DX Application Performance Management

  • 1.  APM Tech Tip: TIM Settings Part Three (Troubleshooting)

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Jun 14, 2015 08:41 AM

    Introduction
    This is the last article on the underdocumented area. The previous two articles gave an overview of and provided references for TIM Settings.
    This last section goes into Tim Settings troubleshooting.

     

    The previous sections can be found below

     

    https://communities.ca.com/message/241784124#241784124 - Part 1: Overview

    https://communities.ca.com/message/241790546#241790546   Part 2: References


    Problems with TIM Settings typically fall into these areas

    1) Invalid Tim Setting name or value.
    2) Memory issues/TIM restarts caused by TIM Settings.
    3) Communication issues between TIM and Tim Collector/MOM.
    4) SSL-related issues due to TIM Settings.
    5) RTTM not working.

     

    Let's look at each of these in turn.


    1. Invalid TIM Settings or value


    Creating or updating a TIM Setting is a manual operation. In some cases, the TIM Setting has a default setting even if not explicitly set. So to be changed,
    it also needs to be manually added. Because of this, it is far too easy to configure an invalid Tim setting name or value. As far as I can determine, not all
    names/values are extensively validated at this time so be very careful in doing this. If there is any doubt, then use the configtool previously mentioned
    to see what is stored in the database.

     

    2. Memory issues/TIM restarts caused by TIM Settings


    Under load, TIMs can use more CPU or memory when processing data with HTTP Plugins. Some of these built-in plugins are turned on by default but not explicitly set.
    Only by using the configtool or viewing the TIM Setting after a TIM restart can you tell that this is the case. The two most troublesome are

     

    Flex

    When you are not using Flex, then disable them by setting the following properties to 0:
    FlexPlugin/Enabled
    FlexAMFParser/Enabled
    FlexAMFXParser/Enabled

     

    XML
    XmlPlugin/Enabled

     

    Another reason for this is enabling Parallel/UseWorkers when a TIM is not a MTP or disabling this setting when a TIM is a MTP.

    3. Communication issues between TIM and Tim Collector/MOM.

     

    This is a very common issue. The culprits are typically one of two settings

    TessCollectorIpAddr = 10.0.0.41
    TessIpAddr = 10.0.0.36

     

    Typical problems are due to the following:
    - An invalid IP address.
    - A valid IP address but either the TIM or TIM Collector/MOM cannot reach it.
    - Port is blocked.
    - EM has two IP addresses and TIM is attempting to connect to an unreachable one.
    - EM is not running

    In any case, this is some sort of communication issue which involves changing the configuration value or opening a server port.
    Until that is done, you may see various 400 or 500 errors on the Monitors tab in the APM MOM CEM GUI.


    4. SSL-related issues due to TIM Settings.

     

    SslSessionAgeOutCount = 100
    SslSessionAgeOutSeconds = 300
    DisableTLS11And12RecordsProcessing

    Depending what these are set to, you may see many SSL Session Timeout and since APM 9.1.7 TIM SSL bad data (TLS 1.1/1.2) records messages in the TIM logs.
    (The latter is true only if the TIM trace option for SSL is enabled.)


    5. RTTM not working

     

    BtStats/Enabled = 1


    Enabling or changing other settings may increase TIM log size, impact recordings, and users being identified (proxyforwardheader), etc.
    But these are minor compared to the other issues mentioned previously.

    I hope this series has been of used to you and you further explore this area.


    Questions for Discussion:
    1. Was this a useful series?
    2. What are areas of TIM settings that need to be documented?
    3. What should be covered in other topics?



  • 2.  Re: APM Tech Tip: TIM Settings Part Three (Troubleshooting)

    Posted Jul 02, 2015 10:19 AM

    Community, in case you missed the 'ask' here since it's at the bottom of the page - Hal is looking for some feedback so please provide when you can..

     

    Questions for Discussion:

    1. Was this a useful series?

    2. What are areas of TIM settings that need to be documented?

    3. What should be covered in other topics?