SNAPshot (Archiving) installation and configuration

Intended audience: administrators, users, developers

Overview

The SNAPshot system is distributed as a part of the Archiving solution.

The server side consists of a database (either MySQL or Oracle) and a set of device servers. On the client side, the application Bensikin is used.

To use SNAPshot system, at lease one device must be created for each class:

  • SnapManager, responsible for creating snapshot contexts and applying snapshots to the devices,
  • SnapArchiver, responsible for creating snapshots and storing them in the database,
  • SnapExtractor, responsible for extracting snapshots from the database.

If more that one device of a particular class is defined, Archiving API will randomly assign a device for each request.

Prerequisites

Following components are required to set-up and use Archiving:

  • Tango Controls,
  • SQL database (this guide assumes MariaDB 10),
  • Java Runtime Environment (this guide assumes OpenJDK 8).

Note

This guide assumes that the installation is performed on the Ubuntu system but it should be applicable also to the other GNU/Linux-based systems.

To install SNAPshot on Windows, minor changes need to be applied, e.g. the applications from the win32 directory should be used instead of the applications from the linux directory.

Installation

Installation steps:

  1. download and extract the *ArchivingRoot* package,
  2. add the executable flag to the scripts located in bin/linux,
  3. add the executable flat to the scripts located in device/linux,
  4. replace the sh interpreter with bash in shebang in scripts located in bin/linux and in device/linux. The scripts are not POSIX compliant,
  5. run SQL script db/create-SNAPDB-InnoDB.sql to create the database and users,
  6. set ARCHIVING_ROOT environment variable to point to the directory with the contents of the ArchivingRoot package.

Configuration

Configuration steps:

  1. define following devices:
    Server/instance Class Device
    SnapManager/1 SnapManager archiving/snap/manager.1
    SnapExtractor/1 SnapExtractor archiving/snap/extractor.1
    SnapArchiver/1 SnapArchiver archiving/snap/archiver.1
  2. configure SnapManager class properties:
    • DbUser: snapmanager,
    • DbPassword: snapmanager,
  3. configure SnapExtractor device properties:
    • DbUser: snapbrowser,
    • DbPassword: snapbrowser,
  4. configure SnapArchiver device properties:
    • DbUser: snaparchiver,
    • DbPassword: snaparchiver,
    • BeansFileName: beansBeamline.xml.

Note

If BeansFileName is configured as a device property but the server is still looking for the default beans.xml during startup, the init command must be executed as a workaround.

----- Hibernate Resources -----
configure hibernate resource: beans.xml
Exception in thread "main" org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: IOException parsing XML document from class path resource [beans.xml]; nested exception is java.io.FileNotFoundException: class path resource [beans.xml] cannot be opened because it does not exist
...

Alternatively, BeansFileName can be configured as a class property.

Usage

To use SNAPshot system, all device servers must be started.

The application bin/linux/bensikin-rw can be used to configure and trigger snapshots. See Bensikin manual for more details.

Note

The machine where Bensikin is running must have access to the snapshot database. Bensikin will use credentials specified in SnapManager class configuration.

Properties reference

Following tables summarize configuration properties. The Class column indicates that this is the class property. Otherwise it is a device property.

Note

The database connection properties are defined in device classes:

  • SnapManager for Snap

Every device and application that has to connect to a database will read the properties of these classes. However, every device can have its database connection properties redefined in the device properties.

SnapManager properties

Name Description Default Mand. Class
Description Device description     ✓
ProjectTitle Project description     ✓
DbUser User name used to connect to the database archiver ✓  
DbPassword Password used to connect ot the database archiver ✓  
DbHost Database Host name localhost ✓ ✓
DbName Database name   ✓ ✓
DbSchema Schema name   ✓ ✓
isRac Oracle database is in Rac Mode false ✓ ✓

SnapArchiver properties

Name Description Default Mand. Class
Description Device description     ✓
ProjectTitle Project description     ✓
DbUser User name used to connect to the database archiver    
DbPassword Password used to connect ot the database archiver    
DbHost Database Host name localhost    
DbName Database name      
DbSchema Schema name      
beansFileName Name of the beans file (on CLASSPATH) beans.xml    

Note

This device will check SnapManager class properties to discover how to connect to the database.

SnapExtractor properties

Name Description Default Mand. Class
Description Device description     ✓
ProjectTitle Project description     ✓
DbUser User name used to connect to the database snap ✓  
DbPassword Password used to connect ot the database snap ✓  

Note

This device will check SnapManager class properties to discover how to connect to the database.