Nimsoft Monitor websphere Guide v1.5 series
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Contents Chapter 1: websphere 1.5 7 Probe installation... 9 Prerequisites... 9 The Websphere installation wizard... 14 websphere GUI... 17 The left pane... 19 The right pane... 21 The tool buttons... 23 websphere Configuration... 23 General Setup... 23 Creating a new group... 24 Creating a new resource... 24 Creating a new profile... 24 Launching the Message Pool Manager... 25 Creating a Resource... 27 Editing the Properties for a Resource... 32 Creating a Profile... 33 Editing the Monitor Properties... 35 Adding Monitors to be measured... 37 Enabling the monitors for QoS and Alarming... 39 Rescanning the profiles... 40 Error Codes... 41 Contents 5
Chapter 1: websphere 1.5 This description applies to websphere probe version 1.5x. Business based on Web depends on a high degree of quality and availability. It is therefore of high importance that the security, availability and performance of the WebSphere Application Servers (WAS) is as high as possible. This is done by monitoring and managing the servers, components and services to ensure optimal performance. The websphere monitoring probe has the capability of handling all common monitoring and data collection tasks. The probe collects and stores data and information from the monitored system at customizable intervals. You can easily define alarms to be raised and propagated to the Enterprise Console when the specified thresholds are breached. Monitoring capabilities The following WebSphere Server entities may be monitored: The Java Virtual machine (JVM). Execution queues and threads. Enterprise Java Beans (EJB). Servlets and Java Server Pages (JSP). Java Transaction API (JTA). Java Database Connection Pools. (JDBC). Java Messaging Services (JMS). Java Connector Architecture (JCA). This section contains the following topics: Documentation Changes (see page 8) Probe installation (see page 9) The Websphere installation wizard (see page 14) websphere GUI (see page 17) websphere Configuration (see page 23) Chapter 1: websphere 1.5 7
Probe installation Documentation Changes This table describes the version history for this document. Version Date What's New? 1.51 12/31/2010 Added support for automatic scanning of newly added servers. Related Documentation Fixed the issues related to Scanning. Changed the probe startup mechanism to start up java. Changed the Cfg structure. Monitors are now part of the profile section. Documentation for other versions of the websphere probe (../../websphere.html) Getting Started with Nimsoft Probes Nimsoft Probes Reference 8 websphere Guide
Probe installation Probe installation Prerequisites The websphere probe can be installed on either a server running WebSphere or on a remote computer. If installed on a server running WebSphere, all environment files needed by the probe are present on the server. If installed on a remote computer, the environment files needed by the probe must be copied to this computer. For WebSphere Ver 5 and 6.0 Copy the following folders from the WebSphere directory of the WebSphere server. etc libs For WebSphere Ver 6.1 and 7.0 Copy the following folders from the WebSphere directory of the WebSphere server: runtimes plugins Note: If the probe is installed on a remote computer running an OS different from the server running the WebSphere software (if e.g. the remote computer runs Windows and the server running WebSphere is a Solaris computer), you can copy the etc and lib folders as described above. If the websphere probe is running on Windows OS, the AppServer directory for Windows should be used. Similarly, if the probe is running on Linux or Solaris, the AppServer directory from the respective environment should be used. Chapter 1: websphere 1.5 9
Probe installation JVM A Java Virtual Machine (JVM) of the required type and version must be downloaded from IBM s web site and installed on the computer running the WebSphere probe, and the PATH has to contain the java executable. The version must match the JVM version used to run WAS. You can also copy the Java folder from the WebSphere directory of the Windows WebSphere server to the remote Windows computer in which probe needs to be installed. Ensure that a version of java.exe exists in the path as described below. This is a prerequisite for dropping the probe, the version of java.exe is at this point not critical. Later (during the installation wizard launched when double-clicking the probe) you will be asked to select the java.exe version matching the JVM version used to run WAS. On UNIX: Set the JAVA_HOME environment variable to the directory in which IBM JVM is installed, and export JAVA_HOME. For example, export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/ibm-java2-i386-50/jre/bin Make sure that the PATH variable includes $JAVA_HOME. For example, export PATH=$JAVA_HOME:$PATH Open a shell as user root and use the command java version. The output should show the IBM java version installed. 10 websphere Guide
Probe installation Restart NMS to "read" the path by giving the two following commands in the shell:./niminit stop./niminit start Open the Controller probe GUI in the Infrastructure Manager and click the Robot Environment button. Double-click "path" in the list and verify that NMS has java included in the path. Chapter 1: websphere 1.5 11
Probe installation On Windows: Users may set their Java path by right-clicking on 'My Computer' and selecting 'Properties'. Under the 'Advanced' tab, there is a button that allows you to set the 'Environment variables'. Click on this and alter the 'Path' variable so that it also contains the path to the IBM Java executable. Open a DOS window and use the command java version. The output should show that IBM java version is installed. Open the Service Controller by selecting Programs > Nimsoft Monitoring > Infrastructure Service Controller. 12 websphere Guide
Probe installation Click first Stop and then Start to enable NMS to include java in the path. Open the Controller probe GUI in the Infrastructure Manager and click the Robot Environment button. Double-click "path" in the list popping up and verify that NMS has java included in the path. PMI Performance Monitoring Infrastructure (PMI) needs to be enabled on the Websphere Application Server in order for the probe to gather performance data. Read more about PMI here: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wasinfo/v6r0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.web sphere.express.doc/info/exp/ae/cprf_pmidata.html http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wasinfo/v6r0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.web sphere.express.doc/info/exp/ae/cprf_pmidata.html Chapter 1: websphere 1.5 13
The Websphere installation wizard WAS versions Some versions of the WebSphere Application Server (WAS) contain an internal error that prevents external PMI clients, like the WebSphere probe, to obtain correct PMI values from the server. For both WAS 5 and 6 the error is corrected in fix number PK20342. For WAS 5 the error is fixed in version 5.1.1.10. For WAS 6 the error is fixed in version 6.0.2.9, older versions like 6.0.2.5 and 6.0.2.7 contains the error. When installing the probe, a wizard will assist you through the initial probe configuration. The Websphere installation wizard 1. The first time you double-click the line representing the probe in the Infrastructure Manager after the probe has been distributed, the installation wizard automatically will be launched. The Welcome picture appears on your screen. Read the instructions given carefully. Select your WebSphere version and click the Next button. 14 websphere Guide
The Websphere installation wizard 2. Browse to the folders containing the required WebSphere libraries and java home. If first browsing for the library folder, the setup will suggest the destination of the java home folders for you. Verify that the suggested destination is correct and click the Next button. Chapter 1: websphere 1.5 15
The Websphere installation wizard 3. The last dialog validates the files. The first line should say Requirements met! Click the Next button to finish the wizard. If something went wrong, the output listed in the window will have a red color, and the first line will state that the requirements was NOT met. In that case, you must click the Back button, check that you have the correct environment files and try again. 4. You will be asked to restart the probe to initialize the probe. Click the Yes button. 16 websphere Guide
websphere GUI websphere GUI Double-click the line representing the probe in the Infrastructure Manager to bring up the GUI. The GUI will initially appear as the one shown below: An empty group called Default Group and a QoS node containing four QoS definitions. Chapter 1: websphere 1.5 17
websphere GUI The probe does not monitor anything yet! First you have to define what to monitor: 1. Start by creating a resource. This is described in the section Creating a Resource. A resource is the computer in the cluster running the Network Node software. 2. Create one or more profiles. A profile is a cluster member. Note that one profile will automatically be created under the resource created in the previous step. To add more profiles, do as described in the section Creating a Profile. 3. Add monitors to be measured. This is described in the section Adding Monitors to be measured. See the section websphere GUI for a description of the GUI and the different terms, elements, tool buttons and window panes involved. Note that you must click the Apply button to activate any configuration modifications done. The window consists of a row of tool buttons and two window panes. 18 websphere Guide
websphere GUI The left pane The left pane shows the monitoring groups defined and the QoS definitions. During the initial probe configuration wizard, the Default group (with an underlying resource and one or more profiles) and the standard QoS definitions are created and will appear in the pane. Groups Using groups makes the management easier when monitoring large configurations. You can create new groups by right-clicking a group and selecting New Group (or by clicking the New Group tool button). Resources A group contains one or more resources. A resource is a computer being monitored, identified with its hostname or IP address. You can create new resources by right-clicking a group and selecting New Resource (or by clicking the New Resource tool button). Profiles QoS One or more profiles can be defined for each resource. You can create new profiles by right-clicking a Resource and selecting New Profile (or by clicking the New Profile tool button). A profile is initially "empty" (contains no monitors). To add monitors, you simply do as described in the section Adding Monitors to be measured. This node contain the standard QoS definitions included with the probe package. These can be selected when editing the monitoring properties for a monitor. To define your own QoS definitions, you right-click the QoS node and select New. Right-clicking in the left pane Right-clicking in the pane opens a pop-up menu, giving you the following possibilities: New Resource Available only when a group, resource or profile is selected. Opens the Resource dialog, enabling you to define a new resource to be monitored. New Profile Available only when a resource or a profile is selected. Opens the Profile dialog, enabling you to define a new profile to be monitored. New Group Available only when a group, resource or profile is selected. Chapter 1: websphere 1.5 19
websphere GUI Creates a new group where you may place resources (with their underlying profiles and monitors) to be monitored. The new group will appear in the pane with the name New Group. Right-click the new group and select Rename to give the group a name of your own choice. To move a resource from one group to another, right-click the resource and select Edit to open the resource s properties dialog, where you may select the group you want the resource to belong to ( see also the section Creating a Resource). Edit Available only when a resource or profile is selected. Lets you edit the properties for the selected element, depending what you have selected (resource, profile or QoS definition). Delete Lets you delete the selected element (group, resource, profile or QoS definition). Note that the Default group can not be deleted, but if you remove all elements from the group, it will not appear the next time you restart the probe. Rename Lets you delete the selected element (group, resource or profile). 20 websphere Guide
websphere GUI The right pane The contents of the right pane depends on what you select in the left pane: QoS definitions when the QoS sub-node is selected in the left-pane. Resources when a group is selected in the left-pane. Profiles when a resource is selected in the left-pane. Monitors when a profile is selected in the left-pane. Right-clicking in the pane gives you the following possibilities: When the QoS definitions are listed in the pane: Right-clicking in the list opens a small menu, giving you the possibility to add or delete a QoS definition. When the resources are listed in the pane: Right-clicking in the list opens a small menu, giving you the following options: New Opens the Resource dialog, allowing you to define a new resource. See the section Creating a Resource. Edit Opens the Resource dialog for the selected resource, allowing you to modify the properties. See the section Creating a Resource. Delete Deletes the selected resource. Activate Activates the selected resource. Deactivate Deactivates the selected resource. When the profiles are listed in the pane: Right-clicking in the list opens a small menu, giving you the following options: New Opens the Profiles dialog, allowing you to define a new resource. See the section Creating a Profile. Edit Opens the Profiles dialog for the selected resource, allowing you to modify the properties. See the section Creating a Profile. Delete Deletes the selected profile. Chapter 1: websphere 1.5 21
websphere GUI Activate Activates the selected profile. Deactivate Deactivates the selected profile. When the monitors are listed in the pane: Right-clicking in the list opens a small menu, giving you the following options: Edit Opens the Monitor properties dialog for the selected monitor, allowing you to modify the properties. Delete Deletes the selected monitor. Refresh Refreshes the window to display the most current measured values for the monitors. Browse Select Browse to manoeuvre to the folder the monitor belongs to in the WebSphere Browser. Monitor Opens the monitor window and starts filling a graph with the values measured of the selected monitor. 22 websphere Guide
websphere Configuration The tool buttons The configuration tool also contains a row of tool buttons: The General Setup button The New Group button The New Resource button The New Profile button The Message Pool Manager button websphere Configuration General Setup Clicking the General Setup button opens the General Setup dialog. Field General Log-level Environment Advanced Description Sets the level of details written to the log file. Log as little as possible during normal operation, to minimize disk consumption. Reflects the folder containing the local WebSphere installation as defined during the probe installation wizard. If the Client security files, located in the Security folder specified in the probe installation wizard are password protected, please specify the valid passwords here. Chapter 1: websphere 1.5 23
websphere Configuration Creating a new group You may create a new group by selecting the New group button in the menu-bar. The new group will appear in the pane with the name New Group. Right-click the new group and select Rename to give the group a name of your own choice. Creating a new resource You may create a resource by selecting the group it should belong to and clicking the New resource icon in the menu-bar. A wizard will be launched, guiding you through the process of creating a resource. See Creating a Resource for details. Creating a new profile You may create a new profile by selecting the resource it should belong to and press the New profile button in the menu-bar. See the section Creating a Profile for details. 24 websphere Guide
websphere Configuration Launching the Message Pool Manager The Message Pool Manager can be opened by clicking the Message Pool button in the Tool bar. The alarm messages for each alarm situation are stored in the Message Pool. Using the Message Pool Manager, you can customize the alarm text, and you may also create your own messages. Chapter 1: websphere 1.5 25
websphere Configuration Note that variable expansion in the message text is supported. If typing a $ in the Alarm text field, a dialog pops up, offering a set of variables to be chosen: Resource The resource referred to in the alarm message. Host The host computer where the alarm condition occurs. Port The communication port on the host. Profile The name of the profile being monitored. Node The name of the node in the cluster. Server The name of the server in the cluster. Monitor The monitor (checkpoint) referred to in the alarm message. Desc The description of the monitor Key The monitor key (normally the same as the name of the monitor). Value The value used in the alarm message. Oper The operand to be combined with the value and the threshold in the alarm message. Thr 26 websphere Guide
websphere Configuration The alarm threshold defined. Unit The unit to be combined with the value in the alarm message (for example Boolean). Creating a Resource You may create a new resource by selecting the group it should belong to and clicking the New resource icon in the menu-bar. A configuration wizard will be launched, helping you to creating the new resource. 1. The first dialog contains only information. Read the instructions in the dialog and click the Next button. Chapter 1: websphere 1.5 27
websphere Configuration 2. In the next dialog coming up, you must specify the host name (or IP address) of the WebSphere server (later also called resource) to monitor. Specify also the SOAP port, which by default is 8880 for standalone WebSphere Servers, but may also be 8879 for WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment (clustered environments). Click the Next button to continue. 28 websphere Guide
websphere Configuration 3. Specify a user name and password with administrative privileges to the WebSphere server. Choose if you want to use SSL (default turned on and recommended in production environments). 4. Click the Next button to continue. Chapter 1: websphere 1.5 29
websphere Configuration 5. The probe now lists the node/server combinations found on the host. Check Select all to select all or select the one(s) you want to monitor from the list. Note: It is recommended to create separate resources for each cluster node to achieve a well arranged monitoring environment. 6. Click the Finish button to complete the wizard. 30 websphere Guide
websphere Configuration 7. Click the Apply button in the Main window to activate your new resource. The new resource should now appear in the left pane of the probe GUI. All node/server combinations detected during the Resource wizard will be listed as Profile child-nodes under the Profile node. On selecting a Profile, the WebSphere browser will appear as a tree-structure. The browser lists all monitors available in a tree structure. Selecting a folder in this tree-structure, the monitors found will be listed in the right pane of the probe GUI, enabling you to select the ones you want to monitor. Chapter 1: websphere 1.5 31
websphere Configuration Editing the Properties for a Resource You can edit the properties for a resource by right-clicking a resource and selecting Edit. This brings up the Resource dialog Field Hostname or IP address Port Active Group Check interval Alarm message Description The hostname or IP-address to the WebSphere server to monitor This is the SOAP Connector port for administration. Default is 8800, but it may also be 8879 in clustered environments. Use this option to activate/deactivate monitoring of the resource. Here you can select the group to which the resource should belong The check interval defines the how often the probe checks the values of the monitors on the resource. Select the alarm message to be sent if the resource does not respond. Note that you can edit the message or define your own ones, using the Message Pool Manager. Host information tab Host information tab User name and password Here you can define login user name and password for the probe to log on the resource, if necessary. 32 websphere Guide
websphere Configuration "Activate statistic set automatically on PMI" The PMI level set by the WebSphere system administrator may deny the probe access to some of the monitors. Selecting this option, the probe will set the PMI to a level, allowing it to access all monitors. NOTE: You should be very careful when doing this, because this may influence the performance of the WebSphere server. Ask the WebSphere system administrator first! Advanced alarming tab How many profiles must have a monitor in alarm state before an alarm is sent. This parameter defines the minimum number of profiles where the same monitor has exceeded the defined alarm threshold before an alarm is sent. Note that this parameter can be individually overridden for each of the monitors by setting the Always alarm option in the monitors properties dialog. Creating a Profile Normally all node/server combinations were detected and added during the resource wizard. You may also create new profiles by right-clicking the profile and selecting New or edit the properties for an existing profile by right-clicking the profile and selecting Edit. This brings up the Profile dialog where the following properties can be edited. Field Active Name Node Description Use this option to activate/deactivate monitoring of the profile. Give the new profile a unique and descriptive name. You may for example use the format <node>.<server>. This field specifies the name of the node in the cluster. Chapter 1: websphere 1.5 33
websphere Configuration Server Resource Alarm Message This field specifies the name of the server in the cluster. Here you can select the resource to which the node/server belongs. The alarm message selected here will be sent if the profile does not respond. If the newly defined node/server is not recognized, this is indicated with the following symbol: 34 websphere Guide
websphere Configuration Editing the Monitor Properties Edit the properties for monitor by right-clicking it in the window and selecting Edit. Field Name Key Description Description This is the name of the monitor. The name will be inserted into this field when the monitor is fetched from the WebSphere browser, but you are allowed to modify the name. This is a read-only field, describing the monitor key This is a description of the monitor. This description will be inserted into this field when the monitor is fetched from the WebSphere browser, but you are allowed to modify it. Chapter 1: websphere 1.5 35
websphere Configuration Field Value Definition Description This drop-down list lets you select which value to be used, both for alarming and QoS: You have the following options: The current value, meaning that the most current value measured will be used. The delta value (current previous). This means that the delta value calculated from the current and the previous measured sample will be used. Delta per second. This means that the delta value calculated from the samples measured within a second will be used. The average value of the last and current sample: (current + previous) / 2. This activates the monitoring of the probe. Enable Monitoring Operator Threshold Unit Message Token Key not found alarm Always alarm Publish Quality of Service Selecting this option activates the monitoring. Note that the monitor will also be selected in the list of monitors in the right window pane when this option is selected, and that you can enable/disable monitoring of the checkpoint from that list. Select from the drop-down list the operator to be used when setting the alarm threshold for the measured value. Example: > 90 means alarm condition if the measured value is above 90. = 90 means alarm condition if the measured value is exact 90. The alarm threshold value. An alarm message will be sent if this threshold is exceeded. This field specifies the unit of the monitored value. (for example %, Mbytes etc.). The field is read-only. Select the alarm message to be issued if the specified threshold value is breached. These messages are kept in the message pool. The messages can be modified in the Message Pool Manager. When this option is selected, an alarm will be sent if no key is detected. This may for example happen after a restart of the WebSphere server, where it takes some time before all monitors are restored. When selected, a threshold breach for this monitor will result in an error message, independent of the value of this monitor on other profiles in the cluster. This overrides the option Advance Alarming on the Resource properties dialog Select this option if you want QoS messages to be issued on the monitor. 36 websphere Guide
websphere Configuration Field QoS Name Description Select the name to be used on the QoS message issued. Adding Monitors to be measured To select a monitor to be measured for a Profile, you simply select the Profile in the left pane and manoeuvres through the WebSphere browser appearing under Profiles node. Selecting a folder in this tree-structure, the monitors found will be listed in the right pane of the probe GUI, enabling you to select the ones you want to monitor. Chapter 1: websphere 1.5 37
websphere Configuration Selecting the Profiles node, all monitors currently being measured will be listed in the right pane. Note that you can also select/deselect monitors here. 38 websphere Guide
websphere Configuration Right-clicking a monitor and selecting Browse will take you to the folder that the monitor belongs to in the WebSphere Browser. The monitors in that folder will now be listed in the right pane. Enabling the monitors for QoS and Alarming You can now see the current values for the monitors in the Values column in the monitor list of the GUI. To enable the probe to send QoS data and/or send alarms on threshold breaches, you have to modify the properties for each of the monitors. This is done by double-clicking a monitor (or right-clicking and selecting Edit), which brings up the monitor s properties dialog. See the Editing the Monitor Properties section for details. Chapter 1: websphere 1.5 39
websphere Configuration Rescanning the profiles The websphere probe automatically scans the profiles in the host server after a pre-configured interval (15 minutes) and loads any profiles available in the host server under the respective Resources nodes in the probe GUI. If you wish to manually scan the profiles, click the Rescan for host button from toolbar. A message appears informing the scan in progress. If any of the profiles available in the host servers has not been added to websphere probe, the profile is added to the probe GUI. If all the profiles currently available in the host server are already loaded under the respective resources in the websphere probe, the following message appears: 40 websphere Guide
websphere Configuration Error Codes The error codes listed below may occur in the probe s log file, available by right-clicking the probe in the Infrastructure Manager and selecting View Log. Error code 1500 and 1503 may also appear in the WebSphere browser window. 1500 Lost connection to the WebSphere server. Not able to connect to the WebSphere server. Subtext: The reason for the connection problem. 1501 and 1502 The given key (measurepoint) is not found on the server. 1503 The statistic information is not available on the server. Subtext: Why the information is not available (too low PMI level,..). In addition: When this message appears in the WebSphere browser window, it means that the key at the moment is not available. Chapter 1: websphere 1.5 41