Webi Rich Client 2-tier and 3-tier data refresh performance difference

[Donatas]

Hello,

I am observing a difference in data refresh performance between Webi Rich Client 4.2 SP05 2-tier and 3-tier modes.

For example the same data provider with 1 column and 500.000 records in Webi Rich Client 2-tier mode retrieves the data from database in 5s while in 3-tier mode the same is achieved in 40s. This is not a one time occurrence. Rather it's a pattern and if more columns are added to the data provider the bigger is the difference.

I am wondering where could be the bottleneck in 3-tier mode and if it's possible to improve the data retrieval performance in 3-tier mode. Maybe it's the Web Application Server which is one of the differences between 2-tier and 3-tier modes?

Looking forward your ideas.

Thank you.

Best regards,

Donatas Budrys

[former_member59613 · Accepted solution]

Hi Donatas,

Denis hints to the difference in his response.

2-tier mode is a much more direct method of accessing the data so it will almost always be quicker. The 8x performance hit you mention seems a little high to me but there are quite a few factors that could come in to play here.

in 2-tier mode, Webi Rich Client will use the local DB client to connect directly to the database and fetch the records:

WRC Client Machine -> Database

In 3-tier mode, Webi Rich Client connects through the Application Server to utilize a backend Connection Server process to connect to the database from the server side. So you could be taking a path like this:

WRC Client Machine -> App Server -> Connection Server -> Database

Depending on your configuration, the App Server and Connection Server may be different servers and depending on their proximity/network location in relation to both the client and the database, this could be a source of the delays.

If 500,000 rows of data has be transferred 1 time (2 tier mode from database to client directly) vs 3-4 times (database to connection server to app server to client) then this will obviously add a lot of overhead.

3-tier mode is useful because it uses server side connectivity which means your clients don't all need to have direct access to the database but there is a cost for performance.

Hope that makes sense.

Jb

[Donatas · Accepted solution]

Hi, Jonathan,

Thank you very much for your feedback and thorough explanation.

Yes, I was aware of the architectural difference between Webi RC 2 and 3 tier but the performance difference between both modes was a little bit too high. I was wondering maybe there are some specific aspects or issues about this that could be changed or configured.

But your answer describes the situation clearly.

Thanks.

Best regards,

Donatas Budrys