Administering failed events

You can use two tools in IBM WebSphere InterChange Server to locate, view, and process failed events: Failed Event Manager, a browser-based tool with role-based security that allows you to work with failed events from the Web, and Flow Manager, a tool installed with the IBM WebSphere InterChange Server product. This section contains the following:

Using Failed Event Manager

Using Flow Manager

Using Failed Event Manager

Failed Event Manager allows you to view and manage failed events from the Web, and works with IBM WebSphere Application Server or with Tomcat. For information on installing Failed Event Manager to work with WebSphere Application Server or Tomcat, refer to the WebSphere Business Integration Server Installation Guide. Failed Event Manager works with the following versions of WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere Application Server, and Tomcat:

Role-based security is available if you are using Tomcat with Failed Event Manager. The actions you can perform with those failed events depends on role-based security. Administrators can assign users one or more of four default roles, and administrators have permission to create custom roles for your specific team using Application Assembly Tool. The following default roles are included:

This section includes the following procedures:

Steps for manually installing Failed Event Manager on WebSphere Application Server 5.0.2

Perform the following steps to manually install Failed Event Manager on WebSphere Application Server 5.0.2. Prior to beginning the steps below, ensure that WebSphere Application Server is running in Administrator mode on your environment.

  1. With the WebSphere Application Server running, expand the Servers menu in the left navigation frame of the Administration Console.
  2. Select the application server to configure under the Application Servers link.
  3. Select Additional Properties > Process Definition > Java Virtual Machine.
  4. In the Generic JVM Arguments dialog, enter the following information:


    -DORBNamingProvider=CosNaming - Dorg.omg.CORBA.ORBClass=com.ibm.CORBA.iiop.ORB - Dorg.omg.CORBA.ORBInitialPort=%ORB_PORT% - Dorg.omg.CORBA.ORBInitialHost=%ORB_HOST%


    where %ORB_PORT% & %ORB_HOST% matches the information included in the ./bin/CWSharedEnv.bat file of the applicable WebSphere InterChange Server.

  5. Select the Apply button.
  6. Select Additional Properties > Custom Properties > New.
  7. In the Name field, enter FEM_HOME in the Name field to designate where the log file will be stored.
  8. In the Value field, enter the fully-qualified path to the installed application within the WebSphere product directory, for example,
    C:\ProgramFiles\IBM\WebSphere\Express\AppServer\installedApps\DefaultNode\FailedEvents.war.ear\FailedEvents.war.
    

    Note:
    If the application is not installed already, either complete steps 9-20 and come back to this step or type in the fully qualified path to a directory where you would like the log file to be placed
  9. Select the Apply button.
  10. Select the OK button to return to the Java Virtual Machine page.
  11. Select the Save button when the following message appears:


    Changes have been made to your local configuration. Click Save to apply changes to the master configuration.

  12. Select the Save button again on the Master Configuration screen.
  13. Select Environment > Update Web Server Plugin.
  14. Select the OK button on the Update web server plugin configuration screen.
  15. On the Applications menu, select Install New Application.
  16. Enter the fully qualified path to the FailedEvents.war file located in the WebSphereICS\WBFEM directory.
  17. Enter FailedEvents in the Context Root field and select the Next button.
  18. Select the Next button on the Preparing for the application installation window to accept the default values.
  19. Select the Next button until you reach the end of the installation process, and then select the Finish button.
  20. When you receive the Application Installed Successfully message, select the Save to Master Configuration button.
  21. Select Start > Programs > IBM WebSphere Application Server v5.0 > Stop the Server to stop the WebSphere Application Server. Restart the server entering the following information at a command prompt:


    WAS_Product_dir\bin\startServer.bat <servername>

  22. To start the Failed Event Manager, open a browser window and enter the following URL:


    http://hostname:9080/FailedEvents.

    Note:
    9080 is the default port for server1. To find specific ports for a server, see Steps for identifying server ports.

Steps for identifying server ports

Perform the following steps to identify specific server ports for use with the Failed Event Manager:

  1. With the WebSphere Application Server running, expand the Servers menu in the left navigation frame.
  2. Select Application Servers.
  3. Select the server for which you require port information to expand the listing.
  4. Select Additional Properties > WebContainer.
  5. Select Additional Properties > HTTP Transports. The ports for the server display on the screen.

Steps for manually installing Failed Event Manager on Tomcat 4.1.24

Perform the following steps to manually install Failed Event Manager on Tomcat 4.1.24: Prior to beginning the steps below, ensure that WebSphere Application Server is running in Administrator mode on your environment.

  1. Under the Tomcat_home\webapps directory, create the FailedEvents directory, where Tomcat_home is the Tomcat installation path.
  2. Extract the FailedEvents.war file contents from the the \WBFEM\Tomcat directory into the Tomcat_home\webapps\FailedEvents directory.
  3. Open the setclasspath.bat file, located in Tomcat_home\bin directory and set the JAVA_OPTS property as follows:


    set JAVA_OPTS=-DFEM_HOME=C:\Tomcat_home\webapps\FailedEvents - DORBNamingProvider=CosNaming - Dorg.omg.CORBA.ORBClass=com.ibm.CORBA.iiop.ORB - Dorg.omg.CORBA.ORBInitialPort=%ORB_PORT% - Dorg.omg.CORBA.ORBInitialHost=%ORB_HOST%
    where %ORB_PORT% & %ORB_HOST% match what is in the ./bin/CWSharedEnv.bat file.

    Note:
    If Tomcat_home contains spaces, use quotes around the FEM_HOME value.
  4. Start Tomcat using the following command line to ensure that setclasspath.bat is called:


    Tomcat_home/bin/startup.bat

  5. With the application server running, start the Failed Event Manager by opening a browser window and entering the following URL:


    http://hostname:8080/FailedEvents.

    Note:
    8080 is the default port for the server. To change the port number, you must edit the Tomcat_home\conf\server.xml file and restart the application server.

Role-based security

The Failed Event Manager provides the ability to activate role-based security on WebSphere Application Server and Tomcat. For more information on the concepts and application of role-based access, see Administering role-based access control (RBAC).

Four basic roles exist for the Failed Events Manager.

The Administrator will create all but the default Administrator role, giving each View Failed Events permission at the server level. You may also create custom roles for use with the Failed Events Manager. For more information, see Creating custom roles for Failed Event Manager

Note:
You must use the SubmitEvents role along with another custom role that has permission to submit & delete failed events for collaborations and connectors at the component level. The ViewAll and ViewEvents roles can be used independently of another custom role.

Creating custom roles for Failed Event Manager

You can create custom roles in order to provide component level access. For example, using custom roles at a component level, you can restrict a user from viewing failed events that belong to a specific event owner, collaboration, or connector. Create custom roles using the Server Administration Tool in the System Manager., assigning View Failed Events permission at the server level. When creating roles at the component level, select the particular event owner, collaboration object or connector object and assign both Submit Failed Events and Delete Failed Events permission for each component.

Steps for creating custom users and roles for Failed Event Manager with Tomcat

Perform the following steps to create custom users and roles if you are using Tomcat:

  1. Edit the tomat-users.xml file located under Tomcat_Home\conf to make the following changes as needed:
  2. Save the file.
  3. Edit the web.xml file located under Tomcat_Home\webapps\FailedEvents\WEB-INF to add the roles you added to the tomat-users.xml file in step 1. Do the following:
  4. Save the file.
  5. Start Tomcat from the command line in order to call the setclasspath.bat file: Tomcat_home/bin/startup.bat.

Steps for logging on to Failed Event Manager

Perform the following steps to log on to Failed Event Manager:

  1. Type one of the following URLs, depending on how Failed Event Manager was set up for your team:
  2. If security is enabled, you must type the Application Server user name and password.
  3. At the Connect screen, type the Server Name, User Name and Password, and click Login.

    Figure 45. Failed Event Manager Connect screen


    After you log on, the Query dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 46.

    Figure 46. Failed Event Manager Query dialog box


Steps for viewing failed events

Perform the following steps to view information about failed events in Failed Event Manager:

  1. On the Query page, select the information about the failed events that you want to view:
  2. Click Submit.

    A Table of Failed Events appears, as show in Figure 47.

    Figure 47. Failed Event Manager Table of Failed Events


    If you are not assigned to one of the roles that has access to viewing business objects, the business object buttons may not be available in this table, as shown in Figure 48.

    Figure 48. Failed Event Manager Table of Failed Events without rights to view business objects


  3. If you want to view details for a particular failed event, select the check box in the left column and click View in the Details column.

    The Event Details dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 49.

    Figure 49. Failed Event Manager Event Details dialog box


  4. If you are assigned to a role that has access to the business object, click the business object button in the Business Objects column to view details about the business object. The Business Object Data dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 50.

    Figure 50. Failed Event Manager Business Object Data dialog box


Steps for processing failed events in Failed Event Manager

Perform the following steps in a Table of Failed Events to process failed events:

  1. Select the check box in the left column for the failed events that you want to work with.
  2. Do one of the following:

Steps for checking your access rights in Failed Event Manager

Perform the following steps to check the roles you are assigned for Failed Event Manager role-base security:

  1. log on to Failed Event Manager (see Steps for logging on to Failed Event Manager).
  2. On the query page that opens, click the Check your access rights link in the bottom left.

    A page appears listing the default roles available. You can type a role name to see if you are assigned to that role.

Using Flow Manager

To locate, view, and process failed events, use Flow Manager, a tool that is installed with the IBM WebSphere InterChange Server product. Flow Manager allows you to easily construct a query to locate and display unresolved flows. After you display the unresolved flows, you can select any flow in the display and submit it, discard it, or perform other actions.

The following topics describe how to use Flow Manager for constructing the queries, viewing the details, and processing the events:

Steps for starting Flow Manager

Steps for finding unresolved flows

"Steps for viewing details for unresolved flows"

Steps for processing unresolved flows

Steps for starting Flow Manager

Perform the following steps to start Flow Manager:

  1. Click Start > Programs > IBM WebSphere Business Integration > Toolset > Administrative > Flow Manager. The Connect to WebSphere InterChange Server dialog box appears (see Figure 51.

    Figure 51. Connect to InterChange Server dialog box


  2. Enter the server name, using any one of the following methods:
  3. Type the user name and password for the server you want to connect to. If you check the Remember user name and password check box, the user name and password are stored in the registry along with the server name, and the password are encrypted. Click Connect.
    Note:
    To remove unwanted users or servers from the registry, click Options. This opens the Options dialog box, from which you can remove servers or users.
    The following figure shows the Options dialog box.

    Figure 53. Options dialog box


After you click Connect in the Connect to WebSphere InterChange Server dialog box, Flow Manager opens (see Figure 54).

Figure 54. Flow Manager


Steps for finding unresolved flows

Perform the following steps in Flow Manager to find all unresolved flows:

  1. Start Flow Manager. See Steps for starting Flow Manager.
  2. Do one of the following:
  3. After specifying your search criteria, click the Find button or click Event > Find. The results appear in the bottom half of the Flow Manager window (see Figure 55).

    Figure 55. Flow Manager displaying filtered results


  4. To save the current filter information as a query, click Query > Save. The query name you type appears in the Query list.

Event Attributes tab

Click the Event Attributes tab to search according to the characteristics of the unresolved event (see Figure 56).

Figure 56. Flow Manager Event Attributes tab


The following options are available from the Event Attributes tab:

Date & Time tab

Use the Date & Time tab to query only the flows that failed during a specific time period (see Figure 57).

Figure 57. Date & Time tab


The following options are available from the Date & Time tab:

Error Text & Business Object Attributes tab

Use the Error Text & Business Object Attributes tab to construct a query that includes only certain business objects, business object attributes, and attribute values (see Figure 58).

Figure 58. Error Text & Business Object Attributes tab


Select values in the following columns:

You can also query only unresolved flows that produce a message containing specified text that you type in the Containing Error Text field.

Note:
The keywords you type in the Containing Error Text field are not case-sensitive.

Steps for viewing details for unresolved flows

Perform the following steps to view details for unresolved flows in Flow Manager:

  1. Select a query from the Query list.
  2. Do one of the following:

    The results appear in the bottom half of the Flow Manager window (see Figure 55).

    An unresolved flows table appears with a list of events and the following information:

    For the waiting events, the Event Status cell contains the following information:


    Waiting
    [timeout expiration:...]
    [scenario name:...]
    [scenario node ID...]

  3. To access more information about any of the events, double-click the row containing the event (or click Event > Select All). This opens the Show Event Details dialog box (see Figure 59).

    Figure 59. Flow Manager Show Event Details dialog box


  4. To access more information about the business object associated with the selected event, click Event > Display Details. The Show Business Object Data dialog box appears (see Figure 60).

    Figure 60. Show Business Object Data dialog box


If you want to take action on any of the unresolved flows, refer to Steps for processing unresolved flows.

Steps for managing queries

Perform one of the following steps to manage queries you created for unresolved flows:

Steps for managing results of queries

Perform the following steps to manage queries you created for unresolved flows:

  1. In the results list in Flow Manager, select one or more events in the results list.
  2. Do one of the following:

Steps for processing unresolved flows

Perform the following steps to process any failed events in the results list in Flow Manager:

  1. In the results list in Flow Manager, select one or more events in the results list.
  2. Do one of the following:

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