Web Performance Monitor

 

The IBM Web Administration for i5/OS interface provides the Web Performance Monitor to monitor and evaluate the performance characteristics of your Web environment.

A Web environment is a grouping of related HTTP and application servers that form a Web solution. In a Web environment, you may have to monitor the performance of application servers, HTTP servers, databases, and applications jobs. The Web Performance Monitor provides a single interface to monitor your entire Web environment, to find how your system time and resources are being spent, and to identify potential bottlenecks. Only one Web environment on the system can be monitored at one time.

Information for this topic supports the latest PTF levels for HTTP Server for i5/OS . IBM recommends that you install the latest PTFs to upgrade to the latest level of the HTTP Server for i5/OS. Some of the topics documented here are not available prior to this update. See IBM Service for more information.

 

Details

When performance monitoring is enabled using the Web Performance monitor, your HTTP server instances are stopped their configurations are updated to enable ARM data collection, your application servers are stopped and their configurations are updated to enable ARM data collection, ARM data collection is started, and your HTTP server and application servers are restarted to activate the configuration changes. You should only enable Web performance monitoring when it is acceptable to not access the Web environment for a period of time, as your HTTP and application servers are stopped while their configurations are updated. Enabling performance monitoring may take several minutes to complete.

When the Web Performance Monitor is enabled, the Transactions tab displays the transaction statistics for jobs that are collecting ARM data in your environment. For each transaction, the average response time and the number of completed transactions information is shown. Very large results for average response time may indicate a bottleneck and provide a starting point to investigate a performance problem.

When the Web Performance Monitor is enabled, the Jobs tab displays the active servers and jobs in your environment. For each job, the current user, CPU usage percentages, run priority, number of threads, average transaction response time, and number of complete transactions is provided. Very large results for average response time or CPU usage percentage may indicate a bottleneck and provide a starting point to investigate a performance problem.

When performance monitoring is disabled using the Web Performance monitor, your HTTP server instances are stopped and their configurations are updated to disable ARM data collection, your application servers are stopped and their configurations are updated to disable ARM data collection, ARM data collection is stopped, and your HTTP server and application servers are restarted to activate the configuration changes. You should only disable Web performance monitoring when it is acceptable to not access the Web environment for a period of time, as your HTTP and application servers are stopped while the configurations are updated. Disabling performance monitoring may take several minutes to complete.

 

Prerequisites and assumptions

Support for the Web Performance Monitor was added in the PTF Group SF99114 level 6. This level or higher is required to use this function. The Web Administration for i5/OS interface supports these Web browsers: Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.X and Mozilla FireFox 1.5.X. Each of the following WebSphere Application Server products must be at the Fix level specified before Web Performance Monitor can work. When WebSphere Application Server fixes are installed, the activation instructions must be followed completely, and the ADMIN server must be stopped and restarted. The following versions are supported:

• WebSphere Portal Enable V5.1.0.X

  • Running on WebSphere Application Server V5.1 Base - PTF Group SF99308 Level 7 or higher

  • Running on WebSphere Application Server V6.0 - PTF Group SF99312 Level 5 or higher

• WebSphere Portal V6

  • WebSphere Application Server V6.0 - PTF Group SF99312 Level 5 or higher

• WebSphere Application Server V5.1.X (Base and Express editions)

  • Base - PTF Group SF99308 Level 7 or higher

  • Express - PTF Group SF99311 Level 7 or higher

• WebSphere Application Server V6.0.X (Base and Express editions and Network Deployment in a stand-alone environment)

  • Base/Express/ND - PTF Group SF99312 Level 5 or higher (6.0.2.15)

• WebSphere Application Server V6.1.X (Base and Express editions and Network Deployment in a stand-alone environment)

  • Base/Express/ND - PTF Group SF99323 Level 5 or higher

 

Start the Web Performance Monitor

The Web Performance Monitor can be started from the Web Administration for i5/OS interface:

1. In iSeries Navigator, expand your_system –> Network –> Servers, and select TCP/IP.

2. Right-click HTTP Administration, and select Start.

3. Start a Web browser.

4. Type http://[your_system_i]:2001 in the URL field to start the i5/OS Tasks Web page, where [your_system_i] is the name of your IBM System i system. Example: http://mysystemi.acme.com:2001

5. Click IBM Web Administration for i5/OS.

6. From the IBM Web Administration for i5/OS interface, select the server you want to monitor.

7. In the navigation pane, expand Web Performance, and select Web Performance Monitor.

   If Web Performance Monitor is not displayed in the navigation pane, either the correct level of PTF Group SF99114 has not been properly installed, or the selected server is not supported by the Web Performance Monitor.

If Web Performance Monitor is not currently active, the Enable panel will be shown. Click Start to enable monitoring.

 

Parent topic:

Web tasks