WebSphere Product Center provides an administrator with the core tools to assist in the support, maintenance and troubleshooting of WebSphere Product Center. For example, view system log files, check system status, and analyze database performance.
WebSphere Product Center provides a log file that stores details on every recorded event within WebSphere Product Center. The Audit Log Search function allows the ability to view all activities that have been performed by a user, within a defined timeframe. The results table is sorted from the latest date to the most current date. View when a user has logged in or out, when items were modified, which roles were created, which files were imported, and more.
Searching audit logs
To view audit details, use the following menu path:
System Administrator > Audit
1. From the Audit Log Search interface, select a user to audit from the User drop-down field.
2. Select a date from the Date From and Date To drop-down field.
3. Click Search to display a list of all events associated to the specified user.
Figure 21.1 - Audit Log Search
The DB Admin component allows a qualified DBA to run simple SQL queries. Enter the query in the Sql Command box and click Save.
Warning! Be careful when using this tool as it allows the execution of commands that may jeopardize the integrity of the database. Allow access to this System Admin module to qualified users.
Running simple SQL
To used DB Admin, use the menu path:
System Administrator > DB Admin.
Figure 21.2 - DB Admin interface
Queries are executed against the database to pull information that is displayed in WebSphere Product Center. You can type SQL Command in the SQL Command space and click on Run Query button on the top left corner of the screen to execute the query. To find additional details click on Explain Plan button.
WebSphere Product Center provides several tools that allow for the analysis of application and database performance. These tools were designed in the System Administration module and should only be made available to authorized users.
This component provides profiling data for every page and executable within WebSphere Product Center. When first accessing this area, the Page and Executable Profiles appear in separate tables.
To view WebSphere Product Center's profiling statistics, use the following menu path:
System Administrator > Performance Info > Profiling
To view additional detail on a specific profile, double-click a page in the Action column. The page details appear in a separate page.
Figure 21.3 - Page profile details
Username
The user who accessed the page
Action
The page that was accessed
Duration
The time it took to process the page.
Start Time
The time the page was accessed
Click on any Action line to view additional details for analysis. Users can review the time it took to run an export and analyze which areas are bottlenecked.
Note: Each dash (-) represents one level underneath. Therefore, a line showing two dashes (- -) would indicate two levels of details.
Figure 21.4 - Page analysis
Start Time
The time of the event
Action
Description of the action.
Total Time (ms)
The total time it took to complete the action
# Iter.
The number of times the action had to be performed
Avg Time per Iter. (ms)
The average time it took for multiple iterations
To flush all profile details, click
from any profile table heading. A confirmation dialog box appears, click OK and the information is cleared from the table and begins tracking current audit events.
Figure 21.5 Profile analysis
This component is used to monitor the performance of java virtual modules by noting the time it takes for page completions. If desired, all information can be flushed from the database to test current conditions.
To monitor WebSphere Product Center's Performance, use the following path:
System Administrator > Performance Info > Performance
From the Performance Search interface, select a search value and click Search.
The Current Performance Result table appears with performance measurements for each JVM (Max, Min, Avg, and number of visits.
To clear all performance measurements, click Flush to DB at the bottom of the table. All details will be purged from the DB.
Figure 21.6 - Performance table
N – Ref
The name of the JVM
Max
The longest time it took for a JVM to Execute
Min
The shortest time it took for a JVM to execute
Avg
The average time it took for a JVM to execute
Visits
The number of visits made to the JVM
Check the performance of your java virtual modules by noting the times for various DB calls. This component is useful in analyzing in detail where certain processes are taking a long time, which can then be used to determine what types of changes can be made to improve performance. There is two table displayed with results: Current Performance Results and Query Performance Statistics.
For example, analyze the time it takes to process a script and find an unnecessary operation that takes a long time to run, the script can then be modified to maximize the processes time.
To monitor WebSphere Product Center's database performance, use the following path:
System Administrator > Performance Info > Database Performance
Figure 21.8 - View DB performance
Current Performance Results
Page
Name of WebSphere Product Center page
Total Time
Total time (ms) DB spend used to pull this page
Hits
How often the page was accessed
Avg. Time
The average time it took to pull the page
Last
The time it last took the DB to process the page
Avg. DB Time
The average time it took for the DB to process the page.
% Time in DB
The percent of the DB's time was used to pull the page
Queries
View the queries that were executed to process the page
Query Performance Statistics
The queries list in the table is hyperlinked to display the details of the queries.
Query
The name of the query that was executed
Total Time Taken
The total time it took to execute the query
Times Executed
The number of time the query was executed
Average
The average time to execute the query
Maximum
The maximum time to execute the query
Minimum
The minimum time to execute the query
An Administrator can view the details on the specs that are being cached in one instance per server instance. Through the WebSphere Product Center GUI, an Administrator is able to flush the cache when needed.
From the menu path System Administrator > Performance Info > Caches, view the Cached Specs details.
Example of a catalog using basic specs (1 & 2)
When a new catalog is viewed, the previous specs are moved down in the Cached Specs table.
When returning to the previous catalog, the previous cached specs return to the beginning position of the Cached Specs table.
When a spec is changed, the older version of the spec is not automatically removed from the cache, as some operation such as an export may be using it. Specs are only removed from the cache in the following cases:
- If they have not been among the most recently used
- The cache is full (has maximum number of entries)
- Another spec is added to the cache
Fig 21.9 - Cache statistics
Cache Size
The size of the cache is set in the common.properties configuration file.
Example:
# Limit for cache size for specs
# Larger will take more memory, so this should not be set too large.
max_specs_in_cache=5The size of the specs cache is set according to available system resources:
- The amount of memory on the server
- The number of different specs that are commonly used
Review the Spec Cache page to examine the number of specs in the cache and if commonly used specs are falling out of the cache consistently. Then set the Spec Cache value based on current needs.
This component allows a user to view the current application configuration files, detailing the file parameters. This feature allows for a view-only display. (For more information on the WPC's configuration files, refer to the WebSphere Product Center: Installation Guide.)
To review the application's configuration files, use the following path:
System Administrator > Properties
The configuration files are for display only. Scroll through the page to view all configuration file details.
Figure 21.10 - Review configuration files
This component is useful for troubleshooting system issues. View the tail end of a log or the entire log if desired.
View log files
To view the application's log files, use the following path:
System Administrator > Log Files
Select a system log and click Submit. Users can select to view the entire file or a defined number of lines of the tail end log.
Figure 21.11 - Select a log file to view
The complete WebSphere Product Center system consists of five types of services running concurrently.
Admin
admin - the admin server (starts/stops modules on remote machines)
Scheduler
scheduler - the scheduler (runs background jobs)
Workflow engine
workflow – WebSphere Product Center's workflow engine
Event Processor
eventprocessor - the event processor (dispatches events between all the modules)
Queue Manager
queuemanager - the queue manager (sends documents outside of WebSphere Product Center)
Application Server
appsvr - the application server (serves jsp-Java Server Pages)
Each service can be controlled through the WebSphere Product Center GUI and status information can be obtained for each application service. Users can view the performance metrics displayed in a table format.
Note: The status provided is the WebSphere Product Center GUI can also be obtained using the RMI Status scripts executed from the command line.
View Service Status
To view the Service Status table, use the menu path:
System Administrator > System Status
The short status of each service is displayed in the Service Status table. To view expanded details for a service, click the long status hyperlink.
Figure 21.12 - Short status of a service
The long status of a service displays information such as the connection pool status and details on each db thread.
Figure 21.13 - Service status information
Stopping Service
To stop a service, select a service by checking the box next to the service name and clicking the Stop button.
Aborting Services
To abort a service, select a service by checking the box next to the service name and clicking the Abort button.
Important Note On Abort and Stop
Which one should be used? Stop or abort?
- Abort - Guarantees that the service will be shut down, but it cannot guarantee that a currently running task will not be interrupted.
- Stop - Guarantees that "if" the service is stopped, it will be stopped smoothly after every currently running task has been stopped first.
Refreshing status information
To obtain the most current status for a service, select a service by checking the box next to the service name and click the Refresh button.
Creating a New Service
Services can run in a cluster of workstations. The different machines in the cluster are defined in the file admin_properties.xml (For more information, refer to the WebSphere Product Center: Installation Guide). If desired, a user can define a service on a different host through the WebSphere Product Center GUI.
Below the Service Status table is a Create New Service table. Enter a name for the new service, the service type, select a host, and click the ADD+ button.
Figure 21.14 - Create a new service
It is not possible to create more than one instance of a service on a machine. If no service name is specified, the default name is used:
- "scheduler" for the scheduler.
- "eventprocessor" for the event processor.
- "queuemanager" for the queue manager.
If a company environment has been packaged for import, the Import Environment component allows a user to browse for the packaged company environment file and import it into the current company. This feature can be used to port a company that was created in a test environment into a production environment.
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Figure 21.15 - Importing a company environment
The WebSphere Product Center database designates a tablespace for all the files stored in the Document store. When a file is stored, a new record in the Oracle DB is created and the file is stored as a BLOB (Binary Large Object) file.
Viewing distribution files in document store
To view the distribution of files within the document store, use the following path:
System Administrator > Size Distribution
1. Select a company or set of companies from the Select Companies selection box.
2. Determine the level of subdirectories to search and enter the number in the Max Slash Levels.
3. If desired, view file statistics of a specific path. Enter a path in the Doc Path Like field.
4. Click the Search button to view the size distribution statistics.
Figure 21. 16 - DocStore Size Distribution Statistics