NetCharts Performance Dashboards Installation Guide
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- NetCharts Performance Dashboards Enterprise Edition
- Troubleshooting
- Next Steps & Additional Resources
Introduction
This Installation Guide is designed to guide you through the steps to install NetCharts Performance Dashboards on your server.
Where to Get NetCharts Performance Dashboards
Request a copy of NetCharts Performance Dashboards if you do not yet have a copy.
System Requirements
Please ensure that your system meets the following system requirements:
| Supported Web Browsers | Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 – 9 Mozilla Firefox 14 Chrome 20 |
| Operating Systems | Microsoft Windows Server 2000, 2003 and 2008 Microsoft XP Professional Vista Business Edition Windows 7 |
| Minimum Hardware | Processors: Dual 2 GHz Memory: 2 GB RAM Disk Space: 20 GB |
| Supported Databases | IBM DB2 8.5 and higher Microsoft Access 97-2007 Microsoft Excel 97-2007 Microsoft SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008 MySql 5 and higher Oracle 9 and higher Postgres 8 and higher Sybase 12 and higher |
NetCharts Performance Dashboards Enterprise Edition
This section describes the install process of NetCharts Performance Dashboards Enterprise Edition.
Installation
Installing NetCharts Performance Dashboards Enterprise Edition is a simple prompt-driven process using a series of InstallAnywhere™ panels. The initial set of installation panels displays license agreements and allows for the installation path to be chosen. After the NetCharts Performance Dashboards files have been installed on the system, the installation will show panels allowing for security and access control configuration.
Initial Installation Panels
The first set of installation panels consist of:
Introduction – Displays the product name and information.
NetCharts Performance Dashboards License Agreement – Displays the NetCharts Performance Dashboards License Agreement to review before installing. Select the radio button to agree to the terms of the license agreement and click “Next”.
JRE License Agreement – Displays the Sun Microsystems, Inc. JRE License Agreement to review before installing. Select the radio button to agree to the terms of the license agreement and click “Next”.
Installation Directory Location – Displays the current directory where NetCharts Performance Dashboards will be installed. The default location will be C:\Program Files\Visual Mining\NetCharts Performance Dashboards <edition> <version>. Select the “Choose…” button to browse the file system and select a different location if needed.
Pre-Installation Summary – Displays the product size, available space and installation location to confirm before the product files are installed. Select the “Install” button to begin product installation.
Installing… – During this step the files needed to run NetCharts Performance Dashboards will be installed on the system within the installation location specified.
Configuration Method
After the NetCharts Performance Dashboard files have been installed on the system, the next panel will provide the option to choose either an Express configuration or a Custom configuration.
An express configuration is recommended for evaluation installations. The express confiuration automatically selects the simplest and most common configuration options. The express option will configure NCPD to use a file based authentication system and will automatically create a single user “ncpd” with password “ncpd”. It will also configure NCPD to use port 9880 with no SSL encryption.
Custom Configuration Panels
If the custom configuration option is selected, the next set of installation panels gathers configuration information to configure system security and ensure proper access to data sources. Depending on the edition of NetCharts Performance Dashboards being installed some screens might not be shown.
NetCharts Performance Dashboards Service Credentials – If relational databases such as SQL Server, Oracle, etc. are going to be used, running NetCharts Performance Dashboards as the default System account is appropriate and the checkbox can be remain checked.
But if file based data sources such as Excel or Access will be referenced, they may be located in a directory on the file system with access restrictions. For instance, files in a user’s My Documents folder under their Windows profile have a built-in restriction so only the user associated with the profile can access the files. Programs such as NetCharts Performance Dashboards, when run as the standard system account, cannot access those files. If files under a user’s Windows profile need to be accessed, NetCharts Performance Dashboards should not be run using the default system account, so uncheck the checkbox.
Once a selection has been made click “Next”.
NetCharts Performance Dashboards Service Credentials (only if checkbox in previous screen was unchecked) – If access to files under a user’s Windows profile is needed, login information for a user with privileges to access the files needs to be specified. The required information can be entered using the text fields in the panel and then clicking “Next”.
NOTE: If the user information cannot be verified the installation will display a dialog offering the options to check and reenter the information or proceed without verification.
- Domain: The Windows domain the user belongs to. If the computer or user is not part of a Windows domain, the value would be the local machine name.
- User Name: The user name of the Windows profile that can access the files. This will often be the user name used to log into the system.
- Password/Confirm Password: The password for the user name of the Windows profile that can access the files. This will often be the password used to log into the system.
User Authentication Scheme – Displays the available authentication mechanisms that can be used to validate user logins to NetCharts Performance Dashboards. Using the radio buttons select between the available options and click “Next”.
- Windows Active Directory: Select if an existing Active Directory implementation exists to use to manage user logins to the system.
- Simple File Based Storage: Select if no Active Directory implementation exists to use an XML file based storage for user login information.
User Authentication Scheme (only if Windows Active Directory was selected) – Displays the fields to enter information about the Active Directory implementation that manages the user logins. In addition the Active Directory user to act as the system administrator for the NetCharts Performance Dashboards installation will also be specified. The required information can be entered using the text fields in the panel and then clicking “Next”.
NOTE: If the user and/or Active Directory information cannot be verified the installation will display a dialog with information that the installation cannot proceed until the supplied information can be verified.
- Server Name/IP: The location of the Active Directory Domain Controller can be specified as either the DNS server name or IP address.
- Fully Qualified Domain Name: The full name of the Active Directory domain that manages the user logins.
- Username: The user id to designate as the initial user with administrative privileges in NetCharts Performance Dashboards.
- Password/Retype Password: The password of the user specified in the Username field. The password is only used to validate the user id specified to ensure a validated user with administrative privileges exist within NetCharts Performance Dashboards.
User Authentication Scheme (only if Simple File Based Storage was selected) – Displays the fields to enter information about the initial administrative user. The required information can be entered using the text fields in the panel and then clicking “Next”.
- Username: The user id to add and designate as the initial user with administrative privileges in NetCharts Performance Dashboards.
- Password/Retype Password: The password of the user specified in the Username field.
- First Name (optional): The first name of the user to add.
- Last Name (optional): The last name of the user to add.
This user information is stored in the file $NCSINSTALL\liferay\lib\users.xml. This file can be edited by the NetCharts Performance Dashboards Administrator to manage the list of users eligible to use NetCharts Performance Dashboards.
User Access – Displays the available options for user access to the system. Using the radio buttons select between the available options and click “Next”.
- Allow access to all authenticated users selected by the Administrator: Only users configured with login privileges can log in and access the system. Within the Administrative area of NetCharts Performance Dashboards is a control panel that allows a user with administrative privileges to specify the users with permission to log into the system.
- Allows access to any authenticated user: Allows any user of the system that can be authenticated to log into and access the system.
SSL Configuration – Allows for configuration of SSL encrypted communication with NetCharts Performance Dashboards. By default NetCharts Performance Dashboards Enterprise Edition will install without using SSL.
- Configure a non-SSL connection: This will result in an instance of NetCharts Performance Dashboards operating using standard http on port 9880.
- Configure SSL using a temporary “self-signed” SSL Certificate: This will result in an instance of NetCharts Performance Dashboards operating using SSL on port 9843. Encrypted operation protects the transmission of user names, passwords and database access credentials. Correct use of SSL requires the generation of a machine specific SSL Certificate from a trusted third party such as Verisign. However, users can temporarily and immediately enable encrypted NetCharts Performance Dashboards communication by instructing the installation program to create a “self-signed” SSL certificate.
NOTE: For more information about NetCharts Performance Dashboards and SSL encrypted connections see NetCharts Performance Dashboards and SSL Connections below.Host Address – Displays the host name of the server where NetCharts Performance Dashboards has been installed. This name will be used to generate a self-signed SSL certificate. By default, the name of the host system found by the installation will be displayed in the text field. If the value is invalid or the system has multiple names please specify the name appropriate for connections made by web browsers to the system.
When the correct name is entered within the text field click “Next”.
Install Complete – The installation is now complete and NetCharts Performance Dashboards is ready for use.
Starting and Stopping NetCharts Performance Dashboards
NetCharts Performance Dashboards Enterprise Edition runs as four separate windows services.
NCPD Backup Service controls the NetCharts Performance Dashboards Archive service. If this service is off, NetCharts Performance Dashboards will not perform nightly backups, and the NetCharts Performance Dashboards Archive Manager Console will not be available.
NCPD Personalization Storage controls a database where NetCharts Performance Dashboards stores information about users, profiles, data sources, data entities, KPI Collections and dashboards. If this service is off, NetCharts Performance Dashboards will not run. All other NetCharts Performance Dashboards services depend on this service.
NCPD Personalization Service queries data sources and constructs KPI content.
NCPD Web Service manages the user interface and allows the user to sign in and create, manage and use dashboards. To stop NetCharts Performance Dashboards, stop all four NetCharts Performance Dashboards processes.
To start NetCharts Performance Dashboards, start all four NetCharts Performance Dashboards processes. Note that the processes are chained. Stopping the NCPD Personalization Storage service will automatically stop the other three services. Starting the NCPD Web Service will automatically start the NCPS Personalization Storage Service and the NCPD Personalization Service.
This section provides insight into common issues that may arise during the installation of NetCharts Performance Dashboards.
Windows Firewall
Windows firewall or other firewall may interfere with access to NetCharts Performance Dashboards Enterprise Edition. If users are having trouble accessing NetCharts Performance Dashboards Enterprise Edition from remote machines, check the firewall where NetCharts Performance Dashboards is installed to ensure its port is open. By default NetCharts Performance Dashboards looks for incoming requests on port 9880.
NetCharts Performance Dashboards and SSL Connections
During installation NetCharts Performance Dashboards Enterprise Edition can be instructed to generate a self-signed SSL certificate to use to SSL enable communication with NetCharts Performance Dashboards. Using a self-signed certificate automatically and immediately secures the connection between browsers and NetCharts Performance Dashboards, however most browsers will present a warning about interacting with self certified services.
There are three options for dealing with this:
Option 1 –Accept the NetCharts Performance Dashboards self-signed certificate
Configure the user’s web browser to permanently accept the NetCharts Performance Dashboards self-signed certificate. Import the NetCharts Performance Dashboards certificate into each browser and identify it as trusted.
The certificate can be imported into each web browser. In IE9 the certificate can be imported by clicking on the certificate error in the address bar and launching the install certificate wizard. In Firefox 13, use View Certificates from the Advanced Tab of the Options… menu.
Option 2 – Disable SSL support in NetCharts Performance Dashboards
NetCharts Performance Dashboards Enterprise can be reconfigured to accept standard non-SSL encrypted requests from browsers. To do this requires changing a configuration file and restarting the NetCharts Performance Dashboards services.
Modify the file:
C:\Program Files\Visual Mining\NCPD Enterprise \liferay\conf\server.xml
Change the line:
<Connector port=”9843″ maxThreads=”150″ minSpareThreads=”25″ maxSpareThreads=”75″ enableLookups=”false” disableUploadTimeout=”true” acceptCount=”100″ compression=”on” debug=”0″ scheme=”https” secure=”true” clientAuth=”false” sslProtocol=”TLS” keystoreFile=”conf/ssl.jks” keystorePass=”changeit”/>
to:
<Connector port=”9880″ maxThreads=”150″ minSpareThreads=”25″ maxSpareThreads=”75″ enableLookups=”false” disableUploadTimeout=”true” acceptCount=”100″ compression=”on” debug=”0″ />
After the file is modified, use the services panel to restart the NCPD Web Service. At this point, NetCharts Performance Dashboards will respond to URLs beginning with http instead of https.
Option 3 – Replace the NetCharts Performance Dashboards self-signed certificate
The third option for dealing with issues related to using the NetCharts Performance Dashboards built in self-signed certificate is to replace that certificate with a trusted SSL certificate generated by the customer.
Generating a trusted SSL certificate requires knowledge of the host machine name and domain name, a multi-day interaction with a Trusted SSL Certificate Authority such as Thawte or Verisign, and the purchase of a trusted SSL certificate.
Instructions for obtaining and installing a custom Trusted SSL Certificate can be found at http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-6.0-doc/ssl-howto.html.
