CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javalinuxperformancejvm
AngryHacker
AngryHacker

Reputation: 61646

How to improve performance of code you don't own?

We have in-house a 3rd party java application on a ridiculously hefty Linux box that runs a scheduling algorithm. The application runs far too slow for the load we need. We do not have the code and the vendor won't be making any changes to the application due to monetary reasons, thus I can't improve the code. The application is single threaded and its design does not lend itself to parallelization (so I can't split the load between 2 boxes).

What can I, either software or hardware wise, do to improve performance of the application?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 387

Answers (4)

user207421
user207421

Reputation: 311018

Run it on a faster computer. This is probably the cheapest solution of the lot.

Upvotes: 1

Tom Anderson
Tom Anderson

Reputation: 47243

Can you preprocess the input so the application has less work to do?

For example, perhaps the first thing the application does is sort the list of jobs to be scheduled using a merge sort. If you pre-sort the list, then the application's sort will have no work to do. You might be able to sort the list faster than the application can - use many cores, do it ahead of time, etc.

Upvotes: 1

Brendan Long
Brendan Long

Reputation: 54292

  • Get on the newest version of Java (newer versions tend to have performance improvements)

  • Give Java more memory to work with (benchmark to see if this makes any difference)

  • Measure what it's doing with top. Upgrade whatever it's having problems with (more memory, faster CPU, SSD). Some CPUs are better at single threaded work loads than others (read: don't run this on a Bulldozer; something with Turbo Boost might be helpful).

  • Play with other experimental JVM options (benchmark to see if this makes any difference)

  • Remove any other applications running on this machine (benchmark to see if there's any benefit -- no sense wasting money if it doesn't help)

  • Pay the vendor to make it faster or give you the code (ie: give them monetary reasons to fix this)

  • Find an alternative

  • Write your own alternative

Upvotes: 6

Oleksi
Oleksi

Reputation: 13097

1) You can improve the hardware that the application runs on. Do this by looking at what resources the application is using. Is it maxing out CPU, or using all the memory (or both)? If so, you can add more CPU power or RAM accordingly.

2) Is there a way you can cache the results from the application? Can you ever avoid using it?

Otherwise, there really isn't much more you can do. If becomes a bigger problem, you might have to write your own scheduling algorithm, or better yet, find a better vendor.

Upvotes: 1

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