Monitor concepts
Monitors can display real-time performance data. Additionally, they can continually monitor your system in order to run a selected command when a specified threshold is reached. Find out how monitors work, what they can monitor, and how they can respond to a given performance situation.
The system monitors display the data stored in the collection objects that are generated and maintained by Collection Services. The system monitors display data as it is collected, for up to one hour. To view longer periods of data, you should use Graph history. You can change the frequency of the data collection in the monitor properties. The settings in the monitor properties override the settings in Collection Services.
You can use monitors to track and research many different elements of system performance and can have many different monitors running simultaneously. When used together, the monitors provide a sophisticated tool for observing and managing system performance. For example, when implementing a new interactive application, you might use a system monitor to prioritize a job's resource utilization, a job monitor to watch for and handle any problematic jobs, and a message monitor to alert you if a specified message occurs on any of your systems.
Setting thresholds and actions
When you create a new monitor, you can specify actions you want to occur when the system metric reaches a specified threshold level, or an event occurs. When threshold levels or events occur, you can choose to run an IBM® i command on the endpoint systems, such as sending a message or holding a job queue. Additionally, you may choose to have the monitor carry out several predefined actions such as updating the event log and alerting you by either sounding an alarm on your PC or starting the monitor. Finally, you can automatically reset the monitor by specifying a second threshold level, which causes the monitor to resume normal activity when it is reached.