How to scale up resources for Content Transformation Service 7.3?

ArthyTrip · 2021-02-16T15:51:23+00:00

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Hi,

having to upscale an installation I tried to give more resources to the VM in which the Content Transformation Service 7.3 resides.

Wanting to check if it is possible to scale the resources in hot, I proceeded like this:

1. I created a queue with about twenty rendition requests and let CTS start processing it;

2. I stopped the Windows 'Documentum Content Transformation Services' service (the 'Documentum Content Transformation Monitor Services' service was automatically turned off);

3. I hotly increased the number of CPUs (from 4 cores to 8 cores) and doubled the RAM.

4. I restarted the service - 'Documentum Content Transformation Monitor Services' (the 'Documentum Content Transformation Services' service also restarted automatically);

CTS has resumed processing the queue and has successfully finished it.

However in this second phase I clearly saw that CTS continued to use only half of the available cores, the others remained in fact dormant.

I wonder if there is a particular configuration of CTS for using a higher number of cores made available.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Arthy

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ArthyTrip

I thought I had found the solution in the parameter

found in the configuration file CTSServerService.xml

I first set maxThreads to 15, then to 20, everytime restarting the services, but I still see only 4 cores working out of 8 available.

DCTM_Guru

More Threads <> more cores utilized. You can always add another CTS worker machine and scale out horizontally.

ArthyTrip

Ehm...

Are you telling me that CTS can't take advantage of a multiprocessor machine?

DCTM_Guru

You will need to ask OpenText to get final answer - I'm just telling you other options

Karen Weir

Thank you for posting such great advice @DCTM_Guru ! @Arthy will you be opening a ticket to review with a Support rep?

ArthyTrip

At the moment the ticket answer is "CTS do not have any configuration which will allow it to use the cores added to the server".

I still hope for some solution...

DCTM_Guru

Its old technology, so I wouldnt hope for solution other than scaling out (horizontally). CTS processors can be small workstations, since all they do is open document (eg doc) and save it as different format (eg pdf) using native application (Office) installed on it.

ArthyTrip

In our case we are interested in JPEG 2000 renditions and I was pretty sure that the used engine is ImageMagick.

For example, in the "Documentum 7.3 Content Transformation Services - Transformation Suite Administration Guide" (docu80226), at page 109, there is is something about "maximum number of ImageMagick COM servers that can be running at one time".

Unfortunately I don't have so much time to experiment, so I'll wait a little bit hoping for a clarifying answer from the support.

DCTM_Guru

What is there to experiment? You have running system that doesnt take advantage of multiple cores. Instead of waiting for support to answer "no", just provision more workstations and install CTS 7.3 on it. This will get the job done.

ArthyTrip

Um ... First of all, I don't have "more workstations" in my pocket! :-D

Each VM has a cost, a time to supply and a backup to maintain. We are talking about professional supplies, infrastructures, you know ...

LBNL is not immediately clear to me how to configure the CS to use more than one CTS. It's my limit, I've never done it.

If you have any indication about it it would be really useful (even if as I said, it will not be an immediate thing).

DCTM_Guru

Cost-benefit. If you dont like the performance of your current CTS instance, then all you can do is what is supported (add more CTS instances and pay more for the extra performance).

As for your 2nd question, you dont need to configure CS, since CTS uses a queue model. Additional CTS instances would pull from the same queue and increase your "throughput".

ArthyTrip

OK all clear.

In fact, maybe a VM I could extract it from the magic hat, but it won't be immediate. Just to clarify: supplier, large company, policies, procurement requests, etc ... It is more a political issue than a technical one.

In any case, as soon as I manage to move on, I will update the post here, at least for interested readers.

From what you tell me I could almost expect a linear increase in performance based on additional CTS instances, which is encouraging.

DCTM_Guru

Yes, you will definitely get higher throughput.; I cant say its purely linear. For larger customers in past, we have had 3 CTS processor workstations.