DISPATCHER: Using Async in Teamcenter 9.1.2.6

A new way of scheduling a task to dispatcher using Async service implemented in Teamcenter 9.1.2.4.

Configurations needed for setting up background processing of workflow task to run an Asynchronous Job

Functionality of background processing of workflow tasks was released in TC 10.1, however this functionality has been made available (i.e. back ported) in 9.1.2.4.  Below section gives details of the requirements and configurations needed for background processing of workflow tasks.

4-tier env:

Background processing of workflow objects requires a four-tier architecture environment. Users running in a two-tier environment can successfully submit requests for asynchronous processing if there is a four-tier Teamcenter environment available to accept the request

Teamcenter Dispatcher Installation and Configuration:

Teamcenter Dispatcher Server needs to be installed and configured for background processing of workflow tasks.  Following dispatcher components need to be installed.

               1.  Scheduler

               2.  Module

               3.  Dispatcher Client

Perform following configurations to dispatcher installation for background processing.

Open the translator.xml file from the Dispatcher\Module\conf directory.

<AsyncService provider="SIEMENS" service="asyncservice"

              isactive="false">

    <TransExecutable name="asyncservice.bat"

              dir="&MODULEBASE/Translators/asyncservice"/>

    <Options>

      <Option name="inputpath" string=""

              description="Full path to the input file or directory."/>

      <Option name="outputdir" string=""

              description="Full path to the output file."/>

      <Option name="OutputFileName" string="" value="output.txt"

              description="Name of the output file."/>

    </Options>

    <TransErrorStrings>

      <TransInputStream string="AsyncInvoker Report"/>

      <TransErrorStream string="AsyncInvoker Report"/>

    </TransErrorStrings>

</AsyncService>

Set the isactive attribute to true to activate this translator.

NOTE: This step may not be needed if TEM was used to install and configure this service.

Set the maxlimit attribute to the maximum number of requests your server manager pool can process simultaneously.

For example:

     <AsyncService provider="SIEMENS" service="asyncservice" maxlimit="2" isactive="true">

By default, the Dispatcher module runs only one request of a particular type at a time, which limits your throughput for test cases of submitting numerous requests.

Edit the CHANGE_ME properties in the asyncservice.bat (Windows) or asyncservice.sh (UNIX) file from the Dispatcher\Module\Translators\asyncservice\ directory.

NOTE: This step may not be needed if TEM was used to install and configure this service.

Configure workflow tasks for background processing

Workflow task configuration:

In the workflow designer, load the process template for which you want to configure the tasks in background.

In the Edit mode:

• Select the “Task Attributes” panel for the task which needs to be configured for background processing
• Select the “Process in Background” checkbox to enable background task processing.
• Repeat this process for all the tasks which need to be configured for background processing.
• Select the “Set Stage to Available” check box to make the process template available to the users.

When a new process is created using the process template, all the tasks for which the 

“Process in Background” flag is check are run in the background.