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FME runs slower on one machine vs. another


fmelizard
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It's slower on the machine that is supposed to be faster!

Best answer by fmelizard

Comparing program running times across different systems is hard to do.

If you see performance differences, here are some questions to ask.

  • Are you using the same build?
  • Are you using the same bit (32 vs 64)?
  • Does each install of FME have the same access to the source/destination data?
  • Are you using the same operating system?
  • Are you using the same hardware?
  • Is the source data located on SSD or HDD?
  • Is one system running antivirus and the other is not?
  • Is there contention for memory, disk, network, CPU, or other limiting resources?
  • Are there other processes running?

You might interrogate the log files. Is there a slowdown across the whole processing or in one specific area? If it is in one specific area, then you might be able to identify the problem and resolve it. If it is across the whole processing time, then that might be harder to resolve.

In general, performance benchmarking is a hard problem. Many factors need to be static and those that cannot be controlled need to be minimized. Using different machines destroys most controls.

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6 replies

fmelizard
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  • Author
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  • Best Answer
  • October 17, 2016

Comparing program running times across different systems is hard to do.

If you see performance differences, here are some questions to ask.

  • Are you using the same build?
  • Are you using the same bit (32 vs 64)?
  • Does each install of FME have the same access to the source/destination data?
  • Are you using the same operating system?
  • Are you using the same hardware?
  • Is the source data located on SSD or HDD?
  • Is one system running antivirus and the other is not?
  • Is there contention for memory, disk, network, CPU, or other limiting resources?
  • Are there other processes running?

You might interrogate the log files. Is there a slowdown across the whole processing or in one specific area? If it is in one specific area, then you might be able to identify the problem and resolve it. If it is across the whole processing time, then that might be harder to resolve.

In general, performance benchmarking is a hard problem. Many factors need to be static and those that cannot be controlled need to be minimized. Using different machines destroys most controls.


Forum|alt.badge.img+2
  • October 27, 2016

Trying to interpret FME performance issues is covered here

One area we often see a performance difference occur is when FME is deployed on a Virtual Machine and then runs slower than on a desktop. This is often due to a poorly configured VM environment where several VM machines are sharing resources that are actually designed for a single use machine - such as network bandwidth, memory resources, shared drives.

If you're accessing a database from the VM, then network latency on the VM cluster may be an issue. Again, the host VM machine must be capable of supporting the number of guest VM's machines, and this includes the network band with to support database access and network file system.

 


itay
Supporter
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  • Supporter
  • October 27, 2016
markatsafe wrote:

Trying to interpret FME performance issues is covered here

One area we often see a performance difference occur is when FME is deployed on a Virtual Machine and then runs slower than on a desktop. This is often due to a poorly configured VM environment where several VM machines are sharing resources that are actually designed for a single use machine - such as network bandwidth, memory resources, shared drives.

If you're accessing a database from the VM, then network latency on the VM cluster may be an issue. Again, the host VM machine must be capable of supporting the number of guest VM's machines, and this includes the network band with to support database access and network file system.

 

I have encountered this many times and ho boy it is sometimes hard to convince IT to configure the VM machines properly.

 

 


fmelizard
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  • Author
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  • March 14, 2017
markatsafe wrote:

Trying to interpret FME performance issues is covered here

One area we often see a performance difference occur is when FME is deployed on a Virtual Machine and then runs slower than on a desktop. This is often due to a poorly configured VM environment where several VM machines are sharing resources that are actually designed for a single use machine - such as network bandwidth, memory resources, shared drives.

If you're accessing a database from the VM, then network latency on the VM cluster may be an issue. Again, the host VM machine must be capable of supporting the number of guest VM's machines, and this includes the network band with to support database access and network file system.

 

That is great resource for interpreting performance!

 

 

If you are asking the question: why is one system performing better compared to another? - then it may not be useful to try interpret performance. Again, there is probably no value in trying to compare performance across different systems, because it is hard to do.

 

 

If you are asking the question: how can I improve the performance of one system? - then interpreting performance makes sense.

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  • September 11, 2017

One of our users reported that disabling dynamic memory management used for the virtual machines environment improved memory allocation and performance.


runneals
Contributor
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  • Contributor
  • February 6, 2019

After working with @jlutherthomas today, I figured out that the major hardware constraint is your CPU speed. We have an FME Server setup with 9 cores clocked at 2.7Ghz. My desktop has 8 cores clocked at 3.6Ghz. A job I ran was 14 minutes faster on my desktop machine than it was on our FME server box with the same exact versions of FME tested and confirmed on the server box with both FME Desktop and FME Server.


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