Specialized Administration > Supporting Visualization and Publishing > Getting Started with Windchill Visualization Services
  
Getting Started with Windchill Visualization Services
This chapter includes the following information:
• Sizing a visualization publishing system
• About the WVS configuration properties file (wvs.properties.xconf)
Sizing a Visualization Publishing System
Windchill Visualization Services (WVS) supports multiple system configurations, sizes, and needs. To optimize the WVS setup for your needs and to avoid performance issues, you must estimate the system’s workload.
This section contains a guide for evaluating the WVS system size and understanding its requirements:
• CAD worker sizing guide—Estimate the hardware requirements of your CAD worker.
• Calculating throughput—Estimate the number of CAD workers needed, based on the daily publishing load.
• Tips for optimizing performance—Additional information on how to set up the system.
CAD Worker Sizing Guide
The Windchill sizing guide provides general guidelines for estimation of your CAD worker deployment.
For information on Windchill sizing, see the relevant subsections in the Optional Component Sizing section in the Windchill and Pro/INTRALINK 11.x Server Hardware Sizing Guidelines - Microsoft Windows Platform with Oracle Database.
Calculating Throughput
To allow the system to process your company’s data in a timely manner, use the proper hardware and define enough workers. You must consider your company’s data volume in order to estimate the required number of workers for a particular data type.
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The definition of acceptable response time varies depending on your company’s specific requirements. After the initial setup, monitor your publishing system using the WVS Job Statistics tool, and adjust the system accordingly.
These parameters affect how many workers you need for a particular data type:
• Estimated daily transactional volume (number of files) by CAD file type (V). A CAD file can be a part, an assembly, or a drawing.
• Estimated average response time to open and regenerate each CAD file type (Rt). To gain an accurate ratio between your expected data and the available resources, subdivide data items into small, medium, and large. A file size is a combination of its actual size of the disk and the amount of its components.
• Number of workers = 1.2*(V*Rt) / 86,400. There are 86,400 seconds in a whole day. This calculation assures that you can accomplish your volume per day with a minimal number of workers within a 24-hour period.
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Any further increase in throughput would require more workers, in order to further reduce the total publishing time. Additional workers require the creation of additional WVS publisher queues to keep the workers loaded.
The following table is an example for estimating the number of workers needed for a particular data type.
Volume
Estimated Response Time (Sec)
Raw Publish Time (Sec)
Required Time (Sec)
Number of Workers
V=
Rt=
=~1.2*(V*Rt)
Time=
4.24
Part
Small
1000
75
90000
366000
Medium
100
180
21600
Large
10
400
4800
Assembly
Small
300
200
72000
Medium
100
400
48000
Large
50
900
54000
Drawing
Small
200
90
21600
Medium
50
500
30000
Large
25
800
24000
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• You can define several workers on a single machine. For more information, see “Configuring Multiple Workers on a Single Machine” in the Creo View MCAD Adapters Installation and Configuration Guide.
• You can define dedicated queues per data type. However, keep in mind that this might cause disproportional queue loads. Calculate the total amount of required workers and memory, take into account the size of the assemblies, and then consider using dedicated queues. For more information on dedicated queues, see Managing Publisher Queues and Jobs.
Tips for Optimizing Performance
Use these guidelines when you define your memory requirements, workers, and queues.
• For machines with several CPU cores, configure a worker for every 1.5 cores. For example, use a machine with four cores to configure three workers.
• For best results, try to aim for 90 percent CPU utilization. One hundred percent CPU utilization over a long period of time reduces throughput due to the overhead of memory swap and disk paging.
• To avoid unwanted disk paging, set the CAD worker memory so that the average file size is smaller than the RAM size. Ideally, the RAM should be as large as the largest publishing job to be published, combined with the default size of memory of the system when it is in idle mode.
• For multiple worker machines, when determining the amount of required RAM, evaluate the number of small and medium assemblies vs. largest assemblies. Assess how many workers you need with a large amount of RAM, and control the jobs you send to each worker using queues.
• For VMware—To allow optimal RAM allocation when using multiple virtual machines, consider using Memory Ballooning. This requires monitoring the total RAM consumption on the VM server (and not the guest operating system) to manage the physical hardware.
• To understand the influence of computer hardware, note the following:
◦ CPU clock speed of the worker machine is the largest influence on the throughput.
◦ Consider the necessary RAM. You can increase throughput with faster buses and additional memory.
◦ Hard disk speed is important but its importance is second to the above mentioned considerations. It is recommended to use flash-based storage to open large files. Use Solid State Drive (SDD) when possible.
About the wvs.properties.xconf File
The wvs.properties.xconf file defines WVS configuration properties. It also contains detailed in-line documentation for the WVS properties. Before you begin the WVS setup, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the wvs.properties.xconf. For information on a specific property, see its specific documentation.
The wvs.properties.xconf file resides on: <Windchill_Home>\codebase\WEB-INF\conf.