Frequently Asked Questions

1. Where can I download NetCharts Performance Dashboards?
2. Where do I go to get the authorization key in NetCharts Performance Dashboards?
3. I installed the trial version of NCPD but I don’t know the login?
4. After installing NetCharts Performance Dashboards, I can only access it from the local server.
5. Can NetCharts Performance Dashboards run on a port other than 9880?
6. What are Visual Mining’s recommendations for a system that will host NCPD?
7. I’ve created a new dashboard page but it’s empty. What do I do now?
8. I completed my test on my test server/local system and now I need to migrate it to our official NCPD instance. Can I move my configuration?
9. In the Data Sources screen I see an empty field, get a warning about Java or I see an empty box when I select an Excel based data source.

1. Where can I download NetCharts Performance Dashboards?
   You can download a fully functional evaluation copy of NetCharts Performance Dashboards here:
   https://visualmining.com/try-ncpd/

 
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2. Where do I go to get the authorization key in NetCharts Performance Dashboards?
   Here’s how to get the Authorization Key once you have installed NetCharts Performance Dashboards (NCPD):
   1. Launch NCPD.
   2. Select “About” from the Help menu in the NCPD Main Menu on the far right.
   3. Highlight and copy the Authorization Key.
   4. Paste the Authorization Key into an email with the subject NetCharts Performance Dashboards License Request and send to Customer Support.

 
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3. I installed the trial version of NCPD but I don’t know the login?
   During the installation if you chose the “Express” configuration method, a single default Administrator is available. The username/password will be lower case ncpd / ncpd.

 
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4. After installing NetCharts Performance Dashboards, I can only access it from the local server.
   Check the firewall installed on the local server. NetCharts Performance Dashboards runs on port 9880 by default. In the firewall add a configuration to allow access to port 9880 from external systems. If you change the port, make sure to enable access through the firewall for that port.

 
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5. Can NetCharts Performance Dashboards run on a port other than 9880?
   Yes. You can change NetCharts Performance Dashboards to use any port. For example to use port 80, manually edit the C:\Program Files\Visual Mining\NCPD Enterprise\liferay\conf\server.xml file using a plain text editor such as Wordpad. Change the property Connector port=”9880″… to Connector port=”80″… . After saving the file restart the NCPD Web Service via the Windows Services Control Panel.

   Additionally, you may also want to change the Start Programs menu item to reference port 80 by making the equivalent change to the “start.html” file:C:\Program Files\Visual Mining\NCPD Enterprise\start.html.

 
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6. What are Visual Mining’s recommendations for a system that will host NCPD?
   You can find the minimum server specifications for a system hosting NetCharts Performance Dashboards here: https://visualmining.com/ncpd/. If you have a better system available it’s recommended that you select it since once you start using NCPD you’ll find more and more users will want access, which means an increase of requests to the system.

   If you are going to host a database used for reporting on the same system, increase the processor and HD space to handle the database and application and bump the memory to 16GB RAM, especially if we are talking about large databases.

   Performance wise NCPD is generally very responsive and database response will normally dictate the total solution performance. NCPD will pass requests to the database from your users as they request the dashboards and we generally find that most databases have not been used in an environment with continual, multiple, concurrent requests. The server hosting the database is probably ‘right-sized’ for the current usage but not when reporting is added to the requests so we would recommend evaluating the server hosting the database and whether it will be able to support the increase of requests that will come from using any dashboard or reporting system.

 
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7. I’ve created a new dashboard page but it’s empty. What do I do now?
   The “NetCharts Performance Dashboards Tutorial” page includes the steps of how to add KPI’s to a dashboard.
   https://visualmining.com/resources/netcharts-performance-dashboards-tutorial

 
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8. I completed my test on my test server/local system and now I need to migrate it to our official NCPD instance. Can I move my configuration?
   Yes. NetCharts Performance Dashboards includes a backup and restore capability. This functionality creates a nightly backup of the NCPD configuration automatically. And at any time Administrators with privileges to the server can create a manual backup. These backup files can be used to restore a fresh installation to the state when the backup was created, even on another NCPD instance. The backup files are located in <installdir>\Visual Mining\NCPD Enterprise\postgres\backup (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Visual Mining\NCPD Enterprise\postgres\backup).

   To restore the KPIs and dashboards from the old server to the new one, first copy the backup file to the same folder on your new server instance. Next, start the NCPD Archive Management application (under the Start->Programs->Visual Mining->NCPD Enterprise program group). Select the Restore tab in the interface and highlight the backup you wish to restore from. The restoration process will take anywhere from 30 seconds to 10 minutes based on the amount of content. During this time all users must be logged off of NetCharts Performance Dashboards.

   After the restoration process has completed, we recommend you verify the that Data Sources are available and accessible. If the Data Sources were located on a server that is not accessible by the server hosting NCPD the Data Source will highlighted yellow in the list of Data Sources. You can update the properties of the Data Source, use the Test function to verify and select Finish to update any connection information.

   As a reference, please see Backup and Restore under the NCPD Help Contents.

 
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9. In the Data Sources screen I see an empty field, get a warning about Java or I see an empty box when I select an Excel or Access based data source.
   The File Chooser feature to select Excel or Access files as a Data Source runs as an applet. If you run NetCharts Performance Dashboards within a browser without required applet support, the Data Source configuration page will show a blank text field to allow you to manually enter the path to the Excel or Access file.

   If you see a warning about Java, this means the browser has support for Java applets but cannot run the File Chooser due to security restrictions. In this case consider lowering the security restrictions for Java applets on this page to Medium or Low or use another browser. If neither option is available contact Visual Mining Technical Support for more options.

   As of April 2015, starting with Google Chrome Version 42, Google has added an additional step to configuring NPAPI based plugins like Java, Silverlight, Facebook Video and Unity. These steps must be taken to then use the File Chooser function with Google Chrome
   (from the Oracle documentation https://java.com/en/download/faq/chrome.xml):

   Enabling NPAPI in Chrome Version 42 and later
   As of Chrome Version 42, an additional configuration step is required to continue using NPAPI plugins.

   In your URL bar, enter:
   chrome://flags/#enable-npapi
   – Click the Enable link for the Enable NPAPI configuration option.
   – Click the Relaunch button that now appears at the bottom of the configuration page.

 
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