Novell Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment Readme

June 15, 2009

Novell® Sentinel™ 6.1 Rapid Deployment (RD) is a new packaging option for the Novell market-leading Sentinel Security Information and Event Management solution. Ideal for smaller organizations or regional installations, Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment provides full Sentinel functionality in a single-box package based on SUSE® Linux. Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment uses PostgreSQL* for the database, ActiveMQ* for messaging, and JasperReports* for reporting.

1.0 What’s New

The new features of Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment are as follows:

1.1 Embedded Database

The major difference between Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment and previous versions of Sentinel is the introduction of an embedded Sentinel database, based on the open source PostgreSQL database engine. The new database is installed and configured automatically during the Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment installation, without the necessity of managing an external database. If you prefer to leverage an existing database investment, continue using the existing Sentinel 6.1 product.

1.2 Reporting Console

Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment introduces a new, streamlined reporting system to replace Crystal Reports* . This new reporting system is an integral part of Sentinel and allows you to easily run predefined reports or custom reports developed by using the JasperReports open source reporting engine.

1.3 Streamlined Installation

In Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment, installation is fast and easy with the single machine installer.You just need to provide a Sentinel password, a database password, and an optional set of credentials for the Sentinel Advisor service. The embedded database, reporting engine, and Web console are all included in the package and are installed and configured automatically, allowing you to deploy and begin using the product very quickly and with a minimum amount of effort.

1.4 Full Text Search

A new Web-based search tool allows users to quickly search for strings and patterns within the Sentinel event database. Users can search for text in a specific Sentinel event field, or across all fields. Data within the search results is hyperlinked to narrow the search results with a single click.

1.5 Web-Based Application Launch and Installation

The Web console used for Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment reporting and full text search also includes the option to launch or install the Sentinel client applications. You can now launch the Sentinel Control Center, Sentinel Solution Designer, and Sentinel Data Manager from a Web browser without the need to install these client applications locally. The Web console also includes the option to install the client applications and the Sentinel Collector Manager without the need to manually retrieve the installation package. Ensure that you have JRE* 1.6 installed on your machine so you can use a Web-based application launch.

2.0 System Requirements

2.1 Supported Platforms

Table 1 Software and Operating System Combinations

Platforms

Sentinel Server Components

Sentinel User Applications

Collector Manager

Collector Builder

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 10 SP2 (64-bit)

Certified

Certified

Certified

Not Supported

SLES 10 SP2 (32-bit)

Not Supported

Not Supported

Certified

Not Supported

Windows* XP (32-bit)

Not Supported

Certified

Not Supported

Not Supported

Windows Vista* (32-bit)

Not Supported

Certified

Not Supported

Certified

Window Server* 2003 (32-bit)

Not Supported

Not Supported

Certified

Certified

Windows Server 2008 (64-bit)

Not Supported

Not Supported

Certified

Not Supported

2.2 Supported Web Browsers

  • Mozilla* Firefox* 2.x

  • Mozilla Firefox 3.x

  • Internet Explorer* 8.x

3.0 Installing Novell Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment

For details on installing Novell Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment, refer to Installing Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment in the Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment Installation Guide.

4.0 Accessing the Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment Help Files

Use the Help menu in the Sentinel Control Center to access the latest online User documentation for Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment. If you are working in a secure environment where direct Internet access is denied, use the online download option to save the files to the Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment server. You can view the help files by using any Web browser.

To download the Online Help:

  1. Open the Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment Online Documentation Website.

  2. Click zip in the Online Help section, then save the sentinel61rd_help.zip file to your local machine.

  3. Do the following to copy the sentinel61rd_help.zip to <Install_Directory>/3rdparty/tomcat/webapps/ROOT/novellsiemdownloads/help and extract the files:

    1. cp sentinel61rd_help.zip <Install_Directory>/3rdparty/tomcat/webapps/ROOT/novellsiemdownloads/help
      
    2. cd <Install_Directory>/3rdparty/tomcat/webapps/ROOT/novellsiemdownloads/help
      
    3. unzip sentinel61rd_help.zip
      

    IMPORTANT:You cannot access the help files by using the Help > Help option in the Sentinel Control Center unless you extract the sentinel61rd_help.zip file to the specified location.

  4. Perform any of the following to view the help files:

    • In the Sentinel Control Center, click Help > Help.

    • Open the <Install_Directory>/3rdparty/tomcat/webapps/ROOT/novellsiemdownloads/help/sentinel61rd_help/help/s61rd_user/Index.html file.

    The Index.html file lists the topics in the navigation pane. Click the desired topic to open the help page for that topic. You can also use the Previous and Next navigation buttons given in each page to view the pages.

NOTE:If you download and save the help files to the specified location on the Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment server, clicking the Help menu in the Sentinel Control Center always lists you the saved help content available on the server.

If you want the Help menu to redirect you to the Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment User Guide for the latest information, remove the extracted folder sentinel61rd_help at <Install_Directory>/3rdparty/tomcat/webapps/ROOT/novellsiemdownloads/help from the Sentinel Rapid Deployment server.

5.0 Known Issues

This section describes known issues for the Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment server, Collector Manager, and the client applications.

5.1 Solution Designer Cannot Be Launched Through Web Start in Offline Mode

You cannot launch Solution Designer by using Web Start when the Sentinel server is down because the Tomcat Web server is also down, and you cannot open the Applications page of the Web interface.

To run the Solution Designer in offline mode, do either of the following:

  • Run the solution_designer.sh script from the server's <Install_Directory>/bin directory to launch the Solution Designer as a Client application.

  • Use the Solution Designer jar files.

    When Solution Designer is loaded for the first time with a Sentinel Server, the Solution Designer jar files are stored in the Java* Web Start cache on the local computer. Thereafter, you can run the Solution Designer in offline mode via Web Start:

    1. Start the Java Control Panel.

    2. Click View Temporary Internet Files to start the Java Cache Viewer.

    3. Locate Sentinel Solution Designer under Show Applications.

    4. Double-click Sentinel Solution Designer to start the application.

      IMPORTANT:Ensure that you choose Offline mode in the login screen.

5.2 Debugger Search Window Disappears

When you are debugging a JavaScript* Collector and you press Ctrl+F to search for a specific line in the Collector, a Search window opens at the far right of the screen. However, if you close this window, then attempt to search again, the Search window doesn’t appear again.

5.3 Right-Click Options for Server Processes Are Disabled in the Server’s View of the SCC

You cannot stop or restart the following processes by using the right-click options for Action > Stop or Action > Restart in the Servers > View of the Sentinel Control Center.

  • DAS_Core

  • Web Server

  • UNIX Communication Server

In addition, the right-click option Actions > Stop Processes stops all the process except the ones listed above.

This is working as designed. If you could use these options to stop the processes, all processes including DAS_Core are stopped, which also stops the proxied client. This stops the system, including communication between the server and the client, so the current health is not updated.

5.4 Giving the Wrong Port Number and Server Hostname Does Not Halt the Remote Collector Manager Installation

If you give a wrong port number and server hostname while installing the Collector Manager, the installation completes without giving any errors. However, when you log in to the Sentinel Control Center, you can see that the Collector Manager is not listed in the Servers View under the Admin tab. It indicates that the Collector Manager installation is failed.

To troubleshoot this issue, uninstall the Collector Manager, then install it again by using the correct port number and server hostname.

5.5 Events Show the Wrong Collector Script Version on Replacing the Legacy eDirectory Collector with the JS eDirectory Collector

After installing Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment, log in to the Web interface. Use the Application page to launch SCC and log in. In the Live view, create a collector node by using the legacy eDirectory™ Collector (Novell_eDirectory_6.1r2) that is bundled with build. Configure the audit Connector and Event Source with the eDirectory Legacy Collector and ensure that you are getting events in the Sentinel Active View.

Import an eDirectory JS Collector (Novell_eDirectory_6.1r3) and select the Update Deploy Plugin check box in the Import Plugin Wizard window. When you check the events details in the Active View that is parsed by the JS eDirectory collector, you can see that the Collector Script version is displayed as Novell eDirectory 6.1r2 instead of Novell_eDirectory_6.1r3.

5.6 Running the Send E-mail JS Script in the JS Action Debugger Throws an Exception in the Console

Launch the SCC by using the Web interface and set the Action Debugger to On. Create an action by using the Send Email JS plug-in. Create a right-click menu item, for example, Send_email_menu_item.

Right-click any event in the Active View, then select the menu item created to open the JS Action Debugger. When you debug the JS action, you get an error message Wrapped.java.mail.SendFailedException:Sending failed; in the Action Debugger followed by an exception thrown in the Java console.

5.7 Unable to Log In to SCC, SDM, and Web Interface When the Database is Full

When the disk space allocated is full and when the system attempts to drop the old partitions, you cannot log in to the SCC, the SDM, and to the Web interface. For more information, see Managing Diskspace Allocation in the Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment User Guide.

6.0 Documentation

Sentinel technical documentation is broken down into several different volumes:

7.0 Documentation Conventions

In this documentation, a greater-than symbol (>) is used to separate actions within a step and items in a cross-reference path.

A trademark symbol (®, ™, etc.)denotes a Novell trademark; an asterisk (*) denotes a third-party trademark