Re: [hylafax-users] queueing issue

[Lee Howard <lee.howard@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Siri Vias Khalsa wrote:
> I am using HylaFAX 5.2.3 and submitting all of the faxes to go out
> "now".
> I am using the Perl module Fax::Hylafax::Client
>
> I am attaching the pertinent log messages and would appreciate your
> thoughts. One thing I noticed is that the COMMID is staying the same.
> I do have MaxConcurrentCalls set to 20, is that whats messing me up?
>
> If I had 8 lines outgoing and 10 lines incoming on the other side, would
> it be fastest to set MaxConcurrentCalls = 1?
>
>
> Looking back through my logs, it looks like that is what is happening.
> All of the faxes to one number were queued up for the one line while the
> fewer number of faxes went to the other, and since there was a line
> available it sent newly submitted faxes out that line. I am including
> this here in case anyone runs into this in the future.

By default HylaFAX expects a destination to only support one concurrent 
call.  And by default batching is enabled.

So by default, if you submit a bunch of fax jobs all to the same 
destination number then HylaFAX will batch some of them or all of them 
into one call (depending on the time-to-send when they're actually in 
the queue - so submitting a bunch of jobs for "now" generally causes 
only some of them to batch).

When you change MaxConcurrentCalls (either in faxq's config file or via 
JobControl) and you have multiple modems then you add a new dimension to 
the scope of this job allocation.  Not only will HylaFAX attempt to 
batch the jobs, but it will also try to distribute the jobs across all 
of the modems up to the value of MaxConcurrentCalls.  And that basically 
turns into a race situation.  Some jobs will get allocated to a call on 
one modem and some jobs will get allocated to a call on a different 
modem, and they'll end up on the receiving end a bit "shuffled up" due 
to the various semi-random factors involved in that race.  HylaFAX's 
goal in this behavior isn't to get all of the fax jobs to the receiver 
in any particular order, but rather to get them to the receiver in as 
few calls as possible (batching), but also utilizing as many modems as 
MaxConcurrentCalls permits.

If you're trying to maintain fax jobs being received in a particular 
order (which is generally impossible to guarantee anyway, if you factor 
in busy conditions, etc.) then increasing MaxConcurrentCalls makes it 
more tricky to do.  You could disable batching (MaxBatchJobs: 1) to 
remove some of the complexity.

Thanks,

Lee.

--
*Lee Howard*
*Mainpine, Inc. Support Manager*
Tel: +1 866 363 6680 ext 4 | Fax: +1 360 462 8160
lee.howard@xxxxxxxxxxxx | www.mainpine.com


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