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Configuring server instances for monitoring

After discovery of a server, a server instance is created and displayed in the hierarchical display in the PATROL Console. Each server instance is displayed under a server container representing a specific internet host.

When a server is auto discovered or added, BMC PATROL for Internet Servers might prompt you to verify configuration information. At any time, you can also manually configure a server instance. Depending on the type of server, you can configure some or all of the following:

  • Basic settings (used to configure basic behavior of the web server, and to edit web page behavior)
  • Local settings (used to determine the Server Root directory, administration commands, automatic recovery action)
  • Files settings (for setting the Server Root address, Access Log and Error Log locations, and Access Log format)
  • Remote settings (for PATROL Agent port on the remote system)

To manually configure server instances

  1. Access the menu commands for the server instance that you want to configure.
     The command menu appears.
  2. Select the PATROL Admin > Configure command and then one of the following options, depending on the configuration you wish to set or confirm:
  3. Click Accept to save the current entries and close the dialog box.

 Configuring basic URL settings

Before you can monitor a web server you must configure basic URL settings for at least one URL of the web server.

The Basic Configure dialog box displays the name of the server instance as it appears in the PATROL Console.

To configure basic settings

  1. Access the menu commands for the application instance icon.

  2. Select the PATROL Admin >Configure > Basic menu command.

    Warning

    Note

    You can edit a URL directly by right-clicking the URL instance and selecting the Edit command.

    The following dialog box is displayed:

    Basic Configure dialog box
    Basic Configure.bmp

  3. Use this dialog box to configure how BMC PATROL for Internet Servers monitors web pages for this web server:
    • Instance Name. Enter information here to change the web server instance name that is displayed in the PATROL Console.
    • Cookie management preferences. Indicate whether the web server instance should accept dynamic cookies, as follows:
      • Select Accept cookies, use with this Web server only if you want the web server instance to accept cookies but not share them with other web server instances.
      • Select Accept cookies, this web server only, delete each cycle if you want the web server instance to accept cookies, but not share them with other web server instances and to delete them after each cycle.
      • Select Accept cookies, make available to all web servers if you want the web server instance to accept cookies that can be shared with other web server instances.
      • Select Do not accept cookies if you do not want the web server instance to accept cookies.
  4. Follow web server redirects. Select this check box if you want BMC PATROL for Internet Servers to follow web server redirects provided by the web server in its response on a Location: response header.
  • Page response time preferences. Select the option that describes how you want to set your page response time (URL) preference:
    • Select to Collect individual URLs only (default)
    • Select to Collect complete page response time
    • Select to Collect complete page response time by URL type Selecting this option turns on the True Page response time option as described on True Page response time.
  1. Select one of Add, Delete, Edit, or Move web page URLs. For details see Monitoring virtual host statistics.
  2. Click Accept.

  Configuring local settings

You must configure local settings for web servers situated on a local internet host to configure auto-startup of local servers.

  1. Access the menu commands for the server instance.
  2. Select the PATROL Admin > Configure > Local menu command.

  3. Type the full path name of the home directory in the Server Root field.
     This directory is used as a relative base for other files and commands. Server processes are managed and monitored by looking for the process on the computer.

    Warning

    Note

    UNC format is not supported. For example, using a host name path. The workaround is to map a network drive to the host directory using Explorer or My Computer. You can then specify the drive path as you would for a local drive.

  4. In the Process Lookup selection field, select the type of process lookup methods, and then type the corresponding text in the text field.
     The following Process Lookup methods are available:
    • PID Logfile
    • Process Regular Expression
    • NT Service Name
  5. Configure other local settings for your managed server as needed:
    • Process Run Types: In this field indicate whether the server process should run at all times, as most web servers do, or if it is launched on demand, as is the case with Unix FTP servers.
    • Administration Commands: These commands are used to stop, restart and start a server. For Unix systems, make sure you have sufficient user privileges using the OS Account field.
    • Automatic Recovery: In this field indicate whether the server should be automatically restarted when the KM detects that it is down.
    • OS Account: In this field provide user privileges to the application for Administration Commands (if needed).

  6. Click Accept to save the current entries and close the dialog box.

    Warning

    Note

    If you entered an incorrect password when trying to start a web server with SSL support, you may need to kill the web server process involved. You can find a list of all web server processes through the following command: ps -ef | grep https. From the output, identify the processes and determine their PIDs, which are in column 2 of the output. You can explicitly kill the processes with the following command: kill -9 PIDLIST.

  Configuring file settings

This section describes how to configure a web or proxy server's file settings, including the Server Root (Home) Directory and the Access Log and Error Log locations, statistics, and format.

Warning

Note

This command is functional for local monitoring or for remote monitoring if the file system is available.

To configure file settings

  1. Access the menu commands for the application instance icon.
  2. Select the PATROL Admin >Configure > Files menu command.
  3. If needed, enter the file system location for your Server Root (Home) directory.
  4. Enable or disable Access Log Monitoring.
     To enable Access Log Monitoring, you must load the ISM_LOGMON_BASIC.kml application file into your agents and Consoles.

  5. Configure other specific properties for access log or error log monitoring:

    Warning

    Note

    BMC PATROL for Internet Servers monitors access log files on proxy servers only if they support the Common Log Format. BMC PATROL for Internet Servers does not support access log monitoring on Microsoft proxy servers because they do not support the Common Log Format.

    • Set the Access Log location. (See Specifying the access log location).
    • Set the Access Log format. (See Configuring the access log format).
    • Define the Access Log Statistics Set. (See Configuring the access log statistics).

    • Set the limit for the number of samples per minute (the default is 5000).

      Warning

      Note

      BMC PATROL for Internet Servers reads only the number of lines indicated in the Configure > Files menu command. For example, if you set the limit to 5000 lines, but 50,000 lines were written to the log during the poll interval, BMC PATROL for Internet Servers would read only the last 5000 lines in the log.

  6. Select Lookup IP Addresses if you want to resolve IP addresses to host names in the access log.
     Do not select Lookup IP Addresses if you do not want BMC PATROL for Internet Servers to report host names in its access log reports. You may want to turn off DNS lookups in this manner to conserve system resources used in looking up host names.
  7. Set the location of the Error Log. (See Configuring the error log location).
  8. Edit Error Log statistic sets. (See Configuring the error log statistics).
  9. Click Accept to save the current entries and close the dialog box.

  Configuring remote settings

This section describes how to configure a web server instance on a remote host to send the connection results to a PATROL Agent. This configuration enables you to monitor response times on the web server. The response information indicates the approximate response times seen by clients across the internet or intranet.

To monitor web servers remotely, you need:

  • Two hosts-one system for the web server(s), and one for the remote PATROL Agent. (The web server system can also have a PATROL Agent loaded, but it is not required for remote monitoring.)
  • One or two PATROL Agents with BMC PATROL for Internet Servers loaded
  • TCP/IP network link between the two hosts Remote Monitoring Configuration

If a PATROL Agent is running on the remotely-monitored web server system, the system monitoring that web server can send the results directly to the local PATROL Agent running on that web server. This value is represented in the httpRemoteResponseTime parameter.

To configure remote settings

Warning

Note

To connect to the remote PATROL Agent, you may need to customize your user name and password for the web server instance as follows: With the PATROL Console for Unix, select Customize > User Name/Password. With the PATROL Central Operator Console, select Properties from the computer icon menu.

  1. Access the menu commands for the server instance.
  2. Select the PATROL Admin > Configure > Remote menu command.
  3. (Telnet only) Enter the username and password of the user under which the PATROL Agent runs on the remote system.
  4. Enter the remote PATROL Agent port number.
  5. Click Accept to save the current entries and close the dialog box.

 

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BMC PATROL for Internet Server 9.0