Tivoli Performance Viewer topologies and performance impacts

The Tivoli® Performance Viewer enables administrators and programmers to monitor the overall health of WebSphere® Application Server from within the administrative console.

The following two topologies exist for the Tivoli Performance Viewer:

  • Tivoli Performance Viewer running in a single server environment
  • Tivoli Performance Viewer running in a WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment environment

When the Tivoli Performance Viewer is running in a single server environment, the collection and viewing of the data occurs in the same Java™ virtual machine. Because the collection and viewing of data occurs in the application server, performance may be affected depending on Tivoli Performance Viewer settings. Viewing Data with the Tivoli Performance Viewer describes the various Tivoli Performance Viewer settings and their effect on performance.

When the Tivoli Performance Viewer is used in a WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment environment, the data is collected at each of the nodes and stored in memory at the administrative agent. Data is then viewed from the deployment manager. This architecture enables the monitoring work to be distributed among the nodes. Similar to the single server environment, the various user and logging settings directly influence the extent to which performance is affected.