14.1 Configuring Dispatch

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ServiceScheduling provides two different mechanisms for updating external systems with job dispatch details.

A push-based mechanism, where ServiceScheduling sends job dispatch details to an external system as changes are made in the system. See the 14.1 DispatchClient for more details.
A pull-based mechanism, where external systems make API calls periodically to obtain details. See the 14.1 Dispatch SOAP APIs section for more details.

Both the DispatchClient and Dispatch SOAP API approaches have parameters which should be set appropriately to control their behaviour. This page documents these options.

The business needs to determine how these parameters should be set to meet their business requirements. Ideally, the business users should update the parameters using the appropriate screens within the ServiceManager web application.

DispatchClient Parameters

Global Parameters

Parameters that set behaviour for the DispatchClient at a global level are set in the sp083_system_parameters database table.

Parameter

Mandatory/

Optional

Description

disa_nwt

M

Specifies how many Dispatch Agent Worker Threads should be used.

You will need help from a consultant to set this up. It is critical to the running of the system and incorrect settings can result in performance degradation, system instability or hitting operating system limits.

Per FRU Parameters

Parameters that set behaviour for the DispatchClient at the FRU level are set in the sp213_scheduler_parameters database table.

Parameter	Mandatory/ Optional	Description
`cjs_earmark_should_dispatch`	O	To enable/disable dispatch when changing a Work Item’s status to earmarked.
`disp_earmarked_jobs_max`	O	The number of Work Items per operative allowed to be earmarked at any one time (was `dm_JobCount`).
`disp_expiry_time`	O	Time (in minutes) after the expected end of a Work Item when attempts to dispatch will be abandoned.
`disp_earmark_postponement_time`	O	Time (in minutes) after an attempt to unearmark following a change of engineer when an attempt to dispatch earmark will be made even if unearmark has not been dispatched.
`disp_retry_time`	M	The minimum interval between attempts to re-send failed dispatch messages (minutes).
`disp_scan_time`	M	Time interval (in minutes) between auto-earmarking dispatch scans.
`disp_tol_ReEarmark`	O	If Work Item is moved, within the same operative, by more than this amount, Dispatch Monitor will Re-Earmark it (percentage, e.g. ‘10%’, or minutes, e.g. ‘10’).
`jeop_allow_dispatch`	O	When set to a value of YES, the DispatchClient will dispatch jeopardy messages which will use an additional return value in the `earmarkType` field, to indicate that the job has changed jeopardy state.

Dispatch SOAP API Parameters

Global Parameters

Parameters that set behaviour for the Dispatch SOAP APIs at a global level are set in the sp083_system_parameters database table.

Parameter

Mandatory/

Optional

Description

disp_inactivity_timeout

M

Specifies the maximum time (in seconds) allowed between dispatch client requests, before the API Agent disconnects the dispatch client. See also notes below this table.

Lowering this value will increase the chances that the API Agent will erroneously consider the dispatch client to be inactive (for instance because of processing and network delays). Therefore the value for this timeout would normally be at least ten seconds (in order to allow for processing and network delays) and often the value would correspond to a duration of several minutes.

It is also the case that, if set less than or equal to the client’s SOAP timeout, then this can cause the API Agent to think the system has crashed and hence it restarts itself. Set disp_inactivity_timeout > client SOAP timeout.

disp_request_timeout

M

Specifies the maximum time that the API Agent will wait for dispatched jobs (per dispatch client) before returning with return code SP_OK_DISPATCH_REQUEST_TIMEOUT. See also notes below this table.

Lowering this value will increase the network traffic and also the processing load on the dispatch client and API Agent. Therefore the value for this timeout would normally be at least ten seconds and often the value would correspond to a duration of several minutes.

Per FRU Parameters

Parameters that set behaviour for the Dispatch SOAP APIs at the FRU level are set in the sp213_scheduler_parameters database table.

Parameter

Mandatory/

Optional

Description

gcj_jeop_check_states

O

The set of jeopardy conditions for the FRU which will be considered when performing SOAP API calls that return work items based on jeopardy conditions. See:

This parameter may be configured by the FRU parameter "GetChangedJobs: Jeopardy Conditions", which can be found in the "API" section of the "Scheduling Unit Settings" page in ServiceManager.

tz_disp_api

O

Dispatch API local time type. Used to specify which time zone should be assumed for the Work Item's times in the dispatch message.