Application monitoring

PowerHA SystemMirror monitors applications in one of two ways:

• Process monitoring detects the termination of a process, using Reliable Scalable Cluster Technology (RSCT) and Resource Monitoring and Control (RMC) capability.
• Custom monitoring monitors the health of an application, using a monitor method that you define.

You can configure multiple application monitors and associate them with one or more application controllers. You can assign each monitor a unique name in SMIT. By supporting multiple monitors per application, PowerHA SystemMirror can support more complex configurations. For example, you can configure one monitor for each instance of an Oracle parallel server in use. Otherwise, you can configure a custom monitor to check the health of the database along with a process stop monitor to instantly detect the end of the database process.

You can use the Application Availability Analysis tool to measure the exact amount of time that any of your PowerHA SystemMirror-defined applications is available. The PowerHA SystemMirror software collects, time stamps, and logs the following information:

• An application monitor is defined, changed, or removed
• An application starts, stops, or fails
• A node fails or is shut down, or startup
• A resource group is taken offline or moved
• Application monitoring via multiple monitors is suspended or resumed.