Beginning with PureApplication version 2.2.2.0 released in September 2016, the use of IBM’s Application Performance Management monitoring is entitled for applications deployed on PureApplication System.

However, unlike IBM Tivoli Monitoring (ITM), there is currently no shared service available for automatically deploying APM agents into your PureApplication pattern instances. So you must arrange to install and configure the APM agents yourself.

But now this process is simplified! Several of my PureApplication colleagues have published an article describing how you can use script packages in your pattern to install and configure the APM agents in your pattern instances. You can find their article at IBM developerWorks.

What happens if network connectivity is lost in your multi-system deployment? Because of the variety of network communications that take place, the answer is “it depends.”

There are four different network endpoints involved in PureApplication System’s multi-system deployment:

1. The virtual machine data addresses (on NIC en1/eth1)
2. The virtual machine management addresses (on NIC en0/eth0)
3. The PureApplication Systems’ management addresses
4. The iSCSI tiebreaker address

Between these addresses, there are five different network interactions that take place. Connectivity failures in or between these networks result in different outcomes:

1. Communication between all of the VMs on the deployment over their data addresses, [A to A]
   What happens if this communication is broken depends on the application being deployed. It might be application-to-deployment manager traffic, or application-to-database traffic. Depending on the application, if this communication is broken the application may not be available. For example, if you have deployed GPFS mirrors across two sites, and the data communication is severed, then GPFS will still be available in one site provided that it can still access its GPFS tiebreaker. If you have deployed a WAS cluster using this GPFS mirror, then the WAS custom nodes that can connect to the surviving GPFS mirror will still be able to function provided that they can access their database.
2. Management communications between the virtual machines [B to B]
   See next.
3. Management communications between the virtual machines and the system [B to C]
   These communications are used to keep the PureApplication UI up to date with the status of the system. If these communications are broken then the application is not affected, but some of the VMs may have unknown status in the UI. Scaling the deployment will not be possible if [B to C] communications are broken on both racks.
4. Communication between the systems [C to C]
   1. If neither system can communicate with the iSCSI tiebreaker [C to D] then externally managed deployments on both systems are frozen (no deploys, no deletes, no scaling).
   2. If one system can communicate with the iSCSI tiebreaker [C to D], then external deployments are not frozen on that system but are frozen on the other system.
   3. If both systems can communicate with the iSCSI tiebreaker [C to D], then external deployments are not frozen on one system (unpredictable) but are frozen on the other system.
5. Communication between the systems and the tiebreaker [C to D]
   If the systems can communicate with each other [C to C] then the tiebreaker communication is just a failsafe mechanism and it is harmless for it to experience an outage. However, if there is a double failure of communication between the systems [C to C] and also to the tiebreaker [C to D] then externally managed deployments on both systems will be frozen (no deploys, no delete, no scaling) as indicated above.

You can count how many deployments you have cumulatively made on your PureApplication System since it was first installed using the following CLI script:

virtual_systems = http.get('/resources/virtualSystems/?type=WORKLOAD')
try :
  max_id = max([x['id'] for x in virtual_systems])
  print "The maximum deployment id is %d" % max_id
except :
  print "There are no running deployments"

This script takes advantage of the fact that PureApplication deployments have an internal identifier with a monotonically increasing value. This allows the script to account for older deployments that have been deleted. However, the count assumes that your most recent deployment is still active. If you currently have no deployments, it will not be able to calculate a result; or if you have deleted your most recent deployments, it will account for all deployments up to the most recent remaining deployment.

Yesterday IBM announced the new Bluemix Local System, the third generation successor to our Intel-based PureApplication System. There are three exciting new developments here:

• The change in name reflects the alignment between IBM’s PureApplication, Bluemix, and Blue Box offerings. The same power and flexibility remains under the hood; the Bluemix Local System remains the premier offering for deploying PureApplication’s pattern-based cloud-enabled middleware such as Websphere and IBM BPM, and is also the premier platform for running IBM’s Bluemix cloud-native development platform within your datacenter.
• The new system comes in two models; for the first time we are offering a system that exclusively uses Flash-based storage.
• The new system offers more flexible licensing options to fit your specific needs.

I’m very proud of our team’s accomplishment in delivering the Bluemix Local System!

My colleague Zhao Liu recently wrote an article that provides helpful background information on how System Monitoring works in IBM PureApplication System, together with detailed instructions on how to implement our recently added support for monitoring IBM DataPower virtual appliances:

Monitor DataPower virtual appliances from PureApplication System