Monitor a 3rd Party FTP Server from IBM Control Center 6

IBM Control Center has the possibility to monitor 3rd Party FTP Servers if the servers have the correct log format (supported Log Formats can be seen in IBM Knowledge Center).

In this post I will configure monitoring of a vsftpd server (very secure FTP deamon) I have installed on a CentOS Server. The vsftpd is using xferlog to log transfers, and thus one of the log formats supported by IBM Control Center.

To enable monitoring of a 3rd Party FTP Server, the server to be monitored has to have a IBM Control Center FTP Agent installed on it to communicate with the Control Center Server.

Install IBM Control Center FTP Agent

I start by installing the FTP Agent on the server where the 3rd Party FTP Server resides. The installation file should be located together with the installation file for IBM Control Center (Installation of IBM Control Center). Copy the file SCCFTPAgentInstall64.bin to the server where the FTP Server is located. In my case it is a CentOS 7 – 64-bit Server, and I thus need to use the 64-bit Linux Install file.

Run the installation file (might need to change the rights of the file).

Install_FTP_Agent_001

Select a Installation Folder, or use the default one.

Install_FTP_Agent_002

When the Agent is installed, it needs to be configured and started. I go to the Install Folder and the bin directory. Then I run the configFtpAgent.sh. The only thing to configure is a port number the Agent is going to use. Default is 58084.

Config_FTP_Agent_001

The last thing to do is to start the Agent. It starts by running runFtpAgent.sh. To automatically start the Agent, add the start script to a startup file. This is a bit different depending on OS used.

Add the FTP Server in IBM Control Center

IBM Control Center 6.0.0 has two user interfaces. One new Web GUI, and one old “Thick Client”. The reason for this is that the User Interface is migrated from the “Thick Client” to the Web GUI, but the migration is a work in progress, and not finished in this version of Control Center (but hopefully fully migrated in one of the coming releases).

One of the actions still only available in the “Thick Client” is the adding of new servers to monitor. So to add this 3rd Party FTP Server I need to open the IBM Control Center Console.

I select Manage -> Add Server in the menu. I give the new Server a name and Description. My name is “SIDB FTP Server” since the FTP Server is installed on my Database Server used for my Sterling Software.

NewServer_001

The next step is to select the type of server to monitor. In my case it is as mentioned a vsftpd server with xferlog.

NewServer_002

Next I need to populate the address and port information as well as the location of the log-file on my FTP Server. The API Port is the port the FTP Server listens on. The Agent Port Number is the port number configured in the FTP Agent. The Log File Name/Directory is where the xferlog file is located on the FTP Server.

NewServer_003

I click through the rest of the Wizard, and store the configuration. I now have a new server monitored under the File Transfer Protocol Group.

NewServer_004

Test the Configuration

To test that it works, I upload a file to my FTP Server. Then I log in to the Control Center Web GUI and select Monitor -> Completed File Transfers. I can then see that one file with the name Test.rdy was uploaded by ftpuser. This shows that IBM Control Center has access to the xferlog and is thus able to monitor the file Transfers on the FTP Server.

FileTransferTest

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