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I am running a vb application on a NT network with five win95 clients. The application ties to an ms access database using ado. It has been running fine for 2-3 years, but now it has become slow at times. I have tried compacting and repairing the database. I have done some testing and this is what I found:
The system is a restaurant point of sale system. At the beginning of the day the system is very fast (in terms of accessing and updating data.) when it gets busy it is very slow (3-5 seconds to read or update a transaction.) Sometimes when it is not really busy, the system is still slow. I find this to be true when we have a lot of open checks or when it gets busy. When I say busy, it doesn't necessarily mean that 5 people are on the terminals at the same time. There may only be one person on the terminal, and it is still slow. At the end of the night when all the open checks are closed, the system is flies again. This problem just recently started happening. My hunch is that it is the server. It only has 64 megs of ram because it is old. My question to everyone is:
Does the server store the database in memory, and is the memory getting full during the business hours because it seams like if the system sits idle for a while, the system starts to fly again. I know I need to add more memory, but is it possible for the existing memory to go bad? Maybe it is the processor? That is old as well (PII 266.) Is the hard drive bad? What I'm trying to find out is how the architecture works when I request or update information from the server. Does the db sit in the server's memory or is it accessing strait into the server's hard drive???? Thanks everybody!!!
[Edited by hotsauce on 11-25-2000 at 02:09 PM]
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How many total records are stored in the database? I am unsure how many records Access can hold in total but I believe there was some sort of limit. Perhaps once that limit is reached or that limit is approached, Access may perform as you have explained.
[Edited by Alder on 11-25-2000 at 05:37 PM]
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I did some more experimenting today. I changed the path of the database from the server to my notebook which is running a PIII 600mhz with 128 mb ram. I've never seen it the systems run so fast. The conclusion is that there is something wrong with the server. Either the memory is bad, not enough memory, or the processor is bad, or maybe even the hard drive. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. Thanks!!!
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If you don't think it is Access related:
- Maybe the OS needs a fresh re-install?
- CPU is overheating? (check to see if fans are working properly, check to make sure parts are not heavy with dust)
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Seems to me that the spec of the server is very low and that can lead to performance inconsistancies. Are there other processes running off the server at different times of the day? Or is there increased network traffic at certain times of the day?
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This is not as simple as "throw RAM at it". That may solve the problem and with RAM so cheap, you should certainly upgrade. However, you need to ascertain whether the network latency itself is the issue. It may be that your network infrastructure is not up to scratch. For instance, do you have users tying up bandwidth with Internet surfing, how fast are the network cards etc, that you are using. What is the level of network traffic at various points in the day. Is it just your access application that is slowing down etc. etc. etc.
Cheers,
P.
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i've found that access dbs become a big problem once you start getting more that 10,000 to 15,000 rows in your tables - it's then usually time to either archive some older data, or start using something like sql server...
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I have used over 170,000 rows without a problem. It comes down to design issues. Indexing, normalisation and up-front design become critical. Access is well suited to non-business critical apps and non-time critical apps, but it does not scale well and its security is laughable. It also corrupts with alarming regularity.
Cheers,
P.
