Architecture

This topic describes the basic architecture of the

solution and extensions to it. You can find specific information about different implementation scenarios in the Deployment architecture section and about integrations elsewhere in this space and in the spaces of related products.

The basic system

The distributed architecture of this product provides scalability and other benefits, and promotes strategies for high availability and disaster recovery. The basic architecture is illustrated in the following figure:

*Basic

system*

Full Size

Components

The basic system consists of the following components, each of which is a virtual machine:

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  component — Is the main user interface of the system. It hosts dashboards and system-management features. It also provides links to the user interfaces of the
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  components. Every
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  system must have one Console component.
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  component — Organizes into segments traffic data acquired from the
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  component, processes it, and provides usable information in various formats: dashboards; reports; incident detection features; session, page, and object statistics; data export functions. It also has controls for managing a portion of its functionality. Every
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  system must have at least one one Analyzer component.
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  component — Captures traffic data from a tapping point between the application and the end user (for example, a network tap or a mirror port on a network switch) and makes it available to a
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  component. It is responsible for deciphering encrypted traffic in a secure way and applying rules to protect the confidentiality of application end users. It also has controls for managing a portion of its functionality. Every
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  system must have at least one Collector component.
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  component — Enables you to store traffic data in a central, off-board storage location, and to locate the root cause of problems by sorting and filtering data in an intuitive and efficient way (by "zooming in" on categories of most relevance). It is an optional component.

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  instances and the

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  with which they are associated on the same host.

Interfaces

The basic system has the following interfaces:

• The main user interface is the
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  web interface, accessed using browser software. It provides links to the user interfaces of the
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  and
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  components, as well as management controls for the
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  component.
• All components have a command-line interface, used mainly for setup and low-level management.
• Data-export and configuration APIs are available from the
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  component.

Extensions to the basic architecture

In addition to having a scalable, distributed architecture, the basic system can be extended via advanced features and integrations with other products.

Advanced features

The product has the following advanced features so that you can do more with it than the basic system allows:

• CDN Visibility — Enables you to measure the performance of web applications hosted (in whole or part) by a content-delivery network (CDN). To achieve this goal, you must use resources included in the Web beacon toolkit.
• RIA Visibility – Enables you to measure the performance of applications that manage user interaction and display content without communicating with the server, using Flash and Flex technology, for example, and using the web primarily for data transfer. Such an application is sometimes known as a rich internet application (RIA). To achieve this goal, you must use resources included in the RIA Visibility toolkit.

Integrations

To enhance its value in significant ways, you can integrate this product with other products.

• BMC Application Diagnostics — An optional bidirectional integration, BMC Application Diagnostics extends the ability of
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  to trace sessions, pages, and objects behind the web server (into application and data tiers, for example).
• BMC Atrium CMDB — This product provides a service-context dimension to monitored applications (or other monitored traffic segments), which means that you can pinpoint the configuration item (CI) associated with an application-performance problem.
• BMC Transaction Management Application Response Time (BMC TM ART) — This product monitors the end-user experience by simulating an end user through synthetic (or robotic), script-based transactions.

This product can also be integrated with the following BMC products to enrich them with data related to the end-user experience:

• BMC ProactiveNet Performance Management via the BMC PATROL Knowledge Module for Real End User Experience Monitoring and via the BMC End User Experience Management and BMC ProactiveNet Performance Management Event Integration Pack
• BMC Service Level Management via the BMC Real End User Experience Monitoring plug-in

You can also use the data-export and configuration APIs available in this product to integrate it with business-intelligence and reporting products; management solutions; and custom applications.