WebSphere Process Server © 2005 IBM Corporation HPTSSeptember 2005 Cross-Component Problem Determination Based on Logs and Common Base Events Dr. Friedemann Schwenkreis

WebSphere Process Server © 2003 IBM Corporation 2HPTSSeptember 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 Corporation 3HPTSSeptember 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 Corporation 4HPTSSeptember 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 Corporation 5HPTSSeptember 2005 Component Interaction AIX WebSphere Application Server WebSphere Process Server DB2 Universal Database Process Choreographer BPC Log App Server Log AIX Log DB2 Log

WebSphere Process Server © 2003 IBM Corporation 6HPTSSeptember 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 Corporation 7HPTSSeptember 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 Corporation 8HPTSSeptember 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 Corporation 9HPTSSeptember 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 Corporation 10HPTSSeptember 2005 Generic Log Adapter Component specific log file entry CBE based log file entry Transformation Rules Component specific adapter plugin

WebSphere Process Server © 2003 IBM Corporation 11HPTSSeptember 2005 Example: DB2 log

WebSphere Process Server © 2003 IBM Corporation 12HPTSSeptember 2005 Example: DB2 log

WebSphere Process Server © 2003 IBM Corporation 13HPTSSeptember 2005 Log and Trace Analyzer AIX DB2 WAS BPC Log & Trace Analyzer... CorrelationRules FlowVisualization

WebSphere Process Server © 2003 IBM Corporation 14HPTSSeptember 2005 Questions? Friedemann Schwenkreis -