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| martinrydman |
 Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2005 1:50 am Post subject: Monitoring: best prictices |
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Centurion
Joined: 30 Jan 2004
Posts: 139
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
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Hi all,
I'm on the lookout for ideas and best practices regarding monitoring. Basically, we have this (in very general terms)
Some sending system --> MQ --> WBIMM --> MQ --> Some receiving system.
Now, the technology to put/get messages from/to sending/receiving system may vary. It may be a standard adapter of some sort, the system itself may read/write directly to the queue, etc.
In an ideal world, we would like to log data at each point where data is transferred from one component to the next in a way that makes it easy to track a message's progress through the infra-structure, generate alerts when something goes wrong, including where it went wrong.
It should also be possible to search the logs efficiently based on logical keys, such as order numbers or invoice numbers.
Now, I'm working together with people who've come a far way designing platforms providing much of this functionality, but I'm trying to get a feel for what other shops are doing/thinking in this area.
My understanding of the current market situation is that there are plenty of monitoring systemes available that can handle parts of the chain, like MQ, but precious few (if any) that can connect all the data accross the various logging points through logical keys (i.e. data extracted from the payload).
Any thoughts on this greatly appreciated!
/Martin |
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| PGoodhart |
| Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2005 4:42 am Post subject: |
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Master
Joined: 17 Jun 2004
Posts: 278
Location: Harrisburg PA
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I think one possible solution to look at to monitor things at the level you are looking for is MQSoftware's QNami! and I would think that IBM/Tivoli has a solution as well in their Omegamon line. Maybe CA has one too.
Note that none of this is a recommendation, just places to start looking. I think that setting up this level of monitoring is going to be the major hurdle, and you had better start looking for money for a dedicated server or two.
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Patrick Goodhart
MQ Admin/Web Developer/Consultant
WebSphere Application Server Admin |
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| jefflowrey |
| Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2005 5:15 am Post subject: |
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Grand Poobah
Joined: 16 Oct 2002
Posts: 19981
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Any number of vendors have products that use MQ Exits to track transactional details and provide transactional data.
But it's not cheap, and it can require installation specific coding.
As a side question... is anyone actually using QNami?
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I am *not* the model of the modern major general. |
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| martinrydman |
| Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2005 5:52 am Post subject: |
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Centurion
Joined: 30 Jan 2004
Posts: 139
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
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Hi,
thanks for your replies. QNami looks good on the web-site, but anything that's labeled 'easy' in this field smacks of sales pitching  And (as I saw in an evaluation of it) it's quite expensive, to say the least. Seems like you could custom build something from scratch for that kind of money...
Anyone actually implemented something on this level of ambition? Or are y'all plodding along with various logs and manual detective work in prod environs?
This whole area would seem to be a cruicial part of a successfull integration platform, but it's strangely elusive once you start looking for real-life case descriptions... or?
/Martin |
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| Michael Dag |
| Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2005 5:58 am Post subject: |
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Jedi Knight
Joined: 13 Jun 2002
Posts: 2607
Location: The Netherlands (Amsterdam)
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I know Peter is fan of Transaction Vision...
I have played with it a couple of years ago when it was still called e-sleuth...
Peter, care to share?
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Michael
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| PGoodhart |
| Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2005 11:28 am Post subject: |
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Master
Joined: 17 Jun 2004
Posts: 278
Location: Harrisburg PA
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Well we are about to implement a monitoring package, but not at the QNami! level of granularity. We are content with less information and load right now.
I saw the presentation too, and I think you have to reconcil the cost, upkeep, support, and personal involved in such an ambious plan.
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Patrick Goodhart
MQ Admin/Web Developer/Consultant
WebSphere Application Server Admin |
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| PeterPotkay |
| Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2005 11:28 am Post subject: |
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Poobah
Joined: 15 May 2001
Posts: 7722
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Martin, Transaction Vision does exactly what you need. We have it here and it fills the role perfectly.
http://www.bristol.com/
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Peter Potkay
Keep Calm and MQ On |
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| jefflowrey |
| Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2005 2:08 pm Post subject: |
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Grand Poobah
Joined: 16 Oct 2002
Posts: 19981
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| PeterPotkay wrote: |
| Martin, Transaction Vision does exactly what you need. |
But it's not cheap.
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| Michael Dag |
| Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2005 2:30 pm Post subject: |
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Jedi Knight
Joined: 13 Jun 2002
Posts: 2607
Location: The Netherlands (Amsterdam)
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| jefflowrey wrote: |
| PeterPotkay wrote: |
| Martin, Transaction Vision does exactly what you need. |
But it's not cheap. |
so it does what you need, that comes at a price.
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Michael
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| jefflowrey |
| Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2005 11:31 pm Post subject: |
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Grand Poobah
Joined: 16 Oct 2002
Posts: 19981
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I'm not saying it should be cheap. I just don't want martinrydman to be surprised when he looks at the cost.
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| Michael Dag |
| Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2005 12:05 am Post subject: |
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Jedi Knight
Joined: 13 Jun 2002
Posts: 2607
Location: The Netherlands (Amsterdam)
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ah ok, maybe I over reacted... sometimes so fed up with everything needing to be free
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Michael
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| martinrydman |
| Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2005 9:23 am Post subject: |
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Centurion
Joined: 30 Jan 2004
Posts: 139
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
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Hi all,
thanks for your input. I'm left with the impression that if we're aiming at this level of monitoring, we're in for a hefty price-tag.
Anyone have any experience implementing these things? It would seem that you'd need to do a lot of specialized interface programming to plug in to different kinds of software (apart from WBIMB/MQ), which would indicate even more mony spent.
/Martin |
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| PeterPotkay |
| Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 2:01 am Post subject: |
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Poobah
Joined: 15 May 2001
Posts: 7722
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Transaction Vision comes with JMS, Servlet, CICS and EJB monitors that can monitor the transactuion as it leaves MQ and flows into those systems. We have not used them yet. We have just used MQ and the IMS Bridge monitors so far.
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Peter Potkay
Keep Calm and MQ On |
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| martinrydman |
| Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2005 6:32 am Post subject: |
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Centurion
Joined: 30 Jan 2004
Posts: 139
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
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Hi,
I read a white paper on T V, and it sounds pretty awsome. Peter, could you give me some indication of the costs involved. I'm pretty sure it's way beyound our customers finacial abilities, but I'd like to know what we're turning down
/martin |
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| jefflowrey |
| Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2005 6:38 am Post subject: |
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Grand Poobah
Joined: 16 Oct 2002
Posts: 19981
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TV is not the only product in this marketspace, and most of them provide similar capabilities. The real differences between the products are ease of installation, and how long until you're being productive.
I'm sure there's a Tivoli product that will do all of this - at least I'm sure that IBM will sell you one... 
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