SIOS DataKeeper Signal Reporting to a SIOS iQ Appliance

Introduction

SIOS DataKeeper includes a set of tools and configuration files that can be used to report Windows events to a SIOS iQ appliance. SIOS iQ is an IT Analytics system that can be used to optimize your computing infrastructure through the use of machine learning.

This guide will explain how to configure DataKeeper Signal to choose the events that you want to report, and how to choose the SIOS iQ instance to be used.

Installing and Configuring SIOS DataKeeper Signal

SIOS DataKeeper Signal is installed automatically during installation of SIOS DataKeeper. The default install folder for DataKeeper Signal is
“<DataKeeper Install directory>\..\DataKeeper_Signal”.

You can configure DataKeeper Signal to communicate with a SIOS iQ appliance during installation, or you can configure this at a later time. To configure a connection to an appliance, you need the following information:

• The administrator username and password of the iQ appliance
• The FQDN of the iQ appliance
• The iQ appliance Environment ID
• A username and password on the DataKeeper node to run the reports and report events (must have Administrator privileges on the DataKeeper node)
  

Manual Installation of DataKeeper Signal

DataKeeper Signal manual installation requires that you provide the path to the install folder on the command line. To do this, use the “-z” option followed by the install path.

To function properly, DataKeeper Signal should be installed in the folder “%ExtMirrBase%\..\DataKeeper_Signal”.

Run the following command to install DataKeeper Signal to the recommended path. DataKeeper should already be installed prior to running this command:

%ExtMirrBase%\DKSignal-<version>-setup.exe -z “%ExtMirrBase%\..\DataKeeper_Signal”

Silent Install of DataKeeper and DataKeeper Signal

Performing a silent install of DataKeeper and DataKeeper Signal requires that an installer response file for both products be created. The name of the DataKeeper response file can be whatever you want, but the DataKeeper Signal response file must be named %SYSTEMDRIVE%\DKSignal-Setup.iss.

To create the DataKeeper response file, follow the instructions in the DataKeeper Silent Install topic. While creating the DK-Setup.iss file, you can choose “No” when asked to configure DataKeeper Signal.

To create the DataKeeper Signal response file, run the DataKeeper Signal installer on a system that does not have DataKeeper Signal installed. This will usually require uninstalling DataKeeper Signal prior to creating a response file. To do this:

• In %ExtMirrBase%, run DKSignal-<version>-setup.exe
• Choose “Remove” to remove DataKeeper Signal from the system.
• In %ExtMirrBase%, run this command:

DKSignal-<version>-setup.exe /r %SystemDrive%\DKSignal-Setup.iss -z “<DataKeeper Install Directory>\..\DataKeeper_Signal”

• During this install, you can choose to configure DataKeeper signal. Your responses will be recorded in DKSignal-Setup.iss, and can be used during DataKeeper installation on other nodes.

You now have the DataKeeper install response file and DKSignal-Setup.iss in %SystemDrive%. To perform a silent install of DataKeeper and DataKeeper Signal, use these files on a system that does not have either product installed on it, as described in the DataKeeper Silent Install topic mentioned above. DataKeeper silent install will launch the DataKeeper Signal installer with %SystemDrive%\DKSignal-Setup.iss if that file is present on the system.

Specifying events to be delivered

DataKeeper Signal includes a set of sample event files. These are found in <DataKeeper_Signal folder>\json, and are named with the extension “.json.sample”. These files specify a set of events that SIOS has identified as useful for diagnosing performance issues in a DataKeeper node.

By default, no events are reported to the SIOS iQ appliance. To deliver the events specified in the “.json.sample” files, either copy or create a symbolic link from the .json.sample file to a file whose name ends in “.json”. For example, to report all of the DataKeeper events specified in DK.json, run this command:

mklink DK.json DK.json.sample

The advantage of using “mklink” is that, in the future, if any new events are added (or removed) to the DK.json.sample file in future DataKeeper releases, the updated set of events will start being reported when DataKeeper is upgraded to that release.

If there are events that you would like to report to SIOS iQ but are not found in any of the sample JSON files, you should create a custom JSON file and specify those events in it. See the sample files to follow as a guide. The format of the JSON file is as follows:

{
    "<Log Name>": {
        "<Event Source>": {
            "ids": {
                "<id>": {
                    "<filter text>": [
                        "<Event Type>",
                        "<Descriptiont>",
                        "<Severity>",
                        "<SIOS iQ Category>",
                        "<SIOS iQ Layer>"
                    ],
                    // additional filters for this ID // ...
                },
                // additional Event ID’s // ...
            }
            "lastReportTime": 0
        },
        // additional Event Sources //...
    },
    // additional Log Names //...
}