Experimental Documentum Workflow Manager 21.2 Install guide

May 3, 2021 Alvaro de Andres3 Comments

Opentext has released an experimental new Workflow Manager for Documentum that uses an interface similar to Smartview (and that can be integrated with D2).

This is a step-by-step guide to install the Workflow Manager 21.2.

Environment

Same as used in Opentext Documentum 21.2 PostgreSQL Install Guide

Get the installer files

If you go to the download page, you’ll see that only the Windows version of Process Engine is available, although the install guide mentions a Linux distribution. The workaround for this is to download process engine 21.2 from XCP 🙂

Install Process Engine

Just un-tar the file and run the installer (with JMS stoppped), you’ll get an error at the end, but this is due to the installer trying to start Wildfly (not everything is yet updated for Tomcat):

dmadmin@dctm212:/opt/documentum/sw/pe$ tar xvf process_engine_linux.tar
dmadmin@dctm212:/opt/documentum/sw/pe$ chmod u+x peSetup.bin
dmadmin@dctm212:/opt/documentum/sw/pe$ source /opt/documentum/product/21.2/bin/dm_set_server_env.sh
dmadmin@dctm212:/opt/documentum/sw/pe$ ./peSetup.bin

Start JMS and you can check if BPM is running in the following URLs:

Worflow Manager Application deployment

Deploy war file with an updated dfc.properties file and modify the deployment.properties file:

dmadmin@dctm212:/opt/tomcat/webapps/designer-webapp/WEB-INF/classes$ vi deployment.properties
xcp.repository.name=dctm212
xcp.csrf.enabled=true
xcp.workspace.root=”/System/Applications/XCP Application Templates”
xcp.temp.dir=/opt/tomcat/temp

Also update rest-api-runtime.properties uncommenting the following line:

dmadmin@dctm212:/opt/tomcat/webapps/designer-webapp/WEB-INF/classes$ vi rest-api-runtime.properties
xcp.security.logon.secured=false

Now you can check the application on http://dctm212:8080/designer-webapp/signin.html.

We have a kind of familiar view, which should not be strange for those that have worked with PB or XCP:

As it happens with all the new applications from Opentext, properties popups have been replaced by the right side bar:

Just remember that this is not production ready and it is provided as a “beta” application to be tested (similar to Documentum Search)

Opentext Documentum 21.2 PostgreSQL Install Guide

May 1, 2021June 4, 2021 Alvaro de Andres1 Comment

Opentext has released a new version of Documentum. Probably the most noticeable new features are:

Tomcat is now (again) the application server used for JMS
This change has decrease the size of the download and the docker images
New experimental worflow manager
D2 available without installer

This is a step-by-step guide to install Documentum 21.2 in an Ubuntu Linux environment with PostgreSQL 12.

Environment

Host:
Windows 10 x64 8GB RAM
VMware Workstation Player 16

Guest:
Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS x64 25GB HD 4GB RAM 2 cores
PostgreSQL 12
Documentum 21.2

VM Creation

Mount the Ubuntu Server DVD image, boot the machine and follow the steps. You can choose to let EasyInstall do the work for you. I used minimal package install to save resources, named the machine dctm212, configured the network and created a dmadmin user. You can use the installer to install docker and/or PostgreSQL too.

OS Configuration

Install required packages:

dmadmin@dctm212:/opt/documentum/sw$ sudo apt install net-tools tcl rng-tools expect xterm

PostgreSQL Configuration

Install required packages:

dmadmin@dctm212:~$ sudo apt -y install postgresql postgresql-contrib

Enable and start the PostgreSQL service:

dmadmin@dctm212:~$ systemctl start postgresql
dmadmin@dctm212:~$ sudo systemctl enable postgresql

Configure the postgres user:

dmadmin@dctm212:~$ sudo passwd postgres
New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: password updated successfully

dmadmin@dctm212:~$ sudo -u postgres psql postgres
psql (12.5 (Ubuntu 12.5-0ubuntu0.20.04.1))
Type “help” for help.

postgres=# password postgres
Enter new password:
Enter it again:
postgres=# exit

Configure PostgreSQL:

dmadmin@dctm212:~$ sudo vi /etc/postgresql/12/main/postgresql.conf
listen_addresses = ‘*’
port = 5432

dmadmin@dctm212:~$ sudo vi /etc/postgresql/12/main/pg_hba.conf
host all all 127.0.0.1/32 md5
host all all ::/128 md5
host all all dctm212 md5

Restart PostgreSQL service to apply the changes:

dmadmin@dctm212:~$ sudo systemctl restart postgresql

phpPgAdmin Configuration

Install required packages:

dmadmin@dctm212:~$ sudo apt install -y phppgadmin

Configure phpPgAdmin:

dmadmin@dctm212:~$ sudo vi /etc/apache2/conf-available/phppgadmin.conf
#Require local

dmadmin@dctm212:~$ sudo vi /etc/phppgadmin/config.inc.php
$conf[‘extra_login_security’] = false;

Restart httpd service to apply the changes:

dmadmin@dctm212:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Now you should be able to login to the console from http://dctm212/phppgadmin/.

ODBC Configuration

Install required packages:

dmadmin@dctm212:~$ sudo apt install unixodbc unixodbc-dev odbc-postgresql

Configure .ini files:

dmadmin@dctm212:~$ sudo vi /etc/odbc.ini
[MyPostgres]
Description=PostgreSQL
Driver=PostgreSQL
Database=postgres
Servername=dctm212
UserName=postgres
Password=dmadmin
Port=5432
Protocol=12
ReadOnly=No
RowVersioning=No
ShowSystemTables=No
ShowOidColumn=No
FakeOidIndex=No
UpdateableCursors=Yes
DEBUG=Yes

dmadmin@dctm212:~$ sudo vi /etc/odbcinst.ini
[PostgreSQL]
Driver = /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/odbc/psqlodbcw.so
Driver64 = /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/odbc/psqlodbcw.so
Setup64 = /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/odbc/libodbcpsqlS.so
FileUsage = 1

Test the connection:

dmadmin@dctm212:~$ isql -v MyPostgres
+—————————————+
| Connected! |
| |
| sql-statement |
| help [tablename] |
| quit |
| |
+—————————————+
SQL>

Documentum server

Create folders:

dmadmin@dctm212:~$ sudo mkdir -p /opt/documentum/sw && mkdir -p /opt/documentum/product/21.2
dmadmin@dctm212:~$ sudo chown -R dmadmin.dmadmin /opt/documentum

Install openJDK 11.0.10 (remember to remove “anon” from the list of disabled algorithms or the installer will fail to connect to the repository)

[dmadmin@dctm212cs]$ wget https://github.com/AdoptOpenJDK/openjdk11-upstream-binaries/releases/download/jdk-11.0.10%2B9/OpenJDK11U-jdk_x64_linux_11.0.10_9.tar.gz
[dmadmin@dctm212cs]$ tar xvf OpenJDK11U-jdk_x64_linux_11.0.10_9.tar.gz && mv openjdk-11.0.10_9/ /opt/documentum/

Set up environment variables:

dmadmin@dctm212:/opt/documentum$ vi ~/.bash_profile
DOCUMENTUM=/opt/documentum
export DOCUMENTUM

DOCUMENTUM_SHARED=$DOCUMENTUM
export DOCUMENTUM_SHARED

DM_HOME=$DOCUMENTUM/product/21.2
export DM_HOME

DM_JMS_HOME=$DOCUMENTUM/tomcat9.0.43
export DM_JMS_HOME

POSTGRESQL_HOME=/usr/lib/postgresql/12
export POSTGRESQL_HOME

JAVA_HOME=/opt/documentum/openjdk-11.0.10_9
export JAVA_HOME

JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS=”-Djava.locale.providers=COMPAT,SPI”
export JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS

PATH=$PATH:$DM_HOME/bin:$POSTGRESQL_HOME/bin:$HOME/.local/bin:$HOME/bin:$JAVA_HOME/bin
export PATH

LC_ALL=C
export LC_ALL

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$POSTGRESQL_HOME/lib:$DM_HOME/bin:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Reserve ports for services:

dmadmin@dctm212:~$ sudo vi /etc/services
dctm212 50000/tcp # dctm 21.2 repo
dctm212_s 50001/tcp # dctm 21.2 repo

Configure limits.conf:

dmadmin@dctm212:~$ sudo vi /etc/security/limits.conf
dmadmin – core -1

Run the installer:

dmadmin@dctm212:/opt/documentum/sw$ chmod 777 serverSetup.bin
dmadmin@dctm212:/opt/documentum/sw$ ./serverSetup.bin

Docbroker and repository

Create the tablespace file for the repository (dctm212):

dmadmin@dctm212:/opt/documentum/sw$ su –
root@dctm212:~# su – postgres
-bash-4.2$ mkdir /var/lib/postgresql/12/main/db_dctm212_dat.dat
-bash-4.2$ exit
root@dctm212:~# exit

Run the configurator:

dmadmin@dctm212:/opt/documentum/product/21.2/install$ ./dm_launch_server_config_program.sh

And after the install, you can check the “new” JMS:

D2/Webtop Brava Enterprise vs. Linux

February 16, 2021February 19, 2021 Alvaro de AndresLeave a comment

For some time Opentext has been offering Brava viewer as part of their product portfolio. This viewer allows to view/mark/annotate/etc documents from D2 or Webtop.

Originally, this software was developed for Windows, so for the components (Brava Server, Job Processor) that needed to access the same data, the decision taken was using a shared folder accessible from both Windows servers. And this is configured on the brava.properties file with the displaylist.cache.root and local.displaylist.cache.root parameters. These parameters should point to an unc path (\\server_name\shared_folder).

Now, there’s a Linux version for Brava that includes Job Publisher, which is the Linux-equivalent for Job Processor (but with less features). If you’re using these components, those variables should point to a local folder on the Linux server that has both the Brava server and Publisher (or a common mounted drive on both Linux servers)

Question here is, can we use the Job Processor on Windows with Brava Server on Linux? The (official) answer is no, but why?

What happens when Brava server receives a request to open a file? Brava server downloads locally the file and it places a request on a queue that is checked by Job Processor/Publisher. This message in the queue contains the (local) location of the file that needs to be processed by the “external” component (Processor/Publisher). And this value is the one specified on those parameters.

So for a “Brava on Windows” setup, the message would indicate the file is on \\server_name\shared_folder\xxxxx, and on Linux it would be a local path: /opt/opentext/brava/dlcache/xxxxx. This means that a Windows/Linux situation configuration won’t work, as the windows server would read a message stating that the file is on /opt/opentext/brava/dlcache and this is not possible on Windows.

So how complex is to “improve” this situation? Well, actually is quite simple. Brava uses a class (com.igc.be.cache.filesystem.FsPublishRequestHandler) to create the requests that will be queued. In this class you can find two methods that fill those paths by doing something like dir.getPath(), which returns the absolute path for the “cached” file.

So, if you’re on Linux, you can use cifs-utils to mount a Windows shared drive as a folder in Linux (/mnt/dlcache), specify that folder on the server.properties file so Brava server can write the files there and then override the FsPublishRequestHandler class replacing the values returned by these dir.getPath() methofs replacing “/” with “\” (for Windows paths) and the local Linux path (/mnt/dlcache) with the shared Windows folder (\\server_name\shared_folder or even the local drive for the Windows server). With this change, the message on the queue will be pointing to a local Windows drive, will be processed by the Job Processor and the result will be accesible by the Brava server on Linux.

Even though this is a quite “simple” approach, it would be best to simply add two additional “remote” parameters to server.propeties and use the same value on the 4 of them if you’re on Windows, or the appropiate ones if using a Windows/Linux combination, so Brava server would use the local ones, and the Processor would use the remote ones.

Hopefully Opentext will implement this some day, as looks like there’s no real technical impediment to provide a parity of features between the Windows/Linux versions (as long as you can deploy at least one Windows server for Job Processor).

D2 Video Preview Widget

January 23, 2021January 24, 2021 Alvaro de AndresLeave a comment

A while ago I did this for webtop (Video streaming from Webtop) which was later published by EMC as a white paper. This is a similar attempt using an external widget on D2.

In this case, I’ve used video.js, a free Javascript video player. The widget itself is quite straightforward, just create a normal external widget, register the D2_EVENT_SELECT_OBJECT and configure the external widget sending via parameter the user name, the repository and the session ticket. Once this is done, you just have to get the r_object_id of the selected document, set that value on the video object via JS, and just enjoy.

You can check the full on code on GitHub.

Opentext Documentum 20.4 PostgreSQL Install Guide [Ubuntu]

December 19, 2020 Alvaro de Andres2 Comments

As you might know, IBM has decided to shift CentOS to Stream, which means CentOS won’t be a “stable” OS anymore (so it might not be the best choice to use as a dev environment). So, let’s install latest DCTM on Ubuntu Server 20.04 (LTS). In this guide will also be using PostgreSQL 12, instead of 11. Note that this setup is not supported (only Ubuntu 18+PostgreSQL 12 is supported) but we don’t care much 🙂

This is a step-by-step guide to install Documentum 20.4 in an Ubuntu Linux environment with PostgreSQL 12.

Environment

Host:
Windows 10 x64 8GB RAM
VMware Workstation Player 15

Guest:
Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS x64 25GB HD 4GB RAM 2 cores
PostgreSQL 12
Documentum 20.4

VM Creation

Mount the Ubuntu Server DVD image, boot the machine and follow the steps. You can choose to let EasyInstall do the work for you. I used minimal package install to save resources, named the machine dctm204ubuntu, configured the network and created a dmadmin user. You can use the installer to install docker and/or PostgreSQL too.

OS Configuration

Install required packages:

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:/opt/documentum/sw$ sudo apt install net-tools tcl rng-tools expect xterm

PostgreSQL Configuration

Install required packages:

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:~$ sudo apt -y install postgresql postgresql-contrib

Enable and start the PostgreSQL service:

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:~$ systemctl start postgresql
dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:~$ sudo systemctl enable postgresql

Configure the postgres user:

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:~$ sudo passwd postgres
New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: password updated successfully

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:~$ sudo -u postgres psql postgres
psql (12.5 (Ubuntu 12.5-0ubuntu0.20.04.1))
Type “help” for help.

postgres=# \password postgres
Enter new password:
Enter it again:
postgres=# exit

Configure PostgreSQL:

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:~$ sudo vi /etc/postgresql/12/main/postgresql.conf
listen_addresses = ‘*’
port = 5432

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:~$ sudo vi /etc/postgresql/12/main/pg_hba.conf
host all all 127.0.0.1/32 md5
host all all ::/128 md5
host all all dctm204ubuntu md5

Restart PostgreSQL service to apply the changes:

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:~$ sudo systemctl restart postgresql

phpPgAdmin Configuration

Install required packages:

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:~$ sudo apt install -y phppgadmin

Configure phpPgAdmin:

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:~$ sudo vi /etc/apache2/conf-available/phppgadmin.conf
#Require local

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:~$ sudo vi /etc/phppgadmin/config.inc.php
$conf[‘extra_login_security’] = false;

Restart httpd service to apply the changes:

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Now you should be able to login to the console from http://dctm204/phppgadmin/.

ODBC Configuration

Install required packages:

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:~$ sudo apt install unixodbc unixodbc-dev odbc-postgresql

Configure .ini files:

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:~$ sudo vi /etc/odbc.ini
[MyPostgres]
Description=PostgreSQL
Driver=PostgreSQL
Database=postgres
Servername=dctm204ubuntu
UserName=postgres
Password=dmadmin
Port=5432
Protocol=12
ReadOnly=No
RowVersioning=No
ShowSystemTables=No
ShowOidColumn=No
FakeOidIndex=No
UpdateableCursors=Yes
DEBUG=Yes

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:~$ sudo vi /etc/odbcinst.ini
[PostgreSQL]
Driver = /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/odbc/psqlodbcw.so
Driver64 = /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/odbc/psqlodbcw.so
Setup64 = /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/odbc/libodbcpsqlS.so
FileUsage = 1

Test the connection:

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:~$ isql -v MyPostgres
+—————————————+
| Connected! |
| |
| sql-statement |
| help [tablename] |
| quit |
| |
+—————————————+
SQL>

Documentum server

Create folders:

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:~$ sudo mkdir -p /opt/documentum/sw && mkdir -p /opt/documentum/product/20.4
dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:~$ sudo chown -R dmadmin.dmadmin /opt/documentum

Install openJDK 11.0.7 (remember to remove “anon” from the list of disabled algorithms or the installer will fail to connect to the repository)

[dmadmin@dctm204 cs]$ wget https://github.com/AdoptOpenJDK/openjdk11-upstream-binaries/releases/download/jdk-11.0.7%2B10/OpenJDK11U-jdk_x64_linux_11.0.7_10.tar.gz
[dmadmin@dctm204 cs]$ tar xvf OpenJDK11U-jdk_x64_linux_11.0.7_10.tar.gz && mv openjdk-11.0.7+10/ /opt/documentum/

Set up environment variables:

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:/opt/documentum$ vi ~/.bash_profile
DOCUMENTUM=/opt/documentum
export DOCUMENTUM

DM_HOME=$DOCUMENTUM/product/20.4
export DM_HOME

POSTGRESQL_HOME=/usr/lib/postgresql/12
export POSTGRESQL_HOME

JAVA_HOME=/opt/documentum/openjdk-11.0.7+10
export JAVA_HOME

JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS=”-Djava.locale.providers=COMPAT,SPI”
export JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS

PATH=$PATH:$DM_HOME/bin:$POSTGRESQL_HOME/bin:$HOME/.local/bin:$HOME/bin:$JAVA_HOME/bin
export PATH

LC_ALL=C
export LC_ALL

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$POSTGRESQL_HOME/lib:$DM_HOME/bin:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Reserve ports for services:

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:~$ sudo vi /etc/services
dctm204 50000/tcp # dctm 20.4 repo
dctm204_s 50001/tcp # dctm 20.4 repo

Configure limits.conf:

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:~$ sudo vi /etc/security/limits.conf
dmadmin – core -1

Run the installer:

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:/opt/documentum/sw$ chmod 777 serverSetup.bin
dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:/opt/documentum/sw$ ./serverSetup.bin

Docbroker and repository

Create the tablespace file for the repository (dctm204):

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:/opt/documentum/sw$ su –
root@dctm204ubuntu:~# su – postgres
-bash-4.2$ mkdir /var/lib/postgresql/12/main/db_dctm204_dat.dat
-bash-4.2$ exit
root@dctm204ubuntu:~# exit

Run the configurator:

dmadmin@dctm204ubuntu:/opt/documentum/product/20.4/install$ ./dm_launch_server_config_program.sh

And you should know the rest 🙂

Documentum Search 20.4 Docker install guide

December 7, 2020December 10, 2020 Alvaro de AndresLeave a comment

Opentext has released with the 20.4 release a new search engine that will replace xPlore, and that currently is supported in “testing” mode.

Documentation for Documentum Search is better than previous documentations (parameters are finally “properly” explained), and you can also find a full .yaml file to use as template. However, as we could have expected, that didn’t work, so some changes are required.

Environment

Host:
Windows 10 x64 8GB RAM
VMware Workstation Player 15

Guest:
CentOS 7.7 x64 25GB HD 4GB RAM 2 cores
PostgreSQL 11
Documentum 20.4

VM Creation

Just follow the Documentum 20.4 PostgreSQL post as I’ve used that VM.

Install Docker

Refer to Documentum 20.2 Docker install guide if you need help

Documentum Search 20.4

Get the images from the Opentext registry:

[dmadmin@dctm204 opt]$ docker login registry.opentext.com
[dmadmin@dctm204 opt]$ docker pull registry.opentext.com/dctm-search-agent:20.4.0
[dmadmin@dctm204 opt]$ docker pull registry.opentext.com/dctm-search-admin:20.4.0
[dmadmin@dctm204 opt]$ docker pull registry.opentext.com/dctm-search-cps:20.4.0
[dmadmin@dctm204 opt]$ docker pull registry.opentext.com/dctm-search-lunr:20.4.0
[dmadmin@dctm204 opt]$ docker pull registry.opentext.com/dctm-search-solr:20.4.0

Create folder structure. This is the one I’ve used:

[dmadmin@dctm204 opt]$ tree search
search/
|– admin
| `– logs
|– agent
| `– logs
|– cps
| `– logs
|– cps2
| `– logs
|– dfc.properties
|– lunr
| `– logs
|– search.yaml
|– solr
| |– base
| | |– log4j2.xml
| | `– logs
| |– logs
|– solr2
| |– base
| | |– log4j2.xml
| | `– logs
| |– logs
|– zoo
| |– data
| |– datalog
| `– logs
`– zoo.cfg

Create configuration files:

[dmadmin@dctm204 search]$ cp ../documentum/config/dfc.properties .
[dmadmin@dctm204 search] vi zoo.cfg
dataDir=/data
dataLogDir=/datalog
clientPort=2181
tickTime=2000
initLimit=5
syncLimit=2
autopurge.snapRetainCount=3
autopurge.purgeInterval=0
maxClientCnxns=60
standaloneEnabled=true
admin.enableServer=true
4lw.commands.whitelist=mntr,conf,ruok
[dmadmin@dctm204 search] vi solr/base/log4j2.xml
<extract this file from the solr container>

Create search.yaml:

[dmadmin@dctm204 search]$ sudo vi search.yaml
<copy the template from the documentation>

At this point, I had several issues with the solr image. First, the container could not write into the mounted folder. In order to fix this, I had to force the uid in the yaml file by adding the following:

user: ‘1000:1000’

After this, Java could not allocate memory for large memory pages. In the end I create a custom image based on the the one from OT (follow the steps detailed on the Reducing Opentext Documentum 20.2 Docker image size post:

[dmadmin@dctm204 search]$ docker run -u 0 –privileged -it –entrypoint /bin/bash registry.opentext.com/dctm-search-solr:20.4.0
echo 22960 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages
echo 1000 > /proc/sys/vm/hugetlb_shm_group
echo “* soft memlock 626688” >> /etc/security/limits.conf
echo “* hard memlock 626688” >> /etc/security/limits.conf

Now if you’ve adjusted the values correctly on the yaml file (stick to 2 “replicas” or the container will also fail) you should be able to run

[dmadmin@dctm204 search]$ docker-compose -f search.yaml up

After a while, you should be able to login into the Documentum Search admin page (http://your-host:8800/):

And if you log in Documentum Administrator:

However, if you run a search, you’ll see that there’s an error and the search is not perfomed. If you watched the Opentext World breakout session for Documentum Search, you’ll probably notice the extra settings used on server.ini to configure the fulltext engine. I’ve tried those without luck, so I just took another approach, to $DOCUMENTUM/product/20.4/bin and do the following:

[dmadmin@dctm204 bin]$ mv libDsearchQueryPlugin.so libDsearchQueryPlugin.bak
[dmadmin@dctm204 bin]$ cp libsolrplugin.so libDsearchQueryPlugin.so

UPDATE: The “nice way” is doing this by editing the dmfulltext.ini file located in $DOCUMENTUM/fulltext.

Then restart the repository and searches should be working on the new search engine:

CMIS REST interface slow performance with multiple repositories

November 9, 2020November 9, 2020 Alvaro de AndresLeave a comment

When using the REST interface provided by CMIS, if you have multiple repositories on your docbroker, you may have noticed a slight delay in the response to your queries. I came across this issue in an environment with multiple repositories (+10), where additionally, every dmadmin user has different password, so not only we had this delay on the responses, we also had a log full of authentication errors.

If the delay was slighty concerning, the errors thrown on the log pointed to something more serious (and most likely a known issue in D2).

With a little bit of debugging and decompiling, we found out the culprit on opencmis-dctm-connector-XXX.jar, in the com.emc.documentum.fs.cmis.impl.cmisoperations.impl.GetRepositoryInfosOperationHandler class. This (surprise surprise) is the same situation that we saw with D2. Check the getRepositoryInfoList method:

private List getRepositoryInfoList(CallContext context, GetRepositoryInfosOperationInputBean inputBean, List repositoryEntries)
   {
     List repositoryInfoList = new ArrayList();
     for (CmisRepositoryEntryType repositoryEntry : repositoryEntries)
     {
       String repositoryId = repositoryEntry.getRepositoryId();
       if (CmisAuthenticationManager.INSTANCE.authenticate(context, repositoryId)) {
         repositoryInfoList.add(getRepositoryInfo(context, inputBean, repositoryEntry));
       }
     }
     return repositoryInfoList;
   }

Yes, they’ve done it again. The code tries to authenticate with the provided credentials in evey single repository known to the docbroker. Luckily for us, this method has the requested repository (i.e.: http//cmis…/resources/RepositoryName/…) in the context variable, so you can just do a comparison there and “magically” improve the perfomance (or wait until Opentext releases a “fix”).

Note that this happens in every version I could test from 16.4 to 20.4 😦

Opentext Documentum 20.4 PostgreSQL Install Guide

October 10, 2020 Alvaro de Andres3 Comments

This is a step-by-step guide to install Documentum 20.4 in a Linux environment with PostgreSQL 11.

Environment

Host:
Windows 10 x64 8GB RAM
VMware Workstation Player 15

Guest:
CentOS 7.7 x64 25GB HD 4GB RAM 2 cores
PostgreSQL 11
Documentum 20.4

VM Creation

Mount the CentOS 7 DVD image, boot the machine and follow the steps. You can choose to let EasyInstall do the work for you. I used minimal package install to save resources, named the machine dctm204, configured the network and set the root password as well as a “dmadmin” user.

OS Configuration

Install required packages:

[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo yum -y install bash-completion kernel-devel rng-tools.x86_64 policycoreutils policycoreutils-python selinux-policy selinux-policy-targeted libselinux-utils setroubleshoot-server setools setools-console mcstrans expect tcl
[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo yum -y group install X Window System “Development Tools”
[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo yum -y install open-vm-tools.x86_64

Stop and disable the firewalld service:

[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo systemctl disable firewalld
Removed symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/firewalld.service.
Removed symlink /etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.fedoraproject.FirewallD1.service.
[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo systemctl stop firewalld

Configure entropy and allow http connections through selinux:

[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo /sbin/rngd -b -r /dev/urandom -p /dev/random
[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect_db 1
[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo chkconfig rngd on

PostgreSQL Configuration

Install required packages:

[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo yum -y install https://download.postgresql.org/pub/repos/yum/reporpms/EL-7-x86_64/pgdg-redhat-repo-latest.noarch.rpm
[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo yum -y install postgresql11 postgresql11-server

Init the DB:

[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo /usr/pgsql-11/bin/postgresql-11-setup initdb

Enable and start the PostgreSQL service:

[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo systemctl enable postgresql-11
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/postgresql-11.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/postgresql-11.service.
[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo systemctl start postgresql-11

Configure the postgres user:

[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo passwd postgres
Changing password for user postgres.
New password:
BAD PASSWORD: The password is shorter than 8 characters
Retype new password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ su – postgres
-bash-4.2$ psql
psql (11.5)
Type “help” for help.

postgres=#
postgres=# password postgres
Enter new password:
Enter it again:
postgres=# q
-bash-4.2$ exit

Configure PostgreSQL:

[root@dctm204 ~]# vi /var/lib/pgsql/11/data/postgresql.conf
listen_addresses = ‘*’
port = 5432

[root@dctm204 ~]# vi /var/lib/pgsql/11/data/pg_hba.conf
host all all 127.0.0.1/32 md5
host all all ::/128 md5
host all all dctm204 md5

Restart PostgreSQL service to apply the changes:

[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo systemctl restart postgresql-11

phpPgAdmin Configuration

Install required packages:

[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo yum install -y php php-cli php-common php-pdo php-pgsql httpd apr apr-util httpd-tools libzip mailcap
[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ wget https://github.com/phppgadmin/phppgadmin/archive/REL_5-6-0.tar.gz
[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ tar -zxvf REL_5-6-0.tar.gz
[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ mv phppgadmin-REL_5-6-0/ /usr/share/phppgadmin
[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ mv /usr/share/phppgadmin/conf/config.inc.php-dist /usr/share/phppgadmin/conf/config.inc.php

Configure phpPgAdmin:

[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo vi /etc/httpd/conf.d/phpPgAdmin.conf

Alias /phppgadmin /usr/share/phppgadmin

<Location /phppgadmin>
<IfModule mod_authz_core.c>
# Apache 2.4
Require all granted
#Require host example.com
</IfModule>
<IfModule !mod_authz_core.c>
# Apache 2.2
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
Allow from 127.0.0.1
Allow from ::1
# Allow from .example.com
</IfModule>
</Location>

[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo vi /etc/phpPgAdmin/config.inc.php-dist

$conf[‘servers’][0][‘host’] = ‘dctm204’;
$conf[‘extra_login_security’] = false;
$conf[‘owned_only’] = true;

[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo cp /etc/phpPgAdmin/config.inc.php-dist /etc/phpPgAdmin/config.inc.php

Restart httpd service to apply the changes:

[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo systemctl restart httpd

Now you should be able to login to the console from http://dctm202/phppgadmin/.

ODBC Configuration

Install required packages:

[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo yum -y install postgresql11-odbc.x86_64 unixODBC.x86_64

Configure .ini files:

[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo vi /etc/odbcinst.ini
[PostgreSQL]
Description = ODBC for PostgreSQL
#Driver = /usr/lib/psqlodbcw.so
#Setup = /usr/lib/libodbcpsqlS.so
#Driver64 = /usr/lib64/psqlodbcw.so
#Setup64 = /usr/lib64/libodbcpsqlS.so
Driver = /usr/pgsql-11/lib/psqlodbcw.so
Driver64 = /usr/pgsql-11/lib/psqlodbcw.so
Setup64 = /usr/lib64/libodbcpsqlS.so
FileUsage = 1
[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo vi /etc/odbc.ini
[MyPostgres]
Description=PostgreSQL
Driver=PostgreSQL
Database=postgres
Servername=dctm204
UserName=postgres
Password=dmadmin
Port=5432
Protocol=11
ReadOnly=No
RowVersioning=No
ShowSystemTables=No
ShowOidColumn=No
FakeOidIndex=No
UpdateableCursors=Yes
DEBUG=Yes

Test the connection:

[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ isql -v MyPostgres
+—————————————+
| Connected! |
| |
| sql-statement |
| help [tablename] |
| quit |
| |
+—————————————+
SQL> quit

Documentum server

Create folders:

[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo mkdir -p /opt/documentum && sudo chown dmadmin.dmadmin /opt/documentum && mkdir /opt/documentum/product && mkdir /opt/documentum/product/20.4 && mkdir -p /opt/documentum/sw/cs

Install openJDK 11.0.7 (remember to remove “anon” from the list of disabled algorithms or the installer will fail to connect to the repository)

[dmadmin@dctm204 cs]$ wget https://github.com/AdoptOpenJDK/openjdk11-upstream-binaries/releases/download/jdk-11.0.7%2B10/OpenJDK11U-jdk_x64_linux_11.0.7_10.tar.gz
[dmadmin@dctm204 cs]$ tar xvf OpenJDK11U-jdk_x64_linux_11.0.7_10.tar.gz && mv openjdk-11.0.7+10/ /opt/documentum/

Set up environment variables:

[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ vi ~/.bash_profile
DOCUMENTUM=/opt/documentum
export DOCUMENTUM

DM_HOME=$DOCUMENTUM/product/20.4
export DM_HOME

POSTGRESQL_HOME=/usr/pgsql-11
export POSTGRESQL_HOME

JAVA_HOME=/opt/documentum/openjdk-11.0.7+10/
export JAVA_HOME

PATH=$PATH:$DM_HOME/bin:$POSTGRESQL_HOME/bin:$HOME/.local/bin:$HOME/bin:$JAVA_HOME/bin
export PATH

LC_ALL=C
export LC_ALL

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$POSTGRESQL_HOME/lib:$DM_HOME/bin:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Reserve ports for services:

[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo vi /etc/services
dctm204 50000/tcp # dctm 20.4 repo
dctm204_s 50001/tcp # dctm 20.4 repo

Create symbolic link for later (configuration program):

[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib64/libsasl2.so.3.0.0 /usr/lib64/libsasl2.so.2

Configure limits.conf:

[dmadmin@dctm204 ~]$ sudo vi /etc/security/limits.conf
dmadmin – core -1

Run the installer:

[dmadmin@dctm204 cs]$ tar -xvf content_server_20.4_linux64_postgres.tar
[dmadmin@dctm204 cs]$ chmod 777 serverSetup.bin
[dmadmin@dctm204 cs]$ ./serverSetup.bin

Docbroker and repository

Create the tablespace file for the repository (dctm202):

[dmadmin@dctm204 cs]$ su –
[root@dctm204 ~]# su – postgres
-bash-4.2$ mkdir /var/lib/pgsql/11/data/db_dctm204_dat.dat
-bash-4.2$ exit
[root@dctm204 ~]# exit

Run the configurator:

[dmadmin@dctm204 install]$ ./dm_launch_server_config_program.sh

And you should know the rest 🙂

Java 11 Documentum REST Client examples

July 25, 2020 Alvaro de AndresLeave a comment

On Java 11, HttpClient was added to Java (no more need to use Apache’s HttpClient). and this presents some changes to the usual way of consuming Documentum REST services. The main “issue” is that there is no MultiPart class provided to easily handle multipart content (create a document), so we need to do it manually. I’ve upload a project to GitHub with basic examples of using Documentum REST services with Java 11: DctmRest11

D2 slow loading login screen

July 19, 2020July 19, 2020 Alvaro de Andres4 Comments

You may have realized that D2 takes some time to load the login screen when you want to log in. The usual behaviour is that after typing D2’s url in your browser, you’ll see something that looks like a loading screen (after d2 spin wheel):

and after a few moments the login screen in shown.

This behaviour is not something Documentum users are used to when using Webtop so, why this happens? Well, by now you’ve probably realized that D2 does not show the repository name, but the repository description. And in a questionable design decision, this processing is done every time the login screen is loaded (=every time a user access).

This happens on C6-Common\com\emc\common\dctm\objects\DfDocbaseMapEx class and the effect is quite clear as it is shown in this log trace:

c.e.c.d.o.DfDocbaseMapEx[] : Load docbases from docbrocker 8.925s

Yes, here we have users waiting for 9 seconds before the login screen is shown, and this happens every single time they try to access D2.

So, what wizardry is behind this odd behaviour? Let’s check it:

public DfDocbaseMapEx(String attrName, String direction) throws DfException {
    StopWatch stopWatch = new StopWatch(true);
    this.m_docbases = new TreeSet(new DfDocbaseComparator(this, attrName, direction));
    IDfClient client = DfClient.getLocalClient();
    IDfDocbaseMap docbaseMap = client.getDocbaseMap();

    int count = docbaseMap.getDocbaseCount();
    for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
      try {
        String server;
        IDfTypedObject serverMap = docbaseMap.getServerMap(i);
        String name = docbaseMap.getDocbaseName(i);
        String currentServer = serverMap.getString("i_host_name");

        if (serverMap.findString("r_host_name", currentServer) == -1) {
          server = serverMap.getRepeatingString("r_host_name", 0);
        } else {
          server = currentServer;
        }
        String description = docbaseMap.getDocbaseDescription(i);
        String version = docbaseMap.getServerVersion(i);
        DfDocbaseEx docbase = new DfDocbaseEx(this, name, server, description, version);
        this.m_docbases.add(docbase);
      }
      catch (DfException e) {
        LOG.error("{}", e);
     }
    }
    LOG.debug("Load docbases from docbrocker {}", stopWatch);
  }

Well, there is no much mistery here, getting an IDfTypedObject for each repository registered in your docbroker, every single time a user logs in… it may not be very noticeable with one repository, but try this code with +10 repositories… You can add logging inside the loop and check how much time takes for each repository…

This questionable design decision, makes you also wonder about other behaviors/configurations from D2:

Repository filter option: This acts as a simple cosmetic filter, as you can see that there’s no filtering when the list is populated. This means that you can have one repository listed, but you still have to wait for all the repositories to be “processed”
If you have enabled autologin/default repository, you’ll face the same situation, users will be logged in directly… after several seconds waiting for the login screen (that they won’t see) to finish loading.

So, what can we do to fix it (besides waiting for OT to fix it)?. Well, as you can see the code is no rocket science, so there are a bunch of possibilities:

Don’t process every single time the repository list (basically check if this.m_docbases == null or size == 0)
Load settings.properties and actually apply the repository filter inside the for loop
Process autologin setting as in #2
Add an option in D2FS/settings.properties to use repository name and forget about description
Don’t instantiate the servermap and use i_host_name from docbaseMap

By implementing any of these approaches you’ll get something like this when loading the repository list:

Standard D2:
repo1:16.4.0100.0153 Linux64.Oracle -> 1.087s
repo2:16.4.0100.0153 Linux64.Oracle -> 1.093s
repo3:16.4.0100.0153 Linux64.Oracle -> 1.098s
repo4:16.4.0100.0153 Linux64.Oracle -> 1.108s
Total: 4.389s
 
Modified D2:
repo1:16.4.0100.0153 Linux64.Oracle -> 0.000s
repo2:16.4.0100.0153 Linux64.Oracle -> 0.000s
repo3:16.4.0100.0153 Linux64.Oracle -> 0.000s
repo4:16.4.0100.0153 Linux64.Oracle -> 0.000s
Total: 0.002s

And users will be much happier than before 😀