IoT Tips

Finally there is an article which combines all of the available resources on certificate configuration to better enable developers to complete their production-worthy edge devices. Please see the official PTC documentation located here. Please feel free to comment with any questions, comments, or feedback on this! Happy developing!

ThingWorx's JDBC extensions - Relational Database Management System and the JDBC Extensions allow ThingWorx to connect to variety of different databases. With that comes a natural question how and what sort of SQL statements could be executed via these extensions? Note: ​​Importing the JDBC extensions i.e. the RDBMS and JDBC Extensions, creates a Database Template for that particular database. If you are working with RDBMS extension then Template of corresponding Database will be created with similar name e.g. importing the RDBMS Extension for Oracle 12 will create Template named OracleDBServer12. While importing the JDBC driver using the JDBC extension will create Template name based on the JDBC driver used or a custom name could be given. Following examples and SQL statements are adhering to Oracle's SQL*Plus standard, however these can be easily adapted to the type of RDBMS you intend to work with. Topics How to create SQL Service in ThingWorx entity Types of SQL Statements Examples on SQL Service usage and some extended use cases / examples How to create SQL Service in ThingWorx Navigate to the Thing implementing the Database Template, e.g. OracleDBServer12         2. Click on the Services section under the Entity Information and click on Add My Service         3. A new service creation section will come up, change the Service type of JavaScript (this is default selection) to either SQL (Query) or SQL (Command) depending on the type of SQL you are to create under this particular service                       4. Here's quick example on creating SQL (Query) service which takes name as input for a select *  sql … Statement, i.e. it returns complete set of rows and columns from any given table on which the user has the access to perform Select                   Note: BaseType defaults to Infotable when creating SQL (Query) service and the returned number of rows are restricted to 500. Therefore, if table contains rows more than 500, ensure to change the Max Rows parameters         5. Example on creating SQL (Command) service that delete all the rows from the database table               Note: The Base Type defaults to Number when using SQL (Command)     Additional information:     When creating a SQL service, apart from providing changing the Service Info and  Inputs /Outputs, 3rd section Tables/Columns allows users to explore the Tables and their respective columns as part of that particular user's schema - meaning the objects on which the user has select rights in his schema in the database.     Types of SQLs This is not an exhaustive list, rather contains most commonly used types of SQL statements     1. Data Definition Language (DDL)           a. Create, Alter and drop schema objects           b. Grant and Revoke privileges and roles     2. Data Manipulation Language (DML)           a. Insert           b. Delete           c. Select Examples for SQL Service usage and some extended use cases / examples     1. Data Definition Language (DDL)           a. Create statement                       b. Alter statements                         c. Drop statement                         d. Flashback statements (Oracle specific)                         e. Grant statement                     f. Rename statement                 2. Data Manipulation Language (DML)           a. Insert statement                     b. Delete statement                     c. Select statements           Use cases - Case 1 : Backing up DataTable DataTable objects in ThingWorx are for quick lookup of data and they are most performant till ~100K rows. Exceeding rows over 100K in a DataTable makes it highly susceptible to performance issues in terms of querying or writing to it. Unless, there's sharding​ on the persistence provider or multiple persistence providers used - JDBC connectivity to external data stores like RDBMS systems could help in keeping up with growing number of rows in DataTables. RDBMS tables are more than capable of storing very large amount of rows without being taxed over the performance. JDBC extension could be used to do just that in a use case requiring backing up DataTable or any Data Storage objects from ThingWorx for that matter. Here's one quick example using one of the Insert SQL service shown above to back up the entire DataTable to the Oracle's DB table. Following ThingWorx JavaScript service wraps the InsertIntoBULKDATAINSERTDT SQL service: // result: INTEGER // getting total row count in the DataTable var totalCount = Things["BulkInsertDT"].GetDataTableEntryCount(); var params = { maxItems: totalCount /* NUMBER */ }; // result: INFOTABLE // DataTable service to fetch all the rows from it var allData = Things["BulkInsertDT"].GetDataTableEntries(params); // looping over the result fetched above to get all the rows for insertion     for (var i = 0; i<totalCount; i++) {         var result = allData.getRow(i); // mapping the data for insert     var params = {         LongCol3: result.LongCol3 /* LONG */,         numcol1: result.NumCol1 /* NUMBER */,         StringCol2: result.StringCol2 /* STRING */,         IntCol4: result.IntCol4 /* INTEGER */     }; try { // result: NUMBER // calling the SQL Service InsertIntoBULKDATAINSERTDT created under a DB Thing called OracleDBThingNew     var result = Things["OracleDBThingNew"].InsertIntoBULKDATAINSERTDT(params); } catch (err) {      Logger.info ("Failed to insert the values" + err) }     }

Licensing summary, installing 8.1: - Now instance specific license used which prevents license sharing and protects our intellectual property further - 2 paths for getting up and running with a license:          -Connected: platform-settings configuration only          -Disconnected: text file generated, self-serve creation from PTC support portal, license_capability_response.bin generated to be placed in platform folder   Connected / Disconnected mode LicensingSubsystem::GetLicenseState returns : UNINITIALIZED in disconnected mode LICENSE_EXISTS in connected mode   User Journey Refer to Licensing ThingWorx 8.1 and Later for specific instructions for generating a license for your instance   NOTE: Each instance needs a valid license file to be running.   Troubleshooting: - If any misconfiguration or connection failures occur, error messages will be thrown to Application log Example: unable to fetch license file with device id; Unable to connect to the PTC license server. Please make sure the LicensingConnectionSettings settings... - Connection attempt will occur upon ThingWorx startup. If connection can't be made, instance will be following disconnected scenario  -Make sure Pop Up Blockers are turned off     Platform Settings - Licensing License Connection Settings (in platform-settings.json - plain text sample) -new section for licensing connection strings: -user name - used to connect to ptc support portal -password - encrypted (recommended) or plain text password used to connect to ptc support portal   "LicensingConnectionSettings": { "username":"<PTC_support_portal_username>", "password":"<PTC_support_portal_password>" }    New Services on Licensing Subsystem - GetInstanceID - returns instance/device ID which is created at startup - WriteLicenseUsageData - writes encrypted license usage (same as system data table) to ThingworxStorage\reports\LicenseUsageReport folder   Instance ID The license file is now bound to the platform Instance ID aka Device ID - (unlike most other PTC products where the license is bound to the hardware : CPUID, MAC, ...) This Instance ID is generated during first startup and stored in the database Instance ID is accessible in composer with LicensingSubsystem::GetInstanceID   Q: What happens when license files are bad or missing? A: If there is an invalid license file, with 8.0 valid license.bin needs to be in the folder before starting up; tomcat will crash. In 8.1 no need for license file as long as connected (platform-settings.json), no need to take an extra step, dynamic connection.  In disconnected scenario, ThingWorx will run for 30 days in limited mode with monitoring mashup accessible to check logs.   Q: Where is the InstanceID stored ? A: It's stored in the database   Q: Will the instanceID change during updates (minor 8.1.0 to 8.1.1) A: Device id's don't change.   Q: What will happen in disconnected scenario if there is no valid license after 30 days? The application will not start anymore or user is not able to login? A:  It shuts down, so there is no more "limited" mode. However, a user can come along on day 55 (for example) and can drop in a valid license and start the web app to get it fully running.   Q: What happens if the customer has to reinstall the platform after the license has been fetched ? Is it possible to "return" the license ? A: Reinstalling the platform results in the generation of a new Device ID, therefore a new license file will need to be generated.  

Excited to announce ThingWorx 8.1 is officially available in our Support Portal. Please find the release notes below. The following feature enhancements and bug fixes exist in ThingWorx 8.1.0: Enhancements Platform: • Metrics Reporting is enabled by default, which allows usage, performance, and diagnostics data to be sent to a PTC server daily. For more information about this setting, see Platform Subsystem. • You can add and configure Notifications in New Composer. For more information, see Adding Notifications. • License files are now instance specific.. • Security for application keys has been enhanced. The defualt expiration date has been changed to 24 hours if it is not explictly set. • Additional capability has been added to New Composer. • Improvements to anomaly detection accuracy have been added. As a result, data collection restart is no longer necessary after a long gap and the H2 database that installs with the Training Microservice is stored in memory, not as a persisted file. For more information, see Anomaly Detection. • You can now load configuration/project files from KEPServerEX instances Bug Fixes Platform • Fixed an issue where Tomcat failed to start when using SAP HANA. TW-22191 • Fixed an issue that was preventing ThingWorx from starting after the File Transfer Subsystem was disabled. TW-22177 • Fixed an issue where the change history of a Mashup was automatically updated even if no changes were made. TW-22114 • Fixed an issue that was preventing the ServiceInvokeCompleted event from working after performing an in-place upgrade. TW-21784 • Fixed an issue where alert notifications were not being sent to recipients after removing a recipient. TW-21585 • Fixed an issue where the Add button in the Services page did not display after creating a Data Table. TW-21518 • Fixed an issue with alert notifications for entities containing periods in the name. TW-21347 • Fixed an issue that was causing connected assets to display as disconnected in ThingWorx Utilities. UTL-4698 • Fixed an issue where data bind was lost after changing Read-Only settings to Read/Write in Composer. TW-23506 • Fixed an issue that was causing a MetricsReportingTask error after enabling ThingWorx Performance Advisor. TW-21141 • Fixed an issue with the ThingWorx authentication window when specifying the site while using FF and IE. TW-21271 Mashup Builder • Fixed an issue with the List widget that was causing incorrect tooltips to display. TW-24012 TW-23961 TW-23038 • Fixed an issue where Chrome was automatically retrying Remote Service calls when a timeout occurred. TW-23828 • Fixed an issue after restarting the ThingWorx web app where the Runtime or Composer’s index.html were missing. TW-23984 • Fixed an issue where closing a modal dialogue did not remove the disabled state from an element. TW-11217 • Fixed an issue when creating a popup with the Navigation widget. The tab sequence of the popup was dependent on the original mashup. TW-11151 • Fixed an issue with localized values of data columns when using the Data Filter widget. TW-11059 Extensions  • Fixed an issue where CSV parser extension import failed if the text file that was being imported did not include a new line character at the end of the last line of text. TW-21863 • Fixed an issue with the Advanced Grid widget where the Reset button was not localized. TW-21457 • Fixed an issue with the jQuery library used by the WebSocketTunnel_ExtensionPackage widget. Note If you are using the WebSocketTunnel_ ExtensionPackage, you will need to upgrade to version 3.0.2 if you are upgrading to ThingWorx 8.1.0. To upgrade the extension, go to the Web Sockets Tunnel Widget and Library page of the ThingWorx Marketplace. TW-24465 End of Life Information SQUEAL functionality has been discontinued in 8.1. System requirements: http://support.ptc.com/WCMS/files/173583/en/ThingWorx_Core_8.1_System_Requirements_1.0.pdf Installation guide: http://support.ptc.com/WCMS/files/173600/en/Installing_ThingWorx_8.1_1.0_.pdf ThingWorx 8.1 Cross Platform Highlights: Security ThingWorx 8.1 Cross Platform Highlights and Q&amp;A: Licensing

To maintain a cleaner look of your ThingWorx server access URL, whether for production or convenience reasons, you may look into setting up redirection. This is a quick example on how to redirect <your.main.url.com> to <your.main.url.com/Thingworx> Go to the /<apache-tomcat-directory>/webapps/ROOT/ and find the "index.jsp" file. Copy that file for backup purposes and replace with a new one, containing the following: <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>Redirecting....</title>     <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <script type="text/javascript">          function Redirect() {                window.location="/Thingworx/";         }         setTimeout('Redirect()', 0);  </script> </head> Please note that once the URL is hit, it will still append the rest of the /Thingworx query in the address bar (i.e keep the "redirected to" address). You may also utilize this to have your <main.url.com> redirect to one of the mashups. This was the user, with proper permissions in place, may access the mashup directly, bypassing the Composer.

​​​There are four types of Analytics:                                                                 Prescriptive analytics: What should I do about it? Prescriptive analytics is about using data and analytics to improve decisions and therefore the effectiveness of actions.Prescriptive analytics is related to both Descriptive and Predictive analytics. While Descriptive analytics aims to provide insight into what has happened and Predictive analytics helps model and forecast what might happen, Prescriptive analytics seeks to determine the best solution or outcome among various choices, given the known parameters. “Any combination of analytics, math, experiments, simulation, and/or artificial intelligence used to improve the effectiveness of decisions made by humans or by decision logic embedded in applications.”These analytics go beyond descriptive and predictive analytics by recommending one or more possible courses of action. Essentially they predict multiple futures and allow companies to assess a number of possible outcomes based upon their actions. Prescriptive analytics use a combination of techniques and tools such as business rules, algorithms, machine learning and computational modelling procedures. Prescriptive analytics can also suggest decision options for how to take advantage of a future opportunity or mitigate a future risk, and illustrate the implications of each decision option. In practice, prescriptive analytics can continually and automatically process new data to improve the accuracy of predictions and provide better decision options. Prescriptive analytics can be used in two ways: Inform decision logic with analytics: Decision logic needs data as an input to make the decision. The veracity and timeliness of data will insure that the decision logic will operate as expected. It doesn’t matter if the decision logic is that of a person or embedded in an application — in both cases, prescriptive analytics provides the input to the process. Prescriptive analytics can be as simple as aggregate analytics about how much a customer spent on products last month or as sophisticated as a predictive model that predicts the next best offer to a customer. The decision logic may even include an optimization model to determine how much, if any, discount to offer to the customer. Evolve decision logic: Decision logic must evolve to improve or maintain its effectiveness. In some cases, decision logic itself may be flawed or degrade over time. Measuring and analyzing the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of enterprises decisions allows developers to refine or redo decision logic to make it even better. It can be as simple as marketing managers reviewing email conversion rates and adjusting the decision logic to target an additional audience. Alternatively, it can be as sophisticated as embedding a machine learning model in the decision logic for an email marketing campaign to automatically adjust what content is sent to target audiences. Different technologies of Prescriptive analytics to create action: Search and knowledge discovery: Information leads to insights, and insights lead to knowledge. That knowledge enables employees to become smarter about the decisions they make for the benefit of the enterprise. But developers can embed search technology in decision logic to find knowledge used to make decisions in large pools of unstructured big data. Simulation: ​Simulation imitates a real-world process or system over time using a computer model. Because digital simulation relies on a model of the real world, the usefulness and accuracy of simulation to improve decisions depends a lot on the fidelity of the model. Simulation has long been used in multiple industries to test new ideas or how modifications will affect an existing process or system. Mathematical optimization: Mathematical optimization is the process of finding the optimal solution to a problem that has numerically expressed constraints. Machine learning: “Learning” means that the algorithms analyze sets of data to look for patterns and/or correlations that result in insights. Those insights can become deeper and more accurate as the algorithms analyze new data sets. The models created and continuously updated by machine learning can be used as input to decision logic or to improve the decision logic automatically. Paragmetic AI: ​Enterprises can use AI to program machines to continuously learn from new information, build knowledge, and then use that knowledge to make decisions and interact with people and/or other machines.                                               Use of Prescriptive Analytics in ThingWorx Analytics: Thing Optimizer: Thing Optimizer functionality provides the prescriptive scoring and optimization capabilities of ThingWorx Analytics. While predictive scoring allows you to make predictions about future outcomes, prescriptive scoring allows you to see how certain changes might affect future outcomes. After you have generated a prediction model (also called training a model), you can modify the prescriptive attributes in your data (those attributes marked as levers) to alter the predictions. The prescriptive scoring process evaluates each lever attribute, and returns an optimal value for that feature, depending on whether you want to minimize or maximize the goal variable. Prescriptive scoring results include both an original score (the score before any lever attributes are changed) and an optimized score (the score after optimal values are applied to the lever attributes). In addition, for each attribute identified in your data as a lever, original and optimal values are included in the prescriptive scoring results. How to Access Thing Optimizer Functionality: ThingWorx Analytics prescriptive scoring can only be accessed via the REST API Service. Using a REST client, you can access the Scoring service which includes a series of API endpoints to submit scoring requests, retrieve results, list jobs, and more. Requires installation of the ThingWorx Analytics Server. How to avoid mistakes - Below are some common mistakes while doing Prescriptive analytics: Starting digital analytics without a clear goal Ignoring core metrics Choosing overkill analytics tools Creating beautiful reports with little business value Failing to detect tracking errors                                                                                                                                 Image source: Wikipedia, Content: go.forrester.com(Partially)

A confusion matrix is a technique for summarizing the performance of a classification algorithm. Classification accuracy alone can be misleading if you have an unequal number of observations in each class or if you have more than two classes in your data set. Calculating a confusion matrix can give you a better idea of what your classification model is getting right and what types of errors it is making. Classification Accuracy and its Limitations: ​Classification Accuracy = Correct Predictions/Total Predictions The main problem with classification accuracy is that it hides the detail you need to better understand the performance of your classification model. Below are two examples: 1.  When you are data has more than 2 classes. With 3 or more classes you may get a classification accuracy of 80%, but you don’t know if that is because all classes are being predicted equally well or whether one or two classes are being neglected by the model. 2.  When your data does not have an even number of classes. You may achieve accuracy of 90% or more, but this is not a good score if 90 records for every 100 belong to one class and you can achieve this score by always predicting the most common class value. Classification accuracy can hide the detail you need to diagnose the performance of your model. But thankfully we can tease apart this detail by using a confusion matrix. Confusion Matrix Terminology: A confusion matrix is a table that is often use to describe the performance of a classification model on a set of test data for which true values are known. Let’s start with an example for a binary classifier: N=165 Predicted no: Predicted yes: Actual no: 50 10 Actual yes: 5 100 What we can learn from Confusion Matrix? There are two possible predicted classes: "yes" and "no". If we were predicting the presence of a disease, for example, "yes" would mean they have the disease, and "no" would mean they don't have the disease. The classifier made a total of 165 predictions (e.g., 165 patients were being tested for the presence of that disease). Out of those 165 cases, the classifier predicted "yes" 110 times, and "no" 55 times. In reality, 105 patients in the sample have the disease, and 60 patients do not. Let's now define the most basic terms, which are whole numbers (not rates): True positives (TP): These are cases in which we predicted yes (they have the disease), and they do have the disease. True negatives (TN): We predicted no, and they don't have the disease. False positives (FP): We predicted yes, but they don't actually have the disease. (Also known as a "Type I error.") False negatives (FN): We predicted no, but they actually do have the disease. (Also known as a "Type II error.") N=165 Predicted No: Predicted Yes: Actual No: TN=50 FP=10 60 Actual Yes: FN=5 TP=100 105 55 110 This is a list of rates that are often computed from a confusion matrix for a binary classifier: Accuracy: Overall, how often is the classifier correct? 1. (TP+TN)/total = (100+50)/165 = 0.91 Misclassification Rate: Overall, how often is it wrong? 1. (FP+FN)/total = (10+5)/165 = 0.09 2. Equivalent to 1 minus Accuracy 3. Also known as "Error Rate" True Positive Rate: When it's actually yes, how often does it predict yes? 1. TP/actual yes = 100/105 = 0.95 2. Also known as "Sensitivity" or "Recall" False Positive Rate: When it's actually no, how often does it predict yes? 1. FP/actual no = 10/60 = 0.17 Specificity: When it's actually no, how often does it predict no? 1. TN/actual no = 50/60 = 0.83 2. Equivalent to 1 minus False Positive Rate Precision: When it predicts yes, how often is it correct? 1. TP/predicted yes = 100/110 = 0.91 Prevalence: How often does the yes condition actually occur in our sample? 1. Actual yes/total = 105/165 = 0.64

There is a test on connection server 7.2. With 4core CPU and 8GB memory, we sent 1000 http requests every second and there is 5% http request losted. After changing configuration for connection server, the lost rate drop to 0.86%. Here are some suggestions to improve connection server performance Reset parameters in connection server configuration file cxserver.conf. (..\conf\cxserver.conf) Adjust parameters max-connection-pool-size and max-wait-queue-size Change the default JVM settings. (increase memory for JVM properly) In this case, I created a new file named startMyConnectionServer.bat file with below code: SET CONNECTION_SERVER_HOME=C:\connection-server-7.2.0.2095 SET JAVA_OPTS=-Xms2G -Xmx2G %CONNECTION_SERVER_HOME%\bin\connection-server.bat Increase connection server's hardware (memory, CPU cores) Minimum system requirement 16GB memory, 4 CPU cores. Refer to ThingWorx Core 8.0 System Requirements for more hardware information

Sometimes it's needed to delete the existing PostgreSQL database, especially if a different major version was installed at first by mistake (for example, 9.6 in place of the supported 9.4). Then it's absolutely necessary to ensure the database is fully deleted and there is no db ghosts. The proper way to uninstall is to go to the postgresql server installation directory and find one uninstall-postgresql file. Double click on the Uninstall-postgresql file to run the un-installer- it will un-install postgresql. In case the uninstall wasn't performed correctly, below are the manual steps to clean it up. One sign of existing "ghost" db, is randomly seeing a second PostgreSQL server in the pgAdmin III or experiencing "error"-less problems when running the ThingWorx installation scripts. To uninstall manually,in this example we will use 9.6 as the version to delete - please replace with your own where needed: Remove the postgresql server installation directory. (rd /s /q "C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.6") Assuming default location. Delete the user 'postgres' (net user postgres /delete) Remove the Registry entries. (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PostgreSQL\Installations\postgresql-9.6) and (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PostgreSQL\Services\postgresql-9.6) Remove the postgresql-9.6 service. (sc delete postgresql-9.6)

Check out this new KCS article which links to all known best practice documents available for ThingWorx. This article will get larger in time as more articles are published related to the Dos and Don'ts of building an IoT application! Do you know when to use timers, and where to implement their subscriptions? How about ensuring info tables are used at the proper time, and data tables at others? Pesky performance issues wherein ThingWorx runs slow for apparently no reason? All of these questions and more are addressed here!

New Generation Composer is available from ThingWorx 7.4 and later. Each subsequent release of ThingWorx will contain additional New Composer features/functionalities. This video is focused on the layout change and new features implemented from ThingWorx 7.4.     How to enable the new Composer? 1. In the top right-hand corner, click on the User Menu and select the Preferences option                Figure 1 2. Click the check box for Turn on New Composer Features. 3. Click Done. A New Composer link is added to the menu bar at the top of the Composer window.     Figure 2   4. Click the New Composer link to open a new tab for the New Composer view   Figure 3   What's the layout change in New Composer?     Three areas layout   Figure 4     Menu bar on the left (Area 1) Set Project Context to set default project name for new entities Two views: Recent and Browse Recent view will quickly locate the recent access entities Browse is almost the same to the old menu navigation bar Could be sizable or hidden, and the main idea here is to increase screen real-estate to allow bigger view/edit area Main area for listing and feeding entities in the middle (Area 2) It provides you a wider area to edit entities (author services, mashup builder, etc.) An extra area on the right for preview, properties/events editing, etc. (Area 3) It gave you an easier and handy way to get a glance of an entity’s basic information   Layout change in an entity’s editing page When you create a new Thing, you will find all the facets (general information, properties, services, events, subscriptions) of the Thing are listed in a dropdown list Figure 5       By doing so it will save more area for the feeding   Properties and Alerts Properties and Alerts are now listed separately (in two different Tabs) Figure 6 Figure 7  Properties and Alert are now edited on the right area of the page (See Figure 4 Area 3 Services and Subscription A bigger editor area Events Events are edited on right area of the page (See Figure 4 Area 3)   What's the main function/features change in New Composer   Industrial Connections The Industrial Connections entity allows you to connect with and configure industrial things in ThingWorx. With the “Discover” feature, you could easily bind the Industrial device’s (e.g., Kepware) Tags to a ThingWorx Entity Figure 8 From ThingWorx 8.0.0, Anomaly Alert type is supported An anomaly alert is only useful if you have configured Anomaly Detection to monitor a stream of data Anomaly metrics settings are allowed to be configured in the Alert edit page Figure 9 Subscriptions You could now manually remove a subscription permanently from the system in New Composer which is impossible in old Composer Services New Composer provided assistant scripting tools like static code analysis, String search or replace, etc Figure 10   How could I switch back to the Old Composer when editing an entity? It is so easy! As long as you have opened an ThingWorx Entity, you will notice there is a button “Edit in Composer”; it will lead you back to the old Composer, and all the editing that have been saved will be logged in the old Composer.     Video demonstration for the New Composer is also available now. Feel free to review from: New Composer Video

Neural Net is a learning algorithm that is inspired by how the human brain works. For example, imagine you love chocolate cake so much that, you joyfully exercise a bit more during the week just to enjoy that delicious chocolate cake without feeling guilty. But if the weather is terrible there is no way you go exercise, and then you can’t eat the delicious chocolate cake. Although, if your beautiful girlfriend / boyfriend exercise with you, then you ignore the weather and joyfully exercise and then you can enjoy that delicious chocolate cake without feeling guilty. The brain’s nervous system passes information using a synapse structure which allows neurons to pass information to other neurons and finally make a decision. This structure of passing information and decision making is the construction behind neural net algorithm. The data structure provides weights on the edges for the nodes/synapses in a directed graph. For example, our chocolate cake decision making could be translated into: w1=6 Whether or not your girlfriend or boyfriend exercise together with you w2=3 Enjoying delicious chocolate cake w3=2 Weather The high weights for example indicates the condition to have a high influence on your output decision making, while lower weight is not that influential. The illustration below is an example of neural net with 5 different input of information: The edges/arrows represent weights each input/node have a weight associated with it. These weights are applied when training neural net. Three of the inputs could represent 1= Delicious chocolate cake, 2= The weather, 3= Your girlfriend or boyfriend, and the last two inputs could be other information. The output is the condition of the decision determined by the hidden layer. ThingWorx Analytics Server applies neural net with full interconnection layer, which means each value from the input layer is duplicated and sent to each node in the hidden layer, just like in following illustration.

Starting with the 7.4 version of Thingworx, a license.bin file locked to the specific version of Thingworx is required in order to successfully start the Thingworx webapp. If something is wrong with the licensing, Tomcat will crash and will not show any information regarding the problem in its log files. The Catalina*.log file will look like this 13-Jun-2017 04:36:43.268 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.startInternal Starting service Catalina 13-Jun-2017 04:36:43.268 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.startInternal Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/8.5.13 13-Jun-2017 04:36:43.315 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployWAR Deploying web application archive C:\PTC\KinexForManufacturing\PTC_Servlet_Engine\webapps\Thingworx.war 13-Jun-2017 04:36:56.080 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.jasper.servlet.TldScanner.scanJars At least one JAR was scanned for TLDs yet contained no TLDs. Enable debug logging for this logger for a complete list of JARs that were scanned but no TLDs were found in them. Skipping unneeded JARs during scanning can improve startup time and JSP compilation time. instead of continuing on through the rest of the war files present on the server as it would if everything worked properly. 13-Jun-2017 04:37:20.001 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployWAR Deployment of web application archive C:\PTC\KinexForManufacturing\PTC_Servlet_Engine\webapps\Thingworx.war has finished in 36,684 ms 13-Jun-2017 04:37:20.006 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory Deploying web application directory C:\PTC\KinexForManufacturing\PTC_Servlet_Engine\webapps\docs 13-Jun-2017 04:37:20.113 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory Deployment of web application directory C:\PTC\KinexForManufacturing\PTC_Servlet_Engine\webapps\docs has finished in 107 ms 13-Jun-2017 04:37:20.113 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory Deploying web application directory C:\PTC\KinexForManufacturing\PTC_Servlet_Engine\webapps\examples 13-Jun-2017 04:37:20.617 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory Deployment of web application directory C:\PTC\KinexForManufacturing\PTC_Servlet_Engine\webapps\examples has finished in 504 ms 13-Jun-2017 04:37:20.618 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory Deploying web application directory C:\PTC\KinexForManufacturing\PTC_Servlet_Engine\webapps\host-manager 13-Jun-2017 04:37:20.661 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory Deployment of web application directory C:\PTC\KinexForManufacturing\PTC_Servlet_Engine\webapps\host-manager has finished in 43 ms 13-Jun-2017 04:37:20.661 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory Deploying web application directory C:\PTC\KinexForManufacturing\PTC_Servlet_Engine\webapps\manager 13-Jun-2017 04:37:20.847 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory Deployment of web application directory C:\PTC\KinexForManufacturing\PTC_Servlet_Engine\webapps\manager has finished in 186 ms 13-Jun-2017 04:37:20.847 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory Deploying web application directory C:\PTC\KinexForManufacturing\PTC_Servlet_Engine\webapps\ROOT 13-Jun-2017 04:37:20.866 INFO [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory Deployment of web application directory C:\PTC\KinexForManufacturing\PTC_Servlet_Engine\webapps\ROOT has finished in 18 ms 13-Jun-2017 04:37:20.949 INFO [main] org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol.start Starting ProtocolHandler ["https-jsse-nio-443"] 13-Jun-2017 04:37:20.957 INFO [main] org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol.start Starting ProtocolHandler ["ajp-nio-8009"] 13-Jun-2017 04:37:20.958 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start Server startup in 37733 ms The error will actually be in the ThingworxStorage/logs/ApplicationLog.log file - something like this: 2017-06-14 10:00:19.057-0700 [L: INFO] [O: c.t.s.ThingWorxServer] [I: ] [U: SuperUser] [S: ] [T: localhost-startStop-1] Subsystem LicensingSubsystem is starting 2017-06-14 10:00:19.057-0700 [L: INFO] [O: c.t.s.s.Subsystem] [I: ] [U: SuperUser] [S: ] [T: localhost-startStop-1] Starting Subsystem [LicensingSubsystem] 2017-06-14 10:00:19.088-0700 [L: ERROR] [O: c.t.s.s.l.LicensingSubsystem] [I: ] [U: SuperUser] [S: ] [T: localhost-startStop-1] ==================================================================== 2017-06-14 10:00:19.088-0700 [L: ERROR] [O: c.t.s.s.l.LicensingSubsystem] [I: ] [U: SuperUser] [S: ] [T: localhost-startStop-1] C:\PTC\KinexForManufacturing\ThingworxPlatform\license.bin: license file does not exist! 2017-06-14 10:00:19.088-0700 [L: ERROR] [O: c.t.s.s.l.LicensingSubsystem] [I: ] [U: SuperUser] [S: ] [T: localhost-startStop-1] ==================================================================== 2017-06-14 10:00:19.088-0700 [L: WARN] [O: c.t.s.ThingWorxServer] [I: ] [U: SuperUser] [S: ] [T: localhost-startStop-1] Shutting down the Platform. Get your license installed properly and the problem should go away.

Key Functional Highlights ThingWorx 8.0 covers the following areas of the product portfolio:  ThingWorx Analytics, ThingWorx Utilities and ThingWorx Foundation which includes Core, Connection Server and Edge capabilities. Highlights of the release include: ThingWorx Foundation Native Industrial Connectivity: Enhancements to ThingWorx allow users to seamlessly map data from ThingWorx Industrial Connectivity to the ThingModel. With over 150 protocols supporting thousands of devices, ThingWorx Industrial Connectivity allows users to connect, monitor, and manage diverse automation devices from ThingWorx. With this new capability, users can quickly integrate industrial operations data in IoT solutions for smart, connected operations. Native AWS IoT and Azure IoT Cloud Support: ThingWorx 8 now has deeper, native integration with AWS IoT and Azure IoT Hub clouds so you can gain cost efficiencies and standardize on the device cloud provider of your choice.  This support strengthens the connection between leading cloud providers and ThingWorx. Next Generation Composer: Re-imagined Composer using modern browser concepts to improve developer efficiency including enhanced functionality, updated user interface and optimized workflows. Product Installers:  New, Docker-based product installers for Foundation and Analytics make it easy and fast for customers to get the core platform and analytics server running. Single Sign On (SSO): Provides the ability to login once and access all PTC apps and enterprise systems. License Management: Simple, automated, licensing system for collection, storage, reporting, management and auditing of licensing entitlements. Integration Connectors: Integration Connectors allow Thingworx developers and administrators quick and easy access to the data stored on external ERP, PLM, Manufacturing and other systems to quickly develop applications providing improved Contextualization and Analysis. Thingworx 8.0 delivers ‘OData’ and ‘SAP OData’ connectors plus the ability to connect to generic web services to supplement the ‘Swagger’ and ‘Windchill Swagger’ Connectors released in Thingworx 7.4. An improved mapping tool allows Business Administrators to quickly and easily transform retrieved data into a standard Thingworx format for easy consumption. Includes single sign on support for improved user experience. ThingWorx Analytics Native Anomaly Detection: ThingWorx 8 features more tightly integrated analytics capabilities, including the ability to configure anomaly alerts on properties directly from the ThingWorx Composer. ThingWatcher technology is utilized to increase machine monitoring capabilities by automatically learning normal behavior, continuously monitoring data streams and raising alerts when abnormal conditions are identified. ThingWorx Utilities Software Content Management (SCM) – Auto Retry: Provides the ability to automatically retry delivery of patches to devices if interrupted.  This ensures the ability to successfully update devices.  ThingWorx Trial Edition ThingWorx Trial Edition will be available to internal PTC resources at launch and will be made available externally on the Developer Portal shortly after launch. Developer Enablement: Enhancements have been made to the Trial Edition installation tool, providing a native installation process of the ThingWorx platform including: ThingWorx Foundation ThingWorx Utilities ThingWorx Analytics ThingWorx Industrial Connectivity Documentation ThingWorx 8.0 Reference Documents ThingWorx Analytics 8.0 Reference Documents ThingWorx Core 8.0 Release Notes ThingWorx Core Help Center ThingWorx Edge SDKs and WebSocket-based Edge MicroServer Help Center ThingWorx Connection Services Help Center ThingWorx Industrial Connectivity Help Center ThingWorx Utilities Help Center ThingWorx Utilities Installation Guide ThingWorx Analytics Help Center ThingWorx Trial Edition User Guide Additional information ThingWorx eSupport Portal ThingWorx Developer Portal ThingWorx Marketplace Download The following items are available for download from the PTC Software Download site. ThingWorx Platform – Select Release 8.0 ThingWorx Utilities – Select Release 8.0 ThingWorx Analytics – Select Release 8.0 You can also read this post in the Developer Community from Jeremy Little about the technical changes in ThingWorx 8.0.

There are a lot of new and exciting changes included in ​ThingWorx 8.0.0, which is due out today, and no doubt, you'll want to get a test environment set up to try them out.  But there are a few changes that could impact your ability to get up and running with a new server that I wanted to share with everyone. IMPORTANT – Changes to Licensing in ThingWorx 8.0.0 In ThingWorx 7.4.0, a new Licensing Subsystem was introduced, and the license file required was provided as part of the ThingWorx 7.4.0 platform download.  As of ThingWorx 8.0.0, the license.bin file will no longer be provided with the platform download, but will instead need to be downloaded from the PTC Licensing Tool on the PTC eSupport Portal. As part of the operating system specific Installing ThingWorx (OS) sections in the Installing ThingWorx 8.0 guide, additional steps have been added that outline how to use the PTC Licensing Tool to download and install the ThingWorx license file for your organization. The license file downloaded from the ThingWorx Licensing Tool must be renamed to license.bin and copied to the /ThingworxPlatform directory prior to starting ThingWorx for the first time.  The server will fail to start if it cannot find this license file. For more information:      KCS Article 264374 - ThingWorx 8.0.0 Licensing IMPORTANT – Default Administrator Password for ThingWorx Composer is Changing in 8.0.0 In order to help encourage the use of secure passwords for the Administrator account on ThingWorx servers, the default Administrator account password will be changing in version 8.0 and above.  The new Administrator password is a complex password containing mixed case and special characters. This will encourage administrators to change their default, fully-privileged account password to one that is more secure and conforms to their organizational security standards. Information about the new default password can be found in each of the operating system specific Installing ThingWorx (OS) sections of the Installing ThingWorx 8.0 guide. PTC strongly advises against the use of any default password on any product, and encourages administrators to immediately change any default password to a proper, complex password. For more information: KCS Article 264270​ - ​Unable to log into ThingWorx 8.0 Composer using the default Administrator login Application Key Usage is Changing in 8.0.0 As part of an effort to better secure the ThingWorx Platform, the use of Application Keys as URL parameters (through the ‘appkey’ parameter) is being deprecated in ThingWorx 8.0.0. For example, the following URL uses the now deprecated ‘appkey’ parameter to pass in an application key:               https://thingworx.server.com/ThingWorx/Things/MyThing/Services/MyService?appkey=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx When included in the URL, the ‘appkey’ parameter becomes a browser-cacheable, clear-text rendition of a usable application key.  A knowledgeable user could retrieve this application key from their browser history and use it to perform unauthorized actions against a ThingWorx server. For full security, GET and POST requests that are run against a ThingWorx server should be performed over an HTTPS connection and should include the required application key in the request’s headers.  Query string parameters are visible in both HTTP and HTTPS contexts, and by moving the application key into the request headers, the application key itself is encrypted as part of the HTTPS request. (Note that the application key in a header is still visible for plaintext HTTP connections though!) By default, new installations of ThingWorx 8.0.0 will have the Allow Application Key as URL Parameter option disabled.  Upgrades from previous versions of ThingWorx will retain the ability to use the ‘appkey’ query string parameter, but PTC strongly encourages customers to promptly update any solutions that are dependent on sending the appkey using a URL parameter to move to request headers instead.  Please note that a future release of ThingWorx may completely disable the use of application keys as URL parameters. The Allow Application Key as URL Parameter option can be enabled or disabled on the ThingWorx PlatformSubsystem’s configuration page, accessible at System > Subsystems > PlatformSubsystem > Configuration. For more information: KCS Article 264349 - ThingWorx Appkey URL Parameter is Deprecated as of ThingWorx 8.0.0 Changes to Default Visibility (Organizations) in ThingWorx 8.0.0 Starting in ThingWorx 8.0.0, the Everyone organization will no longer be granted default visibility across all entity collections.  Only users who are a member of the Administrator group will be able to see ThingWorx entities on a newly installed server; any additional visibility permissions will need to be explicitly granted by the Administrator. This is a change in behavior from the previous ThingWorx releases where the Everyone organization (of which the all-encompassing Users group was a member) was granted visibility access by default to all entity collections. Visibility permissions had to explicitly be removed by the Administrator during solution development, which could be overlooked. For more information: KCS Article 264351 - Changes to Default Visibility (Organizations) in ThingWorx 8.0.0

This zip file contains my slides and buildable project from my Liveworx 207 developer chat presentation featuring the Thing-e Robot and raspberry pi zero integration with ThingWorx using the C SDK.

Connection server + InfluxDB + Grafana work together can display connection server metrics in graphic charts Download and set up connection server Download InfluxDB and configure InfluxDB edit <influxdb home>\influxdb.conf file Note: [admin] is InfluxDB admin login page, [http] is Grafana connected settings, [graphite] is connection server connected settings Run influxd.exe file with below commands (windows cmd) <path>/influxd -config <path>/influxdb.conf Run influx.exe file with below commands (in my case the port is 8008) <path>/influx -port 8008 Start connection server Login to InfluxDB by using URL http://localhost:8018. Choose Database graphite and Query SHOW MEASUREMENTS Note: There should be many connection server metrics Double click grafana-server.exe file (<path>/grafana-4.2.0.windows-x64/grafana-4.2.0/bin) Login to Grafana with URL http://localhost:3000 The default login username and password is admin/admin Create a new Data Source Note: Type, Url and Database properties are required. Save & Test. If the connection is set up successfully, there should be a green message pop-up. Create a new dashboard Add a new Row, and set up its metrics by create new querys Sample result:

Twilio extends the ThingWorx functionality to send SMS and voice messages in variety of languages. Starting from scratch I'll cover the steps required to setup the Twilio extension and the basic account registration (trial version) and setup at Twilio.com Twilio allows registering with the trial account, which comes with $15 as initial account balance, something which is quite useful for testing the initial setup and testing of Twilio extension in conjunction to ThingWorx. Prerequisite 1. Sign up, if not already done, with Twilio.com for free trail account 2. Configure the account to setup a verified phone number to receive text and voice messages, free trial account allows setting up 1 verified phone number that can receive text and voice messages Note: See What's the difference between a verified phone number and a Twilio phone number? 3. Choose and configure a Twilio phone number capable of sending text and voice messages, free trial account allows setting up of 1 Twilio number which will be used in the Extension configuration in ThingWorx for sending the messages 4. Download Twilio Extension from ThingWorx Marketplace Note that Twilio phone number should be enabled with the send SMS or send voice message capability, depending on what your use case is. Failing to do so will lead to error while testing the sendSMS or sendVOICE service (two default services provided with the Twilio Extension when imported in ThingWorx) Signing up and setting up Twilio account 1. Sign up on Twilio.com with your details and emailID. When registering for the first time you'll be prompted for your personal phone number as part of the security requirement. Also with free trial account this will be the only phone number where you'll be able to send SMS or Voice message via Twilio Extension in ThingWorx 2. Next would be to setup the Twilio number with voice and text messaging, navigate to https://www.twilio.com/console/phone-numbers/getting-started 3. Do ensure that you setup the voice or text capabilities for the new Twilio number, failing to do so will lead to error in sending message via Twilio Extension in ThingWorx 4. Different Twilio Number have different capabilities, it's quite possible that you don't find the number with required capabilities i.e. Voice, SMS - in that scenario simply search for different number, one that has the capabilities you are looking for 5. With trial account only 1 Twilio number is avilable for setup 6. While setting up the Twilio number you will be required to provide a valid local address of your country The cost of setting up the number and further sending the SMS will only be deducted from the $15 made available when you signed up for the first time. Navigate to your account details on Twilio.com to make note of the following information which will be used when configuring the Twilio Extension in ThingWorx: a. Account SID b. Authentication ID c. Your Verified Phone Number (will be used for receiving the messages) d. Twilio Phone number created with required capabilities, e.g. that number is capable of sending text message Here's how it shows up once you are successfully registered and logged on to the twilio.com/console To check your Twilio Phone Number and the Verified Phone Number navigate to twilio.com/phone-numbers As it can be seen in the above screenshot, the number I have bought from Twilio is capable of sending Voice and SMS. With this all's set  and ready to configure the Twilio Extension in ThingWorx, which is pretty straight forward. Setup Twilio Extension in ThingWorx 1. Let's setup the extension by navigating to the ThingWorx Composer > Import/Export > Extensions > Import > browse to the location where you saved the Twilio Extension from ThingWorx Marketplace and click Import 2. Once imported successfully refresh the composer and navigate to Modeling > Things , to create a new Thing implementing the Twilio Template (imported with the extension) like so, in screenshot below Thing is named DemoTwilioThing 3. Navigate to the the Configuration section of that Thing, to provide the information we noted above from Twilio account Note: this demo thing is setup to send the text SMS to my verified phone number only, therefore the CallerID in the configuration above is the Twilio number I created after signing up on Twilio with text message capability. 4. Save the created the Thing 5. Finally, we can test with the 1 of the 2 default services provided with the Twilio Template i.e. SendSMSMessage service 6. While testing the SendSMSMessage service use your verified phone number in To for receiving the message Troubleshooting some setup related issues I'll try to cover some of the generic errors that came up while doing this whole setup with Twilio Extension Error making outgoing SMS: 404 / TwilioResponse 20404 Reason If the Twilio number is not enabled with SMS sending capabilities you may run into such an error when testing the service. Here's the full error stack Unable to Invoke Service SendSMSMessage on DemoTwilioThing : Error making outgoing SMS: 404 <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><TwilioResponse><RestException><Code>20404</Code><Message>The requested resource /2010-04-01/Accounts/<AccountSID>/SMS/Messages was not found</Message><MoreInfo>https://www.twilio.com/docs/errors/20404</MoreInfo><Status>404</Status></RestException></TwilioResponse> Resolution Navigate back to the Phone Number section on Twilio's website and as highlight in screenshot above check if the Twilio number is enabled with SMS capabilities. Error making outgoing SMS:400 / TwilioResponse 21608 Reason You may encounter following error when attempting to send SMS/Voice message, here's the full error detail Wrapped java.lang.Exception: Error making outgoing SMS: 400 <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><TwilioResponse><RestException><Code>21608</Code><Message>The number <somePhoneNumber>is unverified. Trial accounts cannot send messages to unverified numbers; verify <somePhoneNumber>at twilio.com/user/account/phone-numbers/verified, or purchase a Twilio number to send messages to unverified numbers.</Message><MoreInfo>https://www.twilio.com/docs/errors/21608</MoreInfo><Status>400</Status></RestException></TwilioResponse> Cause: Error making outgoing SMS: 400 <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><TwilioResponse><RestException><Code>21608</Code><Message>The number <somePhoneNUmber>is unverified. Trial accounts cannot send messages to unverified numbers; verify <somePhoneNumber> at twilio.com/user/account/phone-numbers/verified, or purchase a Twilio number to send messages to unverified numbers.</Message><MoreInfo>https://www.twilio.com/docs/errors/21608</MoreInfo><Status>400</Status></RestException></TwilioResponse> Resolution As the error points out clearly the number used in To section while testing the SendSMSMessage service didn't have verified number. With free trial account you can only use the registered verified phone number where SMS/Voice message can be sent. If you want to use different number an account upgrade is required. Error making outgoing SMS:400 / TwilioResponse 21606 Reason Following error is thrown while testing SendSMSMessage service with different Twilio number which is either not the same as the number you bought when setting up the trial account or it doesn have SMS sending capabiltiy. Here's the full error stack Wrapped java.lang.Exception: Error making outgoing SMS: 400 <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><TwilioResponse><RestException><Code>21606</Code><Message>The From phone number <TwilioNumber>is not a valid, SMS-capable inbound phone number or short code for your account.</Message><MoreInfo>https://www.twilio.com/docs/errors/21606</MoreInfo><Status>400</Status></RestException></TwilioResponse> Cause: Error making outgoing SMS: 400 <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><TwilioResponse><RestException><Code>21606</Code><Message>The From phone number <TwilioNumber> is not a valid, SMS-capable inbound phone number or short code for your account.</Message><MoreInfo>https://www.twilio.com/docs/errors/21606</MoreInfo><Status>400</Status></RestException></TwilioResponse> Resolution Check the configuration in the ThingWorx Composer for the Thing created out of Twilio Template whether or not the callerID is configured with correct Twilio account number

Performance and memory issues in ThingWorx often appear at the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) level. We can frequently detect these issues by monitoring JVM garbage collection logs and thread dumps. In this first of a multi-part series, let's discuss how to analyze JVM garbage collection (GC) logs to detect memory issues in our application. What are GC logs? When enabled on the Apache server, the logs will show the memory usage over time and any memory allocation issues (See: How to enable GC logging in our KB for details on enabling this logging level).  Garbage Collection logs capture all memory cleanup operations performed by the JVM.  We can determine the proper memory configuration and whether we have memory issues by analyzing GC logs. Where do I find the GC logs? When configured as per our KB article, GC logs will be written to your Apache logs folder. Check both the gc.out and the gc.restart files for issues if present, especially if the server was restarted when experiencing problems. How do I read GC logs? There are a number of free tools for GC log analysis (e.g. http://gceasy.io, GCViewer). But GC logs can also be analyzed manually in a text editor for common issues. Reading GC files: Generally each memory cleanup operation is printed like this: Additional information on specific GC operations you might see are available from Oracle. A GC analysis tool will convert the text representation of the cleanups into a more easily readable graph: Three key scenarios indicating memory issues: Let's look at some common scenarios that might indicate a memory issue.  A case should be opened with Technical Support if any of the following are observed: Extremely long Full GC operations (30 seconds+) Full GCs occurring in a loop Memory leaks Full GCs: Full GCs are undesirable as they are a ‘stop-the-world’ operation. The longer the JVM pause, the more impact end users will see: All other active threads are stopped while the JVM attempts to make more memory available Full GC take considerable time (sometimes minutes) during which the application will appear unresponsive Example – This full GC takes 46 seconds during which time all other user activity would be stopped: 272646.952: [Full GC: 7683158K->4864182K(8482304K) 46.204661 secs] Full GC Loop: Full GCs occurring in quick succession are referred to as a Full GC loop If the JVM is unable to clean up any additional memory, the loop will potentially go on indefinitely ThingWorx will be unavailable to users while the loop continues Example – four consecutive garbage collections take nearly two minutes to resolve: 16121.092: [Full GC: 7341688K->4367406K(8482304K), 38.774491 secs] 16160.11: [Full GC: 4399944K->4350426K(8482304K), 24.273553 secs] 16184.461: [Full GC: 4350427K->4350426K(8482304K), 23.465647 secs] 16207.996: [Full GC: 4350431K->4350427K(8482304K), 21.933158 secs]      Example – the red triangles occurring at the end of the graph are a visual indication that we're in a full GC loop: Memory Leaks: Memory leaks occur in the application when an increasing number of objects are retained in memory and cannot be cleaned up, regardless of the type of garbage collection the JVM performs. When mapping the memory consumption over time, a memory leaks appears as ever-increasing memory usage that’s never reclaimed The server eventually runs out of memory, regardless of the upper bounds set           Example(memory is increasing steadily despite GCs until we'll eventually max out): What should we do if we see these issues occurring? Full GC loops and memory leaks require a heap dump to identify the root cause with high confidence The heap dump needs to be collected when the server is in a bad state Thread dumps should be collected at the same time A case should be opened with support to investigate available gc, stacktrace, or heap dump files

This is just a quick note/reminder that starting 7.4, the utilities installation process has slightly changed. Several extensions are no longer bundled with ThingWorx Utilities and must be downloaded from the ThingWorx Marketplace and installed separately. For more information, see the “Prerequisites” topic in the ThingWorx Utilities Installation Guide: http://support.ptc.com/WCMS/files/172616/en/ThingWorxUtilitiesInstall.pdf The following extensions must be installed prior to installing ThingWorx Utilities available at ThingWorx IoT Marketplace ○ Google Maps Widget ○ Mail Extension ○ Web Sockets Tunnel Widget and Library