Orion Platform Troubleshooting Guide - Service - Module Engine

7/17/2019 3:12 PM

7/17/2019 3:12 PM

This article explains

• What is the Module Engine service and its function
• What logs to look at should you encounter issues with the service

Orion Platform

What is the Module Engine Service?

• The Business Layer is used to talk to the database
• Module Engine loads all plugins and their Business layers 1 at a time
• Many different NPM and Modules plugins are loaded
  • Examples: Orion, NPM, Interfaces, UnDP, VIM, Wireless, SAM, UDT, NCM etc...
• You can disable Certain MODULES using the methods shown below if one is causing DB issues or other plugins from loading up.
  • Now that 99% of Customers BL are up, one can individual troubleshoot and later result and re-enable that troublesome BL plugin.
     

Where are the Module Engine BusinessLayer logs?

Using the BL logs, one can easily see if it is hanging loading the plugin and causing the of the rest plugins to either load up fine or not at all.

• Below you can see all plugins loading just fine (also included is an example case where one plugin keeps the rest from loading successfully).
• Ignore any SWISv3 errors at the beginning, that is the BL only waiting for SWIS to load, then those errors will stop and plugins will initialize and then start. 
• Always check the Timestamps in the BL log file.
• Always check more than just the latest BL file, just because "All plugins started" is here, doesn't mean the BL is 100% up.... it could be bouncing every few minutes.
• Check previous BL for to point to the why it last crashed. If it references some BL, then drill down into that BL too. 

BusinessLayerHost.log 

Logs Located in:    

Orion Server: C:\ProgramData\Solarwinds\Logs\Orion    
Diagnostics: SolarwindsDiagnostics.zip\LogFiles\Orion

About This service:

This is the log for the Module Engine service.

1. In this log file, there will be connection errors at the top until it connects to other services
2.  After which, it will initialize plugins:
 
a. As the service starts you should see: *** Assembly SolarWinds.Orion.Configuration,
b. Then it will discover the plugin available depending on product/versions/features: INFO  SolarWinds.BusinessLayerHost.PluginManager - Discovered plugins:
c. An example of a plugin found: SolarWinds.Orion.Core.BusinessLayer.dll
d. Some of the plugins are depend on the SWIS services (SWIS must be started for them to load), but some will load before SWIS start. An example of this is a Passive service in a HA setup, the module engine service is running but SWIS is not, but in the Business  layer log the only plugins that have loaded are the ones NOT dependence on SWIS.
SolarWinds.BusinessLayerHost.BusinessLayerHostService - Starting plugins that do not depend on SWIS.
INFO  SolarWinds.BusinessLayerHost.PluginInstanceSeparateProcess - Initialize plugin C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\SolarWinds.Orion.ServiceDirectory.BusinessLayer.dll.config - ProcessID: NONE (-1)
INFO  SolarWinds.BusinessLayerHost.PluginInstanceSeparateProcess - Starting process C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\SolarWinds.BusinessLayerHost.exe -config="C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\SolarWinds.Orion.ServiceDirectory.BusinessLayer.dll.config" -id=2b9200aa-89ad-4c3e-9b71-eab435c5895c -parent=9316. Attempt 0
 

e: It is normal to see a few errors in this file while the SWIS service is waiting to start, once SWIS is started the  SWIS depend plugins will load INFO  SolarWinds.BusinessLayerHost.BusinessLayerHostService - Waiting for SWIS to come online.
INFO  SolarWinds.BusinessLayerHost.BusinessLayerHostService - Starting plugins that depend on SWIS.
2019-02-12 04:28:00,256 [7] INFO  SolarWinds.BusinessLayerHost.PluginInstanceSeparateProcess - Initialize plugin C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\SolarWinds.Orion.Core.BusinessLayer.dll.config - ProcessID: NONE (-1)
2019-02-12 04:28:00,256 [7] INFO  SolarWinds.BusinessLayerHost.PluginInstanceSeparateProcess - Starting process C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\SolarWinds.BusinessLayerHost.exe -config="C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\SolarWinds.Orion.Core.BusinessLayer.dll.config" -id=5b64f2d0-2a1d-46f7-b422-c75de12569d0 -parent=9316. Attempt 0 
3. Look for errors after the plugins start to initialize
     a.  Errors before this is generally irrelevant and can be ignored as the Business Layer Host is simply waiting for other services to start
     b.  Also look for relevant errors in Core.BusinessLayer.log which is found in the same location as BusinessLayerHost.log

Next check each individual plugin has no issues neither. 
Important ones to check are the CORE and NPM BLs.
Examples of Logs to Check:

• • Master BL Log
    • C:\ProgramData\Solarwinds\Logs\Orion\BusinessLayerHost.log
  • SUB BL Logs
    • C:\ProgramData\Solarwinds\Logs\Orion\Core.BusinessLayer.log
      • Loads C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\SolarWinds.Orion.Core.BusinessLayer.dll.config
    • C:\ProgramData\Solarwinds\Logs\Orion\NPM.BusinessLayer.log
      • Loads C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\NPM\SolarWinds.NPM.BusinessLayer.dll.config
    • C:\ProgramData\Solarwinds\Logs\Orion\Interfaces.BusinessLayer.log
      • Loads C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\Interfaces\SolarWinds.Interfaces.BusinessLayer.dll.config
         
  • And so forth for all other DLL plugins, examples below:
    • C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\Collector\SolarWinds.Collector.BusinessLayer.dll.config
    • C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\APM\SolarWinds.APM.BusinessLayer.dll.config
    • C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\NCM\SolarWinds.NCM.BusinessLayerPlugin.dll.config
    • C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\NPM\NPM.BusinessLayer.log.config
    • C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\OrionImprovement\SolarWinds.OrionImprovement.BusinessLayer.dll.config
    • C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\VIM\SolarWinds.VIM.BusinessLayer.dll.config
    • C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\UDT\SolarWinds.UDT.BusinessLayer.dll .config