Run a network trace on a Lawson issue WITHOUT fiddler

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Lawson issue not showing in the logs? This is how you would run a network trace WITHOUT fiddler.

 

Using Google Chrome.

  1. Open Chrome, open a new tab and press CTRL-SHIFT-I.
  2. On the Network tab, ensure the circle in top-left corner is red. CTRL-E toggles tracing on/off.
  3. Duplicate the issue.
  4. Right-click on any of the http sessions, and select “Save as HAR with content”.
  5. Save the file to your desktop, and upload the file to the support incident.
  6. Send file to your Lawson support consultant.

Chrome Example screenshot below:

Using Microsoft Edge Chromium

  1. Open Edge and Press “F12” to open IE Developer Tools.
  2. On the Network tab, ensure there is a red circle in the top-left corner. If you see the green “play” button, click it to start recording.
  3. Duplicate the Issue.
  4. Click on the “Export HAR” icon to save traffic to a .har file.
  5. Send file to your Lawson support consultant.

 

Edge Example Screenshot:

This is sometimes daunting for users to perform on their own so a trained Lawson professional is ideal to assist via a remote meeting like Zoom or Teams.

Organizations often have trouble staffing Lawson professionals (or they’re spread thin) and alternatively go with teams of Lawson consultants who offer managed services at a fixed rate. This can help larger organizations who have daily user issues and need a team of trained Lawson professionals to assist.

Compiling an entire product line in Lawson Interface Desktop and speeding up the process

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Often when you install a patch into Lawson, you want to ensure all forms run the next day without issues. This is especially important with larger patches that affect dozens of Lawson forms and or when a new db dictionary is created.

 

This is easily done through the cobcmp command.

 

When you run the cobcmp command, it will run through a list of all Lawson forms.

 

Once this is done, you can check its process by using this command: qstatus | head -5

This command will show you the amount of forms left to compile.

 

If you want to speed up this process, you can increase the amount of compile jobs running.

In LID this is done with this command: qcontrol -jlocal,4

 

This increases your job count to 4 (default is 2)

If your server only has 2 cores, it is recommended to keep it at the default 2.

 

I’d only increase the compile job count to one less than the maximum amount of cores your server has so you don’t overload other processes.

 

Once done compiling, it is recommended to change the job count back to 2, or: qcontrol -jlocal,2

 

Infor is moving away from their traditional CTP method of apply patches (as of 2022) and moving towards the new DSP standard. It is still recommended to recompile programs when they act up or after patches.

We recommend organizations look into hiring a Lawson consultant team who offer managed services at a fixed monthly rate. These Lawson teams have a wider range of expertise and knowledge and are ideal for larger organizations but also are great for smaller ones that don’t need a dedicated Lawson employee on-site.

Lawson Mingle Sign-On Error

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Problem: A user in your organization is getting this error when selecting a Lawson chiclet through Okta or a Mingle URL but their Lawson and Mingle security is setup correctly along with their identity information. See below for the fix.

 

Example of the error below:

  1. Verify the user is setup correctly in Lawson with the correct identities and Mingle security roles required.
  2. Make sure your organizations Windows team filled in the correct Active Directory email address for the user.
  3. Have the user clear their browser cache and attempt to access the Mingle via URL or Lawson chiclet app (if using Okta etc.)

That’s it! This is a common issue when ticketing system workflows (like Service Now) are processed out of order and the user’s Lawson account gets created before the Windows team fully sets up their AD account.

Get Directory Listing

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At some point, you may need to view a list of your current directory, including all nested files and directories. Below is a quick guide to bring up the right screen for you to reference.

 

Home Directory

To get to your home directory, type wrklnk in the green screen command line

 

Root Directory

To get to the root directory type in wrklnk  obj(‘/’) in the green screen command line

 

Place a 5 on the OPT column to display the directories

 

 

Updating LBI Certificates

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LBI does not use a web server, so replacing those certificates differs slightly from Lawson & Landmark.  Replacing the LBI certificates is done exclusively in WebSphere console manager.

First make sure that you have a pfx file stored locally on the server, and that you have the private key for that file.  Open the console manager and navigate to Security > SSL certificate and key management > Key stores and certificates.

 

Select the CellDefaultKeyStore

 

Select Personal Certificates

 

Import the new certificate first.

 

Set the path to where you have saved the file locally, and enter the password.  Click “Get Key File Aliases” to get the certificate information.  Enter a meaningful alias for the certificate.

Select the old certificate and click “Replace…”.

 

Select the new certificate as the replacement.  Check the boxes to Delete the old certificate and signers.

Validate that the Trust Store certs were updated by going into CellDefaultTrustStore > Signer certificates.  You can add the intermediate and root certificates (base64 cer files) if they aren’t there.

 

Bounce the application server, and your certificates will be updated!

Deactivating an IPA Flow

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Here is a quick guide on how to deactivate a scheduled IPA.

 

First, you will need to find the IPA name in IPD

  1. Log into IP Designer
  2. Create a new process
  1. Upload the process to your server by clicking the up arrow icon , or by clicking:
    • Tools > Manage Processes > Select Open Process

 

Remove the Schedule for the Process

  1. Log into Rich Client
  2. From the Start menu, navigate to Applications > My Actions > My Scheduled Actions
  1. Select the Name of the schedule and on the bottom screen it should show all the triggers associated with the schedule.
  2. Drop down on Actions and choose Delete Finished Triggers
  3. Right-mouse click and Click open
  1. Select delete to remove this schedule.

 

How to update certificates in Lawson & Landmark

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IIS

The process to update web certificates in Lawson & Landmark is virtually the same.  First, change the selected certificate in the “Bindings” on the website.  Restart the World Wide Web Publishing service for the change to take effect.

WebSphere

Some sites use the default WebSphere generated certificate, which auto-renews.  In the event that your organization has configured WebSphere to use an organizational server or wildcard certificate, you will also need to replace that certificate in WebSphere.  First make sure that you have a pfx file stored locally on the server, and that you have the private key for that file.

Open the console manager and navigate to Security > SSL certificate and key management

Select the CellDefaultKeyStore

Select Personal Certificates

Import the new certificate first.

Set the path to where you have saved the file locally, and enter the password.  Click “Get Key File Aliases” to get the certificate information.  Enter a meaningful alias for the certificate.

 

Select the old certificate and click “Replace…”.

Select the new certificate as the replacement.  Check the boxes to Delete the old certificate and signers.

Follow these same steps for the NodeDefaultKeyStore

Save the changes to the master configuration.

Validate that the Trust Store certs were updated by going into NodeDefaultTrustStore and CellDefaultTrustStore > Signer certificates

Web Server

Copy the new certificate to the Web server.  In console manager, go to Server Types > Web servers.

Click “Plug-in properties” on the right under Additional Properties.  Select “Copy to Web server key store directory”

Generate and propagate the plugins for the web server.

Run an iisreset command, or restart the WWW publishing service.

Your certificates are updated!  You can validate this by going to the web site and looking at the certificate (click the little lock).  You can compare the thumbprint of the website certificate to the new certificate you just added.

How to resolve the problem: LSF submitted processes aren’t triggering on IPA Server

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Problem: Submitted requisitions aren’t triggering on IPA server via reqapproval process and are not showing in Rich Client.

 

  1. Go to LSF application server, start LID and type: pfserv ping all

    Make sure Event Manager is running.
  2. When Event Manager is NOT running:
    Let’s restart it but make sure we can see the java process with –classpath in their command line close.

Now in LID on LSF server, run these stop commands IN THIS ORDER:

Verify the java.exe –classpath processes closed, else manually end them.

 

Now start them up IN THIS ORDER:

Now run a pfserv ping all to see if Event Manager is running.

 

Go to Rich Client and check Live Workunits to verify that hung processes are being picked up:

 

This issue can often be prevented with regular Lawson maintenance and monitoring via monthly health checks. Organizations with a single Lawson professional are sometimes spread thin and overwhelmed.

 

To combat this, organizations often hire a Lawson consultant team who offer managed services at a fixed monthly rate. These Lawson teams have a wider range of expertise and knowledge and are ideal for larger organizations but also are great for smaller ones that don’t need a dedicated Lawson employee on-site.