The "service_metrics" table in the "ssg" MySQL database grows faster than expected when integrated with CA API Developer Portal, causing various problems.

Products

• CA API Developer Portal
• CA API Gateway

Issue/Introduction

If there is a value set in the API_METHOD parameter of the "Capture Identity of Requestor" assertion in any policies used by API Developer Portal, it can cause some of the following symptoms:

• high disk I/O
• MySQL server may stop writing to the database if the disk is full
• the "service_metrics" table may grow much more frequently than expected
• replication may break between MySQL servers (if replicated)

Note: The symptoms will specifically occur on the CA API Gateway, not the CA Developer Portal. However, this issue has (so far) only been seen when both the CA API Gateway and CA Developer Portal are integrated together, along with a value set for API_METHOD instead of kept at the default value of empty.

Environment

This is relevant all versions of the CA API Gateway - API Developer Portal integration environments (Portal version 3.5 and lower) when there is a value set (rather than "null") for API_METHOD in the "Capture Identity of Requestor" assertion.

Cause

This behaviour is caused by any value set in the API_METHOD parameter of the "Capture Identity of Requestor" assertion in policies which are read by the CA API Developer Portal. By default, there is no value set for the API_METHOD parameter in the "Capture Identity of Requestor" assertion in policies read by the API Developer Portal, and the value should remain null.

Resolution

If the API_METHOD has a value set rather than being left empty, the following steps should be performed to resolve the issue:

1. Clear the value for the API_METHOD parameter so that it is null/empty
2. Save & Activate the policy changes
3. Run through the above steps on all policies affected
   • Contact CA Support - providing a MySQL dump of the policies - if it is unsure what policies are impacted
4. Restart the ssg service: service ssg restart

Prevention: Ensure that all values for any API_METHOD parameter in the "Capture Identity of Requestor" is left empty. Refrain from changing that parameter from the default empty value.

Additional Information

• If opening up a support case with CA Support for this issue, be sure to note DE294350 as a related development incident number to speed up the troubleshooting process