How to Install and Configure TIM Software to Monitor Transactions
Contents
apmdevops97
Contents
After you have installed Introscope or the Enterprise Manager, to complete the CA CEM installation you install a Transaction Impact Monitor (TIM). A TIM server is responsible for recording and observing HTTP packets, identifying user logins, and related transactions. TIM is also used to monitor and report defects and other statistics to CA CEM. There can be one or more TIMs in a CA CEM environment.
TIM installation is available as software that can be installed on any hardware that complies with your organization security policies. You can hence maintain and control the underlying operating system according to your IT policies.
For TIM running on Multi-Port Collector, see the
CA APM Integration for CA Infrastructure Management Guide
.Verify Prerequisites
Verify that you meet the following prerequisites:
- You have the answers to the following questions:
- Is the network connection to the TIM physical or virtual? If the network connection is virtual, ensure that clock drift issues do not occur.
- Is the network connection SPAN or Network Tap? The answer to this question helps you understand the type of load that can be monitored without packet loss.The number of TIMs usually matches the number of connections.
- The computer on which you want to install TIM meets the requirements that are specified in the Compatibility Guide.The TIM requires some packages that are part of the Red Hat/CentOS distribution.
- You understand CA APM Time Settings.
Minimum Hardware Requirements
The TIM computer must meet the following minimum requirements:
Physical computer
- Dual or quad core 2.93-GHz processor
- 4-GB RAM memory
- 146 GB or larger HD
- 64-bit x86 CPU
Network adapters
- Two onboard copper 10/100/1000 network adapters
Note:
If you upgrade your network to fiber, we recommend that the TIM computer have the following resources:- RAID 1 Mirroring, for redundancy
- 16-GB RAM
- Two available PCI-e 8x slots, for fiber network adapters or hardware security modules
- Redundant power supplies with failover, for redundancy
- (optional) Two Intel Pro 1000 MF (1 GB) onboard network adapters for fiber networks
Virtual computer
Installing a TIM on a virtual machine is supported for VMWare ESX and vSphere 4.x. The virtual machine (VM) must meet or exceed the following minimum requirements:
- VMWare ESX
- 2 vCPUs (2.7 GHz or faster)
- 30-GB disk storage
- 6-GB RAM
- 2 vNICs
Note:
If you install TIM on a VMWare virtual machine, ensure that you configure the deployment to correct clock drift issues.Linux Packages and Installation Files
You require the following files to install TIM software:
- timInstall.bin
- ca-eula.txt
- CA-APM-TIM-public_key.txtThis public key verifies that the TIM installation package signature is not compromised.
You require the following Linux packages on the computer where you want to install TIM software:
- mod_ssl
- compat-libstdc++-33
- pexpect
- unzip
- httpd
- nspr
- libpcap
For 5.x RHEL, install the following packages also:
- pstack
- mod_python
- java-1.6.0-openjdk
For 6.x RHEL, install the following packages also:
- gdb
- mod_wsgi
- java-1.7.0-openjdk
- policycoreutils-python
- lsof (list of files; lowercase l)
- pciutils
Run the installer using root user privileges.
Example: Use the following command to install the package that comes with the OS distribution:
yum -y install
Example: Use the
install mod_ssl
, command as follows:yum -y install mod_ssl
Download the TIM Software
As part of your preparation process, download the CA APM TIM software files that you need for your particular deployment.
Follow these steps:
- Download the TIM software files from the CA APM software download area on support.
- CA-APM-TIM-public_key.txt
- The TIM compressed tar file: tim-<version>.Linux.<Enterprise Linux version>.<arch>-install.tar.gzExample: tim-9.7.0.0.1-0.Linux.el6.x86_64-install.tar.gzThis package includes the following files:
- ca-eula.en.txt -- The CA End-User License Agreement file
- timInstall.bin -- The TIM interactive installer
- Decompress the files somewhere on your network. Note the locations of these files because you provide the path to some of them during the installation process.
CA APM Time Settings
Here are some important notes about time settings in CA APM:
- The Collector running the TIM Collection Service communicates with the TIMs in Greenwich Mean Time. The time zone of the TIM affects only the timestamp of the log files of the TIM.
- Set up your clusters to ensure that computers running Enterprise Managers synchronize their system clocks with a time server. An example is an NTP server. All computers must use the same NTP server or must use NTP servers that are synchronized with each other. The NTP servers can be synchronized directly or using some other time server.
- Keep the TIM synchronized with the Enterprise Manager instances. Use caution while changing the system clock when these situations occur:
- Using a standalone Enterprise Manager
- The installation has not been configured to synchronize with a time server
- Changing this time on the Enterprise Manager can affect CA CEM system functions as follows:
- Setting the time forward (manually or DST change) results in gaps in the aggregation statistics.
- Setting the time backward (manually or DST change) results in corruption, duplicate aggregation statistics, or both.
- Changing the time in the middle of an aggregation process results in corrupted aggregation statistics.
- Statistics and aggregation are based on the Enterprise Manager time zone
- Ensure that the time on TIM matches with the time on the MOM or the collector. When the time is not synchronized, BT Stats and recordings are lost and the CEM Console displays a TIM Time Not Synchronized event. Manually synchronize the TIM time in this situation.
- The most important clock in CA APM runs on the computer that hosts the Enterprise Manager or the MOM. The time setting in this clock is the time that all Collectors, agents, and TIMs must be synchronized with.
- The Collector sends a request for TIM Collection Service every 15 minutes and at the Enterprise Manager startup.
- CA APM requires that all hosts in a cluster are synchronized to within 3 seconds of each other. On virtual machine deployments, a time synchronization protocol is required because clocks drift and high CPU usage causes faster drift.More information: http://www.vmware.com/
- During the change from Daylight Saving Time (DST) to Standard Time, data for the “repeated” hour is overwritten. This overwritten data is lost from regular reports. The data is preserved in historical data, in transaction traces, error snapshots, and ChangeDetector data. On Linux, the system clock does not change when DST starts or stops. DST affects only I/O.
- The MOM, database, and all Collectors must be in the same time zone.
Configure the TIM Network Management Settings
By default, the TIM software is configured to use DHCP assignment of IP addresses on the management port (eth0). You can use dynamically assigned IP addressing in short term or testing environments.
Note:
In a production environment, set a static IP address.To configure the TIM Network Management Settings, edit the following network configuration file for the eth0 port to include a static IP Address, Subnet mask, and Gateway addresses:
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
Network management interface is configured.
Install the TIM Software
You install the TIM software and then access the TIM Setup Page to verify that the installation is successful. You can install the software in one of the following ways:
- Memory-based file system
- Disk-based file system
The benefit of the memory-based file system is that the TIM can handle more traffic than the disk-based file system. The memory-based file system can increase performance significantly.
The TIM uses a component named
to read packets from network interfaces and write the packets to files.apmpacket
Follow these steps (memory-based file system):
- Navigate to the directory where you extracted the TIM compressed tar file.
- Accept the ca-eula.en.txt file:
- Open the ca-eula.en.txt file.
- Read the agreement.
- If you agree to the terms and conditions of the agreement, edit the CA-EULA property to: CA-EULA=accept
- Save and close the file.
- Mount /opt/CA/APM/apmpacket/data/pcap on atmpfsfile:mount -t tmpfs [-o size=number], mode=0744 tmpfs /opt/CA/APM/apmpacket/data/pcap-o size=numberSpecifies the size limit of the TMPFS file systemWe recommend 5 GB or more for
for good performance.tmpfs - Specify the file path and file name of the CA EULA file and press Enter.Default:<Current Working Directory>/ca-eula.en.txt
- Specify the installation directory and press Enter.Default:/optYou can specify any directory other than /tmp and /var/tmp.
- (Optional) Specify if you want to create a private HTTPD for TIM.
- TypeYif you want to specify a port other than the default HTTP port of 8080.
- Specify a valid port number for HTTP and press Enter.
- Specify a valid HTTPS port.Default:8443
- Specify if you want to modify the firewall to open the TIM HTTP server ports.Values:1 for Yes and 2 for NoThe firewall configuration file at /etc/sysconfig/iptables specifies the open or blocked ports. To open the HTTPD port, type 1. The installer edits the firewall configuration file to add the port you specified.
- Specify the TIM internal port. TIM uses this internal port for communication with CEM.Default:81
- Confirm your specified ports.The installer commences TIM installation. By default, logs are written to the console. Verify that the logs do not contain any errors about libraries that are required for TIM.
- (Optional) Restart the HTTPD service using the service httpd restart command when the installation is successful.
- Verify that you can access the TIM Setup Page using the following URL:http://<TIM_Computer_Name or IP_Address>:<Port_Number>/cgi-bin/ca/apm/tim/indexFor the Tim Setup page, default user name is admin and password is quality.
Follow these steps (disk-based file system):
- Navigate to the directory where you extracted the TIM compressed tar file.
- Accept the ca-eula.en.txt file:
- Open the ca-eula.en.txt file.
- Read the agreement.
- If you agree to the terms and conditions of the agreement, edit the CA-EULA property to:CA-EULA=accept
- Save and close the file.
- Start the interactive installer. Type:./timInstall.bin
- Specify the file path and file name of the CA EULA file and press Enter.Default:<Current Working Directory>/ca-eula.en.txt
- Specify the installation directory and press Enter.Default:/optNote:You can specify any directory other than /tmp and /var/tmp.
- (Optional) Specify if you want to create a private HTTPD for TIM.
- TypeYif you want to specify a port other than the default HTTP port of 8080.
- Specify a valid port number for HTTP and press Enter.
- Specify a valid HTTPS port.Default:8443
- Specify if you want to modify the firewall to open the TIM HTTP server ports.Values:1 for Yes and 2 for NoThe firewall configuration file at /etc/sysconfig/iptables specifies the open or blocked ports. To open the HTTPD port, type1. The installer edits the firewall configuration file to add the port you specified.
- Specify the TIM internal port. TIM uses this internal port for communication with CEM.Default:81
- Confirm your specified ports.The installer commences TIM installation. By default, logs are written to console. Verify that the logs do not contain any errors about libraries that are required for TIM.
- (Optional) Restart the HTTPD service using the following command when the installation is successful:service httpd restart
- Verify that you can access the TIM Setup Page using the following URL:http://<TIM_Computer_Name or IP_Address>:<Port_Number>/cgi-bin/ca/apm/tim/indexFor the Tim Setup page, default user name is admin and password is quality.
Cannot Access the TIM Setup Page
Symptom:
I cannot access the TIM Setup Page using the following URL:
http://<TIM_Computer_Name or IP_Address>:<Port_Number>/cgi-bin/ca/apm/tim/index
A "page not found" error appears.
Solution:
A "page not found" error occurs when the TIM is not installed.
Verify the TIM
rpm
package is installed successfully using the following command:rpm -q tim
The TIM
rpm
package is listed.One of the
packages isrpm
, which reads network packets and writes them to files.apmpacket
If the TIM
rpm
package is not listed, reinstall the TIM and look for error messages.Error During TIM Installation
Symptom:
I see the following error during TIM installation:
<TIM install location>/CA/APM/tim/bin/tim: error while loading shared libraries: libjvm.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Solution:
- Verify that <TIM install location>/CA/APM/tim/jre contains the correct JVM. This JVM depends upon the RHEL version.
- Verify that the location <TIM_Installation_Location>/CA/APM/tim/jre is not empty. If it is empty, uninstall and reinstall the correct version of theopenjdk rpm.
Set the TIM Host Name and Domain Name
Setting the host name and domain name for each TIM is a best practice. The host name is required for some integrations, to use SMTP and SNMP protocols, and in some security environments.
Follow these steps:
- Connect to the TIM with the usernamerootand the administrator password.
- Edit the host name in the /etc/sysconfig/network file or the host name and domain name in the /etc/hosts file. To set the host name parameter, use the host name command as shown in the following example:hostname myapmhost.mycompany.com
- Restart the TIM usingoneof the following procedures:
- Click Start or Stop Tim in the Tim Setup page.
- Execute the following command:service tim restart
Configure the TIM Network Monitor Interface
After the TIM software is installed, configure the TIM to monitor the network traffic and communicate with the Enterprise Manager.
Follow these steps:
- Access the TIM Setup page from a Web browser on any network computer.
- Select Configure TIM Network Interfacesoption.
- Select the interface to monitor. The following interfaces are a few examples:
- A copper cable that is connected to a switch to monitor the TIM traffic
- A fiber cable that is connected to a network tap to monitor the TIM traffic
- A tap that supports only half-duplex and you require dual fiber cards to achieve full-duplex
Select monitoring ports only for those ports on which the TIM is to receive a network monitoring feed. Do not use the management port for monitoring. - Click Set.TIM is configured to monitor the network traffic.
Add and Enable TIMs
Enable TIMs so that they can monitor transactions and can send the data to the Enterprise Manager. If you have clustered Enterprise Managers, then enable the TIMs from the MOM.
The following scenarios are examples of when you enable TIMs:
- When setting up a TIM and associating it with an Enterprise Manager.
- After upgrading the TIMs and Enterprise Manager.
- After upgrading the TIMs or Enterprise Manager.
- After a configuration is imported.
Follow these steps:
- Start a Web browser and input the address of the server that hosts the Enterprise Manager. in the example below, <IP_Address> is the IP address or DNS name for the MOM or a standalone Enterprise Manager.http://<IP_Address>:8081/wilyUse the DNS name that your DNS administrator configured.
- Enter the user name and password.
- Select Setup, Monitors in the CEM console.
- Add a TIM if it does not appear in the list:
- Click New.
- Enter the name and IP address of the TIM.
- Enter HTTP port value on which TIM is installed. If TIM is installed usingprivate httpd, the port value would be the value that is specified during installation.Note:If https is enabled for CEM, specify the https port instead of the http port.
- Click Save.
- Select the check box next to each required TIM and click Enable.You have enabled communication between the Enterprise Manager and the TIMs. NewToolsandCEM tabappear in the CEM console.
Configure Web Server Filters
After you have installed a TIM, you can configure each TIM to monitor specific network traffic and load balance the traffic among the TIMs.
If TIMs are incorrectly configured, then the network packet monitoring can be affected. If you do not configure the TIM web server filters, then the TIM monitors all IP addresses. If a TIM gets overloaded, recording can be affected. If you have more than one TIM monitoring the same servers, then transactions are monitored twice. This situation can also lead to false positive defects such as missing or partial responses.
Assign each TIM to the portion of the network that it must monitor.
Follow these steps:
- Select Setup, Web Server Filters.
- Click New.
- Type a Name that describes the network portion for TIM monitoring. For example, WebFarmCorp1.
- In the Monitor list, select the TIM to assign to monitor this portion of the network.
- Select how you want to monitor by clicking one of the following options in the Address Type field:
- IP AddressSpecifies the IP address of the device you want to monitor.Note:If there is only one server to monitor, type the specific IP address.
- MAC AddressSpecifies the MAC address of the device you want to monitor.
- Complete the fields in the Web Server Filter Settings section.In most cases, TIMs must monitor specific servers in the network rather than overlapping servers. However, if you want to configure more than one monitor for an IP address or range, select Save without checking for overlapping IP Addresses.
- Click Save.TIM is configured to monitor the specified network.
Verify Communication Between the TIM and Enterprise Manager
Verify that the connection between the TIM and the Enterprise Manager is set up correctly. You can then view CA CEM reports and statistics.
Follow these steps:
- Open the CEM console.
- Select Setup, Monitors, and ensure that the TIMs are enabled.
- The Monitors page shows the following columns:
- Domain Configuration Status
- Monitor Configuration Status
If there is an error, the columns display a failure or an HTTP error code. To see details, click on the link of the monitor that failed.
If you get an error message, ensure:
The Enterprise Manager is running (refresh the browser).
- All TIMs have the correct IP addresses.
- All TIMs are running and are accessible.
- All cables providing physical connections between the computers are securely in place.
For more information about system events and possible communications errors between the Enterprise Manager and TIM, see the
CA APM Configuration and Administration Guide
.Configure RTTM for User Groups
Real-time transaction metrics (RTTM) about the end-user experience by user group help you address issues before that experience degrades to incident creation. The RTTM metrics provide information about the user groups for all enabled TIMs in your implementation.
Follow these steps:
- In the administrator console, select Setup, Services.
- Click TIM Collection Service.The TIM Collection Services pane appears.
- Verify that the RTTM Collection Service is running and the TIMs are enabled.
- Select Setup, RTTM Configuration.
- Complete the settings:Enable grouping by User GroupReports the transactions that match a user group alias when it is defined. For no matching transactions, the TIM reports an actual identified user group. If no identification is defined for the parent business application, the behavior is similar to this option being disabled.If the user group is identified and also matches one of the alias matcher definitions in RTTM, the TIM reports the alias. For example, you configure a user group to match apm*. The alias is apm. Two different transactions have user groups that are identified as apm1 and apm2. Both user groups match apm*, so the alias apm identifies the user group. If a match exists and an alias is not present, the first transaction is identified as apm1 and second transaction is identified apm2 as user groups.Maximum Business Transaction group instances to report per TIMSpecifies the maximum number of metrics that the TIM reports per interval (the default interval is 7 seconds).Increasing this number beyond the default value can impact performance. Increasing this number beyond the default value can impact performance. Combinations of user group transactions can occur over time. Some combinations can occur once but can remain in the RTTM agent, reporting zero values until a restart. This behavior hinders new metrics appearing over time, because this number counts against the live metric count in the Enterprise Manager per agent limit. To overcome this behavior, use the age-out property for new business transaction group metrics. This property removes metrics that do not appear for over an hour (default). You can configure this option using the property cem.btstats.btgroup.instances.ageOutAfter in the tess-default.properties file (cannot be lower than 900 seconds).
- Create an RTTM matcher for collecting enhanced metrics. Click New or Update.The RTTM matcher page appears. You can add a new match setting for mapping patterns to an alias at the TIM. Grouping both wanted or unwanted metrics allows fewer metrics, which helps collect more metrics from the TIM per business transaction before reaching the maximum clamp. Changes propagate to TIMs immediately.
- Complete the following fields and click Save:MatcherSpecifies a user group name for reporting transactions that match a user group alias. For no matching transactions, the TIM reports an actual user group.In WebView, transactions matching the alias are grouped under one metric. Other nonmatching user groups have individual metrics.AliasSpecifies an alias name.PatternSpecifies the string pattern to match against identified values for grouping.TypeSpecifies the type of match performed for a pattern:– Exact Match—no wildcards (*) are allowed.– Simple Pattern Match—one wildcard is allowed.– Regular Expression Match
Verify the RTTM Configuration
After the RTTM Collection Service communicates with the TIM, verify that WebView displays the customer experience metrics as expected. If RTTM is configured for groups, metrics appear by report group under each business transaction.
Follow these steps:
- In WebView, open the Investigator and click the Metric Browser tab.
- Look for these nodes and metrics under *SuperDomain* > Server_Name> CEM >CEM_Application(*SuperDomain*):
- Business Service -- aggregated metrics from all the TIM monitors.
- TIM -- one entry for each active TIM monitor you have.If Enable grouping by User Group is selected, each TIM has user group nodes and metrics corresponding to that group for each monitored business transaction.
- Select the New Console option form the Workstation menu.
- Select RTTM - CA CEM Overview (CEM BT Stats in *SuperDomain*) from the Dashboard drop-down list.The RTTM - CA CEM Overview appears.
- Verify that real-time transaction data appears in the dashboard.
Change TIM Setup Page Password
As part of your post-installation security tasks, change the default password that allows access to the Setup Page on the TIM. Changing this password involves using the
htpasswd
command on the Linux computer.Follow these steps:
- On the TIM, run the following command:htpasswd <TIM_Installation_Location>/httpd.passwd adminDefault location is/opt/CA/APM/tim
- At the prompt, enter the new password.The password is changed.
Stop or Start a TIM
You stop a TIM if:
- You want to stop monitoring an application that the TIM is monitoring.
- You notice that the TIM has excessive memory usage from an incorrectly written plug-in that makes the TIM unresponsive. After you resolve the problem, you can restart the TIM.
Follow these steps:
- Log in to the TIM as root using a console or ssh.
- Execute the command that corresponds to the action you want:service tim stop service tim start
(Optional) Uninstall TIM
You can uninstall the TIM software. Before you uninstall, ensure that no other computer is accessing the TIM.
Follow these steps:
- Open the CEM console and select Setup, Monitors.
- Select the enabled TIMs.
- Click Disable.
- Log out.
- Access the TIM Setup page using the following URL:http://<TIM_Computer_Name or IP_Address>:<Port_Number>/cgi-bin/ca/apm/tim/indexThe Tim Setup page appears.
- Click Configure Tim Settings and then click Start or Stop Tim. Close the page.The TIM stops.
- Navigate to <TIM_Installation_Directory>/CA/APM/tim/uninstall and run timUninstall.sh.
- Restart the httpd service using the following command:service httpd restart
- (Optional) Deleteallthe TIM files, logs, and configurations by using the following command:rm -rf <TIM_Installation_Directory>Use this command with caution because it removes all the TIM directories and their contents.The TIM is uninstalled.