Modifying Page Server performance settings

The Properties tab of the Page Server in the Crystal Management Console lets you set the location of temporary files, the maximum number of simultaneous report jobs, the minutes before an idle connection is closed, the minutes before a processing job is closed, the number of database records to read when previewing or refreshing a report, the oldest processed data to give a client, and when to disconnect from the report job database.

The "Location of Temp Files" setting specifies the absolute path to a directory on the Page Server machine.This directory must have plenty of free hard disk space. If not enough disk space is available, job processing may be slower than usual, or job processing may fail.

The "Maximum Simultaneous Report Jobs" setting limits the number of concurrent reporting requests that any single Page Server processes. The default value of 75 is acceptable for most, if not all, reporting scenarios. The ideal setting for your reporting environment, however, is highly dependent upon your hardware configuration, your database software, and your reporting requirements. Thus, it is difficult to discuss the recommended or optimum settings in a general way. It is recommended that you contact your Crystal Decisions, Inc. sales representative and request information about the Crystal Enterprise Sizing Guide. A Crystal Services consultant can then assess your reporting environment and assist you in customizing these advanced configuration and performance settings.

The "Minutes Before an Idle Connection is Closed" setting alters the length of time that the Page Server waits for further requests from an idle connection. Before you change this setting, it is important to understand that setting a value too low can cause a user's request to be closed prematurely. Setting a value that is too high can cause system resources to be consumed for longer than necessary.

The "Minutes before a Report Job is Closed" setting alters the length of time that the Page Server keeps a report job active. Before you change this setting, it is important to understand that setting a value too low can cause a user's request to be closed prematurely. Setting a value that is too high can cause system resources to be consumed for longer than necessary. (Note that this setting works in conjunction with the "Report Job Database Connection" setting.)

The "Database records to read when previewing or refreshing a report" area allows you to limit the number of records that the server retrieves from the database when a user runs a query or report. This setting is useful when you want to prevent users from running on-demand reports containing queries that return excessively large record sets. You may prefer to schedule such reports, both to make the reports available more quickly to users and to reduce the load on your database from these large queries.

The "Oldest On-Demand Data Given To a Client (in minutes):" setting controls how long the Page Server uses previously processed data to meet requests. If the Page Server receives a request that can be met using data that was generated to meet a previous request, and the time elapsed since that data was generated is less than the value set here, then the Page Server will reuse this data to meet the subsequent request. Reusing data in this way significantly improves system performance when multiple users need the same information. When setting the value of the "oldest processed data given to a client" consider how important it is that your users receive up-to-date data. If it is very important that all users receive fresh data (perhaps because important data changes very frequently) you may need to disallow this kind of data reuse by setting the value to 0.

When enabled, the "Viewer Refresh Always Hits Database" setting ensures that, when users explicitly refresh a report, all previously processed data is ignored, and new data is retrieved directly from the database. When disabled, the setting ensures that the Page Server will treat requests generated by a viewer refresh in exactly the same way as it treats as new requests.

The "Report Job Database Connection" settings can be used to make a trade-off between the number of database licenses you use and the performance you can expect for certain types of reports. If you select "Disconnect when all records have been retrieved or the job is closed", the Page Server will automatically disconnect from the report database as soon as it has retrieved the data it needs to fulfill a request. Selecting this option limits the amount of time that Page Server stays connected to your database server, and therefore limits the number of database licenses consumed by the Page Server. However, if the Page Server needs to reconnect to the database to generate an on-demand sub-report or to process a group-by-on-server command for that report, performance for these reports will be significantly slower than if you had selected "Disconnect when the job is closed". (The latter option ensures that Page Server stays connected to the database server until the report job is closed. Note that you can set the "Minutes before a Report Job is Closed" above.)

To modify Page Server performance settings

1. Go to the Servers management area of the CMC.
2. Click the link to the Page Server whose settings you want to change.
3. Make your changes on the Properties tab.

   In this example, the "Maximum Simultaneous Report Jobs" is increased to 75.

   

4. Click either Apply or Update:
   • Click Apply to submit changes and restart the server so that the changes take effect immediately.
   • Click Update to save the changes. You must restart the server for the changes to take effect.