Configuring Multi-Processing 

The overall performance of the Adobe document services can be improved using parallel processing. This significantly enhances the throughput of, for example rendered documents. Ensure that the following two prerequisites for parallel processing are fulfilled:

 

Prerequisites

●      The application sends requests in parallel (for example, multiple background payroll jobs for different groups of employees).

●      The Adobe document services run on multiprocessor hardware.

 

Services

Adobe document services control the number of simultaneous requests that can be processed at any given time. The value is controlled by the PoolMax setting in each of the services. As with all performance tuning, establishing the right values for these services encompasses balancing all of the applications running on the server.

Adobe document services provide two services for performing specific functions:

●      Print output renders the form to a printer language and/or PDF. No further manipulation of the PDF is normally done. The XML Form Module is used to render a form.

●      The PDF Manipulation Module is used to retrieve data, metadata, and other information from a PDF file.

Producing interactive forms for e-mail or for online use usually involves both the XML Form Module and the PDF Manipulation Module.

The memory requirements for each process of the Adobe document services are as follows:

●      XML Form Module: 25 MB approximately

●      PDF Manipulation Module: 30 MB approximately

These services handle separate processes at the operating system level (for example, XMLForm.exe and PDFManipulation.exe on Microsoft Windows). You use the Config Tool to adjust the maximum number of allowed processes for each of these services by setting the PoolMax attribute. The default values are:

PoolMax Default Values

Service	PoolMax Value
XML Form Module	4
PDF Manipulation Module	2

 

We recommend that you set the PoolMax value of the XML Form Module to the maximum numbers of processors used by your application.

For more information on how to configure the settings of these services, see Modifying Manager or Service Properties.

Example

The following table shows the performance improvements that can be achieved on a server with four processors:

Multi-Processor Performance Differences

PoolMax Value of XML Form Module	Increase of throughput
1	100% (base value)
2	190%
3	270%
4	345% (optimal value)

 

These settings can also be used to minimize the impact of the document services on other applications that are installed on the same server. For example, if you set the PoolMax value of the XML Form Module to 2, a maximum of two processors will be used by XMLForm.exe processes. Then other software could run simultaneously if there are additional processors.