SECC 4.2 Failed to print report - can not print to screen or printer 1

[harisb]

Hi all,


I've been banging my head about this one for a while, and the company who installed / maintains our SECC couldn't provide an answer. So after a couple of months I've found the reason (and then solution) myself. So here it is :

Problem : Client is able to connect and do everything except print reports, including getting reports on screen. Real time reports work fine. The error is :
"There was an error while trying to print report !Failed to access information from report file."

Cause : When you create connection to server, you are using it's computer name rather than IP address. This is fine except in cases where you have your SECC server box running RAS service for modem (usualy for boxes that are remotely monitored and configured). When someone connects to that modem, server assigns an IP to PPP adapter. So when you crate a connection from SMI using computer name, the name can get resolved into PPP IP instead of ethernet IP. This IP is then remembered and stored internaly with connection properties.

Example : SECC Server running with IP 10.10.100.1 assigns 10.10.100.2 to PPP adapter when someone connects through modem. When you ping the server (by it's computer name) from somewhere on your LAN, you may get reply from 10.10.100.2 instead of 10.10.100.1.
If this is the case, when you start connection, you get connected to PPP IP instead of LAN IP. Again, you can do everything as usual except getting reports on the screen or printer.

There is a mention in SECC documentation that users connected through modem (PPP) can not print reports. When you connect to PPP IP from your workstation, you are considered remote user from SECC's standpoint.

Solution : Use LAN IP when making connections from SMI to your server (in example above, 10.10.100.1).

That's it, you should have no more problems on this subject.


Enjoy

Haris

 

[ErwinStevanus]

Haris,

Generally, you can generate reports when you're connected using RAS connection. I tried to dial up to one of our customer's SCCS and everything was fine (including the report).

When I ping the server using the Computer Name, i get replies from the CLAN IP (not from the PPP Adapter)

I believe it's something with your IP Binding. Please get your vendor to check the Binding Order. It should be CLAN IP, ELAN IP, and followed by RAS.

 

[RParent]

Here's another related tidbit - this is true for our networked PCs but I don't know how to apply to RAS depending on the IP assignments...The report listener communicates with the server via netbios (forced our way into someone at Nortel who understands how the product actually works); the scheduler kicks off a report (or a report is run on demand) and the report listener makes its call via netbios to the server, or the server calls the client for the report definition. (BTW, when you login to the Express client and then pull up the Reports display, it seems to communicate with what the server shows in Scheduler and if things don't line up, you may get an 'operation failed - no record found' error). So, if you are running vlans or a network and not broadcasting netbios, you may get the 'error trying to run a report.' Check:
- alarm monitor on the server - if there is a report error tied to the one you were trying to run, suspect communication problems between client and server
- if you don't have domains (like on a Novell network), have a network engineer add helper addresses between vlans to get the netbios through. And this may/will probably cause 'master browser' messages in the alarm monitor, but the reports should still run and those messages aren't as critical as the alarm monitor would like us to think.

 

[redbear1]

Hi everyone,

I had an interesting issue related to this error. The user received the error and was not able to display any reports to screen. When I logged in to Symposium, on the same PC under the same local Windows profile, I could run any report. Samething happend when I logged her out of Win 2000, and then back in.

To resolve it (by chance) I rebooted the PC and the user could run the reports again.

Anyone have an idea why this would occur for the one user and not another?

Thanks,

redbear1