Export Server Considerations

You should consider running the export task on a dedicated server, especially if you expect to export a large amount of data. The export task is efficient at transferring data from Identity Manager to the warehouse and will consume as much CPU as possible during the export operation. If you do not use a dedicated server, you should restrict the server from handling interactive traffic, because the response time will degrade dramatically during a large export.

The Export Task primarily performs input/output operations between the Identity Manager repository and the staging tables. The memory requirements of the export task are modest, although the memory needs increase as the number of queued records increases. The export task is typically constrained by the speed of the input/output and uses multiple concurrent threads to increase throughput.

Choosing the appropriate server requires experimentation. If the transfer rates of the input (Identity Manager repository) or the output (staging tables) are slow, the export task will not saturate a modern CPU. The query speed of the input path will not be an issue, as the export operation only issues a query at the beginning of the export cycle. The majority of the time is spent reading and writing records.

Identity Manager provides JMX MBeans to determine the input and output data rates. See Business Administrator's Guide for more information about these MBeans.