Monitoring IBM Maximo Platform

[Monitoring IBM Maximo Products] [May 2011] Monitoring IBM Maximo Platform Document version 1.1 Ben Stern, Colleen McCretton Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 20011. All rights reserved. US Government Users Restricted Rights Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.

CONTENTS 1 Introduction...1 2 Key IBM Maximo Platform Components...1 2.1 HTTP Server...2 2.2 Application Server...3 2.3 Database Server...3 2.4 Directory Server...3 3 Monitoring the Maximo Components...3 3.1 Key Monitoring Strategies...5 3.1.1 Thresholds... 5 3.1.2 Event Management... 5 3.1.3 Long Term Trending and Analysis... 5 3.1.4 Adaptive Monitoring/Dynamic Thresholds... 6 3.1.5 Predictive Monitoring... 6 3.1.6 Automated Corrective Actions... 6 3.1.7 Workflows/Policies... 6 3.2 Monitoring the Key Maximo Components...7 3.2.1 HTTP Server... 7 3.2.2 Application Server... 7 3.2.3 Database Server... 9 3.2.4 Directory Server... 10 3.2.5 Monitoring Virtualized Environments... 11 3.2.5.1 VMware... 11 3.2.5.2 Power Systems... 11 3.2.5.3 z/vm... 11 ii

3.2.5.4 Solaris Zones... 11 3.2.5.5 Microsoft Hyper-V and Virtual Server... 11 3.2.6 Custom Monitoring Solutions... 12 4 Preparing for Deployment...12 5 Transaction Tracking...13 5.1 Response Time Monitoring...14 5.2 Transaction Tracking...15 6 Service Oriented Architectures...16 7 Reporting...17 iii

1 Introduction IT organizations are becoming more and more service oriented. As a result, when your users complain that it takes a long time to login, execute a search, save a record, or run a report in any of the IBM Maximo products, you are expected to quickly diagnose and remedy the situation. Because the environment in which applications exist is becoming more and more complex, performance problems are becoming more and more complicated to solve. The issue could be with the application, the user s workstation, the network, one of many servers in the Maximo environment, the database, or any one of a number of other products or systems unique to your environment. The problem may even be with a vendor s system such as an ISP whose technology is totally outside of your system. In many cases, organizations lack the tools to properly diagnose and tune problems so they just throw hardware at the situation hoping that the problem goes away. What is really needed is a set of tools to help accurately depict the environment in which the application is running, show potential trouble spots, and even suggest remedies. This tool needs to be easy to install and use and must have the ability to send the acquired data to other interested parties for further analysis such as technical support, other departments, and even outside vendors. Ideally, the solution should be able to alert you before the problem becomes apparent to your users so their lost productivity can be avoided. Finally, the tool should be able to provide a set of availability and performance reports to help you analyze your environment as well as have documented proof that you have met your service level agreements (SLAs). This paper documents how to use the IBM Tivoli Monitoring Agent for Maximo to effectively monitor your Maximo environment. In most cases, the IBM Tivoli Monitoring Agent for Maximo provides enough visibility into the performance and availability of your IBM Maximo product environment. In some cases, you might want even more visibility into the components of Maximo. Therefore, the paper discusses how to leverage IBM Tivoli Monitoring (ITM) and some of the ITM and IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager (ITCAM) Agents to gain more visibility into Maximo. The paper documents how each of the key components that make up your Maximo platform can be monitored using the monitoring agent for basic monitoring and using the IBM Tivoli Monitoring and IBM Tivoli Composite Application Monitoring Agents for deeper monitoring. The IBM Tivoli Monitoring Agent for Maximo can monitor the various processes inside the Maximo platform. It provides key metrics such as user sessions, cron task and object instance counts, memory usage, database connections, and more. It also provides configuration information about the Maximo applications that are installed, version information, and more, which is useful when calling for technical support. All of this information is displayed right along with the other system metrics available through ITM. For additional information on IBM Tivoli Monitoring, see the following website: http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/products/monitor/ 2 Key IBM Maximo Platform Components To effectively monitor your environment, you must be able to monitor all of the key components of IBM Maximo platform. For most cases, monitoring the overall health and availability of the Maximo platform is sufficient. In some cases, it is important to monitor 1

Key IBM Maximo Platform Components the response time of Maximo. It is important that end users experience good response time with Maximo. Typically, this can be achieved by ensuring that all of the key Maximo components are healthy. In a multi-tiered application, it can also be beneficial to provide end to end transaction tracking. Transaction tracking allows you to monitor a transaction from the time it gets initiated at the HTTP server, goes through the application server, and finishes in the backend database server. Transaction tracking provides visibility into where the transaction is spending its time, allowing you to quickly isolate and resolve problems in the environment. The following diagram outlines the key components in the Maximo application environment: 2.1 HTTP Server Requests into Maximo are initiated through an HTTP server. The HTTP server can either be an IIS or Apache web server. 2

Monitoring the Maximo Components 2.2 Application Server Every Maximo environment uses an application server. The application server can either be IBM WebSphere Application Server or a BEA WebLogic Application Server. In larger environments, the application servers are multiple servers in load balanced configurations in order to achieve higher scalability. 2.3 Database Server Maximo application environments contain a database server. This database server may be a stand-alone server that is used by the Maximo application or may be part of a large database server that supports multiple applications. Either way, it is essential to monitor the database server to make sure it is performing well. 2.4 Directory Server Optionally, a site might deploy an LDAP directory server such as IBM Tivoli Directory Server. Since this is a key component for user authentication, it is critical that the directory server have high availability. 3 Monitoring the Maximo Components This section outlines how you can monitor each component in the Maximo environment. This will ensure that each component (HTTP server, application server, etc.) is healthy. Primary monitoring will be done using the IBM Tivoli Monitoring OS Agents and the IBM Tivoli Monitoring Agent for Maximo. When deeper monitoring is required, other agents in the IBM Tivoli Monitoring (ITM) product family can be used. This product family includes IBM Tivoli Monitoring, ITCAM (IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager), and OMEGAMON Agents that integrate into the IBM Tivoli Monitoring version 6 server infrastructure. IBM Tivoli Monitoring consists of the following components: Portal server that provides the monitoring user interface Hub Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server (HTEMS) and remote Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Servers (RTEMS) for scalability and firewall negotiation Monitoring agents: o o IBM Tivoli Monitoring Agent for Maximo IBM Tivoli Monitoring, IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager, and OMEGAMON Agents 3

Monitoring the Maximo Components Figure 1 If you decide that you need more monitoring capabilities than the IBM Tivoli Monitoring Agent for Maximo can provide, then you need to purchase and other IBM Tivoli monitoring products. These products include the following types of monitoring agents: Operating systems (UNIX, Linux, Windows) Applications such as SAP, Siebel, and PeopleSoft Virtual servers (VMware, Citrix) Messaging Web resources (Apache, SunONE, IIS) Internet service monitors Lotus Domino WebSphere Application Server 4

Monitoring the Maximo Components For more information on IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Applications, see the following website: http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/products/composite-applicationmgr-applications/ If you use WebLogic servers, you will need to install the IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for J2EE Agent, which is not part of the IBM Tivoli Application Manager for Applications bundle. For additional information on IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for J2EE, see the following website: http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/products/composite-application-mgr-itcamj2ee/index.html 3.1 Key Monitoring Strategies It is important that you make the best use of the IBM Tivoli Monitoring (ITM) product. The following sections outline key components of the monitoring solution and how to effectively use them when monitoring your Maximo environment. These strategies apply to both the IBM Tivoli Monitoring Agent for Maximo and the IBM Tivoli Monitoring, IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager, and OMEGAMON Agents. 3.1.1 Thresholds The most important aspect of monitoring your environment is to set appropriate thresholds. In ITM, thresholds are defined as situations using the Situation Editor. The Maximo Agent and the ITM/ITCAM Agents ship with a set of out of the box situations. Use these predefined situations as a starting point. Note that some of the out of the box situations are not configured to run automatically. This is done to avoid high rates of events triggering. If you think these situations are important, you can enable them. Please note that these thresholds are defined for general environments. If you find that these thresholds are either too high or too low for your Maximo environment, it is easy to modify the thresholds or create your own situations. The specific thresholds that are critical to monitor each Maximo component are listed in section 3.2. 3.1.2 Event Management ITM has the ability to forward some or all events to event management products like OMNIbus and TEC. If you have an event management product, you can forward most events to the event server. There are cases where it does not make sense to forward the alert. For example, if you are using the ITM situation to launch automation via the Take Action capability, you might not want to forward the events to the event server. But, in most cases, you want to forward the events. ITM only has a limited capability of doing event enrichment. If you want enhanced event enrichment, consider using IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact. Using event enrichment, you can add custom slots and data so that the events contain information such as a contact name for the server/applications, pager number for the person to contact, and business application name. 3.1.3 Long Term Trending and Analysis While real-time monitoring is important, it is often important to be able to perform long term trending analysis. IBM Tivoli Monitoring provides the capability of warehousing, or collecting and storing, the metric data. This stores the historical data in a relational database. Once warehoused, the data can be automatically summarized and pruned. In 5

Monitoring the Maximo Components addition, Tivoli Common Reporting can be leveraged to provide formal reports using the warehouse data. Recommendations for warehousing intervals are listed in section 3.2 for each Maximo component. 3.1.4 Adaptive Monitoring/Dynamic Thresholds In many cases, using a static threshold is inadequate. There are a number of reasons for this. First, the behavior characteristics of the system vary depending on the time of day and day of week. Second, behavior varies from server to server and it is often difficult to choose an appropriate threshold. Third, it is nice to know when a server is behaving abnormally even if it is below a predefined threshold such as 80% CPU utilization. Using a capability called adaptive monitoring, you can set a threshold based on the previously measured metrics that are stored in the warehouse. Consider using adaptive monitoring for some of your monitoring thresholds to save time in defining meaningful thresholds and to be notified when abnormal behavior occurs. 3.1.5 Predictive Monitoring ITM 6.2.1 has a component called IBM Tivoli Performance Analyzer. IBM Tivoli Performance Analyzer performs predictive analytics on the data that is stored in the warehouse. This allows you to predict when errors will occur in the near-term future. This is highly desirable in detecting problems like memory leaks or detecting when a server will run out of capacity. If a server is nearing its capacity, this feature can provide you with enough time to order hardware, offload work, or provision additional capacity. 3.1.6 Automated Corrective Actions Once you have detected a problem, it is possible to set up automated corrective actions. IBM Tivoli Monitoring offers a capability called Take Action where you can execute any command on the monitored system. These can be shell scripts, binaries, or executables. Leverage Take Actions to fix problems as soon as they occur. 3.1.7 Workflows/Policies Workflows can automate the best practices of an organization and execute Situation is true them in a pre-emptive, consistent, error- Resume free manner. Workflows tie together individual resource monitors to take specific actions based on user-defined criteria. For instance, a mission critical application may depend on an Oracle database. If the archive log directory fills up, the database will hang, resulting in monetary losses. By tying together the Oracle database and the Oracle log file situations with workflows, any further archive log directory full outages can be prevented. This moves IT from being reactive to proactive. With IBM Tivoli Action succeeded Situation is false Monitoring, a consistent automated process can be established to handle database issues across a number of database platforms including Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle Database, IBM DB2 and others. Situation is true 6

Monitoring the Maximo Components With IBM Tivoli Monitoring, monitored processes can be extended to become automated, pre-emptive workflow processes executing local best practices in a repetitive, error-free manner. 3.2 Monitoring the Key Maximo Components 3.2.1 HTTP Server Requests into Maximo are initiated through an HTTP Server. There are multiple ways to monitor the HTTP Server. Initially, you want to monitor the general health of the HTTP server. This can be done by using the Operating System monitors to ensure that the HTTP server is running and is not consuming too much memory or CPU. The OS sgent can be configured to monitor disk space utilization as well as high disk I/O and network I/O. Use the out of the box OS agent situations to monitor the resources. Consider using adaptive monitoring for the CPU utilization, disk I/O and network I/O to look for abnormal behavior. Enable historical collection for CPU utilization, memory utilization, network I/O, disk I/O, and disk space. If additional monitoring is required, IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Applications can monitor specific HTTP server metrics. The IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Applications contains IIS and Apache monitoring agents that monitor the availability of key HTTP server processes and services. This agent will also monitor the web server connection rates, total connections, and more. Configure the following historical collections: KQ7_INTERNET_INFORMATION_SERVICES_GL KQ7_IIS_WEB_SERVER_SITE_STATUS KQ7_IIS_WEB_SERVER_STATUS KQ7_THREAD_POOL_STATUS KQ7_WEB_SERVICE KQ7_WEB_SERVICE_CACHE KQ7_ACTIVE_SERVER_PAGES Consider using adaptive thresholding for some metrics. For example, you can use adaptive monitoring to look for denial of service attacks by looking at the Logon Attempts Rate. If the rate is significantly higher than normal, there may be a problem. Consider using predictive analytics to look at request execution time. If the execution time is getting slower over time, it may indicate a performance bottleneck. 3.2.2 Application Server Every Maximo environment uses an application server. The application server can either be WebSphere Application Server or a Oracle WebLogic Application Server. In larger environments, the application servers are configured on multiple servers in load balanced configurations in order to achieve higher scalability. It is important that you monitor each 7

Monitoring the Maximo Components of the application servers. The IBM Tivoli Monitoring Agent for Maximo provides key monitoring capabilities for the application server: Memory utilization of each Maximo JVM: Ensure that each Maximo JVM has available memory. JVM statistics: Ensure that the JVM is healthy and running within normal specifications. Names and number of Maximo Business Objects (MBOs). Maximo cron tasks: Ensure that all Maximo cron jobs are scheduled and running properly. Maximo product licenses: Determine which licensed products are installed. Connected Users: Use this metric to ensure that no more than 50 concurrent users are connected to a JVM, the best practice for Maximo implementations. In most cases, these metrics are sufficient to determine whether the Maximo application servers are healthy and performing well. We recommend you enable situations to monitor the following: Concurrent users > 50 JVM free memory < 50,000,000 bytes Monitor all of the Maximo cron tasks Enable the following historical collection for the IBM Tivoli Monitoring Agent for Maximo. By enabling this historical collection, you can create some useful historical reports and leverage the adaptive monitoring and Predictive Analytics: KMI_MEMORY: To monitor the JVM memory consumption over time KMI_THREAD_POOL_STATUS: To monitor the thread pools over time If the IBM Tivoli Monitoring Agent for Maximo does not provide enough visibility into the Application Server, use ITCAM for Applications for in-depth monitoring of the application server. Using the ITCAM for WebSphere Application Server Agent you will be able to do deep monitoring of the WebSphere Application Server. For WebLogic, use the ITCAM for J2EE Agent. These Agents provide visibility into and monitoring of: Application health Request analysis Log analysis Garbage collection Pool analysis EJB s 8

Monitoring the Maximo Components DB connection pools Thread pools And more The out of the box situations are a good place to start for monitoring your application aerver. For metrics that vary a lot from server to server, and for thresholds that are difficult to define, consider using adaptive monitoring. Examples are request rates and response times. IBM Tivoli Performance Analyzer can also provide good visibility into where the request rates and response times are trending. It is very important to monitor garbage collection, connection pools, and cache analysis metrics to ensure the application server is healthy. Enable the following Historical Collections. The IBM Tivoli Performance Analyzer utilizes summarized data. Enable daily summarization except where noted: Dynamic cache Client communications Container object pools EJB containers Data sources DB2 connection pools High availability manager (if you are using this feature) Messaging engine communications Request analysis In addition to the application server specific metrics, always monitor the underlying operating system. Using the OS agent and the default situations, monitor statistics such as disk space, CPU utilization, memory, network I/O and more. Adaptive monitoring and predictive analytics are well suited for monitoring metrics such as CPU utilization and network I/O that are very dynamic and vary from server to server. 3.2.3 Database Server Maximo application environments contain a database server. This database server may be a stand-alone server that is used by the Maximo application or may be part of a large database server that supports multiple applications. Either way, it is essential to monitor the database server to make sure it is performing well. The IBM Tivoli Monitoring Agent for Maximo contains monitor of the database server to ensure that basic database services are available to the Maximo servers. In addition, Tivoli offers Monitoring Agents for all of the major database vendors (Oracle, IBM, Microsoftand Sybase) to provide a deeper set of monitoring of the Database Server. The IBM Tivoli Monitoring Agent for Maximo will monitor the database connections from each Maximo server. 9

Monitoring the Maximo Components Using the IBM Tivoli Monitoring database agents, monitor the following key attributes: tablespaces, buffer pools, and lock conflicts. There are out of the box situations for each of these. In addition, monitor the number of failed SQL statements. If a number of SQL statements are failing, your DBA should be alerted so that they can investigate. Finally, monitor the number of concurrent database connections. If the database connections are too high, it may indicate that too many concurrent users are logged into Maximo. If the database connections are too low, it may indicate a problem in one of the other components in the Maximo environment. For the DB2 agent historical collection, enable the following attribute groups. Similar attribute groups are available for the other database vendors. These settings will allow you to generate TCR reports and use the performance analyzer for predictive analytics. To use performance analyzer with a DB2 warehouse database, enable daily summarization on these metrics: DB2 Database00 DB2 Database01 DB2 Buffer Pool DB2 System Overview DB2 Locking Conflict (Do not enable Summarization and Pruning) DB2 Tablespace In addition to the database server specific metrics, it is always important to monitor the underlying operating system. Using the OS agent and the default situations, monitor things like disk space, CPU utilization, memory, network I/O and more. Adaptive monitoring and predictive analytics are well suited for monitoring metrics such as CPU utilization and network I/O that are very dynamic and vary from server to server. 3.2.4 Directory Server Optionally, some sites deploy an LDAP directory server such as IBM Tivoli Directory Server. Since this is a key component for user authentication, it is critical that the directory server have high availability. If you are using IBM Tivoli Directory Server as your LDAP server, Tivoli provides a monitoring agent to monitor IBM Tivoli Directory Server. The agent can monitor Microsoft Active Directory servers. Monitor the LDAP server search rates for higher than desired levels. Monitor for high LPAP write rates. In addition to the IBM Tivoli Directory Server Agent specific metrics, it is always important to monitor the underlying operating system. Using the OS agent and the default situations, monitor things like disk space, CPU utilization, memory, network I/O and more. Adaptive monitoring and predictive analytics are well suited for monitoring metrics such as CPU utilization and network I/O that are very dynamic and vary from server to server. 10

Monitoring the Maximo Components 3.2.5 Monitoring Virtualized Environments Monitoring virtualized environments can be challenging. Since the allocated amount of CPU processing can change over time, using data reported by the operating system is typically inaccurate. Tivoli provides specialized agents for monitoring many virtualized environments. Leverage these agents to ensure that you are accurately monitoring the environment. 3.2.5.1 VMware To monitor VMware ESX and ESXi environments, Tivoli has an agent called VMware VI that is part of the ITCAM for Applications product. This agent is typically configured to gather the performance metrics directly from VMware Virtual Center, but can also gather metrics directly from the ESX servers. 3.2.5.2 Power Systems To monitor Power Systems running AIX, Tivoli delivers four Agents that are specialized in monitoring these environments: Premium AIX agent Monitors the AIX Logical Partition (LPAR) utilization. CEC agent - Monitors the CEC utilization and LPAR usage for the frame. The CEC is the Central Electronic Complex on Power System hardware. VIOS agent Monitors the Virtual I/O erver (VIOS) utilization and IO mappings. HMC agent Monitors the Hardware Management Console (HMC) and provides visibility into the systems managed by the HMC. 3.2.5.3 z/vm In mainframe environments running Linux on Z, the z/vm agent provides detailed information about the mainframe environment and the virtualized resources. This agent is sold separately. 3.2.5.4 Solaris Zones The UNIX OS agent provides some zone specific monitoring data. There is no need to install a specialized agent. 3.2.5.5 Microsoft Hyper-V and Virtual Server For monitoring Microsoft virtualized environments, Tivoli offers agents for Microsoft Hyper- V and Microsoft Virtual Server. These agents provide visibility into the virtualized resources. These agents are part of a different product called IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Microsoft Applications. For more information on IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Microsoft Applications, see the following website: http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/products/monitoring-microsoft-applications/index.html 11

Preparing for Deployment 3.2.6 Custom Monitoring Solutions As with most monitoring solutions, there may be gaps in the monitoring that are critical to your specific implementation. Tivoli offers a toolkit called the Agent Builder that allows you to build custom solutions. The Agent Builder has built in data providers (collectors) to gather data from: SNMP (Simple Network Monitoring Protocol) Scripts WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) and Perfmon (Performance Monitor) and the Windows Event Log on Windows JMX (Java Management Extension) CIM (Common Information Model) JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) queries Logfiles Process/Service monitoring In the case of Maximo, you might use the IBM Tivoli Monitoring gent Builder to create a custom solution to monitor the following: Key logfiles on the applications server, HTTP server, and database server. Execute JDBC queries to gather key metrics from the Maximo database tables The processes and services that make up the Maximo solution Key MBeans within the application server. 4 Preparing for Deployment The following Documents will help with the planning of your ITM environment. Begin by reading the ITM Deployment Guide to learn about each of the ITM components, the sizings of the servers, and how to deploy in firewalled environments. ITM Deployment Guide: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v15r1/topic/com.ibm.itm.doc/itm62_deplo y.pdf After reading the Deployment Guide, you can look at the ITM 6.2.1 Installation Guide and other ITM documentation. All of the base ITM documentation can be found here. http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v15r1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.itm.doc_6. 2.1/welcome.htm The ITM Quick Start Guide will help you identify the CD part numbers you will want to install: 12

Transaction Tracking http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v15r1/topic/com.ibm.itm.doc_6.2.1/itm621_qsg_en.htm Each Agent has installation and usage documentation. Below is a list of documentation for the Agents described in this document: IBM Tivoli Monitoring Agent for Maximo: Documentation for the IBM Tivoli Monitoring Agent for Maximo is included in the ZIP file that you downloaded from the OPAL website. Here is the URL: http://www- 01.ibm.com/software/brandcatalog/portal/opal/details?catalog.label=1TW10TM7S Database Agents: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v15r1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.itmfd.doc/ welcome.htm Virtual Servers: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v15r1/topic/com.ibm.tivoli.itmvs.doc/welco me.htm z/vm and Linux: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v15r1/topic/com.ibm.omegamon_xezvm.do c_4.1.2/welcome.htm ITCAM for Web Resources: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v24r1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.itcamwas_ wr.doc_6.2/welcome.htm 5 Transaction Tracking While monitoring of the Maximo components is important, one important aspect of any application is response time. It is critical that end users experience good response time with Maximo. In a multi-tiered application, it can also be beneficial to provide end to end transaction tracking. ITCAM for Transaction Tracking allows you to monitor a transaction from the time it gets initiated at the HTTP server, goes through the Application Server, and finishes in the backend database server. ITCAM for Transaction Tracking provides visibility into where the transaction is spending its time; thus allowing you to quickly isolate and resolve problems in the environment. Tivoli provides a product called IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager (ITCAM) for Transactions to monitor these complex environments. For more information on IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Transactions, see the following website: http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/products/composite-application-mgr-transactions/ The following diagram outlines the key components in the Maximo application environment: NOTE: Replace with better picture 13

Transaction Tracking Figure 2 5.1 Response Time Monitoring Requests into Maximo are initiated through an HTTP Server. The most important metric you can use to monitor the health of your Maximo environment is the Response Time for various transactions. ITCAM for Response Time (RT) has several ways to monitor the overall response time of a Web based transaction. An agent called Client Response Time can monitor the actual response time of transactions on a system. An agent called Robotic Response Time performs synthetic transactions using Rational Performance Tester, Rational Robot, or Load Runner scripts. Using the Robotic Response Time, you can proactively test application response times for key transactions. In addition, by placing the Robotic Transaction agents at different points on the network, you can isolate whether failed or slow transactions are being caused by the network or by the server components. Use adaptive monitoring to set thresholds on end user response time and robotic response time. Responses times that are more than two standard deviations above normal should trigger an alert. 14

Transaction Tracking 5.2 Transaction Tracking Client or Robotic response time is useful for determining whether an application has performance problems within your Maximo environment. However, it is also useful to understand which component within the Maximo application is performing slowly. By leveraging ITCAM for Transaction Tracking, customers can gain visibility into the entire transaction and how much time is being spent in each component. See the figure below. When you monitor for transaction tracking, you can monitor for specific response time thresholds. For example, if the application server portion of the transaction takes more than 1000 milliseconds, you can raise an alert. Or, you can leverage the adaptive monitoring capabilities to look for abnormal behavior. For example, you can set a threshold to detect if the time spent within the application server is more than two standard deviations above normal. For more information on transaction monitoring, including installation instructions, see the following web page: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v24r1/topic/com.ibm.itcamt.doc_7.1/welco me.htm 15

Service Oriented Architectures 6 Service Oriented Architectures If you want to leverage web services capabilities, you can use IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Service Oriented Architectures (ITCAM for SOA). This product provides visibility into the web services including the time spent in each web service, the topology of the web services, and the number of times that each web service is called. This gives visibility into SOA based applications. For more information on SOA monitoring, see the product documentation for ITCAM for SOA: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v24r1/topic/com.ibm.itcamsoa.doc_6.2.1/w elcome.htm 16

Reporting 7 Reporting IBM Tivoli Monitoring includes a reporting solution called Tivoli Common Reporting. This allows you to run and schedule reports. Many out of the box reports exist for the agents documented in this paper. The out of the box reports are written to work with summarized historical data (typically hourly or daily summarization). So, enable hourly or daily Summarization for the data that you want to report on. It is possible to use the detailed metric data in the warehouse for reporting, but you will need to define your own reports. The reports are posted on the OPAL website at the following links: OS agent reports: http://www- 01.ibm.com/software/brandcatalog/portal/opal/details?catalog.label=1TW10TM67 VMware VI agent reports: http://www- 01.ibm.com/software/brandcatalog/portal/opal/details?catalog.label=1TW10TM7I ITCAM for Applications reports: http://www- 01.ibm.com/software/brandcatalog/portal/opal/details?catalog.label=1TW10CP1N ITCAM for WebSphere/J2EE reports: http://www- 01.ibm.com/software/brandcatalog/portal/opal/details?catalog.label=1TW10CP1G If you need to define your own custom Tivoli Common Reporting reports, Tivoli has provided a tool called BIRT Report Designer that can be found here: http://www- 01.ibm.com/software/brandcatalog/portal/opal/details?catalog.label=1TW10OT03 17

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