Using the ITS Process Monitor (SAP Library - ITS Tuning and Troubleshooting Guide)

Using the ITS Process Monitor

Use

You use this procedure to monitor the status of the Internet Transaction Server (ITS) component AGate with the ITS Process Monitor.

The ITS Process Monitor is installed automatically during ITS setup. It records detailed trace information about AGate activity and allows you to:

Record a snapshot of the current status of AGate any time
Refresh the snapshot as often as you like to get the most up-to-date information
Save the snapshot to a file
Define a log file for recording AGate status information, enter the logging frequency and specify how the information is to be logged

The ITS Process Monitor is useful for low-level troubleshooting to investigate problems such as hanging workthreads, deadlocks and timeouts. You can log as much information as you like for as long as you like, save the details and send them to SAP for examination.

Prerequisites

Before running the ITS Process Monitor for the first time, you must enable it explicitly:

To do this, create the registry value

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\SAP\ITS\2.0\ProcessMonitor

with data type REG_DWORD and set it to 1.

Then, restart the ITS.

Procedure

Running the ITS Process Monitor

Start the ITS Process Monitor by double-clicking the file ProcMon.exe, which is usually located under

c:\Program Files\SAP\ITS\2.0\programs

You see a list of processes running on your machine.

Select the AGate.exe process that you want to monitor (there may be more than one).

AGate.exe is the only process you can monitor with the ITS Process Monitor.

Double-click or choose OK.

You see a snapshot of the current status of AGate.

Reading ITS Process Monitor Information

When you run the ITS Process Monitor, you see snapshot information similar to the following:

This graphic is explained in the accompanying text

The snapshot shows workthread status information for the AGate server process and includes:

Timestamps
Global trace information
Call stack for processing requests

This list includes all the modules that contribute to processing a request, together with the wait time for each. Long wait times could indicate hanging workthreads or a deadlock.

Trace information (empty in the above graphic)

This section contains all the context variables for a request.

Using ITS Process Monitor Functions

The ITS Process Monitor offers the following functions:

Function	Description	Procedure
Select Process	Returns you to the list of processes running on your machine.	Choose Select Process or File ® Select Process. You can only monitor the process AGate.exe with the ITS Process Monitor.
Refresh View	Updates information in the current snapshot.	Choose Refresh View or File ® Refresh View. The ITS Process Monitor updates the information in the current snapshot immediately.
Save to File	Saves information in the current snapshot to a file.	Choose File ® Save to File. Specify a file name and save it to the desired directory.
Log to File	Saves information in the current snapshot to a file and logs subsequent information. You define the frequency and whether you want to append to existing contents or overwrite them.	Choose File ® Log to File. Specify a file name and select the directory where you want to store it. Choose Save. You see the Logging Options dialog box. Specify the logging frequency and indicate whether you want to append to existing contents or overwrite them. Choose OK.
Display Binary File	Displays information from binary files generated by the ITS Process Monitor.	Choose File ® Display Binary File. Browse to the file and open it.
Exit	Leaves ITS Process Monitor.	Choose File ® Exit. The ITS Process Monitor closes.

Caution

The ITS Process Monitor is intended for low-level troubleshooting scenarios. Under no circumstances should you use this tool in production systems, because it could impair performance considerably.