TFS DB performance slow when saving Work Items

Question

We are experiencing a problem where TFS is often slow when attempting to save a Work Item.  Usually it occurs if it is the first Work Item that day that is being saved.  It will take up to 10 minutes.  After the first one of the day, they seem to save quickly.  But often, if there is not much activity on the server, it will again take a while to save a Work Item.  It doesn't seem to matter how much source control activity there is, only how much updating there is for Work Items.  The servers (one for the app tier and reporting, one for the SQL) are both local in the building.  Also, I have this same problem with my VM on my laptop.  Is there some sort of standard DB tuning that is assumed once you have TFS installed (none is really mentioned in the documentation)?  Has anyone else ever experience this sort of thing?

Answer 1

Hello sdfsda,

  Does the SQL Server is a 64-bit version instance?

  if so here is an article:

          http://blogs.msdn.com/dstfs/archive/2008/12/08/workitem-is-slow-when-doing-a-save-or-update-in-tfs2008.aspx

  Thanks.
 

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Answer 2

First, the delay is not 8-10 seconds but sometimes as long as 15-20 MINUTES.  Also, it does this only if a Work Item has not been saved for a long time.  And I have noticed that the data seems to be updated in the DB relatively quickly, but the IDE and/or the Web Access screen continue to churn and are locked up for the full time.  Once a first Work Item has been saved, it speeds up to normal (less than a second).  Of course, if it's idle again for a few hours, we're back to square one.

Also, how do I tell if I have the 64-bit version?  The About screen doesn't say much: 9.00.3042.00 is the main db engine version.

Answer 3

Also notice another peculiarity:  This delay does not happen when doing batch updates through Excel.  Only seems to happen on individual WIs in both IDE and Web Access.

Answer 4

Hello

  Is there any error entry or warnings at System Event viewer both on client and server box?

  Thanks.

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Answer 5

We've been trying to cross-reference these delays with errors for some time and can see nothing that lines up.  This happens frequently on a test VM I use as well.

Answer 6

Hi,

Did you ever get an answer/solution for this kind of behavior?  One of my users is reporting a similar condition (not necessarily taking up to 10-15 minutes to update but up to 2-3 minutes) and it would be really helpful if you could share your workaround for this.  Thanks!

Answer 7

No and yes.  No, there was never any resolution to the actual problem.  This also happens when you upload updates to a WIT or a new WIT, etc.   The first save inside the Project(s) you uploaded the changed WIT to is also a very slow save, it'll take a few minutes.  It also happens if you remove unused WIT Fields via the command line tool.  Again, any attempts to save a WI are very slow the first time.

However, my customer has solved the issue at least in this way....they are migrating out of TFS and returning to PVCS and Dimensions.