Inside Automation Engine > Multi-Server Operation > Starting and Ending Server Processes

Starting and Ending Server Processes

An AE system consists of server processes which run on one or several computers. They can easily be started and ended via the ServiceManager dialog program. AE Script also provides script elements for starting and ending server processes.

Starting Server Processes

Automic strongly recommends starting server processes with a time delay regardless if a normal or cold start is made.

Start the work process which should serve as the primary work process (PWP) first. Wait until the following message is printed in the log file:

U0003471 The Server 'UCGLOBAL#WP001' has successfully been initialized, *** R E A D Y F O R R U N ***
Now start all other work processes with a time delay of about 10 seconds.
Start the communication processes.
Start all other components such as agents only when all server processes are already in operation. Also keep a time delay of about 10 seconds between the individual starts.

A time delay option is available for each component in the settings of the ServiceManager dialog.

Numerous messages are output when the Automation Engine starts. Some of them refer to possible errors but most of them only log information about the start procedure in the log file:

Several socket error messages are output when a communication and work process starts.

Explanation: Each server process attempts to open one port number after the other until it finds an empty port as specified in the INI file. The server process name is then defined via this port. It is normal that some ports are already occupied when several server processes start at the same time. This fact causes socket error messages, but there is no error.

Database error messages referring to the MQCPnnn tables are always displayed when a cold start is made.

Explanation: You can define several communication processes. The primary work process deletes their MQCPnnn tables one after the other when a cold start is made. This behavior is normal and there is no error.

Ending Server Processes

Server processes can be ended collectively or individually. Ending particular ones is especially useful when server processes are distributed on several computers and only the server processes of a particular computer should be ended.

Ending	ServiceManager	AE Script
Ending a particular server process	Context menu command Immediately single process	:TERMINATE
Ending all communications and work processes	Context menu command Shutdown (AE system)	:SHUTDOWN

Automic recommends using the following procedure in order to end all server processes individually. First, terminate all work processes except for the primary work process. Then terminate all communication processes and, last but not least, the primary work process.

This is what happens when a particular server process is ended:

Communication process: It informs the connected UserInterfaces and agents so that these can establish a connection to a different communication process. Then the process completes its report and ends.
Work processes write their reports and then they end. If a primary work process (PWP) is ended, one of the other work processes assumes the role of a PWP.

Shutting down the AE system:

The primary work process is instructed to shut down and so all other server processes can end well regulated. The same procedure applies as described above when a particular server process is ended. The primary work process is responsible for processing the message queue and will only end afterwards.
It can take some time before the primary work process ends as it is responsible for these processes.

Server processes can also be ended abnormally. Then they end immediately without the procedure described above. Only use this way of ending server processes if these could not be ended differently.