Weaver engine scheduling

A DataMapper engine extracts data from a data file. A Merge engine merges the template and the data to create Email and Weboutput, 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 preference page determines the number of Weaver engines launched, as well as their speed, when generating the output.

The Weaver Engine is used to convert one specific job into the Print output of your choice. A single Weaver engine can only ever convert one specific job to whatever output you want.

When you want to create output for multiple jobs in parallel, you will need to increase the number of Weaver engines.
Too many engines will waste precious RAM and CPU cycles to idle processes, whilst too few could create a bottleneck.

Each Weaver engine requires a speed unit from the available speed unit reservation pool. If no speed unit is available, the job will be queued even if an engine is available.

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.

  • Engine information:
    • Total engines available: Read-only box indicating the current number of engines that are available. 
      On the main Server of a PReS Connect cluster, this would also include all engines in the cluster (Server Extensions).
    • Local engines launched: Read-only box displaying the current number of engines that have been launched on this machine.
      It is recommended that you increase the number of Weaver engines to at least 2 engines when using the PCL, PS or AFP inputs within the DataMapper.
      The amount of engines available on this machine is set in the Engine Setup Preferences page.
    • Expected remote engines: Only available for editing on PReS Connect Server when Clustering is active (as determined by Connect license).
    • Speed units launched: Read-only box indicating the number of speed units launched.
    • Limit in license: Read-only box indicating the maximum number of speed units useable for producing output.
    • Reserved Count: Read-only box indicating the total number of "Reserved" engines, as set in theSpeed unit reservations topic below.
  • Parallel speed units per job: If a specific type of job has more than one parallel speed unit assigned to it, that multiplies its speed, however it reduces the number of jobs that can be run simultaneously, since each engine needs at least one speed unit in order to run (see Speed quota: PPM and speed units).
    When you do run 2 or more Weaver engines, parallel output creation is only possible if each engine has access to speed units. Therefore you will need to divide the available parallel speed units between medium and large print jobs.
    If a large job is using all speed units to produce output, then any other print job will be queued until the large job is processed, even if a Weaver engine is available.
    • Parallel speed units per medium job: Enter the number of speed units to use when handling a medium print job.
    • Parallel speed units per large job: Enter the number of speed units to use when handling a large print job.
  • Parallel engines per job: These settings determine how many Weaver engines are used depending on the size of a job set. A job set is the result of a Job Creation Preset that has Job Grouping (see Job Creation Presets and Grouping options). Individual jobs always get just one engine.
    • Parallel engines per medium print job: Enter the number of engines that will co-operate on a medium sized job set.
    • Parallel engines per large print job: Enter the number of engines that will co-operate on a large job set.
  • Speed unit reservations:
    • Floating: Edit box for selecting the number of floating speed units that can be used for any type of job
    • Small job speed unit reservations: Enter a number of speed units reserved for small print jobs.
    • Medium job speed unit reservations: Enter a number of speed units reserved for medium print jobs.
    • Large job speed unit reservations: Enter a number of speed units reserved for large print jobs.
  • Maximum speed units:
    • Small job limit: Enter the maximum number of speed units that can run small print jobs.
    • Medium job limit: Enter the maximum number of speed units that can run medium print jobs.
    • Large job limit: Enter the maximum number of speed units that can run large print jobs.