Performance Troubleshooting

RSA Archer Platform

Versions 5.x and 6.x

March 2017

About This Document

This document describes how to troubleshoot basic performance issues with the RSA Archer Platform. Review this
document before contacting your IT team for assistance.

For database issues, see RSA Archer Data Services Checklist for Database Performance Issues at the end of this
document.

Overview

The first step to resolving a performance issue is to identify which of the following categories your issue applies:

• Job Engine Service issues. Performance issues occur related to the job engine service running on the
server.

• Workspaces and dashboards. Performance issues occur when displaying workspaces and dashboards.

• Searching and reporting. Performance issues occur when searching the RSA Archer database and
displaying reports.

• View/edit record issues. Performance issues occur when viewing or editing specific records in the database.

• Administrative features. Performance issues occur when using the features within the Administration
workspace.

• Client/server configuration issues. Performance issues that relate to the configuration of your client and/or
server machines.

The following sections describe how to troubleshoot performance in each of these categories.

Troubleshooting Job Engine Service Issues

The Job Engine Service runs on the application server. It manages and prioritizes all jobs created by the RSA
Archer processes. To help identify which processes could be causing performance issues, the Platform includes a
System Jobs Utility in the Tools folder on the RSA Archer installation environment.

When troubleshooting Job Engine Service issues, do the following:

• Open the System Jobs Utility on the application server and gather the following information:
o CPU utilization. If CPU utilization is high, adjust job thread down.
o Memory utilization.
o Status of the jobs queue. If queue is high and CPU utilization is low, adjust the job thread up.
• Terminate long-running jobs. To identify and terminate jobs, use the job diagnostics feature in the System
Jobs Utility (included in the Tools folder created by the RSA Archer installer).

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RSA Archer Platform Performance Troubleshooting

Before contacting your Migration Manager, use the System Jobs Utility to gather the following information:

• How many jobs and what type are currently running

• Job queue, by type
• Concurrent job settings

In addition, gather the information described in Before Contacting Your Migration Manager, including the number of
cores and amount of RAM on the application server. This information is useful to help troubleshoot the Job Engine
Service issues.

Troubleshooting Workspaces and Dashboards Issues

Users can experience slow load times when displaying workspaces and dashboards.

When troubleshooting workspaces and dashboard issues, do the following:

• Determine whether the slow performance relates to only specific iViews.

o If the performance issues affect only a specific iView, remove the iView. If that doesn't help, you
might need to revisit and refactor your iView structure.
o If the performance issues relate to only chart iViews, determine whether the delays are caused by
network issues including the location of company files.

If the performance issues relate to all iViews, see Troubleshooting Client/Server Configuration Issues.

Troubleshooting Searching and Reporting Issues

When troubleshooting searching and reporting issues, do the following:

• If the performance issues relate to only chart iViews, determine whether the delays are caused by network
issues, including the location of company files.
• If the issues are not related to charting, determine the following:
o The number of fields displayed (>10 can be slow).
o The number of records to search (>10,000 can be slow).
o The number of records returned (>10,000 can be slow).
o The number of filters in the search (>7 can be slow).
o The number of applications (n-tier) included to the search (>4 can be slow).

If the performance issues are not related to the above, see Troubleshooting Client/Server Configuration Issues.

Troubleshooting Record View and Edit Issues

To troubleshoot record view and edit issues, determine the following:

• The number of fields displayed (>500 can be slow).

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RSA Archer Platform Performance Troubleshooting

• The number of tabs displayed (>10 root tabs or >20 child tabs can be slow).
• The number of data driven events (>100 events or >25 ACL events can be slow).
• The number of record permissions (>10 can be slow; >20 requires a different approach).
• The number of rules-based record permissions (>20/field can be slow).
• The number of cross references (>20 fields and >500 total references can be slow).
• Check display settings for grid. The number of fields and records shown can impact performance.
• The number of displayed rich text controls.

If the performance issues are not related to the above, see Troubleshooting Client/Server Configuration Issues.

Troubleshooting Administrative Feature Issues

You might experience issues that occur only with the Administrative features. When troubleshooting administrative
feature issues, do the following:

• Upgrade clients to the most recent version of MS Silverlight.

• Verify that IIS is not set to multiple authentication modes.

If the performance issues are not related to the above, see Troubleshooting Client/Server Configuration Issues.

Troubleshooting Client/Server Configuration Issues

When troubleshooting client/server configuration issues, gather the following information:

• Determine whether RSA Archer web and RSA Archer services are running on the same machine.
• Identify the CPU and memory usage on the server(s).
o If the CPU or memory usage is high, determine which process is consuming the resources and on
which server (web or services server). If a service is consuming resources, try stopping the service.
o If the CPU or memory usage is not high:
 Check the CPU and memory utilization on the client machines. If these are high, determine
whether the problem is caused by the browser. If your browser is not Internet Explorer 11,
try upgrading or using Mozilla instead.
 Check the CPU and memory utilization on the database server. If these are high, refer to the
Database Performance Checklist available from the RSA Archer Migration Team.

If this does not help, you might need to contact your Migration Manager. Gather the information described in the
section Before Contacting Your Migration Manager.

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RSA Archer Platform Performance Troubleshooting

Additional Information

You can find a wealth of information about the RSA Archer Platform on the RSA Archer Community:

https://community.rsa.com/community/products/archer-grc

RSA Link enables collaboration among clients, partners, and product experts. Members actively share ideas, vote
for product enhancements, and discuss trends that help guide RSA Archer product roadmap.

Copyright © 2017 EMC Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Published in the USA.

Trademarks

RSA, the RSA Logo, RSA Archer, and EMC are either registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United
States and/or other countries. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.
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RSA Archer Data Services Checklist for Database Performance
Issues

Verified the RSA Archer database server has Max Degree of Parallelism set to 1.

Verified the RSA Archer database server is configured for one tempdb data file per
physical core.

Verified RSA Archer database indexes are being rebuilt and statistics are being
updated on a regular basis.

Verified the recovery model for the RSA Archer database is set to “Simple.”

Verified Auto Shrink is set to “False” for the RSA Archer database.

Size of the tempdb database file(s): Autogrowth set to:

Size of the tempdb log file(s): Autogrowth set to:

Size of the RSA Archer database file(s): Autogrowth set to:

Size of the RSA Archer log file(s): Autogrowth set to:

The SQL Server version and Service Pack level is:

The RSA Archer version is:

The RSA Archer version you are upgrading to (if applicable) is:

A CE Task ticket has been created and includes an accurate description of the issue.

If any of the above items are incomplete, unknown, or configured contrary to RSA
Archer’s “best practices,” then that needs to be disclosed and explained prior to
engaging Data Services.
Verifying and Changing Database Settings

Max Degrees of Parallelism:

1.) In SQL Server Management Studio, right-click the name of the database server.

2.) Click Properties.

3.) Choose Advanced.

4.) Ensure that Max Degrees of Parallelism is set to 1.

SQL Server tempdb data files:

1.) In SQL Server Management Studio, expand the Databases node.

2.) Expand the System Databases node.

3.) Right-click tempdb, and choose Properties.

4.) Click choose Files.

5.) To add tempdb data files, click Add.

Note: Ideally, the tempdb data files should be sized equivalently and large enough to minimize the size
fluctuations associated with Autogrowth. For example, if a server has four (4) CPUs and one (1) tempdb
file sized at 400 MB, then we would like to see that configured as four (4) tempdb data files sized at 100
MB each. This recommendation is only for tempdb data files (and not tempdb log files).

Index maintenance:

It is very important that RSA Archer database indexes are regularly maintained. This includes rebuilding
indexes and updating statistics. RSA Archer provides SQL Agent jobs to perform these functions; however,
some DBAs prefer to manage indexes according to their own methods. If a DBA is not otherwise managing
indexes, then these SQL Agent jobs should be enabled. To enable these jobs in SQL Server Management
Studio, do the following:

1.) Expand the SQL Agent node.

2.) Expand the Jobs node.
3.) Right-click the job for Database Index Rebuild, and click Properties.
4.) Ensure that Enabled is selected, then click OK.
5.) Repeat steps 3 – 5 for Database Statistics Update.
Note: If the index maintenance jobs do not appear in SQL Agent, they can be implemented using the
Maintenance SQL Script as documented in the RSA Archer Installation and Upgrade Guide.

Simple recovery model:

1.) In SQL Server Management Studio, expand the Databases node.

2.) Right-click the RSA Archer database, and select Properties.
3.) Click Options.
4.) Ensure that Recovery Model is set to Simple, and click OK.
RSA Archer database size and Autogrowth settings:

1.) In SQL Server Management Studio, expand the Databases node.

2.) Right-click the RSA Archer database, and select Properties.
3.) Choose Files.
Note: As with tempdb, database files should be sized large enough to minimize Autogrowths. RSA
recommends setting Autogrowth in absolute amounts (not percentages). For example, if a file’s size is
100 MB, an appropriate Autogrowth setting would be 50 MB.

Auto Shrink set to FALSE:

1.) In SQL Server Management Studio, expand the Databases node.

2.) Right-click the RSA Archer database, and select Properties.
3.) Click Options.
4.) Ensure that Auto Shrink is set to False, and then click OK.

SQL Server version and Service Pack level:

1.) In SQL Server Management Studio, right-click the name of the server, and select Properties.

2.) Click General.

RSA Archer version:

In RSA Archer 5.x, click Preferences located in the upper right-hand portion of the screen. You will find the
version number at the bottom of the User Preferences pop-up window. In RSA Archer 6.x, the version number
is always in the lower left-hand corner of the screen.