Performance Tuning Guide - EMC Community Network

Maximizing Process Throughput
Minimizing and consolidating activities
System throughput varies between 3-100 activities per second, depending on system configuration
and hardware. Workflows with more activities take longer to complete.
The largest performance impact for processing activities results from opening up a new Content
Server session. As a result, the biggest performance improvement comes from minimizing the
number of discrete activities in a workflow. Minimize the number of workflow activities by, 1)
eliminating unnecessary activities altogether or 2) consolidating the steps performed by multiple
activities, into a single condensed activity.
To improve the completion rate of individual activities, do the following:
• Use the bpm_noop template wherever possible. This particular noop does not create an additional
template and does not send an HTTP post to the JMS.
• Within the automatic activity, do the work on behalf of a superuser instead of a regular user.
• Turn off auditing whenever unnecessary.
Assessing activity completion rate
A single workflow thread can process up to five activities per second (using the bpm_noop activity
template), which works out to be 300 per minute and 18,000 per hour (depending on the specific
activity and method being called).
Understanding activity completion
Each Content Server provides one workflow agent to process workflow activities and one Java
Method Server (or Docbasic Method Server) to support up to 25 (nominally 15) workflow threads.
The workflow agent polls the workflow queue for available activities (activities where the
a_wq_name attribute of the activity has not yet been marked for processing). The workflow agent
acquires available tasks from the queue and updates the a_wq_name attribute of the activity to mark
the activity for processing.
The workflow agent acquires 30 activities (if there are 30 activities in the queue) for every workflow
thread. For example, if Content Server provides three workflow threads, the workflow agent picks
up 30*3=90 activities. The workflow agent provides the 30 acquired activities to each workflow
thread for processing.
The workflow thread posts activities for processing by making an HTTP post to the Java Method
Server or by issuing instructions to the Docbasic Method Server.
The workflow agent does not poll for additional activities if the number of activities assigned to the
threads is more than five times the number of threads (5*n, where n is the number of threads). When
the workflow thread task count drops below 5*n, the workflow agent queries the workflow queue
and repeats the process for additional available activities. If there are no available activities the
workflow agent sleeps for a period defined by the polling interval. This sleep interval is defined in
dm_server_config and is called wf_sleep_interval.
EMC Documentum xCP 1.0 Performance Tuning Guide 27