inPilot Administration and Management

This chapter provides information on administering and managing the inPilot application.

This chapter describes the following topics:

l	Launching the inPilot GUI

l	Administration

l	Operations and Management

l	Troubleshooting inPilot

Launching the inPilot GUI

To launch the inPilot interface:

In a Web browser, enter the following URL:

http://<inPilot-server-hostname or IP address>:<apache port>

For example, http://10.4.5.2:8080

Enter your user name and password. The default user name and password is admin.

It is recommended to use the following browsers:

l	Internet Explorer (v 7.0+)

l	Mozilla Firefox (v 3.0.10+)

Note that:

l	No additional plug-in is required.

l	The javascript is enabled by default on the intended browser.

l	Suggested screen resolution is 1024 x 768 and above.

Administration

This section provides information on how to administer and manage the inPilot application.

Managing User Accounts

The inPilot application provides two levels of access privileges:

l	Administrator: Users in this group have the following privileges:

l	Create, edit, and delete other user accounts

l	Edit configuration settings

l	Activate, deactivate, and reset password for operator users

l	Generate and view reports

l	Operator: Users in this group can:

l	Generate reports

l	View module-level reports available to them

IMPORTANT: Only administrative users can create other administrator and operator user accounts.

Managing Gateways

The inPilot application supports configuring multiple gateways for which reports can be customized and generated. Gateways are Starent Networks’ chassis from which EDRand bulkstat files are fetched to the reporting server.

IMPORTANT: Only administrative users can add and manage gateways.

When a gateway is added through the GUI, a directory by the name of the gateway is created in the <inpilot_install_dir>/starbi/server/data directory.

The gateway directory structure looks like the following:

<data directory>

|

|--> <Gateway name>

|

|--> edr

The inPilot application expects the EDR files in the directories that are created when adding the gateway.

Configuring Logging

The inPilot application facilitates logging to trace and debug problems identified within the reporting system.

IMPORTANT: Only administrative users can manage logging.

Operations and Management

This section provides information on the scripts that can be used to manage the inPilot components and the reports.

Using the Maintenance Utility

A shell script utility called serv is included with inPilot in the <inpilot_install_dir>/starbi/bin directory. This serv script can be used to manage the following inPilot processes:

l	Process Monitor (PSMON) Application

l	Scheduling Server

l	Postgres Server

l	Apache Server

This utility can report the status of the inPilot processes on the system or it can be used to stop the inPilot process.

Following are the options available with the serv script:

./serv { psmonitor | scheduler | postgres | apache } [ start | stop | status ]

 

Keyword	Description
psmonitor	This is an optional keyword used with the serv script. This represents the PSMON application.
scheduler	This is an optional keyword representing the scheduling server.
postgres	This is an optional keyword representing the postgres server.
apache	This is an optional keyword representing the apache server.
start	Starts each inPilot process.
stop	Kills or stops the running inPilot process.
status	Displays the status of each inPilot process.

For example, if you want to start only the PSMON, then enter the following command:

./serv start psmonitor

or

./serv psmonitor start

IMPORTANT: If you stop the inPilot process, make sure that PSMON is not running. Otherwise PSMON will restart the inPilot application.

The following is a sample output of the serv status command:

-------------------------------------------------------

inPilot Process Status -------------------------------------------------------

PID Process Status -------------------------------------------------------

4245 Process Monitor Running

4256 Scheduling server Running

4267 Postgres Server Running

4289 Apache Server Running

------------------------------------------------------

Using the PSMON Script

PSMON is a perl script that is used to monitor the Scheduling Server, Postgres Server, and Apache Server processes. This script can start or stop the processes based on certain thresholds specified in the inPilot configuration file. The PSMON respawns any dead processes using the set of rules defined in the configuration file.

This script can also optionally send notifications to users via e-mail.

Generating Reports in Excel Format

To generate the reports in excel format, execute the following script from the <inpilot_install_dir>/starbi/bin directory.

./get_excel_report.sh -day <date for report generation> -f <path where report to be stored>

The script takes two parameters, the date for which report is to be generated and the path where generated report is to be stored. The date must be in mm-dd-yyyy format only.

Using the generate_dns_mapp_sql.sh Script

To generate the DNS mapping for the specified list of IP addresses, execute the following script from the <inpilot_install_dir>/starbi/bin directory:

./generate_dns_mapp_sql.sh <input file for IP> <output file where mapping should be stored>

 

Keyword/Variable	Description
input file for IP	A file containing IP addresses. Each IP address must be present in a new line.
output file where mapping should be stored	An output file for storing the DNS mappings in SQL format.

This script is used to perform Internet DNS lookup of the specified IP addresses. It uses the ‘nslookup’ system administration command to find the DNS name of the specified IP. Please note that the machine must be connected to Internet for successful execution.

Using the getSupportDetails Script

In the event additional troubleshooting assistance is required, debugging information can be collected using a script called getSupportDetails.pl. This script collects different log files and captures the output of certain system commands that aid in troubleshooting issues. This script is packaged with inPilot in the <inpilot_install_dir>/starbi/tools/supportdetails/ directory.

This script refers to an XML file to get the list of logs. This XML file resides in the same directory as the script. Once executed, the script retrieves the contents of logs, files, folders, and output of certain commands and prepares a zipped file (inpilotsupportDetails.tar.gz), by default it is placed in /tmp/log directory.

Requirements

Perl 5.8.5 and above is required for running the script.

Apart from standard Perl modules (which are included in default installation of Perl), some additional modules are required for running the script. The list is as follows:

l	expat version 1.95.8

l	XML::Parser version 2.34

l	XML-Parser-EasyTree

l	Devel-CoreStack version 1.3

These modules are installed by default by the product. Please ensure that the above mentioned modules are installed when using a different installation of Perl.

To run the script, go to the path where the script is present and type:

./getSupportDetails.pl [--level=...] [--xmlfile=...] [--help]

 

Keyword/Variable	Description
--level	Specifies the level of debug to run. It can have a maximum of 4 levels. The level 4 provides the most detailed information. Default: 1
--xmlfile	Specifies the xml file name to be used for collecting the log. Default: getSupportDetails.xml
--onlyrecentlogs	Collects only recent logs and skips detailed logs. Default: Collects detailed logs
--collectFor	Collects problem specific logs and information which is not collected under normal levels. This can be combined with --level option. Default: Collects logs covered under '--level' option.
--help	Displays the supported keywords/variables.

For example, ./getSupportDetails.pl --level=4 --xmlfile=/tmp/getSupportDetails.xml

Supported Levels

The logs that can be collected for different levels are as follows:

l

Level 1:

l	Recent Log files

l	Current status (running / not running) of the product

l	Current Config files of the product

l

Level 2:

l	Logs from Level 1

l	Installation Logs

l	Database Logs (if available)

l	Web Server logs (if available)

l	Information of Solaris version and current patch installed

l	Output of the following commands:

netstat -an

ifconfig -a

df -k

etc..

l

Level 3:

l	Logs from level 2

l	Syslog Configuration and log files

l

Level 4:

l	Logs from level 3

l	All Log files (including old logs)

l	Crontab entries

l	Information of packages installed

l	Stack trace of any crash files (if debugger is installed on local machine)

l	System Libraries only if any core file present in crash directory

l	Level of Solaris installed

l	Output of the following commands:

ipcs

ps -eaf

etc..

Server Script Parameters

The number of files being processed during each parsing interval for HTTP and non-HTTP EDRs can be controlled using the following parameters defined in settings.py file.

EDR_TOTAL_NO_OF_FILES = 25

EDR_MAX_NO_OF_PROCESSES = 5

HTTP_TOTAL_NO_OF_FILES = 25

HTTP_MAX_NO_OF_PROCESSES = 5

With the above default configuration, if the number of files being accumulated are less than 25 and not in multiples of 5, then inPilot spawns one more process to parse the remaining files.

Troubleshooting inPilot

This section provides information on how to resolve situations you might encounter with using inPilot software. This section provides problem definitions, their likely cause(s), and solutions.

 

Problem:	The EDR files are generated and moved out from the input directory. However, there are no reports getting generated.
Possible Cause(s):	n The files may not be available in the archive directory i.e. <inpilot_install_dir>/starbi/archive.
Action(s):	n Check if the files are available in the archive directory. n Check if they are marked invalid. If yes, check if there are any headers present in the files. If not, you need to configure ECS appropriately. n If the headers are present, check if all the required headers are present in the files.

 

Problem:	inPilot reporting client cannot be started.
Possible Cause(s):	The web browser cache might be full.
Action(s):	The browser cache must be cleared. In the case of Firefox, follow these steps: 1 On the Tools menu, click Clear Private Data. 2 Select Cache check box. 3 Click Clear Private Data Now. In the case of Internet Explorer, follow these steps: 1 On the Tools menu, click Internet Options. 2 Click Delete. 3 Select Temporary Internet files check box. 4 Click Delete. The Firefox version supported for inPilot is 3.0.10 and later. For Internet Explorer, it is 7.0 and later.

Cisco Systems Inc.

Tel: 408-526-4000

Fax: 408-527-0883