Accessing the IBM WebSphere SNMP Capability

You can start or stop the IBM® WebSphere® Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Capability and view the performance metrics.

Before you begin

Before you access the IBM WebSphere SNMP Capability, you must first have installed, configured and enabled it. Read the Installing and configuring the IBM WebSphere SNMP Capability and the Enabling security for the IBM WebSphere SNMP Capability topics for more information.

Note: For more information about the IBM WebSphere SNMP Capability (also referred to as the IBM WebSphere Snmp Agent), read the SNMP based performance monitoring for WebSphere Application Server topic.

About this task

Start the IBM WebSphere Snmp Agent to communicate with SNMP monitoring software. You can stop the WebSphere Snmp Agent to modify the configuration in the event any errors occur. Some tasks require that you restart the WebSphere Snmp Agent for any changes to take affect.

Procedure

To start the IBM WebSphere Snmp Agent, perform the following steps:
1. In the administrative console, click Servers > Generic Servers.
2. Select the name of the generic server you want to start, and then click Start.
To stop the IBM WebSphere Snmp Agent, perform the following steps:
1. In the administrative console, click Servers > Generic Servers.
2. Select the name of the generic server you want to stop, and then click Terminate.

What to do next

Once you have started the IBM WebSphere Snmp Agent you can then view the metrics.

The IBM WebSphere Snmp Agent publishes the data in four tables that provide you with information related to performance metrics as well as an additional table of trap destinations.

A Collection Table lists the Performance Monitoring Infrastructure (PMI) modules that are active in the environment. Each entry in the table is associated with an index.
A Control Table reflects MBean configuration in the jmxConfig.xml file. Each entry in the MBean definition has entry in the Control Table
A Counter Table lists the PMI counters that are monitored by the IBM WebSphere Snmp agent.
A Data Table provides the PMI data of PMI counters that are monitored.
A Trap Destination table provides a list of trap destinations.

Table 1. OIDs used with the snmp GETNEXT operation to retrieve tables
Type of table to retrieve	OIDs
CollectionTable	SNMP GETNEXT (1.3.6.1.4.1.1977.22.10.10.1.2:Null)
ControlTable	SNMP GETNEXT 1.3.6.1.4.1.1977.22.10.11.1.2:Null, 1.3.6.1.4.1.1977.22.10.11.1.3:Null, 1.3.6.1.4.1.1977.22.10.11.1.4:Null, 1.3.6.1.4.1.1977.22.10.11.1.5:Null)
CounterTable	SNMP GETNEXT(1.3.6.1.4.1.1977.22.10.12.1.2:Null)
DataTable	SNMP GETNEXT(1.3.6.1.4.1.1977.22.10.13.1.1:Null, 1.3.6.1.4.1.1977.22.10.13.1.2:Null)
trapDestinations	SNMP GETNEXT(1.3.6.1.2.1.16.19.13.1.2:Null)

Interpretation of table data:

The Counter Table entries have the Counter Table OID suffixed with WsControlIndex and an index. WsControlIndex indexes into the Control Table to indicate which regular expression the counter belongs to. The index is just a simple enumeration of all counters under a particular Control Index.
The Data Table entries have the Data Table OID suffixed with WsControlIndex, WsCounterIndex, WsCollectionIndex:
WsControlIndex – same as the one in Counter Table
WsCounterIndex – the Index column of Counter Table
WsCollectionIndex – indexes into the Collection Table to indicate which Mbean the attribute belongs to
The Data Table contains two sets of data:
1. Type – the type of statistic. There are 3 types: long, load and stat.
  1. Long is generally used for a count statistic and has no unit.
  2. Load is used for a Range Statistic and the value for load type is the current value of that statistic
  3. Stat is used for a Time Statistic or an Average statistic, and the value for stat type is the total value of that statistic. The Time Statistic has a unit of millisecond.
2. Value – the numerical value for that statistic.

Traps can be viewed in the SNMP monitoring software. If the connection between the IBM WebSphere Snmp Agent and the SNMP monitoring software is established, you can also retrieve or alter the traps destination information. Most SNMP monitoring utilities are capable of acting as a trap destination listener and can also display trap destinations.