RT Bridge

Introduction

The RT Bridge is a q process, that can be installed outside the kdb Insights Enterprise cluster to enable your existing applications that currently deliver data to a q process (typically a tickerplant), to deliver the same data to kdb Insights Enterprise without modification.

KX Nexus

The KX Nexus repository will be sunsetted in the future. Nexus links on this page are provided as a temporary alternative to the KX Downloads Portal for existing users. The KX Downloads Portal is the preferred repository for all use cases and KX Nexus links will be removed once the KX Nexus repository is decommissioned.

The RT Bridge is a q process that provides an update function, just like the update function in a tickerplant, to publish data to kdb Insights Enterprise.

A valid kdb+ license file is required

The RT Bridge requires that a valid kdb+ license file is present in the system.

Downloading

You can download RT Bridge from the KX Downloads Portal or from the KX Nexus respository, until Nexus is removed in the future..

The following artifacts are available:

• rt-bridge-${VERSION}.install.sh
• rt-bridge-${VERSION}.deb
• rt-bridge-${VERSION}-rhel.x86_64.rpm

Installing

To install the RT Bridge, open a command terminal and run the following:

Debian (.deb) RPM Package Manager (.rpm) Shell script (.sh)

From a command terminal run

sudo apt install ./rt-bridge-${VERSION}.deb

From a command terminal run

sudo yum install rt-bridge-${VERSION}-rhel.x86_64.rpm

From a command terminal run

./rt-bridge-${VERSION}-install.sh

Uninstalling

To uninstall the RT Bridge, open a command terminal and run the following:

Debian (.deb) RPM Package Manager (.rpm) Shell script (.sh)

From a command terminal run

sudo apt remove rt-bridge

From a command terminal run

sud rpm -U rt-bridge-${VERSION}-rhel.x86_64.rpm

From a command terminal run

sud rpm -U rt-bridge-${VERSION}-uninstall.sh

Running the RT Bridge

Before running the RT Bridge, follow the instructions on authentication authorization to enable the RT bridge to send data to kdb Insights Enterprise.

The following arguments are available when running the RT Bridge:

argument	required	default	description
-dir	Mandatory	none	The storage directory for local stream log files and state files.
-configurl	Mandatory	none	The URL to the Information Service endpoint.
-timeout	Optional	5000	The number of milliseconds after which the RT Bridge exits if cannot connect to the Information Service.
-port	Optional	5000	The port to open to receive qIPC messages from the calling application.
-upd	Optional	"upd"	The name of the function publishers should call through qIPC to publish messages.

configurl format

The URL is in the format: (https://{INSIGHTS_HOSTNAME}/informationservice/details/{KC_CONFIG_URL})

For example: The following command shows how to run the RT Bridge to send data to an RT Stream in kdb Insights Enterprise defined by the KC_CONFIG_URL and storing the messages locally in the /s/out folder:

rt-bridge -dir /s/out -configurl https://{INSIGHTS_HOSTNAME}/informationservice/details/{KC_CONFIG_URL}

Calling without commandline arguments

When called without commandline arguments, this brief instruction is printed:

rt-bridge

usage: rt-bridge -dir /s/out [-timeout 5000] [-port 5000] [-upd upd] -configurl url

RT Bridge readiness

After starting the RT Bridge it prints the below message when it is ready to receive messages and has opened a qIPC port to which you can send data:

$ rt-bridge -dir /tmp/rt-demo -configurl $URL

; saving ssl files
; setting cookie and enabling networking...
; setup complete
; starting replication to...
; publishing insert to...
; publishing query to...
; update function: upd
; rt-bridge is open on port 5000

Publishing data

You can now publish data to the RT Bridge, which will deliver the data to kdb Insights Enterprise.

The sample below publishes a set of messages called data to a table called email. It does this via the upd function:

// open a tcp/ip socket connection to the RT bridge
h:hopen 5000

// send data synchronously to the RT bridge
h(`upd; `email; data);

// alternatively, send data asynchronously to the RT bridge
neg[h](`upd; `email; data);

Points of note

The bridge defaults to running on port 5000. The default function used to feed into kdb Insights Enterprise is called upd.

Clean Shutdown

It is important to shut down the RT Bridge properly to avoid potential data loss (eg. due to local disk failures) or unnecessary delays.

On normal exit (for example \ or exit 0) the .z.exit handle flushes the message buffer to make sure every message is replicated on the remote servers.

Killing the process

When the process is killed (for example using kill -9) some messages may remain in the buffer and are only delivered after restarting the RT Bridge with the same parameters.