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| Some important questions |
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| pankajg |
 Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2001 2:27 am Post subject: |
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Acolyte
Joined: 11 Oct 2001
Posts: 53
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Hi MQ Workflowites
I am preparing for the Workflow certification test & have the following doubts..can you please help me...
1. What is the difference between fenced & un-fenced mode ?
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of running a dll in fenced mode?
3. Across which platforms for MQ workflow, we use ‘–‘ or ‘/’ to specify options for command line commands like fmczchk (eg. fmczchk –y)?
4. Would it be necessary to have MQ manager Or / And Workflow web client on the web server layer?
5. What are the different setups possible when a web server has to request services from a Wrokflow server.
6. Please list out all the supported platforms for each of the components - buildtime , runtime client , runtime server , runtime database for the latest version of workflow. Can SUN OS be used as a runtime server?
7. What is the maximum size of a data container? (The documents specify 32kb as the length of a data member and 4mb as the data stream. This does not make things fully clear.)
8. Which all components / concepts of workflow use late / early binding?
9. What makes PES applicable only to OS 390? Does OS 390 support UPES?
10. How can we achieve more than two levels of notification for a system?
11. How does "staff resolution of all users" instead of dynamic staff resolution increase processor utilization? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using dynamic staff resolution instead of static staff resolution in terms of CPU utilization, runtime database usage etc.?
12. Given a situation where a system has large database activity, how would you design the system for transactional and data integrity?
13. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a join / fork .
14. Which client can be used across all platforms?
15. In a scenario if communication outages is a potential problem , what type of System configuration sjould be preferred.
your help is highly appreciated.
_________________
Regards
Pankaj |
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| jmac |
| Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2001 10:43 am Post subject: |
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Jedi Knight
Joined: 27 Jun 2001
Posts: 3081
Location: EmeriCon, LLC
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1. What is the difference between fenced & un-fenced mode ?
A: Fenced mode will have the DLL loaded into a separate Process by the PEA. This means that a rogue DLL can not corrupt the PEA process space.
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of running a dll in fenced mode?
A: Debugging is the ONLY advantage... ONCE debugged IMHO a DLL should be run non-fenced
3. Across which platforms for MQ workflow, we use ‘–‘ or ‘/’ to specify options for command line commands like fmczchk (eg. fmczchk –y)?
A: "-" can be used on all platforms, hence I would use this all the time. "/" is specific to windows platforms
4. Would it be necessary to have MQ manager Or / And Workflow web client on the web server layer?
A: IMO Webserver will need to be an MQSeries Client, and have access to the MQWF API (local or via JNDI).
5. What are the different setups possible when a web server has to request services from a Wrokflow server.
A: If I understand correctly there are now 2 (V330) Local, and JNDI.
6. Please list out all the supported platforms for each of the components - buildtime , runtime client , runtime server , runtime database for the latest version of workflow. Can SUN OS be used as a runtime server?
A: Buildtime WINDOWS Platforms ONLY
Runtime client Windows platforms, HP, AIX, Sun Solaris, OS390
Runtime Server Windows NT/2k, HP, AIX, Sun Solaris, OS390
Runtime DB Same as server. Runtime DB is DB2 or Oracle (with V330)
To my knowledge SUN OS is not a supported platform
7. What is the maximum size of a data container? (The documents specify 32kb as the length of a data member and 4mb as the data stream. This does not make things fully clear.)
A: Max size is 4 MB under V330 data structure is limited to 512 leaves
8. Which all components / concepts of workflow use late / early binding?
A: Process Templates
9. What makes PES applicable only to OS 390? Does OS 390 support UPES?
A: PES is only applicable to 390 because IBM has only supplied a PES for 390 up to now. Any platform that can read an MQSeries Queue can run a UPES
10. How can we achieve more than two levels of notification for a system?
A: Need clarification on what you mean... There are 3 levels Process Instance late, Activity instance late, Activity instance really late.
11. How does "staff resolution of all users" instead of dynamic staff resolution increase processor utilization? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using dynamic staff resolution instead of static staff resolution in terms of CPU utilization, runtime database usage etc.?
A: All users, does not need to use the Staff resolution, BUT does cause many more workitems to be generated. I don't think there is a real need to worry about static versus dynamic, what is more important is the number of users that a workitem must be generated for. My goal is 1 - 1 between Activity Instance and Workitem.
12. Given a situation where a system has large database activity, how would you design the system for transactional and data integrity?
A: Carefully  . Need much more information would depend on exactly what you are doing.
13. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a join / fork .
A: I don't understand the question?
14. Which client can be used across all platforms?
A: I don't understand the question?
15. In a scenario if communication outages is a potential problem , what type of System configuration sjould be preferred.
A: I don't understand the question?
_________________
John McDonald
RETIRED |
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| pankajg |
| Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2001 12:46 am Post subject: |
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Acolyte
Joined: 11 Oct 2001
Posts: 53
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Thanks John.
Your answers have made our understanding more clear.
I am rephrasing Q-14.
Which runtime client can be used across all platforms? For example we have the shipped workflow runtime client, Java client etc. Essentially the question is which of the available MQWF runtime client is platform independent?
Also i have few more questions...
1.what is the impact of each of the following on the runtime database.
a. number variables in the descriptiuon
field.
b. Static staff allocation
c. dynamic staff allocation
2. what are the services provided by WFMC.
eg. naming service / directory service
_________________
Regards
Pankaj |
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| jmac |
| Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2001 5:43 am Post subject: |
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Jedi Knight
Joined: 27 Jun 2001
Posts: 3081
Location: EmeriCon, LLC
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Which runtime client can be used across all platforms? For example we have the shipped workflow runtime client, Java client etc. Essentially the question is which of the available MQWF runtime client is platform independent?
The HTML, or Thin client. Probably what you have called the Java client.
Also i have few more questions...
1.what is the impact of each of the following on the runtime database.
a. number variables in the descriptiuon
field.
If you mean the runtime description field there is a finite limit to the number of charactes you can have there. I believe it is 256. Only effect is size of DB, and retrieval time to retrieve bigger descriptions.
b. Static staff allocation
NO use of Staff resolution algorithm, so its faster, but of course less flexible.
c. dynamic staff allocation
Opposite of above, more flexible, but runs the algorithm so a little slower. Try to keep the number of staff assigned to any activity less than 20.
2. what are the services provided by WFMC.
eg. naming service / directory service
As far as I know, there are none avaialable in MQWF at this point. I believe they will support eventually.
_________________
John McDonald
RETIRED |
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| pankajg |
| Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2001 2:26 am Post subject: |
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Acolyte
Joined: 11 Oct 2001
Posts: 53
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Hi John,
Thanks for the replies.We have some more questions.
1. For system testing what would be a good configuration. If we have a server with some input output constraints can I still go ahead with this for a medium size business production. Would it be viable to implement a 2-tier configuration on this server with DB2 and workflow runtime servers? Can you Please suggest some document that has relevant information
2. If user has to make high speed data entry what type of client should we use
Push/Pull /should we have the activity start as automatic
3. Can we trigger an application in AS/400 from workflow .If yes then what all do we need Install on As/400.Do we need an XML Parser?
4. What is an “Out of Box” Activex Client… Does this mean the same thing as shipped runtime client?
5. An activity needs to be started either by a Person “A” or a person who is “Member of a Role”. Does workflow have a provision to do the above and How will this be achieved?
6. How does usage of Bitmaps/images affect workflow performance. Does workflow need a repository for using images… If so how do we create this repository? Is it possible to store the images in the database without indexing?Please suggest some online documents or links which would tell us more about image usage in workflow.
Thanks & Regards
Pankaj
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| jmac |
| Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2001 3:40 pm Post subject: |
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Jedi Knight
Joined: 27 Jun 2001
Posts: 3081
Location: EmeriCon, LLC
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1. For system testing what would be a good configuration. If we have a server with some input output constraints can I still go ahead with this for a medium size business production. Would it be viable to implement a 2-tier configuration on this server with DB2 and workflow runtime servers? Can you Please suggest some document that has relevant information
A: See the Installation Guide.
2. If user has to make high speed data entry what type of client should we use
Push/Pull /should we have the activity start as automatic
A: I would use a PUSH where next workitem is pushed at user either in response to them requesting it (my choice) or when the previous workitem completes.
3. Can we trigger an application in AS/400 from workflow .If yes then what all do we need Install on As/400.Do we need an XML Parser?
A: You can pretty much do anything if you use a UPES and an MQ message (I am assuming here that AS/400 supports MQ).
4. What is an “Out of Box” Activex Client… Does this mean the same thing as shipped runtime client?
A: Yes the IBM supplied shipped runtime client is refered to as the Windows client or the ActiveX client or sometimes the Fat client.
5. An activity needs to be started either by a Person “A” or a person who is “Member of a Role”. Does workflow have a provision to do the above and How will this be achieved?
A: The only way to do this would be to have the activity staff defined as "From Predefined Members. Then set the _ACTIVITY_INFO.Persons or _ACTIVITY_INFO.MembersOfRole data items in a previous activity AND map them.
6. How does usage of Bitmaps/images affect workflow performance. Does workflow need a repository for using images… If so how do we create this repository? Is it possible to store the images in the database without indexing?Please suggest some online documents or links which would tell us more about image usage in workflow.
A: I dont know anything about imaging... EXCEPT don't ever pass an image in a container, only pass a pointer to the image.
_________________
John McDonald
SYSCOM Inc.
IBM Certified Solutions Expert -
MQSeries Workflow
[ This Message was edited by: jmac on 2001-10-18 16:41 ] |
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| Andy |
| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2003 3:46 am Post subject: |
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Centurion
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 122
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Its from very old post but important for me because I am also preparing for certification 
| jmac wrote: |
6. How does usage of Bitmaps/images affect workflow performance. Does workflow need a repository for using images… If so how do we create this repository? Is it possible to store the images in the database without indexing?Please suggest some online documents or links which would tell us more about image usage in workflow.
A: I dont know anything about imaging... EXCEPT don't ever pass an image in a container, only pass a pointer to the image.
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John,
I didnt unsderstand that answer. When you warn not to pass image in a container, I wonder how one can do this!! Image is a file and how can we pass whole file in a containrs.
When you suggest to pass pointer to an image, does it mean image path kind of thing, or something similiar to C pointers is possible through containers. If so then I should postpone test date 
Thanks
_________________
 Andy |
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| jmac |
| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2003 4:56 am Post subject: |
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Jedi Knight
Joined: 27 Jun 2001
Posts: 3081
Location: EmeriCon, LLC
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| Andy wrote: |
| When you warn not to pass image in a container, I wonder how one can do this!! Image is a file and how can we pass whole file in a containrs. |
You could define a binary container member and store the image in that memeber, of course this would be nuts.
| Andy wrote: |
| When you suggest to pass pointer to an image, does it mean image path kind of thing, or something similiar to C pointers is possible through containers. |
Just the path to the image (which is a pointer to the image)
GOOD LUCK on the test.
_________________
John McDonald
RETIRED |
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