Log Insight has always supported outbound notifications for both user alerts and system notifications. These outbound notifications contain a link back to the Log Insight instance. What exactly this link back points to depends on the configuration of your Log Insight instance. In this post, I would like to cover the decision-making process for this link and how you can override it if desired. Read on to learn more!
There are three scenarios to consider when it comes to outbound notifications and the link back URLs:
- No VIP
- One VIP
- Multiple VIPs
If there is no VIP configured then the node’s address will be used as specified in /internal/config.
Note: For standalone deployments, it is a best practice to configure a VIP to make it easier to convert to a cluster in the future.
If one VIP is configured then that VIP will be used — preference is for FQDN if specified otherwise IP.
Note: A Log Insight cluster with an external load balancer is not supported.
If multiple VIPs are configured then the top VIP after sorting alphabetically by IP address would be used — preference is for FQDN if specified otherwise IP.
Note: It is not a numeric sort, it is an alphanumeric sort so if you have “172.0.0.20”, “172.0.0.2” and “172.0.0.162” then “172.0.0.162” will be the used VIP. If “172.0.0.162” has a FQDN of “li.example.com” then this FQDN will be used.
This last case of multiple VIPs can be a point of contention. For example, the outbound notification URL may be X today and Y tomorrow if someone adds an IP address that sorts to the top most spot tomorrow. In addition, if the user really wants a certain VIP to be used in the notification then via the UI the only option is to ensure the VIP which sorts to the top of the list is used. Luckily, in Log Insight 4.3, an /internal/config option exists which allows an admin to override the URL used in the outbound notification.
Note: This /internal/config option has existed in previous version of Log Insight, but can only be used as an override in Log Insight 4.3 or newer.
To override the outbound notification URL, go to /internal/config, select the “Show all settings” checkbox and then search for “webui-server-name”. Change the value from “changeme.example.com” to the FQDN or IP you want to set in the outbound notifications.
Note: It is recommended you use a FQDN.
Hit Save and you are done! Unfortunately, this override does not work for agent downloads from the /admin/agents page. More on this in a future post.
© 2017, Steve Flanders. All rights reserved.
