Precise Glossary

An operation that Alerts FocalPoint automatically performs when detecting a warning or critical status for a specific metric. According to the defined action, Alerts FocalPoint opens a message box, sends an email or SNMP trap, or executes a program.

action item (manual)

AdminPoint

The central administration console of Precise that facilitates the maintenance, configuration, and management of all installed Precise components, such as monitoring the status of all Precise agents and PMDB processes, getting license information, starting and stopping the agents, getting log data on agents and events, changing PMDB settings, and installing patches.

See also PMDB. See also agent.

A program that runs on a server machine to collect, process, or communicate performance information. The Precise installation consists of multiple agents.

The state of an Alerts metric that has reached a near-critical or critical status. An alert is issued by Alerts, triggering an action and informing of a problem that has occurred or is likely to occur within the area sampled by the specific metric.

See also action.

These product provide alerts to problematic conditions before they turn into performance problems, based on predefined metrics and thresholds. Alerts can automatically perform an action, such as displaying a pop-up message, sending an email message or SNMP trap, or running a program.

An agent that receives data from the InformPoint agents, stores it, and performs any action that has been user-defined for that specific alert, such as displaying a pop-up message, sending an email message or SNMP trap, or running a program.

See also InformPoint.

In Alerts, the status of all metrics belonging to a metric group or a monitored instance, indicating the current performance level through colors.

See also alert. See also metric.

In J2EE, a metrics that is provided by the application server or by customer code. This can include metrics published by the Java Management Extension (JMX) APIs or vendor-specific APIs, such as IBM's Performance Management Interface (PMI).

In Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, and Sybase, the highest logical level in the SQL workspace hierarchy. A cabinet contains folders and, within folders, statements.

A subset of a stack trace including only those methods that have been instrumented.

In Web, a counter that keeps track of the percentage of requests taken from the client cache (http status 304).

See Web client browser-side.

A group of servers or instances that are configured to be treated as a single entity. In Oracle, all Oracle instances of the same Oracle database (RAC configuration) are treated as a cluster and presented in the Precise for Oracle UI as a Database. In J2EE, a group of JVMs that serve the same application can be defined as Cluster (even if they are not defined as a cluster in the application server configuration). All JVMs of the same cluster share the same configuration.

In SQL Server and Sybase, the access plan of a unique group of statements or batches that belong to the same collapsed statement or batch but have different access plans. This can differ due to the constants in the text of the original (not collapsed) statements.

See also explained statement. See also collapsed statement.

The program that runs on the monitored server to collect performance information.

Some technologies allow a single Collector (agent) to serve multiple instances running on the same server. Other technologies require a dedicated Collector per monitored instance.

In most cases, it must be installed on the monitored server. Collectors for SAP, SQL Server, and Sybase may reside on a remote server.

See also agent.

In J2EE, the smallest unit of data presentation and storage. It can be configured as 30 seconds or five minutes. If SmartLink is configured, relevant Web and Microsoft .NET Collectors will report to SmartLink using the same collector slice size. Regardless of the defined collector slice size, the most granular slice size presented on both the Precise for Web UI and the Precise for Microsoft .NET UI will be 15 minute intervals.

In Web, a counter that keeps track of the percentage of users that completed the loading of a Web page.

The number of occurrences observed during a measurement interval.

The average amount of time consumed by the operating system actively processing instructions on behalf of a running activity.

In Alerts, the status represented by a red bullet indicating that the value of the sampled metric has exceeded the near-critical and critical threshold values.

See also metric.

In Insight, Report Manager, and Alerts, a perspective that provides high-level information about the performance of all AppTiers in an environment, including operating system data. It provides a holistic view of the entire environment and helps understand how the AppTiers interact.

See also AppTier.

In SmartLink, the end-to-end activity, detected by Precise over the last five minutes, including activities that are still in progress. In all databases products, a workspace that presents Current Sessions and the SQL statements that were executed including statements that are still in progress.

Represents invocations of a type not specifically defined.

See also work time.

In Alerts, a user-defined metric that measures site-specific parameters.

Within Precise products and Insight SmartLink, the filtering of analyzed data by clicking a specific entity.

Then, additional information about the selected entity is presented, plus a breakdown of its activity by another entity. For example, drill down on a transaction and get an overtime graph of the selected transaction, plus a list of top users that executed the selected transaction.

The highest Precise logical group. It may contain multiple AppTiers of various technologies that serve an application together. For example, a Payroll Production environment may contain all Web servers, application servers, transaction managers, databases, and servers that serve this application. Alternatively, it may contain any set of instances that form together an administrative group. Since Precise version 8.5, an instance can belong to more than one environment. Let's say a single Oracle database serves two different applications plus the DBA wants to associate this database with a group of other databases under his responsibility regardless of served applications. In this case the Oracle database will be associated to three different Precise environments.

See also AppTier. See also instance.

In Oracle, DB2, and SQL Server, an extension to the Collector that provides detailed information on the activities and resource consumption of packaged application components. It correlates the database information, and the packaged application information and lets you see users, transactions, reports, and other elements of ERP applications, such as Oracle Applications, SAP, PeopleSoft, and Siebel.

In Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, and Sybase, the number of times a SQL statement was executed during the selected time frame. In SmartLink and SAP, the number of times a transaction was executed during the selected time frame.

In Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, and Sybase, a statement whose access path (chosen by the RDBMS Optimizer) is clarified and translated into a visual display. Explained results include information on the objects referenced by the statement and the operations performed on these objects.

In Oracle, a function that proactively specifies a future period during which Oracle activity data is collected and organized for subsequent analysis. Extended collections are an easy means to view collected information, assess application resource consumption, and identify bottlenecks that are inhibiting application performance and end-user productivity.

Federated Precise is a version of Precise (starting with version 8.5) that can manage multiple Precise installations within the AdminPoint screen, displaying and managing all environments, instances, and installations.

In Web, a counter that keeps track of the time that it takes from the moment a new Web page is called until the first byte arrives back from the Web server.

An agent that communicates with the Listeners installed on the monitored servers, receives data from the Collectors, periodically processes and stores this data in the PMDB, and serves UI requests.

In SQL Server, Oracle, DB2, and Sybase, the intermediate logical level in the SQL workspace hierarchy. Folders are grouped into cabinets and contain SQL statements.

See also cabinet.

The application that facilitates the installation of Precise framework components. It can be invoked from the installation DVD to install a new Precise deployment. It can also be invoked from an existing Precise deployment to install an additional framework node and attach it to the originating Precise deployment.

See also Framework node.

A set of FocalPoint agents that are installed together and manages a set of monitored instances. The performance data of these instances will be loaded into a dedicated PMDB. A single Precise deployment may contain multiple framework nodes (using a separate PMDB for each node). An environment cannot span over multiple framework nodes.

An automatic process in the Java runtime environment that periodically reclaims memory used by objects that are no longer referenced. The process can impact an application's performance while memory is being reclaimed. Java programmers may initiate garbage collection explicitly.

In Web, the identifier that is used to group other identifiers, such as sites or URLs.

In Oracle, an instruction directed at the Oracle Optimizer that includes considerations for an execution plan.

The Oracle Optimizer will build an execution plan based on the hint, ignoring its own set of considerations.

In Alerts, an agent that retrieves performance data from all installed Precise products, analyzes it, and sends an alert to the Alerts FocalPoint when the predefined thresholds are exceeded.

See also agent.

The Precise product family that facilitates the process of monitoring and correlating system performance. It consists of Insight.

See also Report Manager. See also FocalPoint.

An agent that receives performance information from Insight Savvies, which monitor the environment.

Insight FocalPoint then correlates, processes, and stores this information in a centralized location. The Insight performance history is stored in the PMDB.

See also Savvy. See also PMDB.

A monitored object of a specific technology. The following list specifies what constitutes an instance for the various supported technologies: J2EE - a Java Virtual Machine (JVM - a logical name set by the user), Microsoft .NET - a Common Language Runtime (CLR - a logical name set by the user), Oracle Applications - an Oracle Applications Form server, Oracle - an Oracle instance, SAP - a SAP system, SQL Server - an SQL instance, Sybase - a Sybase instance, Tuxedo - a Tuxedo domain, Web - a Web server, WebSphere MQ - an IBM WebSphere Queue Manager, DB2 - a DB2 non-partitioned database or a DB2 database partition. During installation, the instance is associated with one AppTier and environment. An Instance can be moved to a different environment or associated with multiple environments without re-installation nor losing historical data.

See also environment.

See performance counter.

In SQL Server and Oracle, the part of the Collect Schema Changes process that captures instance definition changes and database option changes and saves them in the PMDB.

The process of inserting fault-tolerant recording hooks in Java byte code, .NET MSIL, HTML pages, or other monitored components, resulting in the capture of performance metrics. In J2EE, a mechanism that enables collecting performance information when an application is executed. The process involves inserting special fault-tolerant recording hooks into application class objects. In WEB, the insertion of recording hooks into HTML pages can either be in memory (Dynamic Instrumentation) or file-based (Static Instrumentation).

See invocation context.

The process of invoking a request from an HTTP request (Servlet or JSP) or an EJB. J2EE displays an internal invocation like any other invocation.

An execution of a J2EE entity (a Servlet, EJB, SQL Statement, method, and so on). When mentioned in plural (Invocations), means the amount of times that the entity was executed.

The context within which a method is invoked. For example, if Method A is invoked both from Method B and from Method C, there will be two different invocation contexts for the performance metrics collected for Method A, one for when it is invoked from Method B and one for when it is invoked from Method C.

See also call path and instrumentation context.

JRE (Java Runtime Environment)

As the runtime part of the Java software, the combination of the components that enable the execution of a Java program: a Java virtual machine, the core class libraries, and the files that form the Java platform.

JSP (Java Server Page)

An HTML page with special tags for Java scripting. An application server processes the tags and generates a Servlet.

JVM (Java Virtual Machine)

An instance of a JRE that executes Java programs. A server-side Java application server is itself a Java program that runs inside a JVM. Servlets, JSPs and EJBs are Java programs (applications) that run within the application server's JVM. J2EE monitors the JVM running the application server and the server-side Java applications within the application server.

The amount of real computer memory that is allocated to the JVM for executing Java programs.

The agent that facilitates the communication between the various Precise agents across different servers must be installed on every server where Collectors or FocalPoint agents are installed. The Listener allows communication with all other agents installed on the monitored server, while only the Precise Listener port is known by other servers.

In SQL Server and Sybase, the session identifier that represents the credential used to connect to the database. When an ERP extension is installed, the user name of the packaged application's client overrides the login name. For example, when SAP extension is installed, the SAP user name overrides the login name.

A session identifier. A machine as sampled, for example, by the SQL Server Collector is the identification of the machine where the client process executes. Machine is also sampled by Oracle, DB2 and Sybase. In Insight terminology Machine is called Client machine.

A main framework node is the single point for login and also serves as the Precise FocalPoint for the entire deployment.

Number of estimated major garbage collection events that occurred during the last J2EE collector slice. A major garbage collection can stop the application while JVM heap memory is being reclaimed. See also garbage collection.

major garbage collection time

Percentage of time spent by the JVM executing major garbage collection events during the displayed interval.

See also garbage collection.

A Java object that represents a manageable resource. In J2EE, MBeans, or Managed Beans, are used for application server metrics.

The interval at which the J2EE Collector gathers JVM heap memory data. All snapshots of the memory logger's data collected according to the memory logger interval are summarized with counters in the current aggregation interval. The memory logger interval's time span is typically a small fraction of the aggregation interval.

In Alerts, a query that helps measure performance in the environment. Three types of metrics are available: System metrics relate to the internal resources, operations, and objects of the monitored infrastructure; application metrics reflect the way the applications perform; user-defined metrics can be customized to specifically relate to a site. When a metric value exceeds one of the defined thresholds, its status changes to near-critical (yellow bullet) or critical (red bullet).

See also key metric.

In Alerts, a unit that groups metrics that measure related performance aspects. The following metric sets exist:

• Status. Includes metrics that alert to functional problems related to the instance. Performance: includes metrics that alert to performance problems related to the instance.
• Load. Includes metrics that alert to instance-related load problems that may later cause errors or crashes. Service: includes metrics that alert to instance-related SLA breaches. The metrics in this set are sampled by Insight.
• Performance Trending. Includes metrics that alert to potential future performance problems. The metrics in this set are sampled by Report Manager.
• Load Trending. Includes metrics that alert to potential future load problems. The metrics in this set are sampled by Report Manager.
• Customized. Includes user-defined metrics.
• Precise Status. Includes metrics that alert to the near-critical or critical status of the installed Precise environment.

A session identifier. In Oracle it contains the value of MODULE column in V$SESSION table. In DB2 it contains the command name of non-SQL statements or the package name for SQL statements.

In Alerts, a status indicating that the value of the sampled metric has exceeded the defined near-critical threshold. A near-critical status is indicated by a yellow bullet.

In Web, a counter that keeps track of the time spent on network activity from the server side perspective.

This includes the time to read the request from the network and the network time to send the response back to the client.

An application that is created and/or maintained by a third party and is not custom-built to one's specific needs. The following packaged applications have special treatment by Precise: SAP, Oracle Applications, PeopleSoft, and Siebel. They are harder to modify because the application code is either not available or hard to understand.

See also ERP Extension.

In Alerts, a joining of several child metrics. Each time a parent metric samples, it gathers data from a set of child metrics and presents it as a single metric query. The individual child metric values are displayed on the Thresholds tab of the Properties dialog box in Alerts.

See also submetric.

In SQL Server, a Windows performance counter as reported by the operating system. In Oracle, an instance level statistic as gathered from some Oracle V$ views. In Sybase, a sysmonitors counter collected by Sybase. In Web, an operating system or a Web server performance counter.

The Precise data warehouse of performance and availability data. It can be hosted on an Oracle or SQL Server database.

An application server for Web-based applications that commonly provide personalization, single sign-on, and content aggregation from different sources and that host the presentation layer of Information Systems. Aggregation is the action of integrating content from different sources within a Web page. A portal may have sophisticated personalization features to provide customized content to users. Portal pages may have a different set of portlets creating content for different users.

A Java-based Web component, managed by a portlet container, that processes requests and generates dynamic content. Portlets are used by portals as pluggable user interface components that provide a presentation layer to Information Systems.

An independent Precise system. It contains and manages various agent types and provides centralized monitoring and administration. A Precise deployment may contain multiple framework nodes. One of them is defined as the main framework node and it manages all other nodes of the Precise deployment.

See Precise FocalPoint agent.

An agent that manages all agents in a single Precise deployment. Additional product FocalPoint agents manage specific technologies and resources.

When multiple Framework Nodes are managed by a single Precise deployment, the Precise FocalPoint agent manages all of the agents of the main Framework node, while every other framework node has a Precise Proxy agent to manage all its agents.

This is the term used in a path for the Precise installation directory. The terms <i3_root> or i3 root can appear in text too.

A session identifier in Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, Sybase, Insight, and Alerts. A program as sampled, for example, by the SQL Server Collector, is the name of the executable that connects to the database. Applications that do not set the application name have N/A as program. When a SAP extension is installed, the SAP transaction overrides the program, and it may change during the application's lifetime. When a Siebel extension is installed, the Siebel views override the program, and it may change during the application's lifetime. In Insight, program is the name of an executable as recognized by the operating system. If an executable is invoked from a script (a batch or a shell), the script is displayed as the command entity. In Alerts, program is part of the customized metrics definition and is the name of the executable or stored procedure executed in the database that runs when the metric is sampled. In action definitions, program is the name of the executable that will run if the metric exceeds its threshold.

In Alerts, the management state of a metric for which an alert has been raised. The following statuses exist:

• Open. An alert is raised.
• Investigated. The alert is taken care of.
• Closed. The problem has been solved.

In SQL Server, a function that uses the Microsoft Index Tuning Wizard to recommend on adding indexes or statistics for a selected statement, batch, or table. Based on the results of this function, the Optimizer will choose a better access plan and make the respective statement or batch perform better. For statements and batches, recommendations are based on the content of the statement or batch. For tables, recommendations are based on all the statements that are stored in the PMDB, are executed during the selected time period, and have an average duration time greater than the value defined in the registry (where 0 is the default).

See also advice.

In Oracle, a generated statement that uses alternative syntax to access the database in different ways and returns the same output as the original statement.

Number of contributor invocations per entry point. For example, if a service request calls three methods each time it is invoked, the Relative Frequency for the method is three invocations per service request execution. Similarly, if a service request calls one method every other time it is invoked (half of the time), the Relative Frequency for the method is 0.5 invocations per service request execution.

In Web, a counter that keeps track of the time that it takes for a Web page to be loaded from the moment the first byte arrives until the Web page is fully loaded or the user interrupts or abandons the loading process.

A collection of queries, programming code, and layout settings that Report Manager executes to generate graphical results like tables and charts.

Uses historical information to identify problematic conditions, track long-term performance, volume trends and patterns, view availability problems over long periods of time and on different levels, compare the performance of similar systems, correlate between performance metrics of different products, assist in capacity planning, and generate demand-driven, user-defined reports.

In Report Manager, a keyword used in a report. Its value is set during the report execution. A parameter's value can be updated either permanently or for the current execution only.

In Report Manager, the attributes that define a specific report, consisting of report parameters and scheduling information.

See also report parameter.

In Alerts, the process during which a metric queries a Precise product for a specific instance, retrieves values, and calculates the metric alert level.

In Alerts, the start time of a scheduled sampling process (by default Sunday, 00:00 AM).

In specific Alerts metrics, the time frame during which statistical data is returned from other Precise products. Such a metric is for example Oracle's General Behavior metric, which returns database behavior for a certain period of time.

In Alerts, the frequency of a metric regular sampling schedule. The sampling rate is measured in minutes.

An Insight agent that collects AppTier-specific performance data.

A system's ability to withstand load. For example, positive scalability means that the system continues to function properly even when it is called upon to service a larger number of users.

In Oracle and SQL Server, a process that captures schema changes and saves them in the PMDB. In SQL Server, instance configuration parameters and database option changes are also captured.

A component of Precise Agent Installer that enables adding a small JavaScript script, also known as a Web browser-side agent, to the Web pages of your Web site.

Also called a host machine or server machine. The combination of a computer and associated operating system software that is accessed by multiple clients to perform requested functions and typically returns results to the clients.

In Web, the collecting of performance data from the Web server instance through the Web server agent.

service + network time

In Web, a counter that keeps track of the service and network time, including the total amount of time the request took to reach the server.

See SLA (Service Level Agreement).

In Web and SmartLink, the time elapsed from when a request is received by the server to the time a response is sent back to the computer that made that request. The service time is measured on the server side. In J2EE, the time it takes an invocation to complete execution. In other words, service time is the average length of time between the start time and end time of a Java method execution. For example, the SQL service time is the time it takes the JDBC method executing the SQL statement to be completed. The service time includes CPU and wait time. The service times are reported in the interval in which they complete execution. Though a contributor's average service time may be very small, the contributor may be called many times. As a result, a contributor's overall contribution to performance may be large even though its average service time is low.

A class that is loaded only once and for which the application server uses multi-threading to process requests. The servlet generates an HTML page that is sent back to the Web browser.

In Web, a counter that keeps track of the bytes sent and received.

A formal definition of an information system's performance goals. Within Precise, an SLA consists of clauses corresponding to various system activities. Once a system's SLA is defined, its SLA compliance can be analyzed, and breaches can be isolated to identify their causes.

In Insight, a component that provides transactive, correlated information across AppTiers from the user's perspective. Insight SmartLink functions in PeopleSoft and Web applications environments.

An I/O abstraction layer that enables processes to communicate with each other, regardless of whether they are on the same server. Sockets are bi-directional FIFO pipes that look like regular file I/O to the developer with the abstraction layer handling all of the low-level communication details.

In Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, Sybase, J2EE, and Web this workspace presents instance level statistics such as hit ratios, utilization, JMX metrics, logging, and more.

Also called child metric. In Alerts, the sub-query of a parent metric. A child metric gathers its own data and combines it with the data gathered by other child metrics to form the result of the parent metric. Each child metric has its own thresholds and may be enabled or disabled individually.

See also parent metric.

A container that stores the information collected by the Precise agents and loads it into the PMDB.

Summary tables store the same data at different levels of granularity: time slice, hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly. By storing data in multiple summary tables, Precise can present a detailed view and progressively higher-level views of the same data. Summary tables are particularly useful for data aging. A data purging policy can be implemented for each summary table so that detailed data is retained for short-term historical analyses while more summarized data is used for long-term analyses and trending.

A technology identifies the monitored object. For example, Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase, and DB2 are different technologies, while all Web servers (such as: Apache, IIS, and WebSphere) are defined as a single Web technology. A single monitored object can be monitored by two different technology's Collectors. For example, WebLogic server can be monitored by both a Web Collector and a J2EE Collector.

The number of average completions per second that are observed during an interval.

A unit used to break up long sessions into smaller time periods. The length of a time slice is preset and cannot be changed. It represents the maximum time that passes before the data collected can be displayed. For example, if the length of a time slice is 15 minutes, the collection is only updated at 15-minute intervals.

The length of a time slice is different for each technology: In Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase, DB2, Web, .NET, MQ, Tuxedo, Network, and OS, a time slice is 15 minutes. In J2EE and SmartLink, a time slice is either 30 seconds or 5 minutes. In Precise for SAP, a time slice is 5 minutes.

See also collector slice size.

URI (Uniform Resource Identifier)

The relative path to a resource after the location (network node) is found.

In Web, a function that defines rules that map URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) with dynamic parameters originating from a specific domain to a format that identifies the Web pages and prevents them from having different URLs.

In Web, the gathering of performance data from the browser running on the desktop of the Web application's user, through the static or dynamic instrumentation of Web pages.

A program that receives client requests for Web pages, retrieves the static pages and/or issues a request for dynamic page creation to an application server, and sends the pages to the client. In Web, a computer that delivers (serves up) Web pages. Every Web server has an IP address and possibly a domain name.

The time spent in the specific entity excluding time spent by called (other) entities. In J2EE, work time of a method is calculated as the service time of that method minus the service time of the methods it invoked.

In Web, a counter that keeps track of the type of the Web instance, such as Web, PeopleSoft, SAP, or Siebel.