Synchronizing with Central all of a sudden taking a VERY long time

[jameswest77]

Folks, I'm at a loss. I came back from vacation today and logged into our (workstation) server. There were some typical periodic updates, etc, that needed to be done (Carbonite backup, Norton Ghost backup, Webroot Antivirus, and a Windows Update for Windows Live Essentials, I think). I started the Carbonite and Norton Ghost and Webroot absentmindedly, not thinking of what affect that'd have on the users later that day. My mistake.

This week the office has been working on a few small (<30mb) workset-enabled projects without any problems. However, with the server busy on these tasks operations were very slow. I let it go for a little while thinking the system would work itself out. After a half hour, it hadn't, and I paused the Carbonite and Norton Ghost backups and left the Webroot Antivirus running, thinking it'd be done sooner rather than later and couldn't suck too many resources. (at this time the server was still VERY slow to respond to even such things as opening folders and modifying the sort order of folder contents).

Things didn't improve and got worse, actually. Saving to the Central File in any project took over 5 minutes where it took less than thirty seconds before. I canceled the antivirus, no improvement. I rebooted the server and the user workstations, no improvement. I checked and the HD is 100% unfragmented. I tried making a new file, enabled worksets, saved it to the server, made a local copy, opened it and tried to save to central- no improvement.

I re-ran Carbonite and let it finish it's thing. Still no improvement. Tried to boot into safe-mode with networking, but apparently you can't file share that way (or access a central file).

So, I'm at a loss. Any ideas?

[jameswest77]

update: even saving the simplest file to the server now takes forever. saving locally is a snap, copying to the server is a snap, but saving from Revit to the server is a D-R-A-G.

What the F* is going on???

[jameswest77]

I just tried saving to an external drive that's connected to the server with the same results, too. Now I'm trying to save to another workstation entirely as though it were the server.

[Steve_Stafford]

Are these new local files or ones you and the team have been using for awhile? What happens if you create a new central file either by using detach from Central or just creating a new project from scratch to test?

Close down Revit and fire it back up and then start a new series of tests so you'll have a clean journal file. You can take a look through the journal to see if there are any clues.

[jameswest77]

I've been experimenting with "clean" workset-enabled files with just a single wall element.

What's teh "journal file", how do I access it, and what can I learn from it?

Thanks!

[jameswest77]

my experiment using another workstation as a "server" to store the central file didn't work, either. this is, also, with a virgin file with a solitary wall element. what the hell??

[jameswest77]

I found my latest Journal log. I have no idea what I'm looking at, maybe someone can help. It's as follows, attached.

<<edit: thanks>>

[Steve_Stafford]

I took a quick look at your journal. It doesn't look like you opened a project file or yours has much less data than mine does when I open a blank template file. We do have the same curious entry (early in the journal) so I don't think it means anything with regard to the issue:

' 0:< DBG_INFO: non-Revit resource or bad type fragment: line 495 of .\ResourceSelector.cpp.

If we focus only on your computer I do see KiwiCodes 3rd party tools. I have been told in the past, even with AutoCAD to try removing 3rd party tools to rule that out. With the server issues you describe I don't seriously expect disabling KiwiCodes stuff to do it but if you get into a support call with Autodesk they'll end up asking you to, most likely.

Can you roll back the updates on the server? Have you reset the server/workstation(s) and the peripheral server LAN equipment too router/switches? Checked cables anything that might have gotten "changed" while you were gone. Sorry...grasping

attached my journal as a sample

[jameswest77]

I took a quick look at your journal. It doesn't look like you opened a project file or yours has much less data than mine does when I open a blank template file. We do have the same curious entry (early in the journal) so I don't think it means anything with regard to the issue:



If we focus only on your computer I do see KiwiCodes 3rd party tools. I have been told in the past, even with AutoCAD to try removing 3rd party tools to rule that out. With the server issues you describe I don't seriously expect disabling KiwiCodes stuff to do it but if you get into a support call with Autodesk they'll end up asking you to, most likely.

Can you roll back the updates on the server? Have you reset the server/workstation(s) and the peripheral server LAN equipment too router/switches? Checked cables anything that might have gotten "changed" while you were gone. Sorry...grasping

attached my journal as a sample

good idea about kiwi- that is common on all the workstations. i'll give it a try when i return tomorrow am. am ghosting the data now and will try a system restore on the server to a point prior to yesterday morning.

i feel like i isolated the problem away from being a hardware or software issue on the server by replicating the problem by using another workstation as a host for the central file. is that assumption correct, you think? However, it also seems very unlikely to be a local issue because the problem manifested on all workstation across all old and new workset files, right? I'm trying to brainstorm and troubleshoot and i'm running up against my own ignorance of how revit's workgroups really work.

thanks for your help.