eG Monitoring
 

Measures reported by SmAgentAuthTest

This test tracks every critical step in the request authorization cycle of a Web agent, beginning with the Web agent's attempt to login to the Policy server, through the request validation process, and finally, authorization. In the process, it indicates if any serious errors/failures have occurred at any stage.

Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation
Login_calls The number of login attempts made by this Web agent during the last measurement period Number  
Login_errors The number of errors that occurred during the login attempts made in the last measurement period Number An error indicates a communication failure between the Web agent and the Policy server. Therefore, a very high value of this measure could indicate a problem condition requiring investigation.
Login_failures The number of failed login attempts during the last measurement period Number A login attempt can fail if users are not authorized or authenticated by the Policy server.
Login_time The time taken by the user to log into a resource Secs Ideally, this value should be low.
Validation_calls The number of times, in the last measurement period, this Web agent attempted to validate a session cookie against the Policy server to authenticate a user, instead of matching the user's credentials to a user directory entry Number The Web Agent creates a session cookie on the user's browser when a user is successfully authenticated, and uses that cookie to authenticate the user on subsequent requests for new resources.The following conditions affect this measure:
  • User Session Cache size-If a Web Agent's user session cache is set to a value greater than 0, the user's session information is stored in the cache. The Web agent validates the session against the session cache instead of the Policy server, so the value of this measure does not increase. If the user session cache is set to 0, this measure increases each time a user requests a protected resource because the Web agent must validate the session against the Policy Server.
  • Multi-thread vs. Multi-process cache- Web agents that use multi-threaded cache, such as IIS Web Agents, iPlanet 4.x and 6.0 Web Agents (on Windows operating systems, and Domino Web Agents (on Windows and UNIX operating systems), add a session to the session cache (if the session cache size is greater than 0) when a user is successfully authenticated. If that user requests additional resources from the same realm, the Web agent validates the user against the session cache, so the Validation_calls measure does not increase. Apache and iPlanet 4.x and 6.0 Web Agents running on UNIX operating systems, which use multi-process cache, do not add the session cookie to the session cache until the user presents the cookie to the Web agent during a request for another resource in the realm where she was authenticated. The Web agent validates the first request made with a session cookie against the Policy Server, which increases the ValidationCount. Subsequent requests are validated against the cache.
Validation_errors The number of errors that occurred when this Web agent attempted to validate a user session during the last measurement period Number Errors indicate a communication failure between the Web agent and the Policy server. A high value of this measure therefore, is indicative of a problem.
Validation_failures The number of times, in the last measurement period, this Web Agent has failed to validate a user session because of an invalid session cookie Number Ideally, this value should be low.
Valid_success_pct The percentage of validation attempts that were successful, currently Percent A high success percentage is an indicator of good health.
Validation_time The time this Web agent took to validate a cookie used to authenticate a user Secs Ideally, this value should be low.
Authz_calls The number of authorization attempts made by this Web Agent during the last measurement period Number An authorization attempt occurs when a user supplies credentials to the Policy Server in order to access a protected resource.
Authz_errors The number of errors that occurred during authorization attempts made by this Web Agent during the last measurement period Number An error indicates a communication failure between the Web Agent and Policy Server during an authorization call.
Authz_failures The failed authorization attempts during the last measurement period Number An authorization attempt fails when a user enters invalid credentials.
Authz_success_pct The percentage of authorization attempts that were currently successful Percent  
Authz_time The average time it takes to authorize a user Secs Ideally, this value should be low.