Geneos ["Geneos"]
Geneos

Publisher

Overview

The Publisher plugin enables you to publish data from an FKM outbound stream to an index on any of the following:

  • Elasticsearch host

  • Obcerv

  • Splunk server

The Publisher plug-in supports the following versions:

Destination Version/s
Elasticsearch 6.2.4 to 7.4.1
Obcerv 1.0
Splunk server 7.3.1
   

Intended audience

This guide is directed towards Geneos users who want to publish data from a configured FKM outbound stream to any of the following:

  • Elasticsearch server

  • Obcerv

  • Splunk server

As a user, you should be familiar with the use and capability of the FKM plug-in, the Elasticsearch API, Obcerv, and Splunk.

Prerequisites

Java requirements

Caution: The Java installation and environment configuration is a common source of errors for users setting up Java-based components and plug-ins. It is recommended to read Configure the Java environment to help you understand your Java installation.

Obcerv requirements

If you are looking to publish data to Obcerv, then you need to configure Obcerv connection details in the Gateway. The following Obcerv connection > Mode > connection configurations will be received and used by the Publisher plugin:

  • Service address

  • Credentials

  • Verify server certificate

  • Root certificates

For more information, see Obcerv Quickstart Guide.

Elasticsearch credentials

If you are looking to publish data to Elasticsearch, then you need the following:

  • Elasticsearch server host name or IP address
  • Elasticsearch server port
  • Elasticsearch server credentials, if applicable

You must also be familiar with Elasticsearch API, as well as how it is implemented in your organisation.

Splunk credentials

If you are looking to publish data to Splunk, then you need the following:

  • Splunk server host name or IP address
  • Splunk HEC port
  • Splunk HEC token

FKM outbound stream

A Publisher sampler receives messages from the FKM outbound stream. You must have a configured FKM sampler ready to use for the Publisher sampler.

Setup and configuration

Setup involves the following tasks:

  1. Create the Publisher sampler.
  2. Associate the Publisher sampler with a managed entity.
  3. Publish an outbound stream from the FKM sampler.

Note: If you are using this plugin with Gateway Hub, you must create a user-define data schema. For more information, see Create a data schema.

Create the Publisher sampler

  1. In the Gateway Setup Editor, create a new sampler by right-clicking the Samplers folder and selecting New Sampler.
  2. Enter a name for this sampler in the Name field.
  3. Set the sample interval, if necessary.
  4. In the Plugin field, click the drop-down list and select publisher.
  5. In the Destination field, select the destination server.
  6. Click Save current document to apply your changes.

You can configure the following fields in the Publisher sampler:

Field Description
Sample interval

Controls the period when the Admin View is updated with events that occurred in the Publisher plugin, which is measured in seconds. The Admin View resets for every sample interval.

You must set the interval value to a non-negative integer value. A value of 0 indicates that regular sampling should be disabled.

Mandatory: No

Default: 20

Unit: Seconds
Destination

Publishes data from a configured outbound stream to any of the following destination servers:
   

Success: The sampler can now be associated with a managed entity.

Configure the Elasticsearch destination

If you are publishing to Elasticsearch, configure the plugin as follows:

  1. In the Host field, enter the Elasticsearch server host name or IP address.
  2. In the Port field, enter the port number.

    3. Note: You can toggle between data and var for the Host and Port fields. This toggle option allows you to define either a text or numerical value (data) or variable (var) for these fields.

  3. In the Index field, enter the Elasticsearch index where you want to add the JSON document.
  4. If you want to change the _type endpoint, specify the endpoint in the Endpoint field.
  5. If you want to use an HTTPS connection between the Publisher sampler and the Elasticsearch host, select Https under Protocols.
  6. If authentication is needed to access the Elasticsearch host, click Authentication > Type and select either Basic or Bearer. For more information on these authentication types, see Basic configuration.

Configure the Splunk destination

'If you are publishing to Splunk, configure the plugin as follows:

  1. In the Host field, enter the Splunk server host name or IP address.
  2. In the Port field, enter the port number.

    3. Note: You can toggle between data and var for the Host and Port fields. This toggle option allows you to define either a text or numerical value (data) or variable (var) for these fields.

  3. If you want to change the index, specify the index where you want to add the JSON document in the Index field.
  4. If you want to change the batch size, specify the value in the Batch size field.
  5. In the Token field, input the HEC token or a variable.

Associate the sampler with a Managed Entity

  1. In the Gateway Setup Editor, create a new managed entity by right-clicking the Managed entities folder and selecting New Managed entity.
  2. Enter a name for this managed entity. For example, enter "publisher-me" in the Name field.
  3. In the Options field, select the probe on which you want the sampler to run.
  4. Under the Sampler field, click Add new.
  5. In the text field under Ref, select the sampler you just created from the drop-down list.
  6. Click Save current document to apply your changes.

Success: The Publisher Admin dataview now appears under the managed entity in the Active Console state tree.

Publish an outbound stream from the FKM sampler

  1. In the Gateway Setup Editor, locate and select the FKM sampler you wish to publish an outbound stream from.
  2. In Files, click inside the Outbound stream name field for the source you want to publish from.
  3. In the Outbound stream name field, specify the Publisher sampler you have just created. The format must follow a fully qualified stream name:

    4. managedEntity-name.publisher-sampler(type)

    For example:

    ME.Publisher

    Note: The managed entity part of the format can be omitted if the sampler falls under the same managed entity as the FKM sampler.

  4. Click Save current document to apply your changes.

Success: The Publisher sampler now receives outbound stream messages coming from the configured FKM sampler.

Obcerv Admin View

The Publisher sampler automatically creates the Admin view to monitor the status of its streams, if there are any.

Headline legend

Name Description
host Obcerv host name or IP address that the Publisher sampler is connected to.
port Obcerv port that the Publisher sampler is connected to.
samplingStatus

Shows OK if the last message was successfully sent to the destination. Otherwise, the samplingStatus will show an error message.
   

Table legend

Name Description
streamName Name of the FKM outbound stream tied to the Publisher sampler.
connectionStatus

Shows the state of the Obcerv connection. Possible values are the following:

  • Connecting — connection is trying to be established.

  • Idle — no connection is being established.

  • Ready — connection is successfully established.

  • Shutdown — connection is shut down.

  • Transient_Failure — connection encountered a transient failure.

sendState

Shows how the message is processed. Possible values are the following:

  • BUFFERING — Publisher sampler is not yet ready to send the message because the start up connection is being established, or the messages are pending for retry.

    The messages are held in buffer until the sampler is ready to send them.

  • SENDING — Publisher sampler is ready to send the messages.

deliveryStatus

Shows the status of the last message delivery attempt. Possible values are the following:

  • SUCCEEDED — message was sent successfully.

  • RETRYING — message was not sent successfully due to a transient failure. The Publisher sampler will retry sending the failed message after a given interval. Succeeding messages will be buffered.

  • FAILED — message was not sent successfully due to a permanent error, and the Publisher sampler will not retry sending this message.

  • NONE — initial value when no messages have been sent yet.
byteRate Number of bytes sent, whether successful or not, per duration within the last sampling interval.
messageRate Number of successfully sent messages per duration within the last sampling interval.
maxBufferSize

Maximum number of messages that the sampler holds in the stream.

The sampler holds these messages until they are consumed by another sampler.
messagesInBuffer

Number of messages from the native stream waiting to be consumed by the Publisher sampler within the sampling interval.

messagesDropppedPerSample

Number of dropped messages due to a permanent failure, or a full buffer within the last sampling interval.
messagesDroppedRate Value of messagesDropppedPerSample per duration within the last sampling interval.
   

Note: Stream messages are stored in the buffer until they are consumed by another component. However, If there are no samplers or clients consuming the stream, then the stream registry purges the messages immediately.

Basic configuration

A Publisher sampler receives its stream from a corresponding FKM sampler. If you wish to assign an outbound stream to a Publisher sampler, see File Keyword Monitor configuration.

Note: You can safely update the configuration of this plug-in without causing the Netprobe to restart.

Field Description
Buffer size

Sets the maximum number of messages that the Publisher sampler holds in the stream.

The sampler holds these messages until they are consumed by another sampler.

Mandatory: No

Default: 3000
Batch size

Number of messages to be published at a time.

Mandatory: No

Default: 1000
Timeout

Sets the waiting time for a batch of messages defined by the Batch size to be collected. The timeout is reset when this batch of messages is received and published.

If the timeout expires, pending messages are published and the timeout is reset.

Mandatory: No

Default: 1

Unit: seconds
   

Advanced configuration

Field Description
Create admin view

Enables or disables the sampler Obcerv Admin View on the managed entity.

Default: Enabled
   

Elasticsearch Admin View

The Publisher sampler automatically creates the Admin view to monitor the status of its streams, if there are any.

Headline legend

Name Description
protocol Connection protocol used. For example, HTTP or HTTPS.
host Elasticsearch server host name or IP address that the Publisher sampler is connected to.
port Elasticsearch server port that the Publisher sampler is connected to.
index

Elasticsearch index where the stream data is published.

This field conforms to the Elasticsearch REST API. For more information, see the Index API page of theElasticsearch Reference.
endpoint

Elasticsearch_type endpoint where the stream data is published. By default, this is the document type, _doc.

This field conforms to the Elasticsearch REST API. For more information, see the Index API page of the Elasticsearch Reference.
samplingStatus

Shows OK if the last message was successfully sent to the destination. Otherwise, the samplingStatus will show an error message.
   

Table legend

Name Description
streamName Name of the FKM outbound stream tied to the Publisher sampler.
sendState

Shows how the message is processed. Possible values are the following:

  • BUFFERING — Publisher sampler is not yet ready to send the message because the start up connection is being established, or the messages are pending for retry.

    The messages are held in buffer until the sampler is ready to send them.

  • SENDING — Publisher sampler is ready to send the messages.

deliveryStatus

Shows the status of the last message delivery attempt. Possible values are the following:

  • SUCCEEDED — message was sent successfully.

  • RETRYING — message was not sent successfully due to a transient failure. The Publisher sampler will retry sending the failed message after a given interval. Succeeding messages will be buffered.

  • FAILED — message was not sent successfully due to a permanent error, and the Publisher sampler will not retry sending this message.

  • NONE — initial value when no messages have been sent yet.
byteRate Number of bytes sent, whether successful or not, per duration within the last sampling interval.
messageRate Number of successfully sent messages per duration within the last sampling interval.
maxBufferSize

Maximum number of messages that the sampler holds in the stream.

The sampler holds these messages until they are consumed by another sampler.
messagesInBuffer

Number of messages from the native stream waiting to be consumed by the Publisher sampler within the sampling interval.

messagesDropppedPerSample

Number of dropped messages due to a permanent failure, or a full buffer within the last sampling interval.
messagesDroppedRate Value of messagesDropppedPerSample per duration within the last sampling interval.
   

Note: Stream messages are stored in the buffer until they are consumed by another component. However, If there are no samplers or clients consuming the stream, then the stream registry purges the messages immediately.

Basic configuration

A Publisher sampler receives its stream from a corresponding FKM sampler. If you wish to assign an outbound stream to a Publisher sampler, see File Keyword Monitor configuration.

Note: You can safely update the configuration of this plug-in without causing the Netprobe to restart.

Note: If you are using this plugin with Gateway Hub, you must create a user-define data schema. For more information, see Create a data schema.

Field Description
Host

Elasticsearch server host name or IP address.

You can toggle between entering a text or numerical value (data) or a variable (var).

Mandatory: Yes
Port

Elasticsearch server port.

You can toggle between entering a numerical value (data) or a variable (var).

Mandatory: No

Default: 9200
Index

Index where you want to add the JSON document.

This field conforms to the Elasticsearch REST API. For more information, see the Index API page of the Elasticsearch Reference.

Mandatory: Yes
Buffer size

Sets the maximum number of messages that the Publisher sampler holds in the stream.

The sampler holds these messages until they are consumed by another sampler.

Mandatory: No

Default: 3000
Endpoint

Elasticsearch_type endpoint where you want to publish the stream data. By default, this is the document type, _doc.

This option conforms to the Elasticsearch REST API. For more information, see the Index API page of the Elasticsearch Reference.

Mandatory: No
Protocol

Connection protocol to use. By default, this is HTTP.

Use HTTPS if you want to set a secure connection.

Mandatory: No
Authentication

Authentication method to use.

The Publisher plug-in supports the following authentication types:

  • None — requires no authentication. This is the default setting.
  • Basic — requires basic authentication. If you choose this type, then you must provide a username and password.
  • Bearer — requires bearer authentication using Elasticsearch token API. If you choose this type, then you must provide the requisite fields. For more information, see Bearer authentication.

Mandatory: No
   

Bearer authentication

The bearer authentication option enables you to connect to an Elasticsearch server via token API, without needing basic authentication.

The Publisher sampler supports the bearer authentication password grant type, as defined in the Elasticsearch API. For detailed information, see the Get token API page of the Elasticsearch Reference.

password

This grant type implements the OAuth 2.0 resource owner password credentials grant. A trusted user (the grantor) can either retrieve a token for their use or on behalf of an end-user (the grantee).

Publisher plug-in bearer authentication password grant type

Field Description
Username

For the Grantor, this is the username of the trusted user to retrieve an access token. This field is required.

For the Grantee, this is the username of the end-user to access the Elasticsearch server. This is an optional field.

You can toggle between entering a text or numerical value (data) or a variable (var).
Password

For the Grantor, this is the password of the trusted user to retrieve an access token. This field is required.

For the Grantee, this is the password of the end-user to access the Elasticsearch server. This is an optional field.

Choose the appropriate field when specifying the password:

  • stdAES — use this to input your plaintext password. If you select stdAES, you can define your password directly in the sampler and store it in standard AES encryption hash in the Gateway.
  • var — use this to pass the password as a variable. The variable is defined in Managed entity > Advanced > Var. This is useful for situations where you have multiple samplers that use the same credentials.
   

Advanced configuration

Field Description
Create admin view

Enables or disables the Elasticsearch Admin View on the managed entity. The Admin view is enabled by default.

You can toggle between a checkbox (data) or a variable (var).

Default: Enabled
   

Splunk Admin View

The Publisher sampler automatically creates the Admin view to monitor the status of its streams, if there are any.

Headline legend

Name Description
protocol Connection protocol used. For example, HTTP or HTTPS.
host Splunk server host name or IP address that the Publisher sampler is connected to.
port Splunk HEC port that the Publisher sampler is connected to.
index

Splunk index where the stream data is published.
samplingStatus

Shows OK if the last message was successfully sent to the destination. Otherwise, the samplingStatus will show an error message.
   

Table legend

Name Description
streamName Name of the FKM outbound stream tied to the Publisher sampler.
sendState

Shows how the message is processed. Possible values are the following:

  • BUFFERING — Publisher sampler is not yet ready to send the message because the start up connection is being established, or the messages are pending for retry.

    The messages are held in buffer until the sampler is ready to send them.

  • SENDING — Publisher sampler is ready to send the messages.

deliveryStatus

Shows the status of the last message delivery attempt. Possible values are the following:

  • SUCCEEDED — message was sent successfully.

  • RETRYING — message was not sent successfully due to a transient failure. The Publisher sampler will retry sending the failed message after a given interval. Succeeding messages will be buffered.

  • FAILED — message was not sent successfully due to a permanent error, and the Publisher sampler will not retry sending this message.

  • NONE — initial value when no messages have been sent yet.
byteRate Number of bytes sent, whether successful or not, per duration within the last sampling interval.
messageRate Number of successfully sent messages per duration within the last sampling interval.
maxBufferSize

Maximum number of messages that the sampler holds in the stream.

The sampler holds these messages until they are consumed by another sampler.
messagesInBuffer

Number of messages from the native stream waiting to be consumed by the Publisher sampler within the sampling interval.
messagesDropppedPerSample

Number of dropped messages due to a permanent failure, or a full buffer within the last sampling interval.
messagesDroppedRate Value of messagesDropppedPerSample per duration within the last sampling interval.
   

Note: Stream messages are stored in the buffer until they are consumed by another component. However, If there are no samplers or clients consuming the stream, then the stream registry purges the messages immediately.

Basic configuration

A Publisher sampler receives its stream from a corresponding FKM sampler. If you wish to assign an outbound stream to a Publisher sampler, see File Keyword Monitor configuration.

Note: You can safely update the configuration of this plug-in without causing the Netprobe to restart.

Note: If you are using this plugin with Gateway Hub, you must create a user-define data schema. For more information, see Create a data schema.

Field Description
Host

Splunk server host name or IP address.

You can toggle between entering a text or numerical value (data) or a variable (var).

Mandatory: Yes
Port

Splunk HEC port.

You can toggle between entering a numerical value (data) or a variable (var).

Mandatory: No

Default: 8088
Index

Index where you want to add the JSON document.

If set, the index must exist in the Splunk server. The Publisher plugin cannot verify if the index exists or not.

If not set, the index is determined by the Splunk HEC.

Mandatory: No

Buffer size

Sets the maximum number of messages that the Publisher sampler holds in the stream.

The sampler holds these messages until they are consumed by another sampler.

Mandatory: No

Default: 3000
Protocol

Connection protocol to use. Use HTTPS if you want to set a secure connection.

Mandatory: No

Default: Https
Token

Authentication to access Splunk server.

Choose the appropriate field when specifying the token:

  • stdAES — use this to input your plaintext password. If you select stdAES, you can define your password directly in the sampler and store it in standard AES encryption hash in the Gateway.
  • var — use this to pass the password as a variable. The variable is defined in Managed entity > Advanced > Var. This is useful for situations where you have multiple samplers that use the same credentials.

Mandatory: Yes
Batch size

Number of messages to be published at a time.

Mandatory: No

Default: 5
Timeout

Sets the waiting time for a batch of messages defined by the Batch size to be collected. The timeout is reset when this batch of messages is received and published.

If the timeout expires, pending messages are published and the timeout is reset.

Mandatory: No

Default: 60

Unit: seconds
   

Advanced configuration

Field Description
Create admin view

Enables or disables the sampler Splunk Admin View on the managed entity.

Default: Enabled