Improving Performance

This topic lists some specific considerations with regard to planning, installation and designing with the product that can help to improve the performance of your environment.

For an example of performance and scalability see the following KB article which discusses test scenarios, hardware and testing results by product versions.

Nintex Automation product version

It is always recommended that the latest versions of the product software be used as newer versions may contain performance improvements. This can be done by reviewing the release notes of latest product software versions that are released.

Network load balancing and Nintex Automation performance

When Nintex Automation is installed as a farm behind a load balancer, it is common to set a loopback entry within the HOSTS file on each of the nodes in the farm that maps the DNS name of the farm/load balancer to the local server. Specifically, this means editing the HOSTS file (typically located at: c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts) with an entry similar to below:

127.0.0.1 K2.Denallix.com

Where:

  • 127.0.0.1– is the universal loop back address for this current machine on which the HOSTS file is being edited. Using this loop back address avoids the need for the server to make I/O calls to the network card .
  • K2.Denallix.com– DNS name of the farm.

This configuration will result in any calls made by the server to the load balancer DNS name staying local on this server. This can have significant performance improvements as it drastically reduces the amount of round trips to the load balancer from a server. Additionally, it is a good idea to add the NETBIOS and FQN names of the farm, host headers and smartforms runtime site to the HOSTS file to ensure all paths are accounted for.

Nintex Automation Site

  • It is recommended that both the Site and the product be installed on the same server. This will remove the variable of network latency as a performance concern. Considering how much smartforms rely upon interaction with the SmartObjects on the service, this may have a noticeable impact in high load/high latency environments.
    • The guidance above applies especially to the Runtime site.
  • Prior to installing the Site, ensure that the following Role Services are enabled within the Performance node to improve performance:
    • Static Content Compression (Installed)
    • Dynamic Content Compression (Installed)
  • See the Smartforms Developer Reference Performance topic for information on additional configuration changes you can make to improve performance.