[j-nsp] SRX gui

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David Klein

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Mar 5, 2012, 7:58:13 PM3/5/12
to junip...@puck.nether.net

Just curious about your experiences with the SRX J-Web GUI.

We have been testing the SRX-210 for a couple of years and have noticed that
the GUI is very slow to load and configure compared to an SSG5.

We're running the SRX at OS 11.4R1.6; the SSG5 at 6.2.0r5.

Is it just the GUI on the SRX 210 that is slow? Does it run faster on the
bigger hardware?

We've tried it with IE8, IE9, and Firefox. Is there a specific browser or
applet we need in order for it to run fast?

If there is something that we need to do in order to make it run faster,
please let me know.

Thanks!

-David Klein

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Brent Jones

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Mar 5, 2012, 10:06:40 PM3/5/12
to David Klein, junip...@puck.nether.net

The GUI across all Juniper products are generally pretty slow, I don't
think it is a primary function that they spend a lot of resources to make
it even usable half the time.
Luckily, the CLI is fully functional :)

--
Brent Jones
br...@brentrjones.com

Misha Gzirishvili

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Mar 6, 2012, 1:33:17 AM3/6/12
to David Klein, junip...@puck.nether.net
Hi David,
about your question on bigger ones: I recently used j-web on srx 3k and it
is slow...
I cant compare j-web performance between branch and DC series. Never used
jweb on branch..

Chris Kawchuk

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Mar 6, 2012, 2:14:43 AM3/6/12
to Misha Gzirishvili, junip...@puck.nether.net
> I cant compare j-web performance between branch and DC series. Never used jweb on branch..

It's just as slow.

- CK.

Pierre-Yves Maunier

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Mar 6, 2012, 2:15:30 AM3/6/12
to David Klein, junip...@puck.nether.net
CLI was a nightmare on screenOS so at the time I used the web interface
which was ok in terms of reactivity.
Since we switched to Junos (first with Junos with Enhanced services) we
went to the CLI (like we do for all our routers) because :
- the GUI is very slow (on all systems I tested so far, J2320, J4350,
SRX-210, SRX-240)
- the CLI is really functionnal and help having things done very quickly.

It seems to be better with their central management tool.

Regards,

Pierre-Yves Maunier

Ben Dale

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Mar 6, 2012, 6:07:05 AM3/6/12
to David Klein, junip...@puck.nether.net
Hi David,

> Just curious about your experiences with the SRX J-Web GUI.

Woeful, just like everyone else's. You've got to wonder whether the monumental failure that the SRX GUI is, is one of the major reasons why the SSG Product line is still available.

> We have been testing the SRX-210 for a couple of years and have noticed that
> the GUI is very slow to load and configure compared to an SSG5.
> We're running the SRX at OS 11.4R1.6; the SSG5 at 6.2.0r5.


I can assure you that J-Web in 11.4 is an order of magnitude faster than it was in the early 10.0 releases! I hit a doozy of a bug in 10.0r2 where if you configured https management on the box, the traffic FROM the webserver to your browser was rate-limited massively. Downloading just the 520KB .gif image on the login screen would take nearly 20 seconds!

In Junos 11.2 the EmbedThis web server that runs on the SRX Branch/J-Series systems was upgraded to use "PHP Mode" instead of "CGI-Mode" - this again gave a noticeable performance increase.

The command:

set system services web-management module-mode

switched on this functionality, but I notice that in 11.4, this command is hidden (and doesn't seem to change the version of the web server according to the HTTP headers), so it may be on by default now.

I just tried this on an SRX210 (original model) and didn't notice much difference, but give it a try and see how you go.

> Is it just the GUI on the SRX 210 that is slow? Does it run faster on the
> bigger hardware?


It's not great on any hardware, but the SRX210 in particular has some serious performance issues with the J-Web - Juniper have now discontinued this model and replaced it with the SRX210-HE, which uses the same beefier insides as the SRX220.

I have noticed a reasonable performance boost when using the newer model, but it still can't hold a candle to an SSG for rapid policy configuration.

Cheers,

Ben

Rehan Rafi

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Mar 10, 2012, 7:47:08 AM3/10/12
to Ben Dale, junip...@puck.nether.net
I also experienced the same across both branch and high end SRXs. So I
prefer to work through CLI and only some stuff through GUI.
Hopefully Juniper will address these concerns and if any one come across
any workaround which can enhance GUI do share with all.

--

Regards,

Rehan Rafi

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