Periodically, our FAS team will see a situation where a customer has installed VarSeq on a new machine…but something is not entirely right. Perhaps a VCF will not load, annotations cannot download, or a long-running process like coverage regions will not complete. Any of these issues alone can be tricky to troubleshoot, whether due to a permissions block, a lack of space to download new files, or even an internal network speed problem. Before VarSeq version 2.6.1, diagnosing the root cause of these problems could be frustrating and time-consuming for a user who is not computer savvy. The excellent news is that with VarSeq version 2.6.1, we have a brand new Self Diagnostic Report function that can easily assess the state of a machine’s permissions, memory, and network speed (Figure 1).
As mentioned above, this handy tool can be used to diagnose many different kinds of problems you may encounter during installation. Let’s take a look at a couple of real-life examples we’ve recently diagnosed. For this first example, our customers were unable to create a new project when they had been able to do so previously. With the Self Diagnostic Test, we can easily tell that their Project Folder does not have enough space to write the project file, and we could then discuss moving their saved projects to a new location (Figure 2).
At first look, our next example seems similar to our first example. The customer was also unable to create a project but for an entirely different reason. We saw that their Assemblies folder, which was needed for accessing the build of their project, was missing entirely (Figure 3)! With some quick detective work, we discovered the folder had been accidentally misnamed, so VarSeq could not find the correct file path. Although a simple fix, troubleshooting this problem manually may have been time-consuming.
For our last example, a customer could not update their annotations folder. The usual suspects here would be a permissions problem or a storage space problem, but the Self-Diagnostic Test made it easy to see that the internet connection was the culprit (Figure 4).
While none of these issues were difficult to fix, the ability to quickly isolate the root cause of dysfunction will be a great tool for all VarSeq users moving forward. We felt that these examples were an excellent opportunity to highlight the versatility of the Self Diagnostic Report, but you should know that this tool’s utility also goes beyond the functions listed here. If you are in the European Union and are working in a medical diagnostic lab, you will shortly be required to comply with IVDR regulations. As a medical device, VarSeq can help you remain compliant with the new regulations, and our Self-Diagnostic Test will show that the software has been correctly installed for your Dx Mode Certification. Check out this webcast to learn more about Dx Mode and how it helps our European labs comply with new regulations. In the meantime, feel free to check out our other great VarSeq 2.6.1 updates and upgrades here.