Introduction to Configuration Tasks

This book describes how to perform the configuration tasks related to creating a production; some of these tasks also apply later when configuring the production for a specific site. This chapter provides some background and an overview of these tasks.

Background for System Administrators

This book is intended for both developers and system administrators. If you are a system administrator, this section provides some basic terminology to help you get started.

A production is a specialized package of software and documentation that integrates multiple, potentially disparate software systems. A production includes elements that communicate with these external systems, as well as elements that perform processing that is internal to the production.

A production consists of a number of business hosts that communicate with each other (and with external systems). There are three distinct types of business host:

A business service receives input from outside the production.
A business process is responsible for communication and logic that is entirely within the production.
A business operation usually sends output from the production. Business operations can also be used for communication and logic within a given production.

Within a production, all communication is carried out by means of request and response messages between the business hosts.

InterSystems IRIS® permits only one production to be running in a given namespace at any given time.

A running production continues to run even when you close the Management Portal.

For additional background, see Core Concepts in Monitoring Productions.

Introduction to Settings

A major part of configuration is the task of modifying settings. This section provides an introduction.

Settings are configurable values that control the behavior of a production. You can modify these while a production is running and the changes take effect immediately. Settings can affect a production in many ways. For example, a setting can specify:

The TCP port on which a business service should listen
How frequently to check for new input.
The external data source name (DSN) to use.
The TLS configuration to use when connecting to an external entity.
How long to stay connected.
And so on.

You can specify settings separately for the production and for each business host.

Some settings, such as Actor Pool Size, Pool Size and Reply Code Actions, should be decided as part of the production design and usually should not be changed later. Other settings are dependent on the environment, such as TCP/IP addresses or file paths. It is appropriate to modify these settings if the environment changes.

Possible Configuration Tasks

While you are creating a production, you will need to perform the following tasks:

Creating a production. See Creating and Configuring a Production.
Adding business hosts to the production. See Adding Business Hosts to a Production.
Configuring settings of the production and its business host. See Creating and Configuring a Production and Configuring Business Hosts.’

You might also perform some or all of the following tasks:

Configuring reusable items for use in settings: business partners, credentials, and schedule specifications. See Defining Reusable Items for Use in Settings.
Defining other options: data lookup tables, system defaults, and source control settings.
Configuring the Message Bank. See Configuring the Enterprise Message Bank.
Creating dashboards to display business metrics. See Creating Dashboards.

If you are a system administrator, you might be most likely to use the chapters Creating and Configuring a Production, Configuring Business Hosts,’ and Defining Reusable Items for Use in Settings.

Accessing the Configuration Options

To configure InterSystems IRIS, you use the Management Portal. To access the configuration tools in the Portal:

Click Interoperability.
Click Configure.

InterSystems IRIS then displays a menu. The following chapters describe how to use the options on this menu.

Accessing Management Options

Most of this book discusses the Production Configuration page, Interoperability > Configuration > Production. This page includes tabs that provide easy access to management options, which are described elsewhere.

If you click Production Settings above the diagram, the options apply to the entire production. Similarly, if you click a business host, the options apply to that business host.

These management tabs are as follows:

Queue — Click to view a list of the queues related to this production or business host.
Log — Click to view an abbreviated list of Event Log entries for this production or business host.
Messages — Click to view an abbreviated list of messages processed by this production or business host.
Jobs — Click to view jobs related to this production or business host.

Each these tabs provides a link to a management page (which opens in a new window) with more information. For details on the terminology and tasks, see Managing Productions.

On the Jobs tab, you can also manage active jobs. For more information, see Aborting Messages, Suspending Messages, and Stopping Jobs.

Creating a Production