Administering Foglight for DB2 LUW Database

You use the Databases Administration dashboard to set options for collecting, storing, and displaying data about monitored DB2 instances.

This section covers the following key areas:

• Administering Foglight for DB2 LUW Database
  
  • Viewing the Databases Administration Dashboard
  • Reviewing the Administration Settings
  • Adding or Editing OS Credentials
    • Using Existing Host Credentials as OS Credentials
    • Creating or Editing OS Credentials
  • Defining Data Collection Options
  • Customizing Alarms for Foglight for DB2 LUW Rules
  • Configuring User-defined Collections
  • Database Connection Details
    • Setting credentials and instance properties
  • Diagnostic Log

Viewing the Databases Administration Dashboard

You can edit settings for one or more DB2 instances on the Databases Administration dashboard. To open the Databases Administration dashboard:

1. On the Welcome page, click Monitor Databases or click Databases in the navigation panel.
2. Select the checkboxes next to one or more DB2 instances.
3. Click Settings and then click Administration.

The Administration dashboard appears that displays settings for all the selected agents. Settings are categorized and organized under a DB2 tree structure. To view the list of selected agents, click Selected Agents.

Reviewing the Administration Settings

The Databases Administration dashboard allows settings options for collecting, storing, and displaying data, which apply to all the currently selected agents. Click a category of settings on the left (for example: Connection Details) to display a view containing related settings on the right.

The metrics defined under the Databases Administration dashboard apply to all of the agents that were selected before opening the Databases Administration dashboard. As a result, the same unit of measure and aggregation value for display are enforced for all currently selected agents.

To view the full list of selected agents, click Selected Agents at the upper right corner of the screen. To change the list of agents to which the metrics will apply, exit the Databases Administration dashboard, select the requested agents, and re-open the view.

If the settings vary between the selected agents (for example: one agent uses the measurement unit kilobyte, while another uses megabyte), the fields that contain non-identical values are displayed as empty and marked with an Inconsistent Values () icon.

Changes made to settings should be saved before selecting another category of settings.

To save changes made in an Administration dashboard view:

1. In the Database Administration dashboard, select a category from the menu.
2. Make changes to settings as necessary.
3. Click Save changes at the bottom of the view. If you attempt to exit the view without saving changes, a Warning dialog box prompts you to confirm your action.

Adding or Editing OS Credentials

The OS Connection Details page allows you to add or edit the OS credentials for database instances and their hosts. Adding OS credentials for a database instance enables Foglight for DB2 LUW to monitor the operating system of the instance.

Using Existing Host Credentials as OS Credentials

To use the host credentials to access the OS:

1. Select a database instance or host from the list.
2. Click Set credentials. The Edit Credentials dialog box opens.
3. Click Use existing Host Connection Details and click Apply. Foglight for DB2 LUW attempts to connect to the OS. If the credentials are valid, the Save changes button is enabled. Otherwise, correct the credentials. See Creating or Editing OS Credentials.
4. When the credentials are valid, click Save changes.

Creating or Editing OS Credentials

To create or edit credentials used to access the OS:

1. Select a database instance or host from the list.
2. Click Set credentials. The Edit Credentials dialog box opens.
3. Click Edit Host Connection Details. The Edit Credentials dialog box expands to show the connection detail boxes.
4. If you want Foglight for DB2 LUW to monitor the OS of the instance, ensure that the Enable OS Monitoring check box is selected.
5. If credentials exist in this lockbox or another lockbox, select the credentials.
   a. Click Select from stored credentials.
   The Use Credentials dialog box opens.
   b. Select a lockbox from the list.
   c. Select a set of credentials from the list.
   d. Click Apply.
   The Edit Credential boxes display values for the selected credential. The password is masked.
6. Otherwise, create credentials by filling in the form.
   a. Select an authentication type from the list. The remainder of this example assumes a UNIX (log in cred.) authentication type.
   b. Type a user name.
   c. Type a password.
   d. Type a port number.
   e. If necessary, select the Use Sudo check box.
   
7. Click Apply. Foglight for DB2 LUW attempts to connect to the OS. If the credentials are valid, the Save changes button is enabled. Otherwise, you need to correct the credentials.
8. When the credentials are valid, click Save changes. If an IC (Infrastructure Cartridge) agent currently exists, its credentials are updated. Otherwise, a new IC agent is created with the credentials.

Defining Data Collection Options

The Foglight for DB2 agent always collects and stores data, even when the browser window that displays the data is not active. Use the Collections page to specify:

• Which collections are sampled and stored.
• The data collection values when sampling is carried out in offline, online, and real-time frequency modes.
• The collection frequency.

When you focus on a page, the sampling frequency for all the collections associated with this page automatically switches to Real-Time. The collection frequency setting determines the sampling frequencies of the other collections (collections that are not running in Real-Time mode). The available collection frequencies can be selected from the current collection frequency field of the selected agent located in the middle of the panel.

To change the current collection frequency of the selected agent:

1. Click the current frequency status of the agent. The frequency settings dialog is displayed.
2. Select the required frequency. The following settings are provided:
   • Low — all collections are running in Offline mode, regardless of whether a client is connected
   • Normal — the collections running mode (Online/Offline/Real-time) adjusts dynamically to the connection status (disconnected/connected/focusing on a page) of the client.
   • High — all collections are running in Online mode, regardless of whether a client is connected.
3. Select the required setting.
4. Click Set.

The Collections table contains the following columns:

Column	Description
Collection Enabled	Defines whether the selected collections are sampled and stored.
Collection Name	The name of the collection. This list is sorted in alphabetical order.
Offline Frequency (Sec)	Allows defining the collection interval, in seconds, in offline mode (for example, 300). Offline frequency is defined as the longest interval possible for sampling the monitored instance.
Online Frequency (Sec)	Allows defining the collection interval, in seconds, in online mode (for example, 60).
Real-time Frequency (Sec)	Allows defining the collection interval, in seconds, in real-time mode (for example, 20). Only one collection can be sampled for a real-time frequency at any given moment.
Query Timeout (Sec)	The amount of time, in seconds, that elapses before the query times out.

To modify the values of a specific collection:

1. Select the collection row in the table.
2. Click Edit. The Edit the Collection dialog box appears.
3. Select whether to enable the collection and storage of the selected collection.
4. Set the collection interval, in seconds, in offline frequency mode (if available).
5. Set the collection interval, in seconds, in online frequency mode (if available).
6. Set the collection interval, in seconds, in real-time frequency mode.
7. Set the query timeout, in seconds.
8. Click Set to apply these settings or Cancel to reject them.

Customizing Alarms for Foglight for DB2 LUW Rules

Many Foglight for DB2 LUW Database multiple-severity rules trigger alarms. To improve your monitoring experience, you can use alarm templates to customize when alarms are triggered and whether they are reported. You can also set up email notifications. For more information, refer to Working with Alarms.

Configuring User-defined Collections

The User-defined Collections view in the Databases Administration dashboard allows adding user-defined collections to all of the currently selected agents, to provide for queries not included in Foglight for SQL Server.

After collections are added, this view displays all of the user-defined collections for all of the agents; for example, if a collection was added to 12 agents during its addition, the view will display 12 rows, showing the collection for each agent.

This view can also be used for configuring the sampling frequency for each collection.

The available sampling frequencies are as follows:

• Real-Time- When a user is currently focusing on a screen, the sampling frequency for all of the collections associated with this screen switches to Real-Time.
• Online- When at least one user is connected, the sampling frequency for all of the collections that are not. currently running at Real-Time frequency switches to Online.
• Offline- When no user is currently connected to the application.

To add user-defined collections:

1. Click Add. The User-defined Collections screen appears.

   If one or more of the selected agents is not enabled for user-defined collections, a dialog box appears to notify this issue, displaying a table of the currently disabled collections. Use this dialog box to enable all agents for user-defined collections. To enable only part of these agents, exit the Databases Administration dashboard and select only these agents that are currently enabled or need to be enabled for user-defined collections before entering again the Databases Administration dashboard.

2. Click Set details. The Set Collection Details dialog box appears.
3. Enter a name in the Collection Name field.
4. Enter a brief description of the collection in the Collection description field (optional).
5. Paste the query’s SQL text in the Query Text field.

   This field can hold up to 4096 characters.

6. Enter a value, in seconds, in the Query Timeout field.
7. Click Verify. The collection is verified by running the query on each of the currently selected agents. After the verification process is complete, the Verification Results pop-up appears, indicating whether the collection was verified successfully. In case the collection verification failed, the error message is displayed.
   If the verification succeeded on at least one agent, the collection details are displayed as below:

Section	Field	Description
Database	ID Column Name Column Type	The collections’ ID The name of the column The field type, as retrieved by the query (String, Integer and so on)
Data Storage	Display Name	The column’s display name
	Type	The topology type for storage purposes. This type can be one of the following: String Integer Double Boolean Date Note: When the Frequently modified check box is selected (the default state), the field’s change history is kept, including use of optional functionality such as use of the IntelliProfile mechanism and aggregation type selection. Clearing this check box is recommended only for fields whose values change infrequently, such as IP address of a specific host, as storing the change history of such fields is highly CPUintensive and may degrade the FMS performance.
	Unit of Measurement/Indicator	The metric’s Unit of Measurement/Indicator. The possible measurement unit values are: Percent, Count, Millisecond, Second, Minute, Hour, Day, Byte, Kilobyte, Megabyte and Gigabyte.
	Aggregation	Allows defining the value that is displayed in this metric, out of several values that were returned in the relevant time range. The available aggregation values are: As is- value of the last sample taken during the selected time range Sum- summarized value of all samples taken during the selected time range Average- average value of all samples taken during the selected time range
	Is Key	Indicates whether the field is the query’s key for retrieval. Note: Fields that are indicated as keys should correspond with the database result set unique values. Selecting a field which has frequently changing and repeating results as key is allowed, but may result in unexpected behavior from the defined collection.
Configured to use IntelliProfile	Select True in this column to enable the collection of baseline statistics for this metric

8. The Edit Sampling Frequencies section allows you to change sampling frequencies. Click the required frequency. The Edit Frequencies for the Collection dialog box appears.
9. Enter the required changes.
10. Click Set.
11. Click OK.

    After adding the requested user-defined collections, they can only be deleted or cloned to other agents. If one or more queries need to be modified, delete them and create new ones.

Database Connection Details

You use the Database Management view on the Databases Administration dashboard to manage the list of monitored databases and validate their connection settings.

Setting credentials and instance properties

You can validate the login credentials and instance properties.

To edit instance credentials and properties:

1. Select the instance you want to set the credentials for.
2. Click on the instance name. The DB2 Instance details dialog appears.
3. Edit the details.
4. Click Validate.

To edit database credentials:

1. Select the required database.
2. Click on the Validate connectivity link in the connection status beside the database name.
3. Select whether to use the same credentials used for the instance (default), or to assign custom credentials for the database.

   An instance must have at least one monitored database. If an instance contains no databases you want to monitor, remove the instance.

Diagnostic Log

Use the Diagnostic Log view to configure the retrieval and display settings for the Log panel. In addition, this view is used to define default settings for invoking alarms based on the collected alerts.

Use this view to define the following settings:

• Minimal severity for invoking summary alarms - can be either turned off (the default setting) or set to one of the defined severity values, that is: Warning, Critical, Error, Event or Severe.
• Minimal severity for invoking alarms - can be either turned off or set to one of the defined severity values: Warning, Critical, Error, Event or Severe (Default).
• Number of rows to collect from logs - the maximum number of rows that would be retrieved from the alert logs.
• Messages to include in the Log panel display - using the Match List pane, which contains a default list of expressions within the diagnostic log that are to be retrieved and displayed in the Log panel.
• Message to Exclude from the Log panel display - using the Ignore List pane, which contains a default list of expressions within the diagnostic log that are to be excluded from the diagnostic log display.

Both the Match List and the Ignore List panes can be customized by adding, editing or removing messages. Each filter can be enabled or disabled separately by clicking Edit and selecting or clearing the Enabled check box. Alternatively, to enable or disable all of the filters, click Enable All or Disable All.

To add a message to the Match List:

1. Click Add. The Add an Aleart to the Match List dialog displays.
2. Use this dialog box to configure the alert filter by means of the following fields:

• Filter Name - used for assigning a name to the filter.
• Field Name - used to select by which of the message parameters, message will be filtered. Possible fields include: Severity, Message text, Impact, Component, Function, Type or FullRec (The entire message record)
• Expression - identifies a regular expression that will be evaluated against the Field selected above and used together in order to select the message. For example: To filter message that their text related to files, you should select “Message” as the Filter Name and “File” as the Expression.

3. Click Add to save your settings. Each newly added alert filter is enabled by default. To disable the filter, click Edit and then clear the Enabled check box.

To edit a Filter:

1. Click the requested filter.
2. Click Edit. The Edit the Selected Alert dialog opens.
3. Use this dialog to configure the alert with the same fields used during its initial addition: Filter Name, Field Name, and Expression.
4. To disable the filter, clear the Enabled check box.
5. Click Set to save your settings.
6. At the bottom of the view, click Save Changes.