Decision Service Statistics Test

Most enterprise applications today are very dynamic in nature. Customer scenarios often require querying database tables for fetching values, which are then used to execute the rules instead of using static data.

IBM Operational Decision Manager (ODM) is IBM's next generation Business Rule Management System (BRMS). It is a full-featured, easy-to-use platform for capturing, automating and governing frequent, repeatable business decisions that drive critical business processes, applications and systems. In IBM ODM, business decisions are exposed as decision services. Decision services are reusable service operations. The decision service isolates the logic behind business decisions, separating it from business processes and the application code.

Although good practices advise that a business rule application should not access external data, there are situations when rule applications need to access external data to make decisions. One example is when a rule application needs dynamic data instead of static data is  a database table. A rule application might be needed to look up a database table to fetch values, which are then used to run the business rules. Administrators may want to know how well the business rules are run in their environment and how many rules have been successful. The Decision Service Statistics test helps them achieve the same! Using this test, administrators may figure out the number of decisions that were processed successfully and the decisions that failed. Additionally, this test helps administrators figure out the rules that were triggered by the messages processed by the decision service.

Target of the test : An IBM Integration Bus

Agent deploying the test : An internal/remote agent.

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each Execution group:decision service that is to be monitored

Configurable parameters for the test

Parameters	Description
Test period	How often should the test be executed.
Host	The host for which the test is to be configured.
Port	The port on which the specified host listens.
JNDI Namespace Location	Indicate where the JNDI namespace has been created. For this, select one of the following options: File or LDAP. Select File if the JNDI namespace is created in the same location as that of the IIB server.
SSL	If you have chosen LDAP as the JNDI Namespace Location wherein the LDAP server communicating with the IIB server that is to be monitored is an SSL-enabled server, then set the SSL flag to Yes. By default, this flag is set to No.
User DN and Password	Here, provide the credentials of the Active Directory user created as explained in Creating a user in the Active Directory server, if the target IIB server is monitored in an agentless manner. If the IIB server is to be monitored in an agent based manner, specify none against these parameters.
Confirm Password	Confirm the Password by retyping it in this text box.
JNDI Provider URL	Specify the URL that was specified as the provider URL while creating the initial context. To know the Provider URL, refer to Agent based monitoring of the IIB server if you choose to monitor the target IIB server in an agent based manner and Agentless Monitoring of the IIB server if you chose to monitor the target IIB server in an agentless manner.
TopicConnectionFactory	Specify the name of the connection factory in this text box. If you have chosen to monitor the target IIB server in an agent-based manner, refer to Creating a Connection Factory and if you have chosen to monitor the target IIB server in an agentless manner, refer to Creating a Connection Factory.
JMS Resource Stats	Specify the name of the JMS destination that you have created for storing the Resource statistics. If you chose to monitor the target IIB server in an agentless manner, refer to Creating the JMS Destinations and if you choose to monitor the target IIB server in an agent based manner, refer to Agent based monitoring of the IIB server.
JMS Flow Stats	Specify the name of the JMS destination that you have created for storing the Message flow statistics. If you chose to monitor the target IIB server in an agentless manner, refer to Creating the JMS Destinations and if you choose to monitor the target IIB server in an agent based manner, refer to Agent based monitoring of the IIB server.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Successful decisions	Indicates the number of decisions that were processed successfully by this decision service during the last measurement period.	Number	A high value is desired for this measure.
Failed decisions	Indicates the number of decisions that were not processed successfully by this decision service i.e., the decisions that failed during the last measurement period.	Number	Ideally, the value of this measure should be zero. An sudden/gradual increase in the value is a cause of concern which requires the immediate attention of the administrators.
Rules matched	Indicates the total number of rules that were triggered (matched) by the messages processed by this decision service during the last measurement period.	Number