Slow performance when working online with offline files

[gburnett]

We have Vista Business Laptops with Offline files enabled that sync with a
2003 server. About 12Gb of data is available offline. Performance Offline is
fine. Performance when working online is very slow with continuous high level
of HDD Activity and High number of Hard Page faults/sec (350 approx) Laptops
are Core 2 Duo with 2Gb RAM. When the online status is changed in windows
explorer from online to offline the HDD activity subsides and system responds
normally. I have been trying to resolve this issue for about a month with no
success. I am keen to roll out Vista but cannot proceed until this issue is
resolved. Can anyone help please.

 

[gburnett]

More Info:-
I am currently testing Vista in our XP Pro/2003 environment. The XP clients
perform perfectly in the same setup. We are using Netgear Managed Switches.
To give you an idea of what I mean by slow/fine. When working offline, Word
2007 (or example) will open in less than 2 secs. When working online it is
likely to take at least 10 secs. The HDD is busy continuously, slowing
performance to a crawl. Something else I have observed is that this High Disk
Activity does not start until all of the files that the user has chosen to be
offline have been downloaded into the cache as observed by Network
Utilization in task manager. I have a feeling the problem may lay in Vista's
background sync? All users are using roaming profiles (Stored on a seperate
server) and Folder redirection for all profile folders. Help Please.

 

[IT Mentor]

I have a similar network with the same symtoms and currently looking fo a
solution.
I would like you to confirm a couple things.
Open Task Manager on the affected Vista system, select the Performance Tab.
Note the Cached and Free memory; our system eats the free and loads it all
into cached.
Then Open the Resource Monitor and expand the Memory group.
Note the image svchost.exe (LocalSystemNetworkRestricted) will have
escallating Hard faults.
We have found that stopping the Offline Files Service eliminates the faults
and restores system performance.
Currenlty trying to get MS to explain and help fix.
If behaviour is same for you, please notify and I will share info as
received from MS.

 

[gburnett]

Hi,
Sounds like exactly the same issue. I have been working with Microsoft to
resolve this since early April 08. I wonder if you could provide answers to
the following?
How much data do you want to be available offline (in Gb)?
Are you using roaming profiles?
Have you implemented Folder redirection.
Your answers to these questions could prove useful.
Thanks in anticipation.

 

[IT Mentor]

user has 12-15 GB of data
we are using folder redirection
are not using roaming profiles
running a SBS2003R2 with ISA and MS Client Firewall and Symantec Endpoint
Protection.
Tried 2 laptops with clean installs with/out Firewall and Endpoint and got
the same behavior.
Works fine on a Vista B desktop.
Only blowsup on the laptops.
Should also be noted that I have another client with SBS2003R2 in
production, only difference is SAV 10 instead of SEP 11.
The laptop is running XP SP2, was using Synctoy here.
Decided to try Offline files and Folder redirection for this user.
Same performace issues showed up AND blew up the backup.
Since then reverted to Synctoy and repaired backup and everything is fine.
I share this because it might not be JUST a Vista issue.

 

[gburnett]

Thanks for the info, I'm stiill working on this. We have no problems with
offline files on our XP SP2 clients. It might seem a strange question, but
are you using Office 2007?

 

[IT Mentor]

I am open to all possible questions.
Both sites have one desktop with Office 2007 and do not have any Offline
issues.
I was able to recreate the behavior with different user accounts on the same
system. Including the DomainAdminstrator, a member of Folder Operators, Power
Users.
Do you have any dbf, pst or other database files in the folders?

 

[gburnett]

Try waiting for the downloading of each share you want to be available
offline, before requesting another share to be available. The easiest way to
monitior the download is by clicking the network tab in task manager. When
network utilization is around Zero, request another share to be available
offline.

 

[IT Mentor]

Microsoft underachieved with the support sessions (3 - verrry long ones).
We could not correct the behavior of the Offline Files Service and related
memory errors with LocalSystemNetworkRestricted.
We are cutting our losses.
We have "Downgraded" to Windows XP Pro.
Very disapointing.

 

[TTU]

Has anyone had any further direction with this? I am experiencing similar
symtoms running a similar setup. Vista x64 Ultimate, Syncing abou 1GB of
files to a Windows 2K3 Server and Symantec. My startup wait is about 2
minutes after login with very significant hard drive activity.