Prepare the Inventory File

Before deploying the CMP Converged Monetisation Platform. The MDS Global product that supports customer care and billing for digital service providers. components, you must prepare an inventory file that lists the CMP hosts and describes the target state of the deployment. The CMP installation repository includes a template for an inventory file that you can copy and then edit by supplying the hostnames of the CMP hosts and values for variables that set the properties for the hosts. See CMP Inventory Template for more information.

In order to install the highly available CMP stack (either fully or partially), more than one host must be specified for a component that requires high availability. Make sure that hosts listed in the JBoss An open-source, cross-platform Java application server developed by JBoss, a division of Red Hat Inc. JBoss AS is an open-source implementation of Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) that is used for implementing Java applications and other web-based applications and software. JBoss is an open source alternative to commercial offerings from IBM WebSphere and SAP NetWeaver. and JWS groups in the inventory match the hosts of all the components that are deployed to these application servers.

About the Inventory File

An inventory file is a text file in the YAML format that has the structure as shown in the following example excerpt:

---

all:

vars:

company_name: MODEL

branding_code: MODEL

children:

rolext:

hosts:

server.example.demo.com:

vars:

# Role extender server port

server_port: 8081

# Should use HTTPS listener

use_ssl: false

# Name of the WSO2 is user that can validate token

introspect_username: introspect

# Above user's password

introspect_password: password

Important

Each section and each parameter in the inventory file MUST have the correct indentation. Use only spaces to create indentations - tabs are not allowed.

Rather than preparing the inventory file manually, you can use the CMP Installation Configuration tool. See Installation Configuration Tool.

There are two global sections under the root of the inventory file (all):

vars, which defines the global variables that can be accessed by all hosts used for deployment.
children, which are groups of hosts grouped by function or role, such as a database server or an AgentView The graphical user interface of the CMP that is typically used by Customer Service Agents to access CMP customer and billing data. In versions prior to CMP 8.0, this was called the CMP GUI. client. Variables defined under a group In the Customer Manager Platform hierarchy, the highest level of the structure. The group level can be used to group corporates. Groups can hold financial information. are only accessible by the hosts in the group.

Variables defined in the inventory file are visible within the scope where they are defined. Global variables, defined under all, can be accessed by any host in any group. Group variables are defined within a group and their scope is the hosts within that group, for example the variables for jboss in the example above.

The CMP inventory file contains a number of host groups as described in the CMP Groups table. Details of all the properties that can be defined for each can be viewed by clicking on the group name. All the global variables that can be defined are described in CMP Global Properties.

CMP Groups
Group	Description
db	Database server. Currently, the deployment playbook supports only single database server deployments.
wso2is	Identity server. CMP uses WSO2 Identity Server for this purpose.
rolext	Role extender application.
jboss	JBoss server instances. Required for aview_iface, pil, soap and configuration_centre groups.
jws	JBoss Web Server instances. Required for agent_view group.
aview_iface	Agent View Interfaces Layer. If the host is listed in this group it must also be listed in the jboss group.
pil	Published Interfaces Layer application.
soap	SOAP Web Services application.
restws	REST Web Services application.
agent_view	Agent View application instances.
sabre_server	SABRE Server application instances.
sabre_console	Administration Console application instances.
configuration_centre	CMP Business Configuration.
pentaho	The Report Server is an instance of a Pentaho server.
bulk_action_console	The Bulk Action console application instances.

Important

Two groups in the inventory file - jboss and jws - define the underlying platform rather than CMP itself. They are set up separately so that the applications that are hosted on the platform can be deployed to the different physical servers.

Any hosts, used in the following application groups must be listed in the jboss group as well:

aview_iface

pil

soap

configuration_centre

Also, any hosts used in the following application groups must be also listed in the jws group:

agent_view

The detailed information about all permissible properties in the inventory file is for use only for an advanced installation. These properties should be changed only by experienced users who understand the consequences or following direction by MDS Global support. A CMP installation usually requires only the placeholders in the inventory file to be replaced as described in CMP Inventory Template and no other values to be changed.

CMP Inventory Template

CMP provides an inventory template file, template.yaml, which you can copy and edit to suit your CMP deployment environment. It can be adapted to both single host and multiple host environments.

The template inventory file includes placeholders for the property values, placed between angle brackets < > as follows:

Section of the CMP inventory template file showing placeholders

To prepare the inventory template:

Locate template.yaml in the examples directory in the unzipped playbook directory that was downloaded as part of the pre-installation steps. Copy the file and open the copy in your editor of choice.
Complete the inventory file by providing values for the placeholders. See the table Template Placeholders for information.
If you want to encrypt sensitive information such as keys and passwords, follow the instructions for encrypting single properties in Encrypt Sensitive Inputs in the Inventory File.
Properties in the template that do NOT have placeholder values have default values provided, for example default port numbers. Some properties may be commented out. You can amend these properties. For more information, see the properties tables below.

Amending properties may have unintended consequences. Only persons experienced in CMP and your particular deployment should do so. If in doubt, please contact MDS Global.
If CMP is deployed to a single host, the following parameters should be set to the same value, which is the name of the target host:
- database_server_hostname
- jboss_hostname
- wso2is_hostname
- role_extender_hostname
- jws_hostname
- sabre_console_hostname
- sabre_server_hostname
- restws_hostname
- pentaho_hostname
- bulk_action_console_hostname

Important

When developing the inventory file, be aware that the same port number must not be used for more than one service on a single target host. If the same port is used, deployment may not detect it correctly. As a result, deployment will complete successfully but the application will not be installed correctly.

If two or more components that can use the same default ports are to be installed onto the same target host, the port of one these components must be modified to avoid potential port conflict.

The template placeholders that must be replaced for an installation are listed and described in the following table:

Template Placeholders
Name	Description
database_server_hostname	The name of the host where the database is going to be installed.
database_schema_name	The database schema name.
ga_repository_username	Username that has access to the repository vault.mdsglobal.dev as supplied by MDS Global.
ga_repository_password	The vault.mdsglobal.dev repository username password as supplied by MDS Global.
proxy_server_url	Proxy Server URL. If no proxy is required, comment out this property in the inventory file by using a hashtag (#). Do not leave the property blank.
no_proxy_list	Comma separated list of the names and/or IP addresses, access to which should NOT be going through the proxy server. If no proxy is required, comment out this property in the inventory file by using a hashtag (#). Do not leave the property blank. You must also comment out this property if a proxy is required but there are not any sites that can be accessed without the proxy.
jboss_hostname	The name of the host where Jboss is going to be installed.
database_owner_username	The database owner username.
database_owner_password	The password of the database owner user.
wso2is_hostname	The fully qualified name of the host where WSO2IS is going to be installed.
wso2_jdbc_app_password	The password of the owner of the WSO2 database (used internally within CMP only).
wso2is_admin_admin	WSO2 IS admin user.
wso2is_admin_password	WSO2 IS admin user password.
role_extender_hostname	The fully qualified name of the host where Role Extender is going to be installed.
role_extender_password	Role Extender database user password.
jws_hostname	The fully qualified name of the host where JBoss Web Server is going to be installed.
jboss_password	JBoss database user password.
sabre_console_hostname	The fully qualified name of the host where the Administration Console is going to be installed.
sabre_console_password	Administration Console database user password.
sabre_server_hostname	The fully qualified name of the host where SABRE Server is going to be installed.
sabre_server_password	SABRE Server database user password.
restws_hostname	The fully qualified name of the host where REST Web Services is going to be installed.
restws_password	REST Web Services database user password.
bulk_action_console_hostname	The fully qualified name of the host where Bulk Action UI is to be installed.
bulk_action_console_jdbc_password	Database password Bulk Action console.
bulk_action_console_remote_host	Name or IP address where bulk action console will be transferring files to/from over the SFTP protocol.
bulk_action_console_remoteusername	SFTP username to access the remote host, specified above.
bulk_action_console_remote_password	SFTP password to access the remote host, specified above.
bulk_action_console_valid_email_domains	A comma separated list of the email domains where Bulk Action Console is allowed to send notifications.
pentaho_hostname	The fully qualified name of the host the Report Server is to be installed.
pentaho_server_admin_password	The password for the Pentaho admin user.
pentaho_server_jbdc_password	The password for the users that Pentaho server uses in the PostgreSQL database.
pentaho_jdbc_app_password	The password for the users that Pentaho server uses in the PostgreSQL database, for the hardcoded database user.

Note 1: As described in SSL Certificates, self-signed SSL certificates are generated unless provided. If trusted 'real' certificates are to be used, the ssl_certificate property specified in SSL Certificates must be completed.
Note 2: All the database usernames defined above are created in the database by the installation and the components against which they are specified are then configured by the installation to use the username in question. The passwords defined against these usernames are therefore internal to the CMP application and do not need to be known by users of the application.
Note 3: When setting properties for the db (database) group, consider what is best to set for the db_data_population property for your deployment. For more information, see a description of the property options in Database Properties.