To use an instance of CentraSite with webMethods Mediator, you must define a gateway that identifies the specific Mediator that you want to use. A gateway is a registry object that represents a particular instance of a policy enforcement point (in this case, an instance of webMethods Mediator). The target object specifies the address of the Mediator's deployment endpoint, which is the endpoint that CentraSite uses to interact with Mediator to deploy virtual service.

If you use multiple Mediators with an instance of CentraSite, you must create a gateway for each Mediator. To easily distinguish Mediators when they are viewed in CentraSite, consider adopting a naming convention for gateways that clearly identifies to which environment the target belongs (for example, development, test, production).

To communicate with CentraSite, Mediator must have a user account on CentraSite. You have to establish this user account before you can configure Mediator's connection to CentraSite. Because Mediator reads and writes to certain objects in the registry (such as virtual services), its user account requires a specific set of permissions. These permissions are explained in detail in the Mediator documentation.

webMethods Mediator collects performance data (for example, average response time, total request count, fault count) for the virtual services that it hosts. It publishes this data to CentraSite at regular intervals. When you install and configure Mediator, you must specify whether you want it to collect performance data and, if so, how often you want it to publish the data to CentraSite.

Software AG recommends that you always enable the collection of performance data on your Mediator. A publication interval of 15 minutes is appropriate for most environments. However, if Mediator handles a very high volume of traffic, consider increasing this interval to 30 or 60 minutes. CentraSite stores the performance data that it receives from the Mediator in the performance log. You can look at the performance information for a particular virtual service by viewing the virtual service's Performance profile.

The performance data that CentraSite collects from Mediator can cause the log to grow quite rapidly. When the log grows very large, queries to the log can significantly affect CentraSite's performance. To prevent this from happening, you have to routinely purge old entries from the log.

CentraSite provides a log-purging utility that you can use to automatically purge the log on a scheduled basis. You can use this utility to select a time interval for which you may want to retain the data. When you configure the log-purging utility, you can specify whether you want to delete the purged log entries or export them to an archive file for future reference.

In addition to performance metrics, webMethods Mediator can also log event data. Event data supplies information about activities or conditions that occur on Mediator.

Mediator logs two basic kinds of events:

The event data that Mediator collects about itself are referred to as lifecycle events. These events represent activities or conditions that occur during the general operation of Mediator. Lifecycle events are reported for the completion of significant processes (for example, Mediator start-up) and the detection of operational exceptions and policy violations. Mediator logs lifecycle events if you configure it to do so.

Mediator collects the following types of event data relating to the execution of virtual services. Mediator does not collect this type of information automatically. If you want to capture these types of events, you must deploy run-time policies to do so:

Mediator publishes event data as Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) traps. When you install Mediator, you can configure it to publish this data to CentraSite, to another third-party SNMP server or to both. If you choose to log event data to CentraSite, you can view the events using the CentraSite Control user interface.

Like the performance log, the event log grows larger over time. If it becomes very large, queries to the log cause performance issues with CentraSite. To manage the size of the event log, you have to occasionally purge old entries from it. As a general guideline, consider maintaining only three months of event data in the log or as required. For example, if you routinely log request and response messages you might need to purge more often.

You can configure CentraSite's log-purging utility to purge the event log on a scheduled basis. When you configure the purging facility, you can specify whether you want to delete the purged entries or export them to an archive file for future reference.

Instead of (or in addition to) using webMethods Mediator for mediation and policy enforcement, you can use other third-party products with CentraSite. Support for third-party policy-enforcement and run-time governance tools is available through integrations that are provided by members of the Software AG Community. These tools are made available through the Software AG Community Web site at Software AG TECHcommunity Website .