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Task 6: Monitoring

You monitor a running ruleset by using the Rule Execution Server console. You use Decision Warehouse to audit and view stored decision traces.

About this task

As an IT professional responsible for computer applications at your company, you must ensure that your rule-enabled applications are running correctly. In addition to providing an environment for managing the execution of your rules, Rule Execution Server can be used to monitor the execution of your rulesets.

Auditors can analyze the execution performance of rulesets, and troubleshoot any problems. To identify a problem when a transaction fails, auditors and analysts need to know the business policies that were applied, and the data that was used at execution time. Accessible from Rule Execution Server, Decision Warehouse stores ruleset execution traces that can be used for auditing purposes.

Time This task takes 10-15 minutes to complete.

Step 1: Running Rule Execution Server diagnostics

About this task

You run the Rule Execution Server diagnostics to identify errors in the execution environment.

Procedure

  1. Open the Rule Execution Server console.

    Click Start > All Programs > IBM > package_group > Sample Server > Rule Execution Server Console.

  2. Sign in to the Rule Execution Server console by using resAdmin as the user name and password.
  3. Click the Diagnostics tab, and then click Run Diagnostics. The green check marks indicate successful rule execution.
  4. Click Expand All to show the details of each test. The diagnostics test various aspects of the execution environment. Review the diagnostics, and then review the statistics on deployed RuleApps.

Step 2: Viewing statistics on deployed RuleApps

About this task

When the execution environment is functioning correctly but performance problems are being reported, you can consult statistics from the Rule Execution Server console.

Procedure

  1. In the Rule Execution Server console, click the Explorer tab.
  2. Under Navigator, expand RuleApps and select the ruleset /my_deployment/1.0/my_operation/1.0.
  3. Click View Statistics in the Ruleset View toolbar to see ruleset execution statistics such as how many times the ruleset is run, and runtime statistics such as average time and maximum time.

    You can see the results in the Ruleset Execution column. The Task Execution column is not available. The view shows statistics for the selected mode, either Ruleset Execution or Task Execution.

    Image shows ruleset execution statistics.
  4. In a separate browser window, open the Miniloan web application by using the following URL: http://localhost:<PORT>/miniloan-server. Use the correct port number for your installation.
  5. Select the Use Rules check box, and click Validate Loan.
  6. Switch back to the Rule Execution Server console and click Refresh.

    In the statistics, the number of rule executions increases each time that you validate the loan.

Step 3: Running a transaction in the Miniloan application

About this task

In the previous task, you added the monitoring.enabled ruleset property to keep a trace of the decision history. Every transaction that you simulate for the ruleset is now stored and logged in Decision Warehouse.

Procedure

  1. Ensure that the Miniloan application is started. In a browser, enter the following URL with the correct port number: http://localhost:<PORT>/miniloan-server.
  2. Change the amount of the loan to 2000000.
  3. Select the Use Rules check box, and click Validate Loan. The loan is rejected.

Step 4: Searching for past transactions in Decision Warehouse

About this task

You search for past transactions and decision traces in Decision Warehouse to find the decision that caused the failed transaction.

Procedure

  1. In the Rule Execution Server console, click the Decision Warehouse tab.
  2. On the Search Decisions page, leave the fields blank, and click Search.

    Decision Warehouse displays the decisions for the transactions that you ran in the Miniloan application. It shows the transaction from Step 3: Running a transaction in the Miniloan application, including the date and the processing time, and that one rule was run.

    Image shows a transaction for the miniloan application.

Step 5: Viewing the run rules

About this task

You can use Decision Warehouse to determine why the loan is rejected. You check the execution details for a decision and view the rules that were run.

Procedure

  1. In the table that lists the decisions in the Decision Trace column, click View Decision details for the decision in which one rule was run.

    The details of decision traces open in a new window.

  2. In Decision Trace, expand Ruleflow Tasks > miniloan > miniloan>validation.

    The decision trace shows that the rule validation.maximum amount was run.

    Image shows the Decision Trace for the miniloan transaction.

    The loan was rejected because the amount that was entered in Step 3: Running a transaction in the Miniloan application exceeded the maximum amount of 1000000.

  3. In Input Parameters, review the listed input parameters.

    You can see that the input parameter for the amount of the loan is 2000000:

    <amount>
<int>2000000</int>
</amount>
  4. Close the decision trace window, and sign out of Rule Execution Server.

Results

You monitored the performance of rulesets and traced transactions. In the next task, you publish the rule project to Decision Center to make the rules accessible to business users in a shared web-based environment.

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