For a while now, probably about a year or 18 months, I have had an intermittent issue with Manager Server.
In Purchase invoices, I click new attachment, select the attachment to upload and it uploads to 99/100% almost instantly. They are not big files - averaging about 150kb etc. They are usually (if not always) pdf files. I don’t think I upload any other file formats.
Most times, it will upload without any issues. Once in a blue moon, it will sit at 99%/100% for 30 seconds or longer and then complete. There appears to be no rhyme or reason to it.
I am using Server Manager (not the cloud or desktop). Has anyone experienced this issue. It started I think about 18 months to two years ago, but because its so intermittent I never bothered to report it.
Could you provide more information? Which Manager do you use and what OS do you use? I had try the trial version of Manager Server edition in Windows & Ubuntu and I never experience problem like yours before.
I have Server Manager running on Windows Server 2021. I use Firefox. I will try another browser in case the problem is a Firefox issue, but I doubt that the problem is that. The unfortunate problem is that the issue is so intermittent. 9 out of 10 times, the issue does not occur.
I will wait to see responses and see what everyone else has to say. If nobody else has issues, I will investigate possible wireless issues at my house etc.
So it doesn’t always happen. Have you checked the task manager or server resource information? In case the other services take up the server resource when the problem occurs. But, let’s see if someone has the same problem.
Where did you install Manager Server (VPS, Desktop, etc.)?
What are the System specs?
If VPS or hosted server are there any restrictions or other applications that you run from that Server?
Do you use a CDN?
How reliable is your internet provision, for example if using satellite such as Starlink then normal slight intermittent issues.
Do you connect to Manager from different locations?
Do these locations have same internet strength?
Are your Business files on the same Server or on another one?
Are there issues with the filenames.
Problem can still be related to the browser you use, often related to cache issues. Clear the browser cache frequently and restart the browser frequently too. Also try some time with another browser. So rather than “guessing” try different browsers out.
I could come up with more but one or more of these may resolve your issue.
As nobody else was experiencing the issue, that meant that the issue was not Manager. So, I was able to rule Manager out completely. That was very helpful. Eliminating possible causes is the most effective way to troubleshoot IT issues. I think I only really noticed the issue with Manager, because I don’t normally upload files.
My server is not (and never was) the problem as it has plenty of RAM, CPU power etc. It is running on a dedicated server in a datacentre.
Once, I had ruled out Manager, I did some testing. Was even worse in Edge than Firefox just by the way!
Problem turned out to be wireless related. For some reason, uploads on the wireless are much slower, where it was causing a minor irritation uploading files to Manager even though the file sizes are really small. I managed to reproduce the issue, by repeatedly uploading two sample files and the problem would occur every few uploads on wireless, but worked flawlessly via network cable. Network cable is virtually instantaneous.
My internet download speeds on wireless seem to work very well, so I have no idea (yet) why uploads are noticeably sluggish given the very small file sizes. I will have to investigate that. But I will close this question, as it’s obviously not a Manager problem.
I have troubleshooted the issue and am pleased to report that I was able to find the cause after testing on different AP’s, different laptops etc.
I have a Hyper-V installed on my laptop, which I sometimes use to run a virtual machine that runs a Linux system that I use for testing purposes. The Virtual Machine is always shut down as I only need it very rarely for testing purposes.
However, the Hyper-V was configured to use the external adapter (wireless) so that the virtual machine (and the main Windows system) was able to connect to the Internet. So, even though the virtual machine was not running etc, my wireless connectivity was going through the nat switch created by the hyper-v and the wireless was bridged to that nat switch.
I changed the hyper-v to use an internal private network (that doesn’t exist) to get it off the wireless and this removed the nat switch from network in control panel. Since doing that, uploading files to Manager is almost instantaneous and even uploading attachments to webmail is faster than it was (although the webmail never timed out like Manager did).
I used to have a hyper v on my computer - when I was using a computer and I had the same problem with Manager then. This is why I assumed that the problem was Manager - given that I had the same issue on two different machines, in two different houses. But the common cause was the hyper-v!
For some reason, hyper-v does not seem to cause an issue or any noticeable lag when downloading files (or visiting websites) - there may be a slight performance impact, but not really noticeable. But when uploading files, it really hurts performance for some unknown reason.
As I very rarely use the virtual machine anymore, the simplest solution is to “disable” hyper-v until I actually need to use it and all my problems are solved.
As you are using a NAT, try some of the following fixes that are also longer lasting:
Use a bridged (external) switch instead of NAT
Disable Large Send Offload (LSO) and TCP Checksum Offload in your wireless adapter’s settings. This may actually be tried first because it does not affect downloads but definitely can affect uploads.
To avoid throttling of the uploads, try to increase NAT session timeouts in PowerShell.
It is know that Power-saving features on the wireless adapter can affect uploads, as yours where intermittent start with disabling these before digging into one of the earlier mentioned solutions.
My wireless config no longer seems to have a power saving option. I suspect the feature has been removed precisely for reason noted in point 4.
I doubt that I will need the Hyper-V system in the future and if I do, it will probably be once a year if that. I am happy to leave it as is. I am running Windows 11 and Hyper-V Virtual Switch works very differently from how it works on Windows Server - so, I suspect that what you are suggesting in point 1 i not possible. As I am doubtful that I will use the Linux testing system in the future, I am happy to just leave it as “disabled” with the ability to re-enable it quickly in the future, should I need to do so.
As for point 3, not relevant if I have no longer have the hyper-v nat switch enabled.
I will look at point 2, but for the moment I will keep settings as they are, in order to establish a baseline. As it works now, I see no need to mess with the wireless config settings unless there is still a problem.
Thank you. I will keep those in mind should I need a virtual machine again. It would make sense to get rid of Hyper-V and use something that doesn’t interfere with the physical network connections the way that Hyper-V does. However, I can’t remember the last time that I used the virtual machine, so I suspect I will simply be deleting it one of these days.