Processes and Utilization

As a system administrator, you use the Processes and Utilization 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 and Utilization 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:

• Status

• 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.

• Type

  • CP: Communication Process
  • PWP: Primary Work Process
  • WP: Work Process
  • DWP: Dialog Work Process
  • JWP: Java Work Process
  • JCP: Java Communication Process
  • REST: REST Process

  For more information, see Server Processes.

• Version

  Server process version including the patch level

• IP address

• Port No.

  Port number of the relevant server process.

  Note: The value for work processes is always 0 because they do not use a TCP port. For more information, see Types of Server Processes.

• Host

  Name of the computer on which the server process is running

• Connections

  Number of (external) connections to the communication process, such as the AWI instances and agents

  Notes:

  • Internal connections between communication processes and work processes are shown in the ServiceManager.

  • Connections to work processes are exempted. The value for work processes is always 0.

• Linked

The following columns are also available:

• B.01

  Percentage of server process utilization during the last minute

• B.10

  Percentage of server process utilization during the last 10 minutes

• B.60

  Percentage of server process utilization during the last 60 minutes

• Process ID

• Time difference

  Time difference between the computer on which the server process is running and the AE system

• Server time

  Date and time of the computer on which the server process is running

• Role

  Server role that the process assumes

  Communication processes cannot assume server roles. In the case of work processes each role is assigned only once. Therefore, a work process does not necessarily assume a role.

  Possible values:

  • Work Process: O (Output) and R (Resource)
  • Java Work Process: AUT (Authentication), TMR (Timer), UTL (Utilities)

  For more information, see Types of Server Processes.

• 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.

• Own MQSet

  The MQSet number of the process

• Active MQSet

  Displays if the service is active during the ZDU, see System Upgrade - Zero Downtime Upgrade

  Note: Own MQSet has the same value as Active MQSet. MQSets for each process are saved in the database.

• ZDU Version

  Displays if the process is old (B - base ) or new (T - target)

  During ZDU, base (old) and target (new) processes run in parallel. The target processes take over the work of the base processes. For more information, see System Upgrade - Zero Downtime Upgrade.

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. For more information, see Main Page Tables.

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.

The panel at the bottom of the Processes page provides additional statistical records on the Utilization of work processes. For more information, see Types of Server Processes.

The information can be displayed in two different ways:

• 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 utilization data.

  At the bottom of the chart, you can choose to show or hide the data of a particular Client.

• 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.

Note: Both in the chart and in the table views, the time columns represent a time range. For example, the 20:00 column represents the time range between 19:00 and 19:59. Hover your mouse over the time columns to display the corresponding time range.

You can select a work process from the list to display the information that is specific to that process. You can also select General Utilization 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 Utilization of a specific work process may not be displayed when selecting General Utilization if their workload is negligible. This allows you to have a clear overview of the Clients that produce a significant workload.

The Processes list on the upper half of the screen can contain many entries. To help you find the processes you want to monitor, maintain or create traces for, you can use the Filter.

Tip: You can share filtered lists with other users. You can also bookmark the filtered list to be able to access it quickly next time. For more information, see Bookmarking and Sharing Links.

Displaying and Hiding the Filter Pane

Click the Filter button to open the Filter pane. Click it again to close it.

The first time you open the filter, it displays the three default filter criteria only (Process Name, Type, Status). These options are always visible and you cannot remove them from the pane.

Adding Filter Criteria

1. Click the Add Filter Criteria button. 
2. Select a criterion from the dropdown list. You can use both the mouse and the keyboard.
3. The new filter section is added. Define the filter criteria and click the Filter button at the bottom of the pane to apply them.

Filter Options

Process Name

The Name field uses implicit wildcards at the beginning and at the end of the search string you enter here. Entering ABCDE actually triggers the search for *ABCDE*.

This field is not case-sensitive.

Type

Select the type of processes that you are interested in to restrict the list to only that type.

Status

Restrict the list to Active or Inactive processes.

1 Minute Utilization

Use this option to filter the list by percentage of server utilization during the last minute. Enter the percentage that you are interested in. The filtered list shows all processes with that utilization percentage and above.

10 Minutes Utilization

Use this option to filter the list by percentage of server utilization during the last ten minutes. Enter the percentage that you are interested in. The filtered list shows all processes with that utilization percentage and above.

60 Minutes Utilization

Use this option to filter the list by percentage of server utilization during the last 60 minutes. Enter the percentage that you are interested in. The filtered list shows all processes with that utilization percentage and above.

Host Name

Enter the name of the computer on which the processes run. This field uses implicit wildcards at the beginning and at the end of the search string you enter here. Entering ABCDE actually triggers the search for *ABCDE*.

This field is not case-sensitive.

IP Address

The IP Address filter scans the system for all available addresses and shows them in this section. Use this option to restrict the list to the processes with the IP addresses you select here.

Net Area

Use this option to restrict the list to the processes that have been distributed to a specific network. Enter the name of the area here. This field uses implicit wildcards at the beginning and at the end of the search string you enter here. Entering ABCDE actually triggers the search for *ABCDE*.

This field is not case-sensitive.

Role

Use this option to restrict the list to the processes with a specific server role. You can also filter processes with no server role assigned.

Version

The Version filter scans the system for all available versions and shows them in this section. Use this option to restrict the list to the processes with a specific version.

ZDU Version

During ZDU, base (old) and target (new) processes run in parallel. Use this option to restrict the list to the processes with a specific ZDU version:

• Current Version refers to the base versions (B)
• New Version refers to the new one (T)

For more information, see System Upgrade - Zero Downtime Upgrade.

Click Details to open a pane on the right hand side of the page that displays the variables used in the selected process.

As soon as a Server process starts, the system starts to collect and archive data. It logs and archives data until the process stops. It is not possible to turn off this function. The collected data is available from the process Executions list and from its report and it served to analyze and troubleshoot errors. You access both from the Administration perspective, in the Processes list, by right-clicking the process and selecting Monitoring > Executions or Monitoring > Last Report.

Execution Data for Server Processes

Every row in the Executions list indicates when the process started and stopped, it describes its status and shows any available messages. For more information, see Execution Data.

Server Process Reports

Server and Agent reports include the following data:

• INI file content
• Start and end of the Server processes or Agents
• Connection between the Automation Engine, the Agents, and the Automic Web Interface
• Task processing and status
• Access administration messages in the context of the authorization system

To be able to access the Server and Agent reports you need the following rights:

• S - Executions (access to execution data) for objects of type SERV (servers) and HOST (Agents)
• P - Open Report (access to reports) for objects of type SERV (servers) and HOST (Agents)

For more information, see Understanding the Reports.

As soon as an object is executed, Automic Automation generates a runID for that execution. Each new execution generates its own runID. The same applies every time that a server process starts, Automic Automation assigns it a runID.

To understand what happens in a server process, to troubleshoot issues and find the reason why something went wrong, you use the reports and the Executions list, where detailed data about the configuration and activities that occurred in the server process are recorded. The Automation AI Assistant simplifies this process substantially. This is how you call it and what you can expect from it:

1. Do one of the following:

   • In the Processes and Utilization > Processes list, select a process and right-click to select Monitoring > Analyze Last Execution.

   • In Client 0, open the process definition and click Analyze Last Execution in the toolbar on the Process page.

2. The Automation AI Assistant panel opens and provides a summary and an analysis of what happened in the server during its last connection. The process' last connection is not the currently active one, but the previous, already ended one.

   The Automation AI Assistant crawls all available reports and logs and provides data about the server process configuration and about its activities.

   If something went wrong, the Automation AI Assistant describes the issue and suggests solutions. It also provides a link to the execution and to its report.

3. You can start a conversation in the context of the execution in the Ask Automation AI Assistant field at the bottom of the pane. You can type any question you need to drill down into the reasons that caused the failure (if applicable), to request better error handling if you need more clarity as to why it happened, to ask for suggestions to better configure the underlying object, and so on. The Automation AI Assistant recognizes and remembers the context in which you ask your questions.

   The Automation AI Assistant responds in natural language. You can ask it to provide the answers in any format that you need (json, markup language, etc.) and you can have follow-up conversations with it in any language, not just in the language of your interface. The more precise that you word your question, the better the answer will be. You can ask your questions in any language.

4. To clear or exit the chat, click on the three dots to the right of the chat box and select Clear Chat / Exit Chat.

For more information, see:

• Analyzing Executions with the Automation AI Assistant

• Analyzing Reports with the Automation AI Assistant

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. For more information, see CHANGE_LOGGING Parameters and 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.

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.

Note: To be able to start and stop processes, your User definition must have the Upgrade system, start and stop processes privilege.

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).

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 Attributes page of the Server object to show and manually edit these settings. For more information, see Defining the Attributes Page.

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.

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 UC_SYSTEM_SETTINGS variable, see 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.

• CHANGE_LOGGING_MB

  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.

• CHANGE_LOGGING_DAYS

  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

• MIN_EVENT_INTERVAL

  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.

• LAST_USE

  Time delay in minutes after which the objects' utilization counter is refreshed

  Allowed values: 0 to 10

• Server language

  Primary language in which the login is made

  This value is retrieved from the Server's INI file.

• SNMP in use

  Displays whether SNMP is used

  You can also specify this setting in the Server's INI file.

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.