Role-based administration console: following installation, Enterprise Console slows down
If your Enterprise Console becomes slow or unresponsive after adding Role-based administration consoles to your system, it is probably due to the extra load on the Enterprise Console database. If this happens you can tune the settings of your system.
What to do
Any of the following should improve the performance of your Enterprise Console database.
Use SQL Server 2000 or 2005 instead of MSDE
The Sophos Enterprise Console (SEC) installer, by default, installs MSDE 2000 SP3a. Due to restrictions built into MSDE 2000 by Microsoft, when too many database connections are open, MSDE will slow itself down.
The SEC server components use several database connections, and each instance of the console uses a database connection. When multiple instances of SEC are open at the same time, you will probably see performance degradation due to these MSDE restrictions.
You can correct this by using standard or enterprise editions of SQL Server 2000 or 2005 instead of MSDE 2000.
NOTE: Upgrading to SQL Server 2005 Express Edition may not be appropriate. Whilst it does not impose penalties for too many connections, its performance is restricted in alternative ways by the size of its cache.
Use message relays
By using message relays, the extra load required to communicate directly with every endpoint is effectively moved to a different computer (the relay computer), which frees up the Enterprise Console server resources.
Move the database to a separate computer
If the existing Enterprise Console server is of a low specification, moving the database to a SQL Server instance running on a separate computer should result in improved performance.
For instruction how to move the database to another server, see Appendix B in Sophos Endpoint Security and Control: Network upgrade guide.
Change the database setup
The following actions can improve the performance of the database.
- Deploy the SOPHOS3 database log file on a different drive from the SOPHOS3 database data file.
- Deploy the SQL server tempdb database to a separate disk drive from any other database data and log files.
Configure RAID Array
The status of the hard drive of the computer running the database is very important. The following could improve performance:
- Use high speed hard drives.
- Configure your computer to use either RAID 0 or RAID 10.
- Configure RAID cache to be 50% read and 50% write. Refer to your RAID controller instructions for how to do this.
If you need more information or guidance, then please contact technical support.
- Article ID: 35133
- Created: 26 Feb 2008
- Last updated: 27 Feb 2008
