Business Transaction Monitoring - Exceptions Trend Report

The Code-Level Exceptions report offered by eG Enterprise helped administrators understand which URLs were affected due to a code-level exception and what were the exceptions that were frequently encountered by a business transaction. While this report helped in identifying the affected exceptions and URLs, administrators were still left in large in identifying how well the exceptions fared over a period of time. To historically analyze the trend of exceptions over a period of time, eG Enterprise offers the Exceptions Trend report. By carefully analyzing this report, administrators can identify the top exceptions based on the number of occurrences, the time elapsed since each exception lastly occurred and compare if each exception is trending up or down for a selected look back period. Also, administrators can visually identify the trend of all exceptions over time. Administrators are also directed to the top tiers or JVM instances that experienced the exceptions frequently.

In order to generate the Exceptions Trend report, do the following:

1. Follow the menu sequence: REPORTS BY FUNCTION -> Domain-specific Reports -> Web Application Monitoring -> Business Transaction Monitoring -> Executions Trend.

2. Figure 1 then appears. In Figure 1, select a criterion for analysis from the Analysis By list box.

   

   Figure 1 : Specifying the criteria for the Exceptions Trend report

3. Using this report, you can analyze the performance of one/more managed components, or those that are part of a zone, service or segment. The options provided by the Analyze By list box are discussed hereunder:

   • Component: Select this option to choose the component(s) from across all the managed components in the environment.
   • Zone: To generate a report for one/more components that are included in a zone, pick the Zone option. A Zone drop-down list will then appear, from which you would have to select the zone to which the components of interest to you belong. A Sub zone flag also appears. Indicate whether the components present within the sub-zones of the chosen zone are also to be to be considered for report generation, by setting the Sub zone flag to Yes.
   • Segment: If you want to generate a report for one/more chosen components that belong to a segment, select the Segment option from Analyze By list box, and then pick the Segment from the drop-down list that appears.
   • Service: If you want to generate a report for one/more components involved in the delivery of a service, select the Service option from Analyze By, and then pick the required Service from the drop-down list that appears.
   • Group: If you want to generate a report for one/more component groups to which the chosen component is associated to, select the Group option from Analyze By, and then pick the required Group from the drop-down list that appears.
4. Then, select a component type for which you wish to generate the report from the Component Type list.
5. The Component list will now be populated with all the components that are managed in your environment for the chosen component type. If the Components list consists of too many components, then viewing all the components and selecting the ones you need for report generation could require endless scrolling. To avoid this, you can click the button next to the Components list. A COMPONENTS pop up window will then appear using which you can view almost all the components in a single interface and Select the ones to be included in this report.

6. Then, specify the Timeline for the graph. You can either provide a fixed time line such as 1 hour, 2 days, etc., or select the Any option from the list to provide a From and To date/time for report generation.

   Note:

   For every user registered with the eG Enterprise system, the administrator can indicate the maximum timeline for which that user can generate a report. Once the maximum timeline is set for a user, then, whenever that user logs into eG Reporter and attempts to generate a report, the Timeline list box in the report page will display options according to the maximum timeline setting of that user. For instance, if a user can generate a report for a maximum period of 3 days only, then 3 days will be the highest option displayed in the Timeline list - i.e., 3 days will be the last option in the fixed Timeline list. Similarly, if the user chooses the Any option from the Timeline list and proceeds to provide a start date and end date for report generation using the From and To specifications, eG Enterprise will first check if the user's Timeline specification conforms to his/her maximum timeline setting. If not, report generation will fail. For instance, for a user who is allowed to generate reports spanning over a maximum period of 3 days only, the difference between the From and To dates should never be over 3 days. If it is, then, upon clicking the Run Report button a message box will appear, prompting the user to change the From and To specification.

7. In addition to the settings discussed above, this report comes with a set of default specifications. These settings are hidden by default. If you do not want to disturb these default settings, then you can proceed to generate the report by clicking the Run Report button soon after you pick one/more components for report generation. However, if you want to view and then alter these settings (if required), click on the icon. The default settings will then appear in the MORE OPTIONS drop down window (See Figure 2). The steps below discuss each of these settings and how they can be customized.

   

   Figure 2 : The default settings for generating the report

8. By default, the report is engineered to be generated for only the top-10 exceptions captured in the target environment. To this effect, the Top 10 option is chosen from the Show list. You can choose a different top-n / last-n option from the Show list, if need be.

   Note:

   By default, the values displayed in the Show list range from TOP-10 to LAST-10. This is because, the Showtop parameter in the [infos] section of the eg_report.ini file (in the <EG_INSTALL_DIR>\manager\config directory) is set to 10, by default. You can, if required, configure the Show list to display a different range of options. For this, specify a different number against the Showtop parameter, and save the eg_report.ini file.

9. By default, 1 day is chosen from the Look Back drop down list. This indicates that the percentage change in exceptions in the generated report is calculated by comparing the exceptions that occurred at the time of report generation with the exceptions that occurred in the same duration during the previous day. For example, if you are generating this report on March 11, 2022 at 17.30 hours, then the exceptions captured during the past 24 hours (March 10, 2022 to March 11, 2022 17.30 hours) will be compared with the exceptions captured and reported on March 9, 2022 at 17.30 hours. You can select the timeline of your interest to calculate the change in exceptions occurance percentage. Similarly, if you have chosen 3 days from this list, then, the report will compare the current table size reported on between March 10, 2022 17.30 hours and March 11, 2022 17.30 hours with the table size reported on March 7, 2022 17.30 hours. You can choose a look back period of upto 1 month from this list.

10. Next, indicate the report Time period.

    Note:

    By default, the Time period is set to 24 hours. Accordingly, the From and To parameters in the [timeframe] section of the eg_report.ini file (in the <eg_install_dir>\manager\config directory) are set to 00:00 and 24:00 respectively. If need be, you can override this default setting by configuring a different timeframe against the From and/or To parameters. 

11. In large environments, reports generated using months of data can take a long time to complete. Administrators now have the option of generating reports on-line or in the background. When a report is scheduled for background generation, administrators can proceed with their other monitoring, diagnosis, and reporting tasks, while the eG manager is processing the report. This saves the administrator valuable time. To schedule background processing of a report, you can either select the Background Save - PDF option from the Report Generation list. To process reports in the foreground, select the Foreground Generation - HTML option from this list.

    Note:

    • The Report Generation list will appear only if the EnableBackgroundReport flag in the [BACKGROUND_PROCESS] section of the eg_report.ini file (in the <EG_INSTALL_DIR>\manager\config directory) is set to Yes.
    • The default selection in the Report Generation list will change according to the Timeline specified for the report. If the Timeline set is greater than or equal to the number of days specified against the MinDurationForReport parameter in the [BACKGROUND_PROCESS] section of the eg_report.ini file, then the default selection in the Report Generation list will be Background Save - PDF. On the other hand, if the Timeline set for the report is lesser than the value of the MinDurationForReport parameter, then the default selection in the Report Generation list will be Foreground. This is because, the MinDurationForReport setting governs when reports are to be processed in the background. By default, this parameter is set to 2 weeks - this indicates that by default, reports with a timeline of 2 weeks and above will be processed in the background.
12. Finally, click the Run Report button to generate the report.

13. If the Report type is Foreground Generation - HTML, then Figure 3 will appear as soon as you click the Run Report button.

    

    Figure 3 : The generated Exceptions Trend report

    The generated report consists of the following sections:

    • An Overview section that reveals at a single glance the number of times exceptions occurred over the chosen time period, the number of unique exceptions that were captured and the number of tiers/JVMs that were affected due to the exceptions.

    • The Top 10 Exception Details section lists the top 10 exceptions that occurred in the target environment during the chosen time period. For each unique exception that was captured, this section reveals the number of times the exception occurred, the time that elapsed since the exception was lastly captured, and a comparison showing if the exception was trending up or down based on the selected look back period.

      Clicking on an exception from this graph will reveal Figure 4.

      

      Figure 4 : The report generated for a chosen exception

      • The Overview section in Figure 4 reveals at a single glance the number of times the chosen exception occurred during the chosen time period, the number of tiers/component groups affected by the chosen exception and the number of JVM instances affected by the chosen exception.

      • The Exceptions Trend for <chosen exception> graph (see Figure 4) reveals the number of times the chosen exception occurred over a chosen time period. This graph helps administrators identify the exact date/time at which maximum number of times the chosen exception occurred in the past.

    • The All Exceptions Trend graph of Figure 3 reveals the number of times the exceptions occurred over a chosen time period. This graph helps administrators identify the exact date/time at which maximum number of times the exceptions occurred in the past.

    • The Top 10 Tiers by Exceptions section (see Figure 3) lists the top 10 component groups that were affected due to exceptions. This section also lists the number of exceptions that occurred for each affected tier/component group. Drilling down a tier will lead you to Figure 5 which reveals the type(s) of exception encountered by the component group and the graph that reveals the number of times the exception(s) occurred over a chosen period of time.

      

      Figure 5 : The report generated for a chosen Tier/Component group

    • The Top 10 JVM Instances by Exceptions section (see Figure 3) lists the top 10 JVMs that were affected due to exceptions. This section also lists the number of exceptions that occurred for each JVM instance. Drilling down a tier will lead you to Figure 6 which reveals the type(s) of exception encountered by the component group and the graph that reveals the number of times the exception(s) occurred over a chosen period of time.

      

      Figure 6 : The report generated for a chosen JVM

14. On the other hand, if the Background Save - PDF option is chosen from the Report Generation list, then clicking on the Run Report button will not generate the report and display it in this page for your benefit. Instead, a message indicating that the report is being processed in the background will appear. This will be accompanied by a link that will lead you to the page that lists all the reports that are being processed in the background, and their current status. If background report generation fails for a report, you can regenerate that report using this page, or can even delete that report if need be. On the other hand, if background processing successfully completes for your report, then, you can view a PDF of the report by clicking on the icon in that page.