Creating APS Alternatives

An alternative is a container for specific data to drive APS and Scheduling. Each alternative represents a "what if" scenario to analyze. You must always have a production alternative, which is alternative "0." The alternative 0 references your CloudSuite Business application data that you interact with on other forms. The APS Planning and Get ATP/CTP processes use the data in alternative 0.

To investigate possible changes to your process, you must create one or more planning alternatives (such as alternative 1, 2, 3, etc.) in addition to the production alternative.

  1. To create the Production Alternative:
    Note:  CloudSuite Business provides a blank alternative 0; you must enter the information to reference your data.
    1. Open the APS Sites and Alternative Management form.
    2. Ensure that you are viewing the Main tab.
    3. In the Site field, specify the CloudSuite Business site you are defining. If you have multiple CloudSuite Business sites that will be included in global planning, you must create a separate alternative record for each site. That is, if you have two sites, A and B, you must create an alternative 0 record for site A and a second alternative 0 record for site B.
    4. In the Global Planning Priority field, specify the sequence number of this site for global planning. When you run APS Planning in global mode, the system plans the site with the lowest Priority number (00) first.
    5. In the APS Server Service Host Name field, enter the name of the machine where the Planning and Scheduling Service is running. This is typically the CloudSuite Business utility server. See the Installation Guide for instructions on installing the Planning and Scheduling Service.
    6. In the APS Server Service Port field, enter the port number on which the Planning and Scheduling Service is installed and running. If you do not remember the number of the port on which you installed this service, open the Windows Services applet (Start > Programs > Administrative Tools > Services) on the CloudSuite Business utility server and look for "Infor APS Server"; the port number will be listed along with the service name.
    7. In the SQL Server Host Name field, enter the name of the machine where the SQL Server is installed. The Planning and Scheduling Service uses this information to connect to the CloudSuite Business application database.
    8. In the SQL Server Database Name field, enter the name of your CloudSuite Business application database.
    9. In the Global Planning Time Out field, enter the number of seconds for the system to wait for a response from a remote site when running APS Planning in global mode. Make sure the Timeout value is sufficient; we recommend at least 60 seconds.
    10. Save the parameters. It takes several minutes for the save process to complete.
    Repeat these steps to enter a production alternative record for each site in your environment.
  2. Use these steps to create alternative plans:
    1. Open the APS Sites and Alternate Management form.
    2. In the Alternative field, enter a new number for the planning alternative (such as 1 or 2).
    3. In the APS Server Service Port field, enter the port number for a different planner database than the one you specified for the production alternative (make sure to first create and start an additional planner database for this alternative as described in the Installation Guide). Each alternative must reference a separate planner database.
    4. Click Copy Production Data to copy the data from alternate 0, which represents the production data, to the specified alternate.
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