Publishing weirdness

[BenLoosli]

This is really weird and I have playing with it for 2 weeks now. All systems do the publishing on their Windchill server. Mix of Windows 2016 and 2019 servers, but I don't think that natters, All systems running on Oracle.

System 1 - Windchill 11.1 M020 CPS20 Creo 7.0.10.0 CreoView Adapter 7.1.1.0

Publishing starts automatically when a file is either requested or checked-in. This is the desired configuration.

System 2 - Windchill 12.0.2.10 Creo 7.0.10.0 CreoView Adapyter 7.1.1.0

Publishing does not start automatically. If I manually start the Proeworker, then the system will publish the files as expected. I just disconnect from the server and let it run.

System 3 - Windchill 12.0.2.12 Creo 9.0.5.0 CreoView Adapter 9.1.0.0

System is a test system updated from an initial 12.0.2.8 install to 12.0.2.10 to 12.0.2.12. This system runs just like the Windchill 11.1 system, everything is automatic.

System 4 - Windchill 12.0.2.12 Creo 9.0.5.0 CreoView Adapter 9.1.0.0

This is my 'clean install' system to verify the procedure for upgrading the Windchill 11.1 system to Windchill 12.0.2 with production data. We want the install from start to finish to work as we expect with autostart of CreoView publishing. The current issue (my 4th clean install) is that publishing does not start. If I launch preworker, then I can get the publishing to work, however, a drawing file will have no data in it. No thumbnail generated  and click on the thumbnail location launches CreoView but loads an empty file.

I have been through a lot of threads in the community, a few started by me in the past, and have come up with nothing as to why the system is not doing what is expected. I have run ProePublish and it launches Creo just fine. Starting Creo in the server in stall also works fine. Compared the lines in the ProeWorker batch file with the file on the other systems shows everything to be the same, except server name.

Anyone have some secret tips that are buried down in the setup somewhere that are not obvious?

[avillanueva]

There are so many places where typos can sink you with CADworker configurations.  I think you are indicating that all of these setups, the cadworkers are local. I am used to doing linux to windows mainly. I would start simply:

• Can the CAD worker start/stop from the CAD admin if you initiate it? If not, trace any issues from the agent.ini file to batch files. 
• Sounds like the batch file has the right setup since you can manually execute those and it connects to the Windchill Server. With so many installs, watch out for cross talk where you have the wrong server host configured. 
• Any firewalls blocking ports from running? 
• Check that each system has a matching wvs.properties file or similar xconf settings. I created a wvs.xconf where all my settings are and link that in my site.xconf. They are the same from server to server.
• Does each server have an auth.properties (not sure its needed for local publishing) for the Creo client to connect with? Is that user configured the same from server to server?

[jbailey]

Note 1... System 2 isn't a supported config. CVA 7 isn't supported with Windchill 12.0.2.10. 

 Is your worker on the same machine as Windchill, or a different machine?

Are you using publishing rules ?

[BenLoosli]

System 2 works fine except for the autostart. I will be updating the CreoView version to 9.1.0.0 when we move to Creo 9.0.5.0.

These machines are behind a firewall and have never been able to autostart creoview publishing since Windchill 10.

The workers are all on the Windchill servers.

There are no publishing rules.

[HelesicPetr]

Hi @BenLoosli 

I just have a silly question. Do you know where is the auto start set? Have you checked this setting? 

worker configuration in Windchill

PetrH

[BenLoosli]

Yes, been doing Windchill admin for 20 years.

Copy of agent.ini file:

[agent]
transferpath=$(wt.temp)\transfer
numworkers=1
port=5600
;
[worker1]
shapetype=PROE
prompt=
autoidlestop=
host=<Windchill Server> Named erased due to company security requirements
localpath=ftp:
username=
password=
autoerrorstop=false
autobusystop=
port=601
exe=E:\ptc\creo_view_adapters_91\Runtime\proeworker.bat
hosttype=local
availabletime=
distributed=false
autostart=true
remotepath=
maxinstances=1
starttime=60
startfromlocal=FALSE

[HelesicPetr]

@BenLoosli 

As I said, silly question 😄 

PetrH

[HelesicPetr]

@BenLoosli 

I have experience, that if the visualization has some unexpected unfindable trouble I run the windchill service under local user instead of network user. 

It was weird but it usually helped to solve some visualization issues. 

PetrH

[jbailey]

Maybe there is a group policy mismatch on the servers that could be the real cuplrit? Or file permissions?

Is the PTC Worker Daemon running as a service?

[BenLoosli]

Both Windchill 12 systems were installed by me as upgrade testing from the same Windchill 11.1 system. The Oracle dumps are about 2 months apart, but other than that the systems used my same procedure document. I did add CreoView and Thumbnail publishing to the second system to see if that would help.

No policies added beyond what is installed by the licensing.

The publishing is being run as wcadmin, so no file permission issues within Windchill. I have admin rights on the servers.

PTC Worker Daemon is not running at all as it is not needed when running the Adapters on the Windchill server.

[BenLoosli]

I started proeworker manually, then submitted a job. Here is the job log.

There is no thumbnail created and there is nothing in the file when opened in CreoView.

This is a job log from my other Windchill 12.0.2.12 server that runs automatically.

CrieView Adapters were installed using the same procedure on both systems.

Cannot figure out why I am not getting the thumbnails saved for display in CreoView.

[jbailey]

For grins, did you try in a browser in incognito mode or with a fresh browser cache?

[BenLoosli]

Did not try those options. ☺

[d_graham]

@BenLoosli ,

The only tip I have is this.

If I have two or three systems, Prod, QA and Dev, I would use the same installation of Creo View Adapter and Creo Parametric for all three.

The CAD Worker on Prod and QA would both point to the same proe_setup folder and proworker.bat. In short, they are identical.

For Dev, I copy the proe_setup folder to proe_setup_dev and make any changes for testing to config.pro, config.sup, the recipe file, etc. Maybe I make no changes, but I have the flexibility to do so.

The Creo View Adapter and Creo Parametric version are the latest that is compatible with the Windchill installations. As you know, if the users are still on Creo 8.0, there nothing wrong with using Creo 9.0 or 10.0 on the publisher as Creo Parametric files are upward compatible.

The idea here is to keep the variables (and admin work) to a minimum.

This also allows the users the flexibility to upgrade from Creo 8 to Creo 9 or Creo 10 without getting the Windchill admin involved.

I know you mention one of your systems is Windchill 11.x but all Windchill 12.0 systems could be setup this way.

Even if a Windchill server is the publisher, as long as the other Windchill systems can reach it you could set things up this way.

I like using a separate server for the publisher myself, but that’s me.

Again, this in no way solves your mystery but by reducing or eliminating variables it’s usually easier to identify the culprit.

David

[BenLoosli · Accepted solution]

One correction to my original post.

System 2 is running CreoView Adapters 8.0, not 7.1., so that is a valid configuration.

Now for the solution.

The worker.exe.whitelist.prefixes value MUST be set exactly as Windows sees the folder. It is case sensative!

I had e:\PTC and Windows saw the folder as E:\ptc. Once I changed it, my system 2 & 4 will now autostart and system 4 creates the thumbnail and saves the pvs file.

[jbailey]

That's annoying... I must have always been lucky or consistent in naming since they introduced that property in WC 10.2 😂

[BenLoosli]

For reference, I found this CS article that explains this behavior.

Article - CS140965 - Windchill PDMLink: The Executable Not Safe message is returned when attempting to start WVS workers (ptc.com)