Overview of the Microsoft Web Sites and Services Management Pack

Article
09/11/2008

The Web Sites and Services Management Pack is a set of components and tools for creating MOM rules for monitoring HTTP services, such as Web sites and XML Web services.

In previous versions of MOM, Web site monitoring was limited to basic “ping”-type rules that provided minimal information about the state of the Web application or Web service. The Web Sites and Services MP allows you to build rules that are aware of the details of the HTTP request and of the data returned by the Web application or Web service.

The tools included in the Web Sites and Services MP simplify the task of creating a request or sequence of requests that test the availability and functioning of a Web site or Web service.

Architecture

There are three main parts to the Web Sites and Services MP: the Server Configuration Components, the MP Configuration Wizard, and the Agent Configuration Components.

Server Configuration Components

The Web Sites and Services MP Configuration Wizard program communicates with the Server Configuration Component to add, modify, and remove Web Sites and Services MP rules from a MOM Management Server, as well as the Request Sequence data file transferred via the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS). A Request Sequence is a group of related Web pages, which can include resources that the pages link to, such as images, scripts, and style sheets. The information about the Request Sequence is stored in Request Sequence data files.

The Web Sites and Services MP does not contain any preconfigured rules that are capable of monitoring a Web application or Web service. Since each Web application and Web service is unique, you must build custom rules using the Web Sites and Services MP Configuration Wizard. The Web Sites and Services MP includes a Management Pack .akm file, which is automatically imported during the installation of the Server Configuration Components, and several predefined reports, which must be manually imported. The Server Configuration Component is also responsible for storing and deploying the Request Sequence data file to an agent-managed computer before the agent-managed computer sends requests to the Web site or Web service.

MP Configuration Wizard

The wizard is used for the following tasks:

Creating Request Sequences
Editing existing Request Sequences
Creating and managing Request Sequence Groups

The MP Configuration Wizard helps you create Request Sequences based on template rules included in the Web Sites and Services MP.

The MP Configuration Wizard, rather than the MOM Administrator console, is the recommended application for modifying an existing Request Sequence.

When you create Request Sequences for monitoring a Web service, the MP Configuration Wizard displays additional settings that are required to call Web services. To configure these settings, you do not need to understand the details of the underlying SOAP messages.

For more information about the MP Configuration Wizard, see the “Authoring Features” section of this guide.

Agent Configuration Components

The Agent Configuration Components include a custom managed code response that sends requests and collects response data from the Web application or Web service. The rules in the MP run the managed code response . Rule information and Request Sequence data files are both received from the Management Server using the MP’s file transfer response capabilities.

The Agent Configuration Components do not need to be running on the server that is hosting the Web Site or Web Service. The Web Site or Web Service is usually monitored remotely.

For more information about the Agent Configuration Components, see the “Monitoring Features” section of this guide.

Authoring Features

The Web Sites and Services MP uses a wizard to collect data and create rules for the Web application or Web service you want to monitor. It gathers information about the request, as well as the criteria used to determine whether the application is performing as expected. The MP Configuration Wizard also includes the ability to capture one or more requests sent using the Internet Explorer Web browser. For complex Web applications, this is the easiest way to specify details about the requests.

Requests are grouped into Request Sequences, which allow you to test and monitor a group of related Web pages, or a Web page and resources that it links to, such as images, scripts, and style sheets.

In MOM, each Request Sequence group you create with the MP Configuration Wizard results in the creation of a new rule group in the rule hierarchy. Each Request Sequence is stored as a rule in the Web Sites and Services rule hierarchy. Information about individual requests, however, is stored outside the rule group hierarchy, in a Request Sequence data file.

In general, you should use the MP Configuration Wizard to change and configure Request Sequences. Updates are sent to MOM agent-managed computers in the same way, and at the same time interval as normal MOM rule updates. Settings stored in the Request Sequence data files are not accessible from the MOM Administrator console.

The following illustration shows the role of the MOM and Web Sites and Services components during Request Sequence creation:

Monitoring Features

The rules created by the Web Sites and Services MP are designed to monitor a Web application remotely, using a MOM agent to run the rules against an HTTP server that may or may not be directly monitored by MOM.

Once the rules created by the Web Sites and Services MP are deployed, agents will run the rules and send requests via a managed code response.

The following illustration shows the role of the MOM and Web Sites and Services components during monitoring:

The main purpose of the Web Sites and Services MP and the rules it creates is to monitor the availability and functioning of the Web site or Web service. The Agent Configuration Components do not attempt to precisely mimic the behavior of a particular Web browser or any other HTTP client. For example, if the Web page contains client-side scripts, the Web Sites and Services MP can send a request for the script, but it does not attempt to execute the script or mimic any of the interaction that could take place between a user and the Web browser user interface.