Forum Discussion

James_Slack's avatar
James_Slack
Level 6
11 years ago

Probles with A queues A5 A6 and A7

Hi,

I have 2 servers and looking in the Message Queuing I can see a backlog of messages in there.

 

Server 1

A5 = 4240

A6 = 10329

A7 = 419

 

Server 2

A5 = 1341

A6 = 6786

A7 = 202

 

I have done some basic things to see if they will go down, change the schedule, stop archiving for a bit, reboot etc. Nothing. It seems this lot is stuck in the queues.

My questions are this.

1) What are each queue used for?

 

2) How do I clear down each queue and would we lose data doing so?

Configuring
Enterprise Vault
Error messages
Information Governance
Windows Server (2003-2008)
  • JesusWept3's avatar
    JesusWept3
    11 years ago
    A7 = scheduled mailbox synchronization A6 = moved shortcut processing (updates the folder and retention categories when Items are moved) A5 = scheduled mailbox archiving Have a look on your SQL server and see if your CPU is through the roof Moved item processing can be quite intensive and if you don't do regular maintanance on your SQL server, ie index rebuilds, then you can cause major slow downs on SQL etc which slow everything down
  • EdLacey's avatar
    EdLacey
    11 years ago

    If your server has the recommended rather than the minimum amount of CPU's for the version of EV you're running and they're not maxed out during an archive task then definitely increase Archive Processes but be cautious. First, try increasing the number to equal the amount of CPU's (I'll assume 8) then monitor performance during an archive run. If CPU's/Memory aren't maxed out try increasing to 10 then 12.

    Have a read of the relevant Performance Guide for your version of EV

    http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC2200

     

    If your EV server is virtualised take a look at this best practise guide

    http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH180094

     

17 Replies

Sort By
Show More
  • WiTSend's avatar
    WiTSend
    Level 6
    11 years ago

    One of the 1st things I would do is change the archiving schedules to a given non-working hour timeslot each day.  If you are sized correctly you shoudl be able to do all daily archiving in an 4-8 hour window per day.  That would free up the resources to perform the other tasks. 

    Generally I run the archiving window from 1 hour after the normal workday end to midnight.  Then I schedule the backups of EV 1 hour after archiving ends.  I.e...  archiving window 7pm-12am ,  backup 1am-4am window.  All other processes can clear the queues with the available cycles.

  • EdLacey's avatar
    EdLacey
    Level 5
    11 years ago

    Upper limit is 25.

    When you say you tried 12 and it made little to no difference do you mean you weren't seeing the A5 queue go down any quicker?

  • James_Slack's avatar
    James_Slack
    Level 6
    11 years ago

    2 problems with that WiT Send.

    1) We are a 24x7 Global business. There is no after hours and no quiet period.

    2) The backup job is run within a separate system and we are unable to control when it starts (starts when there is a gap in the quue of about 400 servers being backed up). Though to be clear, we only backup the open partition. All of the closed stuff I deal with manually.

  • James_Slack's avatar
    James_Slack
    Level 6
    11 years ago

    EdLacey, I could not see the queues clearing faster and there was certainly no boost in CPU utilization.

    I've just rebooted the server and will leave it over night and see how it looks in the morning.

    Thanks

  • James_Slack's avatar
    James_Slack
    Level 6
    11 years ago

    Actually Ed, it does seem the A5 queues are going down a bit quicker now thanks. Will see how it looks tomorrow morning.

    A6 and A7 remain about the same.

  • WiTSend's avatar
    WiTSend
    Level 6
    11 years ago

    Regardless of the global nature of the operations (mine is as well) it works very well to confine the archiving window to a 6-8 hour window and allow cycles for the other processes.  In my experience this methodology will give the most efficient performance to EV.

  • James_Slack's avatar
    James_Slack
    Level 6
    11 years ago

    Hi Wit Send, This was how we had our archiving (8 hour window) before but I was told by the consultant who came in that this is no longer the case with EV10. This is why we had it set to 24x7.

    I have now dropped it down to have 15 minutes of stoppage every 4 hours.

    I think I am going to close this case and log a new one specifically for the A6 and A7 queues.

    Since making Ed's change the A5 queue is dropping now and while it is not empty yet, I expect it will be soon enough.