Processing Server

The Processing Server distributes the workload among the Processing Stations. A Processing Server Monitor is installed together with it to monitor the server. The document processing itself runs on the Processing Station. After you install the Processing Server, configure it. Start the server, and then add, set up, and start the Processing Stations.

Screenshot of the Processing Server Monitor window showing the ABBYY FlexiCapture 12 Servers tree with a started server and its Stations, Station groups, and Tasks nodes.

Start the Processing Server

Before starting the Processing Server, make sure that the Processing Server access permissions have been granted to the account under which the server is running.

Launch the Processing Server Monitor

Launch the Processing Server Monitor by selecting Start → All Programs → ABBYY FlexiCapture 12 Servers → Processing Server.

Add the server

On the server tree, select ABBYY FlexiCapture Servers, right-click, and select Add Server….

Specify the server location

In the Add Processing Server dialog box, specify the server location (Network host or Local host).

Provide the Application Server path

Select Actions → Properties and provide the path to the Application Server (https://<ApplicationServer>, where <ApplicationServer> is the name of the computer on which the Application Server is installed). If the Processing Server and the Application Server are installed on the same computer, specify its name directly. Using the IP address 127.0.0.1 or localhost renders the Processing Stations inoperable.

Assign the Processing Server role

On the Application Server, start the Administration and Monitoring Console and assign the corresponding role to the computer on which the Processing Server is installed.

Start the server

Click

to start the Processing Server.

Set up the Processing Stations

Add stations

In the server tree, select Stations and click . The Add Stations dialog box opens.
Select the stations from the overall list, or identify a computer by its name or IP address:
- A name works even when dynamic IP addresses are used.
- Use an IP address if you have problems accessing the DNS network.

Configure the station parameters

Select Actions → Properties and, in the Station Properties dialog box, specify the parameters of the station. For the available parameters, see Station parameters.

Start the station

Click

to start the station manually. If the Start automatically option is selected, the station starts automatically within a minute.

The stations receive the permissions to process documents from the Processing Server when they connect to the server.

Station parameters

You specify these parameters in the Station Properties dialog box.

Parameter	Description
Name	The displayed name of the station.
Group	The group to which the station belongs.
Start automatically	The Processing Server starts the station automatically. Selected by default. Frequent attempts to start too many stations may considerably slow down the Processing Server.
Required disk space	The minimum disk space required for the Processing Stations to operate. If there is not enough free disk space, the station is stopped. The space specified in the field should be three times the maximum size of an image that can be in processing. The optimal value is twice the maximum size of a batch that can be in processing.
Maximum number of processes	The maximum number of CPU cores that can be used for task processing.
Allowed number of processes	The allowed number of CPU cores for task processing. This value is computed automatically based on your hardware and license parameters and cannot be changed.
Process priority	The priority of the process.
Acceptable task types	The task types that the station can handle. For the available types, see Acceptable task types.

Acceptable task types

The Acceptable task types parameter includes the following task types:

Task type	Tasks
Import images	Import tasks.
Recognize pages	Recognition and export preprocessing tasks.
Verification support	Merging the results of double verification, and pre- and post-processing tasks for the Web Verification Station.
Custom processing	Processing batch and document processing scripts.
Export documents	Document export tasks.

Stop the Processing Server or a Processing Station

You can stop the Processing Server or a Processing Station with a soft stop or a hard stop. Use a soft stop, for example, to upgrade the server or a station, or, for the Processing Server, to move a database.

Stop type	Command	What happens
Soft stop	Actions → Stop	All current tasks are completed, and then the server or station stops. No new tasks are taken into processing.
Hard stop	Actions → Stop Immediately	All current tasks fail.

Manage station groups

You can isolate different tenants from one another at the task level. To do so, create the required Processing Station groups and then assign a group to each new tenant you create.

Create a station group

Add a station group

In the server tree, select Station groups and click

. The New Station Group dialog box opens.

Specify the group

Specify a group name and select the stations from the overall list.

Save the group

Click OK.

The group appears in the list. You can then specify it for tenants in the Administration and Monitoring Console. For more information, see Manage tenants.

Edit a station group

To change the name of a group or its list of stations, select the group in the list and click Edit Station Group… on the shortcut menu.

Add a station to a group

In the Station Properties dialog box of the station, select the group in the Group field. For more information, see Station parameters.

Set up the Processing Server log

Open the log settings

Open the Processing Server Monitor settings by selecting File → Settings….

Choose which messages to log

Specify which messages should be logged (Errors, Warnings, Information messages).

Choose whether to remove completed tasks

Specify whether information about completed tasks should be deleted (Remove completed tasks from the list).Keep this option selected during normal operation of the system. Disabling it may cause a pile-up of data and slow down the Processing Server Monitor. Disable it only when setting up and tuning the system.

Choose which messages trigger logging

Specify which messages trigger logging of information about the task.

View the task log

Click

to view the task log. To save a task log as a .txt file, click the Export Log… button in the dialog box that opens.

View task information

To view task details, select Tasks in the Processing Server tree. For each task, the following parameters are displayed: task name, start-up time, progress, status, priority, and the station name. Failed tasks are marked with

. If, besides an error message, the task log also contains informational messages, the task is marked with

Service log

Besides the regular task processing log, the Processing Server and the Processing Station can keep a service log. ABBYY Support may need information from this log when handling your support requests. Service logging does not slow down your Processing Server or Processing Station. However, the information it contains is useful only to ABBYY Support engineers, so do not keep service logging permanently enabled. Turn it on when an ABBYY Support engineer asks you for a service log.

Collect a service log for ABBYY Support

Open the properties dialog box

Open the properties dialog box of the component whose log you need:

For the Processing Server, select Properties on the shortcut menu of the Processing Server. The Processing Server Properties dialog box opens.
For a Processing Station, select Properties on the shortcut menu of the Processing Station. The Station Properties dialog box opens.

Enable logging

Select the Write processing log option and click OK.

Collect the log files

After the log files are created, find them in %programdata%\ABBYY\FlexiCapture\12.0\FlexiBrSvc\Logs. Send copies of these files to ABBYY Support.

Disable logging

Clear the Write processing log option and click OK.

Manage the Processing Server from the command line

Open a command-line prompt

In the Windows Start → Run menu, type cmd and click OK. A command-line prompt window appears.

Go to the FlexiBRSvc.exe location

Type the path to the FlexiBRSvc.exe file (by default, C:\Program Files\ABBYY FlexiCapture 12 Servers).

Enter commands

Enter commands in the form FlexiBrSvc Please [command]:

To enable command mode so that you do not type FlexiBrSvc Please before each command, use FlexiBrSvc Please obey.
To disable command mode, use FlexiBrSvc Please quit.

The commands let you start or stop a station, display the station list, start or stop the Processing Server, add or remove stations, view information about a station, and set server and station parameters.

View the list of commands

To show the list of allowed commands and other help information, type FlexiBRSvc.exe /?.

For a detailed description of all commands, see Description of Processing Server commands.

ABBYY FlexiCapture architecture

Program settings

Document Definitions

Classification and training

Operate a configured project

Using NLP to process unstructured documents

Reference

Start the Processing Server