An active outbound integration endpoint uses an associated background process to handle the scheduled invocation of the endpoint. The execution report for this background process is integrated in the endpoint editor and includes invocation information as well as messages logged from the plugins. When using the standard STEP Exporter processing engine, the actual export is handled in separate background processes started by the endpoint, as illustrated below.
By default, the started integration endpoint background processes are displayed within the OIEP editor on the Background Processes tab, and are not visible on the BG Processes tab. Click the background process hyperlink to display details about the actual process. For more information, refer to Maintaining an Outbound Integration Endpoint.
Background processes are run based on the execution mechanism configured and can be either the recommended 'One Queue' priority-based execution or the legacy queue setting execution.
Background Process Priority Settings
When the recommended 'One Queue' priority-based BGP execution mechanism is configured, waiting BGPs are prioritized for execution based on the priority of the BGP and the created time. The legacy 'Queue for Endpoint' and legacy 'Queue for Endpoint Processes' parameters are not available. Refer to the Priority Mechanism section of the BGP One Queue topic in the System Setup documentation.
Legacy Background Process Queue Settings
For legacy BGP execution mechanism (BGP Legacy Multiple Queues), when configuring an outbound integration endpoint that uses the STEP Exporter processing engine, you will specify a background process queue to use for each of the two types of background processes:
- Queue for endpoint
- Queue for endpoint processes
Typically, all background processes of the same type (same process type ID) will use the same queue. However, integration endpoint processes can be tied to different integration endpoints and use different queues.
Legacy Background Process Queue
This legacy option is not available when the recommended One Queue, priority-based background process (BGP) execution mechanism is configured. (Refer to the BGP One Queue topic in the System Setup documentation.)
The main background process uses the default OutboundQueue background process queue for OIEPs.
However, when you create an integration endpoint, you can specify that you want to use a different OIEP background process queue for the main OIEP background process queue. For more information about this setting, refer to the OIEP - Configuration Section topic.
Legacy Background Process Queue Size
This legacy option is not available when the recommended One Queue, priority-based background process (BGP) execution mechanism is configured. (Refer to the BGP One Queue topic in the System Setup documentation.)
The queue size setting can have great impact on processing. The background process queue size property determines the number of background processes can be executed in parallel on the queue. If the size is 1, only one background process can run at a time. If the size is 2, two processes can run in parallel, and so forth.
Important: Although the integration endpoint configuration wizards suggest the number of queues to use, beware that if you create multiple endpoints and do not change the default queue suggestions, your setup could include endpoints that block each other since the queues have a default size of 1.
This is not a big concern for the endpoint processes that, most of the time, are idle and only take up a slot on the queue briefly when the endpoint is invoked. However, it can be an issue for the generated background processes that perform the actual export processing. The decision as to whether different endpoints should use the same or different processing queues and the size of the queues should therefore be an informed one.
Overwriting default values for a queue causes a new queue to be created with the queue size of 1. Use the following sharedconfig.properties entry to modify the default queue size value:
BackgroundProcess.Queue.[name of queue].Size = [number of allowed parallel processes]