modelling a complex batch schedule in peoplesoft david kurtz go-faster consultancy ltd....

Modelling a Complex Batch Schedule in PeopleSoft

David KurtzGo-Faster Consultancy Ltd.

[email protected]

www.go-faster.co.uk


©2011 www.go-faster.co.uk 2

• Oracle Database Specialist– Independent consultant

• Performance tuning– PeopleSoft ERP– Oracle RDBMS

• Book– www.psftdba.com

• UKOUG Director• Server Tech & PeopleSoft• Oak Table•

Who Am I?



Agenda

• Process Scheduler Priorities– Process Definition– Server Category

• Queuing in the Process Scheduler

• Modelling Process Scheduler behaviour



Meet my PeopleSoft system

• Lots of batch process run ad-hoc by users during the ‘peak’ day.

• So many batch processes that there is a often a queue.

• Number of concurrent processes limited to prevent overload of CPU and Memory



Two business Tasks

• Completion of task A is more important to the business than task B.– Each task comprises on-line activity and more than one

process on Process Scheduler• Users do task A in the morning.• They are supposed to task B in the afternoon.• But they start task B as soon as they complete task

A• Users who start task B in the morning impede

users who are still doing task A



Process Scheduler Queue

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Task B (yellow) displaces Task A (blue)



Suggestion

• In the mind of the business there is a hierarchy of processing.

• The hierarchy should be reflected in the configuration and behaviour of the Process Scheduler.

• If there is a queue on the Process Scheduler– Execute Task A processes in preference to Task

B processes.



Process Priority



Server Category Priority



Define More Priorities



Testing Priorities

• Create a queue of processes on the Process Scheduler– Needs processes that run for a period of time– The don’t need to do anything, just stay in

status processing for a while



Java Sleep in AE

Local JavaObject &Obj; Local ProcessRequest &RQST;

MessageBox(0, "", 0, 0, "Sleep Begin for " | GFC_SLEEP_AET.DURATION.Value | " seconds ");

&Obj = CreateJavaObject("java.lang.Thread");&Obj.start();&Obj.sleep(GFC_SLEEP_AET.DURATION.Value * 1000);

MessageBox(0, "", 0, 0, "Sleep END");



Java Sleep in AE

• Sleep step in AE_SLEEP

• Various process AE_SLEEP1 … n

• Process definitions– Different priorities & categories

• Table GFC_SLEEP_RUN – specifies processes to run– AE_SLEEP_RUN submits processes



Create Test Run

Run OffsetControl PRCSNAME RUNDTTM Amount DURATION-------- ------------ -------- ------ -----------1 AE_SLEEP1 5 1752 AE_SLEEP2 10 1753 AE_SLEEP3 15 1754 AE_SLEEP4 20 1755 AE_SLEEP5 25 1756 AE_SLEEP6 30 1757 AE_SLEEP7 35 1758 AE_SLEEP8 40 1759 AE_SLEEP9 45 175



Process Priority Quirk

Row PRCS # SYSDATE INSTANCE PRCSNAME RUNDTTM BEGINDTTM ENDDTTM--- --------- -------- ------------ -------- --------- -------- 1 13:14:17 4583 AE_SLEEP1 13:03:27 13:03:55 13:07:08 2 13:14:17 4584 AE_SLEEP2 13:03:32 13:03:55 13:07:08 3 13:14:17 4585 AE_SLEEP3 13:03:37 13:03:55 13:07:08 4 13:14:17 4591 AE_SLEEP9 13:04:07 13:07:12 13:10:27 5 13:14:17 4587 AE_SLEEP5 13:03:47 13:07:13 13:10:27 6 13:14:17 4588 AE_SLEEP6 13:03:52 13:07:13 13:10:27 7 13:14:17 4586 AE_SLEEP4 13:03:42 13:10:31 13:13:46 8 13:14:17 4589 AE_SLEEP7 13:03:57 13:10:47 13:14:01 9 13:14:17 4590 AE_SLEEP8 13:04:02 13:10:47 13:14:01



Process Priority Quirk

• Delivered Priorities sometimes processed before custom added Priorities

• Not explicable from SQL submitted by Process Scheduler– Something in logic in program

• Process Categories process correctly



Process Categories

Row PRCS PRCS SERVER RUN # INSTANCE PRCSNAME PRTY RUNDTTM BEGINDTT ENDDTTM ASSIGN STATUS PRCSCATEGORY--- -------- --------- ---- -------- -------- -------- ------ ------ ------------ 1 4740 AE_SLEEP5 5 19:25:10 19:25:23 19:28:23 PSNT 9 Default 2 4741 AE_SLEEP5 5 19:25:13 19:25:39 19:28:38 PSNT 9 Default 3 4742 AE_SLEEP5 5 19:25:16 19:25:39 19:28:38 PSNT 9 Default 4 4748 AE_SLEEP7 7 19:26:52 19:28:41 19:31:41 PSNT 9 Priority 7 5 4749 AE_SLEEP7 7 19:26:57 19:28:58 19:31:56 PSNT 9 Priority 7 6 4747 AE_SLEEP6 6 19:26:37 19:28:58 19:31:56 PSNT 9 Priority 6 7 4746 AE_SLEEP6 6 19:26:42 19:32:00 19:34:59 PSNT 9 Priority 6 8 4743 AE_SLEEP5 5 19:25:19 19:32:16 19:35:15 PSNT 9 Default 9 4744 AE_SLEEP5 5 19:25:22 19:32:16 19:35:16 PSNT 9 Default 10 4745 AE_SLEEP5 5 19:25:25 19:35:02 19:37:59 PSNT 9 Default



Priorities

• You can use all 9 priorities on Server Categories

• You can only use priories 1, 5, 9 on Process Definition

• Server Category Priority takes precedence over Category Priority– So now have 27 priorities instead of 9.



What happens if I change…

• Maximum number of concurrent processes.

• Process priorities and process category priorities.

• Process execution durations, possibly caused by changes to hardware.

• Increase in number of batch processes.



Create a Model

• Take what actually happened in production– Process Scheduler Request Table– Batch Timings Table

• Run Times

• Map processes to AE_SLEEP_n processes• Create contents of GFC_SLEEP_RUN

– Now can run processes that run at and for the same time as in production.



“Linked Processing”

• Model schedules each process at a given time.– operator runs a process, – Waits for it to begin and complete,– does some work, – Runs another process.

• What happens if first process completes more quickly?



“Linked Processing”

• Next process for same operator scheduled a fixed time after previous process completes.– One AE_SLEEP_n process schedules next

process for same operator just before it completes.

– Determine links between processes and put into AE_SLEEP_RC



Testing the Model

• Simulate production without any changes– Needed to subtract 2 seconds from run time to

be AE_SLEEP_n run for the requested duration• Fixed overhead of AE

– Needed fudge factor – added 5 seconds to every process to make model look like production.

• Overhead of posting etc.



Predict Effect of Changes

• Make changes– Process and Category Priorities– Rerun the test



Actual Effect in Production

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Conclusion

• Server Category Priority takes precedence over Process Priority.

• Extra priorities work in Server Categories• Model accurately predicted behaviour in

production.• We encountered counter-intuitive behaviour

that we did not predict.– Set expectations for users.



Acknowledgements

• Andy Mason– Business-Integrations

– Java Sleep Utility– Test harness concept



Further Reading

• Process Scheduler Priority– http://blog.psftdba.com/2011/03/more-process-

priority-levels-for.html

• Batch Modeller– http://www.go-faster.co.uk/

docs.htm#BatchModel.pdf



Conclusion

Questions?



Conclusion

modelling a complex batch schedule in peoplesoft david kurtz go-faster consultancy ltd....

Documents

complex batch schedule

sleep various process

process priority slide

batch processes

ae sleep step

priorities slide

peoplesoft system

process scheduler users