In relation to Oracle workflow processes in EBS environments ‘Workflow Background Engine” essentially is a PL/SQL procedure which checks for and executes any deferred or timed out activities that satisfy the arguments of the procedure at the time the procedure is invoked.
Requirement of Background Engine
WF Engine does not handle all the activities. For the reasons like Timed Out, Defered or sometimes errored activities will be forwarded to Workflow Background Engine. If that time the Workflow Background is running then these process will be picked up and get processed.
You need to start the Workflow Background Engine again for any new activities which are forwarded. Therefore, it is usually recommended to schedule the Workflow Background Engine periodically especially for the Item Types such as PO Approval etc..
How to execute the Workflow Background Engine
From EBS Front End
Workflow Background Engine can be submitted from Oracle Applications
Submit the Workflow Background Process Concurrent Program through Navigate > Sysadmin > Request > Run
Item Type – Select the appropriate Item Type (say PO Approval)
Min and Max threshold – (specify 0 to 100 or you can leave it blank)
Deferred = Yes (so that all deferred activities are processed)
Timed out=Yes (so that all timedout activities are processed)
From SQL*Plus
From SQL Prompt run the following command
SQL> EXEC WF_ENGINE.BACKGROUND
or from unix prompt
SQL> @$FND_TOP/Admin/Sql/wfbkg.sql
Recommended schedule for “workflow background process” concurrent program
For optimum performance they should have three workflow background processes running each with different parameters. It should be,
1) Process Deferred=Yes
Process Timeout=No
Process Stuck = No
(Usually runs every 5 to 10 mins)
2) Process Deferred=No
Process Timeout=Yes
Process Stuck = No
(usually every hour)
3) Process Deferred=No
Process Timeout=No
Process Stuck = Yes
(may be once a day )
Parameters for “Workflow background process” concurrent program
a. Item Type: If you want to restrict workflow engine to a specific Item Type, specify the same here. Else, the engine will process all/any deferred activity regardless of the Item Type.
b. Minimum Threshold: If you want to restrict this engine to activities with specific minimum cost, define it here. Otherwise the Workflow engine will process any deferred activity regardless of cost.
c. Maximum Threshold: If you want to restrict this engine to activies with specific maximum cost, define it here. Otherwise the workflow engine will process any deferred activities regardless of cost.
d. Process Deferred: Specify whether the workflow engine should run deferred. Set it to Yes or No. If this set to yes, the Workflow Background Process will run the workflow activities as a deferred process.
e. Process Time out: Specify whether the workflow engine should check for activities that have been timed out. Set it to Yes or No.
I’m an experienced Cloud/Oracle Applications/DBA Architect with more than 15 years of full-time DBA/Architect experience. I have gained wide knowledge on Oracle and Non-Oracle software stack running on-prem and on Cloud and have worked on several big projects for multi-national companies. I enjoy working with leading-edge technology and have a passion for Cloud architecture, automation, database performance, and stability. Thankfully my work allows me time for researching new technologies (and to write about them).
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Thank you for this clarification.