[Yale ArchivesSpace] Update on ArchivesSpace Work

[Wisner, Melissa]

Hello,

The ongoing efforts to improve ArchivesSpace performance will be summarized for staff through weekly email updates. Recently, a core group of YUL ASpace stakeholders met to discuss work completed and forthcoming. In addition to a digest of that information, I'd like to encourage everyone to continue to report any problems using ASpace to libraryit.entsys at yale.edu<mailto:libraryit.entsys at yale.edu>.


*         YUL contracted with Hudson Molonglo twice since June 2015 to help analyze the poor performance issues with ASpace

o   The first round of analysis produced a set of recommendations for tuning the server/infrastructure, and some adjustments to custom plugins Yale is using.

o   The second round of analysis produced a set of recommendations for ASpace process improvements, particularly with the user interface. These UI recommendations were shared with the broad ASpace community and with the Governance Board for ASpace. We are waiting to hear a formal plan of action from the latter regarding changes to the core product. The second round of HM analysis also produced additional modifications to custom Yale plugins to correct performance issues, most notably top container workflow.

*         YUL contracted with Percona, a MySQL consulting company, to help analyze poor performance issues with ASpace

o   Percona produced a set of recommendations after several days of analysis in our test instance. One of the primary issues identified was the number of queries sent to the database during each workflow, such as logging in, selecting a repository, and browsing the resources therein. Something like this can involve 3,000 queries. That's just one too many.

o   Library IT needs to close out several key details with Percona, including what changes they made and to which ASpace instances, and evaluate whether these recommendations are serviceable to other ASpace members. The Percona report has been distributed to the ASpace community for discussion.

*         YUL has temporarily moved ASpace production to robust physical hardware

o   For a few weeks, production ASpace has been running on a local server, which has provided the best end user performance to date. We are still collecting feedback from users on performance in this new environment, and hope to document benchmarks for key workflows in ASpace. The benchmarks not only help monitor current performance, but also set a baseline for moving forward with all new development and planned work for ASpace.

*         YUL is inquiring with Lyrasis about their ASpace hosting service

o   We are inquiring about several key issues such as what type of application support Lyrasis provides to hosted members, and if they can match or exceed the infrastructure specifications of our current physical server. We also plan to interview several hosted customers to gather additional feedback on the service. YUL hopes to have answers to these preliminary questions within another week, so we can prioritize required next steps to establish a permanent home for production ASpace.

*         YUL is contracting with Hudson Molonglo again to help resolve ASpace indexing issues

o   I recently shared a summary of the range of indexing issues staff are encountering, causing delays or preventing work in ASpace. An initial Statement of Work has been drafted by HM and is awaiting final approval. We anticipate this 3rd phase of analysis will begin early next week.

*         YUL is starting to test some early UI fixes from Lyrasis and preparing for an upgrade to the 1.3 release/core code version of ASpace

o   Lyrasis has developed some initial fixes to several UI issues YUL, and other sites, have been experiencing with ASpace. Examples include waiting 2+ minutes to display a record with hundreds of links, like the Koch Collection from BRBL. Some preliminary testing has started, and we are inquiring with Lyrasis about additional work to complete the resolution. This may involve incorporating all changes into release 1.3, or the next planned core release at the end of September. This is a high priority step and will require additional testing and coordination among several bodies, including Lyrasis programmers, the Governance Board, and individual members. The goal is to upgrade our local instance to a core release of ASpace.

Melissa Wisner
Library IT
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