WebSphere Process Server © 2005 IBM Corporation HPTSSeptember 2005 Cross-Component Problem...

WebSphere Process Server

HPTS September 2005 © 2005 IBM Corporation

Cross-Component Problem Determination Based on Logs and Common Base Events

Dr. Friedemann Schwenkreis

WebSphere Process Server

© 2003 IBM Corporation2 HPTS September 2005

Outline

What is problem determination?

The interaction of multiple components.

Log files and correlating them

Common Base Events: A canonical means to transport information

The eclipse TPTP project

Questions

WebSphere Process Server

© 2003 IBM Corporation3 HPTS September 2005

What is a Problem?

Invocation is rejected (non-availability problem)

Service is incorrectly performed (failure problem)

Service is correctly performed with some exceptions or additional information (potential problem)

Service is correctly performed

– Quality of service requirements (e.g. timing problem)

WebSphere Process Server

© 2003 IBM Corporation4 HPTS September 2005

Problem Determination

Problem Detection

– Simple in case of failures or non-availability

– Difficult in case of potential problem cases

– Hard when applications do not detect the problem

Localizing the cause

– Relatively easy in a single component because all problem information is in a single log.

– Difficult if the problem is caused by of other components because log information needs to be correlated first.

WebSphere Process Server

© 2003 IBM Corporation5 HPTS September 2005

Component Interaction

AIX

WebSphereApplication

Server

WebSphereProcess Server

DB2 UniversalDatabase

ProcessChoreographer

BPC Log

AppServer

Log

AIXLog

DB2Log

WebSphere Process Server

© 2003 IBM Corporation6 HPTS September 2005

Example: Disk Full

AIX: file system full error

DB2: tablespace full error

WebSphere Application Server: transaction rollback exception

Process Choreographer: audit log exception

WebSphere Process Server

© 2003 IBM Corporation7 HPTS September 2005

Correlating Log File Information

Problem:

– Propriatory log formats

– Non-uniform/component specific log content

Idea:

– Introduce common format (skeleton / basis)

– Agree on common content

– Agree on common usage of values

WebSphere Process Server

© 2003 IBM Corporation8 HPTS September 2005

Common Base Events (CBEs)

Eclipse Hyades project (now: Test and Performance Tools Platform)

Fixed content:

– Name, time, identification, severity

– Source component identification

– Situation

Variable content:

– Extended context elements

– Extended data elements

– Extended properties

WebSphere Process Server

© 2003 IBM Corporation9 HPTS September 2005

Advantages of Common Base Events

Analysis tools from multiple sources/vendors

Enable Cross-component analysis

Extensible: Generate CBEs in your application

WebSphere Process Server

© 2003 IBM Corporation10 HPTS September 2005

Generic Log Adapter

Componentspecific

log file entry

CBEbased

log file entryTransformation Rules

Component specificadapterplugin

WebSphere Process Server

© 2003 IBM Corporation11 HPTS September 2005

Example: DB2 log

WebSphere Process Server

© 2003 IBM Corporation12 HPTS September 2005

Example: DB2 log

WebSphere Process Server

© 2003 IBM Corporation13 HPTS September 2005

Log and Trace Analyzer

AIX

DB2

WAS

BPC

Log & TraceAnalyzer

...

Correlation Rules

FlowVisualization

WebSphere Process Server

© 2003 IBM Corporation14 HPTS September 2005

Questions?

Friedemann Schwenkreis - fschwenk@de.ibm.com

www.eclipse.org/tptp/home/documents/eclipseCon2005/index.htmlwww.ibm.com/software/awdtools/architect/swarchitect/index.html