Maintenance

In this section, you will find some maintenance options for VirtualMetric. If you need further support, please contact with VirtualMetric support.

Repair Files

If you are using latest version of VirtualMetric and you need to repair VirtualMetric Standalone Server, then you can use following package to repair your installation.

VirtualMetric Standalone Server - Full Update - NoSQL (Latest Version)

VirtualMetric-Update-Full-NoSQL.exe

To repair VirtualMetric files, you can use Update packages of corresponding versions.

Please read Running Update Application to learn how to repair your installation.

Repair Database

If your VirtualMetric installation is not able to access VirtualMetric Database due to a failed update process or other reasons, please be aware of that working on VirtualMetric Database is not supported.

Please try reinstalling update package that you are trying to apply. If the problem still persists, please contact with VirtualMetric support. We recommend that you always have a proper backup of your VirtualMetric Database before update.

Please read Backup Database to learn how to backup your VirtualMetric Database.

Backup Database

To backup your VirtualMetric Database, first you should connect to your current Microsoft SQL Server instance via SQL Server Management Studio.

1. Right click on VIRTUALMETRICDB and select Tasks -> Back Up... from menu.

2. Please make sure that backup type is Full and backup location for disk is exist. Then click OK to start backup.

3. When backup is completed successfully, please click OK to close notification dialog.

4. Please verify that Backup file is exist under your backup path. You can save this .bak file for Restore purposes.

Restore Database

To restore your VirtualMetric Database, first you should connect to your current Microsoft SQL Server instance via SQL Server Management Studio.

1. Right click on VIRTUALMETRICDB and select Tasks -> Take Offline from menu.

2. Please make sure that you choose Drop All Active Connections and then click OK to make database offline.

3. You will see that database is in Offline mode. Now you can start restoring VirtualMetric Database from previous backup.

4. Right click on VIRTUALMETRICDB and select Tasks -> Restore -> Database... from menu.

5. Please verify that Backup file is exist under your backup path. Click OK to restore database.

6. Click OK to close restore dialog.

7. After this operation, your VirtualMetric Database will be restored and online for operations.

Migrate Database

To migrate your VirtualMetric Database to another server, first you should have proper backup of VirtualMetric Database.

Please read Backup Database to learn how to backup your VirtualMetric Database.

1. To start migration, first you should connect to your current Microsoft SQL Server instance via SQL Server Management Studio.

2. Right click on Databases and select Restore Database... from menu.

3. On Restore Database window, select Device as source, click to ... button on the right side for backup location window. Then click Add to locate Backup file.

4. Locate the backup file with .bak extension, then click OK to close dialog.

5. Click OK to close Select backup devices window.

6. Click OK to start restoring VirtualMetric Database.

7. Click OK to close restoration dialog.

8. After this operation, your VirtualMetric Database will be restored and online for operations.

9. When you change VirtualMetric Database settings, you should also modify following files:

C:\Program Files\VirtualMetric\API\Web.config
C:\Program Files\VirtualMetric\HealthCheck\VirtualMetricHealthCheck.exe.config
C:\Program Files\VirtualMetric\SQLJobs\VirtualMetricSQLJobs.exe.config

On these files, search for following entry:

initial catalog=VIRTUALMETRICDB;

When you find this line, you will see SQL Database settings like:

data source={IPAddress}; // IP Address of VirtualMetric Database Instance
user id=sa; // SQL Username
password={SA Password}; // SQL User Password

10. After changing config files, you should only restart VirtualMetric SQL Jobs scheduled task. Please open Task Scheduler on VirtualMetric Standalone Server.

11. Right click on VirtualMetric SQL Jobs and click End from menu.

12. Click Yes to confirm dialog.

13. Wait for a few seconds. Then right click on VirtualMetric SQL Jobs and click Run from menu.

14. Now, you can continue using VirtualMetric after these operations.

Change Database User

You may need to change SQL user or SQL user password for several reasons. To change SQL user password, first you should connect to your current Microsoft SQL Server instance via SQL Server Management Studio.

1. Navigate to current SQL user via Security -> Logins on left menu.

2. Right click to SQL User and then click Properties on menu.

3. Type new password and click OK to apply changes.

4. When you change VirtualMetric Database settings, you should also modify following files:

C:\Program Files\VirtualMetric\API\Web.config
C:\Program Files\VirtualMetric\HealthCheck\VirtualMetricHealthCheck.exe.config
C:\Program Files\VirtualMetric\SQLJobs\VirtualMetricSQLJobs.exe.config

On these files, search for following entry:

initial catalog=VIRTUALMETRICDB;

When you find this line, you will see SQL Database settings like:

data source={IPAddress}; // IP Address of VirtualMetric Database Instance
user id=sa; // SQL Username
password={SA Password}; // SQL User Password

5. After changing config files, you should only restart VirtualMetric SQL Jobs scheduled task. Please open Task Scheduler on VirtualMetric Standalone Server.

6. Right click on VirtualMetric SQL Jobs and click End from menu.

7. Click Yes to confirm dialog.

8. Wait for a few seconds. Then right click on VirtualMetric SQL Jobs and click Run from menu.

9. Now, you can continue using VirtualMetric after these operations.

Change Trigger Configuration

If you need to change following options of the VirtualMetric Trigger:

  • VirtualMetric API Address

  • Trigger Identifier

  • API Username

  • API Token

1. You should modify the VirtualMetric Trigger config file:

C:\Program Files\VirtualMetric\Trigger\VirtualMetricTrigger.exe.config

On the config file, you will see following lines:

<appSettings>
    <add key="primaryApiUrl" value="https://api.virtualmetric.com:8080/API/" />
    <add key="failoverApiUrl" value="" />
    <add key="triggerId" value="3080487f-f3f6-43e2-bd27-7f1886a12816" />
    <add key="apiUser" value="vmapi" />
    <add key="apiPassword" value="727c9b3a51eb3407c7cc21c45d84bb28" />
</appSettings>

2. After changing these Trigger options, you should restart VirtualMetric Trigger scheduled task. Please open Task Scheduler on VirtualMetric Standalone Server.

3. Right click on VirtualMetric SQL Jobs and click End from menu.

4. Click Yes to confirm dialog.

5. Wait for a few seconds. Then right click on VirtualMetric SQL Jobs and click Run from menu.

6. VirtualMetric Trigger will connect to VirtualMetric API and start monitoring in a few seconds.

Please read Install a VirtualMetric Trigger to learn more about Trigger Options.

Reset Admin Password

If you forget the admin username/password of VirtualMetric Dashboard, you have following options:

  • Password recovery request on VirtualMetric Dashboard

  • Changing directly from VirtualMetric Database

Please read Password Recovery Request to learn how to reset your password via VirtualMetric Dashboard.

1. To change admin password from VirtualMetric Database, first you should connect to your current Microsoft SQL Server instance via SQL Server Management Studio.

2. Navigate to dbo.SystemUser table via VIRTUALMETRICDB -> Tables on left menu.

3. Right click on dbo.SystemUser and click Edit Top 200 Rows on menu.

4. Find the user that you want to change password and navigate to Password field.

5. VirtualMetric uses MD5 hashes instead of real passwords. You can convert your password with online conversion websites or you can simply use PowerShell to convert your password to MD5 hash.

$userPassword = "Password1!"
$MD5 = New-Object -TypeName System.Security.Cryptography.MD5CryptoServiceProvider
$UTF8 = New-Object -TypeName System.Text.UTF8Encoding
[System.BitConverter]::ToString($MD5.ComputeHash($UTF8.GetBytes($userPassword))).Replace("-","")

6. You can replace new MD5 hash with old one on VirtualMetric Database.

You must restart application pool of VirtualMetric API via IIS Manager to apply password reset.

7. Please open IIS Manager on VirtualMetric Standalone Server.

8. Click to Application Pools on left menu.

9. Right click on VirtualMetric API and then click Recycle... to restart the application pool.

10. After application pool restart, you can login via VirtualMetric Dashboard.

Setup SSL Certificate

To make VirtualMetric Dashboard and VirtualMetric API connections secure, you can use SSL certificate. You can use IIS Manager to apply SSL certificates for both websites.

1. Please open IIS Manager on VirtualMetric Standalone Server.

2. Click to Server Certificates to create certificate request.

3. Click Create Certificate Request on right menu.

4. Fill your Certificate Request and click Next to continue.

5. Set crypto settings and click Next to continue.

6. Set a path for request and click Finish to complete cert request.

7. Use your cert request to purchase a commercial SSL. After you get your .cer file, click Complete Certificate Request... to continue.

8. Specify .cer file, fill inputs and click OK to complete certificate process.

9. Click to VirtualMetric API on left menu.

10. Click to Bindings... on right menu.

11. Click to Add... on right menu.

12. Fill Bindings inputs and click OK to complete.

13. Click to Close to close dialog.

14. When you change VirtualMetric API SSL settings, you should also modify following files:

C:\Program Files\VirtualMetric\HealthCheck\VirtualMetricHealthCheck.exe.config
C:\Program Files\VirtualMetric\Observer\VirtualMetricObserver.exe.config
C:\Program Files\VirtualMetric\Trigger\VirtualMetricTrigger.exe.config
C:\Program Files\VirtualMetric\ControlPanel\Web.config

On these files, you should change VirtualMetric API address lines with new address:

<appSettings>
    <add key="primaryApiUrl" value="https://api.virtualmetric.com/API/" />
    <add key="failoverApiUrl" value="" />
    <add key="triggerId" value="3080487f-f3f6-43e2-bd27-7f1886a12816" />
    <add key="apiUser" value="vmapi" />
    <add key="apiPassword" value="727c9b3a51eb3407c7cc21c45d84bb28" />
</appSettings>

15. After changing config files, you should only restart VirtualMetric Trigger scheduled task. Please open Task Scheduler on VirtualMetric Standalone Server.

16. Right click on VirtualMetric Trigger and click End from menu.

17. Click Yes to confirm dialog.

18. Wait for a few seconds. Then right click on VirtualMetric Trigger and click Run from menu.

19. VirtualMetric Trigger will connect to VirtualMetric API and start monitoring in a few seconds.

Change API Configuration

If you want to change VirtualMetric API configuration, you should modify following file:

C:\Program Files\VirtualMetric\API\Web.config

On the .config file, you can change connection strings to use a different VirtualMetric Database instance.

Please read Install a VirtualMetric API to learn more about API Options.

Dashboard NAT Configuration

If you use private network for VirtualMetric Standalone Server and if you want to publish your VirtualMetric Dashboard to external networks via Firewall or Load Balancer, then you may have some issues.

Because as you can see from diagram above, both VirtualMetric Dashboard and Client Devices try to connect VirtualMetric API. VirtualMetric Dashboard configuration file includes following lines:

<appSettings>
    <add key="webpages:Version" value="3.0.0.0" />
    <add key="webpages:Enabled" value="false" />
    <add key="ClientValidationEnabled" value="true" />
    <add key="UnobtrusiveJavaScriptEnabled" value="true" />
    <add key="apiUrl" value="https://external.virtualmetric.com:8080/API/" />
    <add key="debugMode" value="false" />
</appSettings>

When you set external address for VirtualMetric API, Client Devices must be able to query VirtualMetric API. Otherwise you will see following error on VirtualMetric Dashboard login and that will prevent you to login:

If Client Devices are able to reach to VirtualMetric API, then you must also be sure that VirtualMetric Dashboard can also reach to external address. Otherwise you will see following error when you try to connect:

If external address is not resolved by VirtualMetric Server's DNS, then you should modify local Hosts file to make it reachable.

Change Dashboard Timeout

Default session timeout for VirtualMetric Dashboard is 20 minutes. This is the default value of IIS application pool. If you want to increase session timeout, you can use IIS Manager to modify timeout.

1. Please open IIS Manager on VirtualMetric Standalone Server.

2. Click to Application Pools on the left menu. You will see Application Pools for VirtualMetric Dashboard and VirtualMetric API.

3. Right click on VirtualMetric ControlPanel and select Advanced Settings to open timeout settings.

4. Set 0 for Idle Time-out (minutes) to disable timeout or select another timeout value. You can also set timeout value for VirtualMetric API with same steps.

Configure Redis Distributed Cache

If you want to use VirtualMetric API in HA mode, you should also configure VirtualMetric APIs to use Redis Distributed Cache. You need to set your Redis connection string into VirtualMetric API web.config. 1. Add your Redis connection string into VirtualMetric API configuration file as following:

  <connectionStrings>
    <add name="VirtualMetricRedis" connectionString="{IPAddress},password={password},abortConnect=false" />
  </connectionStrings>

2. After that, you should activate Redis Caching via VirtualMetric Advanced System Settings. For security reasons Redis Default Listening interface is bind to "127.0.0.1". To enable Redis on Server IP address, you need to edit the following line in your Redis Configuration files:

bind {IPAddress}

Redis is not optimized for maximum security but for maximum performance and simplicity. For this reason you should not expose the Redis instance directly to the internet and restrict access to Redis port from untrusted network with ACLs.

3. We also recommend you to enable Redis password in your configuration files:

requirepass {password}

4. If you want to use Redis Master/Slave option you need to enable the following lines on your Redis Servers Configuration files:

Redis Master Server:
requirepass {password}

Redis Slave Server:
slaveof {MasterServerIPAddress} 6379
masterauth {password}

5. After changes, you should activate Redis from System Advanced Configuration. Find the "Cache Provider" option in the System Advanced Settings.

6. Change "Cache Provider" option as Redis and click Submit button.

You must restart application pool of VirtualMetric API via IIS Manager to apply cache provider changes.

7. Please open IIS Manager on VirtualMetric Standalone Server.

8. Click to Application Pools on left menu.

9. Right click on VirtualMetric API and then click Recycle... to restart the application pool.

10. After application pool restart, Redis will be activated on VirtualMetric.

Database Design Best Practices

We recommend you to configure following Microsoft SQL Server optimizations to get the best performance.

1. Click Properties of the server in the SQL Server Management Studio.

2. Click on Advanced tab and set following options:

  • Miscellaneous > Optimize for Ad hoc Workloads: True

  • Parallelism > Cost Threshold for Parallelism: 50

  • Parallelism > Max degrees of Parallelism: 12

3. Click on Memory tab and set following options.

  • Minimum server in memory (in MB): 0

  • Maximum server in memory (in MB): 4096 (Calculate this based on your server memory)

4. Click on Processor tab and set following options.

  • Maximum worker threads: 0

5. After the changes, please restart SQL Service to apply changes.

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