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To check how many BLAs are installed on the server, use the administrative console on the
Deployment Manager and go to Applications Application Types Business-level
applications.
You will see the list of all installed BLAs, which includes customer PAs and Toolkits, and also
Business Process Manager product applications. If there are more than approximately 50
customer BLAs installed, consider how the number can be reduced. Snapshots can be
deactivated and undeployed through the Process Center web page by going to the Snapshots
page of the corresponding PA or Toolkit, as follows:
1. Access the Snapshots page
2. Click the name of the PA or Toolkit on the Process Apps or Toolkits tab of the Process
Center web page.
3. Click the down arrow next to the Snapshot name.
4. If the Snapshot is Active and Deployed, click Deactivate.
5. Click Undeploy.
6. Confirm that the corresponding BLA was uninstalled through the deployment manager
administrative console.
If you cannot remove a BLA through the Process Center web page, you can use the
Deployment Manager administrative console to perform this action. Stop and uninstall the
corresponding J2EE EARs, and delete the corresponding BLAs.
During iterative development of a solution, the amount of Advanced Content to manage can
be minimized by integrating Advanced Content as late in the development cycle as is
practical. The reason is because activating a snapshot, or deploying a tip, can take much
longer when Advanced Content is involved. Thus, testing small incremental changes often
becomes more time-consuming when a large amount of Advanced Content is involved. Also,
Advanced Content should typically be relatively static after it is deployed, because the
implementation should meet the terms of a service level agreement (SLA) that was already
agreed to as part of the solution development cycle. This recommendation should be
balanced with testing needs and the overall schedule of the solution development cycle.
When designing the PA and Toolkit dependency graph, consider the server overhead that is
attributable to Advanced Content. Include Advanced Content in Toolkits only if every PA that
references the Toolkit needs all of the contained Advanced Content. Toolkits are copied “by
value” into dependent process applications and Toolkits, so any Advanced Content will be
duplicated on the server in every PA or Toolkit that references it. Including Advanced Content
in Toolkits should be minimized because of the additional cost of Advanced Content.
Because deployment of Advanced Content uses BLAs and J2EE EARs, deployment can be
disk-intensive. Deployment of Advanced Content occurs in multiple phases, with some
processing and disk activity taking place on the deployment manager (dmgr) node, and some
on each AppTarget cluster member. The installation directory of the profiles for the dmgr and
cluster members should be stored on fast disk subsystems, such as server-class hardware
with RAID adapters with a write-back cache and multiple physical backing disks.
Deployment of Advanced Content can also be CPU-intensive. For process servers, install
snapshots with Advanced Content during periods of low activity so that users are not affected.
For Process Center servers, ensure that the dmgr and cluster members are installed on
servers with multiple CPU cores. This way enables the Process Center to remain responsive
during periods of Advanced Content deployment. For clustered Process Centers, use a
dynamic load balancer that can detect CPU consumption on the cluster members to avoid
sending work to cluster members that might be processing a long-running Advanced Content
deploy operation.
Chapter 3. Development best practices 29