infovista application monitoring - newtest

VistaView for ApplicationMonitoring - Newtest

Seeing IT

TM

ii

Part Number: 20_300_138_22

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InfoVista SA reserves the right to revise this documentation and to make changes in content from time totime without obligation on the part of InfoVista to provide notification of such revision or change.InfoVista provides this documentation without warranty of any kind, either implied or expressed,including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.InfoVista may make improvements or changes to the product(s) and/or the program(s) described in thisdocument at any time.

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VistaView for Application Monitoring - Newtest

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About this book

Congratulations on your purchase of InfoVista, the Information System Quality ofService manager. With InfoVista you can interrogate resources in your InformationSystem (IS), calculate key performance indicators, and generate reports on resourcebehavior. You use these reports to monitor your Service Level Agreements (SLA) andproactively manage your IS resources.

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InfoVista documentationThe InfoVista documentation set comprises the following volumes:

InfoVista Installation Guide

This manual describes the installation of the product.

InfoVista Quick Start

This manual gives rapid (default) procedures for installing and starting the systemand describes how to produce your first reports using templates from the standardlibraries.

InfoVista User’s Guide

This manual describes the client graphic interface, the methodology of modeling theInformation System, and the tasks which can be performed with the product.

InfoVista Reference Manual

This manual documents the syntax of all commands used by the client software intext mode.

VistaViews (of which this book describes one)

This is a set of manuals describing each of the standard libraries provided forInfoVista.

Documentation supports

The InfoVista documents listed above are provided on paper and also as PDF files onthe software distribution media. The PDF files can be viewed with the viewersoftware.

This book

This manual is divided into the following sections:

• Chapter 1 - Getting Started. This chapter provides an overview of theproduct and its main functionalities. It also explains how to model yourresources and get reports up and running as quickly as possible.

• Chapter 2 - The Reports. This chapter describes individual reports in detail.

Comments and Suggestions

At the end of this book, you’ll find a remarks form. We welcome any comments youmay have on our product or its documentation. Your remarks will be examinedthoroughly and taken into account for future versions of InfoVista.


Contents

Getting started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Newtest technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2InfoVista and Newtest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Quick Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3How to create Newtest reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Modeling a Newtest probe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Adjusting Default Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

The Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Table of Report Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Newtest Probe Device View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

What can it do?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11The Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Scenario Performance and Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12What can it do? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12The Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Order Performance and Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14What can it do? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14The Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Order Group Performance and Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16What can it do? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16The Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Order Group Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18What can it do? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18The Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

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Chapter 1Getting started

The VistaView for Application Monitoring - Newtest provides pre-configured Vistasand Report Templates for reported data from Newtest probes. A Newtest probecontrols a number of applications and returns pre-defined SLM data on them.

2 Overview

Overview

Newtest technologyNewtest products measure the performances of a service or application and helpdetermine the cause of any errors, unavailabilities or response time deterioration.

Newtest software simulates user actions (e.g.: downloading a web page or backing upa file etc.) and measures various related parameters. Different scenarios are appliedto each probe. The role of the probe is to carry out different end-to-endmeasurements.

InfoVista and NewtestThe VistaView for Application Monitoring - Newtest has been designed to provideoptimal visibility of Newtest products. In addition to a powerful polling capacity,InfoVista software offers an advanced graphic interface to display key data. With thisVistaView, application errors and performances are immediately visible to the user.

PrerequisitesYou must install version 50 or later of the InfoVista SLM library on your server. Theauditec MIB is installed automatically with the VistaView.

In addition, you’ll need to set some basic parameters in the Property Values dialoguebox for the Instances you create.

• The IP address of the NT server (or the DNS name - InfoVista thenautomatically looks up the IP address)

• The SNMP read/write community settings.

• The port number for the SNMP agent (by default, this is set to 161). Thisport name must always be the same as the probe port number.


Quick Start 3

Quick Start

This section is for experienced users of InfoVista. If you are new to InfoVista, werecommend you read the whole of Chapter 1 before starting.

InstallationThe VistaView for Application Monitoring - Newtest is delivered as an InfoVistalibrary file called InfoVista_Application_Monitoring_-_Newtest.ivl.

During a first-time installation of InfoVista, these files are copied to disk but notinstalled on the InfoVista server. During an update or a migration, the library file issimply copied to disk. You must install it manually using File/Install VistaViews... inthe InfoVista main window.

After installation, your InfoVista object tree will contain the InfoVista ApplicationMonitoring - Newtest library.

See the InfoVista Installation Guide for more details.

How to create Newtest reportsThe VistaView for Application Monitoring - Newtest comes complete with the pre-configured reports above, providing a simple turnkey solution to start monitoringyour applications straightaway. Probes are modeled under InfoVista using fourNewtest Vistas plus the standard Server and Server Group Vistas, part of the InfoVistaStandard Model Library.

Modeling a Newtest probe

Step 1

The first step consists of modeling a probe that will return data on various orders(results that are produced by a series of scripts) and scenarios (a program of tests fora monitored application).

Step 2

Create an Instance of the Vista Newtest Probe to model the instances that will be usedto create your various reports.

Step 3

Edit the following Property Values of the probe:

• ip – an IP address of the probe,

Getting started

4 Quick Start

• port – the port number of the SNMP agent. If in doubt, use the defaultvalue. The port number must always be the same as the probe port number.

• snmprd – the SNMP read community of the SNMP agent. If in doubt, use thedefault value public. This often works.

Check that the Probe and the SNMP agent are configured and enabled andauthorized to accept SNMP requests coming from your InfoVista server.

Step 4

Start a Newtest Probe Device View report. This report template is in the InfoVistaApplication Monitoring - Newtest library. It gives you:

• a description of each Scenario in terms of its Queue index, Scenario Indexand Scenario Name,

• a description of each Order in terms of its Queue index, Scenario Index,Order Index and Order Name,

• the Value for each Order (the result of the Order execution),• a Coefficient,• the Unit used to measure the Order (usually milliseconds).

For details of this report, refer to Chapter 2.

Step 5

Create Instances for Newtest Scenario and Newtest Order Vistas. For each Instancewe need to:

1 Drag and drop the Probe Device View Instance into the relevant Contentsbox.

2 Give the Instance a name.3 Define the property values for each Instance. These values are provided in

the Probe Device View Report.

For Newtest Scenario Performance and Availability reports, enter the followingproperty values:

• Scenario Index,• Scenario Queue Index.

For Newtest Order Performance and Availability reports, enter the followingproperty values:

• Order Index,• Order Queue Index,• Order Scenario Index• A description (optional)

Step 6

Create Newtest Group Order Performance and Availability reports and Order Group


Quick Start 5

Summary reports by dragging and dropping the relevant Instances into the relevantContents boxes.

Step 6

Create reports by dropping the relevant Instances into the report template you wishto generate. Alternatively, you can use other report generation methods.

For more details on the report templates available in the VistaView for ApplicationMonitoring - Newtest, refer to Chapter 2.

Adjusting Default ValuesThere are a number of default values given for the Property Values of an Instance.These default property values have been carefully chosen to suit most configurations.However, you can customize the property values to fit with your networkadministration. The values in the table below can be changed if you find they areunsuitable.

Getting started

6 Quick Start


Chapter 2The Reports

This chapter is divided into two sections. The first section provides an overview of allreports that can be obtained with this VistaView. The second section deals with eachindividual report type.

8 Table of Report Templates

Table of Report Templates

The InfoVista Application Monitoring - Newtest library contains the following reporttemplates:

Report template Type Usage What is measured Technology

Newtest Probe Device View

Real Time Obtaining order and scenario indexes and values.

Order and scenario names, indexes, coefficients and time units.

auditec MIB

Scenario Performance and Availability

Real TimeHourlyDailyWeekly

Scenario monitoring, problem tracking, application errors.

Application: Availability, Query Statistics, Mean Response Time, Response Time Details (ms).

auditec MIB

Order Performance and Availability

Real TimeHourlyDailyWeekly

Order monitoring, problem tracking, application errors.

Application: Availability, Query Statistics, Response Time, Response Time Details.

auditec MIB

Order Group Performance and Availability

HourlyDailyWeeklyMonthly

Overall graphic picture of Order Group parameters

Group of applications:Mean Availability, Availability (%) Bottom 10, Mean Reponse Time, Response Time- Top 10

auditec MIB

Order Group Summary

HourlyDailyWeeklyMonthly

Table form summary of key Order parameters

Availability (%), Response Time (ms), Maximum Response Time (ms), Min Response Time (ms), Success Transaction, Failed Transaction.

auditec MIB


Table of Report Templates 9

The Reports

10 Newtest Probe Device View

Newtest Probe Device View


Newtest Probe Device View 11

What can it do?

The TablesThere are two tables in this report: the Scenario list and the Order list. This reportprovides an overview of the applications monitored by a Newtest probe. The variousindexes, names and values associated with each application are clearly displayed.

It is with the parameters defined by this Device View reports that we are able to createInstances and Reports on monitored applications.

Monitored resource Newtest Probe

Usage Obtaining Order and Scenario indexes and values

What is measured Order and Scenario names, indexes, coefficients and time units

Technology auditec

The Reports

12 Scenario Performance and Availability

Scenario Performance and Availability

What can it do?Monitored resource Applications monitored by a Newtest Probe

Usage Scenario monitoring, problem tracking and application errors

What is measured Availability, Query Statistics, Mean Response Time, Response Time Details (ms).

Technology auditec

Type of report Real Time Hourly Daily Weekly

Lifetime 1 week 1 month 3 months 1 year

Audience Troubleshooters Network analysts CIOs, IT managers


Scenario Performance and Availability 13

The GraphsThe Scenario Performance and Availability graphs provide an overview of keyparameters for one application. Each scenario regroups a maximum of 10 ordersand the graphs in this report reflect the results produced by the orders.

Availability

This graph shows the percentage of scenarios that were successful. In other words,we are measuring the availability of the application at the moment the scenario wasexecuted. The availability graph is calculated as the total number of executionsminus the number of failed scenarios expressed as a percentage.

Query Statistics

This graph provides a breakdown of the actual number of queries that succeeded orfailed. For failed query statistics, this graph uses the Indicator, ban - Failed Scenariowhich calculates the number of unsuccessful scenario executions. The number ofsuccess queries is calculated as the total number of executions minus the number offailed executions.

Mean Response Time

This graph provides an average of all order response times for a scenario. Because ascenario can simulate a number of different operations (loading, exiting, searching,connecting etc.), it is sometimes useful to have an overall picture of all responsetimes. The graph is calculated using the Indicator (ban - Mean Response Time) whichaverages the response times for each order’s results. See also below, Response TimeDetails.

Response Time Details

This graph provides details of response times for each application scenario. In theexample used above, we can see that only one of the four applications has beenmonitored. The response time for this application is given here in milliseconds.

Note that the Mean Response Time graph still provides an average of the fourapplications that can be monitored, even those without monitored response times. Ifthe Response time details for one application is 1,000 milliseconds and there arethree other applications with no monitored response time, the Mean Response Timewill be 250 seconds (1,000 divided by four).

The Reports

14 Order Performance and Availability

Order Performance and Availability

What can it do?Monitored resource Applications

Usage Order monitoring, problem tracking, application errors

What is measured Availability, Query Statistics, Response Time, Response Time Details.

Technology auditec

Type of report Real Time Hourly Daily Weekly

Lifetime 1 week 1 month 3 months 1 year



Order Performance and Availability 15

The GraphsThe graphs provided in this report give a more detailed view of the results producedby one specific order. With scenario reports, we were interested in an overall view ofa group of orders. In this report, we are measuring the availability and responsetimes for one application.

Availability

This graph shows the percentage of orders that were successful. In other words, weare measuring the availability of an application at the moment an order transactionwas executed. The availability graph is calculated as the total number of samplesminus the number of failed transactions expressed as a percentage.

Query Statistics

This graph provides a breakdown of the actual number of queries that havesucceeded or failed. For failed query statistics, this graph uses the Indicator, ban -Failed Transaction which calculates the number of unsuccessful order transactions.The number of success queries is calculated as the total number of transactions lessthe number of failed transactions.

Response Time

This graph shows an application response time to an order. Indicators used tocalculate this graph take the values from the last six orders and display an average ofthese values.

Response Time Details

This graph shows the maximum and minimum response times to an order. This isuseful when troubleshooting (isolating specific ftp download problems, forexample).

The Reports

16 Order Group Performance and Availability

Order Group Performance and Availability

What can it do?Monitored resource A group of applications

Usage Overall graphic picture of Order Group parameters

What is measured Mean Availability, Availability (%) Bottom 10, Mean Reponse Time, Response Time- Top 10

Technology auditec

Type of report Hourly Daily Weekly Monthly

Lifetime 1 month 3 months 1 year 3 years



Order Group Performance and Availability 17

The GraphsThese graphs allow users to have an overall picture of a group of orders. This isuseful if we wish to place the performances of a particular type of order grouptogether.

For example, we might wish to evaluate the perfomances of different serverconnections, web browser loads or TELNET. The user defines which Instances hewishes to drag and drop to create Group Instances to reflect a particular group.

Mean Availabilty (%)

This graph shows the average availability for all applications in a specific group. Inother words, we are measuring the availability of a group of applications at themoment an order transaction was executed. The Mean Availability graph iscalculated as a percentage of the total number of samples minus the number of failedtransactions.

Availability (%) - Bottom 10

This graph creates a league table of the bottom ten performers in terms of availabilty.It allows us to immediately visualize which applications are problematic in terms ofavailability. This graph uses the same indicators as with the Mean Availability graphto diplay the information.

Mean Response Time

This graph groups together the average response times for each order and thus foreach aspect of an application that is being tested.

Response Time - Top 10

This graph returns response time information on the Top 10 applications. We cansee at a glimpse which, of the parameters we are monitoring, is performing thefastest.

The Reports

18 Order Group Summary

Order Group Summary

What can it do?Monitored resource A group of applications

Usage Table form summary of key Order parameters

What is measured Availability (%), Response Time (ms), Max. Response Time (ms), Min. Response Time (ms), Success Transactions, Failed Transactions.

Technology auditec

Type of report Hourly Daily Weekly Monthly

Lifetime 1 month 3 months 1 year 3 years



Order Group Summary 19

The TableThis table provides a synthetic overview of order group results. It containsinformation that is not necessarily given in the Order Group Performance andAvailability reports. Information is presented for each order and classed in terms ofgroup (i.e. order 1, order 2 etc.)

Availability (%)

This column shows the availability, expressed as a percentage, for an applicationsmonitored as part of a specific order. Availability is calculated as a percentage of thetotal number of samples minus the number of failed transactions.

Response Time (ms)

This column provides the response time for each order sample. Indicators used tocalculate this information take their values from the last six orders and display anaverage of these values.

Maximum Response Time (ms)

The results of each order sample in terms of Maximum Response time is shown inthis column. A zero reading means that the order result has not been produced.

Minimum Response Time (ms)

The results of each order sample in terms of Minimum Response time is shown inthis column. A zero reading means that the order result has not been produced.

Success Transaction

The number of successful transactions per order sample. The number of successfultransactions is calculated as the total number of transactions less the number offailed transactions.

Failed Transaction

The number of failed transactions per order sample. For failed transaction statistics,this graph uses the Indicator, ban - Failed Transaction which calculates the number ofunsuccessful order transactions.

The Reports

20 Order Group Summary


Remarks form

We welcome any comments you may have on our product and its documentation. Your remarkswill be examined thoroughly and taken into account for future versions of InfoVista.

Errors detected:

Suggested improvements:

Please send this completed form to:

InfoVista SA6 rue de la Terre de Feu91952 Courtaboeuf cedexFrance

If you prefer, you may send your remarks via E-mail to [email protected]

If you want InfoVista to reply to your comments, please include your name, address and telephonenumber.

Thank you for your cooperation.

VistaView for Application Monitoring - Newtest November, 2000

infovista application monitoring - newtest

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