What is BAM?

Business Activity Monitoring is a tool that is useful in monitoring business services and processes. It actively collects data, applies rules and reports information to users. When something goes wrong in business processes, BAM can be configured to take corrective measures such as emailing administrators/support team.

How does Oracle BAM interface with other SOA applications?

BAM uses Data Objects to capture and store information from other sources. It uses Real Time Data Streaming to stream data through Oracle BAM Adapter, JMS connector, ODI or web service API. We are going to explore the features of BAM through a simple use-case as shown below: Description: Employee information is sent to BAM Example Process (BPEL). BPEL sensors send this information through BAM Adapter to populate Employee Data Object in BAM. Employee Dashboard report will capture this information and show in the form of a 3D Bar chart. Steps to implement use-case:

1. Create Employee Data Object
2. Create BAM Report
3. Configure BAM Adapter
4. Deploy the BAM Application

1.    Create EmployeeData Object

• Open BAM console using http://<yourhost>:9001/OracleBAM
• Open BAM Architect

• Click on "Create Data Object" and enter "Employee" in the name field.
• Click on "Add Field" and add following fields: id (Auto-incrementing Integer), name (String), department (String).

• Click on "Create Data Object" to finish creation. You can optionally create a sub-folder to hold Employee object.
• Make sure Employee object is visible under Data Objects section.

2. Create BAM Report

• Open Active Studio

• Click on "Create a New Report".

• Click on first option: Single tiled Report.

• Enter "Employee Dashboard" for Report title and select "3D Bar Chart" as report type.

• Select "Employee" object from Data Objects section at the bottom and click on Next button.
• Select “Department” in Group By section, “id” in Chart Values and “Count” in Summary Function(s). Click on Next and then Finish button.

• Save this report and it will be visible through "Recent Reports" in Home tab. This report now shows Employee count grouped by Department.

3. Configure BAM Adapter

• Open Weblogic Server Administration Console.
• From left side Domain Structure section, select Deployments.

• Search and select "OracleBamAdapter".
• Click on "Configuration" and "Outbound Connection Pools" from OracleBamAdapter settings page.

• We can see predefined connection pools for RMI and SOAP connections. Expand both connection factory links. We need to configure these connection pools to use BAM server.

Important: Repeat following steps for both "eis/bam/rmi" and "eis/bam/soap".

• Open “eis/bam/rmi” link and enter outbound connection properties as follows. Replace connection parameters as per your installation. Hit “Enter” key after entering each property value. Click on Save once you’ve finished.

• Open “eis/bam/soap” and enter connection parameters as follows. Hit “Enter” key after entering each property value. Click on Save once you’ve finished.

Note: The Username field should contain an Oracle BAM user who is a member of application-level role Administrator or Report Architect. “Weblogic” user by default is an Administrator.

• Click on OracleBamAdapter from Deployments page. Go to Control tab. Select OracleBamAdapter, click on Stop and then start buttons. Now, Oracle BAM Adapter is ready for use.

4) Deploy the BAM Application as described in the deployment section. Test BAMExample process

• Go to BAMExample in Enterprise Manager and Test the process.

• Enter Oracle1 and ORACLE for name and department respectively. Click on Test Web Service.

• Open BAM Active Viewer. Click on “Select Report” and choose “Employee Dashboard” report we saved earlier. We can see the updated graph. Experiment with different values.