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InterSystems Official
· Nov 7, 2016

Feature Tracker in 2017.1

#System Administration #InterSystems Official

Starting with the Field Test of 2017.1 InterSystems products will include Feature Tracker. It is enabled by default during the Field Test and is explained more fully in the product documentation included below. Information collected by Feature Tracker is limited to technology usage information and instance identification.  This tool has been carefully crafted to not transmit sensitive information related to customer applications or data. It is important to note that sharing of information about your system is under your control and the information being shared with InterSystems is always visible to you.

With this post we would like to solicit your thoughts on the Feature Tracker in general and its default setting of “on”.

Feature Tracker Documentation

 

As part of InterSystems’ ongoing efforts to improve its products in line with customer needs, InterSystems includes a software utility in Caché called Feature Tracker that gathers statistics on software module usage. This appendix describes Feature Tracker.

B.1    Why We Gather Statistics

The statistics track whether or not software modules are present and used in a given Caché instance. Feature Tracker sends this information via https to InterSystems weekly. These statistics help us plan development and support. The gathered information does not include any application data.

B.2    Where Logs Are

If Caché is successful in sending data, it updates the file FeatureTracker.log in the manager directory <installdir>\mgr. This file contains a JSON-format copy of the data that was sent. Each entry has the following form:

"FT.<feature>":<value>,

If Cache is unable to send the data, it tries several more times. If it is still unsuccessful, Cache stops trying and tries again at the next regularly schedule time.

Cache updates the console log file (cconsole.log) with both successful and unsuccessful attempts. An entry showing a suc- cessful send has the following form:

mm/dd/yy-hh:mm:ss 0 %SYS.Task.FeatureTracker transferred data to ats.intersystems.com

An entry showing an unsuccessful attempt to send has the following form:

mm/dd/yy-hh:mm:ss 1 %SYS.Task.FeatureTracker failed to transfer data

Transmitted data includes an encoded license key and host name, as well as the instance GUID.

 

Feature Tracker Collects Usage Statistics

 

B.3    What Statistics are Gathered

The following software statistics are gathered:

Feature Tracker logs whether the following software features are enabled:

•       BitTrakCare

•       BI User (Runtime) and BI Development

•       C-Type License

•DeepSeeRun,DeepSeeAnalyze,DeepSeeModel,DeepSeeReportingDataDefinition,DeepSeeReportingDeepSeeReportingDefinition

•Ensemble

•       ExtremeNoUserLimit

•       Healthshare, Healthshare Foundation

•       iKnow

•       IPNeutral

•       Shadow Addon

•       Web License

Feature Tracker also logs the following:

•       Caché Basic: Compilation and execution

•       Database (DB) Encryption: Enabled and number of mounted encrypted databases available at snapshot time

•Mirroring:Reportswhetherthisinstanceisamemberofaconnectedtoanumberofmembers,number and type of async members, number of mirror sets each async member is a member of

• (MV): Command compilation, of code

•       System: Authorization, Caché version, operating system, host name, instance name, instance ID, order ID

B.4      How to Deactivate Feature Tracker

Feature Tracker is enabled by default. You can deactivate it to prevent it from sending data to Intersystems. To deactivate Feature Tracker, use the Task Manager as follows:

  1. In the Management Portal, select System Operation > Task Manager > Task Schedule.
  2. Locate the Feature Tracker line and select Feature Tracker.     
  3.  On the displayed task detail page, select Suspend.
  4. Answer the question Do you want to reschedule task when task is supposed to run? as appro- priate.
  5. Select Perform this action now to suspend the task.

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