This section provides more details about the EnFuzion Starter Service, which is a Windows specific program. It also discusses EnFuzion related performance issues.
The EnFuzion Starter Service runs on each EnFuzion node as a service. It provides remote access to a Windows NT/2000/XP host. Its primary function is to start remote execution. The Starter Service is automatically installed as part of the standard EnFuzion installation process.
The Starter Service uses the IP port number 17000 to listen for user requests.
The Starter Service produces a log of activities on the system. The log is located in the EnFuzion temporary directory, which is C:\enfuzion\temp by default.
The Starter Service provides remote management commands. These commands are ASCII strings, terminated by a null character, '\0'. Supported commands are:
version
Returns the current Starter Service version, terminated by a newline character, '\n', followed by a null character, '\0'.
Example of a return string:
7.2.30\n\0
clearlog
Truncates the Starter Service log file in enfstarter.log. It returns the string "OK\n\0" if the log was truncated. Otherwise, it returns:
Unable to clear log file "....\enfstarter.log".\n\0
Example of a return string:
OK\n\0
getlogs
Returns the contents of two node log files. The enfnodea.log is printed first, followed by the enfnodeb.log file. If the log files do not exist, it returns:
Unable to copy file enfnodea.log\n\0See the Section called Log File Size in Chapter 7 for more details about the node log files.
The Starter Service incorporates security features, which can be used to refuse connections from hosts that are not trusted. This is described in the Section called Trusted Hosts and Executables in Chapter 7.
The Enfkill utility provides an emergency termination of EnFuzion nodes. The program causes all EnFuzion nodes to clean up their workspace files and directories and to terminate any EnFuzion activity on nodes.
Enfkill is executed on the root system by:
enfkillEnfkill retrieves nodes from the enfuzion.nodes file in its working directory. If there is not enfuzion.nodes file in the working directory, enfkill takes the file from the EnFuzion configuration directory. Default path is C:\enfuzion\config\enfuzion.nodes. For each node, it terminates all EnFuzion user tasks and deletes the EnFuzion temporary files.
Use extreme care when executing enfkill, since the program terminates all tasks that execute under the EnFuzion user. If a user is interactively logged on the system and the enfkill operation is executed on the same machine with the same user name, all user's applications will terminate immediately without letting the user save his work.
Therefore, it is strongly recommended to create a special account to execute EnFuzion nodes on each computer, in order to use the Enfkill program safely.
For security purposes the Enfkill program has been designed not to terminate any program if it is executed on the node under the Administrator account.
Although EnFuzion itself requires only limited system resources, user jobs can impose significantly higher demands. The most common causes of poor Windows NT/2000/XP root host performance are insufficient disk space for user input and output files, insufficient RAM when there is an extremely large number of jobs, and a combination of a large number of powerful node systems, short jobs and a slow root host.
The following guidelines can avoid overloading the root host:
Provide required disk space.
Provide adequate RAM.
Provide sufficient processing power on root hosts.
Provide faster SCSI hard disks, if there is a high volume of disk traffic.
If the Dispatcher starts trashing the disk due to insufficient RAM or processing power, Windows NT/2000/XP might be unable to process networking messages. This trashing sometimes leads to system congestion and application errors. You can choose one of the following options to prevent trashing:
Terminate some other RAM and CPU consuming applications.
Reduce the number of EnFuzion nodes.
Increase the job execution time.
Increase RAM in your root computer.
Install a faster processor in your root computer.