CCSS has announced MQSeries Monitoring, an additional module that has been added to QSystem Monitor V12 in release 9, the latest version of CCSS's system performance monitoring and reporting solution for System i. QSystem Monitor is a graphical, networked, realtime performance management tool that enables managers to centrally monitor and manage critical areas of performance. The solution also provides historical summaries, disk analysis reports, and user-based performance statistics.

MQSeries is a system for messaging across multiple platforms, including Linux, System i, and Unix. The new monitoring functionality in V12R9 targets four key components of MQSeries: MQ Queue Managers, MQ Listeners, MQ Channels, and MQ Queues. Development managers can target each of these components with a series of dedicated monitors.

Ray Wright, managing director of CCSS, says that application monitoring was the next logical step for CCSS's solution: "The structure of the MQSeries solution lends itself so well to this type of approach--we feel that it's a complimentary addition of functionality to QSystem Monitor and one that customers will feel is intuitive to use."

New monitors for MQ Queue Managers will keep watch over four key elements--the status of the MQ Queue Manager itself, the Command Server Status, Initiator Status, and Connection Count. Within the MQ Queue Manager, additional monitors include Application Status, Age of Oldest Message, Average Queue Time, and Queue Depth.

Additional monitors for MQ Channels include a number of performance indicators including Bytes Received/second, Bytes Sent/second, Compression Ratio, Compression Time, Exit Program Time, and Network Time. Users can define thresholds for each one and be automatically alerted (via SMS, email, or pager) should a breach occur. Also, the new Average Message Time on Queue monitors inconsistencies in message delivery times to help users spot problems before they escalate. Lastly, V12R9 adds two new monitors for MQ Queues--the Uncommitted Message Count and the Dead Letter Queue for uncommitted messages.

--Erin Bradford, systems management & availability editor