Monitoring IBM App Connect Enterprise (ACE)
With Instana Observability, you can monitor your IBM ACE environment to gain complete visibility into its health and performance. To begin, install the Instana host agent in your environment. The agent automatically deploys the IBM ACE sensor, which starts collecting monitoring data after you configure it. You can then view this data in the Instana UI.
Support information
To make sure that the IBM App Connect Enterprise (ACE) sensor is compatible with your current setup, check the following support information sections:
Supported operating systems
The IBM ACE sensor is automatically installed after the host agent is installed on supported operating systems. For more information, see the supported operating systems for host agents.
The automatic discovery feature of the IBM ACE sensor in the traditional ACE environment supports the following OS:
- Linux
- AIX
Windows is not supported.
Supported versions and support policy
- The IBM ACE sensor supports metrics and configuration data for IBM Integration Bus (IIB) 10.0.x, IBM ACE 11.0.x, IBM ACE 12.0.x, and IBM ACE 13.0.x that are installed in all supported operating systems. However, the automatic discovery feature of the IBM ACE sensor in the traditional ACE environment supports only IBM ACE 11 or later; IIB 10 is not supported.
- IBM ACE Tracing supports different versions and platforms. For more information, see Supported IBM ACE Tracing versions and platforms.
The following table shows the latest supported version and support policy:
| Technology | Support policy | Latest technology version | Latest supported version |
|---|---|---|---|
| IBM App Connect Enterprise (ACE) | 45 days | 13.0.2.0 | 13.0.2.0 |
For more information about the support policy, see Support strategy for sensors.
- For IBM Integration Bus 10, make sure that you use version 10.0.0.24 or later. Or else, the Number of Thread In Pool metric does not report the correct value in accordance with the WLM policy.
- In a cloud-native environment, only IBM ACE certified container image is supported.
The Instana ACE Tracing user exit supports the following platforms:
- BM ACE versions from 11.0.0.8 through ACE 12.0.6.x. For more information about OpenTelemetry tracing integration as an alternative, see Configuring OpenTelemetry tracing for integration runtimes.
- Traditional ACE in Linux x86_64, Linux ppc64le, Linux s390x, AIX 7.2, AIX 7.3, Windows, and container ACE in IBM Cloud Pak for Integration (amd64 only).
- On AIX 7.2, you must install XL C/C++ Runtime for AIX 16.1.0 Fix Pack 7 or later versions, including the file set
libc++.rte. You can use the following command to check whether the file setlibc++.rteis installed:lslpp -l |grep libc++.rte - On Windows, you must install MSVC Runtime v2019.
Additional support information
The IBM ACE sensor supports both local and remote monitoring.
Configuring the IBM ACE sensor
You can configure the IBM ACE sensor in a traditional or cloud-native environment. For more information, see Configuring the IBM ACE sensor.
Configuring tracing for IBM ACE
You can trace IBM ACE with the Instana ACE Tracing user exit. For more information, see Configuring tracing for IBM ACE.
Viewing metrics
To view the metrics, complete the following steps:
- From the navigation menu in the Instana UI, select Infrastructure.
- Click a specific monitored IBM ACE instance.
You can see the IBM ACE dashboard with all the collected metrics and monitored processes.
Configuration data
The sensor collects the following configuration data from the IBM ACE instance:
- Default Queue Manager Name
- Product Name
- Version
- Build Level
- Platform Name
- Platform Architecture
- Platform Version
- Application Name
Performance metrics
The sensor collects the following performance metrics:
Integration server
The following table outlines the metrics collected from the integration server:
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| Initial Heap Memory | The initial amount of memory that the JVM requests from the operating system for memory management during startup. |
| Used Heap Memory | The amount of memory that is in use. |
| Committed Heap Memory | The amount of memory that is allocated to the JVM by the operating system. |
| Max Heap Memory | The maximum amount of memory that can be used for memory management. |
| Initial Nonheap Memory | The initial amount of memory that the JVM requests from the operating system for memory management during startup. |
| Used Nonheap Memory | The amount of memory that is in use. |
| Committed Nonheap Memory | The amount of memory that is allocated to the JVM by the operating system. |
| Max Nonheap Memory | The maximum amount of memory that can be used for memory management. |
| Cumulative GC Time | The time when the data is collected, in seconds. |
| Cumulative Number of GC | The total number of garbage collections occurred for this instance of the JVM. |
Message flow
The following table outlines the message flow metrics:
| Metric | Data type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Total Elapsed Time | Numeric | The total elapsed time in microseconds that a message flow spent in processing input messages. |
| Maximum Elapsed Time | Numeric | The maximum elapsed time in microseconds that a message flow spent in processing an input message. |
| Minimum Elapsed Time | Numeric | The minimum elapsed time in microseconds that a message flow spent in processing an input message. |
| Total CPU Time | Numeric | The total CPU time in microseconds that a message flow spent in processing an input message. |
| Max CPU Time | Numeric | The maximum CPU time in microseconds that a message flow spent in processing an input message. |
| Min CPU Time | Numeric | The minimum CPU time in microseconds that a message flow spent in processing an input message. |
| CPU Time Waiting For Input messages | Numeric | The total CPU time in microseconds that a message flow spent in waiting for input messages. |
| Elapsed Time Waiting For Input messages | Numeric | The total elapsed time in microseconds that is spent in waiting for input messages. |
| Num of All Input messages | Numeric | The total number of input messages. |
| Total Size of Input Messages | Numeric | The total size of input messages in bytes. |
| Maximum Size of Input Messages | Numeric | The maximum size of input messages in bytes. |
| Minimum Size of Input Messages | Numeric | The minimum size of input messages in bytes. |
| Number of Threads in Pool | Numeric | The number of threads in the pool. |
| Number of Times That Max Threads Reached | Numeric | The number of times the maximum number of threads is reached. |
| Number of MQGET Errors | Numeric | The number of MQGET errors for MQInput nodes or Web Services errors for HTTPInput nodes. |
| Number of Messages with Errors | Numeric | The number of messages that contain errors. |
| Number of Errors when you are processing Messages | Numeric | The number of errors that occur when you process a message. |
| Number of Transaction timeouts | Numeric | The number of transaction timeouts that occur when you process a message (for AggregateReply nodes only). |
| Number of Transaction Commits | Numeric | The number of transaction commits that occur when you process a message. |
| Number of Transaction Backouts | Numeric | The number of transaction backouts that occur when you process a message. |
| Thread Utilization | Numeric | The number of thread usage for each message flow. |
Message flow node
The following table outlines the metrics collected from the message flow node:
| Metric | Data type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Total Elapsed Time | Numeric | The total elapsed time in microseconds that is spent in processing input messages. |
| Max Elapsed Time | Numeric | The maximum elapsed time in microseconds that is spent in processing input messages. |
| Min Elapsed Time | Numeric | The minimum elapsed time in microseconds that is spent in processing input messages. |
| Total CPU Time | Numeric | The total CPU time in microseconds that is spent in processing input messages. |
| Max CPU Time | Numeric | The maximum CPU time in microseconds that is spent in processing an input message. |
| Min CPU Time | Numeric | The minimum CPU time in microseconds that is spent in processing an input message. |
| Number of Invocations | Numeric | The total number of messages that are processed by this flow node. |
| Number of Input-type Terminals | Numeric | The number of input-type terminals. |
| Number of Output-type Terminals | Numeric | The number of output-type terminals. |
Known limitations
If HTTPS is enabled for REST API interface, you need to specify keystore and keystorePassword parameters in <agent_install_dir>/etc/instana/configuration.yaml. For keystore type, only
JKS or P12 is supported.
Health signatures
Each sensor has a curated knowledgebase of health signatures that are evaluated continuously against the incoming metrics and are used to raise issues or incidents, which depend on user impact.
Built-in events trigger issues or incidents based on failing health signatures on entities, and custom events trigger issues or incidents based on the thresholds of an individual metric of any entity.
For more information about built-in events for IBM ACE sensor, see Built-in events reference.
Troubleshooting
You might encounter some monitoring issues with Instana. For more information about how to resolve them, see Troubleshooting.