Revit 2015 hanging waiting for central model

[Anonymous]

I support a handful of Revit 2015 folks.  They've been having performance issues for some time now and we've gotten a Revit consultant as well as Autodesk support involved.  We've not been able to resolve this though.

The users complain that, at times, Revit is waiting for the central model.  This can happen when only one person is in a particular Revit file.

All Revit files are stored on our main file server, which is running Server 2008 R2.  It is a virtual server and has no tasks other than file sharing.  We do have other servers on our virtual server.  All workstation meet or exceed the minimum hardware specs and video specs, but are not necessarily on the certified list.

As a test, a Revit file was moved to an OLD Windows 7 workstation that had a share available.  No central model hangs during this time.

Running the latest version with all patches of Revit 2015 on all machines.

Autodesk has asked for journal files multiple times, but they never come back with anything useful.  They said they don't support the hardware, so we're pretty much left in the dark at this point.  They also don't support that we're running our file server virtually, so that's a dead end.

Their conclusion is that the problem is the server, and that very well may be, but we have nothing to support that conclusion.  We have monitoring software on our server, and it shows no issues with CPU, RAM, networking or disks during the times of slow down or otherwise.  We have another 30-40 people using the same file server with no issues, and some of these folks are working on 1+ GB InDesign or Photoshop files. 

Server is an HP Proliant DL380G8.  Dual Intel CPUs, plenty of RAM.  Disks are hanging off of a Smart Array P420 controller in a RAID 6 array; 8 disks in the array for max platters. 

Any thoughts?  The fact that users get the central model waiting dialogue when no one else is in the model is what's disturbing. 

[barthbradley]

"The fact that users get the central model waiting dialogue when no one else is in the model is what's disturbing. "

Agreed. I'd escalate this matter up to Autodesk Technical Support. Perhaps, @Viveka_CD can weigh in. 

[Anonymous]

They're involved, but they keep telling us they don't support hardware, so nothing they can do.  If @Viveka_CD has any good ideas or thoughts, we're all ears!

[Viveka_CD]

Hi @barthbradley thanks for alerting me to this thread.

Hi @Anonymous

I see that you are visiting the forums as a new member! Welcome to the Autodesk community!

Good to know that all the patches for Revit 2015 are in place.

I see what you are saying - that the server might not be the problem.

What I need from you:

Can you share the case number, if this issue is already in progress? I can look into the status and check with the development team.

I also request a journal file to attach to your case.

Send us a screenshot of the error message you receive.

A few questions for you:

• What is the model size?
• How many users on the team who are dedicated to working on this model?
• What is the monitoring software that you use?
• Does this error occur on a specific file or for all models on Revit 2015
• Did you recently upgrade your Revit version?

A few recommendations:

• What are other applications other than InDesign and Photoshop are you working on using the same server? If so, can you try closing other applications and see if this error still occurs?
• Can you try the same model in an upgraded version of Revit?
• Can you try installing the latest updates from the manufacturer website? HP Smart update manager.See HERE for more information.
• I wonder if this could be a data transfer error - but waiting to hear back from the team on any other suggestions. See HERE for information.

Looking forward to your reply update. 

Regards,

[Anonymous]

@Viveka_CD, thanks for reaching out, really appreciate it!

Our ticket number is 13124348.

I'll try to answer your questions as best as I can -

There should be some journal files that were already attached to the case when we were having issues.  If they're not there, let me know and I can try to collect more.

Model sizes are all over.  This does affect any/all models that users work on.  It's not limited to a few files.  The most recent complaint that I heard from a user was on a .rvt file having size of 42 megs.  I can't say how many users are dedicated to this or any particular model.  We have about six users that do Revit work, but at the time of this complaint, it was first thing in the morning with not many users in the office in general.  This is the only user who was in this model. 

We did not recently upgrade our Revit version, other than a few machines that needed patches.  We have been on Revit 2015 for some time now.

We have about 40-50 users in the office, and they could be using InDesign, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, AutoCAD, etc.  There's really no way to have everyone shut down their applications when this happens as a test.  In general, when users are in Revit, that's all they're in (Maybe Outlook as well. . .)

We do not have an "upgraded" version of Revit to test with at this time.  We verified all HP updates (Drive, firmware, etc.) are on the server.  We did this as an exercise to try and rule the server out a few months ago.  No errors in the ADU referencing the URL you sent.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Viveka_CD]

Hi @Anonymous

Thanks for the quick response. Your case is open and handled by one of our specialists.

Some suggestions from the team to try. Thank you @Lance.Coffey and @michael_coviello for your recommendations.

1. Look into using a file access/lock monitor that can track access to files on the server and log them, to find out if anything is locking the central model files when the error is displayed.

2.Try to set the work sharing frequency slider in Revit to less frequent.

Please send your journal file and the server log management files, attach it to your case details as requested by the specialist.

Regards,

[Anonymous]

@Viveka_CD, thanks for the reply.

I'll check out the file access/lock monitor utility and see what I can find.

On the work sharing frequency, previously all users had it set to manual updates only and continued to have problems.  I'll make sure that is set back to manual regardless.

We've sent many journal files, and each time were told there was no helpful information in there.  Are you saying you want me to collect additional journals?  Also, what is the server log management files?  That's a new one for me.

[Viveka_CD]

Thank you @Anonymous

If you have any results from running the file access/lock monitor please post that to the case as well. This will help us all to be on the same page.

So it seems like the worksharing frequency has no effect.

Yes a recent journal file will help.

See HERE for a monitoring tool (a server log manager) that detects server activities.

Regards,

[Anonymous]

@Viveka_CD, we use Continuum to monitor our servers.  They watch specific performance metrics as well as event logging.  If there's specific information you are looking for, let me know.

I will resend the last log file where we had issues via our open case.  Would prefer not to send here.

[Viveka_CD]

Hi @Anonymous

I connected with the specialist who is handling your case - please follow up with her for any future updates and post files to the open case details.

If any other community users have any insights on server management please feel free to post your recommendations.

Regards,