Question: What order does the engine execute allocation methods?

[OSAdmin]

Question

Can we talk about the order in which the engine executes the allocation methods?  It looks like the sequence of the allocation methods in the calculation plans does not control the order of execution of these methods.  We are currently using the Execution Lists to control the sequence of the allocation methods.  This is forcing a proliferation of execution lists.  Is this a known issue that will be fixed or is this by design

Answer

qExecution Lists

•All the calculations in specialty planning are first and foremost controlled by the execution list ordering by the sequence number you assign it. For instance, in terms of sequence numbers, 0 executes first, then 10, 20, 30, etc.

•The execution lists consist of calculation plans which also have an ordering and a sequence number that can be assigned to the individual calculation plan.

•If one execution list has two or more calculation plans assigned to it, then the calculation plan with the lower assigned sequence number will fire before the calculation plan with the higher sequence number. This helps control what calc plans fire and ultimately the ordering of the calculation execution.

qAllocation Methods

•Allocation methods are the lowest level of detail (where the true calculation logic is handled) and are assigned to individual calculation plans.

•These allocation methods also have a sequence number you can assign to control what allocation methods process first if multiple allocation methods are assigned to a single calc plan which is very common.

•This gives you additional granularity in the control of when your calculations execute.

Other Performance Pointers

•Use Parallel Threads – will typically perform faster when lower (in Settings / Global Options):

•Will vary based on how distributed the register is

•Expression Zero Setting to Zero’s on the Allocation Methods (expression ZP = Zero Suppress)