How to manually create a dump file of the Web Player process for troubleshooting.

How to manually create a dump file of the Web Player process for troubleshooting.

You can manually trigger the creation of a dump file of the Web Player via Task Manager for troubleshooting and escalation. This can be useful when you see the Web Player in a problem state and need to investigate further. Example scenarios where this is useful are where you suspect a memory leak and memory utilization is elevated or where the Web Player application is hanging or unresponsive.

This requires that you take action while the problem state is occurring so it will not be useful when you are trying to catch intermittent or infrequent issues. In those cases where you cannot know when the issue will occur, you can configure automatic dump capture with other methods:

- KB: How to set up automatic dump capture from a non-responding Web Player.

https://support.tibco.com/s/article/ka11a000000HodjAAC/Tibco-KnowledgeArticle-Article-43565

Resolution

To manually trigger the creation of a dump file of the Web Player via Task Manager:

1) Start Task Manager. To do this, use one of the following methods: - Right-click an empty area of the task bar, and then click "Task Manager". - Press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC and select "Task Manager".

2) In Windows 2008, click the "Processes" tab. In Windows 2012 and newer, click the "Details" tab.

3) Right-click the Spotfire.Dxp.Worker.Host.exe or w3wp.exe process that corresponds to your Web Player application. For Spotfire version 7.0 and lower, if you are not certain which w3wp.exe process is the correct one, see the following KB Article: - KB How to determine which w3wp.exe process corresponds to the TIBCO Spotfire Web Player. https://support.tibco.com/s/article/ka11a000000HocMAAS/Tibco-KnowledgeArticle-Article-45792

4) Click "Create Dump File". - If you are prompted for an administrator password or "User Account Control" permission confirmation, type your password or click Continue.

5) A dump file for the process is created in the following folder: - Drive:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Temp

6) When you receive a message that states that the dump file was successfully created, click OK.

Warning:

- This method will create a full memory dump which means the final size on disk will be on the same scale as the working set size of the Web Player process. Ensure you have sufficient disk space on your default drive before initiating this process. - Using this method to create a dump file is likely to make your Web Player become temporarily unresponsive and restart - If there is sensitive or confidential data accessed via the Web Player, then the resulting dump file may contain actual sensitive data.

Note: For Spotfire version 7.0 and lower, this may require increasing of the Web Player's application pool "Ping Maximum Response Time (seconds)" setting to ensure that the dump creation has enough time to complete. If this is set too low, the IIS Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) that regularly monitors web applications may terminate the process before the dump creation can complete, because it may become unresponsive during dump creation. This can be adjusted here (note that this step will restart the Web Player application): ?Internet Information Services Manager > Application Pools > TIBCO Spotfire Web Player X.X.X Application Pool > Advanced Settings > Process Model > Change the "Ping Maximum Response Time (seconds)" setting from the default "90" to a higher value like "300" for example.