Copyright © TIBCO Software Inc. All Rights Reserved
Copyright © TIBCO Software Inc. All Rights Reserved


Chapter 2 Creating a TIBCO Silver Fabric Enabler for ActiveMatrix Service Grid Stack : Creating a TIBCO ActiveMatrix Administrator Component

Creating a TIBCO ActiveMatrix Administrator Component
To create and configure a TIBCO ActiveMatrix Administrator Component (also known as the ActiveMatrix® Administrator or just the Administrator Component), you must work through the Component Wizard, described in the following pages.
Task A Create a TIBCO ActiveMatrix® Administrator Component
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On the Components page, select Create New TIBCO ActiveMatrix® Administrator Component shown in the Global Actions list depicted here in Figure 1.
Figure 1 Creating a TIBCO ActiveMatrix Administrator Component
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You can select the latest versions of the installed distribution that are displayed. All versions of the distributions are compatible.
Figure 2 Choosing TIBCO ActiveMatrix Product Distribution Version
 
 
To use TIBCO Hawk ActiveMatrix Plug-in, you need to select the TIBCO_ActiveMatrix_SERVICE_GRID_DISTRIBUTION as 3.3.0.0.2.
6.
Figure 3 Choose TIBCO ActiveMatrix® Product Plug-ins
The following Implementation Types and Binding Types (IT/BT) Distributions for TIBCO Silver Fabric are supported:
TIBCO ActiveMatrix® Binding Type for EJB
TIBCO ActiveMatrix® Binding Type for Adapters
TIBCO ActiveMatrix® Implementation Type for Microsoft CLR
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Figure 4 Optional Distribution
You must select the EMS distribution version that matches with the version of the EMS that is used for the transport.
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On "Select the desired Hawk version" page, select the Enable the Hawk AMX plug-in check box.
Figure 5 Selecting the Hawk version
 
TIBCO Hawk ActiveMatrix plug-in provides features to monitor and manage TIBCO ActiveMatrix host and node processes. It also helps to monitor and manage TIBCO ActiveMatrix services and components.
These features can be realized by several Hawk microagents:
9.
Figure 6 TIBCO ActiveMatrix® Administrator Basic Configurations
SSL Enabled
Communications channels between ActiveMatrix Administrator, runtime clients, and TIBCO EMS might be secured with SSL.
Use the SSL Enabled check box on the Component Basic Configuration, when you want to use SSL/HTTPS. This check box adds a page to the Component Wizard to prompt you to enter SSL Configuration details for the Admin and EMS connections and so that keystore types, aliases, and passwords might be set for use of the respective certificates.
If the EMS being used is SSL enabled then, a keystore must be provided to the enabler. Only then the Hawk agent can connect to the EMS and use the logging service.
Figure 7 EMS SSL Configuration
Windows servers have a known limitation that imposes a file path limit to less than 260 characters. Microsoft CLR components can sometimes exceed this limit and cause an error as shown in the following example:
java.lang.Exception: com.tibco.clr.clrhost.TException: nCreateDomain: Critical Error: Check logs to verify the CLR started , COM HRESULT = 0x80131500, , desc = Target file 'C:\Engine\work\vmlab01-vm143-0\tibcoConfigHome\tibcohost\Admin-amxadmin-instanceOne\data_3.2.x\nodes\testsysNode\work\cf\2e8cc7e1-5300-4c5c-a66f-f7146587ec80\work\domains\MSFT_97fa9e91-dfc0-4341-874a-be0392c98f75\MSFT_97fa9e91-dfc0-4341-874a-be0392c98f75.config' exceeds windows path length limitation.
To avoid errors, ensure that some best practices are used to keep the CLR Component in compliance with the limitation.
To prevent the Windows path length limitation from becoming an issue, use a combination of the following best practices:
Use an Admin Enterprise Name that is as short as possible, for example, "N1" or "N2" etc.… instead of "testDevNode"
Use an Admin Instance Name that is as short as possible, for example, "i1" instead of "instanceOne"
Use a Deployment Directory with as few characters as possible: "C:\AMX" instead of "C:\ActiveMatrix."
Use SFEM Dependency
When you select this check box and publish a dependent component using the TIBCO Silver® Fabric Enabler for TIBCO EMS Server (SFEM), the connection and configuration settings are set automatically. The "TIBCO EMS Connection Configuration" page is not displayed unless you select the EMS Connection Factory check box to input connect configurations for a TIBCO EMS instance that was not created as a component dependency with the application stack.
When this setting is used, then make Activematrix Administrator dependent on TIBCO EMS component in stack.
EMS Connection Factory
If the TIBCO EMS instance will be independent of the ActiveMatrix Administrator Stack, then check this box and later enter the EMS Connection Factory name on the Enterprise Message Service Connection Factory component wizard page.
Figure 8 The Enterprise Message Service Connection Factory page
Admin Enterprise Name
Enter an ActiveMatrix Administrator Enterprise Name. The Admin Enterprise Name must be unique because only one ActiveMatrix Administrator Component may be run on an Enterprise.
As mentioned above it is a best practice to minimize the length of this name.
Admin Instance Name
Enter the TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Grid Administration instance name. This is the TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Grid host name and it must be unique within the enterprise. Multiple ActiveMatrix Service Grid instances may make reference to a single Administrator instance.
The default value for tibcoHome is    DSEngine_HOME/work/AMX_ADMIN_COMPONENT_NAME/home
The default value for tibcoConfigHome is    DSEngine_HOME/work/AMX_ADMIN_COMPONENT_NAME/configHome
As previously mentioned, it is a best practice to minimize the length of this name.
Deployment Directory
The location where the distributions and the deployment configuration will be stored.
Enter a directory path to where your ActiveMatrix® Administrator should deploy on the target TIBCO Silver Fabric Engine. If that directory is not present then it will be created during the deployment initialization.
As previously mentioned, it is a best practice to minimize the length of this name.
Deployment Persistence
Deployment persistence ensures that restart of an ActiveMatrix Component will maintain deployment configuration continuity for the TIBCO ActiveMatrix Administrator Component and the runtime component instances of TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Grid. Deployment persistence preserves the tibcoHome directory, files, and the configuration for tibcoHome so that restart re-establishes the same connections.
When Deployment Persistence is checked the ActiveMatrix Admin URL is preserved, but it does not mean that the IP address of the TIBCO Runtime host instance name will be preserved unless you define a resource allocation preference to make sure the component is attached to a fixed machine.
EXCEPTION: When Deployment Persistence is enabled the following settings can be changed and published to existing published Components:
When Deployment Persistence is enabled and an ActiveMatrix Admin or ActiveMatrix Runtime component are stopped, then they can be restarted on any Silver Fabric engines on the same machine.
When Deployment Persistence is not checked then an orderly shutdown of the Component will cleanup and remove the tibcoHome directory and the associated database tables.
Simply unchecking the Deployment Persistence checkbox and saving the component setting will not change a persistent component that was already deployed.
When you no longer want a persistent deployment, the published instance and the associated database must be cleaned manually according to the uninstallation procedure described in the TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Grid Installation Guide.
New component instances can be started on any cleaned TIBCO Silver Fabric Engine.
Use Default Admin Database
The Default Admin Database is used for the Component data unless this check box is deselected. The Component Wizard will display the External Database Configuration page (refer to the section on External Database Configuration (optional)) for you to change the settings if you have deselected this checkbox and proceed through the Next screens.
Disable MCR
The TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Grid Metrics Collection Runtime (MCR) is a service used to collect runtime object performance statistics for diagnosis and performance tuning using the TIBCO ActiveMatrix Administrator Infrastructure Dashboard. MCR may prove very useful for development tuning, but using MCR can create a performance drag, so for production and QA benchmarking, it should be disabled.
For more information on using MCR, refer to the chapter on Governance in the TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Grid Administration Guide.
The port settings initially point to the default values. Normally the port settings should be left as it is, unless your implementation environment has port conflicts that require changes. For descriptions of these and other settings refer to the TIBCO Silver Fabric Users Guide and TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Grid Administration Guide.
You must click Next to confirm any changes you make on the Basic Configuration page, the EMS Configuration page is displayed.
Disable Common Logging
Checking this box will stop deployment and execution of DDL that creates the Common Logging Service database schema when the component is published on the Engine.
Enable Mediation
Checking this box enables the TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Grid Mediation Component as part of a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) for applications. Refer to the TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Grid Mediation Component Development guide for more information on what enabling this will provide.
External Admin HTTP Base Port
Sets the port on which TIBCO ActiveMatrix Administrator clients access the TIBCO ActiveMatrix Administrator server. The default port setting is: 8120.
Internal Admin HTTP Base Port
Sets the HTTP port on which TIBCO ActiveMatrix Administrator communicates with internal processes. The default port is: 19767.
System Host Management Base Port, System Node Management Base Port,
Dev Node Management Base Port, and Admin CS Base Port
For information on the systems impacted by changing the default ports for any of the various communication channels, please refer to the TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Grid documentation.
10.
A connection with the TIBCO Enterprise Message Service (EMS) is required for proper functionality of the Silver Fabric ActiveMatrix Service Grid Component.
When you check the Basic Configuration box to "Use SFEM dependency" to set an ActiveMatrix Administrator dependency on an EMS Component, then the Component Wizard EMS Configuration page (shown here below) will not be shown in the UI.
Otherwise, the EMS URL, EMS Username, and EMS Password must be set only when an external EMS server is used.
Figure 9 Setting EMS Configuration
EMS URL - EMS uses TCP and the default port used for messaging is 7222. The actual port value used is implementation dependent. EMS can be hosted locally by the same machine hosting the TIBCO Silver Fabric Server or it may be hosted by an external installation.
The EMS username and password should be an EMS Administrator profile to ensure full functionality of the Component.
If the EMS is SSL enabled, then its respective URL must be provided in EMS URL field starting with "ssl://"
The TIBCO ActiveMatrix Enterprise Administrator component is dependent on a dedicated TIBCO Enterprise Message Service server instance.
TIBCO EMS server must be running before the TIBCO ActiveMatrix Administrator Component is started. To ensure that happens Add Allocation Rules with a Component Dependency for the TIBCO ActiveMatrix Administrator Component so the EMS Component is running before the ActiveMatrix Administrator component is started.
 
 
Using EMS with Deployment Persistence - When Deployment Persistence is enabled on the TIBCO ActiveMatrix Administrator component, then the EMS Component must also have an allocation rule specifying that EMS must be run on the same Silver Fabric Engine. This ensures that a restart of the Administrator will make the proper connections with the EMS Component.
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When the ActiveMatrix® Administrator instance must have access to a third party database you must upload the appropriate drivers so they may be instantiated on the Engine.
Figure 10 Upload Third Party Drivers
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If you deselected the "Use Default Admin Database" check box on the Basic Configuration page then this page will appear in the Component Wizard configuration workflow.
Database Type - The TIBCO Silver Fabric Enabler for ActiveMatrix Service Grid ReadMe lists those data sources and JDBC drivers that are supported for this release.
Database Max Connections - Set the number of database connection threads according to the expected need of the Component.
Figure 11 Setting the External Database Configuration
The following settings may be changed and published to running instances of the Administrator Component even when Deployment Persistence is enabled:
Database URL
Database Username
Database Password
Database Max Connections
If you select the check box to "Use different database for logging", a page named "Database Logging Configuration" appears next to allow specification of database URLs and logins for Monitoring, Logging, and Payload databases. Refer to the TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Grid Installation and Configuration document for more information on preparing external databases for use with TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Grid.
13.
If you selected "SSL Enabled" on the Basic Configuration page of the wizard then this SSL Configuration page is displayed as part of the Component configuration workflow.
You can specify use of HTTPS on the TIBCO Silver Fabric Administrator interface. SSL can also be configured for use with EMS messaging traffic.
Figure 12 Setting the SSL Configuration
All of these settings on the SSL Configuration page may be changed and published to running instances of the Administrator Component even when Deployment Persistence is enabled. All of them, that is, except for the Secure EMS Channel setting.
For more information on using SSL with TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Grid refer to the Security chapter of the TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Grid Administration Guide.
14.
Log output directories may be added with paths that are relative to the engine instance work directory (work/host-instance). Path names can contain references to runtime context variables in the form ${variable_name}.
The filename can be a regular expression, using conventions defined in javadoc for java.util.regex.Pattern. The rest of the path cannot be a regular expression.
Use a forward slash (/) for the directory separator character.
Log file patterns may also be removed by selecting the directory pattern first and then clicking the Remove button.
Figure 13 Add or Remove Log File Patterns
15.
Five different allocation rule types may be used to configure the Component behavior:
Figure 14 Adding Resource Preferences for Engine Allocation
Five di
Refer to the Silver Fabric Help or the Silver Fabric User’s Guide for more information on controlling the Component behavior.
Component Wizard Options
The TIBCO ActiveMatrix Administrator Component should be added at medium priority or higher to ensure that it is launched early in the Stack. There should only be one instance of ActiveMatrix Administrator started for a single enterprise.
Figure 15 Default Engine Allocation Settings
All the other screens are generic for all Silver Fabric Enablers. The configuration is optional for TIBCO ActiveMatrix Administrator component.
Refer to TIBCO Silver Fabric User’s Guide and Administration Guide for additional information on these configurations.
Figure 16 Configure Component Options
 
After you click the Finish button, the Component is created.

Copyright © TIBCO Software Inc. All Rights Reserved
Copyright © TIBCO Software Inc. All Rights Reserved