Troubleshooting performance issues

This topic lists the issues that you might encounter with the performance of BMC Helix Data Manager. See the guidelines in this topic to obtain the appropriate logging and troubleshooting steps.

Issue symptoms

You might encounter the following errors or failures with the performance of BMC Helix Data Manager:

BMC Helix Data Manager import is slow.
BMC Helix Data Manager export is slow.
BMC Helix Data Manager user interface is slow.

Issue scope

The performance issues might occur for the following use cases:

On-premises to on-premises data migration.
On-premises to SaaS data migration.

Resolution

Verify the configuration checks and troubleshoot the issue that you have faced.

Important

You must follow the steps described in the table in the specified order.

Review the tasks mentioned in the table before looking for additional details under the Common cause and possible solution section.

Step

Task

Description

Review infrastructure checks.

Reviewing the infrastructure checks will help you to understand if you are on the minimum and recommended specifications for on-premises and SaaS systems:

The BMC Helix Data Manager client must be installed on a dedicated virtual machine with no BMC Helix Service Management application. The server must be used for BMC Helix Data Manager migration activity only.

Important:
Network drives will generally be slower than local drives on the source, target system, or a specific BMC Helix Data Manager server.

The table describes the minimum and recommended specifications for an on-premises system:

	CPU	RAM (GB)	Total Disk (GB)
Single Server Repository, Workbench, and Engine	4 CPUs	16-18	100 (minimum)

BMC SaaS operations deploy the staging server with the following configuration:

Component	Details
RAM	24-32 GB
CPU	4 CPUs
Disk	In line with the thin-provision approach used for BMC Helix Service Management deployments, the initial disk allocation will be for the minimal amount necessary. The initial minimal disk sizing is based on the following formulas: For BMC Helix Data Manager import files: Formula: Size of the on-premises database x 120% This sizing allows two full exports of the production system to be uploaded to the cloud. For database backups: Formula: Size of the on-premises database x 200% This sizing allows approximately 2 full backups of a fully migrated database to be held simultaneously. For example, an on-premises database of 400 GB would look like: For BMC Helix Data Manager import files: 400 GB x 120% = 480 GB For database backups: 400 GB x 200% = 800 GB Total: 1280 GB

Review database checks.

Reviewing the database checks will help determine the required database settings for optimal performance.
The tables explain the required settings for Microsoft SQL Server (SQL Server) database and Oracle database.

For the Microsoft SQL Server (SQL Server) database:

Settings	Details
Database recovery mode	For optimal performance during data migration, set the Microsoft SQL database recovery mode to SIMPLE in both the source and target systems. Other recovery modes cause significant performance overheads and use large volumes of REDO logs.
Throttling	Throttling limits the number of requests processed in the database within a specified period. To enhance BMC Helix Data Manager's throughput, disable throttling to avoid reducing query performance.
Tablespace requirements during export	During data export, temporary tables are created to hold key values identifying child form records. These tables are deleted or removed after all child forms are processed. Make sure sufficient space is available and consider the affect on REDO logs if the recovery mode is not set to SIMPLE.
Tablespace requirements during import	During import, temporary tables and indexes are created and removed after each table import. Allocate approximately 20% of the total database size for these temporary tables.
Threading	Multithreading improves migration performance but increases the affect on the database tablespace. Make sure sufficient resources are available to manage a multithreaded migration.

For the Oracle database:

Settings	Details
Disk Input and Output (I/O)	Disk I/O is a major factor during data migration. Use fast disks for the database during exporting or importing directories. Avoid network-mounted disks.
Key factors affecting export and import speeds	Disk Performance: The various areas that get affected by disk performance issues in BMC Helix Data Manager are: Oracle read speed Oracle write speed File system read speed File system export speed Oracle System Global Area (SGA) or Program Global Area (PGA) sizing: This sizing determines the available system memory for operations. Set values that are similar to production-sized SGAs. Archive Log Mode: We recommend disabling Archive Log Mode for the initial import into a clean target system. For subsequent incremental loads, the Archive Log mode can be enabled again. BMC Helix Data Manager creates staging data during export. This generates archive logs. Disable archive logging if you are extracting data from a staging database (according to the best practice). Do not disable archive logging if you are running from a production system. Network Performance Replication Optimizer Mode
AR system case-insensitive option for Oracle database	Configure BMC Helix Data Manager to set the NLS_SORT parameter to BINARY_CI.

For more information, see Database considerations for Microsoft SQL , Performance and tuning and Database considerations for Oracle

Permission checks

The table lists the permissions granted to users or roles of PostgreSQL, Oracle, and MS SQL databases, allowing them to perform actions on database objects:

Database	Privileges
PostgreSQL	On each AR System database for BMC Helix Data Manager, GRANT ALL privileges are required. A few functions are created to support data manipulation on all the databases.
Oracle	User-specific privileges: connect resource create synonym create any view select any table update any table delete any table insert any table create any directory select any dictionary drop any directory A few functions are created to support data manipulation on all the databases.
MS SQL	Database-specific roles: datareader datawriter ddladmin bulkadmin A few functions are created to support data manipulation on all the databases.

For more information, see Database privileges.

Configuration checks

The configuration checks help to optimize the export or import threads and data chunking configurations to improve performance and efficiency of BMC Helix Data Manager.

Export or import threads
Increase the number of threads for better performance when exporting or importing data.

Important: An increase in the number of threads will lead to an increase in the consumption of temporary storage space.
If the environment can handle the load on the practice runs, BMC recommends that you start with 4 to 5 threads and then increase if needed.

Data chunking
Chunk large-form data to help improve performance by reducing the data staged in a single go.

For example:
A 100 GB form with 100,000,000 records indicates that you are loading 100 GB into the target DB temp space at a time. If the form is exported as 1,000,000 record chunks, each chunk will be around 10 GB and much more manageable.

Logs

For BMC Helix Data Manager performance analysis, review the Timings tab on the export or import Job to understand the performance and stability of the task. The average export or import performance will be approximately 10,000 records per second. Anything less than that would indicate a performance issue.

BMC Helix Data Manager logs are enabled under the BMC Helix Data Manager directory on the source and the target system.

Log Path: \BMC Software Install Directory\Helix Data Manager\Engine\log\hdm.log
hdm log.png

Review the log to confirm it contains the Date and Time details of when the activity was performed.

Create a BMC Support case

Make sure you capture detailed information by using the following list while creating a case with BMC Support:

What is the version and name of the Migration Pack?
For example, 20.02 to 21.3, BMC Helix ITSM or BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT application
What is the version and type of source and target database server?
What is the hotfix version of BMC Helix Data Manager tool on the source and target system?
What are the steps to be followed to reproduce the issue or error?
Is the migration activity performed on the source or target system?
Is the migration taking place from on-premises to on-premises system or from on-premises to BMC Helix system?
Is the hdm.log captured as explained in step 5?
Are there any screenshots of errors that were encountered?

After you determine a specific symptom or error message, use the following table to identify the cause and possible solution:

Symptom	Common cause	Action
Oracle database performance issue	There is an issue with the infrastructure. There is a resource limitation within the database on the source or the target system, such as memory (RAM) and processing units (CPUs). Allocation of resources to the virtual computer hosting BMC Helix Data Manager. Disk performance	Examine the Automatic Workload Repository (AWR) reports to determine Oracle-related disk performance issues. Use standard operating system tools to determine the file system read and write performance. To determine the raw throughput on UNIX, use the dd and hdparam commands. For more information about dd and hdpram commands, see Linux and Unix Test Disk I/O Performance With dd Command
MS SQL database performance issue	There is an issue with the infrastructure. There is a resource limitation within the database on the source or the target system, such as memory (RAM) and processing units (CPUs). Allocation of resources to the virtual computer hosting BMC Helix Data Manager. Disk performance	Use Simple recovery mode to import and export data on the Microsoft SQL Server database. Disable throttling to reduce the throughput of queries to the database.
Permission issue	HDM Db User does not have complete access to the BMC Helix Data Manager schema tables. After completing BMC Helix Data Manager user database integration, custom forms are moved to the target system. This results in the BMC Helix Data Manager user not having schema-level access to a particular form or table.	Make sure that the BMC Helix Data Manager database users are given the required privileges and roles based on the database type.

Troubleshooting performance issues

Issue symptoms

Issue scope

Resolution

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