Parallel Processing preferences

The parallel processing preferences (previously referred to as Scheduling preferences, prior to 2019.2) page provides the means to control precisely how the OL Connect Designer handles jobs that operate in parallel.

For additional information on how these preferences can enhance performance, see Engine configuration and Performance considerations.

Parallel Processing properties

Preset selection

Only the Custom setting is applicable to the Designer Preferences, so this option is always selected and the field made read-only.

Content Creation Tab

The options are:

  • Total Merge engines configured read only display: This is a read only entry that shows the total number of Merge engines available. To change this value, you must update the Merge Engines in the Engines preferences page.
  • Multi tasking group:
    When starting a new Content Creation task, the task will immediately commence if there is a Merge engine available. How many Merge engines to use is based on the number of records in the input data.

    Select from the following options:
    • Additional engine every (records) entry: This controls how many Merge engines are used for a Content Creation task. It means that for every additional 'x' records in the task, an additional Merge engine will be used.
      For example, with the default 100 record threshold, tasks with 1-100 records will be assigned 1 Merge engine, tasks with 101-200 get assigned 2 merge engines, tasks with 201-300 get assigned 3 merge engines, and so on.
      The default of 100 records was chosen purely because it is an easily multiplied number, not because it has been proven to have any significant value. It means that on an average system (i.e., less than 10 Merge engines) any decently sized task is allowed to use all Merge engines. It also assumes that using more than one Merge engine for less than 100 records will probably not make a big enough difference to throughput speed. Obviously, there are situations where these assumptions will not apply.

      Note: Currently, it’s only the print and PDF content creation tasks that use multiple Merge engines.

Buttons

The Parallel Processing preferences also provides you with buttons to :

  • Restore Defaults. This option restores the preferences to Defaults. This applies to the current Preferences page only, not any other Preferences.

  • Apply: This option applies the settings made within the current Preferences page, but does not close the Preferences dialog.