Pulse Thick Client for Windows

The Pulse thick client is designed to be the central point for monitoring all of your TM1 servers. It streams multiple Pulse servers into one convenient location so you can quickly diagnose issues, cancel threads, disconnect users and even start/stop your TM1 services remotely.

The features of the thick client are as follows:

• Can stream information from multiple Pulse servers.
• All monitoring information is in one location:
  • CPU, memory, disk space, etc.
  • TM1 threads/users.
  • TM1 message log.
• Cancel TM1 threads.
• Disconnect TM1 users.
• Start/Stop TM1 services.
• Pause and rewind the monitoring timeline.
• Windows system tray alerts.

Before you can use the thick client you must connect the application to one or more Pulse servers. You can also add additional servers by going to Tools > Client Settings menu.

To add a server follow these steps:

1. Open Client Settings via the Tools > Client Settings menu or if you are opening it for the first time the client settings dialog will open automatically.
2. Click on the Add button.
3. Enter the following details:
   • Alias: A name describes the server you are adding.
   • Server Name: The hostname of the server where Pulse is installed. It must match for the monitoring to work.
   • Address: The server name or dns alias plus the port number, i.e. TM1SERVER:8099. In most cases this will be the Server Name above plus 8099 the default Pulse port number. Here you can use a fully qualified name or IP address if you are not connected to the same domain as the Pulse server. The default ports for Pulse are 8099 for HTTP and 8093 for HTTPS.
   • Use SSL: Tick whether you want to use SSL security to encrypt traffic between the client and the Pulse server. Ticking this box will also change the port number, default being 8093.

     NOTE: You can check/change the port numbers Pulse operates on by changing the port attribute on each Connector in the <Pulse Install Location>confserver.xml file. 

4. Click OK.
5. Repeat for additional servers.

There are three additionals settings that you can adjust to change how information is displayed and stored:

• Scale of Performance Charts: This is the number of pixels between each reading from the Pulse server as display in the chart timelines. A smaller value allows you to rewind further back in time.
• Message Log Display: The number of items to display in the message log grid. Setting this value to a large value will slow the display.
• Message Log History: The number of message log items that are cached in the Pulse client and can be retrieved using the level and text filters in the message log grid.

Pulse is governed by a security model that allows groups of Pulse users to perform specific actions. When you first open the Pulse Thick Client you will receive the permissions associated with the PUBLIC group. Before you can execute any actions the PUBLIC group does not have permission to you will need to log in with your credentials.

You have the option of either entering the credentials when asked by Pulse or by “logging in” using the Tools > User Login menu item. 

If there are multiple servers Pulse will attempt to use the same credentials for each server so you don’t have to log into each one. The credentials will then be saved for the length of the session, i.e. until you close the Thick Client.

The interface is split into a series of tabbed windows that allows you to navigate through multiple servers and TM1 instances. 

The summary tab displays the information from all Pulse servers and every TM1 instances that is present on those servers. It is broken up into three panels:

1. Server Status: Information for each Pulse server you are connected to will be displayed here. You can view the CPU use, overall memory being consumed and a quick snapshot of the number of TM1 instances are running, loading and stopped.
2. Service Status: Lists every TM1 service has been created on the servers you are connected to. If you have services that are no longer used it is advisable to remove these using Cognos Configuration or the command-line (tm1sd.exe -remove -n<ServiceName>).  The information here can give you a quick pointer to possible issues on one of your TM1 servers.
3. Alerts: The alerts panel displays any alerts that have been triggered while the interface has been up and running.

You can navigate to both the server tabs and service tab by double clicking on the rows on the summary tab. 

The Server Tab has all of the information about the server running your TM1 instances. The following information is available:

1. Capture Time: The time on the server the values were captured. You can also pause and restart the timeline using the green button.
2. Summary Panel: The number of cores of the CPU processors and the total physical memory (RAM) of the server.
3. CPU Usage (%): The current CPU being used by the server.
4. Memory Usage: The total physical memory being consumed by the server. This value by default is measured in MBs but can be changed to GBs by changing the MemoryDisplayGB setting in Pulse.cfg file.
5. TM1 Server Status: The current status of each of the TM1 services installed on the server.
6. Alert Log: A list of each of the alerts that have been triggered while the user interface has been open. You can click on each row to pause the display to the time when the alert was triggered.
7. Disk Space: The size and free space for each physical disk on the server.

The Service / Instance Tab is where you find all of the information that is occurring within the TM1 environment. This is where you will be spending most of your time and you should be familiar with all of the information that is available.

1. Service: Start/Stop the TM1 service, this is restricted by Pulse security so you will need to log in before you can start or stop a service.
2. Summary: A summary of the state of the service and how many users have logged in.
3. Config: Display the contents tm1s.cfg file, you cannot edit the config file, it is read only.
4. Expand/Collapse: Expand or collapse the two rows of performance charts. This allows you to maximise the screen real estate so you can see more of the Session Monitor information.
5. CPU Usage: The % of the CPU being used the TM1 service, tm1sd.exe.
6. Memory Usage:  The amount of memory being used by the TM1 service, tm1sd.exe. This value by default is measured in MBs but can be changed to GBs by changing the MemoryDisplayGB setting in Pulse.cfg file.
7. Session Monitor: The current users logged into TM1 and the actions they are performing.
8. Message Log: A stream of the contents of the TM1 Message Log (tm1server.log).

You can move backwards in time by clicking on any of the black performance charts, this will pause the screen at the selected point in time. A green dot will appear on the performance charts indicating the place where you are paused. Pulse will stay paused for 20 seconds and then resume 

The amount of history displayed on resume at the current point in time, you can also resume by clicking on the green Play button on the top right of the screen.

The amount of history displayed and therefore the amount of time you can rewind is based on your screen resolution and the Scale of Performance Charts setting

The Session Monitor displays detailed information about what is happening in TM1 by user. If you have used TM1 Top or Operations Console before you will be familiar with this information. Pulse takes the standard information from the TM1 API, enhances it and add a number of actions to help you manage TM1.

The Session Monitor is based on threads, each TM1 user will have a unique thread that will be used for the length of their session in TM1.

1. Filters: You can filter the list of to either display only Active threads, i.e. those they aren’t idle or by using a text based filter. Use the text based filter to find a particular user, state or function.
2. Username: The user name or display name for the user logged into TM1. The username for an executing chore will be the chore name.
3. State: The state of the user, this can be a number of values including: Idle, Run, Commit, Rollback, Wait & Login. 
4. Function: The type of function that is being executed against the TM1 server by user thread.
5. Object Type: The type of TM1 object the function is interacting with.
6. Object Name: The name of the TM1 object that the function is interacting with.
7. Info: A special field that displays different information depending on what is being executed. For example:
   • If a process is being executed the section and line of code currently being executed will be displayed.
   • If a thread is in a “Wait” state the Info field will display the thread id that has locked the target object. In the image below Oliver Martin is waiting on thread 4796 (Anthony Taylor).
8. Context: The method/interface that the thread has connected to the TM1 Server:
   • Architect: Architect standalone interface or Perspectives for Excel.
   • pmhub: Performance Modeller.
   • tm1runti: tm1runti.exe
   • Blank: For TM1 Web the Context field is blank.
9. Time: The current amount of time the active thread has been executing for.
10. Last Action Time: The amount of time since the thread was last active, i.e. not Idle.
11. Session Time: The amount of time the thread/user has been logged in for.

You can also interact with the Session Monitor to perform actions against each of the threads/users. Each action is performed by first selecting the row of the user and then right-clicking to reveal the context menu. Depending on the current state of the user some of these actions will be disabled.

1. Cancel: Cancel an active thread, if the user is idle the option will be disabled. Cancelling a thread aborts the current action of this user and returning a message to them. You also need permission to cancel a thread in Pulse, if you don’t you will be asked to log in with a credentials.
2. Disconnect: Disconnects the user from TM1, this requires you to enter Pulse and TM1 credentials. You can’t disconnect yourself, i.e. the same user name. 
3. Copy: Copy the current row in the Session Monitor so that can be pasted into Excel.
4. Copy All: Copy the entire grid so that can be pasted into Excel.
5. View Workbooks: If the you have Excel logging enabled you can view all of the current TM1 workbooks the user has open.
6. View Chore/Process History: View the history of any active processes for the user. This is a great tool during development as it breaks down the hierarchical structure of the process and its sub-processes (see below).

The Message Log is a stream of the contents in the tm1server.log and is your window to the errors and messages created by TM1.  

You can view filter the message log either by the message level or by the contents of the message text.

To view the contents of an error log generated by a process double-click on the row that contains the name of an error log, for example: <TM1ProcessError_20151223032802_Cub.General_Ledger.Load.log>