Long response times from client

[bogomir]

Hi all,

I have a problem on 2 of my 3 MacOS Big Sur computers. I use FAHControl on one Mac to manage all clients on the other computers. The problem now is, that two out of the three Macs (and that includes the local client) take ages to show the current status in FAHControl. Any idea, what that could be? The computers show updating as status for a long time and then after minutes it briefly (a few seconds) goes into Online displaying the status and then goes into updating again. As this also happens with the local FAHClient (it also takes minutes to answer) I doubt that this is a network problem at my home. Has anyone seen this? Has anyone an idea, how I can make the client to answer instantly again, which it does for one of the other Macs on Big Sur, which I manage remotely?

Sorry, I can't explain it any better, but any ideas/pointers/... ?

I'm using FAH 7.6.21 on all computers.

Thanks
Bogomir

[calxalot]

Are the slow responses from Apple Silicon Macs?

[bogomir]

No. all Intel Macs:
MacBook Pro Mid 2014 (slow response)
iMac Dec 2020 (slow response)
MacBook Pro 2016 (fast response)

[calxalot]

Please post the contents of
/Lbrary/LaunchDaemons/org.foldingathome.fahclient.plist
from one of the slow macs.

[bogomir]

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>GroupName</key>
<string>nobody</string>
<key>KeepAlive</key>
<true/>
<key>Label</key>
<string>org.foldingathome.fahclient</string>
<key>LowPriorityIO</key>
<true/>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/usr/local/bin/FAHClient</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
<key>StandardOutPath</key>
<string>/dev/null</string>
<key>Umask</key>
<integer>18</integer>
<key>UserName</key>
<string>nobody</string>
<key>WorkingDirectory</key>
<string>/Library/Application Support/FAHClient</string>
</dict>
</plist>

[calxalot]

Hmm. It’s missing two entries. Are you comfortable with the command line?

[bogomir]

Yes, I just saw, that the fast one has four lines more. Are these the ones you see missing?

<key>ProcessType</key>
<string>Interactive</string>
<key>SessionCreate</key>
</true>

I can add them, no problem. If there needs to be something different, please let me know and I give it a try.

Thanks!

[calxalot]

Yes, that is it. Be sure that the plist is still owned by root when you’re done editing it.

[calxalot]

You will also need to unload and load the service.

[bogomir]

What exactly do you mean by "unload and load the service"?

I have quickly rebooted the Mac only. The changes had no effect. The local response time is still slow :-X

[bogomir]

I reinstalled fah on one computer and it delivered the 28 line plist file instead of the 32 line plist file. I have copied the 32 line version from the fast responding computer and restarted FAHClient on that box. Nothing changed. I have done the same thing on my controlling computer and rebooted that box now twice and it seems to respond normally fast. I will reboot the other computer later as it is in use right now. I will report back, whether this fixed the problem for the other Mac as well. This still feels strange. Thanks so far @calxalot!

[bruce]

When a FAHClient has been running a long time, FAH's log gets very long. Remote monitoring can get especially slow depending on how they're networked. That sometimes appears to slow down the client, itself. Restart the remote client(s) and the log will close and restart clean.

[calxalot]

Rebooting the computer restarts the service. Just restarting FAHClient will not.

I think you have inadvertently changed the ownership of the plist, so the system is ignoring your edits.

[bogomir]

@calxalot The problem is fixed. Rebooting now also fixed the other Mac. I have checked the ownership and umask of the files before, so there wasn't an issue with that. I only killed FAHClient and that didn't fix the issue as you mentioned. But ultimately it seems the broken plist file was the issue. The only thing strange for me is, that the new install did not fix the file. Anyway, thanks for your help. Everything is running smoothly again!

[calxalot]

Glad it’s working.
I expect the problem with macOS 11 on M1 Macs, but not Intel Macs.

Do you by chance use
export SYSTEM_VERSION_COMPAT=0