Monitoring and Maintaining Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing

Transcription

1 CHAPTER 7 Monitoring and Maintaining Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing We recommend that you monitor heavily used systems on short intervals, such as bi-weekly or weekly. Monitor systems with lighter use less frequently, such as once a month. See the following sections: How to Monitor Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing Activities, page 7-1 How to Assess Performance Degradation Due to the Database Scalability Limitation of MSDE, page 7-6 How to Configure Automatic PC Clock Time Adjust, page 7-8 About Flex Fields, page 7-9 How to Monitor Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing Activities The Windows Event Viewer application and the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Eventlog application both log all web server activities. You can use these logs to monitor or troubleshoot Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing. The following procedures provide instructions for the four tools that you can use to monitor activities on the web server: To Use the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Eventlog, page 7-1 To Access the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Alarm Table, page 7-2 To Run the Windows Performance Monitoring Tool, page 7-2 To View an Event with the Windows Event Viewer, page 7-4 Also see the procedures in the Configuring the Lumberjack Logging Utility section on page 7-4. To Use the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Eventlog The Eventlog application logs all activities specific to Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing services. To access an eventlog, right-click the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace icon in the system tray and choose Eventlog. 7-1

2 How to Monitor Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing Activities To capture an eventlog, pull it from the Gateway SIM through the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server system. To Access the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Alarm Table The Alarm Table reports abnormal events that occur in the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace system. In addition to providing alarm information about Cisco Unified MeetingPlace servers, you can also use the Alarm Table to determine if Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing is running or responding. For more information on this functionality, see the About the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Gateway Systems Integrity Manager section on page 2-3. MeetingTime is the administrative client for the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server system. You must install it if you want to access the alarm table. For instructions, see the applicable Administration Guide for Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server, at Log in to MeetingTime. From the MeetingTime Administrative menu, choose System. The Register Book appears. Click Alarm Tables, then Execute. To Run the Windows Performance Monitoring Tool Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing provides a performance object called Cisco MeetingPlace Web Conferencing that you can monitor in the Windows performance monitoring tool. Table 7-1 lists the counters available in the Cisco MeetingPlace Web Conferencing performance object. For more information about how to save or record performance graphs, see the Microsoft website. Table 7-1 Counter List Counter MPAgent: Total client connections in MPAgent MPConvert: Total power point attachments converted by the conversion service MPConvert: Total power point attachments failed to convert by the conversion service MPAudio: Total audio attachments converted by the audio service MPAudio: Total MP3 files converted by the audio service MPAudio: Total windows media files converted by the audio service MPDatSvc: Total users pulled by the replication service MPDatSvc: Total groups pulled by the replication service MPDatSvc: Total meetings pulled by the replication service Description The number of client connections in the Cisco MeetingPlace Agent Service. The number of Microsoft PowerPoint attachments converted by the conversion service. The number of Microsoft PowerPoint attachments the conversion service failed to convert. The number of audio attachments converted by the audio service. The number of MP3 files converted by the audio service. The number of Windows Media files converted by the audio service. The number of users replicated to the SQL database. The number of user groups replicated to the SQL database. The number of meetings replicated to the SQL database. 7-2

3 How to Monitor Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing Activities Table 7-1 Counter List (continued) Counter MPDatSvc: Total attachments pulled by the replication service MPDatSvc: Total confparts pulled by the replication service MPDatSvc: Total meeting categories pulled by the replication service MPDatSvc: Total size of attachments (KB) pulled by the replication service MPX: Active MPX Threads MPX: Total queries to MPX MPX: Total schedules MPX: Total successful schedules MPX: Total attends MPX: Total successful attends MPX: Total 1st MtgStatusGetQS queries MPX: Total rollover schedules MPX: Total successful rollover schedules MPX: Total server busy messages Various FormType counters Description The number of attachments replicated to the SQL database. The number of conference attendees replicated to the SQL database. The number of meeting categories replicated to the SQL database. The total size of attachments in KB replicated to the SQL database. The number of active threads in MPX, the ISAPI entry point. The total number of queries processed by MPX. The total number of scheduling attempts made through MPX. The total number of successful scheduling attempts made through MPX. The total number of attend attempts made through MPX. The total number of successful attends made through MPX. The total number of times the meeting console loaded successfully. The total number of meeting rollover attempts. The total number of successful meeting rollovers. The total number of server busy messages MPX returned to users. FormType counters are web service API calls that facilitate internal tracking. Step 4 Step 5 From the Start menu, choose Run. The Run window appears. Enter Perfmon to open the Performance window and click the Add (+) button. The Add Counters window appears. From the Performance object field, choose Cisco MeetingPlace Web Conferencing. A list of counters appears. (Optional) For more information about a specific counter, click it from the list and then click Explain. To enable a specific counter, click it from the list and then click Add. The Performance window adds the specific counters and presents a real-time graph. 7-3

4 How to Monitor Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing Activities To View an Event with the Windows Event Viewer The application log provides detailed information about Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing services. For more information about the Windows Event Viewer, see your Windows documentation. Click Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer. From the Tree menu, choose Application Log. From the Application Log window, double-click the event. Configuring the Lumberjack Logging Utility Lumberjack is a logging utility that runs as a background thread. Lumberjack periodically dumps several logs at 24 hour intervals and stores those logs, as well as a specified number of older logs, in a configurable location. All the configuration settings are stored in the registry and worked in to the current registry setting structure of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace. Performance monitor logging configuration settings are stored in definition INI file, so counter list and logging interval can be easily changed. Upon startup of the master service, a new thread for Lumberjack begins. Lumberjack reads the configuration values from the registry and INI file to determine behavior. If a performance monitor definition INI file does not exist, Lumberjack automatically creates a file with a predefined Counter list and logging interval by using the Lumberjack default values. Every 24 hours, Lumberjack creates a new Gateway SIM event log for a 24 hour window. If the eventlog terminates before midnight, Lumberjack restarts it. If the event log runs past midnight of the day that the first call was made, Lumberjack terminates that process. During routing log gathering, Lumberjack also acquires the following information: Performance monitor (24 hour window) NT Application and System eventlog Registry snapshots (Latitude and DCMS) IIS Log When the master service is running and Lumberjack is enabled, it detects stopped (crashed) services. and collects the following information in a temp folder in the windows temp directory: GWSIM eventlog (24 hour window) NT Application and System eventlog Registry snapshots (Latitude and DCMS) IIS log DrWtsn.log and User.dmp.exe,.map, and.pdb of downed services binaries for authfilt.dll and jengax.dll (if downed IIS) After the information is collected, Lumberjack bundles the files by using pkzipc.exe. This executable file is distributed with MPWEB and located in the DataSvc folder. The naming convention for the file is lumberjack_timestamp.zip for routine logs and lumberjackcrash_timestamp.zip for crash logs, where timestamp is the time the log gathering started for routine logs and the time of the detected crash for crash logs. 7-4

5 How to Monitor Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing Activities If the master service is simply stopped, the temp directory that is created for routine logs is not deleted so that the logs for one day are bundled together if there is a restart of the master service. This functionality enables the logs that are captured to be reviewed without having to open a zip file and allows for a quicker shutdown and restart of master service because the service does not have to wait to zip files and remove the directory. To configure the Lumberjack Logging Utility, complete the following procedures, as applicable: To Configure Lumberjack on a Cisco MCS Server, page 7-5 To Configure Lumberjack on a Non-Cisco MCS Server, page 7-5 To Manually Generate a Lumberjack Snapshot, page 7-6 To Configure Lumberjack on a Cisco MCS Server Choose Start > Run and enter regedit. To configure Lumberjack, change your registry settings for key HKLM\Software\Latitude\MeetingPlace WebPublisher\General\ and for key HKLM\Software\Latitude\MeetingPlace Gateway SIM\General\ as shown in Table 7-2. Table 7-2 Registry Settings Name (Type) Description Data and Default Key: HKLM\Software\Latitude\MeetingPlace WebPublisher\General\ Server Logging (DWORD) Enables and disables Lumberjack. 0 - Disabled 1 - Enabled Default is 1. Log Crash History (DWORD) Log History (DWORD) Log Location (String) InstallLocation (String) Specifies the number of old crash logs to store. Specifies the number of old routine logs to store. Specifies where to store the.zip files containing logs. Used for gathering.dll,.exe,.map, and.pdb files. Default is 10. Default is 15. Default is install-location\cisco Systems\LogFiles. Default is set by Cisco MeetingPlace Web Conferencing. Key: HKLM\Software\Latitude\MeetingPlace Gateway SIM\General\ InstallLocation (String) Used for running GWSIM eventlog. Default is set by GWSIM. To Configure Lumberjack on a Non-Cisco MCS Server If you want to run Lumberjack on a non-cisco MCS server or a server with custom locations for log directories, you must use additional keys in the registry to allow custom locations of log files that are typically fixed on Cisco MCS servers. 7-5

6 How to Assess Performance Degradation Due to the Database Scalability Limitation of MSDE Caution This procedure applies only to Cisco Unified MeetingPlace customers with a legacy third-party Windows server with system specifications comparable to Cisco MCS specifications. When specifying file location, you must include the full path including drive letter and must not include the final '\'. For example, if your IIS logs are stored in the C:\temp\ directory, the location is c:\temp for the Lumberjack Custom IIS key. In the registry, create Log Custom IIS (String), where you enter the location of IIS log storage. Create Log Custom DrWatson (String), where you enter the location of Dr Watson log/user.dmp storage. Create Log Custom NTEventlog (String), where you enter the location of NT Eventlog storage. To Manually Generate a Lumberjack Snapshot Logs gathered because of a manual snapshot request have the format lumberjacksnapshot timestamp.zip. You can locate these logs either in the default LogFiles folder or in the folder that you specified when you completed the applicable procedure in the Configuring the Lumberjack Logging Utility section on page 7-4. On the web server, right-click the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace orange door icon. Choose Capture Logs. The snapshot log gathering process begins. How to Assess Performance Degradation Due to the Database Scalability Limitation of MSDE To determine whether the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace web server is experiencing performance degradation due to the MSDE limit of eight concurrent queries, complete the To Review Event Log Entries procedure on page 7-6, and then read the Reviewing Your Options for Minimizing Performance Degradation section on page 7-7. To Review Event Log Entries On the Windows 2000 server that is running the MSDE 2000 database server (this is, the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace web server unless the database engine is on another server), open Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer. Choose Application Log and choose View > Find. Enter the following information: Event types Choose only Information. 7-6

7 How to Assess Performance Degradation Due to the Database Scalability Limitation of MSDE Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 Step 8 Step 9 0 Event source Choose MSSQLSERVER. Description Enter concurrent queries. Click Find Next. If the Search fails and the end of log reached message appears, the performance limit of the MSDE has never been reached during the time span of this application event log, and no further action is needed. or If an event log entry is found in the Event Viewer, proceed to Step 6. In the Event Viewer, open the event log entry by double-clicking it. The description indicates by how many queries the threshold of eight queries has been exceeded. To review all the event log entries, click Find Next in the Find in local Application Log window. In each event log entry, look for the value of X in the exceeded by X queries message. If X is greater than 10, performance may have been affected significantly, and you should watch for this recurrence, ascertaining the number of messages per day. For example, if this recurrence occurs once a day on average, the impact to users is limited. If this recurrence happens 30 times a day, the impact is widespread. Based on your analysis, evaluate your options by using the guidelines in the Reviewing Your Options for Minimizing Performance Degradation section on page 7-7. Reviewing Your Options for Minimizing Performance Degradation Consider the following options if your Cisco Unified MeetingPlace web server is experiencing performance degradation due to the MSDE limit of eight concurrent queries: Upgrade your server. Although the eight-queries limit of MSDE cannot be changed, if you try to execute a large number of concurrent queries (or one after another) on a server with very fast CPU and hard disk access, these queries would be processed and completed within a much shorter time than they would on a lower-performance server, which effectively raises that eight-queries limit. Therefore, upgrading the server to a much faster hardware (especially CPU and disk) will mechanically raise the limit threshold while improving the overall performance of the application. Add another processor this option is only for Cisco Unified MeetingPlace customers with a legacy third-party Windows server with system specifications comparable to Cisco MCS specifications. According to the Microsoft documentation, MSDE can effectively use up to two processors on an symmetric multi processors (SMP) servers, such as dual CPU, quad CPU, and so on. SQL Server 2000 can also take advantage of multiple processors, but you will have to acquire two licenses if you want to use it against two physical processors; however, according to Microsoft, you can use a single processor license against two logical processors on a dual Xeon in hyperthreading mode, only if the two logical processors belongs to the same physical Xeon processor. Search for other weak performance and scalability related points in your installation. For example, end-users experience may be affected when network equipment between your server and end-users has limited bandwidth, slowing down network traffic when using the application. In these cases, investing in higher capacity network equipment may result in better global improvements than investing in a full SQL Server license. 7-7

8 How to Configure Automatic PC Clock Time Adjust Chapter 7 How to Configure Automatic PC Clock Time Adjust Cisco Unified MeetingPlace offers sophisticated parameters to precisely manage time-related meeting behaviors. For these parameters to properly control the various aspects of meeting scheduling, attendance, and termination behaviors, you must synchronize the time for all components that make up the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace system, such as the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server and the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace gateways. The gateways have a configurable Time Adjust feature that allows you to specify a source clock and update frequency. This feature is implemented by using the Windows W32Time function. Gateway SIM is a common component among the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace gateways, and its purpose is to provide a channel through which gateways can communicate with the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server. Once a gateway is attached to the Audio Server, the Gateway SIM also monitors the health of connection between the gateway and the Audio Server. Note When a large time adjustment occurs on either side of the Gateway SIM connection, either on the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server or on the gateway, the Gateway SIM connection can fail and cause the gateway to reset all its services, resulting in a service outage. To configure automatic PC clock time adjust, complete the To Configure Automatic PC Clock Time Adjust procedure on page 7-8, and then read the Monitoring Server Time Drift section on page 7-9. To Configure Automatic PC Clock Time Adjust Caution The Gateway SIM tolerates a time adjustment of only two minutes or fewer without resetting its connection. Do not adjust the time on the Gateway SIM in an increment greater than two minutes. Adjustments greater than two minutes may cause a service interruption. Open the Gateway SIM. a. From your system tray, right-click the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace (orange door) icon. b. Click Properties. Choose the Internet Time tab. From the Select Time Server section, choose one of the following options to specify the clock source: Note You must ensure that the domain controller clock is accurate. Step 4 Domain Controller This is the default. The gateway is configured to use the clock on your domain controller as the source clock. External NTP Server If your Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server is configured with an NTP server, choose this option to configure your gateway to use that NTP server. Set the synchronization update interval by doing one of the following: To set the synchronization update interval in days, enter a number between 1 and in the Interval field. To set the synchronization update interval to a predefined interval, enter a special code from the following list in the Interval field: 7-8

9 About Flex Fields 0 = once per day (BiDaily) = once every two days (TriDaily) = once every three days (Weekly) = once every week (seven days) (SpecialSkew) = once every 45 minutes until successful three times, then once every eight hours (three times per day) [default] (DailySpecialSkew) = once every 45 minutes until successful one time, then once every day Monitoring Server Time Drift When you initially configure the Time Adjust feature on your gateway, we recommend that you monitor the amount of time drift on your server. If the drift is large, increase the frequency (number of times synchronization event occurs per a given period) incrementally so that each time adjustment is not too large. To monitor the amount of each time adjustment, review the output of W32Time events in the Windows NT Application Log. About Flex Fields Flex fields are customized profile and meeting fields that you can configure in MeetingTime. They permit you to include unique business information, such as your company s name or a user s department number, in reports. As a system administrator, you can create up to three profile and three meeting flex fields on your Cisco Unified MeetingPlace system. You can configure each field to be editable by users, read-only, or invisible to users. If you choose to display a flex field to other users, the field will appear in the scheduling and profile management sections of MeetingTime and the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing administrative interfaces. For information on creating and configuring flex fields, see the applicable Administration Guide for Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server, at 7-9

10 About Flex Fields Chapter