Reliable Transaction Router
System Manager's Manual


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Chapter 6
RTR Monitoring

This chapter contains a description of the RTR monitor. The RTR monitor allows you to view the activities of RTR and your applications. Many different aspects of RTR's behavior can be viewed, allowing the activities and performance of RTR to be analyzed.

6.1 Introduction

The RTR monitor provides a means to continuously display the status of RTR and the applications using it.

It can be used to check the correct operation of an RTR network, showing information useful for tuning, capacity planning, and locating configuration and application errors.

The information displayed is composed of named data items which are continuously updated by RTR. These data items can be displayed in various formats and combined using simple arithmetic operators and constants.

The monitor is invoked with the MONITOR command. MONITOR displays a monitor picture that is periodically updated. See Section 7.2 for the full syntax of the MONITOR command.

A monitor picture contains elements that are either text (such as labels and titles) or variables derived from data items. Monitor pictures can be defined either interactively at the RTR> prompt or defined in a file called a monitor file.

You can use monitor files provided with RTR and you can create your own. See Appendix A for information about creating monitor files.

6.2 Standard Monitor Pictures

A number of standard monitor pictures are supplied with RTR. These cover most of the usual monitoring requirements. You may define your own monitor pictures or alter the standard ones to suit your particular needs. Table 6-1 contains a list of the standard monitor pictures. To display one of these pictures, use the following command at the RTR prompt:


 
 RTR> MONITOR picture-name
 

The files for standard monitor pictures are installed on your system when RTR is installed. The location of these files is platform specific. The file names are the picture name appended with .mon . Type the file name without .mon when starting the display.

See Chapter 7, RTR Commands, for more information on the MONITOR command.

Table 6-1 Standard Monitor Pictures
Picture name Description
accfail Shows link transport name for links on which a connection attempt was declined, with a reason for failure. The most recent entry is highlighted.
acp2app Displays counts of messages and number of bytes from RTRACP to the application, as viewed from a specific node.
active Displays a list of RTR processes, and for each process the number of transactions they have started, the number of transactions they have completed and the number of transactions that are still active.
app2acp Displays counts of messages and number of bytes from the application to RTRACP, as viewed from a specific node.
broadcast Displays information about RTR user events by process, including number of user events enqueued, received, and discarded.
calls Displays the total number of RTR API calls and their success or failure for the processes on all the nodes being monitored. All RTR messages are also shown by message type. (Pending messages are those that an application has not received yet). Use the /IDENTIFICATION=process-id qualifier to display the values for one specific process, otherwise the total values for all processes are displayed.
channel Displays the roles of the channels declared by an application. This can be useful as a debugging tool in the early stages of application development.
connects Displays connection status summary, including the number of links up and down, and a list of links with state (up or down), architecture, network transport, and fail-reason, if any.
event Displays event routing data by facility. Information includes events in transit and destination information showing number of events enqueued, processed, and discarded.
flow Displays the flow control counters.
frontend Displays frontend status and counts by node and facility, including frontend state current router, reject status, retry count, and quorum rejects.
group Shows server and transaction concurrency on a partition basis.
ipc Shows counts of interprocess communication (IPC) activity in the RTR ACP and active RTR applications.
ipcrate Displays rate information on IPC messages, byte counts, and I/O primitive usage.
journal Displays the current journal usage on a node. Local node journal statistics are provided, and data for non local journals accessed from the local node. Includes statistics covering total number of entries and records written, the number of records read, and how many bytes were involved. Bar graphs showing current usage of journal blocks (as a percentage of the total) are also provided.
link Displays a number of per-link data items. Use the /LINK=link-name qualifier to display the values for one specific link, otherwise the total values for all links are displayed.
netbytes Displays a list of the links to other nodes. For each link, the total number of bytes received and sent on that link and the number of bytes received and sent per second are displayed.
netstat Displays for each link the connection status in detail, with the link state (up or down), and architecture type of remote node (such as VAX, I386, Alpha, and so on).
partit Displays the status of server partitions. Shows the partition identifiers, key ranges and key segments, and the status of the servers (active, recovering and so on).
queues Shows transaction queues on a partition basis.
quorum Tracks (by facility) the configuration, reachability, and quorum status of one or more nodes.
recovery Displays the status of server recovery procedures, such as waiting for quorum, catching up transactions, and so on.
rejects Displays the last rtr_mt_rejected message received by each running process.
rejhist Displays the last 10 rtr_mt_rejected messages received by the selected process.
response Displays the elapsed time that a transaction has been active on the opened channels of a process.
rolequor Displays a detailed picture of the various data items in the QUORUM picture, separated by roles. If a quorum problem is encountered, this picture may be useful for problem diagnosis.
routers Displays information on a router node. It gives an indication of the utilization of the router in terms of transactions and broadcasts routed through this node. Useful to monitor performance or locate problems.
routing Displays statistics of transaction and broadcast traffic by facility.
rscbe Displays the most recent call's history for the RSC subsystem on a backend node.
stalls Displays in real time any network links currently stalling in their outbound traffic, and provides a history of the stalls that the various links encountered during their lifetime.
system Displays the state of critical resources within the RTR environment. If a resource has exceeded a predefined threshold, a warning indicator is displayed.
tps Displays the rate of transaction commits performed by each process using RTR.
tpslo Displays low end of the rate of transaction commits performed by each process using RTR.
traffic Displays a list of the links to other nodes. Shown for each link are: byte rate, packet rate, message rate and congestion, in both directions. Average packets per second is also shown.
trans Displays transactions for a frontend, router and backend.
v2calls Shows RTR Version 2 verb usage through the interoperability subsystem. The screen layout is identical to the RTR Version 2 Monitor Call's picture.
xa Displays XA counter information including success and failure as well as call and read-only counters.

The following sections describe the more commonly used standard monitor pictures in detail.

6.2.1 Monitor ACCFAIL (Link Acceptance Failures)

When configuring RTR, nodes can sometimes fail to connect up. Although the cause of the error can be viewed on the initiator side with the MONITOR NETSTAT picture, it can be difficult to pinpoint the problem when looking at the other end of the link. Use the MONITOR ACCFAIL picture to display the reason for the local node's refusal to accept connections.


================================================================================ 
                     U n a c c e p t a b l e    L i n k s 
 
         Most recent links on which a connection attempt was declined 
 
            Node: NODE11                Wed Jan  7 1998 10:51:00 
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Link Transport Name(s)                  Reason for failure 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
nodef                                   node is not configured for the facility 
marke.zko.dec.com                       node not recognized 
real1                                   facility name not matched 
MARKE DEC:.ZKO.MARKE                    node not recognized 
nodef                                   node is not configured for the facility 
marke.zko.dec.com                       node not recognized 
real1                                   facility name not matched 
nodez                                   node role definitions do not match for 
real1                                   facility name not matched 
MARKE DEC:.ZKO.MARKE                    node not recognized 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 
         List entries are reused in a cyclical fashion; the most 
         recent entry is highlighted. 
 
================================================================================ 

Some errors that can be displayed by ACCFAIL include:

6.2.2 Monitor ACP2APP


RTR ACP to Application Messages, Node: NodeA  PID: -ALL-   Process name: -ALL- 
    Image: -ALL-                                      14:15:46 Mon Jan 25 1999 
Message Type        Client               Server             Other         Pend 
                    #      Bytes         #     Bytes        #      Bytes     # 
opened              0          0         0         0        0          0     0 
closed              0          0         0         0        0          0     0 
msg1                                     0         0                         0 
msg1_uncertain                           0         0                         0 
msgn                                     0         0                         0 
reply               0          0                                             0 
rettosend           0          0                                             0 
prepared            0          0                                             0 
accepted            0          0         0         0                         0 
rejected            0          0         0         0                         0 
user_event          0          0         0         0                         0 
rtr_event           0          0         0         0                         0 
prepare                                                     0          0     0 
                    other 
request_info                                                0          0     0 
set_info                                                    0          0     0 
                  calls   active     fail   timeout 
receive_message       0        0        0         0 
user_wakeup           0        0 

Displays counts of messages and number of bytes from RTRACP to the application, as viewed from a specific node. Includes opened, closed, msg1, msg1_uncertain, msgn, reply (reply to client), rettosend (return to sender), accepted, prepared, rejected, user_event, rtr_event, prepare, request_info , and set_info messages as appropriate. For receive_message and user_wakeup , displays calls, active, fail, and timeout counts. Refer to the C Application Programmer's Reference Manual for an explanation of the message types.

The default is to display information on all PIDs, process names, and images. To display information on one process only, use the qualifer /IDENTIFICATION= process-id .

6.2.3 Monitor Active


 
ACTIVE TRANSACTIONS BY PROCESS  Fri Mar 12 1999 19:32:41 
 
                                              Starts  Complete  Active 
Display totals:                                    5         5       0 
 
Node      ID      Process name   Image name 
NodeA     11141   SMITH_1        DISK01:[SMITH]RTR 5         5       0 
 

Displays a list of RTR processes, and for each process the number of transactions they have started, the number of transactions they have completed, and the number of transactions still active.

OpenVMS systems show the actual process names; on Windows and UNIX systems RTR produces a process name by combining user name and image name.

6.2.4 Monitor APP2ACP


RTR Application to ACP Messages, Node: NodeA  PID: -ALL- Process name: -ALL- 
   Image: -ALL-                                      14:21:19 Mon Jan 25 1999 
RTR Message Type     Client               Server               Other        
                     #     Bytes          #     Bytes          #      Bytes 
open_channel         0         0          0         0          0          0 
close_channel        0         0          0         0          0          0 
prepare_tx           0         0 
accept_tx            0         0          0         0                        
reject_tx            0         0          0         0                        
broadcast_even                 0                                          
start_tx             0         0                             
send_to_servr        0         0   
reply_to_client                           0          0   
request_info                                                   0          0 
set_info                                                       0          0 

Displays counts of messages and number of bytes from the application to RTRACP, as viewed from a specific node. Includes open_channel, close_channel, prepare_tx (prepare transaction), accept_tx (accept transaction), reject_tx (reject transaction), broadcast_event, start_tx, send_to_server, reply_to_client, request_info , and set_info . Refer to the C Application Programmer's Reference Manual for an explanation of the message types.

The default is to display counts for all PIDs and processes, for client, server, and other roles.

6.2.5 Monitor Broadcast


                BROADCAST RECEPTION BY PROCESS 15:20:27   6-APR-1999 
 
Node      ID    Process name   Received Queued  Lost       Delivery Rate 
Total                              2750     5     17               850.0 
 
NODEA  20400249 SMITH RTR             0     0      0 
NODEA  2040024D JONES RTR          2750     5     17               850.0 
NODEA  2040024B BROWN RTR             0     0      0 
NODEA  2040024C ALLEN RTR             0     0      0 

Displays information about the RTR user events process. Fields displayed include number of user events enqueued for the application, number of user events received by the application, and number of user events discarded by RTR.

6.2.6 Monitor Calls


RTR API calls, Node: nodea             , PID: 2162    , Process name: -ALL- 
Image: -ALL-                                        16:38:05 Fri Feb 12 1999 
CALLS            Client   server  fail  MESSAGES        client   server  pend 
open_channel          1        1     0  mt_opened            1        1     0 
close_channel         0        0     0  mt_closed            0        0     0 
start_tx              0              0  mt_msg1              -        0     1 
send_to_server        1              0  mt_msg1_uncertain    -        0     0 
                                        mt_msgn                       0     0 
reply_to_client                0     0  mt_reply             0              0 
                                        mt_rettosend         0              0 
prepare_tx            0              0  mt_prepared          0              0   
accept_tx             0        0     0  mt_accepte           0        0     0 
reject_tx             0        0     0  mt_rejed             0        0     0 
broadcast_event       0        0     0  mt_u_event           0        0     0 
set_user_handle       0        0     0  mtr_event            0        0     0 
get_tid               0        0     0  mt_prepare                    0     0 
                  other                                   other 
request_info          3              0  mt_request_info      2        -     0 
set_info              0              0  mt_set_info          0        -     0 
error_text            2                 mt_closed            2 
set_wakeup            0 
                  calls   active     fail  timeout 
receive_message       9        1        2        2 
user wakeup           0        0 
 

Displays the total number of RTR API calls and their outcome for the processes on all the nodes being monitored. Use the /IDENTIFICATION= process-id qualifier to display the values for one specific process, otherwise the total values for all processes are displayed.

6.2.7 Monitor Channel


RTR CHANNELS BY TYPE PER PROCESS  16:41:13 Fri Feb 12 1999 
                    
                                                               Call-out 
Node     ID   Process name   Image name  Client    Server    Router  Backend 
Nodea  2162   SMITH_1        DISK01:[SMI... 1         0           0        0 

Displays the channels opened by the CALL RTR_OPEN_CHANNEL command.

OpenVMS systems show the actual process names; on Windows and UNIX systems RTR produces a process name by combining user name and image name.


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