Xwindows performance

[David McMullen]

I am looking for any information on performance tuning X WIndows applications. I have B2000 workstations that have slow response on my 10 MB ethernet segment. I cannot install the application on each workstation. I must use X Windows across the network. The application is Valor Star 1000.

David

[Bill Hassell · Accepted solution]

There isn't much you can do to improve a Xwindow application program without rewriting the code. For interactive programs, the 'think-time' for users is fairly long which means the average LAN load is low. There will be bursts but generally, the LAN is quiet. On the other hand, a program that polls the Xdisplay 5 times each second is going to load the LAN, especially if 50 copies of the program are running at the same time.

[Philip Chan_1]

You can improve X application speed with a faster LAN. For example if your place is running 10BaseT network then consider 100BaseT instead. 100BaseT hubs are not that expensive these days. Also, try checking out the utilization of your existing network by tools like LinkView Pro (others will do too).

My 2 cents.

Philip.

[David McMullen]

Thank you both for the quick responses. I believe that you are both correct. I have believed this for some time. However, may managers were not so quick to believe me. I am trying desperately to upgrade to 100MB lan. I'm sure that along with segmenting the group using this app, that they will see increased performance.

[Rick Beldin]

In order to characterize the performance of an X application you must consider that there are two parts to the app - the client, which is where the application is *run* and the display server, which is where the application *displays*. If you are displaying across a network, you might want to examine the behavior of both the client and server machines to see where resources are being consumed. Typically, X applications will spend a lot of time sleeping, waiting for events. On the other hand, many X applications are merely front ends to other programs, that do the real work. Understanding the architecture of your program will give you better understanding of what you may do to change its behavior.