I am currently working remotely connecting via VPN. MicroStation takes over 10 min to load a small file and several min to execute any command. what options or procedures can I follow to improve the performance. (i have high speed internet connection).
Check the following link which has some suggestions.
5 Factors That Affect Your VPN Performance Explained
Wireshark is a good tool your IT/Network administrator can use to troubleshoot network issues.
I have been advised that CONNNECTION client slows down broadband speed which is not good when working from home.
stuartw said:I have been advised that CONNNECTION client slows down broadband speed which is not good when working from home.
Even when 900 KB mentioned by Leonard Jones sounds like a lot, in today world it's nothing. I would like to see much smaller number, but when compared with average page of single web page (2 - 4 MB) and data streaming capacity required for calling or video conferencing (Skype, Team, Hangouts etc.), the impact is minor.
In my opinion much bigger issue is how VPN is configured. From a client's perspective, there are 3 different types of communication: (A) with local network, (B) with Internet and (C) with company internal servers. Many companies use VPN in such way that (A) is forbidden (e.g. not possible to print on home printer, when connected using home network or wifi) and (B) even when can be "communicated directly", is routed through VPN and company network. Whereas such solution makes some sense in terms of security (all communication is checked by company firewall), it's increases network traffic to/from company a lot.
My feeling (I have not any benchmark in my hands, only information from some my customers) is that very often problem now, when home office is used by many employees, is not in last mile (home Internet connection) or in any specific software, but in the company Internet connection capacity. These connections and infrastructure (firewalls, VPN management...) have been designed for "normal use", which can be e.g. 10% external connections and 90% people connected in local network. But now everybody are connected externally...
Regards,
Jan
Bentley Accredited Developer: iTwin Platform - AssociateLabyrinth Technology | dev.notes() | cad.point
Still I do not get the workflow how the VPN is used?
What I do I set VPN connection and run VNC or other remote access tool to connect to machine directly or run Microstation locally and just access my work network. In any case the VPN connection doesn't affect loading speed of Microstation as VPN is not a screen streaming app. Slow VPN cause stuttering but not issues with file opening.
Oto said:In any case the VPN connection doesn't affect loading speed
In such case, you are lucky guy ;-)
To configure VPN properly, especially when the internal network is complex and suddenly there are much more people working remotely, is complicated task and often existing VPN solution, serving few remote workers in normal times, have to be removed.
It's both about proper network communication (configuration + capacity) and a connection point performance (because every VPN connection has not small overhead required to encrypt the whole communication).
What I mean that VPN doesn't affect program opening speed only notice degradation of screen streaming quality.
I have been working with our Help desk department. according to them the problem is the CAD profile. they are saying the profile is creating a shared folder on the network and MicroStation is trying to contact that folder and it delays the program. something doest sound right. since I am able to access any folder in the network with no problem. all the other programs that I use are working fine.
thank you for all the information !!!!
Alejandro Otalora said:Help desk department. according to them the problem is the CAD profile. they are saying the profile is creating a shared folder on the network
Do they mean your Windows account profile? What is the name of that shared folder? What files can you see there?
Alternatively, it could be your MicroStation user preference folder. MicroStation keeps its user preference file (*.upf) usually in a Windows local folder, but with a VPN that could be on the server.
*.upf
Regards, Jon Summers LA Solutions
i believe they are talking about the upf file. i went through a procedure to move the user files to a local folder. but that didnt fix the issue.
Within our organization we have found that MicroStation is too clunky and slow to respond for volume production CAD personnel. Specific points of pain include attaching cell libraries with more than 100 cells (larger the library slower the response), batch plotting using any resources on the office network from home, and initially opening MicroStation. To a lesser degree simple tasks like changing active color, lineweight or linestyle will take a few seconds instead of instant. Just a couple seconds here and there for volume CAD production people add hours to their workload. I have had to copy resource files local and create a duplicate set of config files to create temporary "sandbox" environments for those people to use from home, and created some VBA macros that they can launch daily to copy updates off the server to update their local setups.
Occasional users struggle with the remote working performance but CAD work is not a significant percentage of their daily workload so it is merely a nuisance rather than a real problem. The software is still fully functional, just not as responsive as they are used to. This lag is still vastly superior to remote desktop due to the choppy mouse movement that plagues RDP and screen sharing applications.
I'm not sure if this information helps or not but it is my experience setting up a few hundred office personnel to work productively from home indefinitely. A few side notes . . . we have two different VPN options and neither of them make a difference in remote connection speed. The problems with laggy software performance are identical on either one. Also, our organization is also in the middle of switching away from an MLPS style network. The office still on the old network have ALL external traffic (yes, that means remote workers as well) through the firewall at the main office in PA. So our Kansas and Nebraska employees trying to change linestyles have their traffic routed from their house, through PA, then back to their local office, then back through PA before heading to their home. Upgraded offices like those in Colorado and California communicate directly from their home to the local office and back. The latter have far fewer problems than the older configured offices. Not an issue with MicroStation directly but a couple other considerations that aggravate the issue beyond our control.
You would need to change the configuration where MicroStation is looking for the .upf file also. MS_USERPREF is the variable you are looking for. Depending on what level of config file it is set at you will need to redirect it to the new location if you want test that as part of the issue.
Thanks Ian, I will pass this information to our Help Desk folks.