MRP/DRP Calculations Using AppServer
If you use Symmetric Multiple Processor (SMP) computers and also have the Progress Application Server (AppServer) installed, you can use the AppServer to distribute the processing load across your available computing resources and complete the calculations in considerably less time.
Note: You can also use SMP computers to run synchronized MRP/DRP calculations, although the AppServer method gives better results.
Setting Up Your System to Use an AppServer
To set up your system to run MRP/DRP with the AppServer, follow these steps:
1 Configure the AppServer using Progress Explorer or by editing the Progress ubroker.properties file.
2 Use AppServer Service Maintenance (36.19.1) to define the parameters used to connect to the AppServer.
3 In MRP Control (23.24) or DRP Control (12.13.24), set the following fields to the specified values:
• Set Use AppServer to Yes.
• Set AppServer Name to the name you specified in AppServer Service Maintenance.
• Set Default Number of Threads to twice the number of processors available on your machine. For example, if your machine consists of 2 processors, enter 4. This will create four AppServer threads for an MRP/DRP run. This value defaults to the MRP/DRP execution programs. You can change it when you run the program.
Note: The ideal number of threads varies from environment to environment based on the processing load on the machine. For example, when the processing load is heavy, you might set the default to one thread for each processor.
See User Guide: QAD System Administration for more information on setting up an AppServer and configuring it to run MRP/DRP.
Using the AppServer with MRP/DRP
To run MRP/DRP with the AppServer, use any of the DRP or MRP programs. Set Synchronized Calculation to No. Number of AppServer Threads defaults from MRP Control or DRP Control, as appropriate. You can leave this value or change it as needed based on the current system load.
When the planning session starts, the system distributes the load among the AppServers for the items that require planning. When a thread completes planning for a given level, the program then reuses the existing thread for the next level. This process continues until all items are planned.
The audit report identifies all of the items planned for all of the MRP/DRP planning sessions that were run with the AppServer.