Overview: Mountain High Outfitters has 25+ stores and needs to poll a lot of data from their main/warehouse server to their store servers. All stores share customer information, sales, inventory, slips, vouchers, and POs. Their POs are the largest files to poll and can cause some issues from time to time.
Computers Used:
SimpleHelp Location Computer Name
Corp – Servers MHSERVER (Head Office Server)
Alabama – Auburn AUB-Server (Store Server)
Alabama – Cahaba Village CAH-Server (Store Server)
Alabama – Foley FOL-Server (Store Server)
Alabama – Galleria GAL-Server (Store Server)
Alabama – Huntsville HV-Server (Store Server)
Alabama – Leeds LED-Server (Store Server)
Alabama – Leeds2 LED2-Server (Store Server) – located next to the LED store, sells out of the same inventory, but has its own store server and setup)
Alabama – Madison MAD-Server (Store Server)
Alabama – Merchants Walk MW-Server (Store Server)
Alabama – Montgomery MTG-Server (Store Server)
Alabama – Oak Mountain OAK-Server (Store Server)
Alabama-Spanish Fort/Eastern Shore ESA-Server (Store Server)
Alabama – Summit SUM-Server (Store Server)
Alabama – Tuscaloosa TUS-Server (Store Server)
Florida – Destin DES-Server (Store Server)
Georgia – Alpharetta ALP-Server (Store Server)
Georgia – Atlanta ATL-Server (Store Server)
Georgia- Columbus COL-Server (Store Server)
Georgia – Dawsonville DAW-Server (Store Server)
Georgia – Locust Grove LG-Server (Store Server)
Georgia – Newnan NWN-Server (Store Server)
Georgia – Savannah SAV-Server (Store Server)
Georgia – Woodstock WOD-Server (Store Server)
South Carolina – Columbia CLB-Server (Store Server)
Tennessee – Knoxville KNX-Server (Store Server)
Tennessee – Murfreesboro MUR-Server (Store Server)
Tennessee – Nashville NV-Server (Store Server)
Tennessee – Nashville 2/Antioch NV2-Server (Store Server)
Utah – Park City PC-Server (Store Server)
Corp – Servers MHOCloudServer2 (not a store server, but another RP9 server that polls with the head office server – MHSERVER)
General Sequence of Events:
1. Store Servers process out and exchange (the store then processes in automatically the files that the server has waiting for the store from the previous Exchange)
2. Head Office server monitors for incoming files (on a store by store basis) and processes them in and then processes out.
Store Server Setup: This is relatively straightforward with the help of some batch files and predefined settings in ECM.
In ECM – WS Preferences – General – Rules, “Process In immediately after Send/Receive” should be check marked.
With ECM station settings (like the Checklist), you can always check the settings against another Store Server – things are standardized among them.
In Windows Task Scheduler there is going to be a folder on the servers called “RetailPro”. In here are several scheduled tasks. The one called H-1 ProcOut and Exchange is the only one related to Polling.
When you open it up, you will see it is running a batch file:
Although you should never need to change this, here is what the batch file does:
Some Store Servers might have some additional tasks, but typically not. The important thing here is that the task kicks off Process Out silently, then waits 60 seconds, then kicks off Exchange. And since the ECM setting is turned on to “automatically process in after send/receive”, the server will process in once the exchange is done.
· Also note that on the 1st of each month, there is a scheduled task to clear the polling logs (processing logs and exchange log). This keeps things cleaner and quicker to go through the logs if there’s a polling issue at a store.
Head Office Server Setup (MHSERVER) – located at Mountain High’s warehouse: with the number of stores they have and the need to poll every 30 minutes or so, Retail IQ has utilized Febooti to handle the management of polling. Febooti is Windows Task Scheduluer on steroids, and is used for a variety of tasks, including polling. On MHO’s main/warehouse server, you can open up Febooti and navigate here to see all the polling tasks. There is a task listed for each store:
How Febooti works when it comes to Polling on MHSERVER:
Since the Store Servers are initiating the Exchange process, Febooti it monitoring each store’s ECM\Polling\....\Proc\In folder.
When it sees new files appear is performs these actions:
Summary: At the main server, Febooti monitors for files to come into the ECM\Polling\...\Proc\In folder, waits 15 seconds, then lauches a Process In for that store only waits 5 seconds, and then Processes Out for that store only. 30 minutes or so later, the store reconnects, gets the latest files from the main’s last Process Out and drops off the latest files from the store.
Where things can go wrong/ common issues:
1. A Store Server isn’t polling – most likely, the store gets stuck processing in a lot of PO XML files and never gets a chance to process out, or, the main keeps processing out a lot of PO XML files because it is not getting the confirmation files back.
a. Resolution:
i. At the store, disable the Polling task in Windows Task Scheduler
ii. At the main, disable THE ONE TASK IN FEBOOTI FOR THAT STORE
iii. Manually process in/out and poll the store to get it resynced. This often takes polling it 2 to 3 times for it to get fully synced.
iv. When the two systems are synced
1. Enable the Polling task at the store in Windows Task Scheduler
2. Enable the Febooti task for that store in Febooti.
2. The Head Office Server (MHSERVER) had too much of a load on it and ECMProc.exe begins failing.
a. Resolution:
i. Attempt to clear all of the instances of ECMProc.exe running and try running one ECMProc.exe to see if can begin processing in again without an error
ii. If that doesn’t work, a reboot of the server will clear things up. However, unless its after 8pm CST on a weekday or weekend, prior approval is typcially required because the warehouse has a lot of clients connected to it and some work late, or early.
1. If a reboot is needed:
a. Get approval from the person who called in/entered the ticket
b. If they don’t respond, contact MHO’s sysadmin
c. If neither respond in an appropriate amount of time, got into TechToolkit and check to see how many active sessions are running. If no active sessions are running, it should be safe to reboot the server.
** QUICK TIP** - on MHSERVER’s desktop, there are two folders, one with Process In batch files and the other with Process Out batch files – feel free to use these to quicly launch ProcIn or ProcOut for a certain store:
