Editing service topology information in Group JSON

If your services are provided using a web application that is deployed across a range of servers such as web servers, application servers, and database servers, you might want to define the scope and structure of your application or service. To represent your application or service hierarchy, you can create a group or edit the default groups in the Log Analysis Group JSON file.

About this task

After you create a service topology, you can then associate your data source with the appropriate node in the service topology. The hierarchy of data sources, reflecting your service topology, is shown in the Data Sources lists in the Data Sources workspace and the Search workspace. When you select a data source to narrow your search criteria, that data source, and any data sources in the service topology tree are searched.

To create a service topology that meets your requirements, edit the existing default Group JSON file. The JSON file has structure with each node in the service topology that is defined by a type, a name, and a value.

Before you can view a data source in the Data Sources filter on the Search UI, you must assign the data source to a group in JSON file. If you do not assign any data sources to a group, the group is not displayed UI. If you only assign a data source to a specific leaf node of a group, only that leaf node is displayed for the group.

You cannot delete groups. Log Analysis retains the association between the group and the data source in case you want to search it. You can remove old groups from the service topology file. However, the removed groups are still visible on the UI.

Note: The unityServiceTopology.json file is renamed as the Group.json file.
A sample of the JSON file is displayed: 
[
	{
		"type": "Service",
		"name": "Day Trader",
		"value": 
			[
				{
					"type": "Application",
					"name": "Trading Application",
					"value": 
						[
							{
								"type": "Middleware",
								"name": "WAS",
								"value": 
									[
										{
											"type": "Hostname",
											"name": "nc9118041001",
										},
										{
											"type": "Hostname",
											"name": "nc9118041002",
										},
										{
											"type": "Hostname",
											"name": "nc9118041003",
											"value": []
										},
										{
											"type": "Hostname",
											"name": "nc9118041005",
											"value": []
										}
									]
							},
							{
To edit the JSON file:

Procedure

  1. Create a backup copy of the Group.json file that is in the <HOME>/IBM®/LogAnalysis/wlp/usr/servers/Unity/apps/Unity.war/com/ibm/tivoli/loganalytics/framework directory and copy it to a secure location.
  2. Using a JSON editor, open and edit the original file to reflect your service topology.
  3. Save the file.
  4. To ensure that your updates are reflected on the Admin UI, clear the browser cache before you log in.

Results

After you define the Group JSON file, you can then assign the group to the data source when you configure the data source. For more information about creating data sources, see Data Source creation.

If you assign a data source to a node in the service topology, the assignment is maintained regardless of any updates you make to service topology. Changes to the Group JSON are not reflected in data sources that were made before the update.