19 Performance Improvements for Oracle BI Publisher in Release 10.1.3.3

This chapter describes a feature of BI Publisher that was introduced in Release 10.1.3.3 and that applies to Releases 10.1.3.3 through 10.1.3.4. Information about this feature is also provided in the BI Publisher documentation set that has been updated for Release 10.1.3.4.

Release 10.1.3.3 has added performance improvements to BI Publisher's fast Formatting Objects Processor (FOP) and Bursting engine. If you run BI Publisher on a multiprocessor computer or on multicore processors, then you can take better advantage of the hardware.

To enable these performance improvements, display the Runtime Configuration page on the Admin page or follow the Configure link for a specific report.

This chapter includes the following sections:

• Section 19.1, "Multithreading for Bursting"

• Section 19.2, "Multithreading for Document Generation"

19.1 Multithreading for Bursting

If you have a multiprocessor computer or even a computer with a dual core single processor, then you might be able to achieve even higher bursting throughput using the new multithreading functionality for Bursting.

Under the Bursting section on the Runtime Configuration page, you set two properties. Set "Enable multithreading" to True and set "Thread count" to a number greater than 1 and up to the number of processors or cores on that computer.

If the report delivery channel is File System, then there is no considerable performance gain using multithreading. For delivery destinations other then File delivery, you should notice the performance gain.

Due to other processes that might be running on the system, you might need to determine empirically what is the optimal setting for "Thread count." Try a series of tests by varying the setting "Thread count" to see what is optimal for your environment.

Note:

Leave these settings at the default if your system does not have multicore processors or multiple processors. Setting "Enable multithreading" to True and "Thread count" to a number greater than the number of cores on the computer leads to higher CPU usage without any gain in performance.

19.2 Multithreading for Document Generation

If you have a multiprocessor computer or even a computer with a dual core single processor, then you might be able to achieve even faster document generation using the new multithreading functionality for FO Processing.

Under the FO Processor section of the properties, set "Enable multithreading" to True.

The amount of performance gain that you see by enabling this setting depends on how much the current system resources are utilized.

On a system that runs numerous users and relatively high CPU utilizations, you likely see only minor improvements after setting "Enable multithreading" to True.

If the system is used by only a few users, if reports are scheduled sequentially one at a time, or if the number of CPUs is more than the number of concurrent reports, then turning on multiple threads speeds report generation.

Note:

Memory utilization is likely to increase when "Enable multithreading" is set to True.

These properties can be set at the server and report level. See "Setting Runtime Properties" in Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Report Designer's Guide for more information on setting properties.

Note:

If you run BI Publisher on a single-core, one processor computer, then leave these multithreading configuration settings at the default value of False.