FootPrints Scheduling and Database Services

FootPrints installs a service to run automated processes. This service handles incoming email, outgoing email notification, escalations, mass emails, and scheduled reports. On Windows, FPSschedule.exe is automatically set as a service on the FootPrints server. On UNIX, a cron job is automatically created which runs the file MRrunScheduledScripts.pl. This service replaces the manually created batch files and cron jobs necessary to run automated processes in earlier versions.

It may occasionally be necessary to start and stop the scheduling service manually (Windows only). Follow these instructions to do so:

1. On the FootPrints server, open a command (DOS) prompt.
2. Change to the FootPrints\bin directory, i.e.:
   cd c:\FootprintsServiceCore\bin.
3. To start the scheduling service:
   FPSchedule –i
4. To stop the service:
   FPSchedule –u
5. FPwatch is a backup service to FPSchedule. It restarts the schedule service if it was stopped. It takes the same command line arguments as FPschedule.exe:
6. Install the service:
   FPwatch -i
7. Uninstall the service:
   FPwatch -u

8. Print out scheduling debugging information to etc/watchLog.txt (only if requested from BMC Support):
   FPwatch -d

   Warning

   Note

   The fpservice.exe for Windows versions of FootPrints was removed in FootPrints 6.5. Windows Access, MS SQL Server, and MS SQL Express versions now use DBI/DBD to access the database (fpservice is no longer needed). This allows more connections and eliminates the chance of the service hanging or requiring a restart, which increases performance and removes a single point of failure, which increases reliability. If you are using a version of FootPrints from before release 6.5, the database services are automatically uninstalled on upgrade. Calling FootPrints database commands has also changed.  Refer to FootPrints API for more information.