7 Monitoring and Administering OracleAS Portal

7.1.1 Monitoring Historical Trends

In the Grid Control Console, you can look at various OracleAS Portal metrics collected over a specific time period. The range of metrics which are collected are configured (by default) when the Management Agent is installed.

Figure 7-3 shows a list of the kinds of OracleAS Portal metrics you can monitor.

Figure 7-3 Grid Control Console - OracleAS Portal Metrics

Description of "Figure 7-3 Grid Control Console - OracleAS Portal Metrics"

You can use the OracleAS Portal metrics to monitor historical trends. For example, if you want to see how your site has performed over the previous 31 days, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Grid Control Console home page.

2. Click the Targets tab, and then the Application Servers tab.

3. Choose the application server of interest.

4. From the Components table, select the Portal target.

5. Click the All Metrics link.

6. Expand the Portal Homepage Metric node.

7. Click the Homepage Download (msec) metric.

   A table lists all the collected data for this metric over the last 24 hours, by default. Figure 7-4 shows an example of the information displayed.

   Figure 7-4 Grid Control Console - OracleAS Portal Metric Information

   
   Description of "Figure 7-4 Grid Control Console - OracleAS Portal Metric Information"
   
   

8. To change the duration to 31 days, select Last 31 days from the View Data drop-down list (top right hand corner).

   
   

   Note: For more information, see Oracle Enterprise Manager Concepts manual.

   
   

7.1.2 Comparing Metrics from Multiple Portal Targets

You can compare the details of an OracleAS Portal metric (the currently selected metric), with the details of the same metric on a different OracleAS Portal target.

For example, you can compare the Homepage Download (ms) metric on portal1 with the Homepage Download (ms) metric on portal2 and portal3. The comparisons are plotted on a Metric Value History chart.

To compare metrics:

1. Navigate to the OracleAS Portal metrics page, as shown in Figure 7-3.

2. Expand the metric node of interest and click the relevant metric link.

3. From the View Data drop-down list (top right hand corner), choose a suitable time period for analyzing this metric.

4. Click the Compare Targets link in the Related Links section.

5. Choose the OracleAS Portal targets that you want to compare, move them to the Selected Targets list box and then click OK.

   The comparisons are plotted on the Metric Value History chart.

7.1.3 Setting Up Notifications for OracleAS Portal Metrics

In the Grid Control Console, you can set up notification alerts to report that certain metrics exceed pre-set thresholds.

1. Check that the Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g administrator has setup at least one Notification Method for an Outgoing Mail Server, a Script (Operating System Command or PL/SQL) or an SNMP Trap:

   1. Click the Setup link (top right hand corner).

   2. Click Notification Methods.

2. Once a notification method exists, setup a Notification Rule:

   1. Click the Preferences link (top right hand corner).

   2. Click the Notification Rules link.

From this page you can create a notification rule and choose targets and conditions for which you want to receive notifications in Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g.

7.1.4 Setting OracleAS Portal Metric Thresholds

In the Grid Control Console, you can define and adjust the thresholds for OracleAS Portal metrics. Thresholds are boundary values against which monitored metric values are compared. You can specify a warning threshold so that when a monitored metric value crosses that threshold, a warning alert is generated. Alerts can notify you of impending problems which you can address in a timely manner.

Editing metric thresholds is useful because you can add or change the thresholds to fit the monitoring needs of your organization. When defining a threshold, choose a value that will not generate too many unnecessary alerts.

To edit OracleAS Portal related metrics, click the Manage Metrics link at the bottom of any OracleAS Portal target page, as shown in Figure 7-2. The metrics listed on the Manage Metrics page are either default metrics provided by Oracle, or metrics with thresholds you can change. For an example, see Figure 7-5.

Figure 7-5 Grid Control Console - OracleAS Portal Edit Metric Thresholds

Description of "Figure 7-5 Grid Control Console - OracleAS Portal Edit Metric Thresholds "

7.1.5 Viewing Recent Alerts

A list of the most recent alerts are displayed on the OracleAS Portal target page, in the section called Alerts and Host Alerts (see Figure 7-2).

When an alert is generated to notify you of availability or performance problems, you can check the Grid Control Console for more information about the metric that triggered the alert. This includes information on the metric's historical values that might show trends over the past week or month.

7.1.6 Using Web Applications for Application Performance Monitoring

In the Grid Control Console, you can use the Web Applications feature to monitor the performance of OracleAS Portal sites. You can monitor the end-user response time, or the performance of representative transactions.

• End-User Response Time Monitoring - All URLs based on the application home page (specified in the Web Application properties) are monitored. URLs of particular importance can be identified in a URL Watchlist.

• Representative Transaction Monitoring - Recorded application activity (transactions) is played back at regular intervals through client robots (or beacons). The availability of the application is defined as the availability of a selected subset of representative transactions, replayed through selected beacons.

You model the topography of your OracleAS Portal application by adding all the relevant targets to a single Web Application group. For example, you could add the Database and OracleAS Single Sign-On targets used by your OracleAS Portal application to the same Web Application group.

7.2.1 Accessing the Application Server Control Console

You can access the Application Server Control Console by navigating to the following URL: http://<hostname.domain>:<port>. For example, http://myhost.mycompany.com:1810. You can find the URL for your Application Server Control Console in setupinfo.txt. This text file is saved to the following location after you install the Oracle Application Server:

On UNIX: ORACLE_HOME/install/setupinfo.txt

On Windows: ORACLE_HOME\install\setupinfo.txt

Your start page for the Application Server Control Console is the Oracle Application Server Farm home page. Clicking an instance, takes you to the Oracle Application Server instance home page. This page contains a table of System Components. From this table you can display the home page for each component of the application server for monitoring and administrative purposes.

If OracleAS Portal is configured, Portal:<portal schema name> appears in this table. The default portal schema name is portal.

You can also navigate to Application Server Control Console directly from OracleAS Portal. Click the Administer tab on the Portal Builder page and then click Portal Service Monitoring (by default, this link is located in the Services portlet on the Portal subtab).

7.2.2 Using Application Server Control Console to Configure OracleAS Portal

If Portal:portal is not listed in the System Components table, it means that OracleAS Portal is not yet configured. The Configure Component button appears above the System Components table if you have installed, but not configured, some Oracle Application Server components.

To configure OracleAS Portal perform these steps:

1. On the Oracle Application Server home page, click the Configure Component button.

   
   

   Note: By default, an OracleAS Portal middle tier is made up of one portal instance. Both the DAD name and the OracleAS Metadata Repository schema name for this instance are portal. You cannot use the Configure Component button to configure additional OracleAS Portal instances for a given middle tier if Portal:portal is already listed in the System Components table.

   
   

2. Select Portal from the drop-down list on the Select Component page, and click Continue.

3. In the Login page, enter the administration (ias_admin) password for the Oracle Application Server instance in the Administration Password field.

4. Click Finish.

   It may take some time to complete this process (10-20 minutes), depending upon the speed and configuration of your hardware.

5. When the configuration is complete, click OK.

   The Oracle Application Server home page is displayed.

6. Verify that OC4J_Portal and Portal:portal appear in the System Components table.

7. Restart Oracle HTTP Server and start OC4J_Portal.

   1. In the System Components table, select HTTP_Server, and click the Restart button.

   2. Select OC4J_Portal, and then click the Start button.

   The home OC4J instance will be Down after configuring OracleAS Portal through Oracle Enterprise Manager. If you wish to start this service, click the home component in the System Components table and then click the Start button.

8. Verify that the status of OC4J_Portal and Portal:portal are both Up:

   • Click OC4J_Portal and verify that the OC4J_Portal page is displayed.

   • Click Portal:portal and verify that the Portal page is displayed.

   Initially, the Portal:portal status may appear Down. This is normal. The status should be updated approximately five minutes after configuration.

9. If this is the first instance of OracleAS Portal to use the OracleAS Metadata Repository, run the following command in the middle-tier Oracle home (make sure the ORACLE_HOME environment variable is set before you run this command):

   On Unix: ORACLE_HOME/portal/conf/ptlconfig -dad portal [-pw PORTAL_schema_password]

   On Windows: ORACLE_HOME\portal\conf\ptlconfig -dad portal [-pw PORTAL_schema_password]

   This script writes OracleAS Portal configuration entries into the OracleAS Metadata Repository. Do not run this script if there are other OracleAS Portal instances using the OracleAS Metadata Repository as this script will overwrite any existing OracleAS Portal configuration entries in the OracleAS Metadata Repository.

   
   

   Note: The PORTAL schema password is stored in the Oracle Internet Directory and the entry may be viewed by an administrator using the oidadmin utility with the following path under Entry Management: OrclResourceName=PORTAL,orclReferenceName=iasdb.myhost.au.oracle.com,cn=IAS Infrastructure Databases,cn=IAS,cn=Products,cn=OracleContext

   
   

10. Verify that you can access OracleAS Portal at the following URL:

    http://<hostname.domain>:<port>/portal/pls/portal

    In the URL, hostname.domain is the OracleAS Portal host, and port is the OracleAS Web Cache HTTP port number for the OracleAS Portal instance. For example, http://myhost.mycompany.com:7777/portal/pls/portal.

    You can log in to OracleAS Portal as the user portal.

    • If this is the first OracleAS Portal instance to use the OracleAS Metadata Repository, the password is the original ias_admin password you supplied for this middle tier during installation. The original ias_admin password is required, even if you changed the ias_admin password, after installation.

    • If this is not the first OracleAS Portal instance to use the OracleAS Metadata Repository, the password is either the:

      • original ias_admin password for the first middle tier associated with the OracleAS Metadata Repository, or

      • current portal password, if the administrator changed the portal user password after the first OracleAS Portal instance was installed.

For more information, see the Oracle Application Server Administrator's Guide.

7.3.1 General Status Information

On the main page for OracleAS Portal, in Application Server Control Console, there is a General section that displays important status and performance-related information. Use this section to establish the status of an OracleAS Portal instance, either Up or Down.

You can also see the average number of page requests for each hour, and the current home page download speed.

7.3.2 OracleAS Metadata Repository Information

On the main page for OracleAS Portal, in Application Server Control Console, there is a section called OracleAS Metadata Repository Used By OracleAS Portal. Use this section to view metrics relating to the OracleAS Metadata Repository. This is the repository that contains the OracleAS Portal schema.

You can see if the database that contains the OracleAS Metadata Repository is up and running, and the date and time the database was started. You can also find out the name and version of the database, and the version of the OracleAS Metadata Repository.

7.3.3 Portal Web Cache Settings Link

In Application Server Control Console, you can specify the OracleAS Web Cache settings that OracleAS Portal should use. From the main OracleAS Portal monitoring page, click the Portal Web Cache Settings link, under Administration, to display the Portal Web Cache Settings page shown in Figure 7-7.

When you set OracleAS Web Cache properties on this page, the Portal Dependency Settings file (iasconfig.xml) located on this middle tier is updated automatically, and the OracleAS Portal schema is also updated. See Appendix A, "Using the Portal Dependency Settings Tool and File" for more details.

Figure 7-7 Application Server Control Console - Portal Web Cache Settings

Description of "Figure 7-7 Application Server Control Console - Portal Web Cache Settings"

In the Portal Web Cache Settings page, you can modify the settings detailed in Table 7-1:

Example 7-1 shows how to configure OracleAS Portal to use OracleAS Web Cache on a different host, using the Portal Web Cache Settings page.

1. Access the Application Server Control Console on the middle tier where OracleAS Portal is installed.

2. Select the portal instance you want to configure, typically, Portal:portal.

3. Select Portal Web Cache Settings.

4. Update the Published Host property with the new host name, along with any other property changes you want to make.

5. Click Apply.

7.3.4 Portal Cache Settings Link

In Application Server Control Console, you can specify content cache and session cache settings for an OracleAS Portal instance. From the main OracleAS Portal monitoring page, click the Portal Cache Settings link, under Administration, to display the Cache Configuration page shown in Figure 7-8.

See Section 1.3.2, "Understanding Portal Cache" for more information.

Figure 7-8 Application Server Control Console - Portal Cache Settings

Description of "Figure 7-8 Application Server Control Console - Portal Cache Settings"

In the Cache Configuration page, you can modify the settings detailed in Table 7-2:

7.3.5 Portal DAD Settings Link

In Application Server Control Console, you can edit the DAD (Database Access Descriptor) for an OracleAS Portal instance. Click the Portal DAD Settings link, under Administration, to display the Edit DAD Database Connection page shown in Figure 7-9.

See Section 4.5.3, "Configuring a Portal DAD" for more information.

Figure 7-9 Application Server Control Console - Portal DAD Settings

Description of "Figure 7-9 Application Server Control Console - Portal DAD Settings"

In the Edit DAD Database Connection page, you can modify the DAD settings detailed in Table 7-3:

7.3.6 Component Status Table

The Component Status table, on the main page for OracleAS Portal in Application Server Control Console, lists the Oracle Application Server components used by OracleAS Portal and indicates their current status. You can drill down and find more information about individual Oracle Application Server components, by clicking on a link. The listed components are:

• HTTP Server

• Parallel Page Engine Services

• Providers

• Ultra Search

7.3.6.2 Parallel Page Engine Services

Clicking the Parallel Page Engine Services link, in the Component Status table, takes you to the Parallel Page Engine Services page shown in Figure 7-10. Detailed Parallel Page Engine (PPE) metrics are displayed on this page.

See Also: Refer to Appendix D, "Configuring the Parallel Page Engine" for more information about the PPE.

Figure 7-10 Application Server Control Console - Parallel Page Engine Services Monitoring Page

Description of "Figure 7-10 Application Server Control Console - Parallel Page Engine Services Monitoring Page"

7.3.6.3 Providers

In the Component Status table, the status of Providers is shown to be Up when none of the portlets' last response codes indicated a failure, and the slowest average portlet performance is quicker than the portlet performance warning threshold.

Clicking the Providers link, in the takes you to the Providers monitoring page. From here you can get an overview of the performance, status, and HTTP response codes (portlets only) of providers and portlets that are requested by the Parallel Page Engine (PPE) in the Application Server Control Console.

The performance of Web Providers, Database Providers, and WSRP Providers are summarized at the top of the Providers page, as shown in Figure 7-11.

Figure 7-11 Application Server Control Console - Provider Summary

Description of "Figure 7-11 Application Server Control Console - Provider Summary"

You can click a provider to get details about individual portlets that have been accessed through that provider.

Figure 7-12 Application Server Control Console - Database Providers

Description of "Figure 7-12 Application Server Control Console - Database Providers"

Figure 7-13 Application Server Control Console - Web Providers

Description of "Figure 7-13 Application Server Control Console - Web Providers"

Figure 7-14 Application Server Control Console - WSRP Providers

Description of "Figure 7-14 Application Server Control Console - WSRP Providers"

Metrics you can monitor include:

• Requests - The number of requests serviced by this provider.

• Avg Time (seconds) - The average response time to request a portlet.

• Max Time (seconds) - The maximum response time to request a portlet.

• Slowest Portlets Avg Time (seconds) - The average performance of a provider's slowest portlet (in seconds).

• Cache Hits - The number of times the cache has been accessed.

• Performance - Indicates whether the providers are performing as expected.

• Online - Indicates if a provider is currently online.

• Status - Indicates whether a specific provider is Up or Down.

The status of a portlet is considered to be Up if no portlets' last response code indicated a failure, and the slowest average portlet performance is quicker than the portlet performance warning threshold set for the target. The status appears Down if the last response code for at least one portlet indicates a failure.

7.3.7 Severity Status Table

The Severity Status table, on the main page for OracleAS Portal in Application Server Control Console, lists the Oracle Application Server components used by OracleAS Portal that indicate severity status. Table 7-4 describes the severity status levels that are reported.

Setting Severity Thresholds Manually in targets.xml

In the Grid Control Console, you can define and adjust the thresholds for OracleAS Portal metrics using the Manage Metrics link (see Section 7.1.4, "Setting OracleAS Portal Metric Thresholds" for information). This feature is not available in the Application Server Control Console but you can edit the severity level thresholds manually, in the Oracle Enterprise Manager configuration file targets.xml, if necessary.

For the Application Server Control Console, this file is located at ORACLE_HOME/sysman/emd/targets.xml, where ORACLE_HOME is the Oracle Application Server Home. You can edit the following threshold values:

• PPESuccessfulResponsesCriticalThreshold - A threshold value used by OracleAS Portal to determine whether the status of the Parallel Page Engine Services is reported to be critical, that is, when the percentage of successful responses drops below this value. The default is 80%.

• PPESuccessfulResponsesWarningThreshold - Parallel Page Engine Services are considered to be in a warning state if the percentage of successful responses is higher than PPESuccessfulResponsesCriticalThreshold and lower than this value. The default is 90%.

• portletResponseCriticalThreshold - A threshold value used by OracleAS Portal to determine whether the status of a Provider's Portlet Timing is reported to be critical, that is, when the average portlet response time (in milliseconds) is greater than this value (in milliseconds). The default is 4500 milliseconds.

• portletResponseWarningThreshold - Portlet response times are considered to be in a warning state if the average response time for Provider portlets is less than PPESuccessfulResponsesCriticalThreshold and greater than this value (in milliseconds). The default is 4000 milliseconds.

If you do edit metric thresholds manually in targets.xml, you must reload the configuration file in the appropriate Application Server Control Console. Follow these steps to update targets.xml in the Oracle Application Server 10g home (ORACLE_HOME) and load the new target information in the Application Server Control Console:

1. Create a backup copy of ORACLE_HOME/sysman/emd/targets.xml. For example, ORACLE_HOME/sysman/emd/targets.xml.30thJune2005.

2. Open ORACLE_HOME/sysman/emd/targets.xml in your favorite Text Editor.

3. Edit the XML segment describing your OracleAS Portal target thresholds.

   <Target TYPE="oracle_portal" NAME="Name" DISPLAY_NAME="Display_Name" VERSION="1.0"> 
      ...
      <Property NAME='PPESuccessfulResponsesCriticalThreshold' VALUE='80' />
      <Property NAME='PPESuccessfulResponsesWarningThreshold' VALUE='90' />
      <Property NAME='portletResponseCriticalThreshold' VALUE='4500' />
      <Property NAME='portletResponseWarningThreshold' VALUE='4000' />
       ...
     </Target>
   
   

4. Reload the targets in the Application Server Control Console:

   On Solaris/Linux:

   ORACLE_HOME/bin/emctl reload
   
   

   On Windows:

   ORACLE_HOME\bin\emctl reload
   
   

7.3.8 Related Links

The Related Links section, on the main page for OracleAS Portal in Application Server Control Console, contains several links:

• Portal End User Default Homepage - This link takes you to the home page for the OracleAS Portal instance.

• All Metrics - This link displays a single comprehensive list of all the metrics available for this OracleAS Portal instance. It is not possible to view historical metric data from the Application Server Control Console but you can start collecting metric data and display the results graphically in real-time.

  To analyze historical trends, use the Grid Control Console. See Section 7.1.1, "Monitoring Historical Trends" for more information.

7.3.9 Logs Link

A Logs link is displayed at the top and bottom of every Oracle Application Server component home page. Click the Logs link on any OracleAS Portal instance home page to view detailed diagnostic information for that OracleAS Portal instance.

See Appendix K, "Troubleshooting OracleAS Portal" for more information.

7.3.10 Topology Link

A Topology link is displayed at the top and bottom of every Oracle Application Server component home page. Click the Topology link to display a graphical representation of your Oracle Application Server environment, including the Oracle Application Server processes that are running OracleAS Portal instances, such as, Web Cache, OC4J_Portal and HTTP Server.

7.3.11 Additional Configuration Requirements

This section contains the following sections:

• Updating Oracle Enterprise Manager Link in OracleAS Portal

• Monitoring OracleAS Portal in an SSL Environment

7.4.1 Logged Events

Table 7-5 lists the events that can be logged for portal objects.

7.4.2 Choosing Which Events Are Logged

You can choose which events are logged in OracleAS Portal Log Registry records.

1. In the Services portlet, click Log Registry Administration.

   
   

   Note: By default, the Services portlet is on the Portal subtab of the Administer tab on the Portal Builder page.

   
   

   The Administer Log Registry page is displayed as shown in Figure 7-15.

   Figure 7-15 Administer Log Registry Page

   
   Description of "Figure 7-15 Administer Log Registry Page"
   
   

   Figure 7-15 shows two logging requests. The first creates an entry in the Activity Log every time a portlet is personalized. The second creates an entry every time a page is created. If you want to log all possible requests, choose % for each field.

2. Do one of the following:

   Click Add New Log Registry Record to create a new Log Registry record and specify logging criteria.

   Or,

   Edit logging criteria for an existing Log Registry record. To do this, perform the following steps:

   1. Click the Edit icon to edit logging criteria for an existing Log Registry record (under Edit/Delete Log Registry Record).

      The Edit Log Registry Record page is displayed as shown in Figure 7-16.

      Figure 7-16 Edit Log Registry Record page

      
      Description of "Figure 7-16 Edit Log Registry Record page"
      
      

   2. Choose the objects that you wish to log, from the Sub Domain list. Valid objects are listed in Table 7-5.

   3. Choose which actions (or events) you want to log, from the Action list. Valid actions are listed in Table 7-5.

   4. Specify other logging criteria as required.

   5. Click OK.

7.4.3 Activity Log Views

Several Activity Log views are available (named wwlog_*). These views exist in the schema in which OracleAS Portal is installed. These views are granted to public; however, the logs are secure according to the object's security. For example, information about pages is available only on pages for which the user has access privileges.

Table 7-6 lists all the Activity Log views and their descriptions. You can create simple OracleAS Portal DB Provider reports and charts based on these views if required.

7.4.4 Accessing Activity Log Views Externally

You can also access information in the Activity Log views from outside of the OracleAS Portal browser-based interface, that is, using SQL*Plus, OracleAS Reports Services, and so on. To do this, you must first set the portal security context for your database session using the wwctx_api.set_context API:

wwctx_api.set_context (
   p_user_name => 'portal_username',
   p_password  => 'portal_pw'
);