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 | 4 |  |  | gettingstarted.shtml | 
 
 
 
 
 | 5 |  |  | Created by tdb1 27/05/2001 | 
 
 
 
 
 | 6 |  |  | Last edited 27/05/2001 | 
 
 
 
 
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 | 12 |  |  | <title>Getting Started with the i-scream Central Monitoring System</title> | 
 
 
 
 
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 | 25 | tdb | 1.1 |  | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 26 | tdb | 1.4 | <font face="arial,sans-serif" size="2"> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 27 |  |  |  | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 28 | tdb | 1.1 | <h2>Getting Started with the i-scream Central Monitoring System</h2> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 29 |  |  |  | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 30 | pjm2 | 1.3 | <h3>1. Installing the corba services (pre-requisite for the server)</h3> | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 31 | tdb | 1.1 | <p>The server requires a CORBA Naming Service to run. It may be that you already | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 32 | pjm2 | 1.3 | have such a system running, in which case you can use that. Simply edit the | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 33 | tdb | 1.1 | jacorb.properties file to point to your Naming service. If you don't have a | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 34 | pjm2 | 1.3 | naming service running you could just set up your own manually, but if like us | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 35 | tdb | 1.1 | you want the easy approach, install our corba services program.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 36 |  |  | <p>This program runs the naming service and provides a builtin webserver to | 
 
 
 
 
 | 37 |  |  | serve requests to the server application. The documentation details how to get | 
 
 
 
 
 | 38 |  |  | this running. It should simply be a case of extracting and running.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 39 |  |  | <h3>1. Installing the server</h3> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 40 |  |  | <p>The first stage is to download and install the server application. The | 
 
 
 
 
 | 41 |  |  | latest versions of all i-scream applications can be found at the following | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 42 | pjm2 | 1.3 | URL:</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 43 | tdb | 1.1 | <p><a href="http://www.i-scream.org.uk/downloads">http://www.i-scream.org.uk/downloads</a></p> | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 44 | pjm2 | 1.3 | <p>Once downloaded, the archive should be extracted to a directory of your | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 45 | tdb | 1.1 | choice. The server will run on most Java enabled platforms (including | 
 
 
 
 
 | 46 |  |  | Windows, Linux and FreeBSD).</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 47 |  |  | <p>The archive consists of only a few files and directories. The main file is | 
 
 
 
 
 | 48 |  |  | the iscream-server.jar archive which contains all the binary code for the | 
 
 
 
 
 | 49 |  |  | server. The lib directory contains other JAR archives which the server | 
 
 
 
 
 | 50 |  |  | requires to run. The etc directory contains (or will contain) | 
 
 
 
 
 | 51 |  |  | configuration for most of the i-scream central monitoring system. The next | 
 
 
 
 
 | 52 |  |  | step is to configure the server to suit your requirements.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 53 |  |  | <h3>2. Configuring the server</h3> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 54 |  |  | <p>The configuration is split into two main files. The first, | 
 
 
 
 
 | 55 |  |  | default.properties can be considered a bootstrap configuration. This means | 
 
 
 
 
 | 56 |  |  | that it provides basic configuration to get the server started, after | 
 
 
 
 
 | 57 |  |  | which point the main configuration system takes over. This file should be | 
 
 
 
 
 | 58 |  |  | checked through, and is pretty well explained by comments.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 59 |  |  | <p>The rest of the server configuration is based on system.conf. This can | 
 
 
 
 
 | 60 |  |  | hold the entire system configuration, including hosts. It may also specify | 
 
 
 
 
 | 61 |  |  | other configuration files to be included in the main configuration. This | 
 
 
 
 
 | 62 |  |  | file is also commented extensively.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 63 |  |  | <p>This step may well take some time to get right, and you can come back to | 
 
 
 
 
 | 64 |  |  | it at any point. Lots of the configuration can be changed "on the fly" | 
 
 
 
 
 | 65 |  |  | as well.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 66 |  |  | <p>For fuller and complete details of the configuration system, and the | 
 
 
 
 
 | 67 |  |  | server in general, please see the Server User Guide in the documentation | 
 
 
 
 
 | 68 |  |  | section of the website.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 69 |  |  | <h3>2a. Setting up the database</h3> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 70 |  |  | <p>The i-scream central monitoring system can make use of a database for | 
 
 
 
 
 | 71 |  |  | generating historical reports. The documentation explains how you would | 
 
 
 
 
 | 72 |  |  | configure the system to do this. You will need to create a single basic | 
 
 
 
 
 | 73 |  |  | table yourself, this is also explained in the documentation.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 74 |  |  | <h3>3. Starting the server</h3> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 75 |  |  | <p>Starting up the server is a trivial task. Usually you can just get away | 
 
 
 
 
 | 76 |  |  | with running the run script provided. This will boot the server up | 
 
 
 
 
 | 77 |  |  | displaying some basic information to the console. If something goes wrong, | 
 
 
 
 
 | 78 |  |  | the error message should point to the cause.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 79 |  |  | <h3>4. Setting up hosts</h3> | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 80 | pjm2 | 1.3 | <p>Hosts can be run on either Unix (tested with Solaris, FreeBSD and some | 
 
 
 
 
 | 81 |  |  | Linux distributions) or Windows. Both are equally easy to setup.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 82 |  |  | <p>Firstly, the Unix host is called "ihost". This can be downloaded from the | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 83 | tdb | 1.1 | i-scream website. Once extracted it just needs to be started up. You need two | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 84 | pjm2 | 1.3 | pieces of information to do this: the filtermanager (part of the server) host | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 85 | tdb | 1.1 | and port number. If you haven't changed much in terms of configuration this will | 
 
 
 
 
 | 86 |  |  | be the machine the server is running on, and port 4567. To start ihost you | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 87 | tdb | 1.5 | simply type:</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 88 |  |  | </font> | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 89 | tdb | 1.1 | <pre>ihost.pl server.domain.com port</pre> | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 90 | tdb | 1.5 | <font face="arial,sans-serif" size="2"> | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 91 | tdb | 1.1 | <p>ihost will then contact the server to obtain it's configuration and start | 
 
 
 
 
 | 92 |  |  | sending information.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 93 |  |  | <p>The windows host, winhost, is very similar. All you need to do is install it | 
 
 
 
 
 | 94 |  |  | using the provided installer in the download, and then edit the ini file to | 
 
 
 
 
 | 95 |  |  | provide the two bits of information above. Running the application starts up | 
 
 
 
 
 | 96 |  |  | communication with the server and data sending commences.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 97 |  |  | <p>Full details of both of these hosts can be found in the relevant | 
 
 
 
 
 | 98 |  |  | documentation on the website.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 99 |  |  | <h3>5. Using Conient</h3> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 100 |  |  | <p>Conient allows you to view, in real time, the data being sent by the | 
 
 
 
 
 | 101 |  |  | hosts. This is a perfect way to test that all the above steps have | 
 
 
 
 
 | 102 |  |  | successfully been completed.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 103 |  |  | <p>At present Conient is simply another archive which can be extracted and | 
 
 
 
 
 | 104 |  |  | run. However, in the near future we hope to have an installer to make life | 
 
 
 
 
 | 105 |  |  | easier. Conient is a Java application and will run on most Java enabled | 
 
 
 
 
 | 106 |  |  | platforms.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 107 | pjm2 | 1.3 | <p>After extracting, the run script can be used to start Conient, or in some | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 108 | tdb | 1.1 | cases the JAR file can be executed manually. The GUI will then load. The | 
 
 
 
 
 | 109 |  |  | configuration section requires you to enter a host and port for the | 
 
 
 
 
 | 110 |  |  | server. By default this will be the machine on which the server is running | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 111 | pjm2 | 1.3 | and port 4510. Conient will then connect upon request and start displaying | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 112 | tdb | 1.1 | information.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 113 |  |  | <p>Assuming data is displayed you have successfully setup the i-scream | 
 
 
 
 
 | 114 |  |  | central monitoring system. Well done!</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 115 |  |  | <p>This is explained in much more detail in the Conient documentation.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 116 |  |  | <h3>6. Setting up DBReporter</h3> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 117 |  |  | <p>If you are making use of a database you can setup the DBReporter to | 
 
 
 
 
 | 118 |  |  | generate web-based reports of the information collected. This is just a | 
 
 
 
 
 | 119 |  |  | case of extracting the archive to a suitable location, configuring it, and | 
 
 
 
 
 | 120 |  |  | setting it to run on a regular basis (we suggest daily). DBReporter will | 
 
 
 
 
 | 121 |  |  | also ensure the database is kept relatively clean.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 122 |  |  | <p>Full instructions are available in the DBReporter documentation.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 123 |  |  | <h3>7. Setting up the Web Interface</h3> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 124 |  |  | <p>The Web interface allows you to view various aspects of the i-scream | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 125 | pjm2 | 1.3 | central monitoring system's output. These include realtime viewing of data | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 126 | tdb | 1.1 | (much like Conient), links to the DBReporter above, and full displaying of | 
 
 
 
 
 | 127 |  |  | the alerts that can be generated by the server.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 128 |  |  | <p>The archive contains a series of PHP scripts which should be placed on | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 129 | pjm2 | 1.3 | your PHP enabled web server. The configuration files allow you to tailor | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 130 | tdb | 1.1 | the setup to suit your needs.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 131 |  |  | <p>Full instructions are available in the relevant documentation.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 132 |  |  | <h3>8. Further</h3> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 133 |  |  | <p>You may decide to expand your setup to cover a larger network. For example, a | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 134 | pjm2 | 1.3 | distributed filter arrangement could cut down on the amount of traffic | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 135 | tdb | 1.1 | being sent around the network. The server itself can be distributed to suit your | 
 
 
 
 
 | 136 |  |  | needs. You may wish to run the database section of the server on the same | 
 
 
 
 
 | 137 |  |  | machine as the database, while running the rest on another machine.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 138 |  |  | <p>Some discussion about this is available in the server documentation.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 139 |  |  | <p>If you have any questions about any of the above, please don't hesitate to | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 140 | pjm2 | 1.3 | contact us at <a href="mailto:dev@i-scream.org.uk">dev@i-scream.org.uk</a>. If you find we've missed something out, | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 141 | tdb | 1.1 | again, please let us know.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 142 | pjm2 | 1.3 | <p>Finally, we'd like to thank you for trying this i-scream product. We realise | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 143 | tdb | 1.1 | that it's still at an early stage, and we therefore appreciate you taking | 
 
 
 
 
 | 144 |  |  | the time to try it out.</p> | 
 
 
 
 
 | 145 |  |  | <p>The i-scream team. | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 146 | tdb | 1.4 |  | 
 
 
 
 
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 | 149 | tdb | 1.2 | <!--#include virtual="../bottom.inc" --></td> | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 | 154 | pjm2 | 1.3 | </html> |