The Web-based System Monitor is a tool that allows you to monitor the
Business Integration Express for Item Sync system from the Web. It
allows you to configure how you view the data and also allows you to view
historical data in addition to current data. It allows you to start,
stop, and pause components.
You can use the Web-based System Monitor by taking either of the following
approaches:
- Use the default monitors and default views provided
with the product to monitor the system.
- Create new monitors and views before monitoring the
system.
Monitors are definitions of the information you want to
view. You can either create new monitors using the Monitor Definition
Wizard, a tool launched from System Manager, or you can use the default
monitors provided with the Monitor Definition Wizard. Views
are definitions of the monitor or monitors you want displayed when you monitor
the system using the Web-based System Monitor. You can create and
configure views from the Web-based System Monitor, or you can use the default
views provided with the Web-based System Monitor. Once you have created
the monitors and views you need, or decided to use the default monitors and
views, you can then monitor the InterChange Server Express system from the
Web.
Several default monitors are provided with the Business Integration Express
for Item Sync product. You can either monitor the system using the
default monitors, or you can create new monitors. To gain a better
understanding of what information is included in each monitor, refer to the
following sections:
Table 2 contains a description of the default monitors provided with
the Monitor Definition Wizard.
Table 3 contains a description of display options listed inTable 2.
Table 2. Default monitors
Default monitor
| Definition
| Display options
| Available operations when viewing monitor from the Web
|
System Overview
| Overview of the current status of all major components of the
system: collaborations, connectors, maps, and relationships
| Table tree (a table with expandable nodes in the first column that
display more rows)
|
- Start, stop, pause, and shut down a collaboration
- Start, stop, and pause a connector
- Start and stop a map
- Start and stop a relationship
|
Collaboration Statistics
| Current status and statistics of all collaborations in the system:
- Status
- Start time
- Total flows
- Successful flows
- Failed flows
- Events in process
- Queued events
- Max concurrent events
| Table
| Start, stop, pause, and shut down
|
Connector Statistics
| Current status and statistics of all connectors:
- Status
- Start time
- Total up time
- Business objects received
- Business objects sent
- Agent status
| Table
|
- Start, stop, and pause
- Restart and Shut down
|
Map Status
| Status of all maps
| Table
| Start and stop
|
Relationship Status
| Status of all relationships
| Table
| Start and stop
|
Server Statistics
| Current statistics of the server: the number of failed and
successful calls, events, and flows
| Stacked bar
| None
|
Database Connections
| Current status of database connections:
- Number of free connections
- Number of active connections
- Maximum number of connections
- Peak number of connections
| Table
| None
|
Message Queues
| Current status of message queues:
- Current depth
- Maximum depth configured
| Table
| None
|
Business Objects
| Current statistics of the business objects for a particular
connector: business objects sent and business objects received
| Table
| None
|
Connector Subscriptions
| Current statistics of the subscriptions for a particular connector:
- Collaboration object
- Initiator
| Table
| None
|
Collaboration Events
| Current statistics of collaboration events, which includes the following
information:
- Events in process
- Queued events
| Bar
| None
|
Historical Server Statistics
| Server statistics for a specific period of time. Statistical
information:
- Successful calls
- Failed calls
- Total calls
- Successful events
- Failed events
- Total events
- Successful flows
- Failed flows
- Total flows
Time intervals:
| Bar
| None
|
Historical Server Flows
| Flow statistics of the server for a specific period of time at certain
time intervals. Statistical information:
- Successful flows
- Failed flows
- Total flows
Time intervals:
- 15 min., 30 min., hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly
- Start date
- End date
|
| None
|
Historical Collaboration Flows Stack
| Flow statistics of a particular collaboration for a specific period of
time at certain time intervals. Statistics information:
- Successful flows
- Failed flows
- Total flows
Time intervals:
- 15 min., 30 min., hourly, 4 hours, 12 hours, daily, weekly,
or monthly
- Start date
- End date
| Stacked bar
| None
|
Historical Collaboration Flows Line
| Flow statistics of a particular collaboration for a specific period of
time at certain time intervals. Statistics information:
- Successful flows
- Failed flows
- Total flows
Time intervals:
- 15 min., 30 min., hourly, 4 hours, 12 hours, daily, weekly,
or monthly
- Start date
- End date
| Line
| None
|
Event Rate
| Current number of processed events per minute
| Meter
| None
|
Flow Control
| Current state of collaboration objects and connectors under Flow
Control:
- Buffered events
- Max event capacity
- Blocked status (does not apply to non-blocking collaboration)
- Events pending in database (applies only to non-blocking collaborations)
- Saturated status
| Table
| None
|
State Change Log
| Current persisted state changes on a component for a specified time
period. State change information:
Time intervals:
| Table
| None
|
Table 3 describes the configurable properties of each display option
listed in Table 2..
Table 3. Configurable properties of display options
Display option
| Build-time configurable properties (using Monitor Definition Wizard)
| Runtime configurable properties (from Web-based System Monitor)
|
|
- Columns to display
- Order of columns
- Number of rows to display
|
- Font and color settings of the labels and data
- Number of rows to display
|
| None
|
- Font and color settings of the labels and data
- Show or hide values
|
Meter
| Meter threshold
| Font and color settings of the labels and data
|
A monitor is a definition of the information you want to view when
monitoring the system using the Web-based System Monitor. For example,
you might have a monitor called System Overview, which displays status and
start time of all system components. You create this monitor using the
Monitor Definition Wizard, a tool launched from System Manager.
When you create a monitor, it contains a particular type of system
information that can be monitored. Each type of system information has
one or more display options available. Each display option has
configurable properties. To see what information types and display
options are available when creating a new monitor, see Figure 1.
- Note:
- Before creating new monitors, be sure to look at the existing default
monitors in Table 2, to see if the monitor you want to create already
exists.
To create a new monitor, follow these steps:
- From the System Manager perspective of IBM WebSphere Studio Workbench,
right-click the server instance you want to connect to, then click
Connect. The Server User ID and Password dialog box appears.
- Type the User ID and password for that server, then click OK. The
status of the server changes from "unknown" or "disconnected" to
"connected."
- Note:
- If the status does not change to "connected," make sure the selected
InterChange Server Express server is running.
- Right-click the server instance, then select Monitor Definition
Wizard. The Monitor Definition Wizard appears. See Figure 1..
Figure 1. Monitor Definition Wizard, screen for selecting information type and display option

- Select the type of information you want in the monitor from the
Information Types group box, then select how you want the information
displayed from the Displayed Option(s) group box. Each information type
has one or more available display options. For a description of the
configurable properties of each display option, see Table 3..
- Note:
- When you select an information type from the Information Types group box,
only the available display options are enabled in the Display Option(s) group
box. The unavailable display options remain grayed out.
- Click Next. The Specify Monitor Properties screen appears (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Monitor Definition Wizard, Specify Monitor Properties screen

- Type a name for the new monitor in the Title field. You can also
optionally type a description in the Description field. To make sure
you do not use an existing monitor name, click Existing Monitors. This
displays a list of the existing monitors.
- Depending on what information type and display option you chose in the
previous screen, you may or may not have more choices to make in this
screen. For example, in Figure 2, you can enter the number of rows to appear, select
which attributes to include, and place the chosen attributes in a particular
order. These options are available for both Table and Table Tree
display options.
Meter is the other display option that has configurable properties in this
screen. If you create a monitor with a meter, the configurable property
is "meter threshold."
For a list of all display option configurable properties, when using either
the Monitor Definition Wizard or the Web-based System Monitor, see Table 3..
- Depending on which attributes you chose in this screen, either the Next
button or the Finish button is enabled.
- If the Finish button is enabled, then the attributes you chose cannot
contain thresholds.
- If the Next button is enabled, then the attributes you chose can contain
thresholds.
- Click Next or Finish, depending on which button is enabled.
- When you click Finish, the following message appears, "The monitor was
created successfully. Do you want to create another monitor?" Click Yes
or No.
- When you click Next, the Specify Attribute Thresholds screen
appears. For an example of a Specify Attribute Thresholds screen, see
Figure 9 on page 24. In the Specify Attribute Thresholds screen, you
can optionally type a numeric value in the threshold field for each
attribute.
- Note:
- During runtime, if the value of an attribute exceeds the value of the
threshold set for that attribute, the cell that contains the attribute value
appears highlighted when it is displayed in the table.
Figure 3. Monitor Definition Wizard, Specify Attribute Thresholds screen

- After specifying any attribute thresholds, click Finish. The
following message appears, "The monitor was created successfully. Do
you want to create another monitor?" Click Yes or No.
Once you have either created new monitors or decided to use the default
monitors, you are ready to log on to the Web-based System Monitor to monitor
the system. Before you can log on to the Web-based System Monitor, you
must perform the following tasks:
- Start InterChange Server Express (ICS) on the machine being
monitored.
- Make sure the Web-based System Monitor and the application server are
installed.
- Start the application server.
- Obtain the username and password necessary for logging on to the Web-based
System Monitor. The username and password are the same as those used
when logging on to ICS.
To log on to the Web-based System Monitor, do the following:
- In a Web browser, navigate to the URL that was specified in the
DASHBOARD_URL environment variable during installation of the
Web-based System Monitor.
This URL is made up of three elements:
- The URL prefix http://
- The base URL of your Web server
- The value specified for the context root of the installed application, as
specified during the installation of the Web-based System Monitor. This
value must be ICSMonitor.
For instance, if the Web server is named monitorserver, and the
root context is specified as ICSMonitor, as specified in the
installation instructions, the URL is:
http://monitorserver/ICSMonitor
The WebSphere InterChange Server System Monitor login screen
appears.
- Type the server name, user name, and password for the InterChange Server
instance you want to monitor, then click Login. The Web-based System
Monitor appears.
The Web-based System Monitor Web page contains the following items:
You can either begin monitoring the system using the default views, or you
can add, change, or delete views before monitoring the system. The
following sections describe how to use existing views or create and configure
views from the Web-based System Monitor. A view is a Web
page that contains one or more monitors. Several default views are
included in the installation of the Web-based System Monitor. You may
use these default views or create new views. Before you can create and
configure views, you must log on to the Web-based System Monitor. For
instructions on logging on to the Web-based System Monitor, see Logging on to the Web-based System Monitor.
This section covers the following topics:
Using default views
Creating new views
Configuring existing views
Configuring existing views
The default views that are shipped with the Web-based System Monitor are
described in Table 4. The table describes which monitor or monitors are
contained in the view, as well as which display option is used. For
descriptions of default monitors, see Table 2.
Table 4. Default views
Default view
| Monitor(s) and display options
|
System Overview
| System Overview monitor displayed in a table tree
|
Connector
|
- Business Objects monitor displayed in a table
- Connector Subscriptions monitor displayed in a table
|
Collaboration Overview
| Collaboration Statistics monitor displayed in a table
|
Collaboration
|
- Collaboration Events monitor displayed in bar chart, and
- Event Rate monitor displayed in a meter
|
Collaboration History
|
- Historical Collaboration Flows monitor displayed in a bar chart
- Historical Collaboration Flows monitor displayed in a line chart
|
Connector Overview
| Connector Statistics monitor displayed in a table
|
Maps and Relationships
|
- Map Status monitor displayed in a table
- Relationship Status monitor displayed in a table
|
Server Statistics
|
- Historical Server Statistics displayed in a stacked bar chart
- Database Connections displayed in a table
- Message Queues displayed in a table
|
Server History
|
- Historical Server Statistics displayed in a bar chart
- Historical Server Flows displayed in a line chart
|
Flow Control
| Flow Control monitor displayed in a table
|
State Change Log
| State Change Log monitor displayed in a table
|
The following instructions describe how to create a new view:
- Click Create and Configure Views in the left frame of the Web-based System
Monitor. The Create and Configure Views dialog box appears (see Figure 4).
Figure 4. Web-based System Monitor, Create and Configure Views dialog box

- Click the Create New View button. The View Name dialog box
appears.
- Type a name for the view in the View Name field, then click OK. The
new view name appears in the View field of the Create and Configure Views
dialog box.
- Select one or more monitors from the Select Monitor(s) group box, or
choose "Select all" to select all the monitors listed. Your selections
appear in the Order Monitors group box.
- Use the up and down arrows to the right of the Order Monitors group box to
put the monitors in the order you want to view them, from top to
bottom.
- Click Preview if you want to see a preview of the new view.
- Click Save View. A "View was saved successfully" message
appears. Also, the new view appears immediately in the left frame of
the Web-based System Monitor under Views.
The following instructions describe how to make changes to an existing
view:
- Click Create and Configure Views from the left frame of the Web-based
System Monitor. The Create and Configure Views dialog box appears (see Figure 4).
- Select the view you want to change from the View drop-down menu.
- Add monitors to or remove monitors from the view, from the Select Monitors
group box. The revised monitors for the view appear in the Order
Monitors group box.
- Use the up and down arrows to the right of the Order Monitors group box to
put the monitors in the order you want to view them, from top to
bottom.
- Click Preview if you want to see a preview of the new view.
- Click Save View. A "View was saved successfully" message
appears.
The following instructions describe how to delete a view:
- Click Create and Configure Views from the left frame of the Web-based
System Monitor. The Create and Configure Views dialog box appears (see Figure 4).
- Select the view you want to delete from the View drop-down menu.
- Click Delete View. A message appears, asking if you are sure you
want to delete the view.
- Click OK. The view is removed from the Views list in the left frame
of the Web-based System Monitor.
You can make adjustments to many of the elements of the Web-based System
Monitor, fine-tuning the level of system data you can monitor. These
adjustments are described in the following sections:
Setting the default view
Customizing the visual appearance of the monitors
Setting the refresh rate for runtime values being monitored
Setting the frequency for capturing historical data
Resetting runtime statistic values
Capturing state changes
Deleting the state change log
Deleting historical statistics
The default view is the view you first see when you log on to the Web-based
System Monitor. To change the default view, do the following:
- Click Create and Configure Views from the left frame of the Web-based
System Monitor. The Create and Configure Views dialog box appears (see Figure 4).
- Select the view you want to be the default view from the View drop-down
menu.
- Select the Default View check box.
- Click Save View. A "View was saved successfully" message
appears. The next time you log on to the Web-based System Manager, the
view you selected as the default view will be displayed.
The display options of monitors can be customized by changing the
preferences of the display options. To change the appearance of a
monitor, do the following:
- While viewing a monitor, click the chart icon in the upper right
corner. The Preferences dialog box appears for that particular display
option in that monitor. Figure 5 is an example of the Table Preferences dialog box.
Figure 5. Web-based System Monitor, Table Preferences dialog box

- From the Preferences dialog box, select the appearance options you want to
change. For a list of what appearance options are available with each
display option, see the Runtime configurable properties column of Table 3.
- Click Preview to see a preview of the changes you made.
- Click OK. The changes you made appear in the monitor.
- Note:
- When you change the preferences of a display option, the changes appear in
all monitors that use that particular display option.
- Note:
- If you want to return the monitor to its original appearance, open the
Preferences dialog box, select Default, then click OK.
Some monitors display runtime values of a component. For these
monitors, you can specify how often you want statistics to be
refreshed.
- Note:
- The refresh rate you set is for the system as a whole, not for individual
components.
To set the refresh rate for monitored runtime values, do the
following:
- Click Set Options from the left frame of the Web-based System
Monitor. The Set Options dialog box appears.
- Enter a number in the Refresh Rate field to specify the number of seconds
you want to set for the refresh rate, then click the Refresh Rate Submit
button.
The rate at which historical data is captured is configurable. To
set this rate, do the following:
- Click Set Options from the left frame of the Web-based System
Monitor. The Set Options dialog box appears.
- In the "How frequently should historical data be captured?" section, click
the "Review all interval settings" link. The Historical Statistics
Interval Rates dialog box appears (see Figure 6).
Figure 6. Web-based System Monitor, Historical Statistics Interval Rates dialog box

- Set the interval rates for the server, and for each collaboration object
and connector. The interval rates to choose from are as follows:
- NONE
- 15 minutes
- 30 minutes
- 1 hour
- 4 hours
- 12 hours
- 24 hours
- Click Submit Changes to submit all of the interval rates for all of the
components.
- Note:
- Alternatively, you can set the interval rate for a single component by
not selecting the "Review all interval settings" link.
Instead, select the component from the Component Type drop-down menu and the
interval rate from the Frequency drop-down menu, then click the Submit button
in that section.
The runtime statistics are kept in memory from the time the server is
started. If the server is running for several days or weeks, these
values can become very large. You can reset the value of runtime
statistics of a component to "0" by doing the following:
- Click Set Options from the left frame of the Web-based System
Monitor. The Set Options dialog box appears.
- In the "Do you want to reset component statistics?" section, select the
component from the Component Type drop-down menu.
- If you select Server, then runtime statistics for all components are
reset.
- If you select Collaboration or Connector, then select the component from
the Component drop-down list. Only statistics for that component are
reset.
- Click the Submit.
You can capture state changes for each component and send them to a log
file. To configure this, do the following:
- Click Set Options from the left frame of the Web-based System
Monitor. The Set Options dialog box appears.
- Under the "Do you want to capture state changes of a particular
component?" section, select the component from the Component Type drop-down
menu.
- Note:
- If you selected Collaboration or Connector as the component type, you are
prompted to select a particular collaboration object or connector.
- Select the Capture State Changes check box, then click the Submit button
in that section.
As the state change log grows, you may need to delete old data. You
can delete the log for a particular time period by doing the following:
- Click Set Options from the left frame of the Web-based System
Monitor. The Set Options dialog box appears.
- Under the "Do you want to delete the state change log for all components?"
section, click the calendar icons to enter the start date and end date for the
data to be deleted, then click the Delete button in that section.
As the historical data grows, you may need to delete old data. You
can delete historical data for a particular time period by doing the
following:
- Click Set Options from the left frame of the Web-based System
Monitor. The Set Options dialog box appears.
- Under the "Do you want to delete the historical statistics for all
components?" section, click the calendar icons to enter the start date and end
date for the data to be deleted, then click the Delete button in that
section.
