Troubleshoot ChromeOS Communication with FileWave

You have already:

• Enrolled devices into your Google Suite (https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/1360534?hl=en)
• Followed the Quick Start Guide for Chromebooks to install the extension on your devices
• Verified you have a license for Chrome devices

Problem

Use this guide when ChromeOS devices do not appear in FileWave, stop sending inventory, or show missing geolocation data.

Troubleshooting checklist

• Verify that the FileWave Inventory Extension is force-installed by the intended Google policy.
• Check the extension console log for FCM registration and successful inventory reports.
• Confirm that the FileWave Server can complete its Google synchronization.

Devices do not appear in FileWave

1. In FileWave Central, open Preferences > Google.

2. Check the synchronization status icon. A status other than green indicates that the Google synchronization needs attention.

3. If you have a large number of ChromeOS devices it is possible that the server is timing out when trying to sync with Google. This can be especially true on the first sync

4. Self-managed servers only. If a large initial synchronization times out, review /usr/local/filewave/apache/conf/httpd.conf on the FileWave Server. Hosted FileWave customers should contact FileWave Technical Support instead of attempting this server-side change.

5. Look for a section in the file like this:

       # chrome app
       WSGIDaemonProcess chrome display-name=filewave-chrome processes=1 threads=2 python-eggs=/usr/local/filewave/apache/.python-eggs shutdown-timeout=5 deadlock-timeout=300 inactivity-timeout=3600 request-timeout=3600 socket-timeout=3600

6. Set deadlock-timeout=600. Keep the remaining values aligned with the example above, increasing any lower timeout values to at least the listed values.

7. Restart the FileWave Server services:

   fwcontrol server restart

8. If the issue was a timeout then the sync should now complete. For about 50,000 devices the sync can take 10+ minutes to complete on first sync.

Devices are missing geolocation information

If a device appears in FileWave but has no geolocation data, verify that both the device and the signed-in user receive the geolocation and FileWave Inventory Extension policies. During a limited-OU evaluation, place the test user and device in OUs covered by those policies, or apply the policies to both OUs. Also confirm that Force Install + Pin is applied to the intended user and device scope.

View the device policy

1. Open a Google Chrome window
2. Browse to the URL: chrome://policy
3. Scroll down to ExtensionInstallForcelist and select show more
4. Look for the ID of the FileWave Inventory Extension ( ldhgnmkjehdokljjhcpkbhcmhoficdio  Figure 1.1 )
5. If you see it there, scroll to the very bottom
6. There will be a whole section for the FileWave Inventory Extension
7. Verify all the policy fields are there ( Figure 1.2 )

Figure 1.1 - Chrome Policy Force List

Figure 1.2 - Chrome Policy for FileWave

View the extension console log

1. Open a Google Chrome window
2. Browse to the URL: chrome://extensions
3. Be sure Developer mode is enabled
4. Click Details (Figure 2.1)
5. Open the Background page (Figure 2.2)
6. Select the Console tab to view the log 
7. Verify the log contains "FCM Registration" (Figure 2.3)
   1. FCM is the messaging channel FileWave uses to reach the device. If registration fails, FileWave cannot communicate with it.
   2. If the entry reports failure or is empty, verify that the JSON used to configure the extension contains the FCM settings.
8. Verify the log contains "... Report sent successfully"
   1. This confirms that the device is able to talk to your FileWave server
   2. If reports cannot be sent, verify that the JSON contains the FileWave Server name and an inventory token.

Figure 2.1 - Chrome Extensions

Figure 2.2 - Chrome Extension Details

Figure 2.3 - Extension log