, if need be) that no other Interfaces are running during the period of monitoring or troubleshooting any one specific interface.
NLINK Server uses the Windows Event log to report any issues/problems encountered at run time. Depending on the volume of information being captured, you will need to set the size of Event log accordingly, so that all the events that occur over the monitoring time are capured for analysis. Note that setting Event log to be too big makes it difficult to use. A good guideline would be to set it on the order of 100 MBs (not GBs).
The NLINK Event log in conjunction with “Perfmon” can be used to determine acitivity in NLINK.
Using the NLINK Log Message Action, data specific to an Interface can be written to Interface Log files. These files can contain information relevant to specific Interface. If the meta-database is configured to generate Interface Logs then make sure there is enough information in the messages to capture the key issues.
NLINK Server and its CoNNectors can generate traces of all their activity. These traces along with Event log can provide insight into all the activity in NLINK. Some of the contents of Trace files might be useful only to Junot Systems support.
Use the NLINK Management Module (NMM) to activate the NLINK traces. The screen is under the Tools >> Settings menu option. Click on the Advanced Options tab to get to the Activate NLINK Server Trace flag. These trace files are different then those generated using NLINK System Properties Debug Level and Create Dump File.
Microsoft Windows Operating Systems (2003, 2008, 2012 R2) comes with tool called “Perfmon”. Perform can be used to monitor the NLINK Server and its CoNNectors. See How to Collect Performance Statistics on tips for configuring Permon for NLINK and its CoNNectors. Make sure the sampling rate is set properly so that a long duration of data is captured (over hours or days rathers than minutes or seconds).
Various metrics gathered from Perfmon can be used to see where maximum resources and time are being spent and understand bottlenecks in systems. As a simple example, if the Perfmon log counter ”%Processor Time” for NLINK or all its CoNNectors together is a fraction of the overall time taken to run an Interace, then the other External Systems (e.g. SAP, SQL Server or any other system NLINK needs to interact with) might need monitored to get a better understanding of the performance issues. On other hand if the “Private Bytes” counter for NLINK Server or any of its CoNNectors are always increasing, it most probably indicates some sort of memory resource issue. In this specific condition it will need further analysis of meta-database and other NLINK logs/trace files to determine the cause.