Frequently Asked Questions

This section is a work in progress and will grow continually. So please check back when you are trying to solve a problem.

Generating Stages runtime information

To analyze or reproduce a problem the Stages Support team often asks to send the Stages runtime information to stages-support@ul.com. This is an archived set of Stages configuration and logfiles that provides detailed information on the Stages environment and can only be opened by the Stages Support team.

If the .pks/.pks2 file created is too big for email transfer please use our upload form: https://upload.methodpark.de
The requested Ticket ID to upload data is visible in the mail subject of the respective Stages Support mail: [SupportID#1234567812345678]

Inside the Stages WebGUI

To create the Stages runtime information please login to Stages and click Administration > search for widget: Further Information > click: Runtime Information Download

Manually on the Stages server

If login to the Stages WebGUI is not possible please proceed as follows:

Windows:

  1. Connect to your Stages Server e.g. via Remote Desktop Connection or login to your Stages Server directly
  2. On your Stages Server please open a command shell with administrative permissions
  3. Navigate to folder: <stages-installation-directory>\stages\bin
  4. Execute command: supportInfo.bat
  5. Stages runtime information is created in the current directory. Filename is: supportinfo-<timestamp>.pks2

Linux:

  1. Connect to your Stages Server with a linux shell or login to your Stages Server directly
  2. Navigate to folder: <stages-installation-directory>/stages /bin
  3. Execute command: ./supportInfo.sh
  4. Stages runtime information is created in <stages-installation-directory>. Filename is: supportinfo-<timestamp>.pks2

PDF Print is Running Forever

PDF prints are running for a very long time and do not seem to ever finish.

Explanation:
In order to print a PDF file the server may have to send requests to itself. However, in some network configurations with a proxy server it may not be able to do that, resulting in the server re-trying each request for a certain time before giving up (IO exception) and going on to the next request.

In this case, adding the following property to config.xml will solve the problem:

<property name=“pdf.serverAddress” value=“http:<Stages-Server-IP><:PORT (optional)>”/>

You may need to add the port; usually this is 8080 or 80 (depending on your configuration).
Stages must be restarted after adding the property. ===== Reporting Problems ===== Connectivity problems occur during report execution, parameters loading or script upload.

Explanation:
In some network configurations with a proxy server the Stages server may not be able to reach itself.
In this case, adding the following property to config.xml may solve the problem:
<property name=“metrics.serverAddress” value=“http:<Stages-Server-IP><:PORT (optional)>”/>

You may need to add the port; usually this is 8080 or 80 (depending on your configuration).
Stages must be restarted after adding the property.

If this does not help make sure the proxyName and proxyPort of your proxy server for the internal connector are configured in …\tomcat\conf\server.xml as shown in the following example:

<Connector port=“80”
proxyName=“myproxy.mydomain.com”
proxyPort=“443”
…./>

The connector port should be the same as in the property above (80 or 8080); the proxy port is usually 443 or 8443 (depending on your configuration). ===== User Session Timeout does not work as configured ===== The properties
<property name=“global.session.timeoutInMinutes.user” value=“xx”/> and
<property name=“global.session.timeoutInMinutes.root” value=“yy”/> are configured in config.xml, but the timeout does not occur after the set time.

Explanation:
Please note that the minimum value that can be set for xx or yy is 30. If smaller values are used the timeout will still occur after 30 minutes.
There have been cases where there was more than one entry for the global.session.timeoutInMinutes.user property in config.xml. Please check your config.xml for such conflicting entries and remove them. ===== Download Filename does not include version/date ===== In our previous Stages installation the names of downloaded files used to contain the file version and date. Why is this information no longer appended to the file name?

Explanation:
The version name will be appended in the following cases (in Stages 6 and Stages 7): • A fixed version is set in the file properties
• An old version of the file is downloaded from the File History view
• The configuration property “cms.download.filename.extension” is set. After adding
<property name=“cms.download.filename.extension” value=“true” /> to config.xml Stages must be restarted. ===== The Stages search function cannot be used ===== When trying to use the search within Stages, why am I getting the message “The search engine is not available at the moment.”? Explanation:
Please do the following (or ask your Stages admin if you do not have the necessary permissions): 1. Stop Stages service
2. Stop StagesSearch service
3. Make sure no search index exists (by deleting the nodes folder - completely, not just its content - in ~\elasticsearch\data\nodes)
4. Start StagesSearch service
5. Start Stages service This action will rebuild the Stages search index and you will be able to use the search again. In case the search still does not work properly please generate the support information (runtime information → under Administration) and send it to Stages Support with your problem description. ===== Error Message: “Error using websocket” ===== Very frequently, the reason for this is a user session timeout. So please try if the error still appears after you start a new Stages session. ===== STARTUP ERROR: “Couldn’t retrieve trigger: …” ===== After starting the Stages service the following error appears:
org.quartz.JobPersistenceException: Couldn’t retrieve trigger: Table ‘stages.QRTZ_TRIGGERS’ doesn’t exist [See nested exception: java.SQLSybtaxErrorException: Table ‘stages.QRTZ_TRIGGERS’ doesn’t exist]

Explanation:
The following should be added to the [mysqld] section of your MySQL configuration:
lower_case_table_names = 1

NOTE: If you do this under Linux after MySQL has (ever) been started on the system you must reinstall MySQL, then insert the line in my.cnf, and only then start MySQL. ===== Is my Stages version compatible with oracle 19c? ===== Stages is compatible with Oracle 19c beginning with Version 7.5.
Stages V6 and earlier are not compatible with Oracle 19c. ===== How can I suppress the user login count in the Stages administration user list? ===== The following property can be set in config.xml to switch off the login count:
<property name=“administration.users.showLastLogin” value= “false” /> ===== How do I make changes to my Stages configuration become effective? ===== Please check the following actions: ^Changes to^Action| |server.xml|⇒ Run […]\stages\bin\update.bat or […]/stages/bin/update.sh| |config.xml|⇒ Restart Stages service| |config.bat, or java upgrade (Windows only)|⇒ Run reinstallservice.bat (bin folder) as administrator| ===== Accessing SaaS server - Error Message: “Service Unavailable” ===== Possible explanation:
On the 15th of each month (or, if the 15th is on a weekend, on the following workday) Stages updates and OS security updates are performed on the productive SaaS servers. Therefore short outages may occur on these days. So please check a little later if the service is back up and running. ===== JIRA ticket with “stable URL” links ===== The stable URL always contains the “Version number” embedded in link:
stages.example.com/stages/#/workspace/100/for%2025.01/(process/activity/_LT2BcM7j89iq0vSy_p5cRA)'' The link is stable in regard to releases of new process versions. It is not stable in regard to renaming process versions.
We would generally advise against renaming process versions that have already been released or reviewed, as the corresponding version can then no longer be found under the released names. (So not only via link, but also from any review protocols in which the name is written).