FOCUS AREAS

ARM - Instrumenting SAS Applications

When you instrument a SAS application using the ARM API, you must first identify the key business transactions within your application that you want to measure. Typically, the most important transactions are those that are most visible to the end user or those that contribute to crucial business operations.

After you have identified the transactions of interest, you then modify the application by embedding the ARM API calls at strategic points in your SAS programs. ARM API calls have been implemented as SAS macros. Typically, you place an ARM API call just before the transaction is initiated in order to signify the beginning of the transaction. You then place an associated ARM API call in the application code where the transaction is known to be complete.

The transaction response time and additional statistics are then routed to an executable module within SAS known as the ARM Shared Library module. The Shared Library module internally defines the ARM function calls and parameters according to the ARM API specification. The Shared Library executable passes the performance data to a Measurement Agent module that is responsible for logging the information to the SAS log or external file.

The SAS interface to the ARM API also supports using another vendor's Shared Library module so that you can route the performance data to that vendor's Measurement Agent for logging. For example, HP's Measureware will capture ARM API calls through its own ARM Shared Library module and then route the information to a measurement interface daemon, which subsequently logs the information to a performance database. You can then use SAS IT Service Vision software to process the Measureware data into a performance database for analysis and historical reporting.

You can use the ARM API to