FRENDS RADON TUTORIAL

CONTENTS

• INTRODUCTION
• PREREQUISITES
  • FRENDS Iron installed
  • FRENDS Iron is configured with FRENDS Radon
• CONFIGURING AND RUNNING A SAMPLE EVENT REPORT
  • Setup a SMTP server and an email account
  • Create a new task for event reporting
  • Create a new connection point for event report parameters
  • Create a new routine to run the event report
  • Run the routine
• VERSION HISTORY

INTRODUCTION

FRENDS Radon is a Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) solution built on top of FRENDS Iron for monitoring Windows event logs and sending monitor report forward by SMTP. FRENDS Radon can read and filter event logs from local Windows machine and from a remote Windows machine as well. This tutorial will show how to set up FRENDS Radon error reporting and send it forward via email.

PREREQUISITES

FRENDS Iron installed

Because FRENDS Radon is a WF workflow running on top of FRENDS Iron, Iron needs to be installed and configured before Radon.

For details on how to install FRENDS Iron, see the FRENDS Iron documentation and readme.

FRENDS Iron is configured with FRENDS Radon

When you configure FRENDS Iron, the FRENDS Radon routine elements and assemblies will be automatically deployed and configured by default. The FRENDS Radon Sample should be shown in the routine list.

If the routine is not in the list, please see the Radon help on details how to configure FRENDS Iron with the FRENDS Radon sample routine and routine elements.

CONFIGURING AND RUNNING A SAMPLE EVENT REPORT

First step is to configure the sample event reporting. We will set up reporting from a local Windows machine.

Setup a SMTP server and an email account

For this tutorial, and using FRENDS Radon in any case, you need to setup an SMTP server (or use any existing STMP server available for you) in order to be able to send the FRENDS Radon event reports forward. For completing this tutorial you need to know at least the following details of the SMTP server:

• SMTP server name or its IP address.
• Outgoing SMTP port number.

Depending on the SMTP server’s configuration you may also need these following details:

• Username. If sending emails anonymously is not allowed on SMTP server you will need to the username for sending an email.
• Password. Password for user sending the email.

Create a new task for event reporting

First task in FRENDS Iron is to create a new task which executes the FRENDS Radon event reporting workflow with given parameters.

1. Open the FRENDS Iron management console and navigate to FRENDS Iron -> Routine elements -> Tasks

   

2. Right click on top of Tasks and select Create new. The Task property dialog opens.
3. Name the Task FRENDS Radon
4. Click Browse button to navigate to workflow assemby file. By default, the FRENDS Radon assembly file Frends.Radon.WF.dll can be found in FRENDS Radon installation directory (default: \Program Files\Frends Technology\FRENDS Radon\FRENDSIronExample).
5. From the Workflow Class dropdown menu, select Frends.Radon.WF.RadonWF.

   

6. Click Parameters tab.
7. Select all properties except Success and UserResultMessage

   

8. Click OK

Create a new connection point for event report parameters

Next, we need to create a FRENDS Iron connection point for the reporting parameters. Also the FRENDS Radon Sample CP sample connection point can be used, which was created during FRENDS Iron configuration, if FRENDS samples were chosen to be imported.

1. In the FRENDS Iron management console navigate to FRENDS Iron -> Routine elements -> Connection points.

   

2. Right click on top of Connection Points and select Add new Connection Point. The Connection point property dialog opens.
3. Name the connection point FRENDS Radon Sample CP
4. Click Load Schema button to choose a connection point schema.
5. Select FRENDSRadon-CPSchema.xsd from list of schemas – if it is not found, you can browse for it under the FRENDS Radon installation folder, by default: \Program Files\Frends Technology\FRENDS Radon\FRENDSIronExample

   

6. Click OK to use the schema. The connection point properties dialog shows the RadonParameters structure. It defines the event reporting and emailing the report.
7. Configure the Filter parameters as in figure below:
   • filterString – The rules for selecting which events to report. Type EntryType = "Error" to report only those event which has error level of "Error". See FRENDS Radon manual for more details on filter strings.
   • maxTimeSpan – Type 03:00:00 to report events for the past three hours.
   • maxMessages – Type 100 to get the latest 100 errors, should there be that much errors.
   • remoteMachine - Leave empty to read local machine's event log.
   • eventLogName - Leave empty to read Application event log

   

8. Configure the SMTP parameters to match your SMTP server configuration:
   • smtpServerName – Enter here your SMTP server name or its IP address.
   • portNumber – Enter here the outgoing mails port number for you SMTP server.
   • subject – Text that appears in an email subject. Type FRENDS Radon system event report.
   • senderName – Name that appears as sender in email. Type FRENDS Radon Event Notifier.
   • senderAddress – Text that appears as sender address in email. Type radon.service@example.org.
   • recipients – Recipients for email event report sent by FRENDS Radon. Enter your email address here.
   • useWindowsCredentials – Should the currently logged user’s credentials be used for SMTP server connection, if authentication is required by the server.
   • username – Username for mail server if authentication is required by your SMTP server.
   • password – Password for STMP server user.
   • maxIdleTime – The time in milliseconds how long connection to mail server can remain idle before timing it out. Set to 10 000.

   

Now the event report and send settings are defined in the new connection point. You could now create new connection points for other reporting purposes e.g. by copying the FRENDS Radon Sample CP and changing the parameters, and group the event reports to be run at the same time by creating a connection point group.

Create a new routine to run the event report

In order to run the event reporting, you will need to create a routine for it. Also the ‘FRENDS Radon Sample’ sample routine can be used, which was created during FRENDS Iron configuration, if FRENDS samples were chosen to be imported.

1. In the FRENDS Iron Management Console, right-click on FRENDS -> Routines, and select Add new Routine
2. Name the routine as FRENDS Radon Sample
3. Select the FRENDS Radon Task from the Task drop down menu.
4. Do not define a schedule or condition for the routine. We will run the event report manually for now.
5. Check the Use Connection Points check box, select the Single radio button and then select FRENDS Radon Sample CP from the Connection Point drop down menu.

   

6. Define the parameters for the task by choosing the Task Arguments tab and setting the parameters as in the figure below:
7. In this example we use references to connection point parameters. Parameters can be entered here as well as in the connection point dialog, but entering the parameters here is not recommended as then connection point groups can’t be used.

   

8. Click OK

The Sample Radon routine is created, and we are now ready to execute the event report.

Run the routine

Run the newly created routine: right-click on the FRENDS Radon Sample routine and choose Run Once from the menu.

A new routine instance is created for the event reporting and you can monitor it’s execution in the routine instance view, as shown in the figure below. Successful event reports will have a green icon, and failed event reports will have a red icon.

If the reporting was executed successfully, you should receive an email containing error event from Windows application log for the past 3 hours. Go to your email inbox to see the event report. However, if the event reporting failed, check the Result message column – it will show the error details.

VERSION HISTORY