The document outlines best practices for optimizing Pivotal CRM implementations, focusing on configuration, troubleshooting, and performance monitoring tools. Key areas include system architecture, database performance, and client diagnostics to identify and resolve performance bottlenecks. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of proactive maintenance, log reviews, and the use of available diagnostic tools to ensure optimal performance for users.

1. Pivotal CRM: Optimize your
Pivotal Implementation
Cesar Ceniceros
Manager, Technical Advisory & Education Services

2. Agenda
• How do I achieve an optimal configuration?
– What resources are needed
– How do I know if my system is configured to support my existing users
– What and where to look for performance bottle-necks
• Tools to identify performance degradation points
– Database Server Performance
– Pivotal Business Server Performance
– Pivotal Client Performance
– Reviewing and identifying areas of improvement
• Creating a baseline
– How to assess changes needed
– How to implement changes
– Best practices for comparing results
• Q&A Session
2

3. How do I achieve an optimal
configuration?

4. How do I achieve optimal configuration?
What resources are needed
Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3
Business
Server
Integration SyncStream
Server Server
SharePoint
Server
4

5. How do I achieve optimal configuration?
Typically two things are needed… number one
Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3
Business
Server
Integration SyncStream
Server Server
SharePoint
Server
5

6. How do I achieve optimal configuration?
Number two
System Design – Architecture & application
Administration – Day to day operation
Maintenance – Review logs periodically
Troubleshooting – Research and be accountable
Upgrading – Keep up to date
6

7. How do I achieve optimal configuration
Examples of Best Practices
System Design – Assign appropriate
resources to your Pivotal CRM
application like having dedicated
servers with enough resources
Administration – Do not cut
corners when managing your
Pivotal CRM environment.
7

8. How do I achieve optimal configuration
Quiz # 1
8

9. How do I achieve optimal configuration
Quiz # 1
9

10. How do I achieve optimal configuration?
Examples of Best Practices
Maintenance – Be proactive in reviewing
your logs, do not wait until your users
are complaining about performance
issues
Troubleshooting and Upgrading
– Try to keep your environment
error free and up to date
10

11. How do I know if my system is properly
configured to support my existing users?
Most likely, you’ll know because your
Pivotal Users will let you know when and
if your system is performing slow
Performance monitor tools can alert you
when a Pivotal component is behaving
sluggish
11

12. What and where to look for
performance bottle-necks
Pivotal logs should be the first place
where to look when troubleshooting
non-optimal performance
Event Viewer log can also contain very
useful information related to overall
performance, not just from the Pivotal
side but also from the OS perspective
12

13. Tools to identify performance
degradation points

14. Tools to identify performance degradation points
Which resources are needed?
Tier 1
14

15. Tools to identify performance degradation points
Database Server Performance - Tier 1
Database File Structure (.mdf & .ldf)
• The reason the data file and log file are typically
recommended to be on separate drives is that when
you’re doing inserts/updates/deletes both have to write
at the exact same time
So when is it appropriate to put the data and log files on the same drive, and use the
leftover drive for something else?
• When the database is rarely updated
• When one drive is dramatically faster than the other drive
• When your application extensively uses the TempDB more than anything else
• When the application does heavier disk activity than your SQL Server (same server)
15

16. Tools to identify performance degradation points
Database Server Performance - Tier 1
Setting Min value Max Value Setting Running Value
Ad Hoc Distributed Queries
affinity64 I/O mask
0
-2147483648
1
2147483647
1
0
1
0
sp_configure: Displays or changes
affinity64 mask
Agent XPs
-2147483648
0
2147483647
1
0
1
0
1
global configuration settings for the
awe enabled
blocked process threshold
0
0
1
86400
0
0
0
0 current server
cost threshold for parallelism 0 32767 5 5
cross db ownership chaining 0 1 0 0
cursor threshold -1 2147483647 -1 -1
Database Mail XPs
default full-text language
0
0
1
2147483647
1
1033
1
1033 This information will allow you to ensure
your SQL Server configuration is in line
default language 0 9999 0 0
default trace enabled 0 1 1 1
fill factor (%) 0 100 0 0
ft crawl bandwidth (max)
ft crawl bandwidth (min)
0
0
32767
32767
100
0
100
0
with your business needs and
ft notify bandwidth (max)
ft notify bandwidth (min)
0
0
32767
32767
100
0
100
0
requirements.
index create memory (KB) 704 2147483647 0 0
in-doubt xact resolution 0 2 0 0
locks 5000 2147483647 0 0
max degree of parallelism
max full-text crawl range
0
0
64
256
0
4
0
4
• AWE enabled
max server memory (MB) 16 2147483647 38912 38912
max text repl size (B)
max worker threads
0
128
2147483647
32767
65536
0
65536
0
• Max Server Memory
media retention
min memory per query (KB)
0
512
365
2147483647
0
1024
0
1024 • Etc.
min server memory (MB) 0 2147483647 128 128
nested triggers 0 1 1 1
network packet size (B) 512 32767 4096 4096
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17. Tools to identify performance degradation points
Database Server Performance - Tier 1
SQL Traces
• SQL Trace is a performance tuning tool, which can be
used to fine tune your Pivotal application. It traces the
time taken to fetch the data from the database thus
having a better understanding on how to reduce the
time
The data contained on a SQL trace will help you analyze and possibly identify any long
running query, non-optimize searches and even deadlocks within your Pivotal application
caused by
• Non-optimized code
• Improper indexing (over-indexing /under-indexing)
• Unnecessary trips to the SQL Server
• Lack of server resources and other server issues (hardware)
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18. Tools to identify performance degradation points
Database Server Performance - Tier 1
Database Engine Tuning Advisor
Database Engine Helps you select and create an optimal set of indexes,
indexed views, and partitions without requiring an expert
Tuning Advisor
understanding of the structure of the database or the
internals of Microsoft SQL Server
With this tool you can perform the following optimization tasks:
• Recommend the best mix of indexes for databases by using the query optimizer to
analyze queries in a workload
• Analyze the effects of the proposed changes, including index usage, query distribution
among tables, and query performance in the workload
• Recommend ways to tune the database for a small set of problem queries
• Etc.
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19. Tools to identify performance degradation points
Database Server Performance - Tier 1
User data can adversely impact
performance depending on various
factors, in order to optimize a
Pivotal environment it is important to
understand the impact that your
data is having on the system.
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20. Tools to identify performance degradation points
What resources are needed
Tier 2
Business
Server
Integration SyncStream
Server Server
SharePoint
Server
20

21. Tools to identify performance degradation points
Pivotal Business Server & SharePoint Server Performance - Tier 2
System information (msinfo32.exe).- Displays a
comprehensive view of your hardware, system
components, and software environment.
With this tool you will be able to get a first look at all
the resources allocated to your servers. Be aware of
VM environments, for these type of environments
the resources allocated can be shared resources.
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22. Tools to identify performance degradation points
Pivotal Business Server & SharePoint Server Performance - Tier 2
Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor is a Microsoft Management
Console (MMC) snap-in that combines the functionality of previous stand-
alone tools:
• Performance Logs and Alerts
• Server Performance Advisor
• System Monitor.
22

23. Tools to identify performance degradation points
Pivotal Business Server & SharePoint Server Performance - Tier 2
Server
Performance
Advisor
is a server
performance
diagnostic tool
developed to
diagnose root
causes of
performance
problems in a
Microsoft
Windows
Server™ 2003
operating system
23

24. Tools to identify performance degradation points
What resources are needed
Tier 3
24

25. Tools to identify performance degradation points
Pivotal Client Performance - Tier 3
Pivotal Diagnostics is a feature used to identify performance issues related to Pivotal
Client. This utility allows you to determine which part of your system is causing
performance slowdown of Pivotal Client:
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26. Tools to identify performance degradation points
Pivotal Client Performance - Tier 3
Event Viewer logs:
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27. Tools to identify performance degradation points
Pivotal Client Performance - Tier 3
Pivotal Client log:
..Documents and Settings<username>LocalSettingsApplication DataCDC SoftwareSmart
ClientPivotalClient.<InstanceServerName>exe
<drive>UsersAdministratorAppDataRoamingCDC SoftwareSmart
ClientPivotalClient.PerMachineCMS6
Levels of Verbosity: Change: In the IafConfig.xml file, locate, and replace the
1) ERROR: Least verbose logging level in the code <level value="WARN" /> with
2) WARN the logging level of your choice, for example:
3) INFO
4) DEBUG: Most verbose <level value="INFO" />.
By default in the IafConfig.xml, the logging level is set to
WARN.
27

28. Tools to identify performance degradation points
Pivotal Client Performance - Tier 3
Office Integration log:
..Documents and Settings<username> CDC Software
For Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems:
..users<username>CDC Software
Levels of Verbosity: Change: In the IafConfig.xml file, locate, and replace the
1) ERROR: Least verbose logging level in the code <level value="WARN" /> with
2) WARN the logging level of your choice, for example:
3) INFO
4) DEBUG: Most verbose <level value="INFO" />.
By default in the IafConfig.xml, the logging level is set to
WARN.
28

29. Tools to identify performance degradation points
Pivotal Client Performance - Tier 3
Additional logs:
IafTrace.log Logs the interaction between Pivotal Client and the remote Smart
Updater service (an ASP.NET v4.0 Web Service Extension)
SmartLauncher.log Logs issues while connecting and downloading from the deployment
server.
29

30. Tools to identify performance degradation points
Reference resources available on ePartner / eService
If you do not have an eService / ePartner ID, please make sure you follow up with me
30

31. Tools to identify performance degradation points
Installed Programs
Make sure you have detailed
information regarding the versions of
all the software that you have
currently installed (including service
pack, hot fix and patches)
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32. Tools to identify performance degradation points
Who? What? When? Why?
• Who is using the system?
• What for?
• When during the day,
week month?
• Why do they need access
for?
32

33. Tools to identify performance degradation points
Business Module – Best Practices
Several Pivotal Toolkit tools and commands are available that would
help you identify possible areas of opportunity where performance can
be enhanced:
An Invalid ID is an element ID which has lost its link to
its referenced element.
Duplicates: Objects of the same type must have
unique names within their domain
An orphaned database record is one that links,
through a many-to-one relationship, to
another record in the database that has been
deleted since the link was established
33

34. Creating a baseline

35. Identifying areas of improvement
Ok, you have gathered all the
information about areas where
your Pivotal implementation can
be improved…
Now what?
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36. How to assess changes needed
36

37. How to implement changes
There no specific order or best practices rule on how to
implement any of the changes needed.
Optimize
forms
Optimize DB Changes
forms
Add Software
indexes Upgrades
DB Changes
Hardware Load
Resources Balancing
Purge Purge Add
Orphans Orphans indexes
37

38. Best practices for comparing results
….
Collect
Performance
Implement Data
Changes (2)
Analyze
Results
Collect
Performance
Implement Data
Changes (1)
38

39. QUESTIONS?

40. THANK YOU
Cesar Ceniceros
Manager, Technical Advisory & Education Services