WebSites and App Pools

Monitoring the state of IIS websites is crucial in any business environment for ensuring the availability, performance, and security of web applications. BizTalk Server components, such as receive locations or send ports, may have dependencies on WCF/SOAP Services. If these dependencies are not met due to the stopped websites, the affected components may fail or enter an error state. This can result in communication breakdown, failed message transmissions, delayed data exchanges, or data loss 

BizTalk360 IIS Website monitoring helps to mitigate this situation, with its robust monitoring and alerting systems for IIS websites. which provides timely notifications of any website downtime, allowing administrators to take immediate action to restore services and minimize the impact on critical business processes.

Configure IIS Server 

To manage IIS from BizTalk360, the respective server must be added to BizTalk360 as the first step. The connection between BizTalk360 and the IIS server is established using either Telnet or Ping (ICMP). Therefore, it's important to ensure that Telnet (TCP/23) and Ping ICMP/Protocol-1 are enabled on the server where BizTalk360 is installed in order to communicate with the IIS server.

To add IIS Server, Navigate to Environment Settings ->General->IIS Server->Add IIS Server.

Websites Monitoring

1. Go to the monitoring section ->Manage Mapping->IIS Server.
2. In the IIS server Monitoring section, the user should see a dropdown menu listing the available IIS servers that can be monitored. Choose the specific IIS server in which the websites are hosted.
3. Select the Alarm for monitoring. This determines when the monitoring system will trigger alerts based on alarm configuration.
4. Under the website section, the websites are listed along with the details such as Name, Application Pool, Protocols, and Current State. 
5. By default, the expected state for each website will be set as "Do Not Monitor." This means that the monitoring system will not generate alerts for these websites unless the user specifies the expected state.
6. Select a specific website from the list and set its expected state as either "Started" or "Stopped" based on your desired monitoring criteria. If there is a mismatch between the current state and the expected state, the monitoring system will notify the user.
7. Optionally, the user can enable the "Autocorrect" feature. When enabled, the system will attempt to automatically bring the website back to the expected state if it detects a violation. This can help in restoring websites to their desired operational status without manual intervention.

App Pools Monitoring 

1. Go to the monitoring section ->Manage Mapping->IIS Server. 
2. Choose the Alarm for monitoring. This determines when the monitoring system will trigger alerts based on alarm configuration.
3. Switch to the App Pool tab. Here, all the application pools configured on the selected IIS server will be listed, along with their names and current states. 
4. By default, the expected state for each application pool will be set as "Do Not Monitor."
5. Select the application pool to monitor and set the expected state to either "Started" or "Stopped".
6. If there is a mismatch between the current state and the expected state, the monitor status will be set as critical, indicating a problem. The monitoring system will notify the user. If the expected and current states match, the monitor status is set as healthy, indicating that the application pool is functioning as expected.
7. Optionally, autocorrect functionality can be enabled, which automatically changes the application pool state to match the expected state if a violation is detected.
8.  The monitoring dashboard will display the monitor state of the application pools, allowing user to easily track their health and quickly identify any issues.

The below video demonstrates the process of configuring the website and application pool monitoring.

Auto-Correction 

By enabling the AutoCorrect functionality, the system will automatically adjust the state of websites or application pools to align with the expected state if a violation is identified. This functionality facilitates the restoration of websites or app pools to their intended status without requiring manual intervention. 

Moreover, all automated actions performed by the system, are logged and in the Governance and Audit section. 

Access Permission 

 This functionality is accessible to BizTalk360 users who have monitoring and IIS Server access.

Licensing 

This feature is available only for platinum-tier licenses. you can add up to 8 IIS servers, to manage and monitor the IIS websites and App pool states from BizTalk360.