CA eHealth Remote Poller Guide - CA Support...

CA eHealth®

Remote Poller Guide r6.1

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Contents

Chapter 1: About the eHealth Poller 7 Challenges of Large IT Environments ........................................................... 7 How the Remote Poller Works .................................................................. 7

Supported Polling Configurations............................................................ 9 eHealth Remote Poller Requirements ........................................................ 9 Remote Polling Configuration Ratings ...................................................... 10 Remote Poller Compared with Distributed eHealth........................................... 11 Upgrades to Remote Polling Sites .......................................................... 12 Remote Poller Features.................................................................... 12

Chapter 2: Configuring FTP Connections 15 Configuring Secure FTP ....................................................................... 15

Secure FTP Version Requirements.......................................................... 15 Install Secure FTP......................................................................... 16 Configuring the Central Site for Secure FTP................................................. 18 Configuring the Remote Sites for Secure FTP ............................................... 21 Copying Authentication Keys from the Central Site to the Remote Sites....................... 24 Testing the Secure FTP Connection......................................................... 25

Configuring Standard FTP (Windows Only) ..................................................... 26 FTP Requirements for Windows Systems ................................................... 26 Verifying the Standard FTP Service on a Remote Site (Windows Only) ........................ 26 Testing the Standard FTP Connection....................................................... 28

Troubleshooting FTP Installation Problems for Windows Advanced Servers........................ 28

Chapter 3: Creating a Remote Polling Environment 29 Setting Up the Remote Polling Site............................................................. 29 Setting Up and Administering the Central eHealth Site .......................................... 32

Setting Up the Central Site and Adding Remote Sites to the Collection Set.................... 32 Configuring the Import Parameters for the Remote Polling Sites ............................. 37

Administering the Remote Polling Environment ................................................. 38 Managing Central Sites.................................................................... 38 Changing the Central Site ID .............................................................. 42 Managing Remote Poller Sites ............................................................. 43

Resynchronizing the Central and Remote Sites ................................................. 44 Saving the Configuration Information ...................................................... 44 Resynchronizing All Remote Sites .......................................................... 45

Contents 5

6 Remote Poller Guide

Resynchronizing One Remote Site.......................................................... 45 Resynchronization Messages............................................................... 46

Changing FTP Information..................................................................... 46 Changing the FTP Password ............................................................... 46 Changing the FTP Directory on a Remote Site............................................... 46 Changing the SSH FTP Encryption Keys .................................................... 47 Changing from Standard FTP to Secure FTP................................................. 47

Understanding the Remote Poller Operations ................................................... 47 Deploying Remote Polling ................................................................. 48 Creating Binary and DCI Files at the Remote Sites .......................................... 49 Collecting Files from the Remote Sites...................................................... 50 Deleting Files at the Remote Sites ......................................................... 50 Importing Remote Elements ............................................................... 51 Importing Remote Groups and Group Lists ................................................. 51

Chapter 4: Upgrading a Remote Polling Environment 53 Verifying System Requirements................................................................ 54 Disabling Import Polling on the Central Site .................................................... 54 Removing Obsolete Schedule Jobs ............................................................. 55 Importing Configuration and Statistics Information ............................................. 56 Upgrading the Remote Sites................................................................... 56 Enabling Remote Polling....................................................................... 56 Upgrading the Central Site .................................................................... 57 Exporting Remote Configuration Data .......................................................... 57 Synchronizing the Central Site with Remote Configurations...................................... 58 Enabling Configuration Import................................................................. 59 Enabling Import Polling Again on the Central Site ............................................... 59

Chapter 5: Troubleshooting 61 Best Practice Tips............................................................................. 61 General Troubleshooting Procedure ............................................................ 62

Error Messages ........................................................................... 63 Resynchronization Console Messages....................................................... 64 Recovering from System Crashes .......................................................... 65

Index 67

Chapter 1: About the eHealth Poller

This chapter provides an overview to the eHealth Remote Poller feature. It describes the benefits for business service managers who must monitor resources which reside in geographically dispersed or otherwise separated regions.

This section contains the following topics:

Challenges of Large IT Environments (see page 7) How the Remote Poller Works (see page 7)

Challenges of Large IT Environments Many IT organizations are challenged with the task of monitoring several thousands of resources, or with monitoring resources that are separated by geographic distances or other business-related barriers. In these large-scale and wide-area environments, one management system may not be enough to monitor all the resources. It could be difficult or impossible to poll all of the resources and collect data within the specified polling interval. Delay problems can result from long distance links; slow, intermittent or dial-up links; large numbers of elements (10,000 or more); or security barriers such as firewalls. For companies such as internet service providers (ISPs), groups of resources may be dedicated to specific customers, and thus require security considerations for polling and data collection.

The eHealth remote polling environment contains several eHealth systems that share the polling workload. A central eHealth system (the central site) regularly retrieves data from the polling systems (called remote polling sites or remote pollers). From the central site, users can run reports for any or all of the polled elements, regardless of which eHealth system polled them.

You can use remote polling when you want to keep the eHealth poller systems closer to the elements that they are monitoring, or to separate the polling for elements that may be owned by different companies or customers.

How the Remote Poller Works To use the eHealth Remote Poller, you install eHealth on each system that will serve as a remote polling site. You must purchase the necessary eHealth licenses for each site in the remote polling environment. For more information about licenses, see the eHealth Installation Guide.

Chapter 1: About the eHealth Poller 7

How the Remote Poller Works

At each remote site, you first configure the eHealth system as a remote polling site by using the nhRemotePollerSetup command. Then, you discover and poll the resources that the system will monitor. As a best practice, each remote polling site should “own” a unique set of resources; avoid discovering the same resources from different remote pollers so that you do not have more than one element for the same resource at the central site.

The database at each remote site contains the data for the elements that site polls, and the remote sites create binary files that contain the statistics and import polling data, as well as Database Configuration Information (DCI) files that contain the element configuration data.

The remote polling sites are typically mid-to-high performance systems capable of discovering and polling their elements and sending the data back to the central site. You usually do not run reports from the remote sites, as they do not retain the long-term, historical data needed for reports or baselines.

At the central site, you start by configuring the system as the central site by using the nhRemotePollerSetup command. You then use the same command to specify all its remote polling sites. The central eHealth site connects to each remote site through an FTP connection, retrieves element information and data files, and imports them into the central site database. The site typically does not poll any elements of its own (though it can); instead, it typically reserves its processing resources for generating reports. It is typically a high-performance system with a large amount of disk space because it contains all of the element information and polled data from each remote polling site. It must support the large database and the processing power to run reports for all of the monitored elements. You must plan carefully for the size and growth of your central database to make sure that it does not outgrow the disks on which it resides.



Supported Polling Configurations

eHealth supports Remote Poller configurations in which multiple remote polling sites report to one central site (the standard configuration), as shown in the following figure.

A collection set is a group of remote polling sites that send their data to a specific central site. Each remote polling site must exist in a collection set for only one central site. In addition, a remote polling site cannot be a member of a Distributed eHealth cluster. For more information, see Remote Poller Compared with Distributed eHealth (see page 11).

eHealth Remote Poller Requirements

This section describes restrictions and important information for remote polling environments.

eHealth System and Language Requirements

The eHealth systems within a remote polling environment can be any combination of supported UNIX or Windows platforms; however, they must all be running the same release of the eHealth software (release and patch level). The eHealth Remote Poller does not support environments in which eHealth systems use different eHealth language versions.

The central site and all of the remote polling sites in its collection set must use the same eHealth language version. For example, if the central site uses the English version, all remote polling sites in the collection set must use the English version.



Time Synchronization

The output files contain Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) timestamps to make sure that time-zone differences do not affect the synchronization.

The system clocks on the central site and all remote sites must be synchronized to within one minute. To establish synchronization, install third-party synchronization software on all remote sites and the central site. This is essential for ensuring that the central site does not miss any data.

Central Site Restrictions

From an eHealth central site, note that you cannot use the Live Health tools or the Business Service Console (BSC) to monitor the status of remotely polled elements. You can use these tools at a central site only to monitor the status of elements that are locally polled by the central site.

You cannot use remote polling to import Traffic Accountant conversations data, Live Health data, Application Response data, or Fault Manager (alarms) data to the central site. You can use these features at remote sites, but their data will not be imported to the central site database.

If you use the eHealth—HP OpenView Integration Module, note that you can create drill-backs and integrations only to elements that are locally polled by the central site.

Remote Polling Configuration Ratings

The following table provides the minimum and maximum configuration ratings for remote polling environments.

Configuration Rating

Number of remote systems supported 20 maximum

Number of elements supported on the central system

100,000 maximum at 15 minute polling intervals

50,000 maximum at 5 minute polling intervals

Element configuration changes per poll

5% maximum of all elements

At maximum size of a central site, this results in a change rate of 250 elements across 20 remote systems on each poll, or 5000 elements total.




Configuration Rating

Element configuration changes per day

50% maximum of all elements

4 configuration run maximum

Polling period for remote site 5 minutes minimum

Import period for central site 15 minute minimum

Link bandwidth between central and remote site

56 kbits/sec minimum; however, the maximum ratings listed in this table are based on 100 Mbps connections between the systems. At slower connection speeds, the maximum ratings may not be supported.

Remote Poller Compared with Distributed eHealth

A Distributed eHealth site contains several eHealth systems that are connected in a configuration referred to as a cluster. You would typically choose Distributed eHealth when you want to run reports for more elements than a central site or a standalone eHealth system can support. A Distributed eHealth site can support reports for up to one million elements. In comparison, an eHealth Remote Poller central site is limited to 60,000 elements (at 5-minute data samples) or 100,000 elements (at 15-minute data samples). For a complete description of Distributed eHealth, see the Distributed eHealth Administration Guide.

A Remote Poller environment offers the following advantages over Distributed eHealth:

■ Remote polling sites share data only with the central site--not with any other remote pollers. This maintains confidentiality and security among the remote sites.

■ Administration tasks such as managing groups and group lists, and creating custom reports, can be managed from the central site. You can create groups and group lists on the remote sites, and those groups will be imported to the central site. From the central site, you cannot edit or delete any groups created on remote sites. Only groups created on the central site can be edited or deleted on the central site. For more information about the recommended best practices and restrictions on groups and group lists, see Best Practice Tips (see page 61).

A central site can be a member of a Distributed eHealth cluster. Remote polling sites cannot be members of cluster.


Upgrades to Remote Polling Sites

If you have already set up a remote polling environment by using a previous release of the eHealth software, you must upgrade your remote polling environment.

Remote Poller Features

The eHealth Remote Poller provides a comprehensive solution for supporting large deployments of remote sites with high data integrity and performance. Import, synchronization, recovery, and logging features make sure that your data is reliable and protected.

The eHealth Remote Poller offers these features:

■ Fast configuration retrieval and processing. The central site retrieves and processes remote DCI files in a group by using a single FTP session (rather than one at a time as in prior releases). This streamlined import process significantly reduces the load on the central site. Since data import occurs more frequently, the central and remote sites stay in almost real-time synchronization.

■ Extensive logging of remote poller operations. The central site logs success and failure information for each file that it imports and processes in the eHealth/modules/remotePoller/logs_import/rpLog file (where eHealth is the eHealth home directory). This file provides valuable information for troubleshooting your remote poller system.

■ Support for remote groups. The central site imports configuration information for remotely-defined groups. You can discover into groups on the remote site and propagate those groups to the central site. If you are upgrading from a previous version of eHealth, see the chapter, Upgrading a Remote Polling Environment.

■ Recovery of configuration synchronization. A recovery tool, nhRpFindDiffs, checks for configuration inconsistencies between the central and remote sites and corrects them if they exist. This tool protects the integrity of steady state operations against rare inconsistencies, speeds synchronization, and reduces error recover time.

■ Configuration update architecture. The Remote Poller architecture makes sure that the central site imports configuration updates before importing statistics data. This feature improves synchronization between central and remote sites.

■ Filters for Traffic Accountant and Application Response elements. Filters for blocking the import of Traffic Accountant (TA) and Application Response (AR) elements prevent the central site from importing these element types if they are used on the remote sites.




■ Detection of corrupt data files. The central site detects corrupt statistics and configuration files. If a file is corrupt on the remote polling system, the central site does not import the file. If the file was damaged in transit, the central site retries import until it succeeds.

■ Robust statistics import. The central site detects a failed statistics file import and attempts to re-import the file on the next poll.

■ Ability to change the spool directory on the remote site. The central site is automatically notified when you change the spool directory and is able to download files from the new path on the remote site.

Chapter 2: Configuring FTP Connections

The central site and remote polling sites communicate through File Transfer Protocol (FTP). You must configure your central and remote polling sites for the version of FTP that you want to use before you run the nhRemotePollerSetup command.

SSH is a protocol for securely accessing remote systems. Administrators use SSH to control servers remotely. You can use the commercial Secure Shell (SSH) software, OpenSSH, or standard FTP. If you are using SSH or OpenSSH, you must manage your own encryption keys for each remote poller.

If your eHealth systems are UNIX systems, and you plan to use standard FTP, you do not have to perform any configuration steps. Proceed to Testing the Standard FTP Connection (see page 28) and confirm that the FTP connection between the client and each remote site works.


Configuring Secure FTP (see page 15) Configuring Standard FTP (Windows Only) (see page 26) Troubleshooting FTP Installation Problems for Windows Advanced Servers (see page 28)

Configuring Secure FTP If you want to configure your central and remote polling sites to communicate through secure FTP, you must configure secure FTP as described in the following sections.

Secure FTP Version Requirements

To use secure FTP for UNIX, you must install and configure one of the following:

■ SunSSH Release 1.2 - Solaris only

■ OpenSSH Release 3.8

■ SSH Tectia Server Release 4.4.6

SSH Tectia Server (formerly SSH Secure Shell) is a product of SSH Communications Security Corp. If you do not have the correct version of SSH, you can obtain it from the SSH Communications Security Web site at http://www.ssh.com.

Chapter 2: Configuring FTP Connections 15

Configuring Secure FTP

To use secure FTP for Windows, you must install and configure one of the following versions of SSH on your Windows systems:

■ SSH Secure Shell for Workstations Release 4.4.6

■ SSH Secure Shell for Windows Servers Release 4.4.6

■ OpenSSH Secure Shell for Windows Servers Release 3.8

Install Secure FTP

The central site requires the client (workstation) package, and the remote polling sites require the server package. eHealth supports the English version of the client only. If you are running on a non-English eHealth platform, you must install the English version of the client.

To determine whether Tectia SSH is installed and licensed on your system, enter the sftp2 command at the command line. To determine whether OpenSSH or SunSSH is installed and licensed, enter sftp at the command line.

To install SunSSH on a Solaris system

1. After obtaining the installation package, copy it to \tmp\SunSSH.

2. As system root, run the following command:

# pkgadd –d /tmp/SunSSH SUNWsshcu SUNWsshdr SUNWsshdu SUNWsshr SUNWsshu

3. To start or stop SunSSH, run the following command:

# /etc/init.d/sshd start

# /etc/init.d/sshd stop

To install OpenSSH on a UNIX system

Visit http://www.openssh.com to obtain the installation packages.

1. Copy the installation package, openssh-4.6p1-sol9-sparc-local and openssl-0.9.8e-sol9-sparc-local to \tmp\OpenSSH

2. As system root, run the following command:

# pkgadd –d /tmp/openssh/openssl-0.9.8e-sol9-sparc-local

# pkgadd –d /tmp/openssh/openssh-4.6p1-sol9-sparc-local

3. To start OpenSSH, run the following command:

# /usr/local/sbin/sshd



To install SSH Tectia Server on a Solaris UNIX system

Visit http://www.ssh.com to obtain the installation package in tar format as well as a valid license.

1. Copy the tar file (ssh-servers-a-4.4.6.43-comm-solaris-8-10.tar for Solaris or ssh-servers-a-4.4.6.43-comm-hpux-11.0.tar for HP) locally and un-tar

2. As system root, copy the license file license_ssh2.dat to /etc/ssh2

3. To install the package, run the following command:

# uncompress ssh2-4.4.6.43-sparc-solaris8-10.pkg

# pkgadd –d ssh2-4.4.6.43-sparc-solaris8-10.pkg all

4. To start or stop Tectia SSH, run the following command:

# /etc/init.d/sshd2 start

# /etc/init.d/sshd2 stop

For UNIX systems, make sure that the installation directory for the SSH commands exists in your PATH environment variable. If it does not, the sftp or sftp2 command will fail on UNIX systems.

To add SSH to the PATH environment variable on UNIX systems

1. Log in to the eHealth system as the eHealth administrator.

2. Change to the eHealth home directory.

3. Using any text editor, edit the nethealthrc.sh.usr file.

4. Copy and paste the PATH definition from the nethealthrc.sh file into this file, and append the SSH installation directory to the path (for example, /usr/local/sbin in the following example), as follows:

PATH=${NH_HOME}/bin:${NH_ORACLE_HOME}/bin:${NH_HOME}/tibco/tibrv/bin:/usr/ope

nwin/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:/etc:/usr/etc:${NhSavePath}:/usr/local/sbin

export PATH

5. Save and close the nethealthrc.sh.usr file.

6. Using any text editor, edit the nethealthrc.csh.usr file.

7. Add the following definition, where the text shown in bold (/usr/local/sbin in this example) represents the SSH installation directory:

PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/sbin"

8. Save and close the nethealthrc.csh.usr file.

If the PATH variable is set in both files and the command returns an error message, you need to install or license the SSH software.



To install Secure FTP on a Windows system

1. Visit http://www.ssh.com to obtain SSH Secure Shell installation packages and a valid license.

2. Visit http://sshwindows.sourceforge.net to obtain OpenSSH installation packages

3. When install Secure FTP on Windows system, it is suggested to install it to a path that does not have space. For example: C:\OpenSSH

Configuring the Central Site for Secure FTP

By default, secure FTP uses password authentication. To enable remote polling with secure FTP, you must disable password authentication and generate encryption keys instead. You can use the ssh-keygen2 command to generate a public and private key combination on the central site and then copy the public key to your remote polling sites. The following procedures assume that the secure FTP server is already installed and configured on the remote site and the client on the central site.

To generate authentication keys for use with Tectia SSH/SunSSH on a UNIX central site

1. Log in to the central site using the user account created for accessing the remote polling site.

2. Change to the appropriate directory:

■ If you are using SunSSH, enter the following at the command line:

cd NH_HOME/.ssh

/usr/bin/ssh-keygen -t dsa

■ If you are using Tectia SSH, enter the following at the command line:

cd ~/.ssh2

ssh-keygen2 -P

3. At the Passphrase prompt, press Enter to make sure that no passphrase is created. If you are prompted to verify that you want no passphrase, press Enter again.

This command generates a private and public key pair in your $HOME/.ssh2 subdirectory.

4. Change to the .ssh2 directory.

If you are using Tectia SSH, enter the following at the command line:

cd ~/.ssh2



If you are using SunSSH, enter the following at the command line:

cd NH_HOME/.ssh

5. List the files in the .ssh2 subdirectory by entering the following:

ls -al

The system displays two files, one of which has a .pub extension. This is your public key. The other file is your private key. (You must copy the public key to each remote polling site.)

6. Create or edit a file called identification in the .ssh2 subdirectory and copy into the identification file the private key with a prefix of IdKey, as follows:

IdKey privateKeyFilename

7. Save the identification file.

8. Copy the public key to all remote poller systems in this collection set. For instructions, see Copying Authentication Keys from the Central Site to the Remote Sites (see page 24).

To generate authentication keys for use with Tectia SSH on a Windows central site

1. At the command prompt on the central site, enter the following command:

ssh-keygen2

2. At the Passphrase prompt, press Enter to make sure that no passphrase is created. If prompted to verify that you want no passphrase, press Enter again.

This command generates a private and public key pair in your Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\SSH\UserKeys directory. Change to the Documents and Settings\username directory, and then create a .ssh2 subdirectory in that directory by entering the following command:

mkdir .ssh2

3. Change to the .ssh2 subdirectory by entering the following at the command line:

cd .ssh2

4. Copy the encryption keys from your Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\SSH\UserKeys directory to the Documents and Settings\username \.ssh2 directory you created.

5. List the files in the .ssh2 subdirectory by entering the following:

dir

The system displays two files, one of which has a .pub extension. This is your public key. The other file is your private key.



6. Create a file called identification (with no extension) in the .ssh2 subdirectory and copy into the identification file the private key with a prefix of IdKey, as follows:

IdKey privateKeyFilename

7. Save the identification file.

8. Copy the public key to all remote poller systems in this collection set. For instructions, see Copying Authentication Keys from the Central Site to the Remote Sites (see page 24).

To generate authentication keys for use with OpenSSH on a UNIX central site

1. Log in to the client as nhuser by entering the following:

su nhuser

2. Generate a key on the client by entering the following:

mkdir -p ~/.ssh If it doesn't already exist

chmod 700 ~/.ssh

cd ~/.ssh

ssh-keygen -t dsa

3. Transfer the id_dsa.pub to any remote pollers in the collection set. For instructions, see Copying Authentication Keys from the Central Site to the Remote Sites (see page 24).

To generate authentication keys for use with OpenSSH on a Windows central site

1. Ensure that OpenSSH is installed to a directory that does not have spaces.

2. Open a command prompt window and enter sftp to confirm that the command exists and that the PATH environment variable is configured correctly.

3. Change to the OpenSSH bin directory.

4. Enter the following:

mkgroup -l >> ..\etc\group

mkpasswd -l -u nhuser >> ..\etc\passwd

5. Edit the etc\passwd file and change the default shell from /bin/switch to /bin/sh.

6. Start the server by entering the following:

net start opensshd



7. Log in to SFTP using your password.

For example: sftp nhuser@hostname

8. Configure the key authentication by entering the following:

ssh-keygen -t dsa

Note: Accept the default key location (/cygdrive/c/.ssh/id_dsa) and do not provide a passphrase.

The id_dsa and id_dsa.pub keys should appear at the default key locations.

9. Copy id_dsa.pub to the server and place it in the C:\Documents and Settings\nhuser\.ssh directory.

Note: OpenSSH should already be installed in the default directory on the OpenSSH server.

Configuring the Remote Sites for Secure FTP

You must configure your secure FTP server to point to your eHealth installation on Windows systems. You must also make sure that the secure FTP user account is not a domain account. Your secure FTP user account must be a local system account.

To configure UNIX systems for secure FTP, you must make sure that the directory in which you installed SSH (for example, /usr/local/bin) exists in the PATH environment variable for eHealth. Check the nethealthrc.sh.usr and the nethealthrc.csh.usr file and modify the files if necessary.

To configure Windows remote sites for SSH.COM Secure FTP (Tectia Server)

1. Select Start, Programs, SSH Secure Shell Server, Configuration. The SSH Secure Shell for Windows Servers Configuration dialog appears.

2. Select SFTP Server in the left frame. The SFTP Server screen appears in the right frame.

3. Under Accessible directories, enter NH_HOME=eHealth, where eHealth is the full pathname of your eHealth home directory. For example, if you installed eHealth in D:\eHealth, enter the following:

NH_HOME=D:\eHealth

4. Under User home directory, specify the home directory for your eHealth installation. For example, if you installed eHealth in D:\eHealth, enter the following:

D:\eHealth

5. Click OK.



6. Verify that .ssh2 subdirectory exists in your \Documents and Settings\username directory. If it does not, create it by changing to that directory and entering the following at the command prompt:

mkdir .ssh2

To configure a Windows remote site for OpenSSH Secure FTP

1. Ensure that the directory to which OpenSSH is installed does not contain any spaces.

2. Open a command prompt window and enter sftp to confirm that the command exists and that the PATH environment variable is configured correctly.

3. Change to the OpenSSH bin directory, for example: C:\OpenSSH\bin.


mkgroup -l >> ..\etc\group

mkpasswd -l -u nhuser >> ..\etc\passwd

If you would like to use a domain user account instead, enter the following:

mkgroup –d >> ..\etc\group

mkpasswd –d [-u <username>] >> ..\etc\passwd

Example:

mkpasswd –d –u nhuser domainname >> ..\etc\passwd

5. Edit the etc\passwd file and change the default shell from /bin/switch to /bin/sh.

6. Start the server by entering the following:

net start opensshd

7. Log in to SFTP as nhuser@hostname using your password from the central site or any SFTP client.

sftp nhuser@hostname

8. This step assumes that the public key has been copied to the remote site as described in Copying Authentication Keys from the Central Site to the Remote Sites (see page 24). Place the keys in the Authorized Keys file:

a. Change to the C:\Documents and Settings\nhuser\.ssh directory.

b. Enter the following:

copy /b id_dsa.pub authorized_keys2



9. Copy id_dsa.pub to the server and place it in the C:\Documents and Settings\nhuser\.ssh directory.

Note: OpenSSH should already be installed in the default directory on the OpenSSH server.

10. Edit the C:\OpenSSH\etc\sshd_config file:

a. Change the value of StrictModes to no.

b. Change the value of RSAAuthentication to yes.

c. Uncomment “PubkeyAuthentication yes”.

d. Save the file.

Note: If you receive an error, remove the C:\OpenSSH\var\log\OpenSSHd.log file.

11. Go to Administrative Tools, Services. Change the value of Log on as for OpenSSH Service from Local System account to nhuser. Specify domain if you are using a domain user.

Example:

domainname\nhuser

12. Restart the OpenSSH service.

Note: If you receive an error, remove the C:\OpenSSH\var\log\OpenSSHd.log file.

To configure a UNIX remote site for OpenSSH secure FTP

1. Add the sshd user by entering the following:

mkdir /var/empty

chown root:sys /var/empty

chmod 755 /var/empty

groupadd sshd

useradd -g sshd -c 'sshd privsep' -d /var/empty -s /bin/false sshd

2. Confirm that you have /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/sbin in your path.


# ssh-keygen -t rsa1 -f /usr/local/etc/ssh_host_key -N ""

# ssh-keygen -t dsa -f /usr/local/etc/ssh_host_dsa_key -N ""

# ssh-keygen -t rsa -f /usr/local/etc/ssh_host_rsa_key -N ""

# cd /usr/local/etc

# chmod 600 ssh_host_key ssh_host_dsa_key ssh_host_rsa_key



4. Configure the SSH server by uncommenting the following strings in /usr/local/etc/sshd_config:

Note: On an HP system, the path would be /opt/ssh/etc/sshd_config.

RSAAuthentication yes

PubkeyAuthentication yes

AuthorizedKeysFile .ssh/authorized_keys

5. Start the SSH server by entering the following:

#/usr/local/sbin/sshd

6. After the public key has been transferred to the remote poller, add this public key to authorized keys by entering the following:

mv id_dsa.pub ~./ssh

cd ~/.ssh

cat id_dsa.pub >> authorized_keys

chmod 700 authorized_keys

Copying Authentication Keys from the Central Site to the Remote Sites

To make sure that the central site can communicate with the remote polling sites through secure FTP without requiring password authentication, you must copy the public key that you generated on the central site to each remote polling site.

To copy the public authentication key to your remote polling sites

1. From the .ssh2 subdirectory you created under your user home directory, FTP from your remote polling site to the central site by entering the following (where hostname is the name of the central site system) at a command prompt:

ftp hostname

2. Change to the .ssh2 subdirectory on the central site by entering the following:

cd .ssh2

3. List the files in the .ssh2 subdirectory by entering ls -al on UNIX systems, or dir on Windows systems. The system displays two files, one of which has a .pub extension. This is your public key. The other file is your private key.

4. Enter the following (where publicKeyFilename is the public key) to copy the file to your remote polling site:

get publicKeyFilename.pub



5. Create a file called authorization (with no extension) in the .ssh subdirectory on the remote site and copy the public key into that file with a prefix of Key, as follows:

Key publicKeyFilename.pub

6. Save the authorization file.

7. Restart the Secure FTP service (win) or process (unix).

8. Repeat this procedure for each remote polling site.

Testing the Secure FTP Connection

Test the secure FTP connection between the central site and the remote polling sites to make sure that the sites will not prompt you for a user name or password.

To test the secure FTP connection

1. From the central site command prompt, do the following:

■ For Tectia SSH, enter the following at the command line:

sftp2 nhuser@hostname

■ For SunSSH or OpenSSH, enter the following at the command line:

sftp nhuser@hostname

where username is your FTP username and hostname is the name of the remote polling site system.

The central site connects to the remote polling site without requiring you to enter a user name or password.

If you are prompted for a user name or password, the encryption authentication is not set up correctly. Verify that you have correctly completed the steps in the previous sections, Configuring the Remote Sites for Secure FTP (see page 21) and Copying Authentication Keys from the Central SIte to the Remote Sites (see page 24). Do not attempt to run the nhRemotePollerSetup command until you have verified that you have set up secure FTP correctly for each remote polling site.

2. Repeat Step 1 to test the secure FTP connection for each remote polling site.


Configuring Standard FTP (Windows Only)

Configuring Standard FTP (Windows Only) If your central site and remote polling sites communicate through standard FTP, you must perform the configuration steps described in the following sections for Windows systems only. For UNIX systems, you must only verify that the FTP daemon is active on the remote site. For more information, see Testing the Standard FTP Connection (see page 28).

FTP Requirements for Windows Systems

When you configure a remote poller on a Windows system, you must satisfy the following conditions:

■ The FTP service must use the eHealth home directory as the FTP home directory. Otherwise, nhRemotePollerSetup cannot locate the remotePoller.init file (in the eHealth/modules/remotePoller directory) on the remote site.

■ You must provide both Read and Write access to the FTP home directory. For instructions on providing Read and Write access, see the next section,Verifying the Standard FTP Service on a Remote Site (Windows Only) (see page 26).

■ You must configure the FTP service to use UNIX-style directory listings, otherwise the nhRemotePollerSetup command will fail when adding remote sites. For instructions, see the next section, Verifying the Standard FTP Service on a Remote Site (Windows Only) (see page 26).

Verifying the Standard FTP Service on a Remote Site (Windows Only)

If your remote eHealth site is a Windows system, make sure that the FTP Server Service is installed and started. You must configure this service with directory information. You can also create a virtual directory for storing your configuration and statistics files.

To verify that the FTP Server service is installed and configured

1. Log in to the eHealth system as the eHealth administrator.

2. Select Start, Settings, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Internet Services Manager.

The Internet Information Services screen appears.

3. Under Internet Information Services in the left frame, select the system for which you are setting up remote polling, and expand the directories under that system.


Configuring Standard FTP (Windows Only)

4. Right-click Default FTP Site under the system for which you are setting up remote polling.

A drop-down menu appears.

5. If Default FTP Site does not appear in the list of services, you must install the FTP service from your Windows CD-ROM. For instructions, see your Windows documentation.

6. Select Properties.

The Default FTP Site Properties dialog appears.

7. Select the Home Directory tab.

8. Specify the eHealth home directory as the Local Path value.

9. Select UNIX under Directory Listing Style.

10. In the FTP site directory group box, select Read, Write, and Log Visits.

11. Click OK to save your changes and then create a virtual directory, if desired, as described in the next procedure.

Create a Virtual Directory

If you use SSH.COM secure FTP (Tectia Server, you must create a virtual directory for storing your configuration and statistics files.

To create a virtual directory for use with (SSH.COM Secure FTP/Tectia Server)

1. Select Default FTP Site under the system for which you are setting up remote polling, and then select Action, New, Virtual Directory.

The Virtual Directory Creation Wizard appears.

2. Click Next.

The Virtual Directory Alias screen appears.

3. Enter a name for the virtual directory in the Alias field, and click Next.

The FTP Site Content Directory screen appears.

4. In the Path field, enter the remote poller spool directory (for example, D:\eHealth\modules\remotePoller\spool), and click Next.

The Access Permissions screen appears.

5. Make sure that the eHealth administrator account owns the eHealth/modules/remotePoller directory.

6. Select Read and Write under Access Permissions, click Next, and then click Finish.

The virtual directory is created below the currently selected folder level.


Troubleshooting FTP Installation Problems for Windows Advanced Servers


Testing the Standard FTP Connection

Before you run the nhRemotePollerSetup command, test the standard FTP connection between the central site and the remote polling sites to make sure that the FTP daemon is active on the remote sites.

To test the secure FTP connection

1. From the central site, enter the following at a command prompt, where hostname is the hostname or IP address of the remote system (in either v4 or v6 format):

ftp hostname

If the central site does not connect to the remote site, verify that FTP is enabled and configured properly on the remote site.

2. Log in to the remote system with your FTP user name and password. If the login is unsuccessful, verify that you are using the correct user name and password.

3. Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for each remote polling site.

Troubleshooting FTP Installation Problems for Windows Advanced Servers

If you must install and configure FTP services for a Windows 2000/2003 Advanced Server system, the installation could display an error that it was unable to install the file IIS_ftpctrs.h. This file is located within the IIS5_01.CAB file of the W2k /i386 folder of the installation media.

You must manually extract the file and save it on the Windows system. You must then point the installation program to its location to complete the FTP configuration.

Chapter 3: Creating a Remote Polling Environment

This chapter describes how to configure the remote polling environment. You use the nhRemotePollerSetup command to configure the central site and each remote site. You can also use the command to manage remote polling processes after the initial configuration.

Before you begin the setup process, make sure that you have installed eHealth on each system that will be part of the remote polling environment, and make sure that you have configured the FTP connectivity between them as described in the chapter, Configuring FTP Connections.


Setting Up the Remote Polling Site (see page 29) Setting Up and Administering the Central eHealth Site (see page 32) Administering the Remote Polling Environment (see page 38) Resynchronizing the Central and Remote Sites (see page 44) Changing FTP Information (see page 46) Understanding the Remote Poller Operations (see page 47)

Setting Up the Remote Polling Site After you install eHealth on a remote site, you must run the nhRemotePollerSetup command to configure the site to be a remote poller.

Before you set up a remote polling site, you must start the eHealth servers on that system. Do not discover or import any elements before you run nhRemotePollerSetup. If setup detects elements in an eHealth system’s poller configuration, you cannot change the configured site ID. You must remove all elements from the configuration and rerun setup. If the site ID is in use by any other site (central or remote), you cannot configure it as a remote polling site.

The first time you run nhRemotePollerSetup on any system, you are automatically prompted to set the polling parameters. Every subsequent time you run nhRemotePollerSetup on that system, the command displays the Remote Polling Site Setup menu, and you can select 1 from that menu to access the configuration questions for setting the polling parameters.

Note: Repeat this procedure on each eHealth system that you have designated as a remote polling site.

Chapter 3: Creating a Remote Polling Environment 29

Setting Up the Remote Polling Site

To set up a remote polling site

1. Log in to the remote site as the eHealth user. Make sure that the eHealth servers are started. (To start the servers, enter the nhServer start command.)

2. Enter the following at the command prompt:

nhRemotePollerSetup

The following menu appears:

Please select the type of setup you wish to

perform on this eHealth system.

1. Remote Polling Site Setup

2. Central Site Administration

Please choose one of the following (1|2|q) [q]:

3. Enter 1 to display the Remote Polling Site Setup menu.

1. Enter or Update Remote Poller Parameters

2. Enable Remote Polling on this station

3. Disable Remote Polling on this station

4. Dump Configuration (for synchronization with Central Site)

q. Quit Setup

Please choose one of the following (1|2|3|4|q) [q]:

4. Enter 1 to configure this system as a remote polling site.

The following prompt appears.

Windows may allow you to create a virtual directory which acts as an alias to

the directory where configuration data and statistics data are stored.

Your FTP service must be configured with a virtual directory for the remote

poller spool directory.

Do you want to use a virtual directory? Choose ‘n’ if you want to clear a

previously specificed directory.

Please choose one of the following: (y/|n) [n]:

5. Do one of the following:

■ If you are using standard FTP, enter n.

■ If you are using secure FTP on Windows, enter y.


Setting Up the Remote Polling Site

If you enter y, the following prompt appears:

Specify the virtual directory that you configured for your FTP service.

Please enter a valid directory name:

For example: /NH_HOME/modules/remotePoller/spool where NH_HOME is the virtual directory name.

Note: For instructions on using a virtual directory for Tectia SSH on Windows, see Create a Virtual Directory on page 14. For OpenSSH Secure FTP on Windows, you do not need to create a virtual directory; however, you do need to specify a directory that includes the cygdrive notation. For example: /cygdrive/c/eHealth/modules/remotePoller/spool where "c/eHealth" is the eHealth home directory.

The following prompt appears:

Please enter the name of a directory where eHealth can place remote poller

statistics and configuration output files. This must be a subdirectory under

the FTP root directory or accessible by the FTP alias. The remote poller may

require up to 200 Megabytes of disk space on this file system.

Please enter a valid directory name [/]:

For example: $NH_HOME\modules\remotePoller\spool

6. Enter the full pathname of the FTP home directory (for Windows systems, this must be the eHealth home directory) or the full path name of the virtual directory.


Setup has detected that the site ID on this site is already configured. The

currently configured value of the site ID is 1.

Do you wish to change the configured site ID? (y|n) [n]:

Note: You cannot change this ID unless you delete all the existing elements, losing all the data on that system. If the site ID is 1, you must configure the central site to use a site ID other than the default value of 1. The site ID must be unique for all the sites in the remote polling environment. If you accidentally specify a site ID that is already used for another remote site, run the nhRemotePollerSetup command again immediately (before you discover elements) to change the site ID.


■ Enter y at the prompt, specify a new site ID, and restart your eHealth server.

■ Enter n at the prompt to use the existing site ID.


Setting Up and Administering the Central eHealth Site


1. Enter or Update Remote Poller Parameters

2. Enable Remote Polling on this station

3. Disable Remote Polling on this station

4. Dump Configuration (for synchronization with Central Site)

q. Quit Setup

Please choose one of the following (1|2|3|4|q) [q]:

8. Enter 2 to enable remote polling.

The remote site prepares the files that will be imported by the central site, and stores a record of this setup in the following directory: ehealth/modules/remotePoller/logs_setup/log.

9. Enter q to exit the menu.

After you set up the remote site, discover the elements that it will manage and begin polling those elements to collect performance data. After you have set up all your remote sites, proceed to Setting Up and Administering the Central eHealth Site (see page 32) to set up the central site and complete the setup of your remote polling environment.

Setting Up and Administering the Central eHealth Site A collection set is a set of remote polling stations from which a central site is configured to import data. After you install eHealth on a central site, you use the nhRemotePollerSetup command to configure the central site and identify the remote sites from which it will collect data.

Setting Up the Central Site and Adding Remote Sites to the Collection Set

Use nhRemotePollerSetup to configure the central site and add remote polling sites to the collection set. A remote polling site can belong to a collection set for only one central site. eHealth does not support configurations where a remote polling site is associated with more than one central site.

To add remote polling sites to the central eHealth site

1. Log in as the eHealth user.




nhRemotePollerSetup

The following options appear:





Please choose one of the following (1|2|q) []:

3. Enter 2 to configure this system as a central site. The following options appear:

Please enter the type of operation to perform.

1. Add a Remote Polling Site

2. Remove a Remote Polling Site

3. Modify a Remote Polling Site

4. List Configured Remote Polling Sites

5. Configure Import Parameters

6. Change the Central Site ID

q. Quit Setup

4. Enter 1 to add a remote polling site to the collection set. The following prompt appears.

Please enter the hostname or IP address of the remote polling site to add to

this central site’s collection set.

The setup prompt warns you if the remote site ID is already in use by another remote polling site or the central site. If this occurs, you must either change one of the conflicting IDs to make the site IDs unique. You cannot change the site ID for a site that has elements in its configuration.

Please enter a hostname or IP address []:



5. Enter the hostname or IP address (in v4 or v6 format) for a remote polling site. The following prompt appears.

Which type of FTP should be used to retrieve data from this remote polling

site? If you are unsure, select option 1 for standard FTP.

1. Standard FTP

2. Secure FTP (SSH.COM)

3. Secure FTP (SunSSH/OpenSSH)

Please choose one of the following (1|2|3|q) []:

Note: OpenSSH and Tectia SSH apply to Windows and UNIX systems. SunSSH applies to Solaris systems only.

6. Enter a value to specify the protocol to use when retrieving data. The following prompt appears.

Please enter the FTP port to use when accessing files on this remote polling

site.

Please enter a valid port number (1...65535) []:

7. Enter the FTP port you want to use. The default value is 21 for standard FTP For SSH FTP and SunSSH/OpenSSH, the default value is 22. The following prompt appears.

Please enter the FTP username to use when accessing this remote polling site.

Please enter a valid username []:

8. Enter your FTP username. If you selected standard FTP, the following prompt appears. If you selected secure FTP (SSH.com) or secure FTP (SunSSH/OpenSSH), this prompt does not appear.

Please enter the FTP password for user "username" on host "hostname".

Please enter a valid password []:

Enter a valid password and skip to Step 10. If communication with the remote host fails after you enter a password, the setup program prompts you to confirm that the password is valid and that the remote host is accessible through FTP.

9. If you are using OpenSSH or Tectia SSH on Windows, the following prompt appears:

Setup was unable to locate ehealth on host ‘hostname’. Please provide the

directory where eHealth is installed on this host.

Please enter the remote ehealth directory;

For OpenSSH, specify /cygdrive/e/eH61, assuming that eHealth is installed on E:\eH61. For Tectia SSH, specify /NH_HOME/ where NH_HOME is the virtual directory name.




Enable data collection from remote site?

Please choose one of the following (y|n) [y]:

To enable data collection, enter y.

The following messages appear.

A DCI rules file can be applied to imported

configuration files from each of the remote

polling sites. DCI Rules files can be used to

group remote elements and/or other configuration

customizations as elements are collected from

each remote polling site. Use a rules file when

importing remote configurations?

Please choose one of the following (y|n)[]:

Note: DCI rules files are ASCII files that you use to process the element configuration information in a DCI file before eHealth saves the information in the poller configuration.

10. Enter y to apply a DCI rules file to imported configuration files. The following messages appear.

Please enter the path and filename of the rules file to apply when importing

configuration data from remote polling sites.

Please enter the name of a valid rules file []:

11. Enter the name (including the full directory path) of a valid DCI rules file, or enter the name and full directory path of a new rules file. DCI rules files typically use a .dcr extension.

Note: For information about formatting a DCI rules file, see the eHealth Data Integration Guide.

If you enter a new DCI rules file name, the program creates an empty file and displays the following messages:

Warning:/export/eHealth/modules/remotePoller/

filename.dcr does not exist. Creating an empty file.

Host hostname has been successfully added to the local collection set!

Add another remote polling site to the collection set?

Please choose one of the following (y|n) []:


■ Enter y if you want to add another remote polling site. Repeat Steps 4 through 11 of this procedure for each remote polling site.



■ Enter n if you have finished adding all remote polling sites and return to the Central Site Setup menu.

Please enter the type of operation to perform.







q. Quit Setup

13. Enter 5 to configure the import parameters for the remote sites. For instructions, see Configuring the Import Parameters for the Remote Polling Sites (see page 37).

14. Enter q to exit the menu. The following prompt appears if this is the first time you have added remote polling sites to the central site.

Setup has detected that this central site previously had no remote pollers in

its collection set. Remote statistics will not be collected until this

station’s configuration contains at least one remote element. Extract

configuration from newly added remote poller(s) now?


15. Enter y to extract the initial configuration. The following message appears.

Extracting configuration information from newly added remote polling

stations...

Configuration extraction completed successfully!

If you enter n (and do not extract the configuration), or if you receive error messages during the export of the initial configuration, you must run the following command on the central site to begin collecting remote statistics:

eHealth/bin/sys/nhiRpImport -configOnly



Configuring the Import Parameters for the Remote Polling Sites

Use nhRemotePollerSetup to configure the import parameters for the remote polling sites in a collection set. You should do so during the initial configuration of the remote polling site (as described in Setting Up the Central Site and Adding Remote Sites to the Collection Set (see page 32)). You can also use nhRemotePollerSetup to update the import parameters at any time.

To configure import parameters for the remote polling sites


nhRemotePollerSetup







2. Enter 2 to access the Central Site Setup menu. The following options appear.







q. Quit Setup

3. Enter 5 to access a series of prompts through which you can configure the import parameters for the remote polling sites. The following prompt appears.

Please enter the eHealth polling interval in minutes. Please enter a valid

polling rate (15...1440) []:

4. Enter the interval at which you want the central site to poll the remote polling stations. You can specify any number from 15 through 1440. The default value is 15.


Please enter the maximum time, in minutes, to allow a data import from all

remote polling sites to complete. Valid range is 1 - 1440.

Please enter a valid timeout (1...1440) []:


Administering the Remote Polling Environment

5. Enter the maximum time (in minutes) to allow for the completion of a data import from all remote pollers (the timeout value).

You can specify any number from 1 through 1440. The default is twice the polling interval, the recommended timeout value. After you run this script, note that it remembers the timeout value that you specified and uses that value as the default timeout for future sessions.

The Central Site Setup menu appears.


Administering the Remote Polling Environment The nhRemotePollingSetup command can also manage the central and remote sites. This section describes common administration tasks using this command.

Managing Central Sites

Once you have set up a central site, you can use the nhRemotePollerSetup command to perform administration tasks such as the following:

■ Modify a remote site’s configuration parameters.

■ Remove a remote site from a collection set.

■ List the systems in the collection set.

■ Change the central site ID.

■ Change the import polling configuration.



Modifying the Configured Remote Sites

You can use nhRemotePollerSetup to modify the settings for remote polling sites in the collection set.

To modify the remote polling sites for the collection set


nhRemotePollerSetup

The following options appear:







q. Quit Setup

2. Enter 3 to display a list of configured remote polling sites that you can modify and their current information. Each site has an index number in the left column.


Please enter the index of the host to modify (1...#)[]:

3. The program prompts you to enter new values for the remote polling site parameters. Press Return to continue with the existing value if you do not want to change a setting.

The following prompt appears, and then the Central Site Setup menu appears:

Host hostname has been successfully modified in the local collection set!

4. Enter 3 to modify another remote polling site or q to exit the menu.



Removing a Remote Polling Site

To fully remove a remote polling site from the central site, you must first remove all elements and disable remote polling on the remote site. You then use nhRemotePollerSetup to remove remote polling sites from the collection set at the central site.

To remove a remote polling site from the collection set

1. Perform the following steps on the remote polling site:

a. Select Setup Poller, Configuration from the eHealth console on the remote polling site.

The Poller Configuration dialog appears.

b. Delete all elements that appear in the Element Name list. For instructions on using the Poller Configuration dialog, see the eHealth Administration Guide.

c. Disable polling on the remote site. For instructions, see Disabling Remote Polling on a Remote Site (see page 43).

2. Wait for the next import to occur before continuing to the next step. Use the Import Polling Status window on the remote polling site to see the time of the next import.

3. Perform the following steps on the central site:

a. Enter the following at the command prompt:

nhRemotePollerSetup

b. Enter 2 to access the Central Site Setup menu.







q. Quit Setup

c. Enter 2 to remove a remote polling site. A list of configured sites appears. Each site has an index number in the left column.

d. Enter the index number of the site you want to remove. The following prompt appears.

You have selected host hostname. Are you sure you want to stop importing

data from this host?




e. Enter y to remove the system from the collection set, and press Return when prompted to continue.

The Central Site Setup menu appears.

Listing the Configured Remote Polling Sites

After you have set up your central and remote polling sites, you can use nhRemotePollerSetup to list the remote polling sites that are part of the collection set.

Note: If you are upgrading from an earlier release of eHealth to eHealth r6.1, be sure to list the configured remote sites with nhRemotePollerSetup after the upgrade and add any sites that are missing from your configuration.

To list the remote polling sites in the collection set


nhRemotePollerSetup

The following prompts appear.

Please select the type of setup you wish to perform on this eHealth system.











q. Quit Setup

3. Enter 4 to display a list of the configured remote polling sites. A list of configured sites and their information appears. Each site has an index number in the left column.

4. Press Return to return to the Central Site Setup menu.



Changing the Central Site ID

Typically, the central sites use a default site ID of 1. If that site ID is already in use by a remote polling site, you must change the central site ID.

To change the central site ID


nhRemotePollerSetup








q. Quit Setup

3. Enter 6. The following prompt appears.

Setup has detected that the site ID on this site

is already configured. The currently configured

value of the site ID is 1.

Do you wish to change the configured site ID?

Please choose one of the following (y|n)[]:

Note: You cannot change the site ID if the central site has any locally discovered elements. You must delete those elements to change the ID.

4. Enter y. The following prompt appears.

Please enter a site ID for the Central Site. The

ID provided is used to generate element IDs, and

must be unique from all remote polling site IDs

in the remote polling environment.

Please enter a unique site ID

5. Enter a unique site ID number from 1 to 100.



Managing Remote Poller Sites

You can also use the nhRemotePollerSetup command to perform the following management tasks on a remote site:

■ Change the remote poller configuration parameters, such as the FTP and output files directory.

■ If you disable remote polling, the site will no longer prepare files for import to the central site.

■ Enable or disable remote polling on this machine.

■ Dump the configuration for synchronization, as described in Resynchronizing the Central and Remote Sites (see page 44).

Disabling Remote Polling on a Remote Site

If the remote site element configuration changes while remote polling is disabled, you must synchronize the information with the central site, as described in Resynchronizing the Central and Remote Sites (see page 44).

When you disable remote polling, the remote polling system continues to poll and collect data for its elements, and you can continue to manage the elements that it owns. However, these changes and any new polled data will not be imported to the central site until you enable remote polling again.

To disable remote polling

1. Log in as the eHealth user.


nhRemotePollerSetup

3. The Remote Polling Site Setup menu appears.

1. Enter or update Remote Poller parameters

2. Enable remote polling on this site

3. Disable remote polling on this site

4. Dump configuration (for synchronization with central site)

q. Quit setup

Please choose one of the following (1|2|3|4|q) []:

4. Enter 3 to disable remote polling on this site. The Remote Polling Site Setup menu and the following message appear:

Remote polling has been disabled on this site.



Resynchronizing the Central and Remote Sites

Resynchronizing the Central and Remote Sites The configuration information on the central and remote sites could become unsynchronized. For example, a system error might occur during a configuration change on the remote polling site that prevents the system from saving the changes. If you disable remote polling on a remote site, element configuration changes on that site will not be sent to the central site, thus the central site information will be different. If you change or disable DCI rules filtering settings, the element changes will not take effect until you resynchronize the sites.

Important! You must have the same discover policy at the central site, otherwise no configuration data will be imported. If you have more than one remote site, all remote sites will have the same discover policy.

To resynchronize the central and remote sites, you must first use the nhRemotePollerSetup program on each remote polling site that you want to resynchronize to export configuration data to the spool directory. You can then use the nhRpFindDiffs recovery tool on the central site to check for and correct any configuration inconsistencies. The central site then imports the resynchronized data.

Note: If you add remote pollers to the central site before you have discovered elements on them, the element configuration will also not be sent to the central site during central site configuration (extraction).

Saving the Configuration Information

To synchronize the information between a central site and a remote site, you must first save (or dump) the latest configuration information on a remote site to allow the information to be exported to the central site.

To save remote site configuration data for export

1. Log in as the eHealth user on the remote site.


Resynchronizing the Central and Remote Sites


nhRemotePollerSetup


Please select the type of operation to perform:





q. Quit setup

Please choose one of the following (1|2|3|4|q)[]:

3. Enter 4 to save the configuration data for export to the central site. The setup program saves configuration data to the remote poller spool directory as follows, where eHealth is the eHealth home directory, and n is a timestamp:

eHealth/modules/remotePoller/spooldirectory/RpSync.elems.n.dci

eHealth/modules/remotePoller/spooldirectory/RpSync.groups.n.dci


5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 on each remote polling site in the central site’s collection set that you want to resynchronize.

Resynchronizing All Remote Sites

To resynchronize all remote polling sites in the collection set, go to the command prompt on the central site and enter the following command:

nhRpFindDiffs -updateConfig

Resynchronizing One Remote Site

To resynchronize one remote polling site, go to the command prompt on the central site and enter the following command, where hostname is the name of the remote polling site:

nhRpFindDiffs -updateConfig -host hostname


Changing FTP Information

Resynchronization Messages

The eHealth console displays the following message if the synchronization succeeds and the central site did not find any configuration inconsistencies.

No configuration changes found for remote site: hostname

The eHealth console displays the following message if the synchronization succeeds and the central site updated its configuration.

User username modified the poller configuration: (Log:

eHealth/modules/remotePoller/logs_import/pollerAudit.date.timestamp

For descriptions of additional console messages that might appear following resynchronization, see Resynchronization Console Messages (see page 64).

Changing FTP Information If you change your FTP information (for example, user name, password, or FTP type), use the nhRemotePollerSetup command to update your FTP configuration information. You can also use this process to correct any FTP information errors.

Changing the FTP Password

If you change the FTP password on your remote polling sites, run nhRemotePollerSetup on the central site and modify the remote site information, as described in Modifying the Configured Remote Sites (see page 39).

Changing the FTP Directory on a Remote Site

To change the FTP directory on a remote polling site, complete the following steps:

1. Run nhRemotePollerSetup on that remote site and choose the option to update the remote poller parameters. When prompted, specify the new FTP directory.

2. Run nhRemotePollerSetup on the central site and choose the option to modify a remote polling site. When prompted, specify the new FTP directory for that site.


Understanding the Remote Poller Operations

Changing the SSH FTP Encryption Keys

If you change the encryption keys, you must manually redistribute them to your remote sites. For instructions about creating and distributing the encryption keys, see Configuring Secure FTP (see page 15).

Changing from Standard FTP to Secure FTP

If you change from using standard FTP to using secure FTP for file transfer between the remote sites and the central site, you must do the following:

1. Configure each remote site and the central site for secure FTP, following the instructions in Configuring Secure FTP (see page 15).

2. Run nhRemotePollerSetup on the central site and choose the option to modify a remote polling site. When prompted, specify the new FTP information for that site.

Understanding the Remote Poller Operations When you add a remote poller to a central site’s collection set, the nhRemotePollerSetup program connects to the remote poller site for which you have entered this information and retrieves the remote poller configuration files (remotePoller.init and remotePoller.defaults.init) from that system. The setup program uses these files to verify that the system is a remote poller. The remotePoller.defaults.init file is installed with eHealth and includes the default settings; remotePoller.init includes the user differences that are generated from the nhRemotePollerSetup command.

The central site saves its copies of the remotePoller.init and remotePoller.defaults.init as hostname.init and hostname.defaults.init, where hostname is the name of the remote site. These files include the polling rate and element database ID (DBID) range that have been configured for the system.

■ If the system is not a remote poller, the setup program informs you that the site ID is not found.

■ If the DBID range conflicts with ranges that already exist in the poller configuration file at the central site, the setup program displays an error message. Each remote poller must use a unique DBID range to make sure that all elements are unique when stored in the central database.

eHealth begins importing data from the remote site only after you have exported the poller configuration file from at least one of the remote polling sites. You can export this configuration file at another time by running the nhiRpImport command with the -configOnly argument.



If you use the central site to poll devices, make sure that it does not poll any devices that are already being polled by the remote sites. In addition, make sure that only one remote site polls a specific resource. Otherwise, duplicates will occur in the poller configuration at the central site, and you will use multiple poller licenses for the same elements.

Deploying Remote Polling

When you configure your central site and the remote polling sites, the central site collects the initialization and poller configuration files from each remote site and updates its initialization and poller configuration file. After this, the import polling process starts regular retrieval of statistics and configuration changes for the remote elements since the last import poll.

Note: Make sure that all the eHealth systems in your remote site are synchronized to within one minute, as described in Time Synchronization (see page 10).

Each remote site has its own poller configuration and database. The remote sites poll their elements, collect data, store the data in their databases, and translate the data into data files after each poll. The central eHealth system polls each of the remote sites for these data files and imports them into the eHealth database at a standard polling interval that you specify when you configure the site. By default, the central eHealth site polls for these statistics every 15 minutes (the minimum poll rate). If new files are not available when eHealth polls, it does not import any files.



When the central site begins polling, the Import Polling window in the OneClick for eHealth console displays messages to indicate that it is starting the remote polling; then it displays messages for each system that it is polling. The following figure shows how the remote polling sites generate configuration and statistics data, which the central site collects through FTP and then stores in the central database.

The following sections explain the dataflow between the remote polling sites and the central site.

Creating Binary and DCI Files at the Remote Sites

At each remote polling site, the statistics and import pollers collect data and store it in the remote database and in binary files after each poll. The default output directory is eHealth/modules/remotePoller/spool. You can configure another output directory by using the nhRemotePollerSetup program, as described in Setting Up the Remote Polling Site (see page 29).

Note: You must have a minimum of 200 MB of free disk space for the output directory.



The binary files that eHealth creates on the remote sites have the following name format:

stats.pid.utc.bin.bz2

The configuration server on the remote site exports the local configuration

changes to DCI files for import by the central site.

Collecting Files from the Remote Sites

The central site import poller collects the DCI files and the binary files from the remote sites using the remote poller import process. To make sure that the remote and central sites remain synchronized, the process imports the configuration files before importing the binary files.

The remote poller import process retrieves remote DCI files in a group from all remote sites using a single FTP session. It then concatenates those files into a master DCI file and uses the nhConfig command to propagate the changes to the central database.

After processing and committing configuration changes to the database, the import process initiates the Import Data command, which processes the binary files and stores the new data in the central database. For each import cycle, the central site collects all files that are later than the last successful import.

Deleting Files at the Remote Sites

Before the central site imports files from a remote poller, it deletes any files that have already been imported from the remote polling site and which are at least 30 minutes old at the time of the last successful import. For example, if the last successful import occurred at 4:00 p.m., the central site deletes any remote files that were generated and successfully imported before 3:30 p.m. (30 minutes earlier).

The central site only deletes files that are older than the last successful import. The central site does not import or delete files if the import is unsuccessful. An unsuccessful import occurs if no new configuration files have been created since the last successful import or if a configuration file is corrupt. Consequently, you may occasionally find that old files (that is, files that are at least 30 minutes older than the last unsuccessful import) still exist on the remote system.



Importing Remote Elements

Remote elements are not polled by the statistics poller on the central site because their data is being supplied by the remote site.

When a central site imports configuration data on remote elements, it adds them to the eHealth database at the central site.

The OneClick for eHealth element window at the central site has the following characteristics:

■ Remotely polled elements have a poll value that begins with an R to indicate that they are remotely polled elements. The possible poll values are R-Norm, R-Slow, R-Fast, or R-Off. (Off indicates that the element is not currently being polled by the remote site.)

■ You cannot modify remote elements from the poller configuration at the central site.

■ You cannot delete elements from the central site by using the Poller Configuration dialog. You must delete them from the remote sites.

To remove elements from a central site, you must use DCI or the nhDeleteElements command. Once you remove an element from the central site, the central site import process no longer imports any data for that element.

Importing Remote Groups and Group Lists

The central site imports information for groups and group lists created at remote sites. If you create, update, or delete groups or group lists on the remote site, those changes propagate to the central site during the next import. From the central site, you cannot modify groups and group lists that were imported from the remote sites.

You can create groups and group lists on the central or remote sites. As a best practice, create them on either the central site, or on the remote sites, but not on both. If you want groups that contain elements from more than one polling site, create those groups on the central site and manage them there. Similarly, create the group lists on the central site, add the pre-created central-site groups as members, and manage them there.

Group and group list names must be unique across the entire remote polling environment. For instructions and best practices for group and group list management, see the eHealth Administration Guide.




Configuration problems and import errors can result if you create groups that have the same name on more than one eHealth system. For example, if you create a group on the central site that has the same name as a group on a remote site, the remote group will not be imported to the central site. Also, if you create groups that have the same name on two different remote pollers, the central site imports only the first group. The central site will report an error when trying to import the second of the same-named groups.

Chapter 4: Upgrading a Remote Polling Environment

This chapter describes how to upgrade your remote polling environment to the latest release. This process involves the following steps:

1. On the remote and central sites, verify system requirements.

2. On the central site, disable import polling.

3. On the central site, remove any schedule jobs that run the nhiRpBatchCfgImport executable file.

4. Step 3 is required only if you are upgrading from the Remote Poller Scale One-Off.

5. On the central site, import configuration and statistics information for each remote site.

6. On the remote sites, upgrade each system to the Remote Poller Update.

7. On the remote sites, enable remote polling.

8. On the central site, upgrade to the Remote Poller Update.

9. On the remote sites, export configuration and statistics information to the central site.

10. On the central site, synchronize with remote site configurations.

11. On the central site, enable configuration imports (if turned off).

12. Step 10 is required only if you are upgrading from the Remote Poller Scale One-Off.

13. On the central site, enable import polling again.


Verifying System Requirements (see page 54) Disabling Import Polling on the Central Site (see page 54) Removing Obsolete Schedule Jobs (see page 55) Importing Configuration and Statistics Information (see page 56) Upgrading the Remote Sites (see page 56) Enabling Remote Polling (see page 56) Upgrading the Central Site (see page 57) Exporting Remote Configuration Data (see page 57) Synchronizing the Central Site with Remote Configurations (see page 58) Enabling Configuration Import (see page 59) Enabling Import Polling Again on the Central Site (see page 59)

Chapter 4: Upgrading a Remote Polling Environment 53

Verifying System Requirements

Verifying System Requirements Verify the following requirements before upgrading to the Remote Poller Update:

■ Platform. The Remote Poller Update operates on all eHealth platforms.

■ FTP access. Make sure that the central and remote sites are running either the commercial Secure Shell (SSH) software (version 5.0), or standard FTP. If you are using SSH, you must manage your own encryption keys for each remote poller.

It is recommended that you verify FTP connectivity to each of your remote sites. If you are using SSH software, use the SFTP command to access remote sites. If you need to configure SSH on the central or remote systems, see the eHealth Administration Guide or SSH.com for instructions.

Disabling Import Polling on the Central Site You can disable polling on the central site through the eHealth console or by editing the module.init file in the eHealth home directory.

If your central site is polling non-remote elements and you do not want it to stop polling those elements, disable polling through the module.init file, not the eHealth console.

To disable polling through the OneClick for eHealth console

1. Log in to the OneClickEH console by entering the following in a web browser If your eHealth system is configured to run in a High Availability environment, specify the shared hostname or shared IP address (in v4 or v6 format) for your system rather than the specific eHealth system name.

eHealthSystem/OneClickEH

The Connect to eHealth window appears.

2. Specify the user name and password of an administrator who has permission to access OneClickEH, and then click OK.

The OneClick for eHealth page appears.

3. Click Launch OneClick for eHealth.

The File Download window appears.

4. Click Run.

The OneClickEH login window appears.


Removing Obsolete Schedule Jobs

5. Log in to the eHealth system as a web user who has permission to manage the poller.

6. In the left pane, select Setup, Poller Controls.

The Poller Controls window appears.

7. Select Off under Polling; then click OK.

The Poller Controls dialog closes and saves the change; then eHealth stops polling.

To disable polling through the module.init file

1. Open a terminal or command window on the central site.

2. Open the following file (where eHealth is the eHealth home directory):

eHealth/modules/remotePoller/module.init

3. Add the following lines to the module.init file:

Boolean pollEnabled {

value no

}

Removing Obsolete Schedule Jobs The nhiRpBatchCfgImport executable file, which in the last remote poller release handled all configuration imports, has been removed. If you currently use schedule jobs that run nhiRpBatchCfgImport, you must remove them from the central site before using the Remote Poller Update. If you do not, the schedule job will fail when you attempt to run it, and the eHealth console will display the following error message: Fork for $NH_HOME/bin/sys/nhiRpBatchCfgImport failed (no such file or directory)

This step is required only if you are upgrading from the Remote Poller Scale One-

Off.

To find and remove an obsolete schedule job

1. Log in to eHealth as an administrator.


3. Run the following command:

nhSchedule -listTypes

A list of job types and associated commands appears.

4. Check the list of commands to see if the nhiRpBatchCfg executable file appears. If it does not, you are not running obsolete jobs and can close the terminal window. If it does appear, note the name of the associated job type and continue to the next step.


Importing Configuration and Statistics Information

5. Select Setup, Schedule Jobs in the eHealth console.

The Schedule Jobs dialog appears.

6. Select the job type in the Application column and click Delete.

7. If the Delete button is not enabled, select Disable.

Importing Configuration and Statistics Information Before you can use the Remote Poller Update, you must import configuration and statistics information for each remote site to the central site.

To import configuration and statistics data


2. Run the following command for each remote system (where hostname is the hostname of the remote site):

nhiRpImport -host <hostname>

Upgrading the Remote Sites You must upgrade your remote sites before you upgrade the central site to the Remote Poller Update. For installation instructions, see the patch readme file. Note that for UNIX systems, you must have access to the ehUser and root accounts, where ehUser refers to the eHealth administrator account (also identified by the $NH_USER environment variable).

Enabling Remote Polling You must enable remote polling on each remote site so that they can generate statistics files for the central site to import. You perform this task through the nhRemotePollerSetup program.

To enable remote polling



Upgrading the Central Site


nhRemotePollerSetup



1. Configure this eHealth system as a Remote Polling Site

2. Configure this eHealth system as a Central Site



The Remote Polling Site Setup menu appears.

Please select the type of operation to perform.





q. Quit setup


4. Enter 2 to enable remote polling on this site.

The following message appears:

Remote polling has been enabled on this site.

5. Enter q to quit the setup program.

Upgrading the Central Site For information, see Upgrading the Remote SItes (see page 56).

Exporting Remote Configuration Data You must export configuration information from the remote sites to the central site. This step is a security measure to make sure that all configuration data are current. You perform this task through the nhRemotePollerSetup program.

To export remote site configuration data



Synchronizing the Central Site with Remote Configurations


nhRemotePollerSetup



1. Configure this eHealth system as a Remote Polling Site

2. Configure this eHealth system as a Central Site



The Remote Polling Site Setup menu appears.

Please select the type of operation to perform.





q. Quit setup


4. Enter 4 to save remote site configuration data for export to the central site.

The setup program saves configuration data to the remote poller spool directory as follows, where eHealth is the eHealth home directory, and n is a timestamp:

eHealth/modules/remotePoller/spooldirectory/

RpSync.elems.n.dci

eHealth/modules/remotePoller/spooldirectory/

RpSync.groups.n.dci

5. Enter q to quit the setup program.

Synchronizing the Central Site with Remote Configurations To synchronize the central site


2. Run the following command:

nhRpFindDiffs -updateConfig


Enabling Configuration Import


Enabling Configuration Import If you previously disabled configuration imports for nhiRpImport, you must re-enable it. You complete this step by editing the module.init file.

Note: This step is required only if you are upgrading from the Remote Poller Scale One-Off.

To enable configuration imports again


2. Open the following file (where eHealth is the eHealth home directory):

eHealth/modules/remotePoller/module.init

3. In the module.init file, locate the cmdArgs variable and remove the -statsOnly argument.

4. Save the file.

Enabling Import Polling Again on the Central Site To enable import polling again on the central site, you must use the Poller Controls window in the eHealth for OneClick console to turn the poller on, off, and then on again.

To enable polling again on the central site

1. Access the OneClick for eHealth console and log in to the eHealth system as a web user who has permission to manage the poller.

2. In the left pane, select Setup, Poller Controls.

The Poller Controls window appears.

3. Select On under Polling; then click OK.

4. Select Off under Polling; then click OK.

5. Select On under Polling; then click OK.

The Poller Controls dialog closes and saves the change; then eHealth resumes polling.

Chapter 5: Troubleshooting

Use the tips in this section to minimize problems with a remote polling environment and to recover successfully from failures.


Best Practice Tips (see page 61) General Troubleshooting Procedure (see page 62)

Best Practice Tips Follow these guidelines to establish a successful remote polling environment:

■ When you upgrade your eHealth systems, you should disable imports on the central site until the central site and all the remote polling sites are at the same eHealth release level.

■ If you are planning to convert an existing standalone eHealth system to a remote polling site, note the following:

■ Make sure that the element DBID range on the standalone system does not conflict with any of the DBID ranges that are already in use in the remote polling environment. If the standalone system uses a DBID range that is already in use, you must delete all elements from the remote polling site configuration, destroy and recreate the database, run nhRemotePollerSetup on remote poller to change the site ID, and rediscover the elements.

■ The central site will not import the historical data that you saved on the remote site before you added it as part of the central site’s collection set. It imports only the data that the remote poller collects after it has been configured as a remote poller.

Note: A central site could stop if the eHealth server is stopped or if the system is shut down.

■ If the central site stops, the remote pollers will save the binary files and configuration differences files that they are creating during the downtime and the central site will collect them when it returns to service.

■ If you have loaded a database on the central site after a system crash but eHealth is not collecting data for some elements, you must resynchronize the central and remote sites. For instructions, see Resynchronizing the Central and Remote Sites (see page 44).

Chapter 5: Troubleshooting 61

General Troubleshooting Procedure

■ If the FTP connection goes down while you are importing data from a remote site, the remote sites will keep producing files and will send all of the files after the FTP connection is restored. The central site does not delete any of the old files until after it has read them all into the central configuration. (It deletes only files that are at least 30 minutes older than the last successful poll.)

■ If a configuration or statistics file created by a remote poller is corrupt, the central site attempts to determine if the file is corrupt on the remote site (rather than damaged in transit). If the remote file is corrupt, it is not imported. If the file was damaged in transit, import is retried until it succeeds. The central site logs this information in the eHealth/modules/remotePoller/logs_import/rpLog file and in the eHealth/log/system.log file.

General Troubleshooting Procedure If your central site does not seem to be collecting data from your remote polling sites, follow the steps below to troubleshoot the problem:

1. Attempt to FTP from the central to the remote site. If the ftp or sftp2 command is unsuccessful, check the following:

■ Have the passwords or encryption keys changed?

■ Is the FTP service running (on Windows central sites)?

2. Verify that the directory in which the remote poller is storing the binary (statistics) and DCI (configuration) output files (/eHealth/modules/remotePoller/spool, by default) contains new files.

3. Verify that the eHealth administrator owns the eHealth/modules/remotePoller directory.

4. Verify that the FTP user account at the remote site allows Read and Write access from the central site.

5. At the central site, check the timestamps of the .bz2 and .dci files in the following directories:

/eHealth/modules/remotePoller/importData/polls/sysName/config

/eHealth/modules/remotePoller/importData/polls/sysName/stats.x

If the timestamps are old, the central site is not copying files from the remote polling sites.

6. Verify that the clocks on the central and remote polling sites are synchronized to within one minute of each other.

7. Check the /eHealth/modules/remotePoller/rpHostInfo.csi file on the central site. This file lists all hostnames, user names, and passwords for the remote sites. Make sure that they match the information for the remote sites.



8. Review the eHealth/modules/remotePoller/logs_import /rpLog file and the eHealth/log/system.log file.

9. Run nhiRpImport manually by entering the following at the command prompt, and then review the log file it creates in /eHealth/tmp:

eHealth/bin/sys/nhiRpImport -Dall

Error Messages

This section describes how to respond to error messages you may receive.

The Setup Program Cannot Locate eHealth on the Remote System (Standard FTP and Windows Systems Only)

If you are using standard FTP on a Windows system and you receive consistent error messages that the central site cannot find eHealth on the remote system, the FTP directory listing style is incorrect for the remote site. You must configure the FTP service to use UNIX-style directory listings. For more information, see the procedures for configuring FTP in Verifying the Standard FTP Service on a Remote Site (Windows Only) (see page 26).

The Setup Program Cannot Locate eHealth (Secure FTP)

If you are using secure FTP and receive the following error message, it indicates one of three potential problems:

Setup was unable to locate eHealth on host hostname. Please provide the directory where eHealth is installed on this host.

The possible causes for this message are the following:

■ The directory in which secure FTP is installed does not exist in the eHealth user’s PATH environment variable.

■ Public key authentication is not set up correctly for that system.

■ The setup program cannot find eHealth on the remote system.

To address these issues, do the following:

■ Verify that the eHealth user’s PATH environment variable includes the directory in which secure FTP is installed.

■ Verify that you have correctly configured your system for secure FTP, as described in Configuring Secure FTP.



Central Site Cannot FTP to a Remote Site

If the central site cannot establish an FTP connection to a remote site to collect data, you will receive the following error message:

Integration Module: 'remotePoller' cannot FTP to 'IPAddress'. '[connect | login]'

failed

To resolve this error, verify that you have set up standard or secure FTP correctly for your sites. For more information, see the chapter, Configuring FTP Connections.

Central Site Cannot Find Statistics Files on the Remote Site

If the central site cannot find the statistics files to import on the remote site, you will receive the following error message:

Integration Module: 'remotePoller' cannot find statistics files for 'IPAddress'.

To resolve this error, verify the following:

■ The PATH environment variable on the central site includes the directory in which FTP or secure FTP is installed.

■ You have set up standard or secure FTP correctly for your sites. For more information, see Chapter 2: Configuring FTP Connections.

Central Site Cannot Delete Files from a Remote Site

If the central site cannot delete files from the remote site, you will receive the following error message:

Integration Module: 'remotePoller' cannot delete previously imported files on

'IPAddress'.

To resolve this error, verify that your FTP user account has FTP write access to the remote site. If the central site cannot delete the files it has already processed on the remote sites, the statistics and configuration files on the remote sites will eventually consume all available disk space.

Resynchronization Console Messages

This section describes the console messages that you might receive when resynchronizing the central and remote sites and how to respond to them if necessary.

Note: If you are resynchronizing multiple remote sites, the central site will process all sites except those for which it encounters errors.



No configuration files found on host hostname. No differences can be found

This message appears if no exported configuration files exist on the remote site. This situation can occur if you do not export configuration information at the remote site before running the nhiRpFindDiffs command. The nhRpFindDiffs command will not process that remote site.

To resolve this error, use the nhRemotePollerSetup program to export the configuration information and then run the nhRpFindDiffs command again. For instructions, see Resynchronizing the Central and Remote Sites (see page 44).

n configuration files found on host hostname. Using newest file

This message appears if more than one set of exported configuration files exists on the remote site. This problem can occur if you export the configuration files on the remote site multiple times. In such a case, the central site processes the most recent exported configuration for the remote polling site.

Skipping host hostname configuration file ‘filename’ is too old

This message appears if the exported configuration files on the remote site are more than two hours old. To resolve this error, use the nhRemotePollerSetup program to export the configuration information and then run the nhRpFindDiffs command again. For instructions, see Resynchronizing the Central and Remote Sites (see page 44).

Remote poller: remote system hostname has non-matching timestamps for: filename - filename. Skipping remote system. Re-run configuration export on remote site

This message appears if the timestamps on the group configuration file and element configuration file do not match. This discrepancy can happen if you manually edit the timestamp. To resolve this error, use the nhRemotePollerSetup program to export the configuration information and then run the nhRpFindDiffs command again. For instructions, see Resynchronizing the Central and Remote Sites (see page 44).

Recovering from System Crashes

This section describes potential issues that you may encounter if your remote poller or central systems crash.




Identifying Gaps in Remote Data Collection

When a system that is accessed from the eHealth poller is down, the eHealth poller warns you that a gap exists in the data. When a remote poller is down, however, the gap in time between the collection of the data at the remote site and the collection of the data file by the central site might prevent eHealth from issuing warnings about missed files. You can determine that a system was down when you run reports and find a gap in data for those systems.

Remote Poller Experiences Disk Failure

When a remote poller experiences disk failure, you lose the changes that occurred on that site since the last database save. For example, if you saved your database 10 hours before a crash, you will lose all changes to the database that occurred during those 10 hours following the backup.

These changes could include elements, groups, group lists, and polled data.

To recover after a remote site disk failure

1. Restore the database on the remote polling site by loading the saved database. For instructions, see the eHealth Administration Guide.

If the problem requires you to destroy the old eHealth database and create a new one on the remote site, you must specify the site ID for the remote site before you create the database. To specify the site ID, add the NH_SERVER_ID variable as a System Variable (on Windows systems) or add it to your nethealthrc.sh.usr file (on UNIX systems) and make sure that it is set to the site ID number originally used for that remote site. To obtain the site ID, see Listing the Configured Remote Polling Sites (see page 41).

2. Redo any administrative changes on the remote site (those changes that occurred between the database save and the time of the disk failure).

3. Resynchronize the central site with the remote site that had the disk failure. For instructions, see Resynchronizing the Central and Remote Sites (see page 44).

4. After the next import poll occurs, check the eHealth/modules/remotePoller/logs_import/rpLog file on central site to verify that it is importing data.

To recover the statistics data, you must have preserved the binary statistics files. Depending on the reason for the failure, it might be possible to backfill some of the lost data. Contact Technical Support for assistance.

Index

Distributed eHealth site, comparing • 11 A E

adding remote pollers • 32 adding to central site collection set • 32 eHealth systems • 9

eHealth systems, requirements • 9 B elements, importing • 51 enabling • 56 best practices for remote polling • 61 encryption keys, changing • 47 binary file format • 49 encryption keys, generating for secure FTP •

18 C error messages for remote polling • 63

central site • 10 exporting from remote sites • 57

changing configuration information • 46

F changing from standard to secure • 47 checking version • 15

file cleanup, remote sites • 50 collection set • 9, 32 FTP Server Service • 26 communication between central and remote

sites • 47 G configuration data • 66 configuration import, enabling • 59 gaps in reports • 66 configurations, remote polling • 9 groups, importing • 51 configuring • 15, 21, 26, 29, 32 H configuring a central site • 32 configuring a remote poller • 29 hostname.init file • 47 configuring for Windows • 26

I configuring remote sites • 21 configuring Windows • 26 import parameters, remote sites • 37 configuring, FTP, overview • 54 Import Polling Status dialog box • 48 copying authentication keys for secure FTP •

24 import polling, re-enabling on the central site •

59 copying public authentication key to remote

sites • 24 imported data • 10 imported data restrictions • 10

copying to remote site • 24 importing, configuration and statistics information • 56 creating virtual directory • 27

D L database ID (DBID) • 47

language • 9 dataflow, overview • 48

language requirements • 9 DBID range, conflicts • 47

listing the remote sites • 41 DCI files, collecting from remote sites • 50

M deleting elements • 51 deleting files at remote • 50

managing • 38, 43 directory, changing • 46 messages • 46 disabling • 18 modifying remote site configurations • 39 disabling remote polling • 43

disk failure, recovery • 66

Index 67

N NH_SERVER_ID variable, adding to remote site

• 66 nhConfig • 50 nhConfig command • 50 nhExportConfig • 49 nhExportConfig command • 49 nhImportData • 50 nhImportData command • 50 nhiRpImport • 50 nhiRpImport command • 50

O output directory • 49 overview • 7 overview • 7 overview • 7 overview • 44

P password authentication, secure FTP • 18 password, changing • 46 poller configuration • 51 poller configuration, central site • 51 polling, disabling • 54 polling, remote. See remote polling. • 7 private key, generating • 18 procedure • 62 public key, generating • 18

R recovering the database • 66 recovery • 66 remote elements, importing • 51 remote files, deleting • 50 remote groups, importing • 51 remote poller, upgrade requirements • 54 remote sites • 45 remotePoller.init file • 47 removing a remote site • 40 required for remote polling sites • 26 requirements • 15 requirements, for upgrading • 54 restrictions • 10 resynchronizing • 44 running to change FTP configuration inform •

46

S saving configuration information • 44 schedule jobs, removing • 55 sftp2 command • 15 specifying directory listing style • 26 ssh-keygen2 command • 18 standalone eHealth systems, converting to

remote sites • 61 supported configurations • 9 synchronization requirements • 10 system crashes • 65 system crashes, recovery • 65

T testing connection • 25, 28 time synchronization • 10 troubleshooting • 64

U UNIX • 18 UNIX • 18 UNIX • 18 upgrading • 56, 57

V verifying installation • 26 virtual directory for standard FTP • 27

W Windows • 18 Windows requirements • 26 workflow • 48


CA eHealth Remote Poller Guide - CA Support...

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