Dashboard are a report fitting on a single screen that put together all relevant information to understand how the application is doing. They are present in APS from version 1.7.

It is extremely useful :

• as a starting point for troubleshooting
• as a tool to communicate to management and business users on how the application is actually performing

What does it consist in?

It is a set of three elements that  display key information on the performance of a business application.

Illustration 1: Overall view of the application dashboard

How can it help?

For reporting

In a single report you have enough to explain a business user or a manager how the application performance went through time, which servers were doing worse and which zones were impacted. On top of the EURT, all this is based on 3 synthetic metrics that are easy to explain, so that you can address non-technically aware people with an understandable speech about « what is going on » :

• RTT – network performance
• SRT – Server Performance
• DTT – Delivery of application response through the network.

For troubleshooting

For network administrators this report brings together all the information about a business application required to:

• validate whether there is a slowdown or not
• identify the origin of a slowdown (network, application, response delivery)
• which users or servers were impacted

In no more than one click, you can conclude on whether there was a slowdown or not, what was the origin of the degradation, which client zones were impacted.

With a single additional click (i.e. 2 clicks in total!), you can view whether all clients in a zone were impacted or if the server response time degradation was due to another application hosted on the same server machine.

Components

1^st element : the evolution of End User Response Time through time

Illustration 2: EURT graph

This EURT graph shows :

• the evolution of the quality of experience for users of this application over the period of time
• the number of transactions help you consider the evolution of EURT with rigor and common sense (you would not consider a degradation of EU Response Time for 10 applicative transactions in the same way as for 10,000).

The breakdown of EURT in 3 intelligible components (RTT for network latency, SRT for Server Response Time and DTT for Data Transfer Time) let you know at first glance what is the origin of the possible performance degradation.

For example in the screen-shot here-above, we can observe an increase in the Server Response Time; the network and the time required to send the response to the client have not increased. Either the server overall responded slower or some specific queries required a much larger treatment time (you can determine this by drilling down to that specific point of time).

2^nd element: EURT by Server

Illustration 3: EURT by server

What we can see here, is a comparison between the EURT for that application on each server that provides this application.

In this case, it is obvious that Atlantis tend to respond much slower than Brax. By clicking on it having a looking at a second dashboard called Server / Application dashboard, we shall be able to determine if this permanent or punctual and whether this due to the load on this application or on another one hosted on the same server.

3^rd element: EURT by Client zone

Illustration 4: EURT by Client zone

What we can see here is a breakdown of the EURT for this application between client zones; at one glance, you can determine which zone was impacted by the degradation and what are the different level of experienced performance depending on where users are located.

For example, from the screen-shot here-above, we could certainly think that mainly one zone was impacted by the Server Response Time degradation and also that there are some significant differences in performance between zones due to differences in RTT values (network latency).

Drill down dashboards

SecurActive APS offers two additional dashbaords

1. Client zone / application dashboard
2. Server / application dashboard

1. Client zone / application dashboard

You can access this dashboard either through the menu or by clicking on a specific client zone in the Application dashboard.

This dashboard contains three bits of information:

• EURT graph through time for this client zone and this application
• EURT breakdown by server (so that you can compare the performance offered by different servers to that client zone)
• EURT per client (so that you can identify whether all clients are impacted by a slowdown, or which individual client generates more volume or has worse application performance).

Illustration 5: Client zone / application dashboard

The breakdown by client is interesting to know whether all the zone was impacted or just some individual users and on which component of the EURT (network latency, server response time or data transfer time and for which number of transaction and amount of traffic).

Illustration 6: Breakdown by client

2. Server / application dashboard

You can access this dashboard either through the menu or by clicking on a specific server in the Application dashboard.

This dashboard contains three bits of information:

• EURT graph through time for this server and this application
• EURT breakdown by client zone (so that you can compare the performance offered to different client zone from that server)
• Comparison with other applications provided by that server (so that you can identify whether a peak of transactions on another application is impacting the performance of that application, and see the volume of data, transactions and performance metrics for all applications provided by this server).

Illustration 7: Server / application dashboard

Interactions

Dashboard have been developed so that a single click drives on more detailed information on the object you are most interested in:

• If you click on the EURT graph in any of these three dashboards, you make a focus on a shorter period of time (for example a Server Response Time peak – depending on the aggregation level you either reach a lower aggregation level for a shorter period or the corresponding performance conversations). At the same time you will get the server and zone breakdown for that more specific period of time.
• If you click on a server, you reach the Server / application dashboard.
• If you click on a client zone, you reach the Client zone / application dashboard.