You can control the level of parallel execution with the combination of two arguments: --concurrency
and --concurrencytype
. While their meaning for threaded and batch/kubernetes are similar, there are some distinctions and subtleties when used together
- Option Definitions
- Threaded execution
- Batch, Kubernetes or ACI Execution (with concurrency scenarios)
-
Count
- (default) will use the value forconcurrency
as the maximum number of concurrent tasks allowed -
Server
- When using this value, theconcurrency
value is ignored. Instead, the app will interrogate the database targets and allow one task per SQL Server at a timeFor example: if there are 5 unique SQL Server targets in the database targets config, there will 1 task per server, up to 5 concurrent tasks total
-
MaxPerServer
- Will interrogate the database targets and allow multiple tasks per server, up to theconcurrency
value.For example: If there are 5 unique SQL Server targets in the database targets config file and the
concurrency
flag is set to 3, then it will run 3 tasks per server at a time, up to 15 concurrent tasks (5 servers * 3 tasks per server). -
Tag
- Same behavior asServer
but allows you to set a concurrency value per tag value instead of server. See database targets config file for details on setting the concurrency tag value. -
MaxPerTag
- - Same behavior asMaxPerServer
but allows you to set a concurrency value per tag value instead of server. See database targets config file for details on setting the concurrency tag value
NOTE: If a concurrency typf of Tag
or MaxPerTag
is set but there are database targets that are missing a tag value, the build will not start.
This argument takes an integer number (default is 8) defining the maximum number of concurrent threads per the set concurrencytype
When running sbm threaded run
or sbm threaded query
the arguments are as described above, Since this is run on a single machine, the maximum number of concurrent tasks are what you would expect with the formulas above.
When running sbm batch run
, sbm batch query
or sbm k8s
, you need to consider that you are also running on more than one machine. The concurrency flags are interpreted per batch node/ per pod and this needs to be accounted for when calculating your desired concurrency.
Whether you are distributing your batch, kubernetes or ACI load with an --override
file or --servicebustopicconnection
(see details on database targeting options), the concurrency options are available and perform as described below. However, if using a Service Bus Topic, the overall build may be more efficient as there is a smaller likelihood of nodes/pods going idle.
The scenarios below show examples for batch
execution, but the calculations are the same when running k8s
, with the calculation per running Kubernetes pod.
- Your database targets configuration has 50 unique SQL Server targets.
- You have 10 Azure Batch nodes
You want to run 10 tasks per Batch node regardless of the server targets. For this you would use
sbm batch run --concurrencytype Count --concurrency 10 ...
When distributing load to the Batch nodes, the algorithm does an equal split of targets. The maximum concurrency here would be 100 (10 Batch nodes * 10 concurrent tasks)
You are concerned with over tasking your SQL Servers with too much load and only want to run 1 task per SQL Server at a time. For this you would run
sbm batch run --concurrencytype Server ...
When distributing load to the Batch nodes, the algorithm will first split by SQL Server name, then attempt to distribute as equally as possible. But depending on the number of databases per server, the load could be somewhat uneven across the 10 nodes. In the case of a perfect splitting, each batch node would be assigned 5 SQL Server targets, with a task per SQL Server. So the maximum concurrency would be 50 -- 5 tasks, (1 per server target) * 10 Batch nodes.
Remember: When using the Server
value, the --concurrency
value is ignored and can be left to the default.
You want the execution to finish as fast as possible, but still want to have some load control on your SQL Servers. So, you only want 5 tasks per server. For this you would run:
sbm batch run --concurrencytype MaxPerServer --concurrency 5 ...
As with the Server
option, the algorithm first splits by SQL Server name and attempts an equal distribution. In this case, with the concurrency
value of 5, it will run up to 5 tasks per SQL Server giving you up to 250 concurrent tasks (5 server targets * 5 tasks per server * 10 Batch nodes)