Using the "TWO_TASK" variable

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

Description:
The TWO_TASK variable in aleph_start_505 that can be used to connect to a remote Aleph/Oracle instance. It sounds like a great way to test new Aleph features set up on one server with data stored on a remote server. In our case, our TEST server is loaded with only small subsets of data, and the TWO_TASK variable might enable us to make configuration file changes on our TEST server and test new features on our production data before making configuration table changes on the production server. Has anyone successfully used TWO_TASK for any purpose?

Resolution:
[From Dianne Stronach, Harvard:] Yes, we have used two-task to indicate that the database is on a different server. We tested this with exlibris about a year ago. We had our web processes running on 2 front end servers that were loaded balanced and using the database on our production server where the pc_servers were running. The testing was successful, but we put off putting it into production until after version 16. We also use db_link ( the oracle underpinning for 2 task) to point to our upgrade database from our development server. It is really quite neat. You just need to be careful that your ue processes on two machines are not updating one database.