Performance with PowerShell Workflow intiation

Question

I have a workflow I want to initiate with a PowerShell script (all items in a given view), and it gets stuck on "Starting" for 3 minutes or more.  When I run the workflow manually it kicks off right away (and also completes within a second
or two).  Since the workflow is getting initiated, why does it stay on "Starting" and complain of heavy workload?  How do I get a PowerShell initiation to match the performance of the manual initiation?
Background:  We are running SharePoint 2013 and our site collection is in 2010 compatibility mode.  We have separate App and web front end servers.  I am running the powershell script on the WFE server.  The powershell
script is very basic. 
Test #1
Manual Initiation:  Starts right away (within a second), and completes with Status "Completed"
PowerShell Initiation:  Get Status "Starting" when PowerShell script is run with below message
"Note: Due to heavy load, the latest workflow operation has been queued. It will attempt to resume at a later time."
After 2-3 minutes, workflow completes with Status "Completed"  (so I know my simple script works)
The above test was just with a workflow with a single step - "Stop the workflow and log 'workflow complete.'" 
Test #2
I tried doing a similar test with a workflow with a single user lookup and email action, and the workflow doesn't even run... you get Status "Canceled" with no errors after several minutes of the Status being "Starting" like in the test
above
Manual Initiation:  Starts right away (within a second), and completes with Status "Completed"
PowerShell Initiation:  Get Status "Starting" when PowerShell script is run with below message
"Note: Due to heavy load, the latest workflow operation has been queued. It will attempt to resume at a later time."
After 2-6 minutes, workflow ends with Status "Canceled" and no errors

Answer 1

Hi  ,
According to your description, my understanding is that you cannot initiation Workflow using PowerShell.
For troubleshooting your issue, firstly please add your site into Local intranet sites. Then you can try to  increase Throttle Size and Time Out. For more information, please have a look at the blog:
http://sharepointwriting.blogspot.com/2014/01/sharepoint-workflow-due-to-heavy-load.html
Also please provide detail error message of ULS log  to determine the exact cause of the error?
For SharePoint 2013, by default, ULS log is at      
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\LOGS
Thanks,
Eric
Forum Support
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Eric Tao
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