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Default Parameters for BusinessTransTest
This test runs on a BTM-enabled JVM in an IT infrastructure, tracks all the transaction requests received by that JVM, and groups requests based on user-configured pattern specifications. For each transaction pattern, the test then computes and reports the average time taken by that JVM node to respond to the transaction requests of that pattern. In the process, the test identifies the slow/stalled transactions of that pattern, and reports the count of such transactions and their responsiveness. Detailed diagnostics provided by the test accurately pinpoint the exact transaction URLs that are slow/stalled, the total round-trip time of each transaction, and also indicate when such transaction requests were received by that node. The slowest transaction in the group can thus be identified.
Moreover, to enable administrators to figure out if the slowness can be attributed to a bottleneck in SQL query processing, the test also reports the average time the transactions of each pattern took to execute SQL queries. If a majority of the queries are slow, then the test will instantly capture the same and notify administrators.
Additionally, the test promptly alerts administrators to error transactions of each pattern. To know which are the error transactions, the detailed diagnosis capability of the test can be used.
This way, the test effortlessly measures the performance of each transaction to a JVM node, highlights transactions that are under-performing, and takes administrators close to the root-cause of poor transaction performance.
This page depicts the default parameters that need to be configured for BusinessTransTest.
In the BTM PORT text box, specify the port number specified as BTM_Port in the btmOther.props file on the JVM node being monitored. If the JVM is being monitored in an agent-based manner, then the btmOther.props file will be in the <EG_AGENT_INSTALL_DIR>\lib\btm directory.
This test groups transaction URLs based on the URL segments count configured for monitoring and reports aggregated response time metrics for every group. Using the MAX URL SEGMENTS parameter, you can specify the number of URL segments based on which the transactions are to be grouped.
URL segments are the parts of a URL (after the base URL) or path delimited by slashes. So if you had the URL: http://www.eazykart.com/web/shopping/sportsgear/login.jsp, then http://www.eazykart.com will be the base URL or domain,/web will be the first URL segment, /shopping will be the second URL segment, and /sportsgear will be the third URL segment, and /login.jsp will be the fourth URL segment. By default, this parameter is set to 3. This default setting, when applied to the sample URL provided above, implies that the eG agent will aggregate response time metrics to all transaction URLs under /web/shopping/sportsgear. Note that the base URL or domain will not be considered when counting URL segments. This in turn means that, if the JVM node receives transaction requests for the URLs such as http://www.eazykart.com/web/shopping/sportsgear/login.jsp, http://www.eazykart.com/web/shopping/sportsgear/jerseys.jsp, http://www.eazykart.com/web/shopping/sportsgear/shoes.jsp, http://www.eazykart.com/web/shopping/sportsgear/gloves.jsp, etc., then the eG agent will track the requests and responses for all these URLs, aggregate the results, and present the aggregated metrics for the descriptor /web/shopping/sportsgear. This way, the test will create different transaction groups based on each of the third-level URL segments – eg. /web/shopping/weddings, /web/shopping/holiday, /web/shopping/gifts etc. – and will report aggregated metrics for each group so created.
If you want, you can override the default setting by providing a different URL segment number here. For instance, your specification can be just 2. In this case, for the URL http://www.eazykart.com/web/shopping/login.jsp, the test will report metrics for the descriptor web/shopping.
By default, this test does not track requests to the following URL patterns:
*.ttf, *.otf, *.woff, *.woff2, *.eot, *.cff, *.afm, *.lwfn, *.ffil, *.fon, *.pfm, *.pfb, *.std, *.pro, *.xsf, *.jpg, *.jpeg, *.jpe, *.jif, *.jfif, *.jfi, *.jp2, *.j2k, *.jpf, *.jpx, *.jpm, *.jxr, *.hdp, *.wdp, *.mj2, *.webp, *.gif, *.png, *.apng, *.mng, *.tiff, *.tif, *.xbm, *.bmp, *.dib, *.svg, *.svgz, *.mpg, *.mpeg, *.mpeg2, *.avi, *.wmv, *.mov, *.rm, *.ram, *.swf, *.flv, *.ogg, *.webm, *.mp4, *.ts, *.mid, *.midi, *.rm, *.ram, *.wma, *.aac, *.wav, *.ogg, *.mp3, *.mp4, *.css, *.js, *.ico|/egurkha*
If required, you can remove one/more patterns from this default list, so that such patterns are monitored, or can append more patterns to this list in order to exclude them from monitoring. Specify such patterns to be excluded from monitoring against the EXCLUDED PATTERNS parameter.
By default, Profiler is chosen as the operational mode for the eG agent that performs business transaction monitoring. In this default mode, the agent collects deep diagnostics of all external calls made by the target JVM node when processing a transaction. This includes POJO calls, which are usually large in number. Since an agent operating in the Profiler mode will report response time metrics per POJO call, a marginal increase in the processing overheads of the transaction can be expected in this mode.
To ensure that the agent balances transaction visibility with low transaction overhead, Troubleshooting can be chosen as the MONITORING MODE. This mode optimizes agent performance for your live environment. This is why, if you choose this mode, then whenever you attempt to perform transaction execution analysis, eG will reveal the details of all external calls made by the target JVM node for that transaction, except POJO method calls.
From the detailed diagnosis of slow/stalled/error transactions, you can drill down and perform deep execution analysis of a particular transaction. In this drill-down, the methods invoked by that slow/stalled/error transaction are listed in the order in which the transaction calls the methods. By configuring a METHOD EXECUTION CUTOFF, you can make sure that methods that have been executing for a duration greater the specified cutoff are alone listed when performing execution analysis. For instance, if you specify 5 here, then the Execution Analysis window for a slow/stalled/error transaction will list only those methods that have been executing for over 5 milliseconds. This way, you get to focus on only those methods that could have caused the slowness, without being distracted by inconsequential methods. By default, the value of this parameter is set to 250 ms.
Typically, from the detailed diagnosis of a slow/stalled/error transaction on a JVM node, you can drill down to view the SQL queries (if any) executed by that transaction from that node and the execution time of each query. By configuring a SQL EXECUTION CUTOFF, you can make sure that queries that have been executing for a duration greater the specified cutoff are alone listed when performing query analysis. For instance, if you specify 5 here, then for a slow/stalled/error transaction, the SQL Queries window will display only those queries that have been executing for over 5 milliseconds. This way, you get to focus on only those queries that could have contributed to the slowness. By default, the value of the SQL EXECUTION CUTOFF (MS) parameter is set to 10 ms.
By default, the HEALTHY URL TRACE flag is set to No. This means that eG will not collect detailed diagnostics for those transactions that are healthy. If you want to enable the detailed diagnosis capability for healthy transactions as well, then set this flag to Yes.
The MAX HEALTHY URLS PER TEST PERIOD parameter is applicable only if the HEALTHY URL TRACE flag is set to ‘Yes’. Here, specify the number of top-n transactions that should be listed in the detailed diagnosis of the Healthy transactions measure, every time the test runs. By default, this is set to 50, indicating that the detailed diagnosis of the Healthy transactions measure will by default list the top-50 transactions, arranged in the descending order of their response times.
In the MAX SLOW URLS PER TEST PERIOD, specify the number of top-n transactions that should be listed in the detailed diagnosis of the Slow transactions measure, every time the test runs. By default, this is set to 10, indicating that the detailed diagnosis of the Slow transactions measure will by default list the top-10 transactions, arranged in the descending order of their response times.
In the MAX ERROR URLS PER TEST PERIOD text box, specify the number of top-n transactions that should be listed in the detailed diagnosis of the Error transactions measure, every time the test runs. By default, this is set to 10, indicating that the detailed diagnosis of the Error transactions measure will by default list the top-10 transactions, in terms of the number of errors they encountered.
In the MAX STALLED URLS PER TEST PERIOD text box, specify the number of top-n transactions that should be listed in the detailed diagnosis of the Stalled transactions measure, every time the test runs. By default, this is set to 10, indicating that the detailed diagnosis of the Stalled transactions measure will by default list the top-10 transactions, arranged in the descending order of their response times.
To optimize transaction performance and conserve space in the eG database, many restraints have been applied by default on the agent's ability to collect and report detailed diagnostics. Depending upon how well-tuned your eG database is and the level of visibility you require into transaction performance, you may choose to either retain these default settings or override them. If you choose not to disturb the defaults, then set the ADVANCED SETTINGS flag to No. If you want to modify the defaults, then set the advanced settings flag to Yes.
The POJO METHOD TRACING LIMIT and POJO METHOD TRACING CUTOFF TIME parameters will appear only if the ADVANCED SETTINGS flag is set to ‘true’. Typically, if the MONITORING MODE of this test is set to Profiler , then, as part of the detailed diagnostics of a transaction, eG reports the execution time of every POJO, non-POJO, and recursive (i.e. methods that call themselves) method call that a JVM node makes when processing that transaction. Of these, POJO method calls are the most expensive, as they are usually large in number. To ensure that attempts made to collect detailed measures related to POJO method calls do not impact the overall responsiveness of the monitored transaction, eG, by default, collects and reports the execution time of only the following POJO method calls: 10/18/2016
The first 1000 POJO method calls made by the target JVM node for that transaction; (OR) The POJO method calls that were made by the target JVM node within 10 seconds from the start of the monitored transaction on that node;
Accordingly, the pojo method tracing limit is set to 1000 by default, and the pojo method tracing cutoff time is set to 10 (seconds) by default. Of these two limits, whichever limit is reached first will automatically be applied by eG for determining when to stop POJO tracing. In other words, once a JVM node starts processing a transaction, the agent begins tracking the POJO method calls made by that node for that transaction. In the process, if the agent finds that the configured tracing limit is reached before the tracing cutoff time is reached, then the agent will stop tracking the POJO method calls, as soon as the tracing limit is reached. On the other hand, if the tracing limit is not reached, then the agent will continue tracking the POJO method calls until the tracing cutoff time is reached. At the end of the cutoff time, the agent will stop tracking the POJO method calls. For instance, if the JVM node makes 1000 POJO method calls within say, 6 seconds from when it began processing the transaction, then the eG agent will not wait for the cutoff time of 10 seconds to be reached; instead, it will stop tracing at the end of the thousandth POJO method call, and report the execution time of each of the 1000 calls alone. On the other hand, if the JVM node does not make over 1000 POJO method calls till the 10 second cutoff expires, then the eG agent continues tracking the POJO method calls till the end of 10 seconds, and reports the details of all those that were calls made till the cutoff time.
Depending upon how many POJO calls you want to trace and how much overhead you want to impose on the agent and on the transaction, you can increase / decrease the pojo method tracing limit and pojo method tracing cutoff time specifications.
The NON-POJO METHOD TRACING LIMIT parameter will appear only if the ADVANCED SETTINGS flag is set to ‘true’. By default, when reporting the detailed diagnosis of a transaction on a particular JVM node, this test reports the execution time of only the first 1000 non-POJO method calls (which includes JMS, JCO, HTTP, Java, SQL, etc.) that the target JVM node makes for that transaction. This is why, the non-pojo method tracing limit parameter is set to 1000 by default. If you want, you can change the tracing limit to enable the test to report the details of more or fewer non-POJO method calls made by a JVM node. While a high value for this parameter may take you closer to identifying the non-POJO method that could have caused the transaction to slowdown on a particular JVM node, it may also marginally increase the overheads of the transaction and the eG agent.
The RECURSIVE METHOD TRACING LIMIT parameter will appear only if the ADVANCED SETTINGS flag is set to ‘true’. A recursive method is a method that calls itself. By default, when reporting the detailed diagnosis of a transaction on a particular JVM node, this test reports the execution time of only the first 1000 recursive method calls (which includes JMS, JCO, HTTP, Java, SQL, etc.) that the target JVM node makes for that transaction. This is why, the RECURSIVE METHOD TRACING LIMIT parameter is set to 1000 by default. If you want, you can change the tracing limit to enable the test to report the details of more or fewer recursive method calls made by a JVM node. While a high value for this parameter may take you closer to identifying the recursive method that could have caused the transaction to slowdown on a particular JVM node, it may also marginally increase the overheads of the transaction and the eG agent.
The EXCEPTION STACKTRACE LINES parameter will appear only if the ADVANCED SETTINGS flag is set to ‘true’. As part of detailed diagnostics, this test, by default, lists the first 10 stacktrace lines of each JavaScript error/exception that it captures on the target JVM node for a specific transaction, so as to enable easy and efficient troubleshooting. This is why, the exception stacktrace lines parameter is set to 10 by default. If required, you can have this test display more or fewer stacktrace lines by overriding this default setting.
The INCLUDED EXCEPTIONS parameter will appear only if the ADVANCED SETTINGS flag is set to ‘true’. By default, this test flags the transactions in which the following errors/exceptions are captured, as Error transactions:
This implies that if a programmatically-handled non-SQL exception occurs in a transaction, such a transaction, by default, will not be counted as an Error transaction by this test.
Sometimes however, administrators may want to be alerted even if some non-SQL exceptions that have already been handled programmatically, occur. This can be achieved by configuring a comma-separated list of these exceptions in the INCLUDED EXCEPTIONS text box. Here, each exception you want to include has to be defined using its fully qualified exception class name. For instance, your INCLUDED EXCEPTIONS specification can be as follows: java.lang.NullPointerException, java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException. Note that wild card characters cannot be used as part of your specification. Once the exceptions to be included are configured, then this test will count all transactions in which such exceptions are captured as Error transactions.
The IGNORED EXCEPTIONS parameter will appear only if the ADVANCED SETTINGS flag is set to ‘true’. By default, this test flags the transactions in which the following errors/exceptions are captured, as Error transactions:
Sometimes however, administrators may want eG to disregard certain unhandled exceptions (or handled SQL exceptions), as they may not pose any threat to the stability of the transaction or to the web site/web application. To achieve this, administrators can configure a comma-separated list of such inconsequential exceptions in the IGNORED EXCEPTIONS text box. Here, you need to configure each exception you want to exclude using its fully qualified exception class name. For instance, your excluded exceptions specification can be as follows: java.sql.SQLException, java.io.FileNotFoundException. Note that wild card characters cannot be used as part of your specification. Once the exceptions to be excluded are configured, then this test will exclude all transactions in which such exceptions are captured from its count of Error transactions.
The IGNORED CHARACTERS parameter will appear only if the ADVANCED SETTINGS flag is set to ‘true’. By default, eG excludes all transaction URLs that contain the ‘\’ character from monitoring. If you want eG to ignore transaction URLs with any other special characters, then specify these characters as a comma-separated list in the ignored characters text box. For instance, your specification can be: \\,&,~
The MAX GROUPED URLS PER MEASURE PERIOD parameter will appear only if the ADVANCED SETTINGS flag is set to ‘true’. This test groups URLs according to the MAX URL SEGMENTS specification. These grouped URLs will be the descriptors of the test. For each grouped URL, response time metrics will be aggregated across all transaction URLs in that group and reported.
When monitoring web sites/web applications to which the transaction volume is normally high, this test may report metrics for hundreds of descriptors. If all these descriptors are listed in the Layers tab page of the eG monitoring console, it will certainly clutter the display. To avoid this, by default, the test displays metrics for a maximum of 50 descriptors – i.e., 50 grouped URLs alone - in the eG monitoring console, during every measure period. This is why, the max grouped urls per measure period parameter is set to 50 by default.
To determine which 50 grouped URLs should be displayed in the eG monitoring console, the eG BTM follows the below-mentioned logic:
Top priority is reserved for URL groups with error transactions. This means that eG BTM first scans URL groups for error transactions. If error transactions are found in 50 URL groups, then eG BTM computes the aggregated response time of each of the 50 groups, sorts the error groups in the descending order of their response time, and displays all these 50 groups alone as the descriptors of this test, in the sorted order.
On the other hand, if error transactions are found in only one / a few URL groups – say, only 20 URL groups – then, eG BTM will first arrange these 20 grouped URLs in the descending order of their response time. It will then compute the aggregated response time of the transactions in each of the other groups (i.e., the error-free groups) that were auto-discovered during the same measure period. These other groups are then arranged in the descending order of the aggregated response time of their transactions. Once this is done, eG BTM will then pick the top-30 grouped URLs from this sorted list.
In this case, when displaying the descriptors of this test in the Layers tab page, the 20 error groups are first displayed (in the descending order of their response time), followed by the 30 ‘error-free’ groups (also in the descending order of their response time).
At any given point in time, you can increase/decrease the maximum number of descriptors this test should support by modifying the value of the MAX GROUPED URLS PER MEASURE PERIOD parameter.
The MAX SQL QUERIES PER TRANSACTION parameter will appear only if the ADVANCED SETTINGS flag is set to ‘true’. Typically, from the detailed diagnosis of a slow/stalled/error transaction on a JVM node, you can drill down to view the SQL queries (if any) executed by that transaction from that node and the execution time of each query. By default, eG picks the first 500 SQL queries executed by the transaction, compares the execution time of each query with the sql execution cutoff configured for this test, and displays only those queries with an execution time that is higher than the configured cutoff. This is why, the MAX SQL QUERIES PER TRANSACTION parameter is set to 500 by default.
To improve agent performance, you may want the SQL EXECUTION CUTOFF to be compared with the execution time of a less number of queries - say, 200 queries. Similary, to increase the probability of capturing more number of long-running queries, you may want the SQL EXECUTION CUTOFF to be compared with the execution time of a large number of queries - say, 1000 queries. For this, you just need to modify the MAX SQL QUERIES PER TRANSACTION specification to suit your purpose.
If you want the detailed diagnosis of this test to report the HTTP response code that was returned when a transaction URL was hit, then set the SHOW HTTP STATUS flag to Yes. This will enable you to instantly identify HTTP errors that may have occurred when accessing a transaction URL. By default, this flag is set to No, indicating that the HTTP status code is not reported by default as part of detailed diagnostics.
An HTTP cookie is a small piece of data sent from a website and stored on the user's computer by the user's web browser while the user is browsing. Most commonly, cookies are used to provide a way for users to record items they want to purchase as they navigate throughout a website (a virtual “shopping cart” or “shopping basket”). To keep track of which user is assigned to which shopping cart, the server sends a cookie to the client that contains a unique session identifier (typically, a long string of random letters and numbers). Because cookies are sent to the server with every request the client makes, that session identifier will be sent back to the server every time the user visits a new page on the website, which lets the server know which shopping cart to display to the user. Another popular use of cookies is for logging into websites. When the user visits a website's login page, the web server typically sends the client a cookie containing a unique session identifier. When the user successfully logs in, the server remembers that that particular session identifier has been authenticated, and grants the user access to its services. If you want to view and analyze the useful information that is stored in such HTTP response cookies that a web server sends, then set the SHOW COOKIES flag to Yes. By default, this flag is set to No, indicating that cookie information is not reported by default as part of detailed diagnostics.
HTTP headers allow the client and the server to pass additional information with the request or the response. A request header is a header that contains more information about the resource to be fetched or about the client itself. If you want the additional information stored in a request header to be displayed as part of detailed diagnostics, then set the SHOW HEADERS flag to Yes. By default, this flag is set to No indicating that request headers are not displayed by default in the detailed diagnosis.
If the ENABLE THREAD CPU MONITORING flag is set to Yes, then this test will additionally report the average time for which the transactions of a pattern were utilizing the CPU resources. This will point you to transaction patterns that are CPU-intensive, and will thus help you right-size your JVMs. By default however, this test will not report the average CPU time of transaction patterns. This is because, by default, the ENABLE THREAD CPU MONITORING flag is set to No for this test.
If transactions of a pattern are found to be much slower than the rest or are stalling, then the aforesaid metrics will help administrators determine what could have caused the slowness - is it because the transactions were waiting for too long? or is it because they were being blocked for too long?
By default however, this test will not report the metrics described above, because the ENABLE THREAD CONTENTION MONITORING flag is set to No by default.
By default, the eG agent will wait for 1000 milliseconds for a response from the eG Application Server agent. If no response is received, then the test will timeout. You can change this TIMEOUT value, if required.
The DD FREQUENCY refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 1:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. You can modify this frequency, if you so desire. Also, if you intend to disable the detailed diagnosis capability for this test, you can do so by specifying none against DD FREQUENCY.
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.
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