QlikView Management Service Publisher Related Configuration Settings for Best Practices and potential performance improvements

[Sonja_Bauernfeind]

This article will discuss some of the more pertinent configuration settings for the QDS and QMS services that may need to be changed in order to ensure optimal performance in some environments.

For in-depth information on how to implement them, see Scaling the QlikView Publisher

QlikView Management Service (QMS) Settings (Default config file location: C:\Program Files\QlikView\Management Service\QVManagementService.exe.config):

• DocumentFolderAdminCacheEnabled -  This setting relates to 'Document Administrators' related to QlikView Publisher service settings.  Set to 'true' if document administrators are being used in the environment.  This enables caching the document admin/document combinations.  Default value is "true" (May 2023 releases and later; older versions are set to "false").
• DocumentFolderAdminCacheExpiryMinutes - this setting relates to 'Document Administrators' related to QlikView Publisher service settings.  The setting is the expiration of the cache in minutes if document administrators are being used in the environment.  If the list of document administrators in the environment does not change often, considering changing the default value to a much higher number, 1440 for 1 day etc.  Default value is "720" minutes (May 2023 releases and later; older versions are set to "15").
• DocumentFolderAdminUseXDomain  - This setting relates to 'Document Administrators' related to QlikView Publisher service settings.  Set to 'true' if the environment utilizes Cross Domains, else set to 'false' for increased performance in the environment. Cross Domains equates to multiple domains being used in the environment, as QlikView must perform lookups of users/groups across multiple domains in these cases which can impact performance of the QlikView Management Console.  Default value is "false".
• FullTaskStatusRefreshIntervalInMinutes - This setting is the interval for retrieving all task statuses from the Distribution Service to update the local cache (in minutes).  This is needed to cover up timing gaps between QMS and QDS.  It basically invalidates the current cache and retrieves all tasks statues from QDS. If what the QMS is reporting in Status tab view is not up-to-date, this setting determines when the QMS and QDS will resync everything.  Default value is "30" minutes.
• GetQdsInfoTimeOutInMs -  This setting is the timeout for checking if the Distribution Service is alive. In a very busy environment with clustered Distribution Service nodes, this value may need to be increased, read the Management Service logs carefully to determine if messages regarding this timeout are occurring often, and if so, increase the value to alleviate most of the log entries.  Note: this setting is 'hidden' by default, and will need to be manually added to the config file in the ****** General ****** section. Default value is "10000" milliseconds.
• GetSourceDocumentTimeoutSeconds - This setting is the timeout for getting the source document list.  In a very busy environment with clustered Distribution Service nodes, this value may need to be increased, read the Management Service logs carefully to determine if messages regarding this timeout are present, and if so, consider increasing the value until the messages decrease.  Note: this setting is 'hidden' by default, and will need to be manually added to the config file in the ****** General ****** section.  Default value of "30" seconds.  
• QMSChunkSize - This setting is the 'message size' for the Management Service workorder. It controls how many tasks are 'bundled' and sent to the Distribution at a time.  For example, if there are 35 tasks in the environment, and the QMSChunkSize is the default value of 100, all 35 tasks will be sent in the same bundle. If the value is set to 10, the first 10 tasks will be sent, then the next 10 and so on... It is a means to control the size of the task bundles to send concurrently, smaller sizes may be more resilient, but will lead to more communication traffice between the Management and Distribution Services.  Note: the value may be increased above 100.  The default value is "100"
• ShowReloadEngines - This setting makes it possible to make any Reload Engines resources in the environment visible under Management Console\System\Setup Distribution Services resources. Note: this setting started in 11.20 SR11 track and later.  Use this to attempt to clear Reload Engine resources that were created due to the addition of a new QlikView Server resource in the QlikView Management Console.  Default value is "false".

QlikView Distribution Service (QDS) Settings (Default config file location: C:\Program Files\QlikView\Distribution Service\QVDistributionService.exe.config):

• AbsoluteMaximumMinutesBeforeTaskTimeout - This setting is the maximum timeout for a Publisher task to complete execution.  If task will take longer than the value to complete, this setting will need to be added to the config file, and the value increased accordingly.  Note: this setting is 'hidden' by default, and will need to be manually added to the config file.  Default value is "1440" 24 hours or 1 day.  
• EnableAdvancedFilePurge - This setting purges deleted tasks and their associated triggers and results files in the Distribution Service Application Data folder.  The purge runs once per day.  Should only be enabled on one node in the QDS cluster, not all nodes.  Note: this setting was introduced in 12.10 and later tracks and is a hidden setting, meaning it must be manually added to the config file in the ****** Program Settings ****** section.  Default value is "false".
• TriggerStatesKeepTimeInHours - This setting will clear out entries older than the set value in the Triggers_GUID.xml file. Values set to "Unhandled" will not be cleared. Setting should be added to all nodes in a clustered environment.  Note: this setting was introduced in 12.10 SR9 track and 12.20 SR5 and later tracks and is a hidden setting, meaning it must be manually added to the config file in the ****** Program Settings ****** section.  Default value is "24" hours.
• NbrOfDaysToKeepEDXResultFiles - This setting determines the number of days to keep EDX result files in the Distribution Service Application Data folder.  EDX results files are seldom needed if the enviornment does not have any "special" setup where they are being used to determine the result of the task, for instance Management Service API calls.  Setting should be changed on all clustered nodes in the environment.  Default value is "30" days.
• NbrOfDaysToKeepQDSLogs - This setting determines the number of days to retain the Distribution Service logs in the Distribution Service Application Data folder.  Note: in large Disribution Service clustered environments running large numbers of tasks daily, it may be necessary to reduce this value to a few days.  Files may be archived out to another folder outside the Distribution Service Application Data folder prior to deletion if the history is desired.  Setting should be changed on all clustered nodes in the environment.  Default value is "30" days.  
• NbrOfDaysToKeepTaskExecutionHistoryItems - This setting determines the number of days to retain the Task Execution History items within the History files in the Distribution Service Application Data folder.  Note: in large environments where there are a large number of tasks being run daily, it may be necessary to reduce this value to a few days.  Files may be archived out to another folder prior to deletion if the history is desired.  Setting should be changed on all clustered nodes in the environment.  This setting was introduced in the 12.10 and later tracks and is hidden, which means it must be manually added to the config file in the ****** Program Settings ****** section.  Default value is "30" days.
• NotificationFolder - This setting changes the location of some of the more highly utilized files in the Distribution Service Application Data Folder.  The files moved are the: masterconfigurationnotification.xml, mastertaskexecutionhistorynotification.xml, mastertasknotification.xml, mastertriggernotification.xml, taskexecutionhistorynotification.xml, tasknotification.xml and triggernotification.xml.  Note: in large environments with many tasks running constantly, it may be necessary to add this hidden setting to the config file on all QDS nodes with a UNC path pointing to the location of the new folder, and the folder should be a high-speed device such as SSD or Flash Array. This setting was introduced in the 12.10 and later tracks.  Note: this setting is 'hidden' by default, and will need to be manually added to the config filein the ****** Program Settings ****** section.  Default value is "C:\ProgramData\QlikTech\DistributionService"
• OpenDocumentAttempts - This setting determines the number of attempts by the QlikView Batch (QVB) process to open the QlikView file before it is logged as an error during the distribution cycle of a task.  In environments where there may be some file system latency, and the Disribution Service Root_date logs show entries regarding 'could not open file', increasing the default value to a few retries may alleviate the task failures.  Default value is "1".
• TaskResultCacheUpdateMaxTasksPerThread - This setting determines the maximum number of tasks per thread updating the task result cache. Value less than one (1) enabled automatic calibration.  Note: in large environments where the Distribuiton Service appears to be using more CPU cycles than expected, setting this value to the total number of tasks round up to the next tenths, hundredths etc., may reduce the CPU activity of the Disribution Service. Adjust on all Distribution Service nodes in the environment.  Default value is "0".
• TaskResultCacheUpdateSleepTimeBetweenUpdates - This setting determines the time to pause between task result cache updates, in milliseconds.  Note: in large environments where the Distribution Service appears to be using more CPU cycles than expected, setting this value to 1000, may reduce the CPU activity the service is using. If the value is not 1000 in these cases, adjust to make it so on all Distribution Service nodes in the environment.  Default value is "1000" in late 12.20 and later tracks, is "200" in earlier tracks.
• QdsTempFolder  - This setting moves the temporary location of source docs to be distributed from Distribution Application Data folder to another location.  Moving this folder to another disc (Local disk will be most efficient in a clustered environment, each node will keep things local improving write file write/read times) will free up resources for the Distribution Services to update taskresults, triggers etc.) The default setting is:  <add key="QdsTempFolder" value="C:\QlikTempFolder" />

Environment:

QlikView 12.20 (November 2017) and any later versions