This article describes the different performance-type issues that you might encounter with the Direct Marketing Agent and the possible workarounds for those problems.
Performance concerns can include the following types of issues:
- errors when starting the Direct Agent, including warnings about bad configuration
- noticeable slowness in the environment
- inability to create a campaign
- tasks that no longer work or run extremely slowly
- processes not responding
- tasks that stop responding or do not recover
Workarounds
The following workarounds are an excellent defense and go a long way in preventive maintenance:
These steps ensure that there are always some SAS pooled workspace instances available for processing. If you experience unacceptable delays due to start-up costs, consider tuning these parameters as needed for your workload and machine size.
- Check the space on your environments regularly. (SAS Temporary Files (-work) and MATables directories or filesystems)
- Make sure that you are current with the latest hot fixes for your software. The hot-fix blogs are a good reference to help with the hot-fix process and generating a report. The report provides a visual of what is needed on all tiers:
- Keep a list of changes in your environment and the load on your system. This list can help you determine whether those changes added to recent performance changes.
- When performance is degraded, check which jobs are running on the system to determine whether you need to adjust the time at which your jobs run. (For example, consider not running jobs during high-traffic times.)
Creating Space on the Mid-Tier
To clean up so that you have more space on the mid-tier, complete the following steps:
- Stop the Direct Agent (for example: use systemctl stop direct-agent-service or shutdown.sh script).
- Stop the middle-tier components first. (For example, stop SASServerX_Y – WebAppServer first, then httpd-Web Server, then Cache Locator, and then JMS Broker.)
On Linux, use the following script to stop the SAS Services:
sas.servers status
sas.servers stop or sas.servers.mid
- Delete, move, or archive to a different path the content of the following directories:
- <SAS-configuration-directory>/Lev1/Web/WebAppServer/SASServerX_Y/temp/* (these temporary files do not need to be backed up)
- <SAS-configuration-directory>/Lev1/Web/WebServer/logs/*
- <SAS-configuration-directory>/Lev1/Web/gemfire/instances/ins_41415/*.log
- <SAS-configuration-directory>/Lev1/Web/gemfire/instances/ins_41415/*.dat
- <SAS-configuration-directory>/Lev1/Web/gemfire/instances/ins_41415/ConfigDiskDir/*
- <SAS-configuration-directory>/Lev1/Web/activemq/data/*
Note: Delete only the content inside the data folder. If you delete the data folder, you will not be able to start the service.
All the files in <SAS-configuration-directory>/Lev1/Web/activemq/data/* will be regenerated after the restart.
- <SAS-configuration-directory>/Lev1/Web/Logs/SASServerX_Y/*
In the directories above, the X and Y in SASServerX_Y represent the different servers that you might have (that is SASServer1_1, SASServer2_1, and so on).
- Start the following middle-tier components again:
sas.servers status
sas.servers start
See Using the sas.servers Script on UNIX or z/OS to Start or Stop All Servers for additional information.
- It is very important that—after restarting the SAS Services (on-premises)—you wait before starting the Direct Marketing Agent. We recommend waiting 30 minutes because the middle-tier usually takes up to 30 minutes to fully restart. Then, you can start the Direct Marketing Agent (for example: systemclt start direct-agent-service)
Additional References
For more information about troubleshooting the Direct Marketing Agent, see the following resources:
Managing the Direct Marketing Agent
“Bad Configuration” Messages Occur in the onprem_direct.log for the Direct Marketing Agent
Microsoft Windows Best Practices for the Direct Marketing Agent
