Running a Performance Analysis query to locate problematic sessions

In the BMC Application Management Console, you analyze problems by performing queries. These queries enable you to investigate the performance and availability issues for pages and objects, and analyze the affected sessions. 

To find and analyze the sessions that you need, you can narrow down your search by editing the session query. Further filtering enables you to localize your issue better. The following sections of this topic describe how to run and edit queries: 

• To run a Performance Analysis query to locate problematic sessions
• To run a Performance Analysis query by using the saved settings
• To refine the query with specific parameters
• To edit the query manually

Before you begin

Before you start investigating problems in the Session Overview, you must configure a data storage location.

To run a Performance Analysis query to locate problematic sessions

1. In the BMC Application Management Console interface, click Application Monitoring, and then click Performance Analysis.
2. In the Action menu, select Start Analysis.
   The Expression Builder tool opens. For more information about how to work with the Expression Builder, see Creating a filter. 

3. In the Record Type list, shown in the following figure, select the type of records to look for, either Object or Page.
   
   Building a filter for the query

   _{^{Click to enlarge image.}}

   

   If the system has configured Watchpoints, the Monitored Traffic section becomes visible.

4. (Optional) In the Monitored Traffic section, narrow the search to a specific traffic segment (Watchpoint). 
   By default, the system searches all traffic.
5. In the Traffic Type section, select, which type of traffic you want to monitor, Real User or Synthetic.
   If the BMC Synthetic End User Experience Monitoring plugin is not available (for example, not connected), then this option is disabled.

6. In the Time Range section, select one of the following options:

   • Predefined, and select a time range for the query, such as Last 7 days.
   • Custom, and select the start and end times for the query from the calendars.

   Note

   The time is shown in the time zone configured in the Console.

7. (Optional) Refine your search by manually adding expressions to the filter. For more information about how to create filter expressions, see Creating a filter.

8. Click Analyze.

   Note

   When you click Analyze, the Performance Analytics Engine saves the query parameters, cancels the previous query, and starts a new one. When you click Cancel, the system does not create a new query, but the previous query stays.

   The system displays results of the query. You can refine the query to narrow your search, save the analysis settings for later use, or you can drill down to the list of sessions retrieved by the query.

To run a Performance Analysis query by using the saved settings

1. In the BMC Application Management Console interface, click Application Monitoring, and then click Performance Analysis.

2. Click the Favorites tab.
   The Performance Analysis page displays a list of your saved query settings.
   
   List of saved Performance Analysis settings

   _{^{Click to enlarge image.}}

   
   

3. (Optional) Select a different time range for a saved query setting.
4. Click Analyze.
   
   The system displays results of the query. To proceed with the analysis, click the list of sessions retrieved by the query.
   

To refine the query with specific parameters

1. On the Performance Analytics page of the BMC Application Management Console, run a query.

2. Click the parameters that you want the next query to focus on. 
   For example, you can select a city where the user is located or a browser that he or she uses.
   
   As shown in the following figure, when you click a parameter, the tooltip for the additional filter expression appears next to the Edit Filter button and an asterisk appears on the button to indicate that the filter has been changed.
   
   Query with additional filter
   

   _{^{Click to enlarge image.}}

   

3. Click Restart Analysis. 
   
   The system stops the previous query and starts a new query with the refined filter expressions.

To edit the query manually

1. In the BMC Application Management Console interface, start an analysis by running a query.
2. Click Edit Filter.
   The text box appears and displays the current filter for the query.

3. Type the additional expressions for the filter. 
   For example, you might want to specify the browser, user location or the error code that the user received. For more information about creating filter expressions, see Using-the-Expression-Builder-to-create-a-filter.
   
   List of saved Performance Analysis settings
   _{^{Click to enlarge image.}}
   
   
   

   Note

   In the filter expression, the quotation marks (") enclosing the string parameters are mandatory.

4. Click Restart Analysis.

The system validates whether the filter expression is correct.

If the filter expression is not correct, then the system redirects you to the Expression Builder tool and keeps all the entered filter expressions. Edit the filter in the Expression Builder, and click Restart Analysis.

If the filter expression is correct, then the system stops the previous query and starts a new query with the refined filter expressions.

Where to go from here

To learn more about creating a focused query, see Query parameters. After you have refined your search, you can further analyze the individual sessions or save the analysis settings for later use.