Application Monitoring

NimBUS for WebSphere Application Server Monitoring

Businesses around the world rely on WebSphere to integrate and deliver their most critical applications - applications thousands of users may rely on simultaneously to make a purchase or get their work done. Enterprises bank their business on WebSphere, but how can they ensure users get fast, reliable service? How can administrators gather the disparate information within WebSphere to get a clear picture of performance issues - and address them before problems occur?

The NimBUS for WebSphere Application Server Monitoring solution continually monitors and reports on critical performance data within WebSphere Application Server environments - delivering the centralized monitoring and actionable information administrators need to ensure users enjoy high availability and peak performance.

Comprehensive Monitoring:

• Monitors all activity within WebSphere environments, including single server instances and across a number of server clusters
• Monitors activity from all MBeans, both standard and custom developed
• Monitors all vital performance metrics, including memory usage, database connections, programs running, and many more

Product Features:

• Centralized, comprehensive views of all vital performance data
• Granular capabilities for setting thresholds and alarms
• Operator consoles and business dashboards provide fast, easy updates
• Intuitive installation and seamless integration

Benefits:

• Improved performance and uptime. Proactive monitoring and alerting accelerates identification of performance issues - enabling response before end user productivity is affected
• Enhanced resource optimization. Centralized, cohesive view of performance delivers insights into opportunities for resource optimization
• SLA compliance. Instant alerts and real-time dashboards alert service managers in advance of SLA compliance breaches

Fast results for any environment - Regardless of an organization’s phase of WebSphere deployment - whether it is in the early stages of migration from a traditional application environment or it already has a mature, advanced implementation - NimBUS offers the customizable, intuitive features required:

• Early-stage WebSphere deployments. IT organizations that migrate from a traditional application and database environment soon confront the fact that evaluating the cause of performance problems can be difficult if not impossible within WebSphere. NimBUS enables administrators to quickly and easily get fundamental data critical to monitoring, evaluating, and troubleshooting performance issues.

• Mature WebSphere environments. NimBUS equips advanced users with sophisticated controls to enhance their deployment, whether to streamline management, fine-tune performance, or improve availability. For example, programmers can develop their own custom MBeans (Java classes used to manage resources within the WebSphere framework), and use NimBUS to monitor them.

Seamless WebSphere Integration - NimBUS products connect to the WebSphere Application Server via WebSphere’s standard PMI interface. NimBUS can gather data from just about any MBeans in use within an enterprise WebSphere environment, including standard and custom-developed MBeans.  By providing a centralized collection of vital performance data from a range of disparate MBeans, NimBUS enables organizations to gain a wealth of insights into potential performance degrading conditions. NimBus gathers detailed information via Enterprise Java Beans (EJB), JVM, JDBC, threads, sessions, and pools.

Fast, Intuitive Installation and Configuration - Getting started with NimBUS is a fast, efficient process that automates many essential tasks. Using a PMI module browser that provides point-and-click access to PMI modules and performance counters, users can browse all available MBeans, and select those that they want to monitor. NimBUS features installation and configuration wizards that streamline a range of tasks, including auto-discovery of available node.server combinations, setting thresholds, configuring alarms.

Figure below:  The NimBUS for WebSphere Application Server PMI module browser provides point and click access to all PMI modules and performance counters.

Comprehensive, multi-layered visibility into all vital performance data - Using an intuitive, graphical user interface, administrators can monitor their entire WebSphere infrastructure, whether it is comprised of a single application server, or a number of server clusters. User can set up thresholds and alarms at multiple levels within their infrastructure:

• Resources—collections of WebSphere application servers
• Resource groups—collections of node.server combinations within each WebSphere application server cluster
• Profiles—custom-defined groupings of individual node.server combinations within a resource group
• Counters—specific performance metrics for each node.server combination

At the counter level, administrators can track a range of specific performance metrics, including memory usage, numbers of database connections and how efficiently they’re being used, programs that have started or stopped, and many more.

Sophisticated monitoring puts administrators in complete control - With NimBUS, administrators gain a range of sophisticated monitoring capabilities:

• Granular monitoring. NimBUS offers capabilities to monitor, set thresholds, and poll activity with a great deal of granularity and flexibility. For example, administrators can set up polling options based on current value, change in value over a given time frame, and the average value.

• Advanced correlation. NimBUS enables organizations to create alarms not only for specific counters, but to employ advanced correlation among multiple profiles, so administrators can, for example, only be alerted if a certain problematic behavior is occurring across several servers. As a result, administrators can create more sophisticated, meaningful alert processes, better manage system resources, and minimize false alarms.
  
• Get real-time status with one click. For each counter, administrators can click on a “monitor” menu option and view a real-time performance graph that offers current performance status taken at two-second intervals. By delivering up-to-the-second performance data, NimBUS makes it easy for administrators to confirm performance levels and pinpoint issues.

Critical Performance Data: When and How it’s Needed - NimBUS compiles, analyzes, and monitors performance data to provide real-time tracking of WebSphere. NimBUS delivers this vital information via alarms, operator consoles, business dashboards, long-term trend reports, and SLA compliance reports.

System Requirements - The system hosting the NimBUS WebSphere Probe and NimBUS Manager requires the following configuration:

• PMI Client
• Access to a WebSphere Application Server

The NimBUS for WebSphere Application Server Monitoring solution requires minimal effort for implementation, training, and will not require extensive ongoing maintenance.

If you would like to request a free trial of NimBUS, please click here. For free white papers or additional information click here.