Hello,

In this post, I would like introduce to Accelerated Content Server (ACS) and Branch Office Caching Services (BOCS).

In Documentum Administrator (DA) under the “Repository/ Administration” node, there are informations concerning the Distributed Content in the System Information:

System Information	May 01, 2016 9:49:56 AM
User :	mysuperuser/mysuperuser

++++++ Repository
Repository : MY_DOCBASE_DEV		Content Storage Service : Enabled
Federation : None			Content Intelligence : CIS disabled due to missing dar
Global Repository : GLOBALR		

++++++ Content Server
Content Server : MY_DOCBASE_DEV			Hostname : myDctmServer
Server Version : 7.1.0190.0300 Win64.Oracle	Connection Broker : MYDCTMSERVER
Trusted Mode : Enabled	

++++++ Distributed Content
Network Locations : 0		ACS Server : MYDCTMSERVERACS1
BOCS Servers : 0		ACS Write : Enabled, Synchronous
ACS Read : Enabled		BOCS Pre-caching : Enabled

++++++ LDAP Servers
Enabled Servers : 5		Last Sync : 4/30/2016 10:06:14 AM
Disabled Servers : 6





ACS

The Accelerated Content Server (ACS ) server is a content server dedicated to serving content. It does not process metadata nor write content to storage. It only processes content requests.

It gets installed automatically while installing the Documentum Content Server. After installation administrator needs to configure it for distributed environment.


In DA, the configuration of ACS are under “Repository/ Administration / Distributed Content Configuration / ACS Servers”.


Name=MYDCTMSERVERACS1
Content Server=MY_DOCBASE_DEV
Content Access=Access from all stores
Projections & Stores=Associated content server



In “Info” tab:


Name :	MYDCTMSERVERACS1
Associated Content Server :	MY_DOCBASE_DEV


ACS Server Version :	2.3

Content Access : [X] Access all stores
		 []Access local stores only
		 [] None(Disabled)

ACS Server Connections / Enter one connection for each unique base URL : http://myDctmServer:9080/ACS/servlet/ACS



Note : The URL http://myDctmServer:9080/ACS/servlet/ACS must return the ACS version like “ACS Server Is Running – Version : 7.1.0190.0156”.


In “Projections & Stores” tab:


Source / Use projections and stores from:
	[X] Associated content server : MY_DOCBASE_DEV
 	[] Settings entered here



Note: The following informations are thus automatically extracted from associated content server : MY_DOCBASE_DEV.


Connection Broker Projections / Broadcast availability to these connection brokers
TARGET HOST = MYDCTMSERVER
PORT = 1489
ENABLED = T

Network Location Projections / Serve content to users logging in from these network locations
- No Network Location Projections

Local Stores / Content from local stores is immediately accessible
Local Store			Type
----------------		---------------
filestore_01			File Storage
thumbnail_store_01		File Storage
streaming_store_01		File Storage
centera_store_no_retention	Content Addressable Storage
replicate_temp_store		File Storage
replica_filestore_01		File Storage
encrypted_filestore_01		File Storage
my_other_filestore_01		File Storage



… so, in DA, under “Repository/ Administration / Storage Management / Storage” node, we retrieve the configuration concerning the dm_location and dm_storage respectively filestore_01 and storage_01:


Name=filestore_01 	Type=dm_filestore	Size=1.75GB	Status=Online

In "Info" tab:
Location or Path	:  storage_01

In "Space Info" tab:
Active Space/Files	:	12.73 GB / 388502912

Orphaned Space/Files	:	188.69 MB / 2204032



Name=storage_01 	Type=dm_location	Size=0KB 	Status=Online

In "Info" tab:
File System Path	:	Select Path \\MYFILESERVER\data\MY_DOCBASE_DEV\content_storage_01 

Path Type	: Directory	

Security Type	: [X] publicopen	 [] public  [] private



… then, in DA, under “Repository / Administration / Types” node, we retrieve the dm_location=filestore_01 for a custom type:


Type	 :	my_custom_document

In "Info" tab:
Type Name :	  my_custom_document	

Super Type Name :	  dm_document	 

Default Storage :	filestore_01	  	 

Default Group :	  [None Selected]   Select Default Group	 

Default Permission Set :	  [None Selected]   Select Default Permission Set	 

Default Assignment Policy :	  [No Policy Set]	 

Enable Indexing :	  Register for indexing

Partitioned :	False 


… in DQL, we will retrieve the storing path of a content on dm_location=storage_01. In our case, the location is a files server (ex: MYFILESERVER), however, it is possible to target a local folder (ex: d:\Documentum\data\my_docbase_dev\content_storage_01):

TEST 1 : with filestore targeting on local folder on content server


DQL>select distinct file_system_path from dm_location order by 1 ;
d:\Documentum\data\my_docbase_dev\content_storage_01  

DQL>select r_object_id, i_contents_id from aca_pj WHERE r_object_id='090xxxxxxxxx8f';
090xxxxxxxxx8f	060xxxxxxxa84

DQL>execute get_path for '060xxxxxxxa84';
D:\Documentum\data\my_docbase_dev\content_storage_01\000157e3\80\02\67\8a.pdf


TEST 2 : with filestore targeting a files server


select distinct file_system_path from dm_location order by 1 ;
\\MYFILESERVER\data\MY_DOCBASE_DEV\content_storage_01

DQL>select r_object_id, i_contents_id from my_custom_document WHERE r_object_id='0902yyyyyyyyya8a6';
0902yyyyyyyyya8a6	060yyyyyyyyya5e

DQL>execute get_path for '060yyyyyyyyya5e';
\\MYFILESERVER\data\MY_DOCBASE_DEV\content_storage_01\0xxxxc5\80\23\31\bb.htm





BOCS

Branch Office Caching Services (BOCS) is a lightweight server product running in the Apache Tomcat servlet container. BOCS serves content files to Web client end users from a local content cache. BOCS servers communicate only with ACS servers and do not interact with Content Servers or a repository’s supporting database. BOCS servers cannot write content to a repository. BOCS servers use the HTTP or HTTPS protocol to serve content. BOCS is used in distributed environments. BOCS is easily installed and has minimal administration requirements. The BOCS server is supported on the same platforms as Content Server. It needs to be configured for each repository. => BOCS can only be created in repositories that are designated as global registries (like GLOBALR). The current repository is not a global registry. Click the link below to log in to the global registry repository known to DFC on the Documentum Administrator host. You must have superuser privileges to create BOCS.


In DA, the configuration of BOCS are under “Repository/ Administration / Distributed Content Configuration / BOCS Servers”.


Here, 2 Documentum distributed models using BOCS servers (found on internet):

Example 1 : Single Repository distributed environments (Content is distributed across sites)


    

  • A Single Repository, with content stored at the primary site and accessed from remote sites using ACS Server. Optionally, BOCS servers can be used.
    • 

  • A Single Repository, with content stored in a distributed storage area and accessed from remote sites using Remote Content Servers, ACS Servers, and optionally BOCS Servers.
    • 





Example 2 : Multi-Repository distributed environments (Objects, content & metadata, are distributed across sites)


    

  • Multiple Repositories that replicate objects among themselves.
    • 

  • Multiple Repositories organized as a federation.
    • 





Notes : ACS only creates URLs, it’s a non-mandatory component and for some documents, you can’t even use it (Ex: Centera). Disabling ACS, unless the request explicitly says “I want a URL”, will simply create a BinaryContent rather than an URLContent.

Using an URLContent avoids having to forward the content of the document to the application server (ex WAS).


Best regards,


Huseyin OZVEREN