Knowledge Base

Installation

Installation-related tips-n-tricks

NoldusHub Starts in Browser, But Does Not Proceed to the Login Window

In 9 out-of-10 cases, this problem occurs after installation. The most likely cause is that some or all customer-specific fields in the .ENV file are not updated during installation.

Solution: Update the required fields in the ENV file:

• IP Address
• DNS name
• Certificate password (>v1.4)

After Installation: No Frontend, Containers Keep Restarting

Physical servers are configured at Noldus, and need some reconfiguration at the client. Descriptions are given in the Installation Documentation. It was observed at different occasions that the NoldusHub server was not available after reconfiguration. At closer inspection, some docker containers were observed to be restarting. This was due to errors in .env files.

Solution: Inspect docker containers on the server, use PowerShell with the command:

docker ps

Then, check the up-time column: do some containers show shorter up times that remain short after refresh (type the same command again). The FileStorage service was observed often as one of these.

If some containers restart continuously, this is most likely because the configuration file (.env) has incorrect specification of the new (at-premise) computer name, host name, or DNS. When installing at a customer site, this has to be reconfigured.

Saved Session Lost Significant Portion of Facial Expression Data

This problem is mostly observed in 4-station setups using v1.6, but may also occur in later versions serving more than 4 stations. The main reason that not all facial expression data is saved is that not enough CPU resources are available for the Video Web Service during recording.

Solution: Check whether CPU affinity settings are applied correctly, and correct settings if needed.

Plugin State Often Jumping Between Online and Unresponding

The observation that Nlinx plugins on the participant station appear to be loaded and removed repeatedly is referred to as 'plugin ping-pong'.

Solution: Check whether CPU affinity settings are applied correctly, and correct settings if needed.

After Installation, Eyetech Eye Tracker Does Not Work, Gaze Fixed at Top Left Corner

It was observed upon several occasions that after installation of a newly unboxed Eyetech eye tracker on a cleanly installed system, the eye tracker could not be calibrated, and the gaze overlay was fixed at the (0,0) position (top left side of the screen capture window). In addition, the gaze projection did not respond to the gaze of the person in front of the eye tracker, although the eye tracker did detect both eyes (indicated by both green lights in the eye tracker).

This failing gaze detection was the result of missing calibration information. As long as there was no successful calibration made, the gaze position remained at (0,0). To overcome failing calibrations, the eye tracker needed to be positioned exactly below the screen, with the right angle and distance to the subject. Only then would calibration succeed, and calibration info could be used to calculate actual gaze positions.

Upgrading

Issues observed when upgrading NoldusHub, and their solutions and workarounds.

Errors After NoldusHub Upgrade

After upgrading NoldusHub to a newer version, the Test Leader PC may produce errors while recording. Still, recordings can be viewed after completion.

Solution: This problem is most likely related to conflicting content produced by the previous version in the browser cache. Clear the browser history (empty cache) and try again.

After Upgrade, Old Version Still Remains

Observed problem: When upgrading v1.4 to v1.6.2 remotely on ChinaHub, upgrading containers took exceptionally long, and when finished, NoldusHub version was still 1.4.

Closer inspection of the upgrading steps showed that:

• Installation package 1.6.2 was successfully copied to the ProgramFiles folder
• The older package was successfully renamed NoldusHub.old
• The package for 1.6.2 was renamed to NoldusHub
• When running the InstallNoldusHub.bat installation script, the above renaming changes were automatically reversed: NoldusHub.old was automatically renamed to the original name, and the added package was removed. Therefore, effectively v1.4 was re-installed. Most likely, edits to the ProgramFiles folder were undone by the operating system.

Solution: Move the older package to another folder before placing the new package in ProgramFiles.

Known Issues

Known-issue-related tips-n-tricks.

Unresponsive Plugins (< v1.6)

Problem: Device plugins may disconnect in versions earlier than v1.6, and stay disconnected, causing the absence of signals that the user wishes to record.

Explanation: Versions before 1.6 do not have device-plugin reconnect logic. In addition, RabbitMQ configuration and process isolation of RabbitMQ are not optimized. Because of this, services may become unresponsive and plugins may be disconnected. The chances of this happening increase with the number of participant stations connected.

Solutions: Depending on the severity of RabbitMQ instability, two solutions may help, a mild solution and a less mild one.

1. The mild solution: Remove disconnected plugins on affected participant stations and restart them:
   1. On the participant station that has disconnected plugins, open Nlinx Agent and remove disconnected plugins.
   2. Load the plugins again and wait until connected, or repeat up to two times if no reconnect occurs.
   3. If reloading the plugins twice does not resolve the issue, choose the less mild solution.
2. The less mild solution: Remote-connect to the NoldusHub server and restart it:
   1. On each participant station, one after the other, open Nlinx Agent and remove all plugins.
   2. Go to the DockerDeployment folder and run StopNoldusHub.bat.
   3. Wait until all services are properly stopped.
   4. Run StartNoldusHub.bat and wait for all services to start.
   5. One participant station after the other, open Nlinx Agent on each participant station, connect the Nlinx Agent to the NoldusHub server, and load all plugins.

Source: NoldusHub 1.7 Tips and Tricks, Noldus Information Technology