Banner Faculty and Advisor Self-Service / User Guide / 8.3

Note
All registration activity from self-service and SFAREGS that involves area
prerequisite checking depends on the pipe process; however, only degree
evaluations initiated from self-service require the pipe process.
Compliance evaluations initiated from SMARQCM do not depend on the
pipe process.
•
The pipes used, which are the same as the pipes used by CAPP area prerequisite
processing, are similar to those used by Job Submission (GURJOBS), and their
management is usually a database or systems administrator responsibility. Appropriate
pipes must be initialized for processing to occur, and they can be best initialized during
normal system start-up routines. Determining the required number of pipes to use is your
institution's responsibility. If processes are waiting for pipe responses, it may be best to
initialize additional pipes.
Process explanation
The following pieces are involved.
• SFBPIPE — The database table that holds the names of the “named” database
pipes.
• SFRPIPE — A listener process that accepts messages for a named database pipe
(from the SFBPIPE table).
• SFRPINI — A looping process that starts the SFRPIPE listener for each “named”
database pipe in the SFBPIPE table.
• SFKPIPE — The database package responsible for submitting a request to the
listener (SFRPIPE).
In essence, this process is the same technology as job submission functionality
(GURJOBS.PC). The primary differences are as follows.
• GURJOBS.PC attempts to run any valid process defined in Banner. The SFRPINI
process runs only the SMRCMPL process. Any other command automatically shuts
down the listener process.
• GURJOBS.PC consists of only one database pipe and one listener process. This
process can have (n) amount of database pipes and listeners, as determined by the
number of pipe names in the SFBPIPE table (SFKPIPE01 -> SFKPIPE(n) ).
A recommendation for test instances is to delete all but one database pipe name.
Otherwise, it would be the same as having ten “job submissions” running on the system.
For production instances it is recommended that you start with one pipe and listener, and
increment that number based on demand. Demand can be tracked by the sfkpipe(n).lis
output files listing processing totals. However, determining the required number of pipes
to use is your institution’s responsibility.
7-72 Banner Faculty and Advisor Self-Service 8.3 December 2009
User Guide
Student Information