Switch performance tuning

The performance of Switch is affected by the processes that are being executed, such as file handling, network transfers and external processes.

To avoid that Switch slows down because too many processes are running at the same time, there are limits set to the number of concurrent processes. Changing these limits allows you to tune the Switch performance.

Note: Do not forget that other aspects, such as computer specifications and network speed can also affect overall performance.

File handling tasks

Handling files, such as copying or moving files and folders is limited to three simultaneous tasks. It is not possible to change this number of concurrent file transfers.

Flow elements involved:

Apple Automator
Export metadata
Job dismantler
Recycle bin
XML pickup, JDF pickup, Opaque pickup
Problem jobs
Submit hierarchy
Submit point
Checkpoint
Generic application
XSLT Transform
Archive hierarchy
File type
Folder element
Split PDF, Merge PDF

Network transfer tasks

The number of concurrent network file transfers can be set in the Switch preferences ( Preferences > Processing > Concurrent network transfer tasks ). The default is set to 2 and the maximum limit is 100.

Flow elements involved:

FTP send
FTP receive
Mail send
Mail receive
Checkpoint via mail

File processing tasks

The number of tasks required to process files by using one of the flow elements listed below simultaneously can be set in the Switch preferences ( Preferences > Processing > Concurrent processing tasks ).

By default this preference is set to 1 and is limited to 4 simultaneous processes, but licensing additional processes can expand this limit to a maximum of 100.

Flow elements involved:

All flow elements in the Configurators section
The following elements in the Basics section:
- Set hierarchy path
- Ungroup job
- Split multi-job
- Assemble job
- Execute command
The following elements in the Tools section:
- Sort by preflight state
- Compress
- Uncompress
- Split PDF
- Merge PDF
- Hold job
- Inject job
- Rename job
- Sort job
- Log job info
- Sort files in job
The Script element in the Scripting section:
Custom scripts are affected by the "Concurrent processing tasks" preference as soon as the script is a "heavy script". A script is considered to be "heavy", if it takes longer than one second to execute. For more details about light and heavy scripts, see Execution slots.

Note: Custom scripts using AppleScript can never be executed simultaneously. Since the Quark Xpress and Microsoft Word Configurators (on Mac) use AppleScript, it is not possible to run both the Quark Xpress and Microsoft Word Configurator and a custom script using AppleScript at the same time. Switch will always process jobs through these elements in a serial way.
The following elements in the Communication section:
- Pack job
- Unpack job
- Monitor confirmation
The Database connect element in the Database section.

Accumulative limitation

Each task listed has it's own upper limit. In addition to this, Switch is limited to an upper limit of 200 for all simultaneous tasks. This is the accumulation of File Handling, Network Transfers and External processes.

For more information on Switch Preferences see User Preferences.

For more information on tuning performance for file processing tasks, see Changing flow properties.