The backend processes are simple processes that are configured entirely using command-line arguments.

Note The backend processes do not provide special logging or process-management functionality themselves — they expect that their parent process will manage restarting the backend if necessary, and will capture stdout/stderr to an appropriate logging mechanism. To help with logging, a start-backend.sh script allows logging of backend output to a file, or (through a pipe) to a separate process.

You can start the backends:

Configuring Signalware to automatically start the backends

The recommended way to start the backends is to configure Signalware’s process-management system to start the backend processes. The benefits of this approach are:

  • Signalware will automatically restart processes that fail unexpectedly.

  • The lifecycle of the backends is coupled with the lifecycle of Signalware as a whole, so separate backend startup/shutdown procedures are not needed.

  • The state of individual backends can be managed using Signalware’s process-management MML commands.

To configure a backend in this way, execute the CREATE-PROCESS and START-PROCESS MML commands using the Signalware MML tools (such as swmml):

CREATE-PROCESS:NAME="logical_name",CE="ce_name",UID=numeric_uid,GID=numeric_gid,
EXEC="/path/to/backend/installation/start-backend.sh -logfile /path/to/logfile.txt
-node ss7_node_name -lssn numeric_local_ssn -port numeric_local_port -verbose";

START-PROCESS:NAME="logical_name",CE="ce_name";
Note

This example has been line-wrapped for readability; each command should be executed as a single line. Note that:

  • logical_name is the logical process name that will be assigned to the process by Signalware. It must be unique per CE.

  • ce_name is the name of the Signalware CE (host) to start the process on.

  • numeric_uid is the numeric UID of the operating system user to run the process as.

  • numeric_gid is the numeric GID of the operating system group to run the process as.

  • The EXEC parameter controls the command line to execute — see Backend Command-Line Options.
Tip Once configured, the CREATE-PROCESS command is persistent, and the backend will automatically be started whenever the Signalware instance is started.

In a multi-CE cluster, the CREATE-PROCESS MML commands may be executed on any CE. Signalware arranges for the commands to be propagated to the correct CE for execution.

Note For more on the MML commands, please see the Signalware CREATE-PROCESS and START-PROCESS manpages.

Manually starting the backends

Backends may be started manually (not using Signalware). This may be useful for manual testing, or when another tool provides process management.

In this case, start-backend.sh may be run directly, with appropriate arguments.

Note
Ensure restart, environment, name

The process starting the backend should:

  • ensure that the backend is restarted on exit (where appropriate)

  • configure an appropriate environment (such as uid, gid) to execute as

  • pass an appropriate -ln logical_name on the backend command line, to provide a unique Signalware process name.
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