Installing and configuring Live reporting

System requirements for Live Reporting

This section describes the requirements for installing and using Live Reporting in your environment.

Application server requirements

Database server requirements

Client requirements

Requirements for concurrent users

Downloading the installation files

Download and extract the installation files for Live Reporting from the Electronic Product Distribution (EPD) website:

• (Windows) TSSA_LiveReportingInstaller.exe
• (Linux) TSSA_LiveReportingInstaller.bin

Before you begin

The version of Live Reporting must match the version of TrueSight Server Automation that is installed in your environment.

Upgrade from the earlier version of Live Reporting is not supported. You must first manually uninstall the existing version and then install the new version. For steps about uninstalling the existing version of Yellowfin, see Uninstalling-Live-Reporting.

• When BMC customers use Live Reporting in their production environment, the type of Yellowfin database must match the TrueSight Server Automation database. For example, if your TrueSight Server Automation environment is running MS SQL Server, then your Yellowfin environment must also be running MS SQL Server. You cannot mismatch databases.
• The database server does not have to reside on the same system as the Live Reporting application. However, BMC recommends that you install Live Reporting on a dedicated host.
• For Windows or Linux operating system, you can use one of these pre-created databases and database user:
  • SQL Server
  • Oracle

• For creating a SQL Server database and database user, you need the following information:

  • Host name or IP address of the Windows server running the database
  • Port number that the database listens on. The default port is 1433 for MS SQL Server
  • Credentials of a database user. Do not use the default sa user for the Yellowfin database user; use a more restricted user for the Yellowfin database. Choose one of the following:
    • Database and database user credentials supplied to you by your database administrator,
    • If you are using Windows authentication, make sure that a user account exists in Computer Management and is added to the Administrator group. This step is not required on the server that hosts the database.
  • Credentials of the database administrator (for example, sa).

  For information about pre-creating a Microsoft SQL database, see Walkthrough-Setting-up-a-SQL-Server-database.

• For creating an Oracle database and database user, you need the following information:
  
  • Host name or IP address of the Linux server running the database
  • Port number that the database listens on. The default port is 1521 for Oracle.
  • Oracle SID (for example, ORA112DB) or the Oracle Service Name used to connect with Oracle, as defined in tnsnames.ora.
  • Credential of a database user (do not use system) which is specifically created to configure the Yellowfin metadata.  The schema of the database user must be empty.
• For information about creating an Oracle database, see Walkthrough: Setting up an Oracle database.

Step 1: Installing Live Reporting

Depending on which operating system you are installing Live Reporting on, follow one of the following procedures.

This example uses Live Reporting 8.9.03 screenshots. However, the steps are same for Live Reporting 8.9.03 and later.

Step 2: Importing certificate to TrueSight Server Automation application server

You must import the certificate on every Application Server in your environment. Otherwise, you will see an error when you try to access the Live Reporting data from the Application Servers. This means, if there are multiple Application Servers in your environment, you must repeat the steps to import the certificates on all the servers.

1. Copy <installed_directory>\Yellowfin\appserver\conf\yellowfin_server.cer and paste it into a temp folder on the TrueSight Server Automation Application Server host.  
2. Open a administrative command prompt.
3. Run the keytool command from the jre\bin installed with the TrueSight Server Automation Application Server. The default path for bin directory are as follows:
   For Linux : <installed_directory>/NSH/br/java/bin 
   For Windows : <installed_directory>\NSH\jre\bin
   
   

4. Import <temp_folder>\yellowfin_server.cer into your TrueSight Server Automation Application Server Java cacerts keystore. The default path for cacerts keystore are as follows:
   For Windows : <installed_directory>\NSH\jre\lib\security\cacerts
   For Linux: <installed_directory>/NSH/br/java/lib/security).
   For example, in a Windows environment:
   
   

   keytool -import -alias yellowfin-server
   -keystore "C:\Program Files\BMC Software\BladeLogic\NSH\jre\lib\security\cacerts"
   -trustcacerts -file "C:\temp\yellowfin_server.cer"

   For example, in a Linux environment:

   keytool -import -alias yellowfin-server
   -keystore "/opt/bmc/bladelogic/NSH/br/java/lib/security/cacerts"
   -trustcacerts -file "/tmp/yellowfin_server.cer"
5. At the prompt, enter changeit as the default cacerts password.

6. At the prompt to trust the certificate, enter yes.

   keytool -import -alias yellowfin-server
    -keystore "<installed_directory>\NSH\jre\lib\security\cacerts"
    -trustcacerts -file "<temp_directory>\yellowfin_server.cer"
   Enter keystore password:
   Owner: CN=clm-aus-013663.bmc.com, OU=IDD, O=BMC Software,
     L=San Jose, ST=California, C=US
   Issuer: CN=clm-aus-013663.bmc.com, OU=IDD, O=BMC Software,
     L=San Jose, ST=California, C=US
   Serial number: 744eb125
   
   Valid from: Thu Apr 07 07:59:15 GMT-12:00 2016 until: Fri Apr 07 07:59:15 GMT-12
   :00 2017
   Certificate fingerprints:
            MD5:  4D:EE:5D:7A:F1:FF:1F:6B:78:10:89:02:E0:86:D0:C4
            SHA1: 84:7A:C7:D9:18:FF:C8:4B:7D:60:9F:5B:08:A2:81:26:A7:6C:6A:D7
            SHA256: 75:A7:4E:DE:8E:04:D5:2D:6C:09:69:1B:FA:7B:5D:E8:DB:39:5B:
              68:76:BC:EF:DC:31:BD:04:A5:60:95:66:0E
            Signature algorithm name: SHA256withRSA
            Version: 3
   Trust this certificate? [no]:  yes
   Certificate was added to keystore

    

7. After you import the certificate, restart the TrueSight Server Automation Application Server in which the certificate is imported.
   For example:

   /etc/init.d/blappserv stop
   /etc/init.d/blappserv start

Step 3: Verifying the Live Reporting installation

Follow this procedures to verify the Live Reporting installation.

1. Verify that whether the Live Reporting is installed successfully by logging on to Yellowfin (https://<yellowfinServerName>:<portNumber>) with the new REPORT_ADMIN user. Update the details for the REPORT_ADMIN profile (for example, enter the temporary password, create and confirm the new password for REPORT_ADMIN, and so on) and save your changes. 

    

2. After you save your changes, review the default page.
   

   Tip

   For troubleshooting purposes, see the live_reporting_install_log.txt file of the Live Reporting installer in the /tmp folder in Linux and C:\Users\ADMINI~1\AppData\Local\Temp in Windows.
   

Step 4: Configuring the BLAS Admin

Before you launch the live reporting dashboard, run the following command in the BLAS Admin console. For information about starting the BLAS admin console, see Starting-the-Application-Server-Administration-console.set livereporting livereportingurl https://<hostname>:<portNumber>

Replace the variables with values, as described in the following table:

 Examples:
set livereporting livereportingurl https://<yellowfinServerName>:8443

Step 5: Creating an automation principal for REPORT_ADMIN

You need an automation principal to create an BladeLogic Application Server session to communicate with Yellowfin.

 Perform the following steps to create the automation principal for the REPORT_ADMIN user:

1. Log on to TrueSight Server Automation Console using your RBAC Admin (RBACAdmin) credentials. For more information, see RBACAdmin-and-BLAdmin-users.
2. In the RBAC Manager folder, select Automation Principals.
3. Create a new automation principal by right-clicking and selecting New > Automation Principal from the pop-up menu. The Automation Principal Creation wizard appears.

4. Enter the following details to create your Automation principal for the REPORT ADMIN:

   

   Field	Description
   Name	Enter REPORT_ADMIN
   Description	(Optional) Enter descriptive text
   Principal ID	Enter REPORT_ADMIN
   Domain	Leave empty
   Passphrase	Enter the modified password of the REPORT_ADMIN user (not the temporary password that you created while running the post installer script)
   Confirm	Re-enter the modified password of the REPORT_ADMIN user

5. Click Finish.

Step 6: Assigning authorization to your role

Perform the following steps:

1. Remain logged on to TrueSight Server Automation Console using your RBAC Admin credentials. For more information, see RBACAdmin-and-BLAdmin-users.
2. In the RBAC Manager folder, select Roles.
3. Right-click on the role that you will assign to the user, who launches the Live reporting dashboard (for example, BLAdmins), and select Open from the pop-up menu. Alternatively, create a new role for this by right-clicking and selecting New > Role from the pop-up menu.
4. Click the System tab at the bottom of the Available Authorizations list.

5. Assign the Report.Writer authorization to the role, by clicking and moving the Report.Writer authorization from the Available Authorizations box to the Selected Authorizations box.

   Tip

   Enter Report in the Type to filter field to shrink the number of roles that are displayed.

   

6. Make sure the role now has the Report.Writer authorization.

7. Assign the AutomationPrincipal.Read authorization to the role, by clicking and moving the AutomationPrincipal.Read authorization from the Available Authorizations box to the Selected Authorizations box. Note that you can skip this step if you are using the BLAdmin role to access Live Reporting.

   Tip

   Enter AutomationPrincipal in the Type to filter field to shrink the number of roles that are displayed.

8. Click the Users tab to ensure that the role is assigned to the user with which you plan to launch the Live reporting dashboard. For more information about assigning roles to users from the Users tab, see Role-Users.

   

   Restriction

   Make sure that the user name to whom the role is assigned does not exceed 20 characters. This restriction is not applicable to TrueSight Server Automation 8.9.04 or later versions.

9. Save your changes to the role.
   For detailed information about creating a role and its authorizations, see Creating-roles. For information about modifying a role and its authorizations, see Modifying-Roles.

You are now ready to use the Live reporting dashboard. For more information, see Where to go from here.

Step 7: Populating the reports

The first time you launch the Live Reporting dashboard from the console, no data is shown in any of reports. To populate the reports, do the following:

1. Log on to Live Reporting using the REPORT_ADMIN user.
2. Select Administration > Admin Console. 
   
3. Click Schedule Management on the right of the screen.
   
4. Click Select All to ensure that all filters are selected, and then click Run now.
   
5. Ensure that all filters have been refreshed in the current date and time. If any filter still shows an earlier date and time in the Last Run column, select that filter and click Run Now again.
   
6. The latest values of server groups, patch catalogs, and so on are now reflected in your dashboard. 

Step 8: Upgrade the Tomcat Server

The Live Reporting installer does not include the latest version of Tomcat Server. Therefore, we recommend using this embedded Tomcat Server only for test environments. For production environments, make sure that you manually upgrade the Tomcat Server to the latest non-vulnerable version to mitigate security risks. For the upgrade instructions, see How to upgrade Tomcat.

1. Create backup copies of the server.xml and web.xml files.
2. Perform the upgrade.
3. Restore the backup after the upgrade is complete.

Where to go from here

Using-the-Live-Reporting-dashboard