The Reminder Delivery process needs to run so reminder messages are generated and sent according to the users’ preferences after the Reminder Harvester process completes.
See the following topics:
- About the Reminder Delivery Process
- Schedule the Reminder Delivery Process
- How Many Instances Does My Organization Need?
About the Reminder Delivery Process
After harvesting occurs, the Reminder Delivery process creates and delivers reminder messages to users. The Reminder Delivery is a continuous process that you schedule from the Process Manager. Continuous processes run all the time with or without scheduled blackout periods, for example, system maintenance.
The following table identifies the information you must provide when scheduling this process. For information on the fields that apply to all processes, refer to the Scheduling Processes section of the Administering InterAction guide.
Reminder Delivery Process Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
|
Process Settings These settings are configured in the Reminder Message Delivery Settings dialog. For more details, see Schedule the Reminder Delivery Process. | |
| Maximum Instances | Specifies the limit on the number of instances the process can run at a given time. For more information, see How Many Instances Does My Organization Need? |
| Mail Server | The name of the Exchange or other SMTP server that delivers the reminder messages for this process. |
| Log Level |
The level you have set to log regarding the process as specified in the Reminder Message Delivery Settings dialog. The options are:
|
| Purge old log files after <x> days | This displays only if you select to purge old log files in the Reminder Message Delivery Settings dialog. To purge files, you need to also specify the time-frame for the purge: between 1 and 999 days. |
| Send a Message | |
| If items are queued longer than <x> minutes | When selected, the user specified in the To field is sent an e-mail message whenever at least one processed work item was in the InterAction Queue longer than the specified number of minutes. |
| If fewer than 95% complete within <x> minutes | When selected, the user specified in the To field is sent an e-mail message if less than 95% of work items complete in the specified time. |
| If utilization goes above <x> percent | When selected, the user specified in the To field is sent an e-mail message when instance utilization (average load per instance) reaches the specified threshold. To optimize hardware resources, the utilization percentage should be higher. If you want to optimize performance, the utilization percentage should be lower. |
| To: | The email address where email messages regarding this process are sent. This should be a monitored inbox. |
| From: | The email address designated as the sender of messages regarding this process. |
You can create multiple Reminder Delivery processes. Do this if you encounter problems with your system performance, volume, or load. This is not usually a problem, but if you have an extremely large organization and your users create many reminders, it may be an issue.
Schedule the Reminder Delivery Process
- Log on to InterAction Administrator.
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From the main entity list, choose Processes - Schedule and Results.
You can schedule processes from any workstation with InterAction Administrator and Automated Server Processes installed.
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On the Manage Process Schedule dialog box, choose New to open the New Scheduled Process dialog box.
- To set which workstation is used to run the process, choose Select, then enter the name of the computer or choose Browse to search the network for the computer, and choose OK.
- Select Reminder Delivery in the Processes drop-down list.
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To distinguish between multiple Reminder Delivery processes, change the Process Name to something meaningful, for example, Reminder Delivery - Chicago Exchange Server.
Tip: You can create multiple Reminder Delivery processes. Do this if you encounter problems with your system performance, volume, or load. This is not usually a problem, but if you have an extremely large organization and your users create many reminders, it may be an issue.
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If you do not want the process to run yet, clear the Enabled check box.
When a process is disabled, it is added to the schedule but Process Manager will not run it.
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Choose the Edit button in the Process Settings section to open the Reminder Message Delivery Settings dialog box.
- Specify the Maximum Instances to run at a time. See How Many Instances Does My Organization Need? for more information.
- Enter the name of the Mail Server and its Port number that the process will use to deliver reminder messages.
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If the mail server is set up to require authentication, select the Mail Server requires authentication check box and enter a valid user account that has an email account set up and will be recognized by the mail server and the account password.
If your mail server requires authentication, you need to enter the credentials for a valid user account that has an email account set up and will be recognized by the mail server.
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Select whether you want to purge old log files and the time period after which you want the logs purged.
Valid time periods are 1-999 days.
- Select the level of logging you want recorded for the process, the options are:
- Low
- Standard
- High
- Troubleshoot
- Choose OK to return to the New Scheduled Process dialog box.
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Choose the Edit button in the Schedule section to open the Process Schedule dialog box.
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Select the time zone of the users in the reminder set in the Schedule using time zone drop-down list.
The actual time the process will run on the Process Manager machine displays in the Process will run on <Process Manager machine> section of the dialog.
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Select how you want the process to run and choose OK.
To Do This Have the process to run all day, every day, if you do not have scheduled maintenance or blackout periods Select Run continuously. Have the process run continuously except during set blackout periods, for example, scheduled maintenance Select Run only during a specified time period. Select the check boxes next to the days you want the process to run. Set a start and stop running time. - Enter the remaining user and messaging information. For details, see the Administering InterAction guide.
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When finished, choose OK.
How Many Instances Does My Organization Need?
An instance represents one work thread, which includes:
- Retrieving a record produced by the Reminder Harvester process
- Generating an email message from that record according to user preference
- Delivering the reminder message
Once the maximum number of instances is reached, the Reminder Delivery cannot process another work item until one of the instances delivers a reminder message. For example, if you specify a maximum of 7 instances and there are 21 work items to process, the Reminder Delivery can only process 7 reminder messages at the same time and each instance will process 3 work items total for the process. So, 7 work items will process while 14 work items are in queue. Once the first 7 complete, the next 7 are processed while the remaining 7 items wait. Then the last 7 items are processed.
The number of instances your organization requires depends on how many reminder messages you anticipate delivering. Our recommendation is to begin with a maximum of 2 instances and make alterations as necessary. The number of instances may also change based on the Process Manager workstation’s RAM and the other processes that run on the workstation. Refer to the System Resource Guidelines on the InterAction Support Center (support.interaction.com) for more information.