In our previous article “Monitoring SharePoint 2010: Configuring the Usage Database”, we discussed the available performance counters and what they tell you. In this article we’ll discuss bottlenecks; how to detect them; and how to resolve them.
In general terms bottlenecks are the result of insufficient resources to service transaction request. Bottlenecks can be physical hardware, operating system, or application related. More often than not though you will find that a bottleneck is caused by ‘homegrown’ code or 3rd party solutions. Reviewing custom code could yield better results than simply adding more hardware to solve the issue. Another common issue that creates bottlenecks is an incorrect configured server or, an incorrect configured farm. Bottlenecks can also be caused by an inefficient design of the data structures causing those to require more resources than necessary.
For a system administrator, it is essential to manage bottlenecks by constantly monitoring performance. When you identify a performance issue, you must assess the best resolution for removing the bottleneck. The performance counters and other performance monitoring applications are key when analyzing problems.
Physical Bottleneck Resolution
The physical bottlenecks can be based on processor, memory, disk, or network contention. To successfully resolve a bottleneck issue you have to identify the exact nature of the issue and then make a change to mitigate the problem.
You may have to resolve bottleneck issues by making changes to hardware or system configurations, once you have determined that they are not caused by a misconfiguration, inefficient custom code or third party solutions, or inefficient solution implementation. The following tables identify problem threshold and possible resolution options. Some of the options suggest hardware upgrades or modifications.
Hopefully this will help you understanding and resolving bottlenecks in your SharePoint environment. In our next article we’ll discuss how to create a custom Monitis monitor to track your SharePoint 2010 performance and identify possible bottlenecks.