Accounting in EntireX Broker

This document describes the accounting records for Broker that can be used for several purposes, including:

  • application chargeback
    for apportioning EntireX resource consumption on the conversation and/or the application level;

  • performance measurement
    for analyzing application throughput (bytes, messages, etc.) to determine overall performance;

  • trend analysis
    for using data to determine periods of heavy and/or light resource and/or application usage.

This document covers the following topics:

EntireX Accounting Data Fields

In the EntireX Accounting record, there are various types of data available for consumption by applications that process the accounting data:

Field Name Accounting
Version 		Type of Field Description
Record Write Time 1 A14 timestamp The time this record was written to the accounting file in "YYYYMMDDHHMMSS" format.
EntireX Broker ID 1 A32 Broker ID from attribute file.
EntireX Version 1 A8 Version information, v.r.s.p
where v =version
  r =release
  s =service pack
  p =patch level

for example 9.9.0.00.
Platform of Operation 1 A32 Platform where EntireX is running.
EntireX Start Time 1 A14 timestamp The time EntireX was initialized in "YYYYMMDDHHMMSS" format.
Accounting Record Type 1 A1 It is always C for conversation. Future Types will have a different value in this field.
Client User ID 1 A32 USER-ID ACI field from the client in the conversation.
Client Token 1 A32 TOKEN field from the ACI from the client.
Client Physical ID 1 A56 The physical user ID of the client, set by EntireX.
Client Communication Type 1 I1 Communication used by client:

1 = Net-Work
2 = TCP/IP
3 = APPC
4 = WebSphere MQ
5 = SSL

Client Requests Made 1 I4 Number of Requests made by client.
Client Sent Bytes 1 I4 Number of bytes sent by client.
Client Received Bytes 1 I4 Number of bytes received by client.
Client Sent Messages 1 I4 Number of messages sent by client.
Client Received Messages 1 I4 Number of messages received by client.
Client Sent UOWs 1 I4 Number of UOWs sent by client.
Client UOWs Received 1 I4 Number of UOWs received by client.
Client Completion Code 1 I4 Completion code client received when conversation ended.
Server User ID 1 A32 USER-ID ACI field from the server in the conversation.
Server Token 1 A32 TOKEN field from the ACI from the server.
Server Physical ID 1 A56 The physical user ID of the server, set by EntireX.
Server Communication Type 1 I1 Communication used by Server:

1 = Entire Net-Work
2 = TCP/IP
3 = APPC
4 = WebSphere MQ
5 = SSL

Server Requests Made 1 I4 Number of requests made by server.
Server Sent Bytes 1 I4 Number of bytes sent by server.
Server Received Bytes 1 I4 Number of bytes received by server.
Server Sent Messages 1 I4 Number of messages sent by server.
Server Received Messages 1 I4 Number of messages received by server.
Server Sent UOWs 1 I4 Number of UOWs sent by server.
Server Received UOWs 1 I4 Number of UOWs received by server.
Server Completion Code 1 I4 Completion code server received when conversation ended.
Conversation ID 1 A16 CONV-ID from ACI.
Server Class 1 A32 SERVER-CLASS from ACI.
Server Name 1 A32 SERVER-NAME from ACI.
Service Name 1 A32 SERVICE from ACI.
CID=NONE Indicator 1 A1 Will be N if CONV-ID=NONE is indicated in application.
Restarted Indicator 1 A1 Will be R if a conversation was restarted after a Broker shutdown.
Conversation Start Time 1 A14 timestamp The time the conversation began in "YYYYMMDDHHMMSS" format.
Conversation End Time 1 A14 timestamp The time the conversation was cleaned up in "YYYYMMDDHHMMSS" format.
Conversation CPU Time 1 I4 Number of microseconds of CPU time used by the conversation
Client Security Identity 2 A32 Actual identity of client derived from authenticated user ID.
Client Application Node 2 A32 Node name of machine where client application executes.
Client Application Type 2 A8 Stub type used by client application.
Client Application Name 2 A64 Name of the executable that called the broker. Corresponds to the Broker Information Service field APPLICATION-NAME.
Client Credentials Type 2 I1 Mechanism by which authentication is performed for client.
Server Security Identity 2 A32 Actual identity of server derived from authenticated user ID.
Server Application Node 2 A32 Node name of machine where server application executes.
Server Application Type 2 A8 Stub type used by server application.
Server Application Name 2 A64 Name of the executable that called the broker. Corresponds to the Broker Information Service field APPLICATION-NAME.
Server Credentials Type 2 I1 Mechanism by which authentication is performed for server.
Client RPC Library 3 A128 RPC library referenced by client when sending the only/first request message of the conversation.
Client RPC Program 3 A128 RPC Program referenced by client when sending the only/first request message of the conversation.
Server RPC Library 3 A128 RPC library referenced by server when sending the only/first response message of the conversation.
Server RPC Program 3 A128 RPC Program referenced by server when sending the only/first response message of the conversation.
Client IPv4 Address 4 A16 IPv4 address of the client.
Server IPv4 Address 4 A16 IPv4 address of the server.
Client Application Version 4 A16 Application version of the client.
Server Application Version 4 A16 Application version of the server.
Client IPv6 Address 5 A46 IPv6 address of the client.
Server IPv6 Address 5 A46 IPv6 address of the server.

Note:
Accounting fields of any version greater than 1 are created only if the attribute ACCOUNTING-VERSION value is greater than or equal to the corresponding version. For example: accounting fields of version 2 are visible only if ACCOUNTING-VERSION=2 or higher is specified.

Using Accounting under UNIX and Windows

Broker Attribute File Settings

ACCOUNTING = NO | YES | (YES, SEPARATOR=Separator Characters) (Default is NO)

Set this parameter to "NO" (i.e., do not create accounting data) or "YES" to create accounting data. Up to seven separator characters can specified using the SEPARATOR suboption, for example ACCOUNTING = (YES, SEPARATOR=;). If no separator character is specified, the comma character will be used.

Retrieving Accounting Data

The accounting file will be located in the Broker's installed directory. The file's name is based on the ETB_LOG environment variable and the current date and time (for uniqueness). Example: If ETB_LOG is set to BROKER1.LOG, the accounting data file will be named BROKER1_YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.csv. If ETB_LOG is not set, the Broker's ID will be used, with an extension of CSV (e.g. ETB048_YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.csv). See Environment Variables in EntireX.

Example Uses of Accounting Data

Chargeback

Customers can use the EntireX accounting data to perform chargeback calculations for resource utilization in a data center. Suppose EntireX Broker is being used to dispatch messages for three business departments: Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, and Inventory. At the end of each month, the customer needs to determine how much of the operation and maintenance cost of EntireX Broker should be assigned to these departments. For a typical month, assume the following is true:

Department Amount of Data Percentage Messages Sent Percentage Average Percentage
Accts Payable 50 MB 25 4000 20 22.5
Accts Receivable 40 MB 20 6000 30 25
Inventory 110 MB 55 10000 50 52.5

The use of Broker resources here is based upon both the amount of traffic sent to the Broker (bytes) as well as how often the Broker is called (messages). The average of the two percentages is used to internally bill the departments, so 52.5% of the cost of running EntireX Broker would be paid by the Inventory Department, 25% by the Accounts Receivable Department, and 22.5% by the Accounts Payable Department.

Trend Analysis

The Accounting Data can also be used for trend analysis. Suppose a customer has several point-of-sale systems in several stores throughout the United States that are tied into the corporate inventory database with EntireX. The stubs would be running at the stores, and the sales data would be transmitted to the Broker, which would hand it off to the appropriate departments in inventory. If these departments wish to ascertain when the stores are busiest, they can use the accounting data to monitor store transactions. Assume all of the stores are open every day from 9 AM to 10 PM.

Local Time Average: Weekday Transactions per Store Maximum Weekday Transactions in any Store Average Weekend Transactions per Store Maximum Weekend Transactions in any Store
9 AM 7.3 27 28.2 83
10 AM 11.2 31 29.3 102
11 AM 14.6 48 37.9 113
12 noon 56.2 106 34.8 98
1 PM 25.6 65 34.2 95
2 PM 17.2 52 38.5 102
3 PM 12.1 23 42.7 99
4 PM 18.3 34 43.2 88
5 PM 26.2 47 45.2 93
6 PM 38.2 87 40.6 105
7 PM 29.6 83 39.2 110
8 PM 18.6 78 28.6 85
9 PM 11.2 55 17.5 62

The owner of the stores can examine the data and make decisions based upon the data here. For example, on weekdays, he or she can see that there is little business until lunchtime, when the number of transactions increase. It then decreases during lunch hour; then there is another increase from 5 PM to 8 PM, after people leave work. Based on this data, the owner might investigate changing the store hours on weekdays to 10 AM to 9 PM. On the weekend the trends are different, and the store hours could be adjusted as well, although there is a more regular customer flow each hour on the weekends.

Tuning for Application Performance

Assume that a customer has two applications that perform basic request/response messaging for similar sized messages. The applications consist of many Windows PC clients and Natural RPC Servers on UNIX. An analysis of the accounting data shows the following:

Application Type Class Server Service Average Server Messages Received per Conversation Average Client Messages Received per Conversation
Application 1: CLASS1 SERVER1 SERVICE1 10.30 10.29
Application 2: CLASS2 SERVER2 SERVICE2 10.30 8.98

A further analysis of the accounting data reveals that there are a lot of non-zero response codes in the records pertaining to Application 2, and that a lot of these non-zero responses indicate timeouts. With that information, the customer can address the problem by modifying the server code, or by adjusting the timeout parameters for SERVER2 so that it can have more time to get a response from the Service.