--- title: "Scaling and configuring the Marketing Automation Engine" slug: "scaling-and-configuring-the-marketing-automation-engine" abstract: "" --- # Scaling and configuring the Marketing Automation Engine The Marketing Automation Engine processes plan and activity enrollments, and will experience higher load as the number of work items increases. ## Installation Use the Sitecore Installation Framework (SIF) or the Sitecore Azure Toolkit (SAT) to install the Marketing Automation Engine. Refer to the [installation guide](https://dev.sitecore.net/Downloads/Sitecore_Experience_Platform.aspx) for your version of the platform for more information. ## Scaling the Marketing Automation Engine The following table describes the way you can scale the Marketing Automation Engine: | Scaling option | Supported | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | Combined instance | Partially | The Marketing Automation Engine is a worker role and cannot be combined with any other XP services. For example, you cannot combine the Marketing Automation Engine and the xConnect Search Indexer into a single Windows Service or WebJob. | | Standalone instance | Yes | You can deploy the Marketing Automation Engine as:

| | High availability and failover | Yes | You can fail over to a passive instance of the Marketing Automation Engine or run multiple active instances.

> [!note]
> The Marketing Automation Engine does not have a health check API endpoint. You must use an external tool to monitor the WebJob or Windows Service health. | | Horizontal scaling for load distribution | Yes | Multiple instances of the Marketing Automation Engine can process tasks in parallel. All instances must connect to one centrally located Marketing Automation database. | ## Performance tuning tasks Considering the following performance tuning tasks if the Marketing Automation Engine is processing work items too slowly: - Vertically scale the Marketing Automation database by increasing the number of DTUs, and be aware that the default DTU allocation in Azure is relatively low. - Consider that the [xConnect Collection Search service](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/102/platform-administration-and-architecture/scaling-and-configuring-the-xconnect-collection-search-role.html "Scaling and configuring the xConnect Collection Search role") may be a bottleneck in plan processing and requires scaling. - Vertically scale the Marketing Automation Engine by [increasing the number of pool workers](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/102/sitecore-experience-platform/marketing-automation-plan-processing.html). - The Marketing Automation Engine relies heavily on the `InteractionsCache` facet to evaluate conditions that rely on interaction data. [Tune the interaction cache facet settings](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/102/sitecore-experience-platform/interactions-cache.html) to ensure that the data required by your conditions are available - for example, the default `MaximumInteractionPeriod` is 30 days. Conditions that rely on data older than 30 days may not evaluate correctly. > [!note] > We recommend that you monitor load and response times across the platform before choosing to scale a particular role. Performance issues might be the result of a bottleneck elsewhere in the system. ## Security configuration tasks Refer to [the Marketing Automation Engine section of the Security guide](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/102/platform-administration-and-architecture/securing-experience-platform.html "Securing Experience Platform"). ## Default topologies and packages The following tables list the topologies that include the Marketing Automation Engine and how the role is packaged by default. ### Sitecore Installation Framework The Marketing Automation Engine is available in the following default topologies for the Sitecore Installation Framework: | Topology | Web Deploy Packages | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | XP Single | `Sitecore 9.X.X rev. XXXXXX (OnPrem)_xp0xconnect.scwdp.zip` | The Marketing Automation Engine is bundled with all other XP service roles. The engine is installed as a Windows Service and is physically located in the `App_data\jobs\continuous\AutomationEngine` folder. | | XP Scaled | `Sitecore 9.X.X rev. XXXXXX (OnPrem)_xp1marketingautomation.scwdp.zip` | The Marketing Automation Engine is bundled with the Marketing Automation Operations. The engine is installed as a Windows Service and is physically located in the `App_data\jobs\continuous\AutomationEngine` folder. | ### Sitecore Azure Toolkit The Marketing Automation Engine is available in the following default topologies for the Sitecore Azure Toolkit: | Topology | Web Deploy Packages | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | XP Single | `Sitecore 9.X.X rev. XXXXXX (Cloud)_xp0xconnect.scwdp.zip` | The Marketing Automation Engine is bundled with all other XP service roles. The engine runs as an Azure WebJob in the context of the combined application. | | xDB Single | | | | XP Scaled | `Sitecore 9.X.X rev. XXXXXX (Cloud)_xp1marketingautomation.scwdp.zip ` | The Marketing Automation Engine is bundled with Marketing Automation Operations. The engine runs as an Azure WebJob in the context of the Marketing Automation Operations application. | | xDB Scaled | | |