Lately, the biggest support issue we are seeing is replication not providing enough performance! Whether it is due to bandwidth latency, speed, or not operating as expected, keep reading to see how we troubleshoot these issues for our current customers.
We have several customers in the USA with PDM archive servers replicated around the globe. We also have customers who have replicated their SQL database as well. Both scenarios are functional but I've always said "There has to be a better way!" We have been testing VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) performance to move the database and archives into a VDI cloud hosted environment where both SOLIDWORKS & PDM are hosted. This testing was performed to determine if our customers in China can increase daily PDM performance enough to justify disabling the replicated environment completely. Below is the framework of this architecture:
- Their CAD computers can go away because the VDI is built on the NVidia virtual graphics adapter which are hosted in the environment.
- All users around the world have one vault in PDM
- PDM is no longer replicated
- SOLIDWORKS License Manager is hosted in the cloud too
- SOLIDWORKS performance is like having a local installation again
Epigrid has been a great solution to the problem. Their VDI and cloud hosting offering is packaged and priced to meet your specific need.
Bottlenecks that cause latency include but are not limited to:
- Display latency
- Network latency
- Disk latency
- SQL access latency
By going to VDI, customers remove 2 of the 4 bottlenecks right off the bat!
This leaves only display latency for remote location users and this is a very minor issue relative to Network and Disk latency.
This also increases data performance by moving all vaults into a secured location and all users access both SOLIDWORKS and PDM from a non-CAD computer. It's like peeking into the Matrix!!!
The second biggest complaint we have been getting is SQL Server performance.
We have solved this issue by using Microsoft recommended best practices for "hyperthreading", MAXDOP, parallelism, and moving the tempdb to another physical drive (an SSD if at all possible).
If you have been experiencing these latency issues and want to discuss our best practices document for troubleshooting these common PDM issues, click below and ask how we can be of assistance.
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