Troubleshooting the PPT

You may face issues while working with a Policy Provisioning Tool (PPT) application, as well as while installing or un-installing it. For troubleshooting such issues PPT application provides following categories of support data:
  • Installation logs
  • Running logs
  • Audit Trail
  • Debug Information
Following log files can also be used for troubleshoot issues related to PPT GUI, database and installation respectively:
  • Console.log
  • Postgres.log
  • PPT_Installer.log

IMPORTANT:

These files are stored in <ppt-install-dir>/install_logs/<PPT_version> directory.

Following troubleshooting sections provide information about possible cause and work around if available for such issues. The issues are categorized as:

Issues Pertaining to Installation

Problem:

Installer window does not appear.
Possible Cause(s):
  • If you received the “ERROR: could not initialize interface awt - exception: java.lang.InternalError: Cannot connect to X11 window server using ':0.0' as the value of the DISPLAY variable.” message, the display settings of your terminal program may be incorrect, or the X-Windows client (e.g. Exceed and Xming) is not running on the client machine.
  • The /var/tmp directory may be full.
Action(s):
  • Verify the display settings of the terminal application on the client machine are correct.
  • Verify that Exceed is installed properly on the client machine.
  • Determine the status of the /var/tmp directory by entering the df -k command. If it is at or near capacity, choose another directory for the Host Base Directory parameter setting. This parameter can be set via the installation process.


Problem:

During installation, PPT installer displays following message“Unable to install Policy Provisioning Tool <version> over Policy Provisioning Tool: Installed product has newer version.”

Possible Cause(s):
  • A later version of the PPT as compared to the version that you are attempting to install is already present on the machine.
  • A previously installed version of the PPT was not installed successfully, or was un-installed incorrectly.
Action(s):
  • Completely un-install the current version and install the desired version.


Issues Pertaining to PPT Startup

Problem:

Postgres does not start.
Possible Cause(s):
  • A postgres lock file, .s.PGSQL.xxxx.lock is present in the /tmp directory prior to starting postgres. Here xxxx is the port number
  • Shared resources are not released after another Postgres instance was terminated.
  • The PostgreSQL system environment variables were not configured properly prior to installation.
Action(s):
  • If the lock file is present, delete it using the rm .s.PGSQL.xxxx.lock command.
  • Determine if a previous Postgres instance is still using system resources by entering the ipcs command. If it is, then clear the resources by entering the ipcrm command.
  • Ensure that the PostgreSQL system environment variables were configured properly using the information in Installing the PPT Software chapter of this guide.


Problem:

PostgreSQL server does not start.

Logfile shows entries similar to those given below:

[2012-05-24 10:57:43 IST] [16939] FATAL: could not create log file "../pg_log/postgresql-2012-05-24_105743.log": No such file or directory.

Possible Cause(s):
  • Check whether PPT administrator was created manually.
  • If Yes, then may be parameters like home-dir and groups (root, users) were not configured properly which resulted in PostgreSQL data directory permissions mismatch.
  • This problem can be observed in both standalone and HA/cluster mode.
Action(s):
  • Uninstall PPT, delete PPT administrator user (from both nodes in case of HA/cluster mode) and install PPT again.


Problem:

PPT application processes not generating traps.

ipcfpp.log_ipcf log file contains following error message, Error while resolving the local host name. Error {errorno 8} node name or service name is not known

Possible Cause(s):

This may happen because of in-correct configuration in ../etc/nsswitch.conf file.
Action(s):
  • With root access privilege, edit the /etc/nsswitch.conf file.
  • Search for the following host entry hosts: nis dns [NOTFOUND=return] filesIn the host entry the files option may not be present.
  • Change the above mentioned entry as follows: hosts: nis dns files [NOTFOUND=return].
  • Above mentioned change states to use the host name for, IP address to host name mapping from the file /etc/host if the host name is not available in nis or dns.
  • Save the changes in /etc/nsswitch.conf file.
  • Access the etc/host file and ensure that for every host name an IP address entry is present.
  • If such association does not exists, then add appropriate <host name> <IPaddress>, where host name is a string returned by host name command and IP address can be retrieved using ifconfig –a command.
  • For the UCS machine, execute following command /etc/init.d/network restart. This command is not required for the Solaris machine.
  • Verify that the traps are being sent by monitoring PPT logs.


Issues Pertaining to Login

Problem:

Could not login to PPT.

Possible Cause(s):

Invalid user name or password.

Action(s):

Verify that the username and password you are entering is correct. Contact Cisco support for further assistance.


Problem:

Post login window opens after successful login, but focus is not given to it.

Possible Cause(s):

Mozilla Firefox is being used and Java Script settings are not done as required for this site.

Action(s):

Click Tools menu -> Option sub menu -> Content tab -> Click the Enable JavaScript check box -> Click the Advanced button -> Click the Raise or lower windows check box -> Click OK.


Problem:

Using Internet Explorer, login to PPT is successful; but immediately an error message "User session is invalid. Please re-login" is displayed . On attempting to re-login, an error message "User already logged-in" is displayed.

Possible Cause(s):

The username that is being sent in HTTP request is empty. This happens as the PPT server lag time is more than 15 minutes the default idle time-out configured for the PPT application client.

Action(s):

In this scenario where PPT server lag time is more that client idle time-out, the username in the HTTP request will be checked and user will receive the session in-valid message. This user session needs to be cleaned using the script .\scripts\user_session_cleanup.


Issues Pertaining to the Web Browser

Problem:

PPT application does not invoke on client machine or takes too long to load.

Possible Cause(s):

A non-recommended Web browser is being used.

Action(s):

Use the recommended Web browser, Internet Explorer (7 or later version) or Firefox (3.5 or later version). Install it, if it is not present.


Problem:

PPT client shows old information which must have changed with the newer installed version or build.
Possible Cause(s):

Old information might be populated from the browser cache.
Action(s):

Cleanup the temporary Internet cache of your browser and re-invoke the PPT client application.


Issues Pertaining to CORBA Communication

Problem:

IMG is unmanageable.

Possible Cause(s):
  • The PPT cannot communicate with the Cisco IPCF due to network issues.
  • There is an ORBEM client identification mismatch between the IPCF and PPT.
  • The ORBEM client on the IPCF is disabled.
  • There is an IIOP port configuration mismatch between the IPCF and PPT.
  • The IIOP transport parameter on the IPCF is not enabled. The IPCF is unmanageable.

Action(s):
  • Ensure ICMP connectivity between IPCF and the PPT Server using the ping <ppt_server_ip_address> command from the IPCF command prompt. Refer to the Command Line Interface Reference for more information on using this command.
  • Verify that the ORBEM client identification on the IPCF matches with that configured on the PPT. The configuration of this parameter on the IPCF can be determined by entering the show configuration | grep client command. On the PPT, check for the ASID (Application Server ID) and Port on the view IPCF screen. Change these settings as needed.
  • Check the status of the ORBEM client on the IPCF by executing the show orbem client id <client_id> command on the IPCF. The “State” should be “Enabled”. If the “State” is “Disabled”, execute the activate client id <client_id> command in the ORBEM Configuration Mode and check the status again-- it should now be “Enabled”.
  • Verify that the configuration of the IIOP port on the IPCF matches that configured for the PPT. The configuration of this parameter on the IPCF can be determined by entering the show configuration | grep “TCP-port”. On the PPT, check for the ASID (Application Server ID) and Port on the view IPCF screen. Change these settings as needed.
  • Verify that the IIOP transport parameter is enabled on the chassis by entering the show orbem status | grep iiop-transport command. If it is not, enable using the instructions found in the Intelligent Policy Control Function Administration Guide.


Issues Pertaining to the Process Monitor (PSMON)

Problem:

PPT processes are not restarted after a crash.

Possible Cause(s):
  • PSMON is not running
  • Invalid PSMON configuration
  • The PSMON may have given up after performing multiple retries in a specific duration

Action(s):
  • Verify that PSMON is running by entering the ./pptctl status psmon command.
  • Verify that PSMON is configured with the proper entries to start PPT processes. These entries may not be available if they were not selected for monitoring during the installation process.
  • The PSMON tries to restart the processes for “numretry” time within a duration of “tmintval” (refer to etc/psmon.conf) per process. If the process still does not start, PSMON no longer monitors this process. Please check the <ppt-install-dir>/3rdparty/psmon/psmon.log for details. Try restarting the process using the pptctl script.


Issues Pertaining to XML-RPC Communication

Problem:

SSC is unmanageable

Possible Cause(s):
  • The PPT cannot communicate with the SSC due to network issues.
  • There is an SSC Port configuration mismatch between the SSC and PPT

Action(s):
  • Ensure that the ICMP connectivity between the SSC and PPT using the ping <ssc_ip_addr> command from the PPT shell prompt.
  • Verify that the configuration of the SSC port matches with that configured for the PPT. The configuration of this parameter on SSC can be determined by entering the command grep Listen 3rdparty/apache/conf/httpd.conf. On the PPT, check for the SSC port on the View SSC detail screen. Change these settings as required.
  • Verify that the apache server is running on SSC using command sscadm status.


Issues Pertaining to Uninstallation

Problem:

Un-installing the PPT failed with error java.lang.OutOfMemoryError.

Possible Cause(s):

Memory heap size fell short.

Action(s):
  • Open the file <ppt-install-dir>/Uninstall_PolicyProvisioningTool/Uninstall_PolicyProvisioningTool.lax
  • Search for the key string "lax.nl.java.option.java.heap.size.max". The value would be "134217728" (128MB).
  • Change this value to "268435456" (256MB).
  • Save the file and rerun to the un-installer.