Timed tasks
Timed tasks simplify the administration of a Web GUI server or of a cluster of Web GUI servers.
Timed tasks enable a Web GUI server to detect and load changes in the configuration data. The tasks implement changes in the configuration without having to restart the server. This is especially important in a load-balancing cluster where maintenance of service to users must continue uninterrupted.
What are timed tasks?
Timed tasks are a set of batch processes that periodically look for changes in the configuration files. If any of those files has changed since the previous run, the processes load the new configuration data into the Web GUI server.
Characteristics of a timed task
A timed task has the following characteristics:
- A start delay
The start delay determines how long (in seconds) after the server starts that the task first looks for changes in the associated configuration data.
- A run period
The run period determines the length of time (in seconds) between each subsequent run of the task.
The start delay and run period together make up the timed task's schedule. In a load-balanced cluster, you are recommended to use the same schedule on all cluster members.
The definition of timed tasks
The Web GUI's configuration file holds the definition of timed tasks. This path of this file is webgui-home/etc/server.init.
The definition of the timed tasks looks like this:
timedtasks.default.startdelay: 120
timedtasks.default.runperiod: 60This defines a start delay of two minutes and a run period, also of two minutes.