Using the WebSphere MQ BTM extension with DataPower

A transaction pathway template is provided that uses a pre-defined message format to monitor a datapower appliance.

The DataPower specific template covers monitoring of services running in IBM DataPower systems. Most DataPower services receive requests from a service consumer (the Front End), perform some processing (the Inbound Rule), and then call to a Service Provider (the Back End). When the response is received from the Back End, the DataPower service then performs additional processing (the Outbound Rule) before sending the response back to the Front End. Thus, the DataPower_Template transaction pathway consists of four touchpoints.

Because DataPower is an appliance, it is not possible for the WebSphere MQ BTM Extension to intercept the data directly on the device. Instead, Log Actions are inserted into the DataPower Rules to send a message to a WebSphere MQ Queue or Topic (via a WebSphere MQ Client Channel). The WebSphere MQ BTM Extension monitors the sending of those Log Action Messages. In the DataPower_Template model, this is handled by the DataPower_LogAction Activity Implementation. Because the Log Action Message is in a constant IBM-defined format, the DataPower_Template model uses the standard DataPower LogAction Message Format. The DataPower_Template model captures Payload Fields based on this Message Format as well as using it for Transaction Filtering and to obtain the Transaction Id.

Before you can use the template you must know the following information:

• Name of your DataPower Policy
• Name of each of the four Log Actions added to your DataPower Service
• Hostname for the MQ Queue Manager receiving the Log Action Messages
• Name of the MQ Queue Manager receiving the Log Action Messages
• Name of the MQ Queue or Topic to which the Log Action Messages are sent
• Name of the BTM Profile in which your Service Monitor lives

In addition you must have installed the MVMM Extensible Agent and MVMM Configuration Agent on your WebSphere MQ machine so that hostname is available for selection when creating the profile.

The following steps allow you to import the template directly into any profile of your choosing with translation. Alternatively, you can import into another profile and use the promote to profile option with translation. Refer to Defining-transaction-pathways-to-monitor-your-infrastructure for details on using promote to profile.

To use the transaction pathway template

1. Edit the Samples\DataPower_TemplateInstantiateFile.txt from the installation directory and replace the values with ones that match your environment. Note that the parameters in the first section are mandatory. After the blank lines, there are more parameters that can be used to override default names and properties in the imported model.
   
   Refer to Exporting-and-importing-Monitor-Console-environmental-components-with-the-CLI for further information about the mqsimport translation file.
2. Access the BTM tab and create a profile named "BTM_Templates" or the profile name you specified in the translate file.
   • Select a user or group in the Access Control List for Edit/Generate/Promote/Import and Deploy
   • Move the hosts of your WebSphere MQ installation from the Available Hosts list to the Selected Hosts list
3. Unlock the profile and leave the BTM tab so you can import the model.
4. Import the transaction pathway from the installation directory using mqsimport:
   
   mqsimport -p BMCSOFTWARE --profile ".", --model "." -–promote-translate-file Samples\DataPower_TemplateInstantiateFile.txt Samples\BTM_Templates.zip SA -b
   
   If you changed the SA password from its default, replace BMCSOFTWARE with the valid SA password.