Tuning job processing on a workstation
This section explains how to tune selected options in the HCL Workload Automation localopts file
to improve HCL Workload Automation performance.
These options control the period between successive instances of an
activity. Table 1 shows the
activities to be tuned, the corresponding option that can be set in
the localopts file, and how the changed value impacts
performance.
| Activity | Option | Impact on performance |
|---|---|---|
| batchman periodically scans the Symphony file for jobs ready to be processed. | bm look | In all these cases, a shorter
time means more frequent scans, using more cpu resources, and impacting
other processes that are running. However, it also means that for
all activities waiting time is kept to a minimum. If throughput is
important and the workstation has plenty of memory, try shortening
the times. A longer period between successive activities means jobs take longer to run, because there are longer waits for each activity. However, the reduced frequency of the scans means that more memory is available for jobs because less is being used by these monitoring activities. Consider the meaning of the various options. If your objective is to run the jobs as quickly as possible, but you are not concerned about how quickly the information about completed jobs is distributed, you could reduce the wait periods for bm look and jm read, but increase the periods for the others. Alternatively, to speed up the overall job processing time (from initial job launch to the update with the completion status), you can tune bm look, jm look, and mm read. |
| jobman accesses the Courier.msg file to see if there are jobs that need to be launched. | jm read | |
| After having launched a job jobman checks periodically for job completion status. | jm look | |
| mailman looks periodically in the Mailbox.msg for completed jobs. | mm read | |
| batchman checks periodically in Intercom.msg for jobs that are complete so that it can update the Symphony file. | bm read |
If you decide to tune these setting do the following:
- Test the result in a test system before applying changes in your production environment. To get worthwhile results, the test environment must have the same characteristics as the production environment.
- Modify only the parameters that are necessary. It is better to modify one at a time and thoroughly test the change in performance, rather than changing all at once.
- Make a backup copy of the localopts file to ensure you can revert to the default options if necessary.