NPrinting 17.4 Failing and Lots of Tasks running

[#1]

Sorry for the long post. We are running 17.4 NPrinting (June 2017) release with Qlikview Server/Desktop 12.10 (SR7) but experiencing lots of issues.  Main issue - server fails and sometimes falls over, about every two days, so reports don't get generated and then a massive backlog of tasks/reports generates.

Stats:

• QV Server - 2016 - 8 Core - 16GB RAM (QV 12.10 SR7)
• NPrinting Server - 2012 R2 - 8 Core - 8GB RAM (NPrinting Server 17.4)
• Apps - 4 Apps, file size between 1MB-2MB each (Broken up to ensure NPrinting has less issues) - reloaded on Qlikview schedule (10minutely - takes less than a minute to reload).
• NPrinting Connections - 4 Connections one to each App, all QVP Server connections
• Nprinting Reports - 14 Reports, single Pixel Perfect, no filters
• Nprinting Task - 1 Task, all 14 reports - output as PNG files only to a folder destination, scheduled to reload on a 5 minute (staged not to coincide with QV) schedule.  Can drop this back to less frequently if required.

*This same server started life as NPrinting 17.1 server, and has been upgraded through all NPrinting versions.

Concerns/ Questions

Log files are growing - and iterating into the 10MB every few days - so we have 10 + files of Engine Logs and i found reference to the this- "When a file becomes too big to be easily managed, Qlik NPrinting creates a new file and adds a progressive integer suffix to the old file. So the file without suffix is the current file, and the files with suffixes are the previous files. Bigger suffix indicates older files. The files are not rotated on a daily basis; you have to manually delete old files to save disk space." Is this true, do we need to schedule a clean up task? Could it be that the server is falling over when it gets to the 11th file being 10MB and therefore not knowing how to handle the rename?

When I run the verification on the Cache Generation the apps it fails on the service account check - "The account used to run Qlik NPrinting Engine has access to QlikView Server" however i can confirm - services account running NPrinting - has QV license, is in Admin Group on QV and NPrinting server, also in the QV Admin Group on the QV Server.  So why...? Cache regenerates successfully via task execution status /details.

The new Task Execution page (firstly i must say is AWESOME!) however, i seem to have issues, after a few hours of running there are about 100 tasks actively still "running" in various stages of % complete....

Occasionally we will get a "warning" in the task, but frequently the tasks complete successfully.  The warnings are all similar they seem to throw something like this (although the objects warning seem to change):

Any help or guidance as to where to start troubleshooting this more is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

[Lech_Miszkiewicz]

Hi Kaitlyn,

Looks like your NPrinting service account is not part of QlikView Administrators Group and Parto of Local Administrators Group on QlikView server??? It also needs to be domain account.

The issue with queued task is that NPrinting is able to start task, but essentialy is not able to fully execute it and finish. This creates a lot of log entries/warnings so your log files are growing fast and slowing down nprinting environment too.

It is just a chain reaction which has an impact on whole setup. I may be able to get back to you tomorrow with more details.

regards

Lech

[kevinpintokpa]

Hi Lech,

Is there a way to limit the number of NPrinting tasks currently executing?  My users have gone crazy with NPrinting and they are hammering the QlikView Server with lots of reports on large documents.  I looked but could not find any place where this could be adjusted. 

[Lech_Miszkiewicz]

There is no way to do this at the moment. Qlik NPrinting is executing all tasks based on amount of CPU cores available on the NPrinting engine box.

Are you talking about OnDemand reports? or Users are using NPrinting NewsStand and Subscriptions functionality to trigger huge amount of reports?

For big reports on large documents i do not provide OnDemand functionality nor subscriptions as mty major rule!

Reporting tools like NPrinting need to managed according to user awareness of impact they are causing. Therefore i never give a full freedom to users or i manage it by user roles and credentials assigned to roles + dedicated reduced documents for NPrinting to take off from QV server some of the cumbersomeness of large documents.

[kevinpintokpa]

No, I have a distributed group of Designers and they have created a large number of scheduled reports already, at least some of which are based upon large documents.  We don't use NewsStand or On Demand reports right now.

It looks like I will have to monitor NPrinting performance and reach out to the designers to moderate their reports.

[Lech_Miszkiewicz]

100% - QlikView app design and NPrinting report design go together and require huge knowledge in order to capitalise on its performance. If you have multiple developer who build whatever they want then it is not a right solution. They have to work together in order to:

• schedule reports accordingly
• do not duplicate similar reports
• work with QlikDevelopers (unless they are also Qlik Developers) to maximise QV app speed and responsivenes

regards

Lech

[#7]

Hey lech_miszkiewicz‌

Thanks for the thoughts... but this is the odd thing.  We are using a domain account. I'm thinking maybe a full reinstall...? Thoughts?

SILVERCHEF\NPrinting is the account -

App13 is NPrinting server

App 12 is QV Server.  (see screenshots)

NPrinting is Admin and QV Admin

[Lech_Miszkiewicz]

Hi,

You are right that it is there. Did you have QlikVIew server restarted after adding NPrinting user to QlikView administrators and local administrators? Are there any advanced policy rules applied on this server which could over-rule?

Can you try do following:

• re-intate NPrinting account as a local admin, and qv admin on QV server,
• restart QV server
• RDP to QV server as NPrinting user
  • Open QV desktop
  • Open (locally) QV document you use for NPrinting reports
  • Save document (here - see if this account has enough right to save and overwrite an existing QV document)

This will test whether policies are actually working for you.

let me know how it goes.

regards

Lech

[kevinpintokpa]

kaitlynwright‌,

I had the same error that you did, but after adding the NPrinting service account (which was a domain user) to both the local Administrators and the QlikView Administrators group, the error message went away: The account used to run Qlik NPrinting Engine has access to QlikView Server.

Perhaps you could try opening an Explorer window on your QlikView server using the NPrinting account?  Or logging into the QlikView server with the NPrinting account?

[#10]

Hey,

• Removed and then re-added the account,
• restarted QV server
• RDP to QV server as NPrinting user
  • Open QV desktop
  • Open (locally) QV document you use for NPrinting reports
  • Save document - saves fine.

Still fails the verification.  I'm thinking a complete clean install at this point.