taming homer-app in Homer 7 to make it usable

[Jeff Pyle]

Hello,

I'm working with Homer 7 on Debian 9, freshly installed via bash script.  SIP registration and call capture data is arriving into heplify-server and being stored in Postgres.  In other words, the back-end seems to be just fine.

In contrast the front-end is inconsistent and not intuitive.  Is there documentation for taming it yet?  I've been able to find "The Homer Dashboard" section at the bottom of the homer-seven-setup page, but that's it.

My problems have included:

1. Creating a new admin user yields a blank dashboard.  Fine.  Adding a widget to search SIP calls or registrations yields a widget where the Search button does nothing.  Literally nothing, other than appear to depress when the mouse clicks it.
2. Renaming the existing admin user to something else, and then logging in with the newly renamed user, gives the same result as a new user (see #1).  Renaming is back to admin fixes the problem.
3. Searching for calls gives inconsistent results, especially for recent calls, even after resetting the time frame.  For example, if I reset it to "Last 10 Minutes" and use a search criteria like "SIP To user", I may see a call from 5 minutes ago, but not one from 2 minutes ago.  Then, I clear all the search criteria, and I see only calls from 8 minutes ago and before.  I have verified the results are sorted by create_date descending.  There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to what I see when.  The back-end receives dozens of messages per minute so load is not an issue.
4. I've been clicking the HOMER logo in the top left to return to the dashboard for new searches.  Sometimes the dashboard appears immediately.  Sometimes it takes up to 15 seconds.  I don't understand why.
5. The search results themselves are unusable with so many columns visible.  How does one select which columns are visible?

I don't know if this is a front-end or back-end issue, but how does one restore the functionality of the X-cid header for correlation across a B2BUA?  Or, is there a different preferred approach in Homer 7 to achieve the same goal?

I have limited experience with Homer 5.  I've watched the presentations on Homer 7 and I'm excited, but that excitement has morphed into frustration over the last few hours.  Any advice would be much appreciated.

- Jeff

[John Kiniston]

#1, I get the same thing, users I add don't get the default dashboards and when I try and add a widget it doesn't work, the only account that works is the admin account homer comes with.
#2, I didn't try and rename the admin account.
#3, My searches are also very hit and miss. I know I have a call in the postgres data files, but I'll be damned if I can get the UI to serve it up.
#4, I haven't had this issue.
#5, You can click the little V next to the column you don't want and select 'Hide Column' to get rid of a column you don't want anymore.

I'm looking at re-installing Homer 5.

[Jared Geiger]

I found that my searches weren’t really returning anything over an hour old also. I opened a ticket and they built some indexes in Postgres as well as worked to purge data over 14 days old. I’ve asked them to document the changes that they made to the GitHub wiki. They fixed it two days ago on my install so hopefully the GitHub code and wiki will be updated to reflect these fixes.

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[Jeff Pyle]

John, Jared,

I appreciate your candid replies.  It's a shame Homer 5 is deprecated and unsupported from the authors' perspective given the apparent state of the Homer 7 UI.

What's the recommended procedure for applying updates from GitHub?  Is it as a simple as a 'git pull' somewhere in the local directory tree?  Having installed the stack from the bash script I was rather insulated from the individual pieces.

- Jeff

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[Alexandr Dubovikov]

Hi guys,

sorry for the late reply. Yes,there was the misstyping in the heplify-server's index generator that has been fixed 2 days ago:

https://github.com/sipcapture/heplify-server/commit/034e99a22112e0772904609be208d16a17cb52c1

we have released a new binary:

https://github.com/sipcapture/heplify-server/releases/tag/1.11

and created the new packages for you:

https://github.com/sipcapture/builders#package-repository

we recommend use our repository - there are now packages for heplify-server and heplify-client, but soon we will upload also captagent, homer-app and sipgrep

@Jeff in your case just update the heplify-server. If you want to have result right now, please create the new indexes for tables that already exists:

https://github.com/sipcapture/heplify-server/blob/master/rotator/pgfiles.go#L56-L101

otherwise, drop partitions for tomorrow and aftertomorrow and heplify-server will create a new one with right syntax.

Thank you so much!

Wbr,

Alexandr

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[Jeff Pyle]

Alexandr,

I have to admit I had scrapped my Homer 7 install and I was about to install Homer 5.  Now, with a clean Debian system, what's the recommended way to install Homer 7 to get the latest updates and have the easiest update path in the future?  Packages sound great to me of course, but the prospect of migrating to packages from other approaches can get messy, no?


- Jeff

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[Aqs Younas]

I have a small golang script(may not be clear but serve the purpose) to drop incorrect indexes and apply new indexes on already existing partition tables. Please, adjust the database details and dateRange according to your needs.

Br, Aqs.

[Lorenzo Mangani]

Everyone - Please do NOT roll back to H5 unless you want to walk a dead end and get no support. 

The Homer project needs cooperation and feedback from its users to get stable and solve the existing issues, so the best way to get a stable system is to be part of it by opening github issues and discussions such as this one and help us make it better for everyone - with a pinch of patience (or ready to donate if you want priority) and ready to walk a two way street also validating a fix without dropping the towel :)

We also have pretty big surprises in store but those will not be viable for H5 users - hold on tight and we'll make it to the other side safe and dry!

Thanks!

Kind Regards,

Lorenzo Mangani

Managing Director and Core Dev

QXIP BV - Capture Engineering

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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[John Kiniston]

I re-installed Homer 7 and have opened a couple issues for the problems I am experiencing. @Jeff I hope you have time to do the same.

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[Jean Cérien]

Hi

I am facing the same search issues, and I have to admit, I was real close to switch back to H5.  Two question though:

- How do I update on a classic (non-docker install) to get the heplify-server update ?

- My search results are limited to 200 - even if I set higher values in the top left controls - H5 had a box in the search form to limit the results, it seems to be the same thing though I see no box to change that - how can i retrieve more than 200 records ?

I really like Homer, and I am eager to recover the cool tool that H5 was !

J.

[Lorenzo Mangani]

Hi Jean,

Don't switch back - you'll soon switch forward for an exciting update coming!

- just download the latest release from the heplify-server repository and that's pretty much it

- Limits works exactly the same in H7, just add the limit field and you will find it preset with 200 and ready to be changed

Kind Regards,

Lorenzo Mangani

QXIP BV - Capture Engineering

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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[Gabriel Mangieri]

Lorenzo,

Any estimate on when the update is coming out?  I'm planning on updating my stack soon and would like to wait for the updates to come out before I do so.  Then I'll update the documentation on the Wiki as well so as to keep it current.

Thank you!

-Gabriel M

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[Jean Cérien]

Many Thanks !

- updated the heplify-server

- found the limit

:-)

one more thing (as steeve use to say !)

When I perform an empty search from the box in the Home Screen, I get all records and the query (at the top right) shows:

call: []

When I perform a search on the src ip (default config of the box), see the records, and go back to the main screen, and hit 'Clear', then 'Search', I get NO records at all, and the query appears as:

call: [{"name":"protocol_header.srcIp","value":"","type":"string","hepid":1,"profile":"call"}]

IE it searches for empty strings (which is different from no search criteria).

Any workaround ?

Thx

J

 
          1_call: [{"name":"protocol_header.srcIp","value":"","type":"string","hepid":1,"profile":"call"}]
         

[Ryan Goff]

I too would love some info on how to work with DashBoards and the backend for alias, mapping and what each thing means.  I originally assumed the hepid field was to do with the capture hepID you assign your devices when it pushes the data to the heplifiy server.  Now I'm wondering if its more to do with the database table names since it seems to match up.  Then again a wiki on how, why and what you're configuring that would be nice.  To be honest I'd pay for a download of this solution if it had real documentation. But written by someone who is is new to it so there isn't expectations of knowing the architecture of the product to begin with.

But that said I for sure don't want anything to do with docker installs as personally I think it adds another layer of complexity while I do understand why someone in dev might like it.  Although it does seem the latest linux installer script seems to work better.  Before it seemed to always have issues you had to research to fix.

About a year ago I emailed probably once a week asking to schedule for some paid help to just get the thing running the way I wanted but I never got a response back.  Homer 5 was simple and it just worked.  I'm guessing Homer 7 is probably designed to be more modular but if your not in the inner circle its a pain to try and figure out.

I seem to be in the same boat as alot of people. Got data feeding into the db but its frustrating and difficult to get any data from the web-app.  After I updated to the 7.7 build I no longer can get any data to show in the gui.  SO i just use psql scripts to search and get data out.

I just purchased Navicat for Mac so hopefully it'll make my life easier to build some scripts to get the data out that I need.

[Brian Lonergan]

@Ryan - I had a similar problem with the Homer 7.7 gui but I edited /opt/homer-app/server/config.js file to credentials that had access to the postgres db.  After a restart, the webui could see some of the data in the database.  Still fighting through it though.

[Ryan Goff]

Unfortunately for me /opt/homer-app/server/config.js and /opt/heplify-server/heplify-server.toml match and for grins I did ALTER USER homer WITH PASSWORD 'samePWinBothFiles';

Then did a reboot.  Still not loading anything,  I had a somewhat working Homer7 that was sporadic on loading data.  Then deleted the opt/homer-app and followed the install instructions.  WIth a blank install and data coming into the db hep_proto_1_call.  I still don't get any data to load on the panel just by saying todays date and hitting search with no search criteria.

[Brian Lonergan]

@Ryan - the only other thing I can think is I did something similar by messing with the HEP ID's in the "Mapping" section under Preference section.  I ended up dumping the homer_config database and re-creating it.  Did the trick for me (on Centos7 btw).

https://github.com/sipcapture/homer-app/issues/154

if you are running Centos7, stop homer-app and heplify services and then log into postgres

"drop database homer_config;"

after restarting postgres, starting heplify-server, and homer-app - the data showed up in the UI 

maybe that may help you...if not...Im stumped.  Good Luck

[Lorenzo Mangani]

Ryan and Everyone affected by similar issues,

Thanks for your feedback, we're sorry about your frustration - we're all in the same boat here, but there's good news at the horizon.

Over the weekend we're finally releasing the last "bit" of HOMER 7.7 which should close the circle and make everyone's life a pleasure again, replacing the old backend and installation methods for good. I would invite you and everyone to hold on tight and contribute back a little time to open well documented issues about your experiences with the upcoming release and the overall process, to help us patch and document things all the way to the finish line, and together enjoy the best HOMER and HEP have to offer.

Thanks for your patience - it will hopefully be rewarded ;)

Kind Regards,

Lorenzo Mangani

Managing Director and Core Dev

QXIP BV - Capture Engineering

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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[Brian Lonergan]

Lorenzo - thank you for the update.  Do you have an ETA on when we can download the new homer-app?

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