This month’s topics include:
- Solving the “Time Travel” Issue.
- Multiple Instances of IGUANA on the Same Machine.
- Backing Up and Restoring IGUANA.
- Using Regex to Search the Logs.
Did you know that practically everyone here at iNTERFACEWARE monitors our support inquiries? Well, it’s true.
First and foremost, we want to ensure you get your question(s) answered to your satisfaction. As a result, it’s not uncommon for a developer, an account manager, or even our CEO to suddenly jump in on a support ticket to help.
But that’s not the only reason there’s so many eyes on your questions. Your questions are really an invaluable resource for us. They can be (and often are) the catalyst for product enhancements, additions to our documentation, and obviously blog posts like this one.
As the entire user community can benefit from seeing the answers to commonly asked questions, I’ve decided to put together the most asked support questions of the past month. If you’d like to see this become a regular (or even semi-regular) post, please let me know by leaving a comment.
Enough of the preamble, let’s get to the questions.
Disclaimer: The questions you are about to read are based on real events. Names have been changed to protect the identity of those involved.
Doc, you gotta help me! When I log in to IGUANA, I get the following message: The system clock appears to have been set backwards by 4469 seconds while Iguana was running. Iguana has been halted as a precaution to prevent possible data corruption. – Yours Truly, Marty McFly.
Hello Marty,
This is known as the “Time Travel” issue.
Cause: There was a change to the system clock while IGUANA was running.
When the system clock is changed while IGUANA is running, IGUANA goes into a “panic state” and stops all channels. This happens to protect the integrity of your data by preventing any conflict with the time stamps of your log entries.
Solution: http://help.interfaceware.com/kb/time-travel
Hi, Mr. Miyagi advised me to write to you. We need to install multiple instances of IGUANA on the same machine! How do I get started? – Daniel LaRusso
Hello Daniel,
Mr. Miyagi sounds like a wise man.
Depending on your requirements, you have two options.
1. Separate Install Directory
If you need to install different versions of IGUANA on the same machine, then you’ll want to use the manual installation process to install each instance in a separate directory.
Solution: http://help.interfaceware.com/kb/production-install#multiple
2. Shared Install Directory
However, if you need to install multiple instances of the same version of IGUANA to share the same application files, then that’s possible as well. You can create a single complete IGUANA installation and then create multiple instances that re-use the application code while logging to separate locations.
Solution: http://help.interfaceware.com/kb/707
Hi there. I was wondering if you could help me. I really want to take a day off. Before I can do that, I’ve been tasked with backing up all of our IGUANA instances before we begin upgrading. Can you help? – Ferris Bueller
Hello Ferris,
Absolutely. As with any backup, it is very important to pay careful attention to the instructions.
Our best practices instructions for backing up and restoring IGUANA are outlined in our Knowledge Base.
Solution: http://help.interfaceware.com/kb/603
Enjoy your day off!
First, I just want to say I think IGUANA is up there with the best of the best. I mean it, it’s right at the TOP. Anyway, I’m trying to search the logs and my regex syntax is a bit rusty. Can you give me any pointers? – Maverick
Hello Maverick,
Thank you for the kind words.
The text query box on the logs page can be quite powerful. It accepts plain strings or complex Boolean expressions. As you pointed out , it also accepts regex (regular expression) patterns.
Since you didn’t provide any specifics on the query you are attempting to build, please review the following links to get you started.
Solution:
Search/Filter The Logs: http://help.interfaceware.com/kb/logs-introduction/4
Regex Search Criteria: http://help.interfaceware.com/kb/logs-introduction/5
Using Regular Expression Metacharacters: http://help.interfaceware.com/kb/1102
I am serious… and don’t call me Shirley.
Well, those are the top support questions for the month of March. I am serious about potentially making this post a regular occurrence on our blog.
If you’d like to see more common support questions like these (or if you’d just like to see me to struggle to come up with more 80’s movie references), please leave a comment below and let me know.