How many pc_servers should be started?

• Article Type: General
• Product: Aleph
• Product Version: 16.02

Description:
How do we determine what number to use for PC_NUM_SERVERS in pc_server_defaults? It is currently set at five.

Resolution:
Two large sites (Harvard and University of Michigan) have PC_NUM_SERVERS = 35. You certainly wouldn't need more than that. As long as your system is not near its limit on number of processes, it doesn't hurt to have extra pc_server processes. On the other hand, if they are never being used.....

You can tell how many pc_server processes have been used by doing "ps -ef | grep pc_server_main". If, at the end of the day, you consistently see a lot of processes with "0:00" in the CPU time column (indicating that they have not been used at all), you might want to reduce the PC_NUM_SERVERS value.