Correlator utility enhancements in 10.1

Using the new -v category=level (or --loglevel category=level) option of the correlator executable, it is now possible to configure the log level for messages logged by the correlator-internal systems. You can do this either for the whole correlator or for individual categories. This includes setting the log level for individual connectivity plug-ins and EPL plug-ins. For detailed information, see Starting the correlator and Setting correlator and plug-in log files and log levels in a YAML configuration file.

With the correlator executable, it is now possible to set distinct and individual log levels for the correlator and the application. The following options are now available: --applicationLogLevel and --applicationLogFile. If these two options are not set, then the current settings of the -v (or --loglevel) and -f (or --logfile) options are used as the default. For detailed information, see Starting the correlator.

Note that less log levels are now allowed for the correlator log messages, that is, for the -v (or --loglevel) option. OFF, CRIT and FATAL are no longer supported. If specified, they are reset to ERROR and a warning message is printed at the top of the correlator log file. In addition, the use of ERROR and WARN is no longer recommended. If specified, a warning message is also printed at the top of the correlator log file.

The YAML configuration file for the correlator now supports many new elements which correspond to command-line options of the correlator executable. For more information, see YAML configuration file for the correlator.

The engine_deploy tool now converts all of the options in a Software AG Designer launch configuration to the equivalent YAML configuration options, now that they exist. Previously, only a small number were honored. The new options are:

This may be a backwards-incompatible change if you had settings in your launch configuration that were previously being ignored. The generated files also contain support for some options not present in Software AG Designer, but which are often useful at deployment time: pidFile, runtime and runtimeCacheDir.

The generated YAML file also contains configuration to set an environment variable APAMA_PROJECT_DIR, which can be used to specify classpath dependencies for EPL plug-ins written in Java in the deployment descriptor file (see also Specifying the classpath in deployment descriptor files). For example:

The properties file now contains the properties logsDir and dataDir to allow easily changing the location where data (for example, runtime cache directory, pid file) and log files are written without needing to modify the properties for each file path individually.

The properties file also contains a property startTimeoutSecs. This value is not currently used by any Apama tools, but can be used to provide a hint to customer-developed deployment or testing tools about how long to wait for the component to start up.

Note that the extraArgs settings are copied into the properties file, but cannot be used by the YAML configuration file for the correlator. Therefore, they must be manually passed on the command line by whatever tool is responsible for starting the correlator.

Instead of using the engine_deploy tool to generate a correlator deployment package (CDP), you can now also use Ant to do this. The apama-macros.xml file includes the new project-to-cdp macro for this purpose. See also About deploying Apama applications with an Ant script.

In previous versions, the correlator automatically and silently substituted a dot (.) for ${APAMA_HOME} or ${APAMA_WORK} if they were used within a YAML configuration file without being defined as an environment variable or as a property within the YAML configuration itself. This was hard to diagnose and incorrect. The correlator will now no longer do this automatic substitution and will fail to start up, as with any other undefined YAML configuration variable. Note that this does not affect correlators that are started through Software AG Designer or using the Apama Command Prompt, both of which correctly set these variables.