Merge engine scheduling

A DataMapper engine extracts data from a data file. A Merge engine merges the template and the data to create Email and Web output, or to create an intermediary file for Printed output. The intermediary file is in turn used by a Weaver engine to prepare the Print output.

This preferences page defines how many Merge engines are launched and how speed units are allocated to different jobs when creating production output. By default the number of Merge engines is set to two.

You can confirm how many Merge engines are running by checking Task Manager and locating the mergeengine.exe entries in your process list.
Note: there will be an extra Merge and Weaver engine in your task manager if you run Designer.

The Merge engine is responsible for the plugins Create Print Content, Create Email Content and Create Web Content.

License restrictions only apply to the Merge engine when creating Email or Web content. They do not apply for Create Print Content. This means you are allowed to start an infinite amount of Merge engines on any given Connect Sever to run print jobs, but you will be restricted to a set number of Merge engines for your Email and HTML jobs.

For an explanation of the various engines, the terminology and their settings, see Engine configuration.
For some performance tips, see Performance considerations.

Changes made to the following settings will be applied on the run (when the Apply button is pressed), and do not require the OLConnect_Server service to be restarted.
  • Use one internal engine: Check this option to limit to a single internal engine. Only use this option on computers that run below the recommended System requirements, or demo machines. With external engines, both the engines and the server have more memory and can run faster.
  • Total engines available: Read-only box indicating the current number of engines that are active or available.
  • Local engines launched: Enter the total number of Merge Engines desired on this server. When changing the number of engines, it is necessary to save this dialog (Apply) to actually apply the changes.
    Best practice is to keep the number of engines equal to the number of cores, to not overload the machine and negatively affect performance. Do not include the number of logical processors when running under virtualization.
  • Reserved Count: Read-only box indicating the total number of "Reserved" engines, as set in the Engine reservations group below.
  • Memory per engine (mb): Specify the maximum amount of random access memory (RAM) in megabytes that will be used per engine in order to make optimal use of the machine's memory.
    This setting only controls the maximum size of the Java heap memory that an engine can use; the total amount of memory that will used by an engine is actually a bit higher.

    Also keep in mind that the Connect Server and the operating system itself will need memory to keep running.
  • Restart after group:
    • Time limit (mins): Due to a currently un-fixable memory leak in some libraries used by PlanetPress Connect, it is necessary to restart our engines after a certain amount of time.
      The default is generally considered sufficient for all our clients.
      Only change on the advice of a technical support agent.
    • Memory limit (mb): An engine restart will be performed when the total amount of memory used by the engine process exceeds the defined maximum.

      The default value is 0 megabytes, which means there is no limit.
      If this setting must be used due to memory problems it is recommended to set it to at least 1.5GB or 225% of the Memory per engine (mb) setting (whichever is higher).

      The maximum for this setting is 1,024,000MB, which roughly equates to 1TB.

      Note that the actual memory usage is reported in the "Working Set" column in Windows' Process Explorer.

  • Parallel engines per job group: This area determines how many Merge engines are used for each print job of a particular size. Small print jobs always get just one engine.
    • Parallel engines per medium print job: Enter the number of engines that will co-operate on a medium print job.
    • Parallel engines per large print job: Enter the number of engines that will co-operate on a large print job.
  • Parallel speed units per job group: This area determines - in the case of Email or Web content - how many speed units are used for each kind of job (for an explanation, see Speed quota: PPM and speed units). If jobs of a certain kind have more than one parallel speed unit assigned to them, that many engines will be used to run each of those jobs.

    If the Server receives a lot of Web requests, it is advisable to reserve a large number of Merge engines for HTML, to minimize response times. For Email output, 1 Merge engine is sufficient.
    • Parallel speed units per email job: Enter the number of speed units to use when handling an Email job.
    • Parallel speed units per HTML job: Enter the number of speed units to use when handling a Web HTML job.
    Email and Web output are generated with the Merge engine only and thus their output speed is limited through this engine.

    Print jobs, however, are limited through the Weaver engine, so when a Merge engine creates Print content it doesn't need to consider any Merge engine speed unit settings. It can run without limitation.
  • Engine reservations group: This area is used to reserve engines specifically for certain types of jobs. Reserved engines cannot be used by any other type of job.

    • Floating: Read-only box indicating the number of floating engines that can be used for any type of job. This number is equal to the Total Engines Available minus any Reservations.
      For example if 6 Merge engines are available and 4 are reserved for small jobs, then 2 will be Floating.
    • Small print job speed unit reservations: Enter the number of engines to be reserved for Small print jobs.
    • Medium print job speed unit reservations: Enter the number of engines to be reserved for Medium print jobs.
    • Large print job speed unit reservations: Enter the number of engines to be reserved for Large print jobs.
    • Email engine reservations: Enter a number of engines reserved for Email jobs.
    • HTML engine reservations: Enter a number of engines reserved for Web jobs.
  • Maximum concurrent engine per type: This area defines the maximum possible number of engines used for any specific job type. The limit needs to be at least the number of reserved engines or parallel speed units, whichever is lowest.
    • Small print job limit: Enter the maximum number of engines that can run small print jobs.
    • Medium print job limit: Enter the maximum number of engines that can run medium print jobs.
    • Large print job limit: Enter the maximum number of engines that can run large print jobs.
    • Email limit: Enter the maximum number of engines that can run Email jobs.
    • Maximum Email limit in license: Read-only box indicating the maximum number of engines useable for Email content creation.
    • HTML limit: Enter the maximum number of engines that can run Web jobs.
    • Maximum HTML limit in license: Read-only box indicating the maximum number of engines useable for Web content creation.
 
  • Last Topic Update: 14, October, 2018 06:50 PM
  • Last Published: 13, September, 2019 08:35 AM