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About Tuning SSSE for Optimal Performance

In general, SSSE works well when you configure your Siebel implementation using the scalability and sizing recommendations that are discussed in Performance Tuning Guide. For example, you can set parameters such as MaxMTServers and MinMTServers for the PIMSI Engine component to the values that suit your implementation as a whole, without especially considering SSSE performance issues. However, this topic discusses some configuration recommendations that are particularly important for ensuring optimum performance for SSSE.

In an SSSE implementation, two key parameters are MaxUsers and MaxTasks (also called Maximum Tasks). MaxUsers is an Exchange Connector parameter; MaxTasks is a PIMSI Engine server component parameter.

MaxUsers

The MaxUsers parameter defines the maximum number of users that can be assigned to each instance of the Exchange Connector. You may want to modify the value of this setting depending on whether your Siebel implementation will be adding many new SSSE users in the near future:

• If you need to add many new SSSE users, it is recommended that you set the MaxUsers parameter to a very low value, perhaps even the minimum value of 1. This is because all users of an Exchange Connector instance compete for the instance's single communication channel to the Exchange Server. Ongoing synchronizations rarely take long enough to cause problematic delays for other users of the same Connector instance, but initial extracts can monopolize a Connector's communication channel for significant time periods. To prevent any user's synchronization from ever being delayed while another user's initial extract completes, you can set MaxUsers to a value of 1, meaning that there is a dedicated Exchange Connector instance for each user being synchronized.

  NOTE:  This configuration uses a comparatively large amount of memory on the computers that run Exchange Connector instances—each instance uses about 25 MB of memory.

• If you add few new SSSE users, you can set the MaxUsers parameter to a higher value. This uses less memory for Connector instances, at the risk of occasional synchronization delays when an initial extract is in progress.

MaxTasks

The MaxTasks setting controls the total number of users who are synchronized at one time. The value you choose for MaxTasks can limit the total number of Connector instances that run at any one time, preventing the Connector computers from becoming overloaded.

Selecting and Testing MaxUsers and MaxTasks Values

The exact settings to use for your implementation depend on the hardware you use. Each Connector instance uses about 25 MB of memory. As an example, if you have between 1 and 2 GB of memory available for Connector instances to use, you could set MaxUsers to 1 and set MaxTasks to 50.

Perform some initial extract test runs to assess the amount of CPU and memory that are used with your initial parameter settings. Check the Connector computers and the Siebel Servers where your PIMSI Engine components are running. If you have ample CPU and memory still available, you can try increasing the value of MaxTasks.

At a later time, if initial extracts become comparatively rare, you may find that you obtain better performance by setting MaxUsers to a higher value.

Choosing an Appropriate Dispatcher Repeat Interval

When you are satisfied with your MaxUsers and MaxTasks setting values, you might want to measure how quickly SSSE can process your entire population of ongoing SSSE users. You can use the information to adjust the values of the Repeating job settings for the PIMSI Dispatcher job, so that the Dispatcher runs at an interval of your choosing. Dispatcher jobs must not overlap. To ensure that this does not occur, set the Repeat From field of the repeating job to End. This ensures that each PIMSI Dispatcher cycle does not start until a specified interval after the previous PIMSI Dispatcher cycle has completed.

For more information about setting up PIMSI Dispatcher jobs, see Configuring and Starting PIMSI Dispatcher.