Michal’s PI tips: XPI inspector – help OSS and yourself

Two months ago SAP released a new tool for gathering logs and traces of different PI components called XPI inspector. It can be used by SAP OSS message processing as it allows you to gather all important logs into one zip file which can be attached to an OSS note but does it mean that only OSS can use it ? I’ll show you why it’s a nice tool for everyday use of issue tracking for any SAP XI/PI admin/developer.

*Who can install XPI inspector ?

It seems that the tool should work as of WAS 6.40 (so even with XI 3.0) up to the latest available version PI 7.3 (on which I’ve tested the tool).

How to install XPI inspector ?

Installation is very simple and requires deploying only one ear file. You can either use NWDS (from where you can deploy ear directly) or you can create and SDA file and deploy it using JSPM (if your system has JSPM). You can get the ear file from OSS note – 1514898  (https://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/1514898). Once you deploy the ear file you can open the application using this link: http://<pi_server_host>:<J2EE_port>/xpi_inspector

How to use XPI inspector ?

Note – 1

In order to run XPI inspector you need to have administrator’s credentials for PI.

Note – 2

This tool does not do any configuration changes it only collects information. So might be safer to use then setting up all logs to Debug level and then forgetting to tutrn it back again.

Using the inspector is as simple as it gets:

1. Select an example to use (all of them are mentioned in the OSS note)

2. Select additional debug traces:

a) Messaging System

b) XI Module Processor – flow between messaging service and adapters

c) HTTP provider – (http-get and http-post communication)

d) Open SQL – DB access on Java stack

e) JCo logs – per trace level

Additional checks include:

a) SAP system state – locks, java threads, java GC info

b) Configuration <br /><br />!https://weblogs.sdn.sap.com/weblogs/images/252065314/inspector_6.jpg|height=423|alt=|width=560|src=https://weblogs.sdn.sap.com/weblogs/images/252065314/inspector_6.jpg

Depending on the use you can either select additional parameters like channel names, etc. or you can just start the XPI inspector directly.

What do we get as a result ?

We get a zipped file with all information and below you can find some examples:

a) AS Java System Properties and XI Components – as the name suggests we get all PI related properties in one place – so we can quickly compare with other systems too (like test, prd).

b) AS Java Heap Memory

c) AS Java Threads

d) you get all of the debug traces which you’ve selected on the previous screen

There is also one use case called – 100 Custom  and it allows you to select the log locations and categories which you want to log.

*Using XPI inspector for Communication channel documentation purposes *

Once you select the “by channel” use case you select all channels which need to be logged and one additional thing which will be done for you is a complete dump of the channel’s configuration.

From there you can get an HTML page with all parameters for your communication channel.

!https://weblogs.sdn.sap.com/weblogs/images/252065314/inspector_8.jpg|height=442|alt=|width=534|src=https://weblogs.sdn.sap.com/weblogs/images/252065314/inspector_8.jpg!</body>