[RadHaz75]

Does anyone reboot their BES servers on a routine basis?

We have 10,000 users on 15 servers and reboot them all in a staggered 15 minute manner around 3 AM. We did this given guidance from RIM a while ago because the SQL server couldn't process the amount of information being passed to it in an efficient manner and basically the servers would start to crash after a few days, so rebooting the servers at night allowed it to catch up with itself. The SQL server is a powerful box, but we were sitting there with our DBA and he was watching the commands being run and said he's never seen so much data being passed so fast and he's been a DBA for like 15 years.

Guess I should add we are running 4.1.5 with Exchange 2003 and SQL 2000

[juwaack68]

Typicially I don't reboot any of my 4 servers unless there is an issue that only a reboot will resolve (lost MAPI connection, user moved from one storage group to another on the same Exchange server, etc).

[knottyrope]

Reboot for AV software, OS upgrades, SP's and thats about it.

[shuman]

I usually do it only if it is necessary for upgrades or problems or software install. But, then again, I don't have anywhere near your number of users.

[CanuckBB]

I reboot for patches, or if I had to reboot Exchange.

[fadmin]

wow...rim is full of c... )

[shuman]

Originally Posted by RadHaz75

Does anyone reboot their BES servers on a routine basis?

We have 10,000 users on 15 servers and reboot them all in a staggered 15 minute manner around 3 AM. We did this given guidance from RIM a while ago because the SQL server couldn't process the amount of information being passed to it in an efficient manner and basically the servers would start to crash after a few days, so rebooting the servers at night allowed it to catch up with itself. The SQL server is a powerful box, but we were sitting there with our DBA and he was watching the commands being run and said he's never seen so much data being passed so fast and he's been a DBA for like 15 years.

Guess I should add we are running 4.1.5 with Exchange 2003 and SQL 2000

How many SQL servers are you running for 10,000 users?

[RadHaz75]

Originally Posted by shuman

How many SQL servers are you running for 10,000 users?

1 non-cluster

[juwaack68]

Originally Posted by RadHaz75

1 non-cluster

Wow. That's one huge DB!

[RadHaz75]

8 gigs

[hdawg]

Originally Posted by RadHaz75

8 gigs

Do all your RIM scheduled maintenance tasks run successfully? When is the last time you performed SQL maintenance on it? (shrink / defrag)?

Are you running DBNS?

You really shouldn't need to be restarting your servers ... are you doing this daily?

How many mail servers are talking to these 15 BES servers? Do you have pairing arrangements setup so that only certain mail servers have users from specific BES?

[RadHaz75]

Originally Posted by hdawg

Do all your RIM scheduled maintenance tasks run successfully? Yes When is the last time you performed SQL maintenance on it? 3 weeks ago with the db offline (shrink / defrag)? Yes, does weekly with db online

Are you running DBNS? not positive, but I dont think so

You really shouldn't need to be restarting your servers ... are you doing this daily? Used to, now doing it weekly

How many mail servers are talking to these 15 BES servers? About 50 Do you have pairing arrangements setup so that only certain mail servers have users from specific BES? Yes, all ping times under 50 as well

See quoted...

[RichieRichR6]

I reboot weekly very early in the morning. But I only have 280 users.

[hdawg]

Originally Posted by RadHaz75

See quoted...

How many users do you have on average loaded per BES? How many mail servers talking to each BES? Have you customized the number of agents?

Check into DBNS ... it may be causing trouble ... or its possible it could help too.

[RadHaz75]

average is about 700 per bes, some have more, some less but we like to keep them under 1000. a few have 5 exchange servers, but most have about 3.

last we talked to rim about customizing the agents, they said it was more for testing/troubleshooting than something you'd want to roll out in a prod environment.

unless i'm thinking of something different, i'm pretty sure we don't use dbns. if you tell me how to check i will.

[hdawg]

Originally Posted by RadHaz75

average is about 700 per bes, some have more, some less but we like to keep them under 1000. a few have 5 exchange servers, but most have about 3.

last we talked to rim about customizing the agents, they said it was more for testing/troubleshooting than something you'd want to roll out in a prod environment.

unless i'm thinking of something different, i'm pretty sure we don't use dbns. if you tell me how to check i will.

DBNS

Funny thing about the agents ... RIMs own environment uses 15 agents / BES with a max of 100 users / agent.

It irks me that they don't practice what they preach ...

[RadHaz75]

since that dll isn't in that folder i don't think we use it. what are the advantages/disadvantages of using it?

[hdawg]

Originally Posted by RadHaz75

since that dll isn't in that folder i don't think we use it. what are the advantages/disadvantages of using it?

Its a series of triggers to help BES lighten the load it places on SQL. Rather than BES having to perform table scans, it puts triggers in places and then the BES relies on the triggers functioning based on actions / events. If these don't fire BES will still revert to table scans ... but in the end it is supposed to help out performance.

I've heard of people who have had problems with it and it has ended up causing more problems than good. I would contact your rep with RIM and have a candid discussion about using DBNS; it might help you out significantly. The kicker to this ... RIM doesn't use it.

Again, not practicing what they preach.

[ashworth]

I reboot weekly and on MS tuesdays.

[greg2step]

Do you have RIMESP.DLL configured on your SQL server?

Reason I ask... We have 4000 users x 6 BES servers and 1 SQL server. A 2nd SQL server in a remote location is a logshipping recipient for a DR replica.

We reboot our BES and SQL weekly in the wee hours of sunday morning. We used to have a problem where our SQL server would get very slow and painful, also after about a week, log shipping would fail.

At one point it got so bad we had to reboot every few days, and our BES console was painfully slow. (see my thread on this forum about SQL performance)

On Microsoft SQL support's recommendation, we removed RIMESP.DLL from our SQL2000 server. end result - the sql server CPU performance has dropped by some 40%, memory leaks are gone, BES console is alot faster for user lookups, and our whole environment seems to be behaving better.

we are still doing the weekly reboots, but i'm beginning to wonder why, i no longer think we need it.

my point - if you are questioning SQL performance, and need to reboot periodically to free up various system resources (mainly memory) consider getting rid of that crazy dll.

Originally Posted by RadHaz75

Does anyone reboot their BES servers on a routine basis?

We have 10,000 users on 15 servers and reboot them all in a staggered 15 minute manner around 3 AM. We did this given guidance from RIM a while ago because the SQL server couldn't process the amount of information being passed to it in an efficient manner and basically the servers would start to crash after a few days, so rebooting the servers at night allowed it to catch up with itself. The SQL server is a powerful box, but we were sitting there with our DBA and he was watching the commands being run and said he's never seen so much data being passed so fast and he's been a DBA for like 15 years.

Guess I should add we are running 4.1.5 with Exchange 2003 and SQL 2000