DX NetOps

Ok everybody, you may know me as the SME on the NetQoS stuff, but I'm a total noob when it comes to Spectrum. So, I have a quick question (that might lead to an idea submission):

Is uploading the image to <$SPECROOT>/custom/images/Background/ the only way to get a background image into OneClick for use on the topology tab?

As far as I know, yes.

I haven't found any other way to get backgrounds in to Spectrum.

Hi Stuart,

I just checked with our OC SME and he confirmed that the way you allude to is the only other way, no other way.

Regards,

Kiran Diwakar

Is there a feature in the backlog for uploading through the oneclick from a local file system? Like allowing me to choose a file on my PC and have the OC client upload it for me?

Stuart, a subtle different way is suggested by one of the engineers. Please see below:

You can change a topology’s background color, add a background image, or change the size of the background by using the Background Editor. This Background Editor button is available on the Topology view.

1. Put your image in <$SPECROOT>/custom/images/Background/

--- OR        ---

1. 2. <$SPECROOT>/tomcat/webapps/spectrum/images/Background contains the default images which shifts with spectrum. You can even place your image here as well but this place is for default images and for custom images it is recommended to use the step-1 path.

FYI, once you put your image in this location you just need to relaunch the Background Editor and your image will be available for you to select this image. This is the most easy and recommended way to change the background of topology view.

All driven through the client

Regards,

Kiran Diwakar

Both those options are pretty much the same for me. Either way, since it's linux, I will have to get the approval for login access so that I can put the file up on the server. I'll create a new idea to have an upload function built into the OnClick client since that's the only thing lacking to make your statement ('All driven through the client') true. This just cements in my mind that we should never have gone with Linux for Spectrum. Good thing this is just the POC.

Stuart,

   A process that we use may be quite helpful to you as well.

Our Spectrum environment is 100% Linux.  We have 108 SpectroSERVERs, 30 OneClick servers, 12 SRM servers, and several specialty systems.  So you can imagine keeping them in sync with each other could be quite a daunting task, especially considering we have 1.5 people responsible for the core systems.  So, what we have setup is to use Subversion to store our configs.  This might be PCause, EvFormats, Backgrounds, customizations to OneClick or other information that needs to be in common across all the systems.  Then we have Rsync setup to keep all the systems in sync with the information in the subversion repository.

For the future, we would like to move from rsync to Puppet.  With Puppet we should be able to setup "stories" so that we can modify files as well.  That way we'll be able to maintain files that just need changes but not full replacements.

Hope that helps with your plans and simplifies the job of synchronizing backgrounds across all your OneClicks.

Yeah, I had that idea too, with another option being BitTorrent sync. I could then have a folder on my desktop that gets sync'd. 

We went this route because there used to be about 6 of us updating the configs, so we needed some type of config control and Subversion fit the bill well.  We also have a corporate subversion that is backed up, so we don't have to worry about maintaining backup images and recovery.

That makes sense. Cool solution. Moot anyway since our production will be on Windows for several reasons. 

Actually you can use that on Windows as well.  We used to have a mixed Linux/Windows environment.  Rsync will work both in Linux and in Windows.  On Windows it needs cygwin, but that is pretty easy to work with.