1. What environments can I deploy DPAdmin and what are
those components?
2. Are there specific jar files and other tools that I
need? What are they?
3. Can I deploy firmware?
4. What are the steps I need to do to prepare to install
DPAdmin?
5. Does it require certain ports open?
6. Do I need a SSL certificate?
7. How does DPAdmin manage keys and certificates?
8. Do you have a
sample ANT script that runs with DPAdmin?
9. How to I hide the password for DPAdmin?
10. Does DPAdmin require special certificates to logon to
DataPower? How do I regenerate another
and where do I put it?
11. Where do I find the parameters for each DPCommand?
12. Do DPFlows rollback on a failure?
13. If a DPFlow fails, how do I know where it failed?
14. What is the most flows you can put into a script?
15. What are the most commands per flow?
16. When should I use Deployment policies?
17. How do I ensure that users of DPAdmin only have
authorization to perform specific tasks?
18. What is to prevent me from deploying directly to our
production appliances?
19. What application servers and databases are supported
for Reports?
20. Where do I configure where my database is located?
21. What are the support policies?
22. Will I get updates to DPAdmin?
23. What if I want to change databases?
1. What environments can I deploy DPAdmin and what are
those components?
DPAdmin can be used for pretty much any environment that are
available at the customer site like Dev, QA, Staging, Production etc. Licenses
for DPAdmin are issued based on the number of DataPower devices a customer owns. The following are components of DPAdmin.
i. DPAdmin Administration Module
ii. DPAdmin Automation Module
iii. Reporting/Auditing
iv. Browser Based Reporting Tool
2. Are there specific jar files and other tools that I
need? What are they?
Everything that is needed for the normal
operation of DPAdmin comes with the installer with the exception of the
Reporting Module. If the user is licensed to use the reporting module for DPAdmin,
then the jar files that are specific to the database used for
storing reporting data such as DB2, Oracle etc. are necessary. Database specific jar files are
the only files that need to be added. To add new jar files, please modify *.sh
or *.bat files to include the new jar files.
3. Can I deploy firmware?
Yes you can. Upgrade firmware requires more
memory to run than any of the other commands. If you use the automation
framework to update firmware for multiple devices, then sequential updates are
recommended because of the memory limitations on a workstation. Please look at
the trouble shooting guide for details on tuning if needed.
4. What are the steps I need to do to prepare to install
DPAdmin?
Please follow the Installation manual steps for the
appropriate DPAdmin installation based on the Operating system it is installed
on.
5. Does it require certain ports open?
If there is a firewall between DPAdmin host and
the DataPower device, then it is important that the XML Management port is open on
the firewall.
6. Do I need a SSL certificate?
Default settings for SOMA will work fine. No
additional certificate is needed unless you would like to assign your own
custom SSL profile to Xml Management Service.
7. How does DPAdmin manage keys and certificates?
DPAdmin doesn't manage keys and certificates and
is not intended for that purpose. However DPAdmin does provide ways to replace certificates
and key replacement methods on the fly during deployment of services from one
environment to the other. The actual storage and maintenance of certificates and
keys should happen outside DPAdmin.
8. Do you have a
sample ANT script that runs with DPAdmin?
A dummy ant file is available under
custom-scripts folder under workspace. Any ant script would work with DPAdmin
as long as the relative path for the script is driven from the custom-scripts
folder. Please refer to the task documentation under Instruction Manual for
more details.
9. How to I hide the password for DPAdmin?
Password is gathered in a number of different
places and we assure that it addresses the security concerns of each customer we work with. Following are some details:
i. DPAdmin provides an environments.xml where environments
can be setup with aliases with the DataPower details provided. The Password is
collected in the base 64 format in this XML. We recommend our customers to
protect this file using operating system permissions so that the base 64
password is not exposed to unknown users. If this is not possible, please leave
the password field blank in this XML and DPAdmin will prompt every time it runs
for the password.
ii. DPAdmin scripting mode for machine invocation requires
the password to be provided. If these scripts are triggered from shell scripts
of batch programs, please make sure that password is efficiently hidden from
unknown users as you would for any other secure shell scripts.
10. Does DPAdmin require special certificates to logon to
DataPower? How do I regenerate another
and where do I put it?
No. DPAdmin doesn't require special certificates
and can function with the default cert. If a customized cert is needed, please
feel free to generate your own copy of Cert and Key using Crypto Tool and
assign it to your own custom SSL proxy profile. This new SSL proxy profile will
be used by the Xml Management port.
11. Where do I find the parameters for each DPCommand?
Please refer to the Instruction Manual.
12. Do DPFlows rollback on a failure?
Please create a checkpoint as the first step of
any flow. If one of the command fails in a DPFlow, then the flow is terminated
to give the user a chance to roll back manually based on the checkpoint
created. Rollback might not be the solution in every case, and we will let the
user be the best judge of that based on the type of script being executed.
13. If a DPFlow fails, how do I know where it failed?
Details on which command was successful and
which one failed is available in the Browser Based Reporting Tool. This information is also
available in the DPAdmin logs and history folder.
14. What is the maximum number of flows you can put into a script?
Technically there is no limit. The limit is
purely based on the infrastructure settings such as memory, space etc.
15. What is the maximum number of commands per flow?
Technically there is no limit. The limit is
purely based on the infrastructure settings such as memory, space etc.
16. When should I use Deployment policies?
When there is a need to change configuration
when it moves from one environment to another like changing backend servers,
certificate paths, key paths, port
numbers etc.
17. How do I ensure that users of DPAdmin only have
authorization to perform specific tasks?
DPAdmin permissions are governed by RBM
settings. Please setup the access policy of the user accordingly in DataPower
and DPAdmin will respect those settings. As an example: if you are
trying to modify an XML firewall and you don't have access to the firewall, then
you will not be allowed to make that change.
18. What is to prevent me from deploying directly to our
production appliances?
DPAdmin will not automatically deploy to
production or any other environment. Any deployment decision is
voluntary and the user needs to type in the credentials or aliases to deploy to the appropriate environment. If the user
chooses to deploy the configuration to production, DPAdmin will respect the
command and execute it. If deployments to production need to be tightly
controlled, then we would recommend not to add the production credentials to
environment.xml for every installation and to have it accessible to the
system administrators.
19. What application servers and databases are supported
for Reports?
J2EE compliant servers and databases that are
JDBC compliant and supported by Hibernate.
20. How do I configure the location of my database?
Please specify the database details in
dpadmin.properties under {DPAdmin home}/conf folder.
21. What are the support policies?
Please refer to our Remote Support Agreement and
Troubleshooting guide for more help.
22. Will I get updates to DPAdmin?
When there are updates to DPAdmin, iSOAgroup
will notify customers through an email communication. The customer can then
choose to accept the update or not based on their current needs.
23. What if I want to change databases?
iSOA Group is not responsible for the effort involved in migrating the existing data from one database to another. If it is a JDBC compliant and Hibernate supported database, DPAdmin can start using the new database after Schema setup and simple configuration changes.
