4 Monitoring an Exalytics System

By monitoring a system using Enterprise Manager, you obtain a complete and up to date overview of the status, availability, performance, and health of the system. Enterprise Manager displays complex target performance data in a simple form, using graphs and pie charts. It also keeps you informed about target metrics crossing their threshold levels, target alerts, and target incidents that require user action.

Using the Exalytics System console, you can do the following tasks:

4.1 Displaying and Using the Exalytics System Dashboard

To access the Exalytics System dashboard, from the Targets menu, select Exalytics. On the Systems page, select the Exalytics System that you want to access.

The Exalytics System Dashboard contains a Hardware tab and a Software tab.

The Hardware tab displays the status information of the Exalytics System hardware, that includes CPU and Memory Utilization, Hardware Overview that displays the ILOM details of the machine(s).

The Hardware tab also displays an Incidents and Problems section that shows alerts for targets that have problems. The table also displays the status of the target, the severity of the problem, the escalation level, and the time when the target was last updated.

The Software tab displays status information including alerts and key performance metrics of the following Fusion Middleware targets that are managed and monitored by the Exalytics System:

  • WebLogic domains

  • Oracle BI Foundation 11g

  • Oracle TimesTen (in-memory database)

  • Hosts

Note:

These targets are not automatically discovered during an Exalytics discovery process. You need to discover them separately in order for them to be displayed in the dashboard.

By default, the table for each Fusion Middleware component displays the name of the component, the type, the status, incidents, the host the component is running on, and the port. You can add more columns by clicking View, selecting Columns and then choosing the options that you want displayed as columns in the table.

You can view detailed information about the Exalytics System from the Exalytics System menu, such as performance summary, alert history, target incidents, members topology, routing topology, and job activity. You can also perform management and administrative tasks such as refreshing the system, removing the system, granting target access privileges, and administering target blackouts.

4.2 Viewing the Generic Performance of an Exalytics System

Using the Enterprise Manager Exalytics System console, you can perform the following generic performance tasks:

4.2.1 Viewing the Performance Summary of an Exalytics System

To view the performance summary of the Exalytics system, follow these steps:

  1. From the Targets menu, select Exalytics. On the Systems page, select the Exalytics System that you want to access.
  2. On the Exalytics system home page, click on the Exalytics System menu, select Monitoring, and then select Performance Summary.
  3. The following charts are displayed:
    • Average query time (in seconds)

    • Server queries (per second)

    • Status of BI Instance

    • Active Sessions

    • Failed Requests

    • Requests (per minute)

    You can change the order of the charts by clicking on the View menu, and selecting Reorder Charts. This enables you to move a chart up, down, or to remove it.

  4. On the Performance Summary page, you can do the following:
    • You can view the performance of the Exalytics summary for the entire day, 2 hours, or for 15 minutes.

    • You can set what you want to be displayed on the chart by clicking the View menu and selecting or deselecting the items.

    • You can overlay the chart displayed with the chart from the previous chart, or you can overlay it with the performance summary chart of another Exalytics System.

      To do this, click on Overlay, and then select an option.

    • You can view the metric palette by clicking on View Metric Palette.

4.2.2 Viewing the Alert History of an Exalytics System

To view the alert history of an Exalytics system, from the Exalytics System menu displayed on the Exalytics system home page, select Monitoring, then select Alert History.

The Alert History page provides details about target metrics, such as the periods when a particular metric was beyond its critical threshold value, the periods when the metric could not be calculated, and so on. These details help you plan corrective measures for metric-related problems, before any severe damage or prolonged downtime can occur.

The Alert History page contains the following elements:


Table 4-1 Target Alert History

Element Description

Metric

Parameter related to the performance of the target.

History

Condition of the metric at various times. The condition can have the values Critical, Warning, Clear, and No Data.


4.2.3 Viewing Target Incidents of an Exalytics System

To view the incidents related to the target, from the Exalytics System menu displayed on the target home page, select Monitoring, then select Incident Manager.

The Incident Manager page provides details about the various events, related to the target, that negatively impact any hardware or software component running on the Exalytics system. These events require user action. The details provided by this section, such as the incident summary, severity, target, target type, and so on, are essential for troubleshooting.

4.3 Viewing the Members Topology of an Exalytics System

To view the members topology of an Exalytics system, follow these steps:

  1. From the Targets menu, select Exalytics. On the Systems page, select the Exalytics System that you want to access.
  2. From the Exalytics System menu displayed on the Exalytics system home page, select Members, and then select Topology.
  3. The Configuration Topology page for the System is displayed.

    The topology viewer enables you to understand and visualize your IT environment in a graphical format. The inter-relationships between systems display results such as on what systems does this system rely, what systems will be affected if this system goes down, and how are the members of my system related?

On this page, you can perform the following tasks:

4.3.1 Viewing a Configuration Topic

To view a configuration topic, from the View list, select any of the following:

  • Uses

    This view helps you determine the targets that the selected target depends on. If a target is having problems, this view can be useful in helping you determine whether its problems have been caused by another target it depends on.

  • Used By

    This view shows you the targets that depend on the selected target. This can be useful, for example, if you are planning on shutting down the target and need to know what other targets will be affected

  • System Members

    This view shows the members of the system.

  • Custom views that have been defined by end users.

Note:

The Uses, Used By, and System Members views are out-of-box topology views. They cannot be modified.

4.3.2 Creating a Custom Topology View

To create a custom topology view, do the following:

  1. From the Customize menu, select Create Custom View.
  2. Provide the name and description for the topology and select one of the Initial Contents:
    • Copy Current View to create a topology view similar to the one you are viewing.

    • Create Empty View to create a topology view that starts with the root node.

  3. Choose one of the following expose options:
    • Expose the custom view for all targets of the current target type. For example, if you are creating a topology view for a database target, the new view will be available for all database targets.

    • Expose the custom view for the current target only.

      To share the view, click Share this custom view with other users.

    • Click OK.

  4. Reduce the unwanted information in the topology by highlighting the target and selecting Hide Relationships... in the Customize menu.

    You can also display relationships that are not being displayed by selecting a target. From the Customize menu, select Target, then select Show More Relationships to Target Type....

  5. Click OK.

4.4 Viewing the Routing Topology of an Exalytics System

A topology diagram is an interactive diagram showing Enterprise Manager targets and their statuses, incidents, and other target information, as well as the relationships between targets.

To view the Exalytics Routing Topology page, do the following:

  1. From the Targets menu, select Exalytics. On the Systems page, select the Exalytics System that you want to access.
  2. From the Exalytics System menu displayed on the target home page, select Routing Topology.

The Routing Topology page displays middleware targets in a single topology diagram, allowing you to see dependencies among targets and the impact of component failures.

You can use this page to visualize which software components are communicating with each other, and which hardware components they are using in order to understand the system. You can learn which components of a system are impacted by a problem with another component.

The topology graph expresses the relationships between the targets of the Exalytics system. The targets are annotated to indicate status and incidents. Tool tips show additional information about entities and relationships. You can pan and zoom the graph, as in popular map programs, and also expand and collapse desired areas of the graph. The graph can be filtered to show only desired nodes.

4.5 Refreshing an Exalytics System

To refresh an Exalytics System, do the following:

  1. From the Targets menu, select Exalytics. On the Systems page, select the Exalytics System that you want to access.
  2. From the Exalytics System menu displayed on the target home page, select Refresh Exalytics System.
  3. The Exalytics target discovery page opens.

    You can rediscover Exalytics machine targets to add to the Exalytics system, or you can remove existing targets from the system.

4.6 Viewing the Job Activity of an Exalytics System

To view the past, currently running, and scheduled jobs related to a target, follow these steps:

  1. From the Targets menu, select Exalytics. On the Systems page, select the Exalytics System that you want to access.
  2. From the Exalytics System menu displayed on the target home page, select Job Activity.
  3. The Job Activity page displays target jobs related to target administrative tasks, such as starting the target, stopping the target, target blackouts, and so on.

Use the Job Activity page to search for a particular job and retrieve job details such as the owner, status, scheduled start time, and so on. You can also use the Job Activity page to perform target job administration tasks, such as creating, editing, suspending, and resuming a job.

4.7 Administering Targets of an Exalytics System

You can perform the following administration tasks on a target of an Exalytics system:

4.7.1 Administering Target Access Privileges for an Exalytics System

To manage the access privileges for a target, follow these steps:

  1. From the Targets menu, select Exalytics. On the Systems page, select the Exalytics System that you want to access.
  2. From the Exalytics System menu displayed on the Exalytics system home page, select Target Setup, then select Administrator Access.
  3. Click Add to grant target access privileges to a role or an administrator.

Use the Access page to set target privileges for roles and administrators. The available privileges are View, Operator, and Full.

View only allows you to view the target in the console, whereas Operator allows you to view targets, and perform all administrative actions except deleting targets. Full allows you to view targets, and perform all administrative actions.

4.7.2 Administering Target Blackouts for an Exalytics System

Blackouts suspend data collection on a monitored target and are useful when you want to perform scheduled maintenance tasks on monitored targets.

To administer the blackouts for a target, follow these steps:

  1. From the Targets menu, select Exalytics. On the Systems page, select the Exalytics System that you want to access.
  2. From the Exalytics System menu displayed on the Exalytics system home page, select Monitoring, then select Blackouts.

Use the Blackouts page to search for existing target blackouts, edit existing blackouts, define new blackouts, and stop blackouts. You can also create and stop blackouts using the Exalytics System menu. To create or stop a blackout, from the Exalytics System menu, select Control, then select Create Blackout or End Blackout, respectively.

4.7.3 Removing an Exalytics System Target

To remove an Exalytics machine target from an Exalytics System, do the following:

  1. From the Targets menu, select Exalytics. On the Systems page, select the Exalytics System that you want to access.
  2. On the Exalytics system home page, from the Exalytics System menu, select Target Setup, and then Remove Target.
  3. A warning will be displayed, asking if you want to proceed. Click Remove.