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Monitoring ACK/NAK Non-Events

Proactively monitor and manage ACK/NAK Non-Events with Nodinite to ensure your business never misses a critical response. This guide shows you how to configure, monitor, and act on ACK/NAK Non-Events, so you resolve issues before they impact your operations.

✅ Instantly receive alerts for delayed or missing ACK/NAK responses
✅ Monitor every ACK/NAK configuration as a unique resource
✅ Detect duplicate responses and correlation issues automatically
✅ Take immediate action with remote actions and clear state evaluation
✅ Analyze alert history for rapid troubleshooting and continuous improvement

Nodinite gives you the power to monitor, alert, and act on ACK/NAK Non-Events with unmatched precision. This guide explains what you monitor, how Nodinite translates technical events into actionable monitoring states, and how you use remote actions to resolve issues instantly. For a deeper dive into available Remote Actions, see the Managing ACK/NAK Non-Events user guide.

You can easily view and manage all monitored ACK/NAK Non-Event configurations in a Nodinite Monitor View.

Monitoring Features

State Evaluation – Instantly receive alerts when thresholds are breached, so you never miss a critical event!
- Duration Check – Get alerts when responses are late or missing, so you stay ahead of potential issues.
- Correlation Count – Receive notifications if you detect too many responses, helping you quickly spot duplicates or anomalies.

Understanding ACK/NAK Monitoring

ACK/NAK (Acknowledgment/Negative Acknowledgment) monitoring tracks request-response patterns in your integration flows. This powerful feature ensures that every request receives the expected response within the defined time window.

What is ACK/NAK monitoring?

ACK/NAK monitoring correlates outgoing requests with incoming responses. You configure Nodinite to expect a specific number of responses (typically 1) for each request within a maximum duration. The system alerts you when:

Missing responses – A request has no corresponding ACK/NAK within the timeout period
Delayed responses – A response arrives after the warning threshold but before the error threshold
Duplicate responses – More responses than expected arrive for a single request

Real-world example:

sequenceDiagram participant S as System A (Sender) participant I as Integration Platform participant R as System B (Receiver) participant N as Nodinite S->>I: 1. Send Order Request Note over S,I: LogEvent: Request sent CorrelationId: ABC123 I->>R: 2. Forward to System B R->>I: 3. Send ACK Response Note over R,I: LogEvent: ACK received CorrelationId: ABC123 I->>S: 4. Return ACK rect rgb(200, 220, 255) Note over N: Nodinite correlates by CorrelationId Request (10:00:00) + ACK (10:00:05) Duration: 5 seconds ✓ OK end

Diagram: Successful ACK/NAK correlation with response within acceptable timeframe.

How correlation works:

Nodinite uses the Application Interchange Id (correlation ID) from your Log Events to group related messages. You configure two Log Views:

Request Log View – Contains outgoing requests
Response Log View – Contains incoming ACK/NAK responses

The system matches events with the same correlation ID and measures the time between request and response.

Example scenario:

Your e-commerce platform sends order confirmations to a fulfillment system. Each order must receive an acknowledgment within 30 seconds:

Warning threshold: 20 seconds – Response is slower than expected but acceptable
Error threshold: 30 seconds – Response is missing or critically delayed
Max responses: 1 – Only one acknowledgment expected per order
Max duplicates: 2 – Allow up to 2 duplicates before alerting (handles retries)

Monitoring outcomes:

gantt title ACK/NAK Response Scenarios dateFormat HH:mm:ss axisFormat %H:%M:%S section Successful Flow Request sent (10:00:00) :milestone, 10:00:00, 0s ACK received (10:00:15) :done, 10:00:15, 0s Status: OK :active, 10:00:15, 1s section Warning Flow Request sent (10:05:00) :milestone, 10:05:00, 0s Warning threshold (10:05:20) :crit, 10:05:20, 0s ACK received (10:05:25) :done, 10:05:25, 0s Status: Warning (Delayed) :active, 10:05:25, 1s section Error Flow Request sent (10:10:00) :milestone, 10:10:00, 0s Warning threshold (10:10:20) :crit, 10:10:20, 0s Error threshold (10:10:30) :crit, 10:10:30, 0s No ACK received :active, 10:10:31, 1s Status: Error (Missing) :crit, 10:10:31, 1s

Diagram: Three ACK/NAK monitoring scenarios showing OK (green), Warning (yellow), and Error (red) states based on response timing.

State Evaluation for ACK/NAK Non-Events

Nodinite displays each ACK/NAK configuration as a unique Resource. For example, if you create 42 configurations, you monitor 42 distinct resources, each independently.

The Resource name matches the ACK/NAK configuration name.
All configurations appear under the 'ACK/NAK' Category.
The Application name mirrors the Resource name.

Nodinite continuously evaluates every ACK/NAK configuration (as a Resource) and assigns one of the following states:

State	Status	Description	Actions
Unavailable	Resource not available	You cannot evaluate 'Non-Events ACK/NAK' due to network or security issues	Review prerequisites
Error	Error threshold breached	You have one or more consecutive responses (ACK/NAK) that have not arrived You detect too many events in group (duplicates detected)	Show missing events Clear previous errors
Warning	Warning threshold breached	You have one or more responses (ACK/NAK) that arrived late You detect too many events in group (duplicates detected)	Show delayed events Clear previous errors
OK	Within user-defined thresholds	You detect no late or missing responses	Not applicable

With Nodinite, you can easily reconfigure state evaluation at the Resource level using the Expected State feature, so you tailor monitoring to your business needs.

How ACK/NAK Duration Monitoring Works

Understanding how Nodinite evaluates ACK/NAK timing is essential for configuring accurate alerts.

Duration Calculation

Nodinite measures the duration between the Request LogDateTime and the Response LogDateTime. Both timestamps come from the Log Events in their respective Log Views.

Formula:

Duration = Response LogDateTime - Request LogDateTime

Threshold Evaluation

You configure two duration thresholds:

Threshold	Purpose	Alert Level
Warning Duration	Acceptable but slower than optimal	Warning
Error Duration	Unacceptable delay or timeout	Error

Evaluation logic:

graph TD A[Request Log Event Created] --> B{Response Received?} B -->|Yes| C{Calculate Duration} B -->|No, within Error Duration| D[Keep Monitoring] B -->|No, exceeded Error Duration| E[Error: Missing Response] C --> F{Duration <= Warning?} F -->|Yes| G[OK: Response on Time] F -->|No| H{Duration <= Error?} H -->|Yes| I[Warning: Delayed Response] H -->|No| E D --> B style G fill:#90EE90 style I fill:#FFD700 style E fill:#FF6B6B

Diagram: ACK/NAK duration evaluation flow showing how Nodinite determines resource state based on response timing.

Example Timeline

Configuration:

Warning Duration: 00:00:20 (20 seconds)
Error Duration: 00:00:30 (30 seconds)

Scenario 1: Successful Response

10:00:00 - Request sent (LogDateTime)
10:00:12 - ACK received (LogDateTime)
Duration: 12 seconds
Result: OK ✓

Scenario 2: Delayed Response

10:05:00 - Request sent
10:05:25 - ACK received (after warning, before error)
Duration: 25 seconds
Result: Warning ⚠ (Response delayed but received)

Scenario 3: Missing Response

10:10:00 - Request sent
10:10:31 - Still no response (exceeded error duration)
Duration: >30 seconds
Result: Error ✗ (Missing response)

Scenario 4: Very Late Response

10:15:00 - Request sent
10:15:45 - ACK received (after error threshold)
Duration: 45 seconds
Result: Error ✗ (Response too late, treated as failed)

Duplicate Detection and Max Responses

ACK/NAK monitoring includes powerful duplicate detection to identify correlation issues and retry storms.

Max Responses Threshold

You configure the maximum number of responses expected for each request. Typically, this is 1 for standard request-response patterns.

When to use different values:

1 – Standard one-to-one request-response (most common)
2 – Request expects two acknowledgments (e.g., from two different systems)
0 – Monitor for requests that should NOT receive responses (fire-and-forget validation)

Max Duplicates Threshold

The max duplicates setting controls how many extra responses trigger an alert. This handles legitimate retry scenarios gracefully.

Example:

Max Responses: 1
Max Duplicates: 2

Evaluation:

Responses Received	State	Explanation
1	OK	Expected count
2	OK	One duplicate, within tolerance
3	OK	Two duplicates, at threshold
4	Warning	Exceeded max duplicates
5+	Warning	Multiple duplicates detected

Real-world scenario:

Your payment gateway occasionally retries acknowledgments due to network issues. Configure:

Max Responses: 1
Max Duplicates: 3 (allows up to 3 retries before alerting)

This prevents false alerts during transient network issues while still detecting correlation problems.

Visual example of duplicate detection:

sequenceDiagram participant R as Request Log View participant N as Nodinite participant A as Response Log View R->>N: Request: OrderID-123 10:00:00 A->>N: ACK #1: OrderID-123 10:00:05 Note over N: 1 response ✓ OK A->>N: ACK #2: OrderID-123 10:00:06 Note over N: 2 responses (1 duplicate) Within tolerance ✓ OK A->>N: ACK #3: OrderID-123 10:00:07 Note over N: 3 responses (2 duplicates) At max threshold ✓ OK A->>N: ACK #4: OrderID-123 10:00:08 rect rgb(255, 220, 220) Note over N: 4 responses (3 duplicates) Exceeded max duplicates ⚠ Warning end

Diagram: Duplicate response detection showing progression from OK to Warning state as duplicates exceed configured threshold.

Remote Actions

Take control with powerful remote actions directly from your monitoring dashboard:

Show missing events – View all requests without corresponding responses
Show delayed events – Identify responses that arrived late but within error threshold
Clear previous errors – Acknowledge and clear historical alert states

When to use each action:

Action	Use Case	Example
Show Missing Events	Investigate lost messages or system downtime	"Why didn't the fulfillment system acknowledge 15 orders between 2-3 PM?"
Show Delayed Events	Analyze performance degradation	"Which responses took longer than 20 seconds this week?"
Clear Previous Errors	Reset monitoring state after resolving issues	"System is back online, clear old alerts to start fresh monitoring"

Edit Thresholds

Fine-tune your monitoring thresholds for ACK/NAK events in the Configuration user guide. Adjust warning and error durations, max responses, and duplicate tolerances to match your business SLAs.

Alert History for ACK/NAK Non-Events

You can analyze the frequency and pattern of ACK/NAK Non-Event issues for root cause analysis and continuous improvement. Nodinite lets you search historical state changes for any time span, across all or individual configurations. Learn more in Add or manage Monitor View.

Search	Resource history
Search for alert history for all resources in the Monitor View	Alert history for the selected ACK/NAK configuration

Frequently Asked Questions

Find answers to common questions and troubleshooting tips in the troubleshooting guide.

How Do I Enable Monitoring of ACK/NAK Non-Events?

To monitor ACK/NAK Non-Events, select the Enable monitoring checkbox for the Agent (default: checked). See the 'Configuration' user guide for details.

The screenshot below shows the remote configuration form from the Monitoring Agents administration page.

This example shows a disabled ACK/NAK monitoring configuration.

What's the difference between ACK/NAK and Non-Events monitoring?

ACK/NAK Monitoring focuses on request-response correlation:

Tracks individual request-response pairs
Monitors response timing (duration)
Detects missing, delayed, or duplicate responses
Uses correlation IDs to match events
Best for: API acknowledgments, message confirmations, two-way integrations

Non-Events Monitoring focuses on volume patterns:

Tracks total event counts over time periods
Monitors whether counts fall within expected ranges
Detects too many or too few events
Uses time-based intervals (hourly, daily, monthly)
Best for: Batch processing, scheduled jobs, overall system health

Example comparison:

Scenario	Use ACK/NAK	Use Non-Events
"Did each customer order receive an acknowledgment?"	✓
"Are acknowledgments arriving within 30 seconds?"	✓
"Are we processing 1000-1500 orders per day?"		✓
"Did the nightly batch job run?"		✓
"Are we receiving exactly one confirmation per invoice?"	✓

Why am I getting duplicate warnings when retries are expected?

Increase your Max Duplicates threshold to accommodate normal retry behavior. For example, if your system retries up to 3 times:

Max Responses: 1 (only one success needed)
Max Duplicates: 3 (allow 3 retries before warning)

This configuration tolerates up to 4 total responses (1 expected + 3 duplicates) before triggering a warning.

Can I use ACK/NAK monitoring without exact correlation IDs?

No. ACK/NAK monitoring requires matching Application Interchange Ids between request and response events. If your systems don't provide correlation IDs:

Option 1: Modify your integration to include correlation tracking
Option 2: Use Non-Events monitoring to track volume patterns instead
Option 3: Use custom Search Fields to correlate by other attributes (requires careful configuration)

How far back does Nodinite look for responses?

Nodinite uses the Search Timespan configured in your ACK/NAK settings. This defines how far back to search for matching requests when evaluating responses.