Introduction
The final step is to generate your Snapshot, which enables you to create data that can be exploited primarily in the Health and Engineering Dashboards.
Generate the snapshot
To generate a snapshot, move to the Console screen if you are not already there:
Locate the Application and click the Run analysis option as highlighted below:
In the subsequent popup, before clicking Proceed, ensure:
- that the Application Version is set to the version you need. By default, the accepted Version will be set as the version to generate a snapshot for.
- that you:
- disable Run Analysis (you should already have run an analysis at this stage - see Application onboarding without Fast Scan - Step-by-step onboarding - Validate the initial analysis therefore to save valuable time, there is no need to run it again)
- enable Take a snapshot
- disable Publish to CAST Health Dashboard (snapshot should be validated before being published in the Health Dashboard)
- that you define the snapshot name (default syntax offered will be Snapshot-YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.sss) and capture date (DD/MM/YYYY HH:MM) - note that snapshot names MUST be unique.
- choose whether you want to run an application backup before starting the process (some additional processing time is required while the backup completes). Backups are stored in the following location on the relevant AIP Node and can be managed in Administration Center - Applications - Application Details:
%PROGRAMDATA%\AipConsole\AipNode\backup\<application_name>\YYYYMMDDHHMM.zip
The snapshot process will then start - the Job Progress panel will indicate that the snapshot is in progress:
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See Application - Overview for more information about the Generate snapshot indicators step.
The snapshot is complete when the Job Progress panel indicates a successful completion:
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Validate snapshot
Validate using the Engineering Dashboard
The easiest and quickest way to check the results of a snapshot generation is to open the Engineering Dashboard and view your results. If you are using embedded Dashboards, you can click the Engineering Dashboard icon (no login required):
Validate using the snapshot report
Every time a snapshot is generated for a given Application, a report is created in JSON format summarizing the content and other information. This report can help validate your snapshot to ensure that it is coherent. You can find the report in the following location on the AIP Node that was responsible for running the snapshot:
%PROGRAMDATA%\CAST\AipConsole\AipNode\snapshot-report\<application-name>\<application-guid>.<version-guid>.snapshot_YYYYMMDDHHmm.report.json
Delete snapshot if not satisfactory and then regenerate
If the initial snapshot is not satisfactory, delete it - this will delete it from the Dashboard schema. To do so, locate the Application and click it:
Click to enlarge
Locate the snapshot and then delete it:
Once deleted, you will need to perform any configuration changes that might be necessary and then generate the snapshot again (no need to run the analysis or upload to Measurement schema):
You can also use the icon in the Snapshot Management screen:
Upload snapshot to Measurement schema
If the snapshot now contains the information you expect, then you can upload it to the Measurement Service:
Note that the Health Dashboard can officially support the upload of a maximum of 200 applications. CAST recommends that you choose only the most critical applications from the business view point - i.e the applications that need to be monitored with high visibility by CIOs and managers.
Manual upload
You can perform a manual upload of the snapshot you have just generated to the Measurement schema for display in the Health Dashboard:
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Check results in the Health Dashboard
Open the Health Dashboard and view your results. If you are using embedded Dashboards, you can click the Health Dashboard icon (no login required):
