Here is the message I posted to PALNI-M on 9/21 about what is looking more and more like a major breakthrough on our long-standing OPAC response time problem. If we continue to see this kind of performance, and the changes we've made don't introduce any new surprises, we may soon be able to put our response time issues behind us.
We are collecting library-by-library statistics on OPAC response time, and should have some more detailed performance results to report by early next week.
Thu Sep 21 16:57:28 EDT 2006
Vincent Lucas vince at palni.edu
[PALNI-M] OPAC Response Time Improvements
I am very happy to report that most PALNI libraries have begun seeing
major improvements in OPAC response times within the past 24 hours. As
measured by the PALNI web server, average OPAC response times on keyword
searches have improved from over 3.5 seconds (for 9/9 through 9/16) to
under 1.6 seconds for the past 24 hours. And for some of you, keyword
search performance is even better than that!
These improvements are due to three changes that staff recently implemented:
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On Sunday morning, 9/17, we upgraded memory on the PALNI production
server ('hickory') from 6 to 18 GBytes. This had an immediate impact on
overall system performance, especially during times of the day when use
of the PALNI system is heaviest.
-
Yesterday, 9/20, Susan Fipps discovered a way to significantly
improve OPAC performance, especially for those PALNI libraries that have
multiple sub-libraries. Susan has been working hard to implement those
configuration changes, and that work is now in place.
For some of you, these changes are producing some dramatic
improvements in keyword search performance. For example, average
keyword search times for Butler University have dropped from over 6.5
seconds to under 1.2 seconds as measured on the PALNI server, and for
Huntington University, average keyword search times have dropped from
almost 8 seconds to under 2 seconds.
-
Over the last few weeks, six PALNI libraries (Ancilla, Franklin,
Oakland City, St. Meinrad, Taylor, and Tri-State) began using a
new PALNI web OPAC that Susan designed and optimized for performance.
Just for those six libraries, average keyword search response times are
now in the sub-second range, at 0.83 seconds over the past 24 hours!!
We still have two additional performance-related changes that we
plan to implement. However, their impact will be relatively minor
compared to the changes that staff have already implemented. Of course,
we will continue to monitor system performance very closely. If any of
you are still seeing any extraordinary OPAC slowness, please let us know
right away.
Conservatively, over the last year, I estimate that Susan, Larry, Jason,
Colleen, and Tom have put at least 350 hours of combined work time into
our long-standing OPAC performance problems. It may be a bit too early
to "declare victory" over this problem, but if the preliminary response
time statistics hold up, we are close to putting this problem behind us.
We plan to let Ex Libris know about the Aleph configuration changes that
we've made, since they may be useful to other Ex Libris customers who
are experiencing similar problems. In addition, we will share what
we've learned directly with the South Dakota Library Network (SDLN),
with whom we've been regularly exchanging information about our mutual
system performance issues.
Early next week, I will post more complete response time statistics on
the PALNI web site. Please check next week if you would like the latest
OPAC response time data just for your library.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Vince
--
Vince Lucas
PALNI Project Manager
INCOLSA | Email: vince at palni.edu
6202 Morenci Trail | Phone: 1-317-298-6570 or 1-800-733-1899
Indianapolis, IN 46268 | FAX: 1-317-328-2380
