Rogue plan blocking the View Notify process

[RickH]

Hi,

We have a plan which is taking several hours for the View Notify process ???
We are running PS SP2a and a single viewnotify process, so this is causing a
blockage. The server hardware is not stressed (single server with 4 x Xeon
hyperthreaded processors rarely over 50%, 16gb RAM and disk usage is low) We
are also running managed time periods ... any ideas?

I have removed [ ] and & characters from the task names (but left the . , -
and ( )) and also changed the registry setting to raise the VN process
priority to 6, but no improvement????

Some project plan details .....
Tasks - 80
Assignments - 423
Resources - 97

.... so not a big plan.

Many thanks
Richard

 

[Marc Schoeni]

Richard,

Do you have other similar plans that cause the same problem?

Have you tried deleting the XML file from the ViewDrop folder and then
restarting the Views Notification Service?

Let us know...

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com

 

[RickH]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. We have tried restarting the VN process, but that
makes no difference. I have also done timings with other project plans and
plans with many more tasks and assignments and they are taking 20 - 30
minutes to process ..... which looking through the Microsoft Configuration
Planning Guide still seems on the long side, but much less than this
particular plan.

Regards
Richard

Richard,

Do you have other similar plans that cause the same problem?

Have you tried deleting the XML file from the ViewDrop folder and then
restarting the Views Notification Service?

Let us know...

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com

Hi,

We have a plan which is taking several hours for the View Notify process
???
We are running PS SP2a and a single viewnotify process, so this is causing
a
blockage. The server hardware is not stressed (single server with 4 x Xeon
hyperthreaded processors rarely over 50%, 16gb RAM and disk usage is low)
We
are also running managed time periods ... any ideas?

I have removed [ ] and & characters from the task names (but left the .
, -
and ( )) and also changed the registry setting to raise the VN process
priority to 6, but no improvement????

Some project plan details .....
Tasks - 80
Assignments - 423
Resources - 97

... so not a big plan.

Many thanks
Richard

 

[Marc Schoeni]

Richard,

One of our customer was experiencing similar issues with some project plans.
The only way to solve this turned out to be an export of the plan to XML to
then re-import it (using the wizard) and save it as a new plan.

Which version of Project Server 2003 are you running? SP1 or SP2? There were
a couple of issues with Views Notification Service addressed with SP2.

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. We have tried restarting the VN process, but that
makes no difference. I have also done timings with other project plans and
plans with many more tasks and assignments and they are taking 20 - 30
minutes to process ..... which looking through the Microsoft Configuration
Planning Guide still seems on the long side, but much less than this
particular plan.

Regards
Richard

Richard,

Do you have other similar plans that cause the same problem?

Have you tried deleting the XML file from the ViewDrop folder and then
restarting the Views Notification Service?

Let us know...

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com

Hi,

We have a plan which is taking several hours for the View Notify
process
???
We are running PS SP2a and a single viewnotify process, so this is
causing
a
blockage. The server hardware is not stressed (single server with 4 x
Xeon
hyperthreaded processors rarely over 50%, 16gb RAM and disk usage is
low)
We
are also running managed time periods ... any ideas?

I have removed [ ] and & characters from the task names (but left the .
, -
and ( )) and also changed the registry setting to raise the VN process
priority to 6, but no improvement????

Some project plan details .....
Tasks - 80
Assignments - 423
Resources - 97

... so not a big plan.

Many thanks
Richard

 

[RickH]

Hi,

Thanks for the response and I was reluctantly coming to the same conclusion.
We are on SP2a.

Regards
Richard

Richard,

One of our customer was experiencing similar issues with some project plans.
The only way to solve this turned out to be an export of the plan to XML to
then re-import it (using the wizard) and save it as a new plan.

Which version of Project Server 2003 are you running? SP1 or SP2? There were
a couple of issues with Views Notification Service addressed with SP2.

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. We have tried restarting the VN process, but that
makes no difference. I have also done timings with other project plans and
plans with many more tasks and assignments and they are taking 20 - 30
minutes to process ..... which looking through the Microsoft Configuration
Planning Guide still seems on the long side, but much less than this
particular plan.

Regards
Richard

Richard,

Do you have other similar plans that cause the same problem?

Have you tried deleting the XML file from the ViewDrop folder and then
restarting the Views Notification Service?

Let us know...

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com


Hi,

We have a plan which is taking several hours for the View Notify
process
???
We are running PS SP2a and a single viewnotify process, so this is
causing
a
blockage. The server hardware is not stressed (single server with 4 x
Xeon
hyperthreaded processors rarely over 50%, 16gb RAM and disk usage is
low)
We
are also running managed time periods ... any ideas?

I have removed [ ] and & characters from the task names (but left the .
, -
and ( )) and also changed the registry setting to raise the VN process
priority to 6, but no improvement????

Some project plan details .....
Tasks - 80
Assignments - 423
Resources - 97

... so not a big plan.

Many thanks
Richard

 

[Marc Schoeni]

Richard,

If you don't want to waste too much time you might want to go ahead and
perform the steps I have recommended in the last post. This is a
quick-and-dirty approach that will solve the problem for the moment; however
it can always occur again.

Are we talking about a large installation of Project Server in your case?

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com

Hi,

Thanks for the response and I was reluctantly coming to the same
conclusion.
We are on SP2a.

Regards
Richard

Richard,

One of our customer was experiencing similar issues with some project
plans.
The only way to solve this turned out to be an export of the plan to XML
to
then re-import it (using the wizard) and save it as a new plan.

Which version of Project Server 2003 are you running? SP1 or SP2? There
were
a couple of issues with Views Notification Service addressed with SP2.

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. We have tried restarting the VN process, but that
makes no difference. I have also done timings with other project plans
and
plans with many more tasks and assignments and they are taking 20 - 30
minutes to process ..... which looking through the Microsoft
Configuration
Planning Guide still seems on the long side, but much less than this
particular plan.

Regards
Richard

:

Richard,

Do you have other similar plans that cause the same problem?

Have you tried deleting the XML file from the ViewDrop folder and then
restarting the Views Notification Service?

Let us know...

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com


Hi,

We have a plan which is taking several hours for the View Notify
process
???
We are running PS SP2a and a single viewnotify process, so this is
causing
a
blockage. The server hardware is not stressed (single server with 4
x
Xeon
hyperthreaded processors rarely over 50%, 16gb RAM and disk usage is
low)
We
are also running managed time periods ... any ideas?

I have removed [ ] and & characters from the task names (but left
the .
, -
and ( )) and also changed the registry setting to raise the VN
process
priority to 6, but no improvement????

Some project plan details .....
Tasks - 80
Assignments - 423
Resources - 97

... so not a big plan.

Many thanks
Richard

 

[RickH]

Hi,

Thanks, I think we will have to go ahead with re-building the plan just to
get the PM back up and running with a working plan. The installation is
medium sized with about 100 plans, about 20 large (500 task) plans all on one
large server (4 x 3ghz Xeon hyperthreaded processors, 16gb RAM) .... but I
think this also restricts us to a single view notify process which is why
this is an issue.

Regards
Richard

Richard,

If you don't want to waste too much time you might want to go ahead and
perform the steps I have recommended in the last post. This is a
quick-and-dirty approach that will solve the problem for the moment; however
it can always occur again.

Are we talking about a large installation of Project Server in your case?

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com

Hi,

Thanks for the response and I was reluctantly coming to the same
conclusion.
We are on SP2a.

Regards
Richard

Richard,

One of our customer was experiencing similar issues with some project
plans.
The only way to solve this turned out to be an export of the plan to XML
to
then re-import it (using the wizard) and save it as a new plan.

Which version of Project Server 2003 are you running? SP1 or SP2? There
were
a couple of issues with Views Notification Service addressed with SP2.

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com


Hi,

Thanks for the reply. We have tried restarting the VN process, but that
makes no difference. I have also done timings with other project plans
and
plans with many more tasks and assignments and they are taking 20 - 30
minutes to process ..... which looking through the Microsoft
Configuration
Planning Guide still seems on the long side, but much less than this
particular plan.

Regards
Richard

:

Richard,

Do you have other similar plans that cause the same problem?

Have you tried deleting the XML file from the ViewDrop folder and then
restarting the Views Notification Service?

Let us know...

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com


Hi,

We have a plan which is taking several hours for the View Notify
process
???
We are running PS SP2a and a single viewnotify process, so this is
causing
a
blockage. The server hardware is not stressed (single server with 4
x
Xeon
hyperthreaded processors rarely over 50%, 16gb RAM and disk usage is
low)
We
are also running managed time periods ... any ideas?

I have removed [ ] and & characters from the task names (but left
the .
, -
and ( )) and also changed the registry setting to raise the VN
process
priority to 6, but no improvement????

Some project plan details .....
Tasks - 80
Assignments - 423
Resources - 97

... so not a big plan.

Many thanks
Richard

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Rick:

It's all about the assignment data. 423 assignments against 80 tasks is
substantial. If you haven't done the rebuild, I'd try this first:

http://www.projectserverexperts.com/Shared Documents/BinaryRebuild.htm

If you have done the rebuild by saving as XML, you should also run the
routine in the link above. The XML save bloats the file considerably and
this will shrink it back to normal size.

Hi,

Thanks, I think we will have to go ahead with re-building the plan just to
get the PM back up and running with a working plan. The installation is
medium sized with about 100 plans, about 20 large (500 task) plans all on
one
large server (4 x 3ghz Xeon hyperthreaded processors, 16gb RAM) .... but I
think this also restricts us to a single view notify process which is why
this is an issue.

Regards
Richard

Richard,

If you don't want to waste too much time you might want to go ahead and
perform the steps I have recommended in the last post. This is a
quick-and-dirty approach that will solve the problem for the moment;
however
it can always occur again.

Are we talking about a large installation of Project Server in your case?

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com

Hi,

Thanks for the response and I was reluctantly coming to the same
conclusion.
We are on SP2a.

Regards
Richard

:

Richard,

One of our customer was experiencing similar issues with some project
plans.
The only way to solve this turned out to be an export of the plan to
XML
to
then re-import it (using the wizard) and save it as a new plan.

Which version of Project Server 2003 are you running? SP1 or SP2?
There
were
a couple of issues with Views Notification Service addressed with SP2.

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com


Hi,

Thanks for the reply. We have tried restarting the VN process, but
that
makes no difference. I have also done timings with other project
plans
and
plans with many more tasks and assignments and they are taking 20 -
30
minutes to process ..... which looking through the Microsoft
Configuration
Planning Guide still seems on the long side, but much less than this
particular plan.

Regards
Richard

:

Richard,

Do you have other similar plans that cause the same problem?

Have you tried deleting the XML file from the ViewDrop folder and
then
restarting the Views Notification Service?

Let us know...

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com


Hi,

We have a plan which is taking several hours for the View Notify
process
???
We are running PS SP2a and a single viewnotify process, so this
is
causing
a
blockage. The server hardware is not stressed (single server with
4
x
Xeon
hyperthreaded processors rarely over 50%, 16gb RAM and disk usage
is
low)
We
are also running managed time periods ... any ideas?

I have removed [ ] and & characters from the task names (but left
the .
, -
and ( )) and also changed the registry setting to raise the VN
process
priority to 6, but no improvement????

Some project plan details .....
Tasks - 80
Assignments - 423
Resources - 97

... so not a big plan.

Many thanks
Richard

 

[RickH]

Thanks Gary, I will try this.

We have also found that the Project Managers (we allow PMs assigned to a
plan to act as PMs) on this plan have been repeatedly changing ownership of
the assignments using Republish Assignments with Become the Manager of the
Assignment, doing this between 5 and 10 times a week ...... basically we have
a training issue and they thought this was good practice. This has caused a
spike in the View Notify load, but do you know whether this would have caused
the times for the view notify processing on this project to rise to 3hrs+ ?

Many thanks
Richard

Rick:

It's all about the assignment data. 423 assignments against 80 tasks is
substantial. If you haven't done the rebuild, I'd try this first:

http://www.projectserverexperts.com/Shared Documents/BinaryRebuild.htm

If you have done the rebuild by saving as XML, you should also run the
routine in the link above. The XML save bloats the file considerably and
this will shrink it back to normal size.

Hi,

Thanks, I think we will have to go ahead with re-building the plan just to
get the PM back up and running with a working plan. The installation is
medium sized with about 100 plans, about 20 large (500 task) plans all on
one
large server (4 x 3ghz Xeon hyperthreaded processors, 16gb RAM) .... but I
think this also restricts us to a single view notify process which is why
this is an issue.

Regards
Richard

Richard,

If you don't want to waste too much time you might want to go ahead and
perform the steps I have recommended in the last post. This is a
quick-and-dirty approach that will solve the problem for the moment;
however
it can always occur again.

Are we talking about a large installation of Project Server in your case?

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com

Hi,

Thanks for the response and I was reluctantly coming to the same
conclusion.
We are on SP2a.

Regards
Richard

:

Richard,

One of our customer was experiencing similar issues with some project
plans.
The only way to solve this turned out to be an export of the plan to
XML
to
then re-import it (using the wizard) and save it as a new plan.

Which version of Project Server 2003 are you running? SP1 or SP2?
There
were
a couple of issues with Views Notification Service addressed with SP2.

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com


Hi,

Thanks for the reply. We have tried restarting the VN process, but
that
makes no difference. I have also done timings with other project
plans
and
plans with many more tasks and assignments and they are taking 20 -
30
minutes to process ..... which looking through the Microsoft
Configuration
Planning Guide still seems on the long side, but much less than this
particular plan.

Regards
Richard

:

Richard,

Do you have other similar plans that cause the same problem?

Have you tried deleting the XML file from the ViewDrop folder and
then
restarting the Views Notification Service?

Let us know...

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com


Hi,

We have a plan which is taking several hours for the View Notify
process
???
We are running PS SP2a and a single viewnotify process, so this
is
causing
a
blockage. The server hardware is not stressed (single server with
4
x
Xeon
hyperthreaded processors rarely over 50%, 16gb RAM and disk usage
is
low)
We
are also running managed time periods ... any ideas?

I have removed [ ] and & characters from the task names (but left
the .
, -
and ( )) and also changed the registry setting to raise the VN
process
priority to 6, but no improvement????

Some project plan details .....
Tasks - 80
Assignments - 423
Resources - 97

... so not a big plan.

Many thanks
Richard

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Rick:

I suspect that it causes file bloat, which in turn causes the slowness. The
therapy outlined in the link is a quick fix if I'm correct.

Thanks Gary, I will try this.

We have also found that the Project Managers (we allow PMs assigned to a
plan to act as PMs) on this plan have been repeatedly changing ownership
of
the assignments using Republish Assignments with Become the Manager of the
Assignment, doing this between 5 and 10 times a week ...... basically we
have
a training issue and they thought this was good practice. This has caused
a
spike in the View Notify load, but do you know whether this would have
caused
the times for the view notify processing on this project to rise to 3hrs+
?

Many thanks
Richard

Rick:

It's all about the assignment data. 423 assignments against 80 tasks is
substantial. If you haven't done the rebuild, I'd try this first:

http://www.projectserverexperts.com/Shared Documents/BinaryRebuild.htm

If you have done the rebuild by saving as XML, you should also run the
routine in the link above. The XML save bloats the file considerably and
this will shrink it back to normal size.

Hi,

Thanks, I think we will have to go ahead with re-building the plan just
to
get the PM back up and running with a working plan. The installation is
medium sized with about 100 plans, about 20 large (500 task) plans all
on
one
large server (4 x 3ghz Xeon hyperthreaded processors, 16gb RAM) ....
but I
think this also restricts us to a single view notify process which is
why
this is an issue.

Regards
Richard

:

Richard,

If you don't want to waste too much time you might want to go ahead
and
perform the steps I have recommended in the last post. This is a
quick-and-dirty approach that will solve the problem for the moment;
however
it can always occur again.

Are we talking about a large installation of Project Server in your
case?

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com

Hi,

Thanks for the response and I was reluctantly coming to the same
conclusion.
We are on SP2a.

Regards
Richard

:

Richard,

One of our customer was experiencing similar issues with some
project
plans.
The only way to solve this turned out to be an export of the plan
to
XML
to
then re-import it (using the wizard) and save it as a new plan.

Which version of Project Server 2003 are you running? SP1 or SP2?
There
were
a couple of issues with Views Notification Service addressed with
SP2.

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com


Hi,

Thanks for the reply. We have tried restarting the VN process,
but
that
makes no difference. I have also done timings with other project
plans
and
plans with many more tasks and assignments and they are taking
20 -
30
minutes to process ..... which looking through the Microsoft
Configuration
Planning Guide still seems on the long side, but much less than
this
particular plan.

Regards
Richard

:

Richard,

Do you have other similar plans that cause the same problem?

Have you tried deleting the XML file from the ViewDrop folder
and
then
restarting the Views Notification Service?

Let us know...

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com


Hi,

We have a plan which is taking several hours for the View
Notify
process
???
We are running PS SP2a and a single viewnotify process, so
this
is
causing
a
blockage. The server hardware is not stressed (single server
with
4
x
Xeon
hyperthreaded processors rarely over 50%, 16gb RAM and disk
usage
is
low)
We
are also running managed time periods ... any ideas?

I have removed [ ] and & characters from the task names (but
left
the .
, -
and ( )) and also changed the registry setting to raise the VN
process
priority to 6, but no improvement????

Some project plan details .....
Tasks - 80
Assignments - 423
Resources - 97

... so not a big plan.

Many thanks
Richard

 

[RickH]

Hi,

Thanks for the help, I will let you know how it goes.

Regards
Richard

Rick:

I suspect that it causes file bloat, which in turn causes the slowness. The
therapy outlined in the link is a quick fix if I'm correct.

Thanks Gary, I will try this.

We have also found that the Project Managers (we allow PMs assigned to a
plan to act as PMs) on this plan have been repeatedly changing ownership
of
the assignments using Republish Assignments with Become the Manager of the
Assignment, doing this between 5 and 10 times a week ...... basically we
have
a training issue and they thought this was good practice. This has caused
a
spike in the View Notify load, but do you know whether this would have
caused
the times for the view notify processing on this project to rise to 3hrs+
?

Many thanks
Richard

Rick:

It's all about the assignment data. 423 assignments against 80 tasks is
substantial. If you haven't done the rebuild, I'd try this first:

http://www.projectserverexperts.com/Shared Documents/BinaryRebuild.htm

If you have done the rebuild by saving as XML, you should also run the
routine in the link above. The XML save bloats the file considerably and
this will shrink it back to normal size.




Hi,

Thanks, I think we will have to go ahead with re-building the plan just
to
get the PM back up and running with a working plan. The installation is
medium sized with about 100 plans, about 20 large (500 task) plans all
on
one
large server (4 x 3ghz Xeon hyperthreaded processors, 16gb RAM) ....
but I
think this also restricts us to a single view notify process which is
why
this is an issue.

Regards
Richard

:

Richard,

If you don't want to waste too much time you might want to go ahead
and
perform the steps I have recommended in the last post. This is a
quick-and-dirty approach that will solve the problem for the moment;
however
it can always occur again.

Are we talking about a large installation of Project Server in your
case?

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com

Hi,

Thanks for the response and I was reluctantly coming to the same
conclusion.
We are on SP2a.

Regards
Richard

:

Richard,

One of our customer was experiencing similar issues with some
project
plans.
The only way to solve this turned out to be an export of the plan
to
XML
to
then re-import it (using the wizard) and save it as a new plan.

Which version of Project Server 2003 are you running? SP1 or SP2?
There
were
a couple of issues with Views Notification Service addressed with
SP2.

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com


Hi,

Thanks for the reply. We have tried restarting the VN process,
but
that
makes no difference. I have also done timings with other project
plans
and
plans with many more tasks and assignments and they are taking
20 -
30
minutes to process ..... which looking through the Microsoft
Configuration
Planning Guide still seems on the long side, but much less than
this
particular plan.

Regards
Richard

:

Richard,

Do you have other similar plans that cause the same problem?

Have you tried deleting the XML file from the ViewDrop folder
and
then
restarting the Views Notification Service?

Let us know...

Marc S.
MCP for EPM
www.diventis.ch
msepm.blogspot.com


Hi,

We have a plan which is taking several hours for the View
Notify
process
???
We are running PS SP2a and a single viewnotify process, so
this
is
causing
a
blockage. The server hardware is not stressed (single server
with
4
x
Xeon
hyperthreaded processors rarely over 50%, 16gb RAM and disk
usage
is
low)
We
are also running managed time periods ... any ideas?

I have removed [ ] and & characters from the task names (but
left
the .
, -
and ( )) and also changed the registry setting to raise the VN
process
priority to 6, but no improvement????

Some project plan details .....
Tasks - 80
Assignments - 423
Resources - 97

... so not a big plan.

Many thanks
Richard