The Monitors tab in JaxView is used to manage monitor configurations and templates. A monitor in the context of JaxView is a message monitoring module. As JaxView intercepts messages that are being received by a specific Web service end point, monitors assigned to that specific operation will generate metrics from the message. These metrics can include performance metrics for the operation, the size of the message, faults generated, content of the message and its headers. See the section Monitor Types for more information on the capabilities and properties for the different JaxView monitors.
You can use the Monitors tab to add new monitor configurations to the Monitors object tree or to edit existing configurations. You can also use the Monitors object tree action menus to assign monitors to a Web service operation, associate a monitor configuration to a rule and assign an alert definition to the rule. Monitors are associated to Services via the operations presented by the Service. A single service operation can have multiple monitors assigned to it. The following figure describes the relationship between Services, operations, monitors, rules and alerts.
The Monitors tab is divided in to two main sections. On the left side is the Monitors object tree that you use to add, edit and navigate to monitor definitions. On the right is a display panel you use to edit monitor definitions or view monitor properties and associations. The following sections describe how you work with monitors in JaxView.
Note: The object assignment model used in JaxView is designed to make management of multiple services and monitors easy. It can, however, lead to some confusion. A single JaxView monitor configuration definition can be assigned to multiple service operations in the environment. After this assignment all instances of that definition continue to be linked via the definition in the Monitors tab. Any changes made to a single instance of that monitor will be made to all instances that use the same definition. See the section Object Assignment in JaxView for more information.
The Monitors object tree is a hierarchy of monitor objects defined in JaxView. Monitor definitions that are in the Monitors object tree can be assigned to Operation nodes in the Services tab. If any rule definitions and alert definitions have been assigned to the monitor definition, these are included in the Monitors object tree as child nodes to the applicable monitor node. The following figure is an example of the Monitors object tree showing several monitor nodes with one node expanded to show the rule and alert definitions that are associated to the monitor.
The contents of the right side display panel of the Monitors tab page is determined by the context selected in the left Monitors object tree. Each object node in the left Monitors object tree includes an action menu that you access by selecting the node and then use the right mouse click to display the node action menu. The following table describes the nodes in the tree and their associated actions:
Monitor Node Actions
|
Object Node |
Action Menu Item |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Monitors Root node |
Add New Monitor |
Add a new monitor definition to the Monitors object tree |
|
Delete Multiple Monitors |
Delete more than one monitor definition from the Monitors object tree |
|
|
Monitor type definition node |
Add New Rule |
Add a new rule definition to be associated with this monitor definition |
|
Assign to Operation |
Assign the selected monitor to one or more Operations in the Services object tree |
|
|
Assign Rule |
Assign a rule to the selected monitor definition |
|
|
Refresh Monitor |
Manually run the monitor regardless of any Interval setting Note: This is only applicable to “active” monitor types |
|
|
Edit |
Edit the selected monitor definition |
|
|
Delete |
Delete the selected monitor definition from the object tree. Note: This action will remove the selected monitor from all operations. To remove or un-assign a monitor from only a specific operation use the Assign to Operation menu item. |
|
|
Enable |
Enable the selected monitor definition (if it has been previously disabled) |
|
|
Disable |
Disable the selected monitor definition. |
|
|
Rule definition node |
(Rule edit actions ) |
(See the Rules Tab section for more information) |
|
Alert definition node |
(Alert edit actions ) |
(See the Alerts Tab section for more information) |
Selecting a node in the Monitors object tree displays the Monitor List table in the right panel. This table displays the most recent monitor measurements for all instances of the selected monitor configured in JaxView. Note that the same monitor definition can be assigned to multiple service operations. The following figure is an example of an Monitor List table displayed in the right side panel when a specific Response Time Monitor definition node is selected.
The Monitor List table includes seven columns which contain the following information:
JaxView includes different types of monitors. They are organized into five categories according to the type of measurement that they provide.
|
Category |
Monitor Types |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Performance Management Monitors |
Message Content Monitor Message Size Monitor Performance Monitor Total Usage Rate Monitor |
These monitor intermediaries measure the performance of a Web service. They generate metrics such as round trip time and message sizes |
|
Fault Management Monitors |
Fault Content Monitor Fault Percentage Monitor Fault Rate monitor |
These monitors are for measuring the fault rate and total fault count for a Web service. They can also monitor fault types |
|
Client Metering Monitors |
Client Access Monitor Client Usage Rate Monitor |
These monitors are designed for measuring client usage of a web service. They also generate metrics around the number faults generated by the client usage and unauthorized attacks on the web service. |
|
Active Monitors |
SOAP Heartbeat Monitor REST Heartbeat Monitor |
Active monitors send a synthetic request to a Web service, on a schedule, and waits for a response. The user can then set a threshold on the round trip time and the value of the response from the Web service. |
|
J2EE Monitors |
Java Transaction API Monitor J2EE Container Server Log Monitor |
These monitors will measure J2EE related metrics such as JTA Stats or J2EE server container logs. |
Before you can assign a monitor to a Web service, the monitor must be defined in the Monitors object tree. By default, JaxView is configured with four monitor definitions in the Monitors object tree. You use the Monitors object tree action menu to add and edit monitor definitions. Selecting to add or edit a monitor definition displays the Add or Edit monitor form in the right side view panel.
The Edit Monitor form is divided into five sub panels. You use these panels to view information about the relationships for this monitor and to edit the monitor definition. The following figure shows an example of the Edit Monitor panel showing the five sub panels.
The
first two sub panels – Operations and Assigned Rules - are
expanded by default. The Operations sub panel displays a list of Web
service operations to which this monitor definition is assigned. The
Assigned Rules sub panel displays a list of any event threshold rules
that have been assigned to this monitor. The other three sub panels
are collapsed by default. You use these sub panels to configure the
settings for the monitor definition. The Monitor Settings and
Threshold Settings are the primary sub panels for configuring the
monitor definition. The Baseline Settings sub panel is used to
configure optional metrics baselining settings. The monitor
configuration properties in the sub panels are described in the
following sections for each monitor type.
To add a new monitor definition
See the section Monitor Types for more information on the capabilities and properties of the different JaxView monitors.
The monitor configurations in the Monitors object tree are updated with a status icon. Monitor status is reported according to priority of severity with an status of 'error' having the highest priority. This status reflects the status displayed in the Services tab. The meaning is somewhat different in the Monitors tab. Depending on the monitor object assignment, a single monitor configuration may be deployed to multiple Web service operations. The icon for the monitor configuration object in the Monitors object tree is set according to the highest priority severity for all instances of that monitor. For example, if you have a Response Time Monitor configuration deployed to 26 different Web service operations, the monitor icon in the Monitors object tree will be set to the highest priority status of all 26 instances of that monitor configuration. This is to say that if only one of the 26 monitors is reporting a response time that exceeds the Error Condition threshold setting for the monitor configuration, the monitor icon in the Monitors object tree will be set to an error icon. The following section gives more explanation of the monitor status precedence hierarchy.
The Monitor status is set according to a hierarchy criticality with the most critical condition that is met taking precedence. For example, assume that a performance monitor has a Error Condition threshold set for Operation Response Time (ms) > 500 msec and a Warning Condition threshold set for of > 300 msec. If the response time measured by the monitor for a message is 600 msec then this monitor will report an error status. Error thresholds take precedence over warning and good thresholds. The following figure illustrates this order of precedence in monitor status.
