Printing Reports taking abnormally long time since switching to workstations from Terminal Server.

Since moving my client from a Server 2008 Terminal Server to individual workstations, printing reports of any kind are now taking over 5-10 mins to print 5 pages.  This includes just running print preview.

I'm currently running Mas 100 ERP version 5.10.7.0 with 10 users now running Sage client on individual workstations.  Each workstation is Win 7 pro 64bit with 8GB ram. Printers are Dell Printers using an HP Driver mimic from the Terminal Server.

I have attempted to try printing to shared printer both from the Terminal Server and also a print server.  I have installed the printers locally as well with no luck.Logging into the MAS server and printing the reports still prints the jobs in 5-10 secs.  I have attached computers directly to the same switch that the server is on, but that does not help.  I have tried to get outside help from a Sage Support Company, but they were unable to help and just said they cant do anything with it.

Please let me know what I need to do to the client PCs to speed up printing in MAS!  Every other aspect, Office, web printing all print normally, just an issue in MAS

Thanks,

Keir

Parents
  • 0
    Printing speed depends on what is between your server and workstation - cabling wise. If you are working over a WAN/VPN then 10 minutes to print a report is to be expected. You say that you switched from terminal server to workstation so I highly suspect you are NOT running on a LAN.
    Ping the server from a workstation, what are your average round trip times?
  • 0 in reply to 49153
    This is your most likely issue. My second suggestion would be anti-virus/malware scanning. If you are running Sage 100 Advanced you'll see fast performance on screens and posting but the printing can bottleneck because it's running Crystal locally, creating work files and passing that data at local speeds between server and workstation.
  • 0 in reply to Wayne Schulz
    I have disabled all AV and anti malware software.
    The terminal server is not the mas server so it ran as a client but does not have the issue. Only the win 7 machines have the issue.
  • 0 in reply to Keir_B
    So directly on the term server, speed is good, but for the users dialing into the term server, there are issues? Sounds kind of more like their connection than Sage.
  • 0 in reply to Rsmcnamara
    Sorry to mislead you if I did. The terminal server is over 5 years old and the speed is great but as we started to replace the end users thin clients with full pc workstation the workstations print slow. People who still connect to the terminal server still have no issues.
  • 0 in reply to Keir_B
    As an additional speed test - try copying a large file from the server to your workstation and see how many MB per second you are getting. Cliently recently was having slowness issues from two workstations. Transfer speed was only about 1.5 MB per second. Other workstations were getting 4-5 MB second. They replaced the network cabling and ended up getting about 11 MB second. Vast improvement in Sage 100 responsiveness.

    On my own server, we saw dramatic differences between Raid 5 and Raid 10 hard drive configuration. 10x speed improvement.
  • 0 in reply to TomTarget
    I use a utility LAN Speed Test (Lite) www.totusoft.com/lanspeed1.html for testing LAN speed.
    You will be surprised what you find. We were getting 8Mbps instead of the advertised 100Mbps and after some investigation we found the problem, corrected it and all printing issues went away. Reports printing in about 10 minutes now print in less than 10 seconds.
Reply Children
  • 0 in reply to 49153
    Yea!

    Out of curiosity, what did you trace the problem to?
  • 0 in reply to TomTarget
    Bandwidth throttling on the router :(
  • 0 in reply to 49153
    Thanks for the info.
  • 0 in reply to TomTarget
    Traffic does not go through router. This all happens on a gigabyte switch (running cat5e cables)
  • 0 in reply to Keir_B

    Did you check your network speed with the utility that 49153 suggested? I downloaded it and tried it on my system. If found that I was getting about 50MB throughput from my workstation to one server and about 80MB throughput to a different server. A different workstation was getting about 90MB. I have not tried it yet on any of my clients with noticeable slow operations (note that none of them are nearly as bad as your situation).

    The utility doesn't really tell you exactly what is wrong. It just tells you that something is slowing your throughput down and then you have to go hunting.

  • 0 in reply to TomTarget
    The Sage 100 system architecture matters, and while you said something about "the local odbc driver on the clients but also didn't help", but that is not the CS-ODBC configuration (which does not involve installing drivers on the client machines). Normally, with a Providex back end, the workstation's Crystal Reports print engine talks directly with the data files, over the network. These files can be large, and take time to open directly, line by line, linking table data... When configured, the CS-ODBC service (running on the server) does this for you. The client workstation doesn't access the Providex data files over the network, the service does that and returns the results to the client's print engine, which bypasses the heavy network traffic when printing.
    To set this up, look in the KB for details on configuring the CS-ODBC service. Then enable the option in User Maintenance for the people you want to test with.
  • 0 in reply to 49153
    Just out of curiosity, what did you find was the issue?
  • 0 in reply to D.Hart
    Still no fix for me as of yet. I have been given great advice, but still having issue.
  • 0 in reply to Keir_B

    Kier_B, did changing shortcut to the IP address help at all?

    Here are the step by step instructions for CS ODBC.

    Direct from the Sage Knowledge base:

    How to install and configure the Client/Server ODBC driver for Sage 100 Advanced version 2013 and higher

    Products
    Sage 100

    Description

    • How to install and configure the Client/Server ODBC driver for Sage 100 version 2013 and higher
    • How to install and configure the C/S ODBC driver (CSODBC Driver) for Sage 100 ERP Advanced
    • How to fix Registry entries for CS/ODBC when pathing or information is incorrect in Windows Services



    Disclaimer
    Network Warning
    This solution requires advanced knowledge of your network. Contact your system administrator for assistance. Modifying Windows security incorrectly can severely affect system operations. Sage is not responsible for operation issues caused by incorrectly modifying your Windows security. Always create a backup of your data before proceeding with advanced solutions.

    Operating System Warning
    This solution requires advanced knowledge of your computer's operating system. Contact your system administrator for assistance. Modifying your Windows Registry incorrectly can severely affect system operations. Sage is not responsible for operation issues caused by incorrectly modifying your Windows Registry. Always create a backup of your data before proceeding with advanced solutions.

    Note: For Sage 100 ERP Advanced (formerly Sage MAS 200) versions 4.10.1 through 4.50, there is a separate set of instructions. See the Related Resources section of this document.

    Client/Server ODBC driver components, when installed and configured, will allow remote workstations to process worktables using server-side ODBC processing. Report rendering is completed using a locally cached copy of the form or report and a local SAP Crystal Reports print engine.

    Remote workstations running over a WAN link connected through a VPN are ideal candidates for using the C/S ODBC Driver. Forms and reports will print significantly faster from remote workstations.Server-Side Configuration as an Application or as a Service
    Set up the Client/Server ODBC driver to run as an Application or as a Service before configuring the server. Decide which to use before proceeding.

    • To run as an Application:

    Note: This will have to be done each time the application is closed, such as when the server is shut down and restarted.

      1. Access the server where Sage 100 ERP Advanced is installed
      2. Open Windows Explorer and locate the pvxiosvr.exe file in "..\MAS90\Home"
      3. Right-click pvxiosvr.exe and select "Run as Administrator"
      4. A small "ProvideX File Server" window should appear a status message: "The Server is Running". Allow it to stay running. (It can be stopped by clicking the "Shutdown" button.)

    To run as a Service:

    • Create the Service:
      (Note: If the service is set to always start Automatically, it will do so each time the server is shut down and restarted.)
      1. Access the server where Sage 100 ERP Advanced is installed
      2. From the Windows Desktop, access Start, and Run
      3. Type: CMD 
      4. Press Shift+Enter to open Administrator Command Prompt
        (or Go to Start, Programs, Accessories. Right-click 'Command Prompt' and select 'Run as Administrator')
      5. Enter the local path to pvxiosvr.exe file, followed by a parameter of -i (Example: "C:\Sage\MAS90\Home\pvxiosvr.exe" -i)
      6. A service should be created, called "Sage 100 ERP Client Server ODBC Driver Service"
    • Configure the Service:
      1. Access the server where Sage 100 ERP Advanced is installed
      2. From the Windows Desktop, open Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services
      3. Verify the "Sage 100 ERP Client Server ODBC Driver Service" exists
      4. Right-click the service, select Properties
      5. On the General tab, select the Startup type "Automatic"
      6. Click Start to start the service, then click OK to exit Properties.
      7. Verify the service is "Started" before existing the Services window
    • How to fix Windows Service Manually when set up incorrectly
      1. From Windows go to Run and enter Regedit 
      2. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet001\Services\PVXIOSVR
      3. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet002\Services\PVXIOSVR
      4. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\PVXIOSVR
      5. Update ImagePath to the correct Sage Path
        EX: C:\Sage\Sage 100 Advanced ERP\MAS90\Home\pvxiosvr.exe" -SERVICE 

    Workstation Configuration
    Set up the workstations (users) to take advantage of the C/S ODBC driver.

    1. Log into Sage 100 ERP Advanced
    2. Open Library Master, Setup menu, System Configuration
    3. On the ODBC Driver tab, select Enable C/S ODBC Driver
    4. For "ODBC Server Name", enter the server name or IP address where the client/server ODBC application or service is running
    5. For "ODBC Server Port", enter the default port 20222
    6. For the "Enable for All Users" checkbox:
      • Select if all Sage 100 ERP users will be using the C/S ODBC driver
      • Clear if specific users will be enabled. To enable for an individual user (after setting up in System Configuration):
        1. Open Library Master, Main menu, User Maintenance
        2. On the Preferences tab, select the "Enable C/S ODBC Driver" checkbox
        3. Click Accept to complete setup in User Maintenance
        4. Close and restart the workstation client
    7. Click Accept to complete setup System Configuration

    Access and Test the ODBC Data Source

    • If running a 32-bit system, perform the following steps:
      1. Access the server where Sage 100 ERP Advanced is installed
      2. From the Windows Desktop, open Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Data Sources (ODBC)
      3. In ODBC Data Source Administrator, User DSN tab, select SOTAMAS90 and click Configure
      4. In ProvideX ODBC Driver Setup, Debug tab, click Test Connection
      5. In Sage 100 ERP Database Signon, enter Sage 100 ERP login credentials click OK
      6. If successful, you will the message "Connection succeeded"
      7. Click OK to exit the Setup and the Administrator windows
    • If running a 64-bit system, perform the following steps:
      1. Access the server where Sage 100 ERP Advanced is installed
      2. Open Windows Explorer and locate the ODBCAD32.exe file in "C:\Windows\SysWOW64"
      3. Right-click ODBCAD32.exe
      4. In ODBC Data Source Administrator, User DSN tab, select SOTAMAS90 and click Configure
      5. In ProvideX ODBC Driver Setup, Debug tab, click Test Connection
      6. In Sage 100 ERP Database Signon, enter Sage 100 ERP login credentials click OK
      7. If successful, you will the message "Connection succeeded"
      8. Click OK to exit the Setup and the Administrator windows


    ID:51211 Last Modified Date:9-17-20151442514011717   

  • 0 in reply to Jon_K
    Silly question, but in reading this thread, I don't think I ever saw a response to the question as to whether Sage 100 Standard or Advanced is being used? Or whether this is a WAN or a LAN?