Setting Up and Launching API Dashboard

Fiorano API Management is quick to install and easy to use. To start with the installation apart from JAVA1.8 (or higher versions) and ANT1.9.2, a few prerequisite Third Party installations are required which include:

Cassandra DB Server - It is used as the data store for all information that is looked up while a request is being processed such as the subscriptions, clients, and distributed quotas.
PostgreSQL DB Server - This is the analytics database. All analytics data being tracked at the proxy is stored and fetched from here for processing.

The step by step guide below is to assist with the installation of the above servers as well as the Fiorano API Management product. In addition, it sets out steps to access the Fiorano API Dashboard.

Prerequisites

Installing Fiorano API Management

Install the product with the .bin or .exe installer of the product; run the installer which has an intuitive wizard to install the Fiorano setup as per scenario requirements.

Icon

Alternatively, refer to the Installing Fiorano Platform documentation which lists the steps needed for installing the Fiorano Platform.

Icon

In this document, "$FIORANO_HOME" refers to the Fiorano Setup installation directory.

Installing Cassandra Database Server

Cassandra Database is an open source database that provides unmatched linear scalability and high availability with proven fault-tolerance in storing details that need to be looked up on-the-fly.

Icon

Download Cassandra Version 3.x link https://academy.datastax.com/planet-cassandra/cassandra and please refer to the directions provided here to install Cassandra.

Icon

After installing Cassandra, to enable the database to be accessed from other machines, open the cassandra.yaml file present in the conf folder of Cassandra, and set the rpc_address property to the IP address of the system where Cassandra DB is running.

Before starting Cassandra 3.8 or 3.9 in Windows environment as a service, un-comment the property with name "cdc_raw_directory" in the cassandra.yaml file and set the value as <CASSANDRA_HOME>/data/cdc_raw.

Example

Icon

cdc_raw_directory: "C:/Program Files/DataStax-DDC/data/cdc_raw"

Icon

To configure Cassandra Keyspaces in the AMS and AGS servers, refer to the following sections in this page:

API Management Server (AMS): Configuring Keyspace for AMS
API Gateway Server (AGS): Configuring Keyspace for AGS

Icon

To avoid a single point of failure of Cassandra servers, configure Cassandra as a cluster.

Installing and configuring PostgreSQL to set up Analytics database

Fiorano uses PostgreSQL for its analytics data store.

Install PostgreSQL on the machine where the Analytics Database is to be created.
Create a preferred username, set a password and create the database.
Download the PostgreSQL JDBC driver for JVM.

After Fiorano Platform installation, certain changes need to be made to the Fiorano setup for the Analytics database to connect to the PostgreSQL.

Changes to the Fiorano setup can be made from:

Configuration file
eStudio
API Dashboard

From the configuration file

Open the apidb.cfg file present at $FIORANO_HOME/esb/server/profiles/server1/AMS/conf and make the following changes in the document:

Under the section 2, change the <ip-address>, <port> and <database> variables to the actual desired settings of the above installed PostgreSQL setup.

Icon

Ensure usage of a different database for separate installations of API platform.
Under section 3 and section 4 of this document, provide the username and password credentials needed to connect to the installed database.
Under section 6 and 7, provide the reconnect settings of choice.
Go to $FIORANO_HOME/esb/server/bin/server.conf and under the <java.classpath>segment, add the path to the above-downloaded JDBC driver so that the driver gets added to the classpath of the JVM.

Figure 1: Analytics DB properties in the apidb.cfg configuration file

From eStudio

This is Profile Management perspective in eStudio

Launch the Profile Management perspective from Window > Open perspective > Profile Management and open the APIMANAGER profile.
Right-click the APIMANAGER node and click the DB Configuration for API Management option.
Change values in this dialog box as required (refer to the properties in the From the configuration file section above). The changes will reflect in the apidb.cfg file.

Figure 2: Analytics DB properties in the DB Configuration for API Management dialog box in eStudio

From the API Dashboard

Analytics database can be configured from the API Dashboard itself after completing the API Dashboard setup.

Go to the Server Groups section in the Administration module.
Select the environment (Server Group) for which Analytics database needs to be configured and provide values.

Icon

Refer the Configuring Analytics Database section for details.

Figure 3: Analytics DB properties in the Server Groups section in the Administration section of API Dashboard

Configuring the Mail Server to receive Analytics notifications

Configure the Mail Server section in the Administration module in the API Management Dashboard. Refer the Mail Server section to see the properties that need to be updated.

Icon

This configuration can be done only after completing the API Dashboard setup.

Setting up

The following steps will provide you with step by step instructions on how to go about using the product.

Adding product licenses

The Fiorano API installers work with the same license as used by the main Fiorano Platform.

Icon

Please contact Fiorano Support at presales@fiorano.com in case if there are queries regarding the license.

Starting API servers

Fiorano API Management product provides the server setups listed below:

API Management Server (AMS)
API Gateway Server (AGS)

API Management Server (AMS)

This is the control center of the API Management product. It is the place from where all the main deployments of API projects and policies are controlled. The API Dashboard is also hosted on this server.

Prerequisite

Icon

Configuring DataStoreURL for AMS

Before starting the AMS Server, perform the following actions to provide the DataStoreURL in the Server profile.

Go to the eStudio Profile Management.
Navigate through the server profile <ServerProfile> > APIMANAGER > Fiorano > APIManager > DeveloperApps > DeveloperAppsManager
Provide the IP address of the machine where the Cassandra DB is running in DataStoreURL property.

Icon
Provide the actual IP address as provided in the rpc_address property in the cassandra.yaml file instead of "localhost".

Configuring Keyspace for AMS

To configure/change keyspace, edit the KeyspaceName property below the DataStireURL property configured above. The KeyspaceName default value is "API".

Figure 4: DataStoreURL and Keyspace properties for AMS

Icon

The same value has to be configured in the API Gateway as well, while it needs to be different for different environments.

Configuring API Trace and keyspace for AMS

API Trace tracks API calls passing through the API management server and stores into the cassandra database. Edit the DataStoreURL at <ServerProfile> > APIMANAGER > Fiorano > APIManager > trace > APITraceManager to configure the database.

To configure/change keyspace, edit the KeyspaceName property below the DataStireURL property configured above. The KeyspaceName default value is "API".

Figure 5: DataStoreURL and Keyspace properties for API Trace in AMS

Starting the API Management Server

To start the AMS server, please execute the following command at $FIORANO_HOME/esb/server/bin

Linux
Linux
Windows

API Gateway Server (AGS)

This is the server on which the projects are deployed. This server will be the place where clients will connect before their traffic is stored for analysis and from where requests are redirected to the backend target URLs. There can be multiple Gateway servers running on a single network controlled by an API Management Server.

Prerequisite

Icon

Configuring DataStoreURL for AGS

Before starting the AGS Server, perform the following actions to provide the DataStoreURL in the Server profile.

Go to the eStudio Profile Management.
Navigate through the server profile <ServerProfile> > APIGATEWAY > Fiorano > APIGateway > APIGatewayManager
Provide the IP address of the machine where the Cassandra DB is running in DataStoreURL property.

Icon
Provide the actual IP address as provided in the rpc_address property in the cassandra.yaml file instead of "localhost".

Configuring Keyspace for AGS

To configure/change keyspace, edit the KeyspaceName property. The default value is "API".

Figure 6: DataStoreURL and Keyspace properties for API Trace in AGS

Icon

The value has to be the same as configured in the API Manager, while it needs to be different for different environments.

Starting the API Gateway Server

To start the AGS server, execute the following command at $FIORANO_HOME/esb/server/bin:

Linux
Windows

Fiorano provides a pre-configured second Gateway Server Profile which can also be started by executing the following command at $FIORANO_HOME/esb/server/bin:

Linux
Windows

When both the servers start, the Command Prompt displays the content below as a confirmation of having successfully connected to the Cassandra database.

================ API traffic dataStore Initialized ================

In case you do not get the above statement on the Server Console and find errors as below, please check whether the Cassandra DB is running.

================ API traffic dataStore Initialization Failed ================

Icon

Default Cassandra setup should be listening to port 9042 for connections.
For higher security, it is suggested running the Gateway server with SSL enabled on the Jetty.

Launching the API Dashboard

Fiorano API Management uses a new API Management Dashboard as a client GUI to assist in configuring and maintaining the API servers and projects.

The dashboard is hosted at the following address after the starting of the AMS server:

After logging in with the credentials, the Dashboard should be displayed as in the following figure.

Icon

Default user name and password are 'admin' and 'passwd' respectively).

Figure 7: Fiorano API Management Dashboard