Enterprise Service Bus Monitoring Framework for SOA Systems

Abstract

The paper presents a Monitoring Framework for the integration layer of SOA systems realized by an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). It introduces a generic ESB Metamodel (EMM) and defines mechanisms which gather monitoring data related to the model entities. Applicability of the model is verified on the Java Business Integration (JBI) specification—available standardization of an ESB. An analysis of the JBI specification from the Metamodel perspective is presented, resulting in identification of JBI monitoring deficiencies. Then, the paper illustrates a realization of mechanisms ameliorating JBI deficiencies. The paper also defines the notion of a Monitoring Goal Metamodel which lays a foundation for a fully featured and technology-agnostic monitoring framework established on the EMM. The Monitoring Goal Metamodel allows a declarative definition of how the framework should react to anomalies by performing drill-down monitoring to diagnose the root cause of the problems. Evaluation of the prototype implementation of the ESB Monitoring Framework that verifies its correctness and fulfillment of the nonfunctional requirements is presented. Related work and some important relevant projects and technologies are also briefly described. Finally, the paper is summarized with conclusions and a vision of the proposed framework usage and extensions.