Unable to check out or check in parts

[FaithS-1519]

This evening, when several students tried to check out files from our Windchill server, the check out failed (and check in) and this error message came up in the Event Management console: "WTRuntimeException: ATTENTION:  Secured Action. You do not have the necessary authorization for this operation. Contact your administrator if you believe you have received this message in error. Nested exception is:
 (wt.access.accessResource/19) wt.access.NotAuthorizedException: ATTENTION:  Secured Action. You do not have the necessary authorization for this operation. Contact your administrator if you believe you have received this message in error"

Also, when I go to Open and Windchill Commonspace, nothing shows up in the folder; but when I access it from the Folder Browser, I can see all the files.

There have been no changes to the security settings, etc. by anyone on our team. Any idea what could be causing this and how to fix it?

[TomU]

Is the current state of the objects something that is not allowed to be modified?  For example, "Released" vs. "In Work"?  Can you attach screen shots?

[FaithS-1519]

Everything is currently checked in, so we can't make modifications without checking the parts out (which isn't working). When we go into Open > Windchill Commonspace, there are no files, where usually there are all our team's parts, assemblies, etc.

Not sure what you're asking for screenshots of.... Here's the error that comes up in the Event Manager. 

[TomU]

It sounds like someone changed some permissions.  This is the exact message we get when someone isn't allowed access to something (based on their permissions.)

[TomU]

Is your context set correctly?  Does it make any difference if you try to check in to a different product (folder)?

[rdeml]

How do we see the context?  What should it be set to?

[nrensing]

I believe that for FIRST teams, there is typically only one context - the team itself. I have a couple of other contexts, and don't seem to have permissions to create parts in them - but I don't know if I ever did.

[TomU]

I wish I could help more but I think you're going to need to contact your administrator.

[AMDcats]

I am in team 4293 and we have the same problem. We have contacted the administrator and he has checked that we all have permissions. Also, with no changes it was working 24 hours ago.

[TomU]

Somebody changed something.  Just need to find out who.  

[BenLoosli]

Are all of you having issues on FIRST teams?

I believe that is a PTC hosted instance of Windchill, not local, so there may be something going on with the servers that host the FIRST team Windchill data.

[nrensing]

Yes, we're all FRC teams using the Windchill server maintained by PTC. The machine itself is clearly running, we can see files and access non-CAD content (well, I can). However, we cannot add CAD content to a workspace, and if I try to add new users to Windchill, it only lets me add them as guests, not team members. It looks as if a permission file is inaccessible - maybe it was accidentally deleted or became corrupted in some other way.

[nrensing]

The server seems to be back up at this time. Thanks to everyone at PTC (and anyone else) who worked on this.

[Alex_Cazacu]

Hello,

There was a problem with the server, that has been resolved now!

We are really sorry for this and we thank you all for letting us know about the problem!

If any team is still having issues, please let me know!

Thanks,

Alex

[ScottMorris]

@nrensing, always contact me directly when it comes to the FIRST Windchill Server. I just happened to stumble upon this thread today while looking for something else.

During or after the upgrade to Windchill 11.0, a new policy was added that was wreaking havoc on the system. If you created new items with new names, you would never experience the problem. If you tried to create something that already existed in the system, not just your project, it would be tagged as a duplicate and not allow check in. The primary blocker was importing known CAD items from AM or Vex.

I've asked PTC to notify me of their next planned upgrade so I can perform the user acceptance testing. I am sure importing a known, commonly used STEP file was not in their test plan.

[nrensing]

@ScottMorris Thanks, that wasn't the specific issue we had that triggered this thread - that was clearly a server issue, as we couldn't even open existing parts. But it explains some issues with imported parts we encountered earlier in the season even though we couldn't find the duplicates.

As a rule I encourage my students to import the STEP in a local ("No Server") session, clean up all the constraints and stray geometries, rename everything all the way down the tree with a unique prefix/suffix, save a backup to disk, and only then reconnect to Windchill and try to import it, preferably into an empty workspace. 

[nrensing]

We're seeing the same thing for Team 2877, The LigerBots. All of the parts are "in work" - FIRST teams tend not to ever "release" parts :). As an additional datapoint, if I create a new part and then try to check it in, I get the same error.