SCORM flash too slow

SCORM flash too slow

by René Alvarez -
Number of replies: 5

Sorry for the question if it's too basic, I'm somehow newbie at managing a Moodle deployment.

I created several scorm packages with iSpring Presenter (flash and HTML5 as well). When entering the activity, the presentation starts well, but when changing to the next slide, it can take up to 30 secs or more to change the slide. I believe this is due to some configuration or tweaking I'm missing because I tested a package on gnomio.com and it runs perfectly.

My environment: Moodle 2.8.5 running on Ubuntu 12 on Azure (dual core with 3.5GB of RAM). I have no more than 10 users at this time.

Users are getting an error saying the page is too slow (attached).

Please help!

Attachment scormerror.png
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In reply to René Alvarez

Re: SCORM flash too slow

by Matteo Scaramuccia -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

Hi René,
what is your PHP version and the web server, both product and version? Are you running an opcode cacher like opcache? Do you have some stats&monitoring to understand if the server has few resources or it is "just" a bandwidth issue?

In case of high concurrency - it doesn't seem your case - a big help could come from using X-Sendfile: https://docs.moodle.org/28/en/Performance_recommendations#X-Sendfile.

HTH,
Matteo

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In reply to Matteo Scaramuccia

Re: SCORM flash too slow

by René Alvarez -

Matteo,

  • The server is Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS
  • Apache is 2.4.7
  • PHP 5.5.9-1ubuntu4.9

PHP reports OPCache v7.0.3

As for stats, the server is pretty much not doing anything since I've seen constantly 80% of memory free and as for the processor, it's way below 25%.

Regarding bandwith, I do not believe so because I tested my scorm packages in gnomio and it runs like hell, but in this production server keeps having this issue.



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In reply to René Alvarez

Re: SCORM flash too slow

by Matteo Scaramuccia -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

Hi René,
I mean the bandwidth of the server and not your ;).

BTW, it looks like you have all the basic bits and pieces in your stack. Let go further:

  1. Did you already check if there is a JS error behind that behavior, maybe due to a custom theme?
  2. Have you already profile the network time when the server serves each file of the package in both the environments to find what is/are the file/s being slowly served by your server/Moodle?
  3. Does it happen with any browser?

X-Sendfile could be a good improvement but without knowing what is slowing your files serving I must be honest in saying that it could be not useful in your case - even if it is strongly suggested for scalability purposes.

In the past Moodle had issues with Flash for some kind of packages but there the behavior was different, being the Flash player unable to load extra flash files (SWF): MDL-47404.

HTH,
Matteo

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In reply to Matteo Scaramuccia

Re: SCORM flash too slow

by René Alvarez -

Hello Matteo,

The server does not seem to have bandwith issues. It's hosted in Azure and it's quite fast when uploading or downloading docs, packages and stuff.

Regarding the JS error, where should I look?

It happens on any browser we have tested (Firefox, IE, Chrome)

René Alvarez

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In reply to René Alvarez

Re: SCORM flash too slow

by Matteo Scaramuccia -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

Hi René,
gnomio has been updated to 2.9.2, https://twitter.com/GnomioNews/status/643085211295711232, so I strongly suggest you to update your instance too.

Use the Developer Tools of your browser, e.g. CR or FF, and look at the Console tab to search for any JavaScript issue. Besides, there you can find a tab called Network which could record the HTTP calls done by your browser when launching the content and you can record them with the "same launch" but through gnomio.com, to compare the two timelines.

It will be time consuming to find the reason why yours server slows down on serving some files.

HTH,
Matteo

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