Progress Application Server for OpenEdge (PASOE) is a Progress application server that is tailored specifically to support OpenEdge applications, including WebSpeed applications since OpenEdge 11.6.
PASOE is available as separate products for Production and Development:
- Progress Development Application Server for OpenEdge - configured as a Web server for developing and testing OpenEdge applications
- Progress Production Application Server for OpenEdge - configured as a secure Web server for OpenEdge application deployment
- PAS for OpenEdge Lite - is a limited version of the PAS for OpenEdge production server.
PAS for OpenEdge and the
OpenEdge AppServer (otherwise referred to as Classic AppServer) are two separate and unique application servers in OpenEdge. Both support ABL application development and deployment but are entirely different in their architectures.
Production and Development License Types:
There are important differences between PASOE Production versus PASOE Development, like all transports (APSV, SOAP, REST, WEB) are disabled by default in PASOE Production and enabled in PASOE Development, the same thing for publishing applications from a PDSOE (Developer Studio) to a PASOE Production instance not supported once oemanager application is not installed in a PASOE Production instance by default for security purposes. For more information about these differences refer to the Article:
Administration and Configuration:
1. OEM and OEE (64-bit)
OEE/OEM on Windows 32 bit does not support PASOE monitoring. PASOE instances need to be managed from OpenEdge Explorer 64-bit.
64-bit OpenEdge Management (OEM) and OpenEdge Explorer tools are used to Administer and configure PASOE instances. It is possible to monitor PAS Tomcat CPU, PAS Tomcat Memory, PAS Tomcat Virtual Memory, to create Monitoring Plans, monitor Multi-Session-Agents, Sessions, Connections and Requests as well as Application Metrics. Some features are only available within OEM. For more information on this area, please refer to the OpenEdge Documentation:
- OpenEdge Management: Progress Application Server for OpenEdge Configuration
2. PASMAN and TCMAN
PASOE includes command line utilities like PASMAN and TCMAN for administering and managing the Progress application server. It extends the functionality that is provided by the core Apache Tomcat administrative scripts found in the server's/bin folder. PASMAN is primarily used when creating new PASOE instances and can be used to administer a given instance by using the -I instance_name option as it is based under OpenEdge_install_dir/bin while TCMAN works within a given PASOE instance as it is based under PASOE_instance_dir/bin. For more information on this area, please refer to the OpenEdge Documentation:
- OpenEdge Administration Guide, Administrative tools: PASMAN
- OpenEdge Administrative Guide, Administrative tools: TCMAN
3. PASOESTART
PASOESTART is an OpenEdge extension to the TCMAN utility that encapsulates a number of separate startup actions into a single command.
Starting a PAS for OpenEdge instance usually involves manually performing the following individual actions:
1. Executing tcman clean -A to clean and archive log files
2. Running tcman start to launch the instance
3. Executing tcman env to check if the instance is running
4. Polling the core server to report that the instance's startup process has been completed
5. Scanning the core server and web application context logs for severe conditions that render the server unusable
6. Verifying that at least of one child OS process, in the form of an ABL multi-session Agent, is running
7. Scanning the multi-session Agent’s log file for startup errors that render the Agent unusable
The PASOESTART command produces a more stable and predictable startup process by performing the TCMAN actions described in the first three steps, and then by performing the error checking and process validation described in the final four steps. It executes until the instance starts without any fatal errors, or until a timeout limit has been reached and the startup process is aborted.
For more information on this area, please refer to the OpenEdge Documentation:
- OpenEdge Administrative Guide, Administrative Tools: PASOESTART
4. REST APIs
The oemanager.war Java Web application provides a REST API for remote management and monitoring of ABL applications deployed on a Progress Application Server for OpenEdge instance. It is similar to the administration API supported by the Tomcat Web server’s JMX interface, but it uses JSON input/output payloads.
PASOE REST APIs provide services to manage Sessions, Agents, Transports, and Applications. To enable REST API access, either oemanager.war or tcmanager.war must be deployed. For a complete list of services provided with examples of use, refer to the OpenEdge Documentation:
- Progress Documentation -> Progress Application Server for OpenEdge: Administration Guide -> REST API Reference for oemanager.war -> REST API Reference for oemanager.war:
- OpenEdge Administrative Guide, REST API Reference for oemanager.war
Performance Tuning:
1. Database Connections
A PASOE deployment will have mostly one or more OpenEdge databases connected to it. Because OpenEdge database servers are a finite resource, it is very important that the ABL application not totally deplete the OpenEdge database server's pool of User connections. PASOE server(s) is one part of the ABL application whose configuration should not allow its consumption of OpenEdge database User connections exceeds what the database is started with. It is important to calculate the number of OpenEdge database connections a PASOE instance will use at full load, which then allows a better plan and size of the User connection pool.For PASOE OpenEdge Database Connections Tuning, refer to the Article:
2. PASOE Instance Tuning
There are many components related to the architecture of a PASOE instance that can be tuning like the OS process and its configured limites, the Java Virtual Machine, the Apache Tomcat where PASOE is based on, the OE Web Applications, the Multi-Session Agent, etc. For more information refer the Article:
Apache Tomcat:
For Information on How to Monitor a PASOE instance via Tomcat Manager, refer to the Article:
For information on How to Configure the Proper Size for Tomcat's Java Heap, refer to the Article:
Secure Sockets Layer:
For information on SSL Configuration and Testing for a PASOE instance, refer to the Article:
PASOE Logging:
Progress Application Server for OpenEdge creates log files at three distinct levels:
- Tomcat (the Web server and JSP servlet container on which PAS for OE is based)
- The multi-session agent that manages ABL sessions running on PAS
- Web applications running on PAS
This distinction allow different types of logging configuration which bring more information on the functioning of one specific area of the application or many areas with different levels of detail. For information regarding how Logging works with PASOE and how to configure it in the different PASOE components, refer to the Article:
One important aspect of cleaning PASOE logs is related to a feature available within TCMAN where all log files currently available in the PASOE_Instance/logs directory will be archived instead of deleted. This is a very useful function that can be used later on to troubleshoot an issue or even when contact with Progress Technical Support is required.
tcman pasoestart -restart -archive -v -timeout 300
pasman pasoestart -I oepas1 -restart -archive -v -timeout 300
'-archive' assures current log files are archived instead of deleted.
Database connections in PAS for OpenEdge:
The OpenEdge database network connection policy did not change in PAS for OpenEdge. Like the classic AppServer, it is one private network connection per ABL session in the multi-session agent. Therefore, the application code and PROMON monitoring are the same for both servers.
Two new Type values, specific to PAS for OpenEdge, are in the PROMON display:
SELF/PASA — A multi-session agent's shared self-service database connectionSELF/PASN — Individual ABL session users that share the multi-session agent's connection
Migrate Classic appserver application to PASOE:
Progress Documentation -> Migrate Classic AppServer Applications to PAS for OpenEdge -> ABL Application Code Migration -> Database connections in PAS for OpenEdge:
https://docs.progress.com/bundle/openedge-migrate-classic-appserver-122/page/Database-connections-in-PAS-for-OpenEdge.htmlThe attached "Quick Start Guide.pdf" is a comprehensive quick start guide to assist in the migration of Classic AppServer applications to Progress Application Server for OpenEdge (PASOE). It is imperative that OpenEdge 11.7.3 or later is used, as the
paspropconv used to assist with migrating the current Classic AppServer configuration, was (only) added in the 11.7.3 Service Pack.
Information on migrating a Classic WebSpeed application to PASOE?
