An enterprise is dependent on wide array of IT applications, such as
databases, application servers like WebSphere or JBoss, platforms like Java or
.NET and other business applications. If any of these applications fail even for
a minute, it leads to tremendous loss to the organization. That's why it becomes
necessary for an IT manager to use event consoles and monitoring tools to manage
these applications for proper functioning. However, the limitation of these
tools is that they alert you to events and leave you to decide how that event
will impact your business applications or services. Foglight is an application
management solution that gives a 360 degree view of your applications, ranging
from end user to databases and from service levels to infrastructure. It
collates data from various applications and helps you identify the root-cause of
problems of business services that are being affected.
Direct Hit! |
Applies To: IT Managers Price: On request USP: Monitor the key applications through a GUI dashboard Primary Link: www.quest.com Keywords: Foglight Application |
What's new in Foglight
Foglight is an application management solution from Quest Software and has two
components: Foglight Management Server and Foglight Agent Manager. Each
application like WebSphere, Oracle Database, MS SQL Server and even operating
systems like Windows 2003 or Linux have some parametric values for different
functions, which are used to monitor the stress load on them. Foglight has
installable cartridges that can be integrated with Foglight Management Server
(FMS) to manage these applications. The Foglight Agent Manager on the other hand
is the client that resides on the host machine that has the application which
has to be monitored by FMS. The Agent Manager captures the metric values of the
monitoring parameters from the application on the host machine and sends them to
the FMS periodically.
The FMS can be installed on a tiered architecture or on a single server as
well. It is likely that in an enterprise, applications such as databases and
servers are hosted on different machines and on different platforms. Foglight
can be installed on a dedicated server and linked via cartridges to different
client agent mangers to monitor disparate applications that reside on the same
machine or on different networked machines. The FMS gives a console view of the
consolidated data gathered from different applications on the monitored
environment that helps you decide the stress junctions that could become
critical for any application's functioning and hence letting you take the
necessary action to ensure smooth functioning of the business applications
without any hassles.
Most of Foglight's monitoring tasks can be handled from the left dashboard pane. To create an OS monitoring agent, select Windows_System as agent type |
Getting started
Before you start, you need to choose the monitoring environment for
applications and what platform you will be installing FMS and agent managers on.
Also, you need the cartridges for each application that you intend to monitor.
For the demonstration implementation of Foglight version 5.2.5, we will use an
Intel Quad Core 2.6 MHz processor based machine with 4GB RAM and having Windows
2003 as the operating system to install FMS. And we will be using the operating
system monitoring cartridge to monitor the host machine on which FMS is
installed.
Before starting the installation of the FMS installer for Windows 32-bit
platform, make sure that Java Runtime Environment is installed as FMS and the
Foglight Agent manager. Now using the installer for the specific platform, we
proceed with the installation of FMS. It offers two installation options:
Standard and Custom. With the Standard options, the default embedded MySQL
database is installed, whereas with custom installation you can choose an
external database that will be used by FMS for its own functions. Once the
installation is complete, you can go to Start Menu items and start the Foglight
service and then open the Foglight console to proceed with the configuration
settings and also with installing the license for FMS.
Installing cartridges
As we intend to monitor the host operating system, we'll have to install the
cartridge for the same and it's agent manager so that they can feed the system's
monitoring values to the FMS. To install a cartridge, go to the Foglight console
that opens up in a browser, and from the dashboard pane on the left navigate to
the Administration node and expand it. Now click on the Cartridges Inventory
link by expanding the Cartridges node. In the Install Cartridge pane, choose the
appropriate .car file meant for Windows 2003 Server from Foglight's DVD. Do
ensure that 'Enable on Install' checkbox option is selected and then click on
the Install Cartridge button. Upon successful installation, the cartridge list
is populated. As we also need an Agent Manager, we will upload another .car file
meant for Foglight Agent Managers and install it using the same procedure. Now
go to 'Components for Download' link under the Cartridges node from the
dashboard panel, and there on the main pane you can download the
fglam-windows-i32.exe file and install it. This is the Agent Manager for Windows
platform.
FMS shows real-time monitoring of the host system. It shows that a high network usage is happening by showing huge transfer rate values. |
Creating monitoring agents
Once the Agent Manager and cartridges have been installed, we have to deploy
the agent packages. Go to the Agents node under the Administration node in the
dashboard pane and then click on 'Agents' Status' link. From the main pane,
click on 'Deploy Agent Package' and when the pop-up window opens, select the
host name and the package, named as OSCartridge_ Windows _2003 _ 5_2_5. Select
this cartridge and click on Create button.
Now upon deployment of this package, you need to create an agent that will
perform the monitoring function. As soon as the pop-up window opens, click on
the Create Agent button and select the Agent_Type as Windows_System. Name the
instance as Win2k3_Monitor and click on Create button. Now select Win2k3_Monitor
from the 'Agents List' pane and click on Activate to start monitoring the
operating system.
Upon expanding the Host's node and after you've clicked on the Host's Monitor
link, you can get real-time graphical representation of the host machine and the
various tasks or activities taking place.