Training Spotlight – App Server Priorities

By guest blogger Josh Tafoya, Technical Trainer

Sometimes you need the ability to control which Manitou Application Server an operator connects to, and whether it is because of geographical separation, or because of type of workload, there is a solution.

But first, a bit of information about the Manitou services in general, and specifically, the App Server:

Operators (or Data Entry personnel, or Supervisors, or anyone else using a Manitou Client), begin the process by connecting to the Sentry. The Sentry, of which there is only one on a Manitou system, looks to see which App Server(s) (of which multiple are allowed) are available to accept the client connection. By default, all App Servers allow connections from all types of clients. Operator Workstations, Supervisor Workstations, Web, etc.

There are two reasons (usually) why people want to control which clients connect to which app server. One example is remote offices. Both offices share the same Database, Broker, and Sentry, but bandwidth and network lag prove to make client connections difficult. It’s possible to have a server at the remote location, running its own App Server, and accepting only connections from clients at that location.

The other reason is to segregate the Client connections based on the role of the user. Alarm operators can be forced to connect to the App Server that runs on the database server. Data entry can be directed to connect to the App Server that runs on the first standby server. Web clients (meaning the Web Gateway process), can connect to a third application server. And so on.

So how do we accomplish this? By using App Server priorities.

If you were to look at your Manitou configuration, and click on an App Server in the list, you’ll see something like this:

The number in Param 1 (which is required or it won’t run), is the number of Database Resources that will be allocated and shared amongst all users of this App Server. This number is usually set by our implementation team based on the size of the Central Station, expected client connections, and various other factors. But what if we want to limit client connections?

We accomplish that by adding to Param 2 and Param 3, as shown below:

 

The -hp parameter indicates the highest priority of client connection this application server can accept connections from. The -lp priority parameter indicates the lowest priority.

There are some things that MUST be considered when doing this:

First, because we are choosing to limit the client connections for some App Servers, we must have more than one App Server. If the primary App Server was configured as in the picture, we must have at least one other App Server on another server, where Param 2 and 3 are -hp5 and -lp9. This would cover the nine default priority levels.

Second, the priority must be defined in the client type. For example, in the shortcut for Manitou.exe (which is used to launch the client, and whose default Priority is 1), beyond the path to the exe, we also specify the primary sentry server with the -s parameter, and the backup sentry server(s) with the -b parameter. ADDED to those, to specify that the client connects to priority 7 app servers, we would need to add a parameter of -r7. So the shortcut might look like:
“C:Program Files (x86)Bold TechnologiesManitouManitou.exe”  -SMAN1 -BMAN2 -R7

Other services where the client connection priority can be specified are the Web Gateway (default Priority is 5), VRT or OpenVoice (default is 6), the FEP (default is 1), and the Standard Import Utility (default is 8).

If you’d like to know how to specify the priority for any of the above-listed client types, we’re happy to help! Please contact a member of support through the Bold Support Portal.