Testing Your Instrumentation

Procedure

1. Link to the NULL library that is part of the ARM SDK. If the link fails, it means that you are not linking to the correct library, or you are using incorrect names or parameters in at least one of the ARM API calls.

2. Once you can link successfully, then run your application, including the calls to the API, and verify that your application performs correctly. No testing of the API calls is done except for the linking parameters, because the NULL library simply returns zero every time it is called. Running the application is useful to insure that you did not inadvertently alter the program in a way that affects its basic function.

3. Assuming you have a compiled logging agent source, link to the logging agent generated in the previous step. Run your application, including the calls to the ARM API and verify that your application performs correctly.

4. Manually review the log created by the logging agent to verify that the correct parameters are passed on each call. These parameters include transaction ids to connect start calls to the correct transaction class, start handles to connect stop calls to the correct start calls, and any of the optional parameters. Optional advanced parameters include correlators that indicate the parent/child relationship between transactions and components, and metrics about the transaction or application state.

   Search the log for error messages (identified by ERROR in the text), and informative messages (identified by INFO in the text), after your application has run for a considerable period of time in a simulated production environment. Upon successful completion of this test, you should be confident that your ARM API calls are correct. A sample log is provided in Logging Agent Sample Output .

5. Link to a performance measurement product (if available) and run the application under typical usage scenarios. This will test the entire system of application plus management tools.

Logging Agent Sample Output

7:47:39.sss: arm_init: Application <Appl_0> User <User_0> = Appl_id <1>

17:47:39.sss: arm_getid: Application <Appl_0> User <User_0> Transaction <Tran_0>
Detail <This is transaction type 0>

17:47:39.sss: arm_getid: Application <Appl_0> User <User_0> Transaction <Tran_0>
= Tran_id <1>

17:47:39.sss: arm_getid: Application <Appl_0> User <User_0> Transaction <Tran_0>
Metric Field <1> Type <1> Name <This is a Counter32 user metric            >

17:47:39.sss: arm_start: Application <Appl_0> User <User_0> Transaction <Tran_0>
= Start_handle <1>

17:47:39.sss: arm_start: Application <Appl_0> User <User_0> Transaction <Tran_0>
Start_handle <1> Metric < This is a Counter32 user metric            > : <0>

17:47:40.sss: arm_update: Application <Appl_0> User <User_0> Transaction <Tran_0>
Start_handle <1> Metric < This is a Counter32 user metric            > : <2>

17:47:41.sss: arm_stop: Application <Appl_0> User <User_0> Transaction <Tran_0>
Start_handle <1> Status <0>

17:47:41.sss: arm_stop: Application <Appl_0> User <User_0> Transaction <Tran_0>
Start_handle <1> Metric < This is a Counter32 user metric            > : <4>

17:47:41.sss: arm_end: Application <Appl_0> User <User_0> appl_id <1>