> #### Initial investigation

> The first question he asks is: "What's changed in my production environment that is causing poor performance?" To begin solving this performance problem, he starts to list the possibilities.

> Table 8–1 lists the possibilities the system administrator considers. Note the blank column in the table. As he reviews each possibility, he can use this table as a checklist. He will check the items he decides to consider further.

> Table 8–1: Initial Investigative Checklist
> | Access and review... | As these topics relate to these questions...
> --- | --- | ---
> | High-level performance indicators. | Have users been complaining about other performance issues that might be related to this performance problem? Are any background processes running during these offending times that could be causing program delays?
> | Hardware and/or software component changes. | Have there been any changes to the hardware or software installations that might have impacted the application's performance? For example, has a new disk been added, or a software upgrade been performed in the time frame in which problems have been noticed and reported?
> | Possible workload changes. | Is it possible that some or all of the application inefficiencies noted are related to the number of users working on the application, causing the delays as noted?
> | Data details in the log files such as the database logs, AppServer log files, customized log files and so forth. | Are there any details in the log file data from the time period in which the application was performing poorly that might indicate an application performance problem?
> | The database performance for possible database issues. | Does the database need to be tuned? A tuning effort of this kind can provide significant pay off in performance if it's found to be a contributing factor.
> | Data from the FathomTrendDatabase from the troublesome time period. | By running reports at different time periods, are there any patterns in the data or reported application responsiveness that match experiences that the users have reported?

Copyright © 2004 Progress Software Corporation www.progress.com Voice: (781) 280-4000 Fax: (781) 280-4095