Log data can be viewed directly on the Loupe Server following links from sessions and events. Logs can be filtered quickly by severity, timeframe, user, category and thread. Log messages related to an event (warnings, errors, and critical messages) link directly to the related event. Each log message can be opened as a full window display.
The new Log Viewer introduces an enhanced Exception display both for log messages and Events. This display emphasizes an improved root cause analysis for the exception with an expandable region to show the full exception information with a new approach to redacting uninteresting call stack entries.
Visualizations throughout the web UI have been enhanced to link directly to filtered log views. For example, Events link directly to the log, filtered to the specific event and User Session lists link directly to a filtered view of the log for just that user.
Previously, closing the main window in Desktop would always close to the system tray. To fully exit Desktop you had to go to the backstage area (the dark tab on the far upper left) and then select Exit. This was originally added back in version 2.1 to facilitate background retrieval and analysis of data from Loupe Server. As of Loupe 4 no analysis is done locally, the server analysis is queried instead. Therefore, this behavior was confusing to customers and unhelpful.
As of this version, Desktop will fully exit when the main window is closed by default. This behavior can be changed by right-clicking on the system tray icon.
Loupe Server can now use Azure Service Bus as its queue system instead of SQL Server. This provides a more scalable option for larger systems and improved support for SQL Azure. Only available for Enterprise Edition.
Loupe Server can now use Azure Search for full text search instead of Lucene.NET. While Lucene has worked well for Standard Edition servers, it is ill-suited for Enterprise Edition since that uses network file storage. Azure Search can be enabled on a repository-by-repository basis. Only available for Enterprise Edition.
Loupe Server can now create new repository databases in a designated SQL Elastic Pool to eliminate any administrative and cost overhead of them being created initially as stand-alone SQL Azure databases.
The server employs a new caching strategy when using slower network storage or Azure Blob Storage to significantly reduce the cost of additional requests for the same file. Throughput of the SQL Queue for Enterprise edition has been significantly improved, particularly when multiple clusters share the same common database.
Session file pruning runs in parallel and uses a constant-memory approach to support very large repositories with high rates of session file ingestion.
For details on how to upgrade your on-premises Loupe Server installation see Loupe Server Administration - Upgrading to a New Version.
Loupe 4.0 is generally backwards compatible with 3.0 with the following notes: