Home Forums Discussions Problems AC slows to crawl as amazingcharts.service.winservice.e xe grows

About three months ago, we started noticing a slow down in AC response time. Two months ago it became critical. AC tech said to add more memory. I maxed out the server at 16Gb with 6GB in a virtual machine dedicated to AC. (We had run for over 2 years just fine on a 10GB server with 4GB in the VM.) Still having the same problem.

One of the techs noticed that amazingcharts.service.winservice.exe was consuming much more memory that it should. Restarting the service brought memory usage down from 755MB to just under 10MB. And the system response time improved almost immediately. Even with the file at max memory, the total memory used in the VM never got over 3GB. By experimenting, response time slows drastically when memory usage for that file approaches 400 MB. Watching the task manager performance tab, opening a chart would peg the cpu utilization at 100% for several seconds (10 ish secs, about 10 to 15 times longer than normal.)

When the service is restarted, CPU utilization while pulling a chart would never go over 50%, and is normally around 30. And the response time is normal.

I've watched AC tech check all of the markers. Other than that one file's ever increasing use of memory, everything else seems fine. The only suggestion so far from AC tech is add more memory. But, according to task manager, that is not the problem, as existing memory is not anywhere near fully utilized.

Nobody has addressed why memory consumption continues to go up for a simple scheduling program, nor the correlation between it's memory size, and severely degraded response times.

Anybody else having similar issues or have any idea what to do to troubleshoot the problem?

Thanks,
Henry

Henry - what version of AC?

Lately I have noticed that the response time gets longer and longer over a day. I do not log off amazing charts at the end of the day, since it needs to be running all the time for me to access it via GoToMyPc from home. Whenever I would come back into the office the response time would get longer and longer until I restart it. If I do not restart AC I would get the dreaded "there has been so may errors, call tech support" message and it shuts down by itself. Did not look at the memory usage, I will do that when I go back in on monday. Maybe this problem (increasing response time" is only seen when the AC is kept open on the machine and since the majority of people shut down AC before they leave for home they do not notice it?
Sorry does not give you much new info to work with.

6.3.3

Sorry for the delay. Is there a way to get email notifications of replies to a post?

I have the exact same problem. I haven't figured out what to do to remedy it.

@Henry

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I don't understand. GTMPC is logging into the computer and not directly into AC?

If so, then once you remote into your computer, you could open AC then.

amazingcharts.service.winservice.exe

What is this service?

I meant to say that I leave AC running to save time and do not have to login after I access my computer with GTMPC. AC does not have to be open.

I leave mine on and there are no problems. Maybe use LMI with ignition to make up for restarting it. I think that the time spent opening it (25 to 30 seconds) is worth getting rid of all the errors.

My guess is my SQL Microsoft specialist could fix it for you. Let me know.

Thanks for the info on email updates.

Actually, I have been using LMI to stop & restart the service. MOST of the time that seems to resolve the response time issues, but the staff is complaining of response time more than they ever did ~2mo ago & before. And, I don't want them to have the overhead of me or them doing that daily if it can be avoided.

FYI, this is a single practitioner psychiatrist office.

The server is Lenovo with a Xeon E5620 CPU (8 cores at 2.40 GHz), and RAIDed hard drives. The server is running SBS 2011, and was recently (at the start of these problems) upgraded to 16Gb. We upgraded to this server in 2011. At ACs suggestion we installed AC in a VM. I have experimented with memory allocations between the server & the VM. The VM never goes above 3 Gb in use.

My next step was to make an appointment with AC to get their recommendations regarding upgrading to AC version 6.5. They say it uses SQL 2012 which can take advantage of multiple cores. And, would they recommend getting rid of the VM (it does seem there is extra overhead to running the OS for 2 machines.)

I would be very interested in talking with your SQL person. This has become a big headache.

Thanks,

I am not at all sure that Henry, Luis, and Raj are experiencing exactly the same thing.

Henry, I can't tell you much about "amazingcharts.service.winservice.exe" except:
It uses about 4 MB for us. Opening a chart in AC causes a barely perceptible blip in performance in the task manager.
I am not real smart about this stuff, but I would agree with you that there is something wrong with the way AC is running, and nothing wrong with the amount of memory on your system. Maybe someone here who is smarter than I can help; what I would do is keep pushing for a higher and higher level tech at AC until you get an answer that makes sense. If they told you to uninstall and re-install AC, I might not be thrilled with that answer but at least it would make some sense to me. Buying memory does not.

Luis and Raj, in order to see if your problem is the same, please check your utilization of the "amazingcharts.service.winservice.exe" process when the program is running slowly and when it is running well. Meanwhile, if restarting AC daily corrects/avoids the problem, then I would agree with Bert that for now that is a small price to pay.

Our responses overlapped, Henry. Seeing your specs makes me even more convinced that memory is not the issue, though running AC on a VM may change that calculation.
"At ACs suggestion we installed AC in a VM"???? Anyone else heard that from AC?
And now their recommendation is to get rid of it?
Certainly, "there is extra overhead to running the OS for 2 machines".

I would NOT go to 6.5 for this.

I can see some advantages to running a VM like snapshots and being the only app in the OS. I think Henry said he wonders if they will tell him to stop using it. I am with Jon, I have never heard of them recommending it, if only for one reason only that I won't say.

I know I am not supposed to say this, but I am not a big fan of AC support. If it completely pertains to AC operation OK. But, support is based on seeing these problems over and over and having no problem fixing them. Another thing. I just had two issues that Microsoft dealt with. Now, of course, they can afford to pay support people who are already gurus to begin with. But, they stay on the case proactively until it is fixed. Seriously, a month if they have to. And, they call pretty much daily to see how it is going.

As far as the VM, I am confused when you say "never goes up more than 3 GB. Is it set to take what it needs? A server can run on 8 GB depending on what you are running. Wny not set it to have a static amount of 8 GBs. See how it runs. 3 GBs should handle it, but 8 GBs will do better.

I will invite everyone to a PM as to emailing SQL.

I have checked my 6.1.2 and my 6.33, and I cannot find the service everyone is referencing. In fact, I only have two services, both of which are scheduled. I guess I am just missing something.

Oh, finally, are you using VM Workstaion or VM Player. If the latter, that could be the issue. I would definitely move it to the server. I would agree with Jon. Unless it is a huge performance boost, which obviously it isn't, I think it is another layer of complexity. Especially, when you can use all 16 GB to work with AC on the server, which is plenty.

Actually, Jon, you are correct....I do not think its that for my particular case..... I checked the service and it only runs at 50-100MB. However, I do have very slow performance that incrementally worsens with time, necessitating restarts/reboots of AC several times a day because it will freeze.. Might be a problem with RAM in my case, as I just realized my free memory is only 10-100 MB

Thanks for all the input. Unfortunately, the conclusion is that something is wrong, but we don't know what. It is probably with AC, but I guess I have to include the possibility there might be something wrong with server or network setup.

To clarify:
- the memory utilization of amazingcharts.service.winservice.exe is observed in the Windows Task Manager in the [Processes] tab.
- with the current 16G RAM, I have experimented with allocating 6G & 8G to the VM. In those configurations, the memory utilization never goes above 3G ... strongly suggesting memory is not the issue, unless there is a setting somewhere that caps the vm usage - that would be crazy, but I've seen worse.

Thanks for the input about NOT going to 6.5 for this. I'll go look elsewhere for feedback on that release.

@JBS - re: imperceptible CPU blip when opening a chart. Assuming that translates to pretty quick response, my folks would kill for that.

Everybody: I would be very interested to know how much memory your amazingcharts.service.winservice.exe service is using (WTM [Processes] tab) and what your total system memory is.

Thanks,

If you were memory were that low, your computer wouldn't even run.

For the moment, don't look so much at memory and reboot the server when things are slow. This will flush out the cache in SQL memory. This should NOT work since you have so much memory.

One other tip in a minute. I don't think it is AC as much as it is that server. I would get rid of the VM. Are you using VMWare Workstation?

Is there a way I can attach a PDF of a screenshot I took of my resource monitor? I tried attaching here but it only allows jpg files.

Do a snippet or print screen (snippet) is better.

Accessories -> tool. Save as a jpg or png. Then attach here.

I forgot to ask what your page file is.

Start -> Right click on Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> Takes you to System Properties Window -> Advanced Tab

Select Settings under Performance. Select Advanced Tab. Under Virtual memory, select Change.

The maximum size in MB should be 1.5 times your total RAM, so if 8GB, then it should be 12GB. Select Custom size and place that amount in Maximum size. It is best if you move the page file to a different partition than the C:\drive.

How much disk space is available in the VM? If you recently upgraded to 16GB RAM and started seeing the issue. It could be that your hard drive is near capacity. (Adding RAM increases the size of the page file and the hibernation file by an equal amount). Extremely common issue for people with SSDs to overlook. They wonder why half their capacity is gone when they upgrade to 16GB of RAM.

If there was something wrong with AC, everyone would have the same issue. My gut tells me it's related to your storage. What types of drives store your AC Database? It's not a RAM issue since as you said it doesn't break 3GB. The Processors are also pretty good assuming you have allocated enough to the VM. The only thing that isn't clear is what drives and what RAID level. I would consider moving to SSDs as it sounds like your Amazing Charts installation is accessing the disk more than accessing the cached pages in RAM.

re: "at ac's suggestion we installed vm." The old server was dying. I hired a "server" person to configure, buy, install & migrate the domain and data over. He spoke directly with AC tech. Since then I have never really heard anybody object, and they are always able to deal with the VM. One has said it is good to get SQL away from the main box, but with 3 instances running on the main side, I'm not sure it is helping.

The VM is setup using Hyper-V Manager. Help > About says version 6.1 from Microsoft.

VM installed using Hyper-V Manager. Help > about says Microsoft version 6.1.

Hundreds are using either P2P or a server with SQL to run AC. While having SQL on a separate server is best practice, it is not necessary. AC is a small program that requires very little RAM.

1. When this happens, can you reboot the server.
2. No matter what they say, get rid of HyperV and VM. It is just causing more issues.

CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT VM THIS IS? IS IT WORKSTATION, ETC.

Bert, not sure if this snippet will work:

Works perfectly. Can you reboot the computer and do another one.

I only distantly ever being in that screen. Page size was set to be managed by the system, and was being set at 6143, even though it recommended 9214. This matching your suggestion, as I had changed the VM allocation to 6G last night. I made the change in the page size, but the system has to be restarted to take effect. Probably won't happen until later this evening. Based on whatever happens, I may try to put 8G in the VM, and make the appropriate page size change.

Thanks.

Don't let a 15 minute reboot stop you, lol.

So you have a parent VM running Hyper V and 3 guest VMs on what type of storage array? Running 3 OS's and Amazing Charts on the same array as a parent VM is not a good idea.

ouch, hadn't thought about that. VM is partitioned into:
c: 16.4G free out of 34.8G
e: 12.1G free out of 49.9G

The main system is partitioned into:
c: 25.1G free out of 120G
e: 124G free out of 344 (the VM is contained on this drive - e:\vhd)

agreed on the "everyone would be having ..."

The tech guy told me the system is RAID 5: 3 - 250GB, 7,200rpm SATA drives that look like one 464GB drive. There is one hot spare.

If this is a server, you would use SSD or SAS but never SATA drives. I can't stress this enough. Tech support does AC, they don't set up servers. Sandeep does that.

One is right after restart, the other is after AC, MS office, and Dragon are loaded:

Luis,

Is AC running any better?

yes, it always runs ok after reboot; however, after using it for an hour or two, inevitably something comes up that causes me to need to restart it; for example, when I am printing a CCD, it will tell me that "an internal error was encountered... unable to print document"..... After that, if I try to click on a PDF document in Imp Items, the whole thing will freeze; once I restart AC, its all back to normal. Of note, I have used both adobe and foxit, to no avail. Moreover, it freezes in other scenarios as well. This happens several times a day. I'm just wondering if this is all due to needing more memory, based on what the resource monitor above is saying. I purchased a 4G memory slot last night, but haven't taken it out of its packaging yet. I just don't think that restarting AC 4-5 times a day is normal......

What OS? What type of server? This is Express, correct?

It is using RAM very quickly which then doesn't allow AC or probably any program to run. You have to have a certain amount of RAM and that first snippet didn't look very good.