mConsole is a universal management application suitable for administration and monitoring of different types of servers - OSGi frameworks, mPRM backend servers, the mConsole framework itself, etc. It is available in two forms, distributed with two of the ProSyst products: one for mBS, and one for mPower Remote Manager. The current document describes working with the general components of mConsole - login box, settings dialogs, etc.
Contents:
To run mConsole of mBS you need JDK 1.2.2 or higher, or a compatible JVM.
Make sure you have the pgui.jar and the resource.jar archives available in the bin/mconsole/lib folder.
To start mConsole:
To stop mConsole:
The first dialog you see when you start mConsole is the login box. This dialog
also appears when you disconnect from a session with a server. In the login
box you define connection settings for the desired servers. It also allows you
to define and save for future use a number of ready-to-use connection settings
that can be reused each time you want to establish a connection with the specified
server. Figure 1.1 shows the login box and its main components.
The left pane of the login box will contain a list of preset servers (OSGi frameworks, mPRM backend servers, etc.). The right pane displays the settings for the selected server.
If you set a server along with its properties to this list, you can easily connect to and administrate it any time you need without having to re-enter the information necessary for this.
You can define the connection settings for a target server and either save them for future reusing, or use them directly for establishing connection without saving.
The Server Name field indicates the user-friendly name of the current OSGi framework as you want it to appear in the list. The exact syntax doesn't matter.
The Server Type combo box indicates the type of connection to be used. It contains three non-editable options. You must select the right one.
Figure 1.2: Selecting the server type
To log in an OSGi framework, select the MBS option from the Server Type combo box. The URL, mBS User Name and Password fields will appear in the login dialog (like in Figure 1.1). You have to fill them with appropriate values.
Specifying the URL. The URL field defines the URL of the framework to be connected. The syntax of the URL is specific to the connection scheme that will be used, for example: socket, datagram, comm, etc. Each scheme is provided by a specific connection factory service. This pattern of communication is described in the IO Connector Service Specification, part of the OSGi Service Platform Service Compendium release 4.
Note: Only the socket scheme is enabled by default! To be able to use a different scheme, the scheme must be provided by some connection factory running on both the mConsole as plug-in, and on the connected server. In addition, the PMP Bundle must be configured to create a connection over the appropriate URI for that scheme.
The syntax of a socket URL is:
socket://<host>:<port>[;timeout=<timeout>]
where <host> stands for the host on which the server is running. <port> is the port on which the server is listening. The [..] brackets show an optional part, they are not part of the URI. The timeout... part shows the timeout in milliseconds for the connection.
Specifying the User Account. The mBS User Name and Password fields require a valid user account with administrative rights, existing in the User Admin Service on the target framework. With them, you are identified as a user and logged on to the server. The default user existing in the User Admin is admin with password admin. It possesses administrative rights. All other users need to be created manually by an administrator.
Tip: Change the default administrator user you will be using, or change the password of the admin user to avoid security breaches.
To administrate the local mConsole, select the mConsole option from the Server Type combo box (see Figure 2). This is the only setting you are to define. If you want to save the mConsole connection settings, specify a display name in the Display Name field. Otherwise, specifying it is not obligatory. The URL field will have a default value mConsole and cannot be edited.
Defining the connection and login properties for mPRM administration through mConsole is out of the scope of this document. Please refer to the mPRM product documentation for information about it.
To connect a preset server:
To connect a new server:
Figure 2 illustrates the basic components of the main window.
The main window of mConsole has menus, toolbars, a central pane with tabs, and a status bar. The exact number and types of menus, toolbars and tabs depends on the server type you have chosen, and on the plugins you have activated in mConsole. The window shown in Figure 2 is the window that appears first after connecting to an OSGi framework. The main panel shows the bundle tree and the framework properties.
mConsole is based on an OSGi framework (mBS, more specifically). Therefore, you can administrate it like any standard OSGi framework. To do this, you must first log in choosing MC connection type (see Connection Settings for the mConsole Framework). You will be allowed to perform most operations allowed for ordinary frameworks - manage the bundles, system properties, bundle configurations, etc. See OSGi Framework Administration through mConsole for more information.
The administration of the local mConsole framework is not acquired by a connection
but is acquired using the org.osgi.framework.BundleContext object
of its bundles.
The following window appears when you log in the mConsole framework:
Figure 3: mConsole framework
By default, the mConsole framework contains the following list of bundles running:
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To change the properties of your mConsole, choose General -> Settings
or press the 
button from the toolbar. The Settings dialog that appears contains a
set of tabs defining settings of different components. The number of tabs displayed
in this dialog may vary because each mConsole plug-in can add new settings tabs.
The default tabs added to the Settings dialog are: General, for editing general properties, Toolbars, for modifying the visual settings of the tool, Container Console for changing the settings of the mConsole runtime console, and HTTP Server for controlling the built-in HTTP server.
Note: For description of the Bundles tab of the Settings dialog, which appears only after connecting to an OSGi framework, refer to OSGi Framework Administration through mConsole: Bundle-Related Settings.
This tab is available even if you are not connected to a framework. It allows you to fix the browser which will be used to display the user's guide, the colors of the mConsole application, and some visual settings.
Figure 4.1: Setting general properties
Setting the Browser for the Help Documentation. This option is available for Windows OS users only. All other users must specify browser location for the OS.
If you mark the Use default OS browser check box, the documentation will be displayed in the default browser on invoking. If you unmark it, you are to indicate the location of the desired browser in the field below. Press Default if you want to return to the default settings (the check box is marked). Press OK when finished.
For users of operating systems other than Windows, the check box will be disabled.
Use System Colors. If you check this option, the next time you start mConsole, it will appear in the OS system colors you have defined.
View Toolbar. If you uncheck this option, the toolbar will be hidden.
View Console. If you check this option, the runtime console of the mConsole framework will appear at the bottom of the main panel. It contains information messages about the operations performed by mConsole.
View Status Bar. If you uncheck this option, you will not see the status bar.
This is done by entering the Toolbar tab of the Settings dialog. The following dialog appears:
Figure 4.2.1: Changing the toolbar settings
It allows you to determine the buttons displayed in the toolbars, their order and their appearance. The Toolbar combo box on top of the dialog allows you to select the toolbar which you want to edit:
Figure 4.2.2: Selecting the toolbar
On the left of the dialog, there is a list of the buttons not currently available on the selected toolbar, with their icons. On the right, there is a list of the buttons currently available on the toolbar. If you select a button from either list, a brief description of it will appear in the Information field.
To add a button to the toolbar:
To remove a button from the toolbar:
To change a button's location on the toolbar:
To show/hide the labels of the toolbar buttons, check/uncheck the View Labels checkbox.
To show/hide the entire toolbar, check/uncheck the View Toolbar checkbox.
If you want to restore the default toolbar settings of mConsole, press Defaults. When finished with all changes, press OK to set them or press Cancel to abolish them.
This tab allows you to change the appearance of the remote console of the connected framework and the runtime console of the mConsole framework. It is itself divided into a number of options:
Figure 4.3: Container console settings
mConsole possesses a small HTTP server which maps the necessary aliases to bundle locations. It is configured by entering the HTTP Server tab of the Settings dialog.
Figure 4.4: Configuring the http server
You may define whether the mConsole will use the HTTP server or not by checking/unchecking the Use internal HTTP server radio button from the Bundles panel of the settings dialog. By default, the button is checked.
You can modify the primary and secondary ports of the HTTP server. Their default values are 1080 and 18080, respectively.
The Max User Count field indicated the maximum number of users allowed to the HTTP server. Default value: 20.
You may also supply a Root Directory for the bundles allowing you to install bundles without mapping aliases for them.
All bundles administrated via the HTTP server (installed, updated etc.) are granted aliases. They are displayed in the File Mapping table. You can manually add or remove aliases by pressing the Add or Remove button. Clear deletes the entire list.
The current Server Status and Server Port are displayed for information below the aliases table.
If you have any problems running the HTTP server or if you have changed its settings, press the Stop Server button and then the Start Server button to restart it.
The Default button returns the default configuration. After finishing with all changes, press OK.
| mConsole | OSGi Framework Administration through mConsole |
