Metastorm 9 and the Visual Studio Debugger

[RKushner]

I am trying to debug in an all-in-one environment, I have installed the Diagnostics, but I still get the error:

"The requested service, 'http://localhost/ProcessDiagnosticsService/ProcessDiagnostics.svc' could not be activated. See the server's diagnostic trace logs for more information."

In the Deployment tab of the Options dialog for the designer, "Process Diagnostics Service address" is blank. Should I put something in there. My whole install is plain vanilla default, all-in-one.

Here's what I found in the server's diagnostic trace log:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: System.ServiceModel 3.0.0.0
Event Category: WebHost
Event ID: 3
Date:  9/14/2010
Time:  8:43:18 AM
User:  NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE
Computer: VCFF-BPM9-TEST
Description:
WebHost failed to process a request.
 Sender Information: System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment+HostingManager/32347029
 Exception: System.ServiceModel.ServiceActivationException: The service '/ProcessDiagnosticsService/ProcessDiagnostics.svc' cannot be activated due to an exception during compilation.  The exception message is: The type 'Metastorm.ProcessDiagnosticsService.ProcessDiagnostics', provided as the Service attribute value in the ServiceHost directive could not be found.. ---> System.InvalidOperationException: The type 'Metastorm.ProcessDiagnosticsService.ProcessDiagnostics', provided as the Service attribute value in the ServiceHost directive could not be found.
   at System.ServiceModel.Activation.ServiceHostFactory.CreateServiceHost(String constructorString, Uri[] baseAddresses)
   at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment.HostingManager.CreateService(String normalizedVirtualPath)
   at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment.HostingManager.ActivateService(String normalizedVirtualPath)
   at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment.HostingManager.EnsureServiceAvailable(String normalizedVirtualPath)
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment.HostingManager.EnsureServiceAvailable(String normalizedVirtualPath)
   at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment.EnsureServiceAvailableFast(String relativeVirtualPath)
 Process Name: w3wp
 Process ID: 5384

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

[RKushner]

What should be entered under options  - Deploy  - for the url  for the Process Diagnostics Service?

Or is it okay to leave it blank?

I have a default, plain vanilla install, all-in-one, everything except the sql-server database is on the same machine.

Thanx!!!!!!

[RKushner]

How did you conclude that the initial install did not create the virtual directory correctly?

After deleting the virtual directory, how did you recreate it? By reinstalling the debugger, or manually?

Thanx!!!!!!!

[Phil McGaw]

Hi,

Wondering if anyone is still having problems getting the process diagnostics working. I've tried all sorts to get the Metastorm debugger working with Visual Studio, but not having much joy.

-Version 9.1.2

-Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate

The Process Diagnostics Service is setup in IIS, I've set the address to http://localhost/ProcessDiagnosticsService/ProcessDiagnostics.svc in the solution, and it resolves fine when I launch it through a browser, but when I click that sinster looking ladybird in the designer I get this error:

Error: Unable to attach debugger.  Ensure the Engine process is not already being debugged.        

At first I thought it could be because I've been hacking around with it quite a lot and maybe a process was lingering around somewhere, but even after a reboot, I get the same error.

Any help useful tips would be great.

Thanks

Phil

[Robert Vignerot]

Phil - Check the diagnostic services config file's DB connection.  I've seen this error many times.  The connection fails if it uses Window's Authentication when running under the app pool's context.  If this is the case, change the connection string to use SQL Authentication.

[Phil McGaw]

Hi Rob, thanks for the pointers.

I originally thought it could be something to do with the identity of the Process Diagnostics Service, so I set the application pool identity to a windows account I knew had sysadmin on the SQL Server. I've kept this the same, and then adjusted the web.config on the Process Diagnostics Service to use a sql account instead as you'd suggested, but still no joy.

It launches Visual Studio for a couple of seconds then shuts it down with the same error "Unable to attach debugger".  See attached for the output I'm getting from Metastorm.

Can I just check, what are you supposed to see if you launch "http://localhost/ProcessDiagnosticsService/ProcessDiagnostics.svc" through a browser?

(I've also set the file 'ProcessDiagnostics.svc' as the default document for the web service otherwise it was complaining)

I've even just tried switching the web service to run as a .NET 4.0 web service, but alas that didn't work either.

It's not the end of the world if I don't get this working, but it would be good to actually see it work

Thanks

[Ari Chopra]

Does the debugger work with Visual Studio 2010?  I seem to recall that it only works with 2008?

I have it working fine with 9.1.2 and VS2008 for what that's worth.

[Phil McGaw]

Ok, I've got past the "Unable to attach to debugger" error, and it was only something Ari said about whether or not Visual Studio 2010 was supported that got me to the answer.

I looked through a bunch of documentation to see if it was supported, and found the mystical section 40.2 in the 9.1 SR2 Designer Manual "Debugging without administrative privileges" using Windows 7 without turning off UAC; gave these steps ago, and it worked.

I was actually logged on as an admin, and the metastorm service was running as the same account but obviously something wasn't right.  Changing the metastorm process service to run as "System Account: Interactive User" seemed to be the main thing that fixed it.

Hope this helps people in the future.

[Jerome҉]

---

Phil McGaw wrote:  Changing the metastorm process service to run as "System Account: Interactive User" seemed to be the main thing that fixed it.

---

I think that may cauuse problems in a real server environment. It should be fine for development (where you are logged in at all times), but not otherwuse, unless the way the engine runs has changed a lot in version 9.

I would be happy to be corrected on this subject, or have it clarified, as it is a general pain having to create a service account just for the engine on every installation.