Frequently Asked Questions

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General Information


What's the difference between FusionReactor and FusionAnalytics?

FusionReactor is a professional server monitor, it captures metrics (instrumentation) as the server is running and it is able to store many requests online for an immediate diagnostic view about the health of your server, but it is not able to provide information about long-term data – this keeps FusionReactor compact and ensures that overhead is kept to an absolute minimum. FusionAnalytics is a visual tool for analyzing the data which has been provided by FusionReactor. FusionAnalytics loads the extensive log file data captured by FusionReactor into the FusionAnalytics DB. It then provides numerous graphs, charts, tables and reports, to visualize the data. FusionAnalytics is all about “Making IT Better” and giving you the information and data to help you make better business decisions, improve application performance and quality of your applications as well as measure exactly how your applications are performing on a continuous day to day basis.

Do I need FusionReactor to be able to use FusionAnalytics?

Yes — FusionAnalytics relies on the metric (log) files which have been generated from FusionReactor.

Which Version and Edition of FusionReactor does FusionAnalytics require?

FusionAnalytics works with both the Standard and Enterprise versions of FusionReactor 4 and above.

Should I have a separate server for FusionAnalytics?

Yes — FusionAnalytics analyzes your historical monitoring data. The amount of data you collect and the processing required to ‘crunch’ this information can be high (depending on how busy your target platform is). For this reason, we recommend installing FusionAnalytics on a separate machine. View more information about hardware requirements on our system requirements page.

How can I evaluate FusionAnalytics?

We offer a 30-day free trial of FusionAnalytics. After 30 days, the Trial simply disables itself, without the need to uninstall it. Evaluators can turn the Trial into any full version by entering a valid license key without reinstalling the software.

Does the edition of Adobe ColdFusion I have effect whether or not I can use FusionAnalytics?

Indirectly. FusionAnalytics relies on FusionReactor 4 or above — FusionReactor works with ColdFusion 6-11. You can purchase either the FusionReactor Enterprise or Standard Edition, regardless of which version of ColdFusion you currently wish to monitor.

How can I find more help on FusionAnalytics?

We offer a wide range of resources and documentation on the FusionAnalytics product. Please refer to our support area which contains our Knowledge Base, links to Google groups as well as our online documentation.

Which levels of support services do you offer for FusionAnalytics?

Documentation, tutorials, knowledge base and our google groups are available for free to help you get up and running. Additionally, we offer a Quick Start Installation package – in this case one of our trained engineers will install & configure FusionAnalytics for you. This is the fastest, hassle-free way to get FusionAnalytics installed. We also offer Fusion Premium Support which is a paid support option and can be purchased on an incident by incident basis. We also provide professional onsite and remote Java App & ColdFusion Consulting Services if you have serious CF problems which you need detail assistance with. Take a look at our Support Area for a complete overview.

Which operating systems are supported?

FusionAnalytics supports the following operating systems : Microsoft Windows (other operating systems will be available shortly). View a complete list of supported operating systems on our system requirements page.

Which databases does FusionAnalytics support?

FusionAnalytics currently supports Microsoft SQL Server. FusionAnalytics works with the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express Edition, which is a FREE version of Microsoft’s SQL Server. Read about database configuration on our online documentation. View a complete list of supported databases on our system requirements page.

Licensing


How is FusionAnalytics licensed?

FusionAnalytics licenses come in individual packs (S,M,L,XL and XXL). The size of the pack determines how many users you can setup and how many JVM or CF instances you can analyze with FusionAnalytics.

What is an instance with relation to licensing?

License packs are measured in the number of instances which you would like to analyze using FusionAnalytics.

Take this example — here we have 3 instances of either Tomcat or ColdFusion installed on one single server. If you wished to analyze the metric information from all three instances, then you would require:

1 x FusionReactor license (either FusionReactor Standard or Enterprise) — 1 license covers 1 physical server, no matter how many instances you have configured

1 x FusionAnalytics M Pack (containing 3 Data Collectors) — 1 Data Collector for each instance being analyzed


What are Users?

You can setup individual users within FusionAnalytics — these may be system administrators, or regular users. Individual users receive their own login to FusionAnalytics and you can select specific users to receive any of the reports available, such as the TAP or Daily Status Report. Users are associated with applications and users can be given specific roles within FusionAnalytics e.g. System Admin.

What is a data collector with relation to licensing?

FusionAnalytics Data Collector’s (FADC) are used to collect data from a specific ‘instance’ which you would like to analyze with FusionAnalytics. Each instance is unique and you require 1 data collector for each instance you would like to analyze. So, if you have 3 instances to analyze, you need 3 data collectors etc.

I have more than 20 instances to analyze — what can I do?

If you have more than 20 instances, we can create you a custom license which perfectly matches your needs — please contact sales and let us know how many instances you have and we would be happy to send you a quote.

Do you sell FusionAnalytics as a perpetual license?

No — FusionAnalytics is currently only sold under the annual subscription license model.

Purchasing


I require an official quote, so that I can purchase via a Purchase Order, what should I do?

If you would like us to make you a quote, then please decide which FusionAnalytics pack size you require, then contact sales with the details.

What is the End User License Agreement (EULA)?

The End User License Agreement (“EULA”) is a contract between the “licensor” and purchaser of the right to use software. In order to use FusionAnalytics, you need to click the button labeled “accept” on the EULA screen when installing FusionAnalytics.

Do I get a discount if I buy a larger FusionAnalytics license?

FusionAnalytics packs are designed for simplicity when managing licenses. The license packs have been discounted so that you automatically pay less per instance when you take a larger license pack.

Maintenance


How do I receive notification of updates and upgrades?

FusionAnalytics annual subscription licenses include maintenance i.e. you will receive all updates and upgrades which are relevant to FusionAnalytics during the period in which your license covers. Providing you have given us the correct contact details (email) when you purchased the software, you will automatically receive an e-mail with appropriate instructions. If you did not receive an e-mail then it is likely we do not have your contact details. If you are in any doubt, please contact sales and include your FusionAnalytics serial number in your request.

Installation


How much disk space does FusionAnalytics use to store the data being analyzed?

FusionAnalytics can store data in HIGH and LOW resolution. When storing data in HIGH resolution, it retains all the detail transactions which have been captured by FusionReactor. Having the HIGH resolution data is critical to supporting deep dive analysis actions. However, this data can grow enormously in a short period of time on a busy server. For this reason, FusionAnalytics quantizes the HIGH resolution data into LOW resolution. The LOW resolution data still allows you to analyze trends and get the ‘big picture’ of what’s happened on your servers and applications. To see some estimates of how much disk space you will require, based on your configuration of maintaining HIGH and LOW resolution data refer to our Data Requirements page.

Do I have to install the FusionAnalytics AIR Client?

No — the AIR Client is not a mandatory install component. You can always access FusionAnalytics from the browser interface, irrespective of whether you have the AIR client installed or not. All the same, we do recommend that you download and install the FusionAnalytics AIR Client. Note — that in this case, you will also need to download the Adobe AIR Runtime if you’ve not already got it installed.