Default Parameters for AppProcessTest

The AppProcessTest is used to monitor processes that are not expected to be running on a server (like cmstart.exe on Citrix), but which show an unusual change in the number of processes or their resource usage when problem situations occur. This page depicts the default parameters that need to be configured for the AppProcessTest.

• The TEST PERIOD list box helps the user to decide how often this test needs to be executed.

• In the HOST text box, the host name of the server for which the test is to be configured has to be specified.

• The port number to which the selected web server is listening to has to be specified in the PORT textbox.

• In the PROCESS text box, enter a comma separated list of names:pattern pairs which identify the process(es) associated with the server being considered. processName is a string that will be used for display purposes only. processPattern is an expression of the form - *expr* or expr or *expr or expr* or *expr1*expr2*... or expr1*expr2, etc. A leading ‘*’ signifies any number of leading characters, while a trailing ‘*’ signifies any number of trailing characters. For example, in a Citrix environment, a process called cmstart.exe is part of the Citrix login process. When logins are working well, there will be very few cmstart.exe processes running on a server. However, when users experience slow logins or have difficulty in launching applications on a Citrix Presentation Server, many cmstart.exe processes are observed. This process hence requires monitoring. Similarly, users might also want to be alerted if any instance of the dreaded virus drwatson.exe is executing on the system. Therefore, the PROCESS configuration in this case will be: Citrixstartprocess:*cmstart*,Virus:*drwatson*. Other special characters such as slashes (\) can also be used while defining the process pattern. Typically, slashes (\) are used when the configured process pattern includes the full directory path to the process to be monitored.

  To determine the process pattern to use for your application, on Windows environments, look for the process name(s) in the Task Manager -> Processes selection. To determine the process pattern to use on Unix environments, use the ps command (e.g., the command "ps -e -o pid,args" can be used to determine the processes running on the target system; from this, choose the processes of interest to you).

  Note:

  In Unix environments, the PROCESS parameter is case-sensitive.

• Increased uptime and lower mean time to repair are critical to ensuring that IT infrastructures deliver a high quality of service to users. Towards this end, the eG suite embeds an optional auto-correction capability that enables eG agents to automatically correct problems in the environment, as soon as they occur. With this capability, as and when an abnormal situation is detected, an eG agent can initiate corrective actions automatically to resolve the problem. Automatic correction without the need for manual intervention by IT operations staff reduces service downtime and improves operational efficiency. By default, the auto-correction capability is available in the eG suite for the Num_procs_running measure of ProcessTest, and the Availability measure of WinServiceTest. You can enable this capability for the AppProcessTest, to correct a problem condition pertaining to a particular measure reported by that test. To enable the auto-correction capability for the AppProcessTest, first, select the TRUE option against the CORRECT parameter in this page (by default, FALSE will be selected here).
• Upon selecting the TRUE option, three new parameters, namely, ALARMTYPE, USERPARAMS, and CORRECTIVESCRIPT will appear. The ALARMTYPE parameter indicates when the auto-corrective script should execute. You can set the corrective script to execute when a specific type of alarm is generated, by selecting an option from the ALARMTYPE list box. For example, if the Critical option is chosen from the ALARMTYPE list box, then the corrective script will run only when a critical alarm for the AppProcessTest is generated. Similarly, if the Critical/Major option is chosen, then the corrective script will execute only when the eG system generates critical or major alarms for the AppProcessTest. In order to ensure that the corrective script executes regardless of the alarm type, select the Critical/Major/Minor option.
• The user-defined parameters that are to be passed to the corrective script are specified in the USERPARAMS text box. One of the following formats can be applied to the USERPARAMS specification:

• exec@processName:command: In this specification, processName is the display name of the process pattern specified against the PROCESS parameter, and command is the command to be executed when there is a problem condition pertaining to the processName.
• command: In this specification, command signifies the command to be executed when there is a problem condition pertaining to any of the configured processes. Such a format best suits situations where only a single process has been configured for monitoring, or, a single command is capable of starting all the configured processes.

  Note:

  • The USERPARAMS specification should be placed within double quotes if this value includes one or more blank spaces.
  • Note that if a processName configured in the PROCESS parameter does not have a corresponding entry in USERPARAMS (as discussed in format 1), then the auto-correction capability will not be enabled for these processes.
• Administrators will have to build the auto-correction capability for this test to address probable issues with it, by writing their own corrective script. To know how to create custom auto-correction scripts, refer to the eG User Manual. The full path to the corrective script should be specified against CORRECTIVESCRIPT.

• If multiple components of the same component type are awaiting configuration, then an APPLY TO OTHER COMPONENTS check box will appear in this page. Clicking on this check box will allow you to apply the configuration to all/selected components of that type.

• The USEGLANCE flag applies only to HP-UX systems. HP GlancePlus/UX is Hewlett-Packards's online performance monitoring and diagnostic utility for HP-UX based computers. There are two user interfaces of GlancePlus/UX -- Glance is character-based, and gpm is motif-based. Each contains graphical and tabular displays that depict how primary system resources are being utilized. In environments where Glance is run, the eG agent can be configured to integrate with Glance to pull out detailed metrics pertaining to the CPU usage of the HP-UX systems that are being monitored. By default, this integration is disabled. This is why the USEGLANCE flag is set to No by default. You can enable the integration by setting the flag to Yes. If this is done, then the test polls the Glance interface of HP GlancePlus/UX utility to pull out the desired metrics.

• Once the necessary values have been provided, clicking on the UPDATE button will register the changes made.

When changing default configurations of tests, the values with “$” indicate variables that will be replaced by the eG system according to the specific server being managed - for instance, $hostName is the host/nickname of the target host, $port is the port number of the server being monitored. E.g., for a server xyz:80, $hostName will be changed automatically by the eG manager to “xyz” and $port will be changed to “80” when configuring a test.