Opening of Faceplates slow
800xA v6.0.2
Client is virtualized Windows 10 LTSB2015 64bit
CPU 2.4GHz 2vCPU (CPU average <20% with 2 AfwWorkplaceApplication 32bit, 1 per display)
HDD is SAN (HPE Storevirtual) Tier 0 SSD MixedUse Raid 1, Tier 1 10k SAS Raid5
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When I click link to Faceplate, the average time to open is ~3s, compared to thick clients where time is <1s.
When client have been running for som time (weeks) opening times may go up to 5-12s.
This also occures when multiple faceplates is open (pinned). Times increase linearly for 4+ opened faceplates.
The CPU average is at this point is 40% with 60% peaks.
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Is there some way to identify where lag is coming from. Does not appear to be Network/CPU/HDD -related.
Answers
The virtual solution lack hardware acceleration. Every pixel must be rendered by the workplace process (or rather its ESXi host processor) instead of a dedicated video accelerator card on a local and stunning fast PCI bus.
The virtual solution is dependant on video compression and decompression tied together over Ethernet. Some thin clients run on inferior, low energy/power processors that can not be compared with what you can put in a rich client.
The virtual solution mentioned run on a 2.4 GHz processor (multiple cores does not help since the workplace was not built for multicore architecture) which in relative terms, is rather slow.
I believe that if you were to add a thick client with a local SSD disk and a moderate graphics accelerator card, as comparison, it would run the very same workplace a lot leaner than the 20-60% CPU you mention, and hence be faster than the virtual. Add to that the fact that most thick computers can be equipped with processors beyond 4 GHz, without costing a fortune.
ABB recommend using regular computers (thick clients) for critical process operation and the most rich operator experience. The operator workplace will benefit from a fast processor, the more GHz the merrier.
Virtualized clients are supported, but will due to the above not run the System 800xA HMI as good as rich clients can do.
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