BigPicture Sizing Guide

How powerful a server do I need for my company?

Since our plugins work with Jira, the first thing to consider is the Jira Sizing Guide. The additional footprint our plugins add is difficult to estimate due to the various possible configurations of modules and functionalities that can be used. 20 to 30 percent more powerful servers should be safe to assume if you want to ensure comfortable interaction while working with our plugins.

Maximum number of Jira issues loaded into a single BigPicture module

To begin with, performance and load tests executed by SoftwarePlant have set the threshold of issues possible to present by a single BigPicture Box to 5000 issues.

We are constantly working on performance improvements so don't hesitate to contact us and let us know if you experience any problems with using BigPicture on a larger scale.

BigPicture users

When it comes to responsiveness, the end-user PC has an impact. Having an updated Chrome or Firefox on a modern PC (dual-core PU, preferably at least a Sandy Bridge series for Intel and at least 2 GM RAM, preferably 3-4) is advised.

For the following table, notice that the order is not exact because Clocks are listed to give an idea of specific workload requirements. With the same clock number, obviously, an i5 will be more powerful than an i3. This is actually more of a matrix than a table.

The figures above are for Sandy Bridge and newer generations of Intel CPUs. Equivalents for AMD and other manufacturers vary, it is best to consult your server provider or an administrator.

BigPicture performance tests conducted by SoftwarePlant

SoftwarePlant performs load and performance tests before each release to maintain the optimal user experience of BigPicture.
Details of Jira environment used for performance tests:

• Operating System: Linux

• Database: PostgreSQL

• Jira RAM: 1536 MB - for plain Jira and BigPicture

• CPU of the host server: 8 cores - host server manages the CPU allocation

Jira server memory setup comfortable for BigPicture

The general rule of thumb is to preserve 4KB of RAM memory for each Jira issue registered in the system. This conversion formula includes overhead which is generated by BigPicture entities that accompany BigPicture tasks (which are entities wrapping Jira issues).

An additional approximately 300 MB is required during the plugin startup.

Hard drive space required

Modern servers have usually enough storage space to accommodate Jira and plugins without problems. Plugins themselves are marginal size by modern standards:

• BigPicture is approximately 62MB

• BigGantt is approximately 44MB

• BigTemplate is approximately 68MB (additionally consider custom templates that you wish to upload)

Some aspects that need to be considered here:

• Backups - we recommend backing up your instance before every update(your Jira data size is the key concern here).

• Logs - storing logs makes sense only for a limited period of time and usually, the default settings are OK.

Example sizing

For a Jira instance with 1,7m Jira issues, 650 Custom fields, 185 issue types, 185 workflows, 2500 users.

• For issues, always remember about the 4KB per issue rule of thumb.

• All 650 custom fields can be used in a Box Column Views configuration. The number of columns directly impacts the BigPicture performance and Gantt loading speed.

• Issue types, workflows, and users do not influence the performance of BigPicture.

BigPicture Gantt automatic WBS

Configuring synchronizers in any Box synchronization configuration directly affects the performance of BigPicture when opening a Gantt.

Each synchronizer adds additional work performed for every Jira issue in the scope of a Box. If you configure your Jira based on best practices as described above it will ensure successful implementation of BigPicture into your environment.

FAQ

"Are there any special configurations related to performance, is it possible to maybe reserve more threads for BigPicture? Or similar..."

Here are some tips that might help:

• Use date filtering if your Box spans a long period of time

• Switch off Fine-grained logging

• Do not use complicated JQL queries in the program scope and filters

• Increase the Synchronization time interval

• Change the Box status to closed

• Switch off the statistics collection and Feedback button

• The more data fields such as columns on Gantt you show while using BigPicture Plugin the more time it takes for the browser to calculate and render it.

• Switching off the WBS Widget on the detailed issue view should improve the loading time of the issue.

• Limit the number of tasks in the program as mentioned in the chapter Maximum number of Jira issues loaded into a single BigPicture module.

• Consider configuring a custom database connection for the plugin

• Limit tasks loaded each time a program is opened. Note though that all aggregation calculations will only take into account loaded tasks only.

• Remember that each additional plugin installed shares Jira's resources

• Archive old projects. Here's a link to the official Atlassian Knowledge base article on the topic

• Disable the "Save task changes to Jira issue page"

• Disable widgets and live synchronization

• Remove the Boxes you do not need

• Do not map individual fields

• Make sure that your browser does not block caching

Support is always there to help

In case your needs are more complicated you are always welcome to contact our helpful Support Team. They are always more than happy to answer all inquiries.