Configuring TIBCO FTL, Version 5.2

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

Enabling Data Collection in RTView Configuration Application

Note: See Creating Secure Connections for additional information on creating secure connections to TIBCO FTL.

To configure data connections for the Solution Package for TIBCO FTL:

  • 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.
  • If you want to modify the default values for the update rates for the TIBCO FTL caches, you can update the default polling rates in Solution Package Configuration > TIBCO FTL > DATA COLLECTION tab > Poll Rates.
  • Modify the value for the Poll Rate field to modify the default polling rate for the TftlClient, TftlMetrics, TftlServer, TftlSatellite, TftlGroupServer, and TftlGroupServerGroup caches.

Configuring Collection of Historical Data (Optional)

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 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 FTLMON 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 TftlClient, TftlServer, TftlEvent, TftlAdvisory, and TftlMetrics caches. To update the default settings:

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

Defining Compaction Rules for FTLMON

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. The default is 60 seconds. The following caches are impacted by this setting: TftlClient, TftlServer, and TftlMetrics.

Condense Raw Time -- The time span of raw data kept in the cache history table. The default is 1200 seconds. The following caches are impacted by this setting: TftlClient, TftlServer, and TftlMetrics.

Compaction Rules -- This field defines the rules used to condense your historical data in the database. 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). The following caches are impacted by this setting: TftlClient, TftlServer, TftlMetrics, and TftlGroupServer.

History Time Span – The duration of time to retain a row of cached data based on its date received timestamp. The cache trims its History table by removing rows with timestamps that are older than the limit specified here. Specify the duration in seconds or specify a number followed by a single character indicating the desired time interval (e.g. 15m for 15 minutes). The format is a number followed by one of the following valid characters:

y - years (365 days)

M - months (31 days)

w - weeks (7 days)

d - days

h - hours

m - minutes

s - seconds

Example: 1M

Note that this setting only determines the duration of rows kept in the History table by the cache data source. It does not affect database storage, if any, associated with the cache. 
The following caches are impacted by this field: TftlClient, TftlServer, TftlEvent, TftlAdvisory and TftlMetrics.

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

Defining Expiration and Deletion Duration for FTLMON 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 either be marked as expired or, if it has been an extended period of time, it will be deleted from the cache altogether. The Expire Time field, which sets the expire time for the TftlClient, TftlMetrics, TftlSatellite, TftlGroupServer, TftlGroupServerGroup, TftlClientAvailability and TftlServerAvailability caches, defaults to 120 seconds. The Server Expire Time field, which sets the expire time for TftlServer cache, defaults to 10 seconds. The Delete Time field, which sets the expire time for the TftlClient, TftlAdvisory and TftlMetrics caches, defaults to 3600 seconds. To modify these defaults:

  • Navigate to the Solution Package Configuration > TIBCO FTL > DATA STORAGE tab.
  • In the Duration region, click the Expire Time, Server Expire Time, and Delete Time fields and specify the desired settings.

Enabling/Disabling Storage of FTLMON Historical Data

The History Storage region allows you to select which metrics you want the Historian to store in the history database. To enable/disable the collection of historical data, perform the following steps:

  • Navigate to the Solution Package Configuration > TIBCO FTL > DATA STORAGE tab.
  • In the History Storage region, select the toggle for the FTL metrics if you want to collect/deselect for the FTL metrics if you do not want to collect. Blue is enabled, gray is disabled.

Defining a Prefix for All History Table Names for FTLMON Metrics

The History Table Name Prefix field allows you to define a prefix that will be added to the database table names so that the 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/tadmon/dbconfig and make a copy of it.
  • 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 the Solution Package Configuration > TIBCO FTL > DATA STORAGE tab.
  • Click on the History Table Name Prefix field and enter the desired prefix name.