Content Distributor Test

A content distributor is a stateless component that receives content in batches from the connectors and distributes batches to the item processing component i.e., the document processor, which subsequently sends the processed batch for indexing.

Each FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint farm has one or more content distributors. You can ensure good performance by verifying that the following conditions are true:

  • Item processing components are effectively utilized
  • Incoming content batches are quickly distributed for processing

The Content Distributor test enables you to do just that. This test auto-discovers the content distributors in a Fast Search server 2010 for SharePoint farm and reports the following for each content distributor:

  • The current load on every content distributor, thus revealing the overloaded distributors;
  • Delays (if any) in content processing, and the probable reasons for the same - is it because the content distributor took too long to send the batches for processing? is it because the document processor took too long to send the processed batches for indexing? is it because of the absence of adequate 'valid' document processors to handle the load? is it because of ineffective usage of the available document processors?

Target of the test : A FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every content distributor in the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint farm.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description

Test period

How often should the test be executed

Host

The host for which the test is to be configured.

Port

Refers to the port used by the specified host. By default, this is 13280.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Average dispatch time

Indicates the average time taken by this content distributor to send a batch to the document processor since the last measurement period.

Millisec

A document processor converts the items in a batch to a unified internal format. Ideally, the value of this measure should be below 10 millisec. A value higher than 10 millisec indicates a network congestion or overload.

Average processing time

Indicates the average time taken by the document processors associated with this content distributor to process a batch.

Millisec

The value of this measure would vary based on the type of the batch content and the size of the batch. Typically the value of this measure must be less than 60ms.

Clients creating feeding sessions

Indicates the number of times the feeding sessions have been created by clients on this content distributor.

Number

The FAST Search Connector (often referred to as the FAST Content SSA) is where you can add content sources, and it is responsible for content acquisition. After content has been acquired by a connector, it is fed from the FAST Content SSA to one of the registered Content Distributors in FS4SP.

This measure reports the number of  sessions the Content SSA has created on the Content Distributor for feeding content.

Document processors

Indicates the number of document processors registered with this content distributor.

Number

When a server consists of multiple content distributors, then the document processor would be evenly distributed across all the content distributors.

Document processors busy

Indicates the number of document processors registered with this content distributor that are currently processing a content batch.

Number

The value of this measure must be equal to that of the Document processors measure under maximum load.

Document processors invalid

Indicates the number of document processors registered with this content distributor that are currently invalid.

Number

Ideally, the value of this measure should be zero. A high value could indicate that many of the document processors registered with a content distributor are currently invalid, and hence, unusable. This will compel the content distributor to impose more load on the 'valid' document processors, thus causing a performance slowdown.

Document processors unused

Indicates the number of document processors registered with this content distributor that are currently unused.

Number

Too many unused document processors indicates ineffective utilization of the available processors. This could cause serious processing delays, especially when the load is high.

Operation sets submitted

Indicates the number of operation sets submitted to the document processors by this content distributor.

Number

 

Operation received

Indicates the number of operations received by this content distributor.

Number

 

Number of operations

Indicates the number of operations in this content distributor since the last measurement period.

Number

 

Operations rate

Indicates the rate at which the operations were carried out by this content distributor since the last measurement period.

Operations/Sec

A very low value for this measure indicates a processing bottleneck on the content distributor.

Processing load

Indicates the current processing load on this content dispatcher.

Number

A high value is indicative of a heavy load on the content distributor. Compare the value of this measure across distributors to figure out which distributor is currently handling the maximum load and is probably overloaded.