WFA: 4.2: Lost access to logs and backup+restore ?

[WAFLHERDER]

While developing workflow on my newly installed 4.2 WFA I unexpectedly lost my connection to the Web UI. (Other network connections e.g. ssh from my desktop to a Data Centre based Filer) were not affected.

When I investigated the Windows 2012 server where WFA was running I found this error from MySQL in the event log:

Description: Aborted connection 17 to db: 'unconnected' user: 'root' host: 'localhost' (Got timeout writing communication packets)For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://www.mysql.com.

The WFA service would not respond to a stop request, perhaps blocked waiting on something ... In the end I used the Windows Task manager to terminate the service.

Both services (WFA + MySQL) could be manually restarted OK, apparently without problem and I can now log in to WFA and continue to develop.

However, only the Flash based part of the WebUI is functional. When I click on the links to "external" components such as "Backup & Restore" or "View Logs" (i.e. non-Flash based, JBoss(?), services) I get a 404 "Page not found error".

What could be the problem? Suggestions for a fix?

Running like this and developing without the ability to backup my work makes me a little nervous. I could reinstall WFA ... but only if I could backup my workflow first 😕

I noticed that there is a CLI based backup functionality (wfa -B ...) but this also fails. In this case the error reported is:

Couldn't look-up registry: ERROR: Couldn't look-up registry: The handle is invalid

Perhaps a direct export at the MySQL level would be possible? With the right advice about how to correctly restore it for a working WFA system afterwards?

Thanks (again) in advance!

[bradfordperkins · Accepted solution]

I've experienced this issue a couple of times. Try this: https://community.netapp.com/t5/OnCommand-Storage-Management-Software-Discussions/Unable-to-export-workflow/m-p/135153#M24499

[WAFLHERDER]

Excellent! That was the problem and, better still, the fix. I can now view logs and also backup.

That bug report seems to be logged against WFA version 3.1 and has a status of "fixed". But we just experienced apparently exactly the same issue with 4.2, so I would suggest to someone at NetApp that you might want to re-open that one.

Thanks for that!

Cheers,

Robb.

[joele]

In the field we've seen this happen on WFA 4.x despite the bug being labeled as fixed.  We've been asked to open support cases to troubleshoot the issue as, supposedly, it hasn't been a common issue after WFA 3.1. 

The exported files actually get created but the API call to download them is never presented to the end user.  While in this state you should still be able to get at the files at this path:

<DRIVE>:\Program Files\NetApp\WFA\jboss\standalone\deployments\download.war\

If anyone else encounters this and can spend a day or two with this functionality broken in WFA, it would help to open a NetApp support case and let them see it in a broken state.