New server recommendation and thread naming length

John, are you planning to take level 2? I would recommend it ASAP.

We generally suggest that you name all of the objects in Cloverleaf with all lowercase letters and use underscores for spaces. Keep thread names under 15 characters. Use brief process names. Name inbound threads with a fr_ prefix and outbound threads with a to_ prefix. These are not hard and fast rules, be generally make things easier to work with in Cloverleaf.

Group threads into processes depends a lot on the number of threads and what the threads are actually doing. In ADT sites, I tend to group threads to about 10 per process. I like to separate trouble-maker threads into their own processes (like threads that have to be changed or bounce a lot). I usually move threads that have a lot of overhead into their own processes. I like to keep pairs of threads together when possible (1 to 1 interfaces). Etc.

It’s important to remember that a process does not have to be bounced when protocol properties are changed (ex. port numbers). In ADT sites, I will usually put all of the outbounds into one process because outbound threads don’t have a lot of overhead and don’t change that often.

To learn Tcl, you can do some tutorials available on the web and read through the Welch Tcl book. I learned Tcl mostly be reading through and writing my own code. This forum is a good place to ask specific questions about Tcl and Cloverleaf objects. Also, we (Infor) offer a Tcl class.

Feel free to ask more question. The more specific your question, the more likely you will be to get a helpful response. 🙂

John,

We also have McKesson’s Pathways Interface Manager (their McKesson-branded Cloverleaf), but there’s very little difference between that and “normal” Cloverleaf.

We’re just getting started on a Paragon implementation. I’ve worked with Paragon in the past and have a solid handle on Tcl, so if you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

This forum is an excellent resource and you can get a wealth of Tcl info on the web – including the Tcl Developer’s Exchange http://www.tcl.tk

John, a pretty good knowledge of Tcl fundamentals is helpful for taking full advantage of the Level 2 class. There are some good tutorials online to help you prepare. And, of course, studying your existing Tcl code in Cloverleaf would be helpful, too.

Cloverleaf on a VM should work the same as any other certified hardware as long as you follow the minimum and recommended hardware settings. One thing to keep in mind when working on a VM is that since Cloverleaf is *very* I/O intensive, it needs to have its own, dedicated connection to the SAN.

John,

I know this thread is a few months old but I reply anyway.

We use McKesson Paragon since the winter of 2009. We use standard Cloverleaf (not McKesson brand) 5.7 running on Win 2003 server.

Feel free to ask your questions, hopefully I will know the answers 🙂

John,

If you’re still around, I am curious about how things went with your switch to Paragon.  Our Paragon threads are handled by McKesson, I have very limited access to resolve issues with them.  I just point my IB and OB threads accordingly and McKesson takes care of the rest.  Are you planning on using HPF as well?  

I actually started my position at the same time you did, but the Paragon infrastructure was already in place.  I haven’t had any problems with McKesson yet (it’s the smaller vendors who are hard to motivate).  I am curious how you feel about the switch.

Brandon