Reporting procedure - fine-grained logs
If you are experiencing issues with any of our applications and wish to help us diagnose them faster, please follow the steps below before submitting a report to our Support.
If you're not a technical user, nor do you have Jira administrator's permissions, reach out to someone who has the permissions and ask them to:
- Set the logging level to fine-grained.
- Reproduce the issue.
- If you managed to reproduce the issue, return to the troubleshooting section and click Download.
- Revert to Warnings only - logging level.
See the video for more information:
Gathering thread dumps
If your BigPicture website or Boxes are loading slowly and you would like our Support to diagnose this issue, it is recommended to generate a thread dump file.
A thread dump file will provide essential information on the processes and threads currently running within the Java Virtual Machine and help our Support solve the issue faster.
Follow the steps described below.
- Open your BigPicture in two different tabs (one of them will be needed to go to the technical settings and the other to reproduce the issue).
- From the first tab, navigate to BigPicture > App configuration > Advanced > Technical Info.
- Go to the "Support data" section and click "Generate thread dumps".
- Set "Number of generated thread dumps" to "10" and "Sleep time between each thread dump generation" to "1".
- Click "Download" and immediately switch to another tab to reproduce the issue.
- From the second tab, reproduce the issue you have encountered before.
- Once you reproduce the issue, you need to wait until the file is downloaded.
- Now, you can attach the downloaded file to your Support ticket.
See the video for more information:
Gathering profiling
In case of slow page loading, it is recommended to download a profiling file. It will help our Support detect the issue faster.
Profiling provides essential information about the code's performance.
Follow the steps described below.
- Open your BigPicture in two different tabs (one of them will be needed to go to the technical settings and the other to reproduce the issue).
- From the first tab, navigate to BigPicture > App configuration > Advanced > Technical Info.
- Go to the "Profiling" section.
- Set "Event type" to "Wall" and define how many seconds you need to reproduce the issue; 30 seconds should be enough.
You need to reproduce the issue during the countdown. If you need more than 30 seconds to reproduce the issue, define it in the "Profiling time seconds" field.
- Click on the "Profile now" button.
- From the second tab, reproduce the issue you have encountered before.
- Once you reproduce the issue, switch to the previous tab and wait until the countdown ends.
- The file will be downloaded automatically.
- Now, you can attach the downloaded file to your Support ticket.
See the video for more information:
This section does not apply to Jira Cloud users due to the nature of Jira Cloud hosting.
More information on the differences between cloud and server versions of the App can be found here.
This section allows you to perform basic troubleshooting actions or (whenever required) extract information that you can later send to the Support Team.
If you've encountered any issues with the App and the problem persists after updating to the latest version, please contact our Support Team via our ServiceDesk, providing as many details describing the error as possible.
Please remember that the more details we have on the issue, the higher the chance that we will be able to help you resolve it in the first reply. We are always more than happy to receive screenshots showing the problem, preferably with highlighted areas where the problem occurs.
Along with the above, we need you to send us information on the version of Jira you are currently using, the version of our application (if you are not using the latest release) as well as the fine-grained logs.
Security and access
- Only Jira administrators can access this page.
- Click the "wrench" icon at the top right and select "Advanced" from the drop-down list. Next, go to the "Technical info" tab.
Technical info and Troubleshooting
The features for checking the cache (Show stats, Show cache providers info) and clearing the cache (Clear cache, Clear permissions cache, Clear Trello cache) available under the App Configuration > Advanced > Technical info page work on Jira Server / Jira Data Center.
On Jira Cloud, the features for checking and clearing the cache are available under the App Configuration > Advanced > Plugin cache page.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Show stats | Show the number of entries in different caches. This reports the cache statistics information and is required in case of occurring performance issues. |
| Show cache providers info | Show all the cache providers - the info will be displayed in a pop-up. The dialogue box won't disappear until you manually close it.
|
| Clear cache | IMPORTANT: "Clear cache" button is NOT available in the Jira Cloud. The button is hidden under a feature flag. If you need to use this button, please please get in touch with support to manage the issue. For Jira Server / Jira Data Center Clear the App's cache, which will result in full synchronization of all the Programs - it triggers a recalculation. Most of the problems with outdated information which can cause errors can be resolved by clearing the cache. Clicking the “Clear Cache" button invalidates the plugin cache which forces complete data to reload from the Jira database for all boxes and all users (full recalculation of all the program boxes similar to recreating the programs from scratch). Depending on the volume of data in your Jira, it can take up to several minutes to execute while the application will not allow data editing during that time. Use it with caution as it will influence server performance and users' ability to work with the application. |
| Clear permissions cache | Clear the App's permissions cache in case the change in permissions is not recognized by the App. |
| Clear Trello cache | Clear all of Trello's cache. |
| Download all locks data | Generate locks report to identify performance issues. |
| Download all cluster lock data | Generate locks report to identify performance issues for Data Center clusters. |
| Release all clusters locks | Release all locks on all Data Center clusters. In Jira Data Centre, some operations require a lock to be placed across all nodes for operations that should only be operated on one node at a time, for example, taking a backup of the index. While releasing the locks might resolve the performance issues on your instance, this information must identify the root cause of the problem and do not release the locks before contacting the Support Team. |
| Release current node cluster locks | Release the current node's cluster lock. |
| Show Integrity checker | The integrity check is the process of comparing the current state of stored data and/or programs to a previously recorded state to detect any changes. |
| Fix integrity checker errors | Fix the identified integrity errors. The most common problem resolved by fixing integrity errors is when the App revers date fields mapped as start/end dates once they are cleared. |
| Lock logging | Enable/disable the lock logging. |
| Maximum tasks to load | Specify the maximum number of tasks in each Box scope. There is no maximum limit. |
| Synchronization time interval | System job checking and synchronizing changes made in Jira (a process known as partial-sync) are configurable. The allowed time interval is 1-10 seconds. |
Generate thread dumps | A log informing about the processes and threads currently running within the Java Virtual Machine. Used in solving support tickets, in particular, in diagnosing performance problems. You can download such logs directly from the Technical info section of the BigPicture Advanced configuration. Refer to the video above for more information. |
| Download Task Relations report |
Generate a zip file containing the report. The file is automatically downloaded to your computer.
state_versions.csv - history of changes of parent/child task relationships and/or dependencies |
Monitoring - Statistic collection
Purpose
Tracking and evaluation of user behavior to optimize software quality.
Examples of statistical data being collected:
quantitative data on how user cohorts interact with the user interface (to optimize app usability)
- statistical data on the use of application services on the backend (to improve application performance)
User-related data
All collected data is anonymous. No personal data is being collected (user id only).
Activation/deactivation
| product | Can statistic collection be deactivated? |
|---|---|
| Jira Data Center | YES |
| Jira Server | YES |
| Jira Cloud | NO |
Basic Troubleshooting
This section allows you to perform basic troubleshooting actions or (whenever required) extract information that you can later send to the Support Team.
If you've encountered any issues with the App and the problem persists after updating to the latest version, please contact our Support Team via our ServiceDesk, providing as many details describing the error as possible.
Please remember that the more details we have on the issue, the higher the chance that we will be able to help you resolve it in the first reply. We are always more than happy to receive screenshots showing the problem, preferably with highlighted areas where the problem occurs.
Along with the above, we need you to send us information on the version of Jira you are currently using, the version of our application (if you are not using the latest release) as well as the Fine-grained Log.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Detailed logging | Three logging levels specify the amount of information that will be stored in our application's logs:
Any information logged here may be crucial when investigating App's errors. Therefore when reproducing an error, always set it to a "Fine-grained" level. |
| Support data | Send logs to our Support Team directly using the app or via our ServiceDesk. |
| Logs button on App screens | Enable/disable the send and download logs button on error notifications. |
Onboarding tour
Turn the onboarding tour pop-ups on/off by toggling the switch.
Synchronization
Technical user
Jira Cloud limitations
When BigPicture is hosted on Jira Cloud the technical user is created automatically and is then used by the app - the technical user defaults to the anonymous user and can't be changed.
Jira Server/ Data Center
The Technical user drop-down feature provides more visibility into updates done by the App during auto-scheduling and field synchronization. You can create a user that will be used by the App (for example, "BigPicture") to easily know that the App itself was responsible for changes.
When the person responsible for a change cannot be put down as the person responsible, the selected technical user is listed as the user making changes to your tasks (instead of an anonymous user (Jira Server fallback user)).
For example, when a task change is committed from BigPicture to an integration instance (such as Jira) and the known user context fails due to lack of user permissions, then the same action is retried using the technical user (that typically should have higher permissions).
- Changes made as a result of a scheduling cascade will be pushed out, even if the user doesn't have permissions for the tasks in cascade, as long as the user has the permissions for the first task that is moved
- Changes made as a result of administrative actions (eg. changing the sub-scope sync field) will be pushed out, even if the user doesn't have permissions for all the tasks
- Beyond these two cases, this change should not allow the user to commit any action that they weren't able to make before
- Changes, where the user had permissions to edit the task but lost them between the permission check and the actual commit, will be pushed out
On Jira Server/Data Center the technical user defaults to the anonymous user but can be changed.
Scheduled synchronization
Jira does not always notify the BigPicture App about changes (for example no events are triggered when a project is removed) - scheduled synchronization mechanism assures that the scope of your work is always up to date.
Performance
Set the maximum number of tasks that a single Box can hold to limit BP's performance impact on your Jira instance. The default value is 100,000 tasks, and there is no maximum limit.
For more information, see our BigPicture Sizing Guide.
The performance can also be improved by increasing the synchronization time interval.