User Tracking - 9.1

[JMast]

Hello,

We used sys.sysprocesses in SQL Server in 8.0 (all fat client) to do a "scrape" of the users connected to the database every half hour. This provided us a good snapshot without the clutter of F9312.

We are now on 9.1 and I am wondering if there is a way to capture the same info. There isn't anything I can find on the database since it all comes through the webservers. Is there a way to tap into whatever the "User sessions" runtime metric is pulling on the web server? Is that a weblogic function or a JDE app that might be reported against?

Is there another way to get that info? We want to have an understanding of who actually is using the system throughout the day so we can evaluate requests for new users.

Thanks for the help,

Jer

 

[Jaise James]

Hello Jer,

Database snapshot would only work if you have end-user mapped to a specific proxy id. If they are using same proxy id’s or group of proxy id, I am not sure how it would work.
In the past release( 8.10), I used to take a snapshot of users logged in via SMC or SAW with their actual open application using a web product ( Imarcro), it’s a free ware on Firefox. It involved little bit of VB script to scrape the data to put it into a text file. Then I used to port this data into a database table to read and get some trend analysis
We recently upgraded to 9.1 and I was hoping JD Edwards would have some in-built functionality for this. I guess, they do not have anything. I am planning to recreate my process to get user info. I know this is quite a useful info to have and I would have thought Oracle would have done something about it.

 

[rgz]

Hi,

Every web session will attach to a call object kernel, so you could use netwm and sum the active users of each call object.

Might need some tweaking, but you could build scripts around the attached to get what you're after.

Run on a scheduler and then graph the output in Excel.

Cheers

 

[JMast]

rgz,

Thank you for the post and the sample code. I hadn't thought about trying to get something off of the logic server. I could see this being very useful for managing server load. However, it is not quite what I need. I am looking for a list of JDE userids logged in at a given moment. We have managers asking for new users in JDE and being a small shop, licenses are extremely expensive. I need to know who is truly using the system and who just thinks they need an ID. For example, I need to be able to show my manager that Joe is only on the system for less than half an hour a couple days a week. My manager can go to Joe's manager and get that license back for someone who truly needs it.

Jer

 

[Davidlivingston]

Hi Jer,

You can try capture user login/logoff details in table F9312 after setting HIstory=1 in enterprise server jde.ini.
By comparing those timestamps you can come to know the E1 system usage.

 

[JMast]

David,

Thanks for the reply. You are correct about the F9312. I guess I was just spoiled by getting only the data that I wanted at a specific point in time. I may have to work on using F9312.

Jer

 

[altquark]

If you're trying to get the number of users on E1 at any point in time, then my suggestion is to capture the information through the server manager. There are a number of methods of creating counters that can output to a file.

 

[Larry_Jones]

Jer,

I couldn't agree more - why hasn't Oracle filled this hole - it should be easy to do.

Not just logging the User Login / logout but what applications were run, etc. It can't be that hard to do (I did it in another life for a MRP package).

Suggest you post this as a enhancement request on the Quest Tech Sig area.

 

[cdawes]

This hole has been filled for a few years and there is a very robust offering that does 1 millio things more than Server Manager.........at a price.

The Oracle Enterprise Manager Application Pack for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne will do everything you want and more (if you can get past the licensing cost).

http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/018469
http://www.oracle.com/us/products/enterprise-manager/apps-mgmt-jde-ds-071065.pdf
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oem/pdf/511866.pdf
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E17984_01/doc.898/e22498.pdf

 

[JMast]

Jon,

Thanks for replying.

I may be reduced to that, but it doesn't show me idle JDE userids. Since we were all fat client, I could use the following:

select substring(hostname,1,20), max(last_batch),getdate() from sys.sysprocesses where loginame='JDE' group by hostname

This statement ran in a SQL Server Agent job every half hour and dumped to a table. So, every half hour I had a list with one record per user and the last date/time they had done any activity in JDE. It made it very easy to find people who were logged in but not active in the system as well as those not logging in at all.

Jer

 

[JMast]

Larry,

Interesting idea. I guess I didn't think that others may be interested. I will look into that.

Thanks,

Jer

 

[JMast]

Colin,

I looked at a couple of those linked docs and it just made me sad, like I expected.

We are way too small for Oracle's comfort zone in JDE. We came in under Genesis 10 years ago and even though we are growing continuously, we simply can't justify the bolt ons that Oracle offers usually from both a dollars and business case justification. This one looks like a perfect example. Our production environment consists of 80 or so users on 2 virtual web servers (2 JVMs per server). Not quite complex enough to justify the Manager Application Pack

.

Thanks for posting the info, hopefully, someone with a much larger architecture will find it useful.

Jer

 

[JMast]

Jaise,

You probably won't read this, but I just noticed that my reply to you way back is not on the post. I apologize for the appearance of ignoring you. I don't know what happened. You are correct that my issue is that the users are "proxyed" (sp?) through the JDE user and the webserver name on the database.

Jer

 

[JMast]

All,

Reading and replying to these posts got the juices flowing and I remembered seeing something last week when I was doing some intense server debugging, but I didn't make note at the time. However, I just looked at it and I think it is exactly what I need if I can just figure out how to capture it.

In Server Manager:
Logic Server -> Process Detail -> click on a COK -> Connected Users.

This looks like the perfect info since all user activity has to go through a COK, correct? I just need to figure out how to scrape it every half hour or so from each COK. Does anyone have any ideas on doing this?

I also did a quick test with Monitors which I came across in the Server Manager guide and they just show counts not userid.

Thanks for your help on this topic,

Jer

 

[Larry_Jones]

You know about the attached in Server Manager, right?
Still would need to scrape it - not a solution for me.

 

[Larry_Jones]

Thx Colin.
and, yes, ... we just can't get past the licensing cost

 

[JMast]

Larry,

Thanks for the post. Yeah, I use that screen occasionally to look at load balancing and to see who is on if I need to do some maintenance.

There is a lot of cool info in Server Manager if there just was an included way to report it to a log or file.

Jer

 

[Jaise James]

I recreated this process in 9.1 I use SM screen to scrape the users,open application etc. every 15 minutes and put it into a Database. With Simple SQL query or SSRS report, I know what users were logged into our system including what application they had it opened. I wish, Oracle will provide an ability of storing users session to db. In the mean time, this process works just fine for us