Performance
Monitoring
A state-of-the-art server
machine is not the end of the matter. Keeping tabs on the system is also a
very important aspect of running a Web server. This will unsure that any
problems with the machine's hardware, software or even the physical
connection to the Internet, will show up in the analysis. Data gleaned from
monitoring, alerts administrators to problems, and can provide positive
identification to the source of the problem also.
Management System
In a management system, there
is a central suite of software that is dedicated to monitoring the Web
server and the network. The software can assess the performance of all
related objects on the network, e.g. servers, routers or hubs. A terminal is
available that allows the administrator to view the results, called the
management system. The central suite of software monitors each object, by
communicating with each of them through software agents installed on the
objects and collecting statistical information. Installing a management
system such as this, means a difficult choice has to be made; which of the
different protocols, currently available, should be used?
Management
Standards
There are basically two
categories that network management systems fall into, those which utilise
proprietary protocols, and those which comply with a standard. The ISO
(Industry Standard Organisation) defines its management system within the
CMIP (common management information protocol) system. CMIP might be the
official standard, but the most widely accepted standard with the greatest
installed base is the SNMP (simple network management protocol) suite. This
was defined by the developers of TCP/IP, the Internet protocol. Other
systems are also available, such as IBM's NetView. It has been suggested
that CMIP is the most powerful of all the management protocols, and will be
widely embraced as the protocol of choice.
Information
Gatherers
The agents running on various
objects like the server, firewall, proxy, routers, bridges and hubs can
possess an area of memory and a processor, to gather statistical information
and pass it on to the management station monitor. The monitor polls each
agent and retrieves the statistical information that has been gathered about
its own performance. Usually the monitor station can present these results
in a graphical format on a GUI-based interface.
Server Performance
Tools
Thus far we have seen by and
large the management of the entire network. This is of course very
important, since your Web server may well be providing Intranet services to
the organisation as well as Web services for the outside world. From the Web
server perspective, it is more important to monitor the server. It is the
task of the administrator to ensure that the server is operating at its
optimum performance, ensuring that there are no problems, bottlenecks, or
disasters lying in wait. The best way to look out for these is to run
server-monitoring tools on the server, to continually check its status.
As mentioned under the section
dealing with Networks, NT comes with a good selection of tools. Other
operating systems come with a range of similar tools, or tools can be
installed from a third part vendor.
Windows NT includes the
following utilities:
Network Monitor
This utility is a good tool for
finding out what is happening around the server at the packet level of
network transmission. It monitors all traffic to and from the server, and
can be set to filter the information from a particular node or address
Performance
Monitor
This utility provides
comprehensive information on how the server is working, and is the main way
of detecting upgrading needs. Its main feature is to display information in
a chart form, relating to a particular resource on the server. It supports
an impressive list of items from different memory objects, CPU and network
traffic, and even more Internet specific items like, CGI requests,
connections and file throughput.
Server Monitor
This utility provides a way of
monitoring the resources being used on the server. This includes a view of
shared resources, users connected to the server and which is connected to
what resource.
Task Manager
This utility provides a
graphical view of the CPU and memory usage on the server. It also lists
current processes and applications running on the server. These
representations allow the administrator to assess the performance of the
components. Obviously, if they were being strained, then this would indicate
the need for upgrading.
Making
good use of these utilities, or others like them, will ensure that your
server's health is continually monitored. Problems that arise can be
|
