Workflow to ease collecting debug information

KNIME Analytics Platform
1

Hi,

most Knime users that re struggling with challenging issues have yet not the know to collect debug information. For a long time, ever since @AnotherFraudUser created the replacement in AF Utilities (I cannot thank him enough!), I had the idea to provide a workflow which automatically collects as much as possible.

I have taken an opportunity to create an initial draft Iā€™d like to share and hope we can extend it as much as possible. Thanks in advance to all who contribute.

About the workflow
Purpose of this Workflow: Ease collecting information for debugging. Ideally, no additional (non default) extensions are used.

Note: The Bash node was removed. Shell Script node from AF Utilities (big thanks!) is used as the sole non-default extension.

What it does: Collects information such as logs form Knime as well as your system, which plugins and version are installed, details about system setup.

What it does NOT: It does NOT alter your system, nor shares it any sensitive data.

Planned for future versions of this workflow

  1. Upload all details or send as an email
  2. Provide first aid based on collected information (i.e. no disk space, outdated software etc.)
  3. Anything special about Phyton to consider?
  4. HWInfo SKD as DLL (Critical due to Windows Defender)?

https://www.hwinfo.com/sdk/

Best
Mike

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@armingrudd in regards to the community hacking days for 5.3 I have further tuned this workflow which now collects the following details:

  1. Context and System Properties
  2. osgi.logfile & osgi.tracefile
  3. All Installed extensions and a list of all extension directories in the Knime app folders (because deinstallation sometimes leaves traces)
  4. System Info, Hardware Specs, Disk Space & Env Variables
out_SytemInfo = v_Value.equals("win32") ? "systeminfo" : "uname -a";
out_HardwareSpecs = v_Value.equals("win32") ? "wmic cpu get /format:list" : "lscpulscpu";
out_DiskSpace = v_Value.equals("win32") ? "wmic logicaldisk get size,freespace,caption" : "df -h";
out_EnvironmentVariables = v_Value.equals("win32") ? "set" : "printenv";
  1. Checks if all files do exist and uploads them to AWS S3

Important
The commands for linux in step #4 are not tested yet. Got to fire up and update my VM but I am stuck with 4G LTE fallback as my ISP messed things up.

Remarks
The details gathered certainly are too extensive and must be reduced to reasonable levels. I played around with approaches to create a screenshot as well but so far was not successful.

I also aimed, and still think about approaches, to limit the need of additional extensions. I.e. instead of an upload to S3, a forum post could be created using the Discourse Forum software APIs or just sending them via email for privacy reasons.

Furthermore, I have a draft that automatically downloads VisualVM, extracts it and, which is WIP, used the command line options to create a Thread Dump for upload too.

https://visualvm.github.io/docs/command-line-options.html

Please, anyone, let me know your thoughts.

PS: @takbb & @mlauber71 pining you directly in case you have some thoughts about this. Though, please do not feel urged to reply if you have no interest in that subject.

Thanks
Mike

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Hi @mwiegand , I always enjoy reading your posts which undoubtedly are helping move KNIME in a great direction (hence your well-deserved recent COTM award!).

This looks like a great idea and a very useful mechanism, which I will certainly be giving attention to. thanks :clap:

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