If there are many documents to be processed by a DocumentsCorePack service, it may occur that one service is not enough. This issue can be solved by installing a DocumentsCorePack (DCP) ServerBased Load Balancing Service. This article outlines the functionality of such a DCP Load Balancing Service and how to install it. 

Requirements: DocumentsCorePack Server Based (Online/OnPremise) version 2016.173 and higher

The functionality of the Load Balancing Service
Usually, if documents are generated by a service, all documents are assigned to the same service. No matter, if the documents are being processed as batches or single documents. The DCP SB Service processes one job after the other in the queue - comparable to a printing service. Because single documents are prioritized, the generation will always be processed between the batch document generation. This is why it can be really helpful to have multiple services to get a better performance.

The logic of the  LoadBalancer works as described in the following figure. The main priority always has the manually triggered document generation for single and batch documents. The LoadBalancer will always have one service reserved for single document generation - DCP Service 1, one for batch document generation and processes/workflows - DCP Service 2 and another one only for batch document generation - DCP Service 3. This means that only one queue is available for processes/workflows in your configuration because they run in the background and have a lower priority.

This is the minimum package of the DCP SB Load Balancing Service. It is possible to add more services to your LoadBalancer, where you can define more than one service for single document generation and batch document generation. 

Figure 1: Functionality of the DCP SB Load Balancing Service (example with 3 working services)

How to configure a Load Balancing Service online? 
First of all, please create a new service in DCP SB Online (If you have not set up a service yet, please have a look at this video or at the corresponding blog article). Once you have created a new service, you will be provided with the Online Configuratin window where you can configure your service in detail. If you have already configured a service, you get an overview of your hosted service(s). 

The Load Balancing licenses can be found on our website. You first have to choose which size of DCP you require and in the so opened window you can buy the DCP Load Balancing Service.  The minimum package contains three services. It is possible to add more services to your LoadBalance. This guarantees that the documents are generated as fast as possible. 

​The configuration for Load Balancing Service is very easy. Select the service you want to configure in the Online Configuration window and click on the [configure load balancing]-button (highlighted in yellow).​

Figure 2: Online Configuratin window

The so opened Load Balancer Configuration window provides you with information about how many ❶ Available Load Balancer Services you have. Here you can specify how many load balancer you want to configure ❷ (please notice: there must be at least three) and how many services you want to ❸ reserve for single documents only. 

For example: There are 5 Load Balancing licenses available and want to configure all 5 and reserve 2 of them only for single documents and the rest are for batch document generation (see figure below). 

Figure 3: Load Balancer Configuration window

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How to create a Load Balancing Service in DocumentsCorePack Server Based On-Premise
(If you have not installed a service yet, please have a look at this article)

The creation of a Load Balancing Service in DCP Server Based On-Premise is different than in DCP SB Online. Therfore you need to set up a DCP SB service and categorize it as Load Balancing service. We recommend naming the service according to its future task (here: DCPLoadBalancer). Next, you create some more services and categorize them as subordinated to the Load Balancing Service.

Set a category for your Load Balancing Service
Basically you have to differentiate between the category for the main service and the category of the sub-services. 

The category number for the  main service consists of six digits and follows the below structure:

99XXYY

99..... categorizes the service as Load Balancing Service 
XX..... defines how many services are subordinated to the Load Balancing Service 
YY..... defines how many of these subordinated services are reserved for the generation of single documents only. It is mandatory to have at least 2 worker services for batch operations. That means the minimum configuration is 990301. If it is needed to have multiple single document services, it is mandatory to have at least 4 worker services and the configuration is 990402.

For example:
990502... There are 5 services subordinated to the Load Balancing Service and the first two services process single documents only. The other three services are reserved for the generation of batch documents. 

991105... There are 11 services subordinated to the Load Balancing Service and the first five services process single documents only. The other six services are reserved for the generation of batch documents. 

The categories must be set in the category field of the DCP Server Server Based On-Premise Service (highlighted in yellow below). However, it is recommended to set the batch delay to 10 seconds. 

Figure 4: Load Balancing Service for DCP ServerBased On-Premise

The Load Balancing Service can have many subordinated sub-services. The category number for the sub-service starts with 10 as you can see in the figure below. For each additional sub-service, the category number increases by 1 and continues with 11, 12, ..... As explained before, the category must be set in the category field, highlighted below.

Figure 5: Set category for the sub-service

How to remove the Load Balancing service (On-Premise)

• Make sure there is only one DCP Service running for the organization with the Category: 0
• Restore the default value for the “AzureServiceName” settingskey
  The name of the key must be "AzureServiceName" and the value has to be “none”
• Delete the “LBConfig” Settingskey
• Shut down and restart the DCP service
• Clear your browser cache and restart your browser

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That's it! We appreciate your feedback! Please share your thoughts by sending an email to support@mscrm-addons.com. 

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