Share this page
MPX installation on Windows
This topic provides a brief overview of MPX and explains how to install each of the MPX components on supported Microsoft Windows systems. MPX Event Transmitters and both MPX Message Brokers types are included with the StarTeam Enterprise package. You must have a StarTeam Enterprise Advantage license to use MPX File Transmitter and MPX Cache Agent.
Both MPX Administrator’s Guides provide comprehensive information about MPX including its architecture, configuration, and usage.
Note: MPX and what appears on the screen during its installation are only in English.
About MPX
MPX is a framework for publish/subscribe messaging that improves the performance of the clients and extends the scalability of server configurations. It contains both common and application-specific components that together provide advanced messaging capabilities.
With MPX, changes to the server configuration’s repository are broadcast in an encrypted format to StarTeam clients and MPX Cache Agents through a publish/subscribe channel. For example, the MPX Event Transmitter broadcasts encrypted messages about changes to objects, such as change requests, and the MPX File Transmitter broadcasts archive files. Caching modules automatically capture events that a client subscribes to. This reduces the client’s need to send refresh requests to the server and improves client response times for the user.
MPX Cache Agents can be installed and configured to cache both item properties and file contents. This speeds up data access by placing the data in locations that are network near to the members of globally distributed teams. While MPX Cache Agents rely on messages and data transmitted by the MPX Event Transmitter and the MPX File Transmitter, they also serve other MPX clients, such as the StarTeam Cross-Platform Client , which retrieve data from the MPX Cache Agent instead of StarTeam Server itself. MPX Cache Agents are available only with StarTeam Enterprise Advantage.
MPX components
Most of the components described below are installed separately. The transmitters are included in the StarTeam Server installation.
MPX Transmitters
There are two types of transmitters that are installed with the server:
| MPX Event Transmitter |
The MPX Event Transmitter receives events of interest to StarTeam clients. The MPX Event Transmitter formats the event information it receives into XML messages, encrypts them, and publishes them to a Message Broker. Messages are assigned topics so that they can be distributed to clients interested in the accompanying content (project/view, item type, event type, etc.). |
| MPX File Transmitter |
The MPX File Transmitter broadcasts file contents and item properties to one or more remote MPX Cache Agents by way of a Message Broker. |
Message Broker
The Message Broker is a publish/subscribe messaging engine that broadcasts messages to subscriber components on a topic basis. It is a stand-alone process that can run on a separate computer to off load network processing overhead in high-volume environments.
The Message Broker broadcasts messages to each of its recipients using TCP/IP messaging. It receives encrypted XML messages from the MPX Event Transmitter or encrypted data from the MPX File Transmitter, and forwards them to the appropriate clients. Information is sent from a Message Broker directly to clients that have subscribed to that Message Broker by way of a TCP/IP connection profile.
Each MPX-enabled server configuration has one or two root Message Brokers. One or more remote Message Brokers can be distributed throughout the enterprise.
MPX Cache Agent
A MPX Cache Agent adds persistent data caching. Each MPX-enabled server configuration can have one root MPX Cache Agent. One or more remote MPX Cache Agents can be distributed throughout the enterprise. Often remote Message Brokers and Remote MPX Cache Agents are paired. A root MPX Cache Agent operates directly on the server configuration’s vault and cache.
A Root MPX Cache Agent handles requests forwarded from remote MPX Cache Agents for missing files and provides “catch-up” assistance for remote MPX Cache Agents after network or process outages.
Cache Agent-aware StarTeam clients can fetch data from any available MPX Cache Agent. By using “network-near” MPX Cache Agents, clients can improve file check-out performance and reduce their demands on the server. This frees server resources for additional tasks and users.
Generating Transmitter XML files
When the transmitters are installed as part of a StarTeam Server installation, the transmitter template files (ActiveMQEventTransmitterTemplate.xml and MPXFileTransmitterTemplate.xml ) are installed in the EventServices folder, a subfolder of the server's installation folder.
When existing configurations are in place at the time of the installation, a configuration-specific set of transmitter XML files is created automatically for each existing configuration. The configuration-specific XML files (MPXEventTransmitter.xml and MPXFileTransmitter.xml) are created by copying the XML template files to a configuration-specific subfolder of the EventServices folder.
When a new configuration is defined, a set of configuration-specific XML files may be generated automatically depending on how the configuration is created:
- If you create a new configuration by using the Server Administration tool, a configuration-specific MPXEventTransmitter.xml and FileTransmitter.xml will be created automatically. The utility does this by copying the current XML template files to the appropriate configuration-specific subfolder of the EventServices folder and removing Template from their names.
- If you create a new configuration by using the StarTeam Server’s command-line interface, no configuration-specific XML files are created. If you want the new configuration to be MPX-enabled, you need to create the configuration-specific subfolder of the EventServices folder. The configuration subfolder’s name must be the same as the configuration name. Then manually copy the XML template files to the appropriate configuration-specific subfolder of the EventServices folder and remove Template from their names.
To edit the new XML files, see the section Understanding Connection Profiles in the appropriate MPX Administrator’s Guide for more information on configuration-specific and XML template files.
MPX System Requirements
Note: Prior to installing, read the MPX installation and configuration. Proper planning is required in order to achieve best results from MPX.
The StarTeam Server must be installed prior to installing the Message Broker and MPX Cache Agent. MPX transmitters have the same system requirements as the StarTeam Server because they are part of that system. The MPX Message Broker is required. The MPX Message Broker is a publish/subscribe messaging engine that broadcasts messages to subscriber components on a topic basis. It is a stand-alone process that can run on a separate computer to offload network processing overhead in high-volume environments. For details, see the StarTeam Server System Requirements in this guide. You can also set up MPX Cache Agents in tiers at a variety of locations so that file contents and objects, transmitted by the file transmitter, can be a local network near any StarTeam user.MPX Cache Agents work with the StarTeam Cross-Platform Client to check out files and fetch objects faster.
Message Brokers and MPX Cache Agent
Note: For the MPX Cache Agent, these requirements should be sufficient for teams that have 50 to 100 members.
| Operating Systems |
Note:
|
Hardware Recommendations
The following are the recommended system configurations according to the number of peak users:
| Less than 100 | 64-bit, dual-core systems with 4GB of memory |
| 100-200 | 64-bit, quad-core systems with 4-8GB of memory |
| More than 200 | 64-bit, quad-core systems with 8-16GB of memory |
For the Message Broker, the number of peak users is typically lower than the number of peak users connected to the StarTeam Server since multiple Message Brokers are used in medium-to-large deployments. The number of peak users connected to a MPX Cache Agent is significantly lower because MPX Cache Agents are only used in short bursts. As a result, less hardware resources are typically required to support the Message Broker and MPX Cache Agent compared to the StarTeam Server. Moreover, for a given geographic location, the Message Broker and MPX Cache Agent are typically deployed on the same machine.
