Introduction to Monitoring Approaches

EntireX and other Software AG products provide multiple approaches to monitor your EntireX environment:

The following difference is significant:

  • The Application Monitoring approach monitors an EntireX application along its message path - back and forth - measuring response times at multiple measuring points.

  • The other approaches monitor EntireX on an infrastructure component level, for exampe EntireX Broker or EntireX RPC servers.

This document will help you decide on the right approach for your organization.

Application Monitoring

Application Monitoring is an EntireX feature that enables you to monitor the response times in your distributed applications, and it also enables you to monitor certain error situations. The heart of Application Monitoring is the EntireX Application Monitoring Data Collector, which collects the response time data of each involved software component of selected synchronous EntireX RPC services. The Application Monitoring Data Collector stores the KPI values in CSV (comma-separated values) files. The files can be processed by any third-party tool that supports CSV files, for example Microsoft Excel. Alternatively, you can hook in your own monitoring back end, using the callback user exit of the Data Collector.

  • Third-party Tool
    Use this method if you want to have a quick look at the results, using any tool that supports CSV files (for example Microsoft Excel).

  • Callback User Exit
    Use the callback user exit of the Data Collector to hook in your own monitoring back end. Write a Java class that implements the DataCollectorCallback interface and make it known to the Data Collector. Use this method if you want to feed arbitrary monitoring back ends in real time. See Callback User Exit under Setting up the External Application Monitoring Data Collector in the Application Monitoring documentation.

See the separate Application Monitoring documentation for more details.

Monitoring from the Command-line

There are three different ways of monitoring EntireX from the command line:

Command Central

Software AG Command Central is a tool that enables you to manage your Software AG products remotely from one location. Command Central offers a browser-based user interface, but you can also automate tasks by using commands to remotely execute actions from a terminal or custom script (for example CI servers such as Jenkins, or generic configuration management tools such as Puppet or Chef). You can monitor the following EntireX components using the Command Central command line.

ETBINFO

The command-line utility ETBINFO queries the Broker for different types of information, generating an output text string with basic formatting. This text output can be further processed by script languages. ETBINFO uses data descriptions called profiles to control the type of data that is returned for a request. ETBINFO is useful for monitoring and administering EntireX Broker efficiently - for example, how many users are to run concurrently and whether the number of specified message containers is large enough.

For more information see ETBINFO under z/OS | UNIX | Windows | BS2000.

Monitoring Scripts

EntireX provides a set of command-line scripts as a solution to the following scenarios:

  • "I want a quick overview of my standard broker and a list of active external services that are running." graphics/toc_closed.png More info

  • "I want to monitor an EntireX component (broker, service, client) over time." graphics/toc_closed.png More info

  • "I want to monitor my environment and check that all components (broker, RPC servers) are up and running." graphics/toc_closed.png More info

You can select the scripts from the EntireX Monitoring Scripts Menu or call the individual scripts from the command-line.

Note:
You can use these scripts with local or remote brokers. The scripts were introduced with version 9.7, but can be used with brokers of any supported version.

See EntireX Monitoring Scripts.

Monitoring with Command Central

Software AG Command Central is a tool you can use to perform administrative tasks remotely from a single location. It can assist with configuration, management and monitoring tasks. As an operator you can monitor server status and health, as well as start and stop servers from a single location. You can also configure alerts to be sent in case of unplanned outages.

For each registered instance, you can see up to three KPIs in Command Central's instance overview. Command Central is the tool of choice if you need to get a quick overview of your instance landscape.

The core Command Central documentation is provided separately and is also available under Guides for Tools Shared by Software AG Products on the Software AG documentation website. See the following sections for EntireX-specific information:

webMethods EntireX Adapter for Integration Server

For monitoring the webMethods EntireX Adapter for Integration Server (IS), your best choice is the IS Administration Console, which provides basic information as well as statistical values of connections, services and listeners. You can also reset the statistical values from the IS Administration Console.

See also Settings and Information in the EntireX Adapter documentation.

Watching the Default Broker View in Designer/Eclipse

The EntireX Default Broker View is part of the Designer. It displays the status of the EntireX Default Broker and the active RPC Services registered to it. Use the Default Broker View of Designer if you need to know whether your local default broker is running, or whether relevant RPC servers are connected to it. You can perform basic administration tasks on the local default broker and also shut down connected server instances or services. graphics/toc_closed.png More info