Diagnostic and troubleshooting tools

This topic explains the following diagnostic and troubleshooting tools:

The Heartbeat utility is a client-side utility, which you can install on any client machine using the instructions provided below. The Diagnostic Service, Diagnostic Report, and Checker utilities are available within the eRoom MMC snap-in; to access these utilities, select the eRoom Server folder and right click to bring up a menu containing the utilities.

Diagnostic Report

The eRoom Diagnostic Report collects several types of diagnostic information and places it in a .zip file that you can specify. Pick any number of the following types of diagnostic information for including in the .zip file:

Note: The eTrace log and the eRoom performance log are only collected if you have previously configured and enabled these utilities using the Server Tuning dialog box.

Running the Diagnostic Report

In the event of a server failure, you can run the eRoom Diagnostic Report to collect all the information eRoom Support might request surrounding the incident. Note that the collection of all diagnostics (especially Userdumps) may take several minutes (0-40 minutes). However, all information is necessary in the event of a server outage.

  1. From the Windows Start menu, choose Programs > eRoom Server > eRoom Server Administration.

    The eRoom MMC snap-in opens.

  1. Open the eRoom folder.

  2. Right-click the eRoom server machine.

  3. From the pop-up menu, pick Diagnostic Report.

    The eRoom Diagnostic Report dialog box opens, and
    the date and time are filled in automatically.

  4. Describe the incident with as much detail as possible.

  1. Select the types of data files you want included.

  2. For outages, leave all check boxes selected.

  3. Click "OK".

  4. Specify a filename and directory for the output .zip file.

  5. If the web server is not responding, you will need to reboot after running the report.

    The diagnostic service will restart when the server is rebooted.

Each time the report runs in a given day, it will capture all Performance Monitor logs for that day. After running the report, you should delete the eTrace and Performance Monitor logs (after confirming they were zipped and captured). This way, each time the report runs, it will capture only the eTrace and Performance Monitor logs that were captured since the last time the service restarted.

eRoom Checker

The eRoom Checker tool is installed with eRoom and checks the following:

Use the following procedure to configure and run eRoom Checker.

  1. From the Windows Start menu, choose Programs > eRoom Server > eRoom Server Administration.

The ERSAdmin window opens.

  1. Open the eRoom folder and right click on the eRoom server you would like to check.

  2. Choose ”r;eRoom Checker”.

The eRoom MMC snap-in opens.

  1. Specify what you want to check and a policy for handling any errors the checker might find.

  2. Click Start.

The Checker process runs. When it completes, Errors and a Full Report appear in the dialog box.

The Checker executable resides in the ...\Program Files\eRoom\eRoom Server directory. In most cases, it is unnecessary to run the eRoom Checker from a command line. However, if you have SQL Anywhere, running the erchecker/r all command from an operating system window in the eRoom Server directory can repair SQL Anywhere log files for facilities and databases. To see a listing of all available command line arguments, use the erchecker/? command.

Site Database Recovery

eRoom 7 contains a site database backup and recovery feature. This feature is not intended to replace normal backup procedures, but it can provide a means of easily restoring a lost eRoom 7 site. The backup and recovery feature makes regular, automated backups of the site database. This feature is enabled by default.

To disable or enable site recovery:

  1. On the Scheduler page of Site Settings, clear or select the "Enable site recovery" check box in the Nightly tasks table. (If there is more than one eRoom server, the site recovery check box appears only in the row for the primary eRoom server.)

  2. Click "Apply".

When site recovery task is enabled, a nightly job creates (or replaces) a file called SiteBackup.bak containing the Members, Groups & Communities tables in the site database. This file is placed on the eRoom file server that stores facility templates and extensions. Failed backup attempts are listed in the Event Viewer.

eRoomerrors.log file

Automatically created by eRoom, the eRoomerrors.log file records any errors generated by the eRoom 7 server. When this file is created, it is placed in the eRoom Data directory location you specified when installing eRoom 7. This file can be sent to eRoom Support when you encounter problems that need troubleshooting.