TM1 Network performance problem

anote
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2008 5:35 pm

TM1 Network performance problem

Post by anote »

We have the following problem when using TM1.
Our users accessing TM1 web over WAN links reported that using TM1 is very slow.

As we checked, they have enough bandwidth to access the service. www.cognos.com recommends 256kbit/s per TM1 session and our WAN connection available bandwidth fits this requirement.

As we further checked, we found that when data is sent to/from the TM1 server, the network packet size is very small (average is 150bytes).
For example, if an user from another country (100ms latency from our server) access TM1 web, the following happens :

User request 100KB -100ms-> Server
Server sends 150B -100ms-> User
User acknowledges -100ms-> Server
Server sends 150B -100ms-> User
User acknowledges -100ms-> Server
Server sends 150B -100ms-> User
User acknowledges -100ms-> Server
[…]

Let’s say the user wants to access 100KB of data, it will require 100*1024/150 = 683 packets + 683 acknowledgments .
Those too small packets will take ( 683 + 683 ) * 100ms = 137sec to be transferred.
I believe this is the reason why the service is slow for our users.

Normally, the packet size should be 1500bytes. In this case, the data would take 13,7sec to be transferred, which is acceptable.
I’m not sure what server parameter needs to be tuned up, but we need your suggestion for this case !
Please let me know if you need more information, as this is an urgent issue for me.
User avatar
mattgoff
MVP
Posts: 516
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 1:37 pm
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: 10.2.2.6
Excel Version: O365
Location: Florida, USA

Re: TM1 Network performance problem

Post by mattgoff »

This is very interesting info-- we also have quite a few users connecting over long distances with very poor performance. I don't have any info to add, but please let us know if you learn more or if Cognos responds.

Thanks,
Matt
Please read and follow the Request for Assistance Guidelines. It helps us answer your question and saves everyone a lot of time.
User avatar
Eric
MVP
Posts: 373
Joined: Wed May 14, 2008 1:21 pm
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: 9.4
Excel Version: 2003
Location: Chicago, IL USA

Re: TM1 Network performance problem

Post by Eric »

We have users using TM1 over the WAN and the performance was unacceptable. We tuned the cubes as best as we could and that helped a lot. In the end the way worked around it was TM1 Web for users to retrieve information and TI & ASCII Files to load info. I can get into more detail if you need me to, but not a lot of detail. Remember I am a finance guy who does not have access to the server, but I try to tweak my way around IT as much as possible.
Regards,
Eric
Blog: http://tm1-tipz.blogspot.com
Articles: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/use ... /label/TM1


Production: 32 bit 9.0 SP2, Windows 2000 Advanced Server. Web: 32 bit 9.0 SP2, Windows 2000 Server. Excel 2003
ScottW
Regular Participant
Posts: 152
Joined: Fri May 23, 2008 12:08 am
OLAP Product: TM1 CX
Version: 9.5 9.4.1 9.1.4 9.0 8.4
Excel Version: 2003 2007
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Contact:

Re: TM1 Network performance problem

Post by ScottW »

It sounds like the core issue is to do with network communication protocol but there are some other things you can do to tune performance over a WAN. For starters is the port the tm1 server is using being given priority over non-critical network traffic?

From a report design perspective has everything possible being done to optimise the excel report? Eg.
- DBRW not DBR queries
- valid stargate view formula for all DBRWs
- only use SUBNM formulas for title elements
- minimise use of other non-WAN-optimised "chatty" queries
Cheers,
Scott W
Cubewise
www.cubewise.com
User avatar
Mike Cowie
Site Admin
Posts: 482
Joined: Sun May 11, 2008 7:07 pm
OLAP Product: IBM TM1/PA, SSAS, and more
Version: Anything thru 11.x
Excel Version: 2003 - Office 365
Location: Alabama, USA
Contact:

Re: TM1 Network performance problem

Post by Mike Cowie »

I think this thread may be about to go in 2 different directions here:
[*] Performance of TM1 Web users across a WAN
[*] Performance of TM1 Excel client users across a WAN

Both are quite different animals so I wanted to follow up with the original poster talking about TM1 Web:
anote wrote:Our users accessing TM1 web over WAN links reported that using TM1 is very slow.
With TM1 Web, there are a couple higher-level things it would be good to understand:
1. Is TM1 Web running on physically separate hardware from your TM1 Server? If they are separate, what is the network connection like between the two since this is one component of the overall performance of TM1 Web: how easily is TM1 Web able to get TM1 data from the TM1 Server?
2. What is the network configuration between the TM1 Web server and your users? I think you've largely answered this question, but have you done tests with multiple users at different locations at different times of the day? We've found at some clients that some parts of the WAN are far worse than others depending on the office location and the "pipe" capacity/average load throughout the day. A particular amount of bandwidth may seem adequate on paper, but if email, accounting, timekeeping, etc applications are sharing the same wire you can see some dramatic fluctuations while testing.

Again, I think you've got a pretty good handle on #2, but I wanted to check to see if you had any other information, particularly if the TM1 Server and TM1 Web Server are physically separate. In terms of the packet sizes -- if you're talking about users accessing TM1 Web then I would think that might have more to do with Internet Information Server (IIS - the web server) than TM1 Web or TM1 Server since IIS is presumably the thing controlling the size of physical packets sent to web clients - not TM1.

However, one thing I will mention is that several people have talked about the quantity/size of HTML/Javascript in rendered TM1 Web pages. I don't think it is possible to access this anymore via Cognos' forums, but Alan Kirk at the old Applix TM1 forum had posted some very candid observations about the size of published Excel workbooks over TM1 Web as rendered in the web browser. And, the following posting at bihints, while I don't think it's a fair comparison to pit the TM1 Excel client cube viewer against the TM1 Web cube viewer because one is transmitting HTML and Javascript to the the client while the other is transmitting effectively just the data for the view, it does illustrate the quantity (in KB) of data that moves between TM1 Web server and user web browser: http://bihints.com/tm1web_vs_tm1_server ... deathmatch.

The bottom line is that you may also want to look at the size of the web pages that TM1 Web users are accessing. If there are very large Excel workbooks that are being viewed over the web, it is possible that you'd be better off breaking them down into smaller pieces. I don't like that solution, but it might be worth trying to see if that brings the performance into more acceptable ranges. If your users are using the TM1 Web Cube Viewer, that's a slightly different thing from Excel workbooks that are published because I believe it always defaults to only show 20 columns and 100 rows at any one time (which you can change by editing CubeViewerRowPageSize and CubeViewerColumnPageSize parameters in Web.Config).

Hope that helps give you some other things to investigate. Please let us know what you find...

Regards,
Mike Cowie
QueBIT Consulting, LLC

Are you lost without Print Reports in Planning Analytics for Excel (PAfE)? Get it back today, for free, with Print Reports for IBM Planning Analytics for Excel!
User avatar
mattgoff
MVP
Posts: 516
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 1:37 pm
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: 10.2.2.6
Excel Version: O365
Location: Florida, USA

Re: TM1 Network performance problem

Post by mattgoff »

After playing around for an hour or so this morning, I highly recommend anyone using TM1 Web take a look at Firefox 3.0. The rendering engine has been significantly improved, and I find websheet performance to be dramatically faster.

Anyway, here are the results of my testing with Firebug. The xls template is 421 KB. The server is in San Francisco, and I'm in London. Note: times below are response + transfer times (per Firebug)-- rendering is additional and unmeasured.
  • Initial login to TM1 and loading frames/topbar/navbar: 5.54 seconds for 550 KB.
  • First load of the template: 3.74 seconds for 1.02 MB.
  • Closing and reopening the websheet: 2.18 seconds for 646 KB.
  • Changing a SUBNM linked by all DBRWs: 0.22 seconds for 635 KB.
1.gif
1.gif (58.17 KiB) Viewed 31080 times
BTW, I also noticed that by default TM1 is looking for C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\TM1Web\css\TM1CustomStyles.css which added a few hundred ms to the download time. Adding a blank file eliminated the delay. I'm sure locating wherever this is configured and removing it would be better, but....

As far as using the Excel plug-in over the WAN, it's completely unusable beyond a certain distance. I can access our boxes in Paris and Munich directly without any problems. Boxes in SF, Sydney, etc can only be managed indirectly by remote desktop. I haven't dug into the details, but I suspect that some network module in TM1 is intolerant of latency longer than a given level.

Matt
Please read and follow the Request for Assistance Guidelines. It helps us answer your question and saves everyone a lot of time.
User avatar
Steve Vincent
Site Admin
Posts: 1054
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 8:33 am
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: 10.2.2 FP1
Excel Version: 2010
Location: UK

Re: TM1 Network performance problem

Post by Steve Vincent »

matt goff wrote:As far as using the Excel plug-in over the WAN, it's completely unusable beyond a certain distance. I can access our boxes in Paris and Munich directly without any problems. Boxes in SF, Sydney, etc can only be managed indirectly by remote desktop. I haven't dug into the details, but I suspect that some network module in TM1 is intolerant of latency longer than a given level.
Would agree with that, I've had users on some oddly configured networks that are only 8 miles down the road, and one of them managed to crash our server simply by recalculating a report with different parameters 5 or 6 times. Anyone not directly connected to the network the server is on should seriously considering something like Citrix unless they have time to burn :lol:
If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator.
Production: Planning Analytics 64 bit 2.0.5, Windows 2016 Server. Excel 2016, IE11 for t'internet
User avatar
rollo19
Posts: 80
Joined: Wed May 28, 2008 2:42 am
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: 10.1
Excel Version: 2010
Location: Perth, Australia

Re: TM1 Network performance problem

Post by rollo19 »

Great info thanks guys. So low network latency and solid free bandwidth are important for any bottom-up planning. Has anyone got some practical guidelines for network capacity, latency, slice/view sizes, client tools & user numbers?

It appears Cube Viewer (client install) is more efficient with network traffic than TM1Web. What was the result with E.V.? i.e. Did anyone get to the end of this? http://bihints.com/tm1web_vs_tm1_server ... deathmatch

Can anyone tell me if TM1Web workbook adds any overhead to that of a cube view in TM1Web?

No doubt the R&D going into a Contributor style front end for TM1 will resolve some of these issues, but until then..
User avatar
mattgoff
MVP
Posts: 516
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 1:37 pm
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: 10.2.2.6
Excel Version: O365
Location: Florida, USA

Re: TM1 Network performance problem

Post by mattgoff »

rollo19 wrote:It appears Cube Viewer (client install) is more efficient with network traffic than TM1Web. What was the result with E.V.? i.e. Did anyone get to the end of this? http://bihints.com/tm1web_vs_tm1_server ... deathmatch
Lots of good analysis work in that post, but it misses a key point about the traffic that completely changes the recommendation. I'll say it plainly at the beginning: for medium to high latency situations, TM1 Web is a much, much better solution than Excel/Perspectives.

The key is that the Cube Viewer appears to send every cell value (plus every subset element, etc) in a separate packet. Worse, it sends the packets sequentially and synchronously, so each must be received and acknowledged before the next is sent. I posted more about this in another thread.

For TM1 Web, the effective latency between "Perspectives" and the TM1 server is very low (assuming TM1 and TM1 Web are running on the same server). The web page is composed locally and IIS controls the remote communication to the user. IIS sends the page using full-size, asynchronous packets (and compression can be enabled as well). So, while it is true that the amount of transferred data for a given template/view is larger for TM1 Web, the network messaging architecture makes it faster.

For example, I have one user in Russia that, for technical reasons, has to use our server in San Francisco. Load times for a given template in TM1 Web are 10-15 seconds vs. 4-5 minutes in Excel/Perspectives. Is less data sent via Perspectives? Probably. Is it much slower? Definitely.

Matt
Please read and follow the Request for Assistance Guidelines. It helps us answer your question and saves everyone a lot of time.
User avatar
paulsimon
MVP
Posts: 808
Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2011 11:10 pm
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: PA 2.0.5
Excel Version: 2016
Contact:

Re: TM1 Network performance problem

Post by paulsimon »

Hi

We had a network with 100ms latency - well inside the 250ms latency listed by Cognos, but the performance was still unacceptable. It wasn't so much the slowness, but it was the unpredictability, and the client crashes that were the problem. Reports could take 30 seconds one time and 4 minutes the next. Bandwidth was not an issue. We have plenty of that. We monitored the server, and basically TM1 is very chatty, with almost as much information going out from the client as that coming back from the server. TM1 is not like SQL where a small query retrieves a lot of data. The formatting etc is all bound up with the retrieval as you want to retrieve the data in to precise cell locations, and you have the capability to retrieve a value from any cell in the cube in to any cell in the spreadsheet (even though typically you want a grid's worth, which could probably be specified more efficiently)

I have only skimmed through the previous but I didn't see any mention of Terminal Services or Citrix as a possible solution.

Particularly with Terminal Services, the cost is lower probably lower than that of TM1 Web, and in my view it is a superior solution. You don't need to start re-writing your workbooks to have only one Sheet as you do with TM1 Web. You don't need to give up VBA Macros. You don't get the formatting and configuration problems that you do with TM1 Web.

I have heard of a few issues with TS and Citrix but no where near as many as with TM1 Web.

Compared to installing the TM1 Client on every desktop the Total Cost of Ownership is a lot lower. IT Depts are generally happier to install a TS client on to a desktop than an 'unknown' like the TM1 client. There are also often other client/server applications that can benefit from a TS roll out.

Regards


Paul Simon
User avatar
Alan Kirk
Site Admin
Posts: 6606
Joined: Sun May 11, 2008 2:30 am
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: PA2.0.9.18 Classic NO PAW!
Excel Version: 2013 and Office 365
Location: Sydney, Australia
Contact:

Re: TM1 Network performance problem

Post by Alan Kirk »

PaulSimon wrote: I have only skimmed through the previous but I didn't see any mention of Terminal Services or Citrix as a possible solution.
Steve mentioned it three posts up.
PaulSimon wrote:Particularly with Terminal Services, the cost is lower probably lower than that of TM1 Web, and in my view it is a superior solution. You don't need to start re-writing your workbooks to have only one Sheet as you do with TM1 Web. You don't need to give up VBA Macros. You don't get the formatting and configuration problems that you do with TM1 Web.

I have heard of a few issues with TS and Citrix but no where near as many as with TM1 Web.

Compared to installing the TM1 Client on every desktop the Total Cost of Ownership is a lot lower. IT Depts are generally happier to install a TS client on to a desktop than an 'unknown' like the TM1 client. There are also often other client/server applications that can benefit from a TS roll out.
I have to agree with this completely. Speaking from experience the main problem seems to arise when you have a merger with another company and the two networks take some time to come together; getting the Citrix connection to work in the meantime can be massively fiddly. However given that it's unsafe to expose TM1 Web outside an Intranet anyway, that's neither here nor there.

The main problem that I've come across is re-educating people. "But isn't WEB a better solution for business units who are located remotely? I mean, after all, it's WEB, and the WEB is everywhere!"

Yeah, maybe if you run it through a VPN...
"To them, equipment failure is terrifying. To me, it’s 'Tuesday.' "
-----------
Before posting, please check the documentation, the FAQ, the Search function and FOR THE LOVE OF GLUB the Request Guidelines.
User avatar
mattgoff
MVP
Posts: 516
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 1:37 pm
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: 10.2.2.6
Excel Version: O365
Location: Florida, USA

Re: TM1 Network performance problem

Post by mattgoff »

TM1 Web and Perspectives (via Citrix) aren't really substitutes. We use TM1 Web for low-usage users (mainly execs and read-only ops types) since it is zero footprint and has a simple, fully customizable interface. It does suffer from reduced capability (really only the lack of VBA), flexibility, and some template design/layout glitches, but I haven't had that many problems designing around them. Side note: TM1 Web does support multi-sheet workbooks-- always has as long as we've been using it (9.0 SP2).

Financially, TM1 Web was free in our package, so the incremental cost was zero. Citrix has a per-seat fee, so we avoid it unless we have a user that requires Perspectives and is remote. That said, if I had to do it all over, I would go with a single, monster TM1 server in SF and use the money I spent on my other TM1 servers to pay for Citrix licenses. Replication works, but sometimes I think it's only spit and sticky tape holding it together.... Of course, Cognos could just fix the messaging architecture too :evil:

Matt
Please read and follow the Request for Assistance Guidelines. It helps us answer your question and saves everyone a lot of time.
Paul Segal
Community Contributor
Posts: 306
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 8:11 am
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: TM1 11 and up
Excel Version: Too many to count

Re: TM1 Network performance problem

Post by Paul Segal »

Matt,

As a matter of interest, why Citrix over TS?

Regards

Paul
Paul
User avatar
mattgoff
MVP
Posts: 516
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 1:37 pm
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: 10.2.2.6
Excel Version: O365
Location: Florida, USA

Re: TM1 Network performance problem

Post by mattgoff »

Paul Segal wrote:As a matter of interest, why Citrix over TS?
Convenience, really. We (CNET/CBSi) already had a Citrix server in production for SFA, so we piggy-back on them when necessary. It was easier to beg a few licenses than start up our own TS.

Matt
Please read and follow the Request for Assistance Guidelines. It helps us answer your question and saves everyone a lot of time.
User avatar
Alan Kirk
Site Admin
Posts: 6606
Joined: Sun May 11, 2008 2:30 am
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: PA2.0.9.18 Classic NO PAW!
Excel Version: 2013 and Office 365
Location: Sydney, Australia
Contact:

Re: TM1 Network performance problem

Post by Alan Kirk »

Paul Segal wrote:Matt,

As a matter of interest, why Citrix over TS?
In our case we used to use TS. The advantages that Citrix gave us were:
(a) With TS IT would have to manually set up printer definitions for any new users on the TS server. With Citrix, they're picked up directly from the user's own profile which lowers the overall maintenance needed;
(b) Citrix allows the users to access their local hard drives from within the session, which TS didn't.
"To them, equipment failure is terrifying. To me, it’s 'Tuesday.' "
-----------
Before posting, please check the documentation, the FAQ, the Search function and FOR THE LOVE OF GLUB the Request Guidelines.
User avatar
paulsimon
MVP
Posts: 808
Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2011 11:10 pm
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: PA 2.0.5
Excel Version: 2016
Contact:

Re: TM1 Network performance problem

Post by paulsimon »

Matt

I know that TM1 Web does support multiple sheets, but my point was more that people generally try to avoid them because that means a bigger workbook and therefore longer download times.

Cost wise we don't have a license for TM1 Web so TS is much cheaper as less than £100 per user for 5 CALS. It is also possible to share the cost with other applications.

Alan

We are using TS at the moment and it does now support the ability to share your local drives and printers, which should get past the two points that you mentioned. We still have Win XP SP2, so we had to install the later TS client, however, I believe that the latest client is part of Win XP SP3. Having said that, the ability to share drives worked before this. There was some other reason why they needed the later version. I think it was related to printers.

I don't know how true this is but according to our really techy guys Terminal Services is basically one version behind Citrix, since Microsoft and Citrix work together pretty closely on each version.

Regards


Paul Simon
User avatar
Alan Kirk
Site Admin
Posts: 6606
Joined: Sun May 11, 2008 2:30 am
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: PA2.0.9.18 Classic NO PAW!
Excel Version: 2013 and Office 365
Location: Sydney, Australia
Contact:

Re: TM1 Network performance problem

Post by Alan Kirk »

mattgoff wrote:TM1 Web and Perspectives (via Citrix) aren't really substitutes. We use TM1 Web for low-usage users (mainly execs and read-only ops types)
With respect, and as someone who implemented Web for exactly that purpose, I'd see Citrix as a substitute that some people could be forced into (and indeed one that would be my active preference in many ways). The disadvantage with Citrix is that it's not zero footprint, but aside from that at least you have REAL Excel and you can build vastly more functional, legible, dynamic and attractive dashboards in that environment than you can via Websheets. The biggest issue that we had was speed; we were getting websheets with a mere few hundred rows (easily within the bounds of a normal, detailed P&L statement) taking anything up to a minute to open.

That having been said, though, I've done some further speed testing this morning and have noticed a distinct increase in speed; the only difference being that since the original tests were done we've upgraded to the most recent releases of 9.1 on the Web server. Anything up to about 1000 rows (* 12 columns) seems to be more viable now, though 20 odd seconds for a report of that size is still far from what I'd call lightning fast. Start getting into a couple of thousand rows of data, though (pretty easy with a few hundred products or profit centres, even at a summarised P&L level), and you're back to pushing well over a minute.
mattgoff wrote:since it is zero footprint and has a simple, fully customizable interface.
"Fully" is flattering it a bit. "Extensively" I'll buy. The fact that you can only prevent users from accessing one of the three nodes in the Navigation pane (Applications, Views and Administration) by tweaking the .config file (and thereby affecting ALL Web users) is a brain-dead piece of design. That should have been configurable on a user by user basis. With all of the things which CAN be configured via the }ClientSettings cube (good), I'm at a loss to see why that can't be (BAD). Obviously for Execs who you don't want to be able to go poking in and doing ad hoc queries (the ones who don't know the full chart of accounts and departmental structure, and who traditionally look only at high level reports), you have to turn the Views node off. That thereby stuffs anyone else from using that node, and the only workaround is publishing views in the Applications folders.
mattgoff wrote: It does suffer from reduced capability (really only the lack of VBA),
That's a pretty big reduction, though...
mattgoff wrote: flexibility, and some template design/layout glitches, but I haven't had that many problems designing around them.
Me either, but there comes a point where you just get sick of having to load a Websheet that looks fine in Excel but has hashes instead of values in Web, pull it down, expand the columns, reload it, find huge honking amounts of space that make the thing scroll way off the screen, pull it down, narrow the columns again...

If I do the report in Excel and have the users LOAD it in Excel via Citrix, I can be pretty sure it'll look the way it should from the outset.
mattgoff wrote: Side note: TM1 Web does support multi-sheet workbooks-- always has as long as we've been using it (9.0 SP2).
My previous experience with that was the same as Paul's; yes they work, but they're so slow that they can be a pain to the point of being unviable. Also I find that people who AREN'T particularly sophisticated computer users get annoyed and befuddled by having tabs at both the top and bottom of the screen. And hiding the tabs at the top won't fly unless you have all of your reports in one monster workbook which would take forever and a day to load.

The other reasons that I'd rather deploy reports by Excel / Citrix rather than Web are:
- At least if I put a graphic in Excel it'll LOOK the way I intended when someone loads it in Excel, and not like someone has put it through a blender;
- You mentioned Firefox 3. I haven't tried that with Web, but I DO know that with Firefox 2 not only did graphics which looked OK in IE go back to looking like the cat had been playing with them, the text looked jaggier than the Swiss Alps and the instruction to NOT display gridlines wasn't honoured which made the websheet almost illegible. I might take a look at FF3 tonight and see whether it's the same.

I'd be a lot happier with Web if it supported the insertion of user-created HTML or XHTML sheets (there are times when I'm flat-out embarrased to show people websheets, especially when graphs are involved), but I'm not holding my breath.

Given my druthers about presenting a report to ANY user though, I know that with Citrix/Excel it'll be fast, it'll look like it was intended to, and I can make it spin on the head of a pin with VBA. With Web I know that it'll be slower, less flexible, a damn sight uglier or at least plainer, browser-dependent, but has the redeeming feature of being able to be viewed through a browser (as long as you pick the right one) albeit only after the user gets to the Intranet in some way.
"To them, equipment failure is terrifying. To me, it’s 'Tuesday.' "
-----------
Before posting, please check the documentation, the FAQ, the Search function and FOR THE LOVE OF GLUB the Request Guidelines.
User avatar
Alan Kirk
Site Admin
Posts: 6606
Joined: Sun May 11, 2008 2:30 am
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: PA2.0.9.18 Classic NO PAW!
Excel Version: 2013 and Office 365
Location: Sydney, Australia
Contact:

Re: TM1 Network performance problem

Post by Alan Kirk »

PaulSimon wrote:Alan

We are using TS at the moment and it does now support the ability to share your local drives and printers, which should get past the two points that you mentioned. We still have Win XP SP2, so we had to install the later TS client, however, I believe that the latest client is part of Win XP SP3. Having said that, the ability to share drives worked before this. There was some other reason why they needed the later version. I think it was related to printers.

I don't know how true this is but according to our really techy guys Terminal Services is basically one version behind Citrix, since Microsoft and Citrix work together pretty closely on each version.
Ah; it's been a few years since we migrated from TS to Citrix, so perhaps things have moved on from then. I recall that those were two of the principal selling points that our IT department gave at the time, though there were a couple of others which were site-specific. (Like the fact that we'd have access to the other servers in the Citrix farm in case ours fell over.)
"To them, equipment failure is terrifying. To me, it’s 'Tuesday.' "
-----------
Before posting, please check the documentation, the FAQ, the Search function and FOR THE LOVE OF GLUB the Request Guidelines.
User avatar
mattgoff
MVP
Posts: 516
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 1:37 pm
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: 10.2.2.6
Excel Version: O365
Location: Florida, USA

Re: TM1 Network performance problem

Post by mattgoff »

You disagreed when I said TM1 Web and Citrix weren't substitutes for each other-- but then went point-by-point on how TM1 Web can't do everything that Perspectives/Citrix can... :D Are we in violent agreement maybe?

I do see that people try to substitute TM1 Web in place of Citrix, but for all the reasons you mention and more it's just not a substitute. The back of a screwdriver can be used as a hammer in a pinch-- but it's still better when used to twist screws....

TM1 Web is a very useful, complimentary product alongside TM1/Perspectives as long as you work within its constraints. I have specifically chosen it over Citrix for light-users and executives as the interface can be made extremely simple by setting a default application template to load on entry, hiding the nav pane and TM1 Web toolbars, and using Excel and action buttons to provide the navigation interface. All of these can be set by-user.

As far as laginess, I haven't heard any complaints yet. Users expect slower response times while using web applications, so they approach it with different expectations. Plus, for my users on TM1 Web, they're not doing a ton of clicking around and refreshing-- they're typically pulling up a dashboard or standard report.

Matt
Please read and follow the Request for Assistance Guidelines. It helps us answer your question and saves everyone a lot of time.
User avatar
Alan Kirk
Site Admin
Posts: 6606
Joined: Sun May 11, 2008 2:30 am
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: PA2.0.9.18 Classic NO PAW!
Excel Version: 2013 and Office 365
Location: Sydney, Australia
Contact:

Re: TM1 Network performance problem

Post by Alan Kirk »

mattgoff wrote:You disagreed when I said TM1 Web and Citrix weren't substitutes for each other-- but then went point-by-point on how TM1 Web can't do everything that Perspectives/Citrix can... :D Are we in violent agreement maybe?
No, but perhaps we misunderstood each other somewhat; I read your statement that:
mattgoff wrote:TM1 Web and Perspectives (via Citrix) aren't really substitutes. We use TM1 Web for low-usage users (mainly execs and read-only ops types)
as meaning that Perspectives wasn't a substitute for Web (given that you then went on to talk about what you used Web for), though I can now see that you meant it more broadly than that.

I'm definitely in violent agreement that Web is an awful substitute for Perspectives, but would be less in agreement that Perspectives can't be made to substitute for Web which was really the argument that I was making. At least, this is so if you can get past the (not universal, but all too frequent in many companies) senior executive mindset of "Ohmygod if I need to use anything more complicated than a browser then you're trying to turn me into a techie and my time's far too important for that (do you know how much more I get paid than you?) so just give it to me in a Web format, preferably a pretty one".

It's much easier to get Excel to look like a browser than it is to get a browser to function as well as Excel.
"To them, equipment failure is terrifying. To me, it’s 'Tuesday.' "
-----------
Before posting, please check the documentation, the FAQ, the Search function and FOR THE LOVE OF GLUB the Request Guidelines.
Post Reply