Agents Administration - Tests
 

Default Parameters for WebLogicTest

This test monitors the performance of a WebLogic server by tracking the rate of requests processed by the server, the number of requests waiting for processing, and the percentage of heap usage by the server. While the rate of requests processed and the number of queued requests can be indicative of performance problems with the WebLogic server, the percentage heap usage can be indicative of the reason for the problem.

This page depicts the default parameters that need to be configured for the WebLogicTest.

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

  • The USER text box, indicates the admin user name of the WebLogic server being monitored.

  • The PASSWORD text box, indicates the password of the specified admin user.

  • Confirm the password by retyping it in the CONFIRM PASSWORD text box. 

  • If the specified password needs to be encrypted, set the ENCRYPTPASS flag to YES. Otherwise, set it to NO. By default, the YES option will be selected.

  • The port number on which the application server is exposing the SNMP MIB  has to be specified in the SNMPPORT text box (applicable only for WebLogic 5.1). For version 6.0 and above, enter ?none? in this text box.

  • By default, the eG agent supports SNMP version 1. Accordingly, the default selection in the SNMPVERSION list is v1. However, if a different SNMP framework is in use in your environment, say SNMP v2 or v3, then select the corresponding option from this list.

  • The community name that the test uses to communicate with the application server has to be provided in the SNMPCOMMUNITY (applicable only for WebLogic 5.1) text box. For version 6.0 and above, enter ?none? in this text box.

  • The USERNAME parameter appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVERSION. SNMP version 3 (SNMPv3) is an extensible SNMP Framework which supplements the SNMPv2 Framework, by additionally supporting message security, access control, and remote SNMP configuration capabilities. To extract performance statistics from the MIB using the highly secure SNMP v3 protocol, the eG agent has to be configured with the required access privileges - in other words, the eG agent should connect to the MIB using the credentials of a user with access permissions to the MIB. Therefore, specify the name of such a user against the USERNAME parameter.

  • The CONTEXT parameter appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVERSION. An SNMP context is a collection of management information accessible by an SNMP entity. An item of management information may exist in more than one context and an SNMP entity potentially has access to many contexts. A context is identified by the SNMPEngineID value of the entity hosting the management information (also called a contextEngineID) and a context name that identifies the specific context (also called a contextName). If the USERNAME provided is associated with a context name, then the eG agent will be able to poll the MIB and collect metrics only if it is configured with the context name as well. In such cases therefore, specify the context name of the USERNAME in the CONTEXT text box. By default, this parameter is set to none.

  • Specify the password that corresponds to the above-mentioned USERNAME in the AUTHPASS text box. This parameter once again appears only if the SNMPVERSION selected is v3.

  • Confirm the AUTHPASS by retyping it in the CONFIRM PASSWORD text box.

  • The AUTHTYPE parameter too appears only if v3 is selected as the SNMPVERSION. From the AUTHTYPE list box, choose the authentication algorithm using which SNMP v3 converts the specified USERNAME and PASSWORD into a 32-bit format to ensure security of SNMP transactions. You can choose between the following options:

    • MD5 - Message Digest Algorithm
    • SHA - Secure Hash Algorithm

  • The ENCRYPTFLAG appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVERSION. By default, the eG agent does not encrypt SNMP requests. Accordingly, the ENCRYPTFLAG is set to NO by default. To ensure that SNMP requests sent by the eG agent are encrypted, select the YES option.

  • If the ENCRYPTFLAG is set to YES, then you will have to mention the encryption type by selecting an option from the ENCRYPTTYPE list. SNMP v3 supports the following encryption types:

    • DES - Data Encryption Standard
    • AES - Advanced Encryption Standard

  • Specify the encryption password in the ENCRYPTPASSWORD text box.

  • Confirm the encryption password by retyping it in the CONFIRM PASSWORD text box.

  • Specify the duration (in seconds) within which the SNMP query executed by this test should time out in the TIMEOUT text box. The default is 10 seconds.

  • Select Yes if SSL (Secured Socket Layer) is to be used to connect to the WebLogic server, and No if it is not. 

  • In the SERVER text box, specify the name of the specific server instance to be monitored for the WebLogic server. The default value is localhome.

  • In the URL text box, specify the URL to be accessed to collect metrics pertaining to the WebLogic server. By default, this test connects to a managed WebLogic server and attempts to obtain the metrics of interest by accessing the local Mbeans of the server. This parameter can be changed to a value of http://<adminserverIP>:<adminserverPort>. In this case, the test connects to the WebLogic admin server to collect metrics pertaining to the managed server (specified by the HOST and PORT). The URL setting provides the administrator with the flexibility of determining the WebLogic monitoring configuration to use. 

    • Note:

    If the admin server is to be used for collecting measures for all the managed WebLogic servers, then it is mandatory that the egurkha war file is deployed to the admin server, and it is up and running. 

  • The VERSION textbox indicates the version of the Weblogic server to be managed. The default value is "none", in which case the test auto-discovers the weblogic version. If the value of this parameter is not "none", the test uses the value provided (e.g., 7.0) as the weblogic version (i.e., it does not auto-discover the weblogic server version). This parameter has been added to address cases when the eG agent is not able to discover the WebLogic server version.

  • The USEWARFILE flag indicates whether monitoring is to be done using a Web archive file deployed on the WebLogic server (in which case, HTTP/HTTPS is used by the server to connect to the server). If this flag is set to No, the agent directly connects to the WebLogic server using the T3 protocol (no other file needs to be deployed on the WebLogic server for this to work). Note that the T3 protocol-based support is available for WebLogic servers ver.9 and above.

  • In the WEBLOGICJARLOCATION text box, specify the location of the WebLogic server's java archive (Jar) file. If the USEWARFILE flag is set to No, then the weblogic.jar file specified here is used to connect to the corresponding WebLogic server using the T3 protocol. Note that the T3 protocol-based support is available for WebLogic servers ver.9 and above.

  • By default, in an IT environment, all data transmission occurs over UDP. Some environments however, may be specifically configured to offload a fraction of the data traffic - for instance, certain types of data traffic or traffic pertaining to specific components - to other protocols like TCP, so as to prevent UDP overloads. In such environments, you can instruct the eG agent to conduct the SNMP data traffic related to the monitored target over TCP (and not UDP). For this, set the DATA OVER TCP flag to Yes. By default, this flag is set to No.

  • 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.