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3. Managing the Resource Inventory

The inventory in JBoss ON is the repository that contains all of the servers and applications that are managed or monitored by JBoss Operations Network. The inventory tells JBoss Operations Network which resources it can manage.
Once in the inventory, resources can be organized in several different ways. Resources can be grouped automatically by their type in autogroups, resources can be added manually to user-defined groups, and they can be added manually to another resource as a child.
This section covers the process of identifying and importing resources through discovery, adding children, and managing groups.

3.1. About the Inventory: Resources

The JBoss ON inventory is the central list of every managed resource that is recognized by the JBoss ON server.

3.1.1. Managed Resources: Platforms, Servers, and Services

Each JBoss ON agent periodically scans the platform where it's installed to check for services and servers. That is the discovery process. When a potential resource is discovered, then it is listed in the discovery scan results, and, from there, an administrator can choose whether it should be managed by JBoss ON. If a resource should be managed, then it must be imported into the JBoss ON server's inventory; otherwise, it can be ignored.
There are three categories of resources in JBoss ON:
  1. Platforms (operating systems)
  2. Servers
  3. Services
The resource hierarchy in the JBoss ON inventory mimics how programs and processes are physically structured on a platform. The highest level is the platform. The platform can have both servers and services as children. Likewise, servers can have both other servers and services as children, while services can have only other services as children within the inventory.
An Example Resource Hierarchy

Figure 26. An Example Resource Hierarchy

A handful of rules govern the relationships between resources in inventory:
  • A resource can only have one parent.
  • A server can be a child of a platform (such as JBoss AS on Linux) or another server (such as Tomcat embedded in JBoss AS).
  • A service can be a child of a platform, a server (such as the JMS queue on JBoss AS), or another service (e.g. a table inside a database).
  • Platforms, servers, and services can have many children services.
JBoss ON can manage many different types of resources; each managed resource has a corresponding agent plug-in which defines things like the available monitoring metrics, operations, and supported versions for the resource. Table 5, “Default Resources Supported in JBoss ON” lists the default resource types that are supported in JBoss ON.

Note

Additional resources can be added by writing custom plug-ins for the resource type.

Table 5. Default Resources Supported in JBoss ON

Managed Platform
AIX FreeBSD HP-UX Java
Linux Mac OS X Solaris Windows
Managed Servers
Apache HTTP Server JBoss BRMS (Drools) JMS Manager Service (HornetQ) Hibernate Services
Host Server HTTPService IIS Server JBoss EAP/AS 4 and 5
JBoss Cache Services 2.x and 3.x JBoss ESB and ESB 5 JMX Server mod_cluster
Oracle PostgreSQL JBoss Developer Studio (ModeShape) Tomcat Server
JBoss ON Agent JBoss ON Server

3.1.2. Content-Backed Resources

For application servers, there is a close conceptual link between a child resource and content which is deployed on the server. For example, EARs and WARs are both child resources of application servers and are versioned content which can be stored in a repository, selectively deployed, and reverted.
A content-backed resource is treated as a resource in that it has a place in the inventory hierarchy, can have operations run against it, and can have metrics collected for it. However, it is also managed as a software package, with bits that are uploaded and stored in the JBoss ON content system and maintained within a repository.
Content-backed resources can be manually added as children or, if deployed outside JBoss ON, can be detected in a package discovery scan (which runs every 24 hours by default). These child resources can also be created and updated by deploying content from the repositories in JBoss ON.
For more information on managing content-backed resources, see "Deploying Applications and Content" and "Managing JBoss Servers with JBoss ON".

3.1.3. Resources in the Inventory Used by JBoss ON

Some resources are automatically added to platforms to enable certain JBoss ON-specific functionality. For example, an Ant bundle handler resource is added to platforms as a child service to allow the agent to identify and process Ant recipes. [1] Without that Ant bundle handler resource, the JBoss ON agent cannot perform provisioning on that platform. Administrators do not have to interact directly with JBoss ON-specific child resources once they are in the inventory, but these child resources must be present for JBoss ON functionality to work. Because these children are required by JBoss ON, they are imported automatically with the platform.
Other resources can be added to the inventory for the JBoss AS server used by the JBoss ON server, the JBoss ON agent, and JBoss elements associated with the agent and server such as the agent JVM, JBoss Cache, and the agent launch script and rhq-agent-env.sh script. Adding these resources to the JBoss ON inventory allows JBoss ON to monitor and manage all of the agents and servers in the deployment.

3.2. Discovering Resources

Before any application or platform can be managed by JBoss ON, it must be imported into the inventory. There are different ways of adding resources to the inventory, depending on how the resource was discovered.

3.2.1. Finding New Resources: Discovery

When an agent is installed and every time it starts up, it scans the platform, and all applications on it, for any servers, services, or other items which can be included into the inventory. The process of finding potential resources is called discovery.
There are different scans for each type of resource: platform, server, and service. High level scans for servers and platforms are initiated by the agent every 15 minutes. A service scan detects lower-level services that are running in servers that have already been imported into the inventory. These scans run by default every 24 hours. Both of these intervals are configurable in the JBoss ON agent configuration. The agent always runs a scan for new resources when it starts up, and then periodically at its configured intervals. JBoss ON agents send information about the platform and servers it discovers back to the JBoss ON server.
A server must be imported into the inventory before any of its child processes, servers, or services can be detected by the discovery scan.
When a platform is imported into the inventory, several of its child servers and services are imported automatically as well. This includes resources that are vital to the platform (like CPU, network adapters, and filesystems) as well as resources that are used by the JBoss ON server itself (such as the Ant bundle handler resource, which is used by the provisioning subsystem).
Although discovery is run automatically by the agent, discovery can also be initiated manually to capture infrastructure changes immediately.

3.2.2. Running Discovery Scans Manually

Discovery scans are run automatically by the agent to identify new resources as they are added to a platform. Server scans are run every 15 minutes and service scans every 24 hours. (Additionally, the agent runs a full discovery scan when it starts up.) New resources can be added between the discovery scans, so administrators can initiate a manual discovery scan apart from the scheduled discovery scan.
The simplest way to initiate a discovery scan is to run the agent's discovery command at the agent command prompt:
  1. Start the agent terminal. Since the agent should already be running, using the --nostart option to start the agent terminal without attempting to start the agent process.
    # agentRoot/rhq-agent/bin/rhq-agent.sh --nostart
  2. In the agent terminal, run the discovery command. Using the -f option runs a full discovery, for servers and services. Running discovery alone checks for servers only.
    > discovery -f
Alternatively, a discovery scan can be initiated by running an operation on the platform. (Operations are discussed in detail in Setting up Monitoring, Alerts, and Operations.)
  1. Click the Inventory tab in the top menu.
  2. Select the platform resource in the Resources menu table on the left.
  3. Click the Operations tab.
  4. In the Schedules subtab, click the New button.
  5. Select the Manual Discovery operation from the drop-down menu, and select whether to run a detailed discovery (servers and services) or a simple discovery (servers only).
  6. In the Schedule area, select the radio button to run the operation immediately.
  7. Click the Schedule button to set up the operation.

3.2.3. Importing Resources from the Discovery Queue

  1. Click the Inventory tab in the top menu.
  2. In the Resources menu on the left, select Discovery Queue.
  3. Select the checkbox of the resources to be imported. Selecting a parent resource (such as a platform) gives the option to automatically import all of its children, too.
  4. Click the Import button at the bottom of the UI.

3.2.4. Ignoring Discovered Resources

When the JBoss ON agent discovers an application or service which is to be ignored from the inventory, the server can be instructed to ignore those resources in the discovery queue.

Note

A resource can only be ignored if its parent is already added to the inventory.
  1. Select Inventory from the top menu.
  2. Select the Discovery Queue item under the Resources menu on the left side of the screen.
  3. Select the checkbox of the resource to be ignored. Selecting a parent resource automatically selects all of its children.
  4. Click the Ignore button at the bottom of the page.

Note

It is not possible to ignore a platform. If a platform should not be in the inventory, do not run an agent on that machine.

3.3. Importing New Resources Manually

Discovery scans are run on a defined schedule. There may be an instance where you add a new server or service on a platform and want to add it immediately to the JBoss ON inventory, before the next scheduled discovery run. It is possible to add that new child resource manually by importing it into the inventory of the parent resource — without waiting for the next discovery scan.

Note

The parent resource must be in an available state in order to import a child resource.
  1. Click the Inventory tab in the top menu.
  2. Search for the parent resource of the new resource.
    Section 2, “Dynamic Searches for Resources and Groups” has information on searching for resources using dynamic searches.
  3. Click the Inventory tab of the parent resource.
  4. Click the Import button in the bottom of the Inventory tab, and select the type of child resource. The selection menu lists the possible types of child resources for that parent.
  5. Fill in the properties to identify and connect to the new resource. Each resource type in the system has a different set of required properties.

3.4. Configuring Tomcat/EWS Servers for Discovery (Windows)

Tomcat servers are discovered automatically on Linux and Unix systems, but they require additional configuration before they can be discovered on Windows systems.
  1. Run regedit.
  2. Navigate to Java preferences key for the Tomcat server, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Apache Software Foundation\Procrun2.0\TomcatVer#\Parameters\Java.
  3. Edit the Options attribute, and add these parameters:
    -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=9876
    -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false
    -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate=false
  4. Restart the Tomcat service.
After a few minutes, the Tomcat instance should show up in the Discovery Queue.

3.5. Creating Child Resources

JBoss ON can create certain types of children resources for parent resources. For example, a Postgres server can allow JBoss ON to create Postgres users. Not every allowed child resource type for a resource can be created through the JBoss ON UI; these children are usually limited to resource types that can be configured simply and remotely, such as scripts, WAR/EAR files, and server users.

Note

The parent resource must be available to add a child resource.
  1. Click the Inventory tab in the top menu.
  2. Search for the parent resource of the new resource.
    Section 2, “Dynamic Searches for Resources and Groups” has information on searching for resources using dynamic searches.
  3. Click the Inventory tab of the parent resource.
  4. Click the Create Child button in the bottom of the Inventory tab, and select the type of child resource. The selection menu lists the possible types of child resources for that parent.
  5. Give the name and description for the new resource.
  6. Fill in the properties to identify and connect to the new resource. Each resource type in the system has a different set of required properties.

3.6. Viewing and Editing Resource Information

Every resource has details about the server or service that can be viewed, such as its name, description, and version. (The specific information is different for each resource type.) These details are usually hidden when viewing the resource, but they can be viewed by clicking the arrow by the resource name to expand the details area.
Expanding Resource Entry Details

Figure 27. Expanding Resource Entry Details

Any fields with green text can be edited. This allows administrators to use more specific or useful information in areas that are supplied by the agent discovery, like the resource name, or to add information, like a description or, for example, a platform's physical location.
To edit a field, hover the cursor over the name and click the pencil icon that appears.
When the edits are made, click the green check mark to save the changes.

3.7. Removing Resources from the Inventory

A resource can be removed from the JBoss ON inventory after it has been imported.

Note

Removing a resource from the inventory does not block the resource from future discovery scans. If the resource still exists on the platform and should not be included in the JBoss ON inventory, then ignore the resource after it is removed from the inventory. See Section 3.2.4, “Ignoring Discovered Resources”.
A resource is removed from the inventory by editing the inventory settings in a parent entry. This can be the inventory for the resource's parent entry or a group to which the resource belongs.

3.7.1. Uninventorying through the Parent Inventory

  1. Click the Inventory tab in the top menu.
  2. Search for the parent resource of the new resource.
    Section 2, “Dynamic Searches for Resources and Groups” has information on searching for resources using dynamic searches.
  3. Click the Inventory tab for the parent resource.
  4. Click on the line of the child resource to uninventory. To select multiple entries, use the Ctrl key.
  5. Click the Uninventory button.
  6. When prompted, confirm that the resource should be uninventoried.

3.7.2. Uninventorying through a Group Inventory

If a resource is a member of a compatible or mixed group, then the resource can be uninventoried through the group management pages, as part of managing the group resources.
  1. In the Inventory tab in the top menu, select the compatible or mixed groups item in the Groups menu on the left.
  2. Click the name of the group.
  3. Open the Inventory tab for the group, and open the Members submenu.
  4. Click on the line of the group member to uninventory. To select multiple entries, use the Ctrl key.
  5. Click the Uninventory button.
  6. When prompted, confirm that the resource should be uninventoried.

3.8. Getting Inventory Reports

One quick management tool in JBoss ON is an inventory report. The report summarizes the resources currently in the inventory, grouped by resource type and five summaries:
  • Resource type
  • The JBoss ON server plug-in which manages the resource
  • The JBoss ON category for the resource (platform, server, or service)
  • The version number of the resource type; for example, for the Linux resource type, there can be a Linux 2.6.18-164.15.1.el5 version
  • The total number of resources of that type in the inventory
To generate the inventory report:
  1. In the top menu, click the Reports tab.
  2. In the Inventory menu box in the menu table on the left, select the Inventory Summary report.

Note

Click the name of any resource type to go to the inventory list for that resource type.


[1] Provisioning Ant bundles is implemented through an agent plug-in which performs the tasks on the platform and a server-side plug-in which manages the bundles in the server.