Topics

1

PCS General Board / Repository authentication through PCS

« on: April 19, 2024, 10:07:29 pm »

Hi all,

We recently moved our on-premise DB repository where Windows authentication was activated to a cloud-based repository using PCS for Sparx EA access. We keep the Windows authentication settings but add an OpenID option using our Azure AD (now Entra ID) IdP synchronized with our on-premises AD.
I'm not an expert in Windows domain security therefore I'm not sure I'm using the correct wording.
Connecting from within on-premise, the Windows authentication is "propagated" to PCS and authentication succeeds as usual using the AD group mapping defined.
However, if we try to connect from home (without any VPN), windows authentication fails and Sparx EA proposes an OpenID authentication (which succeeds).
Not being familiar with the Windows ID propagation, is it the expected behavior? Does Sparx EA try to negotiate with the on-premise AD and fail? If yes, this means then that OpenID is the only authentication method available remotely. This is not a problem but our users might be surprised by this behaviour.

Thanks for your clarification.

2

Bugs and Issues / Restoring baselines fails with "user lock required" and 'annotations'

« on: May 12, 2023, 07:11:24 pm »

Hi all,

I'm using EA v16.1 (64bits) with a repository where security is activated and user lock required.
I have a problem restoring a baseline due to a locking issue together with the presence of a 'Annotions' type package '...{}' in the package I want to restore.
Initially, I have a package with some diagrams and elements but no 'annotations' (Notes, boundary...). I take a lock on that package and its content and make a v1.0 baseline.
Next I add a note to one diagram. This create an annotation '...{}' package containing the note element.
If I try to restore my original v1.0 baseline, it fails with the message
"One or more item under the current package are security locked, all items must be unlocked before performing this action"
This happens as soon as an annotation sub-packaged is present in the model.

Note that if I move the note out of the baselined package, restoring works.
Any idea ?

There is no problem with v15.2

3

Bugs and Issues / EA v16 64bit : very slow database connection & security model ?

« on: September 08, 2022, 04:50:53 pm »

Hi,

We are testing EA v16 64bits (1605). We are connecting to DB repositories (SQLServer) and the models are configured with Windows user security and authentication. A specific AD group is also linked to the "Authors" group and populated with authorized users.
With EA v15.2, the connection to the model takes a couple of second while using EA v16 64bits it takes several tens of seconds. When connecting remotely through the enterprise VPN it might even takes a couple of minutes to connect !

I note in the System output that EA15 only displays
Login: Logged in as Windows user 'userid (DOMAIN\userid)'.

while EA16 display:

Attempting to log in Windows SSO user: 'userid, DOMAINN\userid'
Checking for user's Windows linked groups
User is a member of group: 'XXXX'
...

then a list of 69 AD groups I'm member of is slowy dumped on the console
then

User is a member of 69 groups

then, for each AD group :
User's Windows group 'DOMAIN\GROUPNAME' is not linked to any Enterprise Architect group

69 times

and eventually:

Login: Windows user 'Firstname Lastname (mail address)' is not a member of the model.
Login: Logged in as Windows user 'Firstname Lastname (mail address))'.

This behaviour is quite new to me. Is this an expected behaviour and, if yes, can it be disable ? Is it a bug ? Users won't definitely be happy...

Note :
the SQLServer schema is pre-1558
"Automatically create or modify Windows or OpenID users" is checked.

4

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / MDG specializing Archimate3 and model exchange

« on: February 22, 2022, 07:55:00 pm »

Hi,

I've create a custom MDG where, for instance, I've a stereotype specializing an "Archimate3::Archimate_ApplicationComponent" by defining a set of Tagged value.
I noticed however that any instance of that stereotype in an archimate model is not exported at all using the Archimate "Model Exchange File" ; all other "native" archimate objects are present while my custom stereotype are just missing (they do appear when exporting as an XMI of course).
Is this the expected behaviour ? If yes, is there any "trick" to make them exportable using Model Exchange ?

5

PCS General Board / EA on Cloud, WebEA and integration

« on: February 08, 2022, 07:58:37 pm »

Hi All,

We are looking into the cloud offering of Sparx. In "EA on Cloud", it is not clear whether the WebEA interface and integration with other systems (ServiceNow, Jira...) is still technically available to the customers (assuming we have the required licenses). Does anyone have experience with this SaaS solution ? Same question with Prolaborate on Cloud

Thanks

6

PCS General Board / ServiceNow integration ?

« on: April 01, 2021, 07:17:22 pm »

Hi,

We would like to integrate our ServiceNow infrastructure items into the EA repository using PCS integration capability. Since access to our SN instance from inside our corporate network will require network configuration, can someone confirm that the integration use outbound HTTPS connections toward our SN instance (hence requiring firewall configurations) and do not require the use of a MID server as proxy to SN ?

Are there any feedback and experiences from others ?

Thanks,

Philippe Peeters

7

General Board / Archimate 3 : Application services and relationship ?

« on: August 01, 2019, 11:42:31 pm »

Hi all,

Not sure whether this a bug or a wrong manipulation from my side but I cannot create a "Serving" relationship between an application service A and another application service B.
I create an empty archimate 3 Application view diagram, I drag an application service A and an application service B onto it. Now, if I try to create a relationship from A to B, the menu offers the "Serving" relationship but, when selected, it displays a error popup:
"Invalid combination of source and target types for this connector type" while it is allowed by Archimate 3

Strangely, if I then add an additional application component C and create a "serving" relationship between A and C, it works as expected. Then I try to move the previously create relationship endpoint from C to B and it works !
By the way, I have no problem with a archimate 2 diagram.

Update : Apparently this has already been notified as a bug : https://www.sparxsystems.com/forums/smf/index.php/topic,43048.msg255251.html#msg255251

8

General Board / Import archimate models

« on: June 19, 2015, 05:55:18 pm »

Hi,

Does anybody knows of tools that could help in importing Archimate 2 models within EA, including views. I know of CSV export (from Archi or BizzDesign) and then importing CSV into EA but I don't know how to handle relations and there is no way to import the views. Since we have a lot of them we would have to rebuild our repository almost from scratch.
The possibility to import the OpenGroup ArchiMate Model Exchange File format would be great (Archi  and Bizzdesign already have this features). Is this planned ?

Thanks,

PPE