Quick Start

This quick start guide will illustrate how to configure Veduta in the simplest fashion to read a log file, show reports on log file activity and how the search engine can be used to find out what's going on. We will run a Veduta server, which allows you to see reports, and a Veduta client, which feeds logging information to that server. We'll then look at converting this to a configuration appropriate to your system.

This section assumes you have the Veduta™ installation package. If not, please visit the Veduta homepage for a trial or purchase copy.

If you're having problems with the example below, see here or contact us with any queries.

A Quick Example

To install Veduta simply run the downloaded .jar file. You will require a suitable Java virtual machine to be able to run Veduta. These are free and available from Sun Microsystems here. You will require version 5.0 or above.

Change directory to the directory that Veduta has installed itself in. On Windows, this will default to:

C:\Program Files\OOPS Consultancy\Veduta

On Unix/Linux and MacOSX this will default to:

$HOME/Veduta

Now run:

java -jar veduta-complete.jar -d examples\gettingstarted -webserver

The above assumes a Windows path convention. You should replace '\' with '/' on Unix/MacOSX systems as required.

You will see something similar to:

Using standard logging (-Djava.util.logging.config.file={filename} to override)
Veduta 1.1 TRIAL VERSION EXPIRES Sat May 05 00:00:00 BST 2007
05-Apr-2007 20:35:42 INFO: Checking Resource aliases
05-Apr-2007 20:35:43 INFO: Version Jetty/5.1.12
Veduta Servlet starting up
Configs loaded from ./
Running with veduta config = examples/gettingstarted/veduta.xml
             report config = examples/gettingstarted/report.xml
Veduta 1.1 TRIAL VERSION EXPIRES Sat May 05 00:00:00 BST 2007
05-Apr-2007 20:35:44 WARNING: db/gettingstarted.ser memory database specified but not present
05-Apr-2007 20:35:44 INFO: Running as a server : rmi://localhost:3055/VedutaServer
05-Apr-2007 20:35:44 INFO: Started org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler@1c695a6
05-Apr-2007 20:35:44 INFO: Started ServletHttpContext[/veduta,/veduta]
05-Apr-2007 20:35:44 INFO: Started SocketListener on 127.0.0.1:8080
05-Apr-2007 20:35:44 INFO: Started org.mortbay.jetty.Server@13e205f

Veduta will start its own webserver. You can immediately go to the Veduta server reports by sending your browser to:

http://{your host name}:8080/

and you will see the Veduta report page, including the menu options, the calendar and the reports (currently empty, since Veduta has not been fed any logging information).

Now we need to start a Veduta client. The Veduta clients read the log files and send this info to the server, where it is recorded and displayed.

In a separate terminal on the same machine, change directory to the Veduta installation directory, and run:

java -jar veduta-complete.jar -d examples\gettingstarted -client

to start the client. You will see something similar to:

Using standard logging (-Djava.util.logging.config.file={filename} to override)
Veduta 1.1 TRIAL VERSION EXPIRES Sat May 05 00:00:00 BST 2007
05-Apr-2007 21:59:42 INFO: Running as a client. Will connect to rmi://localhost:3055/VedutaServer
05-Apr-2007 21:59:42 INFO: Connecting to rmi://localhost:3055/VedutaServer
05-Apr-2007 21:59:42 INFO: Reading examples/gettingstarted/logs/example.log
05-Apr-2007 21:59:42 INFO: file:.../examples/gettingstarted/logs/example.log read using simple parsing. Discarding initial results
05-Apr-2007 21:59:42 INFO: Connected to rmi://localhost:3055/VedutaServer
05-Apr-2007 21:59:42 INFO: Transmission throttle set to 0s

This will start reading the log files and talk to the server. At the moment Veduta will still show no information, since for this simple example Veduta is configured to read only new information.

Locate the configured log file examples\gettingstarted\logs\example.log and open it in an editor. Add new lines to the bottom of the log file and save after every few lines (simulating a moving log file). Veduta will receive this information and periodically redisplay the reports, showing the log information appearing at the appropriate time. The more log lines you write, the more information Veduta will display. Veduta is configured to add timestamps automatically.

Some things to notice

You can refresh the report page manually. However the report page will refresh automatically every 2 minutes.
If you write a line into the log file with the words error or warning then the report is coloured appropriately (these behaviours - keyword matching and colouring - are easily configurable)
The search engine (accessible via the search box under the calendar) can be used to perform searches through the logged data. These can be further bounded via date etc.
Double-clicking on the reports or search reports allows viewing of the relevant log file sections.
The log file window allows download of the complete log file as a text file.
The database window (accessible via the menu option Data->Database) will show an overview of the database repository, split up per log file source (consumer)

What next ?

The above can be translated very easily to your particular circumstances.

Take a copy of the examples\gettingstarted directory, and modify the configurations in this. You will need to repoint both the clients and server to this directory. e.g.

java -jar veduta-complete.jar -d {your directory} ....

The first thing you need to change is the configured log file directory. In {your dir}\consumers.xml change the following:

  <consumer>
    <file>
      <name>Logfile on ${host}</name>
      <filename>insert your logfile name here</filename>
      <parser type="simple" timestamps="true"/>
    </file>
  </consumer>

If your logfile has timestamps in each line (it most probably does) then remove the timestamps attribute above.

The logfile definition can accept wildcards (useful if your logfiles roll over or are dated).

See the Reading Log Files configuration guide for more information. If you're running clients across multiple hosts, then copy this configuration to each client host that requires it. You will need to modify the {your dir}\veduta.xml to tell each client where the server is running.

<system>
  ...
  <network>
     ...
    <server>insert your server name here</server>
  </network>
</system>

Now you can change the report formatting to contain information relevant to your system. In {your dir}\report.xml change the report name and description appropriately. This information is displayed on each report page.

Pattern matching is configured using the following sections.

      <analysis type="patterns" patternValues="pattern colour map">
        <pattern score="1">.*warning.*</pattern>
        <pattern score="2">.*error.*</pattern>
      </analysis>

      <values name="pattern colour map">
        <value equals="1" colour="#ff6600"/> <!-- orange -->
        <value equals="2" colour="red"/>
      </values>

so in the above, a line matching the pattern warning is assigned a score of '1'. A score of '1' is displayed as orange. Note that in each time segment the highest scoring pattern is displayed, so if an 'error' string was encountered in the same time interval, then this would result in a red marker.

Making the above changes means you can quickly configure Veduta to your particular system. For further information, take a look at the Configuration Basics documentation.

Having Problems ? Questions ?

What do I need to run this ?
Briefly, a web browser and a Java 5 installation. See here for further information.
I can't see the initial report page in my browser
The web pages should display by default on port 8080. To change this port, see here.
The standard URL that the reports appear on is http://{your host name}:8080/
My client doesn't appear to talk to my server
The Veduta client and server talk on a commonly configured port. To change this, edit the file examples\gettingstarted\veduta.xml and change the configured network port.
```
<system>
  ...
  <network>
     ...
    <port>1098</port>
  </network>
</system>
    
```
Restart the client and the server. See here for further information.
Can I get my client to talk to a Veduta server from another host ?
Very easily! Simply copy your installation onto another machine where you want your client to run. You then need to tell the client where to find the server. To do this, edit the file examples\gettingstarted\veduta.xml on the client machine and change the configured network server name to that of your server.
```
<system>
  ...
  <network>
     ...
    <server>server hostname</server>
  </network>
</system>
    
```
Restart the client. See here for further information.