Zen is designed for ease of use and minimal administration. At times, however, you may want to monitor various conditions or resources in the Zen environment. For example, you may need to tune portions of your application and monitor various performance aspects pertaining to the database. Or, you may have adjusted Zen configuration settings for your business needs and want to monitor the changes from the default settings.

Monitoring is covered in the following topics:

You can monitor the state of your database with the Monitor tool. It allows you to oversee the following:

If you are new to Monitor, or want an overview of the tool, see Monitor Overview.

Monitor is a tool that allows you to systematically observe certain activities and attributes of the database engine. It provides information useful for both database administration and application programming diagnostics. It can monitor aspects of both the MicroKernel Engine and the Relational Engine.

Monitor has two interfaces, both of which provide the same functionality:

ZenCC includes a Monitor tool that presents information organized into a series of tabs. The tabs can be rearranged for your convenience, with columns of data that can rearranged and sorted. It presents a snapshot of a particular moment and can be refreshed either manually or automatically.

Within ZenCC, you access Monitor from Zen Explorer.

Use one of the following options to open the Monitor window. You can monitor multiple engines at the same time if you choose.

You can set preferences for the Monitor from either Monitor itself or from ZenCC. In Monitor, select Window > Preferences > Monitor to open the Monitor tab of the Preferences dialog. In ZenCC, select Window > Preferences > Zen > Server Monitor.

You can set two types of preferences. First, you can set the layout of the Monitor user interface, so that when you reopen Monitor, its tabs are arranged just as you left them. You can set this individually for each server that you access. Second, you can set the features for any particular grid, for example, column width, sort order, and column order. If you open that particular grid on another server, it follows the same settings. That way, you can easily compare the same grid on different servers.

Information in the Monitor can be refreshed automatically at a configured interval, as desired, or not at all. Be aware that refreshing too many windows at a short interval may slow performance.

Tabs can be rearranged, separated, and reaggregated for your convenience. To move a tab, put the cursor on the tab label, hold down the left mouse button, and pull the tab label where you want the tab to be.

Because of the different nature of the data on each tab, different operations can be performed on each tab. Those operations are initiated by the icons that appear at the right end of the row of tab labels. The following table describes the icons.

The Active Files tab provides information about MicroKernel files that are currently open. To select columns to monitor, see Select Columns to Display.

You can view the handle information for any active file. See Hide/Show Handles. Active file handles include the following information.

The MicroKernel Sessions tab provides information about current connections to the MicroKernel Engine. To select columns to monitor, see Select Columns to Display.

You can view the handle information for any MicroKernel session. See Hide/Show Handles. MicroKernel session handles include the following information.

The Resource Usage tab displays the resources in use by the MicroKernel since the engine was last started. To select columns to monitor, see Select Columns to Display.

The database engine dynamically controls the maximum values for some of these resources. The maximum value for User Count, Session Count, and Data In Use depends on the product license. See License Model in Zen User’s Guide.

For example, User Count does not apply to Cloud Server. Therefore, "n/a" appears as the Current, Peak, and Maximum value for User Count if Cloud Server is being monitored. Similarly, "n/a" appears as the Maximum value for Session Count and Data in Use MB if a Zen server is being monitored.

If you are considering using Cloud Server, you need the ability to estimate Current and Peak values for Session Count and Data in Use MB. Consequently, those statistics are displayed for the server without being enforced. No notifications are sent about them regardless of their values.

The following table lists the types of resources for usage monitoring.

The MicroKernel Communication Statistics tab displays information about communication with the MicroKernel Engine. It includes separate sections for Communications Statistics and Resource Usage Information. Communication statistics are calculated in terms of total number of occurrences processed since the database engine was started.

To select columns to monitor, see Select Columns to Display.

 

Resource usage information provides current, peak, and maximum values for resource occurrences.

The SQL Active Sessions tab provides information about current connections to the Relational Engine. This tab also allows you to delete a SQL session. See Delete Selected Session. To select columns to monitor, see Select Columns to Display.

The following topics cover bmon, the command line version of Monitor:

The bmon command line tool runs on the Windows, Linux and Raspbian platforms supported by Zen. Its executable program bmon.exe on Windows and bmon on Linux-based systems. On Windows systems, the tool resides in the bin directory of the Zen installation location. On Linux systems it is located in /usr/local/actianzen/bin.

Bmon manages server settings based on a configuration file. Zen provides a default configuration file monconfig.txt in the bin directory of the Zen installation location. The settings in the file are documented with comments.

Output from bmon can be directed to the console, a log file, or both. The configuration file specifies where to direct the output. An application could, for example, check the console or log file for a particular condition, and then take appropriate action. Zen v15 added support for JSON output with the -runonce option.

The -runonce parameter is optional. Without it, bmon uses the settings in the specified configuration file. In the sample file monconfig.txt, the initial refresh rate is set to 5 seconds. At any time during bmon execution, you can use Q (or q) + Enter to quit manually.

If the refresh rate is zero, bmon pauses until it receives a keyboard response. The refreshrate setting in the configuration file specifies how many seconds to pause.

Over time in a busy database as records are created, updated, or deleted, data can become fragmented, lengthening times for file access and transaction response. This fragmentation differs from file system fragmentation on a hard disk because it occurs within the data file itself. As a developer or DBA, you may know when a file is likely to fragment from heavy use, but in some systems, you may be guessing.

Defragmenter is a tool that helps you solve this problem by finding data fragmentation and enabling you to correct it. Defragmentation rearranges records and rebuilds indexes in data files and removes unused space so that data can be efficiently accessed again. Defragmenting a file does not alter its data in any way, and records can be created, read, updated, or deleted while their files are being defragmented. You can use Defragmenter features during database engine execution with no need for down time or disruption of business operations in most cases.

Opened as a graphical tool in Zen Control Center, Defragmenter shows data files in use, including their number of reads and writes so that you can quickly find ones under heavy use. To add files or tables to the Watch List tab, select them and then drag-and-drop, click a button, or right-click and choose the command. If you know of Btrieve files in other locations, you can browse to them and add them to be watched as well.

Defragmenter also runs as the dbdefrag tool.

The following topics cover the use of Defragmenter:

See Automatic Defragmentation for information about using Defragmenter in an unattended mode.

Defragmenter helps you analyze your data files for statistics that may explain loss of performance. High statistics for file size and percentage fragmented, unused, and not in order can explain loss of database performance. By defragmenting a file or table, you can reduce all four of these numbers, which are explained in more detail under the Watch List topic. Transactions generally run more quickly against a newly compacted, reindexed file, restoring efficiency, capacity, and performance.

Every database is different, so it isn't possible to make recommendations that apply to everyone. The decision to defragment depends on your knowledge and experience with your own database and its applications. However, some general considerations are worth making:

If you do not see performance improvements after defragmenting, then the problem likely lies elsewhere and requires a different diagnosis and solution.

In some cases, Defragmenter cannot be used or will be canceled by database activities of higher priority.

Defragmenter runs in three ways:

Defragmenter presents database tables, files, and other objects in tabs in the Defragmenter window.

The tabs in the window can be rearranged. See Arranging Tabs.

The Files In Use tab lists items currently or recently opened by the Zen engine. You can add files shown in this tab to the Watch List tab to monitor, analyze, and defragment. It is best practice to select only files involved in routine database execution, since they are most likely to contribute to performance issues.

In the Files In Use tab, you can sort the list by clicking the Reads/Writes column heading. Sorting the list helps to identify which files are in heaviest use and possibly more fragmented.

The Tables tab resembles Zen Explorer, showing nodes for the server where Defragmenter is running. You can add any file shown in this tab to the Watch List tab.

The Btrieve Files tab is a file explorer for drives and directories on the file system. In addition to data files, this tab also lists items not involved in routine operations, such as dbnames.cfg and .ddf files. It is possible to add these files to the Watch List tab to analyze and defragment, but unlike data files, attempting to change them while they are in active use returns errors. These metadata objects are at low risk of fragmentation because they generally do not change in a production environment. In the rare case of their needing defragmenting, it can be done during down-time maintenance.

Items in the Watch List tab display statistics after an Analyze or Defragment action has been applied.

Under the Watch List tab, a Details pane summarizes the statistics in the Watch List columns, but with some additional information:

Selecting an item in the Watch List tab displays its details. If you select more than one item, details are shown for the first one highlighted.

You can set preferences for Defragmenter from either the tool itself or from Zen Control Center. In either GUI, select Window > Preferences > Zen > Defragmenter to open the Defragmenter tab of the Preferences dialog box.

The following table shows the types of preferences you can set and what they do.

Information in Defragmenter can be refreshed automatically at a configured interval. The default is to refresh every 5 seconds. Be aware that refreshing too many files too often may slow performance.

The Defragmenter tabs can be rearranged and separated for your convenience. To move a tab, drag and drop the tab label where you want the tab to be. If the setting to remember window layout is selected in the Defragmenter preferences, your tab arrangement will be kept.

This topic provides steps for using features for various tasks in the Defragmenter GUI.

The automatic refresh rate applies to the statistics in the Watch List tab. Refreshing of lists in the other tabs is done manually by clicking the Refresh icon or right-clicking and selecting Refresh.

Adding a file or table to the Watch List tab can be done in a number of ways:

Items added to the Watch List tab appear at the end, after the items already there.

Analysis reports statistics that determine which items may need defragmenting.

The Watch List tab reports analysis results by updating its columns. For the first item selected, the Details tab provides individual status, including the free disk space needed to defragment the file.

The Watch List tab reports defragmentation results by updating its columns. For each item selected, the Details tab below provides individual status. For multiple selected items, the first one selected is shown.

During analysis or defragmentation, select a file in the Watch List and click the Cancel Defragmentation icon on the right. In the dialog that appears, click Yes to confirm. The Defragmenter operation continues until you click Yes.

Alternatively, you can click the Cancel All Defragmentations icon on the left. This icon stops all analysis and defragmentation activity, while the one on the right is for selected files in the Watch List that are undergoing analysis or defragmentation.

After cancellation, status for some items in the Watch List tab may be Analysis: Completed or Defrag: Completed, with new statistics, while others display Analysis: Canceled or Defrag: Canceled and blank statistics. For a canceled item, the Details tab description gives the time that passed until the moment of cancellation.

Successful cancellation means that analysis was stopped or that fragmentation in the file or table is unchanged.

You can set every column in the Watch List tab to be shown or hidden.

You can toggle to hide or show the Details tab by clicking the Click to Hide Details icon .

The CLI tool dbdefrag provides the same functions as its GUI counterpart, except that there is no watch list. Defragmentation actions can be started, checked for status, or canceled from either interface.

The following table gives command line options.

The following example shows a series of steps using dbdefrag on a large .mkd file.

C:\ProgramData\Actian\Zen\Examples>dbdefrag -analyze mybtrievefile.mkd
  Fragmented: 9%
      Unused: 4%
Not in Order: 100%
   File Size: 713 MB

C:\ProgramData\Actian\Zen\Examples>dbdefrag mybtrievefile.mkd
1125 out of 1195242 records processed (0%)
87021 out of 1195242 records processed (7%)
170910 out of 1195242 records processed (14%)
255393 out of 1195242 records processed (21%)
339805 out of 1195242 records processed (28%)
404202 out of 1195242 records processed (33%)
487928 out of 1195242 records processed (40%)
572585 out of 1195242 records processed (47%)
655802 out of 1195242 records processed (54%)
716472 out of 1195242 records processed (59%)
800406 out of 1195242 records processed (66%)
883729 out of 1195242 records processed (73%)
947475 out of 1195242 records processed (79%)
1032061 out of 1195242 records processed (86%)
1116015 out of 1195242 records processed (93%)
1185831 out of 1195242 records processed (99%)
1195242 out of 1195242 records processed (100%)
1 out of 2 keys processed (50%)
2 out of 2 keys processed (100%)
Defragmentation complete.
Time taken: 0h:24m:57s

C:\ProgramData\Actian\Zen\Examples>dbdefrag -status mybtrievefile.mkd
Defragmentation status: In Progress
1053373 out of 1195242 records processed (88%)
0 out of 2 keys processed (0%)

C:\ProgramData\Actian\Zen\Examples>dbdefrag -status mybtrievefile.mkd
    Status: Complete
   Started: 2014-08-08 11:08:28
  Finished: 2014-08-08 11:33:25
Time taken: 0h:24m:57s

C:\ProgramData\Actian\Zen\Examples>dbdefrag -analyze mybtrievefile.mkd
  Fragmented: 0%
      Unused: 0%
Not in Order: 27%
   File Size: 682 MB

A Zen server on Windows provides performance counters for use with the Windows Performance Monitor. (The Zen performance counters are supported only on Windows Vista or later operating systems.) The performance counters measure state or activity of the database engine, which allows you to analyze performance of your application. Windows Performance Monitor requests the current value of the performance counters at specified time intervals.

Zen provides data only for display by the Performance Monitor and cannot modify the counter properties. Performance Monitor controls the following:

The counter values reflect all calls into the database engine regardless of their source. That is, the MicroKernel Engine, Relational Engine, native Btrieve applications, utilities, and so forth, all contribute to the counter values. Counter values are collected for all files. Counters on a per-file basis are not currently supported.

Note that the use of performance counters is an advanced feature intended primarily for application developers and other technical staff. Refer to the Microsoft documentation for details about the Windows Performance Monitor and on the use of counters in general.

By default, the Zen installation registers the Zen performance counters with Performance Monitor. The counters are available for use after installation completes.

Note that response to customer needs may result in additional Zen collector sets or counters being installed that are not discussed in this chapter. If so, refer to the description of the collector set or counter provided in Windows Performance Monitor. See Add Sets or Individual Counters To Monitor.

A data collector set organizes multiple counters into a single component that can be used to review or log performance. Zen provides the following data collector sets:

These counters are useful for characterizing the behavior of client applications in terms of the Btrieve API. The counters report the types of operations being processed by the database engine at a given point in time.

See also Btrieve API Operations in Btrieve API Guide.

The database engine uses a two-level memory cache system to increase performance of data operations. The two caches are called Level 1 (L1) Cache and Level 2 (L2) Cache.

The more frequently the engine must read a page from disk to complete a user request, the lower the performance. These counters can be used collectively to view how successfully the database engine avoids disk reads and to determine if any changes need to be made to the cache size settings.

The best performance occurs when all data is stored in the L1 Cache. Because of the sizes of data files, however, the L1 cache cannot always hold all of the data pages, so the database engine also uses a second level cache. Pages in the L2 Cache are stored in a compressed format, allowing for more pages to fit in memory. Consequently, it is lower performing that the L1 Cache, but higher performing than the database engine reading the pages from disk.

See also To calculate the ideal size of the database memory cache.

The counters in this set are useful for understanding the interactions of the database engine and data read and written to physical storage. The pages reported by the counters are data file pages. These counters do not report data for pages in files used for archival logging or for transaction logging.

See also Pages in Zen Programmer’s Guide.

Client requests may be delayed by waiting for a resource to become available. These counters give insight into the types of database resources on which a client request may have to wait until the resource is available. As such, these counters may provide insight into the behavior of the database engine when multiple clients access it. A value close to or equal to the number of clients may indicate collisions for the same resources. Any corrective actions that can be done to alleviate these collisions may improve responsiveness.

The counters Waits on Page Buffers and Waits on Page Reads are waits on a global resource. All of the other counters in this grouping apply to multiple clients, but each client may be waiting on resources that differ from client to client.

See also Data Integrity and Supporting Multiple Clients, both in Zen Programmer’s Guide.

These counters are useful for understanding the behavior of client applications in terms of transactions. For example, a few long-lasting transactions that involve many changes cause a different behavior than many short-lived transactions.

See also Begin Transaction (19 or 1019), End Transaction (20), and Abort Transaction (21) in Btrieve API Guide, and MicroKernel Engine Fundamentals in Zen Programmer’s Guide.

The counters in this set provide statistics on the page server.

The counters in this set provide statistics on Zen cache engines.

This topic provides some rudimentary instructions on using Windows Performance Monitor to get started with the Zen performance counters. See the Microsoft document for complete details on using Windows Performance Monitor.

The following steps assume that the Zen performance counters have been registered with Windows Performance Monitor by the Zen installation.

The Zen products use different license models depending on the product. Zen Enterprise Server and Workgroup are licensed under a concurrent user count license. Cloud Server is licensed under a capacity-based license.

Much of the monitoring pertaining to license usage involves user count, number of sessions, or data in use. For example, you may want to determine the current value, increase the current value, or better determine your capacity needs.

The four primary utilities used to monitor license usage are Monitor (see Monitoring Resource Usage), Capacity Usage Viewer, License Administrator, and Notification Viewer.

ZenCC provides Capacity Usage Viewer to monitor concurrent sessions and data usage for all database engines. This is especially useful when you are considering migrating from Zen Enterprise Server to Zen Cloud Server, because of the difference in licensing.

Capacity Usage Viewer includes two graphs, one for the number of concurrent sessions and one for the amount of data. Each graph includes a usage level bar, a heavy horizontal line across the graph, to help you determine what volume of usage is normal and what volume is uncommon for your business. The Capacity Usage Viewer also displays peak usage statistics.

The graphs use the peak values that are recorded each day. For any day on which the engine is not used, they use a value of zero. They require a minimum of two days' data to be generated. Otherwise, Capacity Usage Viewer displays an error message.

This section contains the following topics:

In ZenCC, right-click the engine you want to examine and select Capacity Usage Viewer.

The following image shows the Capacity Usage Viewer. The table below the image describes its features. Click an area of the image for which you want more information.

If you need to view a particular time period besides the selections provided in the Period pull-down menu, you can select and zoom a segment of a graph. When you zoom one graph, the other zooms simultaneously. The two graphs are always set to the same period.

License Administrator is the tool used to manage keys for licensing. It is fully documented in License Administration in Zen User’s Guide. The following is a summary of common monitoring tasks that you can conduct with the tool, with links to Zen User’s Guide.

Actian Corporation provides a companion product for Zen called AuditMaster that is used to monitor access at the database level. AuditMaster allows you to monitor changes data for auditing purposes, such as the following:

AuditMaster provides a detailed audit trail and offers query and alert capabilities.

For product details, see the AuditMaster documentation.

Zen provides various logging repositories for messages to assist you with troubleshooting. The logging falls into two broad categories:

The following table summarizes the repositories.

Several of the logging repositories emphasize licensing messages. If a key is determined to be invalid, the key changes state from active to failed validation. The database engine functions normally for a certain number of days so that you have ample time to correct the validation failures.

If you do not correct the failures before the number of days ends, the key changes state again to disabled. The key is no longer valid and the database engine cannot access data files.

Because you need to attend to a failed validation in a timely manner, the state change of the key is brought to your attention as soon as possible. For example, a message is logged to all of the message repositories. The most evident of these is Zen Notification Viewer. License Administrator also displays the state of keys, which you can check at any time by initiating a validation action. See License Administration in Zen User’s Guide.

The following table explains the type of message returned based on the change in state of the key.

Note that no messages are logged for keys in the expired state (which applies only to temporary keys) or the inactive state (which applies to keys still registered on the machine from previous versions of Zen).

The following table lists the frequency with which licensing messages are logged for particular actions.

Notification Viewer is tool for displaying messages logged by the licensing components. Its purpose is to inform you of noteworthy licensing messages (see Logging Frequency) in a noticeable but unobtrusive manner.

By default, Notification Viewer is installed with Zen Enterprise Server and Cloud Server, 32- and 64-bit, on Windows and Linux and with Zen Workgroup on Windows. Also by default on Windows platforms, Notification Viewer restarts when you restart Windows.

On Windows platforms, the executable is named notifyviewer.exe. It provides a single running instance for a user. An attempt to start Notification Viewer when it is already running brings the GUI to the front of the application displays.

On Linux and Raspbian, the tool is a shell script named notifyviewer. Each time the shell script executes it starts another instance of Notification Viewer. If you restart the operating system, you must restart Notification Viewer. The shell script is not automatically executed upon restart.

You can specify how you want the tool to start with the following command line options.

Notification Viewer provides two interfaces: system tray icons and a graphical user interface.

By default on Windows, Notification Viewer starts with the GUI hidden and displays its system tray icon. On Linux, Notification Viewer starts as a GUI and displays its system tray icon if the distribution supports a system tray. After starting, the tool begins monitoring licensing messages.

If Notification Viewer detects unread messages, the tray icon visibly changes to indicate unread messages. See Tray Icons.

Notification Viewer also displays two types of tooltips. The mouse-over tooltip displays the number of important unread messages (if any), the total number of unread messages, or the name of the tool if all messages have been read. A balloon tooltip displays when Notification Viewer detects messages that need to be brought to your attention. On Windows, the balloon tooltip remains visible until you dismiss it directly or perform a keyboard or mouse operation. On Linux, you must click the balloon tool tip to dismiss it.

The popup menu for the tray icon contains two menu items: Open which opens the GUI, and Exit which closes the tool. Right-click the tray icon to display the menu.

The following table explains the meaning of the tray icons.

You can open Notification Viewer GUI by double-clicking the tray icon or by right-clicking the tray icon and clicking Open. By default on Linux, Notification Viewer starts as a GUI and displays its system tray icon. If you want to change the startup behavior, pass the -tray option to the notifyviewer shell script. If the Linux distribution does not support a system tray, Notification Viewer displays the GUI but no system tray icon. In that case, start Notification Viewer by running the shell script.

When the GUI is visible, unread messages are immediately added to the GUI. In addition, the tray icon tooltip is shown and the icon changes to indicate unread messages.

Zen tracks which records in the notification file are read or unread for each user. That is, each user displaying the GUI sees all of the messages, but whether a particular message is read or unread varies by user.

If a system tray is not supported by an operating system, the Close command for Notification Viewer terminates the tool. If a system tray is supported, then closing hides the GUI and the tray icon becomes the only visual indication that the tool is still running.

Zen writes the following entries to operating system event logs:

For more information, see the following topics:

Windows operating systems provide a method to log events categorized as Application, Security, or System. Zen logs general error messages and selected licensing messages to the Windows Application Event Log when they are written to zen.log.

For licensing messages, any event categorized as an error or warning is logged. This includes messages that result from a change in the state of a key as well as other warning and error messages (see Logging Frequency). In addition, certain information messages are logged, such as those listed under Change in State of Key.

Windows operating systems provide a graphical user interface tool called Event Viewer to view and manipulate event logs. It can be accessed through the Windows PC Settings or Control Panel or by executing the command eventvwr.msc from a command interface.

Zen displays the following for an event:

In addition, the Keyword column displays "Classic" and the Log column displays "Application." Event Viewer allows you to display additional columns, but Zen provides no data for them.

On Linux and Raspbian distributions, all Zen components write messages to the standard logging system, syslog. By default on Linux and Raspbian, syslog writes to the file /var/log/messages. Optionally, for SQL Connection Manager only, you can also log messages to the event.log file.

Bti.ini is a Zen configuration file used on Linux and Raspbian distributions. By default, the file is located in /usr/local/actianzen/etc.

The file lets you configure settings for the SQL Connection Manager (the SQLManager section in the .ini file). One of the settings, LogEvent, determines the type of event messages logged to the event.log file. By default, event.log is located in /usr/local/actianzen/bin.

On Windows platforms, all Zen components write status, error, warning, and information messages to the Zen event log. On Linux and Raspbian distributions, Zen does not use an exclusive event log. Instead, all Zen components write messages to the standard logging system, syslog. See Linux and Raspbian Distribution Event Logs.

The Zen event log is zen.log, located by default in application_data_directory\actianzen\logs. All Zen components on Windows platforms write to this log file. If two or more applications using the Zen database engine are running on the same machine, they share zen.log.

The contents of zen.log consists of text messages in the format described in the following table.

An entry may be followed by binary data in standard hexadecimal format. The binary data has no length limit.

The following shows an example of the type of data contained in zen.log.

Zen does not include email notification of event messages because products from other vendors that provide such functionality are readily available. This topic lists some of those products and also discusses use of the event log to monitor actions around Zen licensing and product keys.

The following table is a partial list of products that can provide email notification of events in the operating system event log. The products are listed alphabetically. Actian Corporation does not endorse one product over another. Since the products listed are from other vendors, the products and the discussion about them may vary from what is presented here.

Note that such products typically require either an agent to be installed or a remote access mechanism like Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) or secure shell (SSH) to be enabled.

All of the items listed under Products That Provide Email Notification of Monitored Events have the ability to identify content in the operating system event log. The identification methods differ between Windows platforms and Linux and Raspbian distributions. The intent of this information is not to discuss the specific monitoring methods of each product. Refer to the vendor documentation for product details.

The following table identifies the properties in the operating system event log specific to Zen licensing. Configure your monitoring product to send email notifications based on the values of those properties.

Suppose that you want to receive email notifications for all Zen licensing event messages that are warnings or errors. Configure your product to monitor the following conditions.

The Linux and Raspbian syslog does not contain the same properties as the Windows operating system event log. You must configure the notification product to identify events and strings in the syslog. Based on events and string comparisons, the product can then initiate the desired action, such as send an email notification.

Note that all messages – whether licensing related or not – written to the syslog by the Zen database engine contain the string mkded. The following list identifies some of the strings in the syslog specific to Zen licensing. One way to monitor the syslog is to configure a string comparison based on content that contains mkded and one of the following strings: