Manager in AD utilities

Question

Hi,
I have been going through documentation for Oracle Applications DBA R12.
Very often I come across the word "Manager",especially when studying about worker process in AD utilities.
Can someone throw some light on the concept of "Manager"?
What is this manager?Is it a separate process dedicated to manage worker processes in parallel processing?
Are they AD programs(adadmin,adpatach) or AD utilities(AD administration,AutoPatch) themselves?
If possible,please provide some metalink doc that clarifies this idea of manager.
Thanks,
Rushi

Answer 1

Hi,
In short it is a kind of program used to control workers.
From documentation
The following is taken from R12 Oracle applications, maintenance utilities page 1-16
Managers
The manager assigns each worker a unique ID and inserts a row for each worker in the
FND_INSTALL_PROCESSES table. It creates this table to serve as a staging area for
job information, and as a way to communicate with the worker. Communication is
accomplished using two columns: CONTROL_CODE and STATUS.
The manager updates the table with a subset of the list of jobs, one job per worker. For
example, if there are five workers, then the table holds five jobs (even though there
may be 100 or more jobs involved in the complete action). The manager starts the
workers and uses the CONTROL_CODE and STATUS columns to assign tasks. It polls
these two columns continuously, looking for updates from the workers. As a worker
finishes its assignment, the manager updates each row with the next task in the list,
and leaves another message for the worker.
Once all jobs are complete, the manager tells the workers to shut down, and then
drops the FND_INSTALL_PROCESSES table (after it is sure all workers have actually
shut down).
Thanks