SAP WAS Aliases Test

An application alias is an alternative name for a J2EE Web application running on the J2EE Engine. Each Web application has its own root as defined by the Java Servlet Specification version 2.3. It is also referred to as context path. The context path of a Web application is mapped to a URL pattern. Server users utilize this URL pattern to access the resources of a particular Web application. The application alias actually represents the URL pattern that is mapped to a certain application’s context path. If too many aliases are inactive or not available, then the users may experience difficulty in accessing the web applications corresponding to the aliases. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor the application aliases round the clock.

This test auto-discovers the patterns of the aliases and for each pattern, reports the total number of aliases available and the total number of aliases that were inactive. In addition, this test reports the rate at which aliases of each pattern are retrieved upon user request.

Target of the test : A SAP NetWeaver Application Server

Agent deploying the test : An internal/remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every Alias Pattern on the SAP WAS monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description

Test period

How often should the test be executed

Host

Specify the server for which the test is to be configured.

Port

The port number at which the specified server listens.

WSDL Port

This test uses the SAPControl web service to pull metrics on application and service status. To enable the test to communicate with the web service, you need to configure the test with the port number of the web service. Therefore, specify the port number of the SAPControl web service against WSDL Port. To determine the exact port number of the SAPControl web service, you can look up the etc/services file on the SAP WAS being monitored. If the port number is not declared in the etc/services file, you can specify the default port number of the web service against WSDL Port. If the web service is not SSL-enabled, then the default port number of the web service will be: 5<NR>13. Similarly, if the web service is SSL-enabled, then the default port number of the web service will be: 5<NR>14. <NR> in the port number refers to the system number of the SAP server being monitored. The system number is an indicator of the TCP/IP port at which the SAP server listens. For example, for a server that listens at port 3200, the system number will be ‘00’. Similarly, if the SAP server port is 3201, the system number will have to be specified as ‘01’. Accordingly, the default port number of an SSL-enabled SAPControl web service will be 50014 , if the system number is 00, or 50114, if the system number is 01.

OS Username and OS Password

To enable the test to access the SAPControl web service and determine component state, you need to configure the OS Username and OS Password parameters of the test with the credentials (i.e., name and password) of an OS user, who fulfills one of the following conditions:

  • The name of the OS user should be declared using the service\admin_users profile parameter; (OR)
  • The name of the user group to which the OS user belongs should be declared using the service\admin_groups profile parameter; (OR)
  • The OS user should have the permission to execute the sapstartsrv executable

Confirm Password

Confirm the OS Password by retyping it here.

Include Alias

Specify a comma-separated list of alias patterns that need to be included in the scope of monitoring.

Exclude Alias

Specify a comma separated list of alias patterns that need to be excluded from the scope of monitoring.

SSL

Set this flag to Yes, if the SAPControl web service is SSL-enabled. Set this flag to No, if the SAPControl web service is not SSL-enabled.

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

Total aliases

Indicates the total number of aliases available in this pattern.

Number

 

Inactive aliases

Indicates the number of aliases in this pattern that were inactive.

Number

The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists the Application name and the status of the Ignore cookie.

Average request rate

Indicates the rate at which aliases of this pattern were retrieved upon a user request.

Requests/sec

A high value is desired for this measure.