Performance Tuning Guide - EMC Community Network

Maximizing Process Throughput
Avoiding manual bottlenecks
Throughput bottlenecks can result from an inability to process automatic or manual activities.
Manual activities slow down throughput the most because they require human performers. Human
performers process work items more slowly and their availability can be unpredictable. Workflows
that designate specific individuals as performers of an activity can become stuck when that individual
becomes unavailable for some reason (sick, vacation, and so on). To prevent manual bottlenecks
resulting from specific individual performers:
• Assign manual activities to groups or queues, not individual users.
• Use timers for completion of manual activities and alert an administrator when a task has not
been completed in the allotted time.
• Use automatic activities wherever possible. Most workflows have a completion rate ratio of
10 automatic activities to 1 manual activity.
• Develop a contingency plan to address a backlog if it does occur. Make sure that you can reassign
tasks to other people, groups, or queues.
Figure 9, page 32 shows a workflow example in which a performer of a manual activity goes on
vacation or there is an influx of workflows and the tasks build up.
Figure 9. Potential manual bottlenecks
When delays in expected workflow completion occur, run the following DQL command:
select distinct name, count(*) from dmi_queue_item group by name
processor_0 10
processor_1 24,000
processor_2 1
The result of this query indicates that processor_1 has 24,000 tasks in their queue before all workflows
involving that performer can be completed. The result indicates that tasks are not being distributed
evenly (load balanced) across all available processors, with processor_1 being the bottleneck.
Sample workflow agent configurations
This following provides sample workflow agent configurations.
On-demand processing — In this configuration, a single user or a few users log in to the system to
demonstrate or verify something. They check their task list, and open and complete tasks. Workflow
agent threads do not degrade end-user performance. The system polls once every 5 minutes. Content
Server notifies the workflow agent upon creation of every automatic activity and the workflow
agent picks up the job for processing.
polling interval=300
Set DM_NOTIFY_WF_AGENT_AUTO_TASK=T
Workflow agent threads =1
32 EMC Documentum xCP 1.0 Performance Tuning Guide