Enterprise 10.9 With Content Directory on Nutanix Network Drive Slow Performance

[CaseyFrost]

We recently installed Enterprise 10.9 using the builder.exe, so a basic install, except we put the content directory on a nutanix network drive with the hope of building out a highly available portal in the future. We installed Enterprise on a VM running windows server 2019 standard, with 24 GB of RAM, and 150 GB of memory. We have not done much with the Enterprise setup besides register an SDE database, publish two or three services, and build one web app. 

Our problem is with the performance of our Enterprise setup. Most of the time, everything about enterprise is super slow, sometimes to the point where I receive 500 errors when trying to connect to something like say ArcServer. Other times it loads, but pretty slowly. Then occasionally it's blazing fast, or as fast as you would expect it to be. 

We white listed all of the install directories to rule out the fire wall as the cause of the poor performance. We also deleted some of the pre-loaded content from ESRI. I also copied dummy files from our VM to the nutanix drive as well as other network drives, and the transfer speed is horrible between our VM and nutanix, except for when portal is running fast, at those times the dummy file copies between the drives quite well.

I am leaning towards this being an issue with our nutanix, and not something that can be fixed by adjusting our Enterprise settings, but I would like to confirm that. Is there anything we can adjust to make enterprise work better when the content directory is on a nutanix drive?

[Scott_Tansley]

Which content directory? theres one for server, one for portal and one for the data store.

[CaseyFrost]

All three are on the nutanix network drive. When you use the builder it asks for the content directory, and builds all three content directories in the same place. 

[Scott_Tansley · Accepted solution]

Yeah - so there are multiple bits in a config store.  Some of it is database related and must be local to the server.  Only the content folder itself, can be remote.  The databases and everything else must be local.  You could reconfigure it all manually, but I would strongly suggest that the initial install must use a local drive.  UNC paths are not recommended for that stuff.  Personally, I also wouldn't head to HA from ArcGIS Enterprise Builder - it's designed for a single-machine deployment only.  If HA is on the roadmap, use alternatives like PowerShell DSC.

[CaseyFrost]

Thanks for the help! I will reconfigure and see if that fixes things. To be clear, only \arcgisportal can be remote, or only \arcgisportal\content?

[Scott_Tansley]

Good question.  Only \arcgisportal\content can be remote.  In the Data Store 'everything' must be local, nothing remote.  ArcGIS Server, it can all be remote.  When I'm building for clients, I target each 'sub-folder' to the correct location.   You just can't do that with Enterprise Builder (from the install screens).  You can probably do it from within Server/Portal admin/manager apps.  But I'm not sure if the Enterprise Builder upgrade would follow that if you upgrade with it later.  I don't use Enterprise Builder as a rule.  I built all my own PowerShell scripts to build to a standard that I've adopted over the years.  

All the best,

Scott Tansley

www.geoworx.co.nz