CMS - Execute tab

Execute tab

The Execute tab enables you to govern the analysis and snapshot execution, where the snapshots will be stored and the existing snapshots themselves.

General options

	Take a snapshot of the application	This option will start the snapshot generation process. All Analysis Units, analysis options, production options and other configuration settings will be taken into account.
	Prepare Snapshot	This option will run a special function (the pre-snapshot preparation action) that prepares the Analysis Service for snapshot generation. It is ONLY necessary to run this option when you have used the Run Analysis only option AND when you are using the CAST Architecture Checker/CAST Transaction Configuration Center and want to run specific options (such as Compute in the CAST Transaction Configuration Center). The pre-snapshot preparation action is always executed as part of a full snapshot generation.
	Open Dashboard	When clicked, the CAST Management Studio will launch a temporary CAST Engineering / Security Dashboard. This is primarily for validating a Snapshot. The portal is run on a JVM launched by the CAST Management Studio, hence an additional "java.exe" process will be displayed in Windows Task Manager. The JVM is killed when the CAST Management Studio is closed. Notes When using the option you will be prompted for login credentials > admin/cast (case-sensitive): note that this user has the ADMIN role only. CAST AIP schemas hosted in Microsoft SQL Server environment - please be aware that the CAST Engineering / Security Dashboard will fail to load if you carried out a combined installation in CAST Server Manager using a Trusted connection (i.e. using Windows authentication) and are still using the automatically configured connection profile in the CAST Management Studio.
	Upload snapshots to Measurement Service	Use this option to upload all the current Application's snapshots (that have already been generated) to the Measurement Service. Doing so will ensure that the data contained in the snapshots will be made available to those using the CAST Health Dashboard. This option is particularly useful if you have chosen not to upload snapshots to the Measurement Service when you Generate a Snapshot.

Analysis

Use these options to manage the analysis of your source code:

	Analysis Service	Use this option to determine which Analysis Service will be used to store the results of your code analyses. If you performed a Combined Install of the CAST databases, then the CAST Management Studio will automatically associate the Analysis Service that was installed at that time to the current Application, providing you have no other Analysis/Dashboard Services installed on your server. If no Analysis Service is listed (<None> is displayed), you need to select an Analysis Service (before you can generate a Snapshot), using the Change link: This will display a dialog box enabling you to choose from the Analysis Services that are currently visible in the Services view:
	Run Analysis only	Please see Run analysis.
	Test Analysis	Will run an analysis on the current Application and all child Analysis Units but no results will be saved to the CAST Analysis Service. This is purely for testing the analysis can run without error: you can consult the log files to resolve an issue before you use the run an analysis option or Generate a Snapshot, both of which will save the results to the Analysis Service.
	Drop Analysis Results	Please see Drop Analysis Results.
	Review Dynamic Links	Please see Reviewing Dynamic Links.
	View execution unit	This option will display an XML/HTML based report (in your browser) listing the Analysis Units that are part of the current Application's Execution Unit: Please note the following: - in order to view this report, XML files must be configured to open with a browser (this is the default behaviour but may have been changed). - the Code Size column in the report will only display values for file based Analysis Units (such as VB, PB, .NET etc.). Database Analysis Units will display a 0 for code size. - the Code Size column in the report uses bytes (B) to display the size of code.

Reports and Logs

Reports

Use this section to manage reports generated automatically by CAST AIP or custom extensions and to access the analysis log folder/LISA folder (see Preferences - Platform Settings):

Reports will be published following an analysis if any installed CAST AIP or custom extension is pre-configured to do so. This depends entirely on the extension. Reports will show information about the quality of the analysis results. Different types of reports can be published - if a "detailed" report is published (see column Detailed Report) it can be accessed via double click.

Analysis Log folder / LISA folder

It is possible to access the analysis log folder and LISA folder using the highlighted options. Clicking the options will force Windows Explorer to open the required folder. The location of both folders is defined in Preferences - Platform Settings:

Snapshot

Use these options to manage the Dashboard Services associated to your Application and the snapshots that have already been generated.

Dashboard Services

This section displays a list of Dashboard Services and Systems that are associated to your Application:

Add Dashboard Service

Use this option to add in any number of Dashboard Services:

If the Dashboard Service has multiple Systems assigned to it, then clicking Next in the dialog box above will enable you to select the System you require:

If you performed a Combined Install of the CAST databases, then the CAST Management Studio will automatically associate the Dashboard Service that was installed at that time to the current Application, providing you have no other Analysis/Dashboard Services installed on your server.
If no Dashboard Service is listed, you need to select a Dashboard Service before you can generate a Snapshot.
If you add multiple Dashboard Services to an Application, when you generate a Snapshot you will be prompted to choose which Dashboard Service you would like to use to store the results.

Edit

Use this option to modify the properties of the Dashboard Service. The corresponding Dashboard Service editor will be displayed.

Remove

Use this option to remove the selected Dashboard Service from your Application. Doing so does not remove any existing snapshots from the Dashboard Service.

Snapshots

This section provides a means to manage existing Snapshots of the current Application. Snapshots govern the generation of data that can be exploited in the CAST Dashboards and are derived from data created during the analysis process.

Once you have successfully generated a snapshot (using the Take a snapshot of the application option) you will then see it listed in this tab. You can then manage it:

	Edit	Use this option to edit an existing Snapshot. The Snapshot editor will then be displayed, allowing you to change the Capture Date (amongst other things).
	Delete snapshot	Use this option to completely remove the selected Snapshot from the Dashboard Service and from the Measurement Service (if the snapshot has been uploaded there). This will start the deletion process and can take some time if the Snapshot contains a large amount of data. Notes following the deletion of a snapshot you may need to restart your web application server so that the dashboards that rely on the data get the most up-to-date information you can use the CLI to remove a specific snapshot or a list of snapshots from the Dashboard Service and the Measurement Service. If you remove an older snapshot (i.e. not the most recent) then the next snapshot will be updated: delta and AEP/EFP metrics are recalculated, and the post process procedures that update schema tables required for dashboards are relaunched. new data is also pushed to the associated Measurement Service schema (if one is associated to the Management Service schema for the Application).
	Consolidate	Use this option to consolidate an existing Snapshot (i.e. one that has already been generated). This consolidation process can take some time if the Snapshot contains a large amount of data. This process will re-generate all existing information for the snapshot. Consolidating an existing Snapshot will cause all metrics/quality rule information associated to the Snapshot to be removed from the Dashboard Service and replaced with the new information created during the new consolidation. Notes Note that this operation can sometimes cause data discrepancies with results computed when the quality model was different. To minimise this, the following items are taken into account when using the Consolidate option: changes in aggregation weights changes in the tree structure (new contributions between a Quality Rule and a Technical Criteria, new aggregations, new Technical Criteria etc.) changes in the module weight changes in the thresholds used to compute grades based on rule compliance ratios and distributions changes in critical contributions Note that computations executed on the Analysis Service are not taken into account by the Consolidate option: it does not re-analyze the source code it does not re-compute metrics it does not re-run procedures associated with metrics Note that the above options are executed immediately. A delete and a consolidation cannot be reversed. If you reconsolidate an older (i.e. not the most recent), then the next snapshot will be updated: delta is recalculated, and the post process procedures that update schema tables required for dashboards are relaunched. new data is also pushed to the associated Measurement Service schema (if one is associated to the Management Service schema for the Application).
	Upload snapshot to Measurement Service	Use this option to upload the selected snapshot to the Measurement Service. Doing so will ensure that the data contained in the snapshots will be made available to those using the CAST Health Dashboard. Note that if the selected snapshot has already been uploaded to the Measurement Service, this option will perform a delete and and then an update. In other words, the snapshot will be deleted and then re-uploaded to the Measurement Service. This option is particularly useful if you have chosen not to upload a snapshot to the Measurement Service when you Generate a Snapshot.
	Generate Report	Please see Generate a Report for more information.