Troubleshooting WPM

Player-related issues

Player cannot play a transaction due to SEUM-User account permissions

When the WPM Player simulates an end user playing back transactions recordings, it employs an SEUM-User account for each WPM worker process. If you cannot playback a transaction from the Player's location, it may be because a SEUM-User account does not have permission for required resources, including logging into the local machine.

The original name for WPM was Synthetic End User Monitor (SEUM), a term that is still used in reference to user accounts. You may also see it in directory names and system messages.

Player symptoms include:

• Cannot play any transaction from some location, with the transaction in Unknown status.
• Transaction works fine in the recorder but doesn’t work in the player.
• Transactions fails to play due to WPM worker process errors on the player's server.
• Transaction bounces between Up and Down status.

Recorder symptoms include:

• Transition plays on the recorder (located on the same machine where Player is) but fails when played directly in player.
• When recording with WPM, the website's Windows authentication works. But when deployed, it does not and the page returns "not authorized" page.

A log entry similar to this one appears in the AgentWorker logs:

The WPM Player cannot play the transaction because the SEUM-User utilized for playback does not have permission for required resources, including logging in to the local machine.

To resolve this issue, add all SEUM-User accounts to the local Administrators group on the Player server. See Set permissions for SEUM-User accounts.

Here are some additional tips:

• When using Group Policy Objects (GPO) in an environment, adjust Local Security Policies to grant permission to Allow log on locally for all SEUM-User accounts on the local machine. Otherwise, changes in the user configuration on the local computer are overwritten with every GPO update.
• When GPO is applied, it often prevents WPM services from using the SEUM-User accounts for certain tasks, such as creating WPM worker processes. Pay attention to which GPO is used and modify it for WPM requirements.
• If adding SEUM-Users to the local Administrators group still doesn’t help in your environment, set up domain users for playback instead of local users.

Disabling Windows authentication for players

If you encounter authentication problems when playing back recordings, check if the recorded web site uses Windows authentication for its login process. Some systems are set up to pass-through Windows credentials without prompting for a username and password. If you create a recording on such a computer, the username and password required for the website is not saved with the recording. This may result in an authentication problem when the recording is played back on a different computer.

To ensure that the recorder always asks for a username and password for websites protected by Windows authentication:

1. Log into the computer that hosts recorder with a local user account instead of a domain account.
2. Open Internet Explorer and click Settings > Internet options.
3. Switch to the Advanced tab, clear the Enable Integrated Windows Authentication check box, and save your changes.
4. Restart Internet Explorer.

WPM transactions fail to play — ERROR LOGON TYPE NOT GRANTED - Logon Failure

To support WPM, a WPM worker process plays steps of transaction recordings, collects statistics and screenshots, and returns playback results to the WPM Player.

If the player service cannot start the WPM worker processes, you may receive the following message:

ERROR_LOGON_TYPE_NOT_GRANTED - Logon failure: the user has not been granted the requested logon type at this computer. This message may appear if the security policy was changed that limited the "log on locally" permissions.

To troubleshoot this issue:

1. Check if the SEUM-User account has permissions to log on locally.
2. If the user does not have permission, change the limitations for user accounts.

It is also important to check that the player service is running as "Local System" rather than logging in to a specific user account.

For more information, refer to:

• Manage Orion Web Console user accounts
• Use local domain accounts in WPM
• Enable Windows Authentication with Active Directory

Element not found during playback

If an element was not found during playback, recreate both the recording and the transaction.

WPM Player drops queued items

The SEUM agent has an internal queue that it uses for transaction playback requests that cannot be immediately executed because there are no free WPM worker processes. If the number of items in the queue is close to the number of transactions assigned to the Player, it usually means that the Player is close to its capacity and is not able to play transactions fast enough. If a transaction is in the queue and a new playback request for the same transaction arrives, it is dropped because the queue cannot contain duplicate requests.

If the number of dropped requests increases significantly, it usually means that the player is not able to play transactions as fast as they are requested. You should remove some transactions from the player.

If SolarWinds SAM is also installed, use the SolarWinds Web Performance Monitor (WPM).apm-template to assess the status and overall performance of the WPM Player installed on the Orion server by using Windows Performance Counters.

Internal WPM Player database exceeds capacity

Depending on the number and complexity of assigned transactions, the size of the internal WPM Player database that stores playback requests, results, and screenshots can grow rather large. This file is located at C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\SEUM\Data\AgentStorage.s3db.

If the file grows too large, (for example, over 2 GB), playback results may not be downloaded properly if a slow network connection exists between the Orion server and the WPM Player. The file will continue to grow because results are generated faster than they are downloaded from Player. If SolarWinds SAM is also installed, use the SolarWinds Web Performance Monitor (WPM).apm-template to track the size of the internal WPM Player database.

WPM Player does not work after Windows 10 upgrade

After upgrading a remote machine to Windows 10 v.1607 or later, the WPM Playback service may not start. A "Player could not be registered — Please check firewall settings" message may appear even if the firewall is completely disabled. You may be prompted to authenticate certificates even though recordings include embedded application certificates. This issue can occur if a Windows 10 upgrade overwrites existing registry entries and prevents the WPM Playback service from starting.

1. First, verify the following conditions:

• SEUM-User accounts exist on the target machine.
• The target machine is part of a domain that supports Active Domain accounts.
• The WPM Player is configured to use Active Domain accounts.

2. Back up all player and recorder configuration files with a *.config suffix in these default folders:

• C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\SEUM\Player
• C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\SEUM\Recorder

3. Upgrade players and restore the *.config files if necessary.

Additional troubleshooting resources for playback

• Why local administrator accounts are recommended for WPM playback
• Page returns as "not authorized" when deploying WPM
• Resource Not Found error occurs for WPM playback
• Set permissions for SEUM-User accounts
• Unable to save changes. Error: Unable to enable domain accounts configuration for agent
• Unable to save configuration when running Domain Configuration Tool of Web Performance Monitor
• Use domain accounts in Web Performance Monitor
• Website Playback fails due to Passthrough Windows Authentication on target website

Collect WPM Player diagnostic logs

Before contacting SolarWinds Support to troubleshoot failed playback, follow these steps to collect WPM Player logs.

Skip any files currently in use by WPM if prompted.

1. If possible, unmanage all transactions at the WPM Player location (on the Orion server, an Additional Polling Engine, or a remote computer hosting a WPM Player) or move transactions to a new location that has no transactions.
2. To simplify diagnostics, clear all files and subdirectories from the WPM log directory: C:\ProgramData\Solarwinds\Logs\SEUM.
3. If the transaction is assigned to the Orion server or an APE assigned as a WPM location:

   1. Run the application from the player location by right-clicking and selecting Run as administrator.

   2. In the WPM section, set the DEBUG logger level for:

      • Agent Worker

      • Agent Worker – Browser

      • Agent Worker – Player

   3. Use these settings for loggers:

      • File size: 50 MB

      • # of files: 50

   4. Click Apply.

4. If the transaction is assigned to a WPM Player machine:
   1. Run the C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\SEUM\Recorder\LogAdjuster.exe application from the player location by right-clicking on it and selecting Run as administrator.
   2. In the WPM section, set the DEBUG logger level for:
      • Agent Worker
      • Agent Worker – Browser
      • Agent Worker – Player
   3. Click Apply.
   4. Create a backup of the following file: C:\Program Files\(x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\SEUM\Player\SolarWinds.SEUM.Agent.Worker.exe.config
   5. Run Notepad.exe as an administrator and open C:\Program Files\(x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\SEUM\Player\SolarWinds.SEUM.Agent.Worker.exe.config
   6. Edit these logger attributes:
      • Set maxSizeRollBackups to 50.
      • Set maximumFileSize to 50 MB
   7. Save the .config file.
5. Wait an hour or as much time as needed for the transaction to fail.
6. Verify the following logs are in DEBUG:
   • C:\ProgramData\Solarwinds\Logs\SEUM\AgentWorker.logs
7. Run WPM Diagnostics from the Windows Start Menu or run C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\SEUM\SolarwindsDiagnostics.exe to collect diagnostics to send to SolarWinds Support.
8. Turn off DEBUG in LogAdjuster.exe for WPM by clicking Reset to default and then Apply.
9. Export the recording you are having trouble with.
10. Send a ZIP file with the following items to SolarWinds Support:
    • WPM Diagnostic logs
    • The recording you are having trouble with.
    • The password used for the recording, if applicable.
    • A screenshot of the Transaction Details view in the Orion Web Console.