TM1 server locked, notify users?

[Jan]

Hello,

Every time someone locks the server, every connected tm1 user 'hangs' in excel until the lock is released. Only us administrators can see what's happening (by using tm1top). Can we notify all connected users how long the lock will take?
How can we kill the thread to force the server to release the lock? It doesn't seem to work in tm1 top when I call the function 'Cancel thread'
If it's possible to connect to tm1 through tm1top during a lock, it must also be possible to notify the users huh?

thanx in advance

[Jan]

Maybe it's a good thing to say that I am using the 9.0 SP2 version.
Is this different in 9.4?

[robchr]

Hello,

Every time someone locks the server, every connected tm1 user 'hangs' in excel until the lock is released. Only us administrators can see what's happening (by using tm1top). Can we notify all connected users how long the lock will take?
How can we kill the thread to force the server to release the lock? It doesn't seem to work in tm1 top when I call the function 'Cancel thread'
If it's possible to connect to tm1 through tm1top during a lock, it must also be possible to notify the users huh?

thanx in advance

Have you tried to right-click on your server name and then select server manager? It has a "broadcast message" feature there which should send a message to selected (or all) connected clients.

[Jan]

Hello,

Every time someone locks the server, every connected tm1 user 'hangs' in excel until the lock is released. Only us administrators can see what's happening (by using tm1top). Can we notify all connected users how long the lock will take?
How can we kill the thread to force the server to release the lock? It doesn't seem to work in tm1 top when I call the function 'Cancel thread'
If it's possible to connect to tm1 through tm1top during a lock, it must also be possible to notify the users huh?

thanx in advance

Have you tried to right-click on your server name and then select server manager? It has a "broadcast message" feature there which should send a message to selected (or all) connected clients.

But the thing is that nobody can connect to the system anymore, everybody 'hangs' in excel. Even the administrators can't do anything anymore. We can just login with tm1top and check who's launching a process or who is locking the system.

[robchr]

Hello,

Every time someone locks the server, every connected tm1 user 'hangs' in excel until the lock is released. Only us administrators can see what's happening (by using tm1top). Can we notify all connected users how long the lock will take?
How can we kill the thread to force the server to release the lock? It doesn't seem to work in tm1 top when I call the function 'Cancel thread'
If it's possible to connect to tm1 through tm1top during a lock, it must also be possible to notify the users huh?

thanx in advance

Have you tried to right-click on your server name and then select server manager? It has a "broadcast message" feature there which should send a message to selected (or all) connected clients.

But the thing is that nobody can connect to the system anymore, everybody 'hangs' in excel. Even the administrators can't do anything anymore. We can just login with tm1top and check who's launching a process or who is locking the system.

If it locks up like that, honestly I don't know of any other way to notify users other than good old fashioned email, sadly. And I'd say the API, but that works off of a server connection.

[Gregor Koch]

Hi Jan,

To give you a better answer I would need to know what is causing the lock. Turbo Integrator (TI), Cell Spreading etc.

With TM1 Top you can only cancel certain threads like ViewCreate and ProcessExecute (I think I read this in this forum so you might want to do search on TM1Top here).

As for the messaging: you actually need to know beforehand that the server will be locked and there is no telling how long something will take unless it is a processs that you ran before (so from experience).

With you being on 9.0 and in case it is a TI your a running, have a read on the functions
LockOn and LockOff
BatchUpdateStart and BatchUpdateFinish
in the manual.

Cheers

[Jan]

Hello,

The locks are mainly caused by TI processes (I will look into the functions you told me to reduce the locking time), we can estimate the time each process will take so that's no problem because they run few times a week.
And the second cause is, the users (I don't what they do to cause this, I think they are creating a huge view but all I can see during the lock is OBJ_DUPLICATE in tm1top), when this is the case I have to call the user by phone and ask him/her to close the excel session, then the lock is released.
This last case is really painfull because I don't always work in tm1 and only get notified if I get a phonecall from 1 of the users who are 'hanging' in excel and ask me what the problem is. Then I have to open tm1top and check what is going on and alert the user who is causing the lock because I can't kill the thread in tm1top.

[Steve Rowe]

The last case whilst a horrid bug that's impossible to track down can be partially resolved by using this parameter in the config file

ReceiveProgressResponseTimeoutSecs=20

The "Object Duplicate" error basically means that the server and client have forgoten where each other are. With this is the config file the lock will only exist for 20 seconds before the server kicks the client and normal service resumed.

HTH

[Jan]

I didn't know about the parameter. I will certainly try this. thanx!

[Jan]

1 question though, about this parameter.
What if a process executing time exceeds (in this case) the 20 seconds. Will the server also terminate the connection therefore killing the process?

[Steve Rowe]

I don't think so , it's purely for the Object Duplicate issue where the clinet and server lose contact with each other.