MI Console

Introduced in version 7.0.1, the MI Console is designed to bring most of the command-line functionality into a user-friendly interface, making it easier to administer the Metric Insights application. Key tasks such as managing SSL certificates, authentication settings, user synchronization, and backups can now be handled directly through the UI. Future updates will continue expanding these capabilities to ensure nearly all administrative functions can be managed through the MI Console. 

Table of contents:

Access MI Console

1. Grant Access to MI Console

NOTE:

  • Access to MI Console can only be granted via mi-console-access tool.
  • Only Admin users can be granted access to MI Console.
  1. Access the web container: mi-web
  2. Execute  mi-console-access allow <user> providing an actual username

You can also revoke user's access to MI Console by executing the command: mi-console-access deny <user>.

2. Verify the Result

Access Admin > Users & Groups > User

If the access has been granted, a note will be displayed stating that the user has MI Console access.

3. Log In to MI Console

Access https://<MI hostname>/console/ or Admin > Status Monitor > System Stats > MI Console link

  1. Enter credentials of Admin user who has been granted access to MI Console
  2. [Sign in]

4. Authorize via 2FA

During the first log in you will be asked to enable two-factor authentication (2FA):

  1. Scan the QR code on your authentication app, e.g., Google Authenticator
    • NOTE: 2FA is required for every action which changes the state of the system or MI configuration. Information about such actions is stored in Audit Log.
  2. Enter Validation Code from 2FA app
  3. [Verify]

Overview

The Overview tab displays information about all MI application services, including:

  • their status,
  • RAM, CPU, and disc space usage,
  • general information, as well as events related to those services.

Services

NOTE: The Seed node may still appear in the Services list, even if it no longer exists, if the system was upgraded from v6. This happens because the system retains data on previously configured services, including outdated ones.

  1. Click [+] to expand full information about a service
  2. The top pane displays the general information about the service

NOTE: The time is displayed in the MI application's timezone.

  1. You can [Restart] the service from the UI
  1. You can set the interval for RAM and CPU graphs, the default value is 10 minutes
  2. Disk Space Usage displays information about volume's path, filesystem type of the volume, and information about disk usage

Recent Events

This table shows information about events related to services, Node Name represents the name of the service and Service represents a role that the service executes.

Logs

NOTE: System Logs contain logs from opt/mi/log, Dataprocessor Logs contain logs from opt/mi/log/dataprocessor.

Available download options are:

  1. [Download All Logs],
  2. Select a log file from the list and [Download Selected Log]

Plugins & Drivers

  1. The first three tabs display information about Plugins, Drivers and Libs used by the MI application
  2. You can upload External Libs on the corresponding tab
  3. The last tab BI Tools can be used to ping BI tools' servers and ports to check connectivity

Patches

On this tab you can upload patches, view the list of applied ones, and download Patcher logs.

Backups

All Backup Methods from v6 are available here after update.

  1. [+ New Backup Method]
  2. Enter a Name for the Backup
  3. Destination: Select the type of location where the Backup will be stored

This example illustrates creation of a locally stored Backup. Backups can also be stored on:

See the corresponding sections for examples.

  1. URI: Enter the path under which the Backup will be stored
  2. By default, backups are stored locally in the /opt/mi/backup directory inside the web container
  3. [Save]

Backup Methods

Remote
  1. Enter a Name for the Backup
  2. Destination: Remote
  3. Enter URI in the following format: ssh://<remote server address>/<location>
  4. [Save]
Amazon S3
  1. Enter a Name for the Backup
  2. Destination: Amazon S3
  3. Enter URI in the following format: s3://<bucket name>/<directory name>
  4. Enter AWS Access Key ID
  5. Enter AWS Secret Access Key
  6. [Save]
FTP
  1. Enter a Name for the Backup
  2. Destination: FTP
  3. Enter URI in the following format: ftp://<FTP server address>/<location on the FTP server>
  4. Enter the FTP credentials
  5. [Save]
HTTP
  1. Enter a Name for the Backup
  2. Destination: HTTP
  3. Enter URI in the following format: http://<HTTP server address>/<location on the HTTP server>
  4. [Save]

Add a Scheduled Backup

  1. Locate the created System Backup and click on the gear icon
  2. [+ New Scheduled Backup]
  3. Select Backup Type:
    • Full: the default Backup type. Both files and database data are included in the Backup
    • Database: Only database data is included in the Backup
    • Files: Only files are included in the Backup

NOTE: See Scheduled Backup Types for details.

  1. Exclude Dataset Tables from Backup: exclude Dataset data from the Backup. This option is applicable for Full and Database Backup types
  2. Set Frequency of Backup
  3. Set Backup Retention by:
    • Maximum number of Backups in the system
    • Time of keeping Backups
  4. Click [Save], the created schedule appears under the Scheduled Backups grid
  5. You can click [Backup Now] to create a new Backup immediately, out of the set schedule

Scheduled Backup Types

Note: As a best practice, the recommendation from MI is to choose the Full backup type. The other backup options "Database" and "Files" exist for a more specific use-case where a full backup may not be needed (e.g., to save disk space for some specific reason where only a partial backup is needed). Such cases are rare - in general there should be no need to avoid making a full backup.

Full (recommended): an all-inclusive backup that contains sqldump files for all tables in both the application database (Dashboard db) as well as all tables in dataset storage (Dashboard dataset) & all critical application data and configuration files from the MI filesystem. A full backup can be taken and restored in a completely new environment whereas the same is not true of the other two partial backup options listed below, which is why it is the preferred method.

Database: produces a backup.tar.gz file that contains strictly mysqldumps of the application database (Dashboard db) + the Dataset storage database (Dashboard dataset). Using the "Database" backup option would not include copies of critical application configuration files - it's simply a backup of the MI databases and does not include any files from the MI filesystem. This is a partial backup method that has a limited purpose with few applicable use-cases.

Files: the contents included in the "Files" backup option are a mix of different application data and configuration files such as report and metric data points, charts, visualizations, etc. Additionally, the files included in the backup would also consist of any documents or manually uploaded element images in MI, the UI themes, colors, and fonts, thumbnail images for the tiles, and some configuration files such as const.php which is a copy of all System Variables and their values at the time the backup was taken, and also a stamp.json file that gets included in the tarball when a "Files" backup is taken that is basically a map of the database hostname, port, and credentials that were used to take the backup. There are also additional files critical to the MI filesystem that are included in both the "Full" and "Files" backup options.

Configuration

General

Use this tab to override the default maintenance message.

SSL Certificates

NOTE: Only matching .crt and .key files are allowed to be uploaded.

SAML

NOTE: See the SAML for v7 doc for details.

Cron Tasks

NOTE: The CRON Command is not validated by the system and the user is responsible for the input.

  1. [+ Add task]
  2. Fill in the cron task details, hover over the info icon to see the details for each field's accepted format and values
  3. [Save]

Cron Tasks tab can be disabled by setting env variable DISABLE_CRON_UI to true under /opt/mi/config/deployment/credentials/console.env and re-deploying the container:

  1. Log in to MI application host as a root user
$ sudo -i
  1. Access /opt/mi/config/deployment/credentials directory 
cd /opt/mi/config/deployment/credentials
  1. Access console.env and set DISABLE_CRON_UI to true:
$ nano console.env
...
DISABLE_CRON_UI=true
...
  1. Re-deploy the console container:
$ mi-control rm --stop console
$ mi-control up -d console

Timezone

After installing the MI application, you can change the MI timezone and MySQL timezone here. This functionality is equivalent to using the --timezone installer option. Information about timezone changes in Metric Insights is recorded in the audit.log.

NOTES:

  • Changing the timezone will restart the corresponding services.
  • Changing the Metric Insights timezone specifically will restart all the services including the MI Console.
  • Changing the MySQL timezone only affects the local MySQL instance.

Object Embedding

Use this tab to whitelist domains and web applications where MI Application objects can be embedded. This allows MI content to be embedded on the specified sites.

Audit Log

This section lists all operations that require entering a 2FA code. The 2FA code is required for any action that changes the state of the system or MI configuration. The operations listed here are stored permanently.