Experimenter Replications Stuck on 'Recording'

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Leo L6 asked Jun 20 2023 at 6:20 PM Natalie White commented Jun 26 2023 at 8:32 PM

Experimenter Replications Stuck on 'Recording'

Hello,

What steps shall I take to debug this error? image:

When I start the experimenter the progress of each replication seems good until it completes and moves into the 'recording' phase which is when it freezes. Each replication runs fine separately in the model view (no errors), it is just in the experimenter which this happens. Unfortunately I'm not able to post the model file but what steps would I take to start debugging this?

Software Version:

FlexSim 22.0.16

experimenter

1687284780302.png (25.9 KiB)

· 1

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Answer 1 · 2023-06-20T19:30:09Z

Jordan Johnson answered Jun 20 2023 at 7:30 PM Jordan Johnson commented Jun 21 2023 at 7:00 PM

During the Recording phase, many things happen:

In the child process that ran the model:
- All Statistics Collectors (including those inside charts) calculate values for any "When value is accessed" column.
- All Calculated Tables (including those inside charts) are updated, if they were out of date. For Calculated Tables set to "By Lazy Interval" or "Always", this means the query for that table runs again.
- If you are saving state, the state file is saved at this point.
- All result data is copied into a special tree, including output/system console stuff.
- The special tree is saved and send to the main process
In the main process that is running the Experimenter:
- The tree from the child is loaded
- The result data is copied to the database
- The status of the replication is changed to Complete
- The tree from the child is destroyed

Usually, issues with the recording phase happen because of a Calculated Table, or a chart with a Calculated Table inside. If there are issues in that stage, the child process can simply exit before it can transfer results.

To debug the issue, try these steps:

Use the test tube button to apply the replications that get stuck to your model.
Reset and run your model to the end time. Watch for exceptions in the system console.
Once the model stops running, open every dashboard in your model. Watch for exceptions in the system console, or crashing, or any issues. Alternatively, see how long it takes to open the dashboard. There is a chance that some replications generate significantly more data than others, although this seems less likely.
If that doesn't reveal issues, view the table for every calculated table in your model. Again, watch for delays or exceptions.

· 6

Leo L6 commented · Jun 21 2023 at 2:51 PM

Thanks for the insight!

So I do have a lot of dashboards/table in this model, but I did try running the experimenter after deleting all the dashboards and tables in the model and the same error happens. Would this eliminate tables/dashboards as the cause of this error? If so, what could be the other causes of this error?

I also used the test tube button to apply replications but the individual replications run fine with no exceptions/errors showing up in the system console.

One more thing that's frustrating about this error is that after it gets stuck in the recording phase, I can't stop the model run. Clicking the stop/start buttons on the experimenter don't appear to do anything. Closing the FlexSim application doesn't stop the processes from running in the background either when I check task manager. I need to force quit through task manager and re open the model to run it again.

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Jason Lightfoot ♦♦ Leo L6 commented · Jun 21 2023 at 3:48 PM

You could try increasing the size of your non-interactive desktop heap as described in the webserver pages of the manual.

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Leo L6 Jason Lightfoot ♦♦ commented · Jun 21 2023 at 6:53 PM

I upped the heap size 4x and still got the same error

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Jordan Johnson ♦♦ Leo L6 commented · Jun 21 2023 at 4:49 PM

Hmm. I don't know how much more we can debug without a model. Here's one more thing to try, that's maybe more direct that what you tried before:

Open your original model. Save it as a new model, for this debugging test.
Apply the scenario/replication that gets stuck, as you did before
Close all the windows except the FlexSim application.
Run the model to the end at max speed.
Run this script in a Script Console:

Map task;
task.scenarioID = 1;
task.replication = 1;
function_s(Model.find("Tools/Experimenter"), "packResults", task);

This is the exact code that fires at the end of a replication. Does it throw exceptions? If not, then you'll need to provide your model for further debugging.

Another thought I had while writing this is that deleting charts doesn't always delete all the parts of the chart. Sometimes, invisible charts are running in the background. Here is a script to delete those. Then try running the experiment again, to see if the issue is resolved.

treenode statisticsFolder = Model.find("Tools/Statistics");
Array usedStatsObjects;
var dashboards = Model.find("Tools/Dashboards").subnodes;
for (int d = 1; d <= dashboards.length; d++) {
    var widgets = dashboards[d].subnodes;
    for (int w = 1; w <= widgets.length; w++) {
        Object widget = widgets[w];
        treenode saver = widget.attrs.find("saver");
        treenode storedNode = widget.attrs.find("stored");
        if (saver && saver.value == "DashboardWebStatGraph" && storedNode) {
            var storedLinks = storedNode.subnodes;
            for (int s = 1; s <= storedLinks.length; s++) {
                treenode linkedNode = storedLinks[s].find("+/~");
                if (linkedNode && linkedNode.up == statisticsFolder) {
                    usedStatsObjects.push(linkedNode);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
var statsObjects = statisticsFolder.subnodes;
for (int i = statsObjects.length; i >= 1; i--) {
    treenode statsObject = statsObjects[i];
    if (usedStatsObjects.indexOf(statsObject) <= 0) {
        print(statsObject);
        // statsObject.destroy();
    }
}

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Leo L6 Jordan Johnson ♦♦ commented · Jun 21 2023 at 6:53 PM

With this script:

Map task;
task.scenarioID = 1;
task.replication = 1;
function_s(Model.find("Tools/Experimenter"), "packResults", task);

No exceptions are thrown.

Your second script to delete the charts doesn't seem to work though. It's throwing 'undefined variable objs'

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