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Halcyon Software Launches Web Application Monitor

Date Posted: 04/02/10

Automatic monitoring for HTML pages, web servers, Websphere® and ERP-based java processes

Halcyon Software today announced the launch of its unique web application monitor designed to enable system administrators to automate the monitoring of statistics on any web server, HTML web page or business application, including IBM Websphere®, the multi-tiered java-based processes of Lawson M3/Movex ERP system and commonly used  high availability solutions.

Donnie MacColl, Technical Services Director at Halcyon Software said “For system administrators to natively monitor statistics such as stock levels, share prices and java-based processes running on any platform is a very difficult manual process”.  MacColl continued, “Halcyon’s web application monitor addresses this need by completely automating this entire process. Using flexible rules and  regular proactive monitoring, users can track issues and alert the business to potential problems to enable appropriate action to be taken. As far as I am aware – there’s currently no other comparable solution available on the market.”

The web application monitor uses Halcyon’s Network Server Suite 7.0, HTTP rules and web browsers to automate the monitoring of any business application with an HTML front end. By defining rules, the new software monitors HTML web pages as frequently as every 5 seconds if required. Should the applications status fall within defined parameters, alert notifications are sent to  Halcyon’s graphical user interface, or via email  or SMS.  It is also possible to automatically execute a command action or submit a remote command such as end a job or process, totally independent of the operating system platform.

Halcyon’s web application monitor is being used to automate the monitoring of Lawson’s M3 ServerView HTML web front end as native i5/OS functions fail to provide the levels of detail required on active subsystems, ports, performance or jobs running on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

“Typically, customers using ServerView need to know that particular background subsystems and the ‘critical’ auto-start jobs are active. Setting up rules to monitor ServerView is quick and easy with Halcyon’s web application monitor”, added MacColl.  “Status information on JVM activity is searched by row or column for specific criteria. Matching or breaching the specified criteria produces an event, which in turn creates an alert or an automated action. This is only visible from the HTML web front end that Halcyon’s web application monitor now checks, at regular intervals, to ensure the Lawson M3 applications remains fully functioning at all times”.

For a specific example, the ServerView home page is monitored to ensure the Sub:A subsystem is active on a specific port. Using Halcyon’s pre-defined rules allows system administrators to continuously verify that the correct numbers of background jobs are running in that subsystem, and if not, raise an alert. Should a number of required background jobs not be running, then the normal method of monitoring and determining which process has failed is to manually click on the hyperlinks on the home page to drill-down into other ServerView information, such as Sub:A ‘subsystem view’, to identify which individual job is missing and take the appropriate action. These repetitive manual steps have been automated by Halcyon Software’s web application monitor and the software can carry out continuous checking 24/7 enabling users to achieve real ROI in a very short space of time.

The software has broader appeal and greater versatility. Any critical web-based data can be monitored for changes which could potentially affect business operations. System administrators can monitor any statistics or text displayed on a HTML page (or any embedded web page) and automate a process of manual checks to identify issues, and notify the right people in the organization so that appropriate action can be taken.

Examples include; monitoring shares prices, reporting changes in stock levels within ERP systems, checking high availability systems for non-synchronized objects and looking for status changes in environmental monitoring systems which could cause serious risk to data centers.