Debugging and Diagnostics¶
The following debugging and diagnostics options are available and described in separate sections:
- Verifying Folder Permissions
- Fixing a Corrupt Database
- Checking Database Consistency
- Viewing a User's log file
- Viewing Status Monitor
- Running Debug Mode on the current PC
- Reducing the amount of information being logged
Verifying Folder Permissions
For your convenience each time a user runs the
sign.exe file, a complete log is written to the database. This is the reason why the settings database must be writable. To check and ensure that the correct permissions have been set for the database (MS Access only), proceed as follows:
- In the 'Diagnostics' tab, click 'Verify Folder Permission (MS Access only)'.
The Check Folder Permissions window appears.
- In the 'Share folder to check' field, enter the path to the
settings.mdb file. The share that contains the settings.mdb file must have the read and write access.
Note: The path cannot be verified if it is written as a UNC path (i.e. in the format \\server\share\settings.mdb). It can only be checked if it is written as a mapped drive like p:\folder\settings.mdb.
- In the 'Server name' field, enter the server name on which the share is located. If the Cockpit is installed on the same server that contains the share, enter a dot as the server name.
- Click 'Check Folder', and observe the results in the window.
- If it is not possible to check the folder permissions through the Cockpit, do it by checking the permissions directly on the server manually.
Fixing a Corrupt Database
Although rarely, but sometimes the settings database may be corrupted, and such cases the repair tool is available for MS Access databases.
To fix a corrupt database, in the 'Diagnostics' tab, click 'Compact and Repair Settings Database (MS Access only)'. The database will be repaired.
Checking Database Consistency
It is always convenient to check if your settings database is up to date, but it is especially important to perform the check after upgrading to a newer
eMailSignature version.
To check if the settings database is up to date, proceed as follows:
- In the 'Diagnostics' tab, click 'Check Settings Database Consistency'.
The following window appears showing the consistency log.
- View the results of the consistency check and observe if any table must be repaired.
- In the example the 'lgdaOWA' table is missing, and, hence, must be created. For information on adding tables to the settings database, see the Installation Guide, the upgrade section.
Viewing a User's Log File
When running the
sign.exe file is complete, it writes the
log file to the settings database. Among other information, the log file also contains status messages and error codes. It is mostly used to document the deployment of eMailSignature, and to make it possible to troubleshoot.
To view a user's log file, proceed as follows:
- From the user's list that appears, select the user and view log file.
The following screenshot is an excerpt of a log file and contains basic information.
The log file contains the following information, which can be very useful and is always requested when contacting eMailSignature support:
- The path to the settings database
- License key validation
- Which signatures the user will have
- Deployment type describes settings according to which the user has the signatures assigned. These can be group settings, standard settings for all, or individual signatures.
- Information about which rule was applied when generating a signature in the Enterprise GOLD Edition.
Viewing Status Monitor
The status monitor offers a possibility to view very technical information about your setup.
To view the status monitor, proceed as follows:
- In the 'Diagnostics' tab, click 'Status Monitor'.
The Status Monitor contains information about all users who have run the sign.exe file.
Note: Users will automatically appear in the Status Monitor after they run the sign.exe file for the first time. Everything is automated for your convenience.
Important: If you do not see any users in the Status Monitor, the reason is that they have not run sign.exe yet, or the permissions for the settings database do not allow users to update it. In that case they will not have any signatures generated either.
The following example describes the status monitor.
In the example above, three users have run the sign.exe file and there has been an error reported. The status information is presented in the following columns:
- An icon describing if an error has been reported.
- Login name (account name)
- Full name (looked up in the Active Directory)
- Name of the signatures generated for the user
- Time stamp of when the
sign.exe file was run - MS Outlook version
- Computer name
- Version of the
sign.exe file that has been run - Status uf the license for the user
- Filter the list of users by selecting any of these categories: OK, Failed, Individual, OU based users, Rule-based, Batch users.
- To export the status monitor to a .csv file, click 'Export to file'.
- To view a user's log file, click on the icon in the 'Log' column.
- To view the last generated default signature in HTML and plain text format, right-click the user and from the list that appears, select 'View last generated signature for this user'.
Note: If a user is not a part of any deployment rules, the user will not appear in the Status Monitor. If it is needed to debug in this case, create a registry entry ShowDebug with value 1 (type REG_SZ) and run sign.exe manually. This opens up a log file locally and gives the opportunity to debug.
Removing User from eMailSignature
It is possible to remove a user from eMailSignature. Note that special signatures that are set up only for this user will be lost if you remove the user. Removing users from eMailSignature is mostly used, when a user is no longer working in the company.
To remove the user, in the status monitor, right-click the user and from the list that appears, select 'Remove this user from eMailSignature'.
Removing Red X in MS Outlook
Sometimes you might experience that a logo never turns up in the
signature when receiving an email. It might be shown with a red X instead.
To solve this problem, right-click the user and from the list that appears, select 'Remove Outlook 'Red X' for this user'.
Next time the user runs the
sign.exe file, the problem should be solved. If the problem still occurs, the reason also might be poorly designed signature.
Running in Debug Mode
To run
sign.exe in Debug Mode on the current PC, select 'Enable Debug Mode on this PC' check box in the 'Diagnostics' tab.
The next time you run
sign.exe a window showing log file information will appear.
This option will not affect other users, it only affects the current user on this PC.
Reducing the Log File Size
Log files from all users are kept in the settings database. If you have a large number of users, the size of the settings database can become quite large.
To save some space in the database, select the 'Low Log Level' check box.
The time users run
sign.exe only the most important information will be logged. The generated signatures will not be logged.
Up to
Administering eMailSignatureBack to
Managing Data Sources – Using Other Databases Than ADForward to
Collecting Signatures – How Branded Are We?