Configuring TIBCO ActiveSpaces, Version 5.1.1

This section describes the required configurations as well as the optional configurations available for TIBCO ActiveSpaces in the RTView Configuration Application.

Configuring Data Collection

Setting up connections for TIBCO ActiveSpaces is actually done in TIBCO FTL.

Note: If the TIBCO FTL configuration is not available in the left menu, click the Add/Remove Solution Packages button  to add it to your project.

  • Navigate to the Solution Package Configuration > TIBCO FTL > CONNECTIONS tab.

  • Provide the full path to the directory containing the TIBCO FTL jar files in the Classpath field. Use forward slashes in path name. Enclose environment variables with %% (even on UNIX). This is required to connect to TIBCO FTL. For example:

/tibco/ftl/5.2/lib

or

c:\tibco\ftl\5.2\lib

  • Click the  icon in the Connections region.

The Add Connection dialog opens.

  • Specify the connection information for your TIBCO FTL realm server and SAVE where:

Connection Name: The name for the connection. This entry is required. Use a semicolon-separated list format for multiple connections.

Primary URL: The primary URL for the connection (for example, http://myhost:8080).

Backup URL: The failover URL for the primary connection (for example, http://myhost:8090).

Primary Cores: The number of primary cores.

Backup Cores: The number of backup cores.

UsernameThe username is used when creating the connection. This field is optional.

PasswordThis password is used when creating the connection. This field is optional. By default, the password entered is hidden. Click the  icon to view the password text.

The newly created connection displays in the Connections section.

  • Repeat for each TIBCO FTL realm server to be monitored.
  • Optionally, you can specify the Poll Rates (query interval, in seconds) that will be used to collect the metric data for all caches by navigating to Solution Package Configuration > TIBCO FTL, clicking on the DATA COLLECTION tab, and entering the desired polling rate. 

Note: The Poll Rates option on the Solution Package Configuration > TIBCO ActiveSpaces > DATA COLLECTION tab is not used.

Configuring Historical Data for TIBCO ActiveSpaces (Optional)

Optionally, you can specify the number of history rows to store in memory, the compaction rules, the duration before metrics are expired and deleted, and the different types of metrics that you want the Historian to store for TIBCO ActiveSpaces in the DATA STORAGE tab in the RTView Configuration Application. These configurations already contain default values and modifications to these configurations are optional.

Defining the Storage of In Memory History

You can modify the maximum number of history rows to store in memory in the DATA STORAGE tab. The History Rows property defines the maximum number of rows to store for the TdgRealm, TdgNode, TdgNodeQueue, TdgNodeWorker, TdgProxy, TdgProxyQueue, TdgKeeper, and TdgKeeperQueue caches. The History Rows Large property defines the maximum number of rows to store for the caches. The default settings for History Rows and History Rows Large are 50,000. To update the default setting:

  • Navigate to the Solution Package Configuration > TIBCO ActiveSpaces > DATA STORAGE tab.
  • In the Size region, click the History Rows field and specify the desired number of rows.

Defining Compaction Rules

Data compaction, essentially, is taking large quantities of data and condensing it using a defined rule so that you store a reasonably sized sample of data instead of all of your data, thus preventing you from potentially overloading your database. The available fields are:

Condense Interval -- The time interval at which the cache history is condensed for the following caches: TdgRealm, TdgNode, TdgNodeQueue, TdgNodeWorker, TdgProxy, TdgProxyQueue, TdgKeeper, and TdgKeeperQueue. The default is 60 seconds.

Condense Raw Time -- The time span of raw data kept in the cache history table for the following caches: TdgRealm, TdgNode, TdgNodeQueue, TdgNodeWorker, TdgProxy, TdgProxyQueue, TdgKeeper, and TdgKeeperQueue. The default is 1200 seconds.

Compaction Rules -- This field defines the rules used to condense your historical data in the database for the following caches: TdgRealm, TdgNode, TdgNodeQueue, TdgNodeWorker, TdgProxy, TdgProxyQueue, TdgKeeper, and TdgKeeperQueue. By default, the columns kept in history will be aggregated by averaging rows with the following rule 1h -;1d 5m;2w 15m, which means the data from 1 hour will not be aggregated (1h - rule), the data over a period of 1 day will be aggregated every 5 minutes (1d 5m rule), and the data over a period of 2 weeks old will be aggregated every 15 minutes (2w 15m rule).

  • Navigate to the Solution Package Configuration > TIBCO ActiveSpaces > DATA STORAGE tab.
  • In the Compaction region, click the Condense Interval, Condense Raw Time, and Compaction Rules fields and specify the desired settings.

Note: When you click in the Compaction Rules field, the Copy default text to clipboard link appears, which allows you copy the default text (that appears in the field) and paste it into the field. This allows you to easily edit the string rather than creating the string from scratch.

Defining Expiration and Deletion Duration for TDGMON Metrics

The data for each metric is stored in a specific cache and, when the data is not updated in a certain period of time, that data will be marked as expired. By default, metric data will be set to expired when the data in the cache has not been updated within 45 seconds.

The caches impacted by this field are: TdgRealm, TdgNode, TdgProxy, and TdgKeeper. To modify these defaults:

  • Navigate to the Solution Package Configuration > TIBCO ActiveSpaces > DATA STORAGE tab.
  • In the Duration region, click the Expire Time field and specify the desired setting.

Enabling/Disabling Storage of Historical Data

The History Storage section allows you to select which metrics you want the Historian to store in the history database. By default, all historical data is saved to the database.  To disable the collection of this historical data, perform the following steps:

  • Navigate to the Solution Package Configuration > TIBCO ActiveSpaces > DATA STORAGE tab.
  • In the History Storage region, deselect the toggles for the metrics that you do not want to collect. Blue is enabled, gray is disabled.

Note: In some deployments, the data volume added by enabling these metrics can easily scale to levels exceeding the ability of RTView Enterprise Monitor to maintain this data in the cache and the history database. You should be certain that you really need this level of detail and that you have the available database capacity before enabling these tables.

Defining a Prefix for All History Table Names for TDGMON Metrics

The History Table Name Prefix field allows you to define a prefix that will be added to the database table names so that RTView Enterprise Monitor can differentiate history data between data servers when you have multiple data servers with corresponding Historians using the same solution package(s) and database. In this case, each Historian needs to save to a different table, otherwise the corresponding data server will load metrics from both Historians on startup. Once you have defined the History Table Name Prefix, you will need to create the corresponding tables in your database as follows:

  • Locate the .sql template for your database under RTVAPM_HOME/tdgmon/dbconfig and make a copy of template.
  • Add the value you entered for the History Table Name Prefix to the beginning of all table names in the copied .sql template.
  • Use the copied .sql template to create the tables in your database.

Note: If you are using Oracle for your Historian Database, you must limit the History Table Name Prefix to 2 characters because Oracle does not allow table names greater than 30 characters (and the longest table name for the solution package is 28 characters).

To add the prefix:

  • Navigate to Solution Package Configuration > TIBCO ActiveSpaces > DATA STORAGE tab.
  • Click on the History Table Name Prefix field and enter the desired prefix name.