Post Installation Recommendations

This article describes recommended post installation steps that we highly recommend to perform after XpoLog is installed.

• Configure XpoLog to a storage location

• Allocating memory to XpoLog

• Windows Specific

• Linux Specific 

• Configure XpoLog to use a proxy 

Configuring XpoLog to Storage

It is highly recommended to configure XpoLog to work against an external storage location / directory. XpoLog requires full permissions (read/write) on this location with direct/fast access.

To configure XpoLog to storage:

1. Create a folder under the name ‘XpoLogConfig’.

2. Enter XpoLog Manager > Left Navigation Panel > Settings > General. 

3. Select the Use external configuration directory checkbox and type the absolute path into XpoLogConfig – “…/XpoLogConfig/”
   XpoLog saves the information and requests a restart.

4. Restart XpoLog, and go once again to XpoLog Manager > Left Navigation Panel > Settings > General, and ensure that the configuration was saved successfully. 
   XpoLog saves all the information into this external folder.
   Note: It is recommended to back it up occasionally. If you remove your XpoLog version and redeploy, you can always point the new XpoLog instance to this folder to use the existing configuration or for clustering purposes.
   For further information, contact the support team at support@xplg.com.

Allocating More Memory to XpoLog (64-bit installations)

It is highly recommended to allocate more of memory than the default to XpoLog.

To allocate more memory:

1. Stop XpoLog.

2. Edit the file /.../XPOLOG_INSTALL_DIR/XpoLog.lax (Windows) OR /.../XPOLOG_INSTALL_DIR/XpoLog.sh.lax (Linux).

3. Look for -Xmx1024m (default allocation is 1024 MB) and allocate more memory based on the available memory of the machine. For example, to allocate 4096 MB change the value to be -Xmx4096m and save.
   Notes:

   1. In any case we recommend maximum of 24g (24 gigabytes) allocation per XPLG instance.

   2. Total allocated memory of XPLG instance(s) per machine should not be more than 50% on Linux installations and no more than 75% on Windows installations.

4. Start XpoLog. 

Setting a default Character Encoding (Optional)

In case XpoLog should be able to support special characters which are different from the machine's default (Especially Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.) it is recommended to modify the default encoding as follows.

To change default encoding:

1. Stop XpoLog.

2. Edit the file /.../XPOLOG_INSTALL_DIR/XpoLog.lax (Windows) OR /.../XPOLOG_INSTALL_DIR/XpoLog.sh.lax (Linux).

3. Edit the parameter -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 at the end of the LAX.NL.JAVA.OPTION.ADDITIONAL parameters line to any desired default encoding.
   Note: the encoding can be any of the JAVA supported encoding

4. Start XpoLog. 

Setting a default locale (Optional)

In case XpoLog should be capable of displaying content in different languages and normalize dates from different regions, it is possible to assign a JVM locale. By default, the JVM locale is the locale of the platform where XpoLog is installed. To override the default JVM locale, you must set the appropriate language and region (country) arguments in XpoLog.

To change default locale:

1. Stop XpoLog.

2. Edit the file /.../XPOLOG_INSTALL_DIR/XpoLog.lax (Windows) OR /.../XPOLOG_INSTALL_DIR/XpoLog.sh.lax (Linux).

3. Add the parameters -Duser.language=en_US -Duser.region=en_US at the end of the LAX.NL.JAVA.OPTION.ADDITIONAL parameters line
   Note: The above example is for English US locale, the complete locale list that JAVA supports can be found here: JAVA locale list

4. Start XpoLog.

Windows Specific - Assign a service account

After installation, XpoLog service is available under the Windows services panel (XpoLogCenter). It is highly recommended, after installation, to assign an account on the service for optimized connectivity between XpoLog and remote log sources over the Windows network. 

To assign a service account:

1. Go to the Windows Services Panel.

2. Right click the XpoLogCenter service > Properties

3. Go to the 'Log On' tab (by default, XpoLog is installed with a Local System Account). Select 'This account' radio button and enter a specific account with sufficient privileges that XpoLog can use to read remote log sources.

4. Save and restart.
   

This will allow Administrators adding  logs over the Windows network as if they were local (direct access) using UNC paths: \\<server-name>\<drive-name>$\...\<log> (for example: \\server1\c$\logs\log4j.log{string})

Linux Specific - Allocating Allowed Open Files / Number of Processes 

It is very important to allocate 20,000 allowed open files and allowed number of processes to XpoLog that runs on Linux (default is usually 1024).
The allocation can be done specifically to the user who runs XpoLog: 

To check the limitation for the user who runs XpoLog:

1. Open SSH terminal to XpoLog's machine and log in using the same user that runs XpoLog (for example, Putty).

2. Run the command: 'ulimit -n' and then the command: 'ulimit -u'
   The recommended output for open files should be 20,000 for small-medium deployments (up to 50GB/Day), and 64,000 for larger deployments
   The recommended output for open processes should be 10,000 for small-medium deployments (up to 50GB/Day), and 16,000 for larger deployments.

To allocate the required number of open files:

• Log in to the machine that runs XpoLog, as superuser if needed, and edit the file /etc/security/limits.conf, by adding the following line:
  [USER_THAT_RUNS_XPOLOG] - nofile [MAX_NUMBER_OF_FILES]
  Where
  [USER_THAT_RUNS_XPOLOG] is the user who you are using to run the XpoLog process (superuser, if you logged in as such).
  [MAX_NUMBER_OF_FILES] is the new limitation that has to be set to 64000.
  For instance, assuming the user you are using to run the system is xpolog, you can add the line: xpolog - nofile 64000

To allocate the required number of processes:

• Log in to the machine that runs XpoLog, as superuser if needed, and edit the file /etc/security/limits.conf, by adding the following line:
  [USER_THAT_RUNS_XPOLOG] - nproc [MAX_NUMBER_OF_PROCESSES]
  Where
  [USER_THAT_RUNS_XPOLOG] is the user who you are using to run the XpoLog process (superuser, if you logged in as such).
  [MAX_NUMBER_OF_PROCESSES] is the new limitation that has to be set to 16000.
  For instance, assuming the user you are using to run the system is xpolog, you can add the line: xpolog - nproc 16000

IMPORTANT: After making this change, log out and then log in again from the machine so that the changes take effect, verify by getting the correct values as a result of running 'ulimit -n' and 'ulimit -u' again using the same user which runs XpoLog, and then restart XpoLog.

WAR Deployment Specific - Configuring XpoLog to Storage 

It is highly recommended to configure XpoLog that is deployed as a war on an application server to an external configuration directory (storage) - instructions are available at the top of this page.
In case you need to update your XpoLog version, the war file will be replaced and if an external storage is not configured all the data and configuration will be removed.

Configure XpoLog to use a Proxy

Generally, XpoLog does not require internet access to function properly.
However, there are some specific features that XpoLog should get an external access for some of its integrations such as Microsoft Teams, Office 365 / Azure Active Directory, Pagerduty, Slack, etc.

Some organizations do not allow direct access from XpoLog servers and use a proxy server that the access can be granted only through it.
It is possible in such cases to configure XpoLog to use a proxy server.

To configure XpoLog to use a proxy server:

1. Stop XpoLog.

2. Edit the file /.../XPOLOG_INSTALL_DIR/XpoLog.lax (Windows) OR /.../XPOLOG_INSTALL_DIR/XpoLog.sh.lax (Linux).

3. Look for the JAVA parameters line (starts with lax.nl.java.option.additional), add at the end the following 3 parameters with the proxy details:
   -Dhttps.proxyHost=THE_PROXY_HOST
   -Dhttps.proxyPort=THE_PROXY_PORT
   -DproxySet=true

4. Start XpoLog.