Skip to content

Dashboard

The AdminTool's Dashboard module shows the fundamental status indicators that administrators should keep under control when monitoring the SmartFoxServer behavior at runtime. It also gives access to some historical data, in case you need to investigate the behavior during a given period of time.

Dashboard screenshot

Other than the current number of users connected to SmartFoxServer and the time passed since it was started, the following status indicators are available.

Realtime data charts

By default, the Dashboard shows a number of realtime charts updated every 5 seconds. You can change the refresh interval using the available dropdown control. Charts drawing can also be paused with the Pause () button: this can be useful to inspect the data points (hovering them with the mouse pointer). Click on the Reset () button instead to clear the realtime charts; for example this can be useful in load testing sessions, to removing all previous data.

When the module is loaded (and realtime data is not yet available), the charts show approximately 1 hour of historical data, with a resolution of 5 minutes (1 data point every 5 minutes).

You can choose which charts to show or hide by means of the Settings () button. The selection is saved locally, together with the selected refresh interval.

The available charts are:

  • Concurrent Users — The number of users connected to SmartFoxServer.
  • CPU Usage — Usage, in percentage, of the available CPU cores. The diagram tells you how much busy is the server at each given timestamp: the server starts to get very busy when many concurrent requests are sent and it has to quickly respond to all of them.
  • Memory — Memory allocation and usage in the Java Virtual Machine.
  • Network Traffic — Data transfer rates (both incoming and outgoing) of the SmartFoxServer. Use the buttons below the chart to view the transfer rate specific to one of the possible protocols (TCP, UDP, WebSocket, HTTP or overall).
  • Outgoing Queue — Usage, in percentage, of the server's outgoing stage and its subqueues (one per session). The higher the value, the higher the likelihood of extra latency for outgoing packets. Use the buttons below the chart to switch between TCP and UDP protocols. Please note that the diagram doesn't show the outgoing queue for WebSocket or HTTP connections, as they are managed internally by the third-party web server integrated in SmartFoxServer.

A vertical dashed line on the charts indicates the last server boot time.

Historical data charts

Using the switch at the top of charts area, you can display the historical data for the indicators described above. Historical data period selector Use the range selector to choose the time period to display, and click the Set range () button to apply. The minimum data resolution is 5 minutes. For time spans returning more than 300 data points, data is downsampled using the Largest-Triangle downsampling algorithm (more information here).

Again, a vertical dashed line on the charts indicates the last server boot time.

Traffic details

The traffic details displayed on the right side of the module include:

  • Sessions — The current number of sessions established by clients, and the maximum number of sessions reached since SmartFoxServer was started. Click on the button to show values split by connection mode (TCP, WebSocket, HTTP).
  • Users — The current number of clients connected to the server which completed a successful login, and the maximum number of logged users reached since SmartFoxServer was started. If generated by your application, these numbers also include Non-Player Characters. Click on the button to show values split by connection mode (TCP, WebSocket, HTTP) plus the number of Non-Player Characters.
  • Rooms — The total number of Rooms currently existing in the system. Click on the button to show values split by Room type (regular or game Rooms).
  • Data Transfer — The total amount of incoming and outgoing data transferred between the server and the clients since the server was started. Click on the button to show values split by protocol (TCP, UDP, WebSocket, HTTP).
  • Transfer Rate — The current per-second data transfer rate, both incoming and outgoing. Click on the button to show values split by protocol (TCP, UDP, WebSocket, HTTP).
  • Packet Rate — The current per-second packet rate, both incoming and outgoing. Click on the button to show values split by protocol (TCP, UDP, WebSocket, HTTP).
  • Dropped Packets — The total number of dropped packets since the server was started, both incoming and outgoing. Click on the button to show values split by protocol (TCP, UDP).
    Read this troubleshooting document for more information on dropped packets.

Active threads

This table shows the number of threads currently active in SmartFoxServer and the CPU time occupied by each of them. This panel can be useful to check if your custom Extension is generating an uncontrolled number of threads which may cause a degradation in the server performance.

The Dump button generates a thread dump you can easily inspect in any text editor.

Web server console

SmartFoxServer's internal web server is Apache Tomcat. The link in this box gives access to Tomcat's native status console and application manager.

Tomcat credentials

In order to access the Tomcat Manager, dedicated credentials must be set in the Web Server tab of the Server Configurator module. If no Tomcat user is defined, this section of the Dashboard module is hidden from view.

Please check Tomcat's documentation for more information.