Monitors

Author Monitor

Go to Admin > Activity Logs > Author Monitor to search for information about the Authoring server performance. The page contains fields for the search criteria that can be used: project ID, Web server, Company, and the time periods hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or yearly. Depending on the time period selected, search fields for hour, date, week or year are made available. The Group by field offers options depending on the time period selected, and the search result is grouped according to the selection made in this field.

During some operations, some pages could take a considerable time to run and could cause the operation to time-out. Pages that have been found to sometimes cause time-outs have therefore been defined as “Async”, meaning that those pages support Asynchronous operations. Running those pages as Async allows them to run without timing out, but the resulting times may disturb the readings in the operation log. The Async field on the monitor page allows you to select whether or not the pages defined as Async are included in the calculations for the operation log. The options are:

• No – Async pages are not included in the log (default).
• Yes – only Async pages are included in the log.
• Both – all pages are included in the log.

Figure 1 - The Author Monitor page search fields

Add the appropriate search criteria, then click Search to display the information. The data is arranged according to the grouping selected (see the figure below). The information displayed is: number of hits, number of errors, average and sum of CPU total, CPU user code and Real total. Time is in milliseconds.

Grouping by Web Servers, for example, allows you to monitor the authoring server performance.

Figure 2 - Example of an Author Monitor search result

Click the Open in New Window button (beside the Reset button) to open additional search windows.

BitStream Monitor

This monitor logs interactions with BitStream servers, allowing you to monitor the health of the BitStream servers and be able to quickly identify the source of any heavy/problematic BitStream queries or file updates. This monitor logs much of the same type of information that logged by the other monitors, with the addition of some BitStream-specific items (BitStream server, operation type, query type, project, report etc). When a query fails or times out, details about the query are also logged.

Figure 3 - The BitStream Monitor search fields

Custom Solution Monitor

This monitor displays entries added via the CustomSolutionMonitor web service.

Figure 4 - The Custom Solution Monitor search fields

REST API Monitor

The REST API Monitor function is an internal monitor used to assess performance within the system. On-Premise users can use this monitor to see what is going on, who is doing it and how the system is performing.

The monitor’s functions and interface are very similar to the other system monitors.

Express Monitor

Go to Admin > Activity Logs > Express Monitor to search for information about the Express server performance. The page contains the same fields and functionality as the Author Monitor described here.

Flex Extensions Monitor

Go to Admin > Activity Logs > Flex Extensions Monitor to search for information about Flex activity. Add the appropriate search criteria, then click Search to display the information.

Figure 5 - Example of the results of a Flex Extensions search

Note that you can page through the resulting list by the selected interval, both forwards and backwards, using the << and >> buttons at either side of the result list header bar.

Panel Portal Monitor

The Panel Portal Monitor function monitors the traffic on a panel portal.

Figure 6 - The Panel Portal Monitor

This monitor’s functions and interface are very similar to those of the Survey monitor (see below).

Reportal Monitor

Go to Admin > Activity Logs > Reportal Monitor to open the Reportal Monitor window. Here you can search for information about report usage and performance. The filter fields available in the search window are described below.

Figure 7 - Reportal Monitor search fields

The fields are as follows:

• Report no – search for a specific report by its number, or search for reports with numbers higher or lower than the number entered in the field by using the operators in the drop down list.
• Web server – if more than one web server is installed, enter one server in the search field.
• Company – enter the company of the Forsta Plus user who has created the reports in the search.
• Cached – this is a drop down list with Yes and No alternatives. This enables the search result to include only cached reports or to include only not cached reports.
• Mode – a drop down list with a number of report modes - select Report Viewer, Report Designer, PDF Export, or All. Report Viewer mode counts only the reports accessed by end users with View access. Report Designer mode lists the transactions generated by accessing the report. PDF Export mode isolates the report views generated by PDF exports.
• Interval drop-down list – includes hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. Depending on the selected interval, search fields for hour, date, month and year are made available.
• Grouping drop-down list – includes the options report no, web server, cached, view mode, company and different time intervals, that depend on the selected interval for the search.

Click Search to open the result screen as shown in the figure below. The result columns are the same as those for the Survey Monitor, though related to reports. After performing a search, click Reset to clear the search fields.

Figure 8 - Example of the Reportal Monitor search result

Click the Open in New Window button (beside the Reset button) to open additional search windows.

Survey Dashboard Monitor

This monitor logs interactions with the Survey Dashboard.

Figure 9 - The Survey Dashboard Monitor search fields

This monitor’s functions and interface are very similar to those of the Survey monitor:

Survey Monitor

Go to Admin > Activity Logs > Survey Monitor to open the Survey Monitor window. Here you can search for information about survey performance. There are search criteria fields for project ID, DB server and Web Server, and Quick Test and Execution Mode selection boxes. Select the time period Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Yearly. Depending on the time period selected, search fields for entering hour, date, week or year are made available. The Group by field offers choices depending on the time period selected, and the search results are grouped according to the selection made in this field.

Figure 10 - The Survey Monitor search fields

Add the appropriate search criteria, then click Search to display the information arranged by the grouping selected (see the figure below for an example). The information displayed is number of hits, number of errors, average and sum of CPU total, CPU user code and Real total. Time is in milliseconds.

If you select Group by - Project, the project ids are displayed. The project ids are links to a new table window with information about CPU usage by that specific project. If you click the project ID link on this page, you are sent to the Project Management > Overview page for this project. If you select Group by DB Server, then the values are displayed per database server.

Figure 11 - Survey monitor search result

Click on the column headers in the table to sort the information by that column. The columns are as follows:

• Average CPU total – Indicates how much time is spent by the web server(s) processing each questionnaire page (page hit). i.e. this is the system-generated load.
• Average CPU user code – Indicates how much of the CPU total time is spent by the web servers running user-made scripts per page hit. i.e. this is the user-generated load.
• Average Real total – Indicates the time used to complete the request per page hit. i.e. the total time spent waiting for disk IO, SQL server, network etc.
• Sum CPU total – Aggregated CPU time for page hits in the interval or per project.
• Sum CPU user code – Aggregated CPU time used on user-made scripts in the interval or per project.
• Sum Real total – Aggregated time used for completing the request per page hit. i.e. the total time spent waiting for disk IO, SQL server, network etc.

After performing a search, click Reset to clear the search fields. Click the Open in New Window button (beside the Reset button) to open additional search windows.

Web Service Monitor

The Web Service Monitor function monitors the traffic on Web Services, for example when applications built on API .Net platforms access Forsta’s web services.

Figure 12 - The Web Service Monitor

The monitor’s functions and interface are very similar to the other system monitors.

AD PDF Publishing Monitor

Go to Admin > Activity Logs > AD PDF Publishing Monitor to search for information about PDF publishing tasks. The page contains fields for the search criteria that can be used: Dashboard name, Hub Id, when cases are scheduled from or completed, and statuses. The columns can be sorted.

Figure 13 - Example of the AM PDF Publishing Monitor