NPrinting connection error

[mcintyb1]

Hi all

I've been using Qlik for over 9 years and never had a problem I could not resolve with a little assistance from existing community discussions until having to set up the new NPrinting environment. Recently I have been trying to migrate to the higher version of NPrinting given v16 is no longer supported. l tried the project import task but each and every one of the 19 existing connections failed. Most QVWs have unsupported features i.e. always one selected value, hence I tried with a basic app containing very little data and functionality and still received a failure response. I am running Feb 21 NPrinting and QlikView 12.5.204. Connection method is qvp with document authentication. The QV Server is dedicated to running QVS and has plenty of available CPU and RAM. The NPrinting software runs on a server which also runs QDS and also our data warehouse SQL Server and ETL platforms, but has plenty of available resource. 

Each and every app runs successfully with the verification :

but then fails with the metadata load :

Engine logs :

Failed to open a resolver for connection navigator

System.InvalidOperationException: Failed to open a QlikView instance.

The user is a service account set up in QV administrator user groups and dedicated user CAL. I have logged onto the QV  Server, leased a license and can open each and every QVW. 

I did pay particular interest to the below forum but it did provide an alternative that I was not already using and our IT department does not allow session 0 to be run, so I'm hoping someone else can suggest some other areas I can target to try and address the ongoing failures. 

https://community.qlik.com/t5/Qlik-NPrinting-Discussions/Cache-Generation-Failed-On-Specific-Model/t...

I am happy to provide additional info where needed so please let me know what I can provide. Just for your info I have also been using NPrinting for many years and a reliance to v16 had been established long before Qlik acquired the product from Visubi. I have hundreds of scheduled reports and can only see an insurmountable amount of work to properly migrate the existing environment. Hopefully I can at least get the basic migration process to run properly.

Thanks in advance

[Lech_Miszkiewicz · Accepted solution]

My word of advice:

"The NPrinting software runs on a server which also runs QDS and also our data warehouse SQL Server and ETL platforms, but has plenty of available resource."  

NPrinting should be installed on the server where no other software is used. Full stop! Given that you are migrating large amount this should be done properly from the ground up and my word of advice is to have dedicated server. In case something goes wrong with your environment Qlik support will likely request the same.

https://help.qlik.com/en-US/nprinting/February2021/Content/NPrinting/DeployingQVNprinting/Installing... This links mentions only Qlik Sense, but the principle applies to any other software too.

You say: "Connection method is qvp with document authentication" - can you elaborate on that? Is this regular section access where you have NTNAME used for authentication? Or do you refer to explicit passwords set in section access which is not supported with this version of NPrinting?

Now errors:

"Failed to open a QlikView instance" 

• what do you see in windows logs from this time. It seems like there is either section access and service account is not part of it (note that section access is only supported with Windows authentication as I mentioned above and not with user name and password, and users/service account needs to be properly configured under nprinting user settings)
• do you have some sort of antivirus or other software which kills other processes. One of my clients experienced the same issue due to the fact that each time NPrinting tried to use qv.exe, that process was killed by antimalware/antivirus software - this is easy to check simply by looking if there are any qv.exe open in task manager when you run generation of metadata
• make sure you meet all requirements - there is too much to list all of them so use https://help.qlik.com to check particular version of NPrinitng and its requirements

Make sure your server and service accounts meets the criteria:

https://help.qlik.com/en-US/nprinting/February2021/Content/NPrinting/DeployingQVNprinting/Installing...

https://help.qlik.com/en-US/nprinting/February2021/Content/NPrinting/DeployingQVNprinting/User-accou...

Make sure your version of QlikView desktop is the same as your QV server version.

I dont have anything else to add as I could simply copy/paste whole help document here which is no point, but if you want to send/private message me, we can get a zoom session to quickly go over the obvious things.

I am in Australia/Sydney time zone so be aware of that...

[Ruggero_Piccoli]

Hi,

About the migration from QlikView NPrinting 16 I think you already checked https://help.qlik.com/en-US/nprinting/February2021/Content/NPrinting/Migrate/Migrating.htm and the migration playbook https://community.qlik.com/t5/Qlik-NPrinting-Documents/QlikView-NPrinting-16-Migration-Playbook-A-re....

Try to run QlikView desktop with the same users that run the Qlik NPrinting Engine services on the same computers. You must be able to open the QVWs from QlikView desktop. 

If you have more than one Engine you need to have a different user with a different CAL license for each one. 

Be sure that all Engines are in online status on Admin -> Engine manager

Best Regards,

Ruggero

[Frank_S]

@mcintyb1 

in addition to @Ruggero_Piccoli and @Lech_Miszkiewicz comments, I suggest that you re-check the points in the NPrinting migration guide in case any points in the guide were missed.

https://community.qlik.com/t5/Knowledge-Base/NPrinting-16-to-NPrinting-19-Migration-Playbook/ta-p/17...

Second,  please check the following as this is a checklist of all the points to check.

https://community.qlik.com/t5/Knowledge-Base/NPrinting-Server-Web-Console-Publish-Task-Completely-Ha...

If you are not following one or more of the requirements, the problem you are experiencing may be the result of therein. Also pay attention to the related content section of this article as well.

[mcintyb1]

Thanks for the words of advice @Ruggero_Piccoli and @Lech_Miszkiewicz and @Frank_S . I am going to install NPrinting on a new virtual server away from QVS and QDS and restest the response. 

Just a few notes for clarification :

You say: "Connection method is qvp with document authentication" - can you elaborate on that? I am referring to the source method used in the connection in NPrinting as opposed to use a document path. In another forum it was discussed this was the best option as it uses the processing capacity on the QlikView Server instead of the NPrinting Server so I just wanted to clarify that.

The simplified QVW I am using does not have section access. 

QV Desktop and Server are the same version - 12.50.204

The service account can open each and every QVW via Desktop.

I only have one NPrinting engine running at the moment which is displaying online.

Once I have the new environment up and running following the installation and setup guidelines I'll provide further commentary as to the success to let you know. 

Thanks

[Lech_Miszkiewicz]

what about checking if qv.exe gets opened in task manager (processes). If it does and then it gets immidiatelly closed it may mean you have something killing the processes...

[Vegar]

Do you have anti virus software on your server? It could be blocking you. Is it possible to temporarily disable the anti virus software in your environment?

Take a look at this article: https://community.qlik.com/t5/Knowledge-Base/Qlik-NPrinting-Server-and-Designer-Anti-Virus-Folder-Ex...

[Ruggero_Piccoli]

Hi,

Qlik NPrinting optimizations manage the qv.exe process so it opens and kills them.

Best Regards,

Ruggero

[mcintyb1]

I have gone ahead and created a new virtual server to be dedicated just to NPrinting. After installing Server, Engine and QV Desktop I am able to generate new connections and in particular migrate the connections from v16, so the root cause was purely where the original installation took place and the solution was to install onto a location separate from QVS and QDS as mentioned by Lech and initially overlooked by me.

Thank you to all contributors to enable me to get this operational!

[Lech_Miszkiewicz]

Well - if you would mention QVS that would be straight away red flag as having QVS and NPrinting on 1 server is not supported at all.