SAP Application Server Startup

[Former Member]

Hello,

I'm using SAP Netweaver AS 2004s, SP9 on a laptop with 1 GB memory and 1.8 GHz CPU. The startup of the AS takes about half an hour. Have I misconfigured the application server? I can't really believe an application server startup takes this long.

Regards,

Endy

[former_member197561 · Accepted solution]

Dear Endy,

General hints towards fast startup of java server are:

1) take care that -Xms = -Xmx, -XX:NewSize = -XX:MaxNewSize, -XX:PermSize=-XX:MaxPermSize and so on pairs of parameters are set to same value. This guarantees that no heap resize would happen during startup. (each heap resize triggers full GC which take some time to execute)

2) having only 1 GB RAM on your system unfortunatelly you would not be able to allocate the needed heap, (usually we recommend -Xms=-Xmx to 1024 MB) becasue if you do so, the memory used for Perm , native java and OS would come on top and will cause severe swapping which is a main reason for slow startup... Ideally, have a minimum of 2 GB machine.

3) Disable all services which you do not intend to use or if the release of Java server provides zero-admin templates in the Config tool, choose the minimum template.

Best Regards,

Sylvia

[kohlerm]

Hi Endy,

Yes, half an hour is quite long for the server to start up . But depending on what you services and applications you have installed, it might still be "normal". After the installation of new components, the first startup is usally slow, because there might be additional migrations steps running. So please check whether starting takes always 30 Minutes.

You should also check your Memory settings in the ConfigTool.

Setting the minimum heap size (-Xms option) equal to the max heap size helps to avoid Full GC's during startup.

We are working on improving the startup time in a future release.

Regards,

Markus (/people/markus.kohler/blog)

[Former Member]

Thanx Markus, i will try this.

The first startup was much longer, indeed. From there on the startup started in 30 mins was taking more and more time. I have to say I restarted several times without rebooting.

I've noticed de Preview comes with a lot of tutorial applications which are preinstalled. I think you can live without these apps. Also the Nice 2 Have applications could be avoided.

The preview I used comes with the Portal installation. For my R&D work i needed the Portal. I think this is a bottleneck too.

Apart from the above i am still puzzeled by the startup time. I've seen several application servers with startup time varying from 5 minutes to 10 seconds. The latter was an application server with several applications in a test environment. What should it do? Check en update configuration > Identify compile code (jsp's) > Compile > Load classes > Load configuration. Off course the latter procedure does not come from an application server expert, but I still wonder...

Good luck with your performance improvements.

Regards,

Endy

[kohlerm]

> Thanx Markus, i will try this.

>

> The first startup was much longer, indeed. From there

> on the startup started in 30 mins was taking more and

> more time. I have to say I restarted several times

> without rebooting.

ok.

>

> I've noticed de Preview comes with a lot of tutorial

> applications which are preinstalled.

Which preview version do you use ? The new Java EE 5 one ?

>I think you can

> live without these apps. Also the Nice 2 Have

> applications could be avoided.

Yes I don't think you need them.

You can also increase the log level for the deploy service, to figure out which applications take how long to startup.

In the Visualadmin goto the Log Configurator and change

the severity of com.sap.engine.services.deploy.timestat location to DEBUG.

Then goto the configuration tool and switch the property “Aditional_Debug_Info” for the deploy service to true.

Restart your server and you should find new messages in your default.trace file that indicate how long your applications need to start up.

I have not tried that yet by myself on the preview release.

You may also check your std_server0.out log file in your work directory (\usr\sap\S01\JC00\work for example).

Information about how long the different services take to startup, is logged into this file.

Look for lines like "Service xy started. (47 ms)""

You could then turn off certain services, that you don't need

>

> The preview I used comes with the Portal

> installation. For my R&D work i needed the Portal. I

> think this is a bottleneck too.

Only starting the J2EE engine is of course much faster.

>

> Apart from the above i am still puzzeled by the

> startup time. I've seen several application servers

> with startup time varying from 5 minutes to 10

> seconds. The latter was an application server with

> several applications in a test environment. What

> should it do? Check en update configuration >

> Identify compile code (jsp's) > Compile > Load

> classes > Load configuration. Off course the latter

> procedure does not come from an application server

> expert, but I still wonder...

Agreed. Startup time is certainly longer than you would expect in the first place.

This is due to the fact that the SAP AS supports more features than other application servers.

One is for example the fact that all Java code is stored in the Database. This makes backups much more reliable.

Still, as I said, We are aware of the fact that for developement startup time is an issue that needs to be addressed and we are working hard to improve the situation.

Regards,

Markus

>

> Good luck with your performance improvements.

>

> Regards,

>

> Endy

[Former Member]

The version I am discussing is the 2004s, SP9 preview as mentioned in my first post.

It is certainly hard for me as a SAP Netweaver new-b to discover the services and applications i can exclude from the startup sequence.

Meanwhile i've downloaded the last preview. This is de JEE 5 edition. It has a much better startup time and memory consumption. I would say it can be used for my R&D work. I think you're improvements are paying off! This version has just an handful of applications installed too.

Im going for this version and when i have the development steps in scope, i will project them on the 2004s, SP9 installation.

You're logging tips will come in handy. Thank you for your help,

Endy