Support: A day in the life of.

Recently Random and I were going over our daily activities, which can include internal support, Client support, and project work, and we were discussing how scattered and at times hectic our days can end up. We put together a list of events that could happen on any given day. This shows how techs covering several duties must be able to multitask and not pull your hair out in the process.

7:50 AM -Arrive at work, boot up laptop, and prepare for another work day.

7:55 AM – Check emails that came in over the night. It looks like we received a ticket regarding a client’s Oracle IPM that had crashed and they are not sure why. They attached the log information, but it will take some further investigation to fully vet the issue. Go to get coffee and found none ready so I needed to start a pot, I’ll come back later when the coffee is done.

8:00 AM – Begin work on an internal project that I was unable to work on much yesterday. Nothing scheduled for today so I should have time to work on it and I expect to finish it by the end of the day.

8:30 AM – Support Hours start.

8:35 AM – Reviewed Oracle IPM logs from the ticket that came in last night. I called the client and was only able to leave a voice mail.

8:55 AM – Returned to work on internal project.

9:02 AM – Internal Support: Employee calls asking for help with their second monitor. They cannot get it to come up even after several reboots.

9:18 AM – Replaced the cable and it fixed the issue.

9:21 AM – Back to work on my project.

9:40 AM – New Ticket. Here is the customer’s description: Urgent: System down!!! Please contact ASAP!!!. The call is listed as urgent, severity 1, so I will call immediately.

9:42 AM – After a couple of attempts to call I could only reach a voicemail. Sent off an email and still awaiting a response.

9:44 AM – Go to get Coffee and had to start another pot as someone left the pot that I had started earlier empty!

9:52 AM – Resume work on my internal project.

10:07am – Instant message from another employee who needs some help trouble shooting an issue for an upcoming demo. Started a WebEx to review the problem and help trouble shoot system.

11:01 AM – NEW TICKET – Client has questions about Nexus 10, forwarded ticket to their Sales Rep and Marketing to answer their questions. Back to work on trouble shooting.

11:55am – Found the issue in the linked server configuration on the system that is being configured for the demo.

11:57am – Stretch break right before lunch time.

12:50pm – Return from lunch only to find out that the entire network is down including all email.

12:59pm – Received phone call from employee letting us know that the email is down. I ensured them that we are working on the issue and we will have it up as soon as possible.

1:04pm – Received phone call from another employee letting us know that the email is down.

1:11pm – While trying to fix the networking issue, we received IM letting us know that the email is down. We are unable to send out a companywide email to inform people that the network is down because the email is down.

1:48pm – Found the issue with the network. An employee had connected a LAN line back into an internal jack causing a dead loop. This in turn shut everything down. After many insults we were finally able to forgive the coworker. Sent companywide email letting everyone know what had shut the system down and how to avoid this in the future.

1:50 – Back to work on internal project.

2:03 PM – NEW TICKET. Description: 1-3 users are unable to look at images on their workstations. They are able to see the images on other workstations. We have tried rebooting several times as prompted, but we are then asked to reboot again. Please Help!

2:09 PM – Finally able to figure out what the client’s was trying to say and sent email with the steps on how to correct issue. Returned to internal project

2:13 – Received response from “urgent” ticket. Contacted the client and jumped on a WebEx to solve the issue.

3:40 – After several attempts to unsuccessfully ping the storage server, the client rebooted the server. After the reboot we are still unable to ping or remote into the server, we successfully attempt to directly log into the server, and found that the NIC drivers became corrupt. Reinstalling drivers and rebooting the server brought it back up online.

3:41 – Back to project.

3:50 – Customer called wanting help configuring a batch class in ILINXCapture. I then walked the client through submitting a support ticket .

4:09 – Finished assisting client with building the desired batch classes in ILINX Capture.

4:28 PM – NEW TICKET – Client needs assistance in backing up their system. The client is busy through the rest of the day and we set up and appointment first thing in the morning.

4:33 PM – Restart internal project

5:00 – Entered in time for the day and realized that I was never able to finish my project. Oh well, there is always tomorrow.

Brandon Konen
S.E. at ImageSource Inc.

Random McParks
S.E. at ImageSource Inc.

  

eForms Technology Short Cuts That Really Work!

Often we are up against tight deadlines and we need to use all our tricks and tools to help increase efficiency and provide a better client experience.  When we have clients with large form libraries that need converting to eForms; one of my favorite tools to use is FormBridge for Liquid Office.  FormBridge does direct conversions of PDF, word, excel and other common form files to Liquid Office xfm files like magic!  The converted forms are fully editable and are amazingly accurate copies with minor tweaks for formatting once translated.  FormBridge automatically creates fillable fields, just as a forms designer would and this is a huge time saver.

Forms kick-off workflows and drive business.  Moving paper based and un-editable eforms to an intelligent digital format has many benefits such as cost savings based on efficiencies and increased accessibility.  Even a small business may have hundreds of forms.  As a system integrator of ECM technologies we know what tools and tips to help your eForms initiative become a huge success.

Leigh Woody

Program Manager

ImageSource, Inc.

Advanced eForms Strategies for LiquidOffice

Information technology can improve operational efficiency and businesses are turning to forms processing for automating complex processes where information is often very dynamic and acted upon in parallel.  Many of our clients request very complicated multi-form rule based combinations that can be extremely complex and have data dictionaries exceeding 1,500 form fields.  There are two different ways to approach advanced multi-form development and design.  One is to use a method called form chaining or you can use tools such as Liquid Office Case Management.

Form Chaining is a method of displaying subsequent forms based on the submission of the original form.  This is done when field data from the first form is mapped to the 2^nd form – chained forms open sequentially upon submission of a primary form.  Simple chaining can be achieved using out-of-the box features of the LiquidOffice Process studio.  Outside of a formal workflow, the same results can be achieved.  The following is code example for ad-hoc form chaining.  In this example, the ‘chained’ form that opens on submission is called ‘FormB2’.

function CSForm_OnSubmit()

{

var auth = CSForm.getField(“Entry1″).getValue();  //get value from 1st form = then on submit, pass this field value to the next chained form

CSForm.setResponseURL(“http://servername/lfserver/FormB2?Entry1=” + auth );  //this loads the 2nd, chained form and populates one of the fields with a value from the 1st form

return true;

}

Alternatively, Autonomy Case Management (ACM) can be used for more complex multidimensional and nested forms.  ACM addresses the same need but manages forms and documents as packets or a case.   Items within a packet are able to dynamically exist as either standalone entities or as part of a collection depending upon real-time conditions which are automatically detected. Users are guided through the process using a Table of Contents to ensure completion at each step as shown below.

The ACM design studio is a GUI-based point and click tool which is integrated directly into the Autonomy Enterprise Information Processing platform.  This means that with a click all information that may contribute to the design of a case is available in real-time directly from within the design environment.  Complex rule sets can be developed and applied at any level of the case such as packet, form and field which allows for an extremely tuned process.

Leigh Woody                  Peter Lang

Program Manager        System Engineer

ImageSource, Inc.

Things to Consider When Looking to Move to a Paperless Workplace

The rise of instant communication technologies that is made possible through use of the internet (email, texting, IM) and new media (YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter) have brought new ways of handling everyday operations in the world of business. With every new generation, there comes an increased aptitude for technology and evolving work approach using new inventive ways to use that technology. The Net Generation is the first group of “digital natives” that seem to be changing the office workplace like no other age bracket in the past.

It is a known fact that people of the “Net Generation” are more familiar with devices such as cell phones, laptops, and hand held gaming devices. People from this generation think that using paper in the work place is a thing of the past. Most of them usually get their messages through emails, IM’s, and/or Tweets, so it’s no wonder why this generation thinks paper as out dated and archaic.  Sending IM’s and emails are much faster, more convenient, and more eco-friendly than using the standard postal system.

Enterprise Content Management systems are getting more and more common in the workplace. Forms, letters, emails, notes, and paperwork need a place to live for quick and easy access. Companies are looking for ways to store their documents electronically rather than using a hard copy filing system in a file cabinet.  I can’t think of a better generation to embrace this technology than the Net Generation.

With all of this said, the Net Generation has an advantage over the rest of us because they entered this world with the digital age already in place and we should take advantage of that fact and allow these great minds to thrive and expand their knowledge in the workforce. They will be a great asset in the long run, and will be able to get the older generations up to speed with the new technology.

Here are some good ideas on how to get your company up to speed and maximize your company’s productivity.

1. Start moving away from paper based systems, and more towards email, digital forms, and electronic documents.
2. Build a good scanning system that can import your documents into a storage system such as a database.
3. When scanning the images find software that can do optical character recognition (OCR) to create easily searchable text.
4. Build a good storage system that has software that you can add annotations, signatures, highlights, blackouts and whiteouts to scanned documents.
5. Try to find software that allows you to build a workflow process of how you do work at your place of business.
6. And the most important, hire technology oriented people such as people from the Net Generation and let them be technology mentors in the workplace. This is a great opportunity where the students can become the teachers and  let them experiment in ways to drive paper out of the workflows of business – and lead and teach the rest of the organization.

John Hart

How To Perform Basic Web Troubleshooting for IPM Web

Web troubleshooting can be difficult and searching through Oracle Metalink to get information can be even worse.   I found this record in the Oracle Archives and thought it may help out other Acorde/Stellent/Oracle IPM/UCM users.  The following is a general guide for troubleshooting issues with the IPM Web service.  Hopefully reviewing the installation checklist and going through this troubleshooting guide will resolve most configuration issues with the web service.

Solution

Installation Phase

This phase encompasses all steps outlined in the install doc. If problems occur during or immediately following the installation, please review these steps:

1. How was the installation done?

At the console or through terminal services?

Terminal services has been known to cause serious issues in our installation of the web. It appears that when the install is done in this way, some files are not registered properly. Typically, you will see errors pointing to COM (login errors, plugin errors, etc.).

2. Were all the installation steps followed?

Check permissions, and verify that objects under the IBPMWeb and IBPMData folder all have the correct permissions. Reset all child objects under IBPMWeb and IBPMData. Make sure the correct web extensions are enabled.

3. Has the current problem been happening since the system was installed?

If yes, then you may need to review the install documentation.

4. Check the HKLM/Software/Optika/TRANSPORT/MANAGER_ADDRS

Make sure it points to the actual Request Broker machine (either the hostname or IP address). Also make sure the webserver can ping that address or hostname.

5. Is there a client or other services installed on the webserver?

If so, please understand that this is not a recommended configuration. In the event it is unavoidable, make sure that the services, (client and web) are all installed into the same location. For IPM web, the DLLs should be installed into C:\Program Files\Stellent\IBPM.

Startup Phase

This phase encompasses the process after installation or after an IISRESET.

1. Do the clients get the login screen?

If not, then we’re failing prior to getting all the ASP\DLLs loaded. Typically this points to either a permissions issue or a corruption in the IBPMWeb\OTInfrastructure\AcordeObjectHeaders folder. Delete all the files in that folder and do an IISRESET from a command prompt.

2. Can the user successfully login?

If not, this means that we are not getting a COM connection open to validate the user. Typically we will see a 29515 error appear stating we were not able to reach a service. In this case look at the permissions on the HKLM\Software\Optika registry key. Another item to look at is to make sure that if for some reason we have a client on the webserver that it is installed into the same folder as the IBPMWeb. Installing elsewhere will cause the web problems when it goes to register DLLs.

3. Is the error in the workcenter or elsewhere?

If after login we see an error on the workcenter, this points to an issue with the AcordeObjectHeaders folder. Rebuild that directory.

If the error happens in another window or frame then we’ll need to investigate those individually.

4. Is the client machine following a shortcut that points to a file below IBPMWeb?

In the past we have seen issues where a client will follow a shortcut that they created when at the login screen of the IPM Web. Doing so causes certain startup processes to be bypassed and can cause problems later because they may be using outdated connection information or other bad data that can cause varied problems.

Post Startup Phase

This phase encompasses any issues that occur after a successful installation and login. These errors typically come from problems with COM or from the connection to the backend servers. If these errors occur after an upgrade to the OS then check to make sure that any firewall or antivirus changes have been deactivated temporarily until we can determine if one of them is the cause.

Plug-in related Problems

For issues related to the plugin, look at the following:

1. Does the Messenger virtual directory contain an ISAPIMsgr.dll?

If not, then the Messenger virtual directory is pointed to the wrong location. Delete and re-create the Messenger virtual directory and point it at C:\Program Files\Stellent\IBPM

2. Does IUSR/IWAM have full control to the IBPMData folder?

If not, correct the security settings and then reset all child objects on that directory.

3. Are the users accessing the web with the hostname or IP address?

If they are using the hostname, you may want to adjust the Web Settings so that it uses hostname over IP (Login with a Web Administrator, click Administration -> Choose Web Settings -> Change the first section to use hostname and specify hostname.domain.com in the text box->Save the settings.)

4. Is there a proxy between the clients and the webserver?

If so, use the explanation for #3 and change the setting to hostname.

5. Are we seeing a *.opt file get created in the IBPMData\IBPMSessionData\<sessionid> folder?

If so, is the file larger than 4k? If so, open the file in a test editor and see what the message is. If it is larger than 4k we can assume that the images are getting to the webserver from export. This would indicate an issue with the plugin loading the image from IBPMData.

6. Check the IIS log and see if ISAPIMsgr.dll is listed as being accessed.

The log can be found at C:\Windows(orWINNT)\System32\LogFiles\W3SVC(number of website)\ and will be named after the date in which it was created. This file is helpful in troubleshooting different problems when you need to see if certain items are being requested from the web server.

How to do a complete uninstall of the IPM Web:

1. Use Add/Remove Programs to uninstall the web

2. Delete the Program Files\Stellent folder

3. Open Regedit and delete HKLM\Software\Optika and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Optika

4. Remove the entries in the IIS Administrator for IBPMWeb, IBPMData and Messenger virtual Directories.

When all else fails…

o When all else fails, get another machine and install the web on it temporarily. Does it exhibit the same issues?

o Was the web installed via Terminal Services? If so, re-install from the console.

o Was the IPMWeb uninstalled and re-installed, or just updated over the older version?

o Was the web installed over a network share? If so, try installing from the CDROM.

If you are still unable to resolve the issue, get the following information:

1. What OS version and service pack does the webserver have installed?

2. Does the webserver also have other applications installed (besides IBPMWeb) and are they running under the same website?

3. What version of IBPMWeb are they installing/using and does that version match the backend IPM servers?

4. Is the customer using custom web applications? Were these recently implemented or altered?

5. Does the customer have Antivirus scanning the IBPMWeb and IBPMData folders? If so, have them exclude these directories for the real time scan.

6. What version of IE is installed on the clients?

7. What version of the J2RE is installed on the clients?

8. How many users are accessing the IBPMWeb at any given time?

9. How much RAM is installed, and how fast are the CPUs along with how machine CPUs are present.

10. Enable IBPMWeb logging. Login into the web with a user which has been granted the Web Administrator Policy; Click Administration; Choose Web Defaults; Check m_AcordeWebLogging; Save, and do an IISRESET. A log will be produced at the root of C drive called AcordeWeb<date>.log. After the error is reproduced and a log is created, turn web logging back off because logging is not thread safe. Supply this log to ImageSource tech support and it will be analyzed for it any info it can provide.

Leigh Woody
Program Manager
ImageSource, Inc.

Enterprise Content Management (ECM): Best Practices for Backfile Conversion

The 2 main aspects of Backfile Conversion are Security and Quality.  Security within the document scanning process is tracking and maintaining records for each document through the workflow.  If a conversion workflow is tracked and accounted for efficiently, a quality product will be the result. 

In addition to maintaining records of documents it is not uncommon that someone will want to view one of the documents that are in the workflow.  If an itemized inventory list (tracking log) was created at the beginning of the conversion workflow and an entry to the tracking log was made every time the document was processed, it should take minutes to locate where the document is and provide either the hard copy or the imaged copy of that document for the individual looking for the document.

The conversion workflow process usually consists of incoming inventory, preparation of documents for scanning, scanning of documents, indexing, releasing of images into the Document Management System and outgoing inventory.  When an entry is made to the tracking log, the name and date should be included in the entry.  This will assign that technician the responsibility of the document during this stage in the workflow.  The goal with assigning responsibility is to add incentive for the technician to make sure the document is imaged clearly and indexed accurately.  Accountability ensures quality of work being produced.

Through the use of a tracking log documents are secure in that they know where they are at all times.  Technicians are held accountable for their work. 

 

Jeff Martin

Conversion Services Project Coordinator

ImageSource, Inc.

  

The Future of ECM Support and Web Based Distributed Capture

Now that there are scanning applications that live on the internet troubleshooting and client side desktop support just got a whole lot easier. No more patching individual workstations and mix matched versions on client desk tops. No more problems accessing and taking up disk space. No more OS compatibility issues. Web based applications is the future of ECM and those of us in Technical Support are embracing the expansion of web based scanning applications such as ILINX Capture and  Oracle Distributed Capture.

Sure, there are still browser issues and other problems that keep all of us techies really busy. Web based applications will not get rid of the need for technical support but it does reduce the amount of user contact and potential points of failure significantly. This is not new technology and thin client scanning has been evolving over the years and we are noticing a trend of renewed interest as companies are looking for ways to deploy software to larger communities and an increase in green initiatives to telecommute. I am looking forward to the next evolution of zero footprint web based distributed scanning and the ease of deployment and supportability.

Leigh Woody

Program Manager

ImageSource, Inc.

When you are a hammer all of your problems look like nails.

The phrase “When you are a hammer all of your problems look like nails” is just one version of a group of statements that refers to the phenomenon that the French call déformation professionnelle which refers to looking at things from the point of view of one’s profession.  This behavior is more commonly know in the psychological field as the “Law of the Instrument” and was purposed first by Maslow.  A simplified version of his concept is thus: an individual that is incomplete in their knowledge or training, tends to propose the same type of solution to every problem they encounter.  They opt for the more familiar solution to one that may be more effective.  People unconsciously fall back on what they are comfortable with and where they have been trained instead of stepping back and looking at the whole picture to find the most rational solution.  For example, a cardiologist might automatically assume left arm numbness or tingling as an issue with ones heart, a systems engineer might identify poor scanned image quality as incorrect software settings when in reality the issue could be in an hardware issue with the scanner. 

This situation can happen frequently with content management support as most ECM systems (ie. Oracle UCM, Oracle IPM, Kofax, ILINX Capture) are large and complex requiring support to have knowledge in several areas including but not limited to; Networking, Engineers, Development, and Scanner Hardware Repair.  Each department will rely on fixing issues based on what they are trained in.

In addition to proper training one of the best ways to combat this behavior is to simply be aware of it.  If we are conscious of our behavior it will help us to avoid our unconscious actions.  Psychologist Carl Jung said “Man’s task is to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious.”   Eventually, the desired behavior to see a problem from another person’s perspective will become habit and will alter our automatic response.  One must also seek to look at all system behaviors for anomalies, even if they seen normal to the user.  If an abnormal behavior has gone on long enough it will become normal behavior.  Pulling someone else in to get a second opinion can also be helpful on finding the irregularity patterns.  Its best to look at the whole picture and try to hypothesize what is really going on.  The main point to keep in mind as you are diagnosing issues is whether the behaviors and/or symptoms that you are seeing in a system and your hypothesis of the cause truly fit together, if they don’t you are running the potential of falling victim to getting clubbed by the “Hammer”.

Co-Authered  by:
Brandon Konen
Support Engineer
ImageSource, Inc.

Random McParks
Support Engineer
ImageSource, Inc.

Monitoring Server Performance

Does your ECM server seem to have performance related issues?  Are requests to your ECM software taking longer than normal?  If so then you may have a few choices:

• You can always add some extra physical ram, this may help but may not get you to the root of the problem.
• You could maybe add a processor or two and hope for the best, or you can figure out why your ECM server is running so slowly. 

There are several different things that can cause ECM system performance degradation.  In this article we will explain how you can use Performance Monitor aka “PerfMon” a Microsoft Windows built in diagnostic tool to help determine the cause of your ECM server’s bottle neck.

As with any other diagnostic tool Performance Monitor is a running process and like any other process, Performance Monitor may consume things like CPU cycles, system memory, and potentially hard disk resources.  This will slightly lower the amount of available system resources reported by Performance Monitor then when performance monitor is not running.  Even with that Performance Monitor is still accurate enough that it can be used to help IT staff determine system bottle necks that are causing performance related issues.

When running Performance Monitor we recommend turning off all of the default counters.  This will allow you to add the counters and attributes that we are going to discuss below.

• % Processor Time
  • This counter will show you what percentage of the available CPU cycles that are being consumed by the system. For example if the % Processor Time counter reads 40, then the CPU is working at 40% capacity.  If your processor is exceeding 65% capacity then this will be a problem area.
• % Disk Time
  • This counter’s average value should be as low as possible. An average value of 70% or above indicates that the hard disk can’t keep up.  Adding more spindles or faster hard disks may be required.
• Current Disk Queue Length
  • This counter will show you how many I/O operations are waiting for the hard disk to become available.  Our recommendation is that the average disk queue length should be 4 or less.  Adding more spindles or faster hard disks may be required.
• Cache Bytes
  • This counter monitors the amount of memory being used for the file system cache.  Anything over 10 MB would be considered too much. If this is the case it is recommended that you add more physical memory.
• Pool Non-paged Bytes and Pool Non-paged Allocations
  • Another way to test for memory leaks is to monitor these two counters. The Pool Non-paged Bytes counter counts pages of memory that can’t be moved to virtual memory, these will stay in physical RAM.  Most likely, if this value is too high, you’ll have to add more physical memory to the system.  You can also watch the Pool Non-paged Allocations counter to see how many calls are being made to that portion of the memory. If the number of calls does not seem to correspond with the number of memory pages, you may likely have a memory leak rather than an insufficient amount of physical ram.
• PAGES/SEC
  • This value counts the number of times per second that the system is accessing virtual memory rather than physical memory. A value above 20 is considered to be high, and it may indicate a problem with the way your virtual memory is configured rather than a problem or shortage of physical memory.

We recommend monitoring these counters over a day or more to document and establish a baseline.

Co-Authered  by:
Jon Sutherland
Senior Systems Engineer
ImageSource, Inc.

Bryan Wilhelm
Senior Systems Engineer
ImageSource, Inc.

Another Good Reason to Recommend Upgrading an Image Capture System

I recently had a ticket I found to be very interesting.  

As I started to dig into the issue with an older version of an imaging capture system and I soon realized that .NET 2.0 was not supported, and manufacture recommended their customers to uninstall the .NET 2.0 framework. As you know that’s very hard to do in today’s world so they came up with an unsupported workaround.

The workaround is very tedious and can be very painful to implement depending on the customer’s Image Capture setup and the number of scan stations they might have. The workaround consists of creating 13 configuration files for the Image Capture install and they have to be installed on each scan station as well as the Image Capture server.  If you have third party software installed you will also have to create configuration files for each of these as well

The other kicker to this workaround is that when a customer updates their .NET 2.0 framework, it breaks the connection with the License server and you have to restart the Image Capture Service on the server.  Sometimes this doesn’t even work and you have to do a registry hack on each of the scan stations and then you have to restart the service on the server.

As you can see from the examples above this is not a very efficient way to manage and operate your Image Capture system, and it’s about time to upgrade your system to something new that supports the latest .NET framework.  We would love to help you with your Imaging Capture System and customize it to fit your needs. You can contact us at http://imagesourceinc.com/Company/RequestInformation/index.htm for more information.

John Hart

Software Developer

ImageSource Inc.