Tag: alias

Avoid the noise – IMPS etatrans alias/function “tap”

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Monitoring use-cases within solutions that use various logs can be onerous when there is “noise” or low-value events in the logs. For provisioning use-cases, we prefer to focus on the “CrUD” use-cases and actions.

The CA/Symantec Identity Manager solution has a mid-tier component, IM Provisioning Server, that captures quite a bit of information useful for monitoring for success/failure. The default Log Level of the primary log file, etatrans*.log, is log level = 7. This log level will capture all possible searches and information of activity within the Provisioning Server’s service and transactions to its connector tier.

We can reduce some of the “noise” of searches/information and focus on the “CRuD” actions of “add/mod/del” by reducing the log level to level = 3.

This help as well to reduce the impact to the disk spaces and roll-over of the etatrans*.log file during bulk tasks or feed tasks.

Challenges:

However, even with log level = 3, we still have some “noise” in the etatrans*.log.

Additional “pain points”, the etatrans*.log file is renamed upon every restart of the IMPS service and during rollover at a size of 1 MB.

Resolution:

To assist with “finding” the current file, and to remove the noise, we have created the following “function/alias” for the IMPS user ID.

  1. Log into the IMPS service ID: sudo su – imps {Ensure you use the “dash” character to ensure the .profile is sourced when you switch IDs}
  2. Edit the .profile file: vi .profile
  3. The current file will only have one line, that sources the primary IMPS environmental information: . /etc/.profile_imps

4. Add the following body after the IMPS environmental profile line

function tap () {
cd $ETAHOME/logs
a=$(ls -rt $ETAHOME/logs | grep etatrans | tail -1)
pwd
echo "Tail current log file with exclusions: "$a
tail -F $a | grep -v -e ":LDAP" -e ":Config" -e "AUDITCONFIG" -e ":EtaServer" -e ":Bind " -e ":Unbind " -e ":Search "
}
export -f tap

This new “function/alias” will cd to the correct folder of logs, then tail the correct etatrans*.log file, and exclude the noise of non-CrUD activity. Using the new alias of “tap” on all provisioning servers, will allow us to isolate any challenges during use-case validation.

5. Exit out of the IMPS user ID account; then re-sudo back into this account, and test the “tap” alias.

6. While using the “tap” alias, exercise use-cases within the IM Provisioning Manager (GUI) and the IM User Console (browser); monitor the “Add/Mod/Deletes”. You will also be able to see the “Child” updates to endpoints and updates to the IMPS notification queue (IME Callback).

Reduce log duplication: Avoid nohup.out

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If you plan on starting your J2EE services manually, and wish to keep them running after you log out, a common method is to use nohup ./command.sh &.

The challenge with the above process, is it will create its own output file nohup.out in the folder that the command was executed in.

Additionally, this nohup.out would be a 2nd I/O operation that would recreate the server.log file for the J2EE service.

To avoid this 2nd I/O operation, review leveraging a redirection of the nohup to /dev/null or determine if this J2EE service can be enabled as a RC/init.d or systemd service.

Example to update the wildfly .profile to allow an “alias” using a bash shell function, to start up the wildfly service; and avoid the creation of the nohup.out file.

echo "Enable alias (or function)  to start and stop wildfly"

#Example of function - Use this to avoid double I/O for nohup process (nohup.out file)
function start_im01 () {
     echo "Starting IM 01 node with nohup process"
     cd /opt/CA/wildfly-idm01/bin/
     pwd
     nohup ./standalone.sh  >/dev/null 2>&1 &
     sleep 1
     /bin/ps -ef | grep wildfly-idm01 | grep -v grep
}
export -f start_im01

function stop_im01 () {
     echo "Stopping IM 01 node"
     echo "This may take 30-120 seconds"
     cd /opt/CA/wildfly-idm01/bin/
     pwd
     ./jboss-cli.sh --connect  --command=":shutdown"
     sleep 5
     /bin/kill -9 `/bin/ps -ef | grep wildfly-idm01 | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}'` >/dev/null 2>&1
}
export -f stop_im01

You may now start and stop your J2EE Wildfly service with the new “aliases” of start_im01 and stop_im01

You may note that stop_im01 attempts to cleanly stop the Wildfly service via the JBOSS/Wildfly management console port ; and if that fails, we will search and kill the associated java service. If you did “kill” a service, and have startup issues suggest removing the $JBOSS_HOME/standalone/tmp & /data folders before restart.