HP Quality Center Dashboard 9.2

Readme

Software version: 9.2 / 1 May 2007

This document provides the following information about HP Quality Center Dashboard 9.2:

In This Version

Documentation Updates

Installation Notes

Known Problems, Limitations, and Workarounds

Support

Legal Notices

HP Quality Center Dashboard 9.2 includes the following changes and new features.

·         Support for Microsoft SQL Server Windows Authentication mode

·         Support for environments supported by Quality Center, including AIX, WAS 6.1, Oracle 10g release 2, Microsoft SQL Server 2005

·         Aggregation of subject data in a portlet

·         Performance improvements

·         New module permissions “Configure All Modules” and “Configure Module”

For more information, refer to the Dashboard documentation set.

Documentation Updates

The first page of this readme document contains the following identifying information:

·         Version number, which indicates the software version.

·         Publish date, which changes each time the document is updated.

To check for recent updates or to verify that you are using the most recent edition, visit the following URL:

http://ovweb.external.hp.com/lpe/doc_serv/

1        In the Product list, click the product name.

2        In the Version list, click the version number.

3        In the OS list, click the OS type.

4        In the document list, click the document title.

5        To retrieve the document, click Open or Download.

NOTE: To view files in PDF format (*.pdf), Adobe Acrobat Reader must be installed on your system. To download Adobe Acrobat Reader, go to the following URL:

www.adobe.com

Installation requirements, as well as instructions for installing Dashboard, are documented in the HP Quality Center Dashboard Installation Guide provided in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format. The document file is included on the product's DVD media as Dashboard_Installation_Guide.pdf, located on the \QualityCenterDashboard directory on the DVD.

After installation, the document can be found at:

<Dashboard installation directory>\general\Dashboard_Installation_Guide.pdf

Installation Problems

·         If you quit the Dashboard installation process before it is complete, and then attempt to reinstall with the same database schema, the schema may become corrupted. The installation process identifies that there is an existing schema and enables you to overwrite it.

·         If you install Dashboard on Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 3 or 4, and choose to start JBoss automatically at the end of the installation procedure, Dashboard starts but the installation process might not end by itself. You need to close the installation process manually.

·         The default Dashboard installation requires a minimum of 70 database connections.

·         In some cases, when you install Dashboard on a Linux machine, the Connector URL may be incorrect. To correct it, log in to Dashboard and then type the following URL in your Web browser:
http://<Dashboard server>:<port number>/DeliveryCenter/connector.html.
Click the Configure connectors link and make sure that the URL is correct. For further details, refer to the TestDirector for Quality Center Knowledge Base (http://support.mercury.com/) and search for Problem ID 44200.

·         Whenever you install Dashboard on a Windows 2003 machine, you must install it from Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs.

·         When you install Dashboard to work with MS-SQL using Windows Authentication, ensure that MS-SQL server was not installed to run on the Local System account.

Upgrading Notes

·         If you upgrade from Dashboard 8.2.1 to Dashboard 9.2 when Dashboard is installed with SQL Server and the table owner in the Dashboard database schema is not "td," you must change the table owner. For information on changing the table owner, contact Customer Support.

·         The following limitation applies if you have been working with Quality Center 8.2.1 and Dashboard 8.2.1, and you subsequently upgrade to Quality Center 9.2 and Dashboard 9.2. If you choose to upgrade the existing schema during installation, you need to manually update the KPIs that used the History table. For help on manually updating the KPIs, contact Customer Support.

·         If you installed Dashboard 9.0 to work with Quality Center 8.2.1 or Quality Center 9.0, and later upgrade to Quality Center 9.2, you need to update the Dashboard installation to enable it to work with Quality Center 9.2. To do this, perform the following steps:

¾       Uninstall Dashboard 8.2.1 or 9.0.

¾       Install Dashboard 9.2, using the existing schema. During installation, select the “I want to upgrade the existing schema” option. This will upgrade the schema and install Dashboard with a connector suitable for Quality Center 9.2.

Known Problems, Limitations, and Workarounds

Subjects

·         To use features such as mapping and filtering subjects, you need to first log in to Quality Center. Therefore, you must ensure that you have the appropriate Quality Center client installed on the machine used for the Quality Center Connector (QCC) Administration client. You can install the Quality Center client either by connecting to the Quality Center server and downloading the client application, or by using the Quality Center Client Installation application. For more information, refer to the HP Quality Center Installation Guide.

·         If you attempt to delete a Quality Center project while Quality Center Dashboard is working with that Quality Center project, the following error message is displayed in the Quality Center Site Administrator: "Cannot drop user that is currently connected."
Workaround: In Quality Center Connector Admin, delete all subjects that are based on the Quality Center project that you want to delete. Wait for 30 minutes so that the database connection pool is released, then delete the project from Quality Center.

·         Quality Center Connector Admin does not recognize modifications that are made in the Quality Center Site Administrator relating to changes in domain and project names and their locations. A renamed project is recognized as a new project. Therefore, any subject that is based on the modified Quality Center project is invalidated.
Workaround: In Quality Center Connector Admin, delete the existing subject and create a new subject using the name of the deleted subject, based on the new domain and project name. Define filters and map values as required. In the Implementation tab, reassign the KPI implementations to the new subject.

KPIs

·         In a KPI query, macros are interpreted even when they are included in a comment. Therefore, an invalid macro inside a comment will cause an error. When defining a KPI name, you cannot use any of the first 32 characters in the 128-255 range (sometimes referred to as "high ASCII"). Use of these characters can cause a failure in KPI execution.

·         The following KPIs depend on Quality Center database history data:
Defect Average Fix Time by Priority
Defect Average Fix Time by Severity
Defect Fix Rate by Priority
Defect Fix Rate by Severity
Reopened Defects per Day by Priority
Reopened Defects per Day by Severity
To use one of these KPIs, you must select the History check box in the Customizing Project Entities window of Quality Center Site Administration. For more information, refer to the HP Quality Center Administrator's Guide.

·         If you are upgrading from a version of Quality Center earlier than Quality Center 9.0, note that the Quality Center database schema has changed as follows:

¾       History data is no longer saved in the HISTORY table. It is now stored in two new tables: AUDIT_LOG and AUDIT_PROPERTIES. For more information on the changes to the Quality Center database schema, refer to the HP Quality Center Database Reference.

¾       There have been some changes to the USERS table to specify the group to which a user belongs.

¾       There has been a change in the implementation of defect linkage. Links are now stored in the new LINK table.

·         When scheduling KPI data collection, do not specify both the workDay and monthDay attributes in the runAt element. Simultaneous use of these attributes is not supported and the KPI schedule will not be activated.

·         It is not recommended to change names of KPIs and entity properties. Changing names can result in problems requiring time-consuming administrative work to fix. In particular:

¾       Do not change the name of an entity property that is part of the result properties of a KPI if there is a portlet that is based on the KPI.

¾       Do not change the name of a KPI if there is a combined data source based on the KPI. Any portlets using the combined data source may not work.

Portlets

·         When you create a portlet, you must select Result in the portlet's display value field. For example:

¾       If you are creating a bar graph, select Result in the Bar Value Source box.

¾       If you are creating a pie graph, select Result in the Wedge Size Source box.

¾       If you are creating a list that displays a progress bar, select Result in the Percentage Source box.

·         If you rename an entity property, any portlet that is based on the property will stop working. For further information on renaming entity properties manually, refer to the TestDirector for Quality Center Knowledge Base (http://support.mercury.com) and search for Problem ID 40204.

Dashboard Ports

·         The Dashboard server uses the following predefined ports: 1098, 1099, 4444, 4445, 8009, 8083 and 8443.

·         These ports are predefined and cannot be changed during the installation process.

·         If a predefined port is already used by another application, you can solve the problem by doing one of the following:

¾       Stop the other application (the one that has taken over the JBoss port).

¾       Change the Dashboard's JBoss configuration. For example, to resolve a conflict involving port 1099, you can edit the jboss\server\default\conf\jboss-service.xml (the JNP port of JBoss).

Cluster

·         If Dashboard is installed on a cluster that uses Apache Web Server as a load balancer, refer to the TestDirector for Quality Center Knowledge Base (http://support.mercury.com) and search for Problem ID 44211.

·         When you install Dashboard on a cluster, the QCC URL is sometimes set to be the URL of one of the nodes, instead of "localhost". If this happens when the register node is down, KPI scheduling fails.
Workaround: Change the QCC entry in the Connectors table to point to "localhost". For further details, refer to the TestDirector for Quality Center Knowledge Base (http://support.mercury.com/) and search for Problem ID 44200.

Security

·         If Quality Center is configured to work over SSL, when you use the QCC Admin, Internet Explorer may display the following message: "This page contains both secure and non-secure items. Do you want to display the non-secure items?" You should answer "No". If you answer "Yes", the QCC Admin application may stop responding. If the application stops responding, close the QCC Admin window, open the Quality Center log-on window, and use the same browser to reopen the QCC Admin window.

·         If you are installing Dashboard for a Quality Center server, and the Quality Center server runs under SSL, temporarily turn off secure mode on the Quality Center server before you install Dashboard. After the installation, configure the Quality Center server so that it again runs under SSL. For more information, contact Customer Support.

·         Dashboard does not support working with SSL that requires a client certificate.

·         If Quality Center is set to use LDAP authentication, you must assign the default Quality Center Dashboard administrator, dd_admin, as a valid LDAP user, using the Site Administrator Users tab in Quality Center.

·         If you create a user group without any users, an empty line is added to the users list. This causes distribution or publication of this group to fail.
Workaround: Edit the group and remove the empty line from the users list.

General

·         Ensure that the system clocks on the Dashboard server and the database server are synchronized.

·         Only one person can use Quality Center Connector Admin at a time.

·         An invalid email address defined in Quality Center for a Quality Center Dashboard user will cause a user notification failure.
Solution: Correct the user's email address in Quality Center.

·         If clicking QCC Admin opens an empty window, check the Quality Center Connector server's accessibility. To solve this problem, delete the QCC directory under C:\Program Files\Common Files\Mercury Interactive\ and log in to Quality Center before you log in to QCC Admin.

·         If you export a list portlet that contains icons to Microsoft Excel, the Excel file will initially not show the icons. To view the icons, open the Excel file and then use the "Save As" command to save the file with the type "xls".

·         When using Dashboard with the WebLogic application server, to enable the PDF Export function, the following jar files must be added to the beginning of the WebLogic classpath: ib6js.jar, ib6util.jar, ib6core.jar. These jar files should first be added to the EAR's WEB-INF/lib directory, and then to the beginning of the WebLogic classpath.

·         When using Dashboard with the WebLogic application server, log in to Dashboard using the following URL: http://<Dashboard server>:7001/DeliveryCenter/dashboard/app/portal/PageView.jsp instead of http://<Dashboard server>:7001/DeliveryCenter/dashboard.

·         When running the Dashboard server on a headless Unix or Linux environment, the java.awt.headless=true system (JVM) parameter must be specified and the JDK version should be 1.4 or later. An X11 environment must be installed to enable Java headless mode. Note that the X11 environment does not have to be started, but the binaries must be present on your system.

Support

Mercury Product Support

You can obtain support information for products formerly produced by Mercury as follows:

If you work with an HP Software Services Integrator (SVI) partner (www.hp.com/ managementsoftware/svi_partner_list), contact your SVI agent.

If you have an active HP Software support contract, visit the HP Software Support site and use the Self-Solve Knowledge Search to find answers to technical questions.

For the latest information about support processes and tools available for products formerly produced by Mercury, we encourage you to visit the Mercury Customer Support Web Site at: http://support.mercury.com.

HP-Mercury Software Support web site at: www.hp.com/managementsoftware/mercury_support.

Contact your HP Sales Representative if you have additional questions.

HP Software Support

You can visit the HP Software Support web site at:

www.hp.com/managementsoftware/services

HP Software online support provides an efficient way to access interactive technical support tools. As a valued support customer, you can benefit by using the support site to:

·         Search for knowledge documents of interest

·         Submit and track support cases and enhancement requests

·         Download software patches

·         Manage support contracts

·         Look up HP support contacts

·         Review information about available services

·         Enter into discussions with other software customers

·         Research and register for software training

Most of the support areas require that you register as an HP Passport user and sign in. Many also require a support contract. To find more information about access levels, go to:  www.hp.com/managementsoftware/access_level

To register for an HP Passport ID, go to: 
www.managementsoftware.hp.com/passport-registration.html

Legal Notices

© Copyright 1993 - 2007 Mercury Interactive (Israel) Ltd. Corporation, All rights reserved.

Confidential computer software. Valid license from HP required for possession, use or copying. Consistent with FAR 12.211 and 12.212, Commercial Computer Software, Computer Software Documentation, and Technical Data for Commercial Items are licensed to the U.S. Government under vendor's standard commercial license.

The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

The information contained herein is subject to change without notice.

Adobe® and Acrobat® are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

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Microsoft® and Windows® are U.S registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

Oracle® is a registered U.S trademark of Oracle Corporation, Redwood City, California.

Red HatTM is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc.

Unix® is a registered trademark of The Open Group.

Document Number QCDRM9.2/01