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Author's profile photo Troy Cronin
Troy Cronin
June 2, 2017 4 minute read

EP: KM – Slow Performance & Hot Deployment References

Introduction

KM Folders are utilized as the base platform in which KM Documents are stored. For example through KM End-Users can access, obtain, manage and review data information through documents sourced from the business intranets, external WWW feeds, and file servers. The KM Documents themselves are presented in the standard formats of PPT, excel, word documents and html.

KM Performance Overview: Is it slow?

The first recommendation with any performance related issue is to check for visible errors or exceptions being thrown in the default trace error log files. With performance issues some core checks to assess include:

  • Have there been system changes recently e.g. upgrades which may have prompted this issue to begin occurring?
  • If so Post upgrade did you clear the portal caches/restart the portal service?
  • Is this issue occurring for all users/in all web browser platform types?Are customization’s/personalizations currently in place?

KM Performance Specifics

The primary cause of performance impacts within the KMC is the activation of the AccessStatistic service on the KM repositories.

  • Check if the service is indeed activated in the configuration of the KM repository managers.

If so, we advise removing it wherever possible as it the recommendation in SAP Note 1025290.

After the configuration of these repository managers is updated with the removal of the AccessStatistic service a system restart will be required for the change to take effect.

After this, perform a retest to see if performance improves.

You can find additional information in the documentation outlined below:

KM Performance & Hot Deployment

I’ve come across scenarios in which high CPU utilization was noted and subsequently some references to hot-deployment within the Knowledge Management setup.

Now based upon the behavior outlined above firstly from the KM & Hot Deployment perspective there are some important points to highlight and consider.

  • Hot Deployment in EP: http://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/KMC/Hot+Deployment+in+the+Enterprise+Portal

As the name hot-deployment might suggest this process refers to an abrupt & quick means of transferring underlying KM/KMC Code within a KM Service Landscape. The catch with Hot-Deployment is that such a process involving the code does not require the end-user or system admin to perform a restart of the corresponding container base.

What does Hot Deployment Really Mean?

As we see in the summary outlined in the posting above. “In general, hot-deployment describes the ability to exchange code without the need to restart the surrounding container. In a KMC scenario, hot-deployment means the ability to redeploy a KMC component without having to restart the container that loaded this component.

As KMC components are wrapped inside a portal application archive * file), they use the portal’s deployment and class loading mechanisms, thus making the portal runtime (PRT) the loading container for KMC components.

KMC also provides a runtime container called the component runtime (CRT), which is a logical container for KMC components enforcing the programming and service life-cycle model of KMC. The CRT does not actually load the classes of the KMC components but merely delegates this task to the PRT.

As we see here hot-deployment holds association to the PRT (Portal Runtime Technology) and in truth the “presence” of hot-deployment can indeed cause low performance and other issues.

What Does Effect could Hot – Deployment Have on my Landscape?

The major point of highlight surrounding Hot-Deployment is that such an action is NOT supported, encouraged or recommended as it can lead to a wide array of different issues.

  • SAP Note: 894884 – Hot-deployment of KMC components – Clarification

In order to resolve hot-deployment you will need to proceed to restart the J2EE engine (as you have already done). Once a restart is performed (in full) this clears the hot deployment and enables newly deployed components.

In summary it is indeed possible that hot-deployment contributed directly to the high CPU utilization statistics and memory utilization.

Monitoring Deployment & Prevention

Due to the association of KMC components with the Portal & various classloaders hot-deployment is often referenced and subsequently resolved via a full restart. While SAP can verify that its own services are hot-deployment aware, such verification currently cannot be done for custom components. For this reason, hot-deployment of KMC components is currently not supported by SAP.

In terms of root cause analysis:

  • KMC – Hot Deployment Checker: http://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/KMC/KMC+-+Hot+Deployment+Checker

In hot-deployment based scenarios this tool is one of the best means of monitoring and also future prevention of a re-occurrence.

  • The Admin Console can only be accessed by a portal user with an administrative permission defined specifically for the application.
  • Official Tool Guide: https://archive.sap.com/kmuuid2/305de59a-aed3-2910-958d-ad39be18b85a/Checking%20Hot%20Deployment%20from%20the%20KMC%20Perspective.pdf

Again just to highlight hot Deployment is especially important to avoid as the range of issues and symptoms which might be caused by this are erratic and wide ranging. These can include Out Of Memory and locking issues which may cause the portal to crash.

If any component or application is deployed on the system (including patch fixes), it is imperative that a full system restart is performed afterwards. Failure to do so will result in Hot Deployment. If it occurs as a result of applying a patch fix, you should note that the fix deployed will not take effect until the restart is performed either.

Also Hot Deployment can be observed by checking the component monitor (System Administration > Monitoring > Knowledge Management > Component Monitor). Clicking on ‘properties’ and selecting the ‘Miscellaneous’ tab will display the exceptions indicating the exact component which is causing the hot-deployment.

  • SAP KBA: 949450 – Knowledge Management Component Monitor

 

 

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