PDQ, not realistic for large networks?
Ok, we currently use Manage Engine Desktop Central for Windows and Third party software updates. We currently have just over 25,000 endpoints spread over 52 locations (all with 1gig connections to the main MDF where our PDQ Inventory server is located).
We want to be able to use PDQ Inventory for reporting and PDQ Deploy for our third party patching (and possible Windows feature updates in the future).
After many, many, many issues trying to get both Inventory and Deploy to handle the load of a 25,000+ endpoint network we decided to see if we could get just PDQ Inventory (on a non-VM) working first...
We started off by installing PDQ Inventory only (no deploy) on the following:
HP (ProLiant DL380 Gen9) Windows Server 2016 Datacenter (1607) OS Build 14393.2273 Processors Intel Xeon CPU E5=2620 v3 @ 2.40GHz (2 processors - 24 cores) 64 GB Ram One 2TB physical SCSI Drive (No SSD is not an option)
Keep in mind this machine is twice the machine that we use for the same amount of endpoints with Manage Engine Desktop Central (and it runs flawlessly). It runs both Windows and Third Party updates and also keeps about 400 servers up to date.
We were hoping moving from a VM (what we tried first) to a dedicated machine and only installing Inventory would help things, but unfortunately it has made no difference.
We continue to have problems with severe lag (30 seconds or more) while moving through different areas of the console (Server mode) both locally one the machine and remotely while view or creating new collections. Inventory become "non-reponsive" more often than not.
The PDQ Inventory service continues to stop running and requires us to restart it or sometimes a complete reboot is required to get the service to start again.
I've tweaked and re-tweaked the options many, many times and nothing seems to make any difference. I've even had a fellow (long time) PDQ customer take a look at my server and he made a few small suggestions which have not helped.
So my question is this, is PDQ just not up to the task for large networks? Should I finally give up and just stick with Manage Engine Desktop Central for all of our third party patching?
I REALLY want to use PDQ, but I'm at my limit on the amount of time that I can put into getting this to work. Any suggestions?
P.S. Currently using 16.3 with no agent.
Comments
First, it's not my negative vote.
Second, i think no one can help you, because no one knows your enviroment. Sure you mentioned a few thinks but every enviroment is individual and much more than this (and it is huge!) (16.2 was terrible slow because agent issues, 16.3 runs much better and stable now)
But what i can say is, PDQ dosn't runs better because you double the cpu or ram. For a large enviroment like yours its sounds more like a DB question, i think SQLite it's not the right DB for this scenario.
But you should try a SSD upgrade, maybe you can counteract the DB speed issues.
~Chris
I agree with you 100%. I also feel that it is an SQLite issue, but when I brought this up to PDQ support they said that their database structure should have no problems with a network of our size. That's why I was hoping to find any tips from possibly another customer using PDQ with a network of our size.
We agree with Christian's suggestion to try an SSD. Having a single spinning disk attempting to read and write to a database will quickly become a bottleneck. While SQLite is highly optimized for read operations, lesser priority read operations get put to the back of the queue while the database is being used for other tasks. Writing at that scale does present some issues, but we believe it shouldn't be an issue in most cases on the suitable hardware. We have had other customers with environments as large or larger make use of Inventory successfully. It does take some time to tweak the settings and plan your scanning/deployments to not bog down your network and server.
Maybe it is time for us, BIG company' sysadmins, to ask for a "real" DB that can handle better large-scale environments 😉 ?
I am managing 40 sites, 1600+ pcs and 350+ servers for 3.000+ people and things start to get a bit sluggish when I try to accomplish too many things.
That and the makingof different PDQ admin profiles (with read-only perms) would be awesome.
Chrisj,
I'd be more than happy to try an SSD, BUT since this is not an option with our current Gen9 hardware this would require us to purchase a new server as everything we have that is not on a Gen9 run's on a VM (which is on a cluster full of Gen9's as well). There is no SSD option for our model of Gen9's.
One thing to remember... The server running PDQ Inventory is TWICE the Server that we have currently running Manage Engine's Desktop Central (and it runs flawlessly using msSQL). DC is currently running both Windows and Third Party updates for our 25,000 endpoints and also keeps about 400 servers up to date. We just want to use PDQ Inventory because it seems to do a better job with it's reporting options.
So... we run Manage Engine's Desktop Central we are fine with a spinning disk, but if we want to use PDQ Inventory it requires an SSD?
Like Ben said above, when (if ever) can we expect PDQ to move to a real database option for it's larger customers (I'd be willing to pay extra for msSQL or mySQL support) so we don't have to purchase a server with an SSD to be able to use your software?
PLEASE give us an option to use something other than SQLite You can call it the "realSQL Enterprise" version.
Signed: Robert "Love your software, but your choice of a free / cheap database is hurting your larger customers" Basil
Hi Robert,
i know it sounds crazy but why you don't try somthing unconventional.
• Grab a normal PC with a Intel i5/i7, 16-32gb Ram and a SSD
• Put a LWL Networkcard in for better network performance or launch the test with the 1gb onboard NIC
• Install Windows and PDQ Inventory and look how it runs
If it runs smooth you can decide ....continue to use the i7 for Inventory ....Buy a new Server with a SSD
or wait für a full supportet SQL DB 😉
~Chris
Does anyone know IF realSQL support is coming? Does PDQ have some feature voting mechanism?
I have close to 60,000 end points and do see the console occasionally freeze, a full sql support is something we will need Â