GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 341214
Exchange connector slowness
Last modified: 2008-04-10 10:43:47 UTC
From the Evolution users mailing list... From: Peter Van Lone I am just starting to use Evolution (2.4.0 from SUSE10) and mostly like it very much. However, I have the exchange connector configured, and there are some things that really bug me. When I start evolution for the 1st time after booting the PC, it is SO SLOOOOOW! It takes forever for it to be ready to display my messages. I *think* I have it configured to download messages for offline use, so I don't understand why it would take 1/2 hour and more to refresh new messages, etc ... and why, even if it is "downloading new" messages, do I have to wait for that to complete, before I can read/work with older messages? (and I am talking about even when I have a full lan speed connection to the OWA server, and the Global catalogue server is nearby as well. In fact, it seems almost no faster to being "ready" while on the lan, then it does when I am at home, with only an internet connection.) Messages open in OWA quickly and easily. The server response is snappy. So, the issue is NOT that we have an issue with our OWA server, that is just fine. When I first start evolution, in the status bar on the lower right, it says: "downloading new messages for offline mode (3% complete), after 10 min! When I click on a message (even one that I had previously read -- ie it should already be stored locally) it can take from a few seconds to minutes to get the message text. The status bar on the right side will say: "downloading new messages for offline mode (9% complete)" -- even though when I check with OWA, I have no messages that were new from the last time I was in evolution live. and "retrieving message 000000ed957d" it takes variably from 5-15 or more min before I can click on an existing message and "immediatly" see it's content. The wait to see a message content ranges from 5 to 45 sec. now, once the system is really caught up ... and I can never tell how long that will be ... then I can click on a message and I get the text nearly instantly. I have app 8000+ emails and 30 folders. No filters. I have marked all the "top level" folders with "Copy Folder content locally for offline operation" From: Joost Kraaijeveld After an unknown certain time it retries, gets the answer and than suddenly starts working: Evolution waits, than suddenly runs, than waits, than suddenly runs, waits again, runs again etc. The problem occurs on startup but also while browsing my folders. If I use alt+[ for jumping to the next unread message it can take up to 5 minutes to actually show the body of the message (the subject is already in my (threaded) window).
actually this is evo 2.4.0 on SUSE 10, (not 2.6.0) This morning, as an example, I fired up EVO and now over 1/2 hour later, clicking on a small email (a few lines of text) that I had read and (presumably downloaded yesterday) it took over 15 sec to display the message. It is now almost getting to the time when I can begin to use evo ... thankfully I have not had to get anything from sub-folders because OWA on firefox can't get there. I'll attach a png file showing the evo screen and blank message content 1/2 hour after starting.
Created attachment 65163 [details] screen shot showing empty message content in display
it is now over an hour since opening evo. I am still getting the message in the status bar: "downloading new messages for offline mode 62%" But, this cannot possibly be the case ... I have left evo open and running overnight on multiple occasions, trying to give it sufficient time to "finish downloading". And on multiple occasions it has told me: "downloading new messages for offline mode 100%" Yet, still, when I click to "go offline" only very old messages are available. I assume that "offline mode" is akin to LookOuts and GroupWise's "caching modes". Is there no way to prime the db? What must be the algorithm in use if it really takes this long? My machine has been connected at LAN speeds many many times, so it is not that evo has had to do the initial download over a slow WAN connection.
Peter: I dont have an instant solution for you. The performance of exchange is taken as the main-task for the next major release of Evolution. In case, the slowness is hampering your productivity, I could suggest some workarounds for you. 1) Do not enable "Download for offline usage". Even if you have not enabled this option, all the messages read by you will be available for offline usage. In case you are getting lot of mails but you dont read all of them, this might come handy. 2) Do not enable "Check in all folders". This will slow down evolution. 3) Alternatively, have an IMAP account configured for your same exchange account. And have it enabled. A lot of performance improvements have been done in IMAP so it wont take much of your time/bandwidth. This could help you in case you want to lookup for some mail urgently. (provided your exchange server's IMAP port is enabled) 4) Do not start Evolution from a terminal with E2K_DEBUG set unless you want to take some traces. 5) Disable SPAM filtering. The storing algorithm used by Evolution is common across all providers. The slowness is due to the HTTP marshalling. Also can you provide some information like, how many folders you have? Approximately how many mails will be there in your folders? Do you use filters? Do you use search-folders?
My impression is, that Evolution or Evolution exchange does /not/ properly cache downloaded mail. As I have reported in bug 421091, I have observed, that it frequently throws away hundreds of megabytes of cache data. Especially, when you are behind a slow connection, this is very annoying and in this respect Evolution compares very unfavourably to Outlook, which in most cases, is almost instantly usable, when it is started.
Evolution 2.11.x has exchange optimization patches and it has improved exchange performance. I wish you can give a trial if time allows :)
Kudos! I'm impressed by the changes! Compared to previous versions, the speed improvements are absolutely breathtaking!
(In reply to comment #6) > Evolution 2.11.x has exchange optimization patches and it has improved exchange > performance. > I wish you can give a trial if time allows :) > That is apparently impossible. My distro is SLED 10 SP1 -- since evo is so tightly coupled to the over-all desktop environment, upgrading it is nearly impossible. I am sorry to say that I have given up on EVO entirely. I consider it a lost cause in the corp/enterprise environment and I am looking to find alternatives, though at this point there really does not appear to be much that is useful. This is a disaster to my mind ... but one that I cannot control and one that, clearly, the EVO/GNOME team does not either see or accept as such. Thanx for you efforts, perhaps in another couple years you or some other project will have a worth while exchange connector/groupware product. sigh peter
Closing the bug as per comment #7