Action Monitor

The PPM action monitor tracks activity in the standard interface. To control the monitor, you use the ENABLE_UI_MONITOR and UI_MONITOR_THRESHOLD server configuration parameters. The ENABLE_UI_MONITOR parameter turns the monitor on (the default), and the UI_MONITOR_THRESHOLD parameter controls the threshold value of the action monitor, which is set in milliseconds.

You can change the values of the ENABLE_UI_MONITOR and UI_MONITOR_THRESHOLD parameters using the kConfig.sh script or, you can change them through the JMX console without having to stop, and then start the PPM Server. Keep in mind that if you change these parameter settings through the JMX console, your changes do not persist. The next time you start the PPM Server, the parameter settings revert to the values specified for them in the server.conf file.

To enable or disable the UI monitor through the Administration Console:

  1. Log on to PPM. From the menu bar, select Open > Administration > Open Administration Console.

  2. Under the Administration Console node, select Administration Task > Application configuration.

  3. On the Application Configuration page, select the desired PPM Server node from the Scope drop-down list, and search for parameter
    ENABLE_UI_MONITOR.

  4. Set ENABLE_UI_MONITOR parameter to true or false to enable or disable the UI monitor.

To change the UI_MONITOR_THRESHOLD parameter value:

  1. Log on to PPM. From the menu bar, select Open > Administration > Open Administration Console.

  2. Navigate to the Application Configuration page, select the desired PPM Server node from the Scope drop-down list, and search for parameter
    UI_MONITOR_THRESHOLD.

  3. Specify a value for the UI_MONITOR_THRESHOLD parameter.

To see the information captured by the action monitor in real time, go to the JMX console and access the ActionMonitor MBean in the ppm.monitor section. The ten UI activities (URL requests) that most affect performance are listed, as well as their average, minimum, and maximum execution times.

If the latency for serving the URL request exceeds the threshold value, the captured information is saved to the thresholdLog.txt file, which resides in the <PPM_Home>/server/<PPM Server>/logs directory.

The information is formatted as follows:

["UI",<User_Name>,"<Requested_URL>","<Execution_Time>(ms)"]

The information resembles the following:

ActionMonitorLogger:2009/01/11-23:26:-6.179 PST: "UI",admin,"http://37.30.24.33:8080/itg/web/knta/global/AutoCompPopup.jsp","78(ms)" ;

Note: You can also use the 'UI_MONITOR_PERSIST_STATE' parameter in the Administration Console page to enable or disable persisting the captured information to the database table PPM_PERFORMANCE_LOG.

Note: For information on how to create a report on action monitor activity, see Deployment Best Practices for PPM Operational Reporting.

When the parameter ENABLE_ALL_PERFORMANCE_MONITOR is set to true, and if the latency of serving a URL request exceeds the threshold value specified in the UI_MONITOR_THRESHOLD parameter, then the SQLs that have been executed when serving the URL request are recorded in the table PPM_PERFORMANCE_LOG.

Note: Only the top five SQLs that take the longest time when serving the URL request are recorded.