High IIS usage/high CPU usage/slow performance on ServiceDesk server

Products

• ServiceDesk

Issue/Introduction

The ServiceDesk server performs slowly. Investigating, it is found that high IIS or CPU usage is occurring. For example, viewing Windows Task Manager, w3wp.exe is using several gigabytes of RAM, or the server CPU utilization stays at 50% or higher.

Cause

Various.

Resolution

Troubleshooting high IIS usage/high CPU usage/slow performance on the ServiceDesk server involves understanding how ServiceDesk works. The following information provides details and troubleshooting steps for this.

ServiceDesk and IIS Usage

ServiceDesk IIS usage can be normally high, even in small test environments. For example, IIS can report several gigabytes of RAM being used. This is why ServiceDesk requires a 64-bit operating system, so that it can provide as much system resources as possible to the software.

Slow Performance

ServiceDesk is not a real-time environment. Key processes are scheduled and therefore do not activate on an instant or minute-by-minute basis. Other processes are controlled by IIS. Resetting IIS or through its normal cache flushing internal can impact how fast (or slow) ServiceDesk loads forms. Because of these reasons, a common incorrect perception by users is that ServiceDesk is performing slowly. For example:

• Perceived issue: New ticket creation takes several minutes before it appears under the My Requests or Tickets tabs.
  How this works: This process is scheduled every three minutes by default.
  Solution: Adjust the report interval to a lower number to more quickly see new tickets appear in ServiceDesk. The following article describes how to do this in more detail:
  
  ServiceDesk tickets take a long time before they become available for editing/viewing
  http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH145903
   
• Perceived Issue: Inbound email is slow to create new tickets (or never does).
  How this works: This process is scheduled every fifteen minutes by default.
  Solution: Adjust the email schedule interval to a lower number to more quickly receive email as new tickets. If email is never arriving, then most likely the email inbox is not configured correctly, or, the user is not entering "new ticket" or "new incident" in the email Subject line, as describe in the ServiceDesk 7 MR2 User Guide, on page 117. The following articles describes how to do this in more detail:
  
  Why does it take so long for ServiceDesk to check incoming emails?
  http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO21659
  
  ServiceDesk 7.0 MR2 User's Guide
  http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=DOC2152
   
• Perceived issue: Initially opening forms takes thirty seconds or longer. Afterwards, they open quickly. Later, they start taking longer again, such as later in the day or the next day.
  How this works: IIS, system resources, connection to the SQL Server, the environment, and customizations can all contribute to this. Generally, this is IIS that is controlling this, however. IIS will flush its cache on a schedule. When this occurs, forms initially take longer to load.
  Solution: Increase the IIS cache flush times so that they are not flushed as often. As other issues can result in this, additional troubleshooting may be necessary. Refer to the Timeouts section, below, for more information. The following articles describes how to adjust IIS cache flush times in more detail:
  
  How to increase the page cache times for ServiceDesk and Workflow
  http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO9818
  
  How can I improve the load times for the Advanced Incident Templates?
  http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH122138

Timeouts and Advanced Troubleshooting 

Timeouts can be more severe occurrence of IIS-related issues, or be caused by system resources, connection to the SQL Server, the environment, and customizations. Verify the following to obtain additional details about what is occurring, so that specific troubleshooting can then be performed:

• Does resetting IIS and server extensions resolve the issue?
• Does this occur only during certain times of the day, especially during production hours or the beginning of the work day?
• Does this occur only in certain areas of ServiceDesk, such as loading a specific form?
• What's occurring in the Workflow logs when this happens?

The following article describes how to troubleshoot timeouts in more detail:

Timeouts occur when using ServiceDesk
http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH145906