On-premise/hybrid only

Operating principle

Last update: April 12, 2024

Technically, the Adobe Campaign platform is based on several modules.

There are many Adobe Campaign modules. Some operate continuously, while others are started up occasionally to perform administrative tasks (e.g. to configure the database connection) or to run a recurrent task (e.g. consolidating tracking information).

There are three types of Adobe Campaign modules:

  • Multi-instance modules: a single process is run for all instances. This applies to the following modules: web, syslogd, trackinglogd and watchdog (activities from the config-default.xml file).
  • Mono-instance modules: one process is run per instance. This applies to the following modules: mta, wfserver, inMail, sms and stat (activities from the config-<instance>.xml file).
  • Utility modules: these are modules that are run occasionally to perform occasional or recurrent operations (cleanup, config, downloading tracking logs, etc.).

Module administration is performed using the command line tool nlserver installed in the bin directory of the installation folder.

The general syntax of the nlserver tool is as follows:

nlserver <command> <command arguments>

For the list of available modules, use the nlserver command.

The available modules are detailed in the following table:

CommandDescription
aliasCleansingStandardizing enumeration values
billingSending the system activity report to billing@neolane.net
cleanupCleansing the database: deletes obsolete data from the database and runs an update of the statistics used by the database engine optimizer.
configModifying server configuration
exportExporting to command line: lets you send to the command line an export model created in the Adobe Campaign client console
fileconvertConverting a set size file
importImporting to command line: lets you send to the command line an import model created in the Adobe Campaign client console.
inMailInbound mail analyzer
installsetupAvailability of the customer installation file
javascriptExecuting JavaScript scripts, with access to SOAP APIs.
jobCommand line processing
mergeForm merge
midSourcingRecovery of delivery information in mid-sourcing mode
monitorXML Displaying of the status of server processes and scheduled tasks, by instance.
mtaMain Agent transfer message
packageImporting or exporting entity package files
pdumpDisplaying server process statuses
preparedaPreparing a delivery action
restartPartial server restart
runwfExecution of a workflow instance
shutdownFull system shutdown
smsSMS notification processing
sqlSQL script execution
startAdditional starts
statMaintains MTA connection statistics
stopPartial system shutdown
submitdaSubmitting a delivery action
syslogdLog and trace writing server
trackingConsolidating and retrieving tracking logs
trackinglogdTracking log writing and purging server
watchdogStartup and monitoring instance
webApplication server (HTTP and SOAP)
wfserverWorkflow server
IMPORTANT
There is one last module: the tracking and relay module linked to the application server which, for the sake of performance, is integrated via native mechanisms into an Apache or IIS web server via a dynamic library. There is no Adobe Campaign command enabling you to start or administer this module. You must therefore use the commands of the Web server itself.

Module usage and the syntax of its parameters are displayed using the following command: nlserver [module] -?

Example:

nlserver config -?

Usage: nlserver [-verbose:<verbose mode>] [-?|h|H] [-version] [-noconsole]
 [-tracefile:<file>] [-tracefilter:<[type|!type],...>]
 [-instance:<instance>] [-low] [-high] [-queryplans] [-detach]
 [-internalpassword:<[password/newpassword]>] [-postupgrade]
 [-nogenschema] [-force] [-allinstances]
 [-addinstance:<instance/DNS masks[/language]>]
 [-setdblogin:<[dbms:]account[:database][/password]@server>]
 [-monoinstance]
 [-addtrackinginstance:<instance/masks DNS[/databaseId/[/language[/password]]]>]
 [-trackingpassword:<[password][/newpassword]>]
 [-setproxy:<protocol/server:port[/login]>] [-reload]
 [-applyxsl:<schema/file.xsl>] [-filter:<file>]
 [-setactivationkey:<activation key>]
 [-getactivationkey:<client identifier>]
-verbose : verbose mode
-? : display this help message
-version : display version number
-noconsole : no longer display logs and traces on the console
-tracefile : name of trace file to be generated (without extension)
-tracefilter : filter for the traces to be generated e.g.: wdbc,soap,!xtkquery.
-instance : instance to be used (default instance if this option is not present).
-low : start up with low priority
-high : start up with high priority (not recommended)
-queryplans : generate traces with the execution plans of SQL queries.
-detach : detaches the process from its parent (internal option)
-internalpassword : changes the password of the server internal account.
-postupgrade : updates the database following upgrade to a higher version.
-nogenschema : does not recompute the schemas during database update
-force : updates the database even if this has already been done with the current build
-allinstances : updates the database over all configured instances
-addinstance : adds a new instance.
-setdblogin : sets the parameters for connection to the database of an instance. The DBMS can be 'oracle', 'postgresql', 'mssql' or 'odbc' (default=postgresql)
-monoinstance : initializes for a single instance ().
-addtrackinginstance : adds a new tracking instance.
-trackingpassword : changes the tracking password of an instance
-setproxy : sets the parameters for connection to a proxy server. The protocol can be 'http', 'https' or 'all'.
-reload : asks the server to reload the configuration of the instances.
-applyxsl : applies an XSL stylesheet to all entities of a schema.
-filter : applies the XTK filter contained in the file during loading of the schema entities.
-setactivationkey : sets the activation key
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