How to configure Elasticsearch, Filebeat and Kibana to view WSO2 Carbon logs

This blog will explain the most basic steps one should follow to configure Elasticsearch, Filebeat and Kibana to view WSO2 product logs.

Pre-requisites

I have written this document assuming that we are using the below product versions.

Download the below versions of Elasticsearch, filebeat and Kibana.
Elasticsearch - 5.1.1
Filebeat - 5.1.1
Kibana - 5.1.1

How to configure Filebeat

1. Download Filebeat to the server where you Carbon Product is running.
2. You can install it in any of the methods mentioned at [1].
3. Then, open up the filebeat.yml file and change the file path mentioned under filebeat.prospectors.

filebeat.prospectors:
- input_type: log
  paths:
    - /home/ubuntu/wso2esb-4.9.0/repository/logs/wso2carbon.log


4. Configure the output.elasticsearch and point to the server where you are running Elasticsearch.

output.elasticsearch:
  hosts: ["192.168.52.99:9200"]
 
5. If you are using a template other that what's being used by default, you can change the configuration as below.

output.elasticsearch:
  hosts: ["192.168.52.99:9200"]
  template.name: "filebeat"
  template.path: "filebeat.template-es2x.json"
  template.overwrite: false 



6. Once the above configuration are done, start your Filebeat server using the options given at [2].

Configuring ElasticSearch

1. For better performance, it is requested to use Elasticsearch on JDK 1.8. Hence, as the first step, make sure you install JDK 1.8.0 on your machine before continuing with the rest of the steps mentioned here.

2. Install Elasticsearch using the below command

sudo dpkg -i elasticsearch-5.1.1.deb


3. For the most basic scenario, you only need to configure the host by specifying the IP of the node that Elasticsearch is running on.

network.host: 192.168.52.99

4. Now start the ElasticSearch server.

sudo service elasticsearch start

Viewing the logs from Kibana

1. Extract Kibana to a preferred location.

2. Open the kibana.yml file and point to your Elasticsearch server.

elasticsearch.url: "http://192.168.52.99:9200"

3. Access the Kibana server from the URL http://localhost:5601 and you can view the WSO2 carbon logs.

[1]  - https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/5.x/filebeat-installation.html
[2] - https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/5.x/filebeat-starting.html

How to access an ActiveMQ queue from WSO2 ESB which is secured with a username/password

By default, a queue in ActiveMQ can be accessed without providing any credentials. However, in real world scenarios, you will have to deal with secured queues. So in this blog, I will explain how we can enable security for ActiveMQ and what configurations are required to be done in WSO2 ESB.

Pr-requisites - Enable the JMS transport for WSO2 ESB as explained in [1].

Step 1 - Secure the ActiveMQ instance with credentials.

To do this, add the below configuration to the activemq.xml under the <broker> tag and start the server.

<plugins>
    <simpleAuthenticationPlugin anonymousAccessAllowed="true">
        <users>
            <authenticationUser username="system" password="system" groups="users,admins"/>
            <authenticationUser username="admin" password="admin" groups="users,admins"/>
            <authenticationUser username="user" password="user" groups="users"/>
            <authenticationUser username="guest" password="guest" groups="guests"/>
        </users>
    </simpleAuthenticationPlugin>
</plugins>

Step 2 - Enable the JMS Listener configuration and configure it as shown below.

    <!--Uncomment this and configure as appropriate for JMS transport support, after setting up your JMS environment (e.g. ActiveMQ)-->
    <transportReceiver name="jms" class="org.apache.axis2.transport.jms.JMSListener">
        <parameter name="myTopicConnectionFactory" locked="false">
                <parameter name="java.naming.factory.initial" locked="false">org.apache.activemq.jndi.ActiveMQInitialContextFactory</parameter>
                <parameter name="java.naming.provider.url" locked="false">tcp://localhost:61616</parameter>
                <parameter name="java.naming.security.principal" locked="false">admin</parameter>
                <parameter name="java.naming.security.credentials" locked="false">admin</parameter>
                <parameter locked="false" name="transport.jms.UserName">admin</parameter>
                <parameter locked="false" name="transport.jms.Password">admin</parameter>
                <parameter name="transport.jms.ConnectionFactoryJNDIName" locked="false">TopicConnectionFactory</parameter>
                <parameter name="transport.jms.ConnectionFactoryType" locked="false">topic</parameter>
        </parameter>

        <parameter name="myQueueConnectionFactory" locked="false">
                <parameter name="java.naming.factory.initial" locked="false">org.apache.activemq.jndi.ActiveMQInitialContextFactory</parameter>
                <parameter name="java.naming.provider.url" locked="false">tcp://localhost:61616</parameter>
                <parameter name="java.naming.security.principal" locked="false">admin</parameter>
                <parameter name="java.naming.security.credentials" locked="false">admin</parameter>
                <parameter locked="false" name="transport.jms.UserName">admin</parameter>
                <parameter locked="false" name="transport.jms.Password">admin</parameter>
                <parameter name="transport.jms.ConnectionFactoryJNDIName" locked="false">QueueConnectionFactory</parameter>
                <parameter name="transport.jms.ConnectionFactoryType" locked="false">queue</parameter>
        </parameter>

        <parameter name="default" locked="false">
                <parameter name="java.naming.factory.initial" locked="false">org.apache.activemq.jndi.ActiveMQInitialContextFactory</parameter>
                <parameter name="java.naming.provider.url" locked="false">tcp://localhost:61616</parameter>
                <parameter name="java.naming.security.principal" locked="false">admin</parameter>
                <parameter name="java.naming.security.credentials" locked="false">admin</parameter>
                <parameter locked="false" name="transport.jms.UserName">admin</parameter>
                <parameter locked="false" name="transport.jms.Password">admin</parameter>
                <parameter name="transport.jms.ConnectionFactoryJNDIName" locked="false">QueueConnectionFactory</parameter>
                <parameter name="transport.jms.ConnectionFactoryType" locked="false">queue</parameter>
        </parameter>
    </transportReceiver>

Step 3 - Create a Proxy service to listen to a JMS queue in ActiveMQ.

Once the ESB server is started, create the below Proxy service and let it listen to the queue generated in ActiveMQ.


   <proxy name="StockQuoteProxy1" transports="jms" startOnLoad="true">
      <target>
         <endpoint>
            <address uri="http://localhost:9000/services/SimpleStockQuoteService"/>
         </endpoint>
         <inSequence>
            <property name="OUT_ONLY" value="true"/>
         </inSequence>
         <outSequence>
            <send/>
         </outSequence>
      </target>
      <publishWSDL uri="file:repository/samples/resources/proxy/sample_proxy_1.wsdl"/>
      <parameter name="transport.jms.ContentType">
         <rules>
            <jmsProperty>contentType</jmsProperty>
            <default>application/xml</default>
         </rules>
      </parameter>
   </proxy>
Once the above proxy service is deployed, send a request to the queue and observe how the message is processed and send to the backend. You can use the sample available in [2] to test this scenario out.

If you are sending a JMS request you can use the username and the password in the URL as shown below.
ant stockquote -Dmode=placeorder -Dtrpurl="jms:/StockQuoteProxy1?transport.jms.DestinationType=queue&transport.jms.ContentTypeProperty=contentType&java.naming.provider.url=tcp://localhost:61616&java.naming.factory.initial=org.apache.activemq.jndi.ActiveMQInitialContextFactory&transport.jms.UserName="admin"&transport.jms.Password="admin"&transport.jms.ConnectionFactoryType=queue&transport.jms.ConnectionFactoryJNDIName=QueueConnectionFactory"


[1] - https://docs.wso2.com/display/ESB490/Configure+with+ActiveMQ
[2] - https://docs.wso2.com/display/ESB490/Sample+250%3A+Introduction+to+Switching+Transports

Disabling API Console/Swagger tools menu available from store console for anonymous/logged in users

If you need to disable the API Console/Swagger from the Store UI for anonymous users/logged in users, you can try out the below methods.

There is no straightforward configuration readily available with API Manager to do this. However, by doing a minor config change, this is possible. What you actually need to do is change the code of the block.jag which resides under wso2am-1.8.0/repository/deployment/server/jaggeryapps/store/site/blocks/api/api-info folder.

Method 1

Assuming you want the API Console (RESTClient) to be disable for anonymous users only, this can be done by changing/adding the below lines of code to the block.jag.

Step 1
Change the below code of line from

var showConsole=true;
to

var showConsole=false;

Step 2
Then add the below lines of code right after the line _var showConsole=false;_

        if(user){
        showConsole=true
        }

Method 2

If you need this feature to be completely invisible for anonymous and logged in users, all you have to do is change the below code.
Change the parameter from

var showConsole=true;
to

var showConsole=false;

Once the above changes are done, restart the API manager server and you will notice that the RESTClient tool is visible only to logged in users/not visible at all for anyone.

How to create custom references(usedBy, ownedBy, etc) that can be used to associate artifacts in WSO2 Governance Registry 5.3.0 onward

This support was available from G-Reg 5.3.0 onward. For more information, refer [1].

1. Added a new rxt with the below config.

<artifactType hasNamespace="true" iconSet="10" pluralLabel="Tests" shortName="tests"
singularLabel="Test" type="application/vnd.wso2-tests+xml">
        <storagePath>/tests/@{details_name}</storagePath>
        <nameAttribute>details_name</nameAttribute>
        <namespaceAttribute>details_address</namespaceAttribute>
        <ui>
            <list>
                <column name="Name">
                    <data href="@{storagePath}" type="path" value="details_name"/>
                </column>
            </list>
        </ui>
        <content>
            <table name="Details">
                <field required="true" type="text">
                    <name>Name</name>
                </field>
                <field required="true" type="text">
                    <name>Address</name>
                </field>
                <field required="true" type="text">
                    <name>ContactNumber1</name>
                </field>
                <field required="true" type="text">
                    <name>ContactNumber2</name>
                </field>
            </table>
        </content>
    </artifactType>    
2. From the publisher, added a new artifact of type tests (I've added a test artifact by the name Test3)
3. Added the below config to the <G-REG_HOME</repository/conf/governance.xml file;
<tests reverseAssociation ="tests" iconClass="fw-globe">tests</tests>
so that the <Association type="soapservice"> looks like what's given below.

        <Association type="soapservice">
            <security reverseAssociation ="secures" iconClass="fw-security">policy</security>
            <ownedBy reverseAssociation ="owns" iconClass="fw-user">soapservice,restservice,wsdl</ownedBy>
            <usedBy reverseAssociation ="depends" iconClass="fw-globe">soapservice,restservice,wsdl</usedBy>
            <depends reverseAssociation ="usedBy" iconClass="fw-store">soapservice,restservice,wsdl,endpoint</depends>
            <contacts reverseAssociation ="refers" iconClass="fw-globe">contacts</contacts>
            <tests reverseAssociation ="tests" iconClass="fw-globe">tests</tests>
        </Association>


4. From the publisher, try to select the added test type artifact for your SOAP service. I typed in the name Test3 and it would list to be selected and added as an association for the SOAP Service.

Note that as mentioned in our documentation when doing the above, you need to add the values you defined as short name in the RXT file of the artifact, within the <Association type> element, to define the association types enabled for that particular asset type

[1] - https://docs.wso2.com/display/Governance520/Adding+Associations+for+an+Asset

How to list admin services used by WSO2 carbon based servers

We are given admin services by WSO2 products to perform various tasks but there is no documentation on the list of the services that are being provided. Therefore to list all these admin services, all you have to do is start the server with -DosgiConsole and type in the command listAdminServices in the osgi console.

This is clearly explained in the stack overflow question at [1].

[1] - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21219907/list-admin-services-used-by-wso2-carbon-based-servers

[WSO2 Governance Registry] - How to analyse the history of registry resources

Assume that you are working on a setup where you need to analyse the history of registry resources. One might want to know what type of operations have been done to the resource throughout it’s lifetime. This is possible from a simple DB query.

select * from REG_LOG where REG_PATH=‘resource_name’;

i.e. select * from REG_LOG where REG_PATH='/_system/governance/apimgt/statistics/ga-config.xml';

As an example, assume I want to find out the actions taken on the resource ga-config.xml. So when I query the table REG_LOG, below is the result I would receive.

When you look at the above result set, you would notice that the column REG_ACTION shows different values in each row. The actions that represents these values are configured in the class Activity.java. For example, REG_ACTION=10 means that the resource have been moved from it’s current location. REG_ACTION=7 means that it has been deleted from the system. Likewise, when you go through [1], you can find out the rest of the actions which you can take on these registry resources.

Therefore as explained above, by going through the REG_LOG of the registry database table, you can audit the actions taken on each and every resource.

[1] - https://github.com/wso2/carbon-kernel/blob/4.4.x/core/org.wso2.carbon.registry.api/src/main/java/org/wso2/carbon/registry/api/Activity.java