Enabling the Swarming feature
Important
We highly recommend creating a backup before enabling the Swarming feature.
Prerequisites
- DataMiner 10.5.1/10.6.0 or higher.
- STaaS or a dedicated clustered storage setup.
- No Failover Agents are present in the cluster.
- No offload database is configured.
- Enhanced services in the cluster (if any) use only compatible connectors.
- Scripts (Automation/GQI) and QActions in connectors have all been made compatible, i.e. they do not use obsolete or incompatible SLNet calls/properties that handle Alarm IDs as "DmaID/AlarmID".
- For the user account that will be used to enable Swarming, the Admin Tools user permission is enabled.
Running a prerequisites check
To verify whether your system meets these prerequisites before you enable Swarming, you can send a SwarmingPrerequisitesCheckRequest message to SLNet using the SLNetClientTest tool. The prerequisite check is also executed when you enable Swarming, ensuring that all prerequisites are met before Swarming is enabled.
Note
The prerequisites check can take some time, as checking the usage of legacy alarm IDs in scripts can take several minutes.
To run a prerequisites check using SLNetClientTest tool:
Connect to the DMA using the SLNetClientTest tool.
Caution
Always be extremely careful when using this tool, as it can have far-reaching consequences on the functionality of your DataMiner System.
Go to the Build Message tab of the main window of the SLNetCLientTest tool.
In the Message Type drop-down list, select the message Skyline.DataMiner.Net.Swarming.SwarmingPrerequisitesCheckRequest.
By default, the DataMinerID property for the message will be set to -1, which means that the entire cluster will be checked.
If you do not want to check the alarm ID usage yet, but you want to run a first, quicker check for the other prerequisites, you can set the AnalyzeAlarmIDUsage property to false.
Click Send Message.
While the prerequisites check is running, this will be indicated at the bottom of the window. When the check is complete, the tool will switch to the Properties tab.
In the Properties tab, make sure the top message is selected, and check the summary in the pane on the right.
For each prerequisite, the tool will indicate whether the prerequisite is met (True) or not (False). If you hover over the Summary item, you will get a detailed overview of which items cause prerequisites not to be met (e.g. specific scripts, enhanced service connectors, connectors using the obsolete alarm ID format, etc.).
Enabling Swarming
When you have made sure prerequisites are met, and you are ready to enable Swarming, you can do so using the SLNet message EnableSwarmingRequest (with the default parameters) in SLNetClientTest tool or an Automation script. Enabling Swarming via DataMiner Cube is currently not yet possible.
Important
When you enable swarming, the element configuration will be moved from disk to database. This change can only partially be rolled back. See Partially rolling back Swarming. We highly recommend taking a backup before enabling Swarming.
To enable Swarming using SLNetClientTest tool:
Connect to the DMA using the SLNetClientTest tool.
Caution
Always be extremely careful when using this tool, as it can have far-reaching consequences on the functionality of your DataMiner System.
Go to the Build Message tab of the main window of the SLNetCLientTest tool.
In the Message Type drop-down list, select the message Skyline.DataMiner.Net.Swarming.EnableSwarmingRequest.
This message will need to be sent with its default settings, so do not make any changes to the settings for the message.
Click Send Message.
If a confirmation box appears, click Yes.
The prerequisites, including the usage of legacy alarm IDs in scripts, will be checked for all Agents in the system, which can take several minutes. If the prerequisites are met, Swarming will enabled and all Agents in the DMS will be restarted.
If SLNetClientTest tool is unable to reach any of the Agents at the time of the check, for example because an Agent is stopped, Swarming will not be enabled.
After Swarming is enabled, when DataMiner starts up again for the first time, the existing element XML files will be moved from the disk to the database. This can also take several minutes. While this is happening, a message will be displayed on any clients that are trying to connect.
Note
The migrated element files will be temporarily backed up in the Recycle Bin (e.g. 2024_11_20 11_03_12_300_ElementFolder_BeforeSwarmingMigration.zip). We recommend that you store these files somewhere safe if you ever want to access these again later or if you want to be able to partially roll back Swarming.
Verifying that the feature is active
Once all Agents have been restarted, you can verify whether the Swarming feature has been activated by checking if the following line is present in the SLSwarming.txt log file:
SwarmingManager::SwarmingManager|INF|-1|Swarming enabled
You can find this log file in DataMiner Cube via System Center > Logging > dataminer > Swarming. The log file also shows details on the migration of elements that happened during DMA startup.
Once Swarming is enabled, you can go to System Center > Agents > Status > Swarm to swarm elements for which this feature is supported. However, note that this is only available in DataMiner Systems consisting of multiple Agents.
Note
Elements for which swarming is not supported will not be shown in this UI.
Troubleshooting
DataMiner not starting up
Double-check whether the DataMiner System uses a database compatible with Swarming. See Prerequisites.
Check the SLErrors.txt and SLSwarming.txt log files for swarming-related errors.
Double-check the Swarming.xml configuration file for errors.
Check SLDataMiner.txt and SLNet.txt for any critical exceptions (e.g. an invalid setup is detected).