Balancing requests among dispatchers

If your installation includes more than one dispatcher, you can specify the proportion of requests that each dispatcher handles by changing their processing capacity.

This is commonly referred to as load balancing. You typically set the capacity for a dispatcher based on the CPU speed of the computer where it is installed.

For example, a first dispatcher is installed on a 2 GHz computer and a second dispatcher on a 1 GHz computer. You set the processing capacity of the first dispatcher to 2.0 and the second to 1.0. The first dispatcher handles two-thirds of the requests while the second handles one-third of the requests. If you set the capacity of both dispatchers to 1.0, requests are sent to each dispatcher alternately.

The default processing capacity for each dispatcher is 1.0.

Affinity settings take precedence over balance request settings. For more information, see Maximum Number of Processes and Connections.

You can also control dispatcher load balancing by setting the in-progress request factor. See Balance Dispatcher Load with In-Progress Request Factor. You can also turn off the weighted round robin format of load balancing for the dispatcher. See Setting the dispatcher load balancing property to cluster compatible mode.

Before you begin

You must have the required permissions to access IBM Cognos Administration functionality. See Secured Functions and Features.

Procedure

In IBM Cognos Administration, on the Status tab, click System.
Click the arrow for the Actions menu next to System and click Set properties.
Click the Settings tab.
Select Tuning from the Category list.
In the Value column, type a new value for the Processing capacity, and then click OK.
The new value takes effect immediately.