MICROSOFT CONFIDENTIAL

Last updated 06/23/2000

 

Project Kalpa is building a viewer for the Enterprise Event Log (EEL). This is the “readme” file for the Kalpa Viewer.

 

Please contact ruchitan or vivekn if you have any questions, concerns or feedback.

 

WARNING: This product is in development stage. Constructive feedback are welcome (at kalpap@microsoft.com).

 

Drop locations

For users in India

\\indiadev\kalpa\builds\latest\drop

For users in Redmond

\\indiadev_us\kalpa\builds\latest\drop

 

The readme.htm file is found at root of the drop locations.

Prerequisites for running the viewer

 

·         W2K or Whistler machine that has WMI bits installed.

·         A mock up database created. There is an eel.mof file in the current directory. You can set up your database by using the command:

o        Mofcomp eel.mof

·         If you have used our previous viewer drop (or prototype) please delete old classes, by doing the following:

o        Run CIMStudio and connect to root\cimv2

o        Find and delete the following classes:

§         Microsoft_EELEntry

§         Microsoft_EELToc

·         EEL Viewer no longer uses the WMI XML Transformer. If you have previously installed the XML transformer for running EEL Viewer, you can uninstall the XML transformer now. To uninstall XML transformer, run:

o         (If you are in India):           run \\indiadev\kalpa\inputs\xmltrans\uninstall.cmd

o        (If you are in Redmond):      run \\indiadev_us\kalpa\inputs\xmltrans\uninstall.cmd

 

Installing the Viewer

·         Map a drive to the above drop location and change directory to the drop location.

·         Run install.cmd file available in current directory.

·         CTRL+C out of the cmd prompt.

·         The viewer will get installed in the directory: %WINDIR%\wbem\EELView.

·         Once the install is complete, you can run the EEL Viewer by starting: %WINDIR%\wbem\EELView\eelView.hta.

·         To run EEL Viewer with a different user context (than the logged on user), use RunAs:

o        Create a shortcut to “%windir%\system32\mshta.exe %windir%\system32\wbem\eelview\eelView.hta”

o        In Properties for shortcut, select ‘Run as different user’

o        On starting the program using this shortcut, runAs dialog comes up to take a different user context.

·         To run EEL Viewer standalone MMC snap-in, run “%windir%\system32\wbem\eelview\eel.msc”.

 

Drop #7 on 6/23/2000: Features/changes since the last drop on 6/7/2000

·         EEL Viewer available as extension in the Computer Management mmc snapin.

·         Drilldown can be resized.

·         Width of table columns is configurable and set to defaults.

·          64-bit binaries available. Testing has not started as yet.

·         A number of bug fixes.

·         Performance improvement in scrolling, drilldown.

 

Major Known issues

·         Sorting does not work (will be fixed as soon as we get sorting support from WMI).

·         For NT event log, there are a number of issues (These will be addressed shortly):

·         Viewer retrieves maximum of 1000 records (in initial connect, as well as, in searches).

·         Sometimes the viewer may fail to retrieve all rows matching a search.

·         Performance is not good.

·         When switching from EEL to NT and vice-versa, performance is not good. Especially when all columns are selected.

·         There are known bugs (nothing major). Those are not listed here.

 

Uninstalling the Viewer

·         Make sure you are not running the viewer (as a stand-alone or as an MMC snapin).

·         Make sure you are not accessing the %WINDIR%\system32\wbem\eelView directory.

·         Map a drive to the above drop location and change directory to the drop location.

·         Run uninstall.cmd file available in current directory.

·         CTRL+C out of the cmd prompt.

·         Delete any shortcut you may have created for starting EEL Viewer.

 

 

Feature History

Drop #6 on 06/07/2000: Features since the last drop on 5/24/2000

·         New binary component for accessing WMI using WMI core APIs. No longer use the XML transformer.

·         Search UI changes (some UI controls moved to the left to adjust for the empty space on the left hand side).

·         Additional search features:

·         ‘Refresh’ button to rerun the current search.

·         Current search condition available as tooltip on Current search text of search status message.

·         Search conditions for date fields are working.

·         For NT event log, search condition can be specified on Message field.

·         Column resizing (using drag and drop) for table columns.

·         Keyboard support in table view/scrolling.

·         Wait cursor shows up for long operations.

·         Performance related:

·         Improved scrolling performance.

·         Only fetch selected fields from WMI.

·         Use fixed table in table view.

·         Help is launched on clicking Help button.

·         Start moving localizable strings to a separate file. The work has been started, not completed.

 

Drop #5 on 05/24/2000: Features since the last drop on 5/17/2000

·         New scroll bar implementation. No longer use the scrollbar ocx.

·         NT security events can be viewed.

·         Remove Event Type from EEL search UI. This is a result of TOC feature not being supported by EEL.

·         No connection UI in right pane of MMC snapin.

·        Performance improvement in presenting data in table (improved data conversion).

 

Drop #4 on 05/17/2000: Features since the last drop on 5/10/2000

·         Remove username/password from connection UI. We will use ‘RunAs’ to run the application is a different user context. ‘RunAs’ will be added to context menu for EEL Viewer shortcut as part of setup.

·         Save search condition with a friendly name.

·         Load a saved search condition and execute it.

·         MMC snapin has EEL and NT event log nodes in left pane.

·         Choose columns and sorting customization have ‘Cancel’ button to cancel changes set in list box but not applied.

·         Performance improvement in retrieving drilldown data (only when needed).

·         Keyboard support on ‘Tool customization’ page.

 

Drop #3 on 05/10/2000: Features since the last drop on 5/03/2000

·         We now use scrolling for viewing the data (changed from a pagination based view)

·         Connections to remote machines is now supported

·         At tool start up, we show you the table view (you get a blank table here).

·         In case of an error, the blank table view is presented.

·         Connection and search related error messages are shown in the blank table view

·         The “namespace” input has been taken away from the “Connection” pane. We hard code this to root\EMM based on EEL Schema spec

·         For drill-down view of NT event log we show the binary data in byte, ASCII and word (like the existing viewer).

·         We have upgraded to the latest schema for the EEL

 

Drop #2 on 05/03/2000: Features since the last drop on 4/26/2000

·         Uses the XML Transformer

·         Uses the most recent EEL Schema

·         Uses TOC class to populate events to drilldown

·         Allow multi-select for choose column ordering and sorting (in customization)

·         Change to 8.3 names (requirement for shipping in windows CD)

 

 

Drop #1 on 04/26/2000: Features since the prototype drop made on 4/03/2000

·         Revamped overall UI.

-         Collapsible task areas

-         More webbish look (in fonts, non-3rd buttons etc.)

·         New UI for search and connection.

·         New choose columns and sorting UI.

·         No left pane for tasks.

·         New choose columns and sorting UI.

·         Viewer as HTML Application (.hta file).