Plus Memory Issues

Question

Hi all.
Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer Plus 10g (10.1.2.45.46c)
Windows 2000 professional Client
I've been making few tests here using Oracle Disco Plus. We use Oracle Portal to present dashboards for end users. Whenever they need analytic capabilities, there's a link to Discoverer Plus in the main page.
I've selected to launch Plus, and checked memory consumption using Windows Task Manager. Then I can see IEXPLORE.EXE process is consuming around 77MB after running a simple query.
When I close Discoverer, using FILE -> EXIT menu option, the IEXPLORE process still consumes the same amount of memory. So, when end-users close Oracle Discoverer, the memory ramains allocated as if you still have Disco Plus opened. This is not a big problem for me cuz my client machine has 1.5 gb RAM. But most end users machine have between 256mb and 512mb. If we sum the memory discoverer consumes with all of that fancy blinking software end-users love to install in their env., I believe they'll have performance issues using Oracle Discoverer.
Why Discoverer does not free used memory when we exit it? Is there any misconfiguration in the Java Virtual Machine or server parameters?
Regards,
Marcos

Answer 1

Hi Marcos
If you are running Discoverer 10g Plus on machines with 256mb or 512mb your users are going to be very, very disappointed. Those machines are heavily underpowered for running the Discoverer Plus applet.
Appendix A of my Discoverer 10g Handbook is a questions and answer session. The following question and answer comes from there:
QUESTION: We are running Discoverer Plus. How much memory do you suggest individual PCs should have? We are strictly using Discoverer Plus and Viewer and find the performance to be really slow.
ANSWER: Your question concerning memory on the client is most interesting. Even though Plus and Viewer are web-based applications, the amount of memory available on the client does make a significant difference. I used to say that 512mb was needed but I have personally come across performance issues at a client whose machines have that amount of memory. My own laptop, which has 2Gb of RAM has no such issues. I will therefore be recommending a minimum of 1Gb from now on with an optimum of 2Gb. If you can possibly afford it, your new Plus machines should have at least 1Gb and be capable of being expanded to 2Gb should the need arise. Of course, if you can get 2Gb to begin with you will have far fewer issues.
My own experience at dozens of clients suggests that each Plus connection will take an average 85mb of space, so with your machines coming in at 77mb this is 100% normal activity and is to be expected.
Now other issues arise because of this in that the standard Java install sets the memory allocation to 64mb which means that in nearly all cases you will be paging to disk! Now the cache size on disk is also low by default, being a miserly 50mb. I've therefore sometimes had the need to alter my Java settings to allocate extra memory. If you ever find you need to adjust the memory settings this may help:
If using JInitiator:
To increase the maximum heap memory, use this workflow:
From the Start button, use Settings | Control Panel
Double-click the JInitiator 1.3.1.22 Plug-in
On the Basic tab, set the Java Runtime Parameters to: –Xmx256m
Click Apply
This sets the maximum amount of memory to allocate to Java to be 256mb. You can alter this to a higher value if you have plenty of memory. For example if you have 2 Gb memory you could try using –Xmx512m. Generally I would not set the maximum to be more than 50% of your system memory.
To increase the cache allowed for your local JInitiator, use this workflow:
From the Start button, use Settings | Control Panel
Double-click JInitiator 1.3.1.22 Plug-in
On the Cache tab, set the Maximum to 500mb:
Click Apply
To increase the maximum heap memory, for the Sun Java client, use this workflow:
From the Start button, use Settings | Control Panel
Double-click the Java Plug-in
On the Advanced tab, set the Java Runtime Parameters to: –Xmx256m
Click Apply
To increase the cache allowed for your local Sun Java, use this workflow:
From the Start button, use Settings | Control Panel
Double-click Java Plug-in
On the Cache tab, set the Maximum to 500mb:
Click Apply
By the way, you also should not allow the Java client to automatically update itself as this will cause issues too when the client Java is running a higher version than the server Java. This posting on my blog explains:
http://learndiscoverer.blogspot.com/2006/06/10g-discoverer-handbook-page-923-do.html
As for memory not being cleared out properly, this is typical. Once the applet has loaded it remains loaded which is why the next time you launch Discoverer Plus it opens much faster. This is another reason why 256mb or 512mb would be considered underpowered.
I hope this helps
Best wishes
Michael Armstrong-Smith
URL: http://learndiscoverer.com
Blog: http://learndiscoverer.blogspot.com
P.S.
As previously mentioned, appendix A of my Discoverer 10g Handbook is a Q&A section listing many of the answers to questions that are found in this forum. I, and Oracle, are always a little surprised by the number of people who don't have a copy. After all, it is the official Oracle Press book on the subject.
I mention this, not as a criticism of yourself, but for the hundreds of folks who might read this posting to let them know that many of the questions they would ask are in the book, and in much more detail than can be posted here, especially when pictures and screenshots are required.