IBM HTTP Server policies

This section provides details of the supplied IBM HTTP Server policies and events to enable you to customize them for your specific environment.

If you simply want to get started using the policy as quickly as possible (with no customization), see Getting started with policies. In order to gain a better understanding of policies, see Policy architecture.

Policy and Event Pack Content

This particular Policy and Event Pack contains a series of Triggers, Action Pipelines, and Templates for detecting and notifying you of events related to IBM HTTP Server technology as monitored by MVMM. While this documentation does not provide true documentation of each trigger, a few words on naming conventions should help you to understand.

The heart of the Policy and Event Pack is a series of Triggers to detect various key conditions on IBM HTTP Server objects as monitored by MVMM. The naming convention for Event Pack Triggers is Technology_ObjectType_TriggerCondition. Thus, the IHS_Server_HighByteRate trigger detects the condition where a particular web server is processing a high rate of bytes.

For each Trigger, there are three provided Templates offering different notification mechanisms. Templates of the form TriggerName_BEM will send an event message (via msend) to BMC Event Manager when the TriggerName condition is met. Note that this uses the BEM_Generic Action Pipeline and does require the configuration of the integration between the MVMM Server and a BEM Cell in order to operate. Templates of the form TriggerName_Console will produce an alert in the Middleware Monitor Console Event pane when the TriggerName condition is met using the standard consoleAlert Action Pipeline (part of the base MVMM product). Note that some triggers use Delta conditions that preclude the use of Console Alerts. For those triggers, no TriggerName_Console template is provided. Finally, templates of the form TriggerName_LogToFile will append an event message to the specified log file (logToFile_Generic.log in the MVMM home directory by default) when the TriggerName condition is met.

Event Triggers and Templates

There are many triggers and templates, to obtain a list of the triggers and templates contained in this zip use the following command being careful to use the -n option to prevent an actual import. It is recommended you redirect the output to a file and use an editor to search for desired triggers or templates. Both the triggers and templates follow a naming convention beginning with IHS_<object type>_<trigger condition>.

mqsimport -n --exclude-associations --event-trigger ".*" --event-template ".*" Samples/EventPacks/IHS/IHS_EventPack.zip -p BMCSOFTWARE SA

Agent Policies

IHS_Agents_ALL_BEM
IHS_Agents_ALL_EMail
IHS_Agents_ALL_LogToFile
IHS_Agents_Basic
IHS_Agents_Minimal
IHS_Agents_Standard_BEM
IHS_Agents_Standard_EMail
IHS_Agents_Standard_LogToFile

Using the Policy and Event Pack

The Event Pack contains a zip file produced by mqsexport. To use the Event Pack objects and run the mqsimport command. Depending on which portions of the Event pack you want to use, the command may vary. It is assumed that you will have knowledge of the mqsimport command to customize, but below are some sample commands:

To import the entire Policy and Event Pack, use the following command:
mqsimport --policy-read-only Samples/EventPacks/IHS/IHS_EventPack.zip SA
To import no policies and all the event triggers and templates, use the following command:
mqsimport --event-template IHS_.* --event-trigger IHS_.* Samples/EventPacks/IHS/IHS_EventPack.zip SA
To import all templates and triggers for a specific object type, use the following command (sample for a Web Server):
mqsimport --event-template IHS_Server_.* --event-trigger IHS_Server_.* Samples/EventPacks/IHS/IHS_EventPack.zip SA

To import all triggers but only the templates associated with a particular action, use the following command (sample for BEM):
mqsimport --event-action-pipeline .*_Generic --event-template IHS_.*_BEM --event-trigger IHS_.* Samples/EventPacks/IHS/IHS_EventPack.zip SA
To import one specific trigger and template, use the following command (sample for IHS_Server_HighByteRate_BEM):
mqsimport --event-action-pipeline BEM_Generic --event-template IHS_Server_HighByteRate_BEM --event-trigger IHS_Server_HighByteRate Samples/EventPacks/IHS/IHS_EventPack.zip SA

IHS_Agents_Minimal

There is no Minimal level agent policy for IBM HTTP Server monitoring. Basic is the lowest available level.

IHS_Agents_Basic

The Basic level agent policy for IHS references the IHS_POLICY_Basic Object Policy Group. Because IBM HTTP Server monitoring is very simple and contains only one object type (the IHS Server), there are no nested Groups. Instead, IHS_POLICY_Basic directly references the IHS_Server_Basic Object Policy. That Object Policy then applies one Policy Action (IHS_Server_UseHistoryTemplate_SAMPLE) which activates history collection for the key attributes of all IHS Servers using the rules defined in the SAMPLE history template.

IHS_Agents_Standard_NNN

The basic design of the IHS_Standard_EventTarget policies is very similar to the Basic level with the agent policy referring to the IHS_POLICY_Standard_EventTarget Object Policy Group which in turn refers to one Object Policy (IHS_Server_Standard_EventTarget). As you would expect, this Object Policy includes the IHS_Server_UseHistoryTemplate_SAMPLE Policy Action but then adds a set of Policy Actions to add event templates (see below).

At the Standard level, three such event templates are associated with each IHS Server. These generate events to the Event Target when the IHS Server is unavailable, when the Request Rate to that Server exceeds a threshold and when the free percentage of the server drops below a threshold. Note that these thresholds are customizable.

IHS_Agents_ALL_EventTarget

The IHS_Agents_ALL_EventTarget agent policy follows the same structure as the Standard level but adds additional Policy Actions. As you can see below, the additional actions add event templates to notify when the Byte Rate into the server exceeds a threshold. This can distinguish the effect of a smaller number of large requests vs simply using the Request Rate as in the Standard level. Additionally, the ALL level adds escalating alerts not just when the percentage of idle servers is low but when the absolute number falls below a threshold. Finally, an alert is added for when too little traffic is coming into the IHS Server (LowRate). Again, the thresholds for each of these events is customizable.

Where to go from here

Once you have identified and found the Policy and Event Pack refer to the appropriate details in the Policies-supplied-with-MainView-Middleware-Monitor, which includes instructions for importing and a more in depth description of the content.