System Monitor is a tool that allows you to monitor the IBM WebSphere
InterChange Server Express system from the Web. It allows you to
configure how you view the data and also allows you to view historical data
and current data. System Monitor uses monitors, definitions
of the information you want to access when monitoring the system, and
views, definitions of the monitors that you want displayed in your
Web browser. Monitors and views allow you to customize how you monitor
the system. You determine the monitors you use before you begin using
System Monitor (see Setting up System Monitor). You determine the views you want to use when you
are monitoring the system (see Setting up views to monitor the system).
System Monitor also allows you to start, stop, and pause components.
For instructions on starting, stopping, and pausing components, see Administering components of the system.
This section describes the various components involved in configuring and
using System Monitor, and covers the following topics:
Setting up System Monitor
Steps for logging on to System Monitor
Overview of the System Monitor interface
Setting up views to monitor the system
Customizing data
Using persistent monitoring
Before you begin using System Monitor, you must have the required web
servers, client browsers, and other software installed on your system.
You also must decide whether you want to use the default monitors provided
with System Monitor or if you want to create additional monitors using the
Monitor Definition wizard. For example, you might want 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 opened from System Manager.
System Monitor requires the following software.
A Web application server must support JSP versions 1.1 or later, and
servlets versions 2.2 or later, such as:
- IBM WebSphere Application Server Express versions 5.0.2 or
5.1
- IBM WebSphere Application Server versions 5.0.2 or
5.1 (version 5.1 only for use with Linux)
- Tomcat versions 4.1.24 or 4.1.27 (using IBM
JDK 1.3.1) -- for Windows and Linux systems only
- If you are using DB2 for the repository database, the DB2 client is
required (DB2 is included as part of OS/400).
System Monitor can only be accessed through a supported browser on Windows
platforms only. The supported browsers are:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2 or higher, with Adobe SVG
Viewer 3.0 plug-in
- Netscape 4.7x (only), with Adobe SVG Viewer 3.0 plug-in
Perform the following step to gain a better understanding of what
information is included in each monitor:
Table 1. Default monitors
Default monitor
| Definition
| Display options
| Available operations when viewing monitor
|
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, pause, and shut down a connector
- Restart a connector agent
- 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, pause, and shut down
- Restart connector agent
|
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
|
Before you begin: Review the existing default monitors in Table 1, to see if the monitor you want to create already
exists.
Perform the following steps to create a monitor:
- Open System Manager.
- In the InterChange Server Component Management view, right-click the
server instance to which you want to connect, 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 instance is running.
- Right-click the server instance, then click Monitor Definition
Wizard. The Monitor Definition Wizard appears. See Figure 1..
Figure 1. Monitor Definition Wizard, page for selecting information type and display option

- Select the type of information you want in the monitor from the
Information Types list, and select how you want the information
displayed under Displayed Option(s).
Each information type has one or more available display options, and each
display option has configurable properties. When you select an
information type, only the display options for that information type are
available under Displayed Option(s). For a description of
the configurable properties of each display option, see Steps for using monitor display options, and for examples of how the display options appear in
System Monitor, see Examples of display options.
- Note:
- If business object probes exist, they appear in the Information
Types list. For instructions on adding business object probes,
refer to the Collaboration Development Guide.
- Click Next. The Specify Monitor Properties page appears
(see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Monitor Definition Wizard, Specify Monitor Properties page

- Add the following information on the Specify Monitor Properties
page:
- Type a name for the new monitor in the Title field. To
make sure you do not use an existing monitor name, click Existing
Monitors to view a list of existing monitors.
- (Optional) Type a description in the Description field.
- Configure any additional properties available for the display
option. These choices depend on the information type and display option
that you chose on the previous page. For example, in Figure 2, you can type 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.
- Do one of the following:
- If, the attributes you chose can contain thresholds, the Next
button is available. Click the Next button to configure the
thresholds. 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. When running
the monitor, 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 in the table.
- If the attributes don't contain thresholds, the Finish
button is available. Click Finish. The following
message appears: "The monitor was created successfully. Do
you want to create another monitor?" Click Yes or
No.
Figure 3. Monitor Definition Wizard, Specify Attribute Thresholds screen

Perform this step to use display options for monitors you are creating with
the Monitor Definition Wizard (see Steps for creating additional monitors) or using monitors in System Monitor (see Steps for setting display properties for monitors:
Refer to Table 2 to determine ways you can configure display options when
creating monitors in Monitor Definition Wizard, or when you are using the
monitors in System Monitor. (For examples of the display options, see Examples of display options.)
Table 2. Configurable display options for monitors
Display option
| Properties you can configure when building monitors in Monitor Definition
Wizard
| Properties you can configure when using monitors in 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
|
The following exemplify the display options you can select when creating
monitors in the Monitor Definition Wizard and how they appear in System
Monitor:
- Table
- Table tree
- Line
- Bar
- Stacked bar
- Meter
- Note:
- The data in the examples is not indicative of actual data in an InterChange
Server Express system.
Figure 4. Table display option

Figure 5. Table tree display option

Figure 6. Line display option

Figure 7. Bar display option

Figure 8. Stacked bar display option

Figure 9. Meter display option

After you have either created new monitors or decided to use the default
monitors, you are ready to log on to System Monitor to monitor the
system.
Before you begin:
- Start InterChange Server Express on the machine being monitored.
- Make sure System Monitor and the application server are installed.
For installation instructions, see the WebSphere Business Integration Server
Express installation guide for Windows, for Linux, or for OS/400.
- Start the application server.
- Obtain the user name and password necessary for logging on to System
Monitor. The user name and password are the same as those used when
logging on to InterChange Server Express.
Perform the following steps to log on to System Monitor:
- In a Web browser on Windows, navigate to the URL for System
Monitor. The URL you use for System Monitor depends on whether you are
using WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere Application Server Express, or
Tomcat.
Refer to the WebSphere Business Integration Server Express installation guide
for Windows, for Linux, or for OS/400, for additional information about
setting up System Monitor to work with WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere
Application Server Express, or Tomcat. OS/400 does not support
Tomcat.
- If System Monitor is installed as part of WebSphere Application Server
Express installation, the URL is:
http://HostName:7089/ICSMonitor
where HostName is the host name of the Web server machine
- If System Monitor is installed on an OS/400 system:
http://HostName:nnnn/ICSMonitor
where HostName is the host name of the OS/400 Web server
machine and nnnn is the HTTP port provided when the product was
installed.
- (Windows and Linux only) If you used the installation script with a
"y" in the 5th parameter, the URL is:
http://HostName/ICSMonitor
where HostName is the host name of the Web server
machine.
- (Windows and Linux only) If you used the installation script with a
"n" in the 5th parameter and a port number in the 6th parameter, the
URL is:
http://HostName:nnnn/ICSMonitor
where HostName is the host name of the Web server machine and
nnnn is the port number.
- (Windows and Linux only) If you are using Tomcat and did not change the
port number, the URL is:
http://HostName:8080/ICSMonitor
where HostName is the host name of the Web server
machine.
The WebSphere InterChange Server Express System Monitor login window
appears (see Figure 10).
Figure 10. System Monitor, Login window

- Type the server name, user name, and password for the InterChange Server
Express instance that you want to monitor, then click Login.
System Monitor appears (see Figure 11).
Figure 11. System Monitor, displaying System Overview as the default view

System Monitor 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 System Monitor. Views can contains one or more
monitors. Several default views are included in the installation of
System Monitor. You may use these default views or create new
views. Before you can create and configure views, you must log on to
System Monitor. For instructions on logging on to System Monitor, see Steps for logging on to System Monitor.
This section covers the following topics:
Steps for using default views
Steps for creating your own views
Steps for configuring views
Steps for deleting views
Perform the following step to use default views:
- Open System Monitor.
- In the left frame, select one of the views listed in Table 3 from the Views list.
The table describes which monitor or monitors are contained in the view,
and which display option is used. For descriptions of default monitors
used in the views, see Steps for reviewing default monitors.
Table 3. Default views
Default view
| Monitor(s) and display options
|
System Overview
| System Overview monitor displayed in a table tree
|
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 stacked bar chart
- Historical Collaboration Flows monitor displayed in a line chart
|
Connector Overview
| Connector Statistics monitor displayed in a table
|
Connector
|
- Business Objects monitor displayed in a table
- Connector Subscriptions monitor displayed in a table
|
Maps and Relationships
|
- Map Status monitor displayed in a table
- Relationship Status monitor displayed in a table
|
Server Statistics
|
- 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 table or chart for that view opens in the System Monitor main
window. For examples, see Examples of display options.
Perform the following steps to create a view:
- Click Create and Configure Views in the left frame of System
Monitor. The Create and Configure Views dialog box appears (see Figure 12).
Figure 12. 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 in the Select Monitor(s) list, or
select Select all to select all the monitors listed. Your
selections appear in the Order Monitors list.
- Use the up and down arrows to the right of the Order Monitors
list 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 new view appears immediately under
Views in the left frame of System Monitor.
Perform the following steps to change an existing view:
- Click Create and Configure Views in the left frame of System
Monitor. The Create and Configure Views dialog box appears (see Figure 12).
- Select the view you want to change from the View list.
- Add monitors to or remove monitors from the view in the Select
Monitors list. The revised monitors for the view appear in the
Order Monitors list.
- Use the up and down arrows to the right of the Order Monitors
list to put the monitors in the order you want to view them.
- Click Preview if you want to see a preview of the new
view.
- Click Save View. A "View was saved successfully"
message appears.
Perform the following steps to delete a view:
- Click Create and Configure Views in the left frame of System
Monitor. The Create and Configure Views dialog box appears (see Figure 12).
- Select the view you want to delete from the View list.
- 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 System Monitor.
You can make adjustments to many of the elements of System Monitor,
fine-tuning the level of system data you can monitor. These adjustments
are described in the following sections:
Steps for setting a default view
Steps for setting display properties for monitors
Steps for setting the refresh rate for run-time values
Steps for setting the frequency for historical data capture
Steps for resetting run-time statistic values
Steps for capturing state changes
Steps for deleting the state change log
Steps for deleting historical statistics
Steps for deleting the business object probe data file
The default view is the view you first see when you log on to System
Monitor.
Perform the following steps to change the default view:
- Click Create and Configure Views from the left frame of System
Monitor. The Create and Configure Views dialog box appears (see Figure 12).
- Select the view that you want to be the default view from the
View list.
- Select the Default View check box.
- Click Save View. A "View was saved successfully"
message appears. The next time you log on to System Monitor, the view
you selected as the default view is displayed.
The display options of monitors can be customized by changing the
preferences of the display options.
Perform the following steps to change the appearance of a monitor:
- When 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 13 is an example of the Table Preferences dialog box.
Figure 13. System Monitor, Table Preferences dialog box

- In the Preferences dialog box, select the appearance options that you want
to change. For a list of appearance options are available with each
display option, see Steps for using monitor display optionsand Table 2..
- Click Preview to see a preview of the changes you made.
- Click OK. The changes appear in the monitor.
Changes to the preferences of a display option 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 run-time values of a component. For these
monitors, you can specify how often you want statistics to be
refreshed. The refresh rate you set is for the system as a whole, not
for individual components.
Perform the following steps to set the refresh rate for monitored run-time
values:
- Click Set Options from the left frame of System Monitor.
The Set Options dialog box appears (see Figure 14).
Figure 14. System Monitor, Set Options dialog box

- Type 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.
Perform the following steps to set the rate at which historical data is
captured:
- Click Set Options in the left frame of System Monitor.
The Set Options dialog box appears (see Figure 14).
- 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 15).
Figure 15. System Monitor, Historical Statistics Interval Rates dialog box

- Set the interval rates for the server, for each collaboration object, and
for each connector by selecting one of the following:
- 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 in the
Set Options dialog box by selecting the component from the Component
Type list and the interval rate from the Frequency list, then
clicking the Submit button.
The run-time 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.
Perform the following steps to reset the value of a component's
run-time statistics to "0":
- Click Set Options in the left frame of System Monitor.
The Set Options dialog box appears (see Figure 14).
- In the Do you want to reset component statistics? section,
select the component from the Component Type list.
- If you select Server, then run-time statistics for all
components are reset.
- If you select Collaboration or Connector, then
select the component from the Component list. Only
statistics for that component are reset.
- Click Submit.
Perform the following steps to configure how state changes for each
component are captured and sent to a log file:
- Click Set Options in the left frame of System Monitor.
The Set Options dialog box appears (see Figure 14).
- Under the Do you want to capture state changes of a particular
component? section, select the component from the Component
Type list.
- 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.
As the state change log grows, you may need to delete old data.
Perform the following steps to delete the log for a particular time:
- Click Set Options in the left frame of System Monitor.
The Set Options dialog box appears (see Figure 14).
- Under the Do you want to delete the state change log for all
components? section, do the following:
- Click the calendar icons to enter the start date and end date for the data
to be deleted.
- Click the Delete button.
As the historical data grows, you may need to delete old data.
Perform the following steps to delete historical data for a particular time
period:
- Click Set Options in the left frame of System Monitor.
The Set Options dialog box appears (see Figure 14).
- Under the Do you want to delete the historical statistics for all
components? section, do the following:
- Click the calendar icons to enter the start date and end date for the data
to be deleted.
- Click the Delete button.
As the business object probe data grows in size, you may need to delete old
data.
Perform the following steps to delete the data for a particular time
period:
- Click Set Options in the left frame of System Monitor.
The Set Options dialog box appears (see Figure 14).
- Under the Do you want to delete the data for a business object
probe? section, do the following:
- Select the business object probe from the Business Object Probe
list.
- Click the calendar icons to enter the start date and end date for the data
to be deleted.
- click Delete.
Persistent monitoring is a subsystem of InterChange Server
Express that monitors and stores historical state and statistical information
of collaboration objects, connectors and the system as a whole. You can
use persistent monitoring with system components or with the entire
system.
You configure the various levels of persistent monitoring for system
components from the Set Options dialog box in System Monitor. Those
procedures are included in the previous section, Customizing data:
To configure system-wide persistent monitoring, you use the Edit
Configuration tool in System Manager. This section describes how to
configure system-wide persistent monitoring with the Edit Configuration tool
and how to access the results of system-wide persistent monitoring from System
Monitor.
- Note:
- You must consider the database volume requirements and a data deletion
strategy when planning the number of components being monitored and the
frequency at which they are monitored. For more information about
implementing database volume requirements, see the System Implementation
Guide.
Perform the following steps to configure system-wide parameters of
persistent monitoring.
- Open the Edit Configuration tool by doing the following:
- Open System Manager.
- Right-click the server under Server Instances in the
InterChange Server Component Management view, and click Edit
Configuration.
The upper-right section of the System Manager window becomes a tool from
which you can edit the InterchangeServer.cfg file.
- Click the Misc tab (see Figure 16).
Figure 16. Edit Configuration tool, Misc tab

- Under Persistent Monitoring, do the following:
- If you want InterChange Server Express to continue running in the event of
errors experienced by the persistent monitoring system, select
Continue in the Action on error list.
- If you want InterChange Server Express to shut down in response to errors
with the subsystem, select Shutdown in the Action on
error list.
- To specify the tracing level for the subsystem, select the desired tracing
level in the Persistent monitoring service list.
Perform the following steps to access the results of persistent
monitoring:
- Open System Monitor.
- Select one of the following views in the Views column to
display historical state and statistical information:
- Collaboration History
- Server History
For more information on using default views, see Steps for using default views. Alternatively, you can create your own views that
can contain historical data. For more information on creating views,
see Steps for creating your own views.
