Creating an example with the Information Store and the i2 Connect gateway

An installation of i2 Analyze includes example settings for deploying the server with the Information Store and support for the i2 Connect gateway. Users can access data in the Information Store in the usual manner, and the i2 Connect gateway enables analysts to search for and retrieve data from an example external data source.

Before you begin

Install i2 Analyze and any software prerequisites. For more information, see Installing i2 Analyze. To deploy the preconfigured examples for the Information Store, you need PostgreSQL, IBM® Db2®, or Microsoft™ SQL Server 2019. You do not need IBM HTTP Server.

If you are using PostgreSQL, which is the default option, download the latest JDBC driver from jdbc.postgresql.org. The name of the driver file has the form postgresql-x.y.z.jar.

If you are using SQL Server, download the Microsoft JDBC Driver 7.4 for SQL Server archive from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=58505. Extract the contents of the download, and locate the sqljdbc_7.4\enu\mssql-jdbc-7.4.1.jre11.jar file.

Before you create the example deployment, you must download and install Node.js to host the example connector. Download Node.js for your operating system from https://nodejs.org/en/download/. You can install Node.js with the default settings.

About this task

The following procedure describes how to create an example deployment of i2 Analyze with the Information Store, which also fulfills the functions of the Chart Store, and the i2 Connect gateway. To use any deployment of i2 Analyze with the i2 Connect gateway, you must obtain or create a connector to the external data source that you want to search. The i2 Analyze toolkit contains an example configuration for the deployment, and an example connector with example data. The deployExample task generates the default values for the mandatory settings and deploys the platform.

The example deployment demonstrates a working i2 Analyze system with an example user so that you can log in. You can ingest example data into the Information Store and then perform searches and analysis, and use the example connector to query and retrieve data from an external data source.
In the example deployment, i2 Analyze runs with the example security schema and matching Liberty security groups and users. The example user has the following credentials:
  • The user name is Jenny
  • The password is Jenny
The example deployment uses the law-enforcement-schema.xml schema as the i2 Analyze schema with the associated law-enforcement-schema-charting-schemes.xml as the charting scheme.

Procedure

  1. Create the configuration directory:
    1. Navigate to the \toolkit\examples\configurations\information-store-daod-opal directory.
      This directory contains the preconfigured files that you need to deploy a system that uses the i2 Connect gateway to connect to an external data source, and the Information Store to store data and Analyst's Notebook charts, and to support the i2 Notebook web client.
    2. Copy the configuration directory to the root of the toolkit.
      For example, C:\i2\i2analyze\toolkit\configuration.
  2. If you are using PostgreSQL as your database management system, copy the PostgreSQL JDBC driver file that you downloaded to the toolkit\configuration\environment\common\jdbc-drivers directory.
  3. If you are using SQL Server as your database management system, you must complete extra configuration actions to deploy the example:
    1. Copy the example topology.xml file for SQL Server from the toolkit\configuration\examples\topology\sqlserver to the toolkit\configuration\environment directory. Overwrite the existing topology.xml file in the destination directory.
    2. Copy the mssql-jdbc-7.4.1.jre11.jar file that you downloaded to the toolkit\configuration\environment\common\jdbc-drivers directory.
  4. If you are using IBM Db2 as your database management system, copy the example topology.xml file for IBM Db2 from toolkit\configuration\examples\topology\db2 to the toolkit\configuration\environment directory. Overwrite the existing topology.xml file in the destination directory.
Regardless of your database management system, you must complete the following steps after you create the configuration directory.
  1. Specify the credentials to use for the deployment.
    1. Using a text editor, open the toolkit\configuration\environment\credentials.properties file.
    2. Enter the user name and password to use with the database.
    3. Enter a user name and password to use for Solr.
    4. Enter a password to use to encrypt LTPA tokens.
    5. Save and close the credentials.properties file.
  2. If you are using IBM Db2 11.5.6 Fix Pack 0 or later, you might need to update the port number that is used in the topology.xml file.
    By default, i2 Analyze is deployed to connect to Db2 using port 50000. In version 11.5.6 Fix Pack 0 and later, the default port that Db2 uses is changed to 25000. For more information about the ports that Db2 uses, see Db2 server TCP/IP port numbers.
    1. Using an XML editor, open the toolkit\configuration\environment\topology.xml file.
    2. In the <database> element, set the value of the port-number attribute to 25000.
    3. Save and close the topology.xml file.
  3. Run the setup script to create the example deployment.
    1. Open a command prompt and navigate to the toolkit\scripts directory.
    2. To deploy the example, run the following command: 
      setup -t deployExample
  4. Install any dependencies and start the server that hosts the example connector.
    Note: The example connector uses port number 3700. Ensure that no other processes are using this port number before you start the connector.
    1. In a command prompt, navigate to the toolkit\examples\connectors\example-connector directory.
    2. To install the dependencies that are required for the example connector, run the following command:
      npm install
      Note: You must be connected to the internet to install the dependencies.
    3. To start the Node.js server, run the following command:
      npm start
  5. Start i2 Analyze.
    1. Open a command prompt and navigate to the toolkit\scripts directory.
    2. To start i2 Analyze, run the following command:
      setup -t start
  6. Optional: To populate your Information Store with the provided example data for the law-enforcement-schema.xml schema, run the following command: 
    setup -t ingestExampleData

What to do next

When you start i2 Analyze, the URI that you can use to connect to the deployment is displayed in the console. For example:

Web application available (default_host): http://host_name:9082/opal.

Install Analyst's Notebook Premium or open a web browser and connect to your deployment. For more information, see Connecting clients.

Production deployments of i2 Analyze use client-authenticated SSL communication between i2 Analyze and any connectors. The example deployment does not use it, and so Analyst's Notebook Premium displays a warning to that effect when you open the external searches window. For more information about configuring client-authenticated SSL, see Client-authenticated Secure Sockets Layer with the i2 Connect gateway.

You can create your own connectors to use with the deployment of i2 Analyze. For more information, see i2 Analyze and the i2 Connect gateway.