As a system administrator, you use the Processes & Usage page to access information about the currently existing work processes (WPs) in a system. You can retrieve information about them and execute basic commands.
This page includes the following:
The Processes & Usage page is available in the Automation Engine Management page in the Administration perspective. You can open the execution data and the current report of a process and access all available functions by right-clicking a process. Currently inactive processes are grayed out.
The toolbar provides shortcuts to the most important functions. In the toolbar, the buttons Export and Refresh are available by default. These buttons allow you to refresh the content of the table and export it as a CSV file.
Columns displayed by default:
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Status
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Name
Server process name including the patch level
This name is a combination of the system name, #, process type and the consecutive 3-digit process type number.
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Type
- C: Communication Process
- P: Primary Work Process
- W: Work Process
- D: Dialog Process
- J: Java (Work) Process
- A: Java Communication Process
For more information, see Server Processes.
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Version
Server process version including the patch level
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IP address
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Port No.
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Host
Name of the computer on which the server process is running
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Connections
Number of (external) connections to the communication process, such as the AWI instances and agents
Notes:
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Internal connections between communication processes and work processes are shown in the ServiceManager.
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Connections to work processes are exempted. The value for work processes is always 0.
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Linked
The following columns are also available:
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B.01
Percentage of server process utilization during the last minute
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B.10
Percentage of server process utilization during the last 10 minutes
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B.60
Percentage of server process utilization during the last 60 minutes
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Process ID
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Time difference
Time difference between the computer on which the server process is running and the AE system
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Server time
Date and time of the computer on which the server process is running
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Role
Server role that the work process assumes
Allowed values: O (Output) and R (Resource)
Notes:
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Each role is assigned only once. Therefore, a work process does not necessarily assume a role.
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Communication processes cannot assume Server roles.
For more information, see Server Processes.
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Net Area
By default, this value complies with the name of the AE system. Work processes always run within the same net area.
For more information, see Net Areas in the Automation Engine.
To add or remove these columns from your list of processes, click the arrow to the right of the header row to open the list of additional columns.
Opening a Process
Select one or more processes and right-click and pick Open or click the Open button on the toolbar. The Process definition pages are displayed, where you can change the parameters, provided you have the necessary rights.
General Usage: Statistical Data on the Processes
The panel at the bottom of the Processes page provides additional statistical records on the Usage of work processes.
The information can be displayed in two different ways:
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Usage Chart
The data is displayed as chart columns, by Client. The X-axis shows the time of the workload data, the Y-axis the percentage of workload at a given point in time.
From the Last drop-down list, select the time frame for which you want to display the usage data.
At the bottom of the chart, you can choose to show or hide the data of a particular Client.
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Usage Table
The workload of the work processes is displayed in percentages.
Each column stands for a certain hour. Client data is displayed in lines, one line per Client (hourly values and average value).
If necessary, you can change the sort order of the columns in the table by clicking the column header.
You can select a work process from the list to display the information that is specific to that process. You can also select General Usage to display the workload of all Automation Engine work processes that represent a significant load in the system. Consequently, Clients that were displayed when viewing the Usage of a specific work process may not be displayed when selecting General Usage if their workload is negligible. This allows you to have a clear overview of the Clients that produce a significant workload.
Viewing the Details of a Process
Click Details to open a pane on the right hand side of the page that displays the variables used in the selected process.
Opening the Execution Data and the Report
Select one or more processes and right-click to select Executions, where information on past executions of the processes are displayed. For more information, see Execution Data.
Likewise, select a process and right-click to select Open Report. This opens the Reports window with the last Reports for Servers and Agents.
The Automation Engine logs large amounts of information. To be able to handle your log files easily, you can define system-wide settings that break the information to be logged in smaller chunks and thus produce also smaller log files.
For example, you can determine the maximum size of the log file; or you can specify the number of days that may elapse before a new file starts. You do so in the UC_SYSTEM_SETTINGS variable using the CHANGE_LOGGING_DAYS and CHANGE_LOGGING_MB keys. See UC_SYSTEM_SETTINGS - Systemwide Settings.
You can also change the log settings via the Automic Web Interface. For this purpose, right-click one or more records and select Initiate Log Rotation; this causes a new log file to be written. A dialog prompts you to confirm your action.
Important! Changing the log file of a particular work process implies that the log files of all other work processes are also changed.
Starting/Stopping a Process
Select one or more inactive processes and right-click to select Start Process. This activates it.
Select one or more inactive processes and right-click to select Stop Process. This stops the process immediately, regardless of tasks that might be running.
Changing the Server Mode
With the Change Server mode to WP/DWP you change the work process mode from WP to DWP and vice versa. Likewise, with the Change Server mode to WP/PWP command you change the work-process mode from WP to PWP and vice versa.
Important!
- You cannot change a work process to a dialog process if it performs a Server role (check in the Role column)
- You cannot change a work process to a primary work process if it performs a Server role (check in the Role column).
Updating the Service Manager Link
Select one or more processes and right-click to select Update Service Manager Link. This refreshes the connection settings to the Service Manager for the selected server process.
You must specify these settings if you start the server processes via the Administration perspective or the script element MODIFY_SYSTEM by using a ServiceManager. You can use the Server object's Attributes Page in order to show and manually edit these settings.
This scan is automatically made when the server processes start for the first time. It can happen that the service name defined in the Server object does no longer comply with the related service name in the ServiceManager. In this case, it is recommended running the Verify connection to Service Manager command or entering the relevant values manually.
Select a process and right-click to select Advanced Options. This opens a dialog where you can specify trace flags and additional settings.
In doing so, you can log the behavior of the Automation Engine even in exceptional cases. You do not have to shut down the Server if you start tracing but your system's performance can decrease as a result thereof because traces can create a log of data. There are several trace flags. Set trace options only in close cooperation with CA Automic Support.
Trace Flags Section
In the Trace Flags section, you set the trace level for a number of process activities. The trace values are 0–9 to indicate the level of detail collected, but values can be different for some processes. Tracing is disabled when the trace value is 0 (zero).
In the trace options section, you can specify numerical values for the individual options. A short description of the values is shown to the right of the number in the each drop-down list. You can also specify more than one trace option.
Additional Trace Options Section
In the Additional Trace Options section for WP processes, you specify the following options for trace.
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Memory Trace
You can use this option in combination with the Trace Search Key. The trace messages will be saved to a memory buffer until the search string is found, at which time tracing stops and the messages are written to one trace file on the disk. Without this option, trace files are written directly to the disk, as one or more files, depending on the Max. Trace Size setting.
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Memory Buffer Size
The maximum trace size influences the size of the trace files that are written to the disk of the agent's host. How it works depends on whether the Trace Memory option is enabled:
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Trace Memory enabled
In this case, the trace component reserves the specified space on the disk in preparation for when the trace files is written. If the trace file size in the memory buffer exceeds the reserved space defined here, the trace component will continuously truncate the oldest messages in the trace file to make room for the newest.
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Trace Memory disabled or unavailable
When a trace file reaches the defined limit, the tracing component finishes writing the message or command that it was writing at that time. When the size of the current trace file exceeds this limit, the file is closed and a new trace file is opened.
In all cases, the real size of the trace file tends to be larger than the maximum size defined because the trace component finishes writing the message or code that it is logging when the size limit is reached. Some script statements can be extremely long, so the file size will be noticeable larger than the limit set.
Important to understand is that the purpose of the Max. Trace Size is to limit the space used in memory. The file representation that is then saved on the disk can be much bigger. For example, if you are using memory tracing, the file will be much bigger, because the trace data is written to the memory buffer in binary form but when the buffer is flushed onto the disk, the trace file is written in hexadecimal form, which explodes the file size.
If you set the Max. Trace Size to 0 (zero) without memory tracing, this means that the trace file size is unlimited. However, with memory tracing set, the trace size cannot be lower than the default of 32MB. So, if you enter a value less than that, the system automatically treats it as if it were 32MB.
Note: Regardless of the trace settings, if the agent crashes then tracing also stops. The last record will not be written. When the agent starts again, all trace options will be reset to the defaults that are defined in the agent's INI file.
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Trace Search Key
You can enter a text string, such as a specific error message, that signals the end of tracing. When the tracing component encounters this string, it finishes writing the current message and then it stops tracing and resets all trace options to 0 (zero). You use this to help you focus on the area where the problem occurred and to manage disk space by preventing excessive tracing.
Server Setting Section
In the Server Setting section for WP processes, you can specify the general settings for the server process and the values for the Server input buffers.
Important Values for Server settings are read from the variable UC_SYSTEM_SETTINGS - Systemwide Settings. New values that are specified in this dialog are only valid until the Automation Engine system is cold booted. Only a system administrator can make permanent modifications in the system variables.
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Size in MB after which the log files are changed
Allowed values: 1 to 32767
You can also prompt the log file to be changed by using the script element CHANGE_LOGGING.
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Time period in days after which the log files are changed
Allowed values: 1 to 32767
You can also prompt the log file to be changed by using the script element CHANGE_LOGGING
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Minimum interval (in minutes) in which events are executed
Allowed values: 0 to 9999
An Events (EVNT) object can also include a value that lies below this minimum interval. In this case, the system uses the interval that is specified in the event.
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Time delay in minutes after which the objects' usage counter is refreshed
Allowed values: 0 to 10
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Server language
Primary language in which the login is made
This value is retrieved from the Server's INI file.
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SNMP in use
Displays whether SNMP is used
You can also specify this setting in the Server's INI file.
Server Cache Setting Section
In the Server Cache Setting section for WP processes, you can specify the following cache settings:
- Script cache
- Var cache
- Message queue cache
- Object cache
- User cache
The table includes an editable Maximum Value column and an read-only Current Value column.
See also: