SirScan: Difference between revisions

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'''SirScan''' is a high performance utility that allows users in a <var class="product">[[Model 204]]</var> Online to browse the contents of its journal in real time.
'''SirScan''' is a high performance utility that allows users in a <var class="product">[[Model 204]]</var> Online to browse the contents of its [[Tracking system activity (CCAJRNL, CCAAUDIT, CCAJLOG)#Overview of the journal data sets|journal]] in real time.


<var class="product">SirScan</var> permits ordinary users to view journal entries generated by their own online session, and it allows users in ADMIN SCLASSes to browse journal entries for any set of users. The data is displayed in a full-screen browser with powerful searching commands and filtering options.
<var class="product">SirScan</var> permits ordinary users to view journal entries generated by their own online session, and it allows users in ADMIN SCLASSes to browse journal entries for any set of users. The data is displayed in a full-screen browser with powerful searching commands and filtering options.


<var class="product">SirScan</var> is part of the <var class="product">[[ULSPF | UL/SPF]]</var> family of products from [[Sirius Software]]. As with all <var class="product">UL/SPF</var> products, <var class="product">SirScan</var> requires the installation of the <var class="product">[[Sirius Mods]]</var>, with a version equal to or higher than the <var class="product">SirScan</var> version. As of Model&nbsp;204 V7.5, the functions and facilities necessary to run UL/SPF are built into the Model&nbsp;204 kernel.
As of <var class="product">SirScan</var> Version 7.7 and <var class="product">[[Sirius Mods]]</var> 7.8, <var class="product">SirScan</var> lets you view either:
<ul>
<li>The journal for the current Online</li>
<li>The journal for another Online allocated to the current Online as a sequential file. </li>
</ul>


==Overview==
<var class="product">SirScan</var> is part of the <var class="product">[[ULSPF | UL/SPF]]</var> family of products. As with all <var class="product">UL/SPF</var> products, <var class="product">SirScan</var> formerly required the installation of the <var class="product">Sirius Mods</var>, with a version equal to or higher than the <var class="product">SirScan</var> version. As of Model&nbsp;204 V7.5, however, the functions and facilities necessary to run UL/SPF are built into the Model&nbsp;204 kernel.
For versions of Model 204 before 7.5, the installation of the <var class="product">Sirius Mods</var> is required and sufficient to install and run the
SIRSCAN subsystem. However, out of the wrapper, SIRSCAN has some limitations in
selecting and formatting journal entries. These are caused by the fact that journal
records contain only a user number and do not contain other potentially useful identifying
information, such as userid, terminal ID, or IP address. So when <var class="product">SirScan</var> scan
specifications in the SIRSCAN subsystem are based on things like userid, IP address, or
port name, there is often no way to determine whether a single journal entry is
associated with the requested attributes or not.


In fact, before <var class="product">Sirius Mods</var> version 6.0, selection criteria based on userid would only
==SirScan topics==
work for currently logged on threads, and then only for journal entries from the current
The <var class="product">SirScan</var> documentation consists of the pages listed below.  
session. This is because, for logged in users, <var class="product">SirScan</var> can determine user number and
This list is also available as a "See also" link from each of the pages.  
login time. From these two pieces of information, it can be sure that all journal entries
for the thread associated with a requested userid, and with a date/time stamp after the
login time of the user, are associated with that user.


Outside of being very limiting — it was impossible to select journal info based on userid
For information about product changes and Model&nbsp;204 feature
for non-logged in users — <var class="product">SirScan</var> could also produce anomalous behavior in autorefresh
support per <var class="product">SirScan</var> version, see
mode (“Auto-refresh mode” on page 20). Because <var class="product">SirScan</var> only collects data
the [[M204wiki main page#Sirius Mods release notes|release notes]].
from the previous end of the interval when in auto-refresh mode, if a userid present and
selected in a previous interval logged off before the data is refreshed for the new
interval, none of the journal records for that user would appear between the end of the
previous interval and the end of the current. Outside of the annoyance of not seeing the
expected data, this could cause confusion among <var class="product">SirScan</var> end-users, because a user's
journal entries might seem to suddenly stop without a logoff record or any other hint as
to why.


In <var class="product">Sirius Mods</var> 6.0 and later, <var class="product">SirScan</var> makes more of an effort to use whatever
For information about product error messages, see [[:Category:Sirius Mods messages|Sirius Mods messages]].
information is available in the journal to associate journal records with userids or other
attributes not actually on the journal records. For example, if <var class="product">SirScan</var> sees a M204.0352
message for a login, it knows that from that time on all journal records for that thread
number are associated with the userid on the M204.0352 message, until the end of the
interval or a M204.0352 logout message is reached for that thread.


In a similar way, <var class="product">SirScan</var> can use the MSIR.0114 message, which indicates a Janus port
{{Template: SirScan topic list}}
and client IP address for any Janus server request, to associate a thread number with an
IP address and port name. Unfortunately, while this approach makes it possible to use
non-thread-number and non-thread-type based selection criteria for sessions that are no
longer active, it also makes <var class="product">SirScan</var>'s behavior even more anomalous and confusing,
because whether or not a journal record is selected might depend on whether or not
<var class="product">SirScan</var> happened to see an identifying message in the journal for that thread.
 
===Historical journals===
As of <var class="product">SirScan</var> Version 7.7 and <var class="product">Sirius Mods</var> 7.8, <var class="product">SirScan</var> can be used to view either the journal for the current online, or the journal file for another online if it is allocated to the current online as a sequential file.
 
==See also==
The <var class="product">SirScan</var> documentation is available in PDF format: <var class="book">[[Media:ScanrNew.pdf|Rocket M204 SirScan User's Guide]]</var>


[[Category:Sirius Software products]]
[[Category:Sirius Software products]]
[[Category:SirScan]]

Revision as of 22:30, 12 October 2015

SirScan is a high performance utility that allows users in a Model 204 Online to browse the contents of its journal in real time.

SirScan permits ordinary users to view journal entries generated by their own online session, and it allows users in ADMIN SCLASSes to browse journal entries for any set of users. The data is displayed in a full-screen browser with powerful searching commands and filtering options.

As of SirScan Version 7.7 and Sirius Mods 7.8, SirScan lets you view either:

  • The journal for the current Online
  • The journal for another Online allocated to the current Online as a sequential file.

SirScan is part of the UL/SPF family of products. As with all UL/SPF products, SirScan formerly required the installation of the Sirius Mods, with a version equal to or higher than the SirScan version. As of Model 204 V7.5, however, the functions and facilities necessary to run UL/SPF are built into the Model 204 kernel.

SirScan topics

The SirScan documentation consists of the pages listed below. This list is also available as a "See also" link from each of the pages.

For information about product changes and Model 204 feature support per SirScan version, see the release notes.

For information about product error messages, see Sirius Mods messages.