Collector Discovery and Licenses

The Manage Collectors options allow you to view a list of discovered Collectors, manage Collector connections, and configure Collector discovery rules. To view these options, select Tools > Manage Collectors. As shown in Figure 10. Collector Administration Options, the top of the page displays how many Collectors have been detected, how many total licenses your organization has purchased, and how many are still available for allocation.

One of the following discovery methods can be selected from the pull-down menu:

• Automatic Discovery: (default) Scan network for Collectors at startup and every 15 seconds.
• Manual Discovery: Disable automatic discovery. Only scan for Collectors if the Discover Now button is clicked.

If Automatic Discovery is selected, FactFinder broadcasts a request for Collectors on UDP port 7561 at startup and again every 15 seconds. By default, only the local subnet is searched. Additional Collector discovery rules can be defined as described in Adding Collector Discovery Rules. FactFinder establishes a connection with machines with Collectors as they are discovered. If licenses are available, they are automatically licensed and set active.

Local subnet discovery broadcasts to UDP port 7561. If broadcast requests are not routed, Collectors on the local subnet may not be found. To find them, add a discovery rule for the local subnet or individual rules for each machine.

If Manual Discovery is selected, a Discover Now button appears, and FactFinder stops searches for Collectors automatically. To search for Collectors based on the defined discovery rules, click the Discover Now button. Any new Collectors within the discovery rules are added to FactFinder. Click the Refresh Now button to update the Collectors list if the newly found Collectors do not appear in the list.

Instead of the FactFinder Console finding the Collector, the Collector can be set to establish a connection to a specific FactFinder Console. This is useful to work around a firewall or if you don't want FactFinder sending out broadcast requests. Go to Configuring Collectors to Initiate Connection for details. If Collectors that initiate connection with FactFinder are not in the Collector list, click the Refresh List button.

If a firewall exists between the FactFinder Console and the Collectors, be sure to open UDP and TCP port 7561 for Collector discovery. If the Collectors are configured to connect to a specific FactFinder Console instead, open TCP port 7560 so that Collectors can initiate the connection.

The Collector list is persistent. Once discovered, a machine remain on the list even after its Discovery Rule is removed. Each time FactFinder is started, it attempts to connect to the current list of Collectors (displaying connection status in the Manage Collectors dialog) and then searches for additional Collectors according to the list of discovery rules. To remove a Collector from the list, deactivate it by unchecking the Active checkbox and uninstall the Collector from the machine so it does not respond to FactFinder.

Clicking on the Primary DNS Name for any machine listed opens a new App Explorer tab for the machine.

The Notes column can contain one of the following messages:

• Active: The Collector for the machine is licensed, and the machine is ready and available for monitoring.
• Unlicensed: A Collector is installed on the machine, but it is not licensed.
• Restarting this machine would improve collector data: The machine is responding to FactFinder but is returning an IncompleteInfo event.
• This machine is not currently detected in the environment: The connection to this machine is currently set as Active but the machine is not reachable by FactFinder. Possible reasons for the machine not being reachable include the machine is rebooting, the machine has been powered down, and the Collector service has been stopped.

If a Collector stops responding to FactFinder (it is uninstalled, the Collector service is stopped, or the machine is rebooted), a Collector Disconnected event notification is shown in the Events Pane of related App Explorer views. Go to Events Pane for details.

Adding Collector Discovery Rules

By default, all Collectors found on the local subnet of the FactFinder Console are added to the Collectors list. To discover and display additional Collectors within a specific subnet or IP address range, click the Discovery Rules tab. The current set of discovery rules is shown as seen in Figure 11. Customize Collector Discovery Rules. Example rules are in the list by default but not set to active.

To define a specific machine or set of machines, click the Add New Rule button. You must provide a network address for the discovery rule. A port number must also be given. Accept the default of 7561 unless the Collectors are configured to listen to a different port for discovery. You can also enter a descriptive label for the rule.

Refer to Table 2. Collector Discovery Rules for a list of possible address definitions. Click Save Rule to add the rule to the list. Uncheck the Active column to deactivate the rule without deleting it.

Definition Type	Examples
IP address	192.168.1.12
IP address range	192.168.1.1-25
Entire class C subnet	192.168.1.*
Fully qualified domain name	server.example.com

For IP address ranges, ranges only work within dot boundaries. For example, the 192.168.1.1-25 range is valid but 192.168.1.1 - 192.168.1.25 is not valid.

Modifying Collector Discovery Port

By default, FactFinder uses UDP and TCP port 7561 for Collector discovery. It is possible to use a different port for discovery or configure the Collector to refuse all discovery requests.

To use a different port for discovery:

1. For each Collector, modify the BlueStripeCollector.properties file in the config subdirectory of the Collector installation directory to match the desired port number:

   collector.discoverable.port=7561

2. When adding discovery rules for the FactFinder Console, specify the different port number.

To refuse all discovery requests from FactFinder, set the following in BlueStripeCollector.properties:

collector.discoverable.listen=false

Configuring Collectors to Initiate Connection

By default, Collectors wait for FactFinder to discovery them and establish a connection. However, the Collector can be configured to contact a specific FactFinder and initiate communication. This is usually done over TCP port 7560.

To allow the Collectors to initiate connection instead of using automatic discovery:

1. On the machine with the Collector installed, modify the BlueStripeCollector.properties file in the config subdirectory of the installation directory:

   collector.ff.connect=true
   collector.ff.host=factfinderhost.example.com
   collector.ff.port=7560

   Only one host/port combination can be specified.

2. In FactFinder.properties for the FactFinder Console, modify the port number as well:

   bluestripe.factfinder.server.port=7560

This does not disable automatic discovery for the FactFinder Console. To disable automatic discovery, start FactFinder and select Tools > Manage Collectors. Use the pull-down menu to change Automatic Discovery to Manual Discovery. The change takes effect immediately.

Collector Licenses

The top of the Manage Collectors options shows how many Collector licenses are used and how many are available. Click the License Info tab of the FactFinder options to provide more details about your Collector licenses such as the location of the license file, the expiration date, and a copy of the license.

A machine without a Collector installed on it or a machine with an inactive Collector connection may still appear in the map and Machine List, but the data is limited to metrics interpreted from their interaction with machines with licensed Collectors. Performance graphs for machines without licensed Collectors have a gray background, indicating that the data is interpreted.

Collectors are equipped with a Rewind data recorder for storing data about the machine even when the FactFinder Console is not running. The data can then be retrieved using the History Mode or Snapshot feature of FactFinder. Rewind only collects data if the Collector is licensed. Deactivating a license for a Collector also deactivates its Rewind feature. Go to Rewind for details.

Another feature that only works with machines with licensed Collectors is the ability to create Alerts. Administrators can configure FactFinder to alert them when a defined threshold is exceeded for a variety of metrics. Refer to Alerts for additional information.

To purchase more Collector licenses or renew existing licenses, contact BlueStripe Software at support@bluestripe.com or call 1-877-750-BLUE.