Monitoring IBM MQ Managed File Transfer (technology preview)

After you install the Instana host agent, IBM MQ Managed File Transfer (MFT) sensor is automatically installed, but you need to configure IBM MQ MFT sensor as outlined in this topic. Then, you can view metrics that are related with IBM MQ MFT in the Instana UI.

Supported information
- Supported operating systems
- Supported IBM MQ MFT versions and platforms
Configuring
Viewing metrics
Built-in events

Supported information

Supported operating systems

The supported operating systems of IBM MQ MFT sensor are consistent with host agents requirements, which can be checked in the Supported operating systems section of each host agent, such as Supported operating systems for Linux.

Supported IBM MQ MFT versions and platforms

Instana supports metrics and configuration data for IBM MQ MFT 9.0.0 or later, which are installed in all the platfroms that are supported by IBM MQ MFT. See IBM MQ components and features.

Notes:

Instana supports only remote monitoring for single instance and multiple instances. Each Instance is for each Coordination Queue Manager that can be from the traditional IBM MQ environment or IBM Cloud Pak for Integration deployment in OpenShift.
Tracing is not supported.

Configuring

To collect the remote monitoring data of IBM MQ MFT, you need to configure the following fields in the agent configuration file <agent_install_dir>/etc/instana/configuration.yaml as follows:

The MFT sensor instance connects to coordination queue manager and command queue manager by using the server connection channels. Make sure that the configurations are correct. You can verify by adding the remote queue managers from IBM MQ explorer, and ensure that connections can be successful. The instance name needs to follow the <COORDINATION_QUEUE_MANAGER_NAME>-<HOST> format. Otherwise, the instance will be ignored and not monitored.

See the following configurations in <agent_install_dir>/etc/instana/configuration.yaml:

# IBM MQ Managed File Transfer
com.instana.plugin.ibmmqmft:
  enabled: true
  poll_rate: 10 # Default is 10 seconds
    instances:
      <INSERT_INSTANCE_NAME_HERE>: # Your MFT instance name must be in <COORDINATION_QUEUE_MANAGER_NAME>-<HOST> format
        # transfer_expired_interval: 10 # How long recent completed transfers are retained in minutes.(optional)
        coordinationQueueManager:
          name: '<INSERT_COORDINATION_QUEUE_MANAGER_NAME_HERE>' # Coordination queue manager name
          host: '<INSERT_HOST_HERE>' # Coordination Queue Manager host
          port: '<INSERT_PORT_HERE>' # Remote server connection channel port
          channel: '<INSERT_CHANNEL_HERE>' # Remote server connection channel
          username: '<INSERT_USERNAME_HERE>' # User ID to connect to the remote queue manager (optional)
          password: '<INSERT_PASSWORD_HERE>' # User password to connect to remote queue manager (optional)
          keystore: '<INSERT_KEYSTORE_PATH_HERE>' # Keystore path for TLS connection (required only when TLS is enabled)
          keystorePassword: '<INSERT_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD_HERE>' # Keystore password for TLS connection (required only when TLS is enabled)
          cipherSuite: '<INSERT_CIPHER_SUITE_HERE>' # TLS cipher suite for TLS connection (required only when TLS is enabled)
        commandQueueManager:
          name: '<INSERT_COMMAND_QUEUE_MANAGER_NAME_HERE>' # Command queue manager name
          host: '<INSERT_HOST_HERE>' # Command Queue Manager host
          port: '<INSERT_PORT_HERE>' # Remote server connection channel port
          channel: '<INSERT_CHANNEL_HERE>' # Remote server connection channel
          username: '<INSERT_USERNAME_HERE>' # User ID to connect to the remote queue manager (optional)
          password: '<INSERT_PASSWORD_HERE>' # User password to connect to remote queue manager (optional)
          keystore: '<INSERT_KEYSTORE_PATH_HERE>' # Keystore path for TLS connection (required only when TLS is enabled)
          keystorePassword: '<INSERT_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD_HERE>' # Keystore password for TLS connection (required only when TLS is enabled)
          cipherSuite: '<INSERT_CIPHER_SUITE_HERE>' # TLS cipher suite for TLS connection (required only when TLS is enabled)

IBM MQ MFT sensor does not support local binding when you connect to the IBM MQ queue manager. If no user and password are specified in the configuration.yaml file, the user that is used depends on the IBM MQ queue manager configuration. For more information about the user ID that is used by a server connection channel, see Access control for clients.

Viewing metrics

To view the metrics, select Infrastructure in the sidebar of the Instana console, and locate IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Zone.

To view the metrics, complete the following steps:

In the sidebar of the Instana UI, select Infrastructure.
Click IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Zone.

Then, you can find the monitored Managed file transfer (MFT) instances for configured coordination queue manager if your configuration is correct.

Coordination queue manager

Configuration data

Coordination Queue Manager Details	Description
Coordination Queue Manager	Name of coordination Queue Manager
Host	Host of coordination Queue Manager

Performance metrics

Coordination Queue Manager Metric	Description
Current Transfers	Count of current transfers after this sensor instance is activated
Total Transfers	Count of current transfers after this sensor instance is activated
Successful Transfers	Count of successful transfers within last polling interval
Failed Transfers	Count of failed transfers within last polling interval
Partially Successful Transfers	Count of partially successful transfers within last polling interval

MFT agent

Configuration data

MFT Agent Details	Description
Type	Agent type
Time Zone	Agent Time Zone
Max Source Transfers	The maximum number of concurrent transfers that the source agent processes at any point in time
Max Destination Transfers	The maximum number of concurrent transfers that the destination agent processes at any point in time
Max Queued Transfers	The maximum number of pending transfers that can be queued by an agent until the agent rejects a new transfer request
Name	The name of MFT agent
Queue Manager	The queue manager name that MFT agent connects to
Start Time(UTC)	The started timestamp in UTC when agent starts

Performance metrics

MFT agent metric	Description
Source Transfers	The count of source transfers through the agent.
Destination Transfers	The count of destination transfers through the agent.
Status	The status of the MFT agent.
Running Transfers	The count of current running transfers through the agent.
Total Current Transfers	The count of total running transfers through the agent.
Total Timed Out Transfers	The count of total timedout transfers through the agent.
Total Retrying transfers	The count of total retrying transfers through the agent.
Total Transfers Waiting For Agent Capacity	The count of total transfers that are waiting for agent capacity.

Current File Transfer

Configuration data

MFT Transfer details	Description
Transfer ID	The transfer ID
Started Time	The timestamp when the transfer starts
Source Agent	The name of the agent on the system where the source file is located
Source QueueManager	The name of the queue manager that the source agent connects to
Destination Agent	The name of the agent on the system that you want to transfer the file to
Destination QueueManager	The name of the queue manager that the destination agent connects to
Originator	The originator who triggers the transfer
Status	The current status of the transfer
Current File	The source path of the file that is being transferred
Progress	The transferring progress. For example, 2 files need to be transferred. If the first file has been transferred, the progress is shown as `1/2`. Then, if the first file transfer has finished and the second file transfer starts, the progress is shown as `2/2`.

Performance metrics

MFT Transfer Metric	UI display	Description
elapsedSeconds	Time elapsed(s)	Number of seconds that are taken to transfer those bytes
statsTransferredBytes	Transferred(b)	Number of bytes that are copied so far
bytesSent	Bytes Sent	Number of bytes that are copied so far
currentItem	See Note 1	The index of the current item that is being transferred
totalItems	See Note 1	The total number of items that is being transferred
currentItemSize	Total(b)	Number of total bytes of the current item

MFT monitor

Configuration data

MFT monitor Details	Description
Monitor	The name of the monitor, which is unique for this agent
Agent	The name of the agent where the resource monitor is defined
Status	The state of the monitor
Resource	The resource or resources that are monitored
Trigger Event	Condition when the transfer that is associated with the monitor is triggered
File Pattern	The match pattern of file name
Batch Size	The maximum number of trigger matches that are included in a single batch
Poll Interval	The time interval between each check of the resource against the trigger condition

Built-in events

You might see the following events:

IBM MQ MFT agent is not started or unreachable

When an agent is not in Ready or Active state, this event is triggered and associated to the corresponding agent.
IBM MQ MFT monitor is not started

When a MFT resource monitor is not in started state, this event is triggered and associated to the corresponding monitor.
IBM MQ File Transfer Failed

When a file transfer fails for any reason, this event is triggered and shown in the corresponding coordination queue manager.