I-model composition server and microstation connect & v8i

Can you use the ProjectWise application association to distinguish between the DGNs that must be renditioned using V8i versus the ones requiring CONNECT Edition?  Perhaps create "CE"-suffixed duplicates of the PW Application definitions you currently have. 

iCS for PDF (technically InterPlot Organizer) honors the PW application association for each document being renditioned, if the corresponding program is installed on the iCS for PDF server.  As far as I know, the V8i and CONNECT Edition products can co-exist on a single PC.  I'm pretty sure that's true for MicroStation, don't know about other products.  Workspaces are not a problem -- every PW workspace and its contained documents are downloaded to unique file/folders on the iCS server, and unmanaged workspaces can be configured to not step on each other.

iCS for PDF is strictly individual CAD file based, with the exception of InterPlot plot set (IPS) files.  As far as I know, it's not possible manage a .dgnws inside ProjectWise (I might be wrong about that).  I am certain that neither iCS for PDF nor InterPlot Organizer can read sheet set information out of a .dgnws file.

A ProjectWise datasource is almost always associated with a single iCS for PDF server, whose endpoint is defined in dmskrnl.cfg.  There is support for multiple rendition service endpoints using the ALLOW/DENY syntax in dmskrnl.cfg, but that only allows you to select endpoints based on client IP address.  The idea being to direct rendition requests to the iCS for PDF server located closest to the caching server being used by that client.  There is no ability to select rendition servers based on any other criteria.

Can you use the ProjectWise application association to distinguish between the DGNs that must be renditioned using V8i versus the ones requiring CONNECT Edition?  Perhaps create "CE"-suffixed duplicates of the PW Application definitions you currently have. 

iCS for PDF (technically InterPlot Organizer) honors the PW application association for each document being renditioned, if the corresponding program is installed on the iCS for PDF server.  As far as I know, the V8i and CONNECT Edition products can co-exist on a single PC.  I'm pretty sure that's true for MicroStation, don't know about other products.  Workspaces are not a problem -- every PW workspace and its contained documents are downloaded to unique file/folders on the iCS server, and unmanaged workspaces can be configured to not step on each other.

iCS for PDF is strictly individual CAD file based, with the exception of InterPlot plot set (IPS) files.  As far as I know, it's not possible manage a .dgnws inside ProjectWise (I might be wrong about that).  I am certain that neither iCS for PDF nor InterPlot Organizer can read sheet set information out of a .dgnws file.

A ProjectWise datasource is almost always associated with a single iCS for PDF server, whose endpoint is defined in dmskrnl.cfg.  There is support for multiple rendition service endpoints using the ALLOW/DENY syntax in dmskrnl.cfg, but that only allows you to select endpoints based on client IP address.  The idea being to direct rendition requests to the iCS for PDF server located closest to the caching server being used by that client.  There is no ability to select rendition servers based on any other criteria.

Thanks Andrew, this gives me the info I need to get started. Connect and V8i can co-exist with independent workspace configurations so the application association will probably be what we need to use (it gets complicated by Bentley moving to power products so now we have MicroStation CONNECT, OpenRoads, OpenRail and OpenBridge as independent applications, but I think I know how to proceed.

On the dgnws file - you can manage dgnws files in Projectwise as long as you are using a managed workspace, but you're thinking on a deeper level than what I was looking for. I'm just wanting the ability to right-click a sheet in the sheet index and submit it for rendition right there. Currently (for us) if you want to submit a sheet, you have to switch back to ProjectWise Explorer, find the sheet, right-click and do Create Rendition. I want the Create Rendition option right in Explorer in MicroStation. It wouldn't submit the dgnws for processing, it would do exactly what the PW Explorer Create Rendition does - send the dgn.

We haven't needed additional ICS servers yet, but I suspect that time is coming soon. Unfortunately because the submittal is controlled by the dmskrnl.cfg, when you say "a Projectwise datasource is almost always associated with a single ICS server" it's more like a single ProjectWise integration server (with 1 or more datasources) is associated to a ICS server. Our integration servers are clustered so all of our datasources appear to be on one integration server.

One thought I had on this was to dedicate one ICS server to handling scheduled jobs since they run on the server where they are scheduled, then a 2nd server just for ad. hoc user requests.