by Greg Shields

Many of the Application Performance Management solutions that leverage transaction monitoring also find themselves reaching outward from the data center infrastructure towards its users. EUE monitoring is a compelling and recent arrival to the stable of monitoring solutions. It turns the whole of monitoring on its head, reversing the locations where monitoring data is actually captured.

With EUE, the end user is the subject of the monitoring. This kind of monitoring looks at the behaviors of a system as experienced by its end user. By positioning the monitoring at the location of the ultimate end consumer, you can learn some very interesting things that could otherwise not be captured.

For example, a system that leverages EUE monitoring can identify when the entire system as a whole is not performing to a desired level. This is manifested by the level of response that its end user receives. When that end user attempts to click a link or a button in an application and is forced to wait for a response, EUE can measure how long that response is taking as well as what the user does to compensate. That user might decide to quit the application or move on to another part of the application. That user might just simply wait, if the delay isn’t terribly long. Essentially, EUE provides a top-level understanding of how underlying performance issues manifest themselves into the user’s experience.

Although EUE by definition isn’t likely to give you deep detail about a problem’s root cause, it serves as the proverbial “canary in the coal mine,” alerting you when something bad is going on. Once you’ve identified that indeed some negative situation is occurring and impacting your users, you can then dig deeper using other forms of monitoring to identify exactly where the problem exists.

In Chapter 5 of The Definitive Guide to Application Performance Management, I discuss how EUE can work for a Web-based system that services outside customers:

How does this watching and reporting occur? In short, by creating a log of each user’s activities. Consider for a moment how an Internet-facing application works. In the example, the application’s user interface (UI) is Web-based, served through a front-end Web cluster. For a user to work with that Web-based application, the cluster must generate and present Web pages to the user. The user interacts with those Web pages by clicking in specified locations, with each click resulting in some response returned back to the user.

A benefit of working with Web-based applications is that each click can be encapsulated into its own transaction. When the user clicks on a Web page link, that click begins a long chain of events. The Web server interacts with down-level services to gather necessary data. Those down-level servers may then work with others even further down the application’s stack. Eventually, through some combination of effort, the right data is gathered. That data is then passed back to the front-end Web servers, which render new content for the user.

By measuring which links the user clicks on, as well as the response time in receiving and rendering resulting data back to the user, it is possible to identify the quantity of time consumed by each step in the process. Later, this chapter will talk more about the spread of time between the different system elements—client, network, and server—but for now, recognize that EUE monitoring for end users works because the action of each user is encapsulated into a Web transaction that can be measured.

As mentioned earlier, monitoring solutions that leverage EUE monitoring tend to include it as part of a much larger monitoring suite. Some, like Compuware Vantage, Quest Foglight, and BMC ProactiveNet Performance Management, place a heavy focus on Web-based applications. These tools may use EUE measurements that are captured at the Web server, as that location tends to be the “front door” for externally-facing Web applications. Others, such as Citrix EdgeSight, may gain their instrumentation by directly installing monitors to end user computers.

About the Author

Greg Shields is an independent author, speaker, and IT consultant, as well as a Partner and Principal Technologist with Concentrated Technology. With 15 years in information technology, Greg has developed extensive experience in systems administration, engineering, and architecture specializing in Microsoft OS, remote application, systems management, and virtualization technologies. He is a Contributing Editor and columnist for TechNet Magazine and Redmond Magazine, and serves as the Series Editor for Realtime Publishers, the world’s leading provider of high-quality content for the IT market. Greg is a highly sought-after and top-ranked speaker for both live and recorded events, and is seen regularly at conferences like TechMentor Events, Microsoft Tech Ed, VMworld, and more. He is a multiple recipient of Microsoft “Most Valuable Professional” award.