Patterns

So you generated a stacktrace and also identified the thread which is causing you so much pain but don’t know how to map one to the other? Do it like this:

Find the PID of the java process:

host:/service/activemq/log/main# ps -ef|grep activemq
activemq 24380 20411  0 Mar25 ?        00:02:56 /usr/bin/java -Xmx512M -Dorg.apache.activemq.UseDedicatedTaskRunner=true -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote -Dactivemq.classpath=/usr/local/activemq/conf; -Dactivemq.home=/usr/local/activemq -Dactivemq.base=/usr/local/activemq -jar /usr/local/activemq/bin/run.jar start

Sort the java threads by consumed CPU time:

host:/service/activemq/log/main# ps -T -p 24380 -o pid,tid,pri,time | grep -v ‘00:00:00′
  PID   TID PRI     TIME
24380 24380  15 00:00:05
24380 24389  24 00:02:37
24380 24407  24 00:00:01


Convert the Thread ID to hex format:

host:/service/activemq/log/main# printf "%X\n" 24389
5F45


Search for the Thread ID (in hex format) in your log:

tvmax:/service/activemq/log/main# grep 5f45 current
@4000000049ceb85c022cfbe4 "VM Thread" prio=1 tid=0x0809b778 nid=0×5f45 runnable


pdfcrop <inputfile> <outputfile>

“pdfcrop is a utility to calculate and remove empty
margins from each page in the input PDF file. The
resulting output file occupies the minimal paper size
needed for the contents and is therefore suitable for
inclusion as a graphic.”

Thanks, Töns.

Still haven’t received any update from the Telekom service desk regarding my latest inquiry. I also called in again today in order to see if there might be someone that could actually help (of course not, not even telling them that I would pay to figure out why VDSL is supposedly not available helped).

Therefore I decided to end this journey and quit the existing contract for the land line. As this has to be done via snail mail I decided to add a few notes about the whole story just for the fun of it (not that I expect anyone to read and actually react to it).

I was stunned to receive an e-mail with my first invoice from Deutsche Telekom today. So at least that seems to be working. Still I am not able to properly use their self-service website and I also assume that this is the reason why I am also not able to order VDSL.

I will be a little more patient and wait for the service desk to answer my request and then terminate the service (provided that their answer will be another “please try again”).

As I am getting bored of waiting for my first invoice from Deutsche Telekom (will it ever come?) I thought it might be fun to get into the discussion with the service desk again:

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,

ihre Antwort ging nicht über den
Text der Fehlermeldung auf der Webseite hinaus ("Versuchen sie es
später nocheinmal") und stellt somit keinerlei Hilfe dar. Des Spasses
halber habe ich ihre Empfehlung befolgt und es in Abständen von jeweils
24h "nochmal versucht" mit dem wie erwartet gleichen Ergebnis.

Ich bitte sie hiermit abermals, mein eigentliches Anliegen an die entsprechende
Abteilung weiterzuleiten:

Bitte korrigieren sie in ihrem Datenbestand die Zuordnung meiner aktiven(!)
Buchungskontonummer 01234567890 zu meiner aktuellen Telefonnummer 0203-01234567890.

>Kundennummer: 01234567890
>Buchungskontonummer: 01234567890
>Alte Buchungskontonummer: 01234567890 (nicht mehr aktiv!)
>Telefon-Nummer: 0203-01234567890

Vielen Dank.

In short I am asking them (again) to fix the customer data association in their databases and added some irony to the mix. To make it a little harder for them to actually spot it I left out the irony tags…

Now let’s see how long it will take them to respond with the same useless “please try again later” default answer.

Ah, it’s just so great to live in a service desert like Germany.