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Topic Title: Disappearing outgoing links
Topic Summary: Modules losing outgoing links with no history of deletion.
Created On: 29-Aug-2007 02:16
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 29-Aug-2007 02:16
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Kristen Myers

Posts: 14
Joined: 14-Oct-2005

We have a small but growing number of significant modules that are losing their outgoing links. So far this is limited to one project. We have run the DB integrity checker but found no problems.

fficeffice" />> >

The incoming links do not seem to be affected.

> >

There is no indication in the history (module/object) of links being deleted, despite having the "Generate history for the creation and deletion of links" box checked.

> >

We have searched the histories of the modules to see what if any similarities there might be, there were common users, though only one that had accessed all affected modules. We disabled that account to see if there was potentially a problem with the account, unfortunately the problem persists.

> >

We checked any attribute dxl contained within the modules to see if an attribute's dxl was causing this... fortunately, yet unfortunately, attribute dxl is not the issue.

> >

We checked the views contained within modules to see if opening a certain view seemed to result in a loss of links, again, no luck.

> >

We are using the link by attribute to restore these lost links each time, and this is becoming quite work intensive to do over and over. We are very concerned.

> >

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!



-------------------------
- Kristen
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 29-Aug-2007 14:54
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Kevin Murphy

Posts: 206
Joined: 15-Jul-2005

Kristen,

First, log the problem with Telelogic support.

Second, fix the links and backup the database. The actual DATA directory.

Third, when this problem happens again, back up the PROBLEM DATA directory.

Send both to Telelogic, along with all customizations you've done, including attribute DXL.


In the mean time...

Ensure that everyone is using the same version of DOORS, with the same configuration and patch. This is a CHALLENGE.

Did you do anything weird like put the HOME folder on the network?

My guess is that you have users using different versions of DOORS here. If you have to go and reinstall and repatch the software on everyone's machine do so as soon as possible.

My other guess is that there is a custom script that is being used for links. Either way, you aren't using DOORS completely as it is out of the box or you have clients using different versions.

One last suggestion. Whenever your users, particularly those that have discovered the problem, save the module and close it, they should reopen it immediately to see that the links were made. If not, they call you. Then you can ask questions--tell me EXACTLY what you did and what scripts you ran between link creation and module save.

Good luck.

-------------------------
Kevin Murphy
http://www.baselinesinc.com
The Requirements Management Experts
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 29-Aug-2007 22:55
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Louie Landale

Posts: 2070
Joined: 12-Sep-2002

These things may cause out links to disappear with no History.

I didn't check, but if a user lacks even 'R' access to a link module, then I presume that person couldn't see any links. So, are the links actually missing or perhaps only certain users cannot actually see these links?

Are you forgetting to save the module after creating the links? Do you have a DXL to do that work that has this command: close(mod, false); which means 'close without prompting to save'? When you notice the missing links, do you actually see the create-link history records?

Do you have some other DXL that's deleting link-sets or link-modules?

Are you deleting the target module?

Is it missing link indicators, or even when you Links >Edit you don't see them?

- Louie
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 30-Aug-2007 17:34
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Kristen Myers

Posts: 14
Joined: 14-Oct-2005

I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. I have opened a ticket with Telelogic support. Unfortunately I am unable to send them any of our data. Everyone using the 8.1 database is configured as: Client version: 8.1.0.6 Build: 81112 Build date: Nov 29, 2006 Server version: 8.1.0.0 We do use the home folder from the network, as we have for years without complication. How would I look into a custom script being used for links? I have looked into attributes, views, layout dxl, as well as menu options. Where else can I check? The users have the ability to view the links (link module access). We are unable to see the missing links when we use Links>Edit. Unfortunately the links are actually gone. Module save is not automatic. Users must save before closing the module. There is a history indicating the creation of the links for the original creations, as well as subsequent recreations. There is no record or indication of the link modules/sets, or the targe modules being deleted. These are large, significant and frequently used, and would not generally be attempted to delete.

-------------------------
- Kristen
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 30-Aug-2007 21:03
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Kevin Murphy

Posts: 206
Joined: 15-Jul-2005

Kristen,

GET HOME OFF THE NETWORK!

This leads to all sorts of problems. Sure, maybe you've patched all the clients, but if you forgot to patch HOME, guess what?

Further, this is the VERY FIRST thing I thought was causing this problem--you can tell by my response above. If you look at my other posts here, I don't ask people "Have you set your HOME switch to the network" often.

I don't capitalize a lot when I post, but having HOME on the network is just a BAD IDEA. So it's worked for you for years. Great. Well, now it isn't. I can almost gaurantee you your problem is caused by this.

If you need custom menus, use the command line switches for addins and project addins. Or write some scripts to copy files into users' C:\ drives, but never, ever point HOME to a network drive.

I admit that I could be wrong and maybe your HOME setting is not causing the problem. This isn't very likely. And even if it isn't the cause of this problem, you are putting your entire database at risk by having HOME on a network drive. All it takes is for that network drive to go down during the middle of a save--and it only has to go down for a split second, and you're at risk.

You said all users can read link modules. They need RMC access to the link modules. They probably have that, but I'm stating this here just to be sure.

You could always write a script to record links before a save. This is a band-aid for your problem. This is not common DOORS behavior, and my guess is if you fix HOME, this problem will go away.

As an aside, I worked at an organization that used HOME this way, and modules would just disappear randomly. Consider yourself lucky that you're just losing links.

-------------------------
Kevin Murphy
http://www.baselinesinc.com
The Requirements Management Experts

Edited: 31-Aug-2007 at 15:19 by Kevin Murphy
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 30-Aug-2007 21:10
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Kevin Murphy

Posts: 206
Joined: 15-Jul-2005

In case anyone thinks I'm going off on a tangent..let me just say this..

Every single click a user makes in DOORS, DOORS reads a file from HOME. You click the "File" menu, DOORS reads HOME. You start a link, DOORS reads HOME. You close a module, DOORS reads HOME.

As fast and reliable as networks have gotten, they aren't as reliable as disks. Disks are consistent in their read/write speeds. Networks are not.

When DOORS saves a module, it saves the outgoing links with those modules, by reading the save function from a file on HOME. Network hiccups mat interfere with that read.

Who decided to set you up this way? It wasn't Telelogic, was it? I really, really hope that people reading this fix this problem, as it was a semi-nightmare for me.

Kevin

-------------------------
Kevin Murphy
http://www.baselinesinc.com
The Requirements Management Experts
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 30-Aug-2007 23:17
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Louie Landale

Posts: 2070
Joined: 12-Sep-2002

Is it ALL the links of certain link-sets that disappear? After creating the links and saving and closing the source, are the links gone the next time you open that source module? Are you sure you know into which link module the links belong? Are you sure that the user who created the links is the one who cannot see them later? Are you somehow deleting the links, deleting the target objects, then closing the source without saving it? Are you dealing with shared-mode and failing to 'unlock and save' afterwards?

Have you been playing Fizbin on Tuesdays?

- Louie
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 31-Aug-2007 00:05
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Kristen Myers

Posts: 14
Joined: 14-Oct-2005

It is all of the outgoing links in certain modules. When checking the linkset after noticing links are missing there are no links shown in the linkset.
It is not clear exactly when the links disappear. In one of the instances, yes, there were gone the next time the history reflects someone being in the module. In other cases there were a couple of people who had been in the module before we were notified of the missing links, so it is hard to tell when exactly the links disappeared.
It is different users that report the links missing. Some of them are in fact the ones that recreated the links earlier, but often they are different individuals.
There would be no reason for anyone to delete the links or the target modules. Everyone we have talked to has indicated that they have not attempted any such deletions.
We do not use share-mode feature.

What is Fizbin?

-------------------------
- Kristen
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 24-Sep-2007 23:05
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Kristen Myers

Posts: 14
Joined: 14-Oct-2005

Just wanted to post an update on this issue.

We have not yet been able to remove home from the network due to addins complications and amount of users.

We have implemented Telelogic's help suggestions, to include:
- update the server to 8.1.07
- update the clients to 8.1.08

We are continuing to experience the disappearing links issue.



-------------------------
- Kristen
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 23-Oct-2007 01:03
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Kristen Myers

Posts: 14
Joined: 14-Oct-2005


Yet another update on this issue.

We continue to lose outgoing links in a growing number of modules with greater frequency. The Link loss is still restricted to only one project.

Telelogic support asked that we run their "Check Data Against History..." fuction that is part of the aforementioned updates. Should you find that you need to run this tool be advised that you must have entered the DB as Administrator, you must also be within an open module to run it, and it is run from the Tools drop down menu.  There are a few options when running this tool: Check history in all baselines; Check attribute values, and Update data to match latest history. Telelogic Support informed us that we would need to run this tool with these options checked (especially the Update data option) and the links would be recreated for the module that we ran the tool on. This is sort of true. Links are recreated, but only the links that showed as created in the history. As you may know, before version 8 the history of the creation/deletion of links was not kept, thus any of our links created before 8.1 were not recreated. Our link loss issue began about a month after upgrading to version 8.1 from 7.

Apparently the update to server 8.1.0.7 and client 8.1.0.8 is supposed to prevent the disappearance of links from modules that are created after this update, but will not affect existing modules. The "Check Data Against History..." tool is supposed to fix this still unknown issue in the existing modules, though we have yet to witness this.

For reference, one of the largest modules in this project contains approximately: 3500 objects, 2400 outgoing links, and 500 incoming links.  This project has approximately 150 active (non-deleted) modules, and when archived this project is over 1.8GB.    Our DB is approximately 120GB (that said, please note space is not an issue).

Two Telelogic Support representatives came out today to look at the issue in depth. They are going back to discuss the issue further with developers in hopes of determining what the problem is and what sort of solutions there may be. We are still awaiting resolution.



-------------------------
- Kristen
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 23-Oct-2007 15:28
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Louie Landale

Posts: 2070
Joined: 12-Sep-2002

Couple desperation attempts:

[1] Just wrote the attached script that looks for duplicate UniqueIDs in the database. Run it from the database root folder. If there are duplicates, Telelogic will want to know.

[2] I'd check the access rights of the Link Modules and also of the Link-Sets therein. Open the Link Module, load a linkset that has disappearing links, and run the following:

Buffer gl_psnConversion_Results = create()
//********************************
string fStringOf(AccessRec ar)
{ // Get the string version Permissions associated with the AccessRec;
// e.g, 'RMCDA' or 'RM'

if (null ar) return("")
gl_psnConversion_Results = ""
if (read(ar)) gl_psnConversion_Results += "R"
if (modify(ar)) gl_psnConversion_Results += "M"
if (create(ar)) gl_psnConversion_Results += "C"
if (delete(ar)) gl_psnConversion_Results += "D"
if (control(ar)) gl_psnConversion_Results += "A"

if (length(gl_psnConversion_Results) == 0) gl_psnConversion_Results = "None"
return(stringOf(gl_psnConversion_Results))
} // end fStringOf(ar)



AccessRec ar

Object oCurr = current

bool IsInherit
isAccessInherited(oCurr, IsInherit)
print IsInherit "\tAccess Inherited\n"

for ar in oCurr do
{ print name(ar) "\t" fStringOf(ar) "\n"
}
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 29-Nov-2007 16:57
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Kristie Carpenter

Posts: 3
Joined: 28-Mar-2006

Kristen,
Were the Telelogic Support reps able to recover your links or at least provide a way to prevent the unanticipated deletion of links?

Thanks,
Kristie
kristie@cse-corp.com
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 5-Dec-2007 21:56
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Kristen Myers

Posts: 14
Joined: 14-Oct-2005

No resolution has come from the Telelogic reps.

We have since created a new link module and moved all links in the problem project to go through the new link module. Yes this was tedious and time consuming, however, this has thwarted the problem thus far.

We are still apprehensive about when this issue may arise again and still do not know the cause.

If any more information becomes available I will post it here.

Regards,

-------------------------
- Kristen
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