Welcome to this edition of questions and answers for Novell Vibe and Filr. If you wish to ask me any questions then please email them to qanda@open-horizons.net.
As usual I will cover a few of the queries that I have been asked in the past few months. Much of the work I have done recently has been with the new version of Filr, 1.1, now that the technical preview is available, if you wish to join the preview you can apply at https://vibe.novell.com/vibe/filr-1-1_tech_preview_registration.
Q: We use the preview/view as HTML option in both our Vibe and Filr environments. Unfortunately we have some large files and the preview generation is timing out. Is there a way of extending this time out?
A: Yes this time out can be extended and all you need do is edit ssf-ext.properties in the .../apache-tomcat/webapps/ssf/WEB-INF/classes/config directory. At the end, add a line that reads:
conversion.timeout.ms=30000
This is measured in milliseconds, with a default value of 30000, which is of course 30 seconds. Increase this value to something more suitable for your environment.
Once a file has been converted to HTML is is cached so the next person previewing the file does not need to reconvert it. Once the cache reaches 10GB in size it is empted. If you need there is another value that can be set to control this :
max.html.cache.size=10000000000
The value is measured in bytes.
Q: We are having some errors when Filr is syncing files. We have had a look at the FAMT log, but it has not got much information in it. Is there a way to expand the logging?
A: Yes there is a way of increase the logging level for FAMT. Just run the following command to set the log level at 4. By default it is set at 2, I believe.
/opt/Novell/filr/bin/famtconfig -s loglevel=4
Q: We have a lot of data in Vibe and the disk is beginning to get short on space. Is it possible to archive older information to free up space?
A: You have the option to export whole folders or workspaces as shown in figure 1.
This generates a single zip file that contains all the information held in the folder structure. The workspace or folder can then be deleted and purged to free up space. When required the zip file can be imported back into the Vibe system
I have also come across users using Dynamic Storage Technology (as found in OES) to migrate files that have not recently been accessed to secondary storage, but still have those files available to be viewed in Vibe, and indeed still be indexed and searchable.
Q. When the folder synchronisation kicks in on my Filr system it tends to impact on the server performance. Is there any way I can improve my users’ experience?
A: In Filr 1.1 this is one of the items that you can control. You can dedicate specific cluster nodes to synchronise folders, whilst you can direct your users to nodes that are not synchronising so their experience is not compromised.
Q: Is there a way of populating a form in Vibe with profile data from the user who is creating the form? For instance entering a first name, last name and telephone number automatically.
A: Yes this can be done with a simple JSP along the lines below:
Place the jsp file in the .../apache-tomcat/webapps/ssf/WEB-INF/jsp/custom_jsps directory. Then just add a JSP element to your form, referencing your saved jsp (see figure 3) and add sub elements for First name, Last Name and Telephone.
When you create a form it will populate those fields from the user profile, which usually is populated from the LDAP directory.
Q: I have set up Filr and imported my users but when I look at the users’ properties, their Home Folder attribute has not been populated, even though the value is set in the LDAP directory. I thought that Filr automatically populated this value when users are imported. How do I resolve this?
A: Believe it or not this is working as designed. The home folder attribute is not populated until the first time the user authenticates to the web client.
Q: We need to set up a clustered solution, however we do not have a load balancer. Do you have any suggestions?
A: I have used HAProxy to give this functionality in the past. Effectively it is a software load balancer. You can download an appliance version of it from SUSE studio.
(Incomplete)
First published in OHM26 - July 2014