Performance issues

[ArielRauch]

Hi,

I have some concerns regarding the performance behavior or the concurrency settings of my installation.

Today every file according to user input is either converted to CMYK or to Grayscale before sending to the DFE. This process is performed by Pitstop Server.

Unfortunately, when sending large files (above 500 pages) the following happens:

1. the large file is staying a long time in the Pitstop Serve process

2. I can see only one additional file in the Pitstop Server monitor (small one) which in the end fails because of timeout.

3. 8 the files are waiting in the flow element before the Pitstop Configurator and most of them also fails as of timeout.



I would be happy to get instructions how to configure the performance behavior of Switch and Pitstop as well as an experience value of how much time such a conversion should take. Pitstop Server and Switch are installed on the same server (Windows 2008R2 QuadCore with 12GB RAM)



Thank you,



Ariel

[ArielRauch]

Where are you, all the experts:)

I am looking for some best practices

Don't let me down (very old song)

Thanks

Ariel

[andrea mahoney]

Hi Ariel

You should increase the timeout in Switch Preferences -> Error Handling -> Abort Processes After -> the default is 20 minutes but I find 30 - 40 minutes for large production files. (or higher). You don't want a file to run that long and just time out right before it is done.

The concurrent processes are limited to the installation. The Core Engine allows for 4 processes, if you are using all of them for Pitstop Server, smaller jobs should continue on while the larger files are processing. Switch Preferences -> Processing -> Concurrent Processes = 4 (default =1)

You can duplicate a Pitstop Server element and route Pages > 250 to that element and let all others through the first Pitstop Server Element.

[ArielRauch]

Thank you very much!

Will adapt accordingly.

[mattbeals]

in the past I have split the PDF's and run the single pages through, then combined. Not always the best idea, but can be useful.