Unified Assurance Topology TCP Server Stitcher

Overview

The Unified Assurance Topology TCP Server Stitcher is a generic TCP socket stitcher agent that listens for messages from devices using a configurable port. For each message received from a client, it processes the message using customizable rules which will create graph vertices and edges.

The Topology TCP Server Stitcher service has been setup to process received messages to build a dynamic logical layout.

TCP Server Stitcher Setup

  1. Review the logic in the rules files referenced in the configuration to see the processing that will be done when messages are received:

    • "LoadRules" will be executed during application startup to load data that might be needed during processing.

    • "IncludeRules" will be read during application startup to load additional files that might be called during processing.

    • "BaseRules" will be executed for each device that is selected based on the configuration.

    Update the logic as needed.

  2. Create a clone of the default service, making changes to the configuration as needed.

  3. Enable the Service.

    Configuration -> Broker Control -> Services

Default Service

Field Value
Package Name coreCollection-app
Service Name Topology TCP Server Stitcher
Service Program bin/core/collection/TCPServerStitcherd
Service Arguments
Service Description Topology rules-based TCP Server Stitcher
Failover Type Standalone (Supported: Standalone, Primary/Backup)
Status Disabled
Privileged (Checked)

Default Configuration

Name Value Possible Values Notes
BaseRules collection/topology/tcpserver/base.rules Text, 255 characters Relative path to Base Rules
BranchDir core/default Text, 255 characters relative path to Rules dir
Host * Text, 255 characters DNS name or IP Address for the TCP server. Can associate to a particular interface. - NO RELOAD CONFIG SUPPORT
IncludeRules collection/topology/tcpserver/base.includes Text, 255 characters Relative path to Include Rules
LoadRules collection/topology/tcpserver/base.load Text, 255 characters Relative path to Load Rules
LogFile logs/TopologyTCPServerStitcher.log Text, 255 characters Relative path to Log File.
LogLevel ERROR OFF, FATAL, ERROR, WARN, INFO, DEBUG Logging level used by application.
Port Integer Port for message collection. - NO RELOAD CONFIG SUPPORT
Threads 3 Integer Number of process threads created. The aggregator takes a third of this value (rounded up) for database threads unless overridden by the "DBThreads" application configuration.
DelimiterFile Text, 255 characters Optional - Path to file that contains the regex string delimiter used to separate messages into distinct records e.g. '\\

Rules

This stitcher uses the Unified Assurance standard rules architecture, which are 100% Perl syntax. Refer to the following articles to assist in rules creation:

Tokens

The stitcher exposes the following tokens for rules processing.

Token Description
$Message->{'RxTime'} Received Time
$Message->{'Message'} Message received
$Message->{'Host'} Remote Sender DNS Name
$Message->{'IP'} Remote Sender IP Address
$AppConfig Hash reference to the application configuration name-value pairs that were configured. (i.e. use $AppConfig->{'Host'} to retrieve the set value for 'Host'.)
$CustomHash Custom key, value cache available across all rules. Contents commonly defined in Load Rules then used in Base or other rules. NOTE: This variable is a shared object and any additional sub hashes or arrays must be shared before use or it will cause the error: "Invalid value for shared scalar". Instantiate the sub hash/array using '&share({})' e.g. $CustomHash->{SubObject} = &share({});
$StorageHash Internal cache used as the StorageHash option when calling rules functions such as FindDeviceID(). NOTE: The structure of this cache is subject to change! Not recommended for custom global storage or manual manipulation; use $CustomHash instead.

Administration Details

The following list shows the technical details need for advanced administration of the application: