Thread Pools

The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) can support many threads of execution at once. To help performance, both Access Manger and Portal Server maintains one or more thread pools. Thread pools, allow you to limit the total number of threads assigned to a particular task. You can see an example of the tuning parameter callerPool in the output of perftune above. When a request is passed into the web container from a browser it will flow through several thread pools. A thread pool contains an array of WorkerThread objects. These objects are the individual threads that make up the pool. The WorkerThread objects will start and stop as work arrives for them. If there is more work than there are WorkerThreads, the work will backlog until WorkerThreads free up. Assigning an insufficient amount of threads in a thread pool can cause a bottleneck in the system which is hard to see. Assigning too many threads to a thread pool is also undesirable but normally is not critical.

RqThrottle — The RqThrottle parameter specifies the maximum number of simultaneous transactions a current Java Enterprise System web container can handle. The maximum number of simultaneous transactions is considered the thread limit.

Low-Memory Situations — If you need the web container to run in low-memory situations, reduce the thread limit to a bare minimum by lowering the value of RqThrottle. Also, you can reduce the maximum number of processes by lowering the value of the MaxProcs value. Typically this value will be 1 for the Java Enterprise System Web Server.

Under-Throttled Server — The server does not allow the number of active threads to exceed the thread limit value. If the number of simultaneous requests reaches that limit, the server stops servicing new connections until the old connections are freed up. By waiting for old connections to be freed, response time is increased. In Sun Java Enterprise System web containers, the server's default RqThrottle value is 128. If you want your server to process more requests concurrently, increase the RqThrottle value. The symptom of an under-throttled server is a server with a long response time. Making a request from a browser establishes a connection fairly quickly to the server, but on under-throttled servers it may take a long time before the response comes back to the client. The best way to tell if your server is being throttled is to see if the number of active sessions is close to, or equal to, the maximum number allowed by RqThrottle.