Introducing the Support Console

When a workflow errors it’s important to quickly get all the information you need to address that error as soon as possible. This may include data about the workflow, your Nintex and SharePoint configuration, and, in some cases, the Unified Logging Service (ULS) logs.

With this in mind, I’d like to introduce Support Console. Support Console is available in the latest release of Nintex Workflow 2010 and 2013, and it’s designed to make it not only easier for you to see when workflows have errored, but quickly and consistently pull together the required information you need to resolve the error.

Support Console, accessed via Central Administration in Nintex Workflow, provides you with a single view across workflow errors in your farm and a simple alert that lets you see at a glance how many errors have occurred in the farm in the past 24 hours.

As you can see, there is now a single central view of all workflow errors, showing the workflow name, location, workflow initiator and when the error itself occurred. Clicking on the workflow name will link you through to the workflow details page so you can see where the workflow errored. Likewise, you can click through to the underlying site, or use the seamless Lync integration to reach out to the workflow initiator via IM, voice or email.

If the cause of the error isn't immediately obvious, you can choose to generate a support package which will pull together all the relevant support assets either for local troubleshooting or to send it off to your support partner or Nintex Support.

The package contains a number of assets including:

• Workflow information (details of the workflow design, history and other logging)
• Nintex configuration (details of how Nintex Workflow is configured on your farm) SharePoint Configuration (details of the topology, patch level etc.)
• Combined ULS Logs (a merged version of the ULS logs from across all servers in the farm for the length of the workflow, or up to a maximum of 1 hour)

All of these assets are packaged up into a convenient zip file that can then be downloaded, reviewed and forwarded onto your support staff / partner.

We recognized that not all errors will be bound to a workflow, so we also provide the ability to generate a Farm Support Package which contains all the above assets with the exception of the workflow information.

Finally, we've included a dedicated in-product link to Nintex Connect, our community support site where we will be publishing troubleshooting tips and tricks and other common support issues to make it easier to find the information you need to address the error and move forward.

If you’re a software assurance customer, the support console is available in Nintex Workflow 2010 v2.4 & Nintex Workflow 2013 v3.1 released on October 29th.

We’re excited at the benefits the new Support Console will bring and hope you are too. Try it out and give us your feedback through nintex.uservoice.com.