Arbortext Publishing Engine should be installed on its own, separate physical server. For example, it is not recommended to install Arbortext Publishing Engine on the same server where Windchill is installed. Installing Arbortext Publishing Engine on its own server allows you to configure the same number of Arbortext PE sub-processes as you have physical CPU processors to handle simultaneous requests. Once configured in this manner, Arbortext Publishing Engine relies on those CPU processors and will keep them busy fulfilling requests.

If you must install Arbortext Publishing Engine in a shared environment, configure the number of Arbortext PE sub-processes to a number less than the total number of CPU processors so that another application can be somewhat responsive. You may want to implement CPU affinity; if so, see your server documentation for information on CPU affinity and how to configure it. Also, be sure to allocate enough memory to allow Arbortext Publishing Engine to process large documents.

Before deciding on how to install Arbortext Publishing Engine, carefully evaluate your expected processing needs, including network traffic, throughput performance, and the size and quantity of documents and graphics.

PTC does not explicitly test or certify the use of PTC Arbortext software in virtual environments such as VMWare, Xen or Microsoft Virtual PC. Customers may use such environments for their PTC Arbortext deployments, but the guest operating system must be supported by PTC Arbortext and the PTC Arbortext software must be correctly licensed. In these cases, PTC will provide technical support for PTC Arbortext software in a virtualized environment but cannot provide support or consultation on the configuration of the virtual environment or on issues that are believed to be caused by the virtual environment. PTC uses the following guidelines to determine whether an issue involving a virtual environment is supported: