Scheduling preferences

The scheduling preferences are a way to control precisely how the PReS Connect Connect Server (Master or Slave)handles jobs.

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

Scheduling properties - Master

These are the options that you will be presented with if the PReS Connect Connect Server was installed.

  • Configure Scheduling options: These two settings allow you to define what type of job is to be considered a Small job and what type is to be considered a Large job. Any job that falls between these two settings will be considered a Medium job.

    • Maximum records in a small job: Enter the maximum number of records for a job to be considered Small.

      Do not set the limit for small jobs too high; it isn't possible to attribute more than one engine to small jobs, so they should always be easy to handle for one engine.

    • Minimum records in a large job: Enter the minimum number of records required before a job can be considered a Large job.

      Changes made to these settings will be applied on the run. Existing jobs will be taken into account when determining if a job can run.

      For instance, if the minimum records for a Large job is increased from 1,000 to 10,000 and a job of 2,000 records is already running, then this existing job will now be considered a Medium job.

      Likewise, if the minimum records for a Large job is decreased from 10,000 to 5,000 and a job of 7,000 records is already running, then this existing job will now be considered a Large job.

Scheduling properties - Slave

These are the options that you will be presented with if the PReS Connect Connect Server Extension (Slave) was installed.

The Slave Scheduling Preferences define the PReS Connect Server Extension (Slave) connection to the main PReS Connect Server module (the Master Server).

If the connection to the Server module is lost at any point, then the Server Extension will keep trying to re-connect to the Server until successful. The settings that control these reconnection attempts are the retry interval and retry threshold values. Important points to consider in PReS Connect Cluster startup or restart:Rebooting a Server Cluster or a Server with an external database requires that the machine hosting the database be rebooted first.Once the database is (re)started the Connect Server and all Server Extensions (Slaves) need to be restarted. The order is not important.

  • Master Server Settings group: This allows you to either update the Master Server settings entered during the installation process, or to add entirely new entries.

    • Location of the master server entry: Enter the machine name or IP Address where the Connect Master Server resides. This entry should include the Port number, as well as the machine name/IP address, in

      HostName/TCP-IP:Port

      format.
      For example:

      MainServer:9340

      or

      192.168.100.123:9340

      There is no requirement for the Master and Extension servers to belong to the same IP subnet.

      IP subnetting is beyond the scope of this documentation, but more information can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subnetwork.

    • Username for the master server entry: The account that the service uses to login. If the machine is on a domain, use the format domain\username.
      This account must be an existing Windows profile with local administrator rights.

      This should ideally be the same as the logon domain user account for the OLConnect_Server service on the Connect Master Server.

      This account must be a local admin account with existing Windows profile on both servers.

    • Password for the master server entry: The password associated with the selected user.

    • Initial startup connection retry intervals (secs) selection: In the event of a Server disconnection, this is the period of time to wait between attempts at reconnecting to the Server.

    • Prolonged startup connection retry interval (secs) selection: If the connection to the Server has not been re-established in the time allowed for in the Prolonged startup connection retry threshold setting, then this entry then becomes the time to wait between attempts at reconnecting to the Sever.

    • Prolonged startup connection retry threshold (mins) selection: Enter the length of time that the Initial startup connection retry interval is to apply.
      Once this period has expired, the Prolonged startup connection retry interval then applies.

  • The Maximum records in a small job and Minimum records in a large job entries are redundant in Slave installations, and need not be set.

All Server scheduling is actually handled in the Master Server.

Scheduling preferences per engine


Scheduling preferences can be applied to the distinct engines used in the Connect production process. 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.

Each of these engines has its own Scheduling Preferences page. These are as followsfor Master/Standalone installations:

In PReS Connect clustered environments, all Connect Server scheduling is handled by the Connect Master.