Boy this is sounding like quite a few CIO -> tech staff meetings I've
sat in on :-)
I haven't seen Andrew's servlet but if it tests that the
authentication & ticket validation process works from start to finish
then that maybe useful.
More often than not your Java app server will be functioning happily,
yet the service won't be working because of a network or software
issue in the LDAP service, database or consuming application.
i.e. It is pointless simply testing if CAS is breathing, you've got to
ensure it can stand up and dance.
With Hyperic you do this by defining an 'application' which is a pool
of network resources.
e.g. Java app server, CAS application, LDAP server(s), databases, etc.
When a part of this ecosystem fails the monitoring system alerts you
CAS probably isn't happy.
However in theory this isn't full proof as it doesn't test the ticket
issuing and validation process, it simply assumes if the components
are happy everything is fine.
The question is though have people run into problems with the ticket
validation process even when the underlying CAS components are
configured and running properly?
David
On 30/01/2009, at 4:02 AM, Scott Battaglia wrote:
When I say monitoring I mean the overall health of the system, which
includes is the CAS server and service available. But also includes
things like is authentication taking too long, or are we
experiencing higher average CPU utilization, or a higher number of
failed authentications. Some of that is covered by using the
Inspektr library (it keeps track of application-specific statistics).
-Scott
-Scott Battaglia
PGP Public Key Id: 0x383733AA
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/scottbattaglia
On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 9:51 AM, Andrew Feller <[email protected]>
wrote:
Scott / David,
When we say "monitoring" we mean "Is the CAS server and service
available?", correct? If so, then why not include some form of the
service check servlet that I sent you Scott? That way you can have
a simple point that multiple devices and software products can poll
to see if it is up. Upon hindsight of the new RESTful API, the
service check could be written using the REST API and cut out the
need for a HTTP client.
If we say "monitoring" means "determine performance of the CAS
server", then that is something entirely different: auditing. IIRC,
we decided to use the Inspektor library for that.
A-
On 1/29/09 8:41 AM, "Scott Battaglia" <[email protected]>
wrote:
David,
Thanks for the insight! What we might want to do then is merely add
a section to the CAS Manual called "Monitoring" or some such thing
and allow people to detail what they did just to give people a
jumpstart.
i.e. sections like:
"Monitoring CAS with Hyperic"
"Monitoring CAS with OpenNMS"
"Monitoring CAS with SpringSource Application Management Suite"
If anyone has the appropriate experience and would be willing to
help us out with documenting this, please let me know!
-Scott
-Scott Battaglia
PGP Public Key Id: 0x383733AA
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/scottbattaglia
On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 5:14 AM, David Harrison <[email protected]
> wrote:
If there was a vote I'd go with not including monitoring.
Monitoring means different things to different people, which makes
it a moving target in terms of a feature-set.
Also people who feel monitoring is important either already have a
solution in place, or are investigating a suite (like Hyperic or
OpenNMS) to satisfy this need.
I have setup Hyperic to monitor CAS in a few organisations and it
does a very good job.
It goes well beyond simple system monitoring and lets you drill down
to specific Tomcat/JBoss resources to ensure they are running within
defined conditions.
Yes this does require a separate Hyperic server instance, but in the
age of virtualisation this isn't a big issue.
Not to mention if you are running CAS in a cluster you almost
certainly want your monitoring consolidated.
SpringSource also provide a monitoring suite (based on Hyperic) that
is very powerful when it comes to CAS internals:
http://www.springsource.com/products/suite/ams
Their tools allow you drill down into the specific Spring beans
defined within CAS to track performance and other analytics.
So in short I feel the monitoring of CAS is already very strong, and
an internal effort would only add complexity with little gain.
David
On 15/01/2009, at 5:51 PM, Scott Battaglia wrote:
We're going to have to make some decisions pretty soon about CAS4 if
we're looking to include monitoring in CAS4, so please continue to
post anything that you guys can think of to this thread.
Suggestions are always welcome :-) We don't currently have any huge
requirements for monitoring so we're gong to be relying on you guys
(no pressure ;-)).
Thanks
-Scott
-Scott Battaglia
PGP Public Key Id: 0x383733AA
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/scottbattaglia
On Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 1:58 PM, J. David Beutel
<[email protected]> wrote:
Yes, it looks generic (i.e., complicated) and requires a Hyperic
server,
which will take resources (JBoss + database), although it's FOSS (for
the non-enterprise edition).
The local Hyperic agent can monitor JVMs via JMX, like JConsole/
VisualVM
can, but through the Hyperic server to record in the database and
view.
Also, it has app-specific plugins, e.g., for Tomcat, which can
provide
app-specific stats and auto-discovery. So, a CAS-monitoring plugin
for
Hyperic seems possible, especially if you are already running a
Hyperic
server.
However, I'm still just trying out Hyperic, so I don't know yet if
I'd
recommend it for this kind of monitoring.
Andrew Feller wrote:
> Isn't Hyperic a generic machine monitoring tool? I believe we
use that on
> our servers to keep track of whether they are up. I am
interested in how
> this can be applied to an application. The only downside is
whether you
> need to setup the Hyperic server or not and what costs are
associated.
>
>
> On 1/13/09 10:03 PM, "J. David Beutel" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>> Looking at using Hyperic for this. No conclusions yet, however...
>>
>>
>> Scott Battaglia wrote:
>>
>>> We already keep track of statistics via Inspektr (min, max,
average,
>>> and time response time I believe).
>>>
>>> Right now, I'm attempting to mostly gather
>>> feedback/requirements/recommendations on monitoring and find
out some
>>> available libraries. If you have any info, please feel free to
share :-)
>>>
>>> -Scott
>>>
>>> -Scott Battaglia
>>> PGP Public Key Id: 0x383733AA
>>> LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/scottbattaglia
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 9:54 AM, Andrew Feller <[email protected]
>>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>>
>>> I am glad to hear that CAS monitoring is being considered
for CAS4! =)
>>>
>>> How were you thinking about incorporating this into CAS4?
What
>>> areas of CAS performance should be monitored? Tickets
granted?
>>> Cleaning / expiration of tickets? Activity related to
individual
>>> services or users? I ask because Java Simon seems pretty
>>> simplistic and have trouble seeing how it would be used. I
notice
>>> Java Simon mention JMX in a number of places, which I
assume means
>>> they register themselves with the Mbean server and you can
view
>>> this information via jconsole.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 1/12/09 8:39 AM, "Scott Battaglia" <[email protected]
>>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>>
>>> has anyone looked at Java Simon before as a potential
tool for
>>> offering some monitoring of CAS servers? (i.e. for CAS4):
>>>
>>> http://code.google.com/p/javasimon/
>>>
>>> If you have any thoughts or opinions on this or any other
>>> tool, please let me know.
>>>
>>> -Scott
>>>
>>> -Scott Battaglia
>>> PGP Public Key Id: 0x383733AA
>>> LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/scottbattaglia
>>>
>>>
>>>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> cas-dev mailing list
>>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
>>> http://tp.its.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/cas-dev
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Andrew Feller, Analyst
>>> LSU University Information Services
>>> 200 Frey Computing Services Center
>>> Baton Rouge, LA 70803
>>> Office: 225.578.3737
>>> Fax: 225.578.6400
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> cas-dev mailing list
>>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
>>> http://tp.its.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/cas-dev
>>>
>>>
>>>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> cas-dev mailing list
>>> [email protected]
>>> http://tp.its.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/cas-dev
>>>
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> cas-dev mailing list
>> [email protected]
>> http://tp.its.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/cas-dev
>>
>
>
_______________________________________________
cas-dev mailing list
[email protected]
http://tp.its.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/cas-dev
_______________________________________________
cas-dev mailing list
[email protected]
http://tp.its.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/cas-dev
_______________________________________________
cas-dev mailing list
[email protected]
http://tp.its.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/cas-dev
_______________________________________________
cas-dev mailing list
[email protected]
http://tp.its.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/cas-dev
--
Andrew Feller, Analyst
LSU University Information Services
200 Frey Computing Services Center
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Office: 225.578.3737
Fax: 225.578.6400
_______________________________________________
cas-dev mailing list
[email protected]
http://tp.its.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/cas-dev
_______________________________________________
cas-dev mailing list
[email protected]
http://tp.its.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/cas-dev
_______________________________________________
cas-dev mailing list
[email protected]
http://tp.its.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/cas-dev
