Reserve workflow spots just for the Alteryx gallery apps

Question

Hi, I am not our server admin so I can't see inside of it, but our admin is still learning too. If I could tell her exactly what I need to do that would help a lot. We got our gallery up and running and I published our first app. I built the app to run instantly, but the job enters our general queue where it might have to sit around for a long time depending on how much else is running. I am pretty sure there is way to fix this? From what I can tell on google, I'm not sure of the difference between "workflows allowed to run simultaneously" and "assigned workers". Are they the same? Currently we let 8 run at a time. My idea is to increase that to 10 but save 2 spots that will only run gallery app jobs (so general performance is not affected and we still run 8 general jobs at a time). When I publish the app to the gallery, I see a dropdown to assign a worker (but there is nothing in the list), and I also see I can add a job tag in the gallery. It's not free text, there is a single check box option. Do I leverage one or both of these to do what I need to do? What settings in the server need to change to accomplish this? Much appreciated!!

DiganP · Answer

@mst3k For the default license, you only have one worker. That worker can run many workflows simultaneously. The limitations would come in when you have many workflows running, your server runs out of memory. This is where you scale out, adding more workflows to the server.

If you have server config questions, I would use this help documentation. It covers all the questions you are asking!

Memory Usage FAQ - https://help.alteryx.com/server/current/admin/Configuration/SystemSettings/Worker.htm?Highlight=memory

mst3k · Answer

Thanks - Is a worker the same as a server? If we have 1 alteryx server, do we only have 1 worker? Or we can have multiple workers with 1 server? I'd like any gallery app jobs to begin running immediately, regardless of how many scheduled workflows are in the general queue. So if we go from 8 to 10 workflows simultaneously, I want to reserve 2 of those slots to only run gallery apps, and nothing else. Then those 2 slots will always be available to run immediately.

DiganP · Answer

@mst3k You would have to do a couple of things.

1) I recommend increase the number of workflows to run simultaneously.

2) in the admin settings, go to the user tab and edit your user's settings. The admin can also make you an admin by going permission (inside of Admin tab) > search for your username and make you a Curator. This will make also make you an admin!

Hope this helps.