bp-2 support’s most common questions

Alfresco Support Top Tips!Alfresco Customer Support Team • twitter: alfrescosupport

Support

Customer Services Focus

140 Hot Fixes

76 Service Pack Escala8ons

107 Informa8on Requests

Total 323 Escala8ons into Engineering (2%)

11,604 cases handled / 12,814 cases closed

Reduced days to resolve from 14 to 7 days

Created over 400 knowledge base ar8cles

Core Support Activity (Past Year)

Maintenance

Top Tips

•  Authen8ca8on •  Lucene •  Java Founda8on API •  Upgrade / Update •  Clustering

Authentication What?

Passthru authentication stops working: ERROR [auth.ntlm.NtlmAuthenticationHandler] Client WIN7C1- using NTLMv2 logon, not valid with passthru authentication



1 2

1 Request Access 2 Challenge 3 Response 4 Challenge + Response 5 Authenticated 6 Response

Active Directory Server

Alfresco Server

3

6

NTLMv1 Authentication



Why? NTLMv2 prevents man in the middle attacks

1 2



Alfresco Server

3

6


✕




1 2



Alfresco Server

3

6


What’s the answer?

Downgrade workstations to NTLMv1 or Switch to Kerberos

✕




43

1

2

5

1 GET 2 AUTH required 3 Request Service Ticket 4 Return Service Ticket 5 GET + Service Ticket 6 Validate Ticket


Alfresco Server

Client Workstation

Kerberos Ticket Service Request 1 2



Alfresco Server

3

6


What’s the answer?

Downgrade workstations to NTLMv1 or Switch to Kerberos

✕

Authentication Top Tips

What? •  Cannot configure CIFS with LDAP

Why? •  CIFS needs the password stored as

an MD4 hash •  LDAP does not normally store them

this way

What’s the answer? •  Use a different subsystem such as

Passthru or Kerberos

What? •  I have configured Kerberos, but It does

not work

Why? •  One of the steps was missed

What’s the answer? •  Kerberos configuration can be

complex. Follow the documented Kerberos setup steps EXACTLY, and make notes on each step.

•  If you are still having issues, send Alfresco Support your notes

Lucene What? •  Different users are getting different search

results with the same query

Why? •  You may have different client and server

locales

What to do •  Use the same analyzer for both searching

and indexing. •  Choose a locale •  Set the server locale to the correct value

either with an environment variable, or on the JAVA_OPTS command line

•  Rename all the dataTypeAnalyzers_XX.properties files and configure dataTypeAnalyzers.properties to use the locale you have chosen

.

Alfresco Server

Alfresco Server

Lucene Performance Top Tips Check how many documents are in

each index folder -  Recommended

-  get the 'IndexInfo' file (workspace/SpacesStore/), copy out and pass the containing folder as an argument to org.alfresco.repo.search.impl.lucene.index.IndexInfo()

- MUST be done on a copy of the indexes DO NOT RUN ON THE LIVE SERVER

-  Alternative -  Switch on debug for

org.alfresco.repo.search.impl.lucene.index.IndexInfo()

- A lot of debug will be produced and be difficult to read/may affect performance

-  If the smallest folder has very large number of documents, consider performance tuning parameters

Index performance tuning parameter lucene.indexer.mergerTargetIndexCount=5

•  Target for the number of indexes after merging. Try settings between 5 and 15

•  Contact Support for further parameters to try

Local indexes •  Ensure that the Lucene indexes are

local to the Alfresco server. •  A SAN/NFS mounted Lucene index

folder, even with slight latency can be detrimental to performance.

Disk space •  Lucene needs a minimum of twice as

much disk space as the current size of the indexes for the indexes to be able to merge.

Search Top Tips What? •  Different number of results from

performing the search repeatedly

Why? •  Caused by a timeout being exceeded

when permission checking the results set. Caching means that subsequent searches return more results

What’s the answer? •  Override alfresco-global.properties file:

maxPermissionCheckTimeMillis=60000

(Limits the time permission checking) maxPermissionChecks=10000 (Limits # of files permission checked)

Remember •  It will increase time for users to search

What? •  Memory errors when re-building the

index

Why? •  JVM memory needs optimization

or •  Move the work to the file system

What’s the answer? •  lucene.indexer.maxDocsForInMemoryMerge=0

•  This will move all the work onto the file system meaning no memory is consumed. The drawback is that the indexing will be a bit slower.

•  Remember to change it back when the re-index is done

Java Foundation API!What? •  Index directories continually grow.

Why? •  The most likely cause is leaving lucene results sets open, which can lead to disk

space and memory leak issues.

What’s the answer? Explicitly close the ResultSet object in a finally block

Example: try { resultSet = <searchquerything>; //do something with the ResultSet } catch (Exception e) { //do something with the exception } finally { if (resultSet != null) { resultSet.close(); } }

Java Foundation API!RunAsWork<String> getUsernameRunAsWork =

new RunAsWork<String>() { public String doWork() throws

Exception { return

retryingTransactionHelper.doInTransaction(<do something>, false);

} }; String username =

AuthenticationUtil.runAs(getUsernameRunAsWork, AuthenticationUtil.SYSTEM_USER_NAME);

What? •  Transaction or security exceptions

Why •  Not using Alfresco helper beans

What is the answer? •  Use the transaction helper and runAs pattern •  Guarantees security context

Benefits •  Retries if system is under load •  Manages long lasting transactions and throws

TooBusyException if busy •  Ensures there is a transaction by propagating

the existing one or creating a new one •  Easily re-usable code block •  No transactional status maintenance

Java Foundation API What? •  Services exceptions

Why? •  Lower case service bean names are

“POJO” (Plain Old Java Object). Ensure that services are managed <property name="searchService" ref="searchService"/>

What is the answer? •  Use upper case bean names. Method

calls will go through the “Spring” interceptor layers and be managed. <property name="searchService" ref="SearchService"/>

Transaction management in webscript •  If your webscript is read only then

declare it: <transaction allow="readonly" >...</transaction>.

•  This is more efficient in terms of caching because Alfresco core can take advantage of the information for cache management.

Packaging Customizations •  Back end (Alfresco) customisation

should be packaged as an Alfresco module.

•  Share customizations should be packaged as a jar file.

•  Recommendation is to keep Alfresco core code and customization separated.

•  Keeping code separate will help when upgrading.

Good to know!

Upgrades!What? •  Upgrades between minor versions are

complex and time-consuming

What is the answer? •  If you are on a version earlier than 3.1

(especially 1.x or 2.x) it’s worth another upgrade •  No new features in service packs •  No schema changes, unless there is no

other way to fix the issue •  Thorough upgrade testing by both QA and

Support on donated customer data

Clustering!What? •  Inconsistent search results when

accessing different nodes on a cluster

What’s the answer? •  Use version 3.4.5 or later for cluster

environments to improve performance and ensure consistency

Questions ?

Thank you for your time

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bp-2 support’s most common questions

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