WebLogic EJB Transactions Test

This test collects measures related to the EJB transaction activity performed by the WebLogic server. Use the Click here hyperlink in the test configuration page to configure the EJB groups that need to be monitored by the eG Enterprise. By default, the eG Enterprise system monitors only those EJBs that are part of a group.

Target of the test : A WebLogic Application Server

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every EJB group configured using the eG administrative interface.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description

Test Period

How often should the test be executed.

Host

The IP address of the host for which this test is to be configured.

Port

The port at which the specified host listens. By default, this is NULL.

UseWarFile

This flag indicates whether/not monitoring is to be done using a Web archive file deployed on the WebLogic server (in which case, HTTP/HTTPS is used by the server to connect to the server). If this flag is set to No, the agent directly connects to the WebLogic server using the T3 protocol (no other file needs to be deployed on the WebLogic server for this to work). Note that the T3 protocol-based support is available for WebLogic servers ver.9 and above. Also, if the UseWarFile parameter is set to No, make sure that the EncryptPass parameter is set to No as well.  

When monitoring a WebLogic server deployed on a Unix platform particularly, if the UseWarFile parameter is set to No, you have to make sure that the eG agent install user is added to the WebLogic users group.

AdminServerHost and AdminServerPort

In some highly secured environments, the eG agent may not be able to collect certain critical metrics related to JDBC from a managed WebLogic server. In such cases, to enable the eG agent to collect the required metrics, you should specify the IP address and Port of the WebLogic admin server to which the managed WebLogic server is associated with. This will enable the eG agent to connect to the WebLogic admin server and collect the required metrics pertaining to the managed WebLogic server. Specify the IP address and Port of the WebLogic admin server in the AdminServerHost and AdminServerPort text boxes. By default, these parameters are set to none.

JSPTimeOut

Specify the duration (in seconds) within which the eG agent should receive the response from the eGurkha WAR file deployed on the WebLogic server in this text box. By default, this is set to is 120 seconds.

User

The admin user name of the WebLogic server being monitored.

Password

The password of the specified admin user.

Confirm Password

Confirm the password by retyping it here.

EncryptPass

If the specified password needs to be encrypted, set the EncryptPass flag to Yes. Otherwise, set it to No. By default, the Yes option will be selected.

Note:

If the UseWarFile flag is set to No, then make sure that the EncryptPass flag is also set to No.

SSL

Indicate whether the SSL (Secured Socket Layer) is to be used to connect to the WebLogic server.

Server

The name of the specific server instance to be monitored for a WebLogic server (the default value is "localhome")

URL

The URL to be accessed to collect metrics pertaining to the WebLogic server. By default, this test connects to a managed WebLogic server and attempts to obtain the metrics of interest by accessing the local Mbeans of the server. This parameter can be changed to a value of http://<adminserverIP>:<adminserverPort>. In this case, the test connects to the WebLogic admin server to collect metrics pertaining to the managed server (specified by the Host and Port). The URL setting provides the administrator with the flexibility of determining the WebLogic monitoring configuration to use.

Note:

If the admin server is to be used for collecting measures for all the managed WebLogic servers, then it is mandatory that the egurkha war file is deployed to the admin server, and it is up and running. 

Version

The Version text box indicates the version of the Weblogic server to be managed. The default value is "none", in which case the test auto-discovers the weblogic version. If the value of this parameter is not "none", the test uses the value provided (e.g., 7.0) as the weblogic version (i.e., it does not auto-discover the weblogic server version). This parameter has been added to address cases when the eG agent is not able to discover the WebLogic server version.

WebLogicJARLocation

Specify the location of the WebLogic server's java archive (Jar) file. If the UseWarFile flag is set to No, then the weblogic.jar file specified here is used to connect to the corresponding WebLogic server using the T3 protocol. Note that the T3 protocol-based support is available for WebLogic servers ver.9 and above.

AutoDiscovery

By default, eG Enterprise allows administrators to configure EJB groups using the eG administrative interface, and reports metrics pertaining to every group so created. Accordingly, by default, AutoDiscovery is set to No. If you want EJBs to be discovered and monitored automatically, then select the Yesoption against AutoDiscovery. When this is done, the eG agent automatically discovers all the EJBs on the WebLogic server, and reports one set of measures for every EJB so discovered.

ShowServerName

WebLogic version 8.0 and above prefixes the names of the EJBs it hosts, with the server name specified in the Server text box. For example, if the Server text box contains MedRecServer, then an EJB named MedRecEAR_EntityEJB_PatientEJB on that server will be renamed by WebLogic as MedRecServer_MedRecEAR_EntityEJB_PatientEJB. This could pose a challenge while applying EJB groups configured (using eG) on a particular WebLogic server to another server. This is because, when the eG Enterprise lists the EJBs available for grouping, each of the displayed EJBs will be prefixed by the corresponding Server name. When such EJBs are grouped and the group is then applied to another WebLogic server, the eG Enterprise system will not be able to extract metrics for the EJB grouping applied to the new server due to the server name mismatch. Therefore, by default, the eG Enterprise system sets the ShowServerName flag to No. This ensures that the server name specified in the Server text box does not prefix the EJB listing during EJB group configuration. To enable the prefix, select the Yes option against ShowServerName.

Note:

If you modify the ShowServerName setting after configuring the EJB groups, then wait for the test to run once so that the eG agent rediscovers the EJBs on that server. Then, delete the existing EJB groups, and repeat the group configuration.

Detailed Diagnosis

To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Transaction commits

Commit rate is the rate at which transactions are committed for a particular bean. Tx_commit_rate reveals the sum total of the commit rates of the individual beans in an EJB group.

Trans/Sec

Comparing this value across all the deployed groups can give an idea of the relative importance of the beans within the groups, in supporting user accesses. A sudden change in user access patterns can be indicative of a change in the user workload.

Transaction rollbacks

Rollback rate is the rate at which the transactions are rolled back for a particular bean. Tx_rollback_rate reveals the sum total of the rollback rates of the individual beans in an EJB group.

Trans/Sec

A high rollback rate indicates a problem with specific beans within a group. Possible reasons for this could be  problems with the design and implementation of the specific bean or problems with any of the dependent servers of the bean (e.g., database server).

Transaction timeouts

The timeout rate is the rate at which the transactions are timed out by the bean. Tx_timeout_rate reveals the sum total of the timeout rates of the individual beans in an EJB group.

Trans/Sec

A significantly high value may denote a load on the specific bean. This may indicate that specific transactions are taking too long to process requests.

The detailed diagnosis of the Transaction rollbacks and Transaction timeouts measures, if enabled, provides the commit rate, rollback rate, and timeout rate of the transactions conducted by each of the beans within the EJB group being monitored. Note that the detailed diagnosis information will not be available if the AutoDiscovery parameter is set to ‘Yes’.