DB2/UDB Data Collector

DB2/UDBData Collector

Status: 12/4/2008

Copyright © REALTECH 2008 Page 2 of 14

theGuard! ApplicationManager – DB2/UDB Data Collector

Table of Contents

Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 3The Performance Features of the ApplicationManager Data Collector for DB2/UDB........................................... 3The Architecture of the DB2/UDB Database ...................................................................................................... 4The DB2/UDB Data Collector ............................................................................................................................ 5

Monitoring Instances...................................................................................................................................... 6Monitoring DBM Configuration Parameters................................................................................................. 6

Monitoring Databases .................................................................................................................................... 8Monitoring Log Space................................................................................................................................. 8General Properties ..................................................................................................................................... 9

Monitoring Tablespaces ............................................................................................................................... 10Monitoring Bufferpools ................................................................................................................................. 11Managing Performance................................................................................................................................ 12Managing the Operating System .................................................................................................................. 13Pre-defined Monitoring Policies.................................................................................................................... 13

Appendix A: The Data Collector's Object Structure .......................................................................................... 14



Introduction

There's more to efficient application management than maximizing availability. Targeted tuning can increase theperformance and stability of business-critical applications without having to invest in additional hardware(processors, RAM, disk space).

A number of data collectors have been developed for theGuard! ApplicationManager that providecomprehensive monitoring and generate detailed data analyses. Data collectors do more than simply collectevents according to pre-defined rules. They deliver every performance value and the current status of eachapplication object in real time. They also provide insight into configuration attributes, such as the release statusor the application's parameter settings. Data collectors model an application in objects and sub-objects, enablinga dedicated handling of alerts, monitoring, reporting, service level management, or status messages. This modelensures that information is clearly structured and that messages are easy to allocate to a problem.

Pre-defined and reusable policies for each type of application facilitate the implementation of the solution andthe adaptation of monitoring to dynamic landscapes. The ease with which thresholds are set ensures the earlyrecognition of potential errors. Comprehensive reaction management enables flexible alerting for more than 100different devices and alarm consoles.

The automatic discovery of new application instances and objects, including the automatic allocation of policies,enables automatic monitoring even in those cases in which system administrators have completely reconfiguredthe application, for example, by adding new instances or objects.

Central reporting at the application instance and application object level provides for a detailed and effectivecapacity management of all resources.

Integrated Service Level Management ensures that the service levels for application availability andperformance are achieved, while Operational Level Agreements (OLAs) can be easily defined at the applicationobject level.

The Performance Features of the ApplicationManager DataCollector for DB2/UDB

The data collector for DB2/UDB monitors and analyzes DB2 databases from version 7.2 to 8.1. All of the DB2instances that are installed on the local computer are monitored by one data collector.

In addition to the DB2 instance (database manager, DBM), the databases, tablespaces, bufferpools, and thediagnostic log are defined and analyzed individually within the framework of the CIM model as Managed Objects(MO). The data collector's features are described in the data collector's online documentation. This documentprovides an overview of the most important functions.



The Architecture of the DB2/UDB Database

DB2/UDB is a relational database that extensively covers the newest ANSI-SQL standards, which is why it isused by many large business-critical applications. DB2 databases are used to continuously and quickly provide,permanently store, and manage terabytes of data, for example, from an SAP system. A business-criticalapplication can only run smoothly if the basic DB2/UDB database is highly available and bottleneck-free. Largeinvestments are made in database software and hardware technology although most database problems arecaused by the applications using them or external access (administrators). Professional management softwareis a must.

The architecture of the DB2/UDB database enables several DB2 databases to be run and managed by one DB2instance (database manager). Only one DB2 instance is needed to separate and manage the data from differentapplications or business areas. Fully autonomous DB2 instances can be run on appropriately sized and fastservers.

The Architecture of the DB2/UDB Database



The DB2/UDB Data Collector

The below figure shows all of the objects of a DB2/UDB instance in theGuard! ApplicationManager's ManagedMonitor. Appendix A contains a complete list of all of the objects.

The DB2 instances, their databases, tablespaces, bufferpools, and the diagnostic log are defined and displayedas Managed Objects in the Managed Monitor.

Managed Objects are hierarchically arranged and clearly structured thus providing the current status of everycomponent at a glance. Monitoring parameters can be defined for each component.

One or more of a database's system processes can be monitored as Managed Objects, for example, as aprocess group in the operating system's data collector.



Monitoring Instances

Each DB2/UDB instance can be monitored according to the below criteria:

Status of the DB2 instance Changes to DBM configuration parameters DB2 agents and the number of database connections (local and remote) Serious database errors that are recorded in the diagnostic log file

Events are divided into categories and classes making them easy to filter and treat differently. Configurationparameters are used to configure the monitors to the requirements of each DB2 instance. The configuration iseasily transferred to other DB2 instances.

This comprehensive, automatic monitoring relieves database administrators of daily reviews.

It is also possible to constantly monitor additional attributes or display their values in real-time property lists.

Monitoring DBM Configuration Parameters

All of the DBM parameter values can be displayed and compared to target values or ranges of target values.

The DBM configuration parameters are sorted by area:

List of monitored configuration parameters:



User-definable target values can be transferred to other databases with a few mouse clicks. This also applies toall of the other configuration settings.

Setting target values to check the DBM configuration parameters:

Erroneously configured critical parameters or instances with different values are quickly and easily detected.Application errors caused by wrong DBM profile parameters are avoided.



Monitoring Databases

Each DB2 database can be monitored according to the following criteria:

Status of the DB2 database Changes to DBM configuration parameters Log space usage Backup interval Cache quality Number of client connections Statistical evaluation of sorts, locks, deadlocks, SQL statements, and table activity

Events are divided into categories and classes making them easy to filter and treat differently. Configurationparameters are used to configure the monitors to the requirements of each DB2 database. The configuration iseasily transferred to other DB2 databases.

This comprehensive, automatic monitoring relieves database administrators of daily reviews.

It is also possible to constantly monitor additional attributes or display their values in real-time property lists.

Monitoring Log Space

Changes to the application data (inserts, updates, and deletions) are recorded in the transaction log. Thetransaction log is stored in the database's log space. When the log space is full, no more transactions can beadded and the database comes to a partial standstill. Log space is very important for the stability, consistency,and performance of the application.

Log space usage:

Monitoring log space can prevent the database from failing due to a full transaction log. This ensures theavailability and performance of the application even during load peaks.



General Properties

In addition to monitoring, important and useful information about a DB2 database can be reported in real time inproperty lists.

The detailed overview contains information such as a summary of the relevant information about the database'stablespaces, whether the tablespace was defined as a Managed Object for detailed monitoring or not.

List: General tablespace information:

List: Tablespace fill level:

This central and concise overview reduces the time it takes to analyze the cause of a problem.



Monitoring Tablespaces

Tablespaces are the logical containers of a DB2 database. A tablespace's size is determined by the size andnumber of physical storage areas (containers) that are associated with the tablespace. Monitoring tablespacesmainly means monitoring the available disk space.

List of tablespace properties:

Monitoring all of the sizes that are relevant for disk space management enables capacity bottlenecks to berecognized and solved at an early stage. This information can be used to plan the long-term capacity requiredby application data, for example, moving large tables (or table partitions) to their own tablespace.



Monitoring Bufferpools

Writing to and reading from the hard disk are two of the slowest database operations. They have a considerableimpact on the system's overall performance.

Monitoring bufferpools enables the quality of the bufferpool (hit ratio) and the database's I/O operations to berecorded and evaluated using the detailed reporting functions.

A buffer's hit ratio:

Statistics of a buffer's physical read operations:

Monitoring bufferpools provides valuable information that can be used to optimize the I/O performance andhence the reading and writing application.



Managing Performance

Managed Objects, such as the DB2 instance or the DB2 database, provide a number of statistical values abouttheir real-time status. For example, usage and performance values such as the number of the current clientconnections, required disk space, quality of the cache, and so forth. Thresholds, which are used to generatealerts when they are violated, can be defined for all of the statistical values. They are also used to monitoroperability and performance. The statistical values can also be collected in the ApplicationManager databaseand evaluated using REALTECH Reporting. This information can be used to generate long-term trend analyses,for example, for hard disk usage, and used as a basis for cost and capacity planning.

In addition, all of the statistical values can be monitored and compared in the real-time performance monitor.These values can be used to optimize performance and storage space. The below figure displays the logspace usage and the number of allocated, secondary log files in Performance Monitor.



Managing the Operating System

To fully protect a DB2 database, important operating system parameters, such as physical disks, processorusage, page file, etc. should be monitored. These and other parameters can be recorded and evaluated with theappropriate operating system data collectors.

Pre-defined Monitoring Policies

The DB2/UDB data collector consists of a number of pre-configured policies for object types such asinstances, databases, tablespaces, and bufferpools.

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Appendix A: The Data Collector's Object Structure

The collector is structured in object types, which among other things, is essential for the configuration andallocation of events as well as for all of the other functions:

Object Type Sub-object Types Metrics Topic

DB Client One client per managednode

Instance Monitoring – Propertiesof the data collector's clientenvironment

Instance DatabaseDiagnostic Log

One to N instances permanaged node

Instance Monitoring – Status,activity and performance at thedatabase manager level

Database TablespaceBufferpool

One to N databases perinstance

Database Monitoring -Activity and performance at thedatabase level

Tablespace One to N tablespaces perdatabase

Tablespace Monitoring –Controls disk space usage andsegment growth

Bufferpool One to N bufferpools perdatabase

Buffer Monitoring –Buffer usage and performance

Diagnostic Log One diagnostic log perinstance

Alerting on DB2 error reporting

DB2/UDB Data Collector

Documents

db2udb data collector

data collectors features

monitoring instances

number of data collectors

automatic monitoring

monitoring databases

comprehensive monitoring

monitoring bufferpools