Configuring Rendezvous to Use a Different Port: Starting rvd Manually & Creating a Shell Script

Use the -listen option when launching rvd to specify the port to be used. This can either be done manually (at the command line), or by setting up a shell script that automates the process.

Starting rvd Manually

Start rvd from the command line as follows:

rvd -listen tcp:PORT_NUMBER

In this command line, PORT_NUMBER is the port on which you wish rvd to listen. This port should match the port specified for the Netcool/Precision IP processes.

Creating a Shell Script
To create a shell script to automate the process for each time you use rvd:

1. Move the rvd binary to a new location, for example, rvd.exe.
2. Create a shell script with the filename rvd and execute permissions for the user that will run Netcool/Precision IP. Use a command that contains the following lines:

#!/bin/shrvd.exe -listen tcp:PORT_NUMBER

In this command PORT_NUMBER is the port number to be used. This port number must match the port specified for the Netcool/Precision IP processes. Every subsequent call to rvd is now a call to this shell script.

NOTE:
The shell script must be started manually due to checking features that are built into rvd itself. Consequently, if you are configuring ncp_ctrl to launch rvd, you must specify the executable itself (which is now rvd.exe if you have followed the above steps), and use the -listen argument, as specified above, rather than specifying this shell script.

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Connecting to the Rendezvous Daemon Running on Another Machine

In this case there is no need to install Rendezvous. Edit the NCHOME/etc/precision/Precision.rvd.cfg configuration file to ensure that it contains the following statements:

rendezvous session for host 'LOCAL_HOST_NAME' =
{ 'service' = 'PORT_NUMBER' 'network' = 'INTERFACE_NAME/IP_ADDRESS' 'daemon' = 'tcp:LOCAL_IP_ADDRESS:PORT_NUMBER'
}

Where PORT_NUMBER is the number of the port to be used (for example, the default rvd port number 7500), INTERFACE_NAME/IP_ADDRESS is the name or IP address of a non-loopback network interface (for example, 10.10.10.10), and LOCAL_IP_ADDRESS is the IP address of the local machine.

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Configuring Rendezvous for Distributed Components

By default, Rendezvous uses the loopback interface, that is, it does not broadcast traffic over the subnet. If you want Netcool/Precision IP components on one machine to communicate with components on another machine, you must configure Rendezvous to use the network interface.

To configure Rendezvous to use the network interface, edit the NCHOME/etc/precision/Precision.rvd.cfg configuration file to ensure that it contains the following statements:

rendezvous session ={

'service' = 'PORT_NUMBER'

'network' = 'INTERFACE_NAME/IP_ADDRESS'

'daemon' = 'tcp:LOCAL_IP_ADDRESS:PORT_NUMBER'

}

Where PORT_NUMBER is the number of the port to be used, INTERFACE_NAME/IP_ADDRESS is the name or IP address of a non-loopback network interface (for example, 10.10.10.10), and LOCAL_IP_ADDRESS is the IP address of the local machine.

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Subject Based Addressing

TIB/Rendezvous software uses subject-based addressing™ technology to direct messages to their destinations, so application processes can communicate without knowing the details of network addresses or connections. Subject-based addressing conventions define a uniform name space for messages and their destinations. The locations of component processes become entirely transparent.

Any application component can run on any network host without modification, recompilation or reconfiguration. You can dynamically add, remove, and modify components of a distributed system without affecting other components.Subject-based Addressing is not tied to any name service. Subject names can be registered, and browsed, in any LDAP server or other name services.

Subject-Based Addressing Advantages

• Accesses data rather than computers
• Allows data to come from different sources
• Programs are not topology / address dependent
• Users and programmers need not know networking details
• Implements location transparency
• Decouples front-end from back-end

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Simplifying Distributed System Development

TIB/Rendezvous eases distributed system development in these ways:

1. Decoupling and data independence :Distributed systems can be difficult to develop, maintain, and port to other environments. One reason for this difficulty is that components running on networked hosts are often tightly coupled - components must agree on network connections, the low-level format for data transfer, and other details. TIB/Rendezvous allows looser coupling between the components of a distributed system. Loose coupling decreases costs for development, operation and maintenance, and increases system longevity. TIB/Rendezvous self-describing data messages promote data independence; producers and consumers of data can communicate even if they do not share the same internal representations for data. Communicating programs can run on different hardware architectures, even though they use different bit order, byte alignment, or numeric representations. Data independence also eases program evolution. Producers can gracefully add new content fields to their messages without invalidating legacy receivers.
2. Location transparency:TIB/Rendezvous uses subject-based addressing™ technology to direct messages to their destinations, so program processes can communicate without knowing the details of network addresses or connections. Subject-based addressing conventions define a uniform name space for messages and their destinations.
   The locations of component processes become entirely transparent; any application component can run on any network host without modification, recompilation or reconfiguration. Application programs migrate easily among host computers.
3. Architectural emphasis on information sources and destinations:Decoupling distributed components eliminates much of the complexity traditionally associated with distributed programming. TIB/Rendezvous lets you think about distributed system architecture in new ways. You can divide the system into modules along natural boundaries implied by the application's information content. The first step in developing a distributed system is to identify sources and destinations of information. Nextly analyzing a distributed application problem in terms of information flow very often suggests the most natural, efficient, and flexible solution.
4. Reliable delivery of whole messages:TIB/Rendezvous provides reliable communications between programs, while hiding the burdensome details of network communication and packet transfer from the programmer. TIB/Rendezvous takes care of segmenting and recombining large messages, acknowledging packet receipt, retransmitting lost packets, and arranging packets in the correct order. Multicast messages can often be lost when some of the intended recipients experience transient network failures. TIB/Rendezvous uses proprietary reliable multicast protocols to deliver messages despite brief network glitches.

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