ITCAM for SOA 7.2 Fix Pack 1

Business Process Monitoring

ITCAM for SOA provides enhanced business monitoring support. ITCAM for SOA provides the capability to monitor the health of the applications on which business solutions are built. In addition to the service tracking available before version 7.2, ITCAM Data Collector for WebSphere® in version 7.2 supports the monitoring of BPMN processes, mediation flows, BPEL processes, human tasks, and adapters.

ITCAM for SOA version 7.2 and ITCAM Agent for WebSphere Applications version 7.2 are both agents of ITCAM for Applications version 7.2. ITCAM for Applications delivers a BPM monitoring solution through the features of ITCAM for SOA and ITCAM Agent for WebSphere Applications. ITCAM for SOA monitors the health of applications that are running BPM processes. ITCAM Agent for WebSphere Applications monitors the health of the infrastructure resources of the BPM system. For an overview of the BPM monitoring solution provided by ITCAM for Applications, see the IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for SOA BPM Monitoring Deployment Guide.

To configure data collection for IBM® BPM, complete the following steps:
  1. Install the ITCAM for SOA monitoring agent and ITCAM Data Collector for WebSphere on the computer system where your WebSphere Application Server is installed.
  2. Use the ITCAM Data Collector for WebSphere Configuration utility to integrate the data collector with the ITCAM for SOA monitoring agent and the ITCAM Agent for WebSphere Applications monitoring agent. Select the application server instances on which your business applications are running.
  3. Install ITCAM Agent for WebSphere Applications on the same computer system. If you installed the same versions, release, and maintenance level of ITCAM Data Collector for WebSphere as part of the installation of ITCAM for SOA, reuse this data collector installation for ITCAM Agent for WebSphere Applications.
For more information about installing ITCAM Data Collector for WebSphere, see Installing ITCAM for SOA 7.2, updating to 7.2 Fix Pack 1, and configuring ITCAM Data Collector for WebSphere.

Considerations for installing and configuring IBM Business Process Manager

If you intend to monitor your business process applications through ITCAM for SOA, take the following into consideration when you install and configure IBM Business Process Manager (BPM):
  1. To enable the monitoring of human tasks in ITCAM for SOA, you must enable common event infrastructure (CEI) logging for the Human Task Container and the Business Flow Manager in IBM BPM. CEI logging is disabled by default. For more information about enabling CEI logging, see the "Enabling monitoring of business process and human task events" section in the IBM BPM information center.
    Tip: Enabling audit logging or task history is not required.
  2. To track all invocations of BPEL processes in ITCAM for SOA, you must enable SCA events in IBM BPM. To enable SCA events, follow the procedure in "Considerations for monitoring SCA events from IBM Business Process Manager Advanced" in the IBM BPM information center.
  3. To update the namespace value associated with a BPEL process, you must deploy a new EAR file with the updated namespace. To ensure that the namespace value is updated on the UI for the BPEL process, complete the following steps:
    1. Stop the business process application using the WebSphere Integrated Solutions Console.
    2. Update the application with the new EAR file. The file contains the updated namespace value for the BPEL process.
    3. Restart the application.
  4. To display metrics on Business Process Definition (BPD) nodes in the portal client when a SCA invokes a BPD process, the BPD must be in an active state. To activate a BPD in IBM Process Designer, complete the following steps:
    1. Log in to IBM Process Designer.
    2. Select the BPD.
    3. Right-click Activate.
  5. Ensure that snapshots of process applications are deployed and activated on the Process Center. ITCAM for SOA does not monitor non-snapshot versions (for example, tip versions) of process applications.
  6. Before you upgrade from IBM BPM version 7.5.1 fix pack 1 to version 8.0 or later, you must unconfigure ITCAM Data Collector for WebSphere. After you upgrade IBM BPM, reconfigure the data collector with the same settings. For more information about upgrading IBM BPM and configuring data collection, see Configuring data collection for ITCAM for SOA when upgrading IBM BPM.
  7. The report request limit that is specified in the portal server environment file defines the normal limit of pending report requests to the portal server from a single client. In an IBM BPM environment, if many application servers are monitored on a single application server host, this limit might be exceeded. If you plan to configure data collection for multiple application servers, increase the report request limit from 50 to 100. For information about increasing the report request limit, see Increasing the report request limit on the portal server on Windows systems or Increasing the report request limit on the portal server on Linux or UNIX systems.
  8. In the topology views in Tivoli® Enterprise Portal, a link to the BPC Explorer can be made available in the flyover and Details window of a SCA human task or a BPEL component node. To make the link available, you must configure the BPC Explorer root URL. For more information about configuring the root URL, see Configuring linking to the BPC Explorer.
Restriction: In a BPEL to BPD invocation, the average response time metrics are not displayed on the link between the components in the Operational Flow workspaces in the Tivoli Enterprise Portal.
Parent topic: Configuring data collection: WebSphere Application Server

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