Gregg Eldred

Tomorrow is the last Thursday of 2008, and I have several Show-n-Tell Thursday posts that I started but never really finished. These posts are ones where I created as placeholders for things that balied me out of a few jams, but I didn't really have much more to add. But you may find value, as I did, in these. Here is the first one.

Domino does not provide you with the ability to run concurrent agents in a database. However, there are two methods that will allow you this feature, even though they are unsupported (read: don't call Lotus Tech Support if you run into issues). When I was presented with this task, I learned that Domino processes agents sequentially. But, spending a little time searching the TechNotes, I found these two techniques. First, you can use a Program Document:

Create a Program document, and fill out the following fields on the form as shown:

Program Name: nserver (or server if not Windows platform)

Command Line: -c "tell amgr run 'database.nsf' 'agent'"

Substitute your database name and agent name. The correct use of quotation marks ( " ) and apostrophe ( ' ) is important.

When Domino runs the agent this way, a separate thread is created to process the agent. This separate thread allows it to run while other agents are being processed through the Agent Manager task.

The caveats for this technique are worth your consideration. For example, if you do a tell agmr sched at the console, the agent will not appear. Also, you may experience some server performance issues.

The second method to achieve this, is to use a wrapper agent. As the Program Document worked for me, I didn't even consider this option. But you may find it useful. The caveats for this one include considering the use of document locking and issues with logic.

Link: How to run multiple agents in the same database using a Program document

Link: How to run two agents concurrently in the same database using a wrapper agent

Technorati tag: SnTT Show-n-Tell Thursday

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