Does David pay to fix something or have staff learn to work around some problems? Here is a list of problems we currently are choosing to work around. If they get worse, report the deteriorating situation to David so he can work with ChemIT to decide if it's worth fixing the problem.TOC
Problems we see regularly, which are not currently being addressed.
- Just monitored, in case they become worse.
- Presumably root cause has not been identified.
| Sympton | Resolution | Notes | Pattern and frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Logging RDP to Windows server (hosting Quickbooks) won't work. Must try repeatedly, sometimes over hours, before it finally lets one in. | Not resolved. Try until 10:30am, at which point, contact ChemIT. We'll try. And reboot server if we can't get in. And keep collecting data! | See ticket: INC000001887553 | Daily. Can try half a dozen times, every ~15 minutes. Sometimes tried 5 times in quick succession, and let in the 5th time. No pattern. |
Quickbooks is slow to respond. Quickbooks takes too long to start up. | Request ChemIT reboot the Quickbooks server. | Server can't be restarted by the user, alas. | From ChemIT tickets so be missing some from Josh calling (pre Aug 2016), but likely not many: 2016: May 31, Aug 10 2015: Dec. 8 2014: Oct. 29, Nov 7 |
| QuickBooks errors at startup, running 2-3 instances of auto-backup. | If any extra Quickbooks backups are running, quit them. If multiple WebConnects are running, quit the extras. | Should we just reboot the server instead? | 2016: Aug 9 |
Also
Singlebrook created a list of recommended fixes to do, most of which we choose not to, for value considerations
The last extract of their list was made for us by Brightworks on 1/30/2017, which I named, "brightworks_cu_chemistry_20170131_1459.xlsx", and it's located in our "Software" fileshare:
- T:\Chem Stockroom POS kiosk WebApp\Singlebrook action suggestions
Log of Chemistry IT hours addressing Stockroom issues we hoped Brightworks would have solved in the past 3 months
| Date | Hours | Cost, if $100/hr (vendor's cost to us) | Description | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12/8/16 | 9? | $900 | Lulu: 5 hours Oliver: 4 hours | (1) Long-term fix to "units" not updated in Product Description, implemented during Stockroom's lunch closure. (2) Identified and characterized well new bug in which an item is marked with the WebApp MySQL DB as inactive, but still shows up at the kiosk. |
| 12/7/16 | 9? | $900 | Lulu: 4 hours Oliver: 5 hours | Operationally created work-around reported problem. (1) Short-term fix to "units" not updated in Product Description, implemented after Stockroom closed for the night. (Brightworks thought this was a WebConnector issue; that's not what we see.) (2) Wrote position email to Brightworks with request for a meeting and asking key status and approach-related questions to help move things forward. |
| 12/516 | 13? | $1,300 | Michael: 2 Lulu: 6 Oliver: 5 | Fixed show-stopping failure. (1) Monday, Stockroom could not record anything in system using Cornell accounts. Fell back to recording on paper. Chemistry IT noted KFS moved to AWS over weekend. Found out new URL and implemented in in Linux WebApp. Notified Brightworks to have Singlebrook update the GitHub repository.
|
When the WebApp cannot contact Kuali Financial System (KFS), the system cannot process any orders using Cornell accounts
This failure occurred 12/5/16. Stockroom and NMR kiosks out of service, for all practical purposes since the vast majority of all transactions at the Stockroom require looking up Cornell accounts. (Exceptions are cash and local account sales.) As are all the transactions at the NMR kiosk.
- During the failure, the stockroom fell back on recording purchases on paper. And physically limiting access into the stockroom via locked door.
- ChemIT ticket number: INC000001829782 - Stockroom - Issues with Kiosks
- Brightworks: Ticket#92516/Please update Singlebrook's GitHub repository for CU Chemistry Stockroom's Linux system w/ PHP code change
Summary: Apparently about 2 years ago CIT deprecated the URL we were using in our WebApp and didn't inform us or others on campus, nor did they document they added an alias. This weekend, Cornell moved KFS to Amazon Web Services (AWS). The move to AWS broke the aliases to their deprecated URLs, and this broke our URL and at least one other system on campus, and surprised CIT staff. The removal of aliases to deprecated URLs will also break connections for folks using old URLs to the KFS service when using the KFS browser-based tools, which is why they should not depend on "deep" URLs and instead use top-level URLs such as <kfs.cornell.ed> or the like. That is not an option for our system.
Specifics of our system: Cornell's KFS a system is used by our Linux Apache PHP WebApp system to read-only validate the Cornell accounts entered when someone makes a purchase. This is using a KFS service called "web services", or "wsdl". When that look-up fails (usually because of an actual non-active account), the logic of the system won't process the request. This morning, cash (and presumably any non-KFS accounts we use locally) transactions worked fine.
To consider doing: Add logic to our WebApp so it is more tolerant of failures connecting to KFS. And mark the transaction record as having an unverified account, as appropriate. David can initiate that investment with Brightworks if he feels it is worth getting a quote and possibly doing this.
Risk profile: Without Chemistry IT's specific staff's availability and engagement this morning, the Stockroom (and now NMR) system would have been likely down for a much, much longer time and more folks would have been aggravated. And it would have cost the Stockroom much, much more money to get fixed ($1,000+?). Here are some specific contributions made by Chemistry IT staff members this morning:
- Michael Hint: First-responder and characterized what worked and didn't work. Initially looked at WebApp logs. Knew and communicated that KFS made change made over the weekend by reading and remembering email from prior week.
- Lulu Zhu: Looked through logs further. Found and changed applicable code.
- Oliver Habicht: Connected with correct campus service providers in a manner which hopefully more quickly found the root problem and got us a solution.
Web kiosk interface not properly sized to aspect ratio and resolution of kiosk monitors
The "non-NetID" option is off-screen on the bottom, so uses must know this and look to scroll.
Intended to get fixed with Stockroom POS software enhancement, started April 2014.
Errors reported by QuickBooks WebConnector: Ignore
For details, see ChemIT ticket number INC000000954408 (Brightworks Ticket#54621).
Errors we've safely ignored in the past:
- 3000: The given object ID
- Error connecting to QuickBooks - close any modal dialog in QuickBooks. (10/21/2013)
(Idea: Merge above info with below info?)