Among the tools that Snow Software provides for troubleshooting is a Data Recording function. This allows the information being retrieved from your cloud account to be stored in a file and played back by Snow, mimicking the live connection in your environment. Most often this is used to help diagnose an inability for a cloud account to remain connected. Follow the instructions below to create a recording.

You may need a significant amount of space on the disk where Commander is installed, however, the amount required will vary greatly depending on your environment. The number of cloud accounts, VMs and overall activity level stand to impact the space required. If you are short on space, monitor the disk space carefully during recording.

Data Recording
Billing Data Recording
User Interface Data Recording
 

Data Recording

1. Login to Commander using an account with either the Superuser or Enterprise Admin role.
2. Browse to Help > Support.

3. Click Data Recording.
   
4. Choose either Record continuously or Record for a limited time, setting the Duration in minutes. Choose the former if you are not sure how long it will take to reproduce the issue you’re trying to record, otherwise choose the latter.
5. Choose either System generated filename or User specified filename, providing the name to use.
6. Choose either Record All or Record only specified cloud account (managed system), selecting the cloud account (managed system) to record.
7. Check Start recording with snapshot to resynchronize inventory at the start of the recording. This should always be enabled unless Embotics Support requests otherwise.
8. Click Start Recording.
9. Click Stop Recording to end the recording if you have set it to run continuously, or if you want to end it before the requested duration completes.
10. Click Close to exit the dialog.
11. Retrieve the file from <Install_Directory>\Embotics\vCommander\tomcat\recordedData\ and send to Snow Support.

Automatic Recording

Starting with Commander 9.5.3, you can configure the system to automatically capture connection problems and write useful debug information to file. You should only enable this when requested to do so by the Snow Software support team. 

This is used to capture disconnection details when cloud accounts have unstable connections, and it is difficult to capture the debug information through manual recording. 

To enable automatic record, follow the procedure below. 

• Browse to Configuration > System and switch to the Advanced tab.
• Filter the list of system properties using record.

• Set embotics.observation.recording.in.memory.queue.size to 100. 
• Set embotics.observation.recording.stop.on.snapshot.failure to true. 
• Once you experience a disconnection from the cloud account, Retrieve the file from <Install_Directory>\Embotics\vCommander\tomcat\recordedData\ and send to Snow Support.

Billing Data Recording

1. Login to Commander using an account with either the Superuser or Enterprise Admin role .
2. Browse to Help > Support.
3. Click Billing Data Recording. 
4. The dialog that opens displays whether or not billing data recording is enabled or disabled. If it is not already enabled:
   1. Choose the cloud account for which you want to enable recording. 
   2. Click Start Recording.

5. The recordings will be available in timestampted folders created under <Install_Directory>\Embotics\vCommander\tomcat\logs\billing_recordings\.

6. Retrieve the files and send them to Snow Support. 

User Interface Data Recording

1. Login to Commander using an account with either the Superuser or Enterprise Admin role .
2. Browse to Help > Support.
3. Click User Interface Data Recording.
4. Choose either Record continuously or Record for a limited time, setting the Duration in minutes. Choose the former if you are not sure how long it will take to reproduce the issue you’re trying to record, otherwise choose the latter.
5. Choose either System generated filename or User specified filename, providing the name to use.
6. Choose either Record all sessions or Record selected sessions, selecting the username to record.
7. Click Start Recording.
   
8. Click Stop Recording to end the recording if you have set it to run continuously, or if you want to end it before the requested duration completes.
9. Click Close to exit the dialog.
10. Retrieve the file from <Install_Directory>\Embotics\vCommander\tomcat\recordedUIData\ and send to Embotics Support.