IBM Websphere

IBM Websphere MQ is a queue-based message-oriented middleware that enables similar or dissimilar applications to communicate securely.

Monitoring activities include:

• Monitoring IBM MQ applications in the managed environment.
• Tracking the health status of IBM MQ objects such as queues and queue managers.

For example, you can monitor the state of the queue manager using QMGR.STATE and get alerts in the alerts browser for any issue.

IBM MQ key elements include:

• Queue
• Queue Manager

Prerequisite

Administrative privileges are required to monitor IBM MQ applications.

Step 1: Create IBM MQ metrics

1. Select a client from the All Clients list.
2. Select Setup > Monitoring > Metrics.
3. From the METRICS screen, click + Add.
4. From CREATE METRICS, enter the following parameters:
   • Collector Type: Select Application.
   • Application Type: Select IBM MQ.
   • Name: Enter a Name for the metric.
   • Tag: User-defined tags for better filtering.
   • Display Name: Display Name provided for the metric.
   • Description: Reason for the metric.
   • Data Point type: Select the required data point.
   • Units: Select the required values for Units, Unit Multiplication Factor, and Datapoint value conversion lists.
   • Unit Multiplication Factor: Value chosen to multiply a value based on the chosen unit.
   • Data Point Conversion: One of the following options:
     • Value
     • Enumerated Map
   • Metric Processing: One of the following values for processing the Metric:
     • Notification
     • Graph
     • Graph and Notification. To configure values for Graph and Notification, provide details for the following parameters:
       • Warning if value: Warning threshold value.
       • Critical if value: Critical threshold value.
       • Subject: Subject for the metric.
       • Description: Description for the metric.
5. Click Save.

The METRICS screen displays the new metric.

The values for subject and description are populated by default.

Do not change the subject and description values. Changing these values may result in failures associated with alert generation.

Step 2: Create IBM MQ monitor

1. From the left pane, click Monitoring > Monitors.
2. From the MONITORS screen, click + Add.
3. From CREATE A MONITOR, enter the following parameters:
   • Monitor Scope: Partner Monitor or Client-Specific Monitor. For Client-Specific Monitor, the client must also be selected.
   • Adaptor Type: Monitor type. Select Application.
   • Application Type: Type of resource. Select IBM MQ.
   • Name: Enter a unique name for the monitor.
   • Description: Details of the added monitors.
   • Metrics: To add metrics, do the following steps:
     1. From Metrics, click Add Metrics.
        • The Metrics screen lists the available IBM MQ metrics.
        • 20 metrics (maximum) is recommended. Adding more number of metrics in a monitor can cause performance issues.
     2. Search the metric and click Add Metrics. The Metrics section displays the selected metric.
     3. After adding the metrics, navigate to Configuration Parameters.
   • Configuration Parameters: Parameters required to monitor IBM MQ. To add configuration parameters, do the following:
     1. Enter Default Value for all the configuration parameters.
     2. Select Configurable checkbox and click + Add.
     3. From the Configuration Parameters screen, provide configuration parameters depending on the managed environment or resources and click Add. For example: application.component.name.
     4. From the Configuration Parameters section, enter the default value for the added name. For example: queue.
     5. After providing the configuration parameters, navigate to Instance Filter.
   • Instance Filter: Following methods chosen to filter the instances:
     • All: All instances for the configured component.
     • Expression: Rule that is set to filter the instances depending on the component.
     • To add a rule:
       1. Click +Add.
       2. Select Property and Operator.
       3. Enter a value to filter.
   • Manual Selection: Physical selection of the instances.
4. Click Save.

The MONITOR screen displays the IBM MQ monitor.

Step 3: Create IBM MQ template

1. Go to Setup > Monitoring >Templates.
2. From the TEMPLATES screen, click + Add.
3. From MONITOR TEMPLATE, enter the following parameters:
   • Select Template Scope: Template type.
   • Collector Type: Select Gateway.
   • Monitor Type: Select Monitors for G2 Templates.
   • Applicable for: Select Device.
   • Template Name: Name of the template.
   • Description: Summary of the template.
   • Generation: Generation that the template belongs to.
   • Tags: User-defined tags for better filtering.
   • Prerequisites: Essential things that must be considered while monitoring using the template. For example, SQL services must be checked while monitoring the SQL parameters using the Windows templates.
   • Status: Active or end-of-life templates.
   • Notes: Information to add to the template.
   • Template Family Name: Category that applies to the application. For example, Windows server, storage server, and network server.
   • Deployment Type: One of the following methods to apply the template to the resources:
     • Custom
     • Optional
     • Standard
   • After providing the template details, MONITOR TEMPLATE displays the Monitors section.
     The user interface for the Monitors section varies with the option selected in the collector type.
   • Monitor: To add details in the Monitors section, do the following:
     1. From the Monitors section, click Add and enter the following in the monitor screen:
        • Frequency: Refer to the frequency to execute the template.
        • Monitor Definition: Monitor type. For example, select IBM MQ queue monitor.
        • When to Alert: Select Breach of a Threshold.
     2. Select Availability and Alert checkbox to initiate monitoring for the metrics.
4. Click Save.

The TEMPLATES section displays the configured details.

Step 4: Assign credentials

Prerequisite: Read-only permission to access the target device.

1. Select a client from the All Clients list.
2. Go to Infrastructure > Resources.
3. From the list of devices, select a device.
4. Navigate to the device information page and from the center pane, click Credentials.
5. From the Credentials screen, click +Add.
6. From Create new credential, enter the following parameters:
   • Name: Name of the credential.
   • Description: Description of the new credential.
   • Type: Application type. Select HTTP.
   • Username: Username for the credential set.
   • Password: Password that you set for the credential set.
   • Confirm Password: Enter the same password.
   • Port: Port used to connect to the application.
   • Connection Time-out (ms): Time taken for the resource to connect to the application.
7. Click Save.

The Credentials screen displays the new credentials.

Step 5: Assign template

After creating a template and assigning credentials, assign the template to the resource. Credentials must be created to assign a template to a resource.

1. Select a client from the All Clients list.
2. Go to Infrastructure > Resources.
3. From Resources, click the desired resource name > resource Details > Monitors > Template.
4. From the Templates screen, click +Assign Templates.
5. From Apply Templates > Select Templates > Available templates, select the templates.
6. Click Assign.

The Templates screen displays the selected templates.

Validation

The gateway monitors the application using the assigned templates and displays the results in a graphical format.

To confirm the monitoring of IBM MQ device, review the following:

• The graph plotted for each metric in the template.
• Alerts generated for metrics in the template by giving thresholds.

Best practices

• Apply credentials to the device before applying the templates to the device.
• Configure the monitoring frequency to greater than or equal to five minutes.

Supported metrics

Supported templates

You can monitor IBM MQ application using REST API and SNMP.

API-based integration

• IBM MQ Software - Queue Manager
• IBM MQ Software - Queue Monitoring

SNMP-based Integration

• IBM MQ - Performance
• IBM MQ - Hardware