This section presents the various reasons you would monitor service
components within WebSphere Process Server: to assess performance; to troubleshoot
problems; and, evaluate the overall processing of service components that
make up the applications deployed on your system.
Service components are the integral functions incorporated into WebSphere® Process
Server, that allow you to easily create and deploy applications on your system
that mirror the processes employed in your enterprise. Effectively monitoring
those service components is, therefore, essential to managing the tasks which
the process server is intended to accomplish. The main reasons you would monitor
service components on the process server are outlined below:
- Problem determination
- You can diagnose particular errors by using the logging and tracing facilities
provided by WebSphere Application Server, which underlies WebSphere
Process Server. For example, if a particular application is not producing
the expected results, you can set up a logger to monitor the processing of
the service components that comprise that application. You can have the log
output published to a file, which you can then examine to pinpoint the cause
of the problem. Troubleshooting is a task that is of importance to system
administrators and others concerned with the maintenance of system hardware
and software.
- Performance tuning
- You can monitor certain performance statistics that most process server-specific
service components produce. Use this information to maintain and tune your
system health, and ensure that your applications are tuned optimally and efficiently.
You can also spot situations where one or more of your services are performing
at a poor level, which may indicate that other problems are present in your
system. Like problem determination, performance tuning is a task typically
performed by information technology specialists.
- Assessing the processing of service components
- Problem determination and performance tuning are tasks you would be done
on a short-term basis, to solve a particular issue or problem. You can also
set up the process server to continually monitor the service components incorporated
into the applications deployed on your system. This type of service component
monitoring is of importance to those who are responsible for designing, implementing,
and ensuring that the processes achieve their design goals, and may be accomplished
persons who are not necessarily specialists in information technology.