Field Note: Before Blaming DHIS2 for Slowness, Check These Five Layers

Sample field note — short, practical observation. Replace or delete it from Admin > Articles.

When a health information system feels slow, the first reaction is usually to blame the application. My default checklist starts upstream instead:

1. Disk I/O on the database server
2. Memory and swap pressure on Linux
3. PostgreSQL configuration and slow queries
4. Tomcat heap and garbage collection
5. Network latency between the user and the server

Application-level fixes only help when the layers underneath are healthy.