SmartSense Configuration Guidelines
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HST server

The following configuration properties are available for HST server:

Table 1. HST Server configuration properties
Property Name Description Where to Configure Guidelines

customer.smartsense.id

Your SmartSense ID uniquely identifies your account. You can obtain it from Hortonworks support. This is a mandatory field during SmartSense installation.

Type: string

Default Value: (unspecified)

Ambari Config:

Basic

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

You can obtain your existing SmartSense ID from the Hortonworks support portal.

customer.account.name

The name of your organization as it is registered with Hortonworks support. This is a mandatory field during SmartSense setup and it is one of the important identifiers for clusters belonging to the same customer..

Type: string

Default Value: (unspecified)

Ambari Config:

Basic

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

You must enter the organization name exactly as it is registered in the Hortonworks support portal.

customer.notification.email

Email address used to send bundle upload and recommendation availability notifications. This is a mandatory field during SmartSense setup.

Type: string

Default Value: (unspecified)

Ambari Config:

Basic

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Check your junk mailbox in case you do not receive notifications.

customer.enable.flex.subscription

Enables flex subscription for the cluster.

Type: boolean

Default Value: false

Ambari Config:

Basic

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Enable only if you have a valid flex subscription ID obtained from Hortonworks support.

customer.flex.subscription.id

Your flex subscription ID obtained from Hortonworks support. Flex subscription offers flexible support subscription.

Type: string

Default Value: (unspecified)

Ambari Config:

Basic

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Contact Hortonworks support to obtain a flex subscription ID. When passing the ID, you must also enable flex subscription.

server.storage.dir

Directory used by HST server for storing bundles.

Type: string

Default Value: /var/lib/smartsense/hst-server/data

Ambari Config:

Basic

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Use a non-root partition for hosting this directory. For reliable operations, we recommend that you have at least 10GB of free space on that partition.

server.tmp.dir

Directory used by HST server for temporary operations.

Type: string

Default Value: /var/lib/smartsense/hst-server/tmp

Ambari Config:

Basic

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Use a non-root partition for hosting this directory. For reliable operations, we recommend that you have at least 10GB of free space on that partition.

server.port

Port to access the HST server web interface and API.

Type: int

Default Value: 9000

Ambari Config:

Operations

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

This port is internally used for HST operations. Change only if port 9000 is already in use or cannot be unblocked, or if SSL needs a different port. This has no impact on SmartSense Ambari View.

server.max.heap

Maximum heap size (in MB) allocated for the HST server process.

Type: int

Default Value: 2048

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Advanced hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Usually 2048 MB is sufficient for clusters up to 500 nodes. Tuning might help if cluster has more than 500 nodes or if you encounter OOM errors on the server side.

agent.request.processing.timeout

Agent request processing timeout (in seconds). This usually indicates the total time for agent capture to finish.

Type: int

Default Value: 7200

Ambari Config:

Operations

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Increase the capture timeout to more than 120 minutes if you are capturing more than 4-5 services or have huge logs for support bundle captures.

You may also want to increase this if captures are timing out.

agent.request.syncup.interval

Interval (in seconds) after submitting data collection request in which all the data collections requests from various agents are treated as part of same bundle. In other words, this determines the maximum time for any agent to sync back with server on capture request.

If multiple agents join data collection process within this interval, they will be treated as part of same bundle. If any agent joins data collection after this interval, it will be treated as another bundle.

Type: int

Default Value: 180

Ambari Config:

Operations

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Default value is suitable for most clusters.

In cases where Ambari server and agent requests are slow and SmartSense bundle collection shows unreported agents in every bundle collection, increasing this interval may help.

client.threadpool.size.max

Server thread pool size to handle bundle requests.

Type: int

Default Value: 40

Ambari Config:

Operations

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Default value is suitable for most clusters

Consider increasing this property if you see multiple agent upload requests timing out on a large cluster with more than 500 nodes.

gateway.host

Fully qualified domain name of the host where the SmartSense gateway process has been deployed and is running.

Type: string

Default Value: embedded

Ambari Config:

Gateway

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Keep the default if your HST server has outbound internet access to reach smartsense.hortonworks.com. Otherwise, set up a separate standalone gateway which has outbound access.

gateway.port

Port on which the SmartSense gateway is listening and through which data is transferred. It is set up with two-way SSL. This port is not applicable for embedded gateway.

Type: int

Default Value: (no value)

Ambari Config:

Gateway

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

This port is used for internal communication between the gateway and HST server.

Change this only if this port is already in use or cannot be unblocked. Note that if you change this port, you must update a similar property in the gateway.

gateway.registration.port

Port which is used by clients to register with the gateway. Data is not transferred through this port. It is set up with one-way SSL. This port is not applicable for embedded gateway.

Type: int

Default Value: (no value)

Ambari Config:

Gateway

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

This port is used for internal communication between the gateway and HST server.

Change only if this port is already in use or cannot be unblocked. Note that if you change this port, you must update a similar property in the Gateway.

hst_log_dir

Directory where SmartSense log files are created.

Type: string

Default Value: /var/log/hst

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Advanced hst-log4j

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/log4j.properties

Changing this setting is usually not recommended. If you change it, you must provide read/write/create permissions for this directory to Ambari Agent user.

hst_max_file_size

Maximum size of SmartSense HST log files.

Type: int

Default Value: 30

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Advanced hst-log4j

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/log4j.properties

Default value is suitable for most clusters.

Check available storage capacity before updating this property.

hst_max_backup_index

Maximum number of HST log files.

Type: int

Default Value: 10

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Advanced hst-log4j

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/log4j.properties

Increase this number to keep the record of older logs. Check available storage capacity before updating this property.

java.home

Path to the JAVA home for HST server.

Type: string

Default Value: (no value)

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

This setting is automatically configured from Ambari env settings and usually there is no reason to change it.

We recommend that you use the latest 1.7/1.8 JAVA versions with up-to-date security updates. For more security we recommend that you have unlimited JCE policy installed.

derby.system.home

Home directory path for Apache Derby database used internally by HST server.

Type: string

Default Value: /var/lib/smartsense/hst-server/hstDB

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Default value is suitable for most clusters.

This property should only be changed during the HST server setup. If you change thus after HST server is already set up, remember to make a backup and move existing data to the new location.

bundle.monitor.interval

Interval (in seconds) determining how often a bundle is checked for completeness. After every interval, data uploaded from agents will be collated into a single bundle. When data from all agents is collected into a bundle, the bundle is marked as completed.

Type: int

Default Value: 20

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Default value is suitable for most clusters.

On very large clusters (with more than 1000 nodes) if bundle collection causes performance issues with the default configuration, this interval can be increased to one minute to minimize file compressions/decompressions.

bundle.alert.progress.timeout.percent

This percentage of bundle processing for which the bundle is failing will raise an alert.

Type: float

Default Value: 0.6

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Default value is suitable for most clusters.

If the bundle is failing during capture or processing, you can adjust the percentage of processing for which alert will be issued.

server.cleanup.task.interval

Time in hours to execute server cleanup tasks (clean up stale/cancelled bundle temp data).

Type: int

Default Value: 1

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Default value is suitable for all clusters.

security.server.two_way_ssl.port

Port for two-way SSL communication between HST server and HST agents. This port is used internally for HST operations.

Type: int

Default Value: 9441

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Change only if port 9441 is already in use or cannot be unblocked. This has no impact on SmartSense Ambari View.

security.server.one_way_ssl.port

Port for one-way SSL communication between HST server and HST agents. This port is usually required during two-way SSL setup. This port is used internally for HST operations.

Type: int

Default Value: 9440

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Change only if port 9442 is already in use or cannot be unblocked. This has no impact on SmartSense Ambari View.

security.openssl.digest.algorithms

Permitted algorithms for SSL encryption.

Type: string

Default Value: sha256,sha384,sha512,sha,sha1,md5

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Not required to modify as sha256,sha512 are available and provide strong encryption.

Change only if there are very specific security requirements that can not be met by sha256/sha512.

server.connection.max.idle.millis

The maximum period in milliseconds that a connection may be idle before it is closed.

Type: int

Default Value: 900000

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Update this if you see too many open threads in idle state on the HST server.

security.server.disabled.ciphers

A comma-separated list of disabled ciphers for SSL.

Type: string

Default Value: (no value)

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Weaker ciphers are already disabled. Change only if you have very specific security requirements.

security.server.disabled.protocols

A comma-separated list of disabled protocols for SSL.

Type: string

Default Value: (no value)

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Weaker ciphers are already disabled. Change only if you have very specific security requirements.

upload.permits

Agents capture data and upload it to the HST server which assembles it together into a single bundle. This property defines the number of concurrent uploads allowed from agent to server.

Type: int

Default Value: 10

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

This property may need to be increased if agent upload requests are timing out on a cluster with more than 500 nodes.

upload.initiate.timeout

Agents capture data and upload it to the HST server which assembles it together into a single bundle. Upload will fail if not initiated within the timeout window (in seconds) defined in this property.

Type: int

Default Value: 20

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

This property may need to be increased if agent upload requests are timing out on a cluster with more than 500 nodes.

bundle.keepuploaded

This tells the HST server whether to keep bundles received from agents even after merging. If set to false, the agent bundles are deleted after merging.

Type: boolean

Default Value: false

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Set this to TRUE if you have to inspect the agent bundles for debugging purposes. Note that this will require plenty of available disk space.

bundle.purge.enabled

Enables a daemon process to purge old bundles. By default, the daemon process cleans up old bundles to efficiently use the disk space.

Type: boolean

Default Value: true

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

We recommend not to disable this process as it will require a large amount of additional disk space.

bundle.min.retention.days

Number of days to keep the bundle before soft purging. Bundles will be soft purged after the defined number of retention days: the bundle file will be deleted and the DB entries will be soft deleted.

Type: int

Default Value: 30

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Update this if you want to keep bundles for longer time (to keep records) or for shorter time (to reduce storage utilization).

bundle.min.force.purge.retention.days

Number of days to keep the bundle before hard purging. Bundles will be hard purged after the defined number of retention days: the DB entries of bundle data along with associated recommendations will be cleaned up.

Type: int

Default Value: 90

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Default value is suitable for all clusters.

bundle.purge.threadpool.size

Thread pool used for purging hundreds of bundles.

Type: int

Default Value: 1

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Default value is suitable for all clusters.

bundle.purge.interval

The frequency (in hours) with which to run the purge process.

Type: int

Default Value: 24

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

The default setting (once per day) is sufficient unless you have tens of bundles created daily.

bundle.validity.days

Bundle validity days for retrieving recommendations. After this number of days, a bundle will no longer be considered for retrieving recommendations.

Type: int

Default Value: 15

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

We recommend not to increase this beyond default because older bundles might not provide the latest status of the cluster.

recommendation.expiry

Recommendation actions such as "Apply" are not permitted on bundles which are older than this number of days.

Type: int

Default Value: 30

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

We recommend that you capture a new bundle and get new recommendations instead of referring to older recommendations.

recommendation.history.expiry

Recommendation history actions are not permitted on bundles older than this number of days.

Type: int

Default Value: 90

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

We recommend that you capture a new bundle and get new recommendations instead of referring to older recommendations. Update this value if you have to refer to earlier actions.

recommendation.auto.download.bundle.expiry

If recommendations are not received, HST server will stop trying to retrieve recommendations after this number of days.

Type: int

Default Value: 7

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Change this only if you have a very specific requirement and want to stop requesting for recommendations earlier than after 7 days.

recommendation.auto.download.interval

Interval (in seconds) for retrieving recommendations. By default, recommendations are retrieved every 300 seconds.

Type: int

Default Value: 300

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Change this only if you have a very specific requirement. Increase this if you want to reduce the frequency of retry attempts.

recommendation.feedback.push.interval

Interval (in seconds) for submitting customer feedback for recommendations. By default, HST server will submit feedback to Hortonworks every 30 minutes if new feedback is available.

Type: int

Default Value: 1800

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Default value is suitable for most clusters. Change this only if you have a very specific requirement.

recommendation.feedback.push.maxentries

The number of feedback entries submitted in one request. By default, HST server submits a batch of 50 feedback entries in one request.

Type: int

Default Value: 50

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Default value is suitable for most clusters. Change this only if you have a very specific requirement. Requires tuning only if you submit more than 100 feedback entries on a daily basis.

gateway.enabled

Enables auto upload of bundles after capture.

Type: boolean

Default Value: true

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Disable this if you are capturing the bundles for internal review purposes only. We recommend to keep it enabled to receive valuable insights and recommendations for your cluster.

gateway.retry.attempts

Defines how many attempts HST server makes to connect to the SmartSense Gateway.

Type: int

Default Value: 10

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Default value is suitable for all clusters.

gateway.retry.interval.increment

The amount of time (in milliseconds) to wait before making a subsequent SmartSense Gateway connection attempt. In other words, this is the wait time between subsequent connection attempts.

Type: int

Default Value: 5000

Ambari Config:

Advanced > Custom hst-server-conf

Config File:

/etc/hst/conf/hst-server.ini

Default value is suitable for all clusters.