For performance reasons, Process Engine (PE) caches information on users and groups returned by the directory service. This topic provides an overview on how to set the refresh interval, and how to refresh the cache manually when necessary.
Cached user and group records are updated periodically depending on how you have configured the Cached Memory Timeout in the Process Engine Advanced options. Tuning the Cached Memory Timeout allows you to maximize performance for your unique environment. PE caches a user or group name the first time it is retrieved from the directory service, eliminating the need to access the directory service again when a user or group is subsequently referenced in a workflow. How often you update the user cache entry should be based on how often there are changes to your directory service (that is, adding or deleting users and groups, or modifying group memberships).
CAUTION Refreshing many entries (several hundred or more) in the cache at the same time causes performance to degrade briefly on the PE server. This can occur when internal processing requires a large number of users to be accessed at the same time (for example, when opening the Tasks page in Workplace) at a point when the timeout has occurred or the entire cache has been flushed. You can use the Flush Granularity option to offset this performance degradation by controlling how quickly the cache is refreshed. See FileNet P8 Platform Performance Tuning Guide. To download this guide from the IBM support page, see Accessing IBM FileNet Documentation.
When a user or group has been updated in the directory service and you want the cached information to be updated immediately, use the vwtool environment command to reconcile inconsistencies in the cache.