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Monitoring Memory Overhead for Workflow Processes

This topic is part of Tuning Workflow Processes.

Overhead and performance and scalability characteristics varies depending on whether you are running workflows locally in the Siebel Application Object Manager or in Workflow Process Manager (WfProcMgr), and also on where you run WfProcMgr. The performance and scalability characteristics also depend on whether you are using asynchronous mode for workflow process requests. For more information, see Siebel Deployment Planning Guide and Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide.

Running Workflows Locally in Siebel Application Object Manager

A workflow instance (that is, one run of a workflow definition) can run within a Siebel Application Object Manager. In this case, the workflow runs locally, within the current thread that the logged-in user is using. This means that if N users are connected and they all need to run a workflow definition, then the definition would run in that user thread.

In this mode, Workflow adds a fixed overhead (100 to 200 KB) to the user session memory (sometimes referred to as the model) plus memory taken up by other objects (such as business components) contained in the tasks within that workflow.

In general, this option provides the best performance, but is suitable only where scalability is not an important factor.

Running Workflows in Workflow Process Manager

The workflow itself runs within a separate component, which uses a fixed set of resources (parameters MaxMTServers, MaxTasks) to schedule the workflow. The Workflow Process Manager (component alias WfProcMgr) is a multithreaded process that runs multiple workflows and is more scalable because it uses a pool of threads and models.

Generally, the mode of the workflow used depends on what the application is trying to achieve. It is generally recommended that you try to schedule a workflow task in the WfProcMgr, especially if the results of a run are not immediately needed.

You can optionally run WfProcMgr on the same Siebel Server (colocating) as the Siebel Application Object Manager where the workflow is invoked, or run it on dedicated Siebel Server computers. Compared to running workflows locally, running workflows in WfProcMgr might reduce performance, but improve scalability. Running WfProcMgr on dedicated Siebel Servers typically provides the best scalability, while colocating WfProcMgr and Siebel Application Object Manager might provide better performance.

About Asynchronous Mode for Workflow Process Requests

For all Workflow Processes deployment options described previously, workflow process requests can be handled synchronously or using asynchronous mode. Using asynchronous mode comes with the advantages and disadvantages listed in Table 4.