Does HTTP Web Request have a concurrency limit in self-hosted Workflow?

asked 19 hours ago

I’m trying to understand how self-hosted Laserfiche Workflow limits concurrent HTTP Web Request activities across workflow instances and definitions.

The Task Threads documentation mentions activity-specific caps for searches, database/directory tasks, and email, but I haven’t found an explicit limit for HTTP Web Request.

Web service configuration also includes “Run activities that use this web service as a task.”

Could someone clarify:

With that option enabled, which thread pool handles HTTP Web Request activities, and what controls the maximum concurrent requests?
Is there an additional limit per web service?
Does a request occupy a task/thread slot for the entire time it waits for the remote server to respond?
If the option is disabled, what concurrency limits apply instead?
Does this behavior differ between Workflow 11 and 12?

For example, if 100 workflow instances reach an HTTP Web Request activity calling the same endpoint, how many requests can actually be in flight simultaneously, and where do the remaining requests queue?

I’m specifically asking about throttling within Workflow, separate from rate limits imposed by the destination API or Laserfiche Cloud.

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replied 15 hours ago • Show version history

Hi Blake,

External Tasks handles HTTP Web Request activities. The maximum number is 4 × CPU cores.
No.
Yes.
There is no concurrency limit when the option is disabled.
No, there is no difference.

In this example, the concurrency limit is determined by taking the greater of 4 × the CPU count and the value configured in External Tasks. Web request tasks that exceed this limit are queued in the database.

Thanks,

Zhujie

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View 1 previous reply

replied 2 hours ago

One thing to note is that Laserfiche recommends against clearing the option to run activities as a task. Moving these activities from the task system to Workflow itself increases the resource usage on the Workflow Server itself and the risk of crashes if data coming back from the web service is malformed in a way that the activity can't handle. On the web service side, you may be running a risk of being rate limited due to the higher amount of traffic.

You mentioned Laserfiche Cloud, so this is a reminder that self-hosted Workflow is not included in Laserfiche Cloud plans and not supported with Laserfiche Cloud.

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replied an hour ago

I was curious if you were going to chime in. Thank you for the extra words of caution about clearing that setting.

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replied 11 minutes ago

Nah, Zhujie's got it. I'm just adding the Greek chorus commentary of our experience to prevent future support cases

Out of curiosity though, what is the use case for it?

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Does HTTP Web Request have a concurrency limit in self-hosted Workflow?

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