Monitors(CCMS)

Definition

A monitor is a set of monitoring tree elements (MTEs) that are arranged in a hierarchical structure (the Alert Monitoring Tree). As monitors are organized by topic, you can quickly check all of the important objects for this topic. Monitors are combined in monitor sets.

Use

The quick collection of information and warning messages for specific areas of the system is normally part of the daily system administration work. For most problem situations, only a fraction of the information available in the monitor is required. For database problems, for example, you only need to work with the monitoring tree elements for the monitoring of the database.

There are therefore different monitors for the Alert Monitor, that each display information for an aspect of system management. These monitors are grouped into monitor sets. Within the monitoring architecture, you can create, copy, and edit monitors yourself, and transport monitors to other systems. In this way, you can create monitors that contain precisely the information that you need for your daily work. You can save and reuse all of your own monitors.

As the definition process is quick and easy, you can use a monitor of your own not only as a long-term, specialized work center, but also for short-term problem analysis or special monitoring. If, for example, you want to monitor the response time of a particular server, you can define a temporary monitor that monitors the response time, CPU utilization, and other relevant parameters for this server.

During the definition of monitors, you can use not only the existing nodes, but also virtual nodes and rule nodes. A virtual node structures the monitor; it is a heading or a description for the nodes created below it. A virtual node does not have a monitoring function itself.

A rule node specifies a rule that defines what should be included in the new monitor. The monitoring architecture interprets the rule and includes in the monitor the nodes that fulfill the selection criteria in the rule. The rules are regularly reinterpreted, so that your own monitor automatically corresponds to the current system landscape. A monitor defined with rules will, for example, automatically include a newly started SAP application server.

SAP deliver a range of predefined standard monitor sets with the SAP system. The standard monitors contained in these sets provide system administrators with a complete overview of the system and ready-to-use views for special tasks such as monitoring the database, background processing, the operating system, the system log, and the spool system. There is even a monitor for monitoring the monitoring architecture (CCMS Selfmonitoring).