Automate Server Mastery Keeping Your Automate Server at Its Best Presented by Brandon Lippie & William Smalley
Who Are We? I’ve worked with Automate going on 7 years with 5 years working for ConnectWise in Automate Support (3 years) and Consulting (2 years). While with Automate Support I was on the Server Down team, working heavily with the Automate Server. After leaving ConnectWise I spent 6 months working for a Brandon Lippie MSP as a SysAdmin helping with Automate, Project Consultant and now I find myself working with Stack Stack Advisors Advisors as a RMM Consultant for the past 9 months. #ITNExplore20
Who Are We? William is Project Consultant at Stack Advisors. His roles are new client implementations and current client stabilizations and customization assistance. He started his IT career in 2000 in the networking and systems side of Ybor nightclubs and bars, moved into the booming real estate IT sector before the crash, then the William Smalley Telecom sector through the early 2000's and Project Consultant worked for Labtech and a myriad of Tampa Stack Advisors based Law firms, MSP and telecom companies over two decades. #ITNExplore20
What is Stack Advisors? Stack Advisors was founded in 2011 by longtime ConnectWise power users when they realized they had overcome many of the obstacles that left other MSPs struggling. Driven by the desire to help others, Stack Advisors continued to evolved into a premier resource for the ConnectWise Suite of products. Today our experts fill the gaps for ITSPs when they don't have the bandwidth or expertise to get the most out of their investment by providing Consulting, Management Services and our automated machine deployment tool: MSP Toolshed #ITNExplore20
Agenda Provide attendees with the guidance required to keep your on- premise Automate system running at an optimal level Provide you with the steps necessary to troubleshoot issues that may arise Detail the information you should gather before requesting help from ConnectWise support Please submit questions via the Q/A button We will provide a link for all SQL #ITNExplore20
Setting a Baseline Start with ConnectWise’s recommendations for server configuration, tweak as necessary • https://tinyurl.com/y7jhphcv Ensure that enough RAM is allocated to host most of the DB in memory – memory is a lot faster than disk! • < 16GB = 50% of RAM, >16GB = 70-75% RAM Follow good practice in allocating disks – if on platters, make sure you’re not sharing space with other Databases. SSDs are wonderful! Avoid priority windows for external maintenance like AV and Backup #ITNExplore20
Avoiding Conflict CW Automate has some key windows to be aware of • 12-1 AM • Plugin Calls • Health & Compliance Calculations • AutoNight • 3-5 AM • DB Backup and Zip • Daily Maintenance (Retention management) • 1-2 PM • Plugin Calls • AutoDay #ITNExplore20
Avoiding Conflict - AV Avoid Active Scans during the CW Automate Maintenance Windows Disable aggressive functions that can slow down Database Activity Create Exceptions • CW Automate processes and Program Files • MySQL process and Program Files • MySQL DB file space • MySQL Temp and log file spaces #ITNExplore20
Avoiding Conflict - Backup Don’t run backups during the maintenance windows Avoid VSS if possible. If not, stick to key directories: • \Program Files\LabTech\Backup\*.zip • \LTShare\ VM Level backups typically run the best. #ITNExplore20
Advanced Configuration Dashboard Configs • MaxRunningScripts • ScriptPerBatch IIS Configs • Worker Processes • Recycler Timing My.ini Configs • Max Connections • Buffer Pool • Enable Slow Log and Long Query Time #ITNExplore20
Finding Backlog • Max Connection Utilization Query links on last page • Database Backlog Query links on last page #ITNExplore20
Your Database Grows with Your Organization A number of factors will cause your database to grow: • Time (historical data retention) • Agent count growth • Technician utilization of Automate • Custom Automation • New features • Integration additions #ITNExplore20
Monitoring Growth • Keep an eye on table sizes Query links on last page #ITNExplore20
Watching the Common Culprits Large tables cause issues at startup and in monitoring • EventLogs Table • WindowsUpdateETLFiles Table • (Product) Integration tables • History tables • Ticketdata Table #ITNExplore20
Retention Times 1 2 3 4 Try to find a What are your What would be a What age balance between contractual realistic timeframe conditions are your necessity, obligation to your a technician would monitors filtering usefulness, and clients? reference? on? performance • Are your current settings optimal? #ITNExplore20
Trimming the Fat When cleaning up a whole table, use Truncate Query links on last page Alternatively, when a table is too large, you can drop the table and recreate from the SQL queries provided in the setup folder. • Don’t forget Procs, Triggers, and Views. • Doesn’t hurt to use CheckTables.exe after also. #ITNExplore20
Trimming the Fat If getting rid of a majority of entries in a large table 1. Create another table with the same structure Query links on last page 2. Insert all results you’d like to keep into this new table Query links on last page 3. Drop the old table Query links on last page 4. Rename the new table to the expected name Query links on last page #ITNExplore20
Using Automate as its own Watchdog Consider using Automate, or a backup product, to watch for server issues like: • Disabled Internal Monitors (Next Scan is a year from now) Query links on last page • Scripts queued up Query links on last page • Heartbeat and LastContact discrepancies Query links on last page • Database Agent resource usage #ITNExplore20
Automating Maintenance If you have maintenance actions, you can split them up into two parts: • OS activities that need to be performed on the server • SQL activities that can be driven through any engine #ITNExplore20
Automating Maintenance OS Scripting Leverage CW Automate Use Scheduled Tasks to call wherever you can to manage itself. batch/PowerShell scripts to handle Use CW Automate scripts anything that would require to handle things that don’t require stopping the stopping the Database Agent Database Agent #ITNExplore20
Automating Maintenance SQL Management If you’re comfortable managing MySQL, then you can create Stored Procedures to run SQL and use a routine to call the procedure If you’ve got a cleanup script in the form of a .SQL file that you run periodically, you can call it using an Automate Script Consider converting it to an array of script steps in an Automate Client Script and schedule that to occur in the dashboard with whatever frequency necessary #ITNExplore20
Something’s Broke #ITNExplore20
Now What? 1 2 Review Isolate • Review the associated log files • Isolate the issue • Does CW Automate recognize • What components of CW Automate are affected? there’s something wrong? • What rogue behavior is being exhibited? #ITNExplore20
Where Can I Find These Logs? What Are They For? MySQL Log (DB Dir) – @ServerName@.err MySQL Slow Log (DB Dir) - @ServerName@-Slow.err General DB Agent Log (Program Files) – LTAErrors ASP Log (Temp) – LTAsp API Logs (Temp\_Automate Logs) DB Agent Loop Activity - LTAProcess Script Engine – LTAScriptEngine Solution Center – LTSCServiceLog Licensing – LTLicense Alerting (Monitor Failure tracking) – LTAAlerts, LTADBAgent #ITNExplore20
Now What? 1 2 3 Isolate Review Research • Review the associated log • Review Known Issues on • Isolate the issue files CW University • What components of CW Automate are affected? • Does CW Automate recognize there’s • What rogue behavior is being exhibited? something wrong? #ITNExplore20
Known Issue (KI)? Who Knew? Usually you’re not the first person to experience something… • Check the University to see if CW has seen this before • http://www.connectwise.com/knownissues If you’re not on the current version of CW Automate or the Solution having issues, check the Resolved Known Issues • If you see the issue in a ‘Released’ status: 1. Update the core (or solution) 2. Restart 3. Retest If you see a matching open KI, check for the replication steps – if it’s similar to what you’re seeing, then prepare to let the front line know. #ITNExplore20
Now What? 1 2 3 4 5 Isolate Review Research Attempt Reach out •Isolate the issue • Review the associated log • Review Known Issues on • Attempt to troubleshoot it • Reach out to ConnectWise files CW University yourself Support for help •What components of CW Automate are affected? • Does CW Automate • Start with Service •What rogue behavior is recognize there’s Restarts! being exhibited? something wrong? #ITNExplore20
Recommend
More recommend
