Design considerations in instrumenting and monitoring web‐based information retrieval systems

The Internet Web environment opens up extraordinary opportunities for user access to information. Techniques for monitoring users and systems and for evaluating system design and performance have not kept pace with Web development. This article reviews concepts of Web operations (including browsers, clients, information retrieval applications, servers, and data communications systems) with specific attention given to how monitoring should take place and how privacy can be protected. It examines monitoring needs of users, systems designers, managers, and customer support staff and outlines measures of workload, capacity, and performance for hardware, software, and data communications systems. Finally, the article proposes a client‐server design for monitoring, which involves creation of a series of server and client systems to obtain and process transaction and computer performance information. These systems include: A Log Server, which captures all levels of transactions and packets on the network; a Monitor Server, which synthesizes the log and packet data; an Assistance Server, which processes requests for information and help from the Web Server in real time; and an Accounting Server, which authenticates user access to the system. A special System Administrator Client is proposed to control the monitoring system, as is a System Information Client to receive real‐time and on‐demand reports of system activity. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.