EA randomly freezes, possibly waiting for some directory/domain access

[Andreas]

Hello,

I'm trying to use EA15.2 in our company network. Sometimes it works just fine, but at random intervalls (and specifically: not bound related to any action performed inside the tool, or a certain file/project) it will freeze completely (the image blurrs a bit and gets stretched, so that it covers the windows task bar; when clicking somewhere the "Application has stopped working" dialog pops up etc.) after a minute or two it will unfreeze again. Looking into the windows task manager shows, that EA.exe is in idle state during that time (i.e. not using much CPU/RAM/SSD).

Unfortunately this is a rather severe problem, because the frequency and duration of the freezes result in more time waiting for the tool to unfreeze, than actual working time.

A college, who is facing the same issue, has the theory, that this happens when EA is trying to access the domain server or some directory stored on the central server (i.e. User\AppData\Roaming or Documents) and then has to wait for some ridiculous long timeouts configured by our sysadmins.

Now I have two questions:

A) Is there a way to further debug this? Any analysis I could run or reports I should send you?

B) Is there a way to configure EA to only use files at specific paths? If our theory is correct, that might already be enough to fix our issues.

Kind Regards,
Andreas

[qwerty]

What kind of DB are you using?

q.

[Geert Bellekens]

I know the behavior, but it's never that long for me. Usually max 5 seconds. Most often after EA has been inactive for a while.
It happens both on my local computer as on client environments.

I was thinking about swapping in/out memory, or maybe that it's because of something I did wrong in one of my add-ins.

I would definitely report it as a bug to get sparx support involved.

Geert

[Andreas]

Hi, thanks for your quick replies

What kind of DB are you using?

File based (with a file saved to a local directory which is not synched with any of the corporate infrastructure -- at least with other tools and their files this fixes the delay caused by the synchronization). More specifically I'm working with the AUTOSAR Metamodel which can be downloaded from here: https://www.autosar.org/fileadmin/user_upload/standards/foundation/21-11/AUTOSAR_MMOD_MetaModel.zip

Usually max 5 seconds. Most often after EA has been inactive for a while.
It happens both on my local computer as on client environments.

Unfortunately, in my case it's not seconds, but minutes, so not just annoying but it makes it almost impossible to work.

I was thinking about swapping in/out memory, or maybe that it's because of something I did wrong in one of my add-ins.

I think this is unlikely. I have 64GiB RAM, most of which is empty, according to the task manager. Swapping should not be neccessary. Or is there some limit on how much memory EA may use (and if so: how do I increase that limit)?

I would definitely report it as a bug to get sparx support involved.

Where/how would I do that, if not in this forum?

Kind Regards,
Andreas

[Geert Bellekens]

EA is 32bit, so 2GB is the maximum it can address.
EA v16 (beta) has a 64bit edition as well.

Reporting a bug is done using the link https://sparxsystems.com/support/forms/bug_report.html at the bottom of the page.

Posting here is only to inform the other users.

Geert

[qwerty]

Filebase means EAP? Not a good idea. Google for "MS Access over the network". Either use EAP on your disk or use a shared server based SQL DB.

q.

[timoc]

I have come across this situation too, especially when it comes to storing large models in an EAP file on infrastructure like sharepoint.

My solution is to keep the model on sharepoint, but to setup a PCS server on my local Desktop to provide access it. It has mitigated most of the 'freeze and blur' issues i have had. Unsecure PCS pretty easy to setup if you are keeping access to localhost. 

I also found that a PCS server (with secure setup) has helped me avoid sharepoint sync issues when trying to edit the same model from a my office desktop and a my home office laptop. Setting up a secure PCS is much trickier though, so make sure to set time aside for it if you want to go this route.

[Geert Bellekens]

I think Andreas explicitly stated he is working on an .eap file on a local drive.

No sharepoint or synchronizations or anyhting like that.

@Andreas, please post back here if you hear from Sparx support. I'm interested in the solution they will hopefully provide.

Geert

[timoc]

I think Andreas explicitly stated he is working on an .eap file on a local drive.

No sharepoint or synchronizations or anyhting like that.

@Andreas, please post back here if you hear from Sparx support. I'm interested in the solution they will hopefully provide.

Geert

I also use PCS for local files too. At least model files that i constantly use.