HELIOS Tech Info #170

Slow file server performance after UB64 migration

We received a customer report about a server slowdown on large volumes after the UB64 upgrade. In this case the deskserver process had used almost 100% of CPU when the slowdown occurred.

We investigated the issue and found that the customer had not performed the recommended desktop rebuild after migrating to UB64, as stated in the “Migrating HELIOS UB2 to UB64” notes.

We strongly recommend performing a desktop rebuild on all volumes after upgrading to UB64. This can be done either in HELIOS Admin:

=> Select the Volumes tab.
=> Highlight the desired HELIOS volume.
=> Choose Rebuild Desktop from the Volume menu.

or by using the “rebuild” tool on a command line:
/usr/local/helios/sbin/rebuild -f VOLUMEPATH

How can be verified that a desktop rebuild has already been done?

The deskcheck.pl script gives an overview about the status of each configured volume.

Important: The script must be called as root!

Example:

$ perl deskcheck.pl
Checking databases ... done.

The following desktop databases are ok (no rebuild needed):
  "/usr/local/helios/public"
  "/usr/local/helios/var/ICC-Profiles"
  "/usr/local/helios/var/settings"
  "/Volumes/DATA/demovol"

The following desktop databases must be updated via HELIOS Admin
or using the rebuild calls below:
  /usr/local/helios/sbin/rebuild -f "/Volumes/DATA/oldes"
  /usr/local/helios/sbin/rebuild -f "/Volumes/DATA/demovol2"