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https://github.com/imcf/rlm-prometheus

Prometheus exporter providing metrics from a Reprise License Manager (RLM) instance.
https://github.com/imcf/rlm-prometheus

imaris license-metrics prometheus python reprise rlm

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Prometheus exporter providing metrics from a Reprise License Manager (RLM) instance.

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# 📊 RLM-Prometheus 📊



[Prometheus][1] exporter providing metrics from a Reprise License Manager (RLM)

instance.



Currently tested on [Debian Linux][4] only, but as it is based on pure

[CPython][5] it should potentially also work on Windows - YMMV.



## ⚙🔧 Installation ⚙🔧



Example installation on Debian / Ubuntu:



```bash

# required for creating Python virtualenvs:

apt update

apt install -y python3-venv



# create a virtualenv in /opt:

python3 -m venv /opt/rlm-prometheus



# update 'pip' and install the 'rlm-prometheus' package:

/opt/rlm-prometheus/bin/pip install --upgrade pip

/opt/rlm-prometheus/bin/pip install rlm-prometheus

```



## 🏃 Running in foreground mode 🏃



This is mostly relevant for testing configuration settings and checking if the

exporter works as expected - to do this either activate the previously created

Python environment or call the `rlm_exporter` script using the full path to that

environment.



For convenience it is reasonable to use a configuration file in such a situation

instead of setting all the environment variables manually. Simply copy the

[config-example.yaml][3] file to e.g. `config.yaml` and adjust the settings

there. Then run the exporter like this:



```bash

rlm_exporter -vvv --config config.yaml

```



The exporter running in foreground can be terminated as usual via `Ctrl+C`.



## 👟 Running as a service 👟



```bash

adduser --system rlmexporter

cp -v /opt/rlm-prometheus/lib/python*/site-packages/resources/systemd/rlm-prometheus.service  /etc/systemd/system/

systemctl daemon-reload

systemctl edit rlm-prometheus.service

```



The last command will open an editor with the override configuration of the

service's unit file. Add a section like this **at the top** of the override

file, with the bare minimum of setting `RLM_ISV` and most likely also `RLM_URI`.

For other options available check for the commented-out lines further down in

the unit file setting environment variables starting with `RLM_`. Please note

that on *Ubuntu 20.04* the `systemct edit` command will present you with an

empty file, so you will have to copy the respective lines from below or the

provided *central* unit file.



```text

[Service]

### specific configuration for the RLM exporter service:

Environment=RLM_ISV=example_isv

Environment=RLM_URI=http://license-server.example.xy:5054

```



Finally enable the service and start it right away. The second line will show

the log messages on the console until `Ctrl+C` is pressed. This way you should

be able to tell if the service has started up properly and is providing metrics

on the configured port:



```bash

systemctl enable --now rlm-prometheus.service

journalctl --follow --unit rlm-prometheus

```



Open ports for the `rlm-prometheus` exporter:



```bash

SOURCE="any"  # <-- put an IP address here to restrict access more

ufw allow from $SOURCE to any port 8909

```



## 🔥🧱 Firewall settings for RLM on Windows 🔥🧱



For the metrics collection it is obviously necessary the exporter can gather

data from your RLM instance. The standard approach is to send requests to RLM's

built-in web server. By default access to it is blocked and those restrictions

should not be lifted more than necessary.



There is an example snippet in [Open-RlmFirewallPort.ps1][2] that demonstrates

how to adjust the Windows firewall so the collector's host IP address is allowed

to connect to RLM.



## 👾 CAUTION: memory leak in RLM 👾



Repeatedly requesting data (e.g. every 5 minutes) from RLM's built-in web server

has shown to increase its memory consumption in a linear fashion over time on

our side. This indicates a memory leak in RLM, which eventually made the license

service fail silently.



To avoid (or rather work around) this, we did set up a scheduled task on the

server hosting the RLM service that is restarting the service once a night while

also rotating its corresponding log files at the same time.



Example code on how to achieve this via PowerShell is provided in

[Restart-RlmService.ps1][6].



## 🆙 Upgrading 🆙



Assuming the exporter has been installed as described above, an upgrade to a

newer version could be done like this:



```bash

/opt/rlm-prometheus/bin/pip install --upgrade rlm-prometheus

# check the changelog for potentially new configuration settings, integrate them

# by calling `systemctl edit rlm-prometheus.service` if necessary and finally

# restart the service:

systemctl restart rlm-prometheus.service

```



[1]: https://prometheus.io/

[2]: resources/powershell/Open-RlmFirewallPort.ps1

[3]: resources/config-example.yaml

[4]: https://debian.org/

[5]: https://github.com/python/cpython

[6]: resources/powershell/Restart-RlmService.ps1