User Reported Errors

Usually, problems are first seen by the users of the system. These can often be diagnosed and solved by asking simple follow-up questions or doing basic analysis of log files. The following sections describe the most common issues, the questions to ask, and where to look for answers.

Invalid User Name

In order to allow a client to run the Gantt or ServiceManager, the system verifies that the user has permission to do so. ServiceOptimizer also validates the connection made by the client interfaces to the API. A user is passed through as part of the SOAP call. This user must be a valid ServiceOptimizer user. There are several questions that can be asked when a user reports this problem:

Has the user previously been able to use the system?
Are they entering the username in the correct case?

Generally, the problem can be solved by simply adding the user to ServiceOptimizer using ServiceManager. However, it is worth noting that if ServiceOptimizer has not been restarted for several days this problem can also be seen, as new users do not become 'active' without a restart. ServiceOptimizer should be restarted regularly.

Note: The ServiceOptimizer username may be set to be case sensitive (controlled by an Database sp083_system_parameters called glob_CI_validation_of_user_id) and therefore it is important that when the user logs on they use the same case with which their name was set up.

Updating Users

Updating of user details and creation of new users must always be done using the ServiceManager interface.

Whilse using SQL queries to check data in the database is OK, changes to the data must not, in general, be done in this way as there are several tables affected and it would be easy to get something wrong/miss something.

Also the way that gantt permissions are assigned changed in v9 I think as BRU, DRU and FRU can be assigned so this may also cause some issues, might not be needed for this version of the document but may need to be investigated/added at a later date.

[TM2]Changed this up the best I could. I’d rather keep users out of the database as much as possible. I am being vague about sp088, but mentioning it for good measure.

Logging

The Gantt Client does not connect directly to the database, nor to the API Agent. It connects to the ServiceOptimizer application server using its own proprietary TCP/IP protocol. Any database connectivity is done through the GanttRouter and the FRU processes which are resident on the application server.

When the Gantt client is first opened it produces a properties file in the users own configuration directory (for example, on Windows it is in c:\Users\<user id>) called .spgantt.properties.

In order to diagnose problems the ServicePower support team may ask for the client trace log. The logging for ServiceGANTT may be turned on by opening the main client application and navigating to ‘Help’ -> ‘Diagnostic Logging.’ The user may specify where the trace file will be written to on the client machine.