Monitoring IBM API Connect

IBM API Connect is an integrated API Management offering with capabilities and tools for all phases of the API lifecycle. It comprises two different aspects. One is the production runtime APIs and applications that are running with API Connect, and the other is the development tools that are employed to publish those APIs. Key steps of the API lifecycle include create, secure, manage, socialize, monetize, and analyze.

API Connect consists of many components with microservices, which are implemented in various languages and technologies, for example, API Management server, Analytics server, Gateway server, and Developer Portal server.

Supported versions

  • The Instana IBM API Connect sensor supports metrics monitoring and data configuration for IBM API Connect 10 or later.

  • IBM API Connect 10.0.5.5 or later supports the Instana DataPower Tracing feature.

Monitoring scenarios

Instana can support two monitoring scenarios for API Connect: application runtime monitoring and development platform monitoring.

The application runtime monitoring focuses on monitoring key application performance metrics in production, especially the transactions through the API Gateway. If the Gateway is part of a broader application, Instana can monitor and instrument the web pages through JavaScript injection to gather end-user monitoring (EUM) data.

The development platform monitoring focuses on monitoring other APIC components, such as Management server, Analytics server, and Developer Portal server. APIC uses various languages and technologies to build each key component. These languages and technologies include Node.js, PostgreSQL, Redis, and other technologies. Instana monitor only the health of the development platform and does not support tracing for the development platform. It can collect metrics and tracing data from only the languages and technologies that are used by these components, for example, Node.js runtime monitoring, PostgreSQL monitoring, and Redis monitoring.

For more information about each monitoring, see:

Viewing API Connect metrics and trace information

You can view trace information that is gathered from IBM API Connect application runtime in the Instana UI by using application perspectives. An application perspective provides a way to view metrics, trace information, and other data of IBM API Connect in a single unified dashboard. When you create an application perspective, you can group the APIs that are related to a particular service under one application. For example, you can group 3 or 4 APIs related to a particular service to one application and another set of APIs to a different application.

Depending on your needs, you can create an application perspective in different ways. To create an application perspective for the following IBM API Connect monitoring scenarios:

Troubleshooting

If the AutoTrace webhook is installed, and you reinstall or upgrade IBM API Connect, then Postgres pods might not start. To avoid this issue, uninstall the AutoTrace webhook before the reinstall or upgrade process. After you reinstall or upgrade IBM API Connect, follow the IBM API Connect application monitoring steps to reinstall AutoTrace webhook to re-enable automatic tracing.

Additional information

For more information, see Monitor your API Connect Developer Portal with Instana on IBM API Connect Community Blog.