The center of the Monitor page gives a visual representation of the state of your servers.

Figure 2.1. MySQL Enterprise Dashboard: The Graphs Screen

The graphs present information about the currently selected server or server group. The default graphs show the hit ratios, CPU utilization, connections, and database activity for a specific interval.

Graphs also let you drill down from overall usage information to the queries that were being executed on the server at the time. Click and drag on a graph to zoom in on the graph content and view the queries that were being executed during the specified period, to understand server performance and responsiveness. This information is only available when you configure query analysis, and enable query analysis for the servers you are monitoring. For more information, see Section 2.6, “The Query Analyzer Tab”.

To set the interval, click the configure graphs link immediately below the graphs. In the resulting dialog box, choose the default interval for the x-axis of the graphs. Defining a shorter or longer interval gives you a shorter or longer term view of server activity. You can also adjust the thumbnail and full-size graph dimensions from this dialog box. Save any changes, and the chosen values become the defaults whenever you log in.

You can also choose the default graphs shown on the Monitor page. Click the edit favorites link and choose the graphs you want from the drop-down list box. To choose contiguous graphs, hold down the Shift key and click the desired graphs. To select graphs that are not in a sequence, click the desired graphs while holding down the Ctrl key. The Monitor page can display a maximum of six graphs. Save your changes, and these become be the default graphs whenever you log in.

Color coding helps distinguish different aspects of each graph. With Database Activity for example, you can readily distinguish SELECT statements from INSERT statements.

Clicking a graph opens a detailed view with Graph Display and Configure tabs. Choose the Configure tab to temporarily change the way that a graph displays. Changes made from this tab only apply to the standalone graph while it is open. Persistent changes are made as described above.

Dismiss the enlarged graph by clicking the hide button.

Alerts from the event system are displayed immediately below the charts. For more information on the events display, see Section 2.4, “The Events Tab”.

The Heat Chart is on the right side of the Monitor page and shows the status of critical rules. Monitored servers are organized by groups. To view the status of a specific server, click the + button next to the appropriate server group.

Whenever a new agent contacts the Service Manager for the first time, all the rules in the Heat Chart Advisor are automatically activated. These Advisors monitor the status of the server and agent, critical operating system indicators, and important events related to your MySQL servers. An example follows.

Figure 2.2. MySQL Enterprise Dashboard: The Heat Chart

To interpret the Heat Chart, see the following legend.

Figure 2.3. MySQL Enterprise Dashboard: The Heat Chart Legend

The status unknown typically applies when an agent is down and can no longer report the status of the server that it is monitoring. The status unknown can also apply if the data that should be collected is not available on the server being monitored.

You can open the Heat Chart in its own browser window by clicking the Standalone Heat Chart link immediately below the Heat Chart on the left. You can set the refresh rate to a different rate than the setting on the Monitor page.

In addition to showing the most important advisors, the Heat Chart also has columns that display the number of critical, warning, and informational alarms. Clicking the hyperlink in any one of these columns takes you to the Events tab, which gives more detailed information. For more information about events, see Section 2.4, “The Events Tab”. Hovering over the heat chart also provides server counts within the tooltips pop-up.

When the Dashboard is first installed, no notification groups are associated with the Advisors shown in the Heat Chart. For more information on this topic, see Section 5.2.7.3, “Installing, Updating or Upgrading Advisors After Initial Login” and Section 2.8.5, “Manage Notification Groups”.

Instructions for installing Advisors are given in Section 5.2.7.3, “Installing, Updating or Upgrading Advisors After Initial Login”, and following. Principally, you need to configure your MySQL Enterprise login or enter your product key before you can update your Advisors.

If your MySQL Enterprise login is configured, you can download the latest Advisors by navigating to the Advisors tab and finding the Check for Updates link. You can periodically update advisors in this way.

Once the MySQL Enterprise Advisors have been installed, you can configure which advisors you would like to run on a scheduled basis.

You can schedule rules by individual server or by group. This is done by first selecting the desired server or server group from the Server tree found on the left side of the screen. Next select the Advisors tab.

Opening the Advisors tab takes you to the Current Schedule page. If you have only just installed the MySQL Enterprise Monitor then you will only see the Heat Chart group of advisors. Clicking the + button will show all the rules in the Heat Chart group.

Clicking the + button beside any specific rule will show the servers that this rule is running on, its frequency, and its status. Initially, all the Heat Chart rules are enabled.

For a more complete description of a rule, click the rule's name. This opens a dialog box that gives detailed information about the rule.

To view the advisors other than the Heat Chart group, select the Add to Schedule link. This will show all the advisors available for your subscription level.

Rules are grouped by functionality and displayed in alphabetic order. To expand a group click the + button to the left of the advisor name.

You may activate all the rules in a group by selecting the checkbox beside the group name. Once selected you may apply rules against a specific server or a group of servers. A message showing the group of servers or the specific server you have selected will display immediately below the schedule button. For example, if the All Servers group is selected in the server tree, then the message will read, “Schedule Advisors Against All Servers”.

To select a specific rule, expand the group tree by clicking the + button. Select the checkbox to the left of the rule you wish to schedule. Click schedule to display the following dialog box:

Figure 2.4. MySQL Enterprise Dashboard: Scheduling Dialog

The Schedule dialog box lets you configure the following fields:

Once you have set the schedule parameters, click the schedule button to schedule the advisor.

You can schedule multiple rules by selecting the checkbox next to each rule and clicking the schedule button is an effective way to schedule multiple rules.

When scheduling more than one rule, you have the option of selecting a checkbox to use the default frequency of each rule or you may choose a frequency that will apply to all selected rules. When customizing the frequency, take care that you choose a value that is appropriate to all the rules selected.

The frequency and thresholds defined for a rule are default recommendations. To edit these properties choose the Create/Edit Rule link.

The following image shows the screen used to edit rules:

Figure 2.5. MySQL Enterprise Dashboard: Editing Rules

Beside the rule name is the Advisor drop-down list box, used for setting the advisor group. This list box shows existing groupings and any you may have added. The Expression textarea shows the advisor rule, Variable Assignment the data item associated with variable(s) used in the rule and Thresholds determines when to trigger each alert type.

The three levels of Thresholds are Info Alert, Warning Alert, and Critical Alert indicating increasing levels of severity. Levels can be triggered by the expression result being equal to a certain value, greater than a certain value, or less than a certain value.

The data items that variables are associated with are operating system (OS) properties such as available RAM or MySQL characteristics such as the InnoDB buffer pool. To see all available data items drop down the Data Item list box. For a listing of these data items see Appendix D, Data Collection Items.

In Figure 2.5, “MySQL Enterprise Dashboard: Editing Rules” the drop-down Data Item list box within the Variable Assignment frame shows the various MySQL server status or operating system specific variables that may be used in expressions. The text boxes below Thresholds define the levels at which informational, warning, or critical alerts are issued.

To lower the threshold for an informational alert, simply increase the number given in the Info Alert text box.

When a data item can apply to multiple objects, you need to specify which instance to use for that item, hence the Instance text box. In almost all cases this should be set to local. The exceptions are as follows:

An agent can only collect data from one MySQL server, so the instance entry for a variable in a rule does not need to specify which MySQL server to use; no matter how many servers are being monitored there is always a one-to-one relationship between an agent and its monitored server.

However, on one server there may be multiple occurrences of a variable. For example, there are multiple possible occurrences of table-specific variables such as Avg_row_length because there can be multiple databases and tables defined in a MySQL server. In this case, the “instance” refers to the database and table that a data item should be associated with, specified in the form databasename.tablename. So, for example, if you want to reference the Avg_row_length of the mysql database user table in an expression, select the mysql:tablestatus:Avg_row_length from the Data Item list box and specify mysql.user in the Instance text box.

On the other hand, in the case of a global server variable, there is only one possible target. For example, there can only be one instance of delay_key_write because this variable is global and applies to the server as a whole. In this case specify local in the Instance text box.

To save your changes click the save button at the bottom of the page.

You can edit a rule even if it is currently scheduled. Your changes will not be overwritten when new rules are imported using the Check for Updates link.

The creation of an event by an advisor rule signifies that there an issue has been raised which may require closer attention. Once the event has been identified, you should investigate the issue that triggered the event, rectify the issue or problem (or choose to ignore it), and then close the event when you are satisfied that the event is not having a significant impact on your server or servers.

Some of the advisors are designed to identify issues in your server or MySQL Enterprise Monitor environment that may either be of a transient nature, or that may indicate a temporary issue (such as a replication slave being unavailable). For these advisors, you can schedule events to automatically be closed when the event moves from notification status back to the Ok state.

You can configure auto-close functionality on all advisors through the Advisors tab when you schedule the advisor against one or more servers. When auto-close is enabled, the event will remain open while the condition that triggered the event is still in effect. When the condition is no longer broken, the event will automatically be closed with the configured auto-close test. You can still manually close events that have have been configured with auto-close enabled. For more information on scheduling rules, see Section 2.3.2, “Scheduling Rules”.

To close an individual alert click the close link in the Operations/Notes column. Document the resolution using the Resolution Notes text area and choose the close button. During the closing operation, you can also reconfigure the rule scheduling that triggered this event, and the auto-close settings. For more information on configuring rule scheduling and auto closing, see Section 2.3.2, “Scheduling Rules”.

To close a number of alerts simultaneously, select the checkbox beside each alert that you wish to close and then click the close button.

When closing individual or multiple events, a notification window will be shown indicating what operations have been completed. The events will remain in the displayed event list, but the close link will instead be a link to the resolution notes. You can update the active list by clicking filter to re-filter the event display.

An historical list of all events, including closed events, is available by using the Current Severity and setting it to Closed. The list will show all of the closed events for a given time range and the servers selected in the server tree.

Notification of an event takes place when a rule is executed and the severity level for a given rule changes from a lower status to a higher one. This occurs on the first change to each individual severity level until the event has been closed.

For example, the table shows the severity levels raised during the lifecycle of a single event, showing when a notification is actually raised.

If auto-close has been enabled for a given rule, then the above notification sequence is still valid, but the effect of the auto-close system is that the event will automatically be closed when the event reaches the Ok state. This will re-enable notification when the advisor creates a new event.

SNMP notifications are sent each time a given rule is executed, irrespective of the current or returned state.

The total number of graphs varies depending upon your subscription level. The four graphs that appear by default on the Monitor tab are:

When the Graphs tab is first opened, no graphs are visible. To view a graph click the + button on the left or, to view all graphs, use the expand all button.

The larger size of graphs is the primary reason for viewing graphs on the Graphs tab rather than on the Monitor tab. Additionally, you can only show a maximum of six graphs on the Monitor tab; the remaining graphs can only be viewed from the Graphs tab.

Change the interval for a graph by choosing values from the Hours and Minutes drop-down list boxes. If necessary adjust the width and height of the graph and then click the update button. The changes to the time span apply to all the graphs on the Graphs tab but have no effect on the graphs on the Monitor tab.

To change the graphs both here and on the Monitor tab use the configure graphs link on the top right. This opens a dialog box for setting the default interval for the x-axis. Save any changes that you have made and the values chosen will be the defaults whenever you log in. You can also change the defaults from the Monitor tab as described in Section 2.2.1, “The Server Graphs and Critical Events”; defaults for other users will be unchanged.

Use the reset button to restore the default value for the interval. Doing this will also reset the default size of the graphs.

Setting a graph to display a time span gives you a historical perspective on server activity. You may want to know what was happening at a specific point in time or you may wish to look at an extended period in order to determine patterns or trends. Changing the time span gives you the flexibility to do this.

In the Time Display drop-down list box select the From/To option. Choosing this option updates the display to include To and From text boxes.

Set the date you wish to start viewing from by manually entering the date in year, month, and day format (2007-03-14). However, it is much easier to click the calendar icon and choose a date from the drop-down calendar. Enter a terminating date in the same way. If you wish, you may also choose the specific time of day by selecting the hour and minute.

If necessary adjust the width and height of the graph and then click the update button. The changes to the time span apply to all the graphs on the Graphs page but have no effect on the graphs on the Monitor tab. You cannot change the time span of the graphs that appear on the Monitor tab. Changes apply only to the current user; defaults for other users will be unchanged.

Use the reset button to cancel your changes.

Choose a value from the refresh drop-down list box to set the rate at which information is updated. This refresh rate applies only to the information presented on this page: It is independent of the rate set for the Monitor tab.

The following columns describe replication servers and their slaves:

Levels of indentation in the Servers column show the relationship between master servers and their slaves. Most column headings are active links that allow you to change the order of display by clicking the header. Sorting works differently for different column groupings. Click the Seconds Behind header to order servers by the number of seconds they are behind their master. However, in all cases, the server topology is respected. For example, in a TREE topology, ordering occurs within branches only.

If the agent is down, servers show in bold red in the Servers column. The Slave IO and the Slave SQL columns display stopped in red text if these threads are not running. If an agent is down, italics is used to display the last know status of the IO or SQL threads.

Clicking a master server opens a dialog box that displays information about the server. The information shown includes:

The dialog box also includes a link that allows the user to hide or show the slave servers.

Clicking a slave server opens a dialog window showing extensive information about the slave.

The Global Settings control the main configuration parameters for the entire MySQL Enterprise Monitor system, including your email notifications, data purge, and Enterprise website credentials.

The Global Settings tab is divided into these sections:

On this tab users can change their passwords, user name, and locale information.

Figure 2.20. MySQL Enterprise Dashboard: User Preferences

Change your password by entering a new value into the Password text box. To change your user name enter a new value into the Username text box. Click the save user properties button to commit this change.

You may also adjust your time zone and locale information from this tab. The settings on this tab apply only to the user who is currently logged in.

The MySQL Enterprise Service Manager determines the default value for the locale by looking at your browser settings. Changing this value, determines the language setting for any future logins to the Dashboard, overriding your browser settings.

You can obtain a list of the currently monitored servers connected to the MySQL Enterprise Service Manager, and details of the current version and key configuration by using the Manage Servers tab.

Figure 2.21. MySQL Enterprise Dashboard: Manage Servers

The Manage Servers tab provides a list of servers, organized by groups, in a similar fashion to the main server navigation list. For each server, the following information is displayed:

You can search and filter the server list by using the fields and pop-ups at the top of the list. You can filter using one or more of following techniques:

After you make you selection, use the filter button to filter the server list. To reset your selections to show everything, click reset.

Using the list of servers, you can create groups to more easily manage and monitor your servers according to the departments, applications or other groupings that you may want to use. For information on how to create and modify groups, see Section 2.8.3.2, “Grouping Servers”.

You can also perform simple administration on the server within the MySQL Enterprise Monitor framework, including configuring the Query Analyzer, renaming the server (as it appears within MySQL Enterprise Service Manager) or the group name, and updating the information about the server (re-inventory). All of these operations are handled by using hovering over the triangle next to the server name or group.

Figure 2.22. MySQL Enterprise Dashboard: Server/Group Pop-up

The pop-up provides a list of options, which are different depending on whether you have selected an individual server or a group. For the group, you can only rename the group, delete the group, or obtain a bundled version of the support diagnostics information. For individual servers, you can modify the Query Analyzer configuration, rename the server, refresh the server inventory, or obtain the support diagnostics information.

2.8.3.1. Renaming a Server

You can rename an existing server without losing the current historical data or configuration information. Renaming the server also lets you make its name more descriptive according to the server's role within your organization. For example, you might rename a server from the default host name to include the department and application for the MySQL server.

To rename a server, click the rename link next to the server. Enter information about the server, including the host name and registered IP addresses for the agent. Fill in the alternative name that you want to be displayed in the text box at the bottom of the window.

Figure 2.23. MySQL Enterprise Dashboard: Server Renaming

The Manage Users panel lets you create, delete and manage individual users that have access to MySQL Enterprise Service Manager

Figure 2.24. MySQL Enterprise Dashboard: Manage Users

To log in to the Dashboard a user account is required. There are four types of users with varying privileges:

When the Dashboard is first launched there are two default users, Administrator and Agent, both created during installation. Their default user names are respectively, admin and agent. The Administrator defined during installation as having the root role is unique; this user cannot be deleted.

If you are logged in as an Administrator, you can add a new user by choosing the Manage Users link from the Settings tab. To create a user click the create user button, select a role for the user, and enter a user name and password.

When a new user first logs in, a dialog box opens requesting time zone and locale information. This information may be changed later from the User Preferences tab. For more information, see Section 2.8.2, “User Preferences”.

If you installed the Advisors through the Dashboard you should have already configured the settings for the root role user. (See Section 2.8.1, “Global Settings” and following for more information about this topic.)

To edit an existing user's information, select the Manage Users link, then select the user you wish to edit. Make your desired changes in the fields provided and then save your changes.

Users can be authenticated either using an internal authentication system, which stores the user, password and role information within MySQL Enterprise Monitor, or you can opt to use an external LDAP service. To use the LDAP service, you must still create each user, and then select the Authenticate this user using LDAP checkbox within the Edit User window. The username entered is authenticated against the configured LDAP server. For more information on configuring the LDAP server to be used, see LDAP Authentication.

To delete an existing user, click the delete link next to the user that you want to delete.

The Manage Notification Groups panels lets you create and manage the notification groups used when different notifications and warnings are distributed.

Figure 2.25. MySQL Enterprise Dashboard: Manage Notification Groups

Notification groups are collections of users who should be notified when advisor alerts occur. These users may have login credentials for the Dashboard but this is not a requirement.

You can create a group by clicking the create group link. Specify a group name and add recipients. When adding a user an email address must be specified. If you are adding multiple users separate them with commas.

To modify an existing notification group, select the edit link next to the group name. Deleting a group simply requires clicking the delete link.

Figure 2.26. MySQL Enterprise Dashboard: Edit Notification Group

If a rule triggers an alarm, an email is sent to the members of the notification group specified when the rule was scheduled. For more information about scheduling rules see Section 2.3.2, “Scheduling Rules”.

You can set the subject line of the email that is sent by editing the Subject Line field. You can insert the alarm level using the string {0}, the rule name that was triggered using {1}, and the server name that triggered it using {2}.

You can optionally set the emails that are generated when the notification occurs to be limited to the size of an SMS message. You can then use a notification group email address that forwards to an SMS service so that you can get notification on your phone with an SMS service. Selecting the checkbox next to SMS only changes the length and format of the message that is sent to be compatible with the SMS size limits.

You can also optionally select a notification group to be used when sending critical error messages (such as MySQL Enterprise Agent or MySQL Enterprise Service Manager failures) by selecting the checkbox next to MEM Admin.

Use the Logs link to inspect the various log files associated with the MySQL Enterprise Service Manager. The following image is an example of this screen.

Figure 2.27. MySQL Enterprise Dashboard: Logs

The various categories of logs are shown in alphabetic order. The most recent changes to each log are shown in the Last Modified column. The number of entries in any specific log is shown under the Entries column.

To view detailed information click the Log Name. This opens a separate browser window showing the date, time, alert type, and accompanying message.

On this screen you can filter log information in a couple of ways; by the message type and by time period .

To filter by message type select from the options in the level drop-down box. These are, in order of decreasing severity:

You can also adjust the number of items that appear on each page.

Press the clear all logs link to remove all log entries. To remove entries of a specific kind click the clear logs link associated with the specific log. A confirmation dialog box lets you back out of this operation and avoid accidentally removing log information.

To clear log files of a specific age see the Data Purge Behavior section of the Global Preferences page. For more information on this topic see Data Purge Behavior.

Use the edit log level link to change the type of error logged. The value selected from the Edit Log Level dialog box determines what appears under the Threshold column (second from the left in Data Purge Behavior).

Selecting Error from the list box creates the least number of log entries and Debug the most. Choosing None turns off logging altogether.

It is also possible to download a compressed version of all the log files. For more information, see Section 2.8.7, “Product Information”.

Use the Product Information link to view detailed information about your subscription level and contract status.

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The Import/Export system lets you export or delete custom rules and graphs that have been imported into the system so that you can transfer them to another MySQL Enterprise Dashboard instance. You can also use this screen to import new custom rules and graphs.

To export rules or graphs:

The custom rules and graphs are saved using a filename of the form custom-export-DATE-TIME.jar, where DATE is the date of export in international format (YYYYMMDD) and TIME is the time (HHMM).

To delete rules or graphs:

You can import custom rules and graphs by using the import function. You can use an XML file, or a previously exported jar file.

To import custom rules or graphs:

For more information on writing new rules, custom data items, and creating new graphs, see Chapter 4, Customizing MySQL Enterprise Monitor.

You can configure the operation and forcibly update the information on the What's New page by clicking the configure what's new button at the top-right of the What's New page.

Figure 2.29. What's New Configuration

The configurable options are:

Click save to save your settings. If you selected any system to force an update, the update will take place in the background. To cancel your changes, click cancel.