Publisher crashes accessing multilayered BPMN models

Mark DeBeaumont on July 21, 2014

We have been struggling with our ARIS Publisher in presenting complex BPMN 2.0 models. Any models that have more than two layers of relationships causes the Publisher server to crash.

Our support team has been working on this issue since June 6. We involved SAP support several weeks ago, but they have not provided any resolution either.

I have teams of process modelers, who need to present their models to our enterprise. We have several major process initiatives underway for this year. We have resorted to Visio diagrams within html pages to satisfy current needs. This is not user friendly or a value added solution.

Have others had similar issues with ARIS Publisher?

Are there recommendations for an alternative tool to render models in presentation mode?

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9 Replies

Karl Wagner on July 22, 2014 - 09:09

Hello Mark,

this sounds very strange, to be honest.

Just talked to our colleagues internally and they are not aware of this incident. and in general such a kind of problem.

Can you ask SAP support to contact Software AG Support?

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Frank Hubacek on July 22, 2014 - 10:25

Hello Mark,

If you already reported the issue to the SAP support, what is the message no. of this ticket?

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Mark DeBeaumont Author on July 22, 2014 - 17:30 as Reply to Frank Hubacek

Sure Frank,

The SAP incident number given back to me was: 672354/2014

Our support for our ARIS 7.1 environments is initially provided by Wipro. They reached out to SAP support when they could not resolve the issue themselves. It's been a very frustrating process for me.

Overall, the publisher server is running and other models are being rendered fine. Exports work properly. etc.

The problem occurred when we connected multiple BPMN 2.0 models together via relationships. We start with a level 1 model and it proliferates to several level 2s, multiple level 3s, and so one.

I have similar relationships with EPC models. They have not had the same issues.

If all the BPMN 2.0 models are connected and a user tries to render the parent models (level 1 or level 2), the system freezes and the server is unresponsive to any users. If I break the relationships at the level 2s, They render correctly. You just have to manually bring up the level 3s.

I've asked about the DB tables and of capacity items which might be a resource issue. I've been assured that is not the problem.

Now, I'm in a holding pattern until the problem can be identified.

Mark

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Frank Hubacek on July 23, 2014 - 09:49

Hi Mark,

This ticket has already been forwarded to us by SAP but to be honest, information flow is slow.

Can you tell me who Kousik Maity is, please?

Thx.

Frank

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Mark DeBeaumont Author on July 23, 2014 - 15:05 as Reply to Frank Hubacek

Hi Frank,

Kousik is the head of our Wipro (AMS) support team. His group are the ones supporting the issue with ARIS.

The most recent information I received seems to indicate a bug in the 64-bit JRE. They are in the process of confirming this.

Of course, their short answer is to upgrade. Something we were putting in our plan for next year. I would like to take advantage of the new functionality and we have numerous business areas wanting to leverage the modeling tool.

However, the system we have should be able to present our BPMN 2.0 environment. I would prefer to have this issue resolved and understood by the team on the current version. Upgrades can have a whole other set of issues on their own.

Mark

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Frank Hubacek on July 23, 2014 - 16:01 as Reply to Mark DeBeaumont

Hi Mark,

Unfortunately we do not yet have the database with the corresponding diagrams. There where issues uploading it to our FTP server and we were not able to download it from the SAP storage.

We assume it's not a general issue of the BPMN diagram type but of a graphical element in your specific model.

We are sure the cause is the Java 64 bit for Windows bug because Kousik wrote it wouldn't occur under a 64 bit Linux installation. But we can only confirm this when we have the database for analysis.

This Java bug can only be bypassed with the current ARIS 7.2.6 version.

Therefore I can't provide you another solution here in the community neither. We continue to work on your incident with SAP and communicate our results and recommendations there.

Thank you for your understanding.

Frank

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Frank Hubacek on July 24, 2014 - 13:47 as Reply to Frank Hubacek

Hi Mark,

Our assumption is right, it's because of the Java 64 bit bug.

In the SAP message we provided the solution for this specific diagram but it's strongly recommended to update your very old version to avoid such issues in the future and with other models.

Frank

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Mark DeBeaumont Author on July 24, 2014 - 14:32 as Reply to Frank Hubacek

Hey, that is great news Frank,

We have an upgrade on our schedule, but if we have a temporary fix to get us through until then, it will keep ARIS in a good light. Our business was very frustrated and discouraged all their work was not available to the enterprise.

I'll be interested to know what the specific issue was and understand your resolution.

Really appreciate your help in all this, thanks again.

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Mark DeBeaumont Author on July 24, 2014 - 23:35 as Reply to Frank Hubacek

Hi Frank,

I sent the problem back to SAP.

Your model correction allowed CPM-L0 to render and load in publisher. But when I drill down to the next assignment CPM-L1, it sits at 'Loading' and never returns. I noticed a change in scaling of CPM-L0. Is there something you did specifically to the CPM-L0 model or objects that I can apply to the others that would resolve this problem?

Thx

Mark

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