MLS 3.5 restore continues to require finance "file" from Church headquarters

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
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dajoker
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MLS 3.5 restore continues to require finance "file" from Church headquarters

#1

Post by dajoker »

MLS 3.5 has been just dandy, but my old practice of testing the backups (by restoring on another box) is no longer working. Sure, the restore works well enough, but the financial data are all inaccessible pending the great "file" from Church headquarters which will unlock functionality. To recap what has happened:

Upgraded MLS on main computer. This went through the process of getting the great "file" as was documented would be the case ahead of time. No worries here.

Upgraded MLS manually on the other computer (where restores are tested; this computer is also in the office, but is never used to synchronize MLS for obvious reasons).

Took a post-upgrade backup from the main computer and restored it as I have done hundreds of times before on the old computer. Restore works, logout/login, things work, but not Finances. When trying to view old expenses I get the prompt about needing the file from HQ.

Is this normal? The last backup I tried was from two days after the main computer's upgrade, so this isn't anything lingering, or anything with dates close together. I've reinstalled MLS and nuked every file I can find with 'mls' in the name.... sill no go. It'd be nice if MLS could still restore backups as it has done in the past so I know that they are completely valid in case of an emergency.

Searching through this forum has not led me to anybody else hitting this, so it may just be my stake. I'll call HQ if needed, but figured I'd start here in case this is a 3.5 beta blip.

Thanks,
AB
russellhltn
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#2

Post by russellhltn »

Hard to tell if this is intended or not. Since CUBS, there is an issue when doing a restore prior to the last send/receive. This might be a way of alerting CHQ that a restore has been done and steps need to be taken to insure data integrity.
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gregwanderson
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#3

Post by gregwanderson »

I need to understand this. You say you have a second computer on which you have MLS but the second computer isn't officially the one that connects to HQ. Did I understand correctly?

Sounds like a completely unusual set-up which is simply not supported.
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aebrown
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#4

Post by aebrown »

mrrad wrote:I need to understand this. You say you have a second computer on which you have MLS but the second computer isn't officially the one that connects to HQ. Did I understand correctly?

Sounds like a completely unusual set-up which is simply not supported.

The thing we don't understand completely is the role of doing a send/receive in making a restored backup usable. Is that a new requirement of MLS 3.5? I don't know.

But fundamentally, dajoker is simply trying to restore a backup he made in order to verify that the backup is truly good. After all, a backup which can't be restored is no backup at all. Aside from the possibility that a send/receive is now required to make a restored backup actually usable (which he correctly stated he will not and should not do on this other computer), he's simply restoring a backup onto an installed version of MLS. That doesn't seem like such an unusual or unsupported situation -- that's exactly what you would do if you were moving MLS to a new computer.
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russellhltn
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#5

Post by russellhltn »

Well, if we want to test the theory, how about backing up the main machine and then immediately restoring the backup to the same machine and see what happens?

If my theory is correct, the finances will be locked out until one or more send/receives are done. He's got 3 days to work with LUS if it does't unlock.

Or we could wait for a MLS developer to stop by.
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dajoker
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#6

Post by dajoker »

RussellHltn wrote:Well, if we want to test the theory, how about backing up the main machine and then immediately restoring the backup to the same machine and see what happens?

Weep, wail, teeth gnash.... bah!

Okay, so that seemed terribly reasonable. Backed up, logged out, logged in, restored... 'An error has occurred.' My login now fails with a database error that makes me want to cry:

'com.pointbase.me.jdbc.jdbcSQLException: Undefined object: SELECT * FROM USER_ACCOUNT WHERE
[*] USERNAME=?
This is a serious problem that will prevent you from logging in.
[Ljava.lang.Object;@1f8253 has tried unsuccessfully to restore your database. You will need to restore your database from a backup copy before you can proceed.

Kinda wishing I'd backed up the entire MLS backup now. The backup, for the record, worked on the other system (the one for testing backups) though finance is still locked. That makes me think this restore problem could be a fluke, or at least I hope it is.

One small addition: it tells me my password is wrong if I enter it incorrectly; that's almost encouraging that it can tell the difference.
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#7

Post by russellhltn »

dajoker wrote:'com.pointbase.me.jdbc.jdbcSQLException: Undefined object: SELECT * FROM USER_ACCOUNT WHERE [*] USERNAME=?
Bummer. I forget, is this one of the nights that LUS is open late? Last I heard, they were staying open until Midnight instead of just 8PM.
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dajoker
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#8

Post by dajoker »

Dunno... I moved the unit directory (as mentioned in the backup/restore wiki here: https://tech.lds.org/wiki/Lost_user_nam ... _from_disk ) and then recreated from the backup. All is well, latest transactions still show up, payees still missing addresses, and no prompt about finance stuff. This wasn't a perfect test because of that issue but it makes me think there is something outside of the unit that somehow indicates this system has the magical finance file. For now, crisis averted... time to go home before I blow something else up.

Thanks for the suggestion, btw.
lajackson
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#9

Post by lajackson »

I have not been able to restore an MLS backup to another computer since version 3.3 was released. Since that version, MLS has always called for a Send/Receive, which I have declined to do, because I assumed it would cause the backup computer to become the primary computer, putting the regular administrative computer out of commission.

On one occasion under an early version of 3.4, I needed to restore to an administrative computer. The restore called for a Send/Receive, which I did, since it was to the proper computer. The S/R was successful and all was in order.

My suspicion since then, but purely my own idea from my own experience, is that the S/R is now required as a part of the restore process. It would not surprise me in the least find this belief confirmed.
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dajoker
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#10

Post by dajoker »

lajackson,

That's interesting, but has not been my experience. This second computer has never done a Send/Receive. Further, after my blow-it-away-and-start-over due to the restore error, I did not need to do a Send/Receive on the original computer. My current suspicion is that there is some kind of file outside of that <unisNumber> directory which enables finance. I'll post when I find it.

Thank-you all for your input; this has been interesting; I only wish I knew why the restore failed as that was frightening. In better news, I lost about twenty pounds today without exercising. All water weight....
Locked

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