Runtime Configurations

Simulation runtime configurations specify how a concrete simulation run is performed on a specific simulation configuration of a specific process model. They describe

• which criterion causes the simulation run to terminate (e.g. number of process instances has been reached),
• to which audit trail database simulation run results are written and
• from which audit trail database simulation configuration parameters (e.g. average activity duration) are retrieved.

Runtime configurations are separated from simulation configurations, because you may want to use the same simulation configuration for different runtime scenarios, e.g. to use different intervals of the same productive audit trail database to feed the same simulation configuration parameters.

Creating Runtime Configurations

To create a new simulation runtime configuration, select the Open Run Dialog... option from the Run menu.

Select the Simulation Engine tree item as follows

and press the New button.

The following fields have to be populated

• Name for the name of the simulation runtime configuration,
• Project for the name of the Eclipse project the process model to be simulated is residing in,
• Model for the process model to be simulated and
• Simulation Configuration for the simulation configuration used for the simulation run.

If you intend to write the simulation data to a audit trail database or to retrieve audit trail data to configure aspects of the simulation configuration, you need to provide additional information under the Audit Trail DB Connection tab.

Termination Criteria

End Date

To terminate the simulation run at a specific end date, select End of Time Interval as the Termination Condition as indicated in the following screenshot:

If you have selected this termination condition, the simulation engine will create process instances according to the process arrival rates until the end timestamp has been reached.

Process Instance Count

To terminate the simulation run after a specific number of process instances has been created, select Number of Process Instances as the Termination Condition and specify the Maximum Process Instances property as indicated in the following screenshot:

If you have selected this termination condition, the simulation engine will create the specified number of process instances according to the process arrival rates specified for the selected simulation configuration.

This way you may get a reference after which time this number of processes can be executed, if other parameters are changed, e.g. for ad-hoc optimization purposes.

Application Queue Length Reached

To terminate the simulation run as soon as a specific length of an application queue length has been reached, select Application Queue Length as the Termination Condition and specify

• the Application and
• the Maximum Queue Length

properties as indicated in the following screenshot:

This way, you may obtain, when the hardware resources hosting a specific service need to be extended assuming increasing process instance entry over time.

Participant Queue Length Reached

To terminate the simulation run as soon as a specific length of a participant queue length has been reached, select Participant Queue Length as the Termination Condition and specify

• the Maximum Queue Length and
• the Participant

properties as indicated in the following screenshot:

This way, you may obtain, when the acceptable workload for a team has been reached given increasing process instance entry over time.

Transition Traversal Count

To terminate the simulation run as soon as a specific transition has been traversed a specific amount of times, select Transition Traversed N Times as the Termination Condition and specify

• the Start Activity,
• the Out-Transition and
• the Maximum Traversals

properties as indicated in the following screenshot:

This way, you may e.g. detect under which circumstances an exception path is traversed the first time.

Saving Runtime Configurations

By default all launch configurations are saved automatically. If you want to save your simulation runtime configuration separately, you have the option to save it as a Shared file in one of your workspace projects:

• In the Runtime Configuration Pane for Simulation select the Common tab.
• In the Save as part browse to the Shared file location, which is the workspace project or a sub-folder, you want to save the configuration in.
• Click Apply.

Now the runtime configuration file is saved as <configuration-name>.launch in the selected project folder. It can be loaded and used in another project.