As published in this CU*BASE alert, the 18.12 release caused errors on some individual workstations that required special handling in order to launch CU*BASE GOLD on Monday morning, December 10. This post explains what happened and steps we are taking.
One of the minor changes we made with the 18.12 release involved activating a newer version of a DLL file* that LegaSuite uses. Unbeknownst to us, this newer version was dependent on a handful of other files being loaded in specific locations on the PC. Testing was done on numerous workstations, but since only one workstation happened to be missing those files, we did not connect the dots that the newer DLL version was the culprit.
*What’s a DLL file? In a nutshell, it’s a type of file that contains instructions that other programs – such as LegaSuite, for example – can call upon as needed to perform various tasks. Sometimes a DLL is dependent on other, additional files to process those instructions, and if it cannot find those in the specific location where it’s looking, an error message results.
On Monday morning when the calls started coming in the picture became clearer that some PCs either didn’t have these files at all, or that they were in a different location from where LegaSuite was expecting to find them. An alert was sent at 8:43 a.m. while we pulled together our recommendations. Based on our analysis we determined that the most practical solution was to reinstall those files via standard MS Windows installers. The alert sent at 8:55 a.m. included links to versions for both Windows 10 and Windows 7, but it quickly became clear that the Windows 10 version was the most effective solution and worked on Windows 7 machines as well. At 10:45 a.m. the alert was updated to recommend using the Windows 10 patch only.
We recognize that Monday was a very trying morning for many of your teams as they scrambled to load patches on workstations. We regret that our test conditions did not uncover this situation and sincerely apologize for the frustration and inconvenience. We do have to congratulate all of your IT teams for really stepping up and responding quickly. By noon the number of calls in our queue had fallen off dramatically, as many of you quickly came up with creative mechanisms to deploy the patch across all of your workstations. We appreciate all of your hard work!
Our teams continue to research other techniques we might employ to help us pinpoint these types of potential problems before they hit the streets. While we cannot guarantee that an unknown ripple effect like this could never happen again, we will continue to push forward to make our release process as smooth as we possibly can. We will also be updating our installation instructions and procedures to ensure the needed files are set up properly going forward on new workstations.
As always, we thank you for your continued support and for being such an important part of our cooperative.
SPECIAL NOTE TO SELF PROCESSORS: Unless you received the release early (on Sunday or during the day on Monday), your release was handled differently. Watch your email for instructions on workstation updates you will need to do prior to a special GOLD update in January, where we will deploy the upgraded DLL to your credit union as well.