Communication Channel Monitor 

Use

You use the communication channel monitor to call information about communication channels that are set up for the PCK, and to administrate these channels.

If you are running the PCK on a server cluster, the communication channels comprise multiple instances for the various cluster nodes.

Integration

Unlike the adapter monitor, the communication channel monitor also provides current runtime information about the communication channels of all adapters that are registered for communication channel monitoring.

To monitor adapters that do not provide runtime information to the communication channel monitor, use the adapter monitor.

Prerequisites

You have started the communication channel monitor from the start page of the SAP Partner Connectivity Kit.

Features

The communication channel monitor displays the following information in a table. By using Table Configuration, you can show or hide individual table columns. To update the information displayed, choose Refresh. A selection box allows you to determine the number of visible table lines.

Communication Channels

Column	Meaning
Communication Channel	Name of the communication channel
Status	Status of the communication channel. The following statuses are possible: ●      Green (): Channel is started and functioning without errors. ●      Red (): Channel is started but errors have occurred. ●      Yellow (): Channel is started, but inactive. ●      Gray (): Channel is stopped ●      Not available (n/a): Channel is not registered; no information available.
Short Log	Explains the status of the communication channel and, in the event of an error, the type of error that has occurred.
Adapter Type	Displays the type of adapter that has been selected and configured for the communication channel. Adapter types that provide the communication channel monitor with static information only and no runtime information provide a direct link to the adapter monitor.
Direction	Specifies the direction of the communication channel: sender or receiver channel.
Party	Displays the communication party (if available) that is specified in the communication channel.
Service	Displays the service that the communication channel is assigned to.
Number of Nodes (not displayed as default)	Displays the number of nodes if the communication channel consists of multiple instances on different nodes of a server cluster.
Processing Errors (not displayed as default)	Describes when the last processing errors occurred in the communication channel. If no errors occurred, the column remains empty.
Namespace (not displayed as default)	Displays the namespace that contains the respective adapter type.

Channels with a yellow status () are started, but are inactive on all cluster nodes of a server cluster. This means that a channel is not processing any messages, even though it is started.

A channel has this status in the following cases:

■       The channel is configured as inactive in the PCK (it can also only be reactivated in the PCK).

■       The channel is set to inactive by the respective adapter (some adapters can do this and can also change this status if necessary).

Activities

●      You can define a filter to limit the communication channels that you want to monitor. To do this, enter the required selection criteria under Filter and choose Use Filter. If free entry is permitted, you can use an asterisk (*) as a placeholder.

To reset the filter and, at the same time, refresh the list of selected communication channels, choose Initialize.

●      In the displayed table, you can sort the columns in ascending or descending order. To do this, choose the corresponding arrow symbols to the right of the column name.

In the default setting, the table is sorted by the status column, so that communication channels with errors are displayed at the top of the table.

●      By choosing Availability Time Planning, you can schedule the availability times for communication channels that you want to control automatically and not manually.

●      You can navigate to the Adapter Log, which is independent of the respective communication channel. This displays the processing steps of adapters that cannot be assigned to a particular communication channel.

The log displays a table consisting of a line for each adapter, and columns for the adapter type, namespace, and occurrence of the processing errors. If you select an adapter, a second table is displayed, showing all entries for processing for this adapter.

●      You can select a communication channel from the displayed table and start or stop it. If Multiple Selection is activated, you can select multiple or all communication channels.

You can activate or deactivate external control.

○       If external control is deactivated, you can control the communication channel as follows:

■       Manually, by choosing Start and Stop

■       Automatically, by scheduling availability times

Messages that are sent to stopped channels do not undergo retry attempts. They are not rescheduled until the channel is started again.

●      If multiple selection is deactivated, you can select a communication channel from the table to display detailed information about the status of the channel as well as information about channel administration. If the channel consists of multiple instances on different nodes of a server cluster, this information is provided for each cluster node.

○       The information that is displayed for the status of a channel on the individual cluster nodes is status information that is accumulated to give the overall status of the channel in the table of communication channels.

If the cluster nodes have at least one status that is above all other statuses in the status hierarchy, the channel receives this status as the overall status. The possible statuses correspond to those in the table of communication channels and have the following hierarchy:  (red),  (yellow),  (green), and  (gray). A combination of red, green, or yellow with gray is not possible.

○       The information displayed for the processing entries of the selected cluster node is current runtime information on message processing. Depending on the adapter used, the type and occurrence of the information can differ.

This information forms the entry in the Processing Errors column in the table of communication channels. The newest result is taken from the table of the cluster nodes.

○       The information about channel administration displays when and by who a channel was last started or stopped. You can only start or stop a communication channel for an entire server cluster, not on individual cluster nodes. However, since errors can occur on individual cluster nodes during the execution of these actions, error information is also displayed for each cluster node.

○       If the channel is controlled by availability times, the Availability Times tab page is displayed. This displays the availability time that determined when the channel was last started or stopped. All other availability times that are relevant for this channel are also displayed. You can exclude specific availability times and, if necessary, reschedule them.

Since only active availability times are displayed, it is possible that availability times do exist for the selected communication channel even if none are displayed.