Security Server Exception – No record found for given key PDLSET1 in PRODLINE

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This error message “No record found for given key PDLSET1 in PRODLINE” can rear its ugly head in multiple ways.  The most common way is when you log into Lawson Security Administrator and see the message below.

After you click Ok on both messages, you will see that the data sources are not visible.

In this case, the best way to resolve the issue is to stop and start the Lawson services in the proper order (or reboot the Lawson server).  First, stop all the IBM services and the lawson.insight service.  Make sure everything comes down.  Check the task manager to make sure no java processes are running, and no “laxxxx” processes are running.

Next, bring up the services in the following order:

  • insight environment
  • IBM Cell Manager
  • IBM Node Manager
  • IBM Application Server

If you see this error message when trying to build RM Queries or Updates in IP Designer, but you are not seeing it in LSA, then you can stop and start the pf services on the Lawson server.  Open a command line utility and set the Lawson environment variables (or log into a LID session).  Run these commands in this order:

  • stoppfem
  • stoppfrmi
  • startpfrmi
  • startpfem

Activities or Projects can have multiple types of Budgets

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Activities have multiple budget types available.

They can be Life Only Budgets – just to make sure that you have not gone over the total budgeted amount for the project.  This works well when:

  1. The project spans multiple years to be completed such as a new building
  2. You are managing your project budget in a different system and just want to know if you have exceeded the total budget for a project.

They can be Annual and Period budgets – these automatically interact.  If you make a change at the period level, it will be reflected in the annual view and if a change is made to the Annual budget, it will be reflected in the Period Budgets.

There are multiple ways to create budgets:

  1. You can spread a total budget amount over multiple years or just a single Fiscal Year. You can create spread codes that allow you to determine how to spread the amounts – periodically, Quarterly, every other month, etc.
  2. You can use a Compute Statement to create the budget
  3. You can create a budget based on Last year’s Budget or Actuals
  4. You can create a budget for both or either amounts or units.

You can budget at multiple levels

  • Activity Group – least detailed – all activities in this group will be included in the budgeted amounts
  • Activity Only – this is for a specific activity and would be for all account categories
  • Activity and Summary Account Category – If you use summary account categories in your structure, you can create a higher level budget for things like CapEx and Opex instead of creating a detailed budget for each type of cost.
  • Activity and Account Category – this is the most detail level budget for each activity for each type of expense or revenue item.

Budget Edits – will not allow transactions to post to an activity if it will exceed the budgeted amount plus any tolerance specified.  A good way of getting around causing the budget edits to prevent transactions is to add a large tolerance, like 99%  – basically doubling the budget before edits will prevent new transactions.

Budget Edits for the General Ledger

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You can build a budget by Company – accounting unit and Account.  You can edit a budget in a number of ways.

What does it mean to edit a budget?

You create a budget at the detail level but you are only concerned that the budget for the accounting unit (cost center) stays under budget for the fiscal year.  Not each individual account.  Things change throughout the year and managers are responsible for moving budget dollars from one account to another as things change.

Using budget edits at the accounting unit level allows your personnel to enter transactions and not getting over budget messages when the entire budget for the accounting unit hasn’t been breached yet.

What you need to make this work:

  • On GL10 you need to indicate that your budget edit is summarized. This is on the Budget tab.
  • On FB11 – create budget groups that indicate the accounting unit and the group of accounts that you want the budget associated with. Some users do only their expense accounts, some do edits by summary account.  This is very flexible and can even include more than one accounting unit if a department has more than one.
  • Build the budget edits. This can be done one at a time on FB11 or for all edit groups using FB111.  Keep in mind that the company- accounting unit – account combinations can only belong to a single budget edit.

That’s all there is to setting them up.  Now you have control over how you receive over budget messages throughout your system.

 

Using an Office 365 SMTP Direct Send MX Endpoint for Lawson Business Intelligence

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When setting up an SMTP host and user email inbox for LBI and or Smart Notifications, you may want to consider using an MX (Mail Exchanger) Record for your next setup via direct send. This can not only save you on license costs, but also skip the need for setting up an inbox.

 

If you’re not a network admin and solely working within Lawson, you’ll need to reach out to one to setup the MX Record for you. You can also read up more on this topic here if needed.

 

Once setup, the network admin will send you an MX Endpoint URL similar looking to this: contoso-com.mail.protection.outlook.com

 

 

  1. Now in LBI go to Report Administrator
  2. Under Server Administrator >> Select Email and Printer Settings
  3. Under Device Type Tools >> Select Manage Device Types >> Select Email
  4. Copy the MX Endpoint into the Host field, the From address could be anything you prefer
  5. Now go to Smart Notifications (if needed).
  6. Select Admin >> under Settings >> Select Install Validator
  7. Under Field 16, select “Click here to modify”
  8. Enter same settings:
  9. Now run some smart notification and LBI tests to verify all is working. Make sure you check your junk mailbox. Good luck!

Scanned Invoices no longer displaying in Lawson Portal for MHC IXDrill

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There are a few common reasons why scanned invoices may stop showing up in Lawson Portal via MHC’s IXDrill.

 

Reason 1 – IXDrill is outdated on the user’s PC and may need a newer version (assuming auto-update is not enabled or working).

Reason 1 resolution: The server’s version of IXDrill may have updated, you’ll need to contact MHC or your organizations Windows IT support to get a newer version installed of MHC IXDrill

 

 

Reason 2 – Error: Cannot connect to ixQueryEngine Server

Reason 2 resolution: The server’s IXQueryEngine process may have crashed and your organizations local IT windows support may need to reboot it. Alternatively, the server may have migrated to a new virtual machine and the URL in your IXDrill settings will need to be updated.

 

 

Reason 3 – Incompatible or Outdated Browser

Reason 3 resolution: Contact MHC to get a compatibility matrix for browser supported with the version if IXDrill you’re currently using or contact your Lawson support team to verify the browser in use is also supported with Lawson Portal.

Resolving LBI Error: There are not any Rights on File for the requested User

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Lawson Business Intelligence has this common issue where users load up a report and get an error that they don’t have the proper rights to access a report setup with bursting. At first glance it appears they are all setup but are they?

 

Resolution:

  1. Login into LBI (must have admin rights) >> Tools >> Report Administration
  2. Go to Maintain Rights and filter down on the user that is having this issue:
  3. At this point it appears the user is setup correctly but there are two checks that need to be done.
    • Verify the report the user is accessing (assuming it’s a historical instance) was generated after the Start Date field, else change the Start Date to an earlier date to resolve.
    • Click on the blue green people icon to make sure the user’s bursting rights weren’t setup before the user synchronized into LBI from LSF.
  4. If you see the user is categorized as a (Custom Group), delete the users current rights.

Delete:

  1. LBI dashboard >> Tools >> Synchronize Users and Roles >> Click Synchronize
  2. Go back and create the users rights and verify the (Custom Group) is no longer displayed near their name.

Hope this was helpful, good luck!

Resolving Lawson IPA Error: Unable to lookup RMI object

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If you’re reviewing an Infor Process Automation log and notice the “Error: Unable to lookup RMI object rmi://localhost:16003/dbSecurity” or something similar firing on a FileAccess node, this means your bpm.ear config file got updated (possibly from an environment update) and needs to be fixed.

To resolve this, you’ll need to update the dbrmihostname field from “localhost” to the LSF server domain name in the bmp.ear file. See steps below.

 

To update the bpm.ear and bpm.war files follow the steps below:

  1. You must run the command from the same directory as where the bpm.ear file and bpm.war file exist:

cd %GENDIR%/assembly/products/bpm/jar

  1. Execute the perl script to rebuild the files, providing the new RMI port and hostname of your LSF machine:
    • perl %GENDIR%/bin/updateArchive.pl <RMI_PORT> <HOSTNAME>
    • Example: perl %GENDIR%/bin/updateArchive.pl 16003 lsfserver.domain.com
  2. Redeploy bpm.ear in WebSphere from the %GENDIR%/assembly/products/bpm/jar directory.
  3. Generate and Propagate the Plugin in WebSphere.
  4. Restart Process Flow.
  5. Restart the LSF WebSphere Application Server(s).
  6. Restart the web server.