Issue
Troubleshooting Slow Performance
Symptoms
- Unable to log in to an instance.
- The instance no longer responds to keyboard or mouse commands.
- Operations seem to run slow or slower than they did before.
- Slow performance across all or specific applications in the instance.
- Slow response time when entering data into applications.
- The graphical user interface (GUI) takes too long to refresh.
Cause
- Network connectivity issues exist.
- Tables do not have indexes, causing the system to take longer to return results. This is due to the large amounts of data that must be processed.
- Scripts are stuck in an infinite loop.
- A script(s) created an inefficient query in the database or is running full table scans on large tables.
- Nested queries in the MySQL server have brought the database to a halt due to certain conditions.
- The Java virtual machine (JVM) memory use is high or the memory heap is not big enough to store all the data.
- A large number of calls are made to the database, causing high disk input/output (I/O) on the database server.
- The central processing unit (CPU) load on the server is too high.
- There is a high level of transaction concurrency.
Resolution
Slow performance can be related to a single cause or a combination of issues. Before analyzing each possible cause, it is important to answer two main questions:
- Who is experiencing slow response times?
- What applications are affected?
If slow performance is experienced by:
- A single user and affects all or a specific application in the instance.
- All users and affects all applications in the instance, see Troubleshooting case where all-users experience performance issues on all applications.
- All users and affects a specific application in the instance, see Troubleshooting case where all-users experience performance issues on a specific application.
If the issue continues to exist after following the troubleshooting guidelines:
- Clearly identify the issue or question.
- Visit the ServiceNow product documentation.
- Search the ServiceNow Community.
- Post a question on the ServiceNow Community forums. New users must create an account on the ServiceNow Community in order to post.
- Open an incident via email or the online Technical Support system.
- Contact the Technical Support team.
Additional Information
For more topic related issues, review the following Knowledge Base article: