In CData Arc 2022, a new feature was added to the application which has been coined “backoff”. You may or may not have seen this mentioned in the application log of your instance, but if you haven’t, an entry in the application log would look something like this:
~/AutomationService Warning The [ConnectorID] connector has failed more than 3 times and has entered a backoff state. The automation service will skip this connector until [date/time]. The connector will remain in the backoff state until a message is successfully sent manually, the connector settings change, or all messages are sent successfully during an automated send attempt.
This is a feature where the automation for the connector will be temporarily paused if the connector fails to send a file successfully with automation three times in a row. If this happens, a 60 minute delay will be added to the automation of that connector before the connector will try to send any files via automation again. If the connector fails to send again after that 60 minute delay, the delay is increased to 120 minutes - all the way up to a maximum delay of 12 hours.
This is designed to be a safety mechanism for the application. It allows users time to correct issues that are going on within a connector and it prevents the connector from attempting to send files that are going to fail. This conserves system resources, limits the writing of repetitive log files to disk and limits the number of repeated failure entries into the backend database.
Previously, connectors would continually try to send files even when they were continually failing - this would often result in a large number of logs and database entries that can slow down the application over time, if left uncorrected.
Connectors can be removed from a state of backoff by if one of the following conditions are met:
- Successfully sending a file manually.
- Successfully sending a file with automation.
- Saving the connector settings of the connector in backoff.
If you see that files are accumulating in the Input tab (send folder) of a connector, it could be that the connector is in a backoff state and automation is delayed for a certain amount of time. Please check your application log for any backoff warning messages and also check the Input tab of the connector and/or the transaction log to see if the connector has had multiple consecutive failures during an automation cycle.
NOTE: This feature also exists in CData Arc 2023.
