Managing Servers from the Dashboard

Introduction

The Dashboard can be used to manage local and remote servers and their channels. We have sites that run farms of Iguana servers with over a thousand interfaces in one data center. The global dashboard allows all these servers to be monitored through a single unified dashboard.

The Dashboard has a Channel list in the upper panel, and a Server list in the lower panel. The Channel list provides information about the Channels on this Server and selected remote Servers. The server list shows status information for the local and remote Iguana Servers.

Tip: If any Server columns mentioned are hidden, you can use View Options to display them. See Specify Columns to View.

Viewing Server Information [top]

You can use the Dashboard to view information about all of the servers that you have installed. To view the Dashboard, click the Dashboard link. The Dashboard server list appears as the lower panel. The servers are displayed in a table, one row per server:

The table below lists the columns that are defined for each server. Some of these columns may be hidden. To display a column that is hidden, use the Dashboard View Options tab. See Specify Columns to View.

Column Name Description

(check box)
A check box that enables you to select or unselect a server. Unselected servers remain listed in the Dashboard server list, but information on their server status is not displayed. See the picture immediately following this table for an example of an unselected server.Note that you can only unselect remote servers. The server that you are logged into cannot be unselected.
The current status of the server. This column cannot be hidden.
Server Name The name of the server, if a name has been provided, with the server URL in parentheses. If no server name has been defined, the server URL is used. For all remote servers, the Server Name column provides a link to the server. This column cannot be hidden.
Time The current time on that server. This is useful if a remote server is in a different time zone.
Uptime The elapsed time since the server was last started.
Running Channels The number of channels currently running, and the total number of channels defined.
Version The version number of this Iguana server. For more information, see Displaying the Iguana Version.
Service Errors The number of service errors detected. See Viewing Server Errors for more details.
Queued The number of messages queued on this server.
In Msgs/Sec The rate at which messages are coming into the server. See Measuring Server Traffic for more details.
Out Msgs/Sec The rate at which messages are going out of the server. See Measuring Server Traffic for more details.
DB Connections The number of database connections in use by this server.
In/Out Ports The number of ports that Iguana is listening to, and the number of outbound LLP ports. For more information on listening ports, see Viewing Listening Ports. For more information on outbound LLP ports, see Viewing Outbound LLP Ports.
CPU % The load on the Central Processing Unit (CPU) for the computer on which the Iguana server is running.
Disk Free (MB) The amount of free disk space on the computer on which the Iguana server is running.
Process ID The process ID for the Iguana server.
Memory (KB) The number of kilobytes of available memory on the machine on which this server is running. On Windows, this measures the page file usage.
Resident Memory (KB) The number of kilobytes of resident memory on the machine on which this server is running. On Windows, this measures the working set size.
File Handles The number of file handles in use on this server.
Threads The number of job threads in use on this server.
Response Time (Sec) The server response time, measured in seconds.
Channel Info Information on channel properties and channel routes. For more details on channel properties, see Channel Properties. For more details on channel routes, see Viewing Channel Routes.
Export Status Info Links that enable you to view dashboard information for this server.

If you have used the check box to unselect a server, the unselected server(s) appears on the Dashboard server list as shown below:

When you select an unselected check box, the server information is displayed in the Dashboard server list.

Displaying the Iguana Version [top]

You can view the version number and internal build information of the version of Iguana that any Iguana server is using.

To view the version information:

  1. Click the Dashboard tab. The Dashboard channel list and Dashboard server list appear.
  2. In the Dashboard server list, in the Version column, click the link for the server whose version information you want to display:
  3. The Version Info screen appears:
  4. You will need to provide this information if you want to report an error.

Viewing Server Errors [top]

If an error occurs when an Iguana server is starting up or running, it is displayed in red in the Service Errors column on the Dashboard server list.

To display the logged error messages:

  1. Click the red number in the Service Errors column to display the log message describing the error.
  2. If you are a member of the Administrators role, you can click clear in the Service Errors column to clear the Service Error display:

Measuring Server Traffic [top]

From the Dashboard server list, you can keep track of the rate at which each Iguana server is processing messages.

The rate at which messages are coming into and going out of each server is displayed in the In Msgs/Sec and Out Msgs/Sec columns of the Dashboard server list:

The Iguana server continuously updates this rate display. If the incoming or outgoing message rate abruptly changes, and you have not started or stopped any channels, this might indicate that one of your connections may need to be investigated.

Note: If you are using the Dashboard search feature to display only some of the channels that you have defined, the rate display is changed to show the incoming and outgoing message rate for the channels that appear on the screen. See Searching for Channels in the Dashboard for more details on the Dashboard search feature.

Viewing Listening Ports [top]

You can view a list of the ports that an Iguana server is using. This helps ensure that the channels you have defined do not conflict with one another.

To view a list of the ports in use:

  1. Click the Dashboard tab. The Dashboard channel list and Dashboard server list appear.
  2. In the Dashboard server list, click the first of the two In/Out Ports links for the server whose ports you want to list:
  3. The inbound (listening) ports are listed:
  4. This screen lists the ports in numeric order, from lowest to highest. If a port is currently in use, the Listening column for that port is set to Listening. The Listening column also displays the number of ports that are currently being listened to.
  5. The Channel(s) or Service(s) column provides links to information about the application or channel that is using the port:
    • The Web server link points to the builtin Iguana Web Server configuration screen.
    • The Plugin Communication link points to the builtin Iguana Plugins configuration screen.
    • All other links are for Channels and point to the Channel Settings screen for that channel.

Tip: For information on how to select and manage ports in Iguana, see Port Management Tips.

Viewing Outbound LLP Ports [top]

For any Iguana server, you can view a list of the channels that have been set up to send information through an LLP connection.

To view a list of the transmitting channels:

  1. In the In/Out Ports column, click the second of the two links provided for the server whose ports you want to list:
  2. The Outbound LLP Ports screen appears, listing the channels that have LLP Client as their destination component:

    For each channel, the client port and remote system are listed. The Running column displays the status of the channel: Off, Attempting connection, Not connected (the connection failed to be established) or Running.

    Note: This screen displays only the channels that you have permission to view.

  3. To change the order in which these channels are listed, click a column heading. For example, click LLP Client Port to sort the channels in ascending order of port number. To sort in descending order, click any column heading twice.
  4. To update the status of these channels, click your browser’s Refresh button.

Additional Information

Viewing Channel Routes [top]

From the Channel Routes screen, you can display all of the routes through which messages travel from one channel to another. This enables you to keep track of message traffic when you create channels whose source component is From Channel or whose destination component is To Channel.

To display the Channel Routes screen:

  1. Click the Dashboard tab. The Dashboard channel list and Dashboard server list appears.
  2. In the Dashboard server list, in the Channel Info column, click the Routes link for the Iguana server for which you want to view channel properties:
  3. The Channel Routes screen appears:
  4. The Channel Routes screen contains a table consisting of two columns of channels:
    • Source Channel lists all channels from which messages are routed;
    • Destination Channel lists all channels to which messages are routed.
  5. In the example shown above, messages are sent from the Catcher channel to the Sender channel Messages sent to the channel CDA Channel are not routed to any other channel.

Tip: As shown with the CDA Channel example above, a channel is listed as routing to itself when the following conditions occur:

  • The channel’s source component is something other than From Channel
  • The channel’s destination component is not To Channel
  • No other channel whose source component is From Channel has specified this channel as its source

By default, the Channel Routes screen sorts routes by source channel.

  1. To sort by destination channel: Click the Destination Channel heading:
  2. To return to sorting by source channel, click Source Channel.
  3. To sort in reverse order, click Source Channel or Destination Channel a second time.

Remote Iguana Servers [top]

If you are running more than one Iguana server, and you want to display a remote server on the Dashboard server list, you can use the Remote IGUANA Servers screen to add the remote server to be displayed.

Add a Remote Iguana Server

  1. Click the Settings link at the top right of the screen.
  2. In the Settings screen, click Remote IGUANA Servers.
  3. The Remote Iguana Settings screen appears, displaying a list of known remote servers:
  4. To add or remove a remote server from this list, click Edit.
  5. A screen appears that enables you to remove or add remote servers:
  6. To add a new remote server, type its URL into the empty box provided, then click Add.
  7. To remove a remote server, click the Remove button next to its URL.
  8. The added Remote Server is now displayed in the Dashboard channel list.

Synchronize Users and Roles to a Remote Server

You can copy the users and roles that you have defined for the local Iguana server to any remote server that has been added to the Remote Iguana Settings screen. This enables you to synchronize the roles and users you have defined for these Iguana servers.

Synchronization is only permitted between servers that are running identical versions of Iguana. For example, if your local Iguana server is running version 6.0.0 of Iguana, and a remote server is running version 6.0.1, you cannot synchronize these two servers.

Note: When you synchronize Iguana servers, the users and roles that are defined on the master Iguana server (the one from which you are copying) replace the users and roles that were defined on the remote Iguana server. Channel groups are not replaced.

To synchronize the Iguana servers, do the following:

  1. Click the Settings link at the top right of the Dashboard screen. In the Settings screen, click Synchronize.
  2. In the Synchronize screen, a list of remote servers appears:
  3. Use the check boxes in the first column to select the remote servers that you want to synchronize.
  4. In the Admin Password column, if needed, type the administrator password for the remote server. You do not need to supply an administrator password if it is the same as the administrator password on the master server.
  5. Click Synchronize. A dialog box appears, asking you to type the master server administrator password to confirm the synchronize operation:
  6. Type the master server password, and click Apply.
  7. If the synchronize is successful, a green check mark appears in the Sync Status column:
  8. This check mark indicates that the users and roles on the master Iguana server are synchronized with the users and roles on the remote server.
  9. You can use the Undo link to undo this synchronization.

Note: Before synchronization, as an additional precaution, the remote server’s configuration file is copied from IguanaConfiguration.xml to IguanaConfiguration.xml.beforeSync. This enables you to manually roll back synchronization if something goes wrong.

Undoing a Synchronization

If you have used Iguana’s synchronization feature to copy the users and roles from one Iguana server to another, you can undo the synchronization. You can do this either from the master server from which you performed the synchronization, or from the remote server that was synchronized.

To undo a synchronization from the master server:

  1. Click the Settings link at the top right of the Dashboard screen. In the Settings screen, click Synchronize.
  2. In the Synchronize screen, a list of remote servers appears:
  3. In the Sync Status column, click the Undo link.
  4. This opens a new browser tab that displays a confirmation screen from the remote server:
  5. In the Admin password field, type the administrator password.
  6. A dialog box appears, indicating that the undo was successful:
  7. Click Close.
  8. Click the Back to link, at the top of the screen, to return to the master Iguana server (or close this tab).

To undo the synchronization from the remote server:

  1. Click the Logs tab.
  2. Look for an Informational log message whose text starts with All users and roles have been successfully synchronized:
  3. Click this log message.
  4. The detailed view of the message contains a link that you can use to undo the synchronization:
  5. Click the link. From this point on, the process is the same as if you are undoing the synchronization from the master server.
  6. A screen appears, prompting you for the administrative password for this server:
  7. In the Admin password field, type the administrative password.
  8. Click Apply.
  9. A dialog box appears, indicating that the undo was successful.
  10. Click Close to close this dialog box.

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