How To Change Project Server Notification Service processing order

[Don]

This is a continuation of this topic that was closed and I could not
respond to the post. Here is my response to the original post:

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.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Don:

Your process will work. I'd suggest simply returning a record count for the
active project in the assignments table to make your plan size
determination. With that said, I think you'd be much better off moving to
2007 rather than investing so much in overcoming 2003's limitations. You
have to consider further investment in 2003 a throwaway.

 

[Don]

Seeing that 2007 is not out and they do not have a set deployment date,
and our organization will not utilize the application until after SP1
is released to remove most of the bugs, the small investmentthat we
made to resolve Microsofts problem is well worth it. For the first
time erver we processed alll of the plans in less than a day. I can
also see how long each plan took to process. I would imagine that the
functionality of this small application is still going to far exceed
any thing in Project 2007.

Does 2007 monitor and capture how long a plan takes to publish?
Does 2007 let you maniplulate processing order of plans?
Does 2007 let you manage the server processing of the files without
stopping services or changing registry keys?

I doubt it.

And 2007 is going to be a major investment for a company of our size.
I have 6 servers that it is loded on and who knows how many project
managers using it. Until 2007 proves itself it will be a long time
before I want to start dealing with the new problems 2007 is going to
create for me.

But thank you for your input.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Don:

Seeing that 2007 released to manufacturing last week, it won't be long
before you can explore all this for yourself, assuming that you've ignored
the betas for the last year.