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Tim Goodman
Tim Goodman
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Process ID numbering

Nov 2, 2011 12:04 AM

Hi,

 

We have a long-lived Process, which my client has noticed some inconsistency in the numbering.

 

i.e. In the Admin UI Process List, we can see (in Chronological order from oldest to newest creation date) the following IDs:

 

  • 901
  • 915
  • 916
  • 810
  • 923
  • 926
  • 927
  • 812
  • 816
  • 817
  • 818

 

Can someone explain why the ordering appears out of order (note - this is not a cluster, but a single server running on SQL server database).  Also, can you confirm it will maintain referential integrity ... i.e. if the number keeps incrementing from 818, we won't get a duplicate of a previous ID such as 901

 

Thanks!

1500 Views   7 Replies   Latest reply: $Nith$, Nov 24, 2011 7:26 PM
 
Replies
  • Steve L Walker
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    1. Steve L Walker,
    Nov 2, 2011 7:51 AM   in reply to Tim Goodman
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    Is it possible you are looking at a view by status? For example, the list contains completed processes in chronological order.

     

    Steve

     
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  • Tim Goodman
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    2. Tim Goodman,
    Nov 2, 2011 1:54 PM   in reply to Steve L Walker
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    Hi Steve,

     

    Thanks for the answer - see the attached image, which shows the dates / Process ID.  Any thoughts?

     

    Process copy.png

     
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  • $Nith$
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    3. $Nith$,
    Nov 13, 2011 9:28 PM   in reply to Tim Goodman
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    The list is ordered in most recently updated Process Instance at top.

     

    i.e. If you notice the Update Date/Time, you will find that the recently modified process will appear first. That is how it is ordered.

     

    Nith

     
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  • Tim Goodman
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    4. Tim Goodman,
    Nov 16, 2011 12:57 AM   in reply to $Nith$
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    Hi Nith

     

    I appreciate that the list is ordered by update date.

     

    However my question is why have the Process IDs been created out of order.  i.e. an Old Process ID is larger than a more recent one.

     

    e.g. 916 is from October, whilst 818 is from November

     

    Thanks

     
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  • Robert Haché
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    5. Robert Haché,
    Nov 23, 2011 7:28 AM   in reply to Tim Goodman
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    As odd as it sounds there is no guarantee that the process ids,or Task Ids, will be in consecutive order. 

     

    Numbers are assigned in blocks (task are blocks of 100, not sure block size for proc instances). When the server starts it looks for next starting block number. That's why you get taskid = 1 for a new install and then after restarting the server you get taskid starting at 101.  The same conept works with Process IDs as well.

     

    If you require an ID value to be in a consecutive order then your best bet would be to assign your own ID as process field and then expose that process field to the end user which would allow the user to sort on that ID.

     

    Hope that helps,

     
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  • Tim Goodman
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    6. Tim Goodman,
    Nov 23, 2011 1:56 PM   in reply to Robert Haché
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    Thanks Robert

     

    As long as it's unique, then no problems.  The customer saw it and was concerned it might cause a problem at some stage.  Looks like all is well!

     
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  • $Nith$
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    7. $Nith$,
    Nov 24, 2011 7:26 PM   in reply to Tim Goodman
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    In normal scenarios, the Process Id will be in the order of increasing

    sequence. However, sometimes we noticed that there is a deviation in that.

     

    At any case, the Process Id is always unique across each server / server

    clusters.

     

    Nith

     
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