Cracking the Vault

#23 Do... Setup Database Mail In A Connected Workgroup Environment

Autodesk have published a Best Practice in the Vault Wiki called "Monitoring SQL Replication"

"It is very important to monitor the replication environment.  SQL Server provides replication alerts and threshold settings that can be monitored and emailed to system administrators if an alert occurs or a threshold has been passed."

Step By Step Guide to Installing Updates or Hotfixes in a Connected Workgroup Environment

Rebuild Search Indexes in a Replicated Environment

Question: I have a replicated Vault environment and want to perform a "Rebuild Search Indexes" in the ADMS Console on all sites. Do I need to run this on each Server?

Answer: It is sufficient to run a "Rebuild Search Indexes" from a single ADMS Console and all Lucene catalogs will be scheduled to update for all Vaults on each site.

Troubleshooting 'Access Denied' issues related to Vault with Process Monitor

Sometimes you find yourself in a position where either get a pop up error message or in the logfiles you have errors that the access is denied.

Typical scenarios could be:

* You perform a backup and it fails with an error message 'Access Denied' (you see this usually in the logfiles)

* You create a new Vault Workgroup (replication) in Vault Server and get a SQL error -26

* You have problems with rebuilding the Search Index of your Vault and in the logfiles you find entries about Lucene error 227 and such entries:
Access to the path 'C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\VaultServer\Indexes\Vault\write.lock' is denied

And all other issues where you can think of that the root cause could be just a failed windows operation due to lack of permissions.

To troubleshoot the issue you could use Process Monitor (from Microsoft).

1. Download Process Monitor here

2. Run Process Monitor on the Vault Server

3. In Menu Filter go to Filter ...

4. Pick Result and use the condition "is". As value choose: ACCESS DENIED

5. Click add to enable the Filter and then the ok button

6. Press Ctrl + X to clear the current results inside process monitor

7. Reproduce your issue again (try to perform the backup, add the Workgroup, rebuild search indexes etc.)

Now you should see some operations which failed due to the Result "Access Denied" like this:

Knowledge is key!

Autodesk regularly publishes White Papers regarding frequently asked-for topics such as how something works, best practices and optimising performance. There is a wealth of topics covered on the Autodesk Vault White Paper website.

The latest addition to the Vault White Papers website covers tests carried out on Vault speed performance used in conjunction with Riverbed WAN Optimisation technologies. See "Speed collaboration using Autodesk Vault and Riverbed WAN Optimization".

"Geographically dispersed teams using 3D for clear design communication may struggle to collaborate effectively because sharing data using common Microsoft Windows file directories can take too long. Autodesk® Vault helps solve this problem by improving access to the latest designs even across global, wide area networks (WANs). When WANs exhibit high latency, the combination of Autodesk Vault and Riverbed® WAN optimization technology utilizing Steelhead®, a powerful data store and deduplication appliance, provides an effective solution to help maintain fast and efficient design data access. Tests performed by Autodesk illustrate the value of this combination—the addition of WAN optimization may dramatically reduce file transfer by up to 99% without further requirements to upgrade or replace existing software or hardware"

"This server must be the same version as the servers in the replication environment and must have the same applications."

If you install a Vault Server Update on one Server, but not another, when you start the ADMS Console on a machine that does not have it installed, you will get this sort of message.

--------------------
Autodesk Data Management Server Console 2012
--------------------
This server must be the same version as the servers in the replication environment and must have the same applications.
You must add or upgrade to the following applications:

  Vault Professional Server 16.1.58.0  (Service Pack 1)
  Vault Server 16.1.58.0  (Service Pack 1)
  Vault Collaboration Server 16.1.58.0  (Service Pack 1)
  Vault Workgroup Server 16.1.58.0  (Service Pack 1)

Service packs are available from:
  www.autodesk.com.
Applications are available from your reseller.

Ctrl+C copies this message to the clipboard
   
--------------------
OK
--------------------

Before running the ADMS Console in a Connected Workgroup, ensure that you have applied the same level of Update as all other Vault Servers. If there are any special instructions in the readme file, such as a -b2bmigrate, that command must be executed on 1 Vault Server in the Publisher Workgroup first.

 

Subscribing Workgroups must have the same version of SQL Server as the publishing workgroup

After installing SQL and try to Add a Workgroup in the ADMS Console, you are returned this error message

Subscribing workgroups must have the same version of SQL Server as the publishing workgroup.

In this instance, SQL 2008 R2 RTM was installed on both machines. However, on one machine Windows Updates had installed a patch for SQL on the publisher. But Windows Updates had installed the same patch on the Subscriber.

In the Vault Implementation Guide it asks "Are all Windows updates current on all servers?" in the Pre-Install Checklist. Obviously in this case there was a mismatch which was addressed by running Windows Update on both servers.

As mentioned in the Best and Worst practices of Vault...(see the categories on this blog) We recommend that once a machine enters production to turn OFF Windows Updates and lock it down. If this hotfix had been applied on one machine but not the other in a production environment, it would not be obvious to figure out the root cause of a failed replication.

It's best to turn off WU or there may be boo hoo ;-)

Replication Error Not Enough Permission to Path

In the ADMS Console you right click the Workgroups node and select "Enable Workgroup Replication",#

You enter the details like this for example,

Then you get this message.

"User '<servername>\AUTODESKVAULT' does not have permission to path '<servername>\<replication shared folder>\ADMS."

This happens because the User account under which the SQL instance operates does not have full control access to the shared network folder. By default, this service is the "NETWORK SERVICE" . So giving the NETWORK SERVICE account access to the replication shared folder addresses this issue.

This requirement is documented in the Vault Implementation Guide as a "Note" in the "Set Up Multiple Site Environments" section. Also See the Vault Wiki "Note: Both the user account under which the Autodesk Vault server runs and the user account under which the SQL instance operates need full control access to the shared network folder."

 

 

DuplicateVaultGuid [217]

You are trying to attach a database to a Vault Server and you get this message in the ADMS Console Log.

30/01/2012 10:21:59 Connectivity.Application.VaultManager.ServiceException: DuplicateVaultGuid [217] (Vault, VaultX) ---> Connectivity.Core.Exceptions.CoreException: DuplicateVaultGuid [217] (Vault, VaultX)

Server stack trace:
at Connectivity.Core.Operations.AttachVault.AttachToMaster()
at Connectivity.Core.Operations.Attach.Execute(Boolean markForMigration)
at Connectivity.Core.Services.KnowledgeVaultService.AttachKnowledgeVault(String name, String datafile, String logfile, String filestore, Boolean markForMigration)
at System.Runtime.Remoting.Messaging.Message.Dispatch(Object target, Boolean fExecuteInContext)
at System.Runtime.Remoting.Messaging.StackBuilderSink.SyncProcessMessage(IMessage msg, Int32 methodPtr, Boolean fExecuteInContext)

Exception rethrown at [0]:
at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.HandleReturnMessage(IMessage reqMsg, IMessage retMsg)
at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.PrivateInvoke(MessageData& msgData, Int32 type)
at Connectivity.Core.Services.KnowledgeVaultService.AttachKnowledgeVault(String name, String datafile, String logfile, String filestore, Boolean markForMigration)
at Connectivity.Application.VaultManager.KnowledgeVaultService.AttachKnowledgeVault(String name, String datafile, String logfile, String filestore, String dbUser, String dbPass)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at Connectivity.Application.VaultManager.ProgressCommand.Execute()
at Connectivity.Application.VaultManager.AttachVaultCommand.OnExecute(ExplorerCommandContext context)

 

The Database Transaction Log is Full and Cannot Be Grown.

When trying to replicate a library from the ADMS Console, a message appeared:-

 

Error

The database tracnsaction log is full and cannot be grown. Please check for available disk space.

After checking that there is enough disk space on the disk, start the SQL Management Console and check the settings. Compare the settings for the the errant database with those of another system. In particular pay attention to the Database Settings Autogrowth on the Files page. Ensure that Autogrowth is enabled and unrestricted.

Also check the Options against the default