Messages

1

PCS General Board / Any other users running their own PCS instance on AWS EC2?

« on: December 16, 2022, 08:24:00 am »

As per an earlier discussion item, we are trying to get PCS running on an AWS EC2 Windows 2019 instance.   I have most of it working but having trouble getting the Sparx EA client to connect to the floating licensing server via HTTPS.   So keen to get in touch with someone here who has been able to configure this successfully in AWS and see how this was done in terms of the SSL certificate required by PCS versus the key pair using by AWS for the HTTPS EC2 instance interface.

Thanks
Ron

2

PCS General Board / HTTPS interface to AWS hosted PCS + keystore server

« on: December 13, 2022, 07:43:11 am »

Anyone hosting their own ProCloud server on an AWS EC2 instance, and able to tell me how to configure the HTTPS port 1805 for the instance security group?

We are implementing PCS on AWS and all is running fine, except the Sparx Enterprise Architect connection which can't connect to Sparx keystore server; returning an "the operation timed out" error.   When I connect with a local EA client installed on the PCS instance everything works ok.  So I am guessing that it is a problem with the HTTPS port.   AWS does not allow you to change the port from 443 to 1805 for the HTTPS rule.  So instead I have a "Custom TCP" type of rule with 1805 as the port range.   I found another discussion on using a different port number with HTTPS in AWS and the advise was that "Custom TCP" is the right type.

The other cause of the problem could be the SSL certificate.  I used Open-SSL on the EC2 PCS instance to generate the certificate.   But when I created the EC2 server instance, it created its own key pair.   I'm not sure which one to use and how you would turn the EC2 key pair into a server.pem file that PCS needs.

Thanks
Ron

3

PCS Suggestions and Requests / Split forum for PCS and Prolaborate

« on: November 17, 2022, 07:26:18 am »

Having both these products covered in the same forum makes it frustrating to find specific discussions related to either PCS or Prolaborate.

4

General Board / Running keystore / licensing server on AppStream server

« on: July 12, 2022, 03:55:38 pm »

Hi, I am testing running our Sparx EA client in the cloud using AWS Appstream.  Can I run the keystore / licensing server on the same image that I've created or does it need to be on its own EC2 server?

5

Bugs and Issues / Re: Performance Speed Issues

« on: February 03, 2022, 08:52:21 am »

Tony, how long have you been running with the local client-cloud server configuration and are these performance issues something new?   We are observing exactly the same and have our EA repository on a SQL server sitting on AWS EC2.   Initially there was only minor performance degradation but more recently it has got a lot worse with a continuous hamster wheel and the application locking up when trying to do simple tasks.  There have been no application software changes and no major changes to the data in the repository.   It would be strange to have an external factor effecting both of us, particuarly if like us you are running the application interface across a dedicated network connection.

6

General Board / Degraded performance of client to AWS hosted SQL server

« on: February 01, 2022, 06:45:44 pm »

Kia ora good Sparx people.  We recently migrated our EA repository from our New Zealand based data centre to AWS EC2 Sydney (VM running SQL Server 2008).  We expected performance degradation using our desktop based Sparx EA version 14.1 client, but testing indicated that this was acceptable and in the first few weeks things worked OK.  Since then things have got signifantly slower to the point of not being able to use Sparx.    Our technical service team has checked things out but can't see any unusual performance stats for the server or for the network connection.   We are continuing to investigate and I appreciate that it depends on a number of variables, but I thought I check if anyone on this forum may have had a similar experience?    And yes, I appreciate that we may have to go down the Sparx Pro Cloud Server path.

7

General Board / Re: How to show the actual diagram notes

« on: December 09, 2021, 12:17:39 pm »

Sounds like I should post this as a Sparx improvement opportunity.    Very surprising that it doesn't include the actual diagram notes.

8

General Board / How to show the actual diagram notes

« on: December 09, 2021, 09:27:01 am »

When I drag the "Diagram Notes" element on to my diagram or select in the my diagram properties to show the diagram details it will show various properties like Name, Author and Version.  But ironically neither option shows the text that I have added for the diagram element notes.   So how do I show those? 

9

Bugs and Issues / Re: Flow relationship changes to double arrow when adding an information item

« on: January 21, 2021, 07:32:30 am »

I am not using UML and sticking to Archimate, so that doesn't explain why Sparx changes the line style to a double arrow when I associate a data object to the information flow

As soon as you use Information Flows Realized you're using UML. ArchiMate doesn't have that concept.

What you are appear to be seeing (without me looking at anything other than your image) is that EA has drawn the ArchiMate connector, then added the UML indicator for information flows on top. I doubt that the shape script even has a way to detect information flows, let alone a way to customize it.

This is interesting.  So if I create an Archimate Flow Relationship, I can add a description but not define for what specific objects the flow realises?   Trouble is that descriptions are little use when reporting on your model.  So what is the best way to model what objects are associated with what information flows if this can't be done in Archimate-compliant way?  I'm guessing that using the Common "Information Flow" Relationship may be the answer.

10

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Feature request: Allow Acronym alongside element name and alias

« on: January 13, 2021, 11:09:05 am »

Apologies about the belated response.   I like the suggestion to use a tag value to handle an application acronym.  And yes, useful to also handle acronyms in the glossary.

Thanks people

11

Bugs and Issues / Re: Flow relationship changes to double arrow when adding an information item

« on: January 13, 2021, 09:27:23 am »

I finally got around to looking at the replies.   Thanks for these.   Unfortunately it doesn't answer my concern

• I am not using UML and sticking to Archimate, so that doesn't explain why Sparx changes the line style to a double arrow when I associate a data object to the information flow
• Good to have highlighted that the information flow between application components should be for data and not business objects.  But this doesn't effect the Sparx behaviour in changing the line style
• Yes, you can associate the data object element to a flow relationship as shown in the Practical Archimate Viewpoint blog, but that quickly makes for a messy diagram when you are dealing with a number of data objects.
• And yes, the simple option is to use the relationship description to state when is being exchanged between for example application components.   But this defeats one of the key benefits of modelling in that it does not allow you to determine easily for a data or business object what all of its related information flows are across the enterprise architecture landscape.

12

Bugs and Issues / Flow relationship changes to double arrow when adding an information item

« on: November 16, 2020, 02:44:10 pm »

Why does Sparx EA change the Archimate "Flow" relationship line from a single arrow to a double arrow when I add an information item?   Having the double arrow does not add any value and makes for a more messy diagram!

This happens when I right click on the line and select Advanced-->Information Flows Realized.. from the context menu, and select or create an business object or application data element; see example below
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Usw8nHRccRAcgJxR0o8fG2YXgjJPCWJ0/view?usp=sharing

13

Bugs and Issues / Re: Duplicate profile name: Option Model Profile, detected in technology ID:1

« on: November 16, 2020, 02:24:35 pm »

Hi Qwerty.   That answer helped!   There was indeed a duplicate profile shown in my resources.   I went into Specialize-->Manage-Tech and removed "Option Model Profile" from the MDG Technologies list.

14

Suggestions and Requests / Feature request: Allow Acronym alongside element name and alias

« on: November 05, 2020, 07:27:16 am »

I propose that element properties include a new "Acronym" property in addition to the existing "Name" and "Alias" properties, and that a general search includes this data.

An example of how this helps to model and search on an application component object

• A finance platform can have a Name of "Financial Information Management System"
• The Alias can be the name that users commonly refer to it, e.g. Oracle Financials
• The Acronym would be FMIS

[li]A search should return this object if either "Financial", "Oracle" or "FMIS" is entered as the general search value.
[/li][/list]

15

Bugs and Issues / Duplicate profile name: Option Model Profile, detected in technology ID:1

« on: November 05, 2020, 06:56:40 am »

The System Output window keeps appearing when I start Sparx, with the following warning:
WARNING: Duplicate profile name: Option Model Profile, detected in technology ID: 1

I am not clear what it is talking about and how to fix it.