EntireX Mainframe Broker Monitoring using the Command Central GUI

EntireX Mainframe Broker Monitoring is a package with which you can monitor EntireX Broker on mainframe platforms z/OS and BS2000. Define an instance of your mainframe broker, using Command Central under UNIX or Windows. This instance - a so-called proxy - holds connection information to the remote broker.

This document applies to EntireX Brokers under z/OS and BS2000. It covers the following topics:

See also EntireX Mainframe Broker Monitoring and EntireX Mainframe Broker Monitoring using the Command Central Command Line.

Logging in to Command Central

Start of instruction setTo log in to Command Central

  1. Open an Internet browser and specify the URL of the Command Central Server: "http://<Command_Central_host>:<Command_Central_port>".

    This takes you to the Command Central Login page.

    On Windows you can also get to the Login page from the Command Central Start Menu entry.

  2. In the Login page, provide your user credentials and click Log In.

    This takes you to the page Home > Instances:

    graphics/cc-mf-gui_login.png

Creating an EntireX Mainframe Broker Connection

Start of instruction setTo create an EntireX Mainframe Broker connection

  1. Navigate to Home > Instances > ALL > EntireX Mainframe Administration and click the Configuration tab.

    graphics/cc-mf-gui_create-1.png

  2. Click the graphics/gui_plus.png button in the upper right corner to add a mainframe broker connection.

    graphics/cc-mf-gui_create-2.png

    Parameter Description
    Broker
    Instance name Required. Provide unique instance name. Permitted characters: letters, numbers, hyphen (-), underscore (_) and dot (.).
    Transport Transport over TCP or SSL. Default is TCP.
    Broker host Required. EntireX Broker host name or IP address. See Using the Broker ID in Applications in the ACI Programming documentation.
    Broker port Required. Port number in range from 1025 to 65535.
    SSL trust store Optional. Specifies the location of SSL trust store.
    SSL verify server Optional. The RPC server as SSL client checks the identity of the broker as SSL server.
    Credentials
    User Optional. The user ID for secured access to the broker.
    Password Optional. The password for secured access to the broker.

  3. Click Edit to configure the broker connection.

  4. Click Test to check the correctness of your input, or Save to apply your changes.

    graphics/cc-mf-gui_create-3.png

    If the instance is not valid, click the Logs tab of the instance for more information in the connection.log file.

Viewing the Runtime Status

Start of instruction setTo view the runtime status of the EntireX Mainframe Broker

  • Navigate to Home > Instances > ALL > EntireX Mainframe Broker <instance name> and click the Overview tab.

    graphics/cc-mf-gui_runtimeStatus.png

    Status Description
    Unresponsive The EntireX Mainframe Broker has not answered yet; the status is shown as unresponsive. This is the default status after creating an EntireX Mainframe Broker connection. For more information click the Logs tab to see the connection.log file.
    Stopped The EntireX Mainframe Broker is down after successful communication.
    Error If the EntireX Mainframe Broker communication returns an error, the status is shown as error. For more information click the Logs tab to see the connection.log file.
    Online The EntireX Mainframe Broker is running.

Configuring an EntireX Mainframe Broker Connection

Start of instruction setTo configure EntireX Mainframe Broker

  1. Navigate to Home > Instances > ALL > EntireX Mainframe Broker <instance name> and click the Configuration tab.

    graphics/cc-mf-gui_config-connection.png

    Parameter Description
    Broker
    Transport Transport over TCP or SSL. Default is TCP.
    Broker host Required. EntireX Broker host name or IP address. See Using the Broker ID in Applications in the ACI Programming documentation.
    Broker port Required. Port number in range from 1025 to 65535.
    SSL trust store Optional. Specifies the location of SSL trust store.
    SSL verify server Optional. The RPC server as SSL client checks the identity of the broker as SSL server.
    Credentials
    User Optional. The user ID for secured access to the broker.
    Password Optional. The password for secured access to the broker.

  2. Click Edit to configure the broker connection.

  3. Click Test to test the correctness of your input, or Save to apply your changes.

Configuring the Monitoring KPIs

Start of instruction setTo configure Monitoring KPIs of an EntireX Mainframe Broker

  1. Navigate to Home > Instances > ALL > EntireX Mainframe Broker <instance name>, click the Configuration tab and choose Monitoring KPIs.

    graphics/cc-mf-gui_config-kpi.png

    Parameter Description
    Clients
    Maximum Maximum number of clients in the overview graph.
    Marginal Marginal barrier for numbers of clients in the overview graph.
    Critical Critical barrier for numbers of clients in the overview graph.
    Servers
    Maximum Maximum number of servers in the overview graph.
    Marginal Marginal barrier for numbers of servers in the overview graph.
    Critical Critical barrier for numbers of servers in graph.
    Conversations
    Maximum Maximum number of conversations in the overview graph.
    Marginal Marginal barrier for numbers of conversations in the overview graph.
    Critical Critical barrier for numbers of conversations in the overview graph.

  2. Click Edit to adjust the scaling of the EntireX Mainframe Broker KPIs.

  3. Click Test to test the correctness of your input, or Apply.

Inspecting the Log Files

Start of instruction setTo inspect the log file of the broker connection

  1. Navigate to Home > Instances > ALL > EntireX Mainframe Broker <instance name> and click the Logs tab.

    graphics/cc-mf-gui_log-1.png

  2. In the Alias column you can select a log file to inspect.

    graphics/cc-mf-gui_log-2.png

Administering EntireX Mainframe Broker Monitoring

This section shows how to view and control EntireX Mainframe Broker Monitoring. You can enable and disable the monitoring of the real mainframe broker from within Command Central. This feature is particularly useful for major configuration changes in the mainframe environment, for example changing the user password. If you did not disable monitoring you would encounter a security error stating that the mainframe proxy is not able to log in to the real mainframe broker.

This section describes how to administer the monitoring of the following:

See also Administering EntireX Mainframe Broker Monitoring using the Command Central Command-line Interface.

Single Proxy Instance from EntireX Mainframe Administration

Here we administer the monitoring of a single mainframe broker proxy instance from the Administration tab of EntireX Mainframe Administration.

Start of instruction setTo disable/enable monitoring of a mainframe broker proxy instance

  1. On the Instances tab on the Command Central home page, click EntireX Mainframe Administration.

    graphics/cc-mf-gui_admin_enable-single-admin-1.png

  2. Change to the Administration tab. Make sure you are on the Monitoring page, see screenshot below (by default the starting page when changing to the Administration tab).

    Note:
    Only instances with a valid configuration will be displayed.

  3. In the respective row, click Disable to disable monitoring a mainframe broker proxy where this is currently enabled.

    graphics/cc-mf-gui_admin_enable-single-admin-2.png

    Or click Enable to enable monitoring for a broker proxy where this is currently disabled.

    graphics/cc-mf-gui_admin_enable-single-admin-3.png

    Confirm the action and the status will be changed.

  4. To verify, switch to the Overview tab of the selected mainframe broker proxy and click Refresh to update the status of this instance.

    graphics/cc-mf-gui_admin_enable-single-admin-4.png

    Status Paused indicates a mainframe broker instance where monitoring is disabled.

    Repeat steps 1-3 to enable monitoring for an instance where monitoring has been disabled.

All Proxy Instances from EntireX Mainframe Administration

Here we administer the monitoring of all mainframe broker proxy instances from the Administration tab of EntireX Mainframe Administration.

Start of instruction setTo disable/enable monitoring for all mainframe broker proxy instances

  1. On the Instances tab on the Command Central home page, click EntireX Mainframe Administration.

    graphics/cc-mf-gui_admin_enable-single-admin-1.png

  2. Change to the Administration tab. Make sure you are on the Monitoring page, see screenshot below (by default the starting page when changing to the Administration tab).

    Note:
    Only instances with a valid configuration will be displayed.

  3. Click Disable All or Enable All to disable or enable monitoring for all mainframe broker proxy instances. After short time you will see that the status for all instances has changed.

    graphics/cc-mf-gui_admin_enable-multiple-admin-2.png

Single Proxy Instance from the Instance's Administration Tab

Here we administer the monitoring of a single mainframe broker proxy instance from the instance's Administration tab.

Start of instruction setTo disable/enable monitoring of a mainframe broker proxy instance

  1. In the Command Central home page, click the Instances tab and select the mainframe broker proxy instance where you want to disable/enable monitoring.

    graphics/cc-mf-gui_admin_enable-single-instance-1.png

  2. Change to the Administration tab. Make sure you are on the Monitoring page, see screenshot below (by default the starting page when changing to the Administration tab).

    Note:
    If the configuration of this instance is invalid, an error message is displayed and you will not be able to change the Monitoring status.

  3. Click Disable to disable the selected mainframe broker proxy instance where monitoring is currently enabled, or Enable for an instance where monitoring is currently disabled. Confirm the action and the status will be updated.

    graphics/cc-mf-gui_admin_enable-single-instance-2.png

  4. To verify, switch to the Overview tab of the selected mainframe broker proxy and click Refresh to update the status of this instance.

    graphics/cc-mf-gui_admin_enable-single-instance-3.png

    Status Paused indicates a mainframe broker instance where monitoring is disabled.

    Repeat steps 1-3 to enable monitoring for an instance where monitoring has been disabled.

Displaying the Statistics

Start of instruction setTo display the Statistics of a running Broker instance

  1. In the Command Central Home page, click the Instances tab, then click the link associated with the Broker instance for which you want to see its statistics (same as Step 1 under Configuring an EntireX Mainframe Broker Connection).

  2. Click on the Administration tab

  3. Choose Statistics in the drop-down box.

  4. Choose tab General to see important setings and statistics, or choose tab Units of Work to see UOW statistics (summarized per service).

graphics/gui_stats.png

graphics/gui_stats-uow.png

Note:
The returned value "UOWStatusFailed" represents the sum of UOW status "backed-out", "cancelled", "timeout" and "discarded".

Displaying Services and Servers

Start of instruction setTo view services registered to an EntireX Mainframe Broker

  1. Navigate to Home > Instances > ALL > EntireX Mainframe Broker <instance name> and click the Administration tab.

    graphics/cc-mf-gui_services-1.png

  2. In the Class/Server/Service column, click on a service to display the servers providing this service.

    graphics/cc-mf-gui_services-2.png

    The Start Time is displayed in the local time where the SPM is running.

Deleting an EntireX Mainframe Broker Connection

Start of instruction setTo delete an EntireX Mainframe Broker connection

  1. Navigate to Home > Instances > ALL > EntireX Mainframe Administration and click the Configuration tab.

    graphics/cc-mf-gui_delete.png

  2. Select the broker connection you want to delete and press the graphics/gui_minus.png button in the upper right corner.
  3. Click OK to confirm deletion of this broker connection.

Security Considerations

If you change the credentials of a secured Mainframe Broker using a security system where the number of login attempts is limited (for example RACF), this might result in your user ID being revoked. Command Central regularly tries to connect to the Mainframe Brokers to retrieve and display the latest information. If the number of rejected login attempts is reached before the Mainframe Broker Connection has been reconfigured in Command Central, the security system might block this user and the affected Mainframe Brokers cannot be accessed.

This is avoided by the following behavior: if a Mainframe Broker Connection retrieves an EntireX ACI Security Error (message class 0008) all Mainframe Broker Connections with the same user are disabled by setting their runtime status to Error preventing any more connection attempts. The affected Mainframe Broker Connections are marked by "Credentials invalid" on the Configuration tab of Home > Instances > ALL > EntireX Mainframe Administration:

graphics/cc-mf-gui_security.png

The connection.log of the affected Mainframe Broker Connections contains the following entry:

<time stamp> <instance name> Security Error occurred for a Mainframe Broker proxy with same user ID '<user ID>' => this instance is set to runtime status Error!

Start of instruction setTo free Mainframe Broker Connections blocked due to changed credentials

  • Under Home > Instances > ALL > EntireX Mainframe Broker <instance name>, click the Configuration tab of the affected Mainframe Broker Connections and adjust the credentials accordingly.

    The actual runtime status is displayed, in contrast to the runtime status Error (see above).

Note:
Because the same security system such as RACF might be used on multiple hosts, only the user of each Mainframe Broker Connection is considered, not the host. This could result in Mainframe Broker Connections being disabled even if they are not directly affected by a credentials change.