Revit Save to central problems

[jeff_howard2]

Last week a new server was installed and all production work was moved over to it.  Now we are experiencing some locking up whenever someone saves to central,  We have 3 or 4 people working on a file that is about 130Mb and everyone is pulling a new local file from the central file every morning.  Each time a user saves to central or modifies an existing object everyone that is working on the project locks up for a minute or so.  Now if a user add something or copies something there is no lock up.  It seams like every time a users modifies an existing object Revit is checking to make sure no one else is modifying that object.  Before the new server this process was almost instant.

All users are using Revit 2014sp3

Any ideas of what could be going on?

Here are the general specs and setup of the new server.

Host:

Dell T420 Server

6 core 2.1 Ghz Xeon

16 Gb Ram

Windows server 2012r2 W/ Hyper-v installed

Raid controller Dell PERC H710

Volume 1 Raid 1 Contains (C: Host os) (E: VM1 os & VM2 os)

Volume 2 Raid 10 Contains ( 😧 VHDX files for data shares)

VM1:

Windows server 2012 R2 (Domain Controller)

C: Virtual IDE (VHDX on E drive of host)

J: Virtual SCSI (VHDX on D drive on host) (Location of Revit Projects)

R: Virtual SCSI (VHDX on D drive on host)

I: Virtual SCSI (VHDX on D drive on host)

VM2:

Windows server 2012 R2 (SQL based accounting software)

C: Virtual IDE (VHDX on E drive of host)

😧 Virtual IDE (VHDX on E drive of host)

[damo3]

I don't know much about this stuff, but i learnt earlier in the year about Revit build versions and keeping them consistent... this blog might lead to some answers??

http://revitoped.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/worksharing-and-windows-operating.html

[Lance.Coffey]

Have you tried setting the Worksharing Update Frequency to Manual (for every system accessing the file server)? (By default this is set to 5 seconds, and setting it to manual will reduce the network communication between the file server and the workstations.)

Note: This change would only impact users if they are utilizing the Worksharing Display Modes feature in Revit. The workset display would only update when users manually refresh it (such as when synchronizing). If the Manual setting clears the issue, you could try increasing the frequency to see at what point the issue returns.

If that doesn't work, take a look at this article:
http://knowledge.autodesk.com/article/Error-File-is-being-accessed-by-someone-else-or-crash-on-Sync-...

[jeff_howard2]

Thanks again Lance, I will try this in the next few days.  I have found the turning off the SMB protocol can mess up the backups running on the server so I am manually turn SBM on and off again just to get the backups to run each night.

I will try the Workshareing frequency tip when we have a few deadlines out of the way. I can't disrupt staff anymore then I already have.

I have also recived a tip to disable the SMB Signing on the server and see if that makes a diffrence.

http://jrs-s.net/2013/04/15/windows-server-2012-slow-networksmbcifs-problem/

[Lance.Coffey]

If you want to change the Worksharing Update Frequency, without going to each system (depending on the number this may or may not be an issue), you could look at pushing out an updated Revit.ini file, or writing a script to replace the current text (WorksharingDisplayFrequency=5) with the desired value (WorksharingDisplayFrequency=61)

Looking online I found the following TechNet thread on replacing a line of text in an INI file using PowerShell:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/9bae07fb-c259-4d70-ba39-bbad65e39bd1/...

[jeff_howard2]

Status update

Still doing some testing on this issues.  I have disabled SMB Signing on the domain controller that is acting as the fileserver where the Revit central files are being saved. This was not one of the solutions offered by Autodesk, so I am still waiting for users to say something.

http://jrs-s.net/2013/04/15/windows-server-2012-slow-networksmbcifs-problem/

I have re-enabled SMB 2 & 3 on the domain controller.  so far users have not complained about any slowdowns or lock-up.  If this ends up to be the solution I will make another update in a week.

[Lance.Coffey]

Thank you for the status update, I look forward to hear if you find that SMB signing was the cause (if so, I can update the File is being accessed… article to include this information).

[jeff_howard2]

Yes, I am hopeful the problem is solved.  I will keep knocking on as much wood as I can.  

[jeff_howard2]

So  far I want to report that the disabling of the SMB signing has solved our issues with multiple people accessing the central file in a mixed windows environment.

Here is the link that lead me to the solution.

http://jrs-s.net/2013/04/15/windows-server-2012-slow-networksmbcifs-problem/

[Lance.Coffey]

That is good to hear. I have updated the article mentioned previously to recommend disabling SMB Signing (it might be a few days for the change to be published).

[PaulNOOA]

We are experiencing the same trouble with SMB3 (as detailed here)

Our domain controllers are separate 2008 R2 server, whereas the file servers are 2012 R2. The settings seem to be more for fileservers running on domain controllers, do you think it would make a difference in my setup?

Maybe because our shares are on DFS, so technically the clients could go via the domain controllers to get the location.

Are there any signs of a patch for this, instead of reducing performance/security? I read there was some trouble with SMB1 and 2 mixing a while back with AutoCAD, and a patch was released for that.

[jeff_howard2]

I am throwing in the towel on Windows server 2012r2 for now.  I will be downgradeing all my servers back down to 2008r2 until this is fix or all of our workstations have been upgrade to windows 8.1 or higher.  I will rack this up as lessened learned. My server will never be the most current version of windows operating system.  I will hold back as long as possible if there are any SMB protocol enhancements made in the future.

• Please let it be known that disableing the SMB signing will not help.
• Disableing SMB3 on a virtual server sunning windows server 2012r2 will cause you big problems with your backups when useing the windows backup software.
• Simulare issues arise with Autocad files that have Xref's attached to them (Compleate computer lockup)

I hope this helps anyong who is looking to make the jump to windows server 2012 or 2012r2.  Don't do it if you are running a mix or windows client OS's.  Windows 7 is not happy accessing files from Windows server 2012.

[PaulNOOA]

This is quite frustrating! A lot of people will be migrating their old 2003 file servers to 2012 due to 2003 EOL, only to find out they need to downgrade to 2008!

The only "solutions" provided by Autodesk are to either degrade network performance, or reduce network security! Considering Autodesk had the same problems with AutoCAD and SMB1/SMB2, it's very disappointing this continues to be an issue with new products.

[Anonymous]

I was just reading the information and I was looking specifically on how to switch it to manual on the script. Thank you for being descriptive.