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Alteryx Server Knowledge Base

Definitive answers from Server experts.

The Lumbermill App - Obtain Server Logs the easy way!

MichaelF
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)
Created

If you’ve ever had an issue with Alteryx Server, you may already know that there are many logs and files that can be used to help debug and troubleshoot the issue. If you submit a case to the Customer Support Team at Alteryx, you will most likely be asked to provide some of these materials. Admittedly, these logs and files can be hard to find if you’ve never had to deal with them before.

log files.jpg

Thus, we are proud to provide you with the LumberMill App! This Alteryx Analytic Application will help gather most of the common logs and environmental files Support requests in one fell swoop. The following logs/files are all items that are gathered with this app:

RuntimeSettings Location: %ProgramData%\Alteryx\RuntimeSettings.xml - This File holds the configuration settings of your Server. When you set the System Settings on a Server Installation (Controller, Worker, or Gallery node) and click the Finish button at the end, the RuntimeSettings.xml file will be updated with all those settings. (As you can imagine, providing this file is a lot easier than sending a bunch of screenshots).

System Info – Location: System Information (msinfo32.exe) -> File -> Save as .nfo - This file contains information about the hardware and software environment of your workstation. Cores, Processors, RAM, and all that system goodness that can determine how to properly configure your Server, so it’s run at its highest possible efficiency.

Event Viewer – Location: Event View -> Windows Logs -> Application (System) -> Save All Events As – These files gather Event logs that include errors, crashes, and the like. These logs can also include information on what service or file may have caused an issue, which helps isolate the root cause of the behavior or error.

UI Logs – Location: %ProgramData%\Alteryx\ErrorLogs – This folder contains all GUI logs experienced by Alteryx Designer. Anytime the interface of Designer crashes or faces an unexpected error, a log will generate in this folder, containing details on the specific cause of the exception, or at the very least, provide which files crashed or experienced an error.

Engine Logs* – Location: **Defined in System Settings -> Engine -> General -> Logging Directory** - Engine logs are basically records of workflow results from anytime the Engine is run. This means anything run from Scheduler and Gallery will populate as an Engine Log. Note - In a multi-nodal setup, the Worker will have the Engine Logs.

Service Logs* – Location: **Defined in System Settings -> Controller -> General -> Logging** - Service logs provide information on the AlteryxService, which is the background component that runs the Server. If the AlteryxService goes down for any reason, Alteryx Server will not work. The information recorded in the service logs provides a record of anything the Service is doing, failing or otherwise. Note – If you have SAML enabled, SAML logs will also be gathered with the Service Logs.

Gallery Logs* - Location: **Defined in System Settings -> Gallery -> General -> Logging Directory** - Gallery logs contain information on Gallery responses. When an action is taken on the Gallery, the information is logged here.

Now, how do all these files get gathered by the app?

To configure the app to collect your files and logs, first, choose a location for the logs to be copied to. In this location, a folder is created called “Logs”. All the selected files and logs will be copied to this folder. After the files are copied to this location, there is a PowerShellcommand that zips this folder into a file called “Logs.zip” and then deletes the Logs Folder. The important thing to note here is that PowerShell needs to be working on the machine to zip up these logs.

Next, select which logs you want to gather. If you’re looking for Engine, Service, and/or Engine logs, you are prompted with which ones specifically you want, and as well as for which timeframe. If the issue you are encountering first started occurring very recently, then you should be fine with selecting the past 24 hours, or the last 7 days. Of course, if you need specific days and times, it can be specified with the last option.

Finally, click Finish, and wait patiently as all the files are moved to the logs folder and zipped up. As noted, gathering the System Information takes a while (>10 minutes usually), but everything else moves rather quickly. Once it finishes, navigate to the Folder that you selected and send the Zip file to Support!

The final thing to note are possible issues and error messages:

  • You need to make sure there isn’t a Logs Folder or a Logs.zip File in the Directory you chose to Save it to.
  • If asked for Service logs in the past 24 hours, and you have no Service logs for the past 24 hours, you will be prompted to rerun the app. The same goes for Gallery and Engine logs, as well as other timeframes.
  • When choosing specific dates/times, make sure the end date/time is AFTER the start date/time and that the time format is in the correct format (hh:mm:ss)

As a final, final note, if you’re curious as to the details of how the app does all these things, open the app in Designer and there is a comment box summarizing the processing order as well as the actual tools that perform the actions. Feel free to check it out, and maybe it will inspire you to take advantage of some tools that you may have overlooked or didn’t know it existed. The comment box doesn’t go into much detail, as we will leave that up to you to discover

Hopefully, this application will make gathering logs and working with Support a lot easier, especially when dealing with critical issues or issues that are simply stumping you. And as always, Happy Alteryx-ing!

Note -In a multi-nodal Server setup, you may want to run this on all nodes

Cheers,

Mike

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Comments
JohnBell
8 - Asteroid

@MichaelF

 

Thank you Michael! 

 

This is great...I haven't scrutinized the app, but I really appreciate the information regarding "runtime settings" thru "gallery logs" files.  I wish I had this information in one place previously.

 

Suggestion...more in-depth information on interpreting the details within the "runtime settings" thru "gallery logs" files.

 

Maybe JoeM can do a class?  My reasoning...if the behind-the-scenes infrastructure isn't working well, and there's long runtimes or long queue times due to server issues, and I can't fix that ASAP, people will be less incline to use the tool.

 

Thanks again!  Appreciate it!

 

Sr. Learning Strategy Manager

 

 

 

 

lepome
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)

Just a note:  Don't fret about the errors when you import the package or the red entries in the Workflow Dependencies table.  Just click Yes and Ok and then run the app using the magic wand icon.

Under many circumstances you can collect only 24-hours worth of logs or 7-days worth.  That option is towards the bottom as shown here:

LumberMill Config.png

toddschnack2
5 - Atom
This is a great tool! One thing I ran into: if you are running this on a node that is not running Gallery, you need to deselect the "Gallery Logs" option or the workflow will error out and fail without completing.