WebSphere Application Server V7.0: Concepts ... - IBM Redbooks

4.6 Planning for monitoring
As most WebSphere-based applications are internet-based applications, a 24×7
availability is a must. The tolerance of internet users for unavailable sites is low
and users usually navigate to the next site if your site is not operable. This means
you just lost a potential customer. It is required then, to track and monitor the
availability of your site so that you recognize when things are going wrong and
you can react in a timely manner.
An efficient monitoring, combined with a sophisticated alerting and problem
handling procedure, can increase the availability of your service significantly.
That is why you must plan for monitoring and problem handling. Do not wait until
your environment becomes unproductive.
4.6.1 Environment analysis for monitoring
Careful planning for monitoring is essential and must start with a detailed
analysis of the environment to be monitored. It is important to ensure that the full
environment is monitored and no single component is overseen.
To analyze the monitoring requirements for your environment consider the
following factors to give you an overview of what needs to be done:
Components to be monitored
It is essential that each component required to run your service is monitored. For
each component you identify, answer the following questions:
► What are the possible states of the component and how can you retrieve them?
► What is the impact of each of the possible states the component can have?
► What specific attributes of the component can be monitored?
► For each attribute you can monitor, define the following values:
– Which attribute values (or range of attribute values) show a normal status
of the component?
– Which attribute values (or range of attribute values) show a situation which
requires attention of the administrator (warning level)?
– Which attribute values (or range of attribute values) show a critical
condition for the component and require immediate administrator action
(alert)?
Prioritize each of the components monitoring results and define actions to be
taken.
114 WebSphere Application Server V7.0: Concepts, Planning, and Design