About this document

This document explains how to install and start the Rhino Element Manager (REM). Documentation about use of the element manager is in the "online help" screens on every within REM itself.

About the Rhino Element Manager

The Rhino Element Manager (REM) is a web-based console for monitoring, configuring, and managing a Rhino SLEE. REM provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for many of the management features documented in the Rhino Administration and Deployment Guide.

You can use REM to:

  • monitor a Rhino element (cluster nodes, activities, events, SBBs, alarms, resource adaptor entities, services, trace notifications, statistics, logs)

  • manage a Rhino element (SLEE state, alarms, deployment, profiles, resources), instances available in REM, and REM users

  • configure threshold rules, rate limiters, licenses, logging, and object pools

  • inspect activities, SBBs, timers, transactions, and threads

  • scan key information about multiple Rhino elements on a single screen.

Tip This release of REM can be used with Rhino versions 2.5, 2.4 and 2.3.

Topics

This document includes the following topics:

Topic Explains …​

Installing, starting and logging in to REM

how to get started with REM

REM functional areas

the functional areas in REM

Using REM tools

how to use tools built in to REM

REM plugins and extensions

how to install REM plugins and extensions

Manually upgrading REM

how to manually upgrade your REM installation to a new version

Appendixes

known issues, system properties, SSO authentication, and running REM over HTTPS.

Audience and Scope

Intended Audience

This document is for system administrators, developers, and operators interested in using a web-based GUI to monitor, configure, or manage instances of a Rhino SLEE.

This document assumes a basic knowledge of core concepts about Rhino, JAIN SLEE and Java Management Extensions (JMX).

Scope

This document covers installing, running, configuring, and using the Rhino Element Manager.

This document does not focus on…​

Installing, Starting and Logging in to REM

Check JAVA_HOME, run rem.sh, and open the login page

To run the Rhino Element Manager:

1

Ensure the JAVA_HOME environment variable points to an Oracle Java 1.8 JDK.

2

Run the rem.sh script.

3

Open http://localhost:8080/rem/. The Rhino Element Manager login page displays.

login

Tip
Derby database and Jetty web server
  • REM uses an Apache Derby instance to store Rhino instances and REM users. If it does not already exist, the REM installation creates this instance in a directory called rem_data (in the current working directory).

  • The database runs in embedded mode, so it does not accept incoming TCP connections.

  • REM runs in a Jetty web server.

  • You can configure the web server (for example, if you need to change the port number), by editing jetty.xml.

  • For running REM over HTTPS see: Appendix D. Running REM over HTTPS

  • You can also deploy the web application resource (WAR) file into other containers like Apache Tomcat. See Appendix E. Running REM on Apache Tomcat

Enter username and password

To login to REM:

1

Enter your username and password, and click Login. The REM menu displays.

menu

The default administrator login (which you’ll want to change) is username emadm and password password.

Tip

Depending on your permissions, buttons display for up to four types of REM operations:

  • Manage a Rhino Element

  • Monitor all Rhino Elements

  • Edit Rhino Instances

  • Edit Element Manager Users.

2

If this is the first time REM has been used you will probably need to either:

  • add a Rhino instance; or

  • add a server certificate to the automatically created 'Local' Rhino instance.

Running REM as a production service

rem.sh is usually used when testing or configuring a new rem instance. When deploying REM in a production environment it is usually desirable to run it as a daemon. Two scripts are provided for this purpose, an init script and a simple daemon script. For information on these see Appendix F. Running REM as a daemon

REM Functional Areas

The Rhino Element Manager has the following main functional areas:

Tip More detailed instructions for each area can be found in the built-in help in REM.

REM Management

Rhino instances

REM can monitor and manage multiple Rhino instances at once.

The instances can be:

  • RhinoSDKs

  • Production Rhino clusters

  • different versions (as long as listed as a supported version in the REM documentation)

  • local or remote (as long as they are accessible by the REM server)

To manage Rhino instances in REM, select Edit Rhino Instances from the home page.

Note You must be logged in as a REM user that is assigned a role with the REM Feature: Edit Rhino Instances permission.

REM users and roles

REM has its own users and roles separate from those in Rhino.

REM users can be assigned one or more roles. Roles can be assigned permissions for various high-level REM features and given access to specific Rhino instances.

To manage REM users and roles, select Edit Element Manager Users and Roles from the home page.

Note You must be logged in as a REM user that is assigned a role with the REM Feature: Edit Users and Roles permission.

Rhino Management

To manage aspects of a specific Rhino instance:

1

Select Manage a Rhino Element from the home page.

2

Connect to a configured Rhino instance using the Connect to …​ dropdown in the main area or by clicking the New Connection link in the upper right.

Note You must be logged in as a REM user that is assigned a role with the REM Feature: Manage Element permission.

SLEE Management

REM allows one to view and modify a Rhino instance’s SLEE management state.

To view or modify SLEE management state:

1

Ensure you are in the Rhino Management area and connected to a Rhino instance.

2

Select an item from the Management menu.

This includes:

Item To

SLEE State

View current SLEE state; start/stop SLEE, services, and RA entities.

Alarms

View current alarms; clear alarms; log all alarms; rebroadcast all alarms.

Deployment

View deployed components; install new DUs; uninstall DUs; change component install levels.

Profiles

View profile tables, profiles, and profile data; create/delete profile tables; create/edit/delete profiles.

Resources

View resource adaptors and RA entities; create/edit/delete RA entities.

Services

View/start/stop services.

Usage

View/create usage parameter sets; view/enable/disable usage notifications.

Bindings

View/add/remove service bindings.

Component Priorities

View/edit component start/stop priorities.

Rhino Configuration

REM allows one to view and modify a Rhino instance’s runtime configuration.

To view or modify Rhino configuration:

1

Ensure you are in the Rhino Management area and connected to a Rhino instance.

2

Select an item from the Configuration menu.

This includes:

Item To

Threshold Rules

View/edit/create/delete/enable/disable threshold rules.

Rate Limiters

View/edit/delete rate limiters.

Licenses

View/install/remove licenses.

Logging

View/edit log levels; view/edit/create/remove appenders.

Pools

View/edit object pools.

Staging Queue

View/edit staging queue settings.

SNMP

View/edit SNMP configuration; enable/disable SNMP agent; view/edit OID and counter mappings.

Auditing

View/edit auditing level; view opcodes.

Domains

View replication domains.

Security Policy

View Rhino security policy.

Alarm Catalog

View information on alarms that could be raised.

Access Control

Manage Rhino roles and permissions; enable/disable permission logging.

Persistence

View/edit/delete persistence instances, persistence resources, and JDBC resources.

Inspecting state

REM allows one to inspect the state of a Rhino instance.

To inspect Rhino state:

1

Ensure you are in the Rhino Management area and connected to a Rhino instance.

2

Select an item from the Inspections menu.

This includes:

Item To

Activities

View and remove activities.

SBBs

View and remove SBBs.

Timers

View and remove timers.

Transactions

View and rollback long-running transactions.

Threads

View SLEE event router threads.

AC Bindings

View activity context bindings.

Monitoring

REM allows one to monitor the state of a Rhino instance.

To monitor a Rhino instance:

1

Ensure you are in the Rhino Management area and connected to a Rhino instance.

2

Select an item from the Monitoring menu.

This includes:

Item To

Dashboard

See a general overview instance state and statistics.

Tracing

Configure trace levels and monitor trace messages.

Statistics

Subscribe to and monitor statistics.

Logging

Monitor log messages.

Network Monitor

REM has a network monitor that can be used to monitor the health of multiple Rhino instances on one screen.

Select Monitor all Rhino Elements from the home page.

Note You must be logged in as a REM user that is assigned a role with the REM Feature: Monitor Elements permission.

Using REM tools

Tools for giving feedback, annotating and displaying the log, and a command line

The Element Manager comes with tools for providing feedback, annotating the REM log, opening a command-line interface, and displaying the audit log.

Log Controls

REM sends log messages to four destinations:

  • Mini Status Window — the pane at the bottom of REM pages

  • Audit Window — the Audit Log page

  • Debug Window — the debug log; display by pressing Ctrl+Alt+` or from the Audit Log page

  • Remote logging — logs that go to the server, to be written to the server log.

To control log levels for the four destinations:

1

From the Monitoring Dashboard, select Tools > Log Control.
Log control options display.
logcontrol

2

Click to select a particular handler level.
A popup menu displays.

logginglevels

  • Click to select a logging level.
    CAUTION: REM maps levels FINE, FINER, and FINEST to the DEBUG level on the server — so to see them on the server, the log level for the rem.client logger in the server-side logging configuration must also be changed in the log4j.properties (it defaults to INFO).

3

To see how each of the four handlers treats a log message at a particular level: * Enter it in the Message field, and click Log Message Only or Log with Exception.
Results displays in the message area at the bottom of the page.

4

When you are done controlling logging options, click Done.
The log control window closes.

Annotate Rhino Log

To manually add a message to the Rhino log:

1

From the Monitoring Dashboard, select Tools > Annotate Rhino Log.
An Annotate Rhino Log dialog box displays.
annotate

2

Enter your message, and click Annotate.
REM adds the message to at level INFO, on logger rem, on all nodes.

Command Line

REM provides a command-line interface, identical to the rhino-console.

To use the REM command-line interface:

1

From the Monitoring Dashboard, select Tools > Command Line.
The command-line interface displays.
commandline

2

Enter Rhino console commands.

Full help is available online.

Audit Log

Use this option to view the audit log in the main area of the screen (instead of just at the bottom):

To clear the log display, click clearlog (at left).

The log area clears.

You can also access the debug window from here by clicking the icon in the upper right corner of the audit log.

REM Plugins and Extensions

The Rhino Element Manager supports plugins and extensions.

These can add server-side functionality such as custom servlets as well as contribute client-side elements to the REM web interface.

The new REM plugin framework has superseded the older extension framework. Development of new extensions is deprecated in favour of plugins, but installing existing REM extensions is still fully supported.

REM plugins and extensions can coexist in a REM installation.

Installing REM Plugins

To install plugins into REM:

1

Copy all the plugin jar files that you want to install into the plugins directory in REM.

2

Restart REM or whatever servlet container you are running REM in.

Next time you refresh your browser and connect to REM your plugins should be present.

Installing REM Extensions

To install extensions into REM:

1

Open a terminal, and cd into an installation of your standalone REM installation.

2

Copy all the extension zip files that you want to include with REM into the admin/extensions directory.

For example:

cp my-extension.zip admin/extensions/
cp my-other-extension.zip admin/extensions/

3

Run the admin/install-extensions.sh script.

The script bundles the extensions in admin/extensions with REM, to produce a new rem.war file (admin/target/rem.war).

4

If you are using the default bundled Jetty server, you will need to:

  1. Copy the new rem.war from admin/target/rem.war to webapps/rem.war.

  2. Restart REM.

If you are using Tomcat or some other servlet container you will need to:

  1. Copy the new rem.war from admin/target/rem.war to your servlet container’s webapps directory.

  2. Restart your servlet container.

Next time you refresh your browser and connect to REM your extensions should be present.

Manually Upgrading REM

Manually upgrading REM to a new version

Warning This manual upgrade process is largely superseded by the partially automated upgrade process, which is now the recommended way to upgrade a Tomcat based REM installation in a production environment.

The Rhino Element Manager stores some configuration data locally.

This includes:

rem_data

Derby database storing Rhino instances, saved credentials, users, roles, and permissions

rhino-ems.ks

keystore containing trust certificates for Rhino instances

.encryption.password

file containing the password used to encrypt and decrypt the Rhino credentials stored in rem_data

You may also have:

  • REM Plugins — installed in the plugins directory

  • REM Extensions — placed in admin/extensions and installed using the admin/install-extensions.sh script

Note Plugins and extensions may store their own data in REM’s home directory. Refer to the documentation for each plugin and extension you have installed for information on what additional files need to be considered when upgrading.

The upgrade process differs slightly depending on how you run REM:

Upgrading REM in the standard distribution

To upgrade REM when running it from the standard distribution package (using the embedded Jetty web server):

1

Locate the data files mentioned above in your existing REM installation.

By default they will all be stored in the root of your existing REM installation (rhino-element-manager-<old_version>).

2

Copy the files mentioned above into the root of your new REM installation (rhino-element-manager-<new_version>).

cp -R rhino-element-manager-<old_version>/rem_data \
    rhino-element-manager-<old_version>/rhino-ems.ks \
    rhino-element-manager-<old_version>/.encryption.password \
    rhino-element-manager-<new_version>/

Your new REM installation should now contain all the same data as your previous one.

3

Depending on your installation, you may need to:

Migrating REM Extensions

If you have REM Extensions installed:

1

Verify that they are compatible with the new version of REM by referring to the documentation for each extension.

2

Copy them (or newer versions of them) to admin/extensions in your new REM installation.

cp rhino-element-manager-<old_version>/admin/extensions/*.zip \
    rhino-element-manager-<new_version>/admin/extensions/

3

Run the admin/install-extensions.sh script in your new REM installation.

The extensions will be installed into the new version of rem.war

4

Following the instructions output by the script, copy admin/target/rem.war to webapps/rem.war.

5

If any of the extensions store their own data in REM’s home directory, copy those files to the new REM installation.

cp -r rhino-element-manager-<old_version>/<extension_data> \
    rhino-element-manager-<new_version>/
Migrating REM Plugins

If you have REM Plugins installed:

1

Verify that they are compatible with the new version of REM by referring to the documentation for each plugin.

2

Copy them (or newer versions of them) to plugins in your new REM installation.

cp rhino-element-manager-<old_version>/plugins/*.jar \
    rhino-element-manager-<new_version>/plugins/

3

If any of the plugins store their own data in REM’s home directory, copy those files to the new REM installation.

cp -r rhino-element-manager-<old_version>/<plugin_data> \
    rhino-element-manager-<new_version>/
Updating the database schema

The schema for REM’s Derby database (rem_data) may require updates when upgrading between major versions of REM.

REM includes a schema update tool that can apply any required schema updates automatically. All existing data will be maintained, with some data being migrated when necessary.

To enable automatic updating of REM’s database schema:

1

Uncomment this line in REM’s startup script:

#JVM_ARGS="${JVM_ARGS} -Drem.schema.update.enabled=true"

2

Start REM (stopping it first if it was already running).

Any database schema updates found to be required will be applied.

Tip Refer to rem.log for messages regarding the update process.

Upgrading REM in Apache Tomcat

To upgrade REM when running it in Apache Tomcat:

1

Locate the data files mentioned above in your ${rem.home} directory.

If you followed the original instructions for running REM in Apache Tomcat, this will be rem_home in the root of your Tomcat installation.

cd apache-tomcat-<version>

2

Make a backup copy of the entire rem_home directory.

cp -R rem_home rem_home_OLD

3

Make a backup of your existing rem.war.

cp webapps/rem.war rem.war_OLD

4

Copy the new version of rem.war into your Apache Tomcat webapps directory.

cp /full/path/to/rhino-element-manager-<new_version>/admin/resources/rem.war webapps/rem.war

4

Copy the new version of rem-rmi.jar to bin/rem-rmi.jar in your Tomcat installation.

cp /full/path/to/rhino-element-manager-<new_version>/rem-rmi.jar bin/rem-rmi.jar

5

Review the instructions for running REM on Apache Tomcat to check if there are any additional changes or steps required.

6

Depending on your installation, you may need to:

Migrating REM Extensions

If you have REM Extensions installed:

1

Verify that they are compatible with the new version of REM by referring to the documentation for each extension.

2

Copy them (or newer versions of them) to admin/extensions in the new REM distribution package.

3

Run the admin/install-extensions.sh script in the new REM distribution package.

The extensions will be installed into the new version of rem.war

4

Following the instructions output by the script, copy admin/target/rem.war to apache-tomcat-<version>/webapps/rem.war.

Migrating REM Plugins

If you have REM Plugins installed:

1

Verify that they are compatible with the new version of REM by referring to the documentation for each plugin.

2

Replace any that require upgrading with newer versions of them (making backups of the old ones if desired).

Updating the database schema

The schema for REM’s Derby database (rem_data) may require updates when upgrading between major versions of REM.

REM includes a schema update tool that can apply any required schema updates automatically. All existing data will be maintained, with some data being migrated when necessary.

To enable automatic updating of REM’s database schema:

1

Add rem.schema.update.enabled=true to CATALINA_OPTS in bin/setenv.sh in your Apache Tomcat installation.

# Enable automatic REM database schema updates
CATALINA_OPTS="$CATALINA_OPTS -Drem.schema.update.enabled=true"

2

Start Apache Tomcat (stopping it first if it was already running).

Any database schema updates found to be required will be applied.

Tip Refer to your Tomcat logs for messages regarding the update process.

Appendixes

Appendix A. Known issues in REM

This page lists several known issues in REM.


Issue: The refresh timer sometimes causes pages to refresh while you’re editing.

Workaround: Disable refresh (through the Refresh menu).


Issue: Serialization errors when shutting down REM.

Explanation: Depending on which screens have been used, some objects stored in the servlet session cannot be persisted to disk when REM shuts down. These sessions will not be restored when REM restarts, but the error is otherwise harmless.


Issue: Inspection filter form values don’t reset when cancel is pressed.

Workaround: Change the filter values back manually, to avoid having them applied next time the list is refreshed.


Issue: Embedded Rhino console fails to load with a JavaScript error terminal.proposeGeometry is not a function.

Explanation: The JavaScript Terminal implementation was upgraded, but your browser may have the old version cached.

Workaround: Clear your browser’s cache and reload the page.

Appendix B. System properties

REM system properties

REM supports the following system properties that affect its runtime behaviour:

Property Valid values (default in bold) Description

rem.nosessionlogin

true, false

If set to true, disables login from a cookie. Normally authentication tokens in a cookie will be checked when the app is reloaded and can continue to be used. Disabling this feature increases security but forces users to re-login when the app is restarted (with F5 for example.)

rem.norestart

true, false

If set to true, disables the feature that allows the administrator to restart the REM server (if started by rem.sh) from the upload certificate dialog box.

rem.home

${JETTY_HOME}

Path to the directory where REM should store its working files (Derby database, keystore, etc.)

rem.plugins.dir

${rem.home}/plugins

Path to the directory where REM should search for plugins.

rem.plugins.work.dir

${rem.plugins.dir}

Path to the directory where REM should expand plugins to.

rem.schema.update.enabled

true, false

If set to true, enables automatic database schema updates to rem_data (if required) during REM startup.

Appendix C. SSO Authenticator

REM Single Sign-on Authenticator

Tip
What is the SSO Authenticator?

Single sign-on (SSO) infrastructure stores a username and password, and uses a simple HTTP request to login.

REM’s SSO authenticator allows authentication using a simple HTTP POST instead of the login dialog box in the Element Manager user interface.

The REM SSO authenticator uses the following fields:

  • URL — http:// host : port /rem/rem/sso_authenticator

  • Username form field — username

  • Password form field — password

  • Instance ID form field (optional) — instance

Opening the URL in a browser displays a simple form that can be submitted for sign on (though typically the SSO infrastructure takes care of the submission). The authenticator authenticates the submitted username and password against the Element Manager user database. If successful, it returns an HTTP redirect (containing a URL) to the main UI page. A browser can then be launched with that URL. The URL is valid for 60 seconds and can be used only once.

If an instance ID is supplied, the Element Manager automatically connects to the instance, provided:

  • the instance has a stored Rhino username and password

  • the user has admin rights to that instance.

Appendix D. Running REM over HTTPS

HTTPS for added security

By default REM runs over HTTP in the bundled Jetty web server. If additional security is required, there are a couple ways in which REM can be run over HTTPS.

Changing Jetty to Use HTTPS

An example configuration for HTTPS is provided in recent versions of REM. To enable this, open the start.ini file and uncomment the ssl and https modules:

-# --module=ssl
+--module=ssl
-# --module=https
+--module=https

You will also need to provide or create a proper web keystore (by default located at etc/keystore inside the main rhino-element-manager directory).

  • For more detailed instructions on creating a keystore and configuring HTTPS in Jetty, see Configuring Security in the Jetty documentation.

Running REM behind Apache

If you have an existing Apache installation that is already configured to use HTTPS, then you may wish to serve REM through that.

The setup can be a bit complicated on the Apache side and a couple different options are available.

Appendix E. Running REM on Apache Tomcat

REM on Apache Tomcat

By default REM runs on the Jetty web server bundled in the REM distribution package. The REM application is packaged as a standard war though, so running it on a different servlet container, like Apache Tomcat, is quite straightforward.

You will need:

  • the REM distribution package — rhino-element-manager-<version>.zip; expanded to a location of your choice.

  • an Apache Tomcat installation — either downloaded and configured manually, or installed via a package manager; minimum supported version is 7.0.39.

Setting up Tomcat to run REM

1

REM requires a few System Properties to be set in order to function properly.

In your Apache Tomcat installation, edit (or create) bin/setenv.sh and add the following lines:

REM_HOME="$CATALINA_BASE/rem_home"
CATALINA_OPTS="-Drem.home=$REM_HOME -Dderby.stream.error.file=$REM_HOME/derby.log -Drem.norestart=true"
CLASSPATH="$CATALINA_BASE/bin/rem-rmi.jar"

If you wish to have REM store its working files in a different location, you can change the REM_HOME value above.

2

The rem-rmi.jar is required to be on the System class path for REM Plugins to function correctly. You can find the jar in the root of the REM distribution package (rhino-element-manager-<version>/rem-rmi.jar). Copy it to $CATALINA_BASE/bin/rem-rmi.jar (to match the path specified in the CLASSPATH entry above).

3

Copy rem.war from rhino-element-manager-<version>/admin/resources/rem.war to $CATALINA_BASE/webapps/rem.war.

You should now be able to start Apache Tomcat and access REM at <tomcat_base_url>/rem. If running Apache Tomcat locally using the default port 8080 then that would be http://localhost:8080/rem.

Customize REM logging

1

Unzip log4j.properties from rem.war:

cd apache-tomcat-<version>
mkdir rem-tmp
cd rem-tmp
unzip ../webapps/rem.war WEB-INF/classes/log4j.properties

2

Edit WEB-INF/classes/log4j.properties with this content (customize as desired):

log4j.rootLogger=INFO, FILE, CONSOLE

log4j.appender.CONSOLE=org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender
log4j.appender.CONSOLE.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.CONSOLE.layout.ConversionPattern=%d{ABSOLUTE} %-5p <%t> [%c] %m%n

log4j.appender.FILE=org.apache.log4j.FileAppender
log4j.appender.FILE.File=${rem.home}/rem.log
log4j.appender.FILE.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.FILE.layout.ConversionPattern=%d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss,SSS} %-5p <%t> [%c] %m%n

log4j.logger.rem=INFO

3

Replace WEB-INF/classes/log4j.properties in rem.war:

zip ../webapps/rem.war WEB-INF/classes/log4j.properties

4

Remove temporary files:

cd ..
rm -rf rem-tmp
Tip See Log4j documentation for more information on logging configuration.

Appendix F. Running REM as a daemon

In most production deployments it is desirable to run REM as a daemon.

Remd

The remd.sh script starts the Rhino Element Manager as a background service and provides basic control actions. This script does not provide control of REM instances started with the rem.sh script, even if they share the same $REM_HOME.

Usage: ./remd.sh {start|stop|restart|check}
Command Action

start

Start REM as the $REM_USER

stop

Stop the REM server process

restart

Restart the REM server

check

Check the REM process is running

Init script

A sample init script is provided in init.d/rhino-element-manager, offering similar functionality to remd.sh for operating systems using a SystemV type init system. This script is written for LSB compliant Linux systems and must be modified for other systems.

Command Action

start

Start REM as the $REM_USER

stop

Stop the REM server process

restart

Restart the REM server

status

Check the REM process is running

Configuration of the init script may be provided in the system environment or by editing the values at the top of the file.

Variable

Value

REM_USER

Username of the user to run the REM server as.

REM_HOME

Path to the rhino-element-manager directory. This directory contains the REM executables and log files.

JAVA_HOME

Path to the base directory of the JRE used to run REM. Typically this will be a path like /opt/jdk1.8.0_60