Hi there “Process Automation” fans,

Welcome to a new installment of “Process Automation” tips.

This post is a continuation on the post from last week. See it as a left-over, but it’s also a post on its own for administrators who want to further automate their tool chain and making their daily job a less error-prone by removing manual steps. One administrator (you know who you are!) asked a specific question of how we can stop/start/restart/reset service containers automagically with a service call…Well, here is your answer…

Let’s get right into it…

The first thing I do with such a question is jumping into the developer tools of the browser and running an equal request first by hand. So, open your ‘System Resource Manager’ artifact, right-click a service and check the request body for a message like this:

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<SOAP:Envelope xmlns:SOAP="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
 <SOAP:Body>
  <multicall:__Cordys_MultipleRequestWrapper xmlns:multicall="http://schemas.cordys.com/1.0/monitor">
   <SOAP:Envelope xmlns:SOAP="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
    <SOAP:Body>
     <multicall:Restart>
      <multicall:dn>cn=sc_appserver,cn=sg_appserver,cn=soap nodes,o=opa_tips,cn=cordys,cn=defaultInst,o=25.1.com</multicall:dn>
     </multicall:Restart>
    </SOAP:Body>
   </SOAP:Envelope>
   <SOAP:Envelope xmlns:SOAP="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
    <SOAP:Body>
     <List xmlns="http://schemas.cordys.com/1.0/monitor"/>
    </SOAP:Body>
   </SOAP:Envelope>
  </multicall:__Cordys_MultipleRequestWrapper>
 </SOAP:Body>
</SOAP:Envelope>

This is a so-called “multi-call” soap message (which is also my first time seeing it!); Something you can’t do from your ‘Web Service Interface Explorer’ artifact. It’s also not needed for our use-case as watching this call closely gives details about a Restart and List request…Both in the namespace http://schemas.cordys.com/1.0/monitor.

Now watch this:

Ohwwww mama…that’s a party! Let’s first get a grip on the possible dn values for the service containers:

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<SOAP:Envelope xmlns:SOAP="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <SOAP:Body>
    <GetInstallationInfo xmlns="http://schemas.cordys.com/1.0/monitor" />
  </SOAP:Body>
</SOAP:Envelope>

You can restart a service container like this with a copy of the dn value of the previous call (watch the ‘System Resource Manager’ artifact to see the execution passing by):

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<SOAP:Envelope xmlns:SOAP="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <SOAP:Body>
    <Restart xmlns="http://schemas.cordys.com/1.0/monitor">
      <dn>cn=sc_appserver,cn=sg_appserver,cn=soap nodes,o=opa_tips,cn=cordys,cn=defaultInst,o=25.1.com</dn>
    </Restart>
  </SOAP:Body>
</SOAP:Envelope>

You get this error restarting containers outside the scope (in case you wonder!): Only the Service Containers within the current organization can be controlled.

Retrieving the platform version with GetVersion is also on interesting call; This is the result:

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<data>
  <GetVersionResponse xmlns:SOAP="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns="http://schemas.cordys.com/1.0/monitor">
    <version>25.3</version>
    <build>8</build>
    <sourcecontrollabel>CORDYS_4_2_BUILD_SP1</sourcecontrollabel>
    <string>Process Automation CE 25.3 Build 8</string>
  </GetVersionResponse>
</data>

For you to try out:

• GetSystemInfo gets Memory, OS, and CPU details
• List gives a service containers overview with their properties

Finally, the GetProperty and UpdateProperty calls…I get an “access denied” from my own organization; From the shared ‘/system’ space it’s working better, although I don’t have a clue what to fill in as property name!?

…

After a good-night sleep with some dreaming…I wake up, brush my teeth, sit in the restroom (where you will have the brightest moments), and the light start to shine on the “property name” mystery!

Watch this:

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<SOAP:Envelope xmlns:SOAP="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <SOAP:Body>
    <GetProperty xmlns="http://schemas.cordys.com/1.0/monitor">
      <property name="bus.keystore.password" />
    </GetProperty>
  </SOAP:Body>
</SOAP:Envelope>

The result is in the ‘value’ attribute:

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<data>
  <GetPropertyResponse 
          xmlns:SOAP="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" 
          xmlns="http://schemas.cordys.com/1.0/monitor">
    <tuple>
      <old>
        <property 
                xmlns:SOAP="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" 
                xmlns="http://schemas.cordys.com/1.0/monitor" 
                name="bus.keystore.password" 
                value="Ym1peWJ2dHlqcWdjbGpxeGNjeGNhYmR4aG1kYWxxdGI=" />
      </old>
    </tuple>
  </GetPropertyResponse>
</data>

Ohwwwww yeah 🤠…This way we can read the values of the ‘wcp.properties’ file IF you know the “magic” key which you’ll find in this reference file.

I leave the UpdateProperty for you to try out…Know what you’re doing as it can damage your system!!

…

The only call I can’t get a grip on is SetInformation!? I have no idea what it does or what it “Sets”; I get a time-out response after 30 sec. and that’s it. So, if you know about this one…Let us all know in the comments…

…

We are one day further, and you can still let me know in the comments, but I did (off-course) a quick remote debug session on class om.eibus.applicationconnector.monitor.Monitor in jar-file esbserver.jar. It tells me about this call:

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for(tuple = Node.getFirstElement(request); tuple > 0; tuple = Node.getNextElement(tuple)) {
    administration.updateProcessorStatistics(tuple);
}

//I would write it more like this which is more readable code
int tuple = Node.getFirstElement(request);
while (tuple > 0) {
    administration.updateProcessorStatistics(tuple);
    tuple = Node.getNextElement(tuple);
}

It updates an internal “OSProcessWatcher” (probably to inform the “State SyncUP”) on details about the service containers. I leave it with this final deep dive!

Again a “know-your-services” DONE where new “Monitoring” services pass our journey of knowledge building. You see what exploring, asking questions, and collaborate with others brings new topics to the surface. It’s now for you to embrace it and use them in your daily job. Have a great weekend on trying out these service calls. 🥳

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