Accessing the appliance via SSH

To provide you with access to the appliance for administration and configuration, we provide you with a vmxcustomer user account. Once you’ve set up the SSH keys, you should be able to connect the Beeks Analytics appliance using an ssh client. For example: from a UNIX machine, use the ssh command as follows:

    ssh vmxcustomer@<vmx_appliance>

where <vmx_appliance> is either the hostname or IP address of the appliance. 

You should now see a command prompt on the appliance.

Throughout the document the information that we’re describing will be viewable from the vmxcustomer account, unlesss otherwise stated.

The vmxadmin command

Nearly all administration tasks can be performed via the vmxadmin command. This includes starting, stopping and even updating. vmxadmin runs under the vmxcustomer user account and if required by the task, raises permissions internally via sudo to the level required. This mechanism allows a controlled set of tasks that normally require root level permissions to be performed by the vmxcustomer user account.

The vmxadmin functionality is constantly growing to meet the needs of users. The system is designed so that, in the normal course of running a Beeks Analytics appliance, users should never need to run direct operating system commands.

vmxadmin command syntax

The command line format of vmxadmin is:

    vmxadmin [<type>] [<instance>] <cmd> 

where: 

<type> is the type of process:

vmx for all processes
vmx-analysis for all analysis processes (incorporates vmx-server, vmx-webconsole, vmx-prism)
vmx-server for the analysis server (single process or all processes in cluster)
vmx-pmux for VMX-Capture PMUX processes
vmx-webconsolefor the webconsole process (which provides the Grafana data source and REST API)
vmx-p3 for VMX-Capture P3 processes

<instance> is an optional instance identifier that specifies that a particular instance is invoked. If omitted, the instance defaults to STANDALONE for servers. See below for more information regarding multi-instance deployment. 
<cmd> is the command.

Command line flags

Some commands use the following flags:

Flag

Description

-a

Run command/args against all configured hosts

-e <env>

Run command with a given VMX_ENV

vmxadmin help

To get help on the full set of detailed options (including a comprehensive list of all of the different process types) invoke the vmxadmin command with no arguments.

Multiple environment support on the same appliance

An appliance can be split into multiple environments. This can allow, for example, multiple different clients to be supported by the same appliance. Each client would have their own dedicated VMX-Capture and VMX-Analysis processes.

If no specific environment is set, the command vmxadmin vmx list will list all of the environments and processes that are configured to run for each different environment. Here is an example output:

vmxadmin vmx list
Env: drake
----
 
Env: duke
----
 
Env: valentine
----
vmx-p3 VP_TCP_rtt
vmx-pmux VALENTINE_VP
vmx-pmux capValentine

The vmxcustomer account will have different environment variables set, depending on the instance. This is configured in the VMX_ENV unix environment variable. For example, you would run the following command to switch to the valentine environment:

export VMX_ENV=valentine

Applying a command to different environments or services

vmxadmin supports granular environment management and allows you to run a command for a whole environment or only for a specific service:

For example, to stop all processes on the 'drake' environment, enter:
vmxadmin -e drake vmx stop
And to stop only a single PMUX instance 'valentine', enter:
vmxadmin vmx-pmux valentine stop

Managing an environment

To run a command against all of the Beeks Analytics processes:

  • in the current environment:
    vmxadmin vmx <cmd>

  • in another environment:
    vmxadmin -e <env> vmx <cmd>
    where <env> is the name of the environment

where <cmd> is:

<cmd>

Description

Example

start

Start all processes

vmxadmin vmx start

stop

Stop all processes

vmxadmin vmx stop

restart

Restart all processes

vmxadmin vmx restart

status

Outputs the statuses of all processes, including process ID (PID) numbers if that process is running.

vmxadmin vmx status

list

Outputs a list of all processes for each environment

vmxadmin vmx list

listall

Outputs a list of all processes for each environment

vmxadmin vmx listall

Managing a specific service

To run a command against a single Beeks Analytics service:

  • in the current environment:
    vmxadmin vmx-<service> <instance> <cmd>
    where <instance> is the name of an instance(optional)

  • in another environment:
    vmxadmin -e <env> vmx-<service> <instance> <cmd>
    where <env> is the name of the environment and <instance> is the name of an instance(optional)

where <service> is:

<service>

Description

vmx-server

Run the command against the processes for the specific VMX-Analysis instance (excluding the webconsole)

vmx-webconsole

Run the command against the processes for the specific vmx-webconsole instance.

vmx-webconsole is part of the VMX-Analysis service. See VMX-Analysis Configuration for a description of the vmx-webconsole.

vmx-prism

Run the command against the processes for the specific vmx-prism instance.

vmx-pmux

Run the command against the processes for the specified PMUX instance.

vmx-p3

Run the command against the processes for the specified P3 instance.

vmx-capture

Run the command against the processes for the vmx-pmux and vmx-p3.

vmx-analysis

Run the command against the processes for the vmx-server, vmx-webconsole, vmx-partition, and vmx-cluster.

where <cmd> is:

<cmd>

Description

Example

start

Start the <service>

vmxadmin vmx-servee start

stop

Stop the <service>

vmxadmin vmx-server stop

restart

Restart the <service>

vmxadmin vmx-server restart

status

Get the status of the <service>

vmxadmin vmx-analysis status

list

List the processes running for the <service>

vmxadmin vmx-analysis list

Here is an example of a number of different ways to restart just the VALENTINE_VP PMUX for the valentine environment:

Option 1:

[vmxcustomer]$ echo $VMX_ENV
 
[vmxcustomer]$ vmxadmin -e valentine vmx-pmux VALENTINE_VP restart

Option 2:

[vmxcustomer]$ export VMX_ENV=valentine
[valentine][vmxcustomer]$ vmxadmin vmx-pmux VALENTINE_VP restart

Running a custom script in each environment

To run a custom script (in bindir) in each environment:

vmxadmin -e <env> script <script_path> <script_args>

where <script_path> is the absolute path including filename and <script_args> are any arguments that must be passed in.

For example:
vmxadmin -e drake script /usr/bindir/monitor.sh instance

Manage Napatech, SolarCapture, MySQL, or InfluxDB

To manage Napatech, SolarCapture, MySQL, or InfluxDB:

vmxadmin <application> <cmd>

where <application> is:

<application>

mysqld

influxdb

napatech

solarcapture

and <cmd> is:

<cmd>

Description

Example

start

Start the <application>

vmxadmin -a influxdb start

stop

Stop the <application>

vmxadmin -a influxdb stop

restart

Restart the <application>

vmxadmin -a influxdb restart

status

Status of the <application>

vmxadmin -a influxdb status

log

retrieve the log for the <application>

vmxadmin -a influxdb log

List versions

To list the installed software versions:

vmxadmin [-a] versions

 Generate diagnostics

To collate diagnostics data and put it in a zip archive:

vmxadmin [-a] [-e env] diagnostics [levels...]

where <levels> are:

<level>

Description

Example (using ‘drake’ environment)

Default will retrieve all available diagnostics.

vmxadmin -e drake diagnostics

SAR

Retrieves System Activity Report data.

vmxadmin -e drake diagnostics SAR

IDRAC

Retrieves Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller data.

vmxadmin -e drake diagnostics IDRAC

JAVATHREADS

Retrieves Java thread data.

vmxadmin -e drake diagnostics JAVATHREADS

Grep logs

To search all data/logs/*.log* files for a string:

vmxadmin [-a] [-e env] grep [std args]

where [std args] are the usual options, pattern, and filename for grep.

Edit scheduled tasks

To view, create, edit, or delete the scheduled tasks:

vmxadmin crontab

Run tcpdump

To run a tcpdump:

vmxadmin tcpdump [std args]

where [std args] are the standard arguments for tcpdump.