Administering collaboration objects

Administering collaboration objects may include such tasks as running, pausing, stopping, and shutting down collaboration objects. For information about configuring collaboration objects, see the System Implementation Guide.

You can run, pause, stop, and shut down collaboration objects from either System Monitor or from System Manager in the InterChange Server Component Management view.

This section covers the following topics:

"Viewing collaboration object states"

Starting, stopping, and pausing collaboration objects

"Configuring collaboration object run-time properties"

Viewing collaboration object states

You can view the state of a collaboration object either by logging on to System Monitor and opening a view that contains collaboration object information or by using the InterChange Server Component Management view in System Manager. To log on to System Monitor, follow the instructions in Steps for logging on to System Monitor.. To use System Manager, follow the instructions in Steps for connecting to an InterChange Server Express instance..

The state of a collaboration object is represented differently, depending on which tool you are using.

Steps for using System Monitor to view collaboration object states

Perform the following steps in System Monitor to view the state of collaboration objects:

  1. If the System Overview view is not displayed, click the System Overview link under Views in the left pane of System Monitor. The System Overview Monitor appears (see Figure 11).

    When the product is installed, the default view is set to System Overview, and the default monitor contained in that view is set to System Overview. These defaults can be changed to suit your monitoring needs. See Setting up views to monitor the system for instructions.

  2. Click the triangle next to the name of the server to display a list of components on the system. All collaboration objects are listed along with their status, start time, and total up time (see Figure 29).

    Figure 29. System Monitor, System Overview displaying collaboration object status


Steps for using System Manager to view collaboration object states

Perform the following steps in System Manager to view the state of collaboration objects:

  1. Open System Manager and connect to the InterChange Server Express instance that contains the collaboration object that you want to view (see Steps for connecting to an InterChange Server Express instance).
  2. In the InterChange Server Component Management view, expand the InterChange Server Express instance, then expand the Collaboration Objects folder.

    The collaboration objects appear under the expanded Collaboration Objects folder with different colored lights to indicate their different states (see Figure 30.

Figure 30. Collaboration Objects folder in the InterChange Server Component Management view


Table 8 describes the collaboration object states that are viewable from System Monitor and the Collaboration Objects folder in the InterChange Server Component Management view:

Table 8. Collaboration object states

Collaboration object state Description
Start A started collaboration subscribes to its triggering business objects and processes them as they arrive. If you stop and then restart InterChange Server Express, collaboration objects in the Start state automatically start running when InterChange Server Express restarts.
Pause A paused collaboration cannot receive new flow initiators. It completes all of the current processing, then enters an idle state.

A connector maintains its subscription information; therefore, it continues to send flow initiators to the connector queues. The collaboration processes these when it resumes.

To resume collaboration execution, click Start in System Monitor or in the Collaboration Object menu in the InterChange Server Component Management view.

Stop Stopping a collaboration causes it to unsubscribe to business objects. The collaboration completes all of the current processing, then becomes inactive. Unlike the Pause command, the Stop command causes connectors to stop sending business objects to the collaboration.

To properly stop a collaboration without losing any flows, first stop the associated connectors from polling, allow all flows to process, then stop the collaboration.

Shut Down Shutting down a collaboration immediately ends processing of current flows. When the collaboration is restarted, the system recovers by processing those flows that were interrupted by the shut down and recovering those flows waiting in the queue. This recovery is not immediate, so prepare to wait when the system completes the recovery interval.
Note:
When you stop or shut down a collaboration object that is part of a collaboration group, all collaborations in the group stop or shut down. If any member of a collaboration group fails to start up or has a state change failure, the collaboration group is rolled back to the initial state (deactivated or stopped).

Starting, stopping, and pausing collaboration objects

To run a collaboration object for the first time, you must first configure it then start it. See "Configuring collaboration object run-time properties" for more information on configuring collaborations. Depending on which tool you are using, you run, stop, and pause collaboration objects in different ways.

Steps for using System Monitor to start, stop, and pause collaboration objects

Perform the following steps in System Monitor to start, stop, and pause collaboration objects:

  1. In the System Overview view (see Figure 25), select a collaboration object by selecting the check box to its left.
  2. Click the Start, Pause, or Stop icon from the icon group in the upper-left corner of the view (see Figure 27).

Steps for using System Manager to start, stop, and pause collaboration objects

Perform the following steps in System Manager to start, stop, and pause collaboration objects:

  1. Go to the Collaboration Objects folder of the InterChange Server Component Management view.
  2. Right-click a collaboration object, then select Start CollaborationName, Pause CollaborationName, or Stop CollaborationName.

Configuring collaboration object run-time properties

This section describes system administration tasks in a production environment and contains the following procedures:

"Steps for setting collaboration object general properties"

"Steps for configuring collaboration objects to process concurrent event-triggered flows"

Steps for configuring flow control for collaboration objects

For information about the following tasks, see the System Implementation Guide:

Steps for setting collaboration object general properties

Perform the following steps to open the Collaboration Properties window and change values for general properties of a collaboration object:

  1. In System Manager, expand the Collaboration Objects folder in the InterChange Server Component Management view.
  2. Right-click a collaboration object and click Properties.
  3. In the Properties dialog box, click the Collaboration General Properties tab. See Figure 31.

Figure 31. Properties dialog box, Collaboration General Properties tab


The dialog box shows the template from which the collaboration object was generated and the minimum transaction level that was specified in the collaboration template.

The dialog box enables you to set the following:

Steps for configuring collaboration objects to process concurrent event-triggered flows

For detailed information about processing concurrent events, see the System Implementation Guide.

Tip:
Processing concurrently triggered events in collaborations requires additional system resources. To maximize performance, ensure that system resources used to handle concurrent events are not idle. For example, do not set the value for the maximum concurrent triggered-event processing option to 10 if the collaboration queue is set to process a maximum of four events.

Perform the following steps to set the maximum number of concurrent flows for a collaboration:

  1. From the expanded Collaboration Objects folder in the InterChange Server Component Management view, right-click the collaboration object that you want to change and click Properties. The Properties dialog box appears (see Figure 31).
  2. In the Collaboration General Properties tab, enter a value in the Maximum number of concurrent events field.
  3. Click OK to save your changes and close the window.
  4. Restart the collaboration for changes to take effect.

Steps for configuring flow control for collaboration objects

Flow control is a configurable service that allows you to manage the flow of connector and collaboration object queues. The parameters for configuring flow control can be system-wide or on individual components, or both. If you configure both, the individual component configuration supersedes the system-wide configuration. For instructions on configuring flow control system-wide, see Steps for configuring system-wide flow control. This section describes how to configure flow control for collaboration objects.

Note:
Configuration changes for individual connectors or collaboration objects are dynamic, meaning they do not require InterChange Server Express to be rebooted. System-wide configuration changes for flow control require InterChange Server Express to be rebooted.

To monitor how flow control is working in the system, you can view the Flow Control monitor and view provided as part of System Monitor or you can view the Statistics for collaboration objects or connectors in System Manager from the InterChange Server Component Management view. For more information on using the Flow Control monitor and view in System Monitor, see Steps for reviewing default monitors and Steps for using default views. For more information on viewing the flow control in System Manager from the InterChange Server Component Management view, see Steps for viewing collaboration object statistics or Steps for viewing connector statistics.

Perform the following steps to configure flow control for a collaboration object:

  1. In System Manager, expand the Collaboration Objects folder in the InterChange Server Component Management view.
  2. Right-click the collaboration object for which you want to create flow control and click Properties. The Properties dialog box appears (see Figure 31).
  3. In the Collaboration General Properties tab, edit the value in the Max Event Capacity field to represent the maximum number of events you want queued for a collaboration object. The valid range of values for this property is from 1 to 2147483647, inclusive.
  4. Click OK. The property is changed immediately.

Steps for reconfiguring the timeout attribute for long-lived business processing

Long-lived business processing enables collaboration objects to be deployed as long-lived business processes. If a collaboration object has been configured with long-lived business processing, the service call timeout values can be reconfigured during run time. For more information about developing a collaboration object with long-lived business processing, see the Collaboration Development Guide.

Perform the following steps to reconfigure the service call timeout values of a collaboration with long-lived business processing:

  1. From the expanded Collaboration Objects folder in the InterChange Server Component Management view, right-click the collaboration object whose service call timeout value you want to edit, then click Properties. The Properties dialog box appears.
  2. Click the Properties tab, locate the property that represents the service call timeout value you want to change, then click in the value field. When the property is selected, the value can be edited.
    Note:
    The name of the service call timeout configuration property may be something like, "CreateTimeout" or "RetrieveTimeout," but because there is no naming convention for this property, you may have to contact the collaboration developer if the name of the service call timeout configuration property is not immediately apparent.
  3. Edit the value so that it represents the number of timeout minutes allowed.
    Note:
    The Value field must contain an integer greater than 0. If it contains a 0 or is left blank, the wait time is equal to infinity. If it contains non-numerical values, it triggers a collaboration run-time exception.
  4. Click OK. Your changes take place immediately, without the need to restart InterChange Server Express.

Copyright IBM Corp. 2004