Generating an Audit Report

The system keeps a record of all server-related events, such as creation and deletion of objects. An administrator can view these records via the Audit tab, if needed. For instance, an administrator might want to audit the activities of a particular user or component for security or other reasons. Follow the steps below to use the audit report feature:

Note: No server configuration is set on the Audit tab. It is used solely for viewing and saving audit records. Therefore, the Apply button is not used on this tab, although it can be enabled if changes on other tabs have not yet been applied.

  1. In the Server editor, click the Audit tab. The following example illustrates an audit performed on a particular user at a specific time.
  2. Select a target time period for the audit by entering a start date and time and an end date and time, either by typing or by clicking the arrow buttons. These are the only required entries; however, if the times you specify might result in a large number of records, you might want to further define your search by selecting values in the Component, Object Type, Audit Level, Transaction, and User lists. These lists are explained below:
    • Component - specifies the main product components, such as Design Console or TaskManager
    • Object Type - specifies types of objects, such as activity, role, session, work item, or table
    • Audit Level - includes debug, errors, information, and warnings
    • Transaction - specifies transactions such as create, delete, execute, or shutdown
    • User - specifies a particular user or BIC
  1. Enter a number in the Number of records to retrieve box, either by typing or by clicking the arrow buttons. This is the maximum number of records that will be displayed at one time within the records list. You can display as few as 10 or as many as 1,000 records at a time.
  2. Click Search to retrieve the audit records that match the filter criteria.
  3. If more records match the filter criteria than the number of records you chose to display, you can view these additional records by clickingNext. Records are displayed chronologically. You can click Next or Back to display the latter or earlier batch of records.

Viewing Details

You can also manage the display of additional details for each audit record. To launch the Audit Details dialog for a particular record, right-click the record, and then click Open in the shortcut menu.

Click Next to see details for the next audit record. Click Back to see details for the previous audit record. You can cycle through all records retrieved.

Saving Records

You can save the retrieved records to a file. To do this:

  1. On the Audit tab, click Export.
  2. In the Choose an export file dialog, select the directory where you want to save the export file, and type a filename. The filename must contain a .log extension.
  3. In the Files of Type list, click Log Documents.
  4. In the File Delimiter option list, select Tab.

Important: Using a character (such as a semicolon) as a delimiter could produce unwanted results, as the character might also be used somewhere within the body of the records.

  1. Click Export. All records are saved in the specified file.

Editing Server Profiles

Profiles are global properties, attributes, or configuration settings that are defined by the system. These settings have default values that can be changed by an administrator. The Box editor (Inbox, Sent box and Activity work items) retrieves work items in batches of fifteen (15). This value can be changed in the Server property editor’s Profile tab. Follow the steps below to edit server profiles via Design Console:

  1. In the Server editor, click the Profiles tab.
  2. Select an attribute to edit, and then do one of the following:
    • Double-click the value to open it.
    • Right-click the value, and then click Open in the shortcut menu.
  1. Edit the selected value, and then click OK.

Note: Given the large number of work item versions in the Inbox, you should change the value to 150 to 200 so as to reduce the number of calls made to the server. You cannot edit the name of the value.

  1. Click Apply to save your changes.

Backing Up Your Server Installation

To fully back up an EPX database server installation, perform the following steps:

  1. Create a backup of the repository.

Use the regular backup techniques and tools that accompany the type repository server you are using. You can also use the Import/Export Utility to back up your users, groups, roles, and process flows to an external file. This has the advantage of allowing you to transfer the data to a different type of repository, but it is not suitable for up-to-the-minute crash recovery.

  1. The work item viewer files used by your process flows are separate from the repository and should also be backed up. By default, the work item viewer files are located in this directory:

<EPX>\tomcat\webapps\tm\apps

  1. You should back up any EPX property files that you have edited. Most likely to have been modified are these files in the <EPX>\bin directory:
    • config.properties
    • esjdbc.properties
    • migration.properties
    • ui.properties
    • *.lax

Also consider the BIC *.config files in the <EPX>\bin\agents\<BICmanager> directory.

  1. Keeping a copy of the <EPX>\install.properties file can be helpful if you need to reinstall EPX in the future. This file contains all of the settings that were made during installation.
  2. If you are using any custom BICs, be sure that you backup each custom BIC installation. In the simplest case, this would be the .jar file and the .config file in the <EPX>/bin/agents/<BICmanager> directory. Copy these files into another location and replace them in the <EPX>/bin/agents/<BICmanager> directory when needed.
  3. Other necessary files to be backed up are the following:

In the <EPX>\tomcat\conf directory

  • web.xml
  • server.xml
  • tomcat-users.xml

In the <EPX>\tomcat\webapps\bicmanager\WEB-INF directory

  • web.xml

Transferring the Repository Database Between Servers

If you want to transfer an entire existing EPX repository to another EPX server installation, there are a handful of values in the database that must be changed (unless the destination server name is exactly the same as the current server name).

The following instructions apply to all supported repository types, but do assume that the source and target installations are using the same type of repository.

  1. From the source EPX installation, create a backup of the database.
  2. Stop all EPX services and processes on the target (destination) EPX installation.
  3. Restore the database to the target installation.
  4. On the target EPX installation, browse the <EPX>\bin\esjdbc.properties file and find the value of the server.list property (assuming there is just one value; otherwise, find the one for the repository being replaced).
  5. Use the native or ODBC client tool to connect to the target database and execute the following command, replacing XXX with the value found in step 4:

update s_server set name='XXX', server_uid='XXX'

To clarify, in the repository, there is an EPX metadata table named s_server, and the name and server_uid column values need to match the name as it appears in esjdbc.properties.

  1. Restart the EPX services and processes on the target EPX installation.

Maintaining Tables for SQL Server

Installations of EPX that use SQL Server as the repository will have several tables used to manage sequences that will grow over time. A stored procedure is provided called sequence_cleanup()" that can be executed to purge unnecessary rows from these tables. It is suggested that this stored procedure be executed on a periodic basis to ensure the tables do not grow unnecessarily large.

To maintain tables for SQL Server:

  1. Open the Query Analyzer Tool that can access the SQL Server EPX Repository.
  2. Log in using the EPX user name and password (or another ID or password that has the same access rights to the database).
  3. Inside the Query Analyzer Tool, select the database you want to maintain in the Databasedropdown list.
  4. Type in the command exec SEQUENCE_CLEAN_UP; and run the execute command.

Note: The result can be verified at the Messages tab underneath the Query box.

Deleting BIC Managers

Before deleting a BIC Manager, you must shut it down and clear all the dependencies it can have as well. Dependencies are work item versions that BICs in the BIC Manager are currently processing and have a lock on. Additionally, if a BIC has work item versions in its inbox, they will be dependencies if there are no other BIC Managers/BICs registered with the server. BIC Manager assignments on automatic activities are also dependencies.

To delete a BIC Manager, navigate through the Design Console, and go to the BICs tab of the EPX server. Select the BIC Manager, right click on it, and click Delete. Once there are no more dependencies on it, the BIC Manager will be deleted successfully.

Note: Deletion of BIC Managers can only be done one at a time as the Server editor allows only single selection of BIC Managers.

Manually Stopping or Starting EPX Services

If there is a need to stop or start the EPX services manually, the services that you need to manually stop or start are:

  • EPX_JBOSS_<port> (for the Application Server)
  • EPX_WEB_<port>_<port>

Important: In the default installation, please note that the order of starting the services is important. You need to start the services in the sequence listed above. Failure to do so will not start the BIC Manager. The order is not important for any other type of installation.

Here is an example of the EPX services with their corresponding port numbers:

  • EPX_JBOSS_9034 (for the Application Server)
  • EPX_WEB_9040_9039