Problem Outline

Prizm or PrizmDoc is a component in Please Review version 6.x that is used as part of the PDF review process. This document aims to provide hints and tips for problem solving when the PDF review or Prizm are not working correctly.

Note: This article only applies if you are on a v6.x version of Please Review, that is any version that begins v6. If you are not on such a version, none of this would apply as we no longer use PrizmDoc and we didn't use it before either.
 
Q) I am not using PDF review at all. Can I choose not to install Prizm?
A) Yes. You may also remove the Prizm executables from beneath the Redist\PrizmDocInstaller directory too to save more space.

Q) Our policy is not to use an interactive user so we are unable to login as that user to install Prizm?
A) This is required for the installation but you can just enable the interactive login for this user for the installation part, and then disable it afterwards. This would only be needed for any install/uninstall steps you might carry out.

Q) I intend to use this Prizm install for multiple Please Review installs. Where should I install it?
A) If the Please Review installs will all be on the same machine, install Prizm in its own directory on the drive – for example, C:\Prizm. You should then create a shared documents directory at a similar location but be aware that this will require additional configuration changes for each Please Review instance (see below or the installation guide).
If the Please Review install is on a different machine to where you wish to install Prizm, note that there will be initial requirements for configuring the Please Review services to see the remote Prizm install and also to access any shared documents drive (see below or the installation guide).

Q) Are there any potential issues if I use this Prizm install for multiple Please Review installs?
A) The only thought of concern here was at upgrade time. If you are applying Please Review patches, they can be done as usual but previously, if you were upgrading Please Review and the new version of Please Review came with a newer version of Prizm, you would have needed to stop all the Please Review instances using the Prizm install while it was upgraded. In that scenario, older versions of Please Review would have continued to work against newer version of Prizm, meaning you would have been able to upgrade the individual Please Review installs one at a time.

However, PrizmDoc upgrades are no longer possible, as any Please Review upgrades now need to be to v7.0 or higher, and this does not include PrizmDoc. If you have some installs on the server on a v6.x version still, you upgrade some to v7.0 and keep the v6.x ones on there too, keeping the existing installation of PrizmDoc so that the v6.x ones can continue to use PDF. Once all instances are upgraded to v7.0 or higher, you can then uninstall PrizmDoc as it would be no longer required.

Q) Prizm install falls over very quickly with no message.
A) If the install fails early, check that not only the login details specified for the Prizm install is a local administrator, but the user you are currently logged into the machine as is also a local administrator.

Q) Prizm install runs for the expected amount of time but then rolls back leaving nothing installed.
A) Ensure that the Windows Module Installer service is running – part of the Prizm install uses the Windows Module Installer service to install some required files. If the Windows Module Installer service is not running, the Prizm install fails and rolls back. The Windows Module Installer service can be stopped again once the Prizm install has completed.

Q) Having used the script, install reports success but the Prizm service does not start and errors point to missing directories. You may also have an unexpected directory created as part of the install
A) Ensure you use an install path without spaces, such as C:\Progra~1\ instead of C:\Program Files\ for example. This is something our Dev team are looking to improve in a future version. If you have done this, then you can uninstall using the uninstall script generated next to the install script and then start over.

Q) I am not using PDF review at all but may in the future so have installed Prizm. Can I stop the two Prizm services and save machine resources?
A) Yes. However, you will notice an informational message in the TaraService.log telling you that it was unable to connect to Prizm to verify the version number. This can safely be ignored.

Q) Do I need to start the two Prizm services in any particular order?
A) No.

Q) Should the two Prizm services be started before or after the TaraService?
A) Ideally, yes but it is not critical. If the Prizm services are not running when the TaraService is started, you will notice an informational message in the TaraService.log telling you that it was unable to connect to Prizm to verify the version number. This can safely be ignored.

Q) How do I know that the Prizm services have started correctly?
A) Make use of the two test URL’s:

• http://localhost:3000/health to check Prizm Application Service is up
• http://localhost:18681/admin to confirm the rest of Prizm is up

<add key="Tara.Pcc.PasBaseUrl" value="http://localhost:3000/" />
<add key="Tara.Pcc.PccisBaseUrl" value="http://localhost:18681/PCCIS/V1/" />

Q) I installed PrizmDoc, involving uninstalling and reinstalling, and some items show as failing on the status page.
A) Did you reboot all the times suggested in the instructions, after uininstalling, after removing the files and after installation?

Q) The PrizmDoc status page keeps showing mongodb as failing, even after restarting the services, and PDF functionality is broken.
A) This could be the Prizm cache somehow causing this. This can be cleared by stopping the Prizm and PrizmApplicationServices and then deleting the contents of the Prizm\cache\ folder, before restarting this. However, another cause could be something conflicting with MongoDB. It could be an old MongoDB process that didn't die but that, in itself, might be indicative of Prizm services not having started/restarted correctly, so a reboot might be the best way to resolve this if you can see the stray processes. If something is continually conflicting with the MongoDB process, the next step would be to see if security software is preventing it running or something else is running on the same port on that machine, for example.

Q) I want my working folder in a common area as I wish to share my Prizm install between multiple Please Review installs. How do I do this?
A) You will need to make two configuration file changes to achieve this.

• First, you will need to edit the Please Review config.xml file in the runtime\config directory. At the bottom of the file is the configuration section for Prizm. You will need to specify the folder you wish to use in the Tara.PCC.DocumentDir parameter
• The Prizm Application Service configuration file pcc.win.yml in the Prizm\pas directory will need a similar change making. The parameter to change is called documents.path. Be aware that this file requires all of the slashes in the path name to be doubled.

Q) My Prizm install and shared documents area is on a different machine. How do I configure Please Review to see it?
A) On a remote machine, you need to use UNC paths when specifying directory locations within the config files.
You should also share the top level documents directory – and any sub directories if this is a shared Prizm installation – and make sure the local Please Review Service account has full permissions.
You should also ensure the local TaraService is running as the local Please Review Service account too.

Q) I’ve configured Please Review and Prizm to be on a separate machine and have configured everything correctly but it still doesn’t work. What should I do?
A) Check the account names that are being used to run TaraService on your Please Review machine, and the Please Review Service account name on the Prizm machine. Although these accounts should both be local administrators for the individual machines, they will also ideally be the same username and password. This will allow the processes to work across the machines with each other successfully.

Q) When I try to prepare a PDF document in a review it fails. How do I get more information?
A) A failed preparation will generate entries in the standard Please Review log files but will also generate its own specific “prepare” log file. The “Prepare” log files are located in the runtime\data\logs directory alongside the TaraService.log and the TaraWeb.log. The file names will be of the format prepare999_Log.txt, where the 999 will be a unique number. Find the most recent file – or one from the time at which your prepare failed – and view that for more information.

Q) When I try to prepare a PDF document, it fails but no prepare log appears

A) No prepare log suggests it failed very early on, either because it can't write to one of the folders it needs to, such as the DocumentFiles one or the PCC folder. It could simply be that the PCC.DocumentDir setting in PR's Runtime\config\config.xml and/or the PrizmDoc documents.path in pas\pcc.win.yml (with double backslashes) are not aligned correctly.

A2) Another thing this can indicate is that PrizmDoc is unlicensed. Check the http://localhost:18681/admin status page and see if it shows as licensed. This is suspected to occur if an re-install of Prizm was done but possibly with the wrong folder selected to uninstall from as it will leave the old License key in place instead of the newer one that is needed. The newer one can be extracted from the Install script and copied in to the prizm-services-config.yml file if you feel confident enough doing that. Alternatively an uninstall and reinstall, should resolve this if the correct paths are used. Failing that, you are welcome to contact support as we can do this for you here on a screen sharing meeting.

Q) My Prepare log shows a 404 error from port 3000. What has caused this?
A) It is likely that there has been a recent configuration change in either the Please Review config.xml or the Prizm pcc.win.yml file. Check both these files to ensure they are syntactically correct, both point to the same locations and the yml file has its paths specified with double slash characters.
If the Please Review instance is using a non-default documents directory, in particular a central directory with sub directories per Please Review instance, ensure the documents directory in config.xml contains the sub-directory as well as the full path to the documents main directory, and the sub-directory is repeated in the subdir parameter.

Q) My Prepare log shows a (500) Internal Server Error after PDFAdapter-PrepareDocument-Fail along with the Temp Directory. What has caused this?
A) You could also check the PDFConversionService.log output and if you see entries that inlcude: ‘Unable to create child process","errorCode":193’, this might suggest an issue writing to the documents.path setting in the pas\pcc.win.yml file. Check this is setup correctly with this double slash characters. Check that the permissions are correct for saving to this location.

Q) Prizm services will not start?
A) Check the Prizm folder (NOT under logs) for the startup-debug and startup-debug-watchdog log files, as these may help to diagnose this. Note that this shows only the most recent startup attempt so would not help diagnosing a previous startup issue that has since been resolved.

Q) Prizm shows as running in Services but the PrizmApplicationService will not start but the status pages for each of these show the opposite ones are working. What’s going on?
A) This can happen if something such as antivirus/security program is blocking the node parts of Prizm from running and/or calling the wmic.exe application we use in Windows. Check such programs for reports of this. This leads on to the next question and answer, which is taken directly from the makers of PrizmDoc.

Q) What considerations should I look at when using antivirus applications with PrizmDoc? Are there any specific applications or folders which should be excluded in order for PrizmDoc to work on a system with antivirus software?
A) As a suggestion, the first place to start would be your antivirus logs to ensure there are no entries specific to the following services:
PrizmApplicationServices.exe
node.exe
conhost.exe
policyhost.exe
wmiprvse.exe
 
If there are you can exclude those files or the following folders where PrizmDoc is installed by default. If you modified the folder name for PrizmDoc ensure to include that name.

\Prizm

\Program Data\Accusoft

Please consult your antivirus documentation for instructions on how to add exclusions.

Q) I’ve made changes to my system but they don’t seem to work. What should I do?
A) Make sure you have restarted everything – this includes:

• TaraService
• Prizm Service
• Prizm Application Service
• Please Review Application Pool

Q) I have some very large PDF documents or PDFs with very big pages (content wise), that I wish to review and they often do not prepare. Also, on inspection, they seem to get to certain pages in the Prepare log but then show a large number of time (ms) having passed before failing. Can I tune the system to make things work better?
A) You can make some configuration changes which may help. In your Prizm install, find the PCCIS\ServiceHost directory and, within that, edit the pcc.config file. At the bottom of that file are four Timeout parameters set to fairly high values. Increase each of these by a factor of 10 then restart everything (as above). Note this should only be needed for versions before PrizmDoc 13.6 as the install script for 13.6 should have increased these already. These are the settings the latest version is putting in place

Q) The document review window is just empty when I try to review a PDF document, no document content appears.
A) Check the managed pipeline mode for the Please Review application pool in IIS Manager is showing as ‘Integrated’ and not showing as ‘Classic’.

Q) The document review window is giving a 404 error.
A) Check the permissions are correct on the PCC folder and that the files have not been moved from this location, or that this is pointing to the correct location. This being on both the PrizmDoc pcc.win.yml side and the Please Review config.xml side.

Q) We notice that the Prizm license appears to be due to expire.
A) Did you use the Prizm install script we provide or did you run the .EXE file to install it? The latter will end up redirecting you to the Prizm website for a trial license, and is the likely cause of your issue. We would recommend uninstalling Prizm and then reinstalling it the correct way, using the script, as per the installation instructions.  If this doesn’t help, then please contact support.

Q) I have everything set up correctly and the prepared files appear in my documents directory but the prepare log shows a 500 error. Why is that?
A) It is likely that the problem is with the Please Review service not being able to access the file. Check to see if the TaraService is being ran as the PR Service Account and not the default account. It is likely that the TaraService is trying to read the prepared file and doesn’t have permission.

Q) I still seem to have issues but I’ve got everything configured as the guide says. What next?
A) Make sure you re-booted post install. The PrizmDoc software seems to need a reboot before it becomes stable.

Q) Everything seems to start okay but at least one of the health check URLs doesn’t work. What have I missed?
A) If this system hasn’t ever worked yet, the first thing to do is check that the PAS YML file doesn’t have any syntax errors. As we change the location of the documents directory as part of the Please Review install, getting too many or two few “\” characters can cause problems.
If this is a system which has been previously working, check the Prizm\logs directory. Prizm generates large amounts of logging (typically over 2.5GB over the course of a week) and it’s common for administrators to purge the log files manually. If you have done this and managed to remove the directories under the logs directory as well as the files, manually add back in a Prizm\logs\pas directory. Note that you may also need to manually create a Pccis0, Pccis1 and Pccis2 folder, under logs, on certain versions too. Restart PAS and it should now work.

Q) The CPU seems to very erratic and often spiking over 90% at certain times. What can I do?
A) This can be a sign of insufficient RAM being allocated. We have also seen these symptoms where installations have tried to use a dynamic RAM alloction, which is known to cause problems with PrizmDoc. We would recommend setting a suitablly high amount of RAM, on a fixed basis, as this resolved the symptoms when this was seen before.

Q) We notice that many WINWORD.EXE and EXCEL.EXE processes start at the same time as Prizm. This seems to be breaking Word document preparations. How can we fix that?
A) There is a switch in the PrizmDoc config that indicates if PrizmDoc is to use LibreOffice or Microsoft Office for conversions of office documents. Please Review does not use PrizmDoc for these formats but the functionality is integrated so has to be enabled. It should default to 'auto' for this setting, which, has always caused it to default to 'libreoffice', despite the comment text suggesting otherwise. However, if those processes are appearing, it is clearly using Microsoft instead of Libre so, so this setting needs changing. To do this, open the prizm-services-config.yml, in the Prizm folder, and find the line that reads:

#fidelity.msOfficeDocumentsRenderer: auto

Remove the # at the start to uncomment the line and then set it as follows:

fidelity.msOfficeDocumentsRenderer: libreoffice 

After doing this, restart PrizmDoc and run a command prompt as an Administrator user to kill off all the processes left behind using the following. There might also be one PowerPoint process in addition to the masses of Excel and WinWord processes so hence that inclusion below. Note that if one is killed that was doing a document preparation, we always try a preparation twice, so that one will then retry. Just avoid repeating the kill commands in quick succession else it risks failing a good doc prep.

taskkill /im winword.exe /f
taskkill /im excel.exe /f
taskkill /im powerpnt.exe /f

In the future, PrizmDoc installations will ensure this configuration is set as libreoffice to avoid any chance of this occurring.

Q) The version of PrizmDoc bundled with Please Review is causing IT checks to flag and we need to update to a newer version if we are to keep using this.
A) Older versions of PrizmDoc would cause this and, as such, we used to have upgrade bundles available to specifically upgrade PrizmDoc. However, we are no longer using PrizmDoc for PDFs in Please Review so the only option now would be to upgrade Please Review to v7.0 or higher as this version does not use PrizmDoc.

Q) How would we go about clustering PrizmDoc in a load balanced type environment?
A) For more information on clustering in a load balanced setup for PR, having referred to the Enterprise Deployment guide (available on the download page for your Please Review version), please refer here:

Please Review Configuration Guide to Clustering

Notes

These Questions and answers are designed to offer guidance to help solve problems that will usually occur soon after an install or when any configuration has changed. If you experience other issues not covered in this document, please raise a ticket with support.