9.1 - Logging Client Properties

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Lewis
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9.1 - Logging Client Properties

Post by Lewis »

Is there a way in this version 9.1 to enable logging of client transactions
( ie login , logout, pword chnage , ...) ?

* as mentioned in earlier posting Tm1Top is not a viable alternative to
the ability to query log files.

Thanks
Lewis
Mike L
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Re: 9.1 - Logging Client Properties

Post by Mike L »

This used to be easily accomplished in older releases by logging the }ClientProperties cube. However, in release 9.1SP3 updating client status in this cube in real time was causing multithreading to deadlock on critical operations, so it was disabled. See discussion in the old forum at this thread. (applixforum.olapforums.com/viewPost.php?threadID=14674&searchTerm=login contention#146748)

I am not aware of any workaround other than TM1Top, but there may be something in the works for version 9.4. I certainly hope so, because the present situation makes it practically impossible to administer servers in a credibly professional manner without rolling back to an earlier release.


Edit: Fix link. Broke on word wrap.
Last edited by Mike L on Wed Aug 13, 2008 1:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 9.1 - Logging Client Properties

Post by Eric »

Did someone say 9.4!

I heard 9.4 will grant each user 3 wishes! :D
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Re: 9.1 - Logging Client Properties

Post by Alan Kirk »

Mike L wrote:I am not aware of any workaround other than TM1Top, but there may be something in the works for version 9.4. I certainly hope so, because the present situation makes it practically impossible to administer servers in a credibly professional manner without rolling back to an earlier release.
Funny that this thread should appear, since I started working on my "TM1 Top Log Extractor" yesterday (which will be posted here when done) and was thinking of putting up a post asking whether anyone needed any features from it other than the ones I plan to build in. However I was going to wait until I'd at least written the file reading / date calculation procedures.

Aaaanyhooz, it's obviously primarily designed for my own needs which are to know who logged in when. To this end it will produce a list in either (optionally) .csv or .xls format showing name, session start, and session end. We don't use the log files directly; we mostly query off an Access database system that stores our log files (since we can query multiple values that way; the default TM1 query is seriously fast, but can only query one element at a time) and I'll be able to import the .csv in to that database.

If anyone does need it to do more than just return a list of logins / log outs, feel free to post the details here and I'll see what I can do.
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Lukas Meyer
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Re: 9.1 - Logging Client Properties

Post by Lukas Meyer »

I might be wrong - but why not (ab)use the }StatsByClient cube (while Performance Monitor is enabled) - I could look every minute into the latest/Message Count intersection with users (or cycle thorough 0M00-1M00 every hour (according to execution - this way one can execute the process every time) or even check the sums of the previous day.
Message Count should be 2 while a client idles (so it adds up incoming and outgoing messages?).
This should work fine for Architect/Perspectives clients, but for Web-Clients one can not determine idle-time:( (well, if I sum up the MC of an hour I'd see if a client did anything ...)

But I'm not sure if this would do any harm to anything ... it should work properly :) (but not defining the cube-variable of a CellPutN shouldn't cause to crash the server without messages ^^ so this could be yet another way to shut the server down :D )
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Re: 9.1 - Logging Client Properties

Post by jim wood »

Eric wrote:Did someone say 9.4!

I heard 9.4 will grant each user 3 wishes! :D
Eric, will you put 9.4 down. It's turning in to an obsession matey!!!!
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Re: 9.1 - Logging Client Properties

Post by Alan Kirk »

jim wood wrote:
Eric wrote:Did someone say 9.4!

I heard 9.4 will grant each user 3 wishes! :D
Eric, will you put 9.4 down. It's turning in to an obsession matey!!!!
He forgot to mention that the first wish (which will inevitably be for a bug-free version of TM1) will result in the server hanging as soon as it tries to execute.

When you proxy on to the server you'll see an unhandled memory error dialog...

You don't want to know what happens when you attempt to execute the 2nd and 3rd wishes.
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Re: 9.1 - Logging Client Properties

Post by David Usherwood »

Not for the first time...
What is there about 9.1.x which makes you want to keep it and not move to 9.0SPU7?
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Re: 9.1 - Logging Client Properties

Post by Alan Kirk »

David Usherwood wrote:Not for the first time...
What is there about 9.1.x which makes you want to keep it and not move to 9.0SPU7?
Huh, wazzat question pointed in my direction? If so, I don't recall you asking that question before, or at least not to me. I'm not saying you DIDN'T, just that I didn't see it. (There are occasional periods like budget where I have to skip over the Forum (this one or the old one) for a cuppa-too-tree weeks.)

Anyway, if that WAS being asked of me... the reasons are:
(a) We never tested 9.0 and I seriously can't be a$$ed to go back and do that just because Iboglix can't get 9.1 working properly. You may recall that we've been bitten in the nether regions by unforeseen upgrade bugs before. Obviously we can only vaguely emulate load testing before 47 concurrent users do it for real, so we may not catch EVERYTHING, but we DO grind through a whole battery of tests to confirm that we're getting the same results as the existing version for rules, that TIs run the same way, that we don't get runaway memory spikes, that processing times are comparable or hopefully better... all of this is tedious and time consuming and did I mention tedious, and I don't want to do it very often.
(b) We've isolated the critical bugs in 9.1. They make it unusable for a production version, but it runs the simple Web application that we've created well enough. Because let's face it, all Web CAN do even passably well is a simple application. Web is to a true web site as a can of artificial lunch meat is to Lobster Thermidor. In Dreamweaver you can create crisp, sharp, CSS formatted pages with the occasional Flash highlight where it's called for, appropriate and relevant. In Web you can create a web sheet with some graphics which you can only hope to the gods will render properly on one brand of browser. But at least it runs, and it can run without falling over, as long as you ask remarkably little of it.

We live in hope that the next SP for 9.1 will actually be useable for a full production environment. You know, two chores don't tank the server, selecting from a dynamic subset doesn't tank the client, that kinda thing. Yes, it means that we will still have to go through that battery of tests again, but at least if they don't change the functionality too much then hopefully, fingers crossed, it will solve 9.1's existing glitches and not introduce any new ones.

Of course, we could always wait for 9.4 which will {Cue Eric} not only have no bugs, but will automatically analyse all of our data and create EBITDA projections for the next 15 years accurate to 7 decimal places. Of course, a small down side is that it will attain sentience with SP1 and take over the nuclear missile silos and... well, you've seen the Terminator movies, I don't have to describe it further.
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Re: 9.1 - Logging Client Properties

Post by David Usherwood »

Alan, you really are in the wrong business. Surely there's a comedy club somewhere for techie standups? Great read.

No, it wasn't you I asked - more a general question.

Yes, my conclusion is the same as yours - 9.1.x is not for 'Prime Time'. I can understand why you would rather not regression test everything. Maybe us (and our clients) got lucky with versions but then, we did work with 9.0SP2 and 9.0SP3U<null>, both of which broke some important features.

I can't remember but is your main server 8.4.5?

We'll be looking at 9.4 when it comes out (soon I believe). We are on the beta program and gave it a good shake. It has some nice features but I don't recall a 'must migrate' USP. And compulsory Unicode means you can't go back. Not nice.
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Re: 9.1 - Logging Client Properties

Post by Alan Kirk »

David Usherwood wrote:I can't remember but is your main server 8.4.5?
Nope, we're still 8.2.12. After going through hell in 8.2.10 and 8.2.11, we got to 8.2.12 and it was like one of those horror movies where we were just out of reach of the monster.

"Everybody... keep... very... very... still... Don't make any unnecessary moves. If the server's still up in 48 hours, we'll know that we're safe..."

The other thing is that 8.3 and 8.4 were the versions where Applix seemed to be putting out a new release every couple of weeks. Since I finally had a version that was stable (as long as you don't do a scheduled SaveDataAll command in TI) and performed reasonably well, I didn't feel the need to yell "Geronimoooooooo!!!!", jump out of the 8.2.12 'plane, and hope that the 8.3/8.4 upgrade parachute would work.

I've just added my version number into my profile; it may not be a bad idea for people to do that, since it offers a quick way of checking which version they're referring to in their posts if they don't mention it specifically. I have to admit that I lose track of which versions everyone's on as well.
David Usherwood wrote:We'll be looking at 9.4 when it comes out (soon I believe). We are on the beta program and gave it a good shake. It has some nice features but I don't recall a 'must migrate' USP. And compulsory Unicode means you can't go back. Not nice.
{Eric:} But 9.4 will come with TIME TRAVEL! Which means that when it's finally released, it will have ALREADY been released; in fact it will-was-have-been released concurrently with version 6! {/Eric} :D
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Re: 9.1 - Logging Client Properties

Post by bihints.com »

Alan Kirk wrote:
David Usherwood wrote:Not for the first time...
Of course, we could always wait for 9.4 which will {Cue Eric} not only have no bugs, but will automatically analyse all of our data and create EBITDA projections for the next 15 years accurate to 7 decimal places. Of course, a small down side is that it will attain sentience with SP1 and take over the nuclear missile silos and... well, you've seen the Terminator movies, I don't have to describe it further.
Actually T4 will probably out before TM1 9.4SP1 "salvation".
trailer is already out -> http://youtube.com/watch?v=YRw3AkbtJhQ
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Re: 9.1 - Logging Client Properties

Post by Alan Kirk »

bihints.com wrote:
Alan Kirk wrote:
David Usherwood wrote:Not for the first time...
Of course, we could always wait for 9.4 which will {Cue Eric} not only have no bugs, but will automatically analyse all of our data and create EBITDA projections for the next 15 years accurate to 7 decimal places. Of course, a small down side is that it will attain sentience with SP1 and take over the nuclear missile silos and... well, you've seen the Terminator movies, I don't have to describe it further.
Actually T4 will probably out before TM1 9.4SP1 "salvation".
trailer is already out -> http://youtube.com/watch?v=YRw3AkbtJhQ
Given the recent history of point releases and the service patches thereto, I believe that the religious metaphor that applies is actually "purgatory" rather than "salvation".

With apologies to the late and lamented Dave Allen:
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TomBr
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Re: 9.1 - Logging Client Properties

Post by TomBr »

Hi,

The second post in this thread refers to a discussion in the old forum. On that discussion there was a post (by RJ) with an Excel application that showed stats such as who is logged on. GetLink

Does anyone still have a copy of this ? It seems like a potential alternative to the missing ACTIVE status in the }ClientProperties cube.

Thanks,

Tom
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Re: 9.1 - Logging Client Properties

Post by Alan Kirk »

TomBr wrote:Hi,

The second post in this thread refers to a discussion in the old forum. On that discussion there was a post (by RJ) with an Excel application that showed stats such as who is logged on. GetLink

Does anyone still have a copy of this ? It seems like a potential alternative to the missing ACTIVE status in the }ClientProperties cube.
A damn fine piece of coding it was, too. Actually I'm not sure where RJ's gotten to; he hasn't been around for a while, even when I alluded to Canberra actually being part of NSW; I expected a response to that!

Anyway I hope he won't mind, but I'll put the copy that I have up.
Attachments
RJsActivePortsApp.xls
(249.5 KiB) Downloaded 436 times
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TomBr
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Re: 9.1 - Logging Client Properties

Post by TomBr »

Thanks for that.

Very useful.

Tom
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