Monitoring client HTTP session statistics

[Version 8.6 and later]You can monitor user session activity for web applications that are running on your server.

Before you begin

Enable HTTP session management in WebSphere® eXtreme Scale. For more information, see HTTP session management.

About this task

You can monitor HTTP session activity in the following types of installations:
  • Stand-alone installation in which WebSphere eXtreme Scale is using another application server
  • Integrated installation in which WebSphere eXtreme Scale is using WebSphere Application Server as the application server
Depending on how you have deployed WebSphere eXtreme Scale, you can monitor different types of session activities:
  • When using WebSphere eXtreme Scale with another application server, you can monitor the following counters:
    Table 1. HTTP Session Statistic Types
    Name Description
    createCount The number of sessions that were created.
    invalidateCount The number of sessions that were invalidated.
    activeCount The number of concurrently active sessions. A session is active if the WebSphere Application Server is currently processing a request that uses that session.
    liveCount The number of local sessions that are currently cached in memory from the time at which this metric is enabled
    cacheDiscardCount The number of session objects that have been forced out of the cache. A least recently used (LRU) algorithm removes old entries to make room for new sessions and cache misses. Applicable only for persistent sessions.
    affinityBreakCount The number of requests that are received for sessions that were last accessed from another Web application. This value can indicate failover processing or a corrupt plug-in configuration.
    timeoutInvalidationCount The number of sessions that are invalidated by timeout.
    activateNonExistSessionCount The number of requests for a session that no longer exists, presumably because the session timed out. Use this counter to help determine if the timeout is too short.
  • When you are using WebSphere Application Server, you can monitor the following counters: Servlet session counters.

Procedure

Depending on how you have deployed WebSphere eXtreme Scale you can enable HTTP client session statistics in one of the following ways:

  • If you have installed WebSphere eXtreme Scale in a stand-alone environment, then enable HTTP client session statistics with the splicer.properties file.
    • Modify the following statistics property from false to true: enableSessionStats=true.
    • Modify the following statistics property to all: sessionStatsSpec=session.all=enabled.
    For more information, see splicer.properties file. To see a description of all possible statistics specifications, see StatsSpec API.
  • If you have installed WebSphere eXtreme Scale for session replication on WebSphere Application Server, then enable HTTP session monitoring activity with the Performance Monitoring Infrastructure (PMI) service in WebSphere Application Server.
    For more information, see Enabling PMI using the administrative console.
    Note: Even if you plan to use the PMI console to monitor session activity in WebSphere Application Server, you can also enable HTTP session activity in WebSphere eXtreme Scale to ensure you are able to monitor the session statistic types in both products.

What to do next

After you enable HTTP session statistics in WebSphere eXtreme Scale, you can view the statistics through the registered MBean: com.ibm.websphere.objectgrid:type=Session,name=webAppContextRoot
You can view the MBean using the one of the following tools: