Introduction

The QAWeb Server system has many benefits, being an online system, but the challenge exists to keep all of your assets connected at all times. In this article, we explain you the main root causes for connectivity loss and how to solve and prevent connectivity loss.

What is a workstation connectivity issue?

This issue is an indication that a workstation has not communicated with QAWeb Server for a number of days. It looks like this:

When you click [View issue], you see more details:

Potential root causes

Here is a (non-limiting) list of the most important root causes of a 'Workstation connectivity issue':

• The workstation is turned off.
• The workstation does not exist anymore.
• The QAWeb Agent is not installed on the workstation anymore (e.g. after a reinstallation of the workstation).
• The QAWeb Agent has been reinstalled but has not yet been reconnected with QAWeb Server.
• Network or infrastructural changes have broken the connectivity

For each of the above root causes, you will find an explanation and practical tips below. Should you have tried and checked everything described in this article and the connectivity issue is still here, you can request help from our customer service department. Make sure to provide our engineers with the QAWeb Agent log files ([KB1048]) and a BMSE report ([KB7635]).

The workstation is turned off

It may sound obvious (and it actually is), but in some cases, workstation connectivity issues happen when a workstation is turned off for a while. For instance on a test workstation, a spare workstation or a workstation of a user who is taking some days off. In these cases, it is normal and not alarming that a workstation does not communicate for a while.

Solution: Should this always happen on the same workstations for this reason, then we have a solution for you: You can increase the time it takes for QAWeb Server before informing you. The following KB article explains how you can do this: [KB7994].

The workstation does not exist anymore

Every couple of years, organizations are replacing radiologist's workstations. Old workstations are recycled or donated to charity. QAWeb Server, however, does not know if a workstation which is not communicating anymore does actually still exist.

Solution: The solution here is to remove the workstations which do not exist from QAWeb Server. We recommend checking the list of inactive workstations versus your inventory list to see if all workstations are still in use. When not in use, remove them immediately.

The QAWeb Agent is not installed on the workstation anymore

Workstation reinstallations happen all the time. It is more and more common practice to simply re-image a workstation in case of technical issues. In many of these cases, we see that connectivity issues are caused by workstations being re-imaged and the QAWeb Agent is not installed and reconnected with QAWeb Server again.

Solution: Make sure that you make the installation and connection of QAWeb Agent part of the workstation reinstallation protocol/procedure in your organization. Awareness goes a long way. Read the next chapter to find out more about reconnecting QAWeb Agents with the QAWeb Server.

The QAWeb Agent has been reinstalled but has not yet been reconnected with QAWeb Server

In case of a 'Workstation connectivity issue', it could be that the QAWeb Agent has been reinstalled, but this link with the virtual instance on QAWeb Server has not yet been re-established.

Check the QAWeb Server for 'Workstation not registered issues'. Should one or more such issues exist, open the issue ([View issue] button) and check the workstation hostname in the detail of the issue:

If you find your workstation here, then proceed to point 2 below. If you do not find your workstation here, proceed to point 1.

1. The QAWeb Agent has not yet sent a registration request to the QAWeb Server.

Check the QAWeb Agent user guide to find out how you can register your QAWeb Agent with QAWeb Server. The user guide is linked to this article for your convenience.

One your QAWeb Agent is 'Waiting for acceptance', close the QAWeb Agent and proceed to step 2.

2. The QAWeb Agent has sent a registration request to QAWeb Server but it was not yet accepted.

If your workstation has an open 'Workstation not registered' issue on QAWeb Server, check out the following knowledge base article to find out how to proceed: [KB7995].

Network or infrastructural changes have broken the connectivity

A prerequisite for the connectivity to work well is that a communication path needs to be open between QAWeb Agent and QAWeb Relay (ports 80 and 443) and between QAWeb Relay and QAWeb Server (port 443, outbound). As security measures become more and more stringent in hospital networks, we see often that new security policies can break QAWeb connectivity.

This is typically manifested by a large number (or even all of the) workstations that stop communicating on a particular day. It could be workstations in a particular department for instance (with the department being one particular hospital within your organization).

Tips to troubleshoot this:

• Find out on which day it happened (see the date of the last connectivity in the 'Workstation connectivity issue'. It typically happened within 24 hours or less after the last connectivity)
• Find the responsible team for network security/IT infrastructure in your organization and explain the issue:
  • When did it happen? (Did you make changes in this time frame?)
  • Which are the prerequisites for QAWeb to work (the QAWeb Relay install sheet attached to this article can be a great help)?
  • Check again (in many cases, the first information will be that nothing changed. You will have to insist or consult other teams to get to the bottom of this).
• Changes can have happened on different levels:
  • Ports closed on the firewall
  • Antivirus updates
  • Windows updates
  • Existing exceptions have been removed after an audit
  • Applications or processes have been blacklisted automatically
  • ...