Alteryx running really really slow

Hi there

I have a workflow that normally takes about 6-10 mins to run but for the past 2 days the same workflow is taking 3+ hours to run. I'm not sure how to resolve this. I haven't made any major changes to the flow and tried reducing the reliance on drawing data from cloud platforms like Sharepoint. At the moment, the flow is stuck on the browse tool for the past 10 minutes. If it helps I'm on Version: 2022.3.1.597 Patch: 9.

Thanks!

Workflow

Accepted answers

KGT

A workflow getting stuck on a browse tool is probably a misnomer. In any case, you can delete the browse tool or "Disable all browse tools in the Workflow Settings (Runtime tab).

This is a good use for the performance profiling. In the above screenshot, "Enable Performance Profiling". It's not 100% accurate, especially with AMP, but it does let you know which tools are taking the longest and help you troubleshoot, it's just that you will need the workflow to complete with that option ticked in order to get the results.

This is a huge advantage of Alteryx being a native app rather than cloud, you know nothing has changed in the software as you haven't upgraded. So, it's got to be environmental/process, whether that be connection to cloud, or some other variable.

All comments

Luke_C

Hi @Alteryxuserhere

There are many factors, assuming you're running on your desktop and not server,

Do you have other programs open eating up your computer's memory?
What is the data volume? Is it higher than expected?
1. Check for inadvertent cartesian joins, transpose tools generating more records than expected, etc, excel inputs with larger used ranges than expected (causing unnecessary columns/rows), etc.
What are the data sources? You mentioned sharepoint and other platforms which could have an impact

Alteryxuserhere

Thanks for your reply. @Luke_C

I don't have any other programs that are eating my computer's memory. It is about 250k rows of record which is the same as when it didn't have any issues running within 10 minutes. I haven't made any changes to the joins or transpose tools used so there shouldn't be any issues there. The data sources are just local Excel files and sharepoint input files from the cloud. I mentioned previously it was stuck on the browse tool and from the time since posted the first thread till now it is still stuck on the browse tool.

KGT

A workflow getting stuck on a browse tool is probably a misnomer. In any case, you can delete the browse tool or "Disable all browse tools in the Workflow Settings (Runtime tab).

Alteryxuserhere

Many thanks @KGT
Disiabling the browse tool seems to helped abit but it's still super slow. Currently its stuck on summarize tool which has never happened before.
Where can I see how long each step is taking after enabling the performance profiling?

1.jpg

KGT

You can see the performance profiling in the output log. This will help you to narrow down where it might be getting hung up rather than relying on the visual cue of the workflow progress. My hunch is that there is a holdup on the cloud connection (sharepoint?) and so the summarize is waiting to get more data.

A browse tool won't "complete" until all the data is there, hence why they typically have long run times. They are not doing much, but can be "active" for a large percentage of the workflow.

A summarize tool has sorting algorithms in it, and so needs a certain amount of information to progress. Tools with sorting algorithms (Transform/Join etc) tend to add to runtime, as other tools around them often can't do much until they're complete. Note: not sure whether this is the case with AMP, but without AMP, Alteryx tools are fed *some* information about what sorting has happened on the data upstream, to speed up those algorithms.

Alteryxuserhere

Thanks @KGT

When I tried just moving a container with quite some tools inside, it would normally take a few minutes to successfully move. Now its directly not responding. I'm guessing it's something to do with my computer then?

KGT

That last comment gives me another idea as well. That would normally point towards not enough available memory to deal with the level of metadata. To nail it down to workflow or environmental, you could "Disable Auto Configure" in User Settings and see if that changes anything (you can Apply settings with the tick at the bottom left of the tool configuration or with F5 while it's turned off).

Basically, whenever you click on another tool in Alteryx, the software will re-configure the metadata running through the workflow (Field names and attributes). That can cause slowness if you have thousands of columns in the dataset or a large text input. If disabling Auto-configure works, then at least something in the workflow is adding to the memory issues.

This sounds like your computer is experiencing memory issues. I had a bit of the same when we enabled co-pilot and all the office apps started taking more memory.

garrettjohnson

A workflow that normally takes about 2 minutes was taking over an hour. I removed the Browse Tools and the changed Sort option to 'Revert to incoming field order' and it worked better

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