About

The Diffusion monitoring console is an optional publisher, provided as console.dar. It is deployed by default and can be undeployed in the same manner as any DAR file. It exists to give you an easy way to monitor your Diffusion solution using a web browser.

Dependencies

The console requires the latest version of a modern browser such as Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari. Internet Explorer is no longer supported.

Logging in

The console is available in a fresh local installation at https://localhost:8080/console.

The console is secured by a principal (username) and password. The principal you use to log in must have permissions to view and act on information on the Diffusion server, for example by having the ADMINISTRATOR role.

This user has the correct permissions to use all of the console's capabilities. For more information, see Pre-defined users.

Video tour

An introductory video tour of the Diffusion console is available on the Push Technology YouTube channel.

Features: Overview tab

The Overview tab of the console contains panels providing key information about the server.

Figure 1. The default console layout

Changing the panel layout

You can edit the panels on the Overview screen.

• Grab a panel header and drag it to move a panel.
• Click the X icon to remove a panel.
• Click on the wrench icon to configure a panel.

Sourcing monitoring metrics

While configuring a panel, you can add any topic in the topic tree to the metrics that the panel tracks (including both built-in metrics and topics you have created).

Use the Topics tab to find topics.

You can add topics to a panel using the Add to Overview button in the Topics tab.

Features: Sessions tab

The Sessions tab shows a live list of the sessions connected to the Diffusion server in the Open sessions section, including session ID, IP address, connection and transport type, and total session time.

You can use the Metric Collectors section of this tab to configure a session metric collector. These enable you to gather information on a subset of all sessions. The Metrics section displays the output of your session metric collectors.

Each session metric collector provides information about the number of sessions (open, connected, peak and total), as well as inbound and outbound traffic in both bytes and number of messages. You can optionally group the sessions within a collector by session properties.

In the Metric Collectors section, specify the sessions to include using the session filter syntax.

Enter session properties as a comma-separated list. Make sure to include the $ symbol in front of each one. For example: $Roles, $ClientType, $Connector.

For more information about metric collectors, see Metrics and Configuring metrics.

Features: Topics tab

You can use this section to browse and interact with the Diffusion topic tree. You can browse the live topic tree, subscribe to topics and add/delete topics.

This tab also enables you to create topic metric collectors and topic views.

Use the menu icon (three horizontal lines) at right to subscribe to or delete topics.

Figure 2. Subscribe and delete controls in the console topics tab

The icon also offers Subscribe Recursive and Delete Recursive options. These act on all the topics below the selected topic in the topic tree.

Once you have subscribed to a topic, you can view its type and value in the Subscriptions section of this tab.

Note that you must be logged in to the console using a principal with the correct permissions to successfully subscribe to, add or delete topics.

You can use the Metric Collectors section of this tab to create topic metric collectors, and view them in the Metrics section. Each topic metric collector provides information on a subset of the topics in the topic tree.

In the Metric Collectors section, specify the topics to include using the topic selector syntax. You can optionally choose to group by topic type.

For more information about metric collectors, see Metrics and Configuring metrics.

In the Topic Views section you can create a topic view using a topic view definition.

Features: Logs tab

The Logs tab shows a live color-coded display of log entries emitted by the server at the levels of INFO, WARN, and ERROR.

Features: Security tab

The Security tab shows a live list of security principals and roles that are configured on the Diffusion server.

For more information about security, see Security.

Figure 3. Security tables

Create, edit, or delete principals: The Principals table shows a list of the principals that the system authentication handler is configured to allow to connect to the Diffusion server. The table also shows the roles that are assigned to any client session that authenticates with the principal.

Click the + button to add a new principal and define its associated password and roles.

Click the spanner icon next to an existing principal to edit its password or roles.

Click the X icon next to an existing principal to delete that principal.

Edit authentication policy and roles for anonymous users: The Anonymous sessions table shows the authentication decision for client sessions that connect anonymously to the Diffusion server. You can choose to ALLOW or DENY anonymous connections or to ABSTAIN from the authentication decision, which then passes to the next configured authentication handler.

Click the spanner icon to edit the authentication decision for anonymous connections and, if that decision is ALLOW, edit any roles that are assigned to anonymous sessions.

Edit authentication policy and roles for named sessions: The Named sessions table enables you to edit the authentication policy for named sessions.

Create, edit, or delete roles: The Roles table shows a list of roles that have been configured in the security store of the Diffusion server. These are the roles that you can choose to assign to any principals that connect to the Diffusion server.

Click the + button to add a new role and define its permissions and any roles it inherits from.

Click the spanner icon next to an existing role to edit its permissions and any roles it inherits from.

Click the X icon next to an existing role to delete that role.