Broker startup params in 11.5 promon

Posted by Rob Fitzpatrick on 25-May-2015 13:35

I have been looking at the new Broker Startup Parameters screen in promon (r&d|1|20).  Sometimes it displays data, sometimes it's blank, but it's not clear why.  It seems to depend on which broker-specific parameters are used.  Is this the intended behaviour?

All Replies

Posted by Richard Banville on 26-May-2015 08:08

Did you at least specify –S on broker startup?  Without that there is nothing to display.
 
 
 
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From: Rob Fitzpatrick [mailto:bounce-robfsit@community.progress.com]
Sent: Monday, May 25, 2015 2:36 PM
To: TU.OE.RDBMS@community.progress.com
Subject: [Technical Users - OE RDBMS] Broker startup params in 11.5 promon
 
Thread created by Rob Fitzpatrick

I have been looking at the new Broker Startup Parameters screen in promon (r&d|1|20).  Sometimes it displays data, sometimes it's blank, but it's not clear why.  It seems to depend on which broker-specific parameters are used.  Is this the intended behaviour?

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Posted by Rob Fitzpatrick on 26-May-2015 09:05

I tried various combinations of parameters to see what resulted in a display.  So it seems -S is the trigger.  That makes sense, as without that other client/server parameters have no effect.

However the UI is somewhat unintuitive.  For example:

proserve sports <parameter list without -S>

proserve sports -m3 -S port# <etc>

In R&D|1|20 what you see initially is this:

Enter <return> for more, R, P, T, or X (? for help):

It is very similar to what you see if you had just proserved the DB with no parameters:

Enter <return>, R, P, T, or X (? for help):

Seeing that, and not knowing (yet) that there was a secondary broker, a user might exit that screen with P or T, not knowing that hitting Enter would give them a screen of info about the secondary broker.  I admit I failed to notice the "for more" that makes this display different.

It might be useful from a UX perspective to somehow visually distinguish the state where this menu item has nothing interesting to display (i.e. there are no C/S parameters for *any* broker) from the state where there is some info lurking in the next screen.  It's not that important, just a UX suggestion.

Posted by Richard Banville on 26-May-2015 09:19

Yes, I see your point.  I had not thought of running a primary broker with no - S and a secondary broker with –S
The broker screens were designed for one per broker and in this case the first one really has nothing important to show but it does make it confusing to show nothing!
 
Do you think it would make more sence to:

1.     Skip the primary broker screen altogether if there is nothing to show OR

2.     Show the primary broker information even though it is really of no importance

 
 
[collapse]
From: Rob Fitzpatrick [mailto:bounce-robfsit@community.progress.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2015 10:06 AM
To: TU.OE.RDBMS@community.progress.com
Subject: RE: [Technical Users - OE RDBMS] Broker startup params in 11.5 promon
 
Reply by Rob Fitzpatrick

I tried various combinations of parameters to see what resulted in a display.  So it seems -S is the trigger.  That makes sense, as without that other client/server parameters have no effect.

However the UI is somewhat unintuitive.  For example:

proserve sports <parameter list without -S>

proserve sports -m3 -S port# <etc>

In R&D|1|20 what you see initially is this:

Enter <return> for more, R, P, T, or X (? for help):

It is very similar to what you see if you had just proserved the DB with no parameters:

Enter <return>, R, P, T, or X (? for help):

Seeing that, and not knowing (yet) that there was a secondary broker, a user might exit that screen with P or T, not knowing that hitting Enter would give them a screen of info about the secondary broker.  I admit I failed to notice the "for more" that makes this display different.

It might be useful from a UX perspective to somehow visually distinguish the state where this menu item has nothing interesting to display (i.e. there are no C/S parameters for *any* broker) from the state where there is some info lurking in the next screen.  It's not that important, just a UX suggestion.

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Flag this post as spam/abuse.

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Posted by Rob Fitzpatrick on 26-May-2015 09:30

Well, there are precedents in promon for "nothing to see here".  Examples:

05/26/15        Status: AI Log

10:24:06

*** After-image logging is not enabled. ***

Enter <return>, R, P, T, or X (? for help):

05/26/15        Activity: Latch Times

10:25:14        05/26/15 09:54 to 05/26/15 10:22 (28 min 21 sec)

       Locks   Lk usec   Wt usec   Lk usec   Wt usec

        /Sec     /Lock     /Lock      /Sec      /Sec

*** Latch timing is not enabled. ***

Enter <return>, A, L, R, S, U, Z, P, T, or X (? for help):

So you could do something like this for broker 0:

05/26/15        Status: Broker Startup Parameters

10:26:58

Broker: 0 Pid: 12345 Logins: 0 Pend: 0 Connected: 0

*** There are no client/server parameters for this broker. ***

Enter <return> for more, R, P, T, or X (? for help):

That would be visually distinct from the case where there is no data to show for any broker, assuming you keep the existing display (i.e. nothing).

Posted by Richard Banville on 26-May-2015 09:55

Makes sense to me.  I’ll add a bug for it.. 
 
 
[collapse]
From: Rob Fitzpatrick [mailto:bounce-robfsit@community.progress.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2015 10:31 AM
To: TU.OE.RDBMS@community.progress.com
Subject: RE: [Technical Users - OE RDBMS] Broker startup params in 11.5 promon
 
Reply by Rob Fitzpatrick

Well, there are precedents in promon for "nothing to see here".  Examples:

05/26/15        Status: AI Log

10:24:06

*** After-image logging is not enabled. ***

Enter <return>, R, P, T, or X (? for help):

05/26/15        Activity: Latch Times

10:25:14        05/26/15 09:54 to 05/26/15 10:22 (28 min 21 sec)

       Locks   Lk usec   Wt usec   Lk usec   Wt usec

        /Sec     /Lock     /Lock      /Sec      /Sec

*** Latch timing is not enabled. ***

Enter <return>, A, L, R, S, U, Z, P, T, or X (? for help):

So you could do something like this for broker 0:

05/26/15        Status: Broker Startup Parameters

10:26:58

Broker: 0 Pid: 12345 Logins: 0 Pend: 0 Connected: 0

*** There are no client/server parameters for this broker. ***

Enter <return> for more, R, P, T, or X (? for help):

That would be visually distinct from the case where there is no data to show for any broker, assuming you keep the existing display (i.e. nothing).

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Flag this post as spam/abuse.

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Posted by George Potemkin on 26-May-2015 10:36

I used to recommend for the customers not to start a primary broker with the -S. It's safer to separate the functions of db broker and login broker. It did helped to keep a database running even after getting the problems with the ports used by the servers.

This thread is closed