Question

IFS Cloud - Document Management

  • 17 January 2022
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Hello,

On IFS Cloud - We can retrieve documents stored on FTP path (Stored in pervious versions of IFS). But are not able to add any new document. there is no error while uploading. But where retrieving it gives error.  

https://ifsuat.<aaa>/main/ifsapplications/projection/v1/ManageDocuments.svc/DocIssueSet(DocClass='BRIEF',DocNo='BRIEF008664',DocSheet='1',DocRev='1')/EdmFileRefArray(DocClass='BRIEF',DocNo='BRIEF008664',DocSheet='1',DocRev='1',DocType='ORIGINAL',FileNo=1)/FileData might be having issues, or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.

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Hello Dhananji,

Its working fine after SU3. 

Regards

Pankaj

ORFJAN
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Dear all,
just want to share for others here, the issue was found in K8s cluster and fix is coming with 21R2SU3. Having SU3 installed, it works fine then.
Thank you @Mathias Dahl for all your support.
Jan

Mathias Dahl
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Let’s hope the FTP problem can be sorted out. It’s most probably not a problem with Docman, but a problem with “the container”. Not that it helps you when I say that… :)

As for the drag and drop support, we have good reasons to disable it when the Aurena Agent is enabled. The short story is that current web browsers stops us from having the close interaction we would need for both of those “things” to work together. It is impossible, for example, to use the agent to upload a file that was selected using drag and drop. That, in turn, means we will not be able to execute any check in macros, or bring with us any view copies, since both those features require the agent.

If all registered file extensions is not there when using the aurena agent, we need to fix that. Could be that we missed to add file extensions that are of the Document Type VIEW. You might be able to workaround that by allowing all file extensions (type *.* in the file selection dialog).

Did you compare the file download or upload times with and without the agent? The agent takes sometimes up to a second to run, and has some other small overhead as well, but the actual uploads and download time happens via the same channels. For really small files I am sure there can be a difference.

 

/Mathias
ORFJAN
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Hi Mathias,
thanks for sharing, we will check the option further however seeing how many issues/gaps/redesigns is connected with the upgrade from IFS10 to IFS Cloud it’s another effort and complexity we adding here and not sure we have capacity for. If you see feasible to have FTP issue fixed with SU4 I would prefer to go that way.

Thanks Jan

Mathias Dahl
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we will check the option further however seeing how many issues/gaps/redesigns is connected with the upgrade from IFS10 to IFS Cloud it’s another effort and complexity we adding here and not sure we have capacity for. If you see feasible to have FTP issue fixed with SU4 I would prefer to go that way.

I hear you… Let’s hope that we can recreate the FTP issue internally first, then try to find what the underlying problem can be.

As mentioned above, a fix was done in the container/POD area which fixed at least one specific FTP issue. What surprises me about your problem is that the upload goes well, that is something I don’t remember seeing when we have had FTP problems of our own.

 

/Mathias
Mathias Dahl
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Thanks alot! Although it might not look like it, I think there are errors in the FTP log file 🙃 Have a look at my latest comment on the case in Service Now.

 

/Mathias
ORFJAN
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Hi @Mathias Dahl
good finding:point_up_2_tone2:. We will try to use FTP client from linux box to make sure upload/downloads work from there.
Thanks a lot for checking the logs! Jan
   

Mathias Dahl
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Are you running the Remote option, or IFS managed cloud offering? FTP is only supported in the Remote option.

/Mathias
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Hello Mathias,

We are running Remote option. IFS Cloud is hosted in private data center

Regards

Pankaj

ORFJAN
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@Mathias Dahl 
just a quick update, I did not manage to run FTP from odata container, but I was testing from linux box and I think I found the issue. The FTP server is by default using quite wide range of ports for passive mode and from security reasons not all of them are opened from the linux box. I will share more details with findings and testing results later today/tomorrow.
 

 

Mathias Dahl
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Thanks for the update. Yes, I think the firewall rules could definitely be the cause here, even if upload works but download does not. Because of the sometimes hard to understand handling of the different ports when using FTP.

Looking forward to hear the results of further experimentation. I hope we can all learn from this.

 

/Mathias
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@ORFJAN 

Hi again, I have tested FTP repositories now, in our internal environment:

  • Latest IFS Cloud 21R2 (this is in our development environment)

  • FileZilla FTP server (64 bit) installed on a Windows Server 2012 R2, username = guest, password = guest, virtual path = / mapped to c:\docman\ftp, with full read and write access

  • I used the machine name and not the IP in the repository setup in Docman. Set / as path there. No port set (will default to 21 on the server).

Upload AND download works. In the FTP server log we can see both the upload and download that is done from the IFS Odata container working well.

The only problem is after the download is finished, the client aborts the connection and this shows as an error in the FTP server. The file downloads though, without any visible error on the client side.

If you try to download with the Aurena Agent enabled, do you get any detailed error message showing up in the toast in the lower right corner? By using the Document Revision page you should be able to see any server error. The client errors pasted earlier in this post does not give any clues unfortunately (this is often the case, that we want to see the server errors since the client error is sometimes just a side effect of the server error).

Some questions as well:

  1. Which FTP server do you use?
  2. Are there any logs you can look at there?
  3. Have you enabled support for passive FTP on the server and in your firewall? IFS uses passive nowadays, while we used active before (a change we had to make due to moving into containers).

Thanks!

 

/Mathias
Mathias Dahl
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I’m out of ideas. “It’s something with the network” :-)

I hope my colleagues who knows the ins and outs of containers will join in soon with some fresh ideas of things to try.

They should be in touch anytime soon.

 

/Mathias
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Hi,

I m having a IFS cloud customer with IFS Cloud 21.1, SU4 claiming that the issue  he had  in SU2 is still occurring for ftp repository.

Quoting from the customer: 

“When viewing an existing document which was stored in the ftp repository long time ago, the error message is:
{"error":{"code":"ODATA_PROVIDER_ERROR","message":"Ein interner Serverfehler ist aufgetreten. Wenden Sie sich an den Administrator.","details":[{"code":"PROJECTION_IMPL_EXCEPTION","message":"Error when reading the file: Error while downloading the file. Failed to connect to FTP server: IFS-FTP-REP-PROD: System error"}]}}

If you create a new document, no error is shown but the file is not stored in the repository.”

When he first reported at SU2, we have asked him to wait till SU4. 

Any views on this? 

Thank you all in advance. :) 
Dhananji

Mathias Dahl
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Thanks! And which version?

The reason I ask is that I heard there is a fix of a third party library used by the containers, which solves a FTP network problem that we have seen.

 

/Mathias
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Thanks! And which version?

The reason I ask is that I heard there is a fix of a third party library used by the containers, which solves a FTP network problem that we have seen.

 

Hello Mathias,

thanks for your quick response. We are using 21r2. 

please suggest

Regards

Pankaj

 

Mathias Dahl
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@ORFJAN 

Very glad to hear that, thanks for reporting back here as well!

 

/Mathias
Mathias Dahl
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Hi again,

I had a look and there is a framework fix that is/well be part of 21R2 SU3 that has at least fixed another FTP issue. It’s hard to say it will fix this one or not.

Which SU are you on?

Also, you say the upload does not give any errors, but is the file stored in the FTP server?

 

 

/Mathias
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Hi again,

I had a look and there is a framework fix that is/well be part of 21R2 SU3 that has at least fixed another FTP issue. It’s hard to say it will fix this one or not.

Which SU are you on?

Also, you say the upload does not give any errors, but is the file stored in the FTP server?

 

 

Hello Mathias,

We are on SU - 21R2SU2

  1. we can view the existing documents which were added in previous version
  2. When we create new document. it does not add in FTP but does not give error

Please suggest

Regards

Pankaj

ORFJAN
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Hi Mathias,
thank you for your inputs. We have upgraded to SU2 recently and we found there is little bit different behavior on SU2. It seems the document is loaded and stored to FTP, but can not be opened in IFS application. Moreover there is slightly different behavior/issues when you have IFS Aurena Agent installed. Pls. see the attached document on this case.
Ticket Form for Case - IFS Customer Support
This is go/live critical issue for us and we need to get all the issues fixed with SU3. I appreciate you support and prioritization on this.
BR Jan

 

Mathias Dahl
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Also, do you use the IP address or machine name in the repository set up?

 

/Mathias
ORFJAN
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Hi @Mathias Dahl , let me reply on question #1 n the attached document, I will be coming with the rest of the points during the day. Jan

Ref. 1. we use FTP with IIS on Windows Server 2012, passive mode supported, proved with FTP client WinSCP in passive mode. Yes we use IP address for the repository.

Document with screenshots was attached to the case.
Ticket Form for Case - IFS Customer Support

Mathias Dahl
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Thanks, @ORFJAN Looks good, I think.

About this that you wrote:

I would like to highlight that on 21R2SU2 there is no issue to upload the file to FTP repository, the file is there

I am sometimes very paranoid when it comes to what information I get using technical investigations like these :-) so I must ask: how do you see that the file has been uploaded correctly? If you look “in the FTP server”, then it’s fine. If you trusted Docman that the upload went well, because there were no errors, well, then it is not always the case that it went well :-p

So, assuming the upload works, it’s strange that the download does not, and I cannot explain it. My only theory is that there is a “communication problem” between the FTP library we use in Java inside the IFS Odata container, and the FTP server. What would be good to try is to run an FTP session from the same machine where the containers run, to the FTP server. And try both upload and download, using passive FTP. EVEN better is to try the same thing from INSIDE the OData container. We’ll see if it will come to that. We might need to test that because the container itself “has a network”, with settings and even a firewall I think. So even if the communication works on the machine where the container runs, it could still be that the communication does not work from inside the container.

With all that said, I will now await some more information from you :)

 

/Mathias
ORFJAN
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I am sometimes very paranoid when it comes to what information I get using technical investigations like these :-) so I must ask: how do you see that the file has been uploaded correctly? If you look “in the FTP server”, then it’s fine. If you trusted Docman that the upload went well, because there were no errors, well, then it is not always the case that it went well :-p

Yep, I used WinSCP FTP client to connect to FTP server and I can see the file there. Pls. see screenshot in the last attachment. 

Mathias Dahl
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When you try to download the document, do you see any server errors? Please see what I wrote above on how you might be able to see some server errors, using the Aurena Agent and the Document Revision page.

Also, do you have any log information from the download that Docman does?

 

/Mathias

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