This document describes how to download and install the RTView DataServer for Solace for use with RTView Enterprise, how to configure the data server including defining the connection information for the Solution Package for Solace, how to add alert and historian database connections, how to add connections to RTView Enterprise, and how to verify that your setup is working properly in RTView Enterprise.

You can output and store collected monitoring data to RTView Enterprise, InfluxDB or a Solace Broker. These instructions describe how to setup all three options.

You can also monitor Solace message broker Syslog events using the Solace Event Module application. For details, see Solace Event Module.

Note: This flow assumes that you have already downloaded, installed, and have RTView Central Servers (RTView Enterprise) up and running. See the Enterprise Configuration Guide for more information.

Note: If you are interested in setting up High Availability (failover) for your DataServer, review Configuring High Availability for DataServer Deliverables prior to starting this flow.

Note: In addition to using the RTView Configuration Application for configuring your connections, you can use the Property Editor REST API to import initial connections or automate connection updates. See Property Editor REST API for more information.

Before You Get Started

• You must have Java installed and you should know the installation directory path.
• You should know the correct full path to the directory containing the jar files for each of your solution packages.
• You should know the connection settings for your solution packages:

Solace connections: For message routers, know the SEMP Version of the message router(s), URL, and VPN (if defined). For Syslog connections, know the protocol, host, and port.

• If you are upgrading to a new version of the DataServer, review the Upgrade Steps document to see if there are any additional steps required. You should also review the upgrade steps for the Solution Package for Solace.

Download the RTView DataServer for Solace

• Open a browser and navigate to https://sl.flexnetoperations.com/.

• Login using your RTView Download Center account login/password.

If you do not have an RTView Download Center account, contact sl@flexnetoperations.com about helping you to create an account.

The RTView Download Center page displays.

• Click the SL Corporation link in the Browse My Software and Documentation region.

The RTView Download Center displays.

• Click the RTView DataServer for Solace link.

The Product Information page displays.

• Click the RTView DataServer for Solace link.

The Product Download page displays.

• Click the RTViewDataServerSolace_<version>.zip file or, if you want to download multiple files, select the check box next to the different deliverables and click the Download Selected Files button.

The compressed file(s) is/are saved to your machine.

Register Software

When you install the DataServer, a temporary license key is included. SL Corporation will send you a permanent key that you will need to add to your RTView license key file so that you can extend the operation of your monitoring system.

This is a universal key that will enable you to run RTView on different machines and platforms. It is your responsibility to ensure you use RTView within the terms of your End User License Agreement (EULA).

To update your RTView system with your new license key, open a command window and:

• Navigate to RTViewDataServerSolace/rtvapm/rtview/lib.
• Edit the KEYS file using a text editor.
• Copy/paste the new replacement key to the file.
• Save the KEYS file.

Install the RTView DataServer for Solace

Note: If using UNIX, do not include spaces in your installation directory path. The start_server.sh and stop_server.sh scripts will not function properly if spaces are included in the installation directory path.

• Extract All (Windows)/unzip (UNIX/Linux) the file to the directory of your choice. For UNIX/Linux, use unzip -a to unzip the file.

• If you are going to output data to a Solace Broker, go to Output Data to Solace Broker. Otherwise, continue to next step.

Start the RTView DataServer for Solace

• Open a command window and set the JAVA_HOME environment variable to point to your Java Installation. For example:

export JAVA_HOME=/opt/Java/jdk1.7.0 (UNIX/Linux)

set JAVA_HOME=C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre1.8.0_201 (Windows)

Or, in Windows, you can set JAVA_HOME as an environment variable (in Control Panel > System > Advanced system settings), where it will then be used by all command windows and when you double-click on a .bat file.

• In the command window, navigate to the RTViewDataServerSolace directory and type:

start_server.bat (Windows)

./start_server.sh (UNIX/Linux)

Or, in Windows, you can double-click on the start_server.bat file.

Note: This script starts the Data Server on port 3278 with HTML Server (Eclipse Jetty, by default) on port 3270. If these ports conflict with other processes running on your system, you can change the first two digits of the ports by using -portprefix: and specifying the first two digits you want to use for the ports in the command line. For example: start_server.bat -portprefix:44 (which would change the ports to 4478 for the Data Server and 4470 for HTML Server). If you want to save your port prefix, you can change the port prefix in the RTView Configuration Application (see the next section), or you can use -saveportprefix: command line argument (for example: start_server.bat -portprefix:44 -saveportprefix).

Configure the Data Server

Next, you need to create your connections for each of your solution packages using the RTView Configuration Application.

• Open a browser and type:

http://localhost:3270/rtvadmin (for a local installation using Eclipse Jetty)

http://<IP address>:3270/rtvadmin (for a remote installation using Eclipse Jetty)

Note: If you specified a different port at startup (due to a port conflict), you must use the port you specified in the command line. For example, if you specified 44 as your port prefix in the command line at startup, then you would use:

http(s)://<IP address>:4470/rtvadmin

The Authentication required dialog displays.

• Log in using rtvadmin/rtvadmin as the username/password.

The RTView Configuration Application displays.

• Click RTView DataServer for Solace.

The RTView Configuration Application displays with the General tab open. 

Note: The navigation tree is in the left panel and the General and Custom Properties tabs are at the top of the page. These instructions use the following format to describe navigation to each tab: Navigation tree>Tab. For example, the figure above illustrates the General>GENERAL Tab.

• As previously mentioned, if you modified the port at startup, you should modify the port prefix so that you do not need to specify the port on the command line every time you run the startup script. To do so, navigate to Server Configuration > General > General Tab > Ports > Port Prefix and define a new port prefix. If you change the Port Prefix to 44 then, after saving your changes and restarting your data server, you would access the RTView Configuration Application for the RTView DataServer for Solace using the following URL: http(s)://localhost:4470/rtvadmin (instead of the default http(s)://localhost:3270/rtvadmin URL)

• Under Solution Package Configuration, select the desired solution package you want to configure and click the link below to view the steps required to set up the configuration for the solution package:

Data Cache: No configuration necessary.

Solace

• Optionally, you can create a Historian Database Connection and configure the historian settings. See the link below for more information:

Configuring the Historian Database (Optional)

• Alerts are configured in RTView Central Server. Click the link below to view details, and see the RTView Enterprise Configuration Guide for more information.

Configuring Alerts 

Connect Your Data Server to RTView Enterprise 

Next, you need to connect your data server to RTView Enterprise. To do so:

• Click Server Configuration > EM Integration.

The EM INTEGRATION tab displays.

• Click the Integrate with Enterprise Monitor toggle.

Note: This field can be enabled by default by setting the RTVDS_INTEGRATEENABLED environment variable to 1 (for example: RTVDS_INTEGRATEENABLED=1).

The following fields display:

Central Server Connection: Specify the URL to be used to connect to your RTView Enterprise Monitor Central Server. By default, a local connection is defined (localhost:10018) and does not need to be modified if your Central Server and Data Server are on the same machine. If they are on different machines, enter the URL containing IP address and port like so:

<IP address>:10018

Note: You can specify a different default for the Central Server Connection field by specifying the RTVDS_CENTRALURL environment variable (for example: RTVDS_CENTRALURL=RTViewCentralHost:10018.

RTView Data Server Connection: Specify the URL that the RTView Enterprise Monitor Central Server should use for connecting to this RTView Data Server. The default value is the internal IP address. If the Central Server cannot access the internal IP address, then you must modify this value to use the external IP address. This field can be defined by default by defining the RTVDS_URL environment variable (for example: RTVDS_URL=myhost:3278).

RTView Data Server Query URL: Specify the URL that the RTView Central Server HTML user interface should use to query data from this RTView Data Server. The default value uses the internal IP address. If all browser clients cannot access the internal IP address for this system, you must change this value to use the external IP address or deploy the rtvquery servlet to an application server on an accessible system and you should specify that value in this field. This field can be defined by default by defining the RTVDS_QUERYURL environment variable (for example: RTVDS_QUERYURL=http://myhost:3270/rtvquery).

RTView Data Server Name: Define the name of the data server that you want to display in Enterprise Monitor. Modifying the default name in this field is optional. However, for our example, enter Solace_Data_Server so that we can verify our change in our verification section later in this document. This field can be defined by default by defining the RTVDS_NAME environment variable (for example: RTVDS_NAME=SOLMON_LOCAL). Note: You can only enter alphanumeric characters, underbars, and dashes in the data server name.

CITypes to Exclude: The CI Types, if any, that you want to exclude from the Service Model in the Central Server. If not specified, all CI Types for the configured solution packages are included in the Service Model. To select the CI Types you want to exclude, click the associated  button to display the CI Types to Exclude dialog, select the desired CI Types, and click OK. This field can be defined by default by defining the RTVDS_CITYPESTOEXCLUDE environment variable (for example: RTVDS_CITYPESTOEXCLUDE=SOLACE-BRIDGE,SOLACE-CLIENT).

Send Connection Information To Enterprise Monitor: By default, the associated Announce this RTView Data Server to  the Central Server toggle is selected, which will automatically connect the data server to RTView Central. If you do not want to automatically connect the data server to RTView Central, deselect this toggle. If deselected, you must define the connection from RTView Central to this data server in the RTView Central Configuration Application.

Note: This field can be enabled by default by setting the RTVDS_ANNUNCIATEENABLED environment variable to 1 (for example: RTVDS_ANNUNCIATEENABLED=1).

Save Your Changes and Restart the Data Server

• Once you have created all of your connections, click the SAVE button in the RTView Configuration Application.

• For your changes to go into effect, you must stop and restart the data server by either:
  • clicking the  button (in the upper right-hand corner of the window)...

• • or by typing the following in your installation directory in the command window:

stop_server.bat (Windows)

./stop_server.sh (UNIX/Linux)

start_server.bat (Windows)

./start_server.sh (UNIX/Linux)

Verify Your Setup

To verify your setup:

• Open a browser, access the RTView Configuration Application for RTView Central Servers (RTView Enterprise) using http://localhost:10070/rtview-central-rtvadmin, and log in using rtvadmin/rtvadmin as the username/password.

Your data server (Solace_Data_Server, for our example) displays in the list below RTView Central Servers. You can edit your data server connections/configurations in the RTView Configuration Application for  RTView Central (http://localhost:10070/rtview-central-rtvadmin) or in the RTView Configuration Application for the RTView DataServer for Solace deliverable (http://localhost:3270/rtvadmin).

• Open a browser, access RTView Enterprise (for example, http://localhost:10070/rtview-central-classic), and log in using admin/admin as the username/password.
• Click Admin > Architecture > System Overview and check to make sure that your newly connected data server (Solace_Data_Server in our example) displays in the Data Servers region and that CI Metrics are being collected.

• You can also check the incoming data in your caches by opening a browser and accessing the following URL:

http(s)://localhost:3270/common (for a local installation using Eclipse Jetty)

http(s)://<IP address>:3270/common (for a remote installation using Eclipse Jetty)

The RTView Cache Viewer application displays, which allows you to view the details for the caches that are collecting data.

• If you are going to output data to InfluxDB, go to Create a Database and Account for InfluxDB.
• If you are going to Output Data to Solace Broker, return to Start StatsPump.

Otherwise, you have finished setting up the the RTView DataServer for Solace to output and store data to RTView Enterprise. 

Additional Configurations

Create a Database and Account for InfluxDB

Perform these instructions only if you want to output and store monitoring data to InfluxDB. 

This section assumes you have already completed all RTView DataServer for Solace Quick Start Guide, Version 5.1.1 (On-Premise) instructions.

To send monitoring data to InfluxDB you edit the stats-receiver.properties file, located in the Data Collector directory, define the metrics to poll and store, and specify the IP address and port number on the InfluxDB platform.

• Create a database and a user with read and write privileges in your InfluxDB platform using the following InfluxDB shell commands:

create database <yourSolaceStatsDB>
use <yourSolaceStatsDB>
create user <SolaceStatsUser> with password <‘yourPwdWithSingleQuotes’>
with all privileges grant all on <yourSolaceStatsDB> to <SolaceStatsUser> exit

• Edit the stats-receiver.properties file, located in the directory where the data server will be started.
• Enable InfluxDB Tap by commenting out the following line:
  TAP_PLUGIN_CLASS = com.sl.statsds.RTViewStatsTap and uncomment the line:
  TAP_PLUGIN_CLASS = com.solace.psg.enterprisestats.receiver.influxdb.InfluxDBStatsTap
  This enables the plugin to send monitoring data to InfluxDB.

Note: Currently there is no option to send monitoring data to both InfluxDB and RTView Enterprise. To revert back to collect all caches and send data to RTView Enterprise, uncomment the RTViewStatsTap line and comment out the InfluxDBStatsTap line. Also revert DB_FIELD_SUBSCRIPTIONS to its initial value (DB_FIELD_SUBSCRIPTIONS =\ which means the filter passes everything, as appropriate for the Enterprise Monitor).

• Select the list of topics identifying the fields to write to InfluxDB by copying the list of topics in the DB_FIELD_SUBSCRIPTIONS property. These topics are semicolon separated and multiple lines are identified by "\" at the end of the topic. Initially you can choose from the examples that are provided in the stats-receiver.properties file itself. For example:

DB_FIELD_SUBSCRIPTIONS=\
SYSTEM_CONFIG-SYNC/authentication/client-certificate/max-certificate-chain-depth;\
SYSTEM_MEMORY/subscription-memory-usage-percent;\
SYSTEM_MEMORY/physical-memory-usage-percent;\
SYSTEM_MEMORY/slot-infos/*/nab-buffer-load-factor;\
SYSTEM_STATS_CLIENT/>;\
SYSTEM_STATS_NEIGHBOR/>;\
SYSTEM_CSPF_NEIGHBOR_STATS/>;\
SYSTEM_MSG-SPOOL_DETAIL/*;\
SYSTEM_MSG-SPOOL_STATS/>;\
VPN_STATS/maximum-spool-usage-mb;\
>;\

• Add the connection properties to InfluxDB by scrolling down to the Influx DB Properties and defining the following:
  • INFLUXDB_HOST: the hostname and port used for Influx DB. For example, if you run it locally in the default port: INFLUXDB_HOST = localhost:8086.
  • INFLUXDB_USER: the user previously created in Influx DB to execute the inserts in the DB. For example: INFLUXDB_USER = SolaceStatsUser or INFLUXDB_DB = stats (this is the default).
  • INFLUXDB_PASSWORD: the password you set in InfluxDB encrypted with the Solace PSG Password Utility. To use this tool, open a command prompt or terminal and initialize it:
    Change directory (cd) to <installation_dir>/rtvapm> and execute . ./rtvapm_init.sh (UNIX)
    or
    cd <installation_dir>\rtvapm> and execute rtvapm_init.bat (Windows)
    Change directory to rtvapm\solmon\bin (rtvapm/solmon/bin for UNIX) and execute:
    pwd-utility[.bat/.sh] <yourPwdString>
    The following message appears:
    “The encrypted password is: 'encryptedString' (without the quotes).
    You should use this value in the password field in configuration property files."

You should now see monitoring data being stored in the InfluxDB database. If you encounter issues, check the log files in the RTViewSolaceMonitor/projects/rtview-server/log directory for errors and verify that InfluxDB is available and running. 

Congrats! You have finished setting up the the RTView DataServer for Solace to output and store data to InfluxDB.

Output Data to Solace Broker

Perform these instructions only if you want to output and store monitoring data to Solace Broker. 

This section assumes you already downloaded, installed and registered the RTView DataServer for Solace and set the Java home var. If not, see the Quick Start Guide, Version 5.1.1 (On-Premise) instructions at the top of this page.  

To send monitoring data to a Solace Broker you edit files that are located in the rtvapm/solmon/bin/config directory.  Refer to Solace documentation for additional information about the available message formats you can choose for sending the data.

Define Solace Brokers to Monitor

• Define the Solace Brokers to monitor by editing the appliance_config_demo.xml file (this adds connection properties to the monitored Solace Brokers). 
• If the data to be polled isn't already defined in the preconfigured XML files, or you need additional poller groups for different monitoring options, do the following:
  • Define the monitoring data to poll by editing the pollers_sl.xml file (this file contains SEMP request details and response parsing specifics which the poller sends to Solace Brokers).
  • Define the poller groups that you want to use by editing the groups_sl.xml file (this file enables you to separate published statistics into groups of interest, publishes the statistics on the associated topic, and provides the configured poll interval).

Configure the Data Server

• Complete Configure the Data Server instructions, then return here to start StasPump.

Start StatsPump

• Start StatsPump as follows: 
  • In a Windows command prompt or UNIX terminal, go to the RTViewSolaceMonitor/rtvapm directory and execute rtvapm_init.bat (Windows) or rtvapm_init.sh (UNIX).
  • Change directory (cd) to rtvapm/solmon/bin directory and execute the following in the order provided (if you change the order it will not execute properly):

[statspump|statspump.bat] config\pollers_sl.xml config\groups_sl.xml config\appliance_config_demo.xml

You should now see published monitoring data in the receiving Solace Broker.

Congrats! You have finished setting up the the RTView DataServer for Solace to output and store data to Solace Broker.

Solace Event Module

Introduction