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The following sections describe new and changed functionality in Guardian 1.1. Topics include:
The following sections provide a description of each of these new features.
The scope of Guardian 1.1 is greatly extended by the addition of the following new Data Collectors:
A description of each is provided in the following sections.
The J2EE Deployment Descriptors Collector gathers the J2EE deployment descriptors from the WebLogic instances. Deployment descriptors contain information that informs the Application Server about elements contained within a deployment, and what server resources a deployment relies upon. This greatly extends the scope of Guardian, as signatures can now be designed to focus on the configuration of your specific managed application. This is in addition to the server resources of which Guardian is already aware.
The JRockit Runtime Analyzer (JRA) Collector initiates a JRA recording in each of the servers in the target domain under evaluation, and returns the results for signature evaluation. See the JRockit Runtime Analyzer documentation for more information.
The JRockit Collector gathers data from each of the servers in the target domain using the JRockit Management API , and returns the results for signature evaluation. For more information, see the BEA JRockit JMAPI documentation.
The JRockit Thread Dump Collector takes a thread dump from each of the servers in the target domain using the JRockit Management API and returns the results for signature evaluation.
You can now export your Guardian Workspace data to a file, which you can use for backup and recovery purposes, or to import to another Guardian instance. You can now also import a Guardian Workspace from another Guardian instance, or an exported Workspace data file.
| Note: | To prevent loss of work when Guardian is updated or uninstalled, make sure your Workspace and any Workspace export files are located outside of your Guardian Installation directory. |
Signature Annotations enable you to tag a detected signature with one or more persistent annotations about that signature.
An annotation contains the following information:
You can use the Annotations Wizard to create, edit, and delete annotations. In addition, you can use Signature Filters to specify which annotated signatures are to be displayed in the Signature Explorer, Bundle Explorer, and Evaluation Summaries.
| Note: | Signatures with annotations set to Ignore with a filter of Hide are not displayed in signature lists, but are still counted as detected signatures. You can include them again in displays by changing the filter setting for Annotation Type Ignore to Show. |
A Snapshot Evaluation is a complete assessment of all of the configuration details for a specific domain, at the particular moment the evaluation is executed. The process for performing a Snapshot Evaluation is the same as for any other type of evaluation. The primary difference is in the type of Signature Bundle you select for the evaluation, and the type of information the evaluation collects and evaluates.
There are several types of Snapshot Evaluations. These are as follows:
You can now compare inventories or evaluations from the same or different domains. Both objects must be of the same type—that is, two inventories or two evaluations. You cannot compare an inventory against an evaluation.
You can compare any two Evaluation Summaries. Comparing two Snapshot Evaluations is particularly useful, as a Snapshot Evaluation collects and evaluates all of the configuration data for the evaluated domain. Such a comparison enables you to see very quickly the differences between the configurations and their issues for those two domains.
You can now export a Domain Inventory or Evaluation Summary report to a PDF or HTML file for external viewing, processing, or archiving.
To export a report, open the Domain Explorerand then open the History folder containing the report you want to save. Open the report and then select File > Save As. Browse to the location to save the file, select the file type (PDF or HTML), and click OK.
You can now organize the domains in Guardian into Domain Groups for easier management. You can create a Domain Group in the Domain Explorer, by right-clicking on Target Domains and selecting Add Domain Group from the context menu. This opens the Add Domain Group dialog box for creating the new Domain Group. A domain node folder for the Domain Group is added to the Domain Explorer Domain Tree. You can then populate the Domain Group by simply dragging and droping domains into the Domain Group folder.
To improve performance in large domains, multiple Agent threads have been implemented in Guardian 1.1.
When Guardian requests data from a target domain, the Guardian Agent on the WebLogic Administration Server collects the requested data from each of the Managed Servers. In Guardian 1.0, this happens serially; that is, the Agent requests the data from each Managed Server and waits for the response before requesting the data from the next Managed Server. This can result in slow activations and evaluations of large domains.
In Guardian 1.1, the Agent running in the Administration Server now spawns one thread per Managed Server, up to the value specified for the Maximum Agent Threads Parameter, to collect evaluation data. Each of these threads runs no longer than the value specfied for Agent Thread Timeout Parameter.
Details about these parameters are provided in the following sections.
If you have one or more managed servers in a domain, the Guardian Agent spawns the appropriate number of threads for communicating between the Guardian Agent on the WebLogic Administration Server, and the Guardian Agent running on the Managed Server(s). However, an excessive number of threads can affect the performance of the Administration Server. To control this, you can specify the maximum number of Agent threads to allocate to the WebLogic Server Administration Server for a specified domain. The Max. Agent Threads parameter setting determines this value. The default is 10.
There are two ways to set the value for this parameter:
In order to manage Agent resources on both the WebLogic Administration Server and Managed Servers, Guardian enables you to specify the maximum amount of time (in seconds) that can elapse before a thread is terminated. The Agent Thread Timeout parameter governs this timeout. The default is 60 seconds.
There are two ways to set the Agent Thread Timeout parameter:
If you are using an outbound proxy server for communications between Guardian and the outside world, you can now test and validate the outbound proxy connection. This simplifies proxy troubleshooting, and enhances supportability.
To test an outbound proxy server connection, select Window > Preferences from the Guardian titlebar menu to go to the Preferences configuration page. Then, open the Guardian folder and select BEA Support. Select the Requires Proxy checkbox and click Test Proxy to initiate the test. After the test completes, a status message is displayed at the top of the page as to whether it was successful or not.
You can now select the Theme to be used for Report displays.
To select a Report Theme, do the following:
Guardian logging and debugging now employs aspect-oriented techniques, which allow you to dynamically enable and disable different levels and scopes of debugging. You can configure these parameters in the Logging and Debug section of the Preferences configuration page.
The following section provides instructions for configuring your Logging and Debug preferences.
To configure these preferences, do the following:
This displays the Logging and Debug preferences pane. The preferences are organized into four sections:
Guardian 1.1 now uses Language Packs for release of localized versions. Guardian is currently in the process of being localized, and Language Packs will be available soon.
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