Preparing to launch an Agent

Prior to utilizing any Agents, launch the Agent Controller.

Preparing an Agent's Launch Configuration

From the profiling control in the toolbar click on the adjacent down-arrow:

and then select Open Profile Dialog... from the resulting pop-up menu:

This displays the Profile dialog. Now double-click on the Statistical node in the Configurations pane to define a new launch configuration:

a new launch configuration named perfMon_1

Name the configuration using the Name field (perfMon_1 in the above example). Select the Host tab if not already selected).

Host Tab

The Host tab allows you to construct a set of host machines. By default, localhost:10002 is automatically added to the list; 10002 defines the agent controller port.

To add a new host to the list, click on the Add... button and populate the Add host dialog with the Host name or IP address as well as the Agent Controller port:

add host name travis at agent controller port 10025

Then click on the OK button. The new host will be added to the list:

The Edit... and Remove buttons become activated: use the Remove button to delete a selected host; use the Edit... button to edit the host information for the selected host; and use the Test Connection button to check out the connection to a selected host machine.

Agent Tab

The Agent Tab allows you to select which particular Agent(s) you wish to utilize:

list of statistical agents with Windows System Trace (Perfmon) selected

For the purposes of illustration we shall use the Windows System Trace (Perfmon) agent to demonstrate facilities.

Settings Tab

The Settings tab is used to set and configure agent specific variables that will be sent to the agent once it is started. These variables vary depending on the agent selected in the Agent tab. The settings tab represents the list of agent variables in a table with three columns. These are the Variable Name, Description and Value columns. The Variable Name column provides a short label that is attached to each variable. The Description column provides a description of the variable that is required. Finally, the Value column is where each variable's value is entered.

When a new launch configuration is created the values will be filled in with default values where possible. It is essential that these variable values are correct for successful system monitoring.

The following Settings tab is an example for the TPTP MySQL agent:

agent specific variables for the MySQL agent

Destination Tab

This tab allows you to specify where any Agent outputs are stored (the Profiling Project field) and also what monitor should be used to act as a logical container for the Agents (Monitor field).

The information can either be typed in directly or browsed to via the Browse... button.

A monitor is a logical container for the profiling information that is collected from a group of agents. Monitors are useful for aggregating processes and agents from a distributed application. The profiling project is simply a standard Eclipse project.

Common Tab

The Common tab is standard across all Eclipse launch configuration dialogs. It provides the ability to: save data as a local or shared file; select a Console Encoding; nominate a button to display in the favorites menu; and indicate where any captured output should be directed.

Confirming the Launch Configuration

When the various tabs have been completed, confirm the launch configuration by clicking on the Apply button. (To revert to the state that the dialog was in prior to making any changes, click on the Revert button).