| 1 |
<!--#include virtual="/doctype.inc" --> |
| 2 |
<head> |
| 3 |
<title> |
| 4 |
Getting Started with the i-scream Central Monitoring System |
| 5 |
</title> |
| 6 |
<!--#include virtual="/style.inc" --> |
| 7 |
</head> |
| 8 |
<body> |
| 9 |
<div id="container"> |
| 10 |
<div id="main"> |
| 11 |
<!--#include virtual="/header.inc" --> |
| 12 |
<div id="contents"> |
| 13 |
<h1 class="top"> |
| 14 |
Getting Started |
| 15 |
</h1> |
| 16 |
<h2> |
| 17 |
Getting Started with the i-scream Central Monitoring System |
| 18 |
</h2> |
| 19 |
<h3> |
| 20 |
1. Installing the corba services (pre-requisite for the |
| 21 |
server) |
| 22 |
</h3> |
| 23 |
<p> |
| 24 |
The server requires a CORBA Naming Service to run. It may |
| 25 |
be that you already have such a system running, in which |
| 26 |
case you can use that. Simply edit the jacorb.properties |
| 27 |
file to point to your Naming service. If you don't have a |
| 28 |
naming service running you could just set up your own |
| 29 |
manually, but if like us you want the easy approach, |
| 30 |
install our corba services program. |
| 31 |
</p> |
| 32 |
<p> |
| 33 |
This program runs the naming service and provides a builtin |
| 34 |
webserver to serve requests to the server application. The |
| 35 |
documentation details how to get this running. It should |
| 36 |
simply be a case of extracting and running. |
| 37 |
</p> |
| 38 |
<h3> |
| 39 |
1. Installing the server |
| 40 |
</h3> |
| 41 |
<p> |
| 42 |
The first stage is to download and install the server |
| 43 |
application. The latest versions of all i-scream |
| 44 |
applications can be found at the following URL: |
| 45 |
</p> |
| 46 |
<p> |
| 47 |
<a href="http://www.mirror.ac.uk/sites/ftp.i-scream.org/pub/i-scream/cms/"> |
| 48 |
http://www.mirror.ac.uk/sites/ftp.i-scream.org/pub/i-scream/cms/</a> |
| 49 |
</p> |
| 50 |
<p> |
| 51 |
Once downloaded, the archive should be extracted to a |
| 52 |
directory of your choice. The server will run on most Java |
| 53 |
enabled platforms (including Windows, Linux and FreeBSD). |
| 54 |
</p> |
| 55 |
<p> |
| 56 |
The archive consists of only a few files and directories. |
| 57 |
The main file is the iscream-server.jar archive which |
| 58 |
contains all the binary code for the server. The lib |
| 59 |
directory contains other JAR archives which the server |
| 60 |
requires to run. The etc directory contains (or will |
| 61 |
contain) configuration for most of the i-scream central |
| 62 |
monitoring system. The next step is to configure the server |
| 63 |
to suit your requirements. |
| 64 |
</p> |
| 65 |
<h3> |
| 66 |
2. Configuring the server |
| 67 |
</h3> |
| 68 |
<p> |
| 69 |
The configuration is split into two main files. The first, |
| 70 |
default.properties can be considered a bootstrap |
| 71 |
configuration. This means that it provides basic |
| 72 |
configuration to get the server started, after which point |
| 73 |
the main configuration system takes over. This file should |
| 74 |
be checked through, and is pretty well explained by |
| 75 |
comments. |
| 76 |
</p> |
| 77 |
<p> |
| 78 |
The rest of the server configuration is based on |
| 79 |
system.conf. This can hold the entire system configuration, |
| 80 |
including hosts. It may also specify other configuration |
| 81 |
files to be included in the main configuration. This file |
| 82 |
is also commented extensively. |
| 83 |
</p> |
| 84 |
<p> |
| 85 |
This step may well take some time to get right, and you can |
| 86 |
come back to it at any point. Lots of the configuration can |
| 87 |
be changed "on the fly" as well. |
| 88 |
</p> |
| 89 |
<p> |
| 90 |
For fuller and complete details of the configuration |
| 91 |
system, and the server in general, please see the Server |
| 92 |
User Guide in the documentation section of the website. |
| 93 |
</p> |
| 94 |
<h3> |
| 95 |
2a. Setting up the database |
| 96 |
</h3> |
| 97 |
<p> |
| 98 |
The i-scream central monitoring system can make use of a |
| 99 |
database for generating historical reports. The |
| 100 |
documentation explains how you would configure the system |
| 101 |
to do this. You will need to create a single basic table |
| 102 |
yourself, this is also explained in the documentation. |
| 103 |
</p> |
| 104 |
<h3> |
| 105 |
3. Starting the server |
| 106 |
</h3> |
| 107 |
<p> |
| 108 |
Starting up the server is a trivial task. Usually you can |
| 109 |
just get away with running the run script provided. This |
| 110 |
will boot the server up displaying some basic information |
| 111 |
to the console. If something goes wrong, the error message |
| 112 |
should point to the cause. |
| 113 |
</p> |
| 114 |
<h3> |
| 115 |
4. Setting up hosts |
| 116 |
</h3> |
| 117 |
<p> |
| 118 |
Hosts can be run on either Unix (tested with Solaris, |
| 119 |
FreeBSD and some Linux distributions) or Windows. Both are |
| 120 |
equally easy to setup. |
| 121 |
</p> |
| 122 |
<p> |
| 123 |
Firstly, the Unix host is called "ihost". This can be |
| 124 |
downloaded from the i-scream website. Once extracted it |
| 125 |
just needs to be started up. You need two pieces of |
| 126 |
information to do this: the filtermanager (part of the |
| 127 |
server) host and port number. If you haven't changed much |
| 128 |
in terms of configuration this will be the machine the |
| 129 |
server is running on, and port 4567. To start ihost you |
| 130 |
simply type: |
| 131 |
</p> |
| 132 |
<pre> |
| 133 |
ihost.pl server.domain.com port |
| 134 |
</pre> |
| 135 |
<p> |
| 136 |
ihost will then contact the server to obtain it's |
| 137 |
configuration and start sending information. |
| 138 |
</p> |
| 139 |
<p> |
| 140 |
The windows host, winhost, is very similar. All you need to |
| 141 |
do is install it using the provided installer in the |
| 142 |
download, and then edit the ini file to provide the two |
| 143 |
bits of information above. Running the application starts |
| 144 |
up communication with the server and data sending |
| 145 |
commences. |
| 146 |
</p> |
| 147 |
<p> |
| 148 |
Full details of both of these hosts can be found in the |
| 149 |
relevant documentation on the website. |
| 150 |
</p> |
| 151 |
<h3> |
| 152 |
5. Using Conient |
| 153 |
</h3> |
| 154 |
<p> |
| 155 |
Conient allows you to view, in real time, the data being |
| 156 |
sent by the hosts. This is a perfect way to test that all |
| 157 |
the above steps have successfully been completed. |
| 158 |
</p> |
| 159 |
<p> |
| 160 |
At present Conient is simply another archive which can be |
| 161 |
extracted and run. However, in the near future we hope to |
| 162 |
have an installer to make life easier. Conient is a Java |
| 163 |
application and will run on most Java enabled platforms. |
| 164 |
</p> |
| 165 |
<p> |
| 166 |
After extracting, the run script can be used to start |
| 167 |
Conient, or in some cases the JAR file can be executed |
| 168 |
manually. The GUI will then load. The configuration section |
| 169 |
requires you to enter a host and port for the server. By |
| 170 |
default this will be the machine on which the server is |
| 171 |
running and port 4510. Conient will then connect upon |
| 172 |
request and start displaying information. |
| 173 |
</p> |
| 174 |
<p> |
| 175 |
Assuming data is displayed you have successfully setup the |
| 176 |
i-scream central monitoring system. Well done! |
| 177 |
</p> |
| 178 |
<p> |
| 179 |
This is explained in much more detail in the Conient |
| 180 |
documentation. |
| 181 |
</p> |
| 182 |
<h3> |
| 183 |
6. Setting up DBReporter |
| 184 |
</h3> |
| 185 |
<p> |
| 186 |
If you are making use of a database you can setup the |
| 187 |
DBReporter to generate web-based reports of the information |
| 188 |
collected. This is just a case of extracting the archive to |
| 189 |
a suitable location, configuring it, and setting it to run |
| 190 |
on a regular basis (we suggest daily). DBReporter will also |
| 191 |
ensure the database is kept relatively clean. |
| 192 |
</p> |
| 193 |
<p> |
| 194 |
Full instructions are available in the DBReporter |
| 195 |
documentation. |
| 196 |
</p> |
| 197 |
<h3> |
| 198 |
7. Setting up the Web Interface |
| 199 |
</h3> |
| 200 |
<p> |
| 201 |
The Web interface allows you to view various aspects of the |
| 202 |
i-scream central monitoring system's output. These include |
| 203 |
realtime viewing of data (much like Conient), links to the |
| 204 |
DBReporter above, and full displaying of the alerts that |
| 205 |
can be generated by the server. |
| 206 |
</p> |
| 207 |
<p> |
| 208 |
The archive contains a series of PHP scripts which should |
| 209 |
be placed on your PHP enabled web server. The configuration |
| 210 |
files allow you to tailor the setup to suit your needs. |
| 211 |
</p> |
| 212 |
<p> |
| 213 |
Full instructions are available in the relevant |
| 214 |
documentation. |
| 215 |
</p> |
| 216 |
<h3> |
| 217 |
8. Further |
| 218 |
</h3> |
| 219 |
<p> |
| 220 |
You may decide to expand your setup to cover a larger |
| 221 |
network. For example, a distributed filter arrangement |
| 222 |
could cut down on the amount of traffic being sent around |
| 223 |
the network. The server itself can be distributed to suit |
| 224 |
your needs. You may wish to run the database section of the |
| 225 |
server on the same machine as the database, while running |
| 226 |
the rest on another machine. |
| 227 |
</p> |
| 228 |
<p> |
| 229 |
Some discussion about this is available in the server |
| 230 |
documentation. |
| 231 |
</p> |
| 232 |
<p> |
| 233 |
If you have any questions about any of the above, please |
| 234 |
don't hesitate to contact us at |
| 235 |
<a href="mailto:dev@i-scream.org">dev@i-scream.org</a>. |
| 236 |
If you find we've missed something out, again, please let |
| 237 |
us know. |
| 238 |
</p> |
| 239 |
<p> |
| 240 |
Finally, we'd like to thank you for trying this i-scream |
| 241 |
product. We realise that it's still at an early stage, and |
| 242 |
we therefore appreciate you taking the time to try it out. |
| 243 |
</p> |
| 244 |
<p> |
| 245 |
The i-scream team. |
| 246 |
</p> |
| 247 |
</div> |
| 248 |
<!--#include virtual="/footer.inc" --> |
| 249 |
</div> |
| 250 |
<!--#include virtual="/menu.inc" --> |
| 251 |
</div> |
| 252 |
</body> |
| 253 |
</html> |
