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Mail Archiver Dragging Down Entire Server

 
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Mail Archiver Dragging Down Entire Server - 9.Oct.2009 1:13:08 AM   
mkauble

 

Posts: 3
Joined: 9.Oct.2009
Status: offline
Hi guys. First off, I LOVE the program. I like the look, the feel, everything.

HOWEVER!!!

I'm running it on a Dell PE 2900 III with 16gb of RAM, Windows Server 2008 x64 and Exchange 2007 SP2.

All patched and up to date. Everything. I just built the server this week. Plenty of disk space and partitions spanning 2 RAID arrays (a 1 and a 5)

So here's the issue.

The server is almost unusable. When I go to OWA, it literally takes 5 minutes for the page to load. Then another 10 to get me logged in. If I remote into the server, I can click on something, go get some coffee, and it still isn't up when I get back. If I reboot, it runs well for about 15 minutes, then slows down again.

I run perfmon, and my disk usage is toping out at 100%.

So I start trouble shooting, and I get to GFI.

I shut off all the GFI services in the services panel, and eveything IMMEDIATELY goes back to how it should be. No fuss, no muss, no rebooting required.

The disk usage goes down to about 3%.

HELP!

I want to keep the product! Is something misconfigured? Is this normal for a new install while it builds the DB?

I have about 35 users and light to normal traffic flow. No AV running on the machine, and I uninstalled Forefront because I thought that might be the problem.

Thanks.

-Mike
Post #: 1
RE: Mail Archiver Dragging Down Entire Server - 9.Oct.2009 10:46:25 AM   
mkauble

 

Posts: 3
Joined: 9.Oct.2009
Status: offline
Well. . .I had to shut down GFI this morning. Too many user complaints, and it took me close to 10 minutes to log into the machine locally.

Help?

Thanks.

-Mike

(in reply to mkauble)
Post #: 2
RE: Mail Archiver Dragging Down Entire Server - 12.Oct.2009 8:50:59 AM   
bjanow

 

Posts: 27
Joined: 11.Dec.2008
Status: offline
Something must be wrong with the install. I had your issues with an older server but only had 2 GB Ram. I just got a new one with 8 GB and GFI is working relatively ok. It will still bog down the system now and again but not to the extend you are having. GFI needs to reduce their footprint, not increase it as most of the "upgrades" have done. 6.0 was much better but they don't support it much any longer. If you have a problem they tell you to upgrade and then you're screwed. A tech once told me the new version would be better, but that was months ago and there is no sign of it.

Nonetheless, you should probably do a reinstall or contact support. Are you using SQL or Firebird. I find that SQL off the mail server works much, much better. I use it in two environments, one pretty similar to yours but only 10 users. Even with Firebird things are relatively ok. Key word, relatively. I have a MarCore error that pulls down the server about once every 10 days or so which is quite annoying, but nothing like your logon times. My other server has over 1000 users but is using SQL off box. No problems with that one at all. (no jinxes!!)

It's a decent program but they need to focus on the integration and reducing the pull on system resources.

(in reply to mkauble)
Post #: 3
RE: Mail Archiver Dragging Down Entire Server - 13.Oct.2009 6:50:52 AM   
ianb

 

Posts: 268
Status: offline
mkauble

what parts of GFI MailArchiver did you enable? Just archiving?

If yes what is the size of the journaling mailbox?

Also i suggest you place the stores and indexes on seperate disks.

_____________________________

Ian Bugeja
Software Developer - GFI Software - www.gfi.com
Messaging, Content Security & Network Security Software

(in reply to bjanow)
Post #: 4
RE: Mail Archiver Dragging Down Entire Server - 13.Oct.2009 8:16:57 AM   
rmiquel

 

Posts: 45
Joined: 18.May2009
Status: offline
Hi,

I recommend you to check the deployment guide for MailArchiver as there are a few recommendation regarding what is the best way of installing and configuring the product:
http://www.gfi.com/mar/mar6gsgmanual.pdf

As Ian recommends, is better to have indexes in a separate physical drive than the databases and the operating system. Also, using SQL is always recommended instead of Firebird.

Please also ensure that there is no scanning application interfering with MailArchiver, the databases or the indexes. If you have scanning software of any kind, please exclude all the MailArchiver folders.

Hope these recommendations help.

< Message edited by rmiquel -- 13.Oct.2009 8:19:14 AM >


_____________________________

Roger Miquel
GFI Software - www.gfi.com

(in reply to bjanow)
Post #: 5
RE: Mail Archiver Dragging Down Entire Server - 14.Oct.2009 9:38:15 AM   
bshell

 

Posts: 3
Joined: 25.Sep.2009
Status: offline
All - we are facing a similar issue. We have a Dell Poweredge 410, Quad Core Xeon 2.27Ghz, 12GB of Ram, 4x300GB 15KRPM SAS drives within a raid 5 array. We no way anticipated any of these problems. The users are ready to hang us! The user base is small (30 Users), however when the GFI MailArchiver services are running the system is almost unusable. Outlook disconnects along with not being able to start outlook at all as it indicates the exchange server is unavailable.

The system is Windows 2008, Exchange 2007, SQL Server 2008 and the GFI Product suite. We have seen so many problems, with imports (3 Days only @ 30%). The information store is huge for 30 people (93GB). This is a fresh install and patch of everything!
Everything runs well without GFI Mail Archiver running.

Support has been of no help, constant requests of log files and no path forward, long time between responses. We are a reseller of GFI products and may start looking for alternatives.

(in reply to mkauble)
Post #: 6
RE: Mail Archiver Dragging Down Entire Server - 14.Oct.2009 9:41:42 AM   
ianb

 

Posts: 268
Status: offline
bshell

What features did you enable from the GFI MailArchiver?

I do not suggest you enable the Folder Synchonization till when the whole import has been carried out.

_____________________________

Ian Bugeja
Software Developer - GFI Software - www.gfi.com
Messaging, Content Security & Network Security Software

(in reply to bshell)
Post #: 7
RE: Mail Archiver Dragging Down Entire Server - 14.Oct.2009 9:50:30 AM   
bshell

 

Posts: 3
Joined: 25.Sep.2009
Status: offline
We actually, stopped the import due to these problems and were still experiencing the slowness. We only now have it performing new incoming and outgoing mails. Still crazy! I am guessing it is all disk activity as the CPU & Mem have been fine.

(in reply to ianb)
Post #: 8
RE: Mail Archiver Dragging Down Entire Server - 14.Oct.2009 10:24:12 AM   
bshell

 

Posts: 3
Joined: 25.Sep.2009
Status: offline
If you are available, for a joint session that would be great! I just got off of the phone with support and they are indicating that the case as been transitioned to the "back end" team and to expect a response in 24/48 hours. We don't have 24/48 hours! We understand that the import of 93GB may take some time and cause some slowness, however after this is done and normal processing resumes, it should consume a server with these specs. Agree?

Single Exchange Server To archive, 1 Journaling Mailbox
Inbound, Outbound & Internal Emails
7 Archive Stores (Pre2004,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009)
Enable Archive Store Swap Schedule (January 2010)
Indexing Schedule (Immediately)
No Retention Policies
Categorization Policies (None)
Enable GFI to Copy the mailbox folder structure (Yes)

Version 6.1 , Build 20090526

(in reply to ianb)
Post #: 9
RE: Mail Archiver Dragging Down Entire Server - 14.Oct.2009 6:10:07 PM   
mkauble

 

Posts: 3
Joined: 9.Oct.2009
Status: offline
Okay. Final wrap up from me on my issue.

After a bit of work, and trying a lot, I ended up building a new server (I needed a WSUS server anyway) out of my old email server and put GFI on there using the SQL database.

No problems. Disk usage is way down, and very acceptable. Network traffic is minimal (which is one of the things I was worried about) but CPU usage was nearly 100%.

I ended up turning off the folder structure role, and CPU usage dropped to next to nothing. Seriously. 2% or so total.

So as of now, I'm good to go. Not quite the setup I was hoping for or built, but it'll do, and I'm back to being compliant.

Thanks all.

-Mike

(in reply to bshell)
Post #: 10
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