Preparing to launch an Agent

Prior to utilizing any Agents, launch the Agent Controller.

Preparing an Agent's Launch Configuration

From the  profiling control in the toolbar click on  the adjacent down-arrow:

profile drop down icon

and then select Profile from the resulting pop-up menu:

Pop-up menu with Profile... highlighted

This displays the Profile dialog:

profile dialog

Now select the Statistical node in the Configurations pane:

statistical node

 

In the Perspectives tab, the default setting of Profiling and Logging is appropriate.

Click on the New button; this will allow a new launch configuration to be defined:

a new launch configuration named perfMon_1

 

Name the configuration using the Name field (perfMon_1 in the above example). Select the Host tab if not already selected).

 

Host Tab

The Host tab allows you to construct a set of host machines. By default, localhost:10002 is automatically added to the list; 10002 defines the agent controller port.

 

To add a new host to the list, type its name (or IP address) into the Host name or IP address field, and enter the required port number into the Agent Controller port field:

 

default hosts add host name travis at agent controller port 10025

 

Then click on the Add button. The new host will be added to the list:

 

travis:10025 added as a default host

 

The Delete and Test Connection buttons become activated: use the Delete button to delete a selected host or group of hosts; and use the Test Connection button to check out the connection to a selected host machine.

Agent Tab

The Agent Tab allows you to select which particular Agent(s) you wish to utilize:

list of statistical agents with Windows System Trace (Perfmon) selected

For the purposes of illustration we shall use the Windows System Trace (PerfMon) agent to demonstrate facilities.

Settings Tab

The Settings tab is used to set and configure agent specific variables that will be sent to the agent once it is started. These variables vary depending on the agent selected in the Agent tab. The settings tab represents the list of agent variables in a table with three columns. These are the Variable Name, Description and Value columns. The Variable Name column provides a short label that is attached to each variable. The Description column provides a description of the variable that is required. Finally, the Value column is where each variable's value is entered.

When new launch configuration is created the values will be filled in with default values where possible. It is essential that these variable values are correct for successful system monitoring.

The following Settings tab is an example for the TPTP MySQL agent:

agent specific variables for the MySQL agent

A description of the Settings tab for each TPTP statistical agent is presented in the Configuring the Statistical Agents section below.

Destination Tab

This tab allows you to specify where any Agent outputs are stored (the Profiling Project field) and also what monitor should be used to act as a logical container for the Agents (Monitor field).

The information can either be typed in directly or browsed to via the Browse button.

A monitor is a logical container for the profiling information that is collected from a group of agents. Monitors are useful for aggregating processes and agents from a distributed application. The profiling project is simply a standard Eclipse project.

picture of Destination tab

Common Tab

The Common tab is standard across all Eclipse launch configuration dialogs. It provides the ability to: save data as a local or shared file; select a Console Encoding; nominate a button to display in the favorites menu; and indicate where any captured output should be directed.

picture of Common tab

 

Confirming the Launch Configuration

When the various tabs have been completed, confirm the launch configuration by clicking on the Apply button. (To revert to the state that the dialog was in prior to making any changes, click on the Revert button).

(C) Copyright IBM Corporation 2000, 2005. All Rights Reserved.