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Conference azur::mcc

Title:DECmcc user notes file. Does not replace IPMT.
Notice:Use IPMT for problems. Newsletter location in note 6187
Moderator:TAEC::BEROUD
Created:Mon Aug 21 1989
Last Modified:Wed Jun 04 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:6497
Total number of notes:27359

875.0. "Monitoring Applications?" by HAM::SCHUKAI () Fri Apr 05 1991 13:23

Hallo,

we must present the next steps of integrating DECmcc in a customers Management
Environment. One of the functions they require is analyse the applications. 
That means how can I use DECmcc to obtain data or messages if an the use of 
an application reaches a threshold for line traffic, disk space, response
time etc.
As I know the current version of DECmcc doesn`t support these functions.
But possibly there is an Asset or anything like this available which we can
use to satisfy the customer.
If there is nothing, when will DECmcc be able to support those functions?

Thanks in advance

Dieter
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875.1If I understand your question...BSYBEE::EGOLFJohn C. Egolf LKG2-2/T02 x226-7874Tue Apr 09 1991 00:3815
	Dieter,

	If I  understand  your question/statement, you want to alarm on
	thresholds.  The current version of DECmcc DOES allow you to do
	this.  You can alarm on a statistical value.  For example, if a
	lines utilization exceeds 80%.

	We generally refer to applications  as functional modules.  You
	can alarm on any value you  can  do a show on.  If you write an
	AM to retrieve disk space and you have a functional module that
	calculates percent of utilization, the alarms FM can  "send you
	a message" or start a backup or purge down to n levels when the
	percent you want to know about is reached.

	JCE
875.2The problem is not so trivialHAM::SCHUKAITue Apr 09 1991 09:2341
>>>>	We generally refer to applications  as functional modules.  You
	can alarm on any value you  can  do a show on.  If you write an
	AM to retrieve disk space and you have a functional module that
	calculates percent of utilization, the alarms FM can  "send you
	a message" or start a backup or purge down to n levels when the
	percent you want to know about is reached.


    
        Hi John,
       
        thank you for answering soon. I agree with the threshold functions 
	and statistics but the problem is much more difficult.

	What I mean by "application" is not the FM. For example if you run 
	different applications like logistic and pps on the same system. The 
	customer want to know which one causes the most traffic, use 
	n percentage of CPU, use n disk space, have n seconds response time,
	etc. The next step could be to analyze this on a user/application 
	basis.
	It is easy if I run dedicated systems - one per application. But it 
	seems to me very difficult if there are multiple applications on one 
	system. Looking forward to distributed computing this question is 
	definitely not trivial.
	
	The main problem seems to me to analyze the contents of the traffic, 
	looking which process causes this, assign this to an application and 
	then calculate the statistics.

	The customer want to use this data for capacity planning, accounting,
	program tuning, etc.

	I hope this is a better description of what the customer really wants.
	As far as I know there is no module or asset available which solve this
	problem. But have we any idea to solve this and who is working on it?

	Regards

	Dieter

875.3It's not just for Networks anymore...MCDOUG::MCPHERSONi'm only 5 foot one...Tue Apr 09 1991 11:4428
Hi Dieter.

    "...analyzing the contents of the traffic" (ala a "Sniffer-like"
    capability) is not something that we can do right now within DECmcc. 
    That is a future that is being looked into, so hopefully the right
    person will see your request here and pursue it with you (offline, that
    is; this is a w:r notesfile).

About the "application monitoring":

    Sounds to me like you're looking for something like VPA (DECcp or
    whatever we're calling it) to share data with DECmcc...    I think that
    VPA has a  set of callable routines, so it may be possible to write
    some sort of MM that hangs around and uses these routines to scoop up
    VPA data.  You could then fabricate a mechanism to link this
    information to the Alarms FM / Notification Services piece of DECmcc...

    Wait. Maybe you don't even need the VPA libraries.  I bet you could
    just write a couple of routines that would scan the system (using
    regular old System Services) and use *that* raw system data to help
    DECmcc generate alarms.   There's obviously a little more work to it
    than that, but that kinda seems reasonable.

    I think there's been a few VAXsim people lurking in this conference. 
    Maybe they're already up to something like this or they can shed some
    light...

    /doug
875.4Talk to VPA folksLINSEY::OBRIENMon Apr 22 1991 20:5919
I agree with -.1, but with a further warning. You are confusing the mechanism
with the problem analysis.  You shouldn't be worrying so much about event
logging per se, but rather threshold monitoring, which can be implemented by RPC
callbacks (and which is *why* they were invented) as well as by posting an
event.  If you want API code now, you should talk to the VPA or the ISB DECAlert
folks, but don't count on the mechanism always being 'post an event',
*particularly* in heterogeneous systems whose components are inevitably each
designed by someone trying to solve slightly different problems.  

<rhetorical flag set>

When are we going to learn that the best engineers fit the solution to the
problem, not the other way 'round?  Ans:  When it becomes clear that solutions
are invariably *apples* or *oranges* or *bananas* presented as generic *fruit*.

<clear rhetorical flag>

Linsey O'Brien
Event Services architect