Vault Clinic—Troubleshoot Techniques for Vault Issues

FRANCESCO TONIONI: Good morning, good morning, everybody. I think we are complete. We'll just wait one minute to close the door. Welcome to this class, Vault Clinic. You know what it is about, I imagine.

And I imagine, I assume, you all know what is Vault. And I assume also that you know [INAUDIBLE] more or less manage of Vault. You are not just user, but just you manage your Vault at your company.

So we are going to speak about some typical issue you can have with Vault connection and other problem we will see. [INAUDIBLE] go on and present myself, Francesco Tonioni. I work in the European office in Switzerland, since 2000-- not 2000-- '98, I am in Autodesk. And, yeah, my contact, in case you want to contact me.

Here we have also my colleague, Jason Summerfield, he will help me with the special with the question. If you have some question, he will help me to answer.

What you want to see, in this presentation. I would like to show you the typical troubleshoot technique that we in Pro support use when we receive cases from you. And normally, we have some path to follow, to resolve various issue. And I will show you how we do, normally.

And I will show you, of course, the majority, the most common issues-- not everything, of course. But what we face is the most common issue you will see just them. And this all is based on real experience. So they're real cases that I receive every day, from everywhere in the world.

What we will see, now, I will do really just one slide, very quickly, how Vault works, just to be sure everybody have clear how Vault manage the data. Then we'll see log files, what we can see in the log files. Then we will speak about the connection with troubleshooting. That is the typical problem with Vault. IIS, SQL, File store, et cetera. Then I will show you some little bit of performance troubleshooting and some of the typical functionality issues that maybe you don't know about Vault, generic issues.

So-- how Vault works. The client, the Vault client, will call the server. Vault is based on HTTP. It's based on web services. So it's a web server, the ADMS server, that is connected to a file store via normal network connection, to grab the files, and via a normal port, SQL port, through a-- an SQL port is connected to SQL server.

Those three guys can stay in the same server, or they can stay separately in three different machines. This is your choice. But this, in the yellow square, is the Vault server. We call it ADMS. It include, can include, also file store and SQL.

Then the clients, they connect to ADMS. The clients then will not connect to SQL, for security reasons. The client only connect to ADMS, via HTTP protocol.

Then is ADMS that will process the call, HTTP call, and will ask SQL if it's OK to give a file that user requested. And, if yes, if "SQL respond yes, this is OK, permission is OK, et cetera, ADMS will request the file store this file. The file will be transferred to ADMS server and then transfer via HTTP to the client.

Any question, from this? This is really basic. OK. Yeah?

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

FRANCESCO TONIONI: I mean, the file will go through ADMS, if the file store is on the same server, yes. Yeah. [LAUGHS] If not, can [INAUDIBLE] directly grab it, yeah. OK.

So, log files. Log files, you know the log files are in the-- in ADMS, you can find log files, yes, nice. You have the console, server, and file store, but what's happening if ADMS doesn't start?

You will need to know where they are. You probably know they are located in this location. And you can find the ADMS console log, [INAUDIBLE] log that concern files, and Vlog that normally concern database.

Then there are also other logs that you can take a look, to troubleshoot your Vault. There are SQL logs that normally by default are located in this location, under the installation of the servers, of the SQL server. Or I use a lot the IIS log that will really help you to troubleshoot a lot of issues.

The IIS log are located here, in inetpub, logs, LogFiles, et cetera. You have to verify if the role here is installed. If it's not installed, you will not have any IIS log in the Server Manager or your window server.

An IIS log give you a lot of information. For example, I extracted, here, just a little part of one IIS log [INAUDIBLE] these logs separate-- I just did for you-- just clear. It's not so clear, when you open it. It's a call of a client that request a file from the Vault.

So this is the request. You can see what it calls, what time, what date, what it calls, this document service, what you want. I want file iteration 119. So you notify that you request it.

What do you want to do? I want to download it. Who you are? I am user ID number 2. So you know who requested the file.

And [INAUDIBLE] the command that will be run-- get, check out, et cetera. The name of the vault, which is the vault you're requesting the file from-- is Vault, the name. Session ID is for the user, [INAUDIBLE] that get the license. This is a session ID. Application, Vault professional, through port 80, in this case-- HTTP, by default. And this-- [INAUDIBLE] the first IP address is the ADMS server, 10.14.83.44. And this IP address is the IP address of the requested, the client.

Then, at the end, you have the result. The 200 means OK, no error. If you have 500, probably-- not "probably." If we have 500, it means there is an error. It didn't work, for some reason.

So these, the four calls of HTTP, for grabbing a file. And the same for the other calls. So first they get the file, then get the file association, finally get the file from the database, verifying the database, and finally download the file, et cetera.

Any question for this? You know IIS log? You can control a lot. You can see which file is downloaded by whom. OK.

So the typical problem in Vault I always face is the connection troubleshoot. This connection error, you have this error, typically. Vault Professional could not find the file [INAUDIBLE] services on local host. Local host is, of course, my machine, but your case will be the server name.

So what I do, normally, I follow this path. I ask customer to follow this path. First I ask, can you please ping the ADMS server, really, from your machine. Does exist ADMS server? So I'll ping name of the server, and [INAUDIBLE] say, no. So it's clear-- resolved. [LAUGHS]

If ADMS doesn't answer it, there is a problem with the [INAUDIBLE] with the network. Maybe, yeah, name resolution and stuff like this. The server respond yes, the ping is correct, in the correct time. OK.

So I ask the customer to try to web browser with HTTP call. That means just this, I show you quickly-- try this. HTTP, or HTTPS, if if you have a secure, um, uh, secure-- how it's called--

JASON SUMMERFIELD: SSL?

FRANCESCO TONIONI: SSL. Name of the server. You need to receive this page. OK. If you don't receive this page, there is something-- or IIS doesn't work at all, or is some setting's wrong. So let's go back.

[INAUDIBLE] HTTP call. Yes, I have a web error page. What I do? First, verify port 80 is open in the firewall. That is the typical problem.

Firewall, by default, probably port 80's closed. So you have to go in your firewall, in the firewall of the server, in the firewall of the client, and check for port 80. Or the port you set your vault, of course. You can set up any port you want.

If port 80's OK, you have to proceed and verify if the services are on, are running, [INAUDIBLE] on your IIS. Let's see, quickly. I want to show you where it is. So, IIS.

Sorry, no IIS. This is after. Services, first. [LAUGHS] OK. [INAUDIBLE] services. Where it is? [INAUDIBLE]

OK, here are the services you need to verify. World wide web publishing service [INAUDIBLE] be started in automatic. Then you can verify also, in IIS, the application pools.

There are three application pools for Autodesk. Those three application pools must be running. So, in this case, the icon is correct. When they are not running, different icon. So you have to start to troubleshoot why they don't run-- for some permission reason, et cetera. But, if some of those doesn't work, it's not running, it means the problem is there. OK?

So, getting back to my presentation. Where it is? [INAUDIBLE]. OK. So we are here. Verify IIS service. I assume port 80 is open.

But if I receive this page, so I can proceed to the next one. Now I want to ask, so this means Vault doesn't answer to you. Say that it doesn't find the services. But IIS is currently running.

So it means that the problem is inside the services of Autodesk in IIS. So I ask customers to do an HTTP call, to Autodesk, that means this. So, if you run this call, server name of ADMS, authorize DM services, v23, for Vault 2018, and et cetera for the other version.

Admin services. There are more services. This is admin service for a sample. You need to receive this page. So no errors. You need to receive a services page without errors.

I will show you. But I have to find it. I have to find the-- I can copy from the presentation. No, I cannot copy. Yes.

So I go in my web browser. My server is local host, because it's here, of course. Your case will be the name of ADMS. My version, 18, 2018, so I set up, here, 23, Enter, and I receive this page. OK?

If you receive something else-- like, for example, I do an error-- I do like this. If you receive this, something is wrong in the IIS settings for Autodesk, not for in general for IIS. You can also check--

For example, if you notice that you can connect if you log in as a Vault user, but you cannot connect if you're looking, like, a Windows user. In this case, you can test this other service. That is, service file store, version [INAUDIBLE] service. This is a service that is used by Windows authorization to access the vault. If this doesn't answer, so there is a problem in [INAUDIBLE] Windows authorization service in IIS.

OK, let's see what you have to check in IIS. So, normally-- [INAUDIBLE] still, you have to check application pool, if they are, for example, correctly the .net framework is four. The identity is correct. Maybe there is another user here that doesn't have access to the service, et cetera.

You can see also the application must be one application for each. One, one, one. Question?

AUDIENCE: HTTP, versus HTTPS, when you're working with Vault in the cloud or others, web client and all of that, [INAUDIBLE] seems to cause all sorts of issues [INAUDIBLE].

FRANCESCO TONIONI: By experience, the issue is always the [LAUGHS] certificate.

AUDIENCE: The what?

FRANCESCO TONIONI: Certificate. You mainly we have a-- we have a document to set up correctly HTTPS. The certificate must be stored on every client, on the server, on the IBFS server [INAUDIBLE]. Is a bit complex, yeah.

AUDIENCE: Yes.

FRANCESCO TONIONI: Yeah. [LAUGHS]

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] I just [INAUDIBLE] application [INAUDIBLE] is a royal pain in the butt when you're going from cloud to local, or whatever, [INAUDIBLE] it's just-- if you're setting up a private or a public cloud, it's just something, [INAUDIBLE]. Does anybody else experience that?

FRANCESCO TONIONI: In the cloud, [INAUDIBLE] means--

JASON SUMMERFIELD: It would be the same, your connection to it, But, I mean, that's-- I mean, not to blame Microsoft, but that's-- I mean, their protocol--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

AUDIENCE: Well, we can blame them. That's fine.

[LAUGHTER]

[INAUDIBLE] those guys [INAUDIBLE].

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

JASON SUMMERFIELD: It is what it is.

AUDIENCE: Are you running [INAUDIBLE]? I guess my generic question with that, are you running into more problems as more of these services are being pushed to the cloud? Are you seeing [INAUDIBLE] a change in the type of support ticket you're getting?

FRANCESCO TONIONI: No, really.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

JASON SUMMERFIELD: No. So, I mean, do you-- we-- you can answer how we-- you can host in the cloud, but it's not specific services in the cloud, of Vault. I mean, Vault can be in the cloud. [INAUDIBLE] it's just a different server. So everything else of what he's saying is all-- still applies. I mean, it's just a different-- you know, [INAUDIBLE] AWS or Google-- you know, just a cloud service. It's just another server.

FRANCESCO TONIONI: Yeah, I have to say that I don't receive a lot-- maybe Europe is still not really diffuse this on the cloud [INAUDIBLE]. No?

JASON SUMMERFIELD: We have people that use it, but, I mean, there's not an increase of volume because people are using it in the cloud.

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

FRANCESCO TONIONI: OK, we are here. We verify [INAUDIBLE] pools, and yes, OK. If Autodesk HTTP call correctly answer, the next question is, if you have a proxy in place. Because depends of the proxy can block the HTTP calls from the client.

So, first, verify if you have a proxy. If you have a proxy, skip a proxy. Just to test, huh? Of course, you can-- we don't support it in the sense that we don't help you to set up your proxy, but if you set up correctly it doesn't change the idea of the calls, et cetera. The proxy, in theory, works.

But there are cases-- first of all, try without the proxy if still you have the problem or not. The proxy, [INAUDIBLE] how can change it? Let me show you.

You can skip the proxy, if you have it. Internet Option. In the Internet Option on your browser, you have the connections. LAN settings. And here I don't have it, but if you have this on, use a proxy server for your LAN. You can bypass proxy for local address. In this way, the calls inside your network will not go through the proxy. So, the Vault calls are all inside your network, they will skip the proxy. OK. Still leaving the proxy there, but just for Vault or for the internal calls will be skipped.

So, if you activate this, restart IIS, restart your browser, to apply the change, and try again. So if still work, if still doesn't work, also without the proxy in place, log a support ticket. OK? [LAUGHS]

[LAUGHTER]

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

[LAUGHTER]

FRANCESCO TONIONI: Because then we go very deeper, much deeper. If you want, I can tell you what I do. Next step is, like, I will ask you the IIS log. And I will check, in these calls-- where they are? Uh, here.

I will check in these calls. If the IP address of the server, it's OK, it's correct, this will be normally for sure is correct. But this one, the IP address of the client, if you have a proxy on site it will be different. It will be the proxy IP address. So I will understand it is the proxy that answer, not the client.

And the proxy is probably the problem. There is some change in the [INAUDIBLE], for security reasons, et cetera, and then you have to speak with your IT who set up the proxy, to change it and to leave the other calls untouched [INAUDIBLE]. But you can understand this. The IP address, here, means from where the call come from. So, if there is a different one, then the client is-- there is a proxy, or a firewall-- something in the middle. OK.

So, with a connection issue, we finish. Let's see if we can see-- we saw this. Yeah. Exactly. Which I could [INAUDIBLE] application pool.

So let's speak about another connection troubleshoot. This is typical, also. Sometimes customer call me. They have, suddenly, IIS doesn't work anymore, without any reason. And they notice that if they restart IIS-- so they restart the server, [INAUDIBLE] Vault start to work again. But, after a while, maybe the week after, again, the same problem.

So this is-- sometimes, you have to check if there is a recycle that is not correctly set. This is the recycle for IIS. By default, is like regular time intervals, I think.

So this means that every-- I don't know, for example, there are two hours-- this means, every two hours, IIS will restart. And so maybe you can bring it-- this can bring to problems in the connection. If IIS is off, nothing work. So I suggest to set up a specific time when you are sure nobody's working, in the night, and restart IIS, of course.

And the other problem that often I face is that, if you have IIS, ADMS, SQL on the same server, the memory will go really, really low, because SQL to grab everything. So IIS, by default, [LAUGHS] if the total memory is less than 5% available IIS will stop working. So next is to check if this is the case.

We will see how to set up SQL to not eat all the memory that [INAUDIBLE]. But probably, if you have problem with IIS, the first is, check the memory available. Also, take in account that every user that connect to the ADMS server consume 25 megs of memory, average. So, if you have 100 user, you have to make a calculation the memory that you need free, to allow them to connect. [INAUDIBLE]

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

FRANCESCO TONIONI: Heh. I think is the same-- is not the same IIS application pool, but is still is an application pool in IIS. But I don't have more details. I don't know if really exactly the same memory consumption. I think will be less than client, because the client has a lot less feature. But is the same principle, yes. But probably you can allow more user within client than [INAUDIBLE] automatic client, yeah.

I will show you where is the recycling, just in case. The IIS recycling is here.

JASON SUMMERFIELD: While you're bringing that up, that's why we have multiple application pools. It's kind of to prevent that. So, if your web clients, they're going to be on their own dedicated app pool, that takes resources. So that's not everything all in one. So that's why they're separated out, for performance.

FRANCESCO TONIONI: So, if you select your application pool you want to check, there is a recycle, here, recycling. And here is the-- this is the default, you see? Regular interval, 1,700, et cetera, minutes. So I normally ask to set up a specific time and not a regular interval. OK?

So, if you face this error, failure calling web service, normally this is not really IIS-related. This normally indicates-- also [INAUDIBLE] IIS, HTTP, et cetera-- normally indicates an SQL problem. So IIS answer, but still you have this error message. It's slightly different than the previous one. And, yeah.

In this case, go in the log files of ADMS, in Vlog, and check for errors, that, if you can find this error, it's probably the cause of the issue. So this means [INAUDIBLE] in few orders means verify that the instance name is correct and the SQL [INAUDIBLE] remote connection. SQL doesn't answer, [INAUDIBLE].

So you have to [INAUDIBLE] check. That SQL services are running. The server and browser services, I will show you. Test the connection from ADMS. If you have SQL on a separate machine, you have to test the connection through ADMS server and the SQL machine.

Verify again the ports. And I will show you why. In this case, it is not 80. It's the port of SQL. And then I suggest, also, if you have SQL Express, to start SQL Management Studio Express, if you have Express, to verify all the SQL status. Maybe [INAUDIBLE] it is blocked by some operation or something else.

So let's see in details what does it mean, those four points. No, it's not this. I will show you. So, verify SQL service is running. You go in Services. [INAUDIBLE] to read.

There are two SQL services you need to verify. The SQL server itself, and the SQL server agent, if the SQL server is separate from your ADMS. Both must be started in automatic. If one of those is down, this is the reason of your error, for sure.

Just a moment. The other point is-- OK, then you have test connection. How can we test connection with a UDL file? I show you.

So, if you create a text file from your ADMS server, your SQL is separate. So you want to test the connection, if it works. So create a test whatever you want. Rename it in UDL. yes. Ah, there is another one. OK.

Then change the icon. Open it. And this is a connection for the SQL server. So you can write, here, server name-- in my case, is local host-- in your case, will be the server name of the SQL server-- backslash, Autodesk Vault is the name of the instance, like this.

Then you log in. How? I know I can log in with "sa" password. I know by heart. Is Autodesk Vault at 26200. And then you can test connection already.

You can also select a database. Now you will-- you can see the database in that server. So, if text connection take a while, and after time out it give you an error, there is a problem with the connection with SQL. This is for sure.

So how to troubleshoot the connection to SQL? The ports. First I would set-- I would check the ports for SQL. By default, SQL use port TCP 1433. But, because [INAUDIBLE] Vault installs on a nonstandard-- um-- not standard-- not on MSQL but Autodesk Vault, the port will be not the default one. Will be a dynamic port. It's just random.

So, if you have a firewall that doesn't open the port, you cannot connect to SQL. I will show you how to set up, how to check this. So use search for SQL, on the SQL server. SQL Configuration Manager.

You have the server browser. It must be running everything-- the agent, and the-- uh, yeah, in this SQL server service. Then you have a server network configuration. Protocol for Autodesk Vault. And you have to check TCP/IP.

Everything is written in the notes that you can download of the class. Don't worry. Everything-- all the steps. OK? Yeah. With images, with everything. OK.

So the TCP/IP, if I open it, and I go in IP addresses, and I go at the end, you see, this is my machine I set up already. But, by default, you have this empty. And you have the TCP dynamic port with a random number.

That is OK, the random number, unless, for some reason after a server restart or for some other reason-- update, or something like this-- because it's dynamic, can change. So maybe one day it changed the random number, and you cannot connect anymore to your vault. So I suggest you remove the random number from here, set up as a fixed number, here. By default is 1433. Restart your services, and it will be 1433 forever, and you don't have this problem. Then, go in your firewall and check that port 1433 is open, of course.

For remote SQL, you need also the port, UDP port, 1434. But this is fixed. That is not dynamic. [INAUDIBLE]

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] but the PDF, the handout, the links broke. You'll need to reupload that again, so we can download it. It's not working.

FRANCESCO TONIONI: The PDF? No, I don't know--

JASON SUMMERFIELD: The handout. So, if it doesn't work, just-- we'll try to fix it, if it doesn't work. Just email us, and we'll make sure you get a copy.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

JASON SUMMERFIELD: He's just saying he can't download the handout from the--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

FRANCESCO TONIONI: Strange. OK.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

AUDIENCE: --it's the wrong port or something.

[LAUGHTER]

FRANCESCO TONIONI: Can be.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

FRANCESCO TONIONI: OK, I will check, then. I will check. I also update it. After the class, maybe I will add something, I will update, and I will check again-- download, or ask somebody to test it. OK, thanks.

So, just to show quickly, if you want to-- now, where it is? Where it is? [INAUDIBLE] firewall. When I say "open the port in the firewall," of course it means that you need to-- here, you have to have inbound and outbound rules that open TCP port 1433, for SQL, and UDP port 1434.

The 1434 port is needed for the SQL server, to be recognized from the client side, from the SQL calls. So, if you write the name of the server, this is easy to troubleshoot. If you write the IP address, slash, Autodesk Vault, you find the SQL server. If you write the name of the server, slash, Autodesk Vault, you don't find the server.

This means that the services were-- SQL browser is not running, or that the port 1434 is blocked. OK. So, here I think I have-- let me see. [INAUDIBLE] SQL, just to show you. S, S, S, S-- yeah, SQL TCP and UDL. OK?

What is the port? Here it is. 1434, for UDP. OK, once everything done, this for sure SQL will work. I'm sure there is some setting there wrong, and you will find it. [INAUDIBLE] connection for SQL. Let's go to next time. [LAUGHS]

JASON SUMMERFIELD: It's 20 after 5:00.

FRANCESCO TONIONI: OK. Typical error, as well. Incompatibility error. "Is not compatible with the"-- blah, blah, blah. This can be two reasons. Is really not compatible, because you install a wrong version of ADMS, in comparison with the client. That's obvious.

Client can connect to ADMS up to two version older. So, version plus anything. ADMS accept calls from 2017, 2016. Not from 2015. So, if you try to connect 2015, you will get this error.

Or the other case, this most typical, say, most common, is that in the .NET in IIS is not set to the correct version. Because you upgraded, for example, and the old version used the .NET .2, IIS will not automatically upgrade the .NET, because you [INAUDIBLE].

So, in this case, check for the application pools, if they're connect-- so they're correctly set to .NET. Four. Four versions. So that's anything '17, '16. And, before, I don't remember, yeah. OK.

Check in, check out. This is also another typical one, that you check in, check out, get, and you cannot get the file. You connect to a vault, everything works, you want to grab a file, you cannot.

This indicates a problem with the file store. Because this means connection works, IIS is correct, because you can connect to Vault. This means SQL is correct, because you can see the file in your interface.

But you want to get the file-- you cannot. And this means that is the file store, the problem. In this case, typically, is permission on the file store. So, you remember, file store is something separate. Is just the folder in Windows, with its permission. If, in this folder, you don't have Autodesk Vault user active and write and read permission, you cannot access it.

Although, as Vault user, as the standard user that Vault use to access the file store. So, if you know you can set it in the advanced adoption in ADMS. But by default is Autodesk Vault. And you have to check, in your file store folder, if exist this user and has permission.

If you have a remote file store, the typical problem is that you-- if is a remote file store, nobody told to the remote computer, to the remote server, that this Autodesk Vault user exist. So the remote server doesn't know the existence. So you have to create a user in that remote server and give permission to the file-store folder write and read.

Any question? [INAUDIBLE] clear? You know where it is, this user? I can show you. This user set here. Vault Professional-- Man-- here it is. Here is ADMS. You have a--

Yeah-- no, sorry, not Administration. Options. Where it is? [INAUDIBLE] Administration. Advanced settings. Settings. Here it is.

Because it's a user, local, it's a local using this machine. If I have a separate file store in a separate server, this user, there, does not exist. You have to create it and give permission.

Or change, here, the user you want. Maybe a domain user that is valid for all your servers, for example.

Next, [INAUDIBLE] I'll speak about something about performance. OK. Vault is low. Vault is low. There are thousands of issues, thousands of reasons, not issues.

Typically, if everything is in the same machine-- SQL, ADMS, file store-- you have 100 user, and you ask me why it's low, I know the answer. It cannot work like this. If you have a lot users, you have to split the ADMS server in SQL, in a separate server that manage only SQL for Vault, with enough memory, and then file store maybe also on a storage system, very quick, that can answer very quick to the calls, and transfer files very quickly, and ADMS on other server. This is the ideal.

But a part of this also I suggest, immediately, SQL maintenance plan. There is a link in the document you will download. Let's see if it works, here. Yes. Here, the maintenance plan--

No, it doesn't work. Let me show-- How can I switch, now? [LAUGHS] [INAUDIBLE]. I can switch like this. OK. And then, here. OK.

There are all the steps to set up an SQL maintenance plan. SQL maintenance plan is simply a task that will run every week, every month-- it depends of you. And then we'll set up, clean, do maintenance to SQL. This is the best way to have always a good SQL status, healthy and quick and clear, et cetera.

You just follow-- all the steps are here, to set up it. Very easy, from SQL Management Studio, on your SQL server.

Then, other suggestion I can give you. Lot of people say, ah, the database is very big. So I shrink it. No.

If you shrink the database, is worst. The database of SQL cannot be shrink like this. If you need space, you have to purge. If you shrink, it's like if you zip it. If you compress it, it's still slower, because the data is organized in a different way, and more compressed, but much slower. So avoid this. And install SQL on a separate [INAUDIBLE] server, as I told you, of course.

"Assign enough physical RAM memory to your SQL." So, on this separate server, where SQL installed, in theory, if you want the best performance, you have to install as much RAM memory as the size of your vault. So, if your vault is 100 gig, you install 100 gig RAM memory. Is the ideal, of course. This is the quickest you can have.

But if you have 8 gig, with 100 gig of database, of course it will be slow. There is no way. If this SQL is installed also on the same machine of ADMS, as before-- remember, is-- still everything's low. Because it will consume all the memory, SQL, from the machine.

Purge your Vault. Vault can be purged. Will clean up a lot of file from the file store. "Purge" means remove the intermediate version you don't need. And it will be reduced drastically.

And the database also will be emptied-- not shrinked, but the data will be deleted from the database, and this space free, inside the database, can be used for other data to put in. So your database will not increase, anymore, will not reduce, but will not increase for a while.

And, if you're really slow because you have, I don't know, five locations around the world, in different continent, et cetera, maybe you can implement a Vault replication. Because if there is very, very high latency between the sites and ADMS server, there is nothing you can do. There is nothing else you can do than maybe think about replication.

I want to show you, before-- question? No. [INAUDIBLE]

AUDIENCE: Yeah, I had a question on the purge. When you say "purge the Vault," what exactly do you mean-- like, what are you purging?

FRANCESCO TONIONI: You-- you purge--

[LAUGHTER]

AUDIENCE: That'll work.

FRANCESCO TONIONI: There are various options. I can show you in the-- there are option-- in the ADMS server itself, you purge all the vault, or you can purge five by five. So you have five-- for example, with 3,500 versions, I saw it. I am sure you don't need 3,500 version of the file.

So you right-click on the file purge. And it will ask you, what do you want to maintain-- the first, and the last? The releases, if you use a life cycle, will be always maintained.

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] if you have life cycle, those [INAUDIBLE].

FRANCESCO TONIONI: Relases, no way-- yeah, no way to delete them.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

FRANCESCO TONIONI: Exactly. The version. The version will be purged, not the releases. When is released, that version of the released will stay. And maybe the checking, checking, checking, et cetera, will be cleaned up.

AUDIENCE: And then [INAUDIBLE] in our scenario, we have our ADMS [INAUDIBLE]. And then each office has its own individual file [INAUDIBLE]. Would I have to run the purge on each--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

FRANCESCO TONIONI: No.

AUDIENCE: --just do it on the ADMS, and the ADMS will take care of it?

FRANCESCO TONIONI: Yes. Yes, the purge, you can purge version of [INAUDIBLE] life cycle depends of your-- the way you work. In the life cycle, you have the option to say, don't purge this status, or purge this status the last and the first, et cetera. If you don't use life cycle, so you use normal Vault, you can purge only the version, and then you-- uh, yeah, so you select this option.

And so you can select how many version. For example, purge everything except latest five, for example. Purge will really remove the file from the file store-- not immediately the night. Because there is the vacuum cleaner running.

So the database will remove the version and will tell-- the purge will tell database, this, this, this, this, remove. Database, note. Then, the night-- because when nobody's connected, let's say, when it's more relaxed-- [LAUGHS] it will go through the file store, because it's lower-- is lower process. [INAUDIBLE] And physically to remove the file will go to the file store and start to remove physically all the files.

You say, can I undo? No. Also, if they are still there, there is no way [LAUGHS] you can stop this process and go back. Unless backup restore, of course.

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

FRANCESCO TONIONI: Yeah, exactly. Before, of course, of course, always. [LAUGHS] This is obvious. I imagine everybody has a backup every night. I imagine something like this. OK. I will show you, just quickly, SQL. Yeah.

Yeah, just quick, I want to show-- this is important. I want to show also SQL Managing Studio

So what I mean "assign enough memory" is this. This is SQL Management Studio. Let me make smaller. You can install also, if you have Express, it's called SQL Management Studio Express.

You can right-click on the Main Properties. And you have the properties of your SQL server. And you have the second line is memory.

You see, here, this is the default installation. By default, it tells to the Windows server, maximum server memory, whatever you find. Because this number is so enormous. It's millions of megabytes.

This means it will grab all the memory of the machine. And if you have ADMS installed on the same machine, at one moment will stop working, for sure. And you will need to restart the server.

So reduce this number to the-- for example, you have, let's say, 16 gig memory. Leave 3 or 4 to the system. So set up, here, I don't know, 12,000. Something like this.

So SQL will grab up to 12 gig-- no more. And it will leave always 3 or 4 gig for the system, for ADMS, for IIS. OK, this is what's important I want to show. Then, let's see. Quickly, because we don't have time.

Other performance issue can be a network. So file store, locate the file store in a fast access disk, if you have this problem. For example, when you're going in Vault Explorer, the data appear very slow, this is SQL. But if you-- ah, when I go in checking files that are very big, I have to wait minutes, this is the network.

So, in this case, fast access disk for the file store, separate server for the file store. Purge, so the file store will be limited. And, in case the problem is [INAUDIBLE] high latency, you [INAUDIBLE] implement the file-store replication.

Functionality issue, very quickly. Now I will go just through a list. Then, if you find something interesting, you can check in my document. So, timeouts, if you've got this error is a timeout. Timeouts are set in web.config file. That is in the ADMS server, in this location.

And you can change the number-- this three, four, one, two, three, four numbers. The fourth is this. You just add a zero, if you want-- 10 times more-- if you have timeouts problem.

Restart IIS, after modification of web.config file. [INAUDIBLE] you can modify with a text editor. Then this space problem. Maybe you have the disk [INAUDIBLE] always full. You can do something, also, in this case. You can change the location of the log files. You can change the location of the search index file. They're very big.

You can move the file store somewhere else. And you can move also the database somewhere else. If you have everything in the same server, you can make free space in this way. Of course, you can delete the log files. But, for example, you cannot delete the search index file. They are needed by Vault, so you can move them but not delete. And, what else?

Lot of user told me, hum, if I search A-055*, I get that result. Sorry. What is this? I don't want this.

This is because Vault search, for performance reason, use a technological [INAUDIBLE] search. You have to know how it works. There are two links, here. You can check there. It explain how it works. It's by tokens.

So it will search "A," then I will search hyphens, then I will search 055, because it is considered the same tokens. So it's not just searching the string but searching the split with a special character and letter and number. We will explain here.

And then also there is fine-tune for this search. You can reduce the unwanted result by fine-tuning. With this link will explain you everything.

Dirty filing was involved for Inventor. You have this problem often, I imagine. Yeah. There are list of issues-- not "issue," just the points you can check, if you have this problem with the dirty files. I mean, when you have this little star, when you open a file in Inventor, and the file is locked because it's released, you cannot do anything, you cannot check in, it asks you to save, but you cannot because it's released-- this can be a lot of reason, here, at least.

We have to go fast, sorry. [LAUGHS] But, yeah, you can check, then, in the document and check if you fall in one of these cases.

Remember, license issues. Sometimes, the error say, cannot find web services in the server. Sometimes, can be the license, not really IIS. So, in the case, that open case with the support, is one of the case can be that, and we have to check the license. Remember that, starting from 2016, the license changed. So, before, it was-- yeah, the server was asking for license, and after, it's the client that asks for license.

So pay attention to this. If you have client 2017 and client 2016, the behavior is different. Starting from 2016 is normal like any other product, like AutoCAD Inventor is the normal way it ask for license. It's always that completely different way to troubleshoot. But before 2016, it's the server that ask.

Remember to set up ADSKFLX_LICENSE_FILE to this value-- 2080@licenseservername. This is the best way to access the license server name. 2080 will bypass a lot of ports. It will go directly to this port, so it will be quicker. And, with the @, will go directly to this server. Your server, of course, not the license sever name-- your license server name.

I think is finished. Yeah. There are some tips, here. If you want to change the paging size, you can do it. It's explained here. You know there is the maximum 1,000. You can change. You can send 10,000 or 100-- whatever you want. So you can have more result in your Vault Explorer screen. But remember that also increase the-- performance will decrease, because you want more data from SQL.

This is not important, but also remember, if you download 1-gig file and seems that Vault is hanging, is not true. This progress bar, unfortunately, indicates the number of files processed, not the amount of data processed. So, if you download two files of 20 gig each, you will stay-- after one hour you see half, and after another hour you see the other half, but it's not hanging. It's normal. [INAUDIBLE] need to download 10 gig of data. OK.

So don't shut down it-- just wait. Maybe you can check network activity, if you're not sure if it's doing something or not.

Yeah. Last one, really last one. Remember that, when you move a database from one server to another, you have to bring also the KnowledgeVaultMaster with it. If you move a vault to a server-- to another company, for example, to hand it off [INAUDIBLE] I don't know, because you have another installation-- you move your vault to the other installation, you will not see half of the files, because the files are related to the KnowledgeVaultMaster table that contains the users.

So the files are associated with a user that checked in. If user A checked in the file, and then the user A doesn't exist anymore because you didn't bring the KnowledgeVaultMaster database in the other server, you will not see this file. So pay attention to this, if you have these cases. Always together-- KnowledgeVaultMaster and the vault must be together and go together.

And, with this, I think-- no, this is for the item. I don't care. This is not important. And this is finished.

[LAUGHTER]

[LAUGHS] You can see my screen?

[APPLAUSE]

Thank you.