Tag Archive: snapshot

A panel on the right side of the JNIOR Supporter is for taking snapshots and issuing update projects. Snapshots are copies of JNIOR configurations, which can be used to either debug issues a JNIOR may be having or as an update project to duplicate its configuration to other JNIORs. Below is how to take Snapshots.

When selecting the Snapshots tab, snapshots are displayed in groupings based on different filters. The filters in order sort by the following: Serial Number, Hostname, Date, and Other. Selecting the ‘Take Snapshot’ button lets you select which JNIOR you want to generate a snapshot of. Once selected, each snapshot will populate inside the Snapshot Progress tab in the lower display panel, and notify you when completed. Selecting the ‘Open Snapshots Directory’ tab will open the file directory in your file explorer where Snapshots are saved locally on your PC. This can also be done by right clicking a snapshot in the Snapshot tab and selecting ‘Show in Folder’.

You can now take multiple simultaneous snapshots.  A tabbed interface shows you the status of all snapshots.

Snapshot tab of JNIOR Supporter application

A Snapshot will still collect some statistics and then download all of the files from the JNIOR.  The statistics will be saved in a _snapshot.log file that will be placed in the resulting zip file.

The tree on the left side tries to organize the snapshots into three categories.  By Serial Number, By Hostname, and by Date.

Many times the best way to send diagnostic information to INTEG is to send us a Snapshot. A Snapshot is a zip file containing all of the files from the JNIOR.

When a Snapshot is taken the Support Tool will make a telnet connection, run a few diagnostic commands and then download all of the files. The diagnostic commands that are executed will be logged to the snapshot.log file.

There are two commands that will generate files that are not normally in the file system.

The first in the iolog command. The iolog command will generate a jniorio.log file. This file shows the past 512 digital input transitions as well as the past 512 relay output transitions. Up to 16 relay outputs will be shown in the log. The relays on the expansion modules will be logged as well.

The second command is the netstat -c command. This command generates a network capture file in the temp directory. The network capture file can be loaded in a desktop application called wireshark. This file will grow up to 512Kb. The duration of time covered by the file depends on the amount of traffic that the JNIOR handles. Optionally filters can be applied to the capture buffer to limit the types of traffic that are logged.

To take a snapshot follow these steps:

  1. Open the Support Tool. Go to the Snapshot tab.
  1. Click on ‘Take Snapshot’.
  1. Answer ‘Yes’ to the Snapshot confirmation dialog
  1. Select the JNIOR you want to take a Snapshot from and click ‘Ok’.
  1. Once your snapshot is compete find it on the left. It should be made visible once it is complete. Right click on the Snapshot file and select ‘Show in folder’. You could also expand the zip archive in the tree view or double click it to open in your loaded Archive application.