DPA troubleshooting tips

See the following sections:

Logs

DPA logs information about each monitored database instance. Use this information to help you determine why a database instance is not being monitored, or if data are missing.

Access log data through the DPA log viewer

Use the DPA Log Viewer to view log information for a specific database instance, or for all database instances and the DPA repository.

Open the Log Viewer:
- To display log messages for a specific database instance:
  From the DPA home page, click Action > Log next to the database instance.
- To display messages for all monitored database instances and the DPA repository:
  From the DPA menu in the upper-right corner, click Options. Then, under Support > Utilities, click Log Viewer.
Use any of the following options to locate information:

Use filters to help you find specific information. To change the filters, click Advanced and select the filter criteria. For example, you can filter by date range, a text string, or message level.
For any message above Info, click Details to view additional information from the log.
Click Log Files for Support to create a compressed file you can send to SolarWinds Support.

Open log files in a text editor

Log files are stored in the DPA-install-dir/iwc/tomcat/logs/ directory on the DPA server.

Download log files to a DPA client

You can download some or all DPA log files from the Management Options page.

Log in to DPA as a user with administrative privileges.
From the DPA menu in the upper-right corner, click Options.
Under Support > Downloads, click one of the following options:
- To download all log files, click All Log Files (Zipped).
- To download the idc.log file, click Data Collection Log File.
- To download the iwc.log file, click Web Client Log File.
- To download the wizard.log file, click Wizard Log File.

Change the default ports

If the default ports of 8124 and 8127 are in use, change the ports that DPA uses.

SolarWinds recommends you do not change the default ports unless there is a conflict.

Open the following file in a text editor:

DPA-install-dir/iwc/tomcat/conf/server.xml
Update one or both of the following lines with new port numbers:
```
<Server port="8127" shutdown="SHUTDOWN">
				<Connector port="8124"/>
```
You cannot use the same port for both of the lines.
Save the file and restart DPA.

When monitoring PostgreSQL databases with queries that return a large amount of data, DPA runs out of memory

The JDBC fetch size defines how many records are returned in one network call. If all data cannot be returned in one call because of the fetch size, multiple calls are issued.

By default, PostgreSQL does not set a fetch size, and attempts to return all data in one call. When a large amount of data needs to be sent to DPA, DPA can run out of memory. If this occurs, the idc.log file includes errors such as:

ERROR (2023-08-29T18:55:17,717-0400) [repositoryManager-thread-12] {name=MS-DB-PROD} PostgreSQLTextPollService:227 - Error getting data from pg_stat_statements.

org.springframework.dao.DataAccessResourceFailureException: PreparedStatementCallback; SQL [SELECT query FROM pg_stat_statements GROUP BY query ORDER BY SUM(total_time) DESC LIMIT ?]; Ran out of memory retrieving query results.; nested exception is org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: Ran out of memory retrieving query results.

Resolution: In new installations of DPA 2024.2 and later, the following property in the system.properties file sets a fetch size value for data that DPA retrieves:

com.confio.idc.database.service.statspoll.postgres.fetchsize=300

The default is 300, but this value is configurable. If you see errors such as the ones above:

If the system.properties file on your DPA server does not include this property (for example, upgrading customers), add it.
If the system.properties file includes the property but you still see the errors, decrease the value.

To add or change the property value:

Open the system.properties file in a text editor. This file is located in the following directory:

DPA-install-dir/iwc/tomcat/ignite_config/idc
Add the following property, or decrease its value:

com.confio.idc.database.service.statspoll.postgres.fetchsize=300
Save the file.
Restart DPA for the changes to take effect.

Connection attempts that use the HTTP connector port fail with a message that the DPA site can't be reached

For security reasons, HTTPS connections are required by DPA 2023.2 and later versions. Connection attempts that use the HTTP connector port are not accepted. To ensure that DPA is available to users who previously connected over HTTP, you can update the server.xml file to redirect traffic to the HTTP connector port (8123 by default) to the HTTPS/SSL connector port (8124 by default).

If the redirect is not added and users attempt to connect over HTTP, they will receive a message that the site can't be reached.

Resolution:

Open the following file in a text editor:

DPA-install-dir\iwc\tomcat\conf\server.xml
Locate the Connector property below <!--HTTPS/SSL connector>, and note the port value. (By default, this is 8124.)
Locate the Connector property below <!--HTTP connector>. Within the Connector property, add the following, where hpptsPortNumber is the port value noted in the previous step:

redirectPort="hpptsPortNumber"

For example:

redirectPort="8124"
If you make these changes after the upgrade, restart DPA for the changes to take effect.

Access to a database instance

If DPA cannot access the server that hosts a database instance you want to monitor, make sure the port used for DPA connections is accessible. The port cannot be:

Blocked by a firewall
In use by another process

To determine if the port can be accessed, see Use PowerShell to test that a port is open on a server.

The port used for DPA connections is specified when you register the instance. If the instance is already registered, you can use the update wizard to view or update connection information.

Issues after the Oracle PDB that stores the repository is moved

If the DPA repository is created on an Oracle pluggable database (PDB), you might experience the following issues after the PDB is moved to a different container database (CDB).

DPA returns a connection error

The PBD moved to a CDB on a different server, and the connection string is incorrect.

Resolution: Update the connection string in the repo.properties file in the following location:

DPA-install-dir\iwc\tomcat\ignite_config\iwc\repo.properties

DPA returns an invalid login error

Verify that the DPA monitoring user exists in the CDB. Common users (prefaced with C##) exist in only one CDB.

DPA does not start

Check the logs for error messages.

If the logs do not have error messages, but you can't access DPA from a browser:
- Make sure you do not have a firewall preventing DPA from listening on the ports that are specified in the following file:
  
  DPA-install-dir/iwc/tomcat/conf/server.xml
- Make sure the client machine can ping the DPA server.
If errors in the logs indicate that the default ports are in use, change the ports that DPA uses.

SSL

SSL is enabled by default. This includes an SSL connector in DPA-install-dir/iwc/tomcat/conf/server.xml, and a keystore file with a self-signed certificate in DPA-install-dir/iwc/tomcat/conf/.keystore.

On AIX, the following attribute must be added to the SSL connector in DPA-install-dir/iwc/tomcat/conf/server.xml:

algorithm="ibmX509"

For details on setting up SSL, see the knowledge base article Enable SSL for DPA.

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