The Processing Server distributes the workload among the Processing Stations. Together with the Processing Server, a Processing Server Monitor is installed for monitoring the server. Document processing itself is done on the Processing Station.
Once the Processing Server is installed, configure it: start the server, and then add, set up, and start the Processing Stations.
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.
Start the Processing Server
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.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.The Processing Server can be stopped with a hard or soft stop. For a soft stop (for example, to upgrade or move a database), select Actions → Stop. All current tasks are completed, the Processing Server then stops, and no new tasks are taken into processing. For a hard stop, select Actions → Stop Immediately. All current tasks fail.
Set up the Processing Stations
Add stations
In the server tree, select Stations and click
. The Add Stations dialog box appears. Select the stations from the overall list. You can also identify a computer by name or IP address. The name works even when dynamic IP addresses are used. Use IP addresses 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:
- Name – The displayed name of the station.
- Group – The group to which the station belongs.
- Start automatically – The station is started automatically by the Processing Server. 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:
- 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.
Start the station
Click
to start the station manually, or wait for it to start automatically (if the Start automatically option is selected, the station starts within a minute).The Processing Station can be stopped with a hard or soft stop. For a soft stop (for example, to upgrade), select Actions → Stop. All current tasks are completed, the Processing Station then stops, and no new tasks are taken into processing. For a hard stop, select Actions → Stop Immediately. All current tasks fail.
The stations receive the permissions to process documents from the Processing Server when they connect to the server.
Create 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.
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.
The group appears in the list, and you can then specify it for tenants in the Administration and Monitoring Console. For more information, see Manage tenants.
To change the name of a group or its list of stations, select the group in the list and click Edit Station Group… in the context menu. You can also add a station to a group by selecting the group in the Station Properties dialog box.
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).
Choose which messages trigger logging
Specify which messages trigger logging of information about the task.Do not disable the Remove completed tasks from the list option during normal operation of the system, as this may cause a pile-up of data and slow down the Processing Server Monitor. Disable this option only when setting up and tuning the system.
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.
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 technical support staff may need information from this log when handling your support requests. Service logging does not slow down your Processing Server or Processing Station, but the information it contains is only useful to ABBYY’s technical support engineers, so we do not recommend keeping service logging permanently enabled. If a technical support engineer asks you for a service log, follow these steps:
Open the properties dialog box
Depending on which log is required, open the Processing Server Properties dialog box (select Properties on the shortcut menu of the Processing Server) or the Station Properties dialog box (select Properties on the shortcut menu of the Processing Station).
Enable logging
Select the Write processing log option and click OK.
Collect the log files
Once the log files are created, find them in %programdata%\ABBYY\FlexiCapture\12.0\FlexiBrSvc\Logs. Send copies of these files to ABBYY technical support.
Disable logging
Disable service logging by clearing the Write processing log option and clicking 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.