J2EE Real-Time Monitor

The J2EE Real-Time Monitor gathers real-time performance and availability data for all user activity on the J2EE application servers. This information is displayed in the real-time views of the Topaz for J2EE application. These views provide users with a current picture of component activity.

This section describes:

Usage Guidelines
Completing the J2EE Real-Time Monitor Form
Advanced Options
Setting Monitor Status Thresholds
Redirecting Data to Another Topaz System

Usage Guidelines

To activate the J2EE Real-Time monitor, and enable real-time communication between SiteScope and Topaz, perform the following procedure:

Access the SiteScope\bin folder, and run the following command:

magentservice -install

This installs a new service (SiteScope Agent) on the SiteScope machine. This command needs to be run once only, following installation, to activate the real-time monitor.

Note that before uninstalling SiteScope, you must run the following command:

magentservice -remove

For details on installing the Topaz for J2EE probe, refer to the Topaz Deployment and Installation Guide. For details on using Topaz for J2EE, refer to the Topaz for J2EE User's Guide.

Completing the J2EE Real-Time Monitor Form

To display the J2EE Real-Time Monitor Form, either click the Edit link for an existing J2EE Real-Time Monitor in a monitor table, or click the Monitor link on a group's detail page, and click the J2EE Real-Time Monitor link.

Complete the items on the J2EE Real-Time Monitor form as follows. When the required items are complete, click the Add button.

Server

Select the application server you want to monitor. Click choose server to enter a path name to a server. The options on the Choose Server for: J2EE (Real-Time) Monitor page include:

Hostname: Enter the hostname or IP address of the application server where the Topaz for J2EE probe is installed.
Port: Enter the port number used to connect to the Topaz for J2EE probe. The default port is 2003.
Click Browse to select the counters that SiteScope will monitor. The counter page displays all counters that were identified by the Topaz for J2EE probe.
Use the expand (+) or collapse (-) symbols to display the groups, classes, and methods. The highest level entries (Web, EJB, DB, and JNDI) correspond to the component entities in Topaz for J2EE (servlet, EJB, JDBC, and JNDI).
Select the check boxes of the groups, classes, or methods that you want to monitor. An entry in bold signifies that the class or method has been invoked. Note that when you select a group or class, all entries below it are automatically selected.
Click Choose. You are returned to the Add J2EE (Real-Time) Monitor in Group page. The Counter box displays the classes and methods that you selected.

Availability Monitor

The availability indicator is sent by the J2EE real-time monitor to Topaz for J2EE. You use this to verify the status of the application servers.

Target

Enter the logical name of the server you want to monitor. If you leave this empty, the host name is used.

Update every

Select how often the monitor should read the server statistics. The default interval is to run or update the monitor once every 10 minutes. Use the drop-down list to the right of the text box to specify another update interval in increments of seconds, minutes, hours, or days. The update interval must be 15 seconds or longer.

Title (Optional)

Enter a title text for this monitor. This text is displayed in the group detail page, in report titles, and other places in the SiteScope interface. If you do not enter a title text, SiteScope will create a title based on the host, server, or URL being monitored.

Advanced Options

The advanced options enable you to customize error and warning thresholds. If you do not set them, SiteScope uses pre-set defaults if available. If a default is not available, SiteScope is not able to utilize the condition.

Disable

Check this box to temporarily disable this monitor and any associated alerts. To enable the monitor again, clear the box.

Verify Error

Check this box if you want SiteScope to automatically run this monitor again if it detects an error. When an error is detected, the monitor will immediately be scheduled to run again once.

Note: To change the run frequency of this monitor when an error is detected, use the Update every (on errors) option below.

Note: The status returned by the Verify Error run of the monitor will replace the status of the originally scheduled run that detected an error. This may cause the loss of important performance data if the data from the verify run is different than the initial error status.

Warning: Use of this option across many monitor instances may result in significant monitoring delays in the case that multiple monitors are rescheduled to verify errors at the same time.

Update Every (on error)

You use this option to set a new monitoring interval for monitors that have registered an error condition. For example, you may want SiteScope to monitor this item every 10 minutes normally, but as often as every 2 minutes if an error has been detected. Note that this increased scheduling also affects the number of alerts generated by this monitor.

Stop Logging to Topaz

Check this box to have SiteScope stop logging data for this monitor to Topaz.

Note: This option only appears if you have registered the current SiteScope as an agent reporting to a Topaz server.

Schedule (Optional)

By default, SiteScope's monitors are enabled every day of the week. You may, however, schedule your monitors to run only on certain days or on a fixed schedule. Choose the Edit schedule link to create or edit a monitor schedule. For more information about working with monitor schedules, see the section on Schedule Preferences for Monitoring.

Monitor Description (Optional)

Enter additional information about this monitor. The Monitor Description can include HTML tags such as the <BR> <HR>, and <B> tags to control display format and style. The description appears on the Monitor Detail page.

Report Description (Optional)

Enter an optional description for this monitor that will make it easier to understand what the monitor does. For example, network traffic or main server response time. This description will be displayed on with each bar chart and graph in Management Reports and appended to the tool-tip displayed when you pass the mouse cursor over the status icon for this monitor on the monitor detail page.

Depends On (Optional)

To make the running of this monitor dependent on the status of another monitor or monitor group, use the drop-down list to select the monitor or group on which this monitor is dependent. Select None to remove any dependency.

Depends Condition (Optional)

If you choose to make the running of this monitor dependent on the status of another monitor, select the status condition that the other monitor or monitor group should have for the current monitor to run normally. The current monitor will be run normally as long as the monitor or group on which it depends reports the condition selected in this option.

List Order (Optional)

By default, new monitors are listed last on the Monitor Detail page. You may use this drop-down list to choose a different placement for this monitor.

Setting Monitor Status Thresholds

SiteScope Application Monitors enable you to set multiple threshold conditions to determine the status reported by each monitor. The individual conditions are combined as logical OR relationships so that when one or more of the conditions (for example any of the conditions for Error if) are met the monitor status is set to the applicable condition. If multiple conditions are met for more than one status condition (such as conditions for both error and for warning), the status for the monitor is set to the highest valued condition. Thus a match of an error condition and a warning condition would be reported as an error status, error being the highest value, warning the next highest and good the lowest value.

Error if: Use one or more of the selection boxes in this item to define one or more error conditions for this monitor. Use the drop-down lists in these items to change error threshold(s) relative to the counters you have selected to check with this monitor. After choosing a counter or parameter, use the comparison operator drop-down list to specify an error threshold such as: >= (greater than or equal to), != (not equal to), or < (less than) and enter a comparison value in the box provided. Comparison values should be entered as whole numbers.
Warning if: Use one or more of the selection boxes in this item to define one or more warning conditions for this monitor. Use the drop-down lists in these items to change warning threshold(s) relative to the counters you have selected to check with this monitor. Set these values relative to those you set for the error threshold in the Error if item.
Good if: You can set this monitor to return a good status for certain conditions. You may define those conditions here. Complete this item as you would for the Error if and Warning if items.

Redirecting Data to Another Topaz System

To redirect data from the real-time monitor to a Topaz system other than that which is connected to SiteScope, add the following parameters to the <SiteScope root folder>\groups\topaz.config file:
_topazAdminServerAddress=<Admin Server Host name>
_topazRealtimeGraphServer=<Graph Server Host name>