Troubleshooting

If you encounter an error or issue with Distributed Computing Cluster, there are several resources you can use to get help.

The Web Administration Console Event Viewer

The Event Viewer in the Distributed Computing Cluster Administration Console is useful for troubleshooting errors that occur after Distributed Computing Cluster has been installed and its services successfully started.

To access the Distributed Computing Cluster Administration Console Event Viewer

  1. Log in as a System Manager to the Distributed Computing Cluster Administration Console where your Distributed Computing Cluster Scheduler is registered.
  2. Click Distributed Computing Cluster Schedulers.
  3. Find the Scheduler you want to troubleshoot and click View Events.
  4. Using the options at the top of the page, you can narrow down the source, date, and type of events shown below. To see only Distributed Computing Cluster errors, select Laserfiche Distributed Computing Cluster Service from the Source drop-down list.
  5. Click an event in the list to see more details.

The Windows Event Viewer

The Windows Event Viewer on the machine hosting your Distributed Computing Cluster Scheduler contains more detailed logs than the Web Administration Console.

To access detailed logs of the Distributed Computing Cluster Scheduler using the Windows Event Viewer

  1. Open Windows Event Viewer.
  2. Double-click Applications and Services Logs to expand the items below it.
  3. Double-click Distributed Computing Cluster Service.
    • Select DCC Admin Events to see a log of all the administrative events that have occurred and whether they succeeded or failed. When the Distributed Computing Cluster service starts, that event is logged here with the settings used to start the service.
    • Select DCC Developer Events to see more information about errors that have occurred. Developer Event logs are used by Laserfiche developers to troubleshoot issues with the service.
    • Select DCC Operational Events to see information about each job that has run in this Distributed Computing Cluster installation.

The LfDccLocalNode Admin PowerShell Module

The LfDccLocalNodeAdmin PowerShell Module is useful for troubleshooting issues that occur before Distributed Computing Cluster can be administered from the Distributed Computing Cluster Administration Console. If the Distributed Computing Cluster service will not start, use this PowerShell module to administer the service.

To access the LfDccLocalNodeAdmin PowerShell Module

  1. On the machine where the Distributed Computing Cluster service is installed, click Start, All Programs, Accessories, Windows PowerShell, and then right-click Windows PowerShell and select Run as administrator.
  2. In PowerShell, type Import-Module LfDccLocalNodeAdmin and press ENTER.

    Note: By default, PowerShell doesn't allow you to run scripts. To run these scripts, you must change the Script Execution Policy to AllSigned. To do so, type Set-ExecutionPolicy AllSigned in PowerShell and press ENTER.

  3. To see the status of the Distributed Computing Cluster service, type Get-Service lfdcc and press ENTER.
  4. To see the settings for the Distributed Computing Cluster service installed on that machine, type Get-LocalNodeServiceSettings and press ENTER. The service must be stopped before you can change its settings.
  5. To change the settings for the Distributed Computing Cluster service, type Set-LocalNodeServiceSettings followed by one or more of the following parameters and their accepted values.
    • MetaDataPortNumber

      • This parameter specifies the port number that the service will use for metadata communication. For example, to change the metadata port to 8108, enter:

      Set-LocalNodeServiceSettings -MetaDataPortNumber 8108

      Note:Distributed Computing Cluster Workers or Schedulers are identified by their host name and metadata port number. If you change the metadata port number, you must update the port number in the Distributed Computing Cluster Administration Console and any Laserfiche applications that use it.

    • BufferedPortNumber

      This parameter specifies the port number that the service will use for buffered communication. For example, to change the buffered communication port to 8107, enter:

      Set-LocalNodeServiceSettings -BufferedPortNumber 8017

      Note: If you change buffered port number or metadata port number for a service after installation, you must manually update its associated Windows Firewall exceptions. In the Allowed Programs section of Windows Firewall, look for:
      Laserfiche Distributed Computing Cluster (Buffered)
      Laserfiche Distributed Computing Cluster (Metadata)

    • AuthenticationMode

      This parameter specifies the authentication mode that others will use to authenticate to this service. Specify Windows to use Windows Authentication or None if you do not want to use authentication. If authentication is not used, authorization cannot be used. To set the authentication mode to Windows and the encryption mode to Windows TLS, enter:

      Set-LocalNodeServiceSettings -AuthenticationMode Windows –EncryptionMode WindowsTLS

      Important: The encryption and authentication settings for Distributed Computing Cluster are dependent on each other. If the EncryptionMode is set to None, the AuthenticationMode must also be set to None.

    • EncryptionMode

      • This parameter specifies the encryption used for communication with the service. The parameter accepts WindowsTLS, SSL, or None as its values. To use SSL, appropriate x.509 certificates must be installed on this machine as well as the machines that will communicate with the service. In addition, the thumbprint of the server x.509 certificate must be specified using the ServerCertificateThumbprint parameter. To set the encryption mode to Windows TLS and the authentication mode to Windows, enter:

      Set-LocalNodeServiceSettings -EncryptionMode WindowsTLS –AuthenticationMode Windows

      Important: The encryption and authentication settings for Distributed Computing Cluster are dependent on each other. If the EncryptionMode is set to None, the AuthenticationMode must also be set to None.

    • ServerCertificateThumbprint

      • This parameter specifies the thumbprint of the server x.509 certificate used for SSL encryption. For example:

      Set-LocalNodeServiceSettings -ServerCertificateThumbprint a036cb1b48e68ef79a924cd440885f8577825cd8

  6. To restore the default settings for the service, type Set-LocalNodeServiceSettingsToDefault and press ENTER.
  7. Once you're finished changing the service's settings, you'll need to start it before it can be used. To start the service, type Start-Service lfDcc and press ENTER.