Activating the Listener

In order for the System Manager to be able to obtain data from a server, there must be an active Listener. Most FileNet products which support the System Manager functionality (CE, ISRA, etc), enable the Listener (make it active) by default. However, on an Image Services or Process Engine server, the following steps must be performed to activate the Listener:

Windows and UNIX Systems

  1. As the root user, use a text editor to edit the /fnsw/lib/perf/perf_mon.script file and add the following statement before the line which executes perflog:

    set Listener true
    poll /fnsw/local/sd/1/perflog
  2. Save the changes and close the file.
  3. Reboot the server for these settings to take effect.

Networking Considerations

When a system is first started, communication daemons make use of the first several available ports on the system. These ports are called anon ports. The lowest available anon port (lowest port number) is configured through the use of an operating system variable, and is often set to a port number lower than 32775 by default. This can cause problems for FileNet System Manager, as by default, the Listener application requests TCP port 32775. Therefore, depending on the anon port configuration, it is possible that another service may already be using port 32775 when the Listener attempts to connect.

To resolve this potential issue, you may have to adjust the anon port configuration for your system in order to ensure that the Listener can connect to port 32775. By setting the lowest available anon port to 32776, requesting services such as communication daemons will use ports 32776, 32777, 32778, and so on. This leaves ports 32775 and lower available for the FileNet System Manager Listeners.

The following sections provide operating system version-specific information pertaining to the configuration of anon ports, to allow the successful operation of the Listener.

Solaris

By default, Solaris-based systems set the lowest available anon port to 32768 via the tcp_smallest_anon_port variable. However, the Solaris platform provides several tools, including the netstat command, which can be used to determine if a port is currently in use. In addition, the current tcp_smallest_anon_port setting can be obtained by entering the following at a command prompt:

ndd -get /dev/tcp tcp_smallest_anon_port

If the value returned is less than 32776, you must reconfigure the anon port settings to ensure the availability of port 32775. To do this, follow the instructions below specific to your version of the Solaris operating system.

Solaris 8, Solaris 9

To ensure the availability of port 32775, perform the following steps:

  1. As the root user, use a text editor to edit the /etc/rc2.d/S69inet file and enter the following line:

    ndd -set /dev/tcp tcp_smallest_anon_port 32776
  2. Save the changes and close the file.
  3. Reboot the server for these settings to take effect.
  4. Enter the following at a command prompt and verify that your change took effect:

    ndd -get /dev/tcp tcp_smallest_anon_port

Solaris 10

To ensure the availability of port 32775, perform the following steps:

  1. As the root user, use a text editor to edit the /etc/inittab file and add the following statement before the line which executes sys.startd:

    tm::sysinit:/usr/sbin/ndd -set /dev/tcp tcp_smallest_anon_port 32776 > /dev/console
  2. Save the changes and close the file.
  3. Reboot the server for these settings to take effect.
  4. Enter the following at a command prompt and verify that your change took effect:

    ndd -get /dev/tcp tcp_smallest_anon_port

AIX

AIX-based systems set the lowest available anon port via the tcp_ephemeral_low variable. The current tcp_ephemeral_low setting can be obtained by entering the following at a command prompt:

no -a | grep ephemeral

If the value returned is less than 32776, you must reconfigure the anon port settings to ensure the availability of port 32775. To do this, follow the instructions below specific to your version of the AIX operating system.

AIX 5.1

To ensure the availability of port 32775, perform the following steps:

  1. As the root user, use a text editor to add the following statements at the end of the /etc/rc.net file as follows:

    # setup for IS/PE requirement
    if [ -f /usr/sbin/no ] ; then
    /usr/sbin/no -o tcp_sendspace=16384
    /usr/sbin/no -o tcp_recvspace=16384
    /usr/sbin/no -o tcp_keepidle=80
    /usr/sbin/no -o tcp_keepintvl=20
    /usr/sbin/no -o tcp_ephemeral_high=65535
    /usr/sbin/no -o tcp_ephemeral_low=42767
    /usr/sbin/no -o udp_ephemeral_high=65536
    /usr/sbin/no -o udp_ephemeral_low=42767
    fi
  2. Save the changes and close the file.
  3. Reboot the server (shutdown -Fr) for these settings to take effect.
  4. Enter the following at a command prompt and verify that your change took effect:

    no -a | grep ephemeral

AIX 5.2

To ensure the availability of port 32775, perform the following steps:

  1. As the root user, use a text editor to add the following statements at the beginning of the /etc/rc.net file as follows:

    /usr/sbin/no -o tcp_sendspace=16384
    /usr/sbin/no -o tcp_recvspace=16384
    /usr/sbin/no -o tcp_keepidle=80
    /usr/sbin/no -o tcp_keepintvl=20
    /usr/sbin/no -o tcp_ephemeral_high=65535
    /usr/sbin/no -o tcp_ephemeral_low=42767
    /usr/sbin/no -o udp_ephemeral_high=65536
    /usr/sbin/no -o udp_ephemeral_low=42767
  2. Save the changes and close the file.
  3. Reboot the server (shutdown -Fr) for these settings to take effect.
  4. Enter the following at a command prompt and verify that your change took effect:

    no -a | grep ephemeral

AIX 5.3

To ensure the availability of port 32775, perform the following steps:

  1. As the root user, set the lowest anon port value by executing the following command:

    no -p -o tcp_ephemeral_low=42767
  2. Save the changes and close the file.
  3. Reboot the server (shutdown -Fr) for these settings to take effect.
  4. Enter the following at a command prompt and verify that your change took effect:

    no -a | grep ephemeral

System Performance Counters

On each platform, the FileNet P8 System Manager Listener library tries to report system performance data. On Windows, this information is obtained from the Windows Performance Counters via the Performance Data Helper (PDH) DLL. This DLL must be installed in the search path for the application.

Windows Systems

On Windows 2003 and later, the user under which a process is running must be a member of the “Performance Monitor Users” group on the local machine. However, services such as the Content Engine are installed to run as a user with no privileges or group memberships. Therefore, when the Content Engine Listener is queried, it will not report CPU and other system performance numbers. As a result, add the Content Engine user to the “Performance Monitor Users” group on the local machine to enable the additional information to be gathered.

By default, Windows systems will disable a performance counter provider (including DLLs which ship with Windows) if any problem in retrieving counter values from that DLL are detected at any time. The default action not only immediately disables the DLL, but the disabling of the DLL is effectively permanent because the disable action is stored in the registry. The only method for restoring the DLL behavior is to delete the new registry key; rebooting the machine will not restore the behavior. Microsoft supplies a program from their Web site, exctrlst.exe, which can be used for this purpose.

UNIX Systems

On UNIX systems, FileNet P8 System Manager obtains system performance information by querying rstatd. However, the following conditions must be met in order to successfully gather the data:

If either of these conditions are not true, FileNet P8 System Manager will simply not report system performance data. However, System Manager will continue to report application-supplied data.