Now that we have finished the installation process for the platform components, we will move on to configuration and administration tasks.
We will only focus on Spotfire Server and Spotfire Web Player Server configuration, as only these offer an extended range of options.
Focusing on the server, we will now look at the topics of extra configuration steps, startup administration, and logging.
The topic of server configuration already came up during the installation. In my opinion, it is an intrinsic part of the server installation procedure and this is why I placed it in that section of the book. Just keep in mind how to start the server configuration console:
You might remember that during the installation of the Spotfire Server, we opted for the creation of a Server Windows service. You may use it to start and stop the Spotfire Server (named as Tss550). Also, beware that it was created with Startup type as Automatic, so it will start up whenever you boot your PC.
However, if you want to manually start up the application, you have the alternative of executing the server's Tomcat start-up script C: ibco ss5.5.0 omcatinstartuptomcat.
After starting the server, to access its Administration console, navigate to http://localhost:9090/spotfire, and the following screenshot will be shown:
The user is presented with two distinct options: Open Administration Console or Open Logs and Diagnostics.
By selecting any of these options, you will be requested to log in. Feel free to do so, resorting to the created administration user: spotfire.
The direct link for this option is http://localhost:9090/spotfire/administration/, and after logging in, you will be presented with the menu shown in the following screenshot:
Three distinct operations can be performed in the administration console: user management, group management, and deployment management.
Try out the process of creating a user by clicking on New User. Create a user named testUser with the password testUser. The result will be the displayed as shown in the following screenshot:
You can also manage the group to which a user belongs; to try it out, click on the Edit button. When done, close the Edit Groups dialog box in order to return to the main screen.
Now focusing on group management, this feature allows Spotfire Server administrators to bundle Spotfire permissions (also known as licenses) into new applicable sets (or groups).
To add a group, please select the Groups tab and click on New Group. Create a group named testGroup, at the top level. Click on OK when done, and then try to add our testUser to the newly created group. You can do so by using the Add Users button at the bottom of the Members of Group list. Do not forget to assign the user to a deployment area by clicking on the Assign Deployment Area button and selecting an available area from the dialog box shown. The topic of deployment areas will be explained later.
The result should be similar to what is shown in the following screenshot:
Tip
For more information on how to manage users and groups, refer to document TIB_SSDoc_ServerInstallationManual.pdf, or document admin.chm (which you can download from: https://docs.tibco.com/products/tibco-spotfire-5-5-0). By default, only the group Administrator has access permission (license) for Spotfire Professional and Spotfire Web Player Server. Users belonging to other groups will not be able to use both the tools.
The management of licenses (assignment to groups) can only be done in Spotfire Professional, in a special dialog box named Administration Manager. For more information about this topic, please refer to the Help documentation of Spotfire Professional.
Accessing the Deployment tab will allow us to manage Deployment areas and Software packages. After selecting this tab, you will be presented with the following screenshot:
You might have noticed we already have one deployment area (which was created by default during the installation process). This area is named Production.
The procedure for creating new areas is pretty straightforward—we only need to make sure the client packages are installed in the new area.
Since ours is a development environment, we will not do it; we will only rename the current Production area to Development. To rename the area, select it and click on Rename.
Regarding Software Packages, the presented list is related to the client packages we installed earlier; we do not have much to do here.
The direct link for log files and diagnostics option is http://localhost:9090/spotfire/console/admin.jsp. After accessing it, you will be presented with the following screenshot:
There are two tabs in the console: Server Log Files and Diagnostics.
The Server Log Files option allows you to access the Spotfire Server's logs through a web user interface. All logs presented in the list of possible logs to choose from for display are fetched from C: ibco ss5.5.0 omcatlogs, and can be accessed directly with any text editor.
Some examples of these selectable/viewable logs are: catalina.log, server.log, startup.log, and tss550-stderr.*.log.
The Diagnostics option allows you to access the server environment diagnostics, for instance database server, operating system, hardware and hardware configuration, and so on.
For more information on monitoring, refer to page 109 of Chapter 6, Monitoring TIB_SSDoc_ServerInstallationManual.pdf. It explains how to configure and use JMX and TIBCO Hawk. For more advanced logging options, you should also refer to page 113 of Chapter 7, Log User Action TIB_SSDoc_ServerInstallationManual.pdf. It explains how to configure and enable the new Log User Action feature of Spotfire, which is basically a centralized log for all the platform's components log events, which can be stored in file, database, or both.
Regarding the Web Player, we will now focus on the topics of configuration, diagnostics, logging, and monitoring.
You may find the application's configuration file Web.config under the directory C:Program FilesTIBCOSpotfire Web Player5.5.0webroot. In this file you can set the authentication mode and more advanced features such as enabling JavaScript API, Spotfire administrator e-mail address, Spotfire Server URL, and so on. For a full list of settings, please refer to Chapter 6.2, Advanced Web.Config settings TIB_SpotWebPlay_5.5.0_InstallationManual.pdf.
To access the Web Player Diagnostics console, open a browser window and navigate to http://localhost/SpotfireWeb/Administration/Diagnostics.aspx. After logging in (with an Administrator group user), the following tabs will become available:
- Spotfire Server: Displays information about Spotfire Server and the machine where it is installed (hardware, operating system, and other software)
- Web Server: Displays information about the IIS server, including operating system, hardware status, and so on
- Web Application: Displays information about the Spotfire Web Player configuration; these configuration items are fetched from the application's
Web.configfile - Loaded Assemblies: Lists the
.dll(assemblies) loaded by the web application - Site: Displays statistics concerning the accesses to the Spotfire Web Player web application
- Web Server Log: Displays the Web Server Player log entries. The log file used as source can be found here:
C:Program FilesTIBCOSpotfire Web Player5.5.0LogfilesSpotfire.Dxp.Web.log
To alter the logging level of Spotfire.Dxp.Web.log, you can edit the XML tag level (<level value="INFO"/>) of file C:Program FilesTIBCOSpotfire Web Player5.5.0webrootapp_datalog4net.config. This file contains the configuration of the log4net of the web application; the following levels are available: DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, and FATAL.
For more information on log4net and the logging levels, visit http://logging.apache.org/log4net/ and refer to page 101 of Chapter 6.12
Logging and Monitoring, TIB_SpotWebPlay_5.5.0_InstallationManual.pdf.
Also, be aware that it is possible to enable performance trackers for the Web Player Server. For Performance monitoring using the management console of Windows, refer to page 111 of Chapter 6.1.3, Performance, TIB_SpotWebPlay_5.5.0_InstallationManual.pdf.