Agent configuration & set-up

Basic configuration

Definitions

ResourceDefinition
Blackout Agent
  • Utilizes a single Relativity agent. This agent is responsible for all work performed on the agent server.
  • Manages everything from OCR-ing images to processing metric data.
High Resource Agent
  • Any Blackout agent that is flagged as “Is High Resource.”
  • Defined as building image OCR data and marking up Excel files.
  • Is required to have at least one agent capable of being a High Resource Agent. Otherwise, Blackout projects will not be able to run.
Default Workers
  • Represents the number of workers that will be created to process Blackout tasks on the agent server.
  • Covers work such as reading saved searches, queuing tasks, or providing status information.
  • The default number of workers is determined automatically for the agent server as (# of CPU cores * 2). This number may be modified in advanced mode.
High Resource Workers
  • Represents the number of workers that will be created to process Blackout tasks on the agent server.
  • Covers Image OCR and Excel markups.
  • Default number of workers is determined automatically for the agent server as (# of CPU cores / 2) with a minimum of 1.
Note: The number of workers represents the number of tasks that can be completed simultaneously. For each worker, 1 Excel or 1 page may be marked up or OCRed simultaneously. If there are no high resource tasks in queue, these workers will pick up low resource tasks.

What to know about agent installation

  • Blackout Agents are installed through the Blackout Agent Configuration system admin tab instead of the Relativity agent tab
  • The Blackout Agent Configuration tab provides a list of all of the agent servers that are registered to your instance and whether they are enabled for use with Blackout
  • Agents must be installed via the Blackout Agent Configuration tab
  • Blackout Agents must not be on the same servers that are used for the following: Conversion, Conversion Complete, or dtSearch Agents.

Common configurations

For all configurations, it is recommended to have agent servers with no less than 8 CPU cores and 8 GB of RAM.

For a lot of smaller case work, 1-2 Blackout agents is sufficient. For larger cases with documents in the 10's of thousands, 2-4 agents should be employed.

Blackout is flexible! Agents can be turned on and off at any time so long as there is one agent with default and high resource processes. This action can be taken even if there are running projects.

How to install Blackout agents

  1. Navigate to the Blackout tab, then choose Agent Configuration.
  2. After identifying which agent server to install the Blackout agent to, select the ‘Enabled’ checkbox.
  3. Make sure the ‘Is High Resource’ box is checked off
  4. Blackout requires at least one agent server to be marked as a high resource.
  5. When selected as a high resource, these agents will perform OCR and Native Spreadsheet markups in addition to all other actions.
  6. Click the ‘Save Configurations’ button.

The agents will be deployed and installed by Blackout. Low and high priority worker counts will be determined automatically. For more information on this is determined please see the Advanced Configuration section.

Verifying agent installation

The status of the agent can be verified by:

  1. Navigate to the Server & Agent Management tab, then choose ‘Agents.’
  2. Filter the application column to ‘Blackout.’
  3. After finding the ‘enabled’ column, it will be set to ‘Yes.’ The Message column will read ‘Running (#;#).’ The numbers will represent the default and high resource workers, respectively.

Other considerations

  • The amount of work Blackout can handle is tied to your configuration and set-up. There are many things that can change how fast Blackout runs such as the size of Excel documents or the resolution of images.
  • The worker counts that are automatically assigned are done to help balance other work that may be taking place on the agent server(s).
    • This means that dedicated agents can be configured to use all of the resources on a server
    • To accomplish this, please see the Advanced Configuration section.

Adding a Blackout server to a resource pool

What to know

Resource pool aware agents allow system administrators to create dedicated agents for individual clients and workspaces, isolating their Blackout capacity from the rest of the system.

System administrators can easily control this behavior from the Blackout Agent Configuration administrator tab. When the setting is enabled, the tab displays which resource pools a server is assigned to. In addition, Blackout Administrators can now view which resource pool a project is running in from the Blackout Project Status tab.

How to do it

  1. Navigate to the Blackout | Blackout Agent Configuration tab.
  2. Click on Enable Resource Pools.

A new column will appear showing the resource pool the agent is assigned to.

Blackout Resource Pool Aware Screenshot

Advanced Configuration

The Blackout Agent Configuration tab also has an advanced mode. This will allow for a more specific configuration of the default and high resource workers on each agent server.

Note: Before enabling this setting, feel free to reach out to us at support@milyli.com.

What to know

  • It is generally safe to increase the number of high resource workers to a 1:1 ratio with the number of CPUs as long as there is not a lot of load on the agent server from other agents
  • Increasing beyond this will not necessarily equate to increased throughput
    • It is important to use your test instances to identify configurations that work for your hardware and Relativity instance as throughput varies greatly from instance to instance and infrastructure to infrastructure

How to do it

Note: You must be a Relativity administrator to make this change.

  1. Navigate to the Blackout | Configuration tab.
  2. Click the ‘Enable Advanced Agent Configuration Options’ checkbox.
  3. A confirmation prompt will be displayed, asking if you are sure you wish to enable advanced mode.
  4. Click ‘Ok’ on the confirmation prompt.
  5. Click the ‘Save’ button.

The Advanced Agent Configuration options are now available on the Agent Configuration tab.

Updating Worker Counts

  • After enabling advanced mode, the Agent Configuration page will automatically update to include two additional columns, ‘Default Workers’ and ‘High Resource Workers’
  • Updating worker counts while projects are active will result in those projects briefly stopping work before resuming

The following sample will demonstrate how to increase the number of high resource workers. In this example there are three agent servers, TR-Agent, QP-Agent, and JL-Agent, with the following configuration.

Agent ServerDetails
TR-Agent4 CPUs and 12GB RAM
QP-Agent1 CPU and 4GB RAM
JL-Agent8 CPU and 8GB RAM

The default installation will set the default and high resource workers as followed.

ServerDefault Configuration
TR-Agent8 Default Workers
2 High Resource Workers
QP-Agent2 Default Workers
1 High Resource Workers
JL-Agent12 Default Workers
4 High Resource Workers

An example of maximizing these servers, especially if they are dedicated, would look like this:

ServerMaximized Configuration
TR-Agent10 Default Workers
4 High Resource Workers
QP-Agent2 Default Workers
1 High Resource Workers
JL-Agent12 Default Workers
8 High Resource Workers

After changing the values:

  • Click ‘Save Configurations’ after the values are updated.
  • A notification will be displayed letting you know that the change has been made.
    • If you accidentally uncheck all of the ‘Is High Resources’ boxes so that there are none left, you will receive a validation error letting you know that you must have at least one high resource enabled agent.

After clicking save, behind the scenes:

  • The agents internal server will be stopped
  • The configuration for each agent will be updated
  • The agents will be restarted
  • The project engine will work to pick up where it left off.
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