Web Alert

The server comes bundled with a start script to launch the server. The start script is located in the server bin directory. On Windows, the script is named startServer.bat , and on Unix, the start script is named startServer.sh. To start the server, simply execute the script. On Unix systems, in addition to starting the server, the start script makes a copy of the current log file (see Section 2.3, “Configuring Server Logging” ) and starts the server process in the background.

Note: The server should be started before the agent is started.

The server also comes bundled with a shutdown script that is used to gracefully stop the server. The shutdown script is located in the server bin directory. On Windows, the script is named stopServer.bat , and on Unix, the script is named stopServer.sh . To shutdown a running instance of the server, simply execute the script. Issuing a kill of the server's process or terminating the server with CTRL+C will also initiate a graceful shutdown. Issuing a KILL -9 is not advised since a graceful shutdown will allow the server to properly clean up resources such as database connections.

Log messages are associated with a severity called a Level. In Gateway Central, the logging Levels are TRACE, DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, and FATAL, in order of increasing severity.

The logging mechanism uses what are called Appenders to do the logging work. Appenders control how logging is output, and there are a number of different types of Appenders. Longview Software uses a File Appender and a Console Appender.

The File Appender is responsible for producing the log file in the server’s log directory. The current day’s log file is named server.log , and each day the log file is moved to a file named server.log with the data appended (i.e. server.log.2004-06-07). The configuration for the File Appender can be found in the log4j.xml file in the appender tag with the name attribute value of FILE. Please note that the log file does not rollover until log output is received after midnight.

The Console Appender is responsible for generating logging output to the console window in which the server was started. This logging output method is only valid as long as a user keeps the console window open. The configuration for the Console Appender can be found in the log4j.xml file in the appender tag with the name attribute value of CONSOLE.

<param name=”Threshold” value=”INFO”/>

If Appenders can be considered the where of logging, then Categories can be considered the who of logging. In code, log calls are made with Logger objects that are associated with Categories. To more readily convey the idea that a Category is the who of logging, Categories are usually specified as class names. For example, if I have a class named com.lsft.nx.Gateway, all logging calls made in that class will be made with a Logger associated with a Category called com.lsft.nx.Gateway. Gateway Central is configured to only show the last part of the Category name in the logs, like the following example (where NxGatewayFactory is the Category):

2007-06-07 11:44:03,703 INFO  [NxGatewayFactory] Caching Gateway Objects...This may take several minutes

<category name=”com.lsft”>
    <priority value=”WARN” />
</category>

This file is the deployment descriptor for the Alert Paging service. The file's contents should not be edited unless advised by Longview Software.

The Alert Paging service can be disabled by changing the extension of the above file from .xml to .bak. If the server is running when this is done, currently active paging definitions will be allowed to finish, but no new Alerts will be processed.

If you installed Web Alert without entering mail server information, Alert Paging is not available. If you wish to enable Alert Paging, edit the lsft-nxalert-paging-properties-service.xml file below. After editing this file, it is necessary to stop and restart the server.

This file contains the set of properties referenced by the Alert Paging service. These properties are editable. Following is a list of each property and a brief description.

The file is shown here.

  <mbean code="org.jboss.varia.property.SystemPropertiesService" 
  		 name="LongviewServer.Properties:type=Service,name=NxAlertPagingProperties">

    <attribute name="Properties">
		mail.host=mail.lsft.net
		mail.user=
		mail.transport.protocol=smtp
		mail.debug=false
		lsft.nxalert.paging.email.from=WebAlert@longviewsoftware.com
		lsft.nxalert.paging.email.subject=Web Alert Notification
		lsft.nxalert.paging.email.clear.text=**CLEARED**
    </attribute>

  </mbean>

The server requires an Oracle database instance for proper operation. Connections to this database are obtained from a connection pool configured in the manner described above. The server's connection pool is configured in the file deploy/lsft-oracle-ds.xml. This file is popluated with information entered during server install. If the server's database information needs to be changed, simply stop the server, edit this file, and then restart the server.

Database connections to VSM systems that are connected to the server are pooled as described previously. The configuration files for these connection pools are named by the OSI_SYSTEM name of the system for which the pool is designated. For example, if you had a system named vsm60 registered with the server, the server's deploy directory would contain a configuration file named vsm60-ds.xml.

The previous section details the location where each used port is configured. In order to change these ports, however, one does not need to edit each of the files mentioned above. Starting with all new server-based products and versions of VCDS greater than 1.0.7 and Gateway Central greater than 2.1.0, the server uses the ServiceBindingManager to manage port selection. This section describes how this is done and how the ServiceBindingManager can be used to quickly and easily override the default set of ports.

Overriding the default ports used by a server is necessary if you want to run more than one server on a single machine. To facilitate this, groups of port configurations have been added to a port bindings file located at <LSFT_SERVER_HOME>/server/lsft-port-bindings.xml .

This file creates named groups of port configuration that the ServiceBindingManager can use to override the default ports configured in their respective configuration files. This can be done without making any changes to the files containing the default port configurations. Below is a sample showing the default port binding.

<server name="ports-default">

   <service-config name="jboss:service=Naming"
                   delegateClass="org.jboss.services.binding.AttributeMappingDelegate">
      <delegate-config portName="Port" hostName="BindAddress">
         <attribute name="RmiPort">1098</attribute>
      </delegate-config>
      <binding port="1099" host="${jboss.bind.address}"/>
   </service-config>

   <service-config name="jboss:service=invoker,type=jrmp"
                   delegateClass="org.jboss.services.binding.AttributeMappingDelegate">
      <delegate-config portName="RMIObjectPort"/>
      <binding port="4444"/>
   </service-config>

   <service-config name="jboss.mq:service=InvocationLayer,type=UIL2"
                   delegateClass="org.jboss.services.binding.AttributeMappingDelegate">
      <delegate-config portName="ServerBindPort"/>
      <binding port="8093"/>
   </service-config>


   <service-config name="jboss.web:service=WebServer"
                   delegateClass="org.jboss.services.binding.XSLTFileDelegate">
      <delegate-config>
         <xslt-config configName="ConfigFile"><![CDATA[
<xsl:stylesheet
      xmlns:xsl='http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform' version='1.0'>

  <xsl:output method="xml" />
  <xsl:param name="port"/>

  <xsl:variable name="portAJP" select="$port - 71"/>
  <xsl:variable name="portHttps" select="$port + 363"/>

  <xsl:template match="/">
    <xsl:apply-templates/>
  </xsl:template>

   <xsl:template match = "Connector">
      <Connector>
         <xsl:for-each select="@*">
         <xsl:choose>
            <xsl:when test="(name() = 'port' and . = '8080')">
               <xsl:attribute name="port"><xsl:value-of select="$port" /></xsl:attribute>
            </xsl:when>
            <xsl:when test="(name() = 'port' and . = '8009')">
               <xsl:attribute name="port"><xsl:value-of select="$portAJP" /></xsl:attribute>
            </xsl:when>
            <xsl:when test="(name() = 'redirectPort')">
               <xsl:attribute name="redirectPort"><xsl:value-of select="$portHttps" /></xsl:attribute>
            </xsl:when>
            <xsl:when test="(name() = 'port' and . = '8443')">
               <xsl:attribute name="port"><xsl:value-of select="$portHttps" /></xsl:attribute>
            </xsl:when>
            <xsl:otherwise>
               <xsl:attribute name="{name()}"><xsl:value-of select="." /></xsl:attribute>
            </xsl:otherwise>
         </xsl:choose>
         </xsl:for-each>
         <xsl:apply-templates/>
      </Connector>
   </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="*|@*">
    <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
] ]>
         </xslt-config>
      </delegate-config>
      <binding port="8080"/>
   </service-config>

</server>

The sample configuration above demonstrates the configuration of only the ports that Longview Software uses in its servers. The configuration is named by the name attribute of the beginning server element that is referenced in the ServiceBindingManager MBean configuration described below.

The ServiceBindingManager MBean is the component that dictates which port binding configuration the server is to use. This MBean is configured as a section in the jboss-service.xml file, which is located in the server's conf directory. The port binding configuration to use is specified by the ServiceBindingManager's ServerName attribute as seen below.

<mbean code="org.jboss.services.binding.ServiceBindingManager"
   name="jboss.system:service=ServiceBindingManager">
   <attribute name="ServerName">ports-default</attribute>
   <attribute name="StoreURL">file:../server/lsft-port-bindings.xml</attribute>
   <attribute name="StoreFactoryClassName">
     org.jboss.services.binding.XMLServicesStoreFactory
   </attribute>
</mbean>

The value specified in the ServerName attribute maps that named port binding as the set of ports that will override the default ports. Longview Software servers ship with four port configurations: ports-default, ports-01, ports-02 , and ports-03 . Simply set the ServerName attribute as described above to use one of these configurations.

The values for these port settings are: