BI4 monitoring architecture diagram

This diagram illustrates :

• Java backend servers and Java Web Application hosted in Java Web Application Server natively instrumented with Introscope and talking directly to the Introscope Enterprise Manager server
• Native backend servers instrumented using the NCS library talking to the Solution Manager Diagnostic Agent himself talking to the Introscope Enterprise Manager server
• The Introscope Workstation Java application talking to the Introscope Enterprise Manager server and consuming measures.
• How Introscope can be optionally integrated in Solution Manager server

It doesn't show :

• Several servers talking to the same Introscope Enterprise Manager server
• That Introscope Enterprise Manager server can also talk to other monitoring tools (Tivoli, BMC ...)
• The SAP Host Control Agent monitoring the BO server machine and talking to the Solution Manager Diagnostic Agent (himself talking to the Introscope Enterprise Manager server)

Setting up monitoring environment

NCS library

What is it?

The NCS library is a shared library used by all natives processes being monitored to communicate with the Solution Manager Diagnostic Agent.
The NCS libary comes with BI4 product, no installation is required.

Solution Manager Diagnostic Agent

What is it?

The Solution Manager Diagnostic Agent is a bridge between the native process being monitored (see above NCS library) or the SAPHostCtrl process and the Introscope Enterprise Manager.

Where to get it?

On SAP Service Market Place:
->Software Downloads
  ->Support Packages and Patches
    ->Browse our Download Catalog
      ->SAP Technology Components
        ->SAP SOLUTION MANAGER
          ->SAP SOLUTION MANAGER 7.1 (SAP SOLUTION MANAGER 7.0 EHP 1 for DIAGNOSTICS AGENT 7.2)
            ->Entry by Component
              ->Agents for managed systems
                ->DIAGNOSTICS AGENT 7.3 (or DIAGNOSTICS AGENT 7.2 as you wish)
                  ->Pick up the right version for your system

Java Cryptography Extension for Diagnostic Agent 7.2 (not required for 7.3)

DiagAgent 7.2 installer will ask for the Java Cryptography Extension zip file, it is also available on SMP in :
->Software Downloads
  ->Support Packages and Patches
    ->Browse our Download Catalog
      ->SAP Cryptographic Software...

SAP Host Control (only for 7.2 HostAgent)

What is it?

SAP Host Control is a standard SAP monitoring component that allows for monitoring of a computer system (Hardware and OS statistics etc...)

The installation of this component is not mandatory for BI4 monitoring, but it's always good to have low level informations about the system health.

Where to get it?

SAP Host Agent comes bundled with the SAP Solution Manager Diagnostic Agent 7.3, but is also available as an independant download on SAP Service Market Place (->Software Downloads ->Support Packages and Patches ->Browse our Download Catalog ->SAP Technology Components ->SAP HOST AGENT ->SAP HOST AGENT 7.2L (latest version available when writing this article) ->Pick up the right version for your system )

Introscope Enterprise Manager

What is it?

Introscope Enterprise Manager is the central piece of the monitoring solution for SAP systems, it is a backend system and a Java web application. The backend system will receive all monitoring data from monitored systems while the web application allows for consuming them.

Where to get it?

Get it on SAP Service Market Place:
->Software Downloads
  ->Support Packages and Patches
    ->Browse our Download Catalog
      ->SAP Technology Components
        ->SAP SOLUTION MANAGER
          ->SAP SOLUTION MANAGER 7.1 (latest version available when writing this article)
            ->Entry by Component
              ->Wily Introscope
                ->WILY INTROSCOPE ENTPR MGR 8 (latest version available when writing this article)
                  ->Pick up the right version for your system (several versions may be available, pick up the last one)

Further more you need the 2 following files, download them in the same folder than the one where your Introscope installer is. Download from http://opensrcd.ca.com/ips/osgi/introscope_X.Y.Z/ (where X.Y.Z matches your version and system) :

• eula.txt
• osgiPackages.....zip or tar (check the silent.install.failed.txt file to know which exact version you need)

Installation

SAPCAR is required

SAPCAR is an utility comparable to tar to compress and uncompress SAP archives.
Get it on SAP Service Market Place:
->Software Downloads
  ->Support Packages and Patches
    ->Browse our Download Catalog
      ->SAP Technology Components
        ->SAPCAR
          ->SAPCAR 7.10 (latest version available when writing this article)
            ->Pick up the right version for your system

Introscope Enterprise Manager

See screenshots here.

Preparing the installation

1. In the eula.txt file change the line LGPL=reject to LGPL=accept (last line of the file)
2. Using sapcar uncompress SAPISEM8....SAR file.
3. Check and modify if required the installer.properties file for the silent installer

Installing

1. launch the installer
2. Check the silent.install.failed.txt if any, fix, and restart
3. Once everything went fine fo to installation folder

Checking the installation

1. Start Introscope server (I ran "/usr/sap/ccms/wilyintroscope/bin/EMCtrl.sh start")
2. Connect with your favorite web brower (port 8081 as default)(default user/pass : Admin/Admin89)
3. It's working!

Solution Manager Diagnostic Agent

See screenshots here.

Preparing the installation

1. Using sapcar uncompress DIAGAGT....SAR file.
2. Go to the folder where sapint is (SMD730_00_IM_LINUX_X86_64 in my case)

Installing

1. Launch sapinst with command line parameter :
   • SMD_INSTALLATION_SCENARIO=bobj if using DiagAgent 7.2
   • SMD_INSTALLATION_SCENARIO=rsc if using DiagAgent 7.3
2. Installer is quite straight forward (no SLD and no SMD)
3. Now is the time to configure connectivity from Diagnostic Agent to introscope, to do so go to /usr/sap/DAB/SMDA96/script (DAB/DMDA96 depends on your installation)and launch smdsetup.sh with option "hostagentconf emhost:YOUR_INTROSCOPE_ENTERPRISE_MANAGER_HOST emport:6001 state:on".

Note : on Windows, sapinst may ask you to restart the system and will then resume after restart, unfortunately it doesn't resume with the command line parameter, hence you have to stop it and restart from command line with the missing parameter.

Checking the installation

1. Restart SolMan Diagnostic agent with : stopsap -i SMDA96 ; startsap -i SMD96 (again, SMDA96 is specific to my install, change by yours)
2. SAP Host Agent should appear in Introscope Investigator window

Note : on our test system (Linux SE10) the SAPHostAgent didn't appeared in Introscope, it was fixed by disabling IPv6 on the system, restarting the machine and the system, and then SAPHostAgent would appear in Introscope, restarting IPv6 after that didn't cause any trouble even after rebooting the system.

Final configuration step

See screenshots here.
As we don't use SolutionManager in this scenario, we have one last file to change, it is :
/usr/sap/DAB/SMDA96/SMDAgent/applications.config/com.sap.smd.agent.application.wilyhost/SapAgentConfig.xml (once again, DAB and SMDA96 are my instance values, change for yours). Its content should be replaced by :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<sapagent>
<destination class="com.sap.smd.wily.hostagent.destination.SocketDestination" name="localhost">
<property name="port" value="59618"/>
</destination>
<pool><action prefix="" name="TCP" destination="localhost" metriclimit="10000" template="SapMDM" /></pool>
</sapagent>

where 59618 is the port where SMDAgent is listenning (when no SolutionManager in the loop, this port can be forced on the SolutionManager host agent, else it is equal to 50000+system number of SMD agent*100 + 18 .

SAP Host Control

Again it is not mandatory to install it, but this is a good way to check that everything we installed previously works fine as SAP Host Control will talk to Introscope Enterprise Manager through the Solution Manager Diagnostic Agent.
At this point, SAPHostControl should already be running, you should see it as "SAP OsCol" in SAP Host Agent in Introscope Innvestigator window.

BI4 servers connectivity to Introscope

Install time

See screenshots here.
During install, the installer will ask about connectivity to SMD Agent and connectivity to Introscope Enterprise Manager. It is recommended to configure this then.

These values will be stored for this node fo the cluster into its 'placeholder' accesible and modifiable in the CMC->Servers->Nodes->Placeholders.

Java servers

Introscope connectivity is defined in *.profile files in [SAP_BI4_INSTALL_FOLDER]/enterprise_xi40/java/wily .

Native servers

Native servers communicate with Introscope through NCS libray whose configuration is stored in file [SAP_BI4_INSTALL_FOLDER]/enterprise_xi40/conf/[BI4_NODE_NAME]/ncs.conf . DO NOT CHANGE THIS FILE, it is actually generated at cluster startup by using [SAP_BI4_INSTALL_FOLDER]/enterprise_xi40/conf/ncs.template file combined with the values for the cluster (available in the CMC->Servers->Nodes->Placeholders).

Regarding these parameters, and particularly %NCSInstrumentLevelThreshold%, this one defines the verbosity of the NCS instrumentation, the higher, the more verbose, 10 is the default value, setting this value to 0 (zero) is the best way to turn all NCS instrumentation off. This is good toknow particularly if no Introscope and Solution Manager Diagnostic Agent are installed, then it is recommended to set this value to 0, as else the NCS library will still be loaded and try regularly to talk to the SMD Agent.

Solution Manager integration

Solution Manager installation

Solution Manager connection to the monitored BI4 system

What if BI4 installed on a machine where SAP SolMan host agent is already installed and already talking to a SolMan server?

Simply update the Solution Manager and Introscope parameters for the node in the placeholders editor in the CMC.

Solution Manager :

Introscope Enterprise :

Save, close, and restart your BI4 node (using the stopservers and startservers shells in [BI4_INSTALL_DIR]/sap_bobj).