Administering the .NET Package

Integration Server Administrator and Package for Microsoft .NET

You can use Integration Server Administrator to administer and manage the Package for Microsoft .NET from any standard browser. Among the activities you can perform are:

  • View general status of the Package for Microsoft .NET.
  • Start and stop the underlying .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR).
  • View status of (and destroy) application domains.
  • Unload .NET assembly dynamically-linked libraries (DLL) by destroying the application domain that loaded them.
  • View runtime status and statistics about individual assembly DLLs.
  • View and manage .NET objects managed by the .NET CLR.
  • Install the IBM webMethods Add-In for Microsoft Visual Studio.

Accessing the Package for Microsoft .NET

About this task

You can access the Package for Microsoft .NET through Integration Server Administrator.

To access the Package for Microsoft .NET from a connection to Integration Server

Procedure

  1. Point your browser to the host and port for an instance of Integration Server where the Package for Microsoft .NET is installed. Use the syntax http://host:port. For example, if Integration Server is running on the default port on a machine named myhost, you would typehttp://myhost:5555.
  2. Log on with a user name that has administrator privileges. For information on maintaining administrator privileges, see IBM webMethods Integration Server Administrator’s Guide.
  3. In the Solutions menu of the navigation panel on the left side, click Microsoft Package.

Pages for Administering the Microsoft .NET Package

Integration Server Administrator contains a variety of pages for administering the Package for Microsoft .NET, depending on the menu item selected in the navigation panel. The pages in Integration Server Administrator are described in the following places:

Page Description
Manage CLR Starts and stops the Microsoft .NET CLR, and displays information and statistics. See The Manage CLR Page.
Manage Application Domains Displays information about the application domains loaded onto the Microsoft .NET CLR. See The Manage Application Domains Page.
Manage Monitoring Options Controls monitoring options for the Package for Microsoft .NET. See The Manage Monitoring Options Page.
Install VS Plugin Makes available some installation packages needed by users of the Package for Microsoft .NET. See The Install VS Plugin Page.
View Assemblies Displays information about the assemblies loaded onto a specific application domain. See The View Assemblies Page.
Manage .NET Object Instances Displays information about object instances created and currently running in a specific application domain. See The Manage .NET Object Instances Page.

Displaying Pages in Integration Server Administrator

About this task

To display pages for the Package for Microsoft .NET

Procedure

  1. Open Integration Server Administrator and display the Package for Microsoft .NET pages, as described in Accessing the Package for Microsoft .NET.
  2. In the Administration menu of the navigation panel, click the link to the page you want to display.
    The exceptions to this step are:
    • Install VS Plugin page, available in the Resources menu of the navigation panel.
    • View Assemblies page, available on the Manage Application Domains page.
    • Manage .NET Object Instance page, available on the Manage Application Domains page.

Refreshing the View

About this task

Integration Server Administrator polls Integration Server at regular intervals for information about the Microsoft .NET CLR. In addition to automatic polling, you can poll at any time using the Refresh command.

To refresh the information in Integration Server Administrator

Procedure

  1. Make sure Integration Server Administrator is displaying one of the pages you can select from the navigation frame.
  2. Click Refresh, commonly found in the upper-left portion of the page.

Results

To change the interval for automatic polling, see The Manage Monitoring Options Page.

The Manage CLR Page

Using the Manage CLR page, you can start and stop the Microsoft .NET CLR and display information about it. This page has the following topics:

Values in the Manage CLR Page.

Starting and Stopping the Microsoft .NET CLR.

Tracing for the Package for Microsoft .NET.

To display the Manage CLR page, open Integration Server Administrator as described in Accessing the Package for Microsoft .NET and, in the Administration menu, click Manage CLR.

Values in the Manage CLR Page

The CLR Info panel contains the following values:

Value Description
Status Current state of the .NET CLR. Values are:
  • Loaded-The CLR is running.
  • Not Loaded-The CLR is not running.
Version The version number of the CLR (Microsoft .NET Framework).
Start Time If the CLR is running (Loaded), contains the date and time the CLR was started.

The CLR Statistics panel contains the following values:

Value Description
Method Invoke Count The total number of methods invoked since the CLR was started.
Application Domain Count The number of application domains loaded onto the CLR.
Physical Thread Count The number of operating system threads being used by the CLR.
Logical Thread Count The number of logical threads as allocated within the CLR. This number is typically larger than the Physical Thread Count, but an excessive difference, several times the physical count, indicates an error. In case of error, you must restart the CLR.
Total Process Memory Used The amount of memory in use by Package for Microsoft .NET.
CLR Memory Used The amount of memory in use by the CLR.
Tracing An action you can use to enable or disable tracing (see Tracing for the Package for Microsoft .NET). Tracing is disabled by default.
  Enabled Tracing is currently enabled. Click to disable.
  Disabled Tracing is currently disabled. Click to enable.

Starting and Stopping the Microsoft .NET CLR

About this task

You can start and stop the Microsoft .NET CLR in the Manage CLR page of the Package for Microsoft .NET.

To start or stop the .NET CLR

Procedure

  1. Open Integration Server Administrator and display the Package for Microsoft .NET pages, as described in Accessing the Package for Microsoft .NET.
  2. In the Administration menu of the navigation frame, click Manage CLR.
  3. In the Manage CLR page, determine the current status of the CLR by looking at the Status field of the CLR Info panel:
    If the status is... The CLR is...
    Not Loaded Not running.
    Loaded Running.
  4. Perform one of the following actions:
    To do this... Click this link...
    Start the CLR Start the CLR.
    Stop the CLR Stop the CLR.

Tracing for the Package for Microsoft .NET

The Package for Microsoft .NET provides two kinds of tracing for services created from .NET assembly methods:
  • .NET assembly method invocation tracing.
  • .NET assembly introspection tracing.
See Location of the Log File.

Method Invocation Tracing

About this task

Method invocation tracing writes trace statements at all points: IData decode, assembly load, module location, class location, method location, parameter conversion, return parameter conversion and IData modifications. You can set method invocation tracing for individual .NET services, or for all .NET services.

You can set method invocation tracing for individual services created from .NET assembly methods. This type of tracing is useful if you want to collect information on a specific service.

To set method invocation tracing for an individual service

Procedure
  1. From the navigation panel in Designer, double-click the .NET service for which you want to enable method invocation tracing.
  2. On the Run menu, click Run.
  3. In the Trace field of the input dialog box, type true.

    Tracing is enabled for this service every time it is run until you clear the Trace field or replace true with false.

Results
Using the Package for Microsoft .NET, you can enable method invocation tracing for all services created from .NET assembly methods, overriding any services for which the trace input parameter is set to false. To enable or disable all tracing, see Controlling Tracing from Integration Server Administrator.

Assembly Introspection Tracing

Assembly introspection tracing writes trace statements at all introspection points: assembly load, module discovery, class discovery, method discovery, parameter discovery, and XML document generation. You can set introspection tracing only in the Integration Server Administrator. To enable or disable all tracing, see Controlling Tracing from Integration Server Administrator.

Location of the Log File

The log file for all tracing performed by the Package for Microsoft .NET is Integration Server_directory\logs\MicrosoftPackage-domain_name.log. If the domain name is not provided while executing the service, the Tracing log is created in the default log file Integration Server_directory\logs\MicrosoftPackage-webmDomain.log.

Note: When tracing is enabled, the Package for Microsoft .NET creates a large number of log messages for each service, resulting in slower processing and the consumption of large amounts of disk space. IBM recommends that you must enable the tracing only when you want to troubleshoot the Package for Microsoft .NET.

All internal system logs for Package for Microsoft .NET are logged to Integration Server_directory\logs\MicrosoftPackage-wmSystem.log

Controlling Tracing from Integration Server Administrator

About this task

Use the Integration Server Administrator to enable or disable tracing for assembly introspection and for all services invoked from .NET assembly methods. To set method invocation tracing for individual services, see Method Invocation Tracing.

To enable tracing for all services created from .NET assembly methods

Procedure
  1. Open Integration Server Administrator and display the Package for Microsoft .NET pages, as described in Accessing the Package for Microsoft .NET.
  2. In the Administration menu of the navigation frame, click Manage CLR.
  3. In the Manage CLR page, determine the current status of tracing by looking at the Tracing action of the CLR Statistics panel.
  4. Perform one of the following actions:
    To do this... Click this link...
    Enable tracing Disabled
    Disable tracing Enabled

The Manage Application Domains Page

An application domain is a boundary between objects in the same application scope, which is established by the CLR. Application domains provide the ability to isolate multiple applications running within a process. You can have multiple application domains loaded onto the CLR and destroy each of them independently without stopping and restarting Integration Server.

To display the Manage Application Domains page, open Integration Server Administrator as described in Accessing the Package for Microsoft .NET and, in the Administration menu, click Manage Application Domains.

The Manage Application Domains page displays the following information about the application domains loaded into the Microsoft .NET CLR.

Value or link Description
Domain Name The name of the application domain.
View Assemblies A link to the View Assemblies page for the application domain. See The View Assemblies Page.
View Objects A link to the Manage .NET Object Instances page for the application domain. See The Manage .NET Object Instances Page.
View Details Information regarding the application domain such as Name, Started Time, Number of invoked methods and Last method invoke time.
Method Invoke Count The number of times methods in the assembly have been invoked for the application domain.
Action An action you can use to destroy the application domain. Click Destroy.
Note: You cannot destroy the default application domain named webmDomain.

The View Assemblies Page

About this task

To view the assemblies in an application domain

Procedure

  1. Open Integration Server Administrator and display the Package for Microsoft .NET pages, as described in Accessing the Package for Microsoft .NET.
  2. In the Administration menu of the navigation panel, click Manage Application Domains.
  3. In the View Assemblies column for the application domain, click Assemblies.

Results

The View Assemblies page displays the following information about the assemblies loaded into the Microsoft .NET CLR.
Value Description
Assembly Name The name of the assembly.
Version The version number of the assembly, if applicable.
Culture The locale of the assembly. A value of neutral means the assembly has not been localized.
Method Invoke Count The number of times methods in the assembly have been invoked for the application domain.
Last Invoke Time The most recent date and time a method in the assembly was invoked.

The Manage .NET Object Instances Page

About this task

To view the .NET objects in an application domain

Procedure

  1. Open Integration Server Administrator and display the Package for Microsoft .NET pages, as described in Accessing the Package for Microsoft .NET.
  2. In the Administration menu of the navigation frame, click Manage Application Domains.
  3. In the View Objects column for the application domain, click Objects.

Results

An object is an instance of a class. Objects have the ability to contain data, making it possible to store data. An object with a Session lifetime allows a user session to store data needed by a later method; an object with a Global lifetime makes it possible for multiple user sessions to share data. The Manage .NET Object Instances page displays the following information about objects with a Session or Global lifetime currently running on the Microsoft .NET CLR.
Value Description
Action An action you can use to destroy an object. Click Destroy.
Object Class The class to which the object belongs.
ID The unique value that identifies this particular instance.
Invoke Count The number of methods that have been invoked on this object since it was created.
TTL/Timeout (sec) The time to live (TTL) for this object and the timeout value established for it, both in seconds. When the TTL value equals zero, the object is destroyed. Applicable to only the Session lifetime.
Avg Response (ms) The average response time, in milliseconds, of all methods invoked on the object since the object was created.
Last Method The name of the method most recently invoked on the method.
Last Method Response (ms) The response time, in milliseconds, of the method most recently invoked on the object.

The Domain Details Page

About this task

To view the details of an application domain

Procedure

  1. Open Integration Server Administrator and display the Package for Microsoft .NET pages, as described in Accessing the Package for Microsoft .NET.
  2. In the Administration menu of the navigation frame, click Manage Application Domains.
  3. In the View Details column for the application domain, click Details.

Results

The Domain Details page displays the following information about the application domain.
Value Description
Name The name of the application domain.
Start Time The time when the application domain started.
Method Invoke Count The number of times methods in the application domain have been invoked since the CLR started.
Last Invoke Time The most recent date and time a method in the application domain was invoked.

The Manage Monitoring Options Page

About this task

Use the Manage Monitoring Options page to change the refresh interval, which determines how often Integration Server Administrator polls Integration Server for information about the Package for Microsoft .NET.

To change the refresh interval

Procedure

  1. Open Integration Server Administrator and display the Package for Microsoft .NET pages, as described in Accessing the Package for Microsoft .NET.
  2. In the Administration menu of the navigation frame, click Manage Monitoring Options.
  3. In the Refresh Interval field of the Options page, type a value for the polling interval, in seconds.
  4. Click Save Changes.

    The change in polling interval takes place immediately.

The Install VS Plugin Page

About this task

Use the Install VS Plugin page to access the webMethods add-in for Microsoft Visual Studio.

To install the webMethods add-in for Microsoft Visual Studio

Procedure

  1. Open Integration Server Administrator on a machine where Visual Studio is installed.
  2. In the Resources menu of the navigation panel, click Install VS Plugin.
  3. Right-click the required Install File depending on the version of the Visual Studio IDE and, in the pop-up menu, click Save Link As or Save Target As, depending on your browser, to save a copy on your machine.
    Note: Make sure the file extension is .msi for Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 and lower before you save the file to your machine.
    • Make sure the file extension is .vsix for Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 and higher before you save the file to your machine.
  4. Run the executable file and follow the instructions Using the IBM webMethods Add-In for Microsoft Visual Studio.