Process management GUI

The RiverMuse process manager enables you to centrally manage distributed Rsyslogds, as well as, MySQLd, and Httpd through a dedicated process management agent for Fedora 9. In addition, RiverMuse also supplies a process management agent for Windows platforms, and a Snare agent to work in conjunction with the Windows process management agent.

If you want to monitor the status of processes on remote devices in a network, you need to install the appropriate process manager agent on the relevant remote devices.

In the Process Management GUI, you must add the IP address and Port number for the process manager agent on your local and remote host machine(s). RiverMuse can then communicate with each agent, enabling you to view the status of remote processes.

In the relevant table column for each agent, the Process Management table will show a green indicator when the agent has successfully linked the remote device to the RiverMuse system.

Navigating the Process Management GUI

The Process Management GUI has a top-level menu bar, which provides access to the functionality available in the Process Management GUI.

Process Management menu

The table below describes the items contained in the Process Management top-level menu bar:

Name	Description
Manage	Displays a submenu of actions (Add/Edit Machine, Configure Machine) which can be undertaken in the Process Management GUI .
Delete	Permanently deletes the host information from the database and Process Management GUI. Delete does not remove the process manager agent on the remote host.
Refresh	Refreshes the host list.

A search text box is located within the top-level menu bar; this enables you to search for specific hosts in the Process Management table.

Process Management table

The Process Management table is a spreadsheet-like list of records, with each record displaying a subset of available information on each host.

The table below describes the column headings for the Process Management table located below the top-level menu bar:

Name	Description
Host Name	Host machine that is running the process manager agent.
PM Agent	Refers to the process manager agent that is required to run on any host machine that you wish to query and/or manage processes on.
Rsyslog	Rsyslog daemon
MySQLd	MySQL daemon
Httpd	Http daemon
Snare	An agent for a Windows operating system. The Snare agent reads event list data on a Windows platform, and converts it to a Syslog format for RiverMuse.
Omosd	Network management operating system daemon.
Yarpd	Rule processing daemon.
View	Displays all processes running on the remote host you are viewing.

How to install a process manager agent

The process manager is installed by default when RiverMuse installs on your local host. On successful completion of the RiverMuse installation, RiverMuse recommends that you should input the details of your local host running RiverMuse into the Process Management GUI.

How to add a machine

From the Process Management window, click on Manage and select Add/Edit Machine.
From the Add Machine window enter the IP address, or Host address, and Port of your local host that is running RiverMuse.
Click on Save. The Process Management table in the local host row should display six green columns, with the exception of Snare.

How to install a process manager agent in Windows

If you have not previously installed the Java Runtime Environment 1.6 (JRE) download the application from http://www.java.com/getjava. Please be advised, the system relies on the 32 bit edition of the JRE.
Start the RiverMuse desktop on a web browser.
From the RiverMuse desktop, click on the TED icon.
From the TED window, tick the check box against the Process Manager.
Click on Download.
Unzip the processManager-<VERSION>.zip file.
Put the processManager folder into the root of the C:\ drive.
To create a process manager agent as a Windows service, in the processManager/bin/ run InstallTestWrapper-NT.bat.
The process manager agent, pmservice, is now installed as a service on your remote host.
After successful installation, start the service either through
StartTestWrapper-NT.bat from processManager/bin/ or Windows service system.
Verify the log statements in processmanager.log file present at location <installed location>/processManager/logs/. The log file will contain the IP and the port details where the service is listening.

How to uninstall a process manager agent in Windows:

Run the UninstallTestWrapper-NT.bat from processManager/bin/ to uninstall the process manager agent as a windows service.

Adding a Snare agent

On a Windows platform, you must now download a snare agent, as the process manager agent works in conjunction with snare.

From the RiverMuse desktop, click on the TED icon.
From the TED window, depending on your Windows platform, tick the check box against the appropriate Snare agent.
Click on Download.
Unpack the Snare.zip file.
Put the Snare folder into the root of the C:\ drive.
In the Snare folder, click on the Snaresetup icon and follow the Snare setup wizard.
When the wizard finishes, the snare agent will be installed on your host machine.
You need to configure snare to talk to the syslog server through the snare web interface. Refer to snare network configuration for detailed instruction.
Check that rsyslog-lite, snare.conf is enabled to talk to the snare agent. Refer to rsyslog-lite for detailed instruction.

Monitoring the Process Management GUI

Return to the web server hosting the RiverMuse desktop.
Login and double click on the Process Management icon. From the Add Machine window, enter the Host address and Port of the remote host that is running the process manager agent and Snare agent.
To check if the appropriate process management agent and Snare agent is running on the remote machine, check the process manager agent, and Snare agent columns are green.

Non-Windows specific platforms

Installing a process manager agent on Fedora 9

rivermuse_fc9.repo contains the Process Manger rpm that you need to install the process manager agent on Fedora. You must undertake the first three steps as root.

Download the rivermuse_fc9.repo file on the remote host you wish to install and run the process manager agent.
Copy the .repo file into your yum.repos.d directory.
You are now ready to install the process manager agent by typing:
yum install processmanager <enter>
You can verify that the process manager agent is running on a remote machine as shown in the following insert:

Grep for java or wrapper, wrapper is a process which runs and manages
the java application underneath.

You also need to ensure that port 9491 is open to allow TCP connects from
the server running RiverMuse.
Return to the web server hosting the RiverMuse desktop.
Login and double click on the Process Management icon. From the Add Machine window, enter the Host address and Port of the remote host that is running the process manager agent.
To check if the appropriate process management agent is running on the remote machine, check the process manager agent, and depending on your system configuration, if Rsyslog, httpd, and MySql are green.

Using the Process Management GUI

Stopping and restarting daemons

You can stop and restart any of the daemons, or Snare agent, by holding down ctrl on the MAC, or shift on the PC, clicking the mouse on any of the green indicators in the Process Manager table and clicking on the relevant option.

You cannot stop the PM Agent, and, on your primary web server, you cannot stop mysql or http daemons.

When stopped, the daemon or agent green indicator will turn red, and on being restarted, the red indicator will revert back to being green.

Managing processes

The Process Management GUI enables you to locally select and sort processes, running on remote hosts.

How to view processes

From the Process Management table, in the row of the Host Name whose processes you want to view, click on the View icon. A separate window displaying the process list for the host will appear.

The Process List will display an entire list of processes. Windows platforms will list all running processes. Linux and Solaris platforms will give you the output of ps -ef. If you want to know the meaning of a column heading, type man ps.

Configuring the process list

You can configure the process list in any column heading, in a similar way to the Alert Console alert lists.

You can also sort the processes as in the Alert Console alert lists.

Refresh

Hitting the refresh button queries the database for a host, or all hosts. If a host is returned, the system analyses that host's service status i.e., which services are running on the host.

From the Process Management GUI bottom bar, click on the Refresh icon to automatically update the Process Management GUI, or select the host you want to refresh and click on the Refresh button on the top menu bar.