TCPServerd

The Oracle Communications Unified Assurance Event TCP Server Aggregator is a generic integration that listens for connections from a device via a TCP socket on a specific port, reads the message sent, parses the results with customizable rules and creates de-duplicated events within Unified Assurance.

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

You can run this application as a service using the Services UI.

TCP Server Aggregator 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 run 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 run 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

The following table shows the settings for the default service. Actual values are in bold, descriptions of values are in plaintext.

Field Value
Package coreCollection-app
Name Event TCP Server Aggregator
Program bin/core/collection/TCPServerd
Arguments This field is blank. There is no default value.
Description TCP Server Aggregator that collects event messages from connecting clients
Failover Type Standalone (Supported: Standalone, Primary, Redundant/Backup)
Status Disabled
Privileged This option is selected.

See Services in Unified Assurance User's Guide for general information about the settings for services.

See Using Application Primary/Backup Failover for more information about the different failover types.

Default Configuration

The following table shows the default configurations for the application. Actual values are in bold, descriptions of values are in plaintext.

Name Default Value Possible Values Notes
BaseRules collection/event/tcpserver/base.rules Text, 255 characters The relative path to the application Base Rules file.
BranchDir core/default Text, 255 characters The relative path to the rules directory.
Host This field is blank. There is no default value. Text, 255 characters DNS name or IP Address for the TCP server. Can associate to a particular interface. - NO RELOAD CONFIG SUPPORT
IncludeRules collection/event/tcpserver/base.includes Text, 255 characters The relative path to the application Include Rules file.
LoadRules collection/event/tcpserver/base.load Text, 255 characters The relative path to the application Load Rules file.
LogFile logs/EventTCPServer.log Text, 255 characters The relative path to the log file.
LogLevel ERROR OFF, FATAL, ERROR, WARN, INFO, DEBUG The logging level for the application.
Port This field is blank. There is no default value. An integer Port for message collection. - NO RELOAD CONFIG SUPPORT
ShardID 1 An integer Database shard to be used.
Threads 3 An 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.
Capture Disabled Enabled or Disabled (Optional) If enabled, saves the raw message in the Log.
DBThreads This field is blank. There is no default value. An integer (Optional) Number of database threads to be created. If not specified, defaults to a third (rounded up) of Threads application configuration.
DelimiterFile This field is blank. There is no default value. Text, 255 characters (Optional) Path to file that contains the additional delimiters used to delineate records. If not specified, delimiter is newline (\n). Relative to $A1BASEDIR
DisableDNS Disabled Enabled or Disabled (Optional) If enabled, uses IP address instead of hostname for the event Node.
FailoverBufferLimit 0 An integer (Optional) Enables Failover Standby buffer that keeps N-seconds worth of syslogs and replays this buffer when becoming Failover Active. (0=off N=seconds to keep) See Tokens: $buffer and $received
FieldSetFile This field is blank. There is no default value. Text, 255 characters (Optional) Path to csv file containing custom list of fields that will be used when inserting data. (Requires InsertSQLFile.)
InsertSQLFile This field is blank. There is no default value. Text, 255 characters (Optional) Path to file containing custom SQL Insert statement for handling of event inserts. (Requires FieldSetFile.)

Best Practices

The following list shows the best practices for working with this application:

Rules

This aggregator uses the Unified Assurance standard rules architecture in Perl syntax. For information about creating rules, see the following in Unified Assurance Developer's Guide:

Tokens

The aggregator exposes the following tokens for rules processing.

Token Description
$Event Reference to the hash that is used to create and insert the Event data into the database. Keys map to the fields within the table used and values assigned are inserted in the database to that field. (e.g. $Event->{'IPAddress'} = '192.0.2.1' to assign the event IP address to '192.0.2.1') At least the 'Node' and 'Summary' fields must be set, or no event is inserted.
$Packet TCP Socket Message (hash reference)
$Packet->{Received} Epoch time packet was received by the aggregator
$Packet->{Buffer} Flag for if was buffered during standby and was replayed (0 = No, 1 = Yes)
$Packet->{Message} Message Received
$Packet->{Host} DNS of remote client.
$Packet->{IP} IP Address of remote client
$discard_flag Flag for discard (0=No, 1=Yes)
$count Message Counter
$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.

Example Integrations

Creating Custom Rules Files

The TCP Server Aggregator will split each message using the defined Delimiter, by default newline (\n). Thus if the message is:

This Device is Down\n
This Device is Up\n

That will create two events in Unified Assurance.

These two events will be used as an example of how the messages could be parsed in the rules file.

Steps

  1. Go to the Rules UI:

    Configuration -> Rules

  2. Expand the folder path: core -> default -> collection -> event -> tcpserver

  3. Select the tcpserver folder, then click Add -> Add File. Enter the following:

    • File Name => newbase.rules

    • Logic

      $Log->Message('DEBUG', "Ran Base Rules");
      $Log->Message('DEBUG', [
          '#===============================================',
          '# Received New TCP Server Message',
          '# DNS     = ' . $Packet->{'Host'},
          '# IP      = ' . $Packet->{'IP'},
          '# Message = ' . $Packet->{'Message'},
          '#==============================================='
      ]);
      
      $Event->{'Node'}       = $Packet->{'Host'};
      $Event->{'IPAddress'}  = $Packet->{'IP'};
      $Event->{'Summary'}    = $Packet->{'Message'};
      $Event->{'Severity'}   = 0;
      $Event->{'AlarmGroup'} = 'Unknown';
      $Event->{'AlarmKey'}   = 'GenericTCP-->' . $Event->{'Node'} . ':' . $Event->{'Summary'};
      
      if ($Packet->{'Message'} eq '') {
          $Log->Message('ERROR', "Blank message in packet");
          $Event->{'SubMethod'} = "Error";
          $discard_flag         = 1;
      }
      elsif ($Packet->{'Message'} =~ "Down") {
          $Event->{'AlarmGroup'} = "Down";
          $Event->{'Severity'}   = 5;
      }
      elsif ($Packet->{'Message'} =~ "Up") {
          $Event->{'AlarmGroup'} = "Up";
          $Event->{'Severity'}   = 0;
      }
      else {
          # NO Rules
          $Event->{'SubMethod'} = "Generic TCP";
          $Log->Message('ERROR', "!ERROR! No Rules Defined for TCP");
          $Log->Message('DEBUG', "No Rules for TCP Message [" . $Packet->{Message} . "]");
      }
      

      When the event message is parsed, if the message contains Down, a Down Event is created with Severity set to 5 (Critical).

      If the message contains Up, an event is passed which clears the previous alarm by parsing the message and setting Severity to 0 (Normal).

    • Click Submit, then enter a commit message, then click OK.

  4. Create a clone of the default service, making changes to the configuration as needed for connectivity, and change the BaseRules configuration to use the newbase.rules.

  5. Verify the aggregator is processing the events correctly.

Administration Details

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