Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View Front cover

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Front cover
Managing Composite
Applications:
An Operator’s View
Composite application management
issues and considerations
Operator management
requirements identified
Includes Tivoli Enterprise
Portal customization
Budi Darmawan
David Rintoul
Howard Anglin
Ronaldo Pires
Sathyabama S Kuppusamy
ibm.com/redbooks
Redpaper
International Technical Support Organization
Managing Composite Applications:
An Operator’s View
May 2008
REDP-4319-00
Note: Before using this information and the product it supports, read the information in
“Notices” on page v.
First Edition (May 2008)
This edition applies to the following software products:
򐂰
򐂰
򐂰
򐂰
IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for SOA (Distributed), 5724-M07
IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Response Time, 5724-C04
IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Web Resources, 5724-S32
IBM Tivoli Monitoring V6.1
This document created or updated on May 1, 2008.
© Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2008. All rights reserved.
Note to U.S. Government Users Restricted Rights -- Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP
Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.
Contents
Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Trademarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
The team that wrote this paper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Become a published author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Comments welcome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Chapter 1. Operation and composite application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Composite application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 A typical operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Operation of composite application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4 IBM Tivoli application management tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Chapter 2. Designing the operator interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1 Early warning system for application. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2 Problem analysis design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.3 Problem resolution facilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Chapter 3. Implementation of operator design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.1 Implementation overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.2 Defining the workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.2.1 Building the navigation tree. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.2.2 Defining the workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.2.3 Defining the Trader main view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.2.4 Defining the laredo and bandung workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.3 Working with situations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.3.1 Situation basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.3.2 Creating situations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2008. All rights reserved.
iii
3.4 Actions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Chapter 4. Solution walkthrough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.1 WebSphere failure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.2 Flood of call to Web Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.3 Bad response time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.4 The next step. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Related publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
IBM Redbooks publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Other publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Online resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
How to get Redbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Help from IBM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
iv
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
Notices
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© Copyright IBM Corp. 2008. All rights reserved.
v
Trademarks
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The following terms are trademarks of the International Business Machines Corporation in the United States,
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z/OS®
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vi
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
Preface
A composite application is a distributed implementation of an application, in
which it spans several application servers and crosses platform boundaries. This
circumstance can create an operations challenge. The condition has gotten
worse with the advent of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) because many
applications have become loosely coupled, meaning that programs can find
connections and services at run time, depending on the available environment.
Operations management for composite applications is a complex issue.
Applications are generally designed based on functionality, not manageability.
An operator has to rely on management tools to decode any problem on these
applications and recover them.
This paper describes an approach for designing a management solution for
operators to manage composite applications. It also provides step-by-step
instructions for implementing this solution for a sample application, the Trader
application, which has been enhanced with Web Services calls and access to
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) mediation functions.
The team that wrote this paper
This paper was produced by a team of specialists from around the world working
at the International Technical Support Organization, Austin Center.
Budi Darmawan is a Project Leader at the International Technical Support
Organization, Austin Center. He writes extensively and teaches IBM® classes
worldwide on all areas of systems management, primarily application
management, business service management, and workload scheduling. Before
joining the ITSO in 1999, Budi worked in IBM Indonesia as lead implementor and
solution architect. His current interests are J2EE™ and SOA application
management, z/OS® integration, and business service management.
David Rintoul is a Senior IT Specialist who works as part of the TechWorks
group in AP SWG. He has over 20 years of experience in the IT field. He holds a
degree in Mathematics from Newcastle University. His areas of expertise include
the IBM Service Management products, the ITCAM family of products and the
Tivoli® zSeries® products.
Howard Anglin is a deployment expert for ITCAM for WebSphere®, Response
Time Tracking, IBM Tivoli Monitoring in the United States. He has worked with
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2008. All rights reserved.
vii
various large customers and in his role as an IT Specialist he has resolved
deployment, integration, and performance issues. He has 9 years of experience
in the Software Test and Development field with emphasis on the WebSphere
Application Server. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering
from Manhattan College, Riverdale, New York. Howard began his career at IBM
in the pSeries® Hardware Group as a test engineer developing automation
solutions for the production line, then transferred to the Software group.
Ronaldo Pires is an IBM IT Specialist. He joined IBM in 2004 and has been
working on Global Technology Services Delivery in São Paulo, Brazil, supporting
the systems management infrastructure for IBM outsourcing customers. His
skills include IBM Tivoli Framework, IBM Tivoli Monitoring, IBM Tivoli Storage
Manager, IBM Tivoli Identity Manager, Altiris Client Management Suite, BMC
Control-M for z/OS and BMC Control-D for z/OS. He holds the degree of
Bachelor of Mathematics from Faculdade de Filosofia Ciências e Letras de
Santo André. He is a Tivoli Certified Consultant for Tivoli Storage Manager and
IBM Certified Deployment Professional for Tivoli Monitoring V5.1.2.
Sathyabama S Kuppusamy is a technical lead at the IBM Global Business
Solution Center in India, and is currently working in the SOA Solution Center for
SOA-based products. She has 6 years of experience in SOA, testing and
middleware systems field. She holds the degree of Bachelor of Engineering in
Computer Science from University of Madras, India and also holds a degree in
Management of Business Administration in Finance from University of Madras,
India. Her areas of expertise include SOA, middleware systems, and automation
testing.
Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:
Rebecca Poole, Adrian Mitu, Greg Bowman
IBM Software Group, Tivoli Systems
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Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
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Preface
ix
x
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
1
Chapter 1.
Operation and composite
application
This chapter provides an overview of the redpaper. Topics covered are:
򐂰 1.1, “Composite application” on page 2
򐂰 1.2, “A typical operator” on page 3
򐂰 1.3, “Operation of composite application” on page 3
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2008. All rights reserved.
1
1.1 Composite application
In today’s application environment, applications may reside on one or more
computer systems. These applications work together to achieve a business
function. Distributed application use has also expanded since the advent of
Service-Oriented Application (SOA) architecture with its Web Services structure.
A typical distributed application spans multiple systems and may also use
several types of communication mechanisms, different transport layers, and
even different operating system platforms. We view this kind of application as a
composite application. Figure 1-1 shows a sample composite application.
J2EE
server
Back-end
server
J2EE
server
J2EE
server
Messaging
interface
Mainframe
server
DB2
J2EE
server
J2EE
server
Figure 1-1 Composite application
The challenges for managing a composite application are:
򐂰 Because it resides on multiple machines, understanding the application and
performing problem determination is harder since various components can
reside in different places.
򐂰 Managing several operating environments can require you to use different
interfaces. For example, a mainframe running z/OS requires the use of a TSO
environment, while UNIX® systems use a telnet or ssh interface.
򐂰 Differences in transport can require the ability to connect to different systems;
JMS interface, SNA, and TCP/IP may all be participating in the application.
򐂰 Application server technology differences may require a variety of tuning
approaches and may introduce different tools for performance management.
2
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
1.2 A typical operator
IT operations personnel or operators have the responsibility of ensuring that IT
resources are available and performing correctly in order for the enterprise to
perform its business function. In the ITIL® structure, the operator is tied closely
to incident management. The operator may be level 2 support for the service
desk function that performs initial service recovery.
Operators concern themselves with:
򐂰 System and application availability and performance
򐂰 Identification of potential problems and outages
򐂰 Recovering from outages and problems as quickly as possible
Operators mainly address issues that require them to use tools to understand IT
health and potentially to recover from system problems. The operator does not
need a deep understanding of the application structure nor technical expertise on
the IT resources. The operator works based on a pre-defined Standard
Operation Procedure. Therefore problem identification and recovery must be
performed using a known procedure and standard functions.
Operators in a mainframe data center are typically concerned with mainframe
availability. A large number of best practices, as well as a common
understanding of the role and responsibilities of mainframe operators already
exist in the IT community. Typically an operator manages a single machine or a
cluster of similar machines (SYSPLEX), so the interface and tools are quite
uniform.
1.3 Operation of composite application
When IT operations move into a distributed application environment, or a
composite application environment, each component may be monitored and
managed by different tools. Operators may not be able to learn and document all
possible combination of tools and outages.
The objective of this redpaper is to suggest a standard operation approach for
operators working with composite applications. We identify the following major
requirements for composite application management for operators:
򐂰 Ability to quickly identify problems or potential problems.
򐂰 Ability to quickly isolate or determine the cause of common performance
problems. The term common performance problem is yet to be defined.
򐂰 Ability to act to resolve or rectify the problem source and ensure operation.
Chapter 1. Operation and composite application
3
This redpaper provides an approach to design and build a solution to address
operational issues in a composite application environment using IBM Tivoli
application management tools.
1.4 IBM Tivoli application management tools
This section provides an overview of the available application management
software products that we will use to build the operator tools. We are building the
environment based on a composite application called “Trader.” The Trader
application is primarily J2EE-based; the front end is Web-based. It uses Web
Services extensively and data can be stored in DB2®, IMS™, or CICS®.
The solution structure is shown in Figure 1-2.
J2EE
server
Back-end
server
J2EE
server
J2EE
server
Messaging
interface
Mainframe
server
DB2
J2EE
server
J2EE
server
IBM Tivoli Monitoring platform
Tivoli Enterprise Portal
Figure 1-2 Operation solution
As shown in Figure 1-2, the solution includes monitoring of the application using:
򐂰 ITCAM for Response Time: This product measures and collects end user
response time. It is primarily useful as an early warning to identify application
problems.
4
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
򐂰 ITCAM for Web Resources: This product collects and provides application
server statistics. The metrics on an application server help in identifying the
source of a problem and providing action support that interacts with the
application server.
򐂰 ITCAM for SOA: This product monitors and manages Web Services calls. Our
composite application is based on Web Services, so the used of ITCAM for
SOA is critical.
The monitoring information is collected by IBM Tivoli Monitoring with Tivoli
Enterprise Portal interface. The operator monitors a Tivoli Enterprise Portal for
alerts and uses the workspaces to diagnose the cause of events. The operator
then uses the Portal actions to act on and resolve the problems.
Other available application management solutions, which we will not use in this
discussion, include:
򐂰 ITCAM for Response Time Tracking: The tracking function of ITCAM for
Response Time Tracking may provide additional information for analyzing a
problem. We are not using this because the breakdown information about a
transaction is generally related to root-cause resolution by application
experts, and requires an understanding of the underlying J2EE architecture.
򐂰 ITCAM for WebSphere and ITCAM for J2EE: Although these products share
the data collector with ITCAM for Web Resources, the additional functions
provided by the managing server interface are mainly for deep-dive and
diagnostics of the application, and require deep understanding of the
underlying J2EE program.
򐂰 OMEGAMON® XE for Messaging: WebSphere MQ and WebSphere
Message Broker can assist if the application utilizes a messaging
infrastructure. Our Trader application structure does not use messaging.
Chapter 1. Operation and composite application
5
6
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
2
Chapter 2.
Designing the operator
interface
In this chapter we describe how we designed the operator management tools for
our Trader application, including the following topics:
򐂰 2.1, “Early warning system for application” on page 8
򐂰 2.2, “Problem analysis design” on page 9
򐂰 2.3, “Problem resolution facilities” on page 10
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2008. All rights reserved.
7
2.1 Early warning system for application
An early warning system for an application can be implemented using IBM Tivoli
Monitoring situations. Situations are automated monitors that run at regular
intervals and compare monitoring metrics against threshold values. There are
hundreds of metrics that can be measured; we must select from among them
those we want to measure to keep the system performance reasonable.
For this design, we first identify the common problems that operators are most
likely to confront and have to resolve. This list would vary for different
implementations, but the selection procedure would be the same.
In this scenario, we anticipate dealing with the following problems:
򐂰 Bad response time
In general, bad response time is the hardest problem to resolve because it
can have many different causes. This would be our primary concern in our
design. An early warning system for response time can be collected from:
–
–
–
–
ITCAM for Response Time Web Response Time Agent
ITCAM for Response Time Robotic Response Time Agent
ITCAM for SOA Web Services performance
ITCAM for Web Resources Web application response time
򐂰 Application unavailability
Monitoring application availability is required to ensure that business
operation are not interrupted by application unavailability. Unavailability is
indicated by:
– ITCAM for Response Time Robotic Response Time Agent
– ITCAM for Web Resources WebSphere Application Server status
򐂰 Application server problems
Apart from the performance concerns, some application server resources
must be monitored to identify potential problems. Application server metrics
that can monitor the health of the server include:
– ITCAM for Web Resources WebSphere Application Server status
– ITCAM for Web Resources WebSphere Application Server heap size
– ITCAM for Web Resources WebSphere Application Server CPU usage
򐂰 Web services problems
For SOA-based applications, monitoring Web Services operation provides
additional insight about problems in the application. Problems that require
warnings include:
– ITCAM for SOA Web Services faults
8
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
– ITCAM for SOA message count
– ITCAM for SOA message size
2.2 Problem analysis design
The analysis should be available from the IBM Tivoli Monitoring workspaces.
For the attributes just described, we create the corresponding situation pairs that
will monitor the attribute for violation and recovery. The situation name must be
meaningful so that it can be parsed to identify the affected resource. Some
issues to consider are:
򐂰 Hostname of the originating agent is shown in the hostname field. However, if
you are running the Web Response Time situation, then the target HTTP host
is stored in the server field. Also, some of the situations are distributed to
several agents.
򐂰 The instance of an application server must be correctly identified. However,
ITCAM for SOA does not contain the WebSphere profile name. If there are
multiple application servers with different profiles but the same server name,
it is not easy to distinguish among them.
򐂰 The monitored attribute should be correctly identified in the name. If there
could be several situations for the same attribute, but different thresholds, the
situation names should indicate this difference too.
We used the following naming convention:
򐂰 Application name prefix
򐂰 Attribute name
򐂰 Optional suffix of hostname or application server instance information
Table 2-1 lists the situations that we defined. Note that to actually monitor all the
conditions mentioned previously, you would need to define several more
situations. The situations in Table 2-1 are the one that we used in the scenarios
for this paper.
Table 2-1 Situation list
Name
Attribute group
Condition
Trader_ApplSrvDown
WebSphere App Server
Status=Disconnected
Trader_ApplSrvUp
WebSphere App Server
Status=Connected
Trader_WebRsp
Web Response Time
AverageResponseTime>5
Trader_ClnRsp
Client Response Time
AverageResponseTime>5
Chapter 2. Designing the operator interface
9
Name
Attribute group
Condition
Trader_RbtRsp
Robotic Response Time
AverageResponseTime>5
Trader_WSMsgRate
Service Management Agent
Current Message Count>10
Trader_WSResp
Service Management Agent
Environment
Average Elapsed Message Round Trip Time>5
2.3 Problem resolution facilities
Problem resolution can usually be achieved by the operator invoking IBM Tivoli
Monitoring actions; however, not all alerts will indicate problems that the operator
can resolve. Some problems must be referred to a subject matter expert (SME)
or the next level of support.
The actions that the operator can take must be clearly defined and documented.
Include information about when and how to invoke specific actions. Also cover
expected outcomes and consequences, such as duration of system
unavailability, work interruption, and potential backup and recovery impact.
We evaluated the existing action sets that are available with the product. The
sets can be expanded to include additional necessary actions. Built-in action sets
are:
򐂰 ITCAM for Web Resources actions
򐂰 ITCAM for SOA actions
Additional actions can be defined to satisfy our requirements. Specifically, we will
define additional actions for interacting with WebSphere Services Registry and
Repository.
10
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
3
Chapter 3.
Implementation of operator
design
This chapter describes how we implemented the operator interface that we
designed in the previous chapter. The discussion includes:
򐂰 Implementation overview
򐂰 Defining the workspace
򐂰 Working with situations
򐂰 Actions
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2008. All rights reserved.
11
3.1 Implementation overview
The implementation of the operator interface for managing application
performance is described in this chapter. The discussion includes the definition
of the following resources:
򐂰 Workspaces: These are the displays that operators will see to perform their
work every day. Functionally, the workspace structure should allow them to
recognize, diagnose, and take action on application problems. This is
explained in 3.2, “Defining the workspace”.
򐂰 Situations: These are the automated monitoring functions that are the primary
means for operators to quickly get notified of problems. Operators do not
have to traverse the workspaces to find problems. Events from the situations
are shown in the Situation Event Console part of the Tivoli Enterprise Portal.
This is illustrated in 3.3, “Working with situations” on page 37.
򐂰 Actions: These allow operators to correct problems and errors. Actions can be
automated or invoked manually. Action definitions are discussed shown in
3.4, “Actions” on page 42.
3.2 Defining the workspace
The detailed steps to define the workspace are presented in this section. At a
high level, the steps are:
򐂰 Build the navigation tree
򐂰 Define the workspace
򐂰 Define the Trader main view
12
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
3.2.1 Building the navigation tree
As management agents are configured, they are automatically added to the
Physical view workspaces in the navigator panel. As you would expect in our
environment, this view shows the various physical servers that we have worked
with so far (Figure 3-1).
Figure 3-1 Tivoli Enterprise Portal Physical view example
Chapter 3. Implementation of operator design
13
In this procedure we will develop a new navigation tree called Trader for a user
who must monitor the Trader application only. We can do this using a Logical
view in a new navigator.
We perform the following steps:
1. Click the Edit Navigator View icon
window shown in Figure 3-2.
to open the Edit Navigator View
Figure 3-2 Edit Navigator View
2. Click the Create New Navigator View icon
and enter a name and
description, as we did in Figure 3-3. Click OK.
Figure 3-3 Create New Logical View
3. In the new Trader navigator item, create two more navigator items. Right-click
and select Create Child Item. The two child items represent the WebSphere
Application Servers that we use: bandung1 and laredo1.
14
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
4. The managed systems represent the monitoring agents that provide the
information display for the appropriate navigation tree. Select these carefully
because they represent available data for your charts. Figure 3-4 shows the
properties of the bandung1 navigator view.
Figure 3-4 Bandung1 Navigator Managed Systems
Chapter 3. Implementation of operator design
15
5. Figure 3-5 shows the display for the laredo navigator item.
Figure 3-5 Laredo1 Navigator Managed Systems
6. In Figure 3-4 on page 15 and Figure 3-5, you can see that we use individual
agents for ITCAM for SOA and ITCAM for WebSphere, but for ITCAM for
Response Time Tracking, we use a shared object from the management
server. The entries in the Assigned field have the following meanings:
16
D4
ITCAM for SOA agent data
ITCAMSOA
ITCAM for SOA agent status
KYNA
ITCAM for WebSphere agent status
KYNS
ITCAM for WebSphere agent data
T2
ITCAM for Response Time Tracking agent data and status
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
7. You can also add views from the physical view into this new navigator view by
simply dragging and dropping. Select a physical view object by clicking it (a
box surrounds it when selected) and drop it directly onto the Trader object on
the left, ensuring that it has the surrounding outline box. We do not perform
this step.
Figure 3-6 shows the final navigator tree for our example. Now that the
navigator tree is defined, we can close the navigator edit window by clicking
Close.
Figure 3-6 Final Navigator window
Chapter 3. Implementation of operator design
17
3.2.2 Defining the workspaces
The initial workspace for the new navigator item is an empty workspace with a
notepad and a browser pointing to a generic page showing Workspace not
defined, as shown in Figure 3-7.
Figure 3-7 Workspace not defined
18
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
We have to define these workspaces for the navigator objects:
򐂰 The main Trader workspace must be the initial display window for each
operator and must consume the least amount of processing. Keeping that in
mind, we use the alert view for the individual objects as the initial display for
the Trader workspace.
Alerts® are generated by background collectors called situations. The only
additional processing incurred by alerts is what is involved in transporting the
alert to and from the Tivoli Enterprise Portal Server. When an operator sees
an alert, drilling down to the appropriate application server exposes
information used in analyzing the problem. Figure 3-8 shows the completed
Trader workspace.
Figure 3-8 Trader workspace
Chapter 3. Implementation of operator design
19
򐂰 The Laredo workspace contains the information for laredo. This workspace
contains:
– WebSphere Application Server statistics from ITCAM for WebSphere:
CPU usage, memory usage, transaction rate, and transaction response
time.
– Response time information from ITCAM for Response Time Tracking that
shows the performance of the Trader servlets that run on the
TraderClientWeb application.
– Web services client information from ITCAM for SOA: message rate and
response time.
Figure 3-9 shows the completed Laredo workspace.
Figure 3-9 Laredo workspace
20
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
򐂰 The final Bandung workspace, shown in Figure 3-10, contains the following
information for bandung:
– WebSphere Application Server statistics from ITCAM for WebSphere:
CPU usage, memory usage, transaction rate, and transaction response
time.
– Response time information from ITCAM for Response Time Tracking that
shows the performance of the Trader servlets that run on the
Trader*Services applications. This is typically called directly from the
Java™ application because requests from laredo have been correlated to
the calling servlets. Also, we monitor requests from Trader*Web
applications.
– Web services client information from ITCAM for SOA: message rate and
response time.
Figure 3-10 Bandung workspace
Chapter 3. Implementation of operator design
21
The workspace is defined by dissecting the workspace area using the split
vertical
button or the split horizontal
button. For each area, we then
populate it with the appropriate type of chart that we wanted to fit in. Figure 3-11
indicates the available components.
Tivoli Enterprise Console
Table
Browser
3270 terminal
Pie chart
Take action
Bar chart
Graphic view
Plot chart
Universal message console
Circular gauge
Linear gauge
Situation event console
Message log
Notepad
Figure 3-11 Workspace chart components
We describe the building of some of the workspace charts in the following
sections.
3.2.3 Defining the Trader main view
The main view of the Trader workspace is similar to the Enterprise workspace in
the physical view. It contains the Situation Event Console and Message Log.
This display is adequate if you have already tuned your system and have the
appropriate situations defined with the appropriate thresholds. When most of the
definitions are valid, you should not get any false alarms or silent problems.
Both the Message Log and Situation Event Console are inserted into the area by
clicking the appropriate icon and then clicking within the area you want to assign
each to. There is no real customization for these types of charts.
3.2.4 Defining the laredo and bandung workspaces
The laredo and bandung workspaces shown in Figure 3-9 on page 20 and
Figure 3-10 on page 21 are similar, so we discuss them together.
Data charts are built from queries. However, the more queries that we submit in a
single page, the more processing it introduces to the system. In designing the
charts, we take into consideration the number of queries that we use and the
possibility of using an IBM-supplied query.
22
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
Figure 3-12 shows our workspace with the areas identified.
ITCAM for Web
Resources
ITCAM for SOA
ITCAM for Response
Time
Figure 3-12 Workspace areas
We used these queries for our laredo and bandung workspaces:
򐂰 ITCAM for WebSphere information
From the WebSphere Application Server queries, we use the following
queries:
– Application_Server attribute group, with the existing Application Server
query. This query provides CPU usage percentage and memory usage
information (total, used, and free memory). The CPU usage is shown as a
circular gauge, the total memory and memory used are displayed in a bar
chart.
– Request_Times_and_Rates attribute group, with the existing Request
Time and Rates query that provides average response time and request
rate information. These are displayed as linear gauges.
򐂰 ITCAM for Response Time Tracking information
From the Response Time Tracking queries, we cannot use the available
queries because the original workspaces are mostly accessed through links.
Links collect information from previous stages to present information. We
create new queries, one for laredo and one for bandung, to present the
Chapter 3. Implementation of operator design
23
information from the ITCAM_TT_Policy_Status attribute group. We copy the
Response Time Agent Policy Status query to our own query. See “Creating a
new query” on page 31.
򐂰 ITCAM for SOA information
From the Service Management Agent Environment, under the
Services_Inventory attribute group, we can retrieve Web services information.
We want to show the response time and invocation rate of Web services. We
can either use two existing queries for the same attribute group, which means
that data collection will be performed twice, or create a new query that selects
the information that we need. We decided to create our own query to collect
the information that we use.
With this design, the workspace for bandung and laredo uses only four queries to
retrieve information. One goes to ITCAM for Response Time Tracking agent, and
three go to the application server machine for execution by the ITCAM for SOA
agent and ITCAM for WebSphere agent.
Setting a query chart
This is the procedure for setting a query chart:
1. Select the appropriate chart type from the toolbar and click the workspace
area that you want to customize.
2. A prompt asks whether to assign a query (Figure 3-13). Click Yes.
Figure 3-13 Query assignment confirmation
24
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
3. On the chart setting page, click Click here to assign a query (Figure 3-14).
Figure 3-14 Empty chart property page
Chapter 3. Implementation of operator design
25
4. When you reach the Query Editor page, select the query that you want to
assign. Alternatively, you can create a new query, as discussed in “Creating a
new query” on page 31. Figure 3-15 shows the example query for Request
Times and Rates. Click OK to select the query.
Figure 3-15 Query Editor
26
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
5. Back on the chart property page, select the Filter tab, which enables you to
select the columns (attributes) that you want to be displayed on the chart.
Multiple columns can be displayed on some charts, such as table, bar, and
plot charts, but gauges support only a single column. Select the column by
selecting the check box, as shown in Figure 3-16. If your query is valid and
there is an appropriate provider for data, you will see a snapshot of data for
the query for your reference.
Figure 3-16 Chart filter
Chapter 3. Implementation of operator design
27
6. You can customize the appearance of the chart using the Style tab. First,
change the heading text, which is provided on the initial page, as shown in
Figure 3-17.
Figure 3-17 Heading text
28
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
7. Customize chart-specific attributes, such as:
– For the circular gauge, customize the shape and value range of the data,
as shown in Figure 3-18.
Figure 3-18 Circular gauge setting
Chapter 3. Implementation of operator design
29
– For the linear gauge, customize the orientation and range of data, as
shown in Figure 3-19.
Figure 3-19 Linear gauge settings
– For the bar chart, customize the orientation and axis labels, as shown in
Figure 3-20.
Figure 3-20 Bar chart settings
30
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
You can also change the legend text and position, as shown in
Figure 3-21.
Figure 3-21 Legend customization for bar chart
8. Click OK to save the chart properties and select File → Save Workspace to
save the workspace.
Creating a new query
As discussed in 3.2.4, “Defining the laredo and bandung workspaces” on
page 22, we can create a new query to optimize the workspace and provide data
for our chart.
From the query editor, you can either create a completely new query
or copy
an exiting query
. You must assign a name for the new query, as shown in
Figure 3-22.
Figure 3-22 Name for new query
Chapter 3. Implementation of operator design
31
The query specification defines both the selected attributes and the row selection
conditions. Some conditions are mandatory, and typically they are selected from
a variable. A variable is specified by enclosing it with $ signs. You can substitute
these variables with a fixed value. Conditions specified in the same row represent
an AND operation, and conditions specified on different rows represent an OR
operation. A sample specification is in Figure 3-23.
Figure 3-23 Query specification
32
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
The query for ITCAM for Response Time Tracking that we create copies from the
existing query shown in Figure 3-23 on page 32. We modify the query because
the PCYGRPID and PCYGRPNAME variables will not be available from a simple
workspace. They can only be retrieved from a linked workspace. For laredo, we
retrieve all Policies response time information for the policy inside the
Trader_Web_appl policy group, as shown in Figure 3-24.
Figure 3-24 Laredo policies
Chapter 3. Implementation of operator design
33
Retrieve the policy group ID number from the ITCAM for Response Time
Tracking dashboard report by hovering the cursor over the policy group to see
the status bar, as shown in Figure 3-25.
Figure 3-25 Getting policy group ID
34
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
The ITCAM for SOA query that we create selects only specific columns from
scratch from the Services_Inventory attribute group. Use the following
procedure:
1. Create a new query using the Create Query button. Assign the name and
category of the query, as shown in Figure 3-26.
Figure 3-26 Query Name and Category
Chapter 3. Implementation of operator design
35
2. Select the attributes that you want to collect, as shown in Figure 3-27.
Figure 3-27 Query attributes
36
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
3. The query appears in the Query Editor window, where we provide the
selection conditions. For the Services_Inventory attribute group, specify at
least Origin Node to be $NODE$. Figure 3-28 shows the condition that we
used.
Figure 3-28 Setting condition
4. You can further select the attributes to be included in the query by selecting or
deselecting them. For attributes that you deselected in a previous session,
you can add them by clicking the Add attributes button.
3.3 Working with situations
A situation is an automatic monitoring of the system that can be performed based
on a certain condition. A situation runs in the background at a predefined interval.
It is useful for getting basic health information from a Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring
Agent.
This section discusses how to create custom situations and incorporate them
into a workflow for monitoring our Trader application environment. Because the
situation will be used in a workflow, it will not be auto-started. Only the workflow
has to be auto-started, and this starts the situation.
Chapter 3. Implementation of operator design
37
3.3.1 Situation basics
A situation is a conditional expression that is evaluated at certain intervals. The
situation can evaluate to true; this is considered a situation change event.
A situation evaluates the attributes in an agent from an attribute group. Because
an attribute group is considered a table and attributes are its columns, the
situation definition contains the following components:
򐂰
򐂰
򐂰
򐂰
The name of the situation
The category of the situation
The attribute group that will be evaluated
The row selection condition from the attribute group
The selection condition can contain multiple expressions:
򐂰 Filtering for certain types of data, such as servlet name, policy name, or other
attributes.
򐂰 Checking data values for a selected row. This checking can be considered a
threshold for the data in the table. Some checking uses an aggregation
function such as count, maximum, or minimum. This type of checking is
performed at the Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server.
3.3.2 Creating situations
A situation is created using the situation wizard. You can add a situation
manually or create a situation from existing one. Almost any existing situation
can be used as a template to show the situation capabilities. The situation wizard
is launched using the
icon.
38
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
As illustrated in Figure 3-29, you define the situation name and the attribute
group to use, then click OK. Select the attribute you want to use for the condition
and click OK to open the situation dialog.
Figure 3-29 Creating situation
Chapter 3. Implementation of operator design
39
The situation definition is shown in Figure 3-30. Define the condition, invocation
interval, and the severity level of the alert in the Formula page.
Figure 3-30 Situation definition
40
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
We created the situations defined in 2.1, “Early warning system for application”
on page 8. You can decide which agent to run the situations on. A situation can
have a predefined action attached to it as shown in Figure 3-31.
Figure 3-31 Action command definition
The action is a script that can be executed from the Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring
Server or the Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Agent that detects the problem. The
script can use arguments from the fired situation.
Chapter 3. Implementation of operator design
41
A situation must be associated with a node in the Navigator tree so that it
appears in the Situation Event List. The association is performed when you
right-click the node and select Situations. In the situation window, click the
button and choose all possible associations. Select the situation that you created
and select Associate from the context menu.
3.4 Actions
Actions can be created within a Tivoli Enterprise Portal workspace context.
Right-click on a workspace area and select Take action → Create or Edit. The
dialog for selecting an existing action or creating a new one is displayed, as
shown in Figure 3-32.
Figure 3-32 Selecting action
You can then define the action. A sample built-in action for restarting WebSphere
Application Server is shown in Figure 3-33.
Figure 3-33 Sample action
42
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
4
Chapter 4.
Solution walkthrough
This chapter takes you through several scenarios that demonstrate the practical
use of the solution we developed in this paper, and suggests areas for further
enhancements. The topics covered are:
򐂰 4.1, “WebSphere failure” on page 44
򐂰 4.2, “Flood of call to Web Services” on page 45
򐂰 4.3, “Bad response time” on page 46
򐂰 4.4, “The next step” on page 48
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2008. All rights reserved.
43
4.1 WebSphere failure
The WebSphere Application Server is unavailable. This is indicated from the
situation shown in Figure 4-1.
Figure 4-1 WebSphere unavailable situation
The situation that monitors WebSphere problems has an automatic action to
route the Web Services call. This is performed by modifying the metadata in the
WebSphere Services Registry and Repository to flag the failed server as
unavailable. The Web Services calls would still be routed successfully to an
available server.
The operator can then restart WebSphere using the ITCAM for Web Resources
action to start the failed WebSphere Application Server, as shown in Figure 4-2.
Figure 4-2 Restarting WebSphere
The restart resets the alert for WebSphere unavailability. The routing is
recovered automatically from the reset situation (informational situation).
44
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
4.2 Flood of call to Web Services
This scenario indicates an unusually high number of Web Services calls to one of
the providers. This also generates a high number of faults on the server.
Figure 4-3 shows the alerts related to this condition.
Figure 4-3 Web Services call
Looking at ITCAM for Response Time, we notice that the calls are originating
from a single client. The client may have gotten into a loop or been overtaken by
a hostile process (virus). The operator can decide to put a calling filter on the
server. The invocation of the filter is shown in Figure 4-4.
Figure 4-4 Defining filter
Chapter 4. Solution walkthrough
45
After the filter is applied, the calling rate goes back to normal and the situation is
cleared. You can notice that the filter is still in effect as shown in Figure 4-5.
Figure 4-5 Checking filter
4.3 Bad response time
When response time gets worse, the operator is notified of poor trader response
time from the ITCAM for Response Time Web Response Time agent as shown in
Figure 4-6. Notice that there are other indications from ITCAM for Web
Resources and ITCAM for SOA that also show bad response time.
Figure 4-6 Bad response time from Web Response Time agent
The operator can view the ITCAM for Response Time dashboard and analyze
the underlying configuration, check the response time, and so on. Figure 4-7 on
page 47 shows failed requests for some of the Web Services.
46
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
Figure 4-7 Web Services call rate
Because the server must be supporting another application that is slowing down,
the operator can decide to route the Web Services call to another server. This
can be done by manipulating the Web Services calling route in WebSphere
Services Registry and Repository.
Chapter 4. Solution walkthrough
47
4.4 The next step
We have shown some examples of possible composite application management
with our Tivoli Enterprise Portal and IBM Tivoli Composite Application
Management solution here, and the solution can still be enhanced.
Among the possible enhancements that we did not get to test and implement are
the following ones:
򐂰 Automation: Automation can be implemented in the solution to initiate some
actions without major investigation. One example is the automatic restart of
WebSphere discussed in 4.1, “WebSphere failure” on page 44,
򐂰 Business view: Integration of situation processing with Tivoli Business
Services Manager allows a business view to be defined, for example, to show
Service Level attainment to the executive or managerial level of the business.
򐂰 Provisioning: Some environments with fluctuating load would greatly benefit
from automatic provisioning (and de-provisioning) of application servers to
accommodate more processing capacity. The provisioning process can be
integrated into the overall management architecture.
48
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
Related publications
The publications listed in this section are considered particularly suitable for a
more detailed discussion of the topics covered in this paper.
IBM Redbooks publications
For information about ordering these publications, see “How to get Redbooks” on
page 52. Note that some of the documents referenced here may be available in
softcopy only.
򐂰 IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager Family Installation Configuration
and Basic Usage, SG24-7151
򐂰 Deployment Guide Series: IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for
WebSphere V6.0, SG24-7252
򐂰 Getting Started with IBM Tivoli Monitoring 6.1 on Distributed Environments,
SG24-7143
򐂰 IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON XE V3.1.0 Deep Dive on z/OS, SG24-7155
򐂰 Implementing OMEGAMON XE for Messaging V6.0, SG24-7357
򐂰 Installing WebSphere Studio Application Monitor V3.1, SG24-6491
򐂰 Large-Scale Implementation of IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager,
REDP-4162
򐂰 Migrating to Netcool/Precision for IP Networks --Best Practices for Migrating
from IBM Tivoli NetView, SG24-7375
򐂰 Solution Deployment Guide for IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for
WebSphere, SG24-7293
򐂰 Unveil Your e-business Transaction Performance with IBM TMTP 5.1,
SG24-6912
򐂰 WebSphere Studio Application Monitor V3.2 Advanced Usage Guide,
SG24-6764
򐂰 Managing SOA Environment with Tivoli, REDP-4318
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2008. All rights reserved.
49
Other publications
These publications are also relevant as further information sources:
򐂰 IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for SOA
– Configuring IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for SOA on z/OS,
SC32-9493
– IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for SOA Installation and User's
Guide, GC32-9492
– IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for SOA Program Directory,
GI11-4087
– IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for SOA Release Notes,
GI11-4096
– IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for SOA: Installing and
Troubleshooting IBM Web Services Navigator, GC32-9494
򐂰 IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Response Time
– IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Client Response Time
User's Guide Version 6.2, SC23-6332
– IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Web Response Time User's
Guide Version 6.2, SC23-6333
– IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Robotic Response Time
User's Guide Version 6.2, SC23-6334
– IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for End User Response Time
Dashboard User's Guide Version 6.2, SC23-6335
– IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Response Time Problem
Determination Guide Version 6.2, GI11-8061
򐂰 IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Web Resources
– IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Web Resources: J2EE Data
Collector Installation Guide, GC23-6179
– IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Web Resources:
WebSphere Distributed Data Collector Installation Guide, GC23-6180
– IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Web Resources: J2EE
Agent Installation Guide, GC23-6181
– IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Web Resources:
WebSphere Agent Installation Guide, GC23-6182
– IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Web Resources: Web
Servers Agent Installation Guide, GC23-6183
50
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
– IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Web Resources:
Community Edition Data Collector Installation Guide, GC23-6184
– IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Web Resources: Quick
Start Guide, GC23-6185
– IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Web Resources: J2EE
Agent Problem Determination Guide, GI11-8160
– IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Web Resources:
WebSphere Agent Problem Determination Guide, GI11-8161
– IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Web Resources: Web
Servers Agent Problem Determination Guide, GI11-8162
򐂰 IBM Tivoli Monitoring
– Exploring IBM Tivoli Monitoring, SC32-1803
– IBM Tivoli Monitoring Administrator's Guide, SC32-9408
– IBM Tivoli Monitoring: Configuring IBM Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server
on z/OS, SC32-9463
– IBM Tivoli Monitoring Installation and Setup Guide, GC32-9407
– IBM Tivoli Monitoring Problem Determination Guide, GC32-9458
– IBM Tivoli Monitoring User's Guide, SC32-9409
– IBM Tivoli Monitoring: Upgrading from Tivoli Distributed Monitoring,
GC32-9462
– IBM Tivoli Universal Agent API and Command Programming Reference
Guide, SC32-9461
– IBM Tivoli Monitoring Universal Agent User's Guide, SC32-9459
– Introducing IBM Tivoli Monitoring, GI11-4071
Online resources
These Web sites are also relevant as further information sources:
򐂰 IBM Tivoli
http://www.ibm.com/tivoli
򐂰 IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for WebSphere product page
http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/products/composite-application-mg
r-websphere/
Related publications
51
򐂰 IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for SOA product page
http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/products/composite-application-mg
r-soa/
򐂰 DB2 UDB Version 8 FixPaks and clients
http://www.ibm.com/software/data/db2/udb/support/downloadv8.html
򐂰 ITCAM for Response Time Tracking Fix Pack 1
http://www3.software.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/tivoli_support/patches/
򐂰 Open Group Web site for Application Response Management (ARM)
http://www.opengroup.org/arm
򐂰 Microsoft® link for InstallShield error
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;295278
򐂰 Java specification for JAX-RPC: JSR-000109 Implementing Enterprise Web
Services
http://www.jcp.org/aboutJava/communityprocess/final/jsr109/
򐂰 Eclipse Web site
http://www.eclipse.org
How to get Redbooks
You can search for, view, or download Redbooks, Redpapers, Technotes, draft
publications, and Additional materials, as well as order hardcopy Redbooks, at
this Web site:
ibm.com/redbooks
Help from IBM
IBM Support and downloads
ibm.com/support
IBM Global Services
ibm.com/services
52
Managing Composite Applications: An Operator’s View
Back cover
Managing Composite
Applications:
An Operator’s View
Composite
application
management issues
and considerations
Operator
management
requirements
identified
Includes Tivoli
Enterprise Portal
customization
A composite application is a distributed implementation of an
application, in which it spans several application servers and
crosses platform boundaries. This circumstance can create
an operations challenge. The condition has gotten worse with
the advent of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) because
many applications have become loosely coupled, meaning
that programs can find connections and services at run time,
depending on the available environment.
Operations management for composite applications is a
complex issue. Applications are generally designed based on
functionality, not manageability. An operator has to rely on
management tools to decode any problem on these
applications and recover them.
This paper describes an approach for designing a
management solution for operators to manage composite
applications. It also provides step-by-step instructions for
implementing this solution for a sample application, the
Trader application, which has been enhanced with Web
Services calls and access to Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
mediation functions.
®
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from IBM, Customers and
Partners from around the world
create timely technical
information based on realistic
scenarios. Specific
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solutions more effectively in
your environment.
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