IBM FileNet P8, Version 5.2.1            

The Cached Entry Timeout workflow system property

The Cached Entry Timeout workflow system property sets the interval (in hours) for refreshing entries in the workflow user and group cache. The Cached Entry Timeout property is set in the Advanced tab with a default value of 4 hours. A value of 0 indicates that entries are not automatically updated. If no timeout value is entered, the timeout defaults to every 4 hours. You can modify the value for this property, but you cannot delete it.

When the workflow system needs to access a user or group record for runtime processing, the cache memory is checked for this record. If the record is not in memory or the record in memory is stale, the workflow system checks the database. In a similar manner, if the record is not in the workflow system database or the database record is stale, the workflow system refreshes the record from the directory service. Accessing the directory service is the most costly process during a record refresh. Each record, whether in memory or in the database, has a time stamp of the last update. The time stamp is used to determine whether or not a record is stale. In this case, a record is considered stale when the time stamp of the last update is older than the number of hours specified in the Cached Entry Timeout property value.

Tuning the Cached Entry Timeout property enables you to maximize performance for your business environment. The workflow system caches a user or group name the first time it is retrieved from the directory service during processing of a workflow, 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 entries is based on how often there are changes to your directory service (that is, adding or deleting users and groups, or modifying group memberships).

Note: Refreshing many entries (several hundred or more) in the cache at the same time can cause performance to degrade briefly on the workflow system server. This can occur when internal processing requires a large number of users to be accessed at the same time at a point when the timeout has occurred. To preclude many entries from becoming stale, use the CacheSyncInterval property, which sets the interval of synchronizing the workflow system database with the directory service. The workflow system environment records are updated with the directory service asynchronously, which reduces the access of the directory service during run time.


Last updated: March 2016
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