Configuring Application Response to Monitor Custom Applications

Transcription

1 Configuring Application Response to Monitor Custom Applications This topic describes the process for configuring ehealth Application Response to monitor the average response times of your business-critical Windows applications. Application Response monitors all Web and Windows applications that use the Microsoft TCP-IP protocol, including applications running in a Citrix environment. Application Response also monitors several commonly used applications out-of-the-box (as shown in Figure 1). The process to monitor each application type varies. This topic provides step-by-step instructions for configuring Application Response to monitor your custom Windowsbased applications. Citrix Windows ehealth Application Response Monitoring your business-critical applications Web Figure 1. Monitored Applications Out-ofthe-box * Oracle * Mail * Notes * Outlook * Peoplesoft * SAP * Telnet Custom applications include all TCP-IP applications that are either off-the-shelf applications that you may or may not have customized, or applications that have been created specifically for your business needs. Criteria for Using this Topic. Concord provides four topics that describe how to configure Application Response to monitor the various application types shown in Figure 1. Use the process in this topic if your application meets the following criteria: Your application is Windows-based and uses the TCP-IP protocol. Your application does not appear in the list of out-of-the-box applications. Your application is not Web-based. Your application is not managed with Citrix. For instructions to monitor other application types, refer to the following topics: Configuring Application Response to Monitor Microsoft Outlook Configuring Application Response to Monitor Web Applications (including custom Web applications) Configuring Application Response to Monitor Citrix Applications What to Expect. When you use the process described in this topic, Application Response monitors your custom Windows application using a default rule set that measures average response time. The default rule set for Windows enables the AR agent to monitor window transitions, such as the opening and closing of a window, or the opening of one window and then another. The default rule set for Windows does not report on response time for other events such as a mouse click to submit a form, or a series of events (such as mouse clicks, keystrokes, and button presses) that comprise a multievent transaction. Later, after you become familiar with the level of information that the default rules provide, you can learn how to customize rules to monitor transactions such as these.

2 2 The Configuration Process The process for configuring Application Response to monitor and report on average response time for your custom Windows application is as follows: 1. Deploy a test AR agent. 2. Define your custom (new) application. 3. Run a Trend report to test the data on which your agent is reporting. 4. Deploy the agent to additional systems. 5. Organize your agents based on geography or business function. 6. Configure Live Health to notify you of application response time problems. Planning Your Time Plan to spend up to two hours deploying the agent, adding your custom application, and running a Trend report. If you choose to group agents and configure Live Health, set aside an additional hour or more, depending on the amount of time required to plan your grouping strategy. Getting Started This topic assumes that you are running ehealth on a Windows or UNIX system, and that you have installed an ehealth Response license and an AR agent license that supports the number of agents that you plan to run at a given time. NOTE Although ehealth can reside on a UNIX platform, AR agents run on Windows platforms only. Step 1. Deploy a Test AR agent. You use the AR Agent Publisher to create the installation program that deploys agents. The AR Agent Publisher executable (ARAgentPublisher.exe) is automatically installed with ehealth. You must run the AR Agent Publisher on a Windows ehealth system where it detects hostnames, port numbers, and other necessary settings. When the installation program is created, you run it on target Windows systems to install the agent. Initially, you should deploy the agent to one system to ensure that your installation program is configured properly. This step requires you to complete the following tasks: Create the agent installation program. Distribute the AR agent to a Windows client system. To create the agent installation program: 1. Start the AR Agent Publisher by doing one of the following: On a Windows ehealth system, change to the following directory (where ehealth is the name of the system on which ehealth resides) and double-click the AR Agent Publisher executable (ARAgentPublisher.exe): ehealth/agent/response On a UNIX ehealth system, copy this program to any Windows system in your network; then double-click the executable. NOTE NOTE Do not use the ARAgentPublisher.561.exe file. This version is for monitoring Token Ring networks only. 2. In the Welcome dialog box, select Generate an AR Agent Installation Program; then click Next. 3. Click OK in the Warning dialog box. (This message informs users with Token Ring networks to use a different version of the AR Agent Publisher.) 4. The Software License Agreement appears the first time you use this tool. Read the agreement; then click Yes. 5. In the Edit Controller Information dialog box, enter the hostname of the system on which ehealth resides and accept the default values in the Port and Agent Port fields; then click Next. (For the initial deployment, leave the Name field under Agent Set blank. When you install additional agents and set up grouping, you can use this field to associate agents with groups.)

3 3 6. In the Options for Agent Installation dialog box, deselect Silent Agent Installation and accept the other default selections; then click Next. 7. In the Agent Extensions dialog box, click Next. (Later, after you deploy your test agent, you can return to the Agent Publisher and create a version of the agent that monitors Java applications and applets.) 8. In the Enter Target Directory for Agent Installation dialog box, leave the field blank and click Next. By default, the program installs the agent for the client system on the boot drive and creates an ehealth/agent/response directory. 9. In the Choose Destination Location and Program Name dialog box, accept the default name and location, or specify new values; then click Next. 10. In the Edit Agent Host Names dialog box, click Next. 11. In the Start Generating Program dialog box, review the information. If you want to change your settings, use the Back button. 12. When you are satisfied with your settings, click Finish. The AR Agent Publisher creates a file called ARInstl.exe. This is the file that you will send to your client system to install the AR agent. You must select a client system to monitor with the agent. Choose a system whose user actively uses the custom application that you want to monitor. You can use to distribute the ARInstl.exe file. To distribute the AR agent to a Windows client system: 1. Create an message and attach the AR agent installation program (ARInstl.exe). In the , instruct the user of the client system to save work, close open programs, and then double-click the executable to install the agent. NOTE NOTE When the agent is installed, the hostname of the client system on which it resides appears in the Agent List. The system becomes an AR agent client system. 2. After you send the , confirm that the user has installed the agent on the client system; then do the following: a. Log into the ehealth Web interface with administrator permissions; then on the Systems & Apps page, click Application Response. b. Click Agents and make sure that the AR agent client system name appears in the list. Tip: If it does not appear, click the Refresh Data button. It can take up to 15 minutes for the AR agent to register with ehealth and appear on this page. c. If On does not appear in the State column for the agent, select the check box to the left of the name; then click the Start Selected Agents button. After the screen refreshes, the Status column displays a green icon. Step 2. Define the New Application. Now that the agent is installed on the system where your custom application is running, you must identify the application for Application Response. You do this by creating an application definition which consists of the following components: The application type The application s executable The application s server(s) You must specify both the application type and the application s executable name. Specifying servers is optional. If you do not specify the servers that are associated with your application, Application Response determines the correct servers to monitor based on the protocol and ports used for server activity. Application Response monitors all application activity without tracking it to particular servers. Your reports will identify all servers by the name Default-Other. Initially, Concord recommends that you allow Application Response to identify the application s servers.

4 4 In the future, when you modify this application definition or create others, you can specify servers. Your reports will identify servers by name. This can, for example, help you determine whether a particular server is the source of a performance problem (whereas Default- Other does not identify the specific server s name). Application Response provides an easy method for defining your custom application. The following procedure demonstrates how to create an application definition for a custom Windows application using CScenter as an example. To create a Windows application definition: 1. Under Application Response, click Applications. 2. Click the Add Application button. The Add an Application section of the Application Properties page appears. 3. In the Name field, specify a name for your custom application. This name must be 15 characters or less (for example, CScenter). 4. By default, Windows appears in the Application Type field. Choose this value if you plan to modify the default rule later using BT Studio. If you do not plan to modify the rule, select AvgWinResponse from the list. The rule sets associated with this new application type track more events to provide enhanced average response time reporting. (Tip: You must scroll up to view this selection.) 5. Click Next. The screen refreshes and displays a secondary Application Properties window. 6. In the Application Executable field, enter your application s executable name (the.exe extension is not required), and then click Insert to add it to the Values field. NOTE NOTE If you do not specify a value in this field, Application Response reports on activity for all Windows applications running on the AR agent client system, rather than for your application only. 7. Click Apply, and then click OK to close the window. The Application List refreshes and displays your application, which by default, is enabled for monitoring. As the AR agent monitors the application, it sends response time data to ehealth, where response path elements are created. The response path includes the client, application, module, and server involved in the measured response time. To view the average response time between the application client and the application server, run a Trend report as the next step describes. Step 3. Run a Trend Report. Run an ehealth Trend report to ensure that your agent is working, ehealth is receiving the response data, and to view the average response time data that the default rule provides. Trend reports can help you identify the cause of unsatisfactory response time for a specific application, or for a group of applications. These reports show application performance over a specified period of time, based on specific variables.

5 5 Before you run the test report, allow the user of the AR agent client system to use the custom application for at least 15 minutes or more. Your report will display more data the longer the agent observes and reports on the monitored application. To run a Trend report for your application: 1. On the ehealth Web interface, select the Run Reports tab. 2. In the Available Reports column, click Standard under Trend. 3. On the Run a Standard Trend Report page, select Element under Subject Type. 4. From the Element Type list, select Response Path. The screen refreshes and presents a list of response path elements. 5. From the Available elements list, select the response path that contains your application name; then click the down arrow to add it to the Elements selected field. (The response path includes the client, application, module, and server. For example: mysystem-cscenter-ar-default-other-ap.) 6. From the Variables list, hold the Ctrl key and click to select Avg. Client Response, Avg. Network Response, and Avg. Server Response. 7. Under Chart type, select the stacked bar. 8. Accept the default values in the Divide by and Sample Size fields. 9. Under Report Time, select Previous hour. 10. Click Generate Report. ehealth generates a report that shows the average client response time, average network response time, and average server response time for your application for the past hour. The following sample report shows that within the past hour, activity was detected between 10:10 and 10:20. The response time of the client, server, and network fluctuated for each of the five minute intervals during which the AR agent reported data for the application. Step 4. Deploy AR Agents Across Your Infrastructure. When you are satisfied with your test deployment, distribute the ARInstl.exe file to a larger number of systems. You can send this file through to additional target systems, or post the file to your Web output directory. Instruct users of the target systems to install the agent, and then verify that the hostnames for those systems appear in the Agent List. For instructions, refer to step 2 of To distribute the AR agent to a Windows client system: on page 3. Step 5. Organize Deployed Agents. After deploying AR agents across your infrastructure, consider creating groups of agents that share a common theme. For example, you can group agents by location or business function. This enables you to not only manage the agents more easily, but also simplifies the process of isolating performance problems.

6 6 ehealth enables you to create three levels of grouping. You can create agent sets, groups of agent sets, and agent set group lists. Spend some time planning your grouping strategy. Consider the number of agents and the locations of the systems on which they are running. For example, suppose you deployed 200 agents to systems that reside in different departments in various locations. Assume you have sales and customer service departments in your Atlanta, Boston, and Chicago offices. For this example, your grouping hierarchy could be as follows: Agent sets: Atlanta Sales Atlanta Customer Service Boston Sales Boston Customer Service Chicago Sales Chicago Customer Service Agent set groups: Sales Customer Service Atlanta Boston Chicago Agent set group list All To monitor application performance as experienced by the sales departments in the Boston and Chicago offices only, you use the Agent Set List page to select the Boston Sales and Chicago Sales agent sets and click Start. Reports display the average response time for your custom application on the systems in that department for those two locations only. The following procedures describe how to create agent sets, agent set groups, and agent set group lists. While you create agent sets through AR Agent Management, you create agent set groups and agent set group lists using the ehealth console. Tip: The agent sets that you create through AR Agent Management appear as client sets in the ehealth console. Each AR agent can belong to only one client set; and each client set is an element in ehealth. This information is relative to the data that you will later view in ehealth reports. To create an agent set: 1. On the ehealth Web interface, select the Systems & Apps tab. 2. Under Application Response, select Agents. 3. On the Agent List page, select the check boxes beside the agent names that you want to add to the new agent set. For example, select all agents that reside on sales systems in your Atlanta office. 4. Click the Change Primary Agent Set of Selected Agents button at the top of the page. 5. In the Select Agent Set window, select New and enter a name for your agent set (for example, AtlantaSales). This name cannot contain spaces. 6. Click OK. A message box appears, prompting you to confirm the change. 7. Click OK. The screen refreshes. The agent set name (AtlantaSales) appears in the Agent Set column for each agent that you included. Repeat this procedure to create additional agent sets. For example, create one for agents on Customer Service systems in your Boston office, and another for agents on Sales systems in your Chicago office, and so on.

7 7 The agent sets that you create through the Web interface appear in the ehealth console as client sets. When you log in to this console with administrator permissions, you can view and optionally group your client sets. To create a group of agent sets: 1. In the ehealth console, select Reports Edit Groups Response Groups. 2. In the Response Group dialog box, click Add in the Groups dialog box. 3. In the Add Groups dialog box, specify a name in the Group Name field. Use a name that corresponds to the agent sets that you will add to this group. For example: Sales. 4. Under Available Elements, select Response Client Set. The list refreshes and shows all response client sets that you created. 5. Select all of the client sets that you want to add to this group (all sets that contain Sales ); then click the top arrow to move them to the Group Members list. Tip: If the client sets for your agents do not appear, consult the user of the AR agent client system. Either there is no activity on that system, or sufficient time has not passed for the elements to appear in ehealth. 6. When you have completed the group, click OK. The new group appears in the Groups dialog box. 7. Optionally, repeat Steps 2 through 6 to create additional groups of client sets (for example, Customer Service, Atlanta, Boston, and Chicago). 8. When you finish adding groups, click Close in the Groups dialog box. To create an agent set group list: 1. In the ehealth console, select Reports Edit Group Lists Response Group Lists. 2. In the Response Group List dialog box, click Add in the Group List dialog box. 3. In the Add Group List dialog box, specify a name in the Group List Name field (for example, All). The Available Groups list displays all groups that are currently available. 4. Select all AR groups that you want to add; then click the top arrow to move them to the Group List Members list. 5. Click OK. The new group list appears in the Group List dialog box. 6. Click Close to save your group list and close the dialog box. Step 6. Configure Live Health to Notify You of Problems. If you use Live Health, you can configure this product to notify you of potential delays, failures, and other problems that occur with your custom applications. To do this, you must apply profiles to your response elements. About Response Elements. The agent sets that you created appear as client sets in the ehealth console. Each client set is represented by a response element in ehealth. For example there is a response element for each of the following agent sets that you created: Atlanta Sales Atlanta Customer Service Boston Sales Boston Customer Service Chicago Sales Chicago Customer Service Initially, you can use the Live Exceptions default profiles to monitor your response elements. Later, you can use the data that you accumulate over time to create new profile associations for your response elements. You use Live Exceptions to configure the profiles for the response elements that you want to monitor. The following is an example of a Live Exceptions browser that is configured to monitor numerous response elements. The alarms with a critical severity are listed at the top, followed by major alarms, minor alarms, and warnings.

8 8 ehealth begins to monitor your response elements using the default profile. However, the profile may not be well suited to your environment. Consult with application managers and/or business managers and refer to your Service Level agreements to determine the appropriate thresholds and other settings for your custom profile. Create a profile with values that are consistent with expectations of application performance. Initially, create a single custom profile with one rule to test. As an example, the following procedure describes how to set up a typical custom profile for monitoring Application Response paths. To create a custom Live Health profile and associate it to your AR groups: Use the following procedures to create a test profile and associate it with response elements. After you do so, Live Status displays alarms for your application based on the settings of the default profile. Later, create your own custom profiles based on your Service Level agreements. To associate the default Live Exceptions profiles to your response groups: 1. Open a Live Exceptions browser. 2. Select Setup Subjects to Monitor. 3. In the Setup Subjects dialog box, click New. 4. In the Setup Subjects Editor dialog box, select Group Lists under Subject Type. 5. From the Technology Type list, select Response. 6. From the Subjects list, select the group list that you created (for example, All). 7. From the Profiles list, select Response - Delay; then click Apply. When you click Apply, Live Health applies the profile to the response elements in the group list. 8. Click OK to close the dialog box. 1. Select Setup Subjects to Monitor, then click the Profiles button. The Profiles Manager dialog box appears. 2. Create a new profile as follows: a. Click New Profile. b. In the Create Profile dialog box, specify a name such as MY_AR_TEST_PROFILE; then click OK. c. Click New Rule. d. Verify that Rule Type is set to Variable. e. Under Element Type, select AR Response Path. f. Verify that Enable Rule is selected. g. Under Severity, select Major. h. Specify a rule message such as Test rule for transactions. i. Next to Time, specify 1 in each field. j. Under Variable, select Avg Response Time. k. Under Condition Type, select Time Over Threshold. l. Select Above and specify 100 in the Milliseconds field. m.click OK; then click OK in the Profiles Manager dialog box. n. When the Information dialog box appears, click OK to confirm that Live Health should send the data to the server. The Subjects to Monitor dialog box reappears.

9 9 3. Associate the new profile to groups as follows: a. In the Setup Subjects to Monitor dialog box, click New. The Setup Subjects Editor dialog box appears. b. Under Subject Type, select Group Lists. c. From the Technology list, select Response. d. From the Subjects list, select the response group lists to which you want to associate the profile. e. From the Profiles list, select the profile that you just created. f. Under Calendars, accept the default. g. Click OK in the Setup Subjects Editor dialog box. 4. Click OK in the Setup Subjects dialog box; then click OK in the message box that indicates that your message has been sent to the server. To create a Live Status view of your custom application: 1. Run Live Status: Select Start Programs ehealth Live Status. 2. In the Live Status window, select File New Diagram. 3. In the New Diagram dialog box, specify a title for the application view in the Title field. 4. Under Technology, select Response. The screen refreshes and displays your response group list. 5. Under Group Lists, select the group to which you just applied profiles. (For the initial test, only one group list appears. For example, All.) 6. Click OK. The Live Status window refreshes and then displays a diagram similar to the following. You can right-click on any group member to generate a report on it.