[K12OSN] 8 Minutes to Open Open Office 2

[R. Scott Belford]

On Thursday 29 September 2005 12:31 pm, you wrote:
>
> I think, based on looking back at your servers specs and what others
> have said about performance, that you have some unusual problem.  But
> on a general note, the 4.4.1 release is based on Fedora FC4 which is
> a distribution aimed at pushing out very new code with all of the
> tradeoffs that implies.  A surprise here and there is not unusual. If
> you aren't comfortable with that or you are recommending this for
> people who aren't prepared for surprises, a more conservative choice
> would the the 4.2.1EL released based on Centos4.  Your OO will be older
> but the kernel / device drivers will be much better tested.

Thanks, Les.  Appropriate observations.  It was uncharacteristic of me to push 
for the 'latest and greatest', but I like the number 4, and it seemed so 
timely to get in an upgrade before the school year that could last for the 
year.  With the expanding distro choices, it is time to test some other 
alternatives and to do our part in the edubuntu development.

>
> And back to basics: have you run 'yum update' recently or is this
> straight off the CD's?  Also was this done as an upgrade from
> the earlier version or a fresh install?

We have eliminated this variable by witnessing the problem on an upgraded 
install and a fresh install.  I really, really hoped a failure to upgrade was 
the culprit, but the volunteer assures us that the problem persisted after a 
yum update.

>
> > > 1) Have you run prelink?
> >
> > I will have this done.  However, if it was never needed with 4.2.1, why
> > do we need to ask a teacher to do this?
>
> It shouldn't be necessary, but that might be the problem.

This is being done now.

>
> > > 2) Have you looked in dmesg for error messages about network problems?
> >
> > Doubtful that any network issues exist given the prior performance of the
> > hardware.
>
> Remember that all of your drivers are different.  And since your
> performance seems much worse than others this could be the problem.

Yeah.  After all that I have learned about kernel changes affecting NFS, it is 
a bit foolhardy to overlook these changes.  Thanks.

>
> > > 3) What is the network backbone of your system? [Switch, hub, gigabit,
> > > 10mbit, etc?] OOfice is a large app with a lot of window touching...
> > > network mismatches between the server or clients and switch can show
> > > up on this and not other apps.
> >
> > Gig uplink to a gig switch.  I don't see this as an issue.
>
> A duplex mismatch is a killer.  mii-tool or ethtool will show the
> Linux side.  If the switch is managed you can see that as well.  If
> it isn't, there may be status lights.  You want full duplex and the
> gig speed at both sides.

This is being checked by faithful HOSEF volunteer, Ron.

>
> > I am intrigued by Les' suggestion that /home be on a separate drive
> > array.  It does not explain why the problem exists with 4.4.1, but
> > perhaps it is design function of OO version 2.
>
> That was before I saw you had 4 gigs ram/scsi drives.  Head contention
> is still an issue but I think you have some other problem.

Good to know.

>
> > > 4) What does top/ps say?
> >
> > I am asking a school to do this for us.  Asking an overworked teacher,
> > though, to coordinate this while managing 30 students is, well,
> > overwhelming.  We will likely have to get a volunteer on site for this.
>
> Can you ssh into the box yourself?

Not as easily as usual given that I did not follow the standard HOSEF install 
steps of setting up logwatch to mail a group of us with relevant information.  
This is being resolved and we'll have some information soon, maybe today, 
since it is still only 1:45 here.

--scott