Whether BPD instances run in deactivated snapshots

If you deactivate a snapshot, starting new business process definition (BPD) instances and progressing existing instances might be impacted.

For example, the following ways of starting instances for a specific snapshot are blocked if the snapshot is deactivated:

Web service integrations
JavaScript APIs
REST APIs

However, the following ways of starting instances for a specific snapshot are not blocked if the snapshot is deactivated.

Process Designer
An undercover agent (UCA) that targets a specific snapshot

Two configuration settings can impact services or running BPDs that belong to a deactivated snapshot. In IBM BPM V7.5.1.1, these properties were set to true by default. In IBM BPM V8.x, these properties are set to false by default.

block-deactivated-snapshot-task-progression: When set to true, this property prevents task-based services, like BPD activities, from starting or progressing. Running BPD instances will not be able to finish.
block-deactivated-snapshot-favorite-progression: When set to true, this property prevents services from starting or progressing if they do not have tasks and are associated with exposed favorites (startable services, URLs, project pages, and dashboards).

If you need to modify these properties, see the following example, which shows XML that you can add to the 100Custom.xml file.

<server>
        <block-deactivated-snapshot-favorite-progression merge="replace">false</block-deactivated-snapshot-favorite-progression>         
        <block-deactivated-snapshot-task-progression merge="replace">false</block-deactivated-snapshot-task-progression>
</server>

For more information about modifying XML configuration settings, see the topic The 100Custom.xml file and configuration.