Re: Prinergy and OSX Server (Tertiary) Issues?
"Did I find a solution to the problem" is a very big question. Hhhhhum, we let's say it works satisfactorily now. Querky is the word when using a OSX server as a tertiary server, but I am happy.
Things that I found out on our side that Prinergy/OSX did not like. 1.) We had a a autosyc app running from various PC's, copying their files to another RAID that the OSX server managed, causing the CPU to rise 15-20%. We stopped this. On top of that, we had Retrospect (On another OSX workstation) trying the backup files, raising it another 15-20%. 2.) We do not use the Archive JTP and do our own homegrown version of archiving. We basically, archive the entire job, then delete from the RAID. In Prinergy, we move the folder to a archived folder. If we need it again, we simply bring it back from our archived tapes and place it back into the jobs folder on the RAID. Our Problem was this, each or most of the jobs had anywhere from 1-6 hotfolders. Prinergy thinks the job is still there, so it continues its polling of the HF's and then figures out that the folder is no longer there. This caused slow down and a very long startup of Prinergy, because it looks for the HF's at start up, but can't find the folder. So now we delete the HF's from the job, before archiving. 3.) We boosted our RAID storage from approx. 768gb to 2.2TB 4.) We completely restaged (Zeroed all data) the server from 10.4 disk and did the Apple updates in two rounds. We previously upgraded as the updates came out. I think this made a huge difference.
Things that Prinergy will not do well with a Tertiary. 1.) Archiving JTP, from what I hear and have read. 2.) InSite can not upload single unstuffed files. They must be zipped or have a extention at the end of the name. 3.) Refining a Brisque .job is horribly slow. We refine it on the Primary, get our Master PDF, and port it over to the OSX server. 4.) AFP/SMB connectivity is confusing for me when you look at all the things you must consider. It is not documented well in my eyes, or I need to be educated on it more.
I really had to track the CPU usage on the OSX server. With nothing running, CPU of the OSX server is around 10%. Turn on Prinergy only, and it raises to about 30-40%, start pumping out jobs/refining/plating and CPU goes up to about 70-80%, run backups on the RAID and you push it to 90%. Please note, we have a Older Power PC G4 Server 2x1.33ghz & 2GB RAM. This could really help if we upgraded our server and put in a RAID card.
Hope this helps. You can email me directly and we can talk more if you like. Cheers, it's Friday!
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