IBD Performance Issues

[rothnic]

Does anyone else have issues with connectors on IBDs introducing lag? Any new IBD is fine until I add connectors, then it becomes very painful to move just about anything on the diagram, but repositioning connectors is the biggest impact.

I tried simply an item flow instead of a connector, and it seems to be less of an impact, but still has a bit of lag to it.

This is version 10.0.1007

[rothnic]

A follow up on this issue.

The performance issue was confirmed to be cpu bound, and not RAM. EA only uses a single core the majority of the time and quickly becomes bound by the single thread. You can see with many properties on an IBD with many connections and labels that your CPU will peg out at 25% in the case of a 4 core cpu.

This issue as I try to have a grand view type diagram that integrates all the many component diagrams of the reusable components of our enterprise, that it becomes near impossible to work with EA. Even when removing all labels, when you get up to 100's of properties on one diagram, EA really starts crawling.

I find that as more and more properties are added, if you use the Paste Diagram feature to use the preformatted reusable components, it takes sometimes 4-5 minutes to paste in the elements for use in the diagram.

[Helmut Ortmann]

Hello,

I'm not aware of any performance problems (*.eap or Database).

Have you tried:

• Tools, Data Management, Manage EAP File, Compact .EAP file
• Tools, Data Management, Project Integrity Check

Where is the *.eap file located (local or somewhere global)?

Helmut

[rothnic]

Here is an example Model file that has the issue, along with a screenshot of the loading.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwotitHXXmF5ZXQ2VV9yMWhjNUE/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwotitHXXmF5amd1VHBCVEFsRjQ/edit?usp=sharing

You can see the issue when moving the connectors around on the diagram (opens as default diagram in model). This is actually a lot more simple compared to some of the diagrams I am working on, which connect up 10's of lower level IBD's that are a little more simple than this one IBD. I see a much more serious degredation than is present in the sample model to the point that I nearly cannot create the product that is required of me with EA. While I can eventually get it done, it takes significantly more time than it should.

It does have an issue ID (Issue ID: 13065587), I just wanted to follow up so others know that it has been confirmed.

[Helmut Ortmann]

Hello,

I tried your model and IBD with my notebook (Windows 8 and SSD).

I see no performance problems. All went smoothly. In background runs BOINIC which consumes all left CPU power.

May be I'll try it tomorrow on my working PC (Windows XT and a hard drive). I don't think there are any problems.

In my opinion this is a problem of your PC.

Helmut  

[rothnic]

The provided example does work fine. The issue is that it is starting to get a little jagged on my work laptop (5400rpm hd, 2.3ghz i5).

On my desktop (4700k @ 4.5Ghz, 24GB RAM, Sandisk Extreme II SSD) I get no problems as well, but that does not mean there isn't an issue. Open up your CPU monitor, then start dragging a connector around. What you will see is that it will nearly be loading up a single processor core just to move a connector around on a diagram. Powerpoint, Visio, MagicDraw all do not have the issue with similar diagram complexities. Over the whole processor, you will see low overall loading (15-25%), but for the single core it will be nearing max.

As you scale the problem up to a networking connection type diagram, now the computer that didn't have a problem does start to show one, and the normal laptop that was only slightly showing a problem before is now showing a bad problem.

So, it is not a case where the issue does or does not exist. It has been confirmed on multiple computers with multiple operating systems, amounts of ram, etc. It is simply a scaling issue, where it both matters what the size of the diagram is and the hardware the the computer has. If you make a deep copy of that diagram 5 times into another IBD, I'd bet you'd be about at the point of maxing out the cpu core in use if you don't an issue with the attached..

[qwerty]

I tried it with my MacBook Pro (i7) in Parallels. No issue at all. Yes, the CPU is going a bit up when dragging connectors. But I don't feel anything going slow. Maybe your machine is simply a bit too old?

q.

[rothnic]

So, this is using my personal computer I mentioned at home. I am not so lucky to be able to use modern tech at work, which is typical with government related work. My personal computer is a 4700k (haswell) overclocked to 4.5GHz, with 24GB of ram, with one of the fastest SSD's available. This computer is brand new and eventually (remember this is a scaling issue, not incompatibility) sees the same issue as the others.

The key point, and this is one that the Sparx employee missed as well, is that you must look at the task manager view for the individual cores. Otherwise, you will think nothing is wrong at all. For example:

I take the example IBD, then grab one of the connectors then start moving it all around and don't stop. This computer actually shows now immediate issue at all. Check the task manager and you would think there is no issue as well:

26%? What is the problem?


Well, if you right click the graph and choose "Logical Processors," this is what you see:



So, while you do not see any initial degredation, only using a single core, and requiring a large amount of resources just to move a line around is a significant issue. When the processor finally does get behind, the lag is going to really start to kick in. This is because it is a combination of processor intensive, in comparison with similar 2d visualization tasks of similar hardware, and single threaded.

When the project scales, as I am experiencing, and/or you don't have the best hardware in the world available at work, as is my situation, the performance impact becomes significant. The result is that it is difficult to move objects around and lining up ports and connectors becomes a major chore.

So to prove the point, I did as I mentioned and created another IBD with 10 deep copies of the original IBD. I expect it might be more obvious that there is an issue. You can try removing them one by one and seeing when it starts to work like normal.

Stress Test Model
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwotitHXXmF5UlNGNVNsYW1zWWs/edit?usp=sharing