How To Change Project Server Notification Service processing order

[olesierra]

Hi,

could anybody tell me if there was a way to influence the processing order
of files in the view drop folder (Project Server 2003 SP2a)?

I am also interested in the normal case ? On my server it seems that the XML
files are processed in the order of the name of the XML files, is this normal
? I would prefer a First In - First Out ...

Another question: My Project Managers tend to publish there projects more
than one time. So I might have several XML files in the view drop referring
to the same project. Is there a way to tell the Notification Service to
delete duplicate projects or process only the last one?

For us this is quite a big problem since on a single day of the month about
100 projects are published. We have big projects with more than 1000
assignments an average duration of task of about 1 month. This results in
processing times of 10-30 min per XML file.

Could anyone help me ?

I am looking forward to your answers.

Thanks and best regards
Ole

 

[FaisalM]

That is an issue with Project Server 2003. With upcoming version MS have
resolved it using Project cache.

http://blogs.msdn.com/dieterz/archive/2005/11/07/489893.aspx

--
FaisalM
http://www.FaisalMasood.com/

My Project Blog
http://msp.faisalmasood.com/
My Sharepoint Blog
http://www.faisalmasood.com/blog/sharepoint

 

[Don]

We are currently working this issue now. We currently have a custom
script that will remove any duplicate .xml files from the folder as log
as it is not the one currently being processed. We are also working on
trying to get several View Notify servers up and running, but we are
having no luck. Everytime we bring up a new View Notify server, it
will process 1 .xml then it will crash the service. There is not much
to the install and seeing that it processes the first plan dropped into
the folder, I know the configuration is correct. Once we get this
resolved we are taking a different approach to Microsofts "Rond Robin"
solution. Of the 5 servers we will have for Views processing, 2 will
be dedicated for smalll plans and OLAP processing, while the other 3
can process both small plans and large plans. I know you are asking
how we plan on doing this, so here it is.

1. All plans will be dropped into a temporary drop folder on the
"primary" view notify server (also processes the OLAP cube).
2. Plans will be processed First In First Out order.
3. If Plan is the OLAP cube, immediately placed on the dedicated OLAP
server behind any currently processing plan.
4. If Plan is resource global, move to available server for
processing.
5. Folder will be checked for duplicates of the plan.
6. Check Database to see if Plan is currently being processed.
7. If duplicates exist and not currently processing, delete
duplicates.
8. Analyze plan to determine size. This will be done by predefined
criteria such as # of resources, length of plan, ect. and comparing to
what is in the database.
9. If plan is small, placed on next available server for processing.
10. If plan is large, place on next available large plan server.


This will be a custom program (service) that will monitor the temporary
folder then perform the above steps. It will monitor the View Notify
servers drop folder and only place a new .xml in the folder when the
previous file has finished processing.

The custom program will be the easy part, if I can get the services to
stop crashing on the new servers. I have a dedicated Microsoft Tech
and he is just as stumped as we are. All servers are patched the same
and everything appears to be the same. Every time I restart the
server, I can process 1 plan, then CRASH.

FYI, the plans are not in any way processed first in first out with the
default Microsoft system. I have yet to figure out how it determines
what to process next, but it is not first in first out. You can watch
what is being currently processed and verify that newer files are
processing before older ones.

I wil let you know when we have our new soluton up and running.

 

[FaisalM]

Don,

Let us know whatever you findings after making it work.

--
FaisalM
http://www.FaisalMasood.com/

My Project Blog
http://msp.faisalmasood.com/
My Sharepoint Blog
http://sps.faisalmasood.com/

 

[Don]

I resolved the issue with the service. Seeing that we are dropping the
..xml file into a temporary folder on a server, when we moved it into
the viewdrop folder of another server to process it, it was just
dissapearing and not processing. The problem was that the service was
starting to process it before the copy was complete. This made the
system think the .xml was corrupt or invalid so it was not processed.
We solved this by moving it on to a temporary folder on the server that
will do the processing then moving it to the viewdrop folder from
there. This resolved the delay issue.

It will take about 3 -4 weeks to finish the custom code for everything
else we would like to accomplish. I will try and keep this tread
updated so it does not expire.