Speeding up the SCOM Console

Beware! When editing the registry one can cause damage which cannot be undone. So be careful when performing the procedure mentioned in this blogposting. Always make an export of the registry keys before deleting ANYTHING from the registry.

Ok, having said that, there is a nice trick to get the SCOM Console running faster.

At a customers site I bumped into a situation where the SCOM operators complained about the performance of the SCOM Console. And they were right. It was very sluggish. So I checked the RMS and the related SQL server. These servers were performing just fine. No glitch what so ever. They were dimensioned properly (enough cpu, RAM and fast disks) and when running perfmon on those servers, all was well.

So the cause of the sluggish SCOM Consoles wasn't to be found there. Then I turned my attention to the systems of the SCOM Operators. First I found that they were running the SCOM Consoles with the /ClearCache command.

They started with SCOM when it came RTM and with RTM it was advised to use that switch. But when they upgraded to SP1, they were still using this switch. But it is Best Practice only to use this switch when there are problems with the SCOM Console. Under any other circumstances this switch is not to be used. So I deleted this switch.

The performance of the SCOM Console did improve but not enough. Then I asked them for how long they were using the SCOM Console from their systems. As it turned out, from the moment they started to use SCOM which is more than a year now. All this time they had only upgraded the SCOM Console to SP1 but never ever changed anything about it.

Besides the well known cache file when one starts the SCOM Console, another 'kind of cache' is created as well. In the registry of the current user, the navigation history within the SCOM Console is being added. And on the systems of these SCOM operators this regkey had grown hugely.

So when I deleted this key and started the SCOM Console, it was very snappy. No more sluggish SCOM Console but one which worked really fast.

Of course you can perform this 'trick' as well. But remember this regkey has a function so only do this when you are experiencing the same issues and are sure that the RMS and the SQL servers are performing well and not the cause of a sluggish SCOM Console.

First close the console and than remove this regkey: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Operations Manager\3.0\Console.

This regkey will be recreated when the SCOM Console is started. But as stated before, make an export before deleting this key. Better to be safe than sorry...
Screendump of the regkey involved:

Hope that this post was helpful.