Siebel Sales Handheld Guide > Troubleshooting >

Performance

This section discusses ways you can optimize your client performance, server performance, and network performance.

Client Performance

Client performance is affected primarily by the device capability (minimum 206 MHz processor and 64 MB RAM), configuration, and the quantity of data loaded onto the device. In general, screen-to-screen and view-to-view navigation times of 3 to 4 seconds or less should be considered normal.

It is strongly recommended that customers follow these general guidelines to optimize the performance of their handheld applications:

• Keep configuration under 30 views.
• Keep RML file size under 1.75 MB.
• Keep database files (dbfile.txt) under 2 MB.

  Use filters as outlined in the Siebel 2000 Handheld Synchronization Technical Note.

• Keep the number of records for each business component under 2,500.
• Avoid installing other applications on the device at the same time.
• Users should synchronize their data frequently.

Additional configuration information can be found in the Siebel Technical Note 405, Siebel Handheld Synchronization.

The Professional Services Mobile eBusiness Competency group has a Siebel Handheld Quickstart program that is mandatory for all new Siebel Handheld customers to assess their configuration and deployment.

The Siebel Handheld client will benefit from periodic closing and restarting the application to release memory consumed by the handheld operating system. Use File > Exit in the menu to exit from the Siebel Handheld application.

If an external VGA driver is or has been loaded on the device in the past and is no longer needed, be sure to unload it, because it is known to have significant performance impacts on handheld devices.

Server Performance

Server performance affects the performance and scalability of Direct Server Sync processes. Customers should engage Expert Services to do a Scalability Review. The following guidelines are general in nature and pertain to the Siebel Handheld sync components running on a Siebel Server:

• Use Performance Monitor to track memory and processor performance on the Siebel server.
• Make sure that the Servers (IIS, GW, OM and DB) are on the same high speed LAN segment.
• Siebel Handheld Sync components will stress Siebel Server and database performance because of the intensive interactions during large concurrent synchronizations.
• Estimate that 64 MB is used per Siebmtsh.exe instance.
• To calculate the theoretical maximum concurrent users:
  • Numusers=Server_Memory*threads_per_process_ratio/64 MB.
• Optimize the Threads per Process Ratio (Max Tasks/Max MT Servers) per Technical Note 405, Siebel Handheld Synchronization.
• Set Max Tasks=Max. number of concurrent users (for example, 150).
• Set MinMTServers=MaxMTServers (for example, 30 for 5:1 ratio, if this is determined to be appropriate).

To optimize and tune a Siebel DB server:

• Use Performance Monitor to track memory and processor performance on the DB server.
• Turn on SQL tracing and search for long-running SQL calls.
• Estimate 64 MB of RAM for each concurrent user.
• Consider creating indexes to tune the queries (only performed with the assistance of Siebel Expert Services).
• Consider using a RAID 0+1 disk array with an expanded number of spindles to optimize database performance.

NOTE:  Make sure that DB Server settings are set to recommended values. Timeouts should be set at the Siebel Server. Be careful that the timeout is set longer than the longest SQL query.

Network Performance

The condition of the network affects Direct Server Sync performance and scalability. In general, a low-latency, high-bandwidth network is preferred with dedicated rather than shared network connections. The following are general network considerations:

• Make sure there is adequate bandwidth throughout the entire round-trip of network packets and estimate where bottlenecks will occur due to high concurrent load. For example, if 50 users are concurrently synchronizing 1 MB each, 50 MB of data must pass through the network. If this data is passing through a single leased 56 KB per second line, then this data will minimally take 500,000 KB/56 KB/sec=8928 seconds=148 minutes. In reality, a 56 KB per second line will offer only 30-40 KB per second average throughput, which causes further bandwidth constraints. Check the total available bandwidth of network providers (private or public ISP).
• Verify that you have low latency lines with ping round trips of less than 1 second (1000 ms) with no dropped packets.
• Verify if roundtrips occur with less than 10 hops.
• Check the actual throughput of network connections by performing simple file transfers with no Siebel software.
• Nonvalidated VPN software from third parties accounts for 30 to 60 percent of additional packet overhead because of the encryption.

Network problems can usually be resolved by working with network providers to size network connections and optimize network routing. Consider the use of burst networks, quality of service contracts, private networks, and dedicated modem banks directly into a high-speed LAN environment. Noisy phone lines in some countries may benefit from the use of an external modem card from Xircom or Pretec instead of the built-in modem on the HP Jornada 720.