Server Studio implements client-server architecture to provide comprehensive performance monitoring, tuning and event response automation for IBM Informix Dynamic Server. It combines two major components, the Sentinel server ("Sentinel") and the Server Studio Administrator client ("Server Administrator"). Sentinel is responsible for providing performance monitoring, data collection, event response automation and scheduled task execution functionality, while the Server Administrator is responsible for user interaction. To assure system security, these Server Studio components communicate with each other by encrypted messages over secure TCP/IP protocol.
Sentinel runs as a service under Windows platform and runs as a background daemon process under UNIX and LINUX platforms. It is capable of servicing one or multiple IBM Informix Dynamic Server instances. Correspondingly, one or more Server Administrator clients can interact with each Sentinel instance deployed in your enterprise. Essentially, Sentinel implements a many-to-many client-server architecture. While it is possible to install Sentinel on the same host where the monitored IDS instance is deployed, it is highly recommended to install it on the different host, to minimize the impact on the resources of the database server host.
To enable monitoring of an IDS instance, you need to create one or more monitors for it. A monitor is a collection of server performance parameters and user-defined alert conditions related to those parameters. Multiple logical monitors for the same IDS instance can be created and executed concurrently. Sentinel internally aggregates and optimizes performance parameters? data requests from multiple logical monitors to minimize the load on the target IDS instance.
Sentinel is responsible for collecting monitored parameters from one or multiple IDS instances, generating user-defined alert notifications in real-time and executing regularly scheduled jobs or alert-triggered event responses. It has an embedded SQL database that serves as a repository for time-series performance data and alert events collected from all monitored IDS instances for performance history analysis and profiling of your system?s resource-utilization. You can choose which parameters data should be stored in the repository when you define your monitors.
The Server Administrator client is responsible for user interaction and provides the necessary graphical tools for the Sentinel server configuration, creation and management of monitors, alerts and job definitions. It also provides you with real-time performance graphs and contains the required tools to enable your analysis of historical performance and resource-utilization data collected by Sentinel.
Some of the key Server Administrator?s functions are: