The next step is to initialize the Progress Application Server for OpenEdge instances using the best possible configuration. This is easier than ever, with the new Progress Application Server for OpenEdge default parameters and recommendations.

Take advantage of tested default parameters

The default settings for the Progress Application Server for OpenEdge are tuned and ready to use. The default values are shown in the following figure that demonstrates how these parameters streamlines access to the OpenEdge database ensuring that adequate resources are available for ABL application agents and backup agents:

The embedded Tomcat server has a maxthreads value of 200 to make sure there is the necessary throughput to avoid a bottleneck. The maxAgents value is set to 2 for the ABL application, to provide a single agent and a backup agent. Each agent has a maxConnectionsPerAgent of 200 allowing many threads to be available to process the requests. The -n parameter allows a total of 402+ connections to the database. These recommendations are to get the best performance for a single instance.

Take advantage of tuned property files

When you create a PAS for OpenEdge instance, the properties of the instance are automatically set to certain default values. Each PAS for OpenEdge instance has its own /conf directory that contains multiple configuration files, including:

  • openedge.properties—Contains the properties that must be set to create an instance. See the openedge.properties.README.
  • catalina.properties—Contains the Java properties used by an instance and its ABL web applications. For more information, see the catalina.properties.README.
  • appserver.properties—Linked to the catalina.properties file. Any changes made to the catalina.properties files are dynamically reflected in appserver.properties. For more information, see the appserver.properties.README.
  • jvm.properties—Contains a list of JVM startup command-line options.
  • server.xml—Contains the server features for the instance

Manage Application Servers with Progress tools

OpenEdge provide a variety of tools to help you monitor and manage your Progress Application servers for OpenEdge instances. These tools include command line utilities and APIs for administrators who want to automate their monitoring and management tasks.
  • TCMAN—A command-line utility for configuring and managing PAS for OpenEdge instances. This utility also enables you to view details such as operating system and server information, detailed server status, memory leaks, and HTTP session information. For more information, see TCMAN Reference in PAS for OpenEdge Administrative Tools Reference.
  • PASMAN—A command-line utility that runs as a TCMAN wrapper from the $DLC/bin directory. This utility allows PAS for OpenEdge system administrators to manage multiple instances.
  • OpenEdge Management—A browser-based administration tool that allows you to create and manage PAS for OpenEdge instances. This tool runs as either a Windows or a UNIX client of the AdminServer. OpenEdge Management can create, configure, start, stop, and delete a PAS for OpenEdge instance, and you can use OpenEdge Management to view log files. OpenEdge Management also allows you to monitor various aspects of your PAS for OpenEdge environment. In order to create and manage instances with OpenEdge Management, the oemanager.war file must be deployed to the instance.

    For more information, see Use OpenEdge Management to configure an instance in Manage Progress Application Server (PAS) for OpenEdge.

    For more information, see 'Use OpenEdge Management to configure an instance' in Manage Progress Application Server (PAS) for OpenEdge.
  • OEPROP—A command-line utility used to display and manage properties in the instance-name/conf/openedge.properties file.

    For more information, see OEPROP in Manage Progress Application Server (PAS) for OpenEdge.

  • OEMANAGER—A command-line utility that allows you to obtain metrics about your Progress Application Server (PAS) instance in one call. The output is an easy-to-read textual representation of the metrics initiated from an OS command line. This concept is most similar to the ASBMAN and WTBMAN utilities previously available within the Classic AppServer product. In addition, the utility can be used to manage runtime behavior. For more information, see OEMANAGER utility in Manage Progress Application Server (PAS) for OpenEdge.
  • REST APIs—REST APIs give you visibility into your PAS for OpenEdge environment and let you take appropriate actions based on your findings. REST APIs are enabled by the oemanager.war web application and can be viewed through the Swagger UI. REST API reference documentation is available in the REST API Reference for oemanager.war topic in PAS for OpenEdge Administrative Tools Reference.

    For more information, see Use Swagger to explore management REST APIs in Manage Progress Application Server (PAS) for OpenEdge.

  • OEJMX—A command-line utility that can list all of the MBeans, including attributes and operations for a PAS for OpenEdge instance running on a local machine, and also run MBean queries. OEJMX does everything that deploying oemanager.war can do, but without opening access to the instance through the web server.

    For more information, see Use OEJMX to manage and monitor an instance in Manage Progress Application Server (PAS) for OpenEdge..

    For more information, see 'Use OEJMX to manage and monitor an instance' in Manage Progress Application Server (PAS) for OpenEdge.

Apply best practices to application server startup parameters

  • Tune asynchronous request—For each connection, OpenEdge allocates memory for the send and response queues with a default size. If asynchronous requests exceed the send and response queue size, then OpenEdge stores additional queued requests in a temp-table associated with the client session. Therefore, performance can vary based on whether requests are stored in memory or in the temp-table.

    To help you maximize the performance of asynchronous requests, OpenEdge provides the Async Queue Size (-asyncqueuesize) client startup parameter. This parameter allows you to specify the number of bytes that you want OpenEdge to allocate for the send and response queues for a PAS for OpenEdge connection.

    The Async Queue Size parameter only applies when you create the PAS for OpenEdge connection on the client, and it applies equally to each PAS for OpenEdge connection. Although OpenEdge creates the send and response queues for each connection, they are not used unless you make asynchronous requests to the PAS for OpenEdge instance. Therefore, you can maximize the PAS for OpenEdge performance by choosing a value based on the amount of data that you expect to flow between the client and the PAS for OpenEdge instance for these asynchronous requests. Similarly, if you are not making asynchronous requests, then you can choose a low value, to reduce the space allocated to queues that you are not planning to use.

    For more information, see the Async Queue Size (-asyncqueuesize) entry in OpenEdge Deployment: Startup Command and Parameter Reference in Application Development with PAS for OpenEdge.