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Monitoring agent for IBM HTTP Servers

Contents

1. Workspaces
1.1. Organization of the predefined workspaces
1.2. web server Agent workspace
2. Attributes
2.1. Attribute groups used by the predefined workspaces
2.2. HTTP Servers Agent Events attributes
2.3. Web Servers Status attributes
3. Situations
4. Take Action commands
5. Glossary for monitoring agent for IBM HTTP Servers


Monitoring agent for IBM HTTP Servers

The monitoring agent for IBM HTTP Servers provides a Systems Management solution for the web servers for distributed platforms. Using the monitoring agent for IBM HTTP Servers, you can monitor multiple web servers running on the same physical node.

Attributes within the monitoring agent for IBM HTTP Servers collect data about the inner workings of a web server and performance information about user applications running under its control.

For additional usage information about this agent, see:


Workspaces

As part of the integration of the monitoring agent for IBM HTTP Servers with the IBM PureApplication System Monitoring Portal, the workspaces show views of monitoring data that provide detailed current data about the web servers running on the UNIX and Windows platforms of your site. In addition to reports and graphs, a workspace can contain other views (that is, windows), such as a Request Rate - History view, or a Take Action view from which you can issue commands.


Several views of high-level information

Several workspaces provide high-level information to help you meet the monitoring and administrative needs of your site. These workspaces report on status and availability for both the web server administrative server and its web server instances. You can use the workspaces to easily monitor the availability of your enterprise, the web servers, and web server instances.


Available IBM PureApplication System Monitoring Portal workspaces


1.1. Organization of the predefined workspaces

The monitoring agent for IBM HTTP Servers workspaces for the IBM PureApplication System Monitoring Portal define data displays that display in the Navigator Physical view.


Workspace organization

The hierarchy levels shown in the Navigator depend upon the enterprise customization of the IBM PureApplication System Monitoring Portal. However, the monitoring agent for IBM HTTP Servers does provide a set of predefined workspaces, which do not require customization. The following list shows the order and hierarchy of the predefined workspaces provided by the monitoring agent for IBM HTTP Servers Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Agent. It is a representation of how the predefined workspaces are organized in the Navigator. For more detailed information about a workspace, see the Related links section.

operating system [for example, Windows]


1.2. web server Agent workspace

This workspace shows the status on all monitored web servers and the web server agent events.

This workspace displays data provided by both the HTTP Servers Agent Events attributes and the Web Servers Status attributes.

Predefined workspace contains the following items:


Access the web server Agent workspace

To access this workspace, perform the following steps:

  1. Within the Navigator, expand Windows Systems, Linux Systems, or UNIX Systems, as appropriate for the node you are monitoring.
  2. Within the node list, expand the entry that corresponds to your node name.
  3. Within the list of monitored applications on that node, click Web Server Agent.


Attributes

The monitoring agent for IBM HTTP Servers is a monitoring agent that is located within your distributed systems. This agent gathers data about web server processes that are running, and stores this data in elements called attributes. Each attribute is a characteristic of an object. For example, the Kilobytes Rate (per second) attribute in the Apache web server attribute group reports the rate at which kilobytes were sent and received, per second, during the collection interval.


Attribute groups

The monitoring agent for IBM HTTP Servers attributes are organized into groups of related items. These attribute groups comprise the attribute tables for this agent.


Attributes and workspaces

Within the IBM PureApplication System Monitoring Portal workspaces, these attributes are displayed in, and correspond to, the columns in the reports and the items in the graphic displays for charts and graphs. You can use the collected data to analyze and monitor the performance of your web servers and the applications running within them.


Attributes and situations

Various attributes are referenced by the predefined situations of the product. You can also use the monitoring agent for IBM HTTP Servers attributes to create your own situations to monitor the performance of your web servers and their applications. These situations can monitor your web server resources or correlate multiple conditions to alert you to problems that might occur when attribute values exceed thresholds defined by you.


2.1. Attribute groups used by the predefined workspaces

A workspace contains graphical data or report columns that correspond directly to particular attributes in an attribute group. The table shows the correlations between the predefined workspaces and the attribute groups. The workspaces are listed alphabetically, not in the order in which they are displayed in the Navigator.

Workspaces and the attribute groups they reference

Workspace Related Attribute Groups
Apache web server workspace Apache web server attributes
Apache websites workspace Apache websites attributes
Sun Java System web server workspace Sun web server attributes
Sun websites workspace Sun websites attributes
web server Agent workspace Web Servers Status attributes and HTTP Servers Agent Events attributes


2.2. HTTP Servers Agent Events attributes

The HTTP Servers Agent Events attributes collect information about agent-level events that affect the ability of the monitoring agent for IBM HTTP Servers agent to collect data for Web Server.

The attributes within this group are used to build the web server Agent workspace.


Event Date and Time The date and time the event occurred. The valid format is a 12-character timestamp. For the STR and SCAN functions, the format is MM/DD/YY HH:MM:SS; the following table shows the values contained in this character string:

Format of the 12-character timestamp

Character String Meaning
MM Month
DD Day
YY Year
HH Hour
MM Minute
SS Second

Example: 09/13/06 18:32:03 indicates the data was collected on September 13 2006, at 18:32:03.

This attribute was designed for logging and reporting data collection times rather than for creating situations. To specify a time and date for comparison and testing, use attributes from the Universal Time or Local Time groups.


Message Description The description of the message. The valid format is an alphanumeric string, with a maximum of 256 characters.


Message ID The unique identifier of the message. The valid format is an alphanumeric string, with a maximum of eight characters.


Node Name The name of the system on which the server is running. The value format is an alphanumeric string, with a maximum of 128 characters.


Origin Node The name of the server subnode. The valid format is an alphanumeric string, with a maximum of 128 characters.


Sequence Number The sequence number of the message. The valid format is a positive integer.


Severity The severity of the message. Valid values are Info, Warning, Error, and Severe.


2.3. Web Servers Status attributes

The Web Servers Status attributes provide status about the monitored web servers.

The attributes within this group are used to build the web server Agent workspace.


Node Name The name of the system on which the server is running. The value format is an alphanumeric string, with a maximum of 256 characters.


Origin Node The name of the server subnode. The valid format is an alphanumeric string, with a maximum of 128 characters.


Process ID The identifier of the web server process. The valid format is an alphanumeric string, with a maximum of 64 characters.


Sample Date and Time The date and time the monitoring agent collected the data. The valid format is a 12-character timestamp. For the STR and SCAN functions, the format is MM/DD/YY HH:MM:SS; the following table shows the values contained in this character string:

Format of the 12-character timestamp

Character String Meaning
MM Month
DD Day
YY Year
HH Hour
MM Minute
SS Second

Example: 09/13/06 18:32:03 indicates the data was collected on September 13 2006, at 18:32:03.

This attribute was designed for logging and reporting data collection times rather than for creating situations. To specify a time and date for comparison and testing, use attributes from the Universal Time or Local Time groups.


Server Directory The directory of the web server. The valid format is an alphanumeric string, with a maximum of 256 characters.


Server Name The name of the web server. The valid format is an alphanumeric string, with a maximum of 256 characters.


Server Type The type of the web Server.


Start Date and Time The date and time when the web server started. The valid format is a timestamp. This attribute was designed for logging and reporting data collection times rather than for creating situations. To specify a time and date for comparison and testing, use attributes from the Universal Time or Local Time groups.


Status The status of the web server. Valid values are Error, Stopped, Start_Pending, Stop_Pending, Running, Continue_Pending, Pause_Pending, and Paused.


Situations

The monitoring agent for IBM HTTP Servers provides a number of predefined situations that you can use to complete the following tasks:

These predefined situations have alert status of Critical and Warning. When these situations trigger an alert, you can investigate the event by opening its workspace.


How the situations work

Situations are tests expressed in IF-TRUE statements of system conditions that you want to monitor; the tested value is a monitoring agent for IBM HTTP Servers attribute expressed in the form attribute-group.attribute-name. Thus, if the specified condition occurs or exists, the situation is true, and an alert is issued.


Avoid using negative values

If you define situations that use a counter or a range of numbers, always provide a threshold or use values in a positive range of numbers. For example, use a greater-than-or-equal-to-zero expression as shown in some of the following predefined situations. This practice prevents a situation from falsely tripping. If the monitoring agent for IBM HTTP Servers encounters an undefined attribute value, it interprets this as a negative number and erroneously triggers a situation that specified a negative number.


Predefined situations, descriptions, and formulas


Apache_HTTP_Stopped Monitors the status of the Apache web server and issues a Critical condition when the Apache HTTP server is not active. Its formula is as follows:

If

Apache_Web_Server.Server_Status does NOT equal 1

then

the situation Apache_HTTP_Stopped is true.


Apache_Site_Down Monitors the status of the Apache website and issues a Critical condition when one of the virtual hosts run by the Apache HTTP Server is unavailable. Its formula is as follows:

If

Apache_Web_Sites.Web_Site_Status does NOT equal 1

then

the situation Apache_Site_Down is true.


Apache_Site_failed Monitors the server failure rate of Apache web server and issues a Critical condition whenever the server failures rate is greater than 1. Its formula is as follows:

If

Apache_Web_Sites.Server_Failures_Rate is greater than 1

then

the situation Apache_Site_failed is true.


Apache_Site_trafic Monitors the count of kilobytes sent and received and issues a Warning condition whenever the kilobytes rate is greater than 10,000,000. Its formula is as follows:

If

Apache_Web_Sites.Kilobytes_Rate is greater than 10,000,000

then

the situation Apache_Site_trafic is true.


Apache_Site_requests Monitors the rate at which the Apache HTTP requests were made and issues a Warning condition whenever the request rate is greater than 100,000. Its formula is as follows:

If

Apache_Web_Sites.Request_Rate is greater than 100,000

then

the situation Apache_Site_requests is true.


Apache_Site_fail_logins Monitors the count of failed logins and issues a Warning condition whenever the failed login rate is greater than 100. Its formula is as follows:

If

Apache_Web_Sites.Failed_Login_Rate is greater than 100

then

the situation Apache_Site_fail_logins is true.


Apache_Site_fail_pages Monitors the rate of failed pages and issues a Warning condition whenever the failed pages rate is greater than 1,000. Its formula is as follows:

If

Apache_Web_Sites.Failed_Pages_Rate is greater than 1,000

then

the situation Apache_Site_fail_pages is true.


SWebSrvStoped Monitors the status of the Sun web server and issues a Critical condition when the server stops. Its formula is as follows:

If

Sun_Web_Server.Server_Status equals 0

then

the situation SWebSrvStoped is true.


SWebSrvHFrMEM Monitors the fraction of system memory that is being used by the web server instance process and issues a Warning condition whenever the system memory usage is greater than 80%. Its formula is as follows:

If

Sun_Web_Server.Process_Size_Fraction_System_Memory_Usage is greater than 80

then

the situation SWebSrvHFrMEM is true.


SWebSrvCONQLIM Monitors the numbers of connections in the connection queue and issues a Warning condition whenever the count is greater than 100. Its formula is as follows:

If

Sun_Web_Server.Connection_Queue_Count is greater than 100

then

the situation SWebSrvCONQLIM is true.


SWebSrvKPALQLIM Monitors the number of connections in the keepalive queue and issues a Warning condition whenever the number exceeds 100. Its formula is as follows:

If

Sun_Web_Server.Keepalive_Queue_Count is greater than 100

then

the situation SWebSrvKPALQLIM is true.


SWebSrvHNetSent Monitors the kilobytes transmitted on the network of the Sun web server and issues a Warning condition whenever the number exceeds 10,000,000 kilobytes per second. Its formula is as follows:

If

Sun_Web_Server.Kilobytes_Out_Rate is greater than 10,000,000

then

the situation SWebSrvHNetSent is true.


SWebSrvHNetRecv Monitors the kilobytes received on the network of the Sun web server and issues a Warning condition whenever the number exceeds 10,000,000 kilobytes per second. Its formula is as follows:

If

Sun_Web_Server.Kilobytes_In_Rate is greater than 10,000,000

then

the situation SWebSrvHNetRecv is true.


SVWebStHNetRecv Monitors the kilobytes received on the network of the Sun website and issues a Warning condition whenever the number exceeds 10,000,000 kilobytes per second. Its formula is as follows:

If

Sun_Web_Sites.Kilobytes_In_Rate is greater than 10,000,000

then

the situation SWebStHNetRecv is true.


SVWebStHNetSent Monitors the kilobytes transmitted on the network of the Sun website and issues a Warning condition whenever the number exceeds 10,000,000 kilobytes per second. Its formula is as follows:

If

Sun_Web_Sites.Kilobytes_Out_Rate is greater than 10,000,000

then

the situation SWebStHNetSent is true.


SVWebStFailed Monitors the percentage of failed responses violation and issues a Critical condition whenever the percentage exceeds 50%. Its formula is as follows:

If

Sun_Web_Sites.Percentage_of_failed_responses_violation is greater than 50

then

the situation SVWebStFailed is true.


SVWebStServErr Monitors the percentage of server error violations and issues a Critical condition whenever the percentage exceeds 50%. Its formula is as follows:

If

Sun_Web_Sites.Percentage_of_server_errors_violation is greater than 50

then

the situation SVWebStServErr is true.


SVWebStUnAuthErr Monitors the percentage of unauthorized response violations and issues a Warning condition whenever the percentage exceeds 50%. Its formula is as follows:

If

Sun_Web_Sites.Percentage_of_unauthorized_responses_violation is greater than 50

then

the situation SVWebStUnAuthErr is true.


SVWebStSucssfResp Monitors the percentage of successful response violations and issues a Critical condition whenever the percentage exceeds 50%. Its formula is as follows:

If

Sun_Web_Sites.Percentage_of_successful_responses_violation is greater than 50

then

the situation SVWebStSucssfResp is true.


Take Action commands

The Take Action commands allow your interactive IBM PureApplication System Monitoring Portal users enter a command or stop or start a process at any system in your network where one or more monitoring agents are installed. The monitoring agent for IBM HTTP Servers Take Action commands allow you to use the IBM PureApplication System Monitoring Portal interface to start, stop, or restart a web server or a website.

Users can run a Take Action command from a workspace, from the Navigator, from a situation that you create, in an improvised mode, or by recalling a saved Take Action command. For details about using these general commands, see the online help for IBM PureApplication System Monitoring Portal.


RestartServer: Restart an Apache web server

Use the RestartServer command to restart an Apache web server instance.


StartServer: Start a Sun web server

Use the StartServer command to start a Sun web server.


Glossary for monitoring agent for IBM HTTP Servers


A


Apache HTTP server An open source web server. IBM offers a web server, called the IBM HTTP Server, which is based on Apache.


application server A program in a distributed network that provides the execution environment for an application program.


attribute Data associated with a component. For example, a web server component might have attributes such as web server name, WWW server status, node name, origin node, interval time, and so on.


attribute group A set of related attributes that can be combined in a view or a situation.


H


HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol. A suite of protocols for the Internet that transfer and display hypertext documents.


HTTP request A transaction initiated by a web browser and adhering to HTTP. The server usually responds with HTML data, but can send other kinds of objects as well.


I


IBM Tivoli Monitoring platform The software architecture and foundation that support the development and operations of IBM PureApplication System Monitoring Portal and its monitoring agents.


J


J2EE Java. 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition. An environment for developing and deploying enterprise applications using the Java language. The J2EE platform consists of a set of services, application programming interfaces (APIs), and protocols that provide the functions needed for developing multi-tiered, Web-based applications.


Java An object-oriented programming language for portable interpretive code that supports interaction among remote objects. Java was developed and specified by Sun Microsystems, Incorporated.


JSP Java server page. A web page that specifies one or more servlets whose execution on the web server modifies the page content or appearance before it is presented to the user.


M


monitor 1) A transaction environment for maintaining large quantities of data in a consistent state and that controls which users and clients can access data through authorized servers. 2) A programming primitive created so multiple program threads can share the same resource (such as an object). A program creates a monitor for a given resource by requesting it from the system; the system returns a unique ID for that monitor. After that, any thread needing the resource must use the monitor to lock the resource while the thread is using it. If the monitor is already locked, a thread requesting the resource is queued by the system and then given control when the monitor becomes unlocked. Also called a mutex.


monitored application An application that interfaces with a Tivoli Privacy Manager monitor to enable access to monitored items that flow between the application and the monitored system.


N


node Any managed system, such as a web server, that the IBM PureApplication System Monitoring Portal is monitoring. A node can also be a managed system of subnodes being managed under a primary node.


R


request The entry point into an application whose processing or response time directly affects the response time the user perceives.


S


server In a network, hardware, or software that provides facilities to clients. Examples of a server are a file server, a printer server, or a mail server.


session A series of requests to a servlet that originate from the same user at the same browser. Using sessions, applications running in a web container can track individual users.


T


thread pool The threads that are being used by or are available to a computer program.


U


URI Uniform Resource Identifier. An identifier for a point of content on the Internet, be it a page of text, a video or sound clip, a still or animated image, or a program. The most common form of URI is the web page address, which is a particular form of URI called a Universal Resource Locator (URL). A URI typically describes the mechanism used to access the resource, the computer that houses the resource, and the name of the resource (such as a file name) on that computer.


URL Universal Resource Locator. The unique address for a file accessible via the Internet. Such a file might be a web page (usually the home page), an image file, or a program such as a Java applet or servlet. The URL comprises the protocol used to access the file, a domain name that identifies a specific computer on the Internet, and a path name that specifies that file location on that computer.


V


virtual server A server that shares its resources with other servers to support applications.


W


Web Server A software program that can service Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) requests.


Web service A self-contained, self-describing modular application that can be published, discovered, and invoked over a network using standard network protocols. Typically, XML is used to tag the data, SOAP is used to transfer the data, WSDL is used to describe the services available, and UDDI is used for listing what services are available.


Website A related collection of files available on the web that is managed by a single entity (an organization or an individual) and contains information in hypertext for its users. A website often includes hypertext links to other websites.


workspace A window composed of one or more views.


Monitor the virtual machines

Each virtual system instance consists of a set of virtual machines that represent a physical node in an application server environment. These virtual machines are assigned to and hosted by a hypervisor. You can monitor the details of each of these virtual machines. You must specifically be granted access to the virtual machine that you intend to access or be assigned the Cloud group administration role with permission to View all cloud groups (Read-only) to perform these steps. You can view details about each virtual machine and take various actions by following these steps.


Procedure

  1. To access the details of the virtual machines, click Cloud > Virtual Machines > <virtual_machine_name>. You can view the details for each virtual machine, including events, jobs, description, status, creation date, the date of the last update, compute nodes, and more. You can also view the following additional details:

    Virtual CPU

    This field graphically specifies the percentage of the virtual CPU power that is currently being used. The number of virtual CPUs available is determined by the pattern used to create the virtual system. The default number of virtual CPUs for a virtual machine is 1.

    Virtual memory

    This field displays a graph that specifies the percentage of the memory that is currently being used by the virtual machine. The amount of memory available is determined by the pattern used to create the virtual system instance associated with this virtual machine. The default amount of virtual memory for a virtual machine is 2048 MB.

    Virtual disk statistics

    This field provides statistics in Kilobits per second (KBps) of reads, writes, and uses of the virtual disk.

    Virtual network statistics

    This field provides statistics in KBps for data that is received, transmitted, and used on the virtual network.

  2. In the upper left corner of the toolbar, take the following actions for a virtual machine. Actions that are not available for a specific virtual machine are not active.

    Start

    If the virtual machine is not running, use this option to start it.

    Stop

    If a virtual machine is running, then it can be stopped using the stop action.

    If your application is running DB2 and the application is stopped, and an operation that cannot be interrupted (RESTORE DATABASE, for example) is forced, the operation must be successfully restarted before the database becomes available again.

    Restart

    If the virtual machine is running, use this option to restart it.

    Delete

    A virtual machine can be deleted to release the resources associated with it.

    Configure

    Use this option to configure the memory and CPU of the virtual machines.

    Report

    Use this option to get a report that includes details about CPU and memory usage.


Monitor virtual machine instances

Use reports and charting to monitor the status and performance of your deployed virtual application instances and machine instances. Your applications must be deployed and all of the virtual machines started before you can monitor results.

The user who deployed the application, along with those with access or the administrator, can see the monitoring information for the deployment.

You can monitor the following statistics for your deployed virtual machines.

You can also monitor roles for deployed components.

Note: You cannot monitor a virtual machine that has failed. If a virtual machine has failed, monitoring is disabled.


Procedure

  1. Click the Workload Console tab at the top of the Welcome page to open the workload console.
  2. Click Instances > Virtual Applications.
  3. Select the virtual application instance. The virtual application instance details display to the right.
  4. Click Manage on the toolbar.
  5. Click Virtual Machine Monitoring. The Virtual Machine Monitoring pane displays. Select a virtual machine to monitor. The Memory, Processor, Network and Storage monitoring charts display.

You have viewed and monitored virtual application instances and machines.


Monitor virtual machine jobs

Monitor the virtual machine jobs in IBM PureApplication System W1500 to stay up-to-date with the job status changes. You must be assigned the Cloud group administration role with permission to View all cloud groups (Read-only) to perform these steps. Use the system console to complete this task.


Procedure

  1. Click Cloud > Virtual Machines.

  2. Select the virtual machine for which you want to review the jobs.

  3. From the Jobs field, click View details.

  4. Optional: Filter the jobs by pending jobs or started jobs.

    1. In the Pending Jobs section, type the name of the job in the Name field and enter the type of the job in the Type field. Click the Refresh icon.
    2. In the Started Jobs section, type the name of the job in the Name field and enter the type of the job in the Type field. Click the Refresh icon.


Monitor virtual networks

Monitor the virtual networks on the system to ensure that they function correctly. You must be assigned the Hardware administration role with permission to View all hardware resources (Read-only) to perform these steps. Use the system console to complete this task.


Procedure

  1. Click Hardware > Virtual Network.

  2. Select a virtual network and view the following details:

    Virtual network ID

    Specifies a numeric ID given to the virtual network.

    Description

    Description of the virtual network.

    Updated on

    Specifies a time stamp of the day and time that the virtual network was last updated.

    Location

    Location in the rack where the virtual network is located.

    Spanning tree

    Specifies the group ID and displays the powering state and health state of the virtual network.

    IP group

    Specifies the IP group that is associated with this virtual network. Click the name of the IP group to view the details.

    Cloud group

    Specifies the cloud group that is associated with this virtual network. Click the cloud group name to view the details.

    Management VLAN

    Select the True check box if the virtual network is a management VLAN.