[opencms-dev] workplace performance

[hugo burm]

Let me start by saying that I am not complaining about opencms, I just want
to find out whether my experiences are "standard" or I have a configuration
problem. And if the latter is true, what could be the reason.

I have installed opencms 4.30 and I tried to do some tests. Logging in as
Admin and building the workplace takes 60 sec on a Celeron 400 MHz with 128
Mb RAM (all tests done locally). Clicking on a folder in the tree takes
another 60 sec before it expands. Opencms eats about 80% of cpu time.
Is this normal behaviour?

I have no suspicious warnings in the log files. Everything seems to be OK.
But performance of the workplace is very bad. On the other hand, when
browsing through the example site as a normal visitor, performance is
acceptable.

I have the Cocoon framework (from the Apache org) running on the same
system. Cocoon translates xml into html on the fly, and uses almost the same
components as opencms (including Xerces, Xalan, and ApacheJServ; MySQL being
the main exception). Performance of Cocoon is OK.

One final clue: importing the workplace into the database (the famous step 6
in the installation instructions) takes one hour.

In case you think I almost answered my own question: accessing the MySQL
server from a Perl script is very fast. So, OK, may be the JDBC driver has a
problem.

I have this problem starting from 4a23, so I did have some time to
experiment with different versions of ApacheJServ, Xerces and Xalan. No
effect at all.

Anyone having similar problems?
Any tips on how to test the performance of the various subsystems,
especially the JDBC/MySQL combination?
Can somebody describe his configuration on which the workplace really flies?
I am also interested in NT/IIS results.

I did most tests on a NetBSD 1.4(Z) Unix. In most cases (non-opencms tests)
performance of this system is comparable with a Linux system and about twice
as fast as Solaris on the same Intel hardware.

I am using the Java 1.1.8 runtime environment. I just found out that it
actually has a JIT compiler and it is working. I know there are big
differences in JIT compiler performance. But once again: Cocoon is using the
same Java engine, its job is very demanding, and it is working fine. It even
works on a 100 Mhz Pentium. On a 100 Mhz Pentium, opencms gives me timeouts
in too many cases (even after adjusting the relevant parameters in the
*.properties files).

If you prefer to answer in the german language, that's no problem.


Hugo Burm
hugob at tamtam.xs4all.nl