What's new in the infrastructure - Relativity Server 2021

This page provides information on what's new in the Relativity infrastructure for Server 2021. For new features and enhancements for users and system admins, see What's new in Relativity Server 2021.

Agents

The following agents were added in Relativity Server 2021. For more information on the agents listed see, Agents Guide.

The dtSearch Index Worker agent is limited to four agents per agent server.

Conversion Agent - Convert Ahead* - works with the service bus to complete document conversion when the user is on the document viewer. Deploy each Conversion agent on its own server. Don't use the server for any other purpose but running this agent.
Conversion Agent - Mass Convert* - works with the service bus to complete document conversion when using the mass convert action. Deploy each Conversion agent on its own server. Don't use the server for any other purpose but running this agent.
Conversion Agent - On the Fly* - works with the service bus to complete document conversion for the current document opening. Deploy each Conversion agent – On the fly on its own server. Don't use the server for any other purpose but running this agent.
PDF Manager Agent - responsible for configuring the necessary artifacts for a newly created PDF job and also batching larger PDF jobs into smaller units in the mass PDF operations. This agent runs every 5 seconds by default, and should not be modified. If the Australian workflow is enabled in the instance, the PDF manager can also delete PDFs stored in Relativity.
PDF Worker Agent - responsible for the document/image to PDF conversion. It will also do the packaging of results into a ZIP/Portfolio/Single PDF if Download is selected for mass PDF operations. This agent runs every 5 seconds by default and should not be modified.

Notes:

* these conversion agents are optional, the previous conversion agent has not been deprecated.
* you do not need a dedicated conversion agent server for each conversion agent, you only need one for all three.

Database schema updates

A number of updates have been made to the EDDS and Workspace database schemas for Relativity Server 2021. For a list of these updates, see Database schema updates table.

Processing

Starting in Server 2021, Invariant requires worker server installation on each worker to function properly. This ensures workers have the appropriate Microsoft Visual C++ 2019 redistributables necessary.

When installing the RPC, the username must be EDDSDBO for Relativity Servercustomers.

New instance settings

The Relativity Server 2021 release includes the following new instance settings:

UseAgentBasedConversion - change the value to true to use conversion agents on cloud instance.
ConversionOnTheFlyThreadCounts - the maximum amount of threads that a Conversion Agent - On the Fly will use on its agent server.
ConversionConvertAheadThreadCounts - the maximum amount of threads that a Conversion Agent - Convert Ahead will use on its agent server.
ConversionMassConvertThreadCounts - the maximum amount of threads that a Conversion Agent - Mass Convert will use on its agent server.
MaxConcurrentAnalysisJobs - the maximum number of concurrent structured analytics jobs in the analysis phase.
MaxConcurrentExportJobs - the maximum number of concurrent structured analytics jobs in the export phase.
MaxConcurrentImportJobs - the maximum number of concurrent structured analytics jobs in the import phase.

Modified instance settings

MaximumTextVolumeForExportChunk - this instance setting now has a default value of 268435456 bytes, which is an increase over the previous value of 1048576 bytes. Additionally, the description for this instance setting has been clarified as follows: “Determines the maximum total text size, in bytes, that can be exported from a single chunked WebAPI payload. Although the long text length is accounted for within the chunk total, the long text data is retrieved through a separate API.”

Note: During an upgrade, the upgrade script doesn’t modify any custom value that you may used to modify this instance setting. If you are currently using the default value, it is automatically updated to the new value during upgrade.

System requirements

• SQL Server compatibility - for Relativity Server 2021, SQL 2014 and SQL 2016 will no longer be supported. SQL 2017 will continue to be supported and SQL 2019 is now supported. SQL 2019 is only compatible with Windows Server 2016 or 2019. Please note that this has no impact on our SQL compatibility policy for older versions of Relativity Server. For more information, see the System requirements.

• Windows Server 2019 compatibility - Windows Server 2019 is supported for Relativity Server 2021.

For a detailed list of the software and hardware needed to host Relativity Server 2021 in your environment, see the System requirements.

Mass operations

Relativity is releasing a new PDF application that is intended to replace the legacy Save as PDF functionality. The new PDF application is an agent-based based application that resolves many of the stability, performance, and scalability limitations of the legacy Save as PDF functionality. The new PDF application has new functionalities such as a new PDF profile, a new progress bar, error reporting, and new content options. The new PDF application is not a required application. Installing it will replace their current Save as PDF feature with the new PDF application. Installing the new PDF application will require manual work and new infrastructure setup. For more information, see Mass PDF.