Scheduler.exe CPU intensive

[Brian.Turner]

I started using Pagegate with v3, and later switched to v4. That was in '02 or '03.

It has been awhile but i have foggy memories of v3 not having the issue i have had with v4 and the Scheduler.

It's certainly not a system-breaking issue. I was just curious if anyone else had experienced it and if there was a solution.

The issue: When we have a decent load of messages being sent to pagegate (mainly via GetAscii) the scheduler is eats up a lot of CPU (100%) at every polling interval, more so than I would expect for the amount of messages being handled. When there are no messages, Scheduler is of course idle.

If you are working in PGAdmin trying to set someone up, there are some long pauses you have to endure if you are working while scheduler is lighting up the Taskmgr.

Now yes this server is rather old and is due for replacement soon. It will be getting quite a hefty upgrade in CPU, memory, and perhaps drive speed. Maybe this trouble with the Scheduler will go away after that migration.

It just seems to me that it wasnt doing this before my last upgrade from v3 to v4. Of course going back to v3 isnt an option now, as we are using features that were added in 4.

Again, this doesnt hamper the actual server functioning at all. Pages are going out in a timely fashion. Just wonderign if there's a newer build of just the PGSched maybe that corrected this?

The versions of PGSched.exe and Pagegate.exe are both 4.0.0.5 if that helps. Also, my polling interval is 10 seconds.

Brian

[Tech Support]

Brian,

The issue you're running into is with that build of PageGate and has been fixed in the more recent builds. Here's what you'll want to do:

1) Make a backup copy of your c:\program files\pagegate\pagegate.mdb file - this file contains all of your registration, carrier, recipient, mailbox, and connectors information.

2) Make a backup copy of the c:\program files\pagegate\mailboxes\ directory, if it exists.

3) We've posted a new build of PageGate on our website, so download the new installation from here:

http://www.notepage.net - click on the Download graphic under the Pagegate section.


4) Shut PageGate down. Make sure that the system services are stopped, close the Admin, close the Monitor, and make sure nothing regarding PageGate is still running.

5) Uninstall PageGate. When prompted, select the full uninstall option.

6) Once the full uninstallation of Pagegate is complete, reboot the computer.

7) After the computer has been rebooted, manually browse to the c:\program files\ directory and if the PageGate directory still exists, delete it.

8) Use the pgv4.exe file you downloaded in step 3 to install the latest build of PageGate (select the PageGate Server option when prompted).

9) Now that we've got PageGate reinstalled, run the Admin.

10) Ignore the dialog that pops up, just click on Apply. It will tell you a new database has been created and PAgeGate must be restarted.

11) BEFORE you run the Admin again, take that copy of the pagegate.mdb file you made in step 1 and copy it back into the c:\program files\pagegate directory.

12) It'll ask if you want to overwrite the file, say yes.

13) If any of your recipients use mailboxes, restore the Mailboxes directory that you backed up in step 2.

14) Run the PageGate Admin again. Everything should be there (carriers, recipients, connector information, registration, all of it).

15) The last thing is to go to Program - Settings in the PageGate Admin and switch it to have PageGate run as a Windows NT service.

16) Once PageGate has been switched to run as a Service, left click once on the icon of the pager in your system tray and tell it to start.

That should take care of the problem you've been having with the Scheduler using too much of the CPU but if it doesn't, please let us know.

[Brian.Turner]

Well i upgraded to the latest and greatest, and the CPU issue is still present on the server.

However, i did not have the issue when i installed the same newer version on a fresh XP workstation. I copied over my production DB and played with it, even sent a couple of email messages (didnt have any modem to try TAP) via GetAscii and everything worked with no CPU issues.

So I've concluded that something is wonky with the older hardware, or perhaps the ancient NT OS installation it's on, and this will probably go away when i install on a new 2K3 server.

-Brian