HP OpenView System Administration Handbook [Electronic resources] : Network Node Manager, Customer Views, Service Information Portal, HP OpenView Operations نسخه متنی

12.1 MONITORING THE ENTERPRISE WITH OVO

In the simplest form of monitoring devices, a management application can determine whether the device is up or down. NNM does an excellent job of discovering an enterprise and providing up/down status of the managed environment. In addition, NNM provides the ability to capture SNMP traps that are unsolicited messages indicating something on the device has a problem. Taken a step further, monitoring a system's running processes, services, or applications provides a more robust monitoring solution. OVO is designed to help administrators detect, solve, and prevent problems from occurring in the enterprise.

OVO runs in conjunction with the NNM processes in order to extend the management functionality to monitor processes, services, and applications. For example, some of the standard OVO offerings include monitoring

syslog (UNIX),

rclog (UNIX), and

iisadmin service (Windows). The monitored environment can be configured to generate messages when certain errors appear in the

syslog and

rclog files. Messages can be generated when

iisadmin service stops running.

The OVO agent has the ability to capture information from various message sources. These message sources are captured by one of the following interceptors: logfile encapsulator, SNMP trap interceptor, MPE Console, or OVO message interface,[1] as shown in Figure 12-1. The messages are assigned default attributes and presented in the OVO message browser. The message conditions are applied to the message to determine whether to suppress, prioritize, group, reformulate and correlate messages. The logfile encapsulator searches for specific patterns in a logfile. The trap interceptor captures SNMP traps that are sent to the management station and determines how to act on them. The MPE Console output can be monitored with OVO. The message interface is designed for template developers to customize templates that cannot be monitored with the previously mentioned methods.

[1] The OVO message interface is the

opcmsg command. This command may be used in a script or in a compiled program.

opcmsg provide the ability for a template developer to adequately monitor an application.

Add-on components are also available to monitor specific applications and databases, such as Oracle®, Microsoft® Exchange Server, and PeopleSoft®. These add-on components are referred to as

Smart Plug-Ins (SPIs). SPIs are very sophisticated and typically offer hundreds of monitoring options. SPIs frequently include commands and actions capable of restarting specific processes. SPIs also may incorporate application performance monitoring. For a list of available SPIs, refer to http://ovweb.external.hp.com/lpe/doc_serv.

12.1.1 OVO Terminology

OVO consists of a client/server solution that allows the configuration to be centrally managed and monitored. The monitoring process is distributed to the managed nodes. Problem resolution can also be distributed to the managed node by including automatic actions associated with the message source template that capture the problem. The messages or events appear in the message browser as shown in the diagram in Figure 12-2.

The following list describes OVO terminology that will be used throughout the remainder of this book:

Management Server
The OVO management server is the central location from which all configurations are performed. The management server consists of an Oracle database containing messages generated by the OVO agents.[2] Supported management servers include HP-UX and Solaris. Refer to the

Installation Guide for the Management Server for a complete list of supported operating system versions for the management server and the agent available from http://ovweb.external.hp.com/lpe/doc_serv.

[2] A management server running OVO also runs the underlying NNM processes. When OVO is installed, NNM is also installed. NNM performs the discovery of the nodes. OVO is responsible for monitoring applications running on the nodes.

Agent
OVO provides an intelligent agent that must be distributed to all nodes to be managed by OVO. The monitoring process occurs on the managed node. The agent is capable of performing local actions on the node. For example, you might want to monitor a process and restart the process if it stops running. The agent combined with the appropriate template provides this capability. Some of the currently supported OVO agent platforms include HP-UX, Solaris, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Linux, AIX, and Tru64.

Templates
A template defines the applications to be monitored by the OVO agent. Select templates are assigned and distributed to a managed node based on the applications to be monitored. OVO ships with default templates that provide monitoring for common operating system logfiles and processes. Templates can be developed by administrators to monitor most applications. SPIs extend the functionality of OVO by providing specific application and database templates for applications such as Oracle®, SAP®, and Microsoft Exchange Server®.

Message browser
The message browser is the focal point of OVO. Messages are events generated by an OVO agent indicating that something has happened on the managed node. Messages that appear in the browser are stored in an Oracle database on the management server.

Managed node
OVO managed nodes have an OVO agent installed. The agent monitors applications on the node based on the templates assigned to the node.

Events
An event is something that happens on a managed node. Events of interest might consist of a stopped process or service, an error message in a log file, or an application that is not functioning as it should. Events are detected by the OVO agent and templates assigned to the managed node.

Actions
The agent is capable of performing local actions on a managed node. For example, you may want to monitor a process and restart the process if it stops running. The agent combined with the appropriate template provides the ability to detect that the process has stopped running and automatically restart the process.

12.1.2 OVO, VPO, ITO, and OPC: They're All the Same

OVO was formerly named

Vantage Point Operations (VPO). OVO was also formerly named

IT/Operations (ITO) and

Operations Center (OPC). The renaming of the product came about with major product releases. However, the original commands and processes have not changed since the original commands used for OPC. Much of the OVO product documentation still contains OPC, ITO and VPO references.

OVO is invoked by typing

opc from the command line. The

opc command does not require backgrounding (opc&). Backgrounding is handled by the command itself. When you start OVO, you should see the login window shown in Figure 12-3.

The default OVO logins include an operator (opc_op) and an administrator (opc_adm) user account. The default passwords are

OpC_op for the

opc_op account and

OpC_adm for the

opc_adm . The passwords are case sensitive. Note that these accounts are not affiliated with a Unix login. They are strictly used to login to the OVO application. The operator and administrator logins are described briefly in the following sections of this chapter.