Broker Control UIs
The Broker Control UIs are used to interface with the Unified Assurance Broker Daemon/Service, sending control signals for services and jobs on the different Unified Assurance servers.
The following list gives you the names of the six Broker Control UIs and a brief description of their respective functions:
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Application Config Types - This UI is used to add, edit, or remove the Application Configuration Types used for job and service configurations. These types are used to define the specific configuration types and how they are represented.
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Failover Service States - This UI is used to view all services across the Unified Assurance installation that are configured in either a Primary/Backup failover state or in a Cluster state. This interface shows you the services that are running and on which server they are running. The information in this interface is generated by polling the state in the primary Broker, whose responsibility it is for keeping track of the state and mediating state between remote brokers. This feature can be used in correlation with a redundancy implementation. If the system does not use application redundancy, this interface will only be populated with cluster data.
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Jobs - This UI is used to add, edit, or remove jobs. A job is an application that can be run at scheduled times, using a cron-like syntax. You can customize the Job by choosing which program to run, any arguments, and if applicable, the configuration that the scheduled job uses to gather additional options and features. The jobs UI also can be used to create primary and backup jobs and determine the failover state.
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Package Depots - This UI is used to view the different locations from which updates to an Unified Assurance server can be applied.
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Servers - This UI is used to view the broker-level configuration options of an Unified Assurance server, and how an installation can be updated to using newer packages.
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Services - This UI is used to add, edit, or remove services. A service is an application that runs continuously. It is customizable by choosing which program to run, any arguments, and if applicable, the configuration that the service uses to gather additional options and features. The services section also can be used to create primary and backup services and determine the failover state, some applications can be put into a cluster state for distributed polling.
Broker Configurations
This section focuses on some of the more advanced configurations that can be made from the "Broker Control" UIs, including the following:
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Creating a new service through the "Services" UI.
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Performing broker-level configurations on the server through the "Servers" UI.
Creating a New Service
An application's configuration will control certain aspects of the application's behavior in Unified Assurance. In certain cases, it makes sense to run the same application multiple times with different settings. In this example, you will create a new Ping Latency Poller service that will poll devices in a Device Zone that is different to the standard Ping Latency Poller.
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Go to the "Device Zones" UI and create a new Device Zone titled WAN.
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Go to the "Device Management" UI, and use the "Move Device to Zone" action type to move a few devices to the "WAN" Device Zone.
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Go to the "Services" UI.
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Select the default "Metric Ping Latency Poller" service, and click the "Clone" button to clone the service.
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In the form (to the right of the grid), enter an appropriate name for the service "Name" and for the "LogFile" configuration.
For example, use "WAN Metric Ping Latency Poller" and "logs/MetricWANPingPoller.log", respectively.
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In the configuration section, change "DeviceZoneID" and select "WAN".
Note:
New application configuration types can be added and edited from the "Application Config Types" UI.
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Click "Submit" to save the new service.
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Start the new "WAN Metric Ping Latency Poller" service. It now polls metrics for the Devices in Zone "WAN".
Servers
The "Servers" UI is used for viewing the broker configuration options of a Unified Assurance server.
Configuration -> Broker Control -> Servers
Selecting a server from this interface will open the "Server (edit)" form to the right of the grid. From this form, various Broker configuration options can be edited, such as:
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Displaying a custom name.
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Setting a primary server (in a redundant environment).
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Setting the number of log files to keep.
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Setting what size log files should be rotated.
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The log level of the Broker.
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The number of threads to use for the Broker.