SUNScholar/Optimisations

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Introduction

This wiki page details the major optimisations of the system performed at Stellenbosch University in order to create a truly production optimised version of DSpace.

Troubleshooting

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Java

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Tomcat

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Reduce system log sizes

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Email error logs

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XMLUI

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XMLUI

• Use XMLUI exclusively to reduce the memory load.

http://wiki.lib.sun.ac.za/index.php/SUNScholar/Install_DSpace/S08

Database

• Increase connection pool parameters

The following db connection parameters are used:

max_connections = 200
max_idle_connections = 400

These paremeters are set in the "dspace.cfg", "build.properties" and "postrgresql.conf" files. Check the relevant guide sections for more details.

• Fix "browse index" configuration to reduce the PostgreSQL database server query load.

http://wiki.lib.sun.ac.za/index.php/SUNScholar/Browse_Indexes

• Vacumn the database regularly

http://wiki.lib.sun.ac.za/index.php/SUNScholar/Daily_Admin

Bitstream checker

Modified bitstream checker settings as follows to reduce database size.

#### Checksum Checker Settings ####
# Default dispatcher in case none specified
plugin.single.org.dspace.checker.BitstreamDispatcher=org.dspace.checker.SimpleDispatcher

# check history retention
checker.retention.default=1y
checker.retention.CHECKSUM_MATCH=2w

References

• https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/DSDOC4x/Validating+CheckSums+of+Bitstreams

Monit monitor service

In case the Tomcat service halts or hangs due to whatever... , I installed monit to restart the service and then alert me. See an example of my config below, added to the bottom of the /etc/monit/monitrc file.

dspace@ir1:/etc/monit$ sudo cat /etc/monit/monitrc
set daemon  60
set logfile syslog facility log_daemon
set mailserver localhost
set mail-format { from: monit@ez.sun.ac.za }
set alert root@localhost
set httpd port 2812
     allow %username%:%password%

check process sshd with pidfile /var/run/sshd.pid
   start = "/usr/sbin/service ssh start"
   stop  = "/usr/sbin/service ssh stop"
   if failed port 22 protocol ssh with timeout 5 seconds then restart
   alert hgibson@sun.ac.za

check process tomcat6 with pidfile /var/run/tomcat6.pid
   start = "/usr/sbin/service tomcat6 restart"
   stop  = "/usr/sbin/service tomcat6 stop"
   if failed port 80 protocol http with timeout 300 seconds then restart
   alert hgibson@sun.ac.za
   alert wklap@sun.ac.za

All confidential information has been replaced with % signs or captial X's.

References

• https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/DSDOC18/Performance+Tuning+DSpace
• http://www.turnkeylinux.org/tomcat
• http://www.tecmint.com/how-to-install-and-setup-monit-linux-process-and-services-monitoring-program
• http://www.tecmint.com/command-line-tools-to-monitor-linux-performance