Setting operating system scheduling priority

The scheduling priority is equivalent to the nice command in UNIX. It sets the execution priority for a process, which determines in what order the operating system runs processes.

Priority range

In general, the priority range spans from 0 to 20. However, different operating systems interpret these values differently.

UNIX, OS\2

The lower the value, the higher the priority (faster execution). To raise the priority of the agent to high, you must enter a negative number. However, raising the priority to high is not advisable because it uses significantly more system resources and can cause other applications to crash.

11 to 20 low priority
0 to 10 normal priority
-1 to -15 high priority

Example

In the operating system processing queue, a process with a scheduling priority of 2 runs before a process of 8, which runs before a process of 13.

These systems have a default process priority. The PATROL priority is added to the default priority to determine the agent's process priority on the OS.

default process priority + agentPriority = agent process priority on the OS

Example

A UNIX box's default process priority is 10. The PATROL Agent installed on the box has an agent priority of 5. Therefore, the priority of the agent process on the OS is 15.

Windows

This configuration variable affects the priority of the agent process on the Windows platform. The agent's default priority is normal. To change the agent process's priority, you must use the Windows Task Manager.

Windows priorities in order of highest to lowest are:

Realtime
High
Normal
Low

In addition, Windows 2000 offers priorities of AboveNormal and BelowNormal.

To set the priority for the PATROL Agent, specify ranges for the /AgentSetup/AgentTuning/agentPriority variable as follows:

11 to 20 low priority
0 to 10 normal priority
-1 to -15 high priority

Alpha

Priorities range from 0 to 63, where 63 is the highest.

0 -15 are normal priorities
16 -63 are real-time priorities

PATROL Agent process

The /AgentSetup/AgentTuning/agentPriority configuration variable specifies the operating system scheduling priority for the PATROL Agent process.

Format and type of data	Numeric, not applicable
Default value	10
Minimum and maximum	0, 19
Override	None
Dependencies	None
Recommendation	The agent process is given a medium priority so that it does not interfere with the processes of the application that it is monitoring.

Processes created by PATROL Agent

The /AgentSetup/AgentTuning/userPriority configuration variable specifies the operating system scheduling priority for processes created by the PATROL Agent. These processes are external processes that the agent spawns from the main run queue.

Format and type of data	Numeric, not applicable
Default value	0
Minimum and maximum	0, 20
Override	None
Dependencies	None
Recommendation	None

Cache refresh process

The /AgentSetup/AgentTuning/procCachePriority configuration variable specifies the operating system scheduling priority for the process that refreshes the process cache.

Format and type of data	Numeric, not applicable
Default value	10
Minimum and maximum	0, 20
Override	None
Dependencies	None
Recommendation	None

Internal cache refresh process

The /AgentSetup/AgentTuning/procCacheSchedPriority configuration variable specifies the Internal PATROL Agent scheduling priority for the process that refreshes the process cache.

Format and type of data	Numeric, not applicable
Default value	1
Minimum and maximum	0, 20
Dependencies	None
Recommendation	Set this process high (0, 1, or 2). The PATROL process cache must be refreshed before other internal agent processes run.

Where to go from here

Administering