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ITCAM MQ agent shows zero values for Msgs Put per Sec, Msgs Read per Sec etc

Technical Blog Post


Abstract

ITCAM MQ agent shows zero values for Msgs Put per Sec, Msgs Read per Sec etc

Body

Product

ITCAM WebSphere MQ Monitoring agent V7.3.

Platform: Distributed

Problem

In Tivoli Enterprise Portal (TEP), the MQ agent Queue Statistics workspace shows zero values for attributes Msgs Put, Msgs Read, Messages Put per Sec, Messages Read per Sec. The current queue depth is non zero and the MQ admin says that these attributes should not be zero as messages are being put and read on the queue. What is causing these zero values for the attributes?

image

Solution

You must configure the WebSphere MQ Monitoring agent to collect the data that is displayed in Queue Statistics attributes.

Columns relating to the Queue Statistics are:

  • Highest Depth
  • Messages Put
  • Messages Put per Sec
  • Messages Read
  • Messages Read per Sec
  • Time to Full Queue (Secs)
  • Time to Zero Msgs (Secs)

By default, the collection of these attributes is disabled, and these attributes will therefore show zero values.

Use following steps to enable queue statistics collection for the MQ agent.

Be aware that using the Queue Statistics feature affects other information processing. Carefully consider the impact before enabling this collection.For information about enabling Queue Statistics feature considerations, see the section "Collecting queue statistics data" in the ITCAM Agent for WebSphere MQ: User's Guide (See link in references section of this post)

1) Set the STATISTICS monitoring option of the SET QUEUE statement in the agent monitoring file to YES.

For example, in host_mq_INST.cfg under ITMHOME/config file:

change the SET QUEUE statement as follows:
From:
SET QUEUE NAME(*) MGRNAME(qmgr_name) QDEFTYPE(PREDEFINED)
To:
SET QUEUE NAME(*) MGRNAME(qmgr_name) QDEFTYPE(PREDEFINED) STATISTICS(YES)

2) Restart of the monitoring agent is required for the changes to take effect.

Important note

You may still see zero values for Msgs Put per Sec, Messages Read per Sec etc, even after STATISTICS(YES) is added for SET QUEUE and restarting the agent.

The "Current Depth" for queue may be non-zero or even a large number, and yet the attributes show zero values. The reason is that there are no message get or put activity in the last sampling interval which is determined by SAMPINT in the agent configuration file.

PERFORM STARTMON SAMPINT(300)

You can check the activity in prior intervals by checking the Recent Queue Statistics (Linked from Queue Statistics workspace row) as shown in the following screenshots:

Access linked "Recent Queue Statistics" workspace from Queue Statistics row as shown:

image

Recent Queue Statistics in prior intervals is shown in the linked workspace:

image

Tips for testing the scenario for queue statistics columns

Create a test local queue ('TESTQ' ).

Put many messages on the queue. A quick way to accomplish that is to use the MQ provided tool amqsblst to put large number of messages on the queue within a short interval.

For example, following command will place 1000 messages on the queue.

amqsblst qmgrname queuename -W -c 1000
 

Following command will read messages from the queue:
amqsblst qmgrname queuename -R

This tool is located in following directories:

Linux:

MQ_HOME/samp/bin/amqsblst

Windows:

MQ_HOME\Tools\c\Samples\Bin64\amqsblst

Check the workspaces for the attributes.

References

Collecting data for the Queue Statistics workspace

Collecting queue statistics data
ITCAM Agent for WebSphere MQ User's Guide

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UID

ibm11082967