Auto Mode

Auto Mode lets you specify if Engines run on a computer, based on its utilization. For example, you might not want to run Engines when someone is logged in to the computer, or if its CPU utilization is above a certain percentage.

For Windows Engines, there are two methods for determining utilization: User Idle and Processor Utilization. When you select Auto Mode, select one of the two options. The default is User Idle. Auto Mode for UNIX Engines always uses Processor Utilization mode. In addition, you can also limit the hours an Engine runs using the Restricted Hours settings. Each setting is described below.

User Idle

The User Idle feature is available for Windows Engines only. User Idle starts Engines if mouse and keyboard input have been idle for a given time on the computer hosting the Engine Daemon. This time is entered in seconds, and the default is 600 (10 minutes). Engines halt when there is mouse or keyboard input.

User Idle also has a percentage setting, which is used to determine when Engines stop running, in addition to UI activity. If processor utilization (in percent) on the host computer exceeds this value, Engines stop. To disable this feature, set it to 100%, the default.

Processor Utilization (Windows Engines)

The Processor Utilization option enables Engine Daemons to monitor system CPU usage, and start or stop Engines based on this statistic.

To use this option, enter two values: a percentage and a number of seconds. When CPU utilization drops below the given percentage for the given number of seconds, Engines start. For example, by default, Engines start when CPU utilization is below 50% for more than 30 seconds. When utilization goes above the same CPU threshold value for the specified number of seconds, Engines stop.

CPU usage on single CPU systems is calculated as the total CPU usage, minus the CPU overhead of the Engine. Note that this does not include CPU usage for the Engine, invoke, or CPU idle processes. In multi-CPU systems where an Engine Daemon launches multiple Engine instances, CPU utilization is calculated independently for each CPU.

In multi-CPU systems, all Engine instances start and stop incrementally. This is called Incremental Scheduling, and is the default. When a CPU threshold value is reached, Engines start or stop one at a time. After an Engine starts or stops, there is a delay for a configurable interval—by default, the interval is 10 seconds. Utilization is checked again on the next CPU after the interval delay, and the process repeats.

If you do not select Incremental Scheduling, Engine Daemons use Non-Incremental Scheduling. In this case, all Engines on an Engine Daemon start or stop at the same time.

Processor Utilization (UNIX Engines)

On UNIX Engines, the Processor Utilization option works similar to its Windows counterpart, but there are some specific changes:

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You can configure both a starting and a stopping threshold and time. This lets you, for example, start Engines at 40% CPU utilization but stop them at 50%. (The Engines must also be above or below the CPU utilization percentage for the specified period of time.)

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The CPU usage sampling is averaged over a configurable period of time, with the default at 10 seconds.

When using incremental scheduling, Engines are started only when all other Engines are busy. This results in fewer Engine restarts when starting a new Service that requires a restart to load Grid Libraries, and restarts due to download of new libraries when idle.

Also, in non-incremental scheduling, CPU utilization is the average CPU utilization across all CPUs, and not individual CPU utilization. This total CPU utilization percentage is calculated by adding the CPU utilization for each CPU and dividing by the number of CPUs.

For example, if a four-CPU computer has one CPU running at 50% utilization and the other three CPUs are idle, the total utilization for the computer is 12.5%. Likewise, if the maximum CPU threshold is set at 25% on a four-CPU machine and four Engines are running, and a non-Engine program pushes the utilization of one CPU to 100%, all four Engines exit. Even if the other three CPUs are idle, all Engines still exit. In this example, if the minimum CPU threshold is set at 5%, all four Engines restart when total utilization is below 5%.

This only applies to UNIX Engines, when non-incremental scheduling is used. With incremental scheduling on UNIX Engines, and in all scheduling on Windows Engines, each Engine Daemon only looks at the CPU utilization for the CPU on which it is running.

Similar to Windows, CPU utilization calculation does not include CPU usage for the Engine, invoke, or CPU idle processes.

Excluding Processes From Utilization Calculations

Windows and Linux Engines can also be configured to exclude a list of processes from utilization calculations.

The Exclude the following list of processes from the processor utilization calculation property in Windows and Linux Engine configurations can be used to specify processes that are ignored in utilization calculations. The value of this parameter must be a comma or semicolon-delimited list of case insensitive names, and are typically the executable names without extension.

Any process spawned by a Service must be in this list to prevent the Service from shutting down the Engine.

Note that Engine, invoke, and CPU idle processes are already excluded from utilization calculations by default.

Restricted Hours

When using Auto Mode, you can also specify a range of hours when Engines run. For example, if you want Engines to only run from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM daily, configure this using Restricted Hours. You can also have GridServer ignore restricted hours settings on weekends.

To configure Restricted Hours:

Go to Grid Components > Engines > Engine Configurations.

Either select an existing Engine Configuration from the list to modify, or create a new profile.

Under the Restricted Hours heading, select the first check box.

Enter a time range when the Engines are allowed to run. For example, if you want Engines to run from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, enter 9:00 and 17:00.

Select the second option to ignore Restricted Hours settings on Saturdays and Sundays.

Restricted Hours settings do not apply to Manual Mode.

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