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Install Broadband Edge Event Collection and Visualization

SUMMARY This section describes installation procedures and system requirements for Broadband Edge Event Collection and Visualization.

Broadband Edge (BBE) Event Collection and Visualization is an event collection application that is meant to operate with Juniper's BBE cloud applications, such as Juniper BNG CUPS Controller and Address Pool Manager (APM).

BBE Event Collection and Visualization collects syslog events and records them in a time-series database. You can view the recorded events through the BBE Event Collection and Visualization Dashboard. The BBE Event Collection and Visualization Dashboard is a GUI-based visualization tool that enables you to view recorded events according to a defined filter, which can be within a specific time range. The Dashboard also provides powerful search and visualization tools through which you can correlate recoded events from multiple sources (for example, from APM or from the Kubernetes cluster).

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Before You Begin

Before you begin installing and running BBE Event Collection and Visualization, make sure you have the following:

  • A juniper.net user account with permissions to download the BBE Event Collection and Visualization software package.

  • A Linux host (jump host) running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (or later required) for running the ecav installation. The jump host must have the following:

    • CPU cores—2

    • RAM—8 GB

    • Disk space—128 GB of free disk storage

    • Python 3 virtual environment installed

    • A user login with access to the Kubernetes cluster

    • External access to Docker Hub (docker.io) for pulling open-source container images needed for deploying BBE Event Collection and Visualization.

  • The cluster must have at least three worker nodes (either virtual or physical machines). A node is a Linux system running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (or later) that has a management address and a domain name. The nodes must meet the following system requirements:

    • CPU cores—8 (hyperthreading preferred)

    • RAM—64 GB

    • Disk space—512 GB of free disk storage in the root partition

Install Broadband Edge Event Collection and Visualization

SUMMARY Use this procedure to install BBE Event Collection and Visualization.

Before you begin, confirm that you have met the requirements for the BBE Event Collection and Visualization installation.

Note:

See the BBE Cloudsetup Installation Guide for instructions on installing BBE Cloudsetup facility and building the Kubernetes cluster. All the defaults align with BBE Cloudsetup if you use the bbecloudsetup option during ecav setup [--bbecloudsetup]. If you don't use the bbecloudsetup option with setup, then you need to have the following information when you start the BBE Event Collection and Visualization installation:

  • Kubernetes registry location
  • Registry name
  • Registry port

Install the BBE Event Collection and Visualization Application

  1. Download the BBE Event Collection and Visualization software package from Juniper Networks software download page, and save it to the jump host.

    BBE Event Collection and Visualization is available as a compressed tarball image (.tgz). The filename includes the release number as part of the name. The release number has the format: <Major>.<Minor>.<Maintenance>

    • major is the main release number of the product.
    • minor is the minor release number of the product.
    • maintenance is the revision number.
  2. Unpack the BBE Event Collection and Visualization tarball (.tgz) file on the jump host by entering:
    Note:

    The BBE Event Collection and Visualization files are unpacked to the bbe-ecav directory.
  3. Run the loader script after you unpack the tarball.
  4. Use the sudo -E ecav link --context context-name --version ecav-version command to link to the cluster. The link command associates the loaded BBE Event Collection and Visualization software package to the cluster in preparation for the setup.

    • context-name—The Kubernetes context name (cluster name).

    • ecav-version—The BBE Event Collection and Visualization software version.

  5. If you are using a secure registry (for example, a cluster created by BBE Cloudsetup), authenticate with the registry by issuing a docker login as the system user (the system and user information supplied in the BBE Cloudsetup cluster configuration file) to the cluster's registry transport address (the FQDN supplied as the system address in the BBE Cloudsetup cluster configuration file).
  6. Run setup to configure your installation. If you used BBE Cloudsetup to construct your cluster, you can add the--bbecloudsetup option to the setup command to accept the defaults for the registry, logStash service, and the OpenSearchDB replication count. You will need to enter the following information during setup:

    • A URL for the BBE Event Collection and Visualization dashboard access. Enter the DNS name for the system address used by BBE Cloudsetup.

    • An administrative password (must be a minimum of eight characters long and must contain at least one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter, one number, and one special character).

    • context-name—The Kubernetes context name (cluster name).

    • bbecloudsetup—Uses the default values used when BBE Cloudsetup created the Kubernetes cluster.

    The setup command collects information about the cluster environment such as; location of the container registry, ingress URL, OpenSearch replication count, and so on.

  7. Verify the BBE Event Collection and Visualization installation ecav version --context context-name --detail.

    • context-name—The Kubernetes context name (cluster name).

Start Broadband Edge Event Collection and Visualization

SUMMARY Use this procedure to start BBE Event Collection and Visualization.

  1. Enter rollout to start the BBE Event Collection and Visualization installation. The BBE Event Collection and Visualization utility allows you to rollout different software versions for all microservices that are part of BBE Event Collection and Visualization. You need to use the rollout command with sudo as root. The rollout command also validates that all the values needed for the new releases are present and loads the new release container images to the registry. Use sudo -E ecav rollout --context contextName [--version software-release] to start BBE Event Collection and Visualization services. For example:

    • context-name—The Kubernetes context (cluster name).

  2. Enter ecav status --detail --context context-name to verify that the BBE Event Collection and Visualization services are up and running. For example:

    • context-name—The Kubernetes context (cluster name).

    Note:

    Collect the logs for a service and contact the Juniper Networks Technical Assistance Center (JTAC) when either of the following occurs:

    • The service is not running.

    • The service’s uptime compared with other services indicates that it has restarted.

Using the Broadband Edge Event Collection and Visualization Dashboard

You can use the BBE Event Collection and Visualization dashboard to search for logs or to generate reports. The reports are useful for generating problem reports and general debugging.

For detailed information about the Broadband Edge Event Collection and Visualization Dashboard, see the OpenSearch documentation, https://opensearch.org/docs/2.9/dashboards/quickstart/.

Establish an Index Pattern To Display

To get start with the BBE Event Collection and Visualization dashboard, you must first establish an index pattern for the dashboard to display.

To establish an index pattern, perform the following:

  1. Log into the URL for the BBE Event Collection and Visualization dashboard access that you set up during the BBE Event Collection and Visualization installation process. To log in, use the administration username and password you provided during the BBE Event Collection and Visualization setup.
  2. Establish an index pattern for the dashboard to display.
    Note:

    We recommend that you install and roll out a BBE application first, so that the index pattern has events to match. You can only create the index pattern if there is at least one index to match.
    1. After logging in, you will see the Start by adding your data page appears. On the Start by adding your data page, select Explore on my own.
    2. In the Select your tenant page, select the Private radio button and click Confirm. The BBE Event Collection and Visualization dashboard appears.
    3. From the pulldown menu (the three 3 horizontal lines in the top left of the dashboard window), select Management > Dashboard Management. The Dashboard Management page appears.
    4. On the Dashboard Management page, select Index patterns. The Index patterns page appears.
    5. On the Index patterns page, click the Create index pattern button located on the right side of the page.
    6. In the Step 1: Define an index pattern page, enter the string logstash-bbe-ecav* in the Index pattern name box and click the Next step button.
      Note:

      The asterisk (*) wild card enables you to match multiple days of index patterns.
    7. In the Step 2: Configure settings page, select @timestamp in the Time field pulldown box and click the Create index pattern button.
    8. Using the pulldown menu, navigate back to the Discover page. All generated logs for your BBE applications are displayed.
    Note:

    You can create the index pattern only if there is at least one index that matches.

How to Change the Time Range

You can change the time range of the information that you wanted displayed in the Discover page. The Discover page is where the log information is displayed.
To change the time range of the event information displayed:
  1. On the BBE Event Collection and Visualization dashboard click Discover, the Discover page appears.
  2. On the Discover page, click the calender icon located at the top right of the page. The Time range selector box appears.
  3. In the Time range selector box, choose a time range to show information for and click Apply. The information for the time range that you selected is displayed in the Discover page.

How to Customize Event Output

You can customize the information that you want displayed in the Discover page. The Discover page is where the log information is displayed.
To customize event output:
  1. On the BBE Event Collection and Visualization dashboard click Discover, the Discover page appears.
  2. On the left side of the Discover page all the available fields are listed under the Available fields field.
  3. To display the information in the Discover page, click the plus icon next to field that you want to add. The field is added to the Discover page along with the corresponding information for the field.
    Note:

    We recommend that you start with adding the following fields:

    • Time

    • host.hostname

    • process.name

    • message

How to Create a Report

You can save and then download the information that appears in the Discover page. The Discover page is where the log information is displayed.
To create a report:
  1. On the BBE Event Collection and Visualization dashboard click Discover, the Discover page appears.
  2. On the Discover page, click Save located in the top menu. The Save search dialog box appears.
  3. In the Title field, enter a name for the saved search and click Save. The name of the saved search appears in the Discover page (top left).
  4. After the search has been save, in the top menu, click Reporting. The Generate and Download dialog box appears.
  5. Select Generate CSV. The report is downloaded as a CSV file.

How to Search for Events Using DQL Search

In the BBE Event Collection and Visualization dashboard, you can use the Dashboard Query Language (DQL) to search for events. You can use wild cards and create filters to search for specific event information.

For detailed information about using DQL, see the OpenSearch documentation, https://opensearch.org/docs/2.9/dashboards/discover/dql/.

To search for event information using the DQL search:
  1. On the BBE Event Collection and Visualization dashboard click Discover, the Discover page appears.
  2. On the Discover page, enter the information you are looking for into the DQL Search field (located at the top left of the page). Make sure that DQL is selected for the search field.
  3. If desired, you can also create filters to use in searching for the information that you are looking for. Select Add filter. The Edit Filter dialog box appears.
  4. Use the Edit Filter dialog box to customize your filter and click Save. The Discover page displays your information according to the DQL search.