System Monitoring

The configuration for the system monitor takes two forms:

The monitoring application needs information such as log file path and number of threads to run with. Once the application is running, it needs to know what to monitor, and deduce how to monitor. Because the configuration data for what to monitor is needed in other areas of the system, such as deployment, the configuration data should not be tailored specifically for use by the system monitor, but should be a generalized system configuration model.

The performance of the monitoring system has two aspects:

There are many issues involved with designing and implementing a system monitor. Here are a few issues to be dealt with:

There are many tools for collecting system data from hosts and devices using the SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol). Most computers and networked devices will have some form of SNMP access. Interpretation of the SNMP data from a host or device requires either a specialized tool (typically extra software from the vendor) or a Management information base (MIB), a mapping of commands/data references to the various data elements the host or device provides. The advantage of SNMP for monitoring is its low bandwidth requirements and universal usage in the industries.

Unless an application itself provides a MIB and output via SNMP, then SNMP is not suitable for collecting application data.

Other protocols are suitable for monitoring applications, such as CORBA (language/OS-independent), JMX (Java-specific management and monitoring protocol), or proprietary TCP/IP or UDP protocols (language/OS independent for the most part).

Data access refers to the interface by which the monitor data can be utilized by other processes. For example, if the system monitor is a CORBA server, clients can connect and make calls on the monitor for current state of an element, or historical states for an element for some time period.

The system monitor may be writing data directly into a database, allowing other processes to access the database outside the context of the system monitor. This is dangerous however, as the table design for the database will dictate the potential for data-sharing. Ideally the system monitor is a wrapper for whatever persistence mechanism is used, providing a consistent and 'safe' access interface for others to access the data.

The data collection mode of the system monitor is critical. The modes are: monitor poll, agent push, and a hybrid scheme.

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