Configuring Parallel Processing

The Document Conversion Service is designed to process many documents in parallel, up to the limits of your license model. The following settings are used to control the number documents and printers in parallel:

Setting Name

Value

NumberOfDocumentsInParallel

Number of documents that can be converted at the same time.

NumberOfPrinters

Controls the size of the Document Conversion Service printer pool.

These values are set to the keyword "auto" when first installed, which means that Document Conversion Service will automatically determine an appropriate value for these numbers based on the number of CPU's and cores on your computer. We recommend you leave this set to "auto" to get the best experience from Document Conversion Service. Setting this to a value that is too high for the capabilities of the computer can cause the computer to work very slowly.

The formula used for determining how many documents your system can handle is to multiply the number of cores per CPU by the number of CPU's and multiply that by 1.5. As an example, a single CPU system with 4 cores would be able to process 6 documents in parallel at a time:

(number of cores per CPU × number of CPU's) × 1.5 = 

(4 × 1) × 1.5 = 6 documents in parallel

Once the maximum value for the number of documents has been determined, this number is also compared against your purchased license (or the fact that you are running a trial version) and capped at the number of document in parallel allowed by your license model. You can, of course, always set this number lower as needed to balance this with other applications and services running on your computer.

Setting the Number of Documents in Parallel

The number of documents to process in parallel is stored as a collection of key-value pairs written in XML in the General section of the Document Conversion Service application configuration file. See General Application Settings for a complete list of all settings that can be changed in the General section.

General Configuration Section

 

 <!-- General configuration options-->
 <General>
   <Settings>
    <!-- Maximum number of printers and threads is determined by your license model. -->

    <add Name="NumberOfDocumentsInParallel" Value="auto"/>
    <add Name="NumberOfPrinters" Value="auto"/>

    ...
   
  </Settings>
</General>

Opening the Configuration File

Go to Start - All Programs - PEERNET Document Conversion Service 3.0 - Edit DCS Configuration File to edit the configuration file using the DCS Editor. The configuration file can also be opened in any XML editor and can be found here:

Configuration file location:

C:\Program Files\Document Conversion Service 3.0\Core\PNJobItemProcessor.exe.config

Setting the Number of Documents in Parallel

1.Once open in the DCS Editor, find and locate the <General> section.

2.In the <Settings> section, modify the NumberOfDocumentsInParallel value to the desired number to change how many documents are converted in parallel. Leave this value as "auto" to have Document Conversion Service optimize the number of documents in parallel based on your computer's capabilities.

3.The NumberOfPrinters controls the size of the Document Conversion Service printer pool. For optimal performance the size of the printer pool needs to match the NumberOfDocumentsInParallel setting. This value can also be left to "auto".

4.Save the edited file. If Document Conversion Service is running you will need to restart the conversion service to apply your new changes.

 

General Configuration Section - modified

 

 <!-- General configuration options-->
 <General>
   <Settings>
    <!-- Maximum number of printers and threads is determined by your license model. -->
    <add Name="NumberOfPrinters" Value="3"/>
    <add Name="NumberOfDocumentsInParallel" Value="3"/>

    ...
   
  </Settings>
</General>

Restoring the Configuration File

A backup copy of the original configuration file is stored in the following location for easy recovery.

Configuration file location:

C:\Program Files\Document Conversion Service 3.0\Core\Backup\PNJobItemProcessor.exe.config