Getting Further Help
The Anatomy Of An Application
Conventions Used In Isis
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Rather than subscribing to an application-specific point of
view, Isis views each type of application that it can monitor
using a higher-level, more generic view. Isis divides applications
into three tiers of structure, described as Sites, Sources
and Functions. Within the Isis application, an application-specific
term is applied to each of these tiers. In the case of Tuxedo
applications, these tiers are described as Sites, Servers,
and Services. In the case of WebLogic applications, these
tiers are described as Servers, Objects and Functions.
Sites are the highest-level container within which components
can exist inside a monitored application. Sites are not individual
application instances - theoretically each application being
monitored can consist of a number of sites.
For example, a Tuxedo application can consist of a number
of connected Tuxedo sites. WebLogic applications running on
WebLogic 6.1 or higher may have multiple server instances
running within the one domain.
In summary, an application can contain a number of sites,
and sites are the highest-level containers within which significant
application components can be grouped.
Sources are the significant components which are grouped within
sites. Sources may provide end-user functionality, in the
case of Tuxedo servers, or they may provide internal services
to an application, for example JDBC connection pools within
a WebLogic application.
In some instances Sources can be very low-level components
of an application which would be considered more as a source
of information rather than functionality.
For example, Isis considers the JVM (Java Virtual Machine)
for a Weblogic application to be an important source of information
regarding the health of the WebLogic application as a Java
application. Whatever functionality or information a Source
provides is considered as a Function.
In summary, Sources are application components which reside
within Sites, which provide either functionality or information,
both of which are considered Functions by Isis.
Functions are the information or functionality provided by
Sources within an application which can be monitored by Isis.
For example, Isis can provide information on how long a service
call takes to execute for a particular Tuxedo service. That
service is considered a Function within Isis, which is provided
by a corresponding Source.
In the case of WebLogic applications, the high water mark
for the number of connections to a JDBC Connection pool is
considered a Function of that JDBC Connection pool by Isis.
Functions within an application are most often the fine-grained
information that the user wishes to access through reporting.
The Sources and Sites for an application provide a useful
context to place this information in.
In summary, Functions are the information or functionality
provided by Sources within an application.
All statistical information Isis stores for each application
is kept within a repository called the Data Inventory.
Information stored is categorized into different types of
data. For example, Isis stores information on queue lengths
and service execution times as two distinct types of data:
'Queue length data' and 'TXRPT Performance data'.
The data inventory exists as a directory structure and series
of associated files located under the directory for a monitored
application.
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The following conventions are used extensively in this manual.
The current application is the application in the currently
selected Application window. For more information on the Application
window, refer to
the
application.
Isis does not retain state (eg. the position of an application
window or its size) between sessions for an individual monitored
application. Each application session begins when the application
is opened within Isis, and finishes when the Application window
is closed.
When the Isis User Manual refers to an application session,
it is referring to the period between opening and closing
the window for an individual application being monitored,
not the period that Isis itself is open.
When referring to menu options, a hierarchy
is implied by the / character. For example, if the manual
wanted you to select the "Delete Application" menu
option from under the file menu then the full description
of the Delete Application menu option would be File / Delete
Application.
Checkboxes are used extensively in the user interface for
the Isis application. When discussing the state of a checkbox,
the manual refers to checkboxes as 'checked', where a tick
is visible in the checkbox or 'un-checked', where no tick
is visible.
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