Working with the subscriber services

MVMM Topic Service

The MVMM Topic Service gathers information as topics collected by the Agent and distributes that information to other services. The MVMM Topic Service also manages the topics and makes them available to the clients.

The MVMM Topic Service is responsible for routing data associated with topics to subscribers in real time. The Agents report updated topic data to the MVMM Topic Service, which then passes it along to the Monitor Console or to other services, like the MVMM Event Service. The Topic Service also monitors the agent connection and reports topics based on the status. These topics can be used to trigger actions in the vent Service (such as sending an e-mail message if an agent becomes unresponsive).

The Event and Application services function in real time. There are limits to what you can do with real-time data, however. Often, you want to look back at what the value of a given property was at some time in the past. To enable this, MainView Middleware Monitormust store the past values of Attributes in the database where they may be queried later. It is the History Service that does this. Like the other Subscriber Services, the History Service subscribes to particular topics of data being published by the Agent Extensions through the Topic Service.

It is not useful to keep history on all attributes.

On the other hand some properties, such as the CurrentQDepth and MsgDeqRate, change frequently with no manual intervention and it is important to keep history on such values.

Thus, MainView Middleware Monitor provides a History Template for each Physical Type that provides a list of the Attributes associated with that type. In this template, you can check the boxes next to the attributes for which you want history. As with Event Templates, History Templates are defined for each Physical Type.

You then associate each instance with one or more templates for that type. The History Service then subscribes to all topics checked in the associated templates. 

MVMM Application Service

The MVMM Application Service acts as a proxy for users logged in to the Monitor Console. When an authenticated user opens a view, the Application Service subscribes to all topics needed to populate that view and forwards those to the individual user’s console. The Application Service performs the following functions:

• Stores and serves media files (images, views, reports) to the Monitor Console
• Supports web browser access to the Monitor Console.
• Performs security validation and provides user and group management, rights management, and authentication within MVMM.

The executable file is called Wrapper.exe (Windows) or wrapper (Linux).

The MVMMApplication Service and Views

The key to understanding the Application Service deliverables is to understand the concept of Views.

In MainView Middleware Monitor, the individual data fields monitored by the Agent Extensions are called Attributes. Each Attribute is assigned to a specific class of object called a Physical Type. 

This relationship between Attribute and its parent Physical Type is defined in the MainView Middleware Monitor Database and stored locally in the Agent’s eaa.xml file. When a data point is published, the actual Topic is PhysicalType!Attribute. Additionally, Physical Types are hierarchical.

This is necessary because you could have a Queue called X on QM1 and another queue called X on QM2 and MainView Middleware Monitor must be able to distinguish between the two. Thus, the fully qualified Topic for the current depth of a queue is ComMQSoftwareNetworkHost!ComMQSoftwareWebSphereMQQueueManager!ComMQSoftwareWebSphereMQLocalQueue!CurrentQDepth. When a data point is published (say Current Depth of the Q called X on the Queue Manager called CSQ1 on the system MQA), it is assigned the Topic Path as above, an Instance Path (MQA!CSQ1!X!CurrentQDepth) and a Value. This information is published to the Topic Service and can be read by one or more subscribers.

MVMM Application Service and Oracle

If you use an Oracle database with the MVMMApplication Service and your service log indicates it is unable to find the Oracle dll, you might need to use the logon ID that was used to install the Oracle client to start your MVMMApplication Service as a Windows service.

To use the logon ID

1. Open the Services list in your Windows Computer Management page.
2. Right-click on MVMMApplication Service and select Properties.
3. Open the Log On tab and select This account.
4. Enter the account credentials used to install Oracle client on the services computer.

The Event Service can be configured to subscribe to any subset of the monitored properties. This is done using a trigger condition. A trigger uses an object called a Typed Topic (TT in the diagram) that enables you to select the properties that are needed to detect the particular event condition. The Trigger diagram is then wired using standard calculation (such as, multiply, divide, and add) and comparison operators (such as, less than, greater than, and equal to), as well as Boolean logic (AND, OR) to define the condition. The final flag has a Duration property, enabling you to specify that the condition must remain true for some time before triggering the event.

Once a Trigger condition is met, then the actions defined in the Action Pipeline are performed. An Action Pipeline consists of one or more actions (selected from a broad list of types, such as email, Write to File, Write to Q, Send to BEM) wired together. Subsequent actions can be taken depending on whether the previous action succeeds for fails.

Finally, all MainView Middleware Monitor Events are based on templates. The Trigger condition is generic for all objects of the same type. An Event Template joins together the generic Trigger with the corresponding Action. You then associate all specific objects of the type with that template to have the event condition evaluated against them.

There is one “Messages Not Processed” Event Template that can be associated with one or more queues. 

MVMMClient Gateway Service

The MVMM Client Gateway Service is used in conjunction with the Event Service for automating events.

The Client Gateway Service is automatically installed along with the Application Service or Event Service. If the Application Service and Event Service are installed on separate machines, each has its own Client Gateway Service.

MVMMProactiveNet Service

The MVMM ProactiveNet Service publishes MVMM monitored data to TrueSight Infrastructure Management or ProactiveNet that wouldn't otherwise be available to the products. As updates arrive at the MVMM service tier, they are published to the MTM Knowledge Module (KM) running in a Patrol Agent. From that point on, TrueSight Infrastructure Management or ProactiveNet gathers the data from the Patrol Agent.

Similar to the History Service data, you might want to send the values of specific attributes to ProactiveNet or TrueSight Infrastructure Management for dynamic baselining. To do this, there is an Enable ProactiveNet column next to each attribute in the History Template. Checking that box causes the ProactiveNet Service (rather than or in addition to the History Service) to subscribe to that topic. The ProactivNet Service then sends the data to ProactiveNet or TrueSight Infrastructure Management through a PATROL Agent.

To enable this integration to function, the following conditions must be satisfied:

• You must be using TrueSight Infrastructure Management 9.6 or later or ProactiveNet 9.0 or later.
• The MTM KM must be installed in a PATROL Agent. See Installing for details.
• The objects that need to send data to TrueSight Infrastructure Management or ProactiveNet must be associated with a history template or rule.
• The Enable ProactiveNet flag must be set for the history template or rule for the objects that are associated with it to send data to ProactiveNet. See Defining-data-rules-and-templates for more details.