sequence of events

[mcfadyenj]

does anyone know of doco that points to the sequence of events that take place during workflow execution.

it seems there is a cache object which gets cleared according to logs etc.

so from what I can see

workflow runs,

cache clears

workflow token resets attributes

workflow starts

action starts

attributes evaluated again blah blah

I guess this is documented somewhere but I haven't found it in my travels.

[cdecanini_]

If not on the official documantation I am pretty sure it is not documented publically anywhere.

This sequence of events has changed over the different vCO versions to improve performance and scalability.

For example a box input parameters used to be read from the DB. This is part of the checkpointing feature allowing you to resume a workflow where it was if the vCO host crashed. Now it is read from the cache instead and only from DB for the case of checkpointing.

I have identified that there is a big difference when using workflows in a workflow and when using nested workflows in a workflow. In the first case attributes are stacked, for example a configure element is read once when the master workflow is initialized and load the attributes and it seems it is not loaded anymore even if in the attributes of the child workflows. In the second example workflows tokens are distinct and attributes are reloaded.

Christophe.

[mcfadyenj]

I had noticed there was a difference between nested workflows as well.

I just hadn't been able to pinpoint what exactly the difference was. The logs are pretty cryptic to the amateur eye.

Is there any funky log reader tools created anyway? 

[tschoergez]

Hi John,

the VCO uses the log4j-library as logging system.

(some details: http://www.vcoportal.de/troubleshooting/logfiles/ )

So there should be some 3rd-party-logfile analyzer out there.

For realtime monitoring I use mtail, there is an alternative calles baretail.

See also the dicussion here:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/144807/java-log-viewer

And I found a reference to a  mysterious vCO-logfile-analyzer on a mysterious old slide from VMware:

But I don't know if this tool is public available (or even still existing at all)

Regards,

Joerg

[cdecanini_ · Accepted solution]

I had a copy of log4jviewer but unfortunately I lost it when changing my laptop. I will try to see if I can get it from my colleagues.

Christophe.

[mcfadyenj]

perhaps I should have thought about this earlier. I have been rewriting all the actions with more logging haha.

oh well such is life.

[mcfadyenj]

as it turns out using the web operator view logs heaps better information than the client view does.