Creating Environments

The Environment represents the physical configuration of the Business Process Project. This section outlines how to create Environments for basic Business Process Projects and for Business Processes that include a user activity. In a production environment, the Java CAPS Environment is like to be more complex than the examples shown here. Once you create an Environment for BPM, you must configure the BPM Engine properties, located on the Properties window of the application server.

Creating an Environment for a Basic Business Process

The components in a Project that contains a basic Business Process will vary depending on the external systems and other components used in the Project.

To Create an Environment for a Basic Business Process

1. In NetBeans, click the Services tab.
2. Right-click CAPS Environments and then click New Environment.
3. Name the Environment.
4. Right-click the Environment, point to New, and then click Logical Host.
5. Name the Logical Host.
6. Right-click the Logical Host, point to New, and then click Sun Java System Application Server.
7. Name and configure the application server.
8. Add and configure any necessary external systems to the Environment.
9. Configure the BPM Engine properties described in Configuring the BPM Engine.
10. Click Save All.

Creating an Environment for a User Activity Business Process

The components in a Project that contains a basic Business Process will vary depending on the external systems and other components used in the Project.

To Create an Environment for a User Activity Business Process

1. In the Services window, right-click CAPS Environments, and then click New Environment.
2. Name the Environment.
3. Right-click the Environment, point to New, and then click Logical Host.
4. Name the Logical Host.
5. Right-click the Logical Host, point to New, and then click Sun Java System Application Server.
6. Name and configure the application server.
7. Add and configure any necessary external systems to the Environment.

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   Note - To access the Worklist Manager for task completion, you need to add and configure a Worklist Manager External System. If the user activity includes Visual Page Designer web pages, you need to add a Visual Page Designer External System as well.

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8. Configure the Worklist Manager.
9. Configure the BPM Engine properties described in Configuring the BPM Engine.
10. Click Save All.

Creating Environments for Web Service Business Processes

In BPM you can expose a Business Process as a web service and you can invoke web services from a Business Process. The Environment for each type of web service Business Process require different components.

Configuring the BPM Engine

The Properties window for the BPM Engine configures several aspects of the BPM Engine, including debugging, database connection, load balancing, failover and recovery, and so on. Table 1 lists and describes each property.

Table 1 BPM Engine Properties

Configuring Load Balancing

When a Business Process needs to be scaled to meet heavier processing needs, you can distribute the Business Process across multiple engines to increase throughput. BPM’s load balancing algorithm automatically distributes processing across multiple engines; however, BPM cannot load balance correlated messages.

To Configure Load Balancing

1. For each affected Business Process, enable persistence.
2. In the Services window, right-click the application server and then click Properties.
3. In the BPM Engine Configuration properties, do the following:
   1. Set the Persistence Mode property to Persist to Database - Multiple Engines.
   2. Set the Application Mode property to Multiple Engine.
   3. Click OK.
4. Configure all BPM Engines to share the same database.

Configuring Failover

When the Business Process is configured for load balancing, BPM’s failover capabilities ensure throughput of running Business Process instances. When Business Process instances encounter an engine failure, BPM load balances those instances across all available engines. As with load balancing, BPM’s failover capabilities are limited to non-correlated messages.

To Configure Failover

1. In the Services window, right-click the application server and then click Properties.
2. In the BPM Engine Configuration properties, set the Engine Expiry Interval property to register itself as alive frequently enough to meet the demands of your system.
3. In the BPM Engine Configuration properties, set the Failover Grace Period property to the optimal elapsed time period before moving running Business Process instances from an unavailable engine to an available engine.

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   Note - Optimizing these two property setting might require some testing. The Engine Expiry Interval property also applies to the interval for the recovery of dangling instances.

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