Hi,
We are on Blackboard Academic Suite, Release 8.0.422.8 and started using Snapshot tool for course deletion for the first time.I installed the client tool(snapshot tool) on my machine and I saw that the courses were deleted only from database server but not from application server i.e C:\blackboard\content\vi\bb_bb60\courses\1
The content folder on the application server is on different drive than the default recommended drive(C drive).
How can i give the content drive location to the snapshot tool?
Command i used is :
C:\blackboard\apps\snapshot\bin>snapshot -f CRS_REMOVE -t <feed file> -C <snapshot.properties> -V <application server name>
Soujanya,
You should not have to specify the content drive in the snapshot process--the Blackboard application should be relying on the server configuration for that information. Do you have the location of your content directory specified in the bbconfig.base.shared.dir and bbconfig.base.shared.dir.win settings of your bb-config.properties file? Are you using any kind of shortcuts or links to redirect to where the content is actually stored? I know that on Redhat/Solaris, the snapshot process will not traverse symbolic links to remove course directories, but I don't know that there's any sort of equivalent issue in Windows.
Mike
Thank you for your response.
I did check the bbconfig.base.shared.dir and bbconfig.base.shared.dir.win in bb-config.properties file and they are pointing to my content drive perfectly.
But here 's the thing.
I have installed bb-client-windows-8.0.422.8.jar(snapshot client installer) as recommended from Appendix E of the document https://behind.blackboard.com/s/sysadminas/refcenter/docs/details.Bb?DocumentID=3168&pid=500&rid=5736&dt
and I am using snapshot tool on my machine.The snapshot tool is deleting content as well as database records when the tool is used on the Blackboard application server.But when i use snapshot tool from other machine or other server then the content still resides on the server ,records gets deleted from database regardless of the location of content.
For Example: In test environment the content drive is on default location:C drive and configuration files on application server are pointing to right location . when i delete the courses through snapshot tool on the server it works but if i try the same from different server installing snapshot client the content still resides on the server.
I donot know whether i am missing any configurations on the machine where i installed client snapshot.
Soujanya Sudugu.
Soujanya Sudugu: In test environment the content drive is on default location:C drive and configuration files on application server are pointing to right location . when i delete the courses through snapshot tool on the server it works but if i try the same from different server installing snapshot client the content still resides on the server. I donot know whether i am missing any configurations on the machine where i installed client snapshot.
In test environment the content drive is on default location:C drive and configuration files on application server are pointing to right location . when i delete the courses through snapshot tool on the server it works but if i try the same from different server installing snapshot client the content still resides on the server.
A late reply (googled for snapshot tool when I noticed this discussion), but no, I don't think you are missing something.
When you run the snapshot tool, or any tool built against the Blackboard API, using the service-config-snapshot-jdbc.properties configuration file it will simply connect to your database server and update the data in the database. Data on the filesystem of the application server (the documents etc. that people upload to their courses) are left untouched.
There is also a configuration file service-config-snapshot-soap.properties; It could be that files on the filesystem are updated/deleted when you use that configuration instead.
Can you please give an example of the input files you use?
I am unable to make the snapshot tool delete courses, getting stuff like:# ./snapshot.sh -f CRS_REMOVE -C ../data/CRS_REMOVE.snapshot.properties -t ../data/courselist1.txt -V tavui.hhs.nlSnapshot application fault.Review log logs/snapshot/bb-services-log-snapshot-jdbc.txt for detailsException in thread "Thread-1" java.lang.NullPointerException at java.io.File.<init>(File.java:194) at blackboard.platform.BbServiceManager.getBbRootDir(BbServiceManager.java:643) at blackboard.platform.BbServiceManager.init(BbServiceManager.java:138) at blackboard.platform.BbServiceManager.init(BbServiceManager.java:127) at blackboard.platform.BbServiceManager.initFromSystemProps(BbServiceManager.java:115) at blackboard.platform.BbServiceManager.safeLookupService(BbServiceManager.java:613) at blackboard.platform.BbServiceManager.safeLookupService(BbServiceManager.java:600) at blackboard.platform.BbServiceManager.getLogService(BbServiceManager.java:461) at blackboard.apps.snapshot.SnapshotApplication.close(SnapshotApplication.java:298) at blackboard.apps.snapshot.SnapshotApplication.abort(SnapshotApplication.java:277) at blackboard.platform.ApplicationLauncher$ManagedOSInterrupt.run(ApplicationLauncher.java:326) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)
The snapshot files I use for course deletions just look something like:
external_course_key|course_id|course_nameENG1000001.20091|ENGL1000001.20091|2009 Spring ENGL 1000-001 : Intro to Composition
The error message you're getting actually looks like it's indicating a problem opening and reading a file, not with the file format of the snapshot file.
Hi Michael,
Thank you for your quick reply :)!
I figured it out and indeed it still does not work.
I created a support call @ blackboard.
Thank you for your help!
Did you figure out which file couldn't be located/opened?