Performance query

[paulm1677332]

Hi,

I was looking at some performance issues on a test server and I came across the following:

Tip: Our research has shown that in some versions of ColdFusion, leaving Report Execution Times enabled while Enable Request Debugging Output was disabled would still cause ColdFusion to perform excessive background processing on every request, leading to significant overhead. It is highly recommended to disable Report Execution Times regardless of the Enable Request Debugging Output setting in your production environment.

I noticed we had Report Execution Times enabled. We are using CF2018. Can anyone confirm if there is additional overhead having this enabled and should I disable it or does it not matter?

Thanks

[Charlie Arehart]

Paul, while I can't currently confirm if that's still an issue, you can easily confirm it by disabling it (or all debugging) in the cf admin and then testing things.

Someone may propose you could also add cfsetting showdebugoutout="no" to a page instead. There was a time also that that did not prevent the overhead of the info being GATHERED, it just stopped it being SHOWN. Again, I can't confirm if/when that change occurred.

Finally, if your test above shows your performance problems happen even WITH the debugging disabled in the admin, there can be any of MANY reasons for a request to be slow. And indeed, sometimes the reason will be made clear from the debug output. 

But there are still other ways to find the reason, such as the cf PMT tool (free with CF2018 and above on all versions, but NOT installed automatically), or FusionReactor (commercial with a free trial) or still more apm alternatives.

It's usually far more effective to use such diagnostics to KNOW where the problem is rather than guess based on web resources that may list many possibilities to consider.

Finally, of course, you could also leverage the skills of someone who does this sort of troubleshooting daily. And while you can ask questions here of course, sometimes it's FAR more effective to solve such problems via a shared desktop session. And I offer such services on a consulting basis. You can find more on my rates, approach, satisfaction guarantee, online calendar, and more at carehart.org/consulting. Some thorny problems can be found and resolved in as little as 15 mins. 

But please do let us know if the above gets you further down the path on your own. And we're here if you have more questions. 

[paulm1677332 · Accepted solution]

Thanks Charlie. You've given me great answers on this before and I always appreciate your responses. The performance issues were actually down to issues with SQL Server and a restart of the instance actually sorted things so it wasn't really CF being the issue in this case. I suppose it was just when looking around I came across that article and was wondering if anyone could confirm or deny that disabling it would be beneficial. We do have Fusion Reactor and I use that to keep an eye on all things DB side. I could probably use it for more but thats another story.

[Charlie Arehart]

Good to hear, and thanks for the update.