Re: Thignworx dataconnector installation

achaube · ‎May 31, 2017

Hello,

I am new to thingworx ..i have installed thingworx on my windows PC ,and analytics on virtual box using centos .now i am installing data connector.

but their is no proper guide available for the data connector installation like for the analytics and platform .

My questions are like where should we install data connector on windows were my thingworx platform is or in the virtual machine analytics server or in both.

also after installation how to decide the url which are given for analytics base URL ,and the data connect URL.

can i have a document or tutorial which clearly explains the same.currently i am using the data connector guide

also why do we need to install Apache spark in the installation of data connector

Warm Regards

Amar Chaube

zyuan1 · ‎May 31, 2017

Hello Amar,

Here is the installation guide for DataConnect https://support.ptc.com/WCMS/files/172648/en/ThingWorx-Analytics-DataConnect-User-Guide-7-4.pdf

And I met such a installation problem before, and the advice from R&D is that "DataConnect runs in a separate Tomcat service from the ThingWorx Analytics Server", that is, it's advised to install in the platform server.

achaube · ‎Jun 01, 2017

Hello Ryan,

Thanks for reply, I have some more question as below

1. My foundation is on windows system and have installed another instance of Apache tomcat ,how to install the dataconnect,rpm file on the windows.and how to do the connectivity between the foundation in the windows ,and analytics in virtual machine.

or

2. Do i need to create a new virtual machine and install dataconnect.rpm in that if yes how to connect foundation and analytics server with dataconnect on the same system.

Warm Regards,

Amar Chaube

zyuan1 · ‎Jun 01, 2017

Hi Amar,

Whether to put the DataConnect server in the platform environment or in a new Virtual Machine is on your decision, and if you read through the Guide, you can see that the DataConnect needs to be connected with a database, meaning that you can share with the Persistent Provider of your Thingworx foundation.

Section 2 of the Guide book (Page 11-16) directs you to install it in the Windows, Section 4 shows how to install the server in VM.

Here is the connection configuration part in Section 2

achaube · ‎Jun 01, 2017

hello,

How to install the rpm file of the connect software in windows as the yum command is not recognised as internal command .

also ,when i am done ,is their a way to verfiy that the dataconnector is installed ,like a use case .

thanks for previous help .

Warm Regards,

Amar

cmorfin · ‎Jun 01, 2017

Hi Amar

Some clarification/additional information:

- DataConnect is only supported on CentOS, not on Windows.

- As Ryan indicated you can choose to install it on a native CentOS box or a new virtual machine, the installation guide provides information for both scenario.

- The following blog gives some good information too on configuring a DAD: How to use DataConnect when sending property values from the ThingWorx platform to ThingWorx Analytics.

- The Help Center can also be useful : PTC

- The Analytics server URL for REST API is of the form: http://<AnalyticsServer>:<port>/1.0/<API>

- The DataConnect URL for REST API is of the form: http://<DataConnectServer>:<port>/1.0/<API>

- For dataconnect.conf the Analytics URI is of type http://<AnalyticsServer>:<port>/1.0, the DataConnect web uri is of type http://<DataConnectServer>:<port>

hope this helps

Christophe

achaube · ‎Jun 01, 2017

Hello Christophe ,

Thanks for replying.

I had followed the installation guide and done the installation on another virtual machine ,along with the network setting of NAT ,which are given in the guide

,but when i try to ping to a 8.8.8.8 it gives error ,but i was able to ping to the analytics ip ,ihave installed both the virutal machines in the same virutal box.

2. when i try to move the rpm file from windows to virtual machine it gives fatal error ,connection actively refused.

pscp D:\dataconnect.rpm vagrant@127.0.0.1:/tmp

where vagrant is my username and 127.0.0.1 is my inet

cmorfin · ‎Jun 01, 2017

Hi Amar

Your issue here is unrelated to DataConnect, it is a VirtualBox network connection.

127.0.0.1 is the lookback address for localhost so

pscp D:\dataconnect.rpm vagrant@127.0.0.1:/tmp

is trying to copy from your Windows machine to itself.

you need to :

- make sure you have a host only adapter setup on the VM in addition to the NAT network

- execute ip a on the DataConnetc CentOS VM, and take note of the ip address for the host only network , usually of type 192.168.56.xx

then try the pscp command with this ip instead of 127.0.0.1

Thanks

Christophe

achaube · ‎Jun 05, 2017

Hello,

I have successfully installed thingworx analytic s on one virtual machine and data connector on another virtual machine on the same virtual box.when

1.I try to access analytic by http://192.168.56.102:8080/1.0/about/versioninfo i get proper response of analytic server version 7.4

but when i try to to do the same for http://192.168.56.104:8080/1.0/about/versioninfo for dataconnetor it doesnt gives a responese.what could be the reason ,

2.also .i have my PostgreSQL server installed in the analytic virtual machine and not on the data connector virtual machine

I have set the following parameters as follows

org.postgresql.Driver

jdbc:postgresql://192.168.56.102:5432/dataconnect

dcuser

password

is that OK

and what is the data connect.transfer.uri parameter and what we need to specify for that

3.how to make a link between the thingworx repositories between thingworx foundation which is host of the virtual machine setup,where should i make those folders in the data connector ,in order to integrate with the thingworx foundation

Warm Regards

Amar

cmorfin · ‎Jun 06, 2017

Hi Amar

1. If you cannot reach DataConnect at http://192.168.56.104:8080/1.0/about/versioninfo, it is probably because it has got a problem. The best is to check the Tomcat log files (under <Tomcat>/logs folder) and DataConnect log files:(under /opt/dataconnect/logs)

2. I would recommend you use the embedded H2 database at first until you have it working and can then switch to Postgres. Simply because there is less configuration to do with H2 and so remove some potential error.
Regaridng Postgres, your setting look ok, but there are several additional steps to be done on Postgres side before being able to start DataConnect . See the Dataconnect guide p14.

Regarding dataconnect.transfer.uri, see also the DataConnetc guide p 13 for a description of what it is used for. A sample setting can be seen at How to use DataConnect when sending property values from the ThingWorx platform to ThingWorx Analytics.

3. Regarding the repository link, the bottom line is that DataConnect needs to be able to see under /repository the content of ThingworxStorage/repository folder.

So if ThingWorx and DataConnect are on the same machine a simple link will do : ln -s /ThingworxStorage/repository /repository.

If ThingWorx and DataConnect are on different machines you need to mount the ThingworxStorage/repository folder form the ThingWorx machine to /repository directory on the DataConnect machine.

How to do this will depend on the OS used. Your System Admin should know how to perform this step.

Hope this helps

Kind regards

Christophe