Message flow accounting and statistics data

Message flow accounting and statistics data is the information that can be collected by a broker to record performance and operating details of message flow execution.

These reports are not the same as the publish/subscribe statistics reports that you can generate. The publish/subscribe statistics provide information about the performance of brokers, and the throughput between the broker and clients that are connected to the broker. Message flow accounting and statistics reports provide information about the performance and operating details of a message flow execution.

Message flow accounting and statistics data records dynamic information about the runtime behavior of a message flow. For example, it indicates how many messages are processed and how large those messages are, as well as CPU usage and elapsed processing times. The broker collects the data and records it in a specified location when one of a number of events occurs (for example, when a snapshot interval expires or when the execution group you are recording information about stops).

Accounting and statistics data is collected only for message flows that start with an MQInput, HTTPInput, or user-defined input node. If you start data collection for a message flow that starts with one of these nodes, the data is collected for all built-in and user-defined nodes, including those in subflows. If the message flow starts with another input node (for example, a Real-timeInput node), no data is collected (and no error is reported).

Collecting message flow accounting and statistics data is optional; by default it is switched off. To use this facility, request it on a message flow or execution group basis. The settings for accounting and statistics data collection are reset to the defaults when an execution group is redeployed. Previous settings for message flows in an execution group will not be passed on to the new message flows deployed to that execution group. Data collection is started and stopped dynamically when you issue the mqsichangeflowstats command; you do not need to make any change to the broker or to the message flow, or redeploy the message flow, to request statistics collection.

You can activate data collection on both your production and test systems. If you collect the default level of statistics (message flow), the impact on broker performance is minimal. However, collecting more data than the default message flow statistics can generate high volumes of report data that might cause a small but noticeable performance overhead.

When you plan data collection, consider the following points:

You can find more information on how to use accounting and statistics data to improve the performance of a message flow in this developerWorks article on message flow performance.

The following SupportPac provides additional information about using accounting and statistics:

Related concepts
Publish/subscribe statistics reports
Message flows overview
Related tasks
Collecting message flow accounting and statistics data
Developing message flows
Related reference
Message flow accounting and statistics data
mqsichangeflowstats command
mqsireportflowstats command