Version

Argent AT — all versions

Date

11 Jun 2013

Summary

The Argent AT Performance Report definition screen loads slowly due to a massive row count in the ARGSOFT_{PRODUCT}_PRD_MOTHER table.

Technical Background

The ARGSOFT_{PRODUCT}_PRD_MOTHER table is the parent table for Argent Predictor data.

There is a unique row for each captured combination of MACHINE, OBJECT, COUNTER and INSTANCE.

When the Argent AT report screen loads, it first reads through this table to pre-fetch all saved counters so that the GUI experience is immediate when selecting counters from combo boxes.

When this table holds more than 10,000 rows, the screen can initialize slowly, and the loading console screen slowly progresses.

This condition generally indicates incorrect configuration of the product.

One typical situation is the customer saves Argent Predictor data for Terminal Services Sessions.

The instance of Terminal Service Session object is the session ID, which changes every time the session is established. When counters of a new session are captured, a new record is inserted into the MOTHER table. Over time, this table can grow out of control.

Another scenario is that user saves Argent Predictor data for Exchange Queues. Exchange 2007 and later dynamically generate Queue names. And over time, the MOTHER table can become bloated as well.

The common factor in both examples is the instance names for these performance counters are short lived.

Resolution

Do not save Argent Predictor Data for performance counters with short-lived instances.

Since these instances change on almost every poll, there may be no reason to keep this data as no long-term historical trending can be derived from this data