Service Availability Management - SupportConnect

CA GREEN BOOKS 

Service Availability 

Management 

An Integrated Solution for 

Performance and Event 

Management of Services 

• OVERVIEW OF THE CHALLENGES OF MANAGING THE END-TO-END 

INFRASTRUCTURE FROM A SERVICE PERSPECTIVE 

• BEST PRACTICES FOR CONFIGURING AND DEPLOYING CA’S SERVICE 

AVAILABILITY SOLUTION

LEGAL NOTICE 

This publication is based on current information and resource allocations as of its date of 

publication and is subject to change or withdrawal by CA at any time without notice. The 

information in this publication could include typographical errors or technical inaccuracies. CA 

may make modifications to any CA product, software program, method or procedure described in 

this publication at any time without notice. 

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The information in this publication is based upon CA’s experiences with the referenced software 

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performance of such software products in identical, similar or different environments. CA does 

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COPYRIGHT LICENSE AND NOTICE: 

This publication contains sample application programming code and/or language which illustrate 

programming techniques on various operating systems. Notwithstanding anything to the 

contrary contained in this publication, such sample code does not constitute licensed products or 

software under any CA license or services agreement. You may copy, modify and use this 

sample code for the purposes of performing the installation methods and routines described in 

this document. These samples have not been tested. CA does not make, and you may not rely 

on, any promise, express or implied, of reliability, serviceability or function of the sample code. 

Copyright © 2007 CA. All rights reserved. All trademarks, trade names, service marks and logos 

referenced herein belong to their respective companies. 

2 Service Availability Management

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

CA thanks the following people for their contributions to this CA Green Book: 

Principal Authors 

Salvatore Pilo 

Yatin Dawada 

Lutz Holzbecher 

John Kane 

Don LeClair 

Bill Merrow 

Joe Mohacsi 

Terry Pisauro 

Keith Puzey 

Nic Swart 

DJ Towne 

Ulrich Vogt 

The principal authors and CA would like to thank the following contributors: 

Shaheen Ahmed 

Nelson Amaya 

Alfred Asish 

Kevin Dedcovich 

Chitra Gopal 

Andrew Haigh 

Jerald Holcomb 

Mark Hounslow 

Tanvir Hussain 

Carolyn Jones 

Steven LaRocca 

Joe Pucchio 

John Rathgaber 

Mohindra Singh 

Pam Snaith 

Cheryl Stauffer 

James Tam 

Kevin Vega 

Kanti Mahanty 

Jason Normandin 

Rich Vernon 

Dan Vidusin 


CA PRODUCT REFERENCES 

This document references the following CA components and products: 

• CA Network and Voice Management 

• eHealth® 

• eHealth® Suite 

• eHealth® for Voice 

• eHealth® for Voice Policy Manager 

• eHealth® Live Health 

• SPECTRUM® 

• SPECTRUM® OneClick 

• Unicenter® Adaptive Dashboard Services (ADS) 

• Unicenter® Cisco Integration 

• Unicenter® Management Command Center (Unicenter MCC) 

• Unicenter® Management for Microsoft Operations Manager 

(Unicenter Management for MOM) 

• Unicenter® Management Portal (Unicenter MP) 

• Unicenter® Network and Systems Management (Unicenter ) 

• Unicenter® Service Desk (Unicenter SD) 

• Unicenter® Service Metric Analysis (Unicenter SMA) 

• Unicenter® Trap Manager 

• Unicenter® Web Reporting Server (WRS) 


Contents 

Chapter 1: Introduction ......................................................................................................9 

About This Book .............................................................................................................9 

Executive Summary ........................................................................................................9 

Evolving Requirements for Service Availability Management..............................................9 

CA’s Solution for Service Availability Management ......................................................... 10 

Chapter 2: The Challenge of Managing Services................................................................... 13 

The Challenge of Managing Services ............................................................................... 13 

Evolution of Performance and Event Management............................................................. 13 

Impact on Operations Teams ......................................................................................... 14 

Impact on Management Software Requirements ............................................................... 14 

Essentials of Service Availability Management .................................................................. 15 

From Service Availability Strategy to Solution .................................................................. 16 

Chapter 3: CA’s Service Availability Solution ....................................................................... 19 

Key Benefits ................................................................................................................ 19 

Part of the EITM Vision .................................................................................................. 19 

The Components of the Solution..................................................................................... 20 

Event Management Capabilities ................................................................................... 21 

Performance Management Capabilities ......................................................................... 22 

Integration Capabilities ................................................................................................. 23 

Professional Services Offerings for Service Availability....................................................... 23 

Standardized Processes and Best Practices ................................................................... 23 

Leveraging Real-world Expertise with CA Technology Services...................................... 24 

Benefits.................................................................................................................... 26 

CA Advantage ........................................................................................................... 26 

CA’s Systems Management Solution Summary ................................................................. 27 

Chapter 4: Deployment Architecture for Service Availability Management ............................... 29 

Solution Components .................................................................................................... 29 

Event Management Capabilities ................................................................................... 29 

Performance Management Capabilities ......................................................................... 34 

Deployment Architecture ............................................................................................... 35 

Hardware and Software Requirements and Sizing ............................................................. 36 

Event Manager Requirements...................................................................................... 36 

Performance Manager Requirements ............................................................................ 37 

Chapter 5: Setting Up and Using the Service Availability Management Pack ............................ 39 

Overview and Value of the Management Pack................................................................... 39 

How the SAM Pack Works .............................................................................................. 40 

Installing the SAM Pack ................................................................................................. 41 

Essential Business Resources ...................................................................................... 41 

Prerequisites............................................................................................................. 41 

Installation ............................................................................................................... 42 

Post-Installation Steps .................................................................................................. 45 

Configuring the SAM Pack.............................................................................................. 46 

The SAM Pack Configuration Wizard:............................................................................ 46 

Supported Notification Methods................................................................................... 46 

Service Desk Notification Method Considerations ........................................................... 47 

Email Notification Method Considerations...................................................................... 51 

Pager Notification Method Considerations ..................................................................... 52 

Notification Confirmation Messages.............................................................................. 52 

Getting Started ............................................................................................................ 53 

Specifying Severity Model and Notification Service Details .............................................. 55 

Defining an IT Service................................................................................................ 55 

Assigning IT Service Impact........................................................................................ 56 

Setting Granularity and Unknown IT Service Configurations ............................................ 59 

Using a Service Calendar............................................................................................ 60 


Monitoring Components.............................................................................................. 60 

Identifying a Central Event Node ................................................................................. 62 

Configuring and Generating AEC Policy......................................................................... 63 

Implementing Policy Packs ......................................................................................... 64 

Classifying Servers .................................................................................................... 66 

Refreshing the Cache for Server Importance ................................................................. 68 

Saving Changes ........................................................................................................ 69 

Performing Post-Configuration Steps............................................................................ 69 

Sample Scenario for Implementing the SAM Pack ............................................................. 75 

Chapter 6: eHealth Network Performance Management Events Integration with Unicenter NSM.85 

Overview and Value of the Integration ............................................................................ 85 

How eHealth and Unicenter NSM Integration Works .......................................................... 86 

Real-Time Integration ................................................................................................ 87 

Performance Trend Integration.................................................................................... 87 

Integration levels ...................................................................................................... 87 

Enabling the eHealth Integration .................................................................................... 90 

Enable the DSM Policy for eHealth ............................................................................... 90 

Enable Alert Management Policy for eHealth ................................................................. 91 

Enable eHealth Links in the Unicenter MCC ................................................................... 92 

Enable eHealth Links in the Unicenter NSM Classic Interfaces.......................................... 92 

Specify Connection Parameters in eHealth Servers ........................................................ 92 

Configuring eHealth to Forward Traps to Unicenter NSM .................................................... 94 

Using the eHealth Integration ........................................................................................ 97 

Integration between eHealth and Management Command Center .................................... 97 

Integration between eHealth and Alert Management ...................................................... 99 

Integration between eHealth and Agent Technology..................................................... 100 

The eHealth Gateway Extension ................................................................................ 100 

Integration between eHealth and Unicenter Management Portal .................................... 101 

Reference Documentation............................................................................................ 113 

Chapter 7: Unicenter NSM Agent Technology Integration with eHealth ................................. 115 

Overview and Value of the Integration .......................................................................... 115 

How eHealth and Agent Technology Integration Works .................................................... 116 

Enabling eHealth to Poll Agent MIBs (Apollo Agent)......................................................... 116 

Configuring the Poll Method for Unicenter NSM System Agents......................................... 117 


Chapter 8: Unicenter NSM Agent Technology Integration with SPECTRUM............................. 119 


How the Integration Works .......................................................................................... 120 

MIB-II Extensions for Unicenter NSM Agent Technology ............................................... 121 

Installing the Integration ............................................................................................. 122 

Prerequisites........................................................................................................... 122 

Using the Integration .................................................................................................. 122 

Set the Agent Trap Destination to include the SPECTRUM Server ................................... 123 

Configure the Unicenter NSM Agent for Monitored Resources ........................................ 123 

Configure OneClick to launch Unicenter NSM User Interface.......................................... 123 

Model it in OneClick ................................................................................................. 123 

View the Unicenter NSM Agents in OneClick ................................................................ 127 


Chapter 9: Network Management with eHealth for Voice Integration .................................... 129 


How the Integration Works ....................................................................................... 130 


Prerequisites........................................................................................................... 131 

Installation ............................................................................................................. 131 

Post-installation Steps.............................................................................................. 133 

Integration Removal ................................................................................................ 133 

Using the eHealth for Voice Integration ......................................................................... 139 

Configure eHealth Policy Manager to Communicate with Unicenter NSM ......................... 140 

Activate Policy Management for a node ...................................................................... 140 

Configure the SNMP Server....................................................................................... 141 


Creating an SNMP action .......................................................................................... 142 

Create an Action Plan............................................................................................... 144 

Configure Policy Settings .......................................................................................... 145 

Set Policy Conditions................................................................................................ 146 

View the Results in Unicenter NSM............................................................................. 147 

View Details with Node View ..................................................................................... 149 


Chapter 10: Network Management Integration with SPECTRUM ........................................... 151 




Using the SPECTRUM Integration .................................................................................. 153 


Chapter 11: Network Management Integration with Cisco ................................................... 155 



Installing the Integration with CiscoWorks ..................................................................... 157 

Using the CiscoWorks Integration ................................................................................. 158 


Chapter 12: Systems Management Integration with HP Systems Insight Manager.................. 161 





Chapter 13: Systems Management Integration with Microsoft Operations Manager ................ 167 



MOM Discovery ....................................................................................................... 169 

MOM Management ................................................................................................... 169 

MOM Alerts as Event Messages.................................................................................. 173 

Status of MOM Entities in WorldView .......................................................................... 174 

Installing Unicenter Management for MOM ..................................................................... 175 

Verify Prerequisites.................................................................................................. 175 

Perform Preinstallation Tasks .................................................................................... 176 

Install Unicenter Management for MOM ...................................................................... 179 

Run Unicenter Management for MOM Discovery........................................................... 179 

Using Unicenter Management for MOM .......................................................................... 181 


Chapter 14: Integration with Application Manager Introscope.............................................. 183 



Architecture............................................................................................................ 186 

Monitor Introscope Agents from the MCC.................................................................... 186 

Send Introscope Alerts to Unicenter Event Management Console ................................... 188 

View the Introscope Agent Dashboard in Unicenter MP ................................................. 189 

Installing and Configuring the Integration...................................................................... 191 

Extension Components............................................................................................. 191 

Verify Prerequisites.................................................................................................. 192 

Configure Introscope ............................................................................................... 192 

Troubleshoot the Integration Configuration ................................................................. 194 

Configure Unicenter NSM.......................................................................................... 195 



Chapter 15: Custom Integrations for Third-Party Products .................................................. 199 


Integrating Elements with Unicenter NSM ...................................................................... 200 

Integrating Interfaces with Unicenter NSM..................................................................... 202 

Event Management .................................................................................................. 202 

Advanced Event Correlation ...................................................................................... 204 

Alert Management System........................................................................................ 205 


WorldView .............................................................................................................. 206 

Management Command Center ................................................................................. 210 

Unicenter Management Portal ................................................................................... 211 

Agent Technology – DSM.......................................................................................... 212 

Agent Technology – Agent View ................................................................................ 214 

Agent Technology – Agent Factory............................................................................. 214 


Chapter 16: Incident and Problem Management - Unicenter Service Desk Integration ............ 217 

Overview and Value of Integration ................................................................................ 217 


Unicenter Service Desk Integration with Unicenter MP.................................................. 218 

Unicenter Service Desk Integration with Alert Management .......................................... 219 

Unicenter Service Desk Integration with Management Command Center ........................ 219 

Setting up, Configuring and Enabling the Integration ...................................................... 219 

Integrating through use of a Shared MDB ................................................................... 219 

Enabling Unicenter Service Desk Launch from the Portal .............................................. 220 

Configuring Alert Management to Work with Unicenter Service Desk .............................. 226 

Configuring Alert Management to Create Unicenter Service Desk Tickets ........................ 228 

Customizing Unicenter Service Desk Tickets Created By Alert Management..................... 231 

Configuring Integration between MCC and Unicenter Service Desk................................. 233 

Accessing the Integration ............................................................................................ 234 

Chapter 17: Service Reporting Integration with Service Metric Analysis ................................ 237 



Configuring Unicenter NSM WorldView Integration .......................................................... 240 

WV Core Gateway Prerequisite .................................................................................. 240 

Core Gateway Log Files ............................................................................................ 242 

Adding a Unicenter MDB........................................................................................... 242 

Editing Connection Properties to Unicenter MDB .......................................................... 244 

Browsing the Unicenter Repository Explorer Tree......................................................... 245 

Generating SMA Reports Using Unicenter NSM Collected Data ....................................... 247 

View Severity and Propagated Severity Metric Instances .............................................. 251 

Create New Metric Instances without the Explorer Tree ................................................ 251 

Configuring Unicenter Management Portal Integration ..................................................... 252 

Generating Unicenter Management Portal Reports ....................................................... 252 

Configuring Unicenter Performance Management Integration ........................................... 256 

Importing Performance Cubes................................................................................... 256 

Configuring for Data Collection and Delivery ............................................................... 256 

Enabling Performance Cube import ............................................................................ 258 

Filtering Imported Data ............................................................................................ 260 

Copying Performance Cubes on Linux......................................................................... 262 

Configuring Unicenter Remote Monitoring Integration...................................................... 262 

Enabling Unicenter Remote Monitoring Data Import ..................................................... 263 

Filtering Imported Data ............................................................................................ 264 


Service Level Management of WorldView Objects from the MCC .................................... 267 

Service Level Management Reporting using the Unicenter Management Portal ................ 268 


INDEX .......................................................................................................................... 271 


Chapter 1: Introduction 

The Service Availability Green Book describes how to deliver integrated end-to-end 

performance and event management that is centered on services. The CA Service 

Availability Management solution leverages the Manager of Managers integration 

capabilities inherent to Unicenter NSM and eHealth and explains how to take advantage of 

those capabilities including details on how to install and configure a variety of management 

solutions that will interoperate to provide simpler and more comprehensive management 

and monitoring than would otherwise be available. Recognizing that some customer 

requirements may be more modest, this guide also provides information on the various 

levels of integration that are available, including scenarios describing how Unicenter NSM 

Agents can be deployed subordinate to other management solutions such as eHealth. 

About This Book 

The information contained in this CA Green Book is designed for operations, engineering, 

and technical staff responsible for managing a complex infrastructure and maintaining high 

levels of service availability. 

This Service Availability Management Green Book is targeted toward CIOs, network 

management teams, and technical teams. The book is structured as follows: 

• Chapters 2-3 Provide CIOs and network managers with an overview of the challenges of 

managing services and the value of the CA Service Availability Management solution. 

• Chapters 4-18 Define sample deployments for the products comprising the CA Service 

Availability Management solution to operations managers and other technical personnel. 

Provide best practices for planning, deploying, and configuring this solution and how it 

integrates with other management solutions deployed in the enterprise. The goal is to 

speed the time-to-value for investments made in optimizing service availability. 

This Green Book presents each integrated product in a separate chapter and, 

collectively, these chapters are organized around the following major categories: 

› Network Management 

› Systems Management 

› Application Management 

› Incident & Problem Management 

Executive Summary 

This section provides a brief summary of the challenges of managing service availability, 

and CA’s solution for Service Availability Management. A more detailed review of these 

topics is presented in Chapter 2 and 3 of this Green Book. 

Evolving Requirements for Service Availability Management 

Businesses today need an IT organization that is a strategic partner that delivers high 

quality and highly available services to the business. For a growing number of businesses, 

IT’s ability to maintain high service levels is a critical factor in enabling business revenue 


and profitability. Yet, in most organizations this needs to be done while holding, or even 

reducing, IT spending levels. So improving and streamlining IT management processes is a 

critical success factor. 

The modern IT infrastructure is an amazingly complex and diverse environment requiring 

smooth interplay between systems, networks, databases, applications and storage. Because 

deep technical expertise is needed to enable these technologies, IT has traditionally 

managed each asset or domain separately. 

The evolution towards managing the overall availability of services requires tools that 

integrate different technology domains and evaluate and prioritize events based on the 

service that they impact. 

The first step in managing service availability is to identify critical services, the 

infrastructure they depend on and the business processes they support. Identify all the 

components for each service including: 

• Network 

• Systems 

• Databases 

• Applications 

• Storage 

Then the service availability manager needs to aggregate events and performance 

information from the domain managers and tie them to service definitions. This capability is 

critical to having complete view of the performance and availability of the service being 

managed. The service availability manager should integrate with formal incident 

management, to automatically document problems and interruptions for services, and 

service level management for formal reporting on service level agreements (SLAs). 

CA’s Solution for Service Availability Management 

CA’s Service Availability Management solution reduces service problems due to expedited 

root cause analysis and proactive performance management by integrating event and 

performance management across your infrastructure and applications. 

CA Service Availability Management integrated solution (CA SAM) provides the following 

key points of value. 

• Managing cost by providing automated and proactive management processes to enhance 

staff efficiency and speed diagnosis of problems 

• Managing risk by improving Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) and Mean Time to 

Repair (MTTR) rates and by increasing user satisfaction and retention 

• Aligning IT with business by implementing IT management mapped to the business 

services and processes it supports 

The two key CA components of CA Service Availability Management provide monitoring of 

the infrastructure and performance reporting. These basic components are: 

• Event Management. Unicenter Network and Systems Management (Unicenter NSM) 

provides the foundation for end-to-end event management. The Service Availability 

Management Pack adds pre-defined policy and aligns management events with the 

services they support for a central view of the health and availability of services. 


• Performance Management. eHealth provides ongoing performance management 

across key parts of the infrastructure. eHealth integrates network, system and database 

performance information. It allows you to identify trends in performance in order to avert 

possible service problems. 

The value that CA SAM delivers is increased by integration with a variety of other IT 

management solutions, including: 

• Application Management – providing management of the health and performance of both 

J2EE and .NET application server environments that support services. 

• Network Management – providing fault and performance management of the network 

infrastructure that services operate in. 

• Systems Management – providing management of server environment that supports 

critical services. 

• Incident Management – provide direct integration with the service desk to document 

critical events affecting services. 

• Service Level Management – enable service reporting for operational level agreements 

and service level agreements. 

To help ensure successful implementations, the CA Technology Services organization is 

equipped to help any organization assess, design, implement and optimize service 

availability solutions. They take a lifecycle approach to the implementation of a total 

service availability solution which includes the following: 

• Assessment – Understanding the Gaps 

Comprehensive assessments, such as the Event-to-Resolution Readiness Assessment, 

to validate the current maturity and efficiency level of service performance and 

availability management. 

• Design – Building the Right Solution 

CA architects design successful service availability solutions for customers that range in 

size from a single location, medium-sized business to global IT operations demanding 

24x7 availability and high-speed performance. 

• Implementation – The Bottom Line of Solution Success 

CA consultants prepare the environment; install, configure, and customize Unicenter 

and eHealth; verify and document your solutions on test, quality assurance (QA), and 

production systems; and provide knowledge transfer to your staff. 

• Optimization – Anticipating Change 

Optimization services evaluate ways in which your existing Unicenter NSM and eHealth 

solutions can be further utilized or fine-tuned. Health check services can include tuning 

and reconfiguration, upgrades, and migrations, as well as training and certifications. 

With CA’s Service Availability Management solution across you can provide performance 

and event management from a service perspective. You can integrate CA products and a 

growing range of third party products, helping you consolidate management under one 

umbrella, simplifying the job for your IT staff and making the information you see more 

useful. Not only are you able to improve service, your IT staff becomes more productive. 


Chapter 2: The Challenge of 

Managing Services 

Businesses today need an IT organization that is a strategic partner. IT organizations have 

evolved from a technical support function to become critical service providers to the 

business. For this partnership to succeed, IT has to deliver high quality and highly available 

services to the business. 

The Challenge of Managing Services 

In a growing number of industries, the services provided by IT are the business. We are all 

familiar with cases such as Amazon.com where the entire customer experience is IT-driven, 

but even in traditional industries more and more IT services are presented directly to 

customers and suppliers. Banks, retail stores and even utility companies must provide fast 

service in their stores and on their web sites. If their services are slow or unavailable, 

customers will quickly look for alternatives. 

As companies become more reliant on the services provided directly to external users, 

there is an increased risk due to potential failure or poor performance of the technology. A 

recent study of 80 large organizations estimated that 3.6 percent of their annual revenue is 

lost to network downtime. These companies experience an average of 501 hours of network 

downtime every year and, as a result, are losing millions of dollars in annual productivity 

and revenue. While network downtime is significant, application downtime is also a major 

cause of lost revenue and productivity. The study determined that application problems are 

the single largest source of downtime, causing 30 percent of annual downtime hours and 32 

percent of downtime cost. 

For these business critical services, IT’s ability to maintain high service levels is a critical 

factor in enabling business revenue and profitability. Yet, in most organizations this needs 

to be done while holding, or even reducing, IT spending levels. So improving and 

streamlining IT management processes is a critical success factor. 

Evolution of Performance and Event Management 

The modern IT infrastructure is an amazingly complex and diverse environment requiring 

smooth interplay between systems, networks, databases, applications and storage. Because 

deep technical expertise is needed to enable these technologies, IT has traditionally 

managed each asset or domain as separate silos. The advantage of this approach is that 

the staff in each management domain could leverage their technical depth to meet 

operational level agreements. Often service goals were defined by the assets being 

managed, such as delivering “five nines” (99.999%) uptime for servers. 

The problem with managing by distinct management domain is that no one has 

responsibility for, or even visibility to, the state of actual service being delivered to the 

business. Every individual service depends on many layers of IT assets and infrastructure. 

Also, not all services are of equal priority to the business. If IT operations does not have a 

clear view of which components of the infrastructure support which service, it is very 


difficult to prioritize activities and maximize value to the business. In this environment, it is 

difficult for IT operations managers to become aware of service degradations and to rapidly 

diagnose and resolve the problems before users notice them. 

Impact on Operations Teams 

Technology domain managers will continue to be responsible for the management of 

specific components of the IT infrastructure, such as networks, systems or applications. In 

particular, they are interested in faster detection and resolution of problems while 

experiencing fewer dead-end investigations. 

The evolution towards managing the overall availability of services requires tools that 

integrate across technology domains and evaluate and prioritize events based on the 

service that they impact. Service Availability Management will help to detect and resolve 

problems faster by leveraging integrated systems and application management capabilities 

that correlate information and simplify root-cause analysis. With proactive, consolidated 

service availability management, that utilizes best-in-class monitoring tools to trace sources 

of problems across the IT stack, technical domain managers will be assured of faster 

response times, the ability to meet service demands, improved Mean-Time-To-Repair 

(MTTR) and Mean-Time-Between-Failure (MTBF). 

Impact on Management Software Requirements 

To meet the business needs, it is critical that the applications, systems and supporting 

network are managed in an integrated, coordinated manner to provide optimal 

performance. IT operations managers should ask the following questions to determine how 

effectively they are managing problems such as slow performance and faults: 

• How easily can I visually check for the real-time service status of all key business 

services? 

• How effective is my organization at distinguishing between critical and non-critical 

events? 

• Do we have well defined processes and tools for quickly identifying the source of 

problems? 

• When problems do occur, does my staff understand the impact on the business? 

• How effective is my organization at resolving problems or transitioning problems to the 

proper support organization? 

• Does my organization have well defined processes and tools for adding new objects or 

managing existing objects in the environment? 

• Am I making informed decisions when planning future capacity needs? 

Availability is the primary measurement of good service. From the perspective of the 

service customer, performance, features, optimization and usability only come into play if 

the service can be accessed. Managing service availability by isolated management tools 

alone is often inefficient since it only proves the absence of a problem within a particular 

technology domain. Since services span technologies, managing by technology alone 

requires manual correlation of events—a process that complicates and slows down problem 

identification. 


The most effective approach is to solve the problem from a user-centric perspective. By 

understanding the business processes and the services that comprise them, you can reduce 

risk, reduce costs, improve service and better align the business and IT. Service availability 

management solutions must provide a cross-infrastructure method for managing all the 

components of the service delivery pathway, such as networks, storage, systems, 

databases and applications, and represent them as a single, unified solution for use by both 

operations and the business. Events impacting any component in the model ripple through 

the service pathway, showing the resulting impact on the service and users of the service. 

Essentials of Service Availability Management 

The first step in managing service availability is to identify the service itself, the 

applications it uses, the systems it runs on, the infrastructure it depends on and the 

business process it is part of. Only when all of the components and the interactions of the 

service are understood is it possible to monitor performance, measure the service level, 

optimize utilization and plan capacity. Identifying these components for each service and 

clarifying how they interact to deliver a particular service is essential for successful delivery. 

These include: 

• Network 

• Systems 

• Databases 

• Applications 

• Storage 

The following diagram shows the relationships between service availability manager and the 

individual domain managers. Events and performance information are aggregated from the 

domain managers and tied to service definitions, as shown in the diagram below. 

Integrating security management events helps to provide a complete view of real-time 

status. In addition, the Service Availability Management solution must integrate with formal 

incident management, service level management. 


Naturally, managing service availability means that you must be prepared to evaluate the 

impact of any event or problem in the context of the service if supports. When planning you 

will need to be able to answer some key questions: 

1. What is the problem? The problem should be expressed in terms of its effect on service 

customers, such as, customers cannot perform online banking. 

2. Who does it affect? It can affect internal customers, external customers or other 

services. 

3. What should be fixed first? When there is a crisis and a service or services are 

impacted, what should be fixed first to eliminate the greatest pain? 

4. Where is the root cause of the problem? The root cause can be a fault in any device or 

application in the service delivery pathway; an over-utilized CPU, a bad wide area 

network link or a corrupted database. 

In answering these questions a service availability management solution identifies the 

service problem, quantifies the impact on customers, prioritizes the issues to resolve and 

identifies the root cause of the problem. 

From Service Availability Strategy to Solution 

Deploying a service availability solution for an entire business that offers multiple services 

can appear daunting. An easier approach is to start by understanding and modeling just 

one high-value service. Success with one service will establish a foundation for growing a 

strategic service availability solution for the entire business. The process starts with some 

common steps: 

1. Understand and manage the customer experience. 

An understanding of how customers are using a service and what kind of experience 

they are having is the cornerstone of a service availability solution. The customer 

experience is what determines the success of a service—or lack thereof. For example, 

before an SLA is breached customers may start to experience slower service. While the 

degradation has not violated the SLA it may still be annoying. What do customers do 

when the service slows? They may open new sessions, further adding to the demands 

on the system. The impact may depend on the type of service. In an online banking 

service they may give the bank a few more chances before they move their account. In 

an online retail service they may just log in to another retail site and buy what they 

want. 

Using another example, a company may notice that a particular geographic region 

produces significantly less business than would be expected based on demographics. 

The lack of business may be unfairly attributed to a poor sales team or other factors 

when, in fact, it could be caused by slower transaction service due to the wide area 

network lines serving that area. The service may not be slow enough to violate the 

SLA, but the experience is what matters to the customer. 

The better the understanding of how customers use a service, the more complete and 

accurate the service availability solution will be. Also, it is necessary to understand how 

customers use a service in order to answer key question number 1: What is the 

problem? 


2. Assess the service dependencies and goals. 

Understanding how the customer uses the service is a prerequisite for completing a full 

assessment of the service to identify all the moving parts. Since each component of the 

service is critical to the overall delivery, delay or degradation in any component can 

impact the timely delivery of service and compliance to SLAs. For example: 

Applications, including packaged applications such as SAP, as well as internally built 

J2EE and .NET applications, may be considered services in and of themselves or may 

contribute to a service, such as online banking. It is important to keep in mind that 

some services rely on other services. For example, an online shopping service will rely 

on a domain name service (DNS). DNS must be up and running for the online shopping 

service to be available. Armed with this information you can determine what tools you 

need to obtain all the data points. 

There are situations where end-to-end service availability management may not be 

possible. For example, a customer site may access the wide area through an edge 

router owned by a service provider. If the edge router is down, the customer cannot 

get to the network that provides your service. Understanding this possibility helps 

resolve availability problems that are out of your hands. There may also be situations 

where the service is available even though all parts of the delivery path are not 

running. For example, a wide area network link can be down but if the router has an 

alternate path available, the service will be available. 

The full service assessment enables you to answer key questions number 2 and number 

3: Who does it affect and what should you fix first? 

3. Evaluate tools needed. With the service understood and the supporting components 

identified, evaluating required tools becomes a cost/benefit decision, based on the 

criticality of the service. With CA’s solution you can integrate your existing tools and 

manage them from a central point, fully leveraging your existing investments. 


Chapter 3: CA’s Service 

Availability Solution 

When degradation or downtime impacts a key service, customers quickly become 

frustrated. Whether they are external customers or your own employees, poor service has a 

negative impact. By integrating event and performance management across your 

infrastructure and applications, CA’s Service Availability Management solution reduces 

service problems due to expedited root cause analysis and proactive performance 

management. 

Key Benefits 

CA Service Availability Management solution (CA SAM) optimizes business-driven IT 

operations by assuring consistently superior IT services. For IT organizations relying on 

complex infrastructure and systems to deliver important business services, CA Service 

Availability Management unites products and services to help you reduce problem resolution 

time, improve service levels and accelerate time to value. CA SAM also delivers value in: 

• Managing cost by providing automated and proactive management processes to reduce 

fire drills and hands-on emergencies and by enhancing staff utilization, a benefit derived 

from improved correlation, filtering and analysis of events to ensure identification and 

notification of degradations at early stages 

• Managing risk by improving Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) and Mean Time to 

Repair (MTTR) rates and by increasing user satisfaction and retention 

• Aligning IT with business by implementing IT management mapped to business processes 

(rather than technology silos) and by assuring consistently superior service, enabling 

critical processes to leverage technology with confidence 

CA’s Service Availability solution is focused on comprehensive, integrated IT management 

that accelerates problem resolution and automates policy. It offers many capabilities to help 

optimize operations and service: 

• Consolidated view of service status to ensure accurate insight and rapid response 

• Integrating events from many domain managers to protect investment in 3rd-party 

products 

• Advanced event correlation and analysis to reduce outages and troubleshooting time 

• Pre-packaged policy and automated ITIL-based best practices, the Service Availability 

Management Pack, to speed the time to value 

• Service Desk integration for ITIL-based incident and problem management 

Part of the EITM Vision 

CA’s approach to Service Availability Management (SAM) is part of the Enterprise IT 

Management (EITM) vision. EITM describes how to unify and simplify the management of 

enterprise wide IT, so that organizations can better manage risk, improve service, control 


costs and align IT with business needs. CA’s Enterprise IT Management vision is to provide 

organizations with the flexibility and agility to quickly respond to changing business 

conditions, take advantage of new ways to conduct business, improve productivity and 

ensure the optimal utilization of their enterprise IT assets and resources while managing 

risk and reducing cost. EITM provides a path for the evolution of enterprise wide IT 

management from a reactive, event-driven approach to one that is proactive, where IT 

organizations can actually optimize in anticipation of business needs. CA’s Service 

Availability solution provides the ability to correlate events across technology domains and 

tie them to the services they support as the means of managing more proactively. 

CA Service Availability Management supports both Infrastructure Optimization (IO) and 

overall Business Service Management (BSM). IO helps IT optimize resources, consolidate 

and correlate events and performance from across the IT infrastructure, and relate them to 

the services they support. BSM and IO are completely complementary, with BSM solutions 

leveraging the infrastructure information from IO and reaching into the infrastructure by IO 

to map, measure, and optimize service. CA SAM contributes correlation of end-to-end event 

and performance information to these initiatives and includes policy-based automation to 

ensure consistency and lower costs. 

Customers benefit whether components and applications are from CA, are home-grown or 

from a third party. This preserves existing investment while improving service delivery 

across the domains of technology. 

The Components of the Solution 

The two key CA components of CA Service Availability Management provide monitoring of 

the infrastructure and performance reporting. These basic components are: 

• Event Management. Unicenter Network and Systems Management (Unicenter NSM) 

provides the foundation for end-to-end event management. The Service Availability 

Management Pack adds pre-defined policy for many critical domain management 

solutions and simplifies the process of adding more. It aligns management events with 

the services they support for a central view of the health and availability of services. 

• Performance Management. eHealth provides ongoing performance management 

across key parts of the infrastructure. eHealth integrates network, system and database 

performance information. It tells you how the infrastructure is performing, and allows you 

to identify trends in performance in order to avert possible service problems. 

The value that CA SAM delivers is increased by integration with: 

• Domain management applications for monitoring systems, networks, applications and 

databases 

• An Incident and Problem Management solution, specifically Unicenter Service Desk, to 

manage incidents originating from the CA Service Availability Management solution 

• A service reporting application (for example, Unicenter Service Metrics Analysis) to 

produce performance metrics and reports on managed assets 


Eventually CA SAM will include predefined policy to integrated event and performance 

information originating from Security Information Management, Storage Recovery 

Management and Workload Automation solutions. 

Event Management Capabilities 

Unicenter NSM helps ensure the health, availability and performance of the infrastructure as 

the manager of managers. It supports critical business processes by managing the 

underlying infrastructure and prioritizing issues based on their impact to the business. With 

Unicenter NSM problem resolution is accelerated and service levels are improved — all 

while reducing support costs. Unicenter NSM also provides a centralized and unified 

management platform to manage heterogeneous IT infrastructures, greatly reducing the 

cost and complexity associated with managing the infrastructure while preserving current 

investments. 

Unicenter NSM provides an integrated environment for event management. Some of the 

key capabilities include: 

• Service Availability Management Pack which delivers the tools and the best practice 

guidelines for making sense of those faults by: 

› Mapping infrastructure events such as faults and alerts (events) to specific 

Business Services 

› Mapping Servers (CI) to Business Impact 

› Normalizing message formats 

› Filtering non-significant events and automatically suppressing duplicate events 

within Event Console views 

› Performing Root Cause Analysis (including cause and action list) 

• Management Command Center (MCC) which is the consolidation point for all operational 

activity. This interface has been designed to reduce complexity and training while 

facilitating efficient problem resolution. The MCC delivers a single user administrative 

interface for access to Unicenter NSM components, greatly simplifying problem 

identification and resolution, as well as accelerating Mean-Time-To-Repair (MTTR). 


Individual windows can be customized to create an effective and personalized working 

space. 

• Broad Platform Support, where management information can be gathered from a wide 

variety of platforms, enabling Unicenter NSM to provide a single point of control for an 

enterprise’s entire operation. 

• Unicenter Notification Services provides many out-of-the-box notification options and 

notification policies including Instant Messenger (SameTime), pager (SNPP), text 

messaging (SMS using HTTP), phone based (TAP), email (SMTP/POP3) and wireless 

(WCTP) that are delivered by commands, GUI or by SDK for full programmatic control. 

Unicenter Notification Services ensures that the right information gets to the right people 

quickly and efficiently. 

• Full escalation enables alerts to be automatically processed and escalated according to 

user policy. This allows key alerts that are not being responded to in a timely fashion to 

be brought to someone else’s attention for resolution. Automatically escalating alerts 

helps reduce MTTR and improve service levels for critical business processes without 

requiring staff to monitor consoles. 

• Management by Exception enables customizable views which highlight only those issues 

that require human intervention. This dramatically reduces the number of false alerts so 

that IT operations can focus on those events that impact the business. 

Unicenter NSM is also the core of the CA Dynamic and Virtual Systems Management 

solution. For more detailed information on the capabilities and deployment of 

Unicenter NSM, see the Systems Management Green Book, on www.ca.com. 

Performance Management Capabilities 

eHealth helps you take control of network, system and database performance and ensure 

Quality of Service (QoS) across the infrastructure. It enables you to successfully accomplish 

many tasks such as ensuring the availability and performance of the network, documenting 

service levels, managing capacity and accurately planning for growth. This solution allows 

you to face a number of challenges including managing a diverse collection of devices from 

numerous vendors, isolating the source of performance degradation throughout the 

network, minimizing recurring wide area network (WAN) expenses and providing consistent 

reporting across your heterogeneous network infrastructure. 

eHealth provides an integrated environment for performance management. Key capabilities 

include: 

• Real—time and historical reporting are provided for proactive management; enabling IT 

to correct problems before they become revenue-impacting service problem issues. 

• Built-in intelligence in the reports enables troubleshooting without requiring intimate 

knowledge of every component of the service. 

• Auto-baselining enables eHealth to learn the normal behavior for each management 

device. The “deviation from normal” algorithm offers a more reliable threshold relative to 

history because the window of comparison is continuous. 

• Customized views present role-specific content to allow different users to focus on 

different services and business areas. 

eHealth also delivers network focused performance management capabilities. For more 

detailed information on the capabilities and deployment of eHealth, see the Network and 

Voice Management Green Book, on www.ca.com. 


Integration Capabilities 

The focus of this Green Book is to describe the Service Availability Management solution 

capabilities for managing events and performance from across the enterprise and relate 

them to the services they impact. This book provides detailed information about the how to 

integrate the Service Availability Management solution components with management tools 

from a variety of disciplines: 

• Application Management – providing management of the health and performance of both 

J2EE and .NET application server environments that support services. 

› Wily Introscope 

• Network Management – providing fault and performance management of the network 

infrastructure that services operate in. 

› SPECTRUM 

› eHealth 

› eHealth for Voice 

› CiscoWorks 

• Systems Management – providing management of server environment that supports 

critical services. 

› Unicenter NSM 

› Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 

› HP Insight Manager 

• Management Events from other internal and 3rd party applications – providing the ability 

to leverage investments in any other management tools and utilities not covered through 

the management packs. 

• Incident Management – provide direct integration with the service desk to document 

critical events affecting services. 

› Unicenter Service Desk 

• Service Level Management – enable service reporting for operational level agreements 

and service level agreements. 

› Unicenter Service Metric Analysis 

Professional Services Offerings for Service Availability 

Leverage the expertise and best-practice knowledge of CA Services personnel to create, 

deploy and support a Service Availability Management (CA SAM) solution that optimizes 

your service delivery to meet the demands placed upon IT services by business users. CA 

Services professionals help you identify the IT services and the infrastructure that supports 

these services, and create a solution that manages the related events and expected 

performance. 

Standardized Processes and Best Practices 

Moving from traditional management domains using fragmented tool sets to a proactive, 

integrated management system requires careful assessment, planning and implementation. 

Integrating event management across IT disciplines and system platforms sets the stage to 

get to the root cause of problems very quickly so you can deliver consistently superior IT 


services. You can derive the greatest value from your CA SAM solution by leveraging the 

expertise of CA Services personnel for design, deployment and continued optimization. The 

value of the solution is further maximized with creative training programs for your staff and 

ongoing, flexible support. 

Leveraging Real-world Expertise with CA Technology Services 

In addition to a standard methodology, CA Technology Services and our Strategic Partners 

offer a wealth of knowledge and experience in delivery of CA Service Availability 

Management solutions. Creating a solution that aligns technology domains to IT services 

requires a collaborative, phased approach, and CA works with you to build an integrated 

management infrastructure that reflects business drivers. We will analyze your existing 

systems and processes and configure your solution to identify, diagnose and resolve 

problems with critical IT services before availability or performance problems impact your 

customers. 

CA’s Strategic Partners can also enable desired organizational change management and 

help you develop the right overall business processes needed to be successful for the long 

term; this will help ensure a successful CA solution implementation and ongoing best 

practices for your organization. 

A service availability management solution has two basic components: event management 

and performance management. CA Technology Services offers a suite of services that 

enable you to address both areas. 

ASSESSMENTS—EVALUATING PEOPLE, TECHNOLOGY AND PROCESS 

CA Technology Services engagements are designed to help you save time and money by 

getting it right the first time. You may wish to begin with an assessment service to help 

you understand the maturity of your people, processes and IT environment and your 

readiness to implement a new or improved CA Service Availability solution. We review your 

business requirements, environment and current technology, establishing a baseline for 

analysis and recommendations. 

Event to resolution is the CA approach to event management. The Event to Resolution 

Readiness Assessment is designed to help you understand the maturity level and efficiency 

of your current event management processes and identify the gaps. 

CA Technology Services experts conduct a comprehensive analysis of your management 

capabilities including: 

• Event management goals, objectives and strategies 

• IT operations organization structure, and personnel roles and responsibilities 

• Software monitoring tools and configuration and integration software 

• Event, object and policy management processes 

• Event and object reporting. 

Each assessment results in a Solution Architecture Overview (SAO)—a blueprint that 

defines achievable solution phases to maximize problem determination and response 

workflows, apply automation, and integrate service desk operations. CA Consultants and 

Architects also research and map IT components to IT services, propose recommendations 

and furnish business justifications to help you secure funding. 


Using the Service Availability Management Maturity Model described in the figure above, CA 

Technology Services can help you identify your current level of service availability 

management process capability. This approach is the starting point toward the creation of a 

solution blueprint that will help you achieve a higher state of service availability 

management effectiveness, quickly and reliably, to deliver predictable ROI and business 

results. 

DESIGN – BUILDING THE RIGHT SOLUTION 

Whether designing for a single-location business or a global IT operation, CA Architects 

work with customers to correlate the features and functions of CA Service Availability 

Management software to the business and IT requirements. Hardware and customization 

requirements are identified. A comprehensive design and implementation plan called a 

Solution Architecture Specification (SAS) is created. Where appropriate, the design builds 

upon CA’s library of Event to Resolution reference architectures to ensure the right 

technical configuration. In addition, Architects utilize CA Integrated IT Flows (IIFs) to 

secure operational efficiencies. 

Certification is required for all design architects. The CA Architect qualification process is an 

intensive two-year program that requires several industry certifications, IT management 

technology and CA product trainings, and CA Architect governance board approval. 

Architects must re-certify at least every two years. 

IMPLEMENTATION AND MIGRATION – THE BOTTOM LINE OF SOLUTION SUCCESS 

Using the SAS as a guide, CA Consultants prepare the environment; install, configure, and 

customize the CA Service Availability Management solution; verify and document your CA 

SAM solution on test, QA, and production systems; and provide knowledge transfer to your 

staff. Implementation services include the development and deployment of integration 

components between the CA Service Availability Management software, your other IT 

management applications and your service desk. 


To ensure that implementation efforts are tightly managed, PMP-certified Project Managers 

track and report on progress, questions, issues and roadblocks. CA Technology Services 

uses only PMP-certified Project Managers and only highly trained Architects, Consultants 

and Partners. On an annual basis, CA Technology Services invests 50% more in training 

our professionals than the industry average. 

OPTIMIZATION – ANTICIPATING AND MANAGING CHANGE 

Optimization services such as Healthchecks evaluate ways in which your existing CA Service 

Availability Management solution can be further utilized or fine tuned to improve operations 

and reduce support costs. Healthcheck services can include tuning and reconfiguration. 

For more information, visit www.ca.com/services. 

Benefits 

Taking advantage of all that CA Services have to offer provides you with the best 

opportunity to maximize the effectiveness of your CA Service Availability Management 

solution. CA Services can help you: 

• OPTIMIZE IT SERVICE AVAILABILITY through repeatable processes that are 

architected and implemented against industry best practices like ITIL and CobiT, as 

applicable. 

• CONTAIN COSTS by consolidating event management to a central point of control in a 

solution that fits your organization’s specific requirements and needs and also 

accommodates future growth 

• ENSURE OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCIES with processes that are based on patentpending 

workflows, and that enable you to manage your IT services by understanding 

past performance as well as future expected performance 

• ENHANCE BUSINESS ENABLEMENT by efficiently integrating people, process and 

technology with your business. CA Services use best practices and systematic 

methodologies to architect and deliver the integrated, end-to-end proactive service 

assurance that you require 

• REDUCE RISK by leveraging the extensive knowledge CA has captured around defining 

and implementing automatic repair responses that avoid the possibility of human error, 

and guarantee that problem repairs are executed automatically and consistently 

• MAXIMIZE UPTIME AND PERFORMANCE of your CA Service Availability Management 

solution as a result of properly trained staff and appropriate levels of support across the 

enterprise, and around the world 

CA Advantage 

CA Services bring skill in managing multiple IT infrastructure components and automating 

repair responses, where applicable, to every CA Availability Management solution. 

• Experience: Customers CA Technology Services in thousands of projects per year. 

• Proven Processes: offers a proven approach to each critical phase of Service Availability 

Management deployment, training and support. Patented integrated IT flows and best 

practices aligned to phases of IT maturity enable CA to evaluate the maturity of event to 

resolution capabilities and create blueprints that deliver higher states of availability and 

performance. 


• Expertise: CA Technology Services provides you with highly trained and certified services 

professionals worldwide. On an annual basis, CA Technology Services invests 50% more 

in training our professionals than the industry average. 

• Focus: CA Technology Services’ Service Availability Management team is part of a global 

practice that is devoted exclusively to CA services and solutions. 

• Measurable results: CA Education offers all levels of training around industry best 

practices and specific solutions, as well as certification. Our Unified Learning Approach 

helps you assess your training needs and develop a plan to address those needs to gain 

the most from your software investments. 

• Investment protection: CA Support delivers immediate access and rapid response; 

investment in the future through continuous R&D; and proactive, preventative support 

solutions that meet the demands of your specific business requirements. 

CA’s Systems Management Solution Summary 

CA provides the Service Availability Management solution across CA products and a growing 

range of third party products, helping you consolidate management under one umbrella, 

simplifying the job for your IT staff and making the information you see more useful. Not 

only are you able to improve service, your IT staff becomes more productive. 

Why are we different? CA’s focus is IT management and CA is platform-neutral, applying 

solutions equally across a wide range of supported platforms. You can trust CA to deliver an 

integrated Service Availability Management solution across a heterogeneous infrastructure, 

enabling you to correlate events across the infrastructure for much faster problem 

resolution. The bottom line is you will shorten your mean time to repair, experience less 

downtime, and improve your staff efficiency. 


Chapter 4: Deployment 

Architecture for Service 

Availability Management 

This chapter provides information to prepare for the installation and configuration of CA’s 

Service Availability Management solution. The following key topics are presented: 

• Solution components 

• Deployment architecture 

• Hardware and software requirements and sizing 

Solution Components 

CA Service Availability Management Solution is based on two main components: event 

management and performance management. These components and the products used to 

implement them are described in this section. 

Event Management Capabilities 

Unicenter NSM provides the management environment for integrating events from many 

different management domains. Some of the key components of Unicenter NSM used for 

this purpose are listed below: 

Required Components 

Unicenter Management Command 

Center 

Service Availability Management Pack 

Optional Components 

Unicenter Management Portal 

Unicenter Web Reporting 

Server 

Unicenter Notification Services 

Unicenter Advanced Event Correlation 

Unicenter Alert Management System 

Unicenter Management Database 

MANAGEMENT COMMAND CENTER 

The Unicenter Management Command Center (Unicenter MCC) user interface integrates all 

Unicenter enterprise and network monitoring functionality into a single console. The 

Management Command Center provides dynamic multi-viewer content, providing a 

workplace that integrates relevant plug-ins, such as Alert Management System alerts, 


Event Management System events, Agent events, Dashboards, and Web Reporting 

Services, for the node you select. 

SERVICE AVAILABILITY MANAGEMENT PACK 

The Service Availability Management Pack provides the tools and the best practice 

guidelines for making sense of those faults across the infrastructure including mainframe 

systems, UNIX and Windows platforms. This component helps simplify management by: 

• Mapping infrastructure faults and alerts (events) to specific Business Services 

• Mapping Servers (CI) to Business Impact (calendar based, importance level association, 

scalable and secure mappings) 

• Filtering non-significant events and automatically suppressing duplicate events to 

streamline the Event Console views 

• Performing Root Cause Analysis (including cause and action list) 

• Normalizing message formats 

DISTRIBUTED STATE MACHINE 

The Distributed State Machine (DSM) is the manager of agents and provides the first level 

of fault correlation in Unicenter NSM and controls the discovery of agents and the resources 

they monitor. The DSM (process name aws_dsm) creates the managed object list for each 

resource in the DSM Store and keeps the state information current, based on information 

received from the agents. 

The DSM evaluates information received from managed nodes collected by agents (trap 

data, poll responses, and user actions), converts the data by applying policy-driven logic to 

each managed object to determine current object states, and then it makes that 

information available to the Unicenter NSM manager running on Windows and UNIX/Linux 

platforms. 

When the DSM determines that a state change has occurred for a managed object, it 

reflects that change to the Unicenter NSM WorldView components, and also notifies Event 

Management of the state change, resulting in a corresponding alert, or Event Console 

message. 

The DSM stores managed objects and their current state in memory. When the DSM is 

stopped and restarted, it obtains the last reported state for each previously monitored 

object and the instance-level properties for those objects. A recommended best practice is 

to deploy more than one DSM to provide for hot standby failover. The DSM components 

provide critical functionality and we recommend that the loss of enterprise monitoring be 

considered a critical service failure and accordingly the deployment plan should include a 

second DSM that is able to be pressed into rapid service as part of a failover. 

WORLDVIEW MANAGER 

The WorldView Manager monitors for changes in managed objects, propagates severity, 

and populates Dynamic Business Process Views. The WorldView Manager also exposes 

WorldView data to the Unicenter MCC and provides data to reports, dashboards, and 

Unicenter Management Portal. As a best practice, it is recommended that the WorldView 

Manager component reside on the same server as the Management Database (MDB). 

Note: The WorldView Manager component cannot be installed on a Windows Domain 

Controller. 


EVENT MANAGEMENT 

The Event Management system is the focal point for managing enterprise events from a 

variety of sources throughout your network. Through the Event Manager, you can monitor 

event activity and immediately respond to events as they occur. By filtering messages that 

appear on each console, you can retrieve specific information about a particular node, user, 

or workstation. 

• Scoping Views 

Using event console log views, you can restrict message access to authorized users and 

user groups and by further defining console view objects, you can filter messages from the 

console log, thereby segmenting access to sensitive messages to only those personnel who 

need that access. 

• Applying temporal logic 

Through the use of easily understood calendar profiles, you can establish date and time 

controls for automated event processing that in turn can be used to automatically 

determine the appropriate course of action to take based on when an event occurs, which is 

a potentially critical element in ensuring proper handling. 

• Policy-Based Event Handling 

Using message record and action profiles, you can define policies which identify events that 

are important to automate their handling and then define the special processing that 

Unicenter NSM performs when encountering them. These easy to use, yet powerful, 

capabilities can be further enhanced by using Advanced Event Correlation (AEC) to identify 

a set of events that you want to monitor and correlate, and decide what actions should be 

performed if correlation exists or does not exist. 

NOTIFICATION SERVICES 

Unicenter Notification Services provides facilities which can be used to send wired and 

wireless messages using various protocols and services to the personnel who need to be 

engaged (typically operators or administrators) to resolve a situation. 

To be clear, Unicenter Notification Services is provided in addition to the Wireless 

Messaging capabilities of Event Management. Specifically, where Wireless Messaging 

included facilities that could be used to send email and pager-based notifications, Unicenter 

Notification Services, includes the following additional notification services support: 

• Email (SMTP, POP3) 

• Wireless – WCTP 

• Page – SNPP, TAP 

• Short messages – SMS 

• Instant Message – Sametime 

• Voice – TAPI 

• Script 

ALERT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 

The Unicenter Alert Management System, a tool for organizing and tracking the most 

important events in an enterprise or logical segment of an enterprise, provides tools for 


defining alert policies and multiple panes in the Unicenter MCC for viewing alerts so that 

your staff can focus on and manage the highest severity IT events. 

To use AMS, you must first define policies that control how alerts are displayed and indicate 

which event messages are alerts. You do this by defining alert profiles, creating message 

record actions for alerts, and defining AEC correlation rules for alerts. The alert policies 

define configuration settings for all alerts, group alerts for viewing in the Unicenter MCC, 

and more. The message record actions and correlation rules indicate which serious 

situations lead to alert creation. 

After defining alert policies, you can view and manage alerts in the Management Command 

Center with filters available so that a user of the MCC can view all alerts, alerts of a specific 

type, and alerts associated with a managed object. 

AMS also lets you link to Unicenter Service Desk which is a customer support and helpdesk 

application that manages calls and IT assets, tracks problem resolutions, and shares 

corporate knowledge. Interaction with the Service Desk reduces the workload of your 

internal support staff by automating what would otherwise be manual tasks. For example, 

in response to a problem condition being detected, one might need to open a service desk 

ticket – but using the facilities inherent to AMS, you can open, update, and close Service 

Desk requests automatically when an AMS alert is created, escalated, or closed. 

CONFIGURATION MANAGER 

You can manage agent configurations centrally and automatically using the 

Unicenter Configuration Manager. Unicenter Configuration Manager is a utility that can be 

used to automatically distribute or audit configuration settings for Unicenter NSM product 

components. 

ADVANCED EVENT CORRELATION 

Unicenter Advanced Event Correlation (AEC) integrates seamlessly with Unicenter NSM 

Event Management to provide powerful Event Correlation, Root Cause, and Impact Analysis 

capabilities. When used in combination with other Unicenter NSM capabilities, AEC can be 

used to rapidly identify the root cause of problems being reported to the event console, 

increasing the quality of the events brought to the attention of the personnel managing 

your operations and reducing the quantity of the data that they would otherwise have to 

process. Event reformatting and suppression capabilities also help to ensure that existing 

management procedures implemented through Message Records and Actions are only 

invoked when applicable, significantly reducing the number of false alarms encountered. 

Using AEC, you can do the following: 

• Distinguish between failure messages (which are the cause, and which are the symptoms 

of the cause) 

• Determine the root cause of failure 

• Provide an impact analysis of a failure 

• Diagnose and filter unwanted messages 

• Respond to dynamically changing environments 

WEB REPORTING SERVER 

The Web Reporting Server (WRS) provides access to the Web-based reporting mechanisms 

that are distributed with the product and includes services to register an application, 

manage data sources, and to manage and process the report. WRS provides detailed out- 


of-the-box reports that are installed with Unicenter NSM. These capabilities are 

complementary to the reporting capabilities provided by the performance management 

aspects of the Service Availability Management solution. 

WRS is driven by report profiles that include information such as data source definition, 

query definition and report styling information. For data that lends itself to presentations 

using charts and tables; WRS includes support for charts, tables, or combinations of same 

and further supports a summary version of reports suitable for inclusion in Portal 

workplaces. The multiple types of chart presentations supported in WRS includes (but is not 

limited to) line, area, bar, pie, stack area, and stack bar. WRS also includes facilities that 

can be used to configure a report, schedule the report for execution, and publish a new 

report definition or report result. 

WRS provides an explorer-style GUI that lets you browse the reports and perform certain 

administrative tasks, such as managing the data source, configuring, scheduling and 

publishing a report. 

MANAGEMENT PORTAL 

The Unicenter Management Portal (Unicenter MP) provides a personalized secure web 

interface for Unicenter NSM solutions, addressing customers’ needs for role-based 

management, management by exception, simplicity of use, and helping to deliver IT as a 

service. Using Unicenter MP, you can provide consolidated status information from multiple 

sources in a single view, visual correlation between infrastructure management 

applications, filtered event notifications tailored to roles and responsibilities, dynamic web 

reporting, and high-level report summary and graphs suited to non-IT users. 

Unicenter MP is an important part of the Unicenter NSM family of IT infrastructure 

management solutions. These comprehensive, value-added products ensure the health and 

optimal performance of every aspect of your IT environment. 

Unicenter MP provides a framework for accessing enterprise management data, but not the 

generation of data itself. It relies on other Unicenter NSM products to provide the enterprise 

management information. Unicenter MP complements MCC by providing a web-based 

management interface as well as a flexible integration point for other applications. 

Note: Unicenter NSM is also used for system and server management. For detailed 

information on additional components for systems management, see the Systems 

Management Green Book on www.ca.com. 


Performance Management Capabilities 

The Performance Management component of Service Availability Management is 

implemented with eHealth. The following components would be directly applicable to 

managing performance of a service: 

Required Components 

E2E Console 

Optional Components 

Live Health 

Report Center 

E2E CONSOLE 

The E2E Console is the core of an eHealth implementation and is required to operate 

eHealth. The E2E Console includes database, discovery, and poller functionality along with 

administration GUIs, reporting GUIs, and so on. eHealth licenses (universal and system) 

enable the eHealth Console to poll and collect data from certified devices with an embedded 

management software agent, and are required to operate eHealth. An element represents 

the eHealth model, or representation, for any part of an infrastructure that eHealth can 

analyze. eHealth can analyze a physical element, such as a specific port on a specific card 

of a specific router. It can also analyze a logical element, which refers to the logical purpose 

for a device or component, such as a network link. To determine if a device is certified for 

use with eHealth, log on to the Certification pages at http://support.concord.com. 

Note: You must have a Support account to access the http://support.concord.com site. You 

obtain an account with the purchase of the eHealth products. 

LIVE HEALTH 

Live Health is the real-time performance monitoring engine that analyzes performance data 

collected with eHealth for deviations from normal behavior and threshold violations. Live 

Health includes three components: 

• Live Exceptions gives you the ability to generate and display performance-based alarms. 

• Live Status provides a single end-to-end view of the status of your infrastructure. 

• Live Trend provides a real-time reporting capability. 

REPORT CENTER 

eHealth Report Center is an optional reporting application available with eHealth Release 

6.0 and later. It offers an alternative to the eHealth Report Developer Language (RDL), 

which is used to customize the standard eHealth reports. Report Center allows users to 

create and customize entirely new types of eHealth reports. These reports can answer 

different types of questions about the performance of network, system, and application 

resources. 

Report Center offers a large amount of flexibility with customization, and has many 

capabilities that allow users to manipulate the appearance of reports, and how existing 

eHealth data is represented. It offers a web-based, Windows folder-style interface which 

users can change based on their preferences. This intuitive interface makes it easy to 

quickly identify, view, and run reports. Report Center provides valuable sample reports that 

users can run to view the performance of their resources, or use as templates when 

creating new reports. 


eHealth is also delivers network focused performance management capabilities. For more 

detailed information on the capabilities and deployment of eHealth please see the CA 

Network and Voice Management Green Book, at www.ca.com. 

Deployment Architecture 

The deployment focus of this Green Book is to how to deploy Unicenter NSM and eHealth to 

provide event and performance management across a variety of management domains. 

This section provides best practices only for this type of deployment. The diagram below 

indicates where the Unicenter NSM and eHealth components are deployed. 

The diagram above highlights the key products which can be integrated into the Service 

Availability Management solution. These solutions will be deployed on separate servers. 

There are separate chapters for each of these integrations describing how to configure and 

use them. 


Hardware and Software Requirements and Sizing 

This section provides the hardware and software requirements and sizing recommendations 

to deploy the Service Availability Management event and performance components. 

Event Manager Requirements 

Technical Specifications for Unicenter NSM 

Windows 

Minimum System Requirements 

Dual Pentium IV Server with 

minimum 3.0 GHz CPU(s) 

Operating Systems 

Windows 2003: Standard, 

Enterprise 

SNMP installed 

Memory 

4 GB 

Swap Space 

6 GB 

Free Disk Space 

40 G 


Performance Manager Requirements 

Use the eHealth Sizing Wizard to determine the appropriate environment requirements. You 

can access the eHealth Sizing Wizard via www.concord.com/sizing/swiz. The following table 

reflects the minimum software and hardware requirements: 

Technical Specifications for eHealth 6.0 

Minimum System 

Requirements 

UNIX 

Sun or HP server with 

minimum 900 MHz CPU(s) 

Windows 

Server with minimum 2.0 GHz 

CPU(s) 

Operating 

Systems 

Solaris 9, 10 (32 and 64-bit) 

Windows 2003: Standard, 

Enterprise 

HP-UX 11.i, 11.23 (64-bit) 

Windows Manager 

OpenWindows, OSF/Motif, 

CDE 

Memory 3 GB 3 GB 

Swap Space 6 GB 6 GB 

Free Disk Space 

80 GB (includes eHealth files, 

Oracle, database, and DB 

backup location) 

(NTFS Format) 82 GB (includes 

eHealth files, Oracle, database, 

third-party applications, and DB 

backup location) 

If you use the optional Report 

Center capability, add 50% 

more disk space and 1 GB 

more memory. 

If you use the optional Report 

Center capability, add 50% more 

disk space and 1 GB more memory. 

Web Browser Mozilla 1.7 (or higher) Mozilla 1.7 (or higher) 

Internet Explorer 6 (or higher) 

Mozilla Firefox 1.x 


Chapter 5: Setting Up and Using 

the Service Availability 

Management Pack 

This chapter describes how Unicenter NSM and the Service Availability Management (SAM) 

Pack streamline the process of integrating events from across the enterprise. The following 

key topics are presented: 

• Overview and Value of the Management Pack 

• How the SAM Pack Works 

• Installing the SAM Pack 

• Configuring the SAM Pack 

• Getting Started 

• Sample Scenario for Implementing the SAM Pack 

Overview and Value of the Management Pack 

In a typical multi-tier Event Management deployment, infrastructure faults can originate 

from anywhere - including mainframe systems, UNIX and Windows platforms and more. 

The Service Availability Management (SAM) Pack provides the tools and the best practice 

guidelines for making sense of those faults by: 

• Mapping infrastructure faults and alerts (events) to specific IT Services 

• Mapping Servers (CI) to Business Impact (calendar based, importance level association, 

scalable and secure mappings) 

• Filtering non-significant events and automatically suppressing duplicate events to 

streamline the Event Console views 

• Performing Root Cause Analysis (including cause and action list) 

• Normalizing message formats 

The SAM Pack, however, is more than just a point solution. It is key part of Enterprise IT 

Management (EITM). 

The SAM Pack uses prewritten scripts and policy packs to leverage the functionality that is 

already provided in your Unicenter NSM solution to effectively apply accepted fault 

management and reporting best practices in your environment. 

Included in the SAM Pack are policy packs, custom WorldView Instance Level Property 

(ILPs) definitions, sample reports, Custom Menus, Custom Actions and AEC rules. A 

configuration wizard is provided to guide you through the process of defining server 

importance, identifying the impact of specific IT services, and selecting the appropriate 

notification method. Alert queues, classes and custom Message Records and Actions (MRA) 

policy are automatically generated based on your selections. 


The SAM Pack includes a maintenance flag option to temporarily suspend alert generation 

(on either server or service level) during regular server maintenance, and supports hours of 

service calendars and escalation policies. 

It addition, the SAM Pack incorporates key component monitoring functions pertinent to IT 

Services that feed events to SAM. This ensures that any infrastructure faults that could 

impact IT Service are not missed. For example, if the Remote Event Agent node is expected 

to forward faults that are relevant to SAP Manufacturing process, but the link between that 

node server and the SAM Server is down, this fault will be detected by the SAM Pack 

Component Monitoring Component and reported as such. 

How the SAM Pack Works 

When the SAM Pack is implemented, events are analyzed at the local level and, if deemed 

significant, automatically forwarded to a central node for further analysis (which SAM 

expects to be Windows-based). 

There are several stages in the SAM process flow: 

• Stage 1: Infrastructure Event Monitoring and Detection 

An event, such as an application error, threshold exception or security breach is 

detected. 

• Stage 2: Event collection and classification 

All events are reviewed as received; redundant events are removed and, the remaining 

events are classified. If the infrastructure fault is deemed significant, the event is 

normalized and forwarded to the central server for impact analysis. A copy of the 

normalized message format is provided in the appendix. 

With pre-supplied policy packs, non-significant events are filtered out at the source 

level. For the purposes of compliance and auditing, these events are still logged but not 

forwarded over to the central console for notification, incident management or root 

cause analysis. 

If an event is classified as significant alert, it goes through the duplicate intelligence 

logic to see if the same problem has already been reported in the last x seconds (for 

example, in the last 300 seconds). If so, the event is logged but no further impact 

analysis is carried out. 

• Stage 3: Source Server Importance 

When the fault is received at the central node, a check is made to determine if the 

server on which the fault originated is classified with an Importance level. If not, the 

fault is classed as low impact and sent to the Unicenter NSM Console using SendOper. 

No additional checks are made. 

• Stage 4: IT Service Mapping 

If the server is classified as having a High or Medium impact, then the business impact 

of the fault is ascertained. The business impact of the event is mapped to an affected 

service using highly customized AEC policy. Service classification and impact is defined 

in the MDB and presented visually through a Business Process View. 

If the event is classified as a significant alert, it is assigned a unique Service Mapping 

code (Fault ID) before it is sent to the central console. 


• Stage 5: Notification and Incident Creation 

Notification is made based on policy (configured in AMS and ANS) and, for severe 

events, an incident may be opened for the impacted Configuration Item (CI). 

• Stage 6: Recommended Actions Provided 

Depending on which policy packs have been installed, probable cause and suggested 

actions are provided through a Knowledge Document, tied to the FaultID. 

To be truly effective, the SAM Pack must also be considered part of an ongoing process of 

fault management, therefore, you should periodically review the Console Logs and SAM 

reports to determine if your current event classification and notification policies require 

adjustment. You may find, for example, that a particular server or service has either a 

greater or lesser business impact than you initially thought. 

Installing the SAM Pack 

The SAM Pack is available for download from SupportConnect. In addition to this Getting 

Started Guide, the download includes all necessary policy files, scripts and tools. An easyto-use 

configuration wizard is provided to simplify installation and setup. 

This section addresses the following topics: 

• Essential Business Resources 

• Prerequisites 

• Installation 

• Post-Installation Steps 

Note: The SAM Pack provides support for the Windows platform only. 

Essential Business Resources 

Before implementing the SAM Pack you should take a moment to identify the essential 

business components you need to monitor that are critical to your business’s continuity. 

This could include applications, hardware utilization, network response time, and so forth. 

Determine the way these resources should be monitored to ensure they are up and running 

24/7. 

For example, if you use the Windows System Agent, determine what specific resource 

metrics you need to monitor in order for your business to function. This could include 

specific application processes, services, file existence or even directory size or existence. By 

identifying these metrics beforehand you can then more effectively model how to use the 

SAM Pack to obtain full enterprise monitoring of your essential business resources. 

Prerequisites 

In order to use the SAM Pack, Unicenter NSM r11.x must already be installed. A list of 

specific components is provided in the next section. 

Since Unicenter NSM r11.x is service-aware, it supports automatic creation of Unicenter 

Service Desk (Unicenter SD) help tickets. Bi-directional integration between the 

Unicenter Alert Management System (AMS) and Unicenter SD ensures that when Unicenter 

SD incident tickets are closed, the corresponding AMS incident is closed as well. 


Installation of Unicenter SD is optional; however, although the SAM Pack design allows 

incidents to be created for other help desk solutions, integration for these other solutions is 

not included in the current SAM Pack. 

The SAM Pack requires previous installation of the following Unicenter NSM components: 

• Alert Management System (AMS) 

• Unicenter Notification Service 

• Event Management Server and Client 

• Management Command Center (MCC). This is required to administer AMS 

• Agent Technology Manager 

The CA_TND_HOME system variable is typically defined by the Unicenter NSM installation 

process. However, if it has not been defined, manually define it and set it to point to the 

Unicenter NSM WVEM directory. For example: 

C:\Program Files\CA\SharedComponents\CCS\WVEM 

Agent Technology granularity is automatically applied but can be customized, as needed, 

based on your particular business monitoring requirements. Further details regarding 

granularity for Agent Technology, can be found in the Inside Systems Management Guide. 

Installation 

After verifying the prerequisites, you are ready to install the SAM Pack. 

To install the SAM Pack 

1. Extract the contents of the samp.zip file to a temporary folder and execute the 

following command: 

install.cmd 


2. Ensure that the installation path correctly identifies the Unicenter NSM installation 

location (which should match the CA_TNG_HOME environment variable setting) and 

click Continue to proceed. If the path is not accurate, correct the path before clicking 

Continue. 

3. When prompted, click Yes to continue. 

If you click No, the installation program will proceed; however, several key Message 

Record Action policies will not be applied. 

4. When prompted to define WorldView classes for IT Services, click Yes if these service 

definitions already exist. 

This will apply any updates that have been made to the ILPs for those classes. 

The following is an example of WorldView classes prior to this step: 


a. Responding Yes to this prompt triggers execution of the samp_triximport.cmd, 

which you can see in the following example: 

b. The results can be seen in the following example: 

If these service definitions already exist, however, click No. Otherwise, click Yes, to 

initiate update of the ILPs. 


5. When prompted to copy Knowledge Documents, click Yes. 

Note: If you have modified any of these documents be sure to make a copy prior to 

responding “Yes.” 

6. When the installation completes you are prompted to launch the Configuration Wizard. 

Click No. 

The installation is complete. 

Post-Installation Steps 

Although Perl is not required, if you want to customize the way that Instance Level 

Properties are updated or if you want to modify the cache list, you can use the sample Perl 

file (samp_ServerClassification.pl) that is included in the Solution Pack. This file is located 

in the following directory: 

%CA_TND_HOME%\samp\bin 

If you have not already done so, copy the Perl extensions to your Perl library as follows: 

Copy %CA_TND_HOME%\samp\PerlExt\lib\UNI to \LIB directory 

Copy %CA_TND_HOME%\samp\PerlExt\lib\AUTO\UNI to \LIB\Auto 

directory 

After verifying that the files have been copied, proceed to the next section for details on 

configuring the SAM Pack. 


Configuring the SAM Pack 

This section reviews the process of configuring the Service Availability Management Pack. 

The following topics are covered: 

• The SAM Pack Configuration Wizard 

• Supported Notification Methods 

• Service Desk Notification Method Considerations 

• Email Notification Method Considerations 

• Pager Notification Method Considerations 

• Notification Confirmation Messages 

The SAM Pack Configuration Wizard: 

The configuration wizard for the SAM Pack performs the following functions: 

• Clones the AMS queue and classes (including defining service desk flags if the notification 

method for service is “servicedesk”), and set up alarms for high impact services 

• Generates pertinent Message Records and Actions Policy (MRAs) 

• Clones customized Advanced Event Correlation (AEC) policy for each identified service 

• Defines WorldView objects and copies them to the relevant business impact CI 

• Generates customized MRAs based on notification method selections (for example, email, 

SMS, SendKeep) 

• Maintains server classification class lists 

• Defines additional WorldView Instance Level Properties (ILPs) 

• Defines new WorldView classes 

Before you start the Configuration Wizard, however, carefully review your environment to 

identify and classify both the importance and business impact of servers and services. 

Assess whether hours of service or escalation policies are required and determine which 

notification methods are most appropriate. 

Supported Notification Methods 

Each defined IT Service must be associated with one of the following notification methods: 

• ServiceDesk 

• Email 

• Pager 

• SendKeep with Alert 

• Custom Method 

• SendKeep without Alert 

• IIF Workflow 

• Custom Method without Alert 

The same notification methods are also applicable to Unknown IT Service and for 

Component Monitoring. 


When selected, the ServiceDesk, Email, Pager, SendKeep with Alert and Custom Method 

notification methods also generate an AMS alert. The remaining methods do not. 

Note: Although AMS provides extensive alert management features, such as escalation 

policies, it is not designed to handle a large number of alerts. Therefore, if you anticipate 

that a selected IT Service will generate a significant number of faults, you should consider 

selecting a notification method that does not generate AMS alerts. 

When Service Desk, Pager or Custom (with or without Alert) is selected as the notification 

method, the wizard provides an optional Notification Data field which lets you enter 

additional details for that method. For example, you can use it to override default Service 

Tags for Unicenter Service Desk. This field is disabled for all other notification methods. 

The Pager notification method triggers execution of the samp_notify.cmd file, sending the 

following required data to the script: 

:: Arguments Passed 

:: Notification Method 

:: Notification Specific Data 

:: Rest as Normalized Text 

:: Fault Class (1) 

:: Fault ID (2) 

:: Device Name (3) 

:: Device Importance (4) 

:: Device Class (5) 

:: Resource Name (6) 

:: Resource Instance (7) 

:: Service Name (8) 

:: Service Importance (9) 

:: Old State (10) 

:: New State (11) 

:: Short Description (12-14) 

Modify this script to include the appropriate pager details. If the Unicenter Notification 

Service has been customized for SMS (Pager), this should be changed to the unotify 

command with the required parameters. 

When either Custom Method or Custom Method without Alert is selected, SAM evaluates 

message id E2RCUSTOM, which by default generates normalized SendOper. For Custom 

Method without Alert, an AMS alert is also generated. 

If additional customization, such as generation of a non-Unicenter SD help desk ticket is 

required, then this is what should be customized. 

Service Desk Notification Method Considerations 

When ServiceDesk is selected as the notification method, the following actions occur: 

• AMS alerts will be generated for each significant fault 

• If an email recipient address is specified, an email will be composed and sent to that 

address 

• Alert Management Classes will automatically be configured to open a Unicenter Service 

Desk incident, based on Service Tag settings. 


Here you can see an example of a Unicenter Service Desk ticket that was opened in 

response to a fault: 

Following is the resulting acknowledgement: 

In order to use this method, Unicenter Service Desk must already be installed and the AMS 

global definitions must be updated to include the necessary Unicenter Service Desk details. 

To do this using the Enterprise Management Class GUI, execute the following from a 

command prompt: 

caugui amsglobal 


To perform the updates through the Management Command Center 

1. Select Enterprise Management from left pane drop-down list. 

Note: If there are multiple Enterprise Management Servers listed, then select SAM 

Server 

2. Select Alert Management Global Definition 

3. Double-click Launch Alert Global Definition. 

4. In Alert Global Definition – Detail, define the following fields for the IT Service: 

› URI (Uniform Resource Identifier). Identifies the address of the web server on 

your Unicenter Service Desk Primary Server. 

For Unicenter Service Desk 6.0, the default is 

http://server[:port]/usd_ws/usd_ws.asmx 

For Unicenter Service Desk r11.x, the default is 

http://servername[:port]/axis/services/USD_WebServiceSoap 

› Note that if Unicenter Service Desk is hosted on a secure web server (indicated 

by “https” in the URI) you must import the server’s SSL certificate to the server 

on which AMS is hosted. Refer to the Install the Service Desk SSL Certificate 

procedure included in the Unicenter NSM Inside Event Management and Alert 

Management Guide for details. 

5. Save your changes 

• User ID. Identifies the user ID needed to access Unicenter Service 

Desk. 

• Password. Corresponding password for the above user. 

For further details regarding the URI format, review the Help file or the section 

How the Integration with Unicenter Service Desk Works from the Unicenter 

NSM Inside Event Management and Alert Management Guide. 

6. Choose View, Options from the main menu in the Management Command Center. 

The User Options window appears with the General page open. 


7. Click the Connections tab. 

The Connections page appears. 

8. Enter the Service Desk release number and the URL to access the Service Desk web 

server, for example, http://servername/CAisd/pdmweb.exe. 

Note: For release 6.0, also enter the URL for the Knowledge Base. 

The following Service Tags are used to determine how the Unicenter Service Desk incident 

ticket is created: 

SDTicketType = I 

Sets the Service Desk ticket type. By default, this is “I” (incident). 

SDPriority = 

Sets the priority of the Alert 

SDSummary = 'SAMP - ITService[] BusinessImpact[&2] 

Device[&device] Instance[&udata] NewState[&13]' 

Overrides the Incident Summary data. is replaced with the 

description of the service. This is same as what is displayed on the Management 

Command Center Alert pane. 

By default, Service Tag settings apply to all defined IT Services. To specify different Service 

Tags for a particular IT Service, include those Service Tags as part of the Notification Data. 

Note, however, that this will override all default Service Tags for that IT Service. Therefore, 

you will need to re-enter all required Service Tags – not just the tags that you need to 

override. 

The literal is automatically replaced with mapped importance level of the 

Alert. Keep in mind that SAM supports two different severity models. If the Impact is 

mapped to the importance level of the device, then Service Desk priority is mapped to the 

importance of the Device. If the impact level is mapped to the Impact of the IT Service, 

then the Service Desk priority is mapped to the impact level of the IT Service. 

Unicenter Service Desk uses the following priority mapping: 

• 1= HIGH Priority 

• 2= MEDIUM-HIGH Priority 

• 3= MEDIUM Priority 

• 4= MEDIUM-LOW Priority 

• 5= LOW Priority 

The ServiceDesk notification method automatically maps the High, Medium and Low Alert 

importance levels to the corresponding Unicenter Service Desk priorities (1, 3 and 5 

respectively). To change the priority mapping defaults, update the following options in the 

samp.dat initialization file: 

• ServiceDesk_LowPriority=5 

• ServiceDesk_MediumPriority=3 

• ServiceDesk_HighPriority=1 


These options are not customizable from the SAM Pack configuration wizard. 

For a more detailed description on the Service Tags review the “Service Desk Tags in Event 

and AEC Policy” section in the Inside Event Management and Alert Management guide. For 

more information on the samp.dat file review Section 6. 

Email Notification Method Considerations 

AMS alerts are also generated when Email is selected as the notification method. Therefore, 

you need to supply a recipient email address. To send an email notification to a group of 

people specify the Email group name in the recipient email address. 

Note: If a recipient email address is provided but the notification method is not “Email” an 

email will be sent, however, no AMS alert will be generated. 

The following graphic is an example of a Fault Notification email: 

A similar format is used for a Repaired State notification; however, in addition, SAM will 

automatically do the following: 

• Delete the Sendkeep message for Sendkeep notification 

• If an Alert has been generated, that Alert will be closed for the same device and incident. 

in 


Pager Notification Method Considerations 

AMS Alerts are also generated when Pager is selected as the notification method, however, 

if you select this method you will also need to provide additional information, such as 

service provider and protocol details. These options can be customized through the 

Unicenter Notification Services GUI. 

To update Service Provider details enter the following command: 

caugui NOTIFYPROV 

Once the updates have been made, update the update samp_notify.cmd to execute 

unotify.cmd. 

Notification Confirmation Messages 

For auditing purposes the following two types of notification confirmation messages are also 

generated: 

• Fault ID AMS0001 

• Fault ID AMS0002 

Fault ID AMS0001 is generated only if an AMS alert is triggered. Otherwise, Fault ID 

AMS0002 is used. 

Regardless of which Fault ID is used, each notification message includes an annotation to 

provide Normalized message text for the original fault. These messages are color coded 

based on the Alert Impact level as follows: 

• Red = High Impact 

• Orange = Medium Impact 

• Blue = Low Impact 

Alert impact can be based either on device (such as a server) or IT service severity. 


Getting Started 

This section describes how to get started with the SAM Pack in your installation. 

1. Launch the Configuration Wizard, select from the Windows Startup menu: Computer 

Associates, Unicenter, NSM, SAM Pack, SAM Pack Configuration Wizard, or execute the 

following command: 

%ca_tnd_home%\samp\bin\samp_configwiz.exe 

2. Click Next to proceed. 

Note: Once you have started the Configuration Wizard, you should proceed through all 

of the dialogs until the wizard completes. This will enable you to save your 

configuration selections for re-use the next time you launch the wizard. 


The wizard will prompt you to provide MDB login information, including the name of the 

Logical Repository (which is “SAMPServer_WV” in the following example). 

Note: The logical repository must already exist before the configuration wizard is run – 

if it does not currently exist, it will not be created by the wizard. To define a new logical 

repository, select from the Windows Start menu: Unicenter, NSM, WorldView, Define 

Logical Repository, or click the Define button on the MDB Login dialog. 

3. Supply the repository details and click Validate logon to verify that the connection is 

valid. 

4. Click Next to continue, and then click Next to begin configuring the Unicenter 

Notification Service Option. 


Specifying Severity Model and Notification Service Details 

Use the Notification Configuration Dialog to provide SMTP server name and From Email 

Address details if Email notification will be used. 

This dialog also includes the following two Alert Impact Configuration options: 

• Alert Management System Severity based on IT Service Severity. This is the 

default severity model. In this case, the Alert Management System (AMS) class and 

priority generated for these alerts will be based on the Importance Level of the IT Service 

• Alert Management System Severity based on Device Severity. If this option 

selected, the AMS class and priority for generated alerts will be based on the Importance 

level of the device. 

If you later decide to change the severity model after IT Services have been defined, you 

will be prompted to select “Generate AMS” on the Service Configuration dialog in order to 

redefine Message Record Actions based on the new Severity Model. 

Defining an IT Service 

For servers categorized with Medium or High importance, the business impact of the faulted 

service will be analyzed. Although a server may be classified as being of High Importance, 

the faulted service running on that server may not necessarily be considered to have a high 

impact. For example, an internet banking application may be classed with an importance 

level of High; however, if a specific service for that application is running on several servers 

in a web farm, the impact of that service when a single one of those servers fails may not 

be high because it will still be accessible from the other servers. Thus, the internet banking 

IT Service can be ranked Medium impact despite the server’s High impact ranking. 

This functionality leverages both Business Process Views (for service and business impact 

association) and AEC (for EMS/WV integration). R11 provides granularity at different levels 

– this can also be used for selected servers. Service classification allows for these 

granularity objects to be associated with the different categories of the service. 


Assigning IT Service Impact 

IT Service Impact is defined through the IT Service Configuration dialog. 

To define IT Service Impact 

1. Click Update Services to view and modify (or delete) the list of existing services. 


2. To update a service, select that service from the list and click the Update Service 

button. This displays current details for that service. See the following graphic as an 

example. 

Note: The Service Name and Service Description cannot be changed from this dialog. If 

this needs to modified, you must first delete the service and recreate it. 

3. Otherwise, make the necessary updates and click Update. 

4. To delete a service from this list, select it and click Delete Service. 

You will be prompted to confirm this selection. Note that the corresponding AMS classes 

and queue will not be deleted. However, by deleting the IT Service object and removing 

Message Record Action, no further alerts will be added to this AMS classes. Before 

manually removing those classes and queues, review any existing Alerts and respond 

accordingly. 

5. To delete classes from the Management Command Center (MCC): 

a. Select Enterprise Management from the left pane and select Alert Classes. 

b. You can also use the Enterprise Management Class UIs perform this action by 

executing: 

caugui amsclass 

caugui amsqueue 

c. For Alert classes, select HIGH, MEDIUM and LOW classes and click Delete. 


d. To delete queue, select Alert Queues, select the service, and click Delete. 

6. To add a new IT Service to this list, provide the following details for that service and 

click Add Service: 

› Service Name 

› Service Description 

› Service Impact 

› Notification Method (see previous section for details) 

› Recipient Email Address 

› Notification Data 

Note: The Notification Data field is only valid for Custom, ServiceDesk and Pager 

notification methods. 

The necessary WorldView IT Service objects will be created, along with the relevant AMS 

queue and classes. In addition, a customized MRA for the service will be generated and 

loaded. 

7. Once you have finished adding services, launch the MCC or catng2d (2DRepeat this 

procedure until all required IT Services have been added. 

8. Map in design mode) and drag and drop pertinent WorldView objects for this service. 



Setting Granularity and Unknown IT Service Configurations 

If the device importance is High or Medium but the device itself is not associated with an IT 

Service, it is allocated to the default IT Service of Unknown. Use the IT Service Options 

dialog to enable configuration of a notification method for the Unknown IT Service. See the 

following example of IT Service Options. 

To associate a device with the IT Services container and thereby avoid classifying it as an 

Unknown IT Service, there must be a WorldView object for that device and its services. For 

information on how to create WorldView objects that can then be added to the IT Services 

container, see the Creating WorldView Objects later in this section. 

GRANULARITY OPTIONS 

By default, SAM automatically defines the required WorldView granularity classes and any 

additional required instance level properties (ILPs), based on which of the policy packs are 

applied. 

In larger deployments, however, when there are a significant number of objects in the 

MDB, potential scalability concerns can be addressed through the Enable Granularity by 

Host Name option. When this option is selected, the AT WorldView Gateway (aws_wvgate) 

does not create granular instance objects unless granularity is explicitly set for the agent on 

that particular host. 

The process of manually selecting host-specific granularity occurs after the configuration 

wizard completes and utilizes additional Action menu selections that are added to both the 

MCC and 2D Map. Complete details are provided in the Post-Installation section in this 

section. 


Using a Service Calendar 

The Enable service calendar for monitoring suspension option lets you periodically suspend 

monitoring for this service based on an associated hours of service calendar. 

Monitoring Components 

For SAM Pack impact analysis and notification to occur properly, all required components 

must be able to communicate with each other and perform their designated functions. If, 

for example, the Event Manager is unable to communicate with the SAM Server, then the 

significant faults from that server will not be reported to the SAM Server and, consequently, 

the business impact will not be analyzed. 


The likelihood of this happening can be minimized by taking the appropriate steps through 

the design of your architecture and through the use of Component Monitoring. 

Select the Enable Component Monitoring checkbox to enable this option and optionally 

modify the default monitoring interval of 30 minutes. The interval is expressed in minutes 

and must be between 5 and 1440. 

Specify an email address to be notified in the event faults messages are either not being 

forwarded or are backlogged. This insures that notification is received in a timely manner – 

and not merely added to the backlog. 

Component Monitoring helps you ensure that events are forwarded from remote Event 

Managers to the SAM Pack server. For more details on implementing component monitoring 

procedures, consult Appendix B of the SAM Pack Getting Started Guide. 


Identifying a Central Event Node 

Next, you will be prompted to identify the central Event Management node. This should be 

local node where the SAM Pack manager component has been installed. For example: 

Duplicate fault messages are automatically suppressed. To be classified as a duplicate, the 

following conditions must be met: 

• Fault must originate from same device with same instance name and with the same old 

and new state 

• Same fault occurs in last x seconds. 

The default is 300 seconds but can be configured by changing the interval value. The valid 

range is 30 seconds to 3600 seconds. 

Note: Additional advanced configuration options are provided to allow you to customize 

how duplicates are reported (DuplicateAction) and to detect potential message storms 

(DuplicateCount). 

To customize how duplicates are reported 

1. If you select the Enable wizard verbose and debug option you will see additional 

prompts during the policy pack configuration process. 

2. Use the Enable Policy Pack Debug Option to dynamically turn on debugging for the 

Policy Pack. 

This activates SendOper message actions for the transient messages associated in Alert 

classification. 

3. After you make your selections, click Next to proceed. 


Configuring and Generating AEC Policy 

The next step is to configure and generate AEC policy. The AEC Refresh Period option 

identifies the frequency with which AEC refreshes its cache for the IT Services. If you have 

added a new device to an IT Service, it will not be added to the AEC cache until the current 

AEC Refresh Period expires. 

To configure and generate AEC policy 

1. To verify which services have been identified, click List Services. 

2. Click Build Policy to define custom AEC policy for the services you identified and load it 

into the MDB and AEC engine. 

This step will also make a backup of the AEC policy prior to making any changes. 

Note: If you do not refresh AEC policy after making changes, such as adding a new IT 

Service, the system may not function correctly. For this reason you will be prompted to 

refresh AEC policy whenever you make a change that will impact AEC policy. 



Implementing Policy Packs 

Use the Policy Pack Configuration dialog to select which policies to load. If you have already 

completed the configuration wizard, you can proceed directly to the Policy Packs dialogs. 

See below for an example of the SAM Pack Configuration Wizard. 

Note: The Policy Pack button does not appear until after the configuration wizard has been 

successfully completed. 

To implement policy packs 

1. Select the desired policy pack from the list of available policy packs and 

2. Specify the Event Manager on which it should be loaded. 

When you click Build and Load Policy customized Message Record Actions for that policy 

pack will be generated and added to the MDB. The SAM Event Node will also be notified 

that an opreload command must be executed in order to put these policies into effect. 

3. If there are a number of remote Event nodes, select the Build Remote Node Package 

option. 

This converts the selected policy pack into cautil format and stores them in the 

%CA_TNG_HOME%\SAMP\Deploy directory where they can be bundled into a Software 

Distribution package and pushed out to the remote nodes. The required granular 

classes will also be included. 

Note: For information on creating and loading custom policy packs, see to the section 

Custom Policy Packs later in this guide. 


When the Enable wizard verbose and debug option has been enabled, you will see 

additional prompts if the selected policy requires granularity: 

4. Select Yes to verify that the required granularity classes exist. If they do not exist, they 

will be created automatically. Otherwise, if you do not want to verify granularity 

classes, click No. 

5. For security reasons, to deploy policy packs on remote Event Nodes you must ensure 

your current login ID is authorized to execute commands on the Remote Event Node. 

To authorize your current login id to execute commands on the Remote Event Node, 

add your user ID to “Remote Event Manager” users authorized to execute command. 

This can be defined in different forms such as @. 

See the graphic below for an example of EM Settings. 


6. For additional information, use the Help menu. 

7. Important! Ensure that cautil test fix Q085194 is applied to all Event Managers where 

the policy pack will be installed. 

Otherwise, the cautil commands will hang, making it appear that the SAM Pack wizard 

is hung. 

8. Once all the policy packs are loaded, click Next to proceed. 

Classifying Servers 

The next step is to define default importance levels for Important classes. The Server 

Classification Configuration dialog lists all WorldView classes that are subject to Importance 

Level classification. 

Note: By default, SAM does not display classes for WorkStation, however, if you do have 

key components installed on a workstation, you can change them by updating the following 

option in the “%CA_TND_HOME%\SAMP\Config\SAMP.dat initialization file: 

ServerHostClasses=Host,Agent 

To remove an existing class, select it and click Remove. 


To add a class 

1. Click Add Class (for example, WinA3_ProcInst and WinA3_SrvsInst). 

2. Click Next to continue. 

3. Select the appropriate Default Importance Level radio button (Low, Medium or High). 

4. Select the classes for which that importance level will apply and click Commit to 

allocate the default importance level to those classes. 

5. Repeat until all the important classes are classified. 

Note: If granularity is not in effect, there is no need to classify default importance on 

the class level. 

The only classes displayed will be those which have not been associated with the 

Importance Level. This will also be the case when a commit is selected. It will refresh 

the list and remove the classes from the list that have been committed. 


Infrastructure alerts from classes which are not classified are classed as non-significant 

and, therefore, are not sent to AMS. Instead, their messages are normalized with 

SENDOPER MRA. Further, Server Impact analysis will not be conducted for them. The same 

notification process and non-significant classification applies to devices which are classed as 

Low Importance (either through the ILP or default class setting). 

To change the Importance Level of a class 

1. First remove the class 

2. Click Add Class. 

3. Click Return to go back to the Server Classification Dialog. 

4. When you have finished modifying the class list, click Next. 

If the configuration wizard detects a problem while defining the required ILP you will 

see a dialog prompting you to initiate creation of custom ILPs for the selected server 

classes. 

5. Click Next to define custom ILP properties for the classified classes. Do not change the 

selections on this dialog. 

6. Click Next to Proceed. 

Refreshing the Cache for Server Importance 

The next step is to refresh the EvtAds cache with the list of devices and their associated 

Importance Level. If the Importance Level is not set, the Default Importance level for that 

class is used. 


To refresh the EvtAds cache with the list of devices 

1. The cache list can be refreshed and loaded dynamically as part of normal housekeeping 

by executing the following command: 

RefreshServerCache.cmd 

The cache will also be automatically refreshed by the Component Monitor program, 

which picks up any changes made since the previous interval. 

2. If customization is required, then update the Perl script. However, you should make a 

backup copy of the script prior to making any changes. To execute the Perl script, run 

the following commands: 

cd /d %CA_TND_HOME%\samp\bin 

perl samp_ServerClassification.pl 

3. Click Next to save the updates. 

Saving Changes 

Next, you must save your changes. You will be prompted to save your changes to the SAM 

options file (samp.dat). If you do not save the changes, you will have to repeat the 

customization the next time you launch wizard. 

Performing Post-Configuration Steps 

Once the configuration wizard completes, you will need to perform the following steps 

manually: 

• Specify host-level granularity if Enable Granularity by Hostname has been selected 

• Update Server Importance ILPs 

• Map objects to IT Services. 

Note: This last step does not apply if business impact analysis is based on server 

severity rather than IT service severity. 


SETTING GRANULARITY BY HOSTNAME 

If you selected Enable Granularity by Hostname, the next step is to identify the specific 

hosts and granularity levels required. When this option is selected, the DSM Managed 

Object scoping entries are automatically updated to add loaded policy pack granular classes 

to unmanaged status. 

Note: This does not stop DSM monitoring. 


It will also add the following menus to the 2D Map for all agents and servers: 

To identify specific hosts and granularity levels required 

1. To set granularity for a particular agent, navigate to that agent and select Actions, Set 

Granularity (for SAMP). 

These options will be added as Actions in the MCC for agents only. 

Note: Granularity can later be deselected for that agent by selecting Actions, Unset 

Granularity (for SAMP). 

2. To set granularity through the MCC, select the agent and execute the Action Set 

Granularity for those agents where granularity is desired. 

3. After this is done for all agents, stop and restart the aws_wvgate service. 


4. If agent objects already exist, you need to first delete the existing objects for that class 

using the Agent Technology: Repository Monitor (agtrmon) dialog. See the following 

example of that window. 

Note: If later you unset the Enable Granularity by Hostname option, it will delete the 

menus from the 2D Map, as well as the MCC. 

UPDATING SERVER AND SERVICE IMPORTANCE ILPS 

The configuration wizard automatically creates and assigns a collection of custom ILPs to all 

selected servers. Once this is done, however, you need to launch the MCC or 2D Map to 

customize those ILPs. The following is an example of the relevant dialog for the 2D Map. 


The following is the corresponding MCC dialog: 

These ILPs are collected into a special group called Impact. You may need to drill down 

before you get to this group. 

Also included are flags for: 

• Importance Level 

• Hours of Service: identifies applicable calendar for hours of service 

• Maintenance Flag: if set, alerts are suspended for this service until the flag is reset 

• Granularity Flag 

SETTING THE IMPORTANCE LEVEL FLAG 

The levels of importance are described in the following table: 

Level 

0 

Importance 

Use default importance level for the WorldView class 

1 Low 

2 Downgraded medium 

3 Medium 

4 Downgraded high 

5 High 

9 Unclassified 


The remaining levels are reserved for future use. 

If the WorldView class is not classified, then all objects for that class are automatically 

considered unclassified. If the WorldView class is classified, but you wish to set specific CI, 

such as Granular object, to unclassified, then set the ia_ImportanceLevel ILP to 9. This will 

cause the importance level to default to the Host object. In this circumstance, the Host 

object should be associated with the IT Service. 

SETTING THE HOURS OF SERVICE CALENDAR FLAG 

Server Importance Levels are cached by EvtAds, which queries server cache to determine 

Importance Level for reported fault. If a device’s Importance Level is 3 (medium) or 5 

(high), a check will be made to see if the hours of service calendar is in effect. This allows 

different time zone management. If a calendar exists but the hours of service are not in 

effect, the Importance Level will be downgraded by 1. If none exists, Importance Level is 

not affected. 

This service calendar is not the same as the calendar specified on MRA. 

For example, the SAP Process Instance Monitoring reports a fault at 18.00 hours. SAM 

determines that a calendar is in effect for this service, which is defined as active between 

04:00 and 12:00 hours. Since the fault outside the normal service hours the alert is 

downgraded. 

SETTING THE MAINTENANCE FLAG 

It is not uncommon to temporarily suspend alert generation for specific servers (or services 

running on that server) to account for scheduled down time or to wait for maintenance to 

be applied to fix a problem. For example, if Oracle systems will be down for 4 hours during 

scheduled upgrade, it will impact several IT Services, but alerts do not need to be 

generated for this system during this period. 

As part of proper change management process this would trigger an impact analysis. To 

suspend a specific service, set the Maintenance flag at the service level. To suspend all 

services on a particular server, set the Maintenance flag on the server level. 

UPDATING THE HOST CLASS FILE 

Once you have satisfactorily modified the ILPs, execute the following command: 

RefreshServerCache.cmd 

This picks up the MDB details and credentials that were set through the configuration 

wizard. When this command is executed, it will create the 

%CA_TND_HOME%\evtads\HostClass.csv file which will include all the devices from the 

classified classes. 

This script is designed to be run as part of your normal housekeeping. For on-demand 

refreshes, the classified server cache list can also be refreshed from the configuration 

wizard. 

CREATING WORLDVIEW OBJECTS 

When a fault is reported as part of Impact Analysis, SAM Pack first attempts to analyze the 

business impact of that fault based on the Importance level of the granular object source. If 

no granular object exists, Impact Analysis is then based on the Importance of the server 

object. If there are no WorldView objects for either the server or the granular objects, 


however, the fault will classed as being of Low importance and no impact analysis will be 

carried out. 

When creating custom policy, if there will be alerts generated for which there are no 

corresponding WorldView objects, you can avoid having those alerts allocated to Unknown 

IT Services by manually adding the appropriate entries to the 

%CA_TND_HOME%\evtads\StaticClass.csv file. 

The format of this file is similar to HostClass.csv, which is updated every time 

RefreshServerCache is executed. When new entries are manually added to the 

StaticClass.csv file, the SAM Pack Impact Analysis will allocate the importance level based 

on those entries. 

To create WorldView objects based on those entries, execute the following Perl script: 

samp_static_wvobjects.pl 

This will create the necessary WorldView objects and automatically place them in the 

SAMP_static container. Use the standard Business Process View procedures to add the 

objects to the IT Services container as applicable. 

Sample Scenario for Implementing the SAM Pack 

This section will go through a sample scenarios focusing on a practical approach to 

effectively implementing the SAM Pack with the Windows System Agent. 

In the common IT environment, administrators install system monitoring agents on several 

machines that handle specific business roles. For example, they have a set of machines 

whose primary role is to handle payroll, banking, security, or monitoring, and so forth. The 


usual way this is implemented would be to install the system agent on each of those 

machines and then go through the configuration process. Afterwards the process of making 

sure these agents are properly monitored comes into play. To monitor these machines 

administrators would usually have to create message records and actions specific to those 

agents running on those machines. Additionally they would use Alert Management System 

(AMS) to create alert queues and classes to provide an additional level of monitoring for 

each of those systems. 

To take it to the next level, administrators could spend hours writing Advanced Event 

Correlation (AEC) policies to add root cause analysis to the whole picture. All this would 

have to be done for each business machine in each of the critical business roles. This all 

requires a great deal of time, money and resources. 

The SAM Pack provides the solution to the previous implementation in an easy to use, stepby-step 

wizard to achieve the same results previously described. SAM Pack can be installed 

on a Unicenter NSM server and configured accordingly in a relatively short period of time. 

The above situation would be achieved in less time and in a far fewer steps. The creation of 

AMS and AEC policy is automatically created and configured through the wizard. The SAM 

Pack removes the tedious steps required to achieve total monitoring of your business 

services managing needs. 

In this example we will assume Unicenter NSM r11.1 has been installed and configured with 

all the prerequisites necessary to run SAM Pack. See the SAM Pack Getting Started Guide 

for further details. Additionally, this example requires that you have your target system 

discovered in Unicenter NSM and the system must have a Windows System agent 

(caiWinA3.exe) running on it. The agent also needs to be monitoring a process. Check your 

Unicenter NSM r11.1 Inside Systems Monitoring guide for more details on how to create a 

process watcher. In this example we are monitoring a critical business process called 

payroll.exe on our “Payroll System 1” server. The name of our process watcher is “Payroll 

System 1 Process Watcher”. Also up to this point SAM Pack should be installed. We will 

move through this scenario from this point in this situation. 

The objective of this scenario is to demonstrate how to create an IT Services View in SAM 

Pack called Payroll where we then configure SAM Pack to provide advanced monitoring and 

notification of this critical IT Business Service and the resources that support it. 

Let’s get started. 

To create and configure an IT Services View in SAM Pack called Payroll 

1. Open the SAM Pack Configuration wizard from one of the following methods, and click 

Next. 

a. From the Windows Startup menu: Start, Programs, Computer Associates, 

Unicenter, NSM, SAM Pack, SAMP Configuration 

b. Execute the following command: 

%ca_tnd_home%\SAMP\bin\samp_configwiz.exe 

2. On the MDB Logon Setup screen, enter your admin password and click Validate. When 

successful, click Next to proceed. 

3. If you want to send email notifications then enter your SMTP Server Name on the 

Notification Configuration page and fill in the From Email Address field. 


4. In this scenario we have our Alert Impact based on the Business Service Severity, so 

select the first radio button and click Next. 

5. We are now at the IT Service Configuration page. In this screen we create our Payroll 

IT Service Business Process View. Fill in the form as follows: 

a. In the Service Name field enter PayrollProcess. 

b. In the description field enter Payroll Processes. 

c. Change the Service Impact to HIGH, because this is a critical process in our 

business. 

d. Set the Notification Method to SendKeep with Alert. 

e. If someone should be alerted by email enter their email address. 

The window should look like this: 

6. Click Add Service after all fields are filled out correctly. You will get two pop-up 

messages; click OK to both of them. 

Now if you click on Update Services you will see the Service we just created: 

What this step did was to create an IT Service Object called Payroll Processes in our IT 

Services Impact and IT Services Business Process Views. If you open your Management 

Command Center you will see the new IT Services object created. 


We specified this as a HIGH importance service so it was placed under the HIGH IT 

Service Impact container. See the following graphic for an example. 

7. Click Return, and then click Next to continue. 

8. On the IT Service Options screen is where we specify what happens to the events or 

faults that come in that are not part of an IT Service. For this example we will leave the 

defaults and keep the settings to “Low” and “SendKeep w/o Alert”. Click Next. 

9. On the Component Monitoring Configuration page leave all the default values and click 

Next. 

10. On the Central Event Node Configuration page, for this scenario we are setting up SAM 

Pack for the first time and we want to test it, so set the Duplicate Suppression value to 

30 seconds. Afterwards when you are familiar with SAM Pack, you can set this value 

according to what you deem appropriate in your environment. By default it is five 

minutes (300 seconds). 

11. Click Check Status to test if the Event Management Node is up and running. If 

successful, click Next. 

12. On the AEC Configuration screen, change the AEC Refresh Period to 5 minutes, then 

click Build Policy to generate and load the policies. Click OK to the message pop-up and 

click Next. 

13. On the Policy Pack Implementation page select the caiWinA3 policy pack entry in the 

list and then click Build and Load Policy. Click OK to the pop-up. Click Next to continue. 

Note: Certain policy packs turn on agent granularity. Only new metrics defined will 

have the granularity enabled. Existing metrics that have already been defined will not 

take effect. You will need to recycle awservices so that the DSM recreates these metrics 

with granularity turned on. You can recycle awservices after completing the E2R 

Configuration wizard. 

14. On the Server Classification Configuration screen we will now add the WorldView 

classes that we deem as important. (For more information as to what this means see 

the Classifying Servers section of this document.) For this example we add the 

caiWinA3 classes that were defined when we enabled granularity. We are also going to 

add the host machine class of our target machine. In this case our target machine is a 


Windows 2003 Server, which is a Windows_NetServer class, which is already defined by 

default. Click on the Add Class button to bring up the Classify Server Classes dialog. 

15. Select the High radio button at the top and select the following classes from the list: 

› caiWinA3 

› WinA3_Dir 

› WinA3_DirInst 

› WinA3_File 

› WinA3_FileInst 

› WinA3_LVol 

› WinA3_LVolInst 

› WinA3_Proc 

› WinA3_ ProcInst 

› WinA3_Srvc 

› WinA3_SrvcInst 

16. Click Commit after making the selection, click OK to a pop-up message, and click 

Return when done. An example follows of what you should see after making these 

selections: 

17. Click Next to move on. 

18. On the Server Importance Configuration, we see all the classes we previously defined 

and the number of instances of that class that exist in Unicenter NSM. Click Generate 

CacheList to refresh this page, then click Next to continue. 

19. On the Update SAMP Configuration File page click Save, and then OK, to complete the 

wizard. 

20. Since this is the first time running the SAM Pack Wizard and we turned on Agent 

Granularity, we must recycle awservices so that the granularity takes effect. To recycle 

awservices issue the following commands from the command line: 

awservices stop 

awservices start 

Now in these next set of steps we are going to copy our Payroll System 1 Process 

Watcher into our Payroll Processes Business Process View. 


To copy process watcher into Business Process View 

1. Open the Management Command Center: 

› Switch into the left pane Topology Plugin 

› Drill down into your ‘Payroll System 1’ machine 

› Drill down into Unispace and 

› Further expand the Windows System Agent, Processes, until you see the process 

watcher you created 

› Select the process watcher, right-click and select Copy. 

› Then paste this into the “Payroll Processes” Business Process View under the “IT 

Services” container 

› Expand IT Services, select Payroll Processes, right-click and select Paste. 

This is what you should have up to this point: 

2. Now we have to refresh the SAMP cache. Whenever you make any modification to your 

IT Services by either moving or removing objects you must always refresh the SAMP 

cache afterwards. A quick and simple way to do this is to define a new MCC Action to 

point to the SAMP refresh command script. 


To do this with in the MCC, select My Actions, Define Actions. Then click New. Select: 

› Generic as the Data Type, 

› Local Node as Target Machine, 

› Refresh SAMP Cache as the Caption, 

› Refreshes the SAMP Cache as the Description 

3. In the command box enter: 

%CA_TND_HOME%\SAMP\BIN\RefreshServerCache.cmd 

4. In the Client Settings tab: 

› Select the check box for Show the console session. 

› Click OK when done 

› Close the Define Actions window. 

› Select My Actions from the menu 

› Click Refresh SAMP Cache. 

5. That is it, you are done. You have just created your critical business process container 

and copied its critical process into it. You are now monitoring that process and will be 

alerted whenever an event for that process occurs. 

To demonstrate what happens when your critical process stops running we will take a look 

at the events that will occur based on how we previously configured the SAM Pack. After 

shutting down the Payroll.exe process, an alert will be generated along with a SENDKEEP in 

the event console. 


This is what occurs after shutting down the payroll.exe process: 

a. On the right side we have three plugins showing. The top two are the Alerts status 

plugin with the 2nd plugin showing the actual alert that was created. The bottom 

plugin is the event console with the Sendkeep message that was created. 


6. If you specified an email address then the recipient would also receive an email with 

the information containing the alert information. 

An actual Email is shown below: 

7. Part of the alert will contain a URL link that will bring you to a Knowledge Document for 

this specific event. The knowledge document will contain a unique Fault ID # specific to 

this event. It will describe the symptoms, causes and possible steps to resolve this type 

of event. Am example follows: 


8. You can also launch the Knowledge document from within the Event Console by 

selecting the line that starts with APPLICATION APP####, right-clicking, and selecting 

User Actions. This launches the Knowledge Document specific to that particular 

Fault ID #. 

9. We will now restart the payroll.exe process so the repaired message comes into the 

event console. The SAM Pack will automatically detect this, close the Alert that was 

created, and remove the held sendkeep message from the event console. In the event 

console you will also see a message saying the event was closed and repaired. 


Chapter 6: eHealth Network 

Performance Management 

Events Integration with 

Unicenter NSM 

This chapter discusses how to integrate eHealth network performance management events 

with Unicenter NSM. The following key topics are presented: 

• Overview and Value of the integration 

• How eHealth and Unicenter NSM Integration works 

• Enabling eHealth integration 

• Configuring eHealth to Forward Traps 

• Using the eHealth integration 

• Reference documentation 

Overview and Value of the Integration 

The eHealth Suite delivers comprehensive fault, availability, and performance management 

across complex, heterogeneous systems and application environments. It uses the following 

integrated user interfaces and reports to collect a wide variety of data from your network 

infrastructure to generate alarms and reports. 

• Business Service Console 

The eHealth Business Service Console (BSC) is a Web-based tool that provides a highlevel 

view of the availability and performance of business services across an 

organization. The BSC offers customized business views, immediate notification of 

performance problems, and drill-down capability for fault resolution. 

• eHealth Report Server 

The Report Server is part of the eHealth Web interface. The eHealth Web interface 

provides access to reports and applications through Web browsers on local systems. 

• At-a-Glance Reports 

The eHealth At-a-Glance reports show the overall performance of an eHealth object for 

a specified time period. The reports consist of several charts that display different 

performance statistics on one page. 


• Trend Reports 

eHealth Trend reports are charts that plot a variable for an object over a period of time. 

Trend reports can also show variables for groups of objects. The reports can reveal 

patterns over time and relationships between objects and between variables. The Trend 

reports are Availability, Bandwidth, and Error, depending on the type of managed 

object. 

• Alarm Detail Reports 

The eHealth Alarm Detail reports show the availability and performance history over 

time of an eHealth object that caused an alarm to be generated. 

The key business value of the integration between Unicenter NSM and eHealth lies in its 

ability to leverage performance-oriented events from both network devices and systems for 

a more complete view of the environment. Processing performance related-alarms as 

events in Unicenter NSM provides more complete information about those alarms in a 

central console, which can decrease the mean time to repair problems. The integration can 

improve service and reduce costs by increasing both the productivity of administrative 

staff and the availability of your IT services. 

How eHealth and Unicenter NSM Integration Works 

The eHealth and Live Health servers are configured to monitor the performance of various 

nodes on a network. Similarly, Unicenter NSM is deployed and configured to monitor 

various network devices and systems. Integration between these two solutions uses Agent 

Technology’s DSM (Distributed State Machine) policy to receive and process the SNMP traps 

from your eHealth and Live Health servers. A prerequisite to this integration functioning 

properly, however, is that all the nodes that will be managed through Unicenter NSM have 

been discovered by and are being actively managed by eHealth. 


Real-Time Integration 

The Live Health server is specifically designed for real-time network performance 

monitoring. You can configure this server to send SNMP traps to the Unicenter Distributed 

State Machine (DSM) server. After it is configured, the Live Health server sends 

nhLiveAlarm SNMP traps to the DSM whenever a performance threshold is violated. When 

an alarm expires (that is, when performance returns to acceptable levels), the Live Health 

server sends an nhClearLiveAlarm SNMP trap to the DSM. 

As the nhLiveAlarm/nhClearLiveAlarm traps are received by the DSM server, the logic in the 

DSM policy processes these traps and creates or updates managed objects with their 

appropriate status in the DSM and in the WorldView database tables. 

Performance Trend Integration 

You can configure the eHealth server to forward SNMP traps to the DSM server whenever a 

scheduled Health report runs, so that netHealthException SNMP traps are generated and 

sent to the DSM server. 

The DSM policy processes these netHealthException traps in a manner similar to the 

nhLiveAlarm and nhClearLiveAlarm traps with one major difference: netHealthException 

traps are generated only when a scheduled Health Report is run. These traps indicate 

negative network performance trends over time that may currently be affecting the 

performance of an element that is being managed. 

Note: The nature of these traps and the fact that there is no corresponding clear trap, 

causes the DSM policy to create netHealthException managed objects in Agent Technology 

and WorldView with a status automatically set at a low-level WARNING. After these 

particular netHealthException objects are created, the DSM policy does nothing more with 

them and you must acknowledge and remove them when appropriate. 

Integration levels 

Unicenter NSM components integrate with the eHealth suite of products on several levels: 

• Management Command Center Level: This lets you: 

› Launch eHealth Business Service Console (BSC) and eHealth Report Server. The 

screenshot below shows the Business Service Console and the eHealth Report 

Server launch points available from the Links drop-down menu. 


› Open eHealth At-a-Glance Reports or eHealth Alarm Detail Reports to display 

Alert Management System (AMS) alerts that were created from eHealth alarms. 

In the screenshot below, the user right-clicked the alert in the eHealth Alert 

Queue, clicked My Actions, eHealth Alarm Menu, and then selected either Alarm 

At-a-Glance Report or Alarm Detail Report. This method launches the report in a 

web browser. 

› Open eHealth At-a-Glance reports or eHealth Trend reports for eHealth objects 

from the WorldView Topology browser in the left pane of the MCC. Navigate to 

the desired object under the appropriate network and right-click the 

eHealthSpace object to display menu items. Click Add Viewer and then either Ata-Glance 

Report or Trend Report – Availability. This method launches those 

reports inside the MCC as a right-pane plugin. 


• Alert Management Level. This includes: 

› Predefined Event Management policy which automatically creates alerts for 

eHealth alarms and netHealth exceptions 

› Automatic closure of alerts when associated eHealth alarms are closed 

› Automatic closure of eHealth alarms when an associated alert is closed. 

• Management Portal Level : Here, an administrator can specify connection parameters 

to eHealth servers. Multiple servers are supported; however, if you have multiple 

connections, the default connection is used for launching reports for a managed object 

from Portal Explorer. 

• Agent Technology Level 


Enabling the eHealth Integration 

Your Unicenter NSM installation includes all of the integration policies necessary for 

integration with eHealth reports. Apply the following procedures to enable those policies. 

Enable the DSM Policy for eHealth 

The DSM policy for eHealth enables Unicenter NSM to create eHealth managed objects, 

process eHealth alarms, and maintain the status of eHealth managed objects. To do this 

you need to start the DSM Wizard and mark the eHealthSpace class as enabled. 

To enable the DSM policy for eHealth 

1. Select Start, Programs, Computer Associates, Unicenter, NSM, Agent Technology, DSM 

Wizard. 

The DSM Wizard appears. 

2. Navigate to the Agent Selection page of the DSM Wizard and check the box next to the 

eHealthSpace agent name. 

3. Click Save to commit the change. 

4. Click Next until the Congratulations window appears. 

5. Select the Enable New Configuration check box. 

6. Click Finish 


Enable Alert Management Policy for eHealth 

Alert Management (AMS) policy translates eHealth alarms into Unicenter NSM alerts. Apply 

the following procedures to enable AMS policy. 

To Enable AMS Policy for eHealth 

1. Open a command prompt window on your AMS server. 

2. Enter the following command: 

enableehealthAMS 

The output from the command script appears as follows: 

Install eHealth/AMS policy 

adding event policy... 

activating event policy... 

adding alert policy... 

The alert policy will not be activated until the CA-Unicenter Alert Management service is 

restarted, and eHealth/AMS policy has been installed. 

3. Go to the Windows Operating System Services dialog and restart the CA-Unicenter 

Alert Management Service: 

a. Launch the Services dialog: Click Start on your desktop and select Run. 

b. Enter “services.msc” in the box and click OK. 

c. Navigate down the list until you find the Alert Management Service and click the 

circled toolbar icon, as shown in the screenshot below. 

The service is now restarted. 


Enable eHealth Links in the Unicenter MCC 

After enabling the eHealth DSM and AMS policies (procedures described in the immediately 

preceding section of this chapter), the Unicenter MCC automatically displays eHealth 

managed objects and any corresponding alerts. In order to start the Business Service 

Console and the eHealth Report Server from the MCC you must first enable the display of 

the Links menu among the Unicenter MCC menus. Apply the following instructions to enable 

the display of the links menu. 

To enable the display of the Links menu in Unicenter MCC 

1. On the MCC client machine, set your working directory to the 

SharedComponents\CCS\WVEM\bin directory. 

2. Issue the following command: 

cazipxp -u mcc_ehealth.caz 

The Links menu will be available the next time you start Unicenter MCC. 

Enable eHealth Links in the Unicenter NSM Classic Interfaces 

To launch eHealth reports from the Unicenter NSM classic interfaces, such as the 2D Map 

and NodeView, you must first configure Unicenter NSM so that it is aware of the location of 

the eHealth Web Server. To do this, run a command on the Unicenter NSM client machine. 

The syntax for the command is as follows: 

SeteHealthServer -h eHealthServerName -p ehServerPort -c ehServerProtocol 

The eHealth server name is the only required parameter. If you omit the port and protocol 

values, the defaults are used. 

Example: 

SeteHealthServer -h ehealthweb.company001.com -p 80 -c http 

Specify Connection Parameters in eHealth Servers 

Certain connection parameters are required to access the eHealth servers. Apply the 

following procedure to set up the connection. 

To set up connection parameters to access eHealth servers 

1. Log in to Unicenter Management Portal as an administrator. 

2. Click the Library Knowledge Tree, and drill down to Enterprise Management, 

Administration, Manage Components. 

The Manage Components window appears in the right pane. 


3. In the right pane, select the Connection link in eHealth Management row. 

The Connections page provides fields to enter the name of the eHealth server, the port 

number of the server, to indicate if Unicenter MP will use https to access the server, 

and if this is the default eHealth server for reports. 

4. Enter the required parameters and click OK. 

5. Click Back 

The connection status icon color for eHealth Management should now be green. 


Configuring eHealth to Forward Traps to Unicenter NSM 

In order for the Unicenter NSM Distributed State Machine (DSM) to receive 

netHealthException and nhLiveAlarm traps from eHealth, it is required that you: 

• Configure eHealth Live Exceptions to add the Unicenter NSM DSM server to the list of trap 

destinations. 

• Define an eHealth Notifier rule that identifies the type of alarms and the set of eHealth 

elements Unicenter NSM DSM should be notified about. 

The procedures follow for adding trap destinations and notifier rules to eHealth. 

To Configure eHealth Live Exceptions 

1. Launch Live Exceptions from Windows Start menu: All Programs, eHealth 6.0, Live 

Exceptions. 

The window opens for eHealth Live Exceptions. 

2. If started for the first time, provide credentials to log in to eHealth. 

3. From eHealth menu bar, select Setup/Trap Destinations. 

The Trap Destination Manager window opens 


4. Click New in the Trap Destinations Manager window. 

5. Fill in the appropriate data: 

Name 

Defines the fully-qualified domain name of your Unicenter NSM management server 

that hosts the eHealth integration. 

IP Address 

Defines the IP address of the Unicenter NSM management server. 

Port 

Defines the UDP port number of the Unicenter NSM management server that the 

DSM is listening for SNMP traps on; the default value is 162. 

Community String 

Defines the community string that you want eHealth to send with the SNMP traps; 

recommended value for this field is public. 

6. Press OK on the Trap Destination Manager window to finish this configuration and click 

OK on the confirmation message that affirms the configuration change by eHealth. 


To define an eHealth Notifier rule 

1. Select Setup/Notifier Rules from eHealth menu bar. 

The Notifier Manager window opens. 

2. Click New on the Notifier Manager window. 

The Notifier Rule Editor window opens. 


3. In the Notifier Rule editor, do the following: 

› Enter a notifier rule name in the Name field, in this sample notification was 

chosen 

› Select the Send Trap entry from the Action field 

› For the To NMS field, select the trap destination server you created in the 

previous step 

› Select both check boxes Raised and Cleared in the ‘When an alarm is’ group to 

inform the DSM when an eHealth alarm is raised or cleared. 

4. Click OK to finish this configuration and click OK on the confirmation message that 

affirms the configuration change by eHealth. 

5. Click Close in the Notifier Manager window to finish configuration of notifier rules. 

Using the eHealth Integration 

This section provides the following information about how to use the integration between 

Unicenter NSM r11.1 and the eHealth suite: 

• Integration between eHealth and the Management Command Center 

• Integration between eHealth and Alert Management 

• Integration between eHealth and Agent Technology 

• eHealth Gateway Extension 

• Integration between eHealth and Unicenter Management Portal 

• How the eHealth Integration in Unicenter MP works 

• Display the eHealth Business Service Console (BSC) or BSC Ticker 

• Display the eHealth Web Interface 

• Display At-a Glance and Alarm Detail Reports 

• Display Trend Reports 

Integration between eHealth and Management Command Center 

Because of the integration with the MCC, you can monitor the performance of eHealth 

objects, generate reports, and create and close alerts associated with eHealth alarms. Use 

the Unicenter MCC menu bar to launch eHealth Business Service Console and eHealth 

Report Server: 


From Unicenter MCC you can access following reports of eHealth: 

AT-A-GLANCE REPORTS 

Access to eHealth At-a-Glance reports is provided by the Unicenter MCC in the context of 

alerts in Alert Management System (AMS) that were created from eHealth alarms. The 

reports are also available for eHealth objects in the Topology and DSM Views. 

TREND REPORTS 

The Unicenter MCC provides access to eHealth Trend reports for eHealth objects in the 

WorldView Topology and DSM Views. The available Trend reports include Availability, 

Bandwidth, and Error, depending on the type of managed object. 


ALARM DETAIL REPORTS 

The Unicenter MCC provides access to eHealth Alarm Detail reports for AMS alerts that were 

created from eHealth alarms. 

See the Unicenter MCC online help for additional information about Unicenter NSM r11.1 

integration with eHealth reports. 

Integration between eHealth and Alert Management 

Driven by the policies that you deploy, eHealth alarms and netHealth exceptions can 

automatically create alerts in Unicenter Alert Management System (AMS), and when alarms 

are closed in eHealth, the associated alerts in AMS are also closed and conversely, should 

an alert associated with an eHealth alarm is closed through AMS, the eHealth alarm is also 

closed. 

Note: You may receive a Unicenter NSM security error message when closing an alert 

associated with an eHealth alarm or netHealth exception. Should you encounter such an 

error message, you can correct its cause by following the instructions found in the section 

Authorize Users to Run Commands in the guide Unicenter NSM Inside Event Management 

and Alert Management. 

An abbreviated description of the steps required to authorize users to run commands (and 

to eliminate this error message) follows. 

To authorize users to run commands 

1. Open a command line Prompt. 

2. Open the Unicenter NSM EM Settings by issuing the following command: 

caugui settings 

3. Locate “Users Authorized to Issue commands” in the Event Management tab. 

4. Add the required users in the settings column, separating users with a comma. 

Note: Be careful not to remove or modify any of the earlier defined users. 


5. Click Yes to confirm the change. 

6. Stop and restart the Enterprise Management services so that the changes can take 

effect: 

unicntrl stop all 

uunicntrl start all 

Integration between eHealth and Agent Technology 

Using the supplied Distributed State Machine (DSM) policy for eHealth, Unicenter NSM 

Agent Technology is capable of automatically creating objects representing eHealth 

managed resources, process eHealth alarms, and maintain the status of eHealth managed 

resources objects in the Unicenter NSM WorldView MDB. 

The eHealth Gateway Extension 

The default mechanism used by Unicenter NSM to determine that a given eHealth element 

is to be monitored is the DSM policy, which is invoked when the DSM first receives a trap 

for the corresponding eHealth object. 

Alternatively, for integration with eHealth Suite 6.0, Unicenter NSM r11.1 provides an 

additional eHealth discovery function (dscvrehealth) that can be used to export managed 

elements from eHealth and create corresponding eHealth managed objects in 

Unicenter NSM. In this case, the eHealth DSM policy is modified slightly to accept traps only 

for those eHealth elements that already have an eHealth managed object created. 

DSCVREHEALTH COMMAND—DISCOVER eHEALTH MANAGED OBJECTS 

With this additional functionality, the DSM policy no longer creates those eHealth managed 

objects on its own; Unicenter NSM tracks the status of only those eHealth objects that it 

was specifically informed about by the dscvrehealth function. 

The command has the following format: 

dscvrehealth –h eHealthServer -u eHealthuserid –p eHealthpassword 

-s eHealthServerPort 

-l 

Defines the eHealth web server port 

Default: 80 

Indicates if SSL support is enabled 

-r MDBServer 

Defines the MDB server name 

Default: current MDB 

-w MDBUserid 

Defines the MDB userid 

-i MDBPassword 

Defines the MDB password 


-t ElementType 

Defines the element base type to discover 

Default: ALL 

-a ElementAddress 

IP subnet or address to discover 

Default: * 

-f LogFileName 

-d 

Directs output to a log file 

Indicates that debugging information is enabled 

The eHealth Gateway patch is required for Unicenter NSM r11.1 and is available through 

SupportConnect or from CA Technical Support. The patch QO86324 contains the ATP Policy 

the DSM needs to process eHealth traps. The Test Fix T363144 is also required and 

contains the eHealth object discovery executable (dscvrehealth), along with its supporting 

files. 

Integration between eHealth and Unicenter Management Portal 

Unicenter Management Portal (Unicenter MP) provides access to eHealth reports and 

applications so that you can easily monitor the availability and performance of eHealth 

objects from Unicenter MP. A detailed description of how to launch eHealth applications and 

reports from Unicenter MP is described in subsequent sections. 

Note: Before continuing, make sure that connection parameters to the eHealth server have 

been set up correctly as described in the previous section. 

Unicenter MP provides access to eHealth reports and applications in the following ways: 

• The Unicenter MP Knowledge Tree provides links to the eHealth Business Service Console, 

Business Service Console Ticker, and the Web interface. 

• The Unicenter MP workplace can display the Business Service Console Ticker (but not the 

Business Service Console or Web interface since these applications take up too much of 

the browser window real estate). 

• The Unicenter MP Portal Explorer provides links to the eHealth reports through the Web 

Interface. Be aware that you will be prompted for a user name and password the first 

time you access a report during a Portal session. 

• The following new scoreboards are available for eHealth objects in WorldView Topology 

and DSM and for alerts associated with eHealth alarms: 

› eHealth Traps Status Breakdown Scoreboard (EM) 

› eHealth Interface Status Breakdown Scoreboard (WV) 

› eHealth Status Breakdown Scoreboard (WV) 

› eHealth Alert Scoreboard (Alert) 


• At-a-Glance and Trend reports are displayed for WorldView topology and DSM objects in 

Unicenter MP. At-a-Glance reports and Alarm Detail reports are displayed for AMS alerts 

that represent eHealth alarms. 

UNICENTER MP DISPLAYS THE eHEALTH BUSINESS SERVICE CONSOLE 

Unicenter MP provides access to the eHealth Business Service Console (BSC) and BSC ticker 

that lets you to launch them quickly to view object performance without having to manually 

open the browser window. 

To display the Business Service Console or BSC Ticker 

1. Click the Library Knowledge Tree in Unicenter Management Portal, and drill down to 

eHealth Performance. 

The eHealth objects appear in the right pane. 

2. Select eHealth Business Service Console or eHealth Business Service Console Ticker. 

If you are opening eHealth Web Server for the first time in this Unicenter MP session, 

an eHealth logon credentials dialog appears. 

3. If prompted, enter a user name and password, and click OK. 

Depending on your selection, the Business Service Console opens in the default web 

browser, or the Business Service Console Ticker opens in the workplace. 

Example: Business Service Console Ticker 


Example: Business Service Console 

UNICENTER MP DISPLAYS THE eHEALTH WEB INTERFACE 

It takes just a few steps to launch the eHealth Web interface from Unicenter Management 

Portal. 

To display the eHealth Web interface 

1. Click the Library Knowledge Tree in Unicenter Management Portal, and drill down to 

eHealth Performance. 

The eHealth objects appear in the right pane. 

2. Select eHealth Reports. 

If you are opening eHealth Web Server for the first time in this Unicenter MP session, 

an eHealth logon credentials dialog appears. 

3. If prompted, enter a user name and password, and click OK. 


The eHealth Web interface opens in the default web browser and displays a list of 

previously run reports. 

UNICENTER MP DISPLAYS eHEALTH TRAPS STATUS BREAKDOWN SCOREBOARD 

Unicenter Management Portal supports scoreboards, which display the number and severity 

of SNMP traps received from the eHealth server. 

To display this scoreboard, click the Library Knowledge Tree in Unicenter Management 

Portal and drill down to eHealth Status Breakdown Scoreboard (WV). 

The amount and the severity of eHealth Live Alarm and eHealth Net Exception traps are 

displayed in the right pane. 

UNICENTER MP DISPLAYS eHEALTH INTERFACE STATUS BREAKDOWN SCOREBOARD 

Unicenter Management Portal supports a scoreboard that displays the WorldView (WV) 

status of device interfaces monitored by eHealth. 

To display this scoreboard, click the Library Knowledge Tree and drill down to eHealth 

Interface Status Breakdown Scoreboard (WV). 


The number and the status of any interface monitored by eHealth are displayed in the right 

pane. 

UNICENTER MP DISPLAYS eHEALTH STATUS BREAKDOWN SCOREBOARD 

Unicenter Management Portal supports a scoreboard that displays the status of devices and 

interfaces monitored by eHealth. 

To display this scoreboard, click the Library Knowledge Tree and drill down to eHealth 

Status Breakdown Scoreboard (WV). 

The number and the status of any interface monitored by eHealth are displayed in the right 

pane. 


DISPLAY eHEALTH ALERT SCOREBOARD AND ALERT SCOREBOARD DETAIL 

Unicenter Management Portal supports the scoreboard that displays eHealth alerts. 

To open this scoreboard 

1. Click the Library Knowledge Tree and drill down to All eHealth alerts breakdown. 

The number of eHealth alerts in different alert priority classes displays in the right 

pane. 

2. Click on the chart area to activate the control behind it 

The table legend displays the number of alerts for each priority. 


3. Click one of the columns in the chart area to launch the Alert Scoreboard Detail 

The eHealth alerts are listed in the Alert Scoreboard Detail as shown in the following 

graphic. 

UNICENTER MP DISPLAYS AT-A-GLANCE AND ALARM DETAIL REPORTS 

The Unicenter Management Portal gives you access to eHealth At-a-Glance reports and 

Alarm Detail reports for eHealth alarms that are represented in the Portal Explorer as AMS 

alerts. 

To display At-a-Glance and Alarm Detail Reports 

1. Click the Library Knowledge Tree and drill down to All eHealth alerts breakdown. 


2. Click on the chart area to activate the control behind it. 

The display shows the alerts categorized according to priority groups. This can help you 

to understand the quantity of alerts in each of the priority groups. 

3. Click one of the columns in the chart area to launch the Alert Scoreboard Detail. 

The following graphic displays the eHealth alerts in AMS. 


4. Select one of the device alarms (see column Origin) from which you want to view an 

At-a-Glance Report or Alarm Detail Report. 

The report opens in a separate window. See the following example of an At-a-Glance- 

Report. 


See the following example of an Alarm Detail Report. 

UNICENTER MP DISPLAYS TREND REPORTS 

Unicenter MP provides access to eHealth Trend reports for eHealth objects in the 

WorldView Topology and DSM Views. The Trend reports include Availability, Bandwidth, 

and Error, depending on the type of managed object. 

To create a trend report 

1. Click the Library Knowledge Tree and drill down to eHealth Status Breakdown 

Scoreboard (WV). 


2. In the right pane, click Show Menu. 

A list box menu is added to the table in the right pane. 

3. From the list box, select Portal Explorer and click Go. 

The Portal Explorer opens a new window, 

4. Select the ehealthSpace object (for instance) of one of the displayed devices on the left 

pane in the portal explorer. 

The list is displayed in the right pane of the children of this object, together with some 

of their properties. 

5. Select one of the elements in the right pane. Depending on the child type, none or 

different Trend reports are offered to select from the ‘Select and …’ list box. 


6. Select one of the Trend reports in the list box and click Go. 

Trend report Availability is shown in the following graphic. 

Trend report Bandwidth is shown in the following graphic. 


Trend report Errors is shown in the following graphic. 

Reference Documentation 

The eHealth Gateway Extension patch QO86324 and the Test Fix T363144 are both 

available from support Connect and Technical Support. 


Chapter 7: Unicenter NSM Agent 

Technology Integration with 

eHealth 

This chapter discusses how to integrate eHealth Network Performance Management with 

Unicenter NSM Agent Technology to provide performance information to eHealth. The 

following key topics are presented: 

• Overview and value of the integration 

• How the eHealth and Agent Technology Integration Works 

• Enabling eHealth to Poll Unicenter NSM Agent MIBs (Apollo Agent) 

• Configuring the Poll Method for Unicenter NSM System Agents 



The product eHealth is a reporting system that identifies and collects data from existing 

devices, agents, and management systems in your company’s IT infrastructure. You can 

generate various reports on this data to manage your resources. These reports provide an 

easy-to-read picture of the historical and current performance of your entire infrastructure, 

enabling you to optimize performance, make proactive planning decisions, recognize trends, 

and identify potential problems before they affect business-critical services. 

Unicenter NSM provides agent integration with eHealth to enable network performance 

management to work in conjunction with systems management information. 


The key business value of this integration comes from the ability to leverage systems 

information collected by Unicenter NSM agents with the network performance information 

collected by eHealth to improve performance analysis and reduce the mean time to repair 

problems that affect services. This, in turn helps reduces cost and helps improve service 

by reducing potential down time. 

How eHealth and Agent Technology Integration Works 

The UNIX System Agent (caiUxsA2) and the Windows System Agent (caiWinA3) provide 

data for eHealth reports through their MIB attributes. 

eHealth reports rely on polling information from a set of MIB attributes. Those MIB 

attributes are provided through specific extension groups of the UNIX System Agent MIB, 

and the Windows System Agent MIB. The following attribute sections in the 

winA3ExtensionGroup and uxsA2ExtensionGroup are also used to define the types of the 

data that the agents collect to generate eHealth reports: 

• Server Group Attributes 

• CPU Table Attributes 

• Disk Table Attributes 

• Device Table Attributes 

• Network Interface Table Attributes 

• Process Table Attributes 

The agents provide this additional data only on request. They only retrieve the data and 

update attributes and tables in their extension groups in response to SNMP GET requests 

for their extension group attributes. There is no additional performance impact or overhead 

involved if an extension group is not queried. 

Each extension group provides an attribute (winEHLastPoll or uxsEHLastPoll) that reports 

the value of the sysUpTime attribute at the time the extension group was last polled. To 

prevent excessive short data retrieval cycles, which can impact performance, the agent 

collects new data from the system after a time-lag of at least 30 seconds. If the agent 

receives several SNMP GET requests within a 30-second-time-frame, then it does not collect 

new data from the system. Instead, it returns the data obtained during the last data 

collection. 

The MIB attributes of the extension groups are described in detail in the Unicenter NSM MIB 

Reference Guide. 

Enabling eHealth to Poll Agent MIBs (Apollo Agent) 

The ability to generate elaborate eHealth reports against the Unicenter NSM system agent 

has also been provided in the current version of Unicenter NSM. eHealth can poll key 

Unicenter NSM agent MIB attributes to do this. In order to use this integration point with 

eHealth version 5.6.5 and version 5.7, however, you need to apply the appropriate eHealth 

patches. Patch information is available from the following link: 

http://supportconnect.ca.com/sc/redir.jsp?reqPage=search&searchID=QI76265 


Configuring the Poll Method for Unicenter NSM System Agents 

The polling of an extension group can be configured through a writable attribute 

(winEHPollMethod or uxsEHPollMethod). Valid attribute values are as follows: 

1 - (disabled) 

2 - (enabled) 

Polling is enabled by default. If set to disabled, the agent returns an error response or an 

empty table on an SNMP GET request and does not retrieve any data. 

Since there is no additional performance impact or overhead if an extension group is not 

queried, the poll method usually does not need to be changed. However, if it is necessary, 

you can use MIB Browser or a configuration set to modify this attribute value. 

The following procedure is an example that describes how the poll method of an extension 

group can be changed through a configuration set. 

To modify a poll method value by a configuration set on a UNIX/Linux system 

1. Open a command line and enter the following command to stop the agent: 

caiUxsA2 stop 

The UNIX System Agent stops. 

2. Create a configuration set file using the command similar to the following example: 

mkconfig -s caiUxsA2 > $AGENTWORKS_DIR/agents/config/caiUxsA2.cfg 

The configuration set is stored in the caiUxsA2.cfg file. 

Note: The agent must be stopped to use this technique. If the agent cannot be stopped 

at the moment, then use the alternate syntax: 

mkconfig caiUxsA2 > $AGENTWORKS_DIR/agents/config/caiUxsA2.cfg 

This saves the agent’s current configuration into the caiUxsA2.cfg file. 

3. Open this file with an ASCII editor of your choice. 

A list of attribute-value-pairs appears. 

4. Search for the uxsEHPollMethod attribute and modify its value (1 = disabled or 2 = 

enabled), 

5. Then save the modified configuration set. 

6. Load the new configuration set into the admin store: 

ldconfig $AGENTWORKS_DIR/agents/config/caiUxsA2.cfg 

The configuration set of the UNIX System Agent is loaded into the admin store. 

7. Start the agent: 

caiUxsA2 start 

The UNIX System Agent starts up and uses the modified poll method. 


Note: This configuration can also be modified using the MIB Browser as described below. 

The following procedure is an example that describes how the poll method of an extension 

group can be changed through MIB Browser. 

To modify a poll method value through MIB Browser 

1. Open a command line interface on a Unicenter NSM r11 manager (Windows) and enter 

the following command to start MIB Browser: 

mibbrowse 

2. From the Files menu open the Open Connection dialog (or select Telephone). 

3. Select the caiWinA3 MIB, enter an appropriate host name, read-write community string 

and UDP port number and click OK. 

The MIB groups are listed in the MIB Browser window. 

4. Open the winA3ExtensionGroup by clicking the arrow to the right. 

5. Open the winEHGroup, select the appropriate value for the winEHPollMethod attribute 

from the drop-down list, and click S. 

The poll method is modified. 

Note: This configuration can also be modified in the same manner as described above. 


For more information on eHealthreports, see the following eHealth documents on the 

eHealth product: 

• eHealth Reports Guide 

• eHealth Administration Guide 

• Introduction to eHealth 

These and other documents can be found on 

http://support.concord.com/support/secure/products/search_prod.shtml 


Chapter 8: Unicenter NSM Agent 

Technology Integration with 

SPECTRUM 

This chapter explains how to configure Unicenter NSM agents to provide information to 

SPECTRUM. 

The following key topics are presented: 

• Overview and Value of the Integration 

• How the Integration Works 

• Installing the Integration 

• Using the Integration 

• Reference Documentation 


SPECTRUM provides network management with granular Layer 2 and Layer 3 visibility down 

to the individual port and circuit level for local area network (LAN), WAN, wired, wireless, 

physical, and virtual networks. It includes specific management applications that drill down 

to monitor and analyze ATM, Frame Relay, IP Multicast, QoS, voice, and VPN technologies. 

SPECTRUM’s patented root cause and impact analysis technology pinpoints exact locations 

of degraded or failed devices. 

Integration with Unicenter NSM Agent Technology, particularly the System Agents, 

augments SPECTRUM’s network fault management capabilities with the Unicenter NSM 

systems management functions and other events. System Agent information is directly 

integrated with the SPECTRUM OneClick interface making it easy to view and manage alert 

conditions that are sent from the Unicenter NSM System agent to SPECTRUM. 


The key business value of this integration lies in its ability to augment SPECTRUM’s 

management capabilities by expanding it’s view of the enterprise to include systems 

management information collected by Unicenter NSM agents. This expanded view can in 

turn help to reduce the mean time to repair network problems and in general help to 

improve service and reduce costs. 

How the Integration Works 

SPECTRUM management module SM-CAI1000 provides support in SPECTRUM for 

management of CA Unicenter NSM Agents and makes available the following SPECTRUM 

features for both r11 and r3.1 Agents: 

• Representation of Unicenter NSM Agents as specific device models. SPECTRUM 

uses device models to manage network elements. Agent device models provide 

information in SPECTRUM, such as the Unicenter NSM Agent MIB views. 

• Integration with SPECTRUM OneClick interface. The SPECTRUM OneClick interface 

displays system information gathered by Unicenter NSM System Agents. It also provides 

launch points for the CA Unicenter Web Management interfaces, such as Portal 

Dashboards. 

• Alarm generation. SPECTRUM generates events and alarms upon receipt of Agent 

Traps 

• Agent Mapping. SPECTRUM maps the proprietary interfaces of the Agents to well 

known MIB-II values 

For more details on SPECTRUM® support for Unicenter NSM System Agents, see the 

SPECTRUM CA Unicenter NSM Agent User Guide (document 5174). 


MIB-II Extensions for Unicenter NSM Agent Technology 

The Unicenter NSM Agent Technology aws_sadmin service has been enhanced to provide 

MIB-II extensions to allow the SPECTRUM SpectroSERVER management application to 

discover and communicate with Unicenter System Agents. 

By default, Unicenter NSM System Agents use UDP port 6665 for SNMP communications. 

The implementation of the following MIB-II attributes into aws_sadmin allows SPECTRUM to 

discover systems through Unicenter NSM system agents and communicate with these 

agents on port 6665. 

The following section outlines the MIB-II Object Identifiers for Unicenter NSM agents added 

here for informational purposes only in the event that the user wishes to configure 

SPECTRUM with specific requirements in mind. 

sysObjectID 

SNMP polling of the MIB-II variable sysObjectID aws_sadmin returns the object 

identifier of the Unicenter NSM systems agent. 

sysDescr 

Unicenter NSM r11.1 Windows System Agent (caiWinA3) 

OID: 1.3.6.1.4.1791.2.10.2.90 

Unicenter NSM r11.1 UNIX/Linux System Agent (caiUxsA2) 

OID: 1.3.6.1.4.1.791.2.10.2.74 

Unicenter NSM r3.1 Windows 2000 System Agent (caiW2kOs) 

OID: 1.3.6.1.4.1.791.2.10.2.43 

Unicenter NSM r3.1 UNIX/Linux System Agent (caiUxOs) 

OID: 1.3.6.1.4.1.791.2.9.4.5 

SNMP polling of the MIB-II variable sysDescr aws_sadmin returns the concatenation of 

the values of awsAdminComputerType and awsAdminSystemType as defined in the MIB 

for aws_sadmin. 

sysContact 

SNMP polling of the MIB-II variable sysContact aws_sadmin returns the character string 

not set. 

sysName 

SNMP polling of the MIB-II variable sysName aws_sadmin returns the value of 

awsAdminComputerName as defined in the MIB for aws_sadmin. 


sysLocation 

SNMP polling of the MIB-II variable sysLocation aws_sadmin returns the character 

string not set. 

sysServices 

SNMP polling of the MIB-II variable sysServices aws_sadmin returns the decimal value 

of 72. According to the MIB-II specification, the value 72 identifies a host that provides 

application services and communicates through TCP/IP. 

Installing the Integration 

Support for SPECTRUM integration is already provided in the Unicenter NSM r11.1 

components and available upon installation through standard methods, such as the product 

explorer. Integration with earlier Unicenter NSM releases requires application of specific 

support fixes. 

Prerequisites 

In order to ensure the best results, we highly recommend that you verify the following 

prerequisites: 

• SPECTRUM: SPECTRUM 7.1 SP3+Hotfix54 or better, OneClick 

• The SpectroServer host system has been discovered by Unicenter NSM and it has been 

properly classified 

• Unicenter NSM : One of the following releases: 

› Unicenter NSM r11.1 (Windows): Windows System Agent (caiWinA3), Active 

Directory Services Agent (caiAdsA2), Log Agent (caiLogA2) OR 

› Unicenter NSM r11 (Linux and UNIX): Unix System Agent (caiUxsA2), Log Agent 

(caiLogA2). This requires application of specific support fixes Please refer to the 

following document for details: 

http://supportconnect.ca.com/sc/redir.jsp?reqPage=search&searchID=QI76265 

› Unicenter NSM 3.1: Windows System Agent (caiW2kOs), Active Directory 

Services Agent (caiAdsA2), UNIX System Agent (caiUxOs), Log Agent (caiLogA2). 

This requires application of specific support fixes. For more details, search the 

SupportConnect Knowledge Base for document QI77177. 

Installation of Unicenter NSM Agent Views or Unicenter NSM Web Reports and Dashboard 

are optional. These tools can be used to configure the Unicenter NSM agents. 

Using the Integration 

In order to use the integration, the following steps should be performed: 

• Set the Unicenter NSM Agent trap destination to include the SPECTRUM server 

• Configure the Unicenter NSM Agent for monitored resources 

• Configure OneClick to launch Unicenter NSM user interface 

• Model it in OneClick 

• View Unicenter Agents in OneClick 


Set the Agent Trap Destination to include the SPECTRUM Server 

Ensure that the SPECTRUM manager server is added to the SNMP trap destination list on 

your Unicenter NSM agent installations. 

To change the agent trap destination 

1. Edit the aws_sadmin.cfg file by adding the following string of text: 

SNMP_TRAP 

 

2. Restart the agents and the SNMP administrator by issuing the commands: 

awservices stop 


For more information on details of this procedure, see the chapter “Changing Trap 

Destinations” in the guide Unicenter NSM Inside Systems Management. 

Configure the Unicenter NSM Agent for Monitored Resources 

The OneClick views of the Unicenter NSM agent are hard-coded to be read-only. Therefore, 

in order to include resources monitored by the Unicenter NSM agent that you are interested 

in seeing in OneClick, at least one of the following Unicenter NSM tools need to be used to 

configure the Unicenter NSM agent: 

• The Adaptive Dashboard Service. 

• The Agent Technology Agent View 

• Any suited MIB browser utility. 

Note: The MIB Reference Guide describes the structure and meaning of MIB attributes. 

The use of these tools is detailed at length in the chapter “Understanding Resources 

Monitoring” in the Unicenter NSM Inside Systems Monitoring Guide, under the section 

Configuring Agents through Agent View, Adaptive Dashboards, or MIB Browser. 

Configure OneClick to launch Unicenter NSM User Interface 

If Unicenter NSM Web Reports and Dashboards are installed, then it is possible to enable 

OneClick for a user interface launch in context. The procedure requires copying and editing 

the -system-config.xml file. The Spectrum Document 5174, CA Unicenter NSM Agent User 

Guide details the configuration steps that explain how to configure OneClick after the 

Unicenter NSM agent has been configured with the desired monitored resources. 

Model it in OneClick 

The Unicenter NSM agents that are deployed in your environment must first be added to 

Spectrum. The agents can be added to Spectrum manually by creating a model, or they can 

be discovered using Spectrum’s Autodiscovery utility. The SPECTRUM discovery method will 

be covered first. 


SPECTRUM AUTODISCOVERY 

To automatically discover your systems 

1. In the SPECTRUM OneClick console, select Tools, Utilities, Discovery, New Discovery 

The Discovery dialog appears. 

2. From the Discovery window, enter the following information: 

a. Specify a configuration name 

b. Specify a single IP address, an IP range or list, or select Import to import an IP list 

file 

c. Specify a valid community string. If you specify more than one, OneClick uses the 

entry at the top first. 

d. Under Modeling Options, select Discover and automatically model to SPECTRUM 


e. Click Advanced Options and specify port 6665 to discover Unicenter NSM agents. 

Note: The entry with 6665 must be the first entry in the list. Others might be 

added below to allow discovery of devices without the Unicenter NSM agent in the 

same run. 

f. Click OK in the Advanced Options window. 

g. Back in the Discovery window, click Discover to initiate the discovery and the 

subsequent modeling phase. 

The Discovery window displays the discovery and modeling results. 

h. Close the Discovery window. 

The new models are added to SPECTRUM and can be viewed in the OneClick 

Navigation bar and/or the topology view. 


CREATE A MODEL BY IP ADDRESS 

As an alternative to discovery, you can manually model a host that is running a 

Unicenter NSM agent by performing the following steps. 

To add agents manually to Spectrum by creating a model 

1. In OneClick, navigate to Universe branch and open the Topology view in the upper right 

pane. 

2. In the Topology toolbar, click Create model by IP address. 

3. In the configuration window, enter the following: 

a. Network address: IP address of the agent host 

b. Community name: the SNMP community string 

c. Agent Port: 6665 

4. Click OK to create the model 

The new model is added to the selected topology view. 


View the Unicenter NSM Agents in OneClick 

After the configuration and modeling is complete, the Unicenter NSM agent traps arrive and 

are translated into alarms. The OneClick Alarm Detail window displays the alarm with the 

event message that includes the detailed Unicenter NSM agent metric and threshold values. 

It is a good idea to verify the alarm information coming through as an event message in 

OneClick. 


To verify certain conditions on a Unicenter NSM System Host 

1. Open the OneClick Component Detail window. 

2. Check under System Resources to view the agent metric data. 

The following graphic shows the individual status of monitored file systems on a UNIX 

system. 

The Spectrum Document 5174 (CA Unicenter NSM Agent User Guide) contains related 

details for OneClick users to successfully perform these steps. 


For more information about SPECTRUM support for Unicenter NSM as an alarm source, see: 

• Unicenter NSM Inside Systems Management Guide 

• CA Unicenter NSM Agent User Guide SPECTRUM Document 5174 located at 

http://support.concord.com/support/secure/products/Spectrum_Doc/spec800/5174.pdf 

• Network and Voice Management Green Book 


Chapter 9: Network 

Management with eHealth for 

Voice Integration 

This chapter discusses how to integrate eHealth for Voice management with 

Unicenter NSM r11.1. The following key topics are presented: 



• Using the eHealth for Voice Integration 



eHealth for Voice is a scalable product suite that lets companies leverage information from 

their evolving voice network, create higher levels of internal and external customer service, 

and ensure that the voice infrastructure is engineered to meet the demand. The product 

modules combine data collection across the voice network with monitoring, alerting, 

reporting, and trending capabilities. 

eHealth for Voice collects information from one or more communication systems, through IP 

and other data protocols, and stores it in a single centralized database. This data can be 

used to alert staff that a system is not functioning, is in danger of malfunctioning, or is 

breaching a threshold of performance set by the enterprise. eHealth for Voice allows users 

to set thresholds, filter and view data, look at reporting trends, and report on historical data 

through an easy-to-use graphical interface. Reports can be emailed, sent to a web server, 

or printed on demand. 

Example: The following graphic shows how eHealth for Voice displays a list of the 

communication servers. 


Unicenter NSM provides integration with eHealth for Voice to ensure that voice 

management problems can be directly monitored by and managed from Unicenter NSM. 

The following graphic should help you understand how the integration works between the 

two products 

The key business value of this integration is achieved by integrating voice network 

related alerts with other management events and tying them to service definitions. This 

helps to reduce the overall cost of administration by making staff more efficient and 

further helps improve the quality of service through reduced mean time to repair as the 

result of integrated monitoring. 


Where eHealth for Voice gathers data from many different types of switches (IP and TDM), 

messaging systems, and other devices, the Policy Manager component monitors all data 

activity and reviews that data against predefined criteria. Policy Manager lets you define 

rules or policies against any data condition, from configuration and system traffic, to 

individual usage, alarms, and historical events. 

Initiate Action Plans when user-defined conditions have been met or exceeded. These plans 

have Operating Intervals, Exclusion Intervals, and other configurable parameters that can 

be used to specify notification rules to be followed when conditions have been met or 

exceeded. This includes defining exact escalation steps, such as generating email 

notification, sending SNMP alerts to Unicenter NSM, executing third-party scripts and 

commands, or other actions. 



This section describes the process for installing the integration between Unicenter NSM and 

eHealth for Voice. This section includes sections that cover the following tasks: 

• Prerequisites 

• Installation 

• Post-installation 

• Integration Removal 

Prerequisites 

Certain prerequisites must be completed prior to installing the Unicenter NSM Integration to 

enable right-click launch capabilities. In order for the integration to be successful, the 

following prerequisites must be met: 

• Unicenter NSM Agent Technology r3.1 or r11.x must be installed. 

• The eHealth for Voice client r3.5 must be installed 

Installation 

The following steps outline the tasks that must be completed to install and activate the 

integration: 

To enable the integration between Unicenter NSM and eHealth for Voice 

1. Install the eHealth for Voice client on the Unicenter NSM server. 

If right-click launch capability is desired, see the eHealth for Voice Operations Guide for 

detailed installation instructions. 

2. After eHealth for Voice is installed, navigate to the appropriate Unicenter subdirectory 

on the eHealth for Voice installation disk. 

› For Unicenter NSM 3.1, navigate to the Unicenter\Install_V3 directory 

› For Unicenter NSM r11, navigate to the Unicenter\Install_r11 directory 

3. From the command line, run this command from the appropriate directory: 

setup.exe 

4. Click Next on the InstallShield Wizard initial window. 


5. Click Install to start copying files. 

After the files have been copied, several Unicenter NSM applications are executed to 

add the eHealth for Voice Integration to the Unicenter NSM Agent Manager. 

6. After the integration files are configured into Unicenter NSM, the Agent Manager called 

the Distributed State Machine (DSM) must be reset, so click Yes. 

Note: If the DSM is not reset at this time, you must run the following commands at a 

later time to enable the integration. 

resetdsm 


7. When DSM reset process completes, click Next to proceed. 

8. Click Finish on the InstallShield Wizard window to complete the installation. 


Post-installation Steps 

After the integration installation completes, the next step required to enable the integration 

is to have Unicenter NSM discover the computer running the eHealth for Voice Policy 

Manager service, so that it appears as a Unicenter NSM object. 

Unicenter NSM discovery can be executed from the command line or performed from the 

MCC. 

To run the discovery process from the command line 

1. Open a command line interface. 

2. Enter the following command on the server running to get the help page for the 

discovery command 

dscvrbe /? 

3. A typical command used to discover the eHealth for Voice server would be similar to 

the following: 

dscvrbe -7 -v 9 

Integration Removal 

If you ever need to remove the integration between eHealth for Voice and Unicenter NSM, 

use the following procedure. 

To remove the integration between eHealth for Voice and Unicenter NSM 

1. Delete the eHealth for Voice Business Process View and the eHealthVProxy agent, along 

with any child objects from within the Unicenter Management Command Center. 

2. From the MCC left pane drop-down menu, select Business Process Views. 


3. From the Business Process View list, right-click eHealth for Voice, and then select 

delete. 

4. Select Delete child objects (irreversible) and click Yes. 

5. In the MCC left pane drop-down menu, select Topology. 


6. Expand the TCP/IP Network topology to display the computer setup as the eHealth for 

Voice Policy Manager. 

7. Right-click eHealthVProxyAgent and select delete. 

8. Select Delete child objects (irreversible) and click Yes. 


9. Start the uninstall process by doing one of the following: 

› Open the Add/Remove Programs control panel applet, select eHealth for Voice – 

Unicenter NSM 3.1 Integration, or eHealth for Voice – Unicenter NSM r11 

Integration, and select Remove. 

› Open the eHealth for Voice program group on the Start menu and from the 

Unicenter NSM group select Uninstall Unicenter NSM Integration. 

The uninstall process removes the integration files; however, it needs to run a number 

of Unicenter NSM applications to remove the eHealth for Voice integration. 


10. After the integration files are removed, you must reset the Agent Manager (DSM), so 

select Yes when prompted to reset the DSM. 

Note: If the DSM agent is not reset now, you must run the following commands at a 

later time to complete the uninstallation procedure of the integration. 

resetdsm 


11. Manually deactivate or remove any Unicenter NSM specific actions plans in the eHealth 

for Voice application. In the console tree of the eHealth for Voice User Interface, do the 

following: 

a. Expand the Templates section under Policy Manager 

b. Select Action Plans 

c. Double-click an Action Plan that has trap actions you want to remove 

d. In the Selected Actions list select the action that you want to remove and hit the 

“

12. Manually deactivate or remove any Unicenter NSM specific actions in the eHealth for 

Voice application. In the console tree of the eHealth for Voice User Interface, do the 

following: 

a. Select Actions 

b. Double-click the action you want to delete 

c. Select Delete and select Yes to confirm your decision. 

13. Manually deactivate or remove any Unicenter NSM SNMP servers listed in the eHealth 

for Voice application. In the console tree of the eHealth for Voice User Interface, do the 

following: 

a. Expand Servers under Configuration 

b. Select SNMP 

c. Double-click the SNMP server you want to delete 


d. Select Delete on the dialog and click Yes to confirm your decision. 

Using the eHealth for Voice Integration 

This section describes how to use the eHealth for Voice integration with Unicenter NSM. 

Topics include: 

• Configuring eHealth Policy Manager to communicate with Unicenter NSM 

• Activating Policy Management for a node 

• Configuring the SNMP Server 

• Creating an SNMP action 

• Creating an action plan 

• Setting Conditions 

• Configuring Policy Settings 

• Viewing the results in Unicenter NSM 

• Viewing details with Node View 


Configure eHealth Policy Manager to Communicate with 

Unicenter NSM 

First configure eHealth Policy Manager to send SNMP traps to Unicenter. This sets up an 

SNMP Server. 

To configure eHealth Policy Manager to send SNMP traps to Unicenter 

1. Click the SNMP icon. From the left pane tree, start with Configuration, Servers, SNMP. 

The configured servers appear in the right pane. 

2. Right-click in the right pane and select New from the context menu. 

A blank SNMP Servers form appears. 

3. Enter the server name, IP address, and Port in the appropriate boxes. Consult the 

administrator of your monitoring program for the IP address and port to be used. 

4. Enter the community name if your system uses communities for authorization. 

5. Click Save. 

For additional information about eHealth for Voice usage, see the eHealth for Voice 

Operations Guide, and the eHealth for Voice Policy Manager User Guide. 

Activate Policy Management for a node 

The Policy Manager must be enabled on the nodes for each node that it will manage. This 

allows the user to limit those nodes which are monitored. The eHealth for Voice Operations 

Guide details the procedures for setting up nodes within the program console. 

To enable Policy Manager on a node 

1. Locate the node in the tree of the program console and double-click its icon. 

The node form opens. 

2. Select the check box on the right side of the nodes tab Policy Manager On? 

3. Click Save. 


Note: You must be collecting data from the node to apply any policies. Carefully review the 

data collection schedule to ensure that it makes sense for your policies. 

Configure the SNMP Server 

At least one Unicenter NSM system must be defined as an SNMP server within eHealth for 

Voice in order for Policy Manager to send traps to Unicenter NSM. To do this, enter 

appropriate information in the SNMP Server dialog. The following graphic is an example of 

the SNMP Server dialog: 

This dialog contains the following fields for each SNMP server: 

Server Name 

Defines the name of the Unicenter NSM system selected to be the SNMP server. This is 

internal to Policy Manager. While in most cases you will want to use the actual name of 

the Unicenter NSM system on the network, this is not required. It may be desirable to 

add a functional indication to the name (for example, “Athena Unicenter NSM” for the 

server named “Athena,” which is running the Unicenter NSM Agent Technology 

services.) 

Send Trap using 

Specifies which version of the protocol to use. This should be set to SNMP Version 2C 

for Unicenter NSM. 

Connect Address 

Defines the IP address or full DNS name of the Unicenter NSM server. 

Port Number 

Defines the port configured in Unicenter NSM for SNMP Trap reception. 

Community Name 

Defines the community name configured in Unicenter NSM. 

Detailed procedures for setting up servers within the program console can be found in the 

eHealth for Voice Operations Guide details. 


Creating an SNMP action 

After you have defined your SNMP server, you must create the SNMP action. To create the 

SNMP action, use the Properties Tab on the Action Alert Unicenter dialog and fill in the fields 

with the relevant information. 

The following graphic is an example of the Action dialog: 

This dialog contains the following fields for each action: 

Name 

Defines a name for this action. 

Activated 

Type 

Server 

Specifies if this action is to run as part of an action plan. 

Specifies the type of action. Select SNMP Trap. 

Specifies the SNMP Server configured in the previous step. 

Description 

Provides a description you wish to give to this action, for reference purposes. 

Operation Interval 

Specifies how frequently this action should be available to run. 

Exclusion Intervals 

(Optional) Identifies one or more intervals during which the action should not be 

available to run. 


Instructions for setting up actions with Policy Manager are included in Chapter 2 of the 

eHealth for Voice Policy Manager User Guide. 

If you prefer, you can configure multiple SNMP actions, one for each policy you create. This 

allows you to customize the message sent to Unicenter NSM as part of the alert. To do this, 

select the Configure tab of the Action Alert dialog and enter the relevant information. 

This dialog contains the following fields for each trap configuration: 

Trap Level 

Specifies the trap level. It corresponds to a severity within Unicenter NSM. 

Include Policy Results 

Specifies whether to include Unicenter NSM display icons, which represent the eHealth 

for Voice node on whose behalf the alert was sent. If you do not select this, all alerts 

will be associated with a generic Policy Manager Unicenter NSM object. 

Enter Message 

Defines the message text to display in Unicenter NSM for this particular SNMP trap. 


Create an Action Plan 

After you have created an SNMP action, you must create an action plan using the Action 

Plan dialog. The action plan details the steps that will occur when a policy runs and finds 

results. 

The following graphic is an example of the Action Plan dialog: 

This dialog contains the following fields for each action plan: 

Name 

Defines the name of this action plan. 

Activated 

Specifies whether to enable this action plan to run as the result of a policy. 

Description 

Provides a description of this action plan, for reference purposes. 

Time zone 

Specifies the applicable time zone for this action plan. 


Failure Action 

Specifies an optional action to run in the event any of the selected actions cannot run 

due to an error. 

Selected Actions 

Specifies the actions that should be carried out for this action plan. This should, at the 

very least, include the previously created SNMP action. 

Configure Policy Settings 

After one or more actions and action plans are configured, you can begin to create policies. 

You can create policies using the Policy dialog. 

The following graphic is an example of a Policy: 

This dialog contains the following fields for each policy: 

Name 

Defines a unique name for this policy and will be displayed in Unicenter NSM. 

Activated 

Specifies if the Policy Manager Service will run this policy when data elements are 

loaded. 

More detailed information on creating policies can be found in the in the eHealth for Voice 

Policy Manager User Guide. 


Set Policy Conditions 

A policy can contain one or more conditions that must be met in order for the action plan to 

be run. 

The following graphic is an example of a condition which includes the Average listening MOS 

for a Nortel CS 1000 IP PBX. 

After you have created your conditions, you must fill in the settings for the policy, as shown 

in the following dialog: 

Note that the Action Plan field is set to the previously created action plan 


View the Results in Unicenter NSM 

The following bullets explain briefly the process of an alert moving from eHealth for Voice to 

Unicenter NSM. 

• When a policy detects that the required criteria has been met, the corresponding action 

plan runs, and an SNMP trap is sent to Unicenter NSM. 

• When Unicenter NSM receives a Policy Manager trap, the policy results are parsed and 

several objects are created. 

The first of these, as seen in the following example, is a Business Process View named 

eHealth for Voice. 

• The objects representing the eHealth for Voice nodes are created as child objects of the 

computer running Policy Manager. 

• The Policy results are processed, and an object representing the alerting node is created. 

• For Application policies, and for alerts without policy results, an object named Policy 

Manager is created and associated with these alerts. 

• The Business Process View of eHealth for Voice can be viewed through the 

Unicenter Management Command Center, r11 browser interface, r3.1 Explorer, and the 

Classic 2D Map for Unicenter NSM 3.1 and Unicenter NSM r11. 


The following graphic is an example of the Unicenter NSM Browser Interface: 

The following graphic is an example of the MCC: 


The following is an example of the Classic 2D Map: 

View Details with Node View 

Because the Unicenter NSM objects are registered as child objects of the computer on 

which Policy Manager is running, you can use Node View to observe the status of your 

nodes. You can also use the Node View right-click menu to perform the following two 

activities related to eHealth for Voice: 

• Modify Node Settings: This launches eHealth for Voice and takes you directly to the 

nodes form within the application. 

Note: Node security will be enforced, however, and you are required to enter a valid 

eHealth for Voice username and password. 

• View Policy Results: This launches eHealth for Voice and takes you directly to the Policy 

Results for the last alerting Policy. 

From within Node View, you can also perform other standard tasks, such as acknowledging 

alerts and modifying the Unicenter NSM properties for any object. 


As you can see in the following example, the View Policy Results options can also be 

selected from the right-click menu for the eHealthVProxyDevice and eHealthVProxyAgent 

objects: 

Select *Event Browser from the right-click menu to view the alerting policy and its 

associated message. 

The Event Browser displays a history of events that have taken place, and associates them 

with the particular Unicenter NSM Object. As you can see in the following example, Event 

Browser is displaying a critical event: the policy “MOS is below 4.0” with the message “The 

listening MOS is below 4.0,” which was sent at 9:52 AM with a priority of “critical.” 

The Event Browser is available by right-clicking on any node object or on the 

eHealthVProxyDevice or eHealthVProxyAgent objects. 


All documentation for this integration, as well as other eHealth for Voice related documents, 

is located on the eHealth for Voice CD. The integration PDF is located within the 

Unicenter NSM folder. 



Management Integration with 

SPECTRUM 

This chapter discusses how to integrate SPECTRUM network management with 

Unicenter NSM, with the SPECTRUM management components serving as the alarm source 

for the elements that it is managing. The following key topics are presented: 


• How the integration works 

• Installing the integration 

• Using the SPECTRUM integration 



The driving force behind integrating network (SPECTRUM) and system management 

(Unicenter NSM) is the need to manage and monitor business services that are dependant 

upon both functional areas. Although each product manages its own domain, a more 

complete picture of systems performance and availability is achieved when these two 

domains share key information with one another. For example, one can send agent details 

known by Unicenter NSM to SPECTRUM for correlation with its network service model and 

present the resulting impact on Service Level Agreements. Conversely, network and service 

status provided through SPECTRUM complements device data presented by Unicenter NSM 

in an overall visualization of enterprise system status. 

Thus, the key business value derived from the integration between Unicenter NSM and 

Spectrum lies in the ability to leverage events from both network devices and systems to 

provide a more comprehensive view of the environment. 

Integrating SPECTRUM alarms with Unicenter NSM management provides the following 

benefits: 

• The MCC can be used as an enterprise console for SPECTRUM models and alarms as well 

as natively discovered Unicenter NSM objects. Consequently, you can work with the user 

interface that you are accustomed to. 

• The Alert Management System’s common set of tools for notification and escalation can 

be used for both products. 

• Unicenter Portal administrators have access to the Business Process View and Alert 

information and can include this information to create role-specific views for end-users. 

• Customized actions based on SPECTRUM alarms can be defined in Event Management for 

further automation or integration with other components. 



The primary purpose of this integration is to enable the visibility of SPECTRUM models and 

alarms from within Unicenter NSM. Integration features include the following: 

• SPECTRUM alarms are forwarded through an extension to the SPECTRUM AlarmNotifier. 

Model alarms are then forwarded to Unicenter NSM either through SNMP traps (the 

default) or through an Event Agent mechanism (if installed). On the Unicenter NSM side, 

DSM policy is used to analyze the alarm and to control further processing in WorldView 

and Event Management with any additional reformatting of the event message performed 

by Message Records and Actions. 

• SPECTRUM alarms are displayed as event messages in the Event Console. They include 

the SPECTRUM model name, the alarm text, the status and other pertinent data. A 

distinction is made between INFO messages that reflect every SPECTRUM alarm and 

STATUS messages that reflect a change to the model’s status. 

• When an alarm is received from a SPECTRUM model, the corresponding object in 

WorldView is updated with the new status. If a representative object does not currently 

exist in WorldView, then it is created on the fly. If Unicenter NSM has discovered the 

same device, a child object is placed underneath. All SPECTRUM objects are included in a 

SPECTRUM Business Process View. The object status always reflects the current status of 

the SPECTRUM model. 

• Important SPECTRUM events alerts are created and assigned to the SPECTRUM alert 

queue. 

• To further investigate the alarm conditions, the SPECTRUM OneClick user interface can be 

launched in context from the SPECTRUM object in the MCC Topology view and opened for 

the selected model. 



The integration supports SPECTRUM 7.1 SP3 or better on any operating environment and 

Unicenter NSM 3.1, r11 and r11.x on Windows operating environments. 

The integration package is included on the SPECTRUM 8.0 install media in the _Integration 

folder. It is also available for download from the following link: 

http://support.concord.com/support/secure/software/patches/downloads-alllist.asp. 

Please look for the file description “SPECTRUM/ Integration Module”. 

Documentation, including installation scenarios and procedures, is provided in SPECTRUM 

Document 5147, SPECTRUM Integration for Unicenter NSM User Guide. 

The integration package must be installed on the SpectroSERVER operating environment 

and all related Unicenter NSM operating environments. Support is provided for the 

installation of Unicenter NSM components in a distributed environment, such as the MDB, 

DSM and Admin Client. 

Using the SPECTRUM Integration 

The primary user interface for this integration is the MCC. After the installation is complete, 

SPECTRUM alarms appear in the Event Console and in the Alert view, and objects are 

created in WorldView. The following screenshot demonstrates how the all alerts in the 

SPECTRUM queue are shown. 

In the previous screenshot example, the SPECTRUM Business Process View is displayed in 

the Topology tree view, along with the objects that have or have had active alarms. For one 

model, the Console Log view is displayed with the most recent alarm messages. 


The following example demonstrates how SPECTRUM model icons are color-coded in the 

Explorer View. In the example, one model is currently in maintenance and the 

corresponding icon is grey. You can right-click on the icon, launch the SPECTRUM OneClick 

GUI in context, and easily turn off the maintenance mode for that model. 


For more information about this integration, see SPECTRUM Document 5147, SPECTRUM 

Integration for Unicenter NSM User Guide. 




Cisco 

This chapter discusses how to integrate Cisco Network management with Unicenter NSM. 




• Installing the integration with CiscoWorks 

• Using the Cisco integration 



Unicenter NSM Management for Cisco enables you to provided extended management of 

your Cisco devices through Unicenter NSM. With this integration capability, Unicenter NSM 

can recognize Cisco object identifiers, which in turn will enable Unicenter NSM to 

automatically discover and classify Cisco devices, after which Unicenter NSM can be used 

to: 

• Visualize and monitor these Cisco devices 

• Launch directly into CiscoWorks 

• Define Unicenter NSM policy for each Cisco device to customize how it will be managed 

through WorldView 

• Add support for new Cisco devices from the Cisco Integration Control by just providing 

the device type (router or switch) and the System Object Identifier. 

Included as part of the Unicenter NSM integration with Cisco are sets of predefined 

configuration files that can be used with the Unicenter NSM Systems Performance tools. 

This configuration provides extended Performance Configuration and Trend Analysis for all 

supported Cisco routers, thus enabling the Unicenter NSM Performance Manager component 

to gather information for these Cisco routers and graphically visualizing their historical 

performance. 


The key business value provided by this integration is the ability to quickly and 

completely discover and manage all supported Cisco network equipment. Through use of 

the predefined class definitions, performance configurations and visualizations the amount 

of time required to implement this integration manually is dramatically reduced and the 

monitoring and management facilities made available to your network management staff 

are rapidly and substantially improved, which in turn can help enhance their productivity. 


If this integration was not enabled, you would find that the Cisco devices monitored by 

Unicenter NSM would appear on the Management Command Center with generic Cisco 

icons. With the Cisco integration installed and activated, these generic icons are replaced 

with icons that specifically identify the device by type. These devices include default Cisco 

router or switch icons as their base, with device model labels at the top. 


The Unicenter NSM to Cisco integration supports all Cisco devices (routers and switches) 

available in the Cisco Network Management Integration Data Bundle (NMIDB) (which is 

published by Cisco and can be downloaded from the www.cisco.com website using a valid 

Cisco login). Using the information contained in the NMIDB file, the Unicenter NSM - Cisco 

integration can refine definitions for supported Cisco devices in the WorldView MDB, and the 

option is available to you whether this refinement of the definitions should be performed 

automatically or manually. 

Driven by the NMIDB content, the Unicenter NSM - Cisco integration provides the following 

features: 

• Creates class definitions for the Cisco model class. 

• Updates Agent Technology policies to monitor these Cisco devices. 

• Creates icon or image files to uniquely display these devices using either the 

Unicenter NSM 2D Map or the Management Command Center. 

• Updates Performance Management to create reports for these Cisco devices. 

Installing the Integration with CiscoWorks 

To use Unicenter NSM Cisco integration, you must have access to the Cisco NMIDB file, 

which contains device model information. This file is not installed with the Unicenter NSM 

Cisco integration but it can be can be accessed from the web by logging into the Cisco 

support site using your Cisco provided support login credentials, or it can alternatively be 

copied from your CiscoWorks product CD. To obtain a valid Cisco user account and 

password, consult your channel partner or log a request on www.cisco.com. 

Note: On Linux, the Unicenter NSM - Cisco Integration installation is part of the installation 

selection screen and is located on the Post Installation Utilities Component Selection 

window. 

To install the Unicenter NSM Cisco Device Integration on Windows 

1. Insert the installation DVD into the drive. 

The installation program starts automatically. The Unicenter Product Explorer appears. 

2. Expand the Post Installation Utilities folder. 

3. Select Cisco Integration, and then Select Install. 

A welcome screen appears. 

4. Follow the installation wizard prompts, and select Finish to complete your installation. 

If you are interested in running a silent installation of the Unicenter Cisco Device 

Integration on Windows see the Unicenter NSM Implementation Guide for information on 

that topic. 

Unicenter Cisco Integration can be uninstalled using “Add or Remove Programs” from the 

control panel. 


Using the CiscoWorks Integration 

The CiscoWorks integration can be used to perform many tasks including: 

• Viewing Cisco devices from the Unicenter MCC 

• Launching CiscoWorks from the Unicenter MCC Topology Map to view and manage any 

Cisco device in greater detail 

• Launching CiscoWorks from WorldView 2D Map 

• Monitoring device interfaces from Node View 

• Launching DSM View of your devices from Node View 

• Reviewing the device performance through Unicenter Performance Trend 

In the following Management Command Center example you can see how CiscoWorks can 

be launched directly from the MCC. 

To launch CiscoWorks directly from the MCC 

1. Expand TCP/IP network in the left pane. 

2. Arbitrarily pick one of the class B networks you are managing. In the case of this 

example, we chose the 172.17 network. 

3. Expand one of the subnets in that class B network, in this case the subnet we expanded 

is 172.17.184.0. 

4. Expand into one of the LAN segments. 

5. Select the device you are interested in (note that it has a Cisco-specific icon and the 

object properties will further clarify the device type). 


6. When selected, the right-click popup menu becomes available and from there select 

CiscoWorks and then launch it into context. 


Additional information regarding this integration can be found in the 

Unicenter NSM Implementation Guide. 


Chapter 12: Systems 


HP Systems Insight Manager 

This chapter discusses how to integrate HP Systems Insight Manager with Unicenter NSM . 


• Overview and Value of the Integration 

• How the Integration Works 




HP Systems Insight Manager (SIM) is HP's unified server-storage management tool and, as 

a hardware level management product, it supports HP ProLiant, Integrity, and HP 9000 

servers, as well as HP StorageWorks MSA, EVA, and XP arrays and other third-party arrays. 

HP SIM is available to HP customers who purchase relevant HP hardware and is used to 

monitor the status of the hardware infrastructure. 

The Unicenter NSM integration with HP Systems Insight Manager provides a central location 

for viewing the available HP Insight infrastructure through the Unicenter NSM interfaces. 

The integration creates a single console view that shows the status of the applications, 

operating system, and of the underlying hardware. While the integration collects all related 

information in one common manager, it allows for correlation between messages from SIM, 

Unicenter NSM Agents, and other management tools. The integration makes it possible for 

failures within the infrastructure to be displayed graphically within the console and, with the 

benefit of the broader context provided through Unicenter NSM, show how the failure is 


impacting the business. 

The key business values delivered through Unicenter NSM integration with HP Systems 

Insight Manager are reduced administrative costs and improved services. By 

integrating storage related messages within the single console view alongside the status of 

the remaining environment, those messages can be viewed within the context of the 

surrounding environment and then associated with affected business services. 


There are three levels of integration available through the HP Systems Insight Manager 

Integration kit. They are: 

• Integration at the Systems Insight Manager Server Level 

At this level, events are forwarded from the Systems Insight Manager server to the 

Unicenter NSM Event Management console. This type of integration is designed for 

environments where the Systems Insight Manager server is being used to manage HP 

hardware and the events generated by the Systems Insight Manager server are 

required on the Unicenter NSM Enterprise manager console. 


• Integration through Event Management SNMP Traps 

At this level, SNMP traps are directed to Unicenter NSM and then translated by the 

Unicenter NSM Event Manager. This integration requires that the HP servers running 

the agents be configured to forward SNMP traps to the Unicenter NSM manager. The 

SNMP traps are translated using the supplied message record actions into event 

message and are then forwarded to the Event Management console. 

Comprehensive Integration 

At this level, DSM and WorldView integration is incorporated in the following manner: 

› Systems Insight Manager agents are discovered using SNMP mechanisms and 

the Unicenter NSM Distributed State Machine (DSM) creates a WorldView agent 

object within the Unispace of the Insight Agent host. 

› The HP Management agent is then managed by the Unicenter NSM infrastructure, 

enabling the agent objects and management information to be available from 

within the Management Command Center in the same way as Unicenter NSM 

agents are available. 


See the following example of HP Management Agents displayed in the MCC. 

› The HP Management Agent objects include launch points that can be used to 

access the HP Systems Insight Manager. Each object also includes an Agent View 

browser that can be used to gather details on the agent configuration and 

current status. 

› The Agent View is a read-only view of the agent status and configuration. It lets 

operations staff view hardware status and launch Insight Manager and Remote 

Insight / Lights out boards, if available. 

For additional information on HP Systems Insight Manager, visit the HP web site at 

www.hp.com/go/hpsim. 



Unicenter Network and Systems Management (Unicenter NSM) provides full support for HP 

Insight Manager through the CA Smart program; the integration kit is supplied by HP and 

the current version of the kit can be downloaded from the HP Web site at the following URL: 

www.hp.com/servers/integration. 

A complete set of installation instructions and details on this integration can be found in the 

DF HPInsightUnicenter33.pdf, which is shipped with the integration kit. 


The integration kit can be obtained at: 

http://h18013.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/unicenter/index.html 

Simply click Register and Download. 


Chapter 13: Systems 


Microsoft Operations Manager 

This chapter describes how you can configure Unicenter NSM and Microsoft Operations 

Manager (MOM) to work together to provide an integrated systems management solution 

that leverages Unicenter NSM visualization capabilities for MOM managed equipment. 




• Installing Unicenter Management for MOM 

• Using Unicenter Management for MOM 

• Reference information 


Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) delivers operations management by providing event 

management, proactive monitoring and alerting, reporting, and trend analysis. It helps 

administrators monitor and manage the events and performance of Windows 2000 or 2003 

server systems and, through management packs, also monitors various applications that 

are running on those systems – and yes, MOM is in many ways, conceptually similar to the 

Event Management components of Unicenter NSM. 

Unicenter Management for MOM (MOM Management) integrates Unicenter NSM and 

Microsoft Operations Manager to provide a central location for performing management 

functions. 

Through this integration, the status of MOM-managed machines becomes immediately 

visible through the Unicenter NSM WorldView components where the status of these objects 

can not only be monitored, but also changed. This integration also makes it possible for any 

open MOM alerts to be viewed beside any other events that are brought to the attention of 

Unicenter NSM in one convenient location—on the Unicenter NSM Event Console. 

Just like any alert that is brought to the attention of the Unicenter NSM Event Management 

component, these alerts generated by MOM-managed nodes can be reformatted to provide 

normalized views of these alerts, or filtered for action, such as saving it into the MOM 

database or correlating it with similar events. In effect, all of the advanced capabilities of 

Unicenter NSM Event Management can be applied. 

Further, the alert management integration between Unicenter NSM and Microsoft MOM is 

bidirectional because the integration provides a new command line utility for updating MOM 

alerts. This utility lets you assign a MOM Resolution State to the alert to indicate the user 


ole responsible for handling the situation that caused the alert, to note that the alert is 

being addressed, and to mark the MOM alert as acknowledged or resolved. 

The key business benefits of integrating Unicenter NSM with Microsoft MOM are in its 

ability to provide a single point of: 

• management administration 

• management monitoring 

that integrates events from Microsoft MOM with the rest of the infrastructure and ties them 

to a service definition or a Business Process View. This capability helps reduce costs by 

improving operations staff productivity and helps improve service by providing more 

complete information to administrative staff to reduce the mean time to repair. 


To best understand how the integration works, it is helpful to first be familiar with some of 

the basic terminology used by MOM. This includes the following terms: 

Web-Based Enterprise Management 

Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) is a standard set of management tools and 

Internet technologies. The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) has developed 

standards for WBEM that include the Common Information Model (CIM) for databases, 

xml/CIM for coding, and CIM Operations over HTTP for transporting information. 

MOM Entity 

A MOM entity is a MOM Server or a MOM Managed PC. 

MOM Server 

A MOM Server is a computer that has access to the MOM database. 


MOM Managed PC 

A MOM Managed PC is a computer with a MOM Agent running on it, or a computer that 

MOM is managing through agentless monitoring. 

MOM Administrator Console 

The MOM Administrator Console is the GUI where MOM is configured. It also provides 

the central monitoring point in MOM. 

Unicenter Management for MOM is enabled through two primary processes – MOM 

Discovery and MOM Management. 

MOM Discovery 

MOM Discovery performs the following actions to enable Unicenter Management for MOM: 

• When Unicenter Management for MOM is installed, WorldView Auto Discovery interrogates 

the MOM network, and populates the MDB with object information representing WBEMenabled 

computers. 

• The Unicenter MOM Discovery component then communicates with MOM and classifies 

these entities according to their roles as either MOM Servers or MOM agents. 

• Based on this classification, a MOM object is automatically created in the WorldView 

Unispace for each role that the computer plays. 

MOM Management 

The following examples show how Microsoft MOM objects are viewed from the Management 

Command Center. 

• The following graphic represents the MOM Business Process View and shows how MOM 

objects are categorized according to MOM managers and MOM agents, as well as Warning 

and Critical object severities. 


• MOM entities also appear inside the appropriate hosts they are running on, such as under 

the Unispace objects as shown in the following graphic. 

• A “wbem” object is created under the Unispace object of each discovered MOM server. 

The following graphic shows a server that was discovered with this wbem object, together 

with the appropriate MOM manager and MOM agent objects. 

Important: To keep MOM information current, run MOM Discovery at regular intervals. 

This will ensure that Unicenter NSM is aware of all newly deployed MOM servers and 

agents. 


You can view actual MOM alerts, filter out ones you are not interested in, and acknowledge 

or resolve those alerts of interest. 

To view MOM alerts of a particular MOM server 

1. Navigate to the MOM server object in the Business Process View for MOM Servers 

2. Select menu Launch Alert Container as shown in the following graphic. 

A list of MOM alerts is displayed when you launch the Alert Container. A sample of the 

Alert Container is shown within the next procedure and at the end of this chapter. 

Unicenter MOM Management then continues to interact with MOM, collects unresolved MOM 

alerts, and sends them to the Unicenter NSM Event Management components. After an alert 

appears in the Event Console it can be subjected to standard Event Management Message 

Records and Action (MRA) policies, to help identify important MOM alerts and automatically 

act upon them. 

Note: Resolved MOM alerts are no longer considered alerts and are, therefore, deliberately 

and specifically NOT harvested by this integration. When an open alert is resolved in MOM, 

the corresponding alert in the Unicenter NSM alert queue will subsequently be removed as 

well. 

As previously mentioned, the Unicenter MOM alert integration is bidirectional and Unicenter 

MOM Management can update MOM alerts, either through the MOM Management GUI or the 

following Unicenter NSM command: 

momalertalter 


To acknowledge an alert, you need to assign the alert to a MOM Resolution State indicating 

what role should handle the situation that is causing the alert, and indicate the progress 

toward resolving the situation. 

To acknowledge an alert through the MOM Management GUI 

1. Launch the MOM Alert container by right-clicking the server of interest (see previous 

graphic). 

2. Select the alarm you want to resolve and right-click it to display the Resolve menu. 

3. Select the Resolve menu to launch the Unicenter Resolve Alert - Detail window. 

4. Select the green arrow (pointing down) in property Resolution Status 

5. Select the resolution state from the drop-down list. 

6. Click OK in the top left corner on the Alert Details Window to save the resolution state. 

You can also resolve alerts by using the momalertaleter command, which has the following 

parameters: 

momalertalter -s -g [ -o | -r ] 

-s 

(Required) Specifies the name of the MOM server 

-g 

(Required) Specifies the GUID of the alert 


-o 

Specifies the new owner of the alert. 

-r 

Specifies the new resolution state of the alert. 

Notes: 

• Do not include spaces in any of the values. 

• Resolution State must be the MOM numeric value, or 

• Resolution State must be one of the following predefined keywords. 

Resolution State Keywords: 

• NEW, ACK, LEVEL1, LEVEL2, LEVEL3, LEVEL4, RES 

Example: momalertalter –usildan1 -g{(EA4C69C-1455-464E-B001-DF4C5A12E9E0} -rRES 

In the example above, a specific alert is being resolved on MOM server usildan1. 

After the error that caused the MOM alert is corrected, MOM Management notifies MOM that 

the alert is resolved. 

MOM Alerts as Event Messages 

When Unicenter Management for MOM sends MOM alerts to Unicenter NSM Event 

Management, those alerts are transformed into Unicenter NSM Event Management format. 

Accordingly, the actual MOM alerts are not displayed in their original format in the Event 

Management log or on the Event Management Console. However, in the interest of 

thoroughness and good housekeeping you CAN view those events in their original format 

using two different mechanisms: 

• Through the MOM Alert GUI container 

• Through WorldView, where the alerts are available as WorldView object severities from 

the Topology view of Management Command Center and the classic 2D Map. 

Note: Event Management does not communicate directly with MOM; it collects the MOMspecific 

information through a WMI provider. 


Status of MOM Entities in WorldView 

MOM alerts contain a resolution state value, and this value indicates what action is being 

taken to resolve the situation that caused the alert. Unicenter Management for MOM uses 

the resolution states and the severity to determine the status of servers and managed PCs 

in WorldView. The object’s status of normal, warning, critical, or down is indicated by the 

color of the object. 

MOM Resolution state 

WorldView Status 

0 (New) Depends on Severity 

MOM severity 

WorldView Status 

Success 

Normal 

Information 

Normal 

Warning 

Warning 

Error 

Critical 

Critical Error 

Critical 

Security Breach 

Critical 

Unavailable 

Down 

85 (Acknowledged) Warning 

170 (Level 1: Assigned to help desk or local 

support) 

Warning 

180 (Level 2: Assigned to subject matter 

expert) 

Warning 

190 (Level 3: Requires scheduled maintenance) Warning 

200 (Level 4: Assigned to external group or 

vendor) 

Warning 

255 (Resolved) Normal 


Installing Unicenter Management for MOM 

The following is a high-level description of the sequential process required to complete the 

installation of Unicenter Management for MOM (MOM Management). More detailed 

information about the installation steps is provided within this chapter. 

How to get Unicenter Management for MOM up and running 

1. Verify that all prerequisites are met. 

2. Apply necessary patches and set up user accounts for installation, MOM Discovery, and 

information collection from MOM. 

3. Install Unicenter Management for MOM. 

4. (Optional) Run MOM Discovery. 

If needed, you can uninstall Unicenter Management for MOM using Add or Remove 

Programs. 

Verify Prerequisites 

The Unicenter NSM Manager server, on which MOM Management will be installed, must 

meet the following requirements: 

• It must be running Windows 2000 or 2003 Server. 

• It must already have installed on it Unicenter NSM WorldView, Event Management, and 

MCC component. 

• It must be in the same Windows domain as the Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) and 

the servers that it monitors. 

• The MOM Integration has to be of the same release as Unicenter NSM and MOM needs to 

be at a supported level. 

Note: The r11.1 kit currently supports MOM 2000 SP1 and MOM 2005. 

• It is recommended that neither MOM nor Unicenter NSM components be installed on a 

domain controller because of performance and other considerations. 

If you are upgrading Unicenter NSM from an earlier version and were using Unicenter 

Management for MOM, you must also upgrade Unicenter Management for MOM to its 

current version. Earlier versions of the component are not compatible with this release of 

Unicenter NSM. 

Be sure to review the Unicenter Management for MOM readme on the installation DVD for 

any other system requirements. 

Note: MOM entities must first be discovered and present in the MDB before they can be 

classified in WorldView. Therefore, make sure that the servers on which MOM entities are 

running have been previously discovered by Unicenter NSM. 


Perform Preinstallation Tasks 

To ensure a successful and productive installation, it is HIGHLY recommended that you 

perform the necessary preparation tasks before installing Unicenter Management for MOM 

(MOM Management): 

To prepare for the installation 

1. Make sure SNMP is installed and configured with community strings on the MOM server: 

a. Launch the Windows Services container and double-click SNMP Service. If this 

service is not listed, then the SNMP service is not installed 

b. After the SNMP Service container comes up, click the Security tab at the top. 

c. Click Add under Accepted Community names, and enter an appropriate Community 

string. 

d. You can leave the Community Rights as READ ONLY, click ADD, and then click OK. 

2. Install the patch that enables MOM Management to recognize MOM agent computers. 

This is a Microsoft supplied patch that is applicable to computers running Microsoft 

Management for MOM 2005. The patch updates the MSFT_Computer class of Microsoft 

SQL Server. 

For step-by-step instructions, see the Knowledge Base article 888197 on 

support.microsoft.com. Navigate your web browser to 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888197/en-us or to a shorter address of 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb and just enter the article number in the Search Support 

(KB) box on the right side of the page. 


See the graphic below as an example. 

3. Set up an account for installation and discovery. The user account used to install 

Unicenter Management for MOM and to run Unicenter Management for MOM Discovery 

must have the following privileges: 

› Membership in the Administrators group on the Unicenter NSM Manager node 

› Act as part of the operating system access rights (see instructions below) 

Note: We recommend that the account for installation and discovery be the same 

account used for installing Unicenter NSM. 

To apply the “Act as part of the operating system” privilege to the user ID 

a. Choose Settings, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Local Security Policy from the 

Start Menu on the Unicenter NSM Manager node. 

The Local Security Settings window opens. 

Note: You can also give domain administrators this privilege on the primary 

domain controller. To do so: Choose Start, Settings, Control Panel, Administrative 

Tools, and then Domain Security Policy. 


. Expand Local Policies, and click User Rights Assignment. 

The user rights appear in the right pane. 

c. Double-click “Act as part of the operating system”. Add the user name to the list, 

and click OK. 

The user account now has the “Act as part of the operating system” privilege. 

4. Set up the Unicenter Management for MOM runtime account. 

Unicenter Management for MOM requires a user account for collecting MOM information and 

the installation will prompt you for both the user name and password. Use a domain 

administrator or domain user account that can access MOM information throughout the 

domain. The account must have “Log on as a service” privilege on the Unicenter NSM 

Manager. If you use a domain user account, it also needs to be a member of the 

Administrators group on the MOM server. See instructions below on how to add these 

rights. 

Note: You can use the same account for collecting MOM information, installing MOM 

Management and running MOM Discovery. 

To apply the privilege “Log on as a service” to a domain administrator or domain 

user account 

a. From the Start menu on the Unicenter NSM Manager node, select Settings, Control 

Panel, Administrative Tools, Local Security Policy. 

The Local Security Settings window opens. 

Note: You can also give domain administrators and users this privilege on the 

primary domain controller. To do so: Choose Start, Settings, Control Panel, 

Administrative Tools, Domain Security Policy. 

b. Expand Local Policies, and click User Rights Assignment. 

The user rights appear in the right pane. 

c. Double-click Log on as a service. Add the user name to the list, and click OK. 

The account now has the “Log on as a service” privilege. 

To apply administrative privilege to a domain user account 

a. On the MOM server, open Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer 

Management. 

The Computer Management window opens. 

b. Expand Local Users and Groups, and click Groups. 

The groups appear in the right pane. 

c. Double-click Administrators, add the domain user name to the list, and click OK. 

The domain user account becomes an administrator. 


Install Unicenter Management for MOM 

Both the WorldView and Event Managers must be installed before installing Unicenter 

Management for MOM. 

To install Unicenter Management for MOM 

1. Log on to the Unicenter NSM Manager, and insert the Unicenter NSM installation DVD. 

The Unicenter Product Explorer appears. 

Note: The user must be an administrator with the privilege “Act as part of the 

operating system.” 

2. In Unicenter Explorer, expand the folder for “Unicenter for Windows” / “Post Installation 

Utilities”. 

A list of utilities appears. 

3. Double-click Management for Microsoft Operations Manager and follow the instructions 

in the wizard. 

4. When prompted, provide a domain, user name, and password, for the account that will 

be used to collect information from MOM and click Next. 

Note: The user must be an administrator with “Log on as a service” privileges. See Set 

Up the MOM Management Runtime Account section earlier in this chapter. 

Unicenter Management for MOM is installed. 

After the installation is complete, you are prompted to perform MOM Discovery, which will 

classify MOM entities as MOM servers or MOM-managed PCs in the MDB. Do this only if you 

have recently run Discovery on the MOM network. Otherwise, the Discovery will not find 

any MOM servers or managed PCs. You can always run MOM Discovery later. 

Run Unicenter Management for MOM Discovery 

When it is initiated, Unicenter MOM Discovery will communicate with Microsoft Operations 

Manager to classify WEBM computers in your network as MOM servers or managed PCs. 

After discovery, you can view and update the status of these devices in WorldView and view 

MOM alerts on the Event Console. 

Note: While the first MOM discovery can be automatically initiated during the installation of 

Unicenter for MOM Management, to keep MOM information current, we recommend that 

you perform MOM Discovery at regular intervals. 


To Run Discovery on your MOM network 

1. Select Start, Programs, Computer Associates, Unicenter, NSM, Management for MOM, 

MOM Discovery. 

The Unicenter Management for MOM Discovery Wizard appears. 

2. Click Next. 

The Domain Credentials dialog appears. 


3. Enter or verify the domain, user ID, and password for the account that accesses and 

updates MOM information. You defined this user when you installed Unicenter 

Management for MOM. 

4. Click Validate and follow the prompts. 

MOM Discovery classifies WBEM devices as MOM servers or managed PCs. 

Using Unicenter Management for MOM 

Details on performing the following Management for MOM procedures are provided in the 

MCC online help: 

• Run MOM Discovery 

• View Alerts for a MOM Server 

• Filter Alerts in the Unicenter Alert Container 

• Add, Remove, or Rearrange Columns in the Unicenter Alert Container 

• Refresh the Unicenter Alert Container Automatically 

• Acknowledge or Resolve MOM Alerts Using the GUI 

• Acknowledge or Resolve MOM Alerts Using a Command. 


Consider the following example of a selected alert. As you can see, the Resolution State can 

be selected and changed by using the green arrow to the right of the Resolution State and 

then clicking the green OK arrow at the top left of the dialog box. 


More information about Microsoft Operations Manager, Unicenter NSM, and this integration 

can be found in the following documents: 

• Unicenter NSM Implementation Guide 

• Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Product Documentation located at 

http://www.microsoft.com/mom/techinfo/productdoc/default.mspx 

• Unicenter Network and Systems Management Architecture Guide (CA Internal Only) 

located at http://swatnotes/Architectures/%20Architecture%20Guide.pdf 


Chapter 14: Integration with 

Application Manager Introscope 

This chapter discusses how to integrate Wily Introscope application management with 

Unicenter NSM. The following key topics are presented: 



• Installing and configuring the integration 

• Using the integration 



Wily Introscope is an application performance management solution that lets you monitor 

complex web applications in production environments 24x7, detect problems before they 

affect you, and help resolve issues quickly and collaboratively. It gives you the ability to 

better manage transaction integrity and user satisfaction—key requirements for ensuring 

successful customer interactions with your mission-critical web applications. Using 

patented, low-overhead technology, Introscope provides comprehensive end-to-end 

transaction visibility across your entire infrastructure—the application itself, application 

servers, web servers, messaging middleware, databases and transaction servers—without 

degrading performance. 

Through the integration of Unicenter NSM with Wily Introscope, visibility into J2EE (Oracle 

10g, JBoss, Tomcat, Tuxedo, and so forth) and .NET resources becomes available to 

Unicenter NSM users at an unprecedented level because Introscope agents are exposed as 

standard Unicenter NSM managed objects. After Unicenter NSM recognizes Introscope 

agents, the varied and powerful capabilities of Unicenter NSM can be applied; for example, 

those managed objects can then be included as part of Unicenter NSM Business Process 

Views and measured in terms of SLAs. 


The key business value delivered through this integration is a blend of monitoring and 

management capabilities that further simplifies troubleshooting and problem resolution, in 

turn enabling those tasks to be carried out more quickly and more effectively. In addition, 

application monitoring settings configured by Application support personnel can be reused 

by operation teams, enabling operations teams to leverage the expertise of the application 

support team. This reduced redundancy across administrative tasks simplifies those same 

configuration tasks and consequently results in fewer problems being introduced by 

changes, costs are reduced, and service is improved. 


The integration between Introscope and Unicenter NSM is enabled through an extension to 

the Introscope Enterprise Manager. This extension enables the Introscope Enterprise 

Manager to report the status of Introscope Agents and related alerts to Unicenter NSM. This 

information then becomes available through standard Unicenter NSM user interfaces (such 

as the MCC and the event console), after which all of the applicable capabilities of the MCC 

become available as well. The following Architectural Deployment Diagram demonstrates 

the relationships among the components involved. 


During implementation, you can select what Introscope management modules to make 

available through the Unicenter Explorer (found in Unicenter NSM 3.1) or the Management 

Command Center (MCC, found in Unicenter NSM r11). Based on the management modules 

selected, a corresponding managed object is instantiated and the Introscope Investigator 

hierarchy of Host, Process, Agent, that Introscope users are familiar with, is replicated 

under the appropriate management module object in MCC. 

After the integration is in place, the Introscope alert messages become available in the 

Unicenter NSM Event Console where further action can be taken. For example, an 

Introscope alert becomes a Unicenter NSM event that can trigger Unicenter Notification 

services and Unicenter Alert Management Services. To best understand the flow of the 

extension and take full advantage of the integration, a basic working knowledge is needed 

of the collective architecture of Introscope Investigator management modules, Unicenter 

WorldView, MCC, and Event Console, all of which make up the integration. The section that 

follows discusses this architecture. 


Architecture 

The integration between Introscope and Unicenter NSM provides the following features: 

• Creation of WorldView objects representing Introscope agents, using the same object 

model as used within the Introscope product. 

• Important Introscope event messages and alarms sent to the Unicenter NSM event 

console for further standard Unicenter NSM processing, including being forwarded to a 

preconfigured alert queue. 

• Introscope dashboard displaying metric groupings and other information on applications 

and displayed as a plugin in the Unicenter MCC right pane. 

Monitor Introscope Agents from the MCC 

In the MCC, Introscope Agents are organized into the Introscope Agents Business Process 

View. For example, the screenshot below shows this Business Process View in the left pane 

of the MCC: 


Also displayed in the Introscope Agent Business Process View are the selected management 

module objects and, under them, the Introscope host, process, agent hierarchy appears. 

The following screenshot depicts the Introscope Agent Dashboard listing Monitored Alerts in 

the right pane of the MCC. 

In addition to replicating the object hierarchy from Introscope, the Introscope extension 

also helps to accurately reflect the status of the Introscope managed objects in MCC. 

How Introscope extension reflects status of the Introscope managed objects in 

MCC 

1. The MCC Introscope extension registers with Introscope and listens to any changes in 

the status of the agents associated with the management module. 

The status of the agent is derived from alerts. 

2. Whenever there is a change in status of the agent, the extension is notified and the 

current status of the corresponding object is updated in Unicenter NSM WorldView. 

3. The status change is automatically propagated up through the hierarchy by 

Unicenter NSM, to the management module and related Business Process Views using 

the same status representation in Unicenter NSM, as is used in Introscope, specifically: 

› Green = normal 

› Yellow = warning 

› Red = critical 


4. When the Introscope agent is selected in the MCC, the agent dashboard for that agent 

is displayed in the right pane. 

The details displayed include the host, process and the current status of the agent as 

well as the alerts associated with the management module, host, process and agent. 

5. The previous and current status of the alerts can be viewed, and the warning and 

critical thresholds appear as configured for the alerts as defined in the Introscope 

management modules. 

You can drill down to the metric grouping associated with the alert and view the 

underlying metrics and their status. 

6. The dashboard can be launched from the MCC by right-clicking the metric objects. 

Send Introscope Alerts to Unicenter Event Management Console 

Through this integration, Introscope Alerts can be sent to Unicenter Enterprise 

Management, where they can be viewed in the Event Console along with other Unicenter 

NSM alerts, enabling Unicenter NSM administrators to take advantage of standard 

Unicenter NSM event automation for those alerts and events. 

This integration is enabled through an Introscope extension which registers with Introscope 

and listens to any change in the metrics that may cause an alert to be triggered. Whenever 

such status change is detected, the extension is notified and corresponding alerts are sent 

to the Unicenter Enterprise Management Console. 

The previous screenshot shows an event console displaying a WilyAgent object severity 

change. The format of this kind of event is: 

severity change for from to 

The current value is: The breached threshold 

value is: 


As with all events that are displayed in the Unicenter Event Console, to get more 

information on the event, all you need to do is double-click the event. The following graphic 

is an example of the details of an event regarding an object severity change. 

View the Introscope Agent Dashboard in Unicenter MP 

The Introscope Agent Dashboard that appears in Unicenter MCC can also be viewed through 

the Unicenter Management Portal. This lets the Unicenter NSM administrator view the 

dashboard from practically anywhere using the web-based user interface, as seen in the 

following examples. 

Under the top-level Business Process View you will find an entry for Introscope Agents. 

From this view you can drill in further through the Portal Explorer icon. The following 

screenshot depicts the Introscope Agents Business Process View scoreboard showing the 

status breakdown of metric objects that make up the Business Process View. 


After you click this area in the right pane of the portal, the monitored application metrics 

are displayed, as depicted in the following screenshot. 

From the Portal Explorer, you can drill down to the dashboard by selecting the object and 

associating the Launch Agent Dashboard action to it, as shown in the following screenshot. 


Installing and Configuring the Integration 

This section includes configurations needed for Introscope and for Unicenter NSM in order 

to complete the integration. 

Extension Components 

The first step to installing the Introscope to Unicenter NSM integration is to obtain a copy of 

the integration kit. To obtain the integration kit, contact CA Wily Support if you are an 

authorized support contact by calling: 

1-888-GET-WILY EXT. 1 (U.S. toll free) 

+1 630 505 6966 (U.S.) 

+44 (0)870 351 6752 (Europe) 

+81 3 6868 2300 (Asia-Pacific) 

0120 974 580 (Japan toll free) 

More information is found on the Support Connect website at: 

http://supportconnectw.ca.com/public/um_websphere/infodocs/umwebspherewily-r71.asp 

The integration kit includes the following components: 

Bridge-EM.jar 

Contains the primary integration component, which enables the access between 

Introscope management modules and Unicenter NSM. 

WilyBridge.properties 

A configuration file that serves as the input to Bridge-EM.jar. It contains a list of 

Introscope management modules that are to be created in the Unicenter NSM MDB as 

well as Unicenter WorldView MDB connection information. 

DBAuthentication.jar 

A utility that is used to manage updates to host, user and password information in 

WilyBridge.properties. 

AgentDashboard.war 

A web application component responsible for creating the dashboard on the MCC when 

you select the agent. 

IntroscopeAgentDashboard.rhp 

The MCC plug-in that defines the dashboard. 

TNGJDKLIB 

The JDK library for Unicenter NSM 


Verify Prerequisites 

This integration process presupposes that the following components have already been 

installed and are already functioning properly: 

• Wily Introscope 7.1 Enterprise Manager on Windows 

• SQL Server Client Utilities 

• Unicenter NSM Administrative Client (r3.1 or r11.1) 

• Unicenter NSM Event Agent (r3.1 or r11.1) 

Configure Introscope 

To configure Introscope and to enable integration with Unicenter NSM, see the Architectural 

Deployment diagram previous displayed in How the Integration Works. Then perform the 

following tasks: 

• Unpack the Introscope files 

• Configure Introscope for the Unicenter NSMintegration extension 

• Configure the Introscope Proxy Service 

• Edit the variables in the IntroscopeBridgeProxy.properties file 

To unpack the Introscope files 

1. The Bridge1.0.P1.zip file contains the following files. Depending on the operating 

environment you are running on, copy the Bridge-EM.zip or Bridge-EM.tar file to the 

Introscope Enterprise Management computer and unzip, or untar, the file in the 

Introscope home directory. 

› Bridge-EM.zip (Windows package) 

Bridge-EM.tar (Unix package) 

IntroscopeBridgeProxy.zip 

Three new files are extracted. 

2. Copy the three extracted files to the locations specified as follows: 

Bridge-EM.jar under the \ext directory 

WilyBridge.properties under the \config 

AgentDashboard.war and castylesr2.war under the \webapps 

directory 

3. Copy the IntroscopeBridgeProxy.zip file to the Windows computer labeled Introscope 

Proxy Service on the Architectural Deployment Diagram. 

4. Unzip the file into the Program Files directory. 

The following files are created under the ..\introscope\bridge\config directory: 

› IntroscopeBridgeProxy.properties, 

› IntroscopeAgentDashboard.rhp 

› DBAuthentication.bat 


5. Copy this .rhp file also to %CA_TND_HOME%\bin directory: 

› IntroscopeAgentDashboard.rhp under the ..\introscope\bridge\config directory 

› All necessary jar files and dlls to run Introscope Bridge Proxy Service under the 

..\introscope\bridge\jsw\lib directory 

› -bridge-debug.log under the ..\introscope\bridge\logs directory 

To configure Introscope for the Unicenter NSM Integration Extension 

1. Make the following changes to the WilyBridge.properties file using a text editor such as 

Windows Notepad: 

a. set .enableExtension=yes 

This enables the Unicenter NSM bridge extension. 

b. Add the following entry to set the management modules that need to be visible in 

the Unicenter MCC: 

.metric.module= 

Example: .metric.module=weblogic9.0 

2. Specify the connection information to the Introscope Bridge Proxy service by setting 

.RMI.host and .RMI.port properties. Make sure the same port number is assigned in 

IntroscopeBridgeProxy.properties. 

To configure Introscope Proxy Service 

1. Execute InstallApp-NT.bat to install the Introscope Bridge Proxy Service. The batch 

script is located under ..\introscope\bridge\jsw\bin directory. 

2. To uninstall Introscope Bridge Proxy service, run UninstallApp-NT.bat under the same 

directory. 

3. Make the following changes to the IntroscopeBridgeProxy.properties file using a text 

editor such as Windows Notepad: 

a. By default, both Unicenter WorldView and the Alerts Console are enabled. To 

disable WorldView, set .disableWVUpdates to YES. To disable EM Console Alerts, 

set .disableAlerts to YES. If both are disabled, the whole extension is disabled. 

b. To set a port number to a different number than the default for Introscope Bridge 

Proxy, edit the .RMI.port property. 

It should be the same port number that is assigned in the WilyBridge.properties 

file. 


c. To specify the format of the alert message that appears on the Unicenter NSM 

Enterprise Management Console, use the following keys: 

› .wto.source= 

› .wto.text= 

› The following variables can be used in any combination to generate the message 

that appears on the console: 

• , , , , , 

, , , 

• will provide a link that needs to be copied into a web browser in 

order to view metric details page. 

When the actual message appears on the console, the variables will be 

substituted by the actual values. 

› .wto.severity= 

Setting this field sets the appropriate icon for the Message Severity column on 

the event console. The severity can be set to E, W, I or S, where 

• E = Error 

• W = Warning 

• I = Information 

• S = Success 

Certain variables define the connection information to the Unicenter WorldView MDB. The 

next section in these instructions will explain how to edit these variables (.dbHost, .dbUser 

and .dbPassword). 

Another variable defines the host name of Unicenter EM Console. The next section in these 

instructions will explain how to edit this variable (.EM.host). 

To edit the variables in the IntroscopeBridgeProxy.properties file 

Execute the following command to edit the variables in the 

IntroscopeBridgeProxy.properties file: 

DBAuthentication.bat < 

Enterprise Manager host> 

This command encrypts the password and stores it in the .dbPassword property. It also sets 

the host and user in the .dbHost and .dbUser properties respectively. It also sets the 

Enterprise Manager host in the .EM.host property. 

Troubleshoot the Integration Configuration 

If you should experience a problem configuring the Introscope side of the integration, check 

the following resources to help correct situation: 

Debug.log file 

If you experience any errors or problems we recommend you check the 

_bridge_debug.log file. It is located under the \logs folder. The 

messages found there can help you quickly identify the problem and correct it. 


MCC Troubleshooting 

Some users may see the following message on the dashboard User Interface 

Failed to get agent status. Reason: Agent not found. 

This may happen when a necessary MCC patch is not installed. This patch is required to 

enable MCC to interact with agents (those with a description containing spaces). See 

the following section for information about how to get access to this patch. 

Clustered Configurations 

For clustered Enterprise Managers, install Introscope to Unicenter NSM integration 1.0 

on the Manager of Managers (MOM), not on the managed Enterprise Managers 

(collectors). 

Configure Unicenter NSM 

The first step in preparing the Unicenter NSM systems to enable this integration is to 

download the required Unicenter NSM related maintenance, applicable plugins, and 

integration files. 

After you have all the required files, use the following procedures to complete configuration 

of the MCC, Enterprise Manager, and Portal. 

REQUIRED UNICENTER NSM r11.1 MAINTENANCE 

The following maintenance is required and must be installed in order to integrate the 

Introscope dashboards into Unicenter Management Portal r11.1 and Unicenter Management 

Command center. 

• For Unicenter Management Portal r11.1: QO83753 and QO84061 

• For Management Command Center r11.1: QO84138 and QO84139 

These fixes may be applied individually or as part of later cumulative fixes that include 

these resolutions. Instructions are provided in the package to apply the fixes. 

OBTAIN UNICENTER NSM INTEGRATION SOFTWARE 

To obtain the integration kit, contact CA Wily Support if you are an authorized support 

contact: 

1-888-GET-WILY EXT. 1 (U.S. toll free) 

+1 630 505 6966 (U.S.) 

+44 (0)870 351 6752 (Europe) 

+81 3 6868 2300 (Asia-Pacific) 

0120 974 580 (Japan toll free) 

To Configure MCC and Enterprise Management 

1. Apply any applicable published patches (at minimum the patches listed above). These 

can be downloaded from http://supportconnect.ca.com. 

2. Copy IntroscopeAgentDashboard.rhp from the \Bridge directory to 

the \WVEM\BIN directory on the Unicenter NSM WorldView computer. 


3. If the WorldView MDB is remote, make sure it is defined as a logical repository. To 

define the logical repository select Start, Programs, Computer Associates, Unicenter, 

NSM, WorldView, Define Logical Repository. 

After you define a logical repository name, this information is stored in the registry so 

that you can easily select a particular logical repository. 

The following is a high-level description of the sequential process required to configure 

Unicenter Management Portal. 

How Unicenter Management Portal should be Configured 

1. Install the Unicenter Management Portal component. 

2. Apply any applicable published patches (at minimum the previously mentioned 

patches). These can be downloaded from http://supportconnect.ca.com. 

3. Select Manage Components from the UMP Administration. 

4. Set the connection for the Unicenter NSM WorldView Management component to point 

to the WorldView MDB. 

5. Configure the connection for the Introscope Dashboard component to point to the 

Introscope Enterprise manager host. 

6. Select Knowledge, Library, Business Processes, and select Configure BPV Scoreboards. 

7. Click New to create a new scoreboard. 

8. Select the MDB from the drop-down list and select the appropriate BPVs from the list. 

After publishing the scoreboard, you can see the summary view of the Business Process 

View and drill down to Portal explorer to see the breakdown. Review the following 

screenshots as examples. 



REMOVING OBJECTS FROM THE MDB 

Unwanted management modules should be removed from the WilyBridge.properties file so 

that those unwanted e-objects will not be automatically recreated in the WorldView MDB. 

After this is done, unwanted objects can then be removed from the Business Process View 

through the MCC Class Specification view. Be sure to delete any unwanted instances of Wily 

and WilyAgent classes (can be found as subclasses of 

managedObject/Host/Windows_NetServer. 

Note: To recreate these removed objects in WV MDB, reenter the respective management 

modules in the WilyBridge.properties file, and restart Introscope Enterprise Manager. 


After following the configuration steps previously described, you should observe these 

characteristics of the integration: 

• The Introscope management modules specified in the WilyBridge.properties file appear in 

the Unicenter Explorer (or MCC) and 2D Map user interfaces with the same status as seen 

in the Management Module Editor of the Introscope Workstation. 

• The agent details and metric expressions associated with the management module 

appear when you click the agent node on MCC for Unicenter NSM r11.1. 

• Whenever there is a change in the status of any alert defined for the Introscope 

management modules, the status change message, and the current values and 

thresholds, can be viewed on the Unicenter NSM EM Console. These events will be 

formatted as defined in WilyBridge.properties (see detailed description above) 


All information regarding the integration can be located at the following links: 

http://supportconnectw.ca.com/public/um_websphere/infodocs/umwebspherewilyr71.asp. 


Chapter 15: Custom 

Integrations for Third-Party 

Products 

This chapter discusses options for creating custom integrations between Unicenter NSM 

and other management products. The following key topics are presented: 


• Integrating elements with Unicenter NSM 

• Integrating interfaces with Unicenter NSM 


Unicenter NSM provides a manager of managers operating environment for all systems 

management functions in an IT shop. Unicenter NSM also includes the technologies and 

interfaces needed to simplify the integration of various IT elements, such as hardware 

devices, business applications or even other management applications. This integration lets 

you use third-party Management Applications and Tools through a common set of interfaces 

in an “enterprise console” fashion. 

Given the openness and ease with which products can be integrated with Unicenter NSM, it 

is possible to integrate many different types of monitoring and management applications 

with Unicenter NSM, which can then serve as a single console view for those applications. 

Following are some examples of hardware and software that can be integrated with 

Unicenter NSM: 

• vendor unique server and workstation management 

• logically or physically partitioned server arrays 

• hardware, chassis, peripheral monitors 

• element monitors 

• application management tools 

The key business value of enabling custom integration between Unicenter NSM and thirdparty 

management products lies in its ability to provide an open mechanism that leverages 

existing investments in other components and management systems, adding the value of a 

single console for end-to-end management of that collection of systems. This integrated 

approach can help reduce implementation and administrative costs and opens up 

interesting new possibilities through correlation of messages from various specialized tools, 

standardized escalation policies for alerts, standardized calendars, notification policies, and 

other capabilities. 


Integrating Elements with Unicenter NSM 

Although each element that might integrate with Unicenter NSM will have its own special 

characteristics, there are several characteristics that are common to most elements 

typically used to integrate with Unicenter NSM. These most common methods of integrating 

with Unicenter NSM are described below. 

• Event Level Integration 

In this context “events” refer to text messages that include information about an 

integrated element (for example, something critical has happened). This event 

message might originate as an SNMP trap from a hardware device, a log file entry or a 

message sent by another application. Events can be sent to several different 

Unicenter NSM components, and this feature provides you with great flexibility in your 

implementation. Event level integration includes: 

Event Management 

Analyzes and reformats event message 

Advanced Event Correlation 

Provides extended event processing 

Alert Management 

Highlights and groups important events 

Agent Technology DSM 

Performs SNMP trap processing 


• Objects 

Objects are used in Unicenter NSM to (among other things) represent the existence and 

status of elements of the integrated environment. An object might represent physical 

elements such as hardware devices, or logical elements such as applications, 

application resources, and instances or business process related objects. All objects 

have properties that describe the characteristics of that element. 

Unicenter NSM components that utilize Object Level integration include: 

• Visualization 

› WorldView / MCC – for object model implementation, visualization 

Visualization of the third-party environment in Unicenter NSM is most extensive 

implemented through the object model implementation in WorldView but there others 

views to consider that can provide additional level of information. These include: 

› MCC – for web view in context 

› Agent Technology Agent View – for agent details 

› Unicenter NSM Management Portal – for condensed and role specific views 

• Status Update 

For those objects that require monitoring, it is essential that the currently reflected 

object status is correct (current status needs to be up to date). A variety of 

mechanisms can be used to ensure that Unicenter NSM has the latest object status 

information including the use of polling mechanisms, use of trap or other event 

mechanisms, or hybrid approaches. You will recall that in some of the preceding 

chapters we specifically described using various different methods to ensure that the 

management information shared with Unicenter NSM is current. It is through use of 

those same mechanisms that custom integrations with other third-party applications 

can include status update capabilities as well. 

Unicenter NSM components that enable status update integration include: 

› Event Management – to force status updates based on the event message 

› Agent Technology DSM – for its poll and trap processing policy 

• Direct Launch of User Interface 

In most cases, the integrated elements that you might want to integrate with 

Unicenter NSM will have a user interface of its own. Unicenter NSM includes facilities 

that can be used to enable launch in context into a given element’s user interface from 

the various Unicenter NSM views. 

Unicenter NSM components that provide direct launch in context include: 

• Actions 

› WorldView / MCC – using object model (context menu and methods) 

› Alert Management System – using user action and menus 

Frequently used commands that control the behavior of the integrated environment can 

be integrated with Unicenter NSM views to simplify administration. 

Unicenter NSM components that enable action level integration include: 

› WorldView / MCC – using object model (context menu and methods) 

› Alert Management System – using user action and menus 


• Collector 

Third-party software applications differ from one another in the way they gather, store, 

and report data pertinent to their own native goals. A collector might be required if the 

third-party environment does not provide suitable interfaces. Although this function is 

already provided in most third-party applications, each case must be analyzed 

individually to determine if such a collector is required. The collector gathers and 

publishes the relevant data for processing by the previously mentioned components for 

the purpose of making it available to Unicenter NSM. 

An example of a case where a collector may be needed: 

The third-party application samples data but does not externalize it, send it, or publish 

it where so that the data can be accessed by other applications, such as 

Unicenter NSM. A collector would be required so that the third-party product can 

integrate with the many interfaces of Unicenter NSM. 

Unicenter NSM components which support integration collectors include: 

› Agent Technology Agent Factory – for the agent development environment 

Integrating Interfaces with Unicenter NSM 

Integration interfaces are provided throughout Unicenter NSM, and the question of which 

interface to use is best determined by a review of what your integration requirements are, 

what mechanisms are inherent to the third-party application to be integrated and other 

factors such as ease of use, scalability and implementation costs. We do, however, highly 

recommend that any third-party integration include integration with WorldView (MCC) and 

Event Management because they are considered a mandatory part of integration best 

practices to ensure proper representation, visualization and management. 

Typically, the integration policy and data can be created using graphical user interfaces and 

wizards. The definitions can then be exported to files in order to create an installable 

package. 

Note: Many of the components listed below refer to the Technical Integration Guide. The 

Technical Integration Guide provides detailed descriptions of the available integration 

interfaces and the deliverables for a packaged integration solution and is available on 

Support Connect through the following link: 

http://supportconnectw.ca.com/premium/unicenter30/infodocs/unicenterr11-intguide.pdf 


Event Management is the central component to which event messages from any source can 

be directed, after which it can serve as a central point of control for automated actions that 

are bound to event messages. Consider the following integration points: 

• Post Messages to Event Management 

Applications can easily direct messages to Event Management by embedding the sendevent 

interface to send notifications directly to Event Management. These notifications 

can be sent via a SNMP trap, through use of a command line interface (CLI) or through 

fully supported Application Programming Interfaces (API’s). 

Note: To take advantage of message integration with Event Management it is 

important to ensure that when you create any event that you formulate that message 

so that it readily lends itself to efficient parsing. If the message includes a string with 


an unknown number of tokens, it is recommended to locate that unbounded string at 

the end of the message. This will make any future automation more efficient and 

significantly easier to do. 

For more details, see the chapter “Integrating with Event Management” in the Technical 

Integration Guide. 

• Message Records and Actions 

Message Records and Actions (MRA) provide basic control over the incoming event 

stream. For an integration solution you would typically follow this process: 

› Define Message Records to capture your events. This involves matching the 

message text so that actions can be invoked. 

› Define associated Message Actions. Any number of actions can be executed, 

including the creation of Alerts to be sent to specific alert queues, notification of 

specific individuals, reformatting of cryptic messages, or execution of select 

commands. 

› Define associated Message Actions to drive a status update of the related object 

in WorldView. In addition to the previous actions, it is also possible to change 

WorldView object properties, such as severity, to render a different color to an 

object in a topological 2D Map. 

For example, the integration might use MRA to reformat SNMP trap messages. 

This MRA will catch an SNMP trap based on the pattern above and reformat that trap, 

transforming it from a cryptic ASCII string into a user-friendly message that includes 

valuable information that was extracted from selected tokens. 

• Trap Manager 

The Trap Manager lets you import, define, and edit SNMP trap definitions for message 

translation with received traps being displayed in the Event Console according to the 

defined message format string. This is particularly useful for associating a humanreadable 

message with traps that are sent to the Event Console. Typical steps include: 

› Import MIB file with trap definition 

› Edit and refine the trap message format 


A MIB file with trap message format definitions can be imported and, through the Trap 

Manager, the message format can be viewed and refined if necessary. 

See the following example of a Trap Manager displaying the message format of an 

imported MIB file. 

Advanced Event Correlation 

Advanced Event Correlation (AEC) extends the functionality of Event Management to 

include powerful event correlation, root cause and impact analysis capability. Integrations 

that use AEC should consider the following interfaces: 

• Event Rules 

Event Rules allow users to create rules that correlate specific messages directed to the 

AEC components from the element being integrated with AEC. For more details on 

Event Rules, see the chapter “Best Practices for Deploying Unicenter NSM” in the CA 

Green Book, Systems Management. 

• Event Picker 

Event Picker provides an easy-to-use facility for choosing event messages based on a 

regular expression syntax definition for the messages created by your solution. These 

can be used in the AEC Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to help clients 

define their required correlation rules. 


For example, an integration package might include the syntax definition of status 

change messages: 

For more details on how these tools can be used to develop your integration, consult the 

chapter “Integration with other components” in the Technical Integration Guide. 

Alert Management System 

The Alert Management System (AMS) enables the user to categorize important event 

messages as alerts and to organize them, according to individual business needs, in specific 

alert queues. Integration with AMS typically includes the following elements: 

• Alert creation policy 

An Alert Message Action created through the Event Manager or AEC policy can be used 

to generate an alert. 

• AMS configuration 

An AMS integration typically includes the following element definitions: 

› alert class: alert characteristics 

› alert queue: initial queues for your solution 

› action menus and user actions: menus with actions in context of an alert 


In the example that follows, you see that this sample integration has been organized 

into a specific alert queue those alerts that it received for certain critical events: 

WorldView 

Object level integration with WorldView (WV) provides the most comprehensive integration 

because WorldView is the foundation for object visualization and management. WorldView 

governs the appearance of those objects in the Unicenter NSM user interfaces and the 

associated methods that will be available from them. WorldView integration comprises the 

following elements: 

• Class definition 

Define classes that characterize the types of managed objects to be included as part of 

the integrated solution. This includes both object class and instance level properties. 

Note: Object class definitions, as well as the context menu and icons, are usually 

created through the Class Wizard. 

When planning your class hierarchy it is important to carefully consider where the 

object class that represents the element your class can best fit in. For example, an 

application agent should typically be a child of the Agent Class while a specific switch 

object should be a child to the Switch Class. It is also important to decide if you need 

only simple classes or need a more extensive set of classes organized in a 

class/subclass hierarchy. For example, if you create a number of switches of brand XYZ 

you would likely first create a parent class called XyzSwitch. In addition, you need to 

consider which common Class Level Properties (CLP) apply to this class as well as what 

Instance Level Properties (ILP) you should be able to set. 


The following example illustrates how to interact with a class definition using the MCC 

Class Editor: 

• Context menu 

Define a context menu that includes menu items along with the methods that are 

relevant for objects of the given class. Methods can make use of object properties to 

pass parameters to an executable. 

The following example demonstrates how the MCC Class Editor is used to define the 

launch of the management user interface in the context of the current object, 

definition: 

• Icons 

Associate icon files with your classes. Icons represent the object existence and status in 

the user interfaces. 


Following is an example of MCC icon definition through the MCC Class Editor: 

• Object creation 

Managed objects can be created in several ways, depending on the type of integration. 

Examples of managed objects include: 

› Automatic creation of device objects through Unicenter NSM Discovery 

› Automatic creation of agent and related objects through Agent Technology DSM, 

based on defined policies 

› Automatic creation of resource objects through event policy or third-party user 

programs by utilizing WorldView commands or API functions 

› Manually through use of the WorldView components, user interfaces and utilities. 

• Object status 

The status of a particular instance of an object is set according to the status of the 

element that the object represents, and the method used to determine that status 

depends on the type of integration being done. For example: 

› agent and related objects get updated by Agent Technology DSM according to 

status polls and traps 

› other, non-agent resource objects need to get updated with the status from an 

event policy or third-party user program by using WorldView commands or the 

WV API. 

In the following example we use a combination of Event Management Message Record 

Actions (MRA) and a cust shell script. In this example, when Event Management 

Message Record Action (MRA) detects a specifically matched SNMP status trap it will 

call a script that checks the corresponding object in WorldView and either creates a new 

object (if one doesn’t already exist) or updates its status. 

Note: This is a very straightforward example that will work well, but is NOT 

recommended for high volumes of SNMP traps because the overhead associated with 

this mechanism can be prohibitive under “event storm” conditions. If the amount of 

trap activity is expected to be moderate to minimal then this approach typically serves 

quite well, but if you expect trap event storms might come from the object being 

integrated then this approach should be avoided since invocation of the shell script will 

spawn a command shell for each event. 


• Business Process Views 

Business Process Views are container objects that help create alternate hierarchical 

views following organizational or business process aspects. They allow users to group 

objects from various classes that typically support a business service. Business Process 

Views can also be used to organize objects according to geography, department, a key 

service, or vendor, or simply to collect objects that cannot be linked to a standard 

network topology. All integration objects can be organized in some kind of a Business 

Process View. 

Note: The Business Process View is a very useful tool to model the IT configuration 

from various perspectives. The following is an example of a Business Process View 

structure built on top of agent objects. 

For more details on integrating with WorldView and MCC, consult the chapter “Integrating 

with WorldView” in the Technical Integration Guide. 


Management Command Center 

The Management Command Center (MCC) is the main and central management user 

interface for Unicenter NSM and while most content specific configurations, such as context 

menus and icons, are defined as part of the WorldView integration, there are some 

additional configurations that are specific to MCC which we will describe further in this 

section. 

• My Actions menu 

This menu can be used to perform general actions that are not necessarily bound to a 

specific view. 

• Web view in MCC: 

A small utility provided with the MCC that defines a web viewer for the Unicenter MCC 

right pane. The home URL is defined as an object property. 

The following is an example of an MCC Web View: 


Unicenter Management Portal 

The Unicenter Management Portal (Unicenter MP) provides a personalized, secure web 

interface for Unicenter solutions that addresses customers’ needs for role-based 

management, management by exception, and simplicity of use. 

Integration with Unicenter MP entails adding specific content or configuring Unicenter MP to 

retrieve the content. The portal administrator manages the roles and access permissions for 

the integrated content to the end users. The integrated views are then available for end 

users to select through a workplace configuration wizard to create a personalized portal 

user interface. Options include: 

• WorldView Business View Visualization 

If a Business Process View is defined, it is automatically displayed in Summary and 

Detailed views. 

• Event Management Notifications 

A notification method can be used in Event Management policy to send messages to 

Unicenter MP where they are displayed in notification views. 

• Event Management filtered events 

Event messages are displayed in Unicenter MP event views. Event filters should be 

defined to filter your solution messages. This allows the configuration of solution 

specific views. 

• Alert Management 

AMS alerts can be viewed in Unicenter MP alert views. Typically, alert views are defined 

by an alert queue, but alert filters can also be defined. 

• Add other content 

Any document can be published to Unicenter MP. This can be a physical document or a 

link (URL). 


The following is an example of a user workplace that is composed of views with 

Unicenter NSM integrated content like Notifications, Device Events, Business View Summary 

and Device Alerts: 

For additional information, see the chapter “Integrating with other components” in 

Technical Integration Guide. 

Agent Technology – DSM 

The Distributed State Machine (DSM) is the Unicenter NSM agent manager. It manages CA 

agents, third-party agents built using the Unicenter NSM Agent Factory, and other SNMP 

agents. DSM policies are used to specify how agents are to be monitored and managed, 

and are developed as ATP files in ABASIC code. Using these facilities, any device that uses 

SNMP can send its traps to a DSM server, and those traps can then be read, interpreted 

and acted on by the DSM. 

In addition to working off of traps, the DSM is capable of polling for metric values and DSM 

policy can be used to automatically create objects representing those detected during a 

discovery, and those same policies can be used to change object severities based on status 

and can delete those objects when the monitored agent or device is uninstalled or removed. 

Typical elements of a DSM policy include: 

• DSM classes 

DSM classes are defined in the ATP file according to the structure of the associated 

SNMP MIB. Properties determine the characteristics of the managed objects. 

• Agent discovery 

• Polls 

DSM policies (specifically methods defined in the policy) can be used to perform a 

second level discovery of an agent. A typical example of this is test of a specific MIB 

attribute to determine the existence of an agent. 

Periodic SNMP polls are configured for MIB attributes that reflect status values. 

Callbacks are used to analyze the values and to perform further status processing. 


• Traps 

SNMP trap listeners are configured to analyze incoming traps for further status 

processing or trap translations that are then forwarded to Event Management. 

• Integration with WorldView 

The Unicenter DSM and WorldView components are (as one might expect) quite 

extensively integrated with one another, and via this integration DSM seamlessly 

updates WorldView and the status for the corresponding agent object is automatically 

updated. 

• Integration with Event Management 

DSM is integrated with Event Management and status change messages are 

automatically forwarded to Event Management. 

The following is an excerpt from a sample DSM policy that monitors an SNMP agent: 

This excerpt includes the following elements: 

• A DSM class definition: class casWinA3E_File 

Defines a class that typically corresponds to a group in the related SNMP agent MIB. 

The class definition includes the declaration and initialization of certain properties. 

• A method definition: casWinA3E_File::moOnManage 

Defines a class method typically used to initialize an object. Here the function SnmpPoll 

is called that initiates SNMP polling of a status attribute of the agent by registering a 

callback function (+statusPoll). 

• A callback function definition: casWinA3E_File::statusPoll 

Defines a callback function that is called on every poll response. The status value is 

used to set the object status in DSM (FsmEvent). Any status change will be propagated 


to the associated WorldView object and will cause a status change message in Event 

Management. 

Note: Adding or altering DSM policy should only be done by trained personnel as this may 

affect the overall behavior of other policies already loaded in the DSM. 

For more information on sample policies consult the chapter “Integrating with Agent 

Technology” in the Technical Integration Guide. 

Agent Technology – Agent View 

Agent View is the primary user interface for visualizing and configuring SNMP agents and is 

typically driven by a script and invoked in context from the topology views in order to 

provide a detailed view on the agent metrics or to change its configuration. 

Following is an example of an Agent View: 

For more information on Agent View, consult the chapter “Integrating with Agent 

Technology” in the ca smart Technical Integration Guide for CA Unicenter NSM r11, r11.1. 

Agent Technology – Agent Factory 

Although there are many definitions for an SNMP agent, a simple and workable definition is 

that an SNMP agent is an executable that collects information about a resource and 

publishes that information in an SNMP Management Information Base (MIB). This MIB is 

then queried by a management component, user interfaces, and so forth. 

The capabilities of an SNMP agent can vary dramatically from the very simple to the very 

advanced, but in all cases development of SNMP agents (even the simple ones) can be very 

complicated. Recognizing this, facilities are included with Unicenter NSM to dramatically 

simplify the development of agents, through the Agent Factory. The Agent Factory provides 

a function library and a runtime environment that simplifies agent development and any 

agent built using the Agent Factory will behave exactly like any CA developed SNMP agent 

that was developed using the Agent Factory. 


For more information about agent development, see the chapter “Integrating with Agent 

Technology” in the ca smart Technical Integration Guide for CA Unicenter NSM r11, r11.1. 


For more information, see ca smart Technical Integration Guide for CA Unicenter NSM r11, 

r11.1 located at 

http://supportconnectw.ca.com/premium/unicenter30/infodocs/unicenterr11-intguide.pdf. 


Chapter 16: Incident and 

Problem Management - 

Unicenter Service Desk 

Integration 

This chapter discusses how Unicenter NSM and Unicenter Service Desk can be configured to 

work together to enable effective incident and problem management of events processed 

by Unicenter NSM. 




• Setting up, configuring, and enabling the integration 

• Accessing the integration 

Overview and Value of Integration 

Unicenter Service Desk is a help desk solution whose features include: 

• Integrated incident, problem and change management 

• Extensive end user empowerment through self-service 

• Policy based management of service levels to ensure compliance with response time 

commitments 

• Includes support for automated customer surveys to ensure high quality support 

The extensive integration capabilities available between Unicenter NSM and Unicenter 

Service Desk include (among other things) automatic ticket creation and update, and 

launch in-context invocation from the Management Command Center (Unicenter MCC) and 

the Unicenter Management Portal (Unicenter MP) allowing operations staff fast access to 

Service Desk to view and create tickets. The net result is a highly automated, tightly 

integrated, ITIL-aligned incident and problem management that will provide easier and 

more effective oversight of all the systems monitored and managed by Unicenter NSM. 

The true business value of Unicenter Service Desk integration with Unicenter NSM lies in 

the ability to automatically coordinate critical management events detected by 

Unicenter NSM with incident management. This capability reduces cost by dramatically 

improving operations staff productivity through automation and improves service by 

providing more complete information to administrative staff, which further decreases the 

mean time to repair and facilitates more proactive intervention by identifying and 

documenting potential problems with the IT infrastructure, in many cases before users are 

aware of the problem. 


The following sections provide further details on the different integration points as well as 

recommendations about how to configure and use them. 


There are several integration points between Unicenter NSM and Unicenter Service Desk, 

however, the primary points include: 

• Unicenter Service Desk integration with Unicenter Management Portal 

• Unicenter Service Desk integration with Alert Management 

• Unicenter Service Desk integration with Unicenter Management Command Center 

Unicenter Service Desk Integration with Unicenter MP 

The Unicenter Management Portal integrates with Unicenter Service Desk in two ways. 

• Launch in Context – lets you launch directly into the Unicenter Service Desk GUI from the 

Unicenter Alert Management component. 

• Unicenter Service Desk as a Unicenter Management Portal Portlet lets you access the 

Unicenter Service Desk user interface through the Unicenter Management Portal, 

providing a “single pane of glass” interface launch point. 

The following illustration demonstrates how the Unicenter Service Desk GUI is seamlessly 

invoked in context, using the credentials of the user currently logged into the Unicenter 

Management Portal. 


Unicenter Service Desk Integration with Alert Management 

When Unicenter NSM r11.x is integrated with Unicenter Service Desk (r11 and 6.0) through 

the Web Services interface, the Alert Management System can do the following: 

• Dynamically create Unicenter Service Desk tickets 

• Track the status of previously opened Unicenter Service Desk tickets 

• Automatically detect when a corresponding Unicenter Service Desk ticket has been closed 

and then automatically clear the respective AMS alert 

Unicenter Service Desk Integration with Management Command 

Center 

Integration of the Management Command Center (Unicenter MCC) with Unicenter Service 

Desk enables the in context launch of Unicenter Service Desk directly from the Alert 

Management screen by simply clicking on the request ID and then indicating whether to 

create or view Unicenter Service Desk tickets for a particular node. In addition to being able 

to create or view Unicenter Service Desk tickets, this integration makes it possible to 

automatically look up and access related Unicenter Service Desk knowledge tools for that 

alert, from within Unicenter MCC. 

Setting up, Configuring and Enabling the Integration 

This section provides specific information about how to configure integration between 

Unicenter NSM and Unicenter Service Desk for use with the Unicenter Management Portal, 

Alert Management and Management Control Center. 

Integrating through use of a Shared MDB 

The CA Management Database (MDB) is designed to operate as a common database for 

many r11 solutions, but whether or not a single MDB is to be shared among multiple 

solutions will depend on your particular environment and business requirements. 


If you are considering sharing an MDB between multiple products, you do not need to be 

concerned with the order in which those products are installed. Each product will augment 

the MDB content automatically, as required, when installed. 

For more information on using a shared MDB, see http://supportconnectw.ca.com/ 

public/impcd/r11/MDBMain/Doc/CORA_MDB_and_Assets_SC.pdf 

Enabling Unicenter Service Desk Launch from the Portal 

To enable Unicenter Service Desk to invoke the user interface as a portlet, you need to do 

the following: 

• Ensure that the Portal_Safe_List option is enabled within Unicenter Service Desk. 

• Register the Unicenter Management Portal server name in the Unicenter Service Desk 

Portal_Safe_List option configuration screen. 

• Ensure that any users accessing Unicenter Service Desk through the Unicenter MP portlet 

are also defined Unicenter Service Desk users. 

• Configure the Unicenter Service Desk portlet. 

• Publish the Unicenter Service Desk portlet. 

To enable the Portal_Safe_List option 

1. Log in to Unicenter Service Desk as a user with administrator privileges and select the 

Administration tab. 

2. Drill down into the Options Manager and select Security. 

3. Verify that the status of the Portal_Safe_List option is Installed. 

4. If not already installed, it must be installed. 

5. Click the Portal_Safe_List within the option list, click Edit, and select Install. 


To register the Unicenter MP server name in Unicenter Service Desk 

1. Access the Unicenter Service Desk Portal_Safe_List Option configuration screen, enter 

the portal server name and port number in the Option Value field, and click Save. 

2. Restart Unicenter Service Desk: choose Services from the Control Panel, select the 

Unicenter Service Desk Server service, and click Restart. 

This change is activated. 

For more information concerning the integration between the Management Portal and 

Unicenter Service Desk, see the Unicenter Service Desk Administrator Guide. 

To verify Unicenter MP users are configured as users in Unicenter Service Desk 

1. Click the Administration tab in the Unicenter Service Desk user interface. 

2. Navigate to the Contacts section, which is located under the Security folder. 

The list displays of configured users within Unicenter Service Desk. The user access 

type dictates what content will be visible through the Unicenter Service Desk plugin. 


The following graphic is an example of a contact list displaying users and their access 

types. 

To configure Unicenter Service Desk in the Unicenter MP 

1. Log in to the Unicenter MP and select the Unicenter MP Administration Workplace tab 

2. Select Task 1 to configure the management components. 


3. Click on the connection link that relates to the Unicenter Service Desk Management 

component. 

A window appears that lists the currently configured Unicenter Service Desk servers, 

similar to the following graphic. 

4. Click New to add a new Unicenter Service Desk server. 

5. Select the relevant Unicenter Service Desk version that you are configuring: 

a. For integration with Unicenter Service Desk R11.x, enter: 

› The Unicenter Service Desk server name 

› The port required to connect to the Unicenter Service Desk server (Default 8080) 

› The full Service Desk URL: http://servicedesk:8080/CAisd/pdmweb.exe 

› If the Service Desk server has been configured to use SSL, select the SSL tick 

box. 


. For integration with Unicenter Service Desk V6.0 

› Enter the Unicenter Service Desk server name 

› Unicenter Service Desk Knowledge base URL: 

http://Knowledgetool server:8080/causp/kt/KTMain.asp 

› Unicenter Service Desk Server Operating system (Windows / Linux) 

› The full Unicenter Service Desk URL: 

http://servicedesk:8080/CAisd/pdmweb.exe 

› If the service desk server has been configured to use SSL, select the SSL tick 

box. 

6. If this is the first Unicenter Service Desk server being configured, select Set Default 

Data Source. 

If the configuration is valid, the Manage Component screen will contain a Green tick 

box, similar to the following example. 

To publish the Unicenter Service Desk portlet 

1. Click the UMP Administration Wizard workplace tab and select Task 2 - Create or Modify 

UMP Portlets. 


2. To create a new Unicenter Service Desk portlet, click the New icon associated with the 

Unicenter Service Desk Portlets components 

3. Select from the drop-down list the Unicenter Service Desk server that was defined in 

the previous steps, for example, UKDPBSO09. 

4. To publish this server, click Publish. 


A confirmation screen displays indicating where the newly published content can be 

found within the knowledge tree. 

Example: 

Configuring Alert Management to Work with Unicenter Service 

Desk 

AMS alert classes and escalation policies can be configured to automatically create 

Unicenter Service Desk tickets and record the ticket number as an attribute within the alert 

(in the request field). This attribute is then referenced by the Management Command 

Center for subsequent launch in context into Unicenter Service Desk. 


To configure AMS 

1. Launch the Alert Global Definition GUI, either through the classic EM interface or 

through the MCC. 

2. From the Alert Global Definition – Detail window, provide the Uniform Resource 

Identifier (URI) to invoke the Service Desk web services and credentials: 

Enter the Uniform Resource Identifier in the URI field of the Service Desk section. The 

URI is the address of the web service on your primary Service Desk server. The default 

URIs for version 6.0 and r11.x are as follows: 

› Unicenter Service Desk 6.0 http://server:port/usd_ws/usd_ws.asmx. 

› Unicenter Service Desk r11.x 

http://servername:port/axis/services/USD_WebServiceSoap. 

3. Provide a valid user name and password in the User ID and password fields. The user 

name provided must have administrator privileges on the Unicenter Service Desk 

server. 

4. Click the green tick icon in the top left corner 

The new configuration is saved and the GUI closes. 

5. Restart the Alert Management Server service: Choose Control Panel, Services, select 

CA-Unicenter Alert Management System service, and click Restart. 

The new configuration is activated. 


Configuring Alert Management to Create Unicenter Service Desk 

Tickets 

Unicenter NSM provides extensive enterprise monitoring capabilities and, when integrated 

with Unicenter Service Desk, can be configured to automatically open a help desk ticket in 

response to specific criteria, such as when an alert is created or as part of the alert 

escalation process. 

To configure an alert to automatically issue a service desk ticket 

1. Enable that feature within the alert class. To do this, open the Alert Class detail 

configuration: 

a. Navigate to Enterprise Management of the Management Command Center to 

access the alert class configuration user interface. 

b. Expand the Alert Management branch and select the Alert Classes link. 

The right pane displays the registered alert classes. 

c. Click the folder icon in the top left corner of the screen to create a new alert 

class. 

2. The alert class can also be created through the classic Enterprise Management GUI, 

which you can access using the Start, Programs Windows menu paradigm. 

The Alert Class - Detail screen appears. 

3. Provide a name for the new class. 

4. Select the alert queue from the drop-down list to indicate where alerts generated from 

the class will be sent. 


5. Select the Actions tab to enable the Unicenter Service Desk functionality within this 

alert class. 

6. Select both check boxes at the bottom of the window to enable this feature. 

Create request when alert is opened 

Automatically creates a Unicenter Service Desk ticket in response to any alert being 

created that uses this class. 

Synchronize closure of requests and alerts 

Automatically closes the respective Unicenter Service Desk tickets when any alert 

created by this class is closed. Conversely, if the associated Unicenter Service Desk 

ticket is closed, the corresponding alert will also be closed as well. 

Although automatically opening a Unicenter Service Desk ticket whenever an alert is raised 

may be appropriate in many situations, some clients prefer that tickets be opened only 

when a given Alert Management escalation policy is activated. 

To open tickets only when an Alert Management escalation policy is activated 

1. Open the Escalation Policy Editor dialog and select Create Service Desk request. 


2. Navigate to the Enterprise Management, Alert Management section of the Management 

Command Center to create a new escalation policy. 

3. Select the Escalation Policies link. 

The currently registered escalation policies appear in the right pane. 

4. Click the folder icon in the top left corner of the screen to create a new escalation 

policy. 

A new escalation policy is created. 

5. Select the folder icon to launch the Escalation Policy Editor window to create an 

escalation instance. 

Example: The match criterion in the following graphic is any unacknowledged alert 

that is 10 minutes old and has an action set to trigger a Service Desk request. 

Escalation polices can be assigned in multiple places within Alert Management. They can be 

assigned at Queue, Class level and a default for all alerts. The priority order of the 

escalation policies is: 

1. Queue 

2. Class 

3. Default 


Note: If you have a default escalation policy and an escalation policy defined to a class, the 

class escalation policy will override the default policy. If the alert is moved to a different 

queue and that queue has a defined escalation policy, this will override the class policy. 

Alerts are normally created through Event Management using Message Record Actions 

(MRA);, however, a simple test for a newly created alert class is to right-click on a message 

within the Unicenter MCC console log and select the option Create Alert. 

Note: You must have Console Logs displayed in the left pane of MCC for this option to be 

available. You will not have this option available if you see Event Management in the left 

pane, and then navigate to Event Management, Console Logs, to Launch Console Logs. 

This action launches a dialogue screen where you can select the alert class that you wish to 

send the alert to and then amend the details of the alert message. 

Customizing Unicenter Service Desk Tickets Created By Alert 

Management 

Key attributes from the alert are automatically passed to Unicenter Service Desk when the 

ticket is created, including the name of the affected object which will be specified to 

Unicenter Service Desk as the affected CI (configuration item). In addition to these 

attributes, AMS includes support for the following special tags. These tags pass additional 

information in the Alert Detail fields to Unicenter Service Desk where it can be used to 

automatically populate the appropriate fields within the ticket. 

SDTemplate 

Specifies a Unicenter Service Desk template to use for creating the request. Templates 

provide values for common situations and allow requests to be created quickly. If other 

Unicenter Service Desk tags are entered, their values override the default template 

properties. 


SDAssignee 

Specifies the Unicenter Service Desk contact to assign to the request. Use the format 

"lastname, firstname" and include the comma even if a name is blank. 

SDGroup 

Specifies the Unicenter Service Desk group responsible for the request. Use the Group 

Name property. 

SDPriority 

Indicates the priority of the request. Values range from 1 to 5. 

SDSeverity 

Indicates the severity of the request. Values range from 1 to 5. 

SDImpact 

Indicates the impact of the request. Values range from 1 to 5. 

SDUrgency 

Indicates the urgency of the request. Values range from1 to 5. 

SDConfigItem 

Specifies the affected item or resource. If omitted, the alert node is used. 

SDRequestArea 

Specifies the Unicenter Service Desk request area or category. 

SDRootCause 

Specifies the Unicenter Service Desk root cause. 

SDSummary 

Specifies the Unicenter Service Desk summary for the request. If omitted, the alert text 

is used. 

SDDescription 

Specifies the Unicenter Service Desk description for the request. If omitted, the alert 

detail is used. 

SDTicketType 

Specifies the Unicenter Service Desk ticket type. Valid values include: I (Incident), P 

(Problem), R (Request). If omitted, a request is opened. 

SDServiceType 

Specifies the Unicenter Service Desk service type for the request. 

For example, the following event text creates a Unicenter Service Desk request based on 

the Service Desk Template “Account Lockout.” 


User "Smith, George" is unable to access server ABC. SDTemplate='Account Lockout'. 

In the following example, the event creates a Unicenter Service Desk request using the 

Service Desk template “Network,” however, the contact specified in the SDAssignee tag will 

override the default for that value that would otherwise come from the template's Assignee 

property. 

Network interface not responding. SDTemplate=Network SDAssignee="Smith, George" 

Configuring Integration between MCC and Unicenter Service Desk 

Unicenter Service Desk integration with the MCC is configured from the View, Options menu 

accessible from within the Management Command Center. From this View, Options menu, 

select the Connections tab to view or modify the Service Desk and Knowledge Desk 

invocation URLs. The typical settings for the Service Desk URL will vary based on which 

Unicenter Service Desk release is being used. 

The following graphic is an example for Unicenter Service Desk r6.0: 

The following graphic is an example of the corresponding dialog for r11: 

Note: You must specify the default port 8080 or whatever port the client specified. 

Example: http://server01-p470.ca.com:8080/CAisd/pdmweb.exe 


Accessing the Integration 

To access the Service Desk integration launch points from within the Management 

Command Center, select either Topology or Business Process Views from the left pane 

menu drop-down list. 

Note: It is important to first import the Unicenter NSM objects as configuration items into 

Unicenter Service Desk. To do this, assets have to be created in Unicenter Service Desk 

from WorldView objects using the following utility: 

pdm_imp 

Full details of this procedure are outlined in the Unicenter Service Desk Implementation 

Guide under the heading Creating Assets from WorldView Managed Objects. 

Right-click any Host object in the left pane hierarchy tree and select Service Desk from the 

menu. 


The following submenu options are available: 

Create Request 

Creates a new Service Desk request using the selected object as the Configuration Item 

(CI) that is affected and which should be the subject of the issue being created. 

View Requests 

Displays all requests created within Service Desk for the selected object (all requests 

related to this CI). 

A Service Desk menu is also available within the Alerts view of the MCC. To access that 

menu item and its submenus, right-click the alert in the MCC right pane and select 

Service Desk. 

The following submenu options appear: 

Create Requests 

Creates a Unicenter Service Desk ticket using information extracted from the currently 

selected alert. The Service Desk summary field is populated from the alert text field 

and the Service Desk description field is populated by the alert detail field. This option 

is available only if a ticket has not already been created by AMS. 

View Alert Request 

Automatically invokes the Service Desk user interface directly in context to the relevant 

ticket if a Unicenter Service Desk ticket has been created. AMS alert classes and 

escalation policies can be configured to automatically create a Unicenter Service Desk 

ticket. That ticket number is stored as an attribute within the alert (request), as 

discussed in the previous section. 

View Request 

Displays all Service Desk requests for the node where the alert originated. 

Knowledge Tools 

Invokes a search of the Service Desk Knowledge Tools in context, using the alert text 

as a search argument. The result is a display of all Knowledge Base articles that are 

potentially related to the alert. 


Chapter 17: Service Reporting 

Integration with Service Metric 

Analysis 

This chapter discusses how to integrate Service Metric Analysis (SMA) with Unicenter NSM. 


• Overview and Value of the integration 

• How the SMA integration works 

• Install, Setup, and Configuring the integration 

• Generating SMA Reports using collected data 

• Generating Unicenter Management Portal reports 

• Viewing Severity and Propagated Severity Metric Instances 

• Importing Performance Cubes 

• Importing Unicenter Report Monitoring data 

• Filtering Report Data 

• Using the SMA integration 



Unicenter Service Metric Analysis (SMA) is a comprehensive service monitoring and webbased 

reporting solution that helps network administrators, system administrators, and 

business managers understand and manage predefined service goals across all IT 

resources. Unicenter SMA is used to help accomplish the following comprehensive tasks: 

• Measure and produce service level reports and statistics for resources available across 

the IT infrastructure. 

• Monitor Service Level Agreement (SLA) and performance reporting of business 

infrastructure by administrators or service providers and establish performance baselines 

for service goals. 

• Enable an organization to set and monitor service levels for all resources that are critical 

in supporting service goals. 

• Generate web-based historical reports on provided services in relation to predefined 

service goals and to monitor delivered services from an end user's perspective. 


The integration of Service Metric Analysis (SMA) into existing business process workflows 

and Service Level Agreements will be a natural part of doing business. Some of the benefits 

of integrating SMA with Unicenter NSM include: 

• Service Level Reporting on Business Process Views defined in Unicenter 

• Metric instances and report groups automatically set up based on Unicenter monitored 

systems and Business Process Views 

• Alerts automatically sent when Service Level Thresholds have been met or exceeded 

• Workflow is triggered to repair or control damage on service level violation by utilizing 

rule events. 

• Customer Relation 

• An account manager, sales representative, or customer is automatically alerted by email 

alerts or by triggering workflow when there are service goal violations. 

• Reports are available in Unicenter Management Portal (Unicenter MP) since SMA has an 

out-of-the-box integration with Unicenter MP for publishing reports and displaying status. 

The extensive integration available between Unicenter NSM and Unicenter Service Metric 

Analysis include (among other things) facilitating service level management through launch 

in-context invocation from the Management Command Center (MCC) and the Unicenter 

Management Portal. This capability gives operations staff fast access to Service Level data. 

The net result is a tightly integrated service level management that provides easier and 

more effective oversight of all the systems monitored and managed by Unicenter NSM. 

The true business value of Unicenter Service Metric Analysis integration lies in the ability 

to take and formulate service levels from critical management data provided by 

Unicenter NSM Agent Technology. This capability reduces cost by dramatically improving 

operations staff productivity through automation and improves service by providing more 

complete information to administrative staff. These work together to further reduce the 

mean time to repair and facilitates proactive intervention by identifying and documenting 

service level breeches with the IT infrastructure, in many cases before users are aware of 

the problem. 

The following sections provide further details on the different integration points, as well as 

how to configure and use them. 



Unicenter Service Metric Analysis (SMA) contains integrations with the following 

Unicenter NSM components: 

• Unicenter WorldView 

• Unicenter Management Portal (Unicenter MP) 

• Unicenter Systems Performance Management 

• Unicenter Remote Monitoring 

An IT service provider or an IT department using these products can view service levels and 

operational levels of the services it provides both in real-time and in a historic perspective 

side by side in the same webpage. This view helps IT managers, Service Level Managers 

and customers understand the current status of the IT infrastructure and the track record 

of the service back in time. Unicenter provides the real-time information in such views 

while SMA provides the historic information. Compound views can be set up in Unicenter MP 

to report on individual servers and applications as well as networks and whole IT services 

based on managed objects and Business Process Views in Unicenter NSM. 

The SMA report provides information on the servers, applications, networks or services 

affected by the outage. Unicenter MP provides a wide range of capabilities for setting up 

reporting windows and SMA-based Dashboards. Windows can be role based so they let you 

compose windows that are suitable for customers, IT management, service level 

management and others. This section outlines one design for implementing SMA with 

Unicenter NSM, Unicenter MP, Systems Performance Management and Unicenter Remote 

Monitoring. 


Configuring Unicenter NSM WorldView Integration 

SMA metric instances can be created using the WorldView Gateway (WV Gateway). Service 

Levels can be defined using objects representing devices, systems, applications, or 

Business Process Views that have been discovered in a Unicenter NSM MDB. SMA lets you 

add a Unicenter MDB and then select objects for which to collect data. The SMA coreImport 

data collector acts as the client and is installed with the SMA DC Hub. 

WV Core Gateway Prerequisite 

As a prerequisite for this part of the integration, you must have Unicenter NSM installed 

and running with the WorldView component. You must install the WV Core Gateway on a 

Windows server that is running Unicenter NSM WorldView in order to collect data from a 

particular MDB. The Core Gateway installer is located on the Unicenter Service Delivery r11 

Install Wizard at Unicenter Service Delivery r11 Products, Utilities, Unicenter SM Gateway, 

Windows. 

To install a WV Core Gateway 

1. Select WV Gateway in the tree and click Install to proceed. 

2. Click Next on the initial Welcome dialog. 

The feature tree for this installer displays. 


3. Select the check box labeled WV Gateway. 

Note: You also have the option of installing the SMA WMI Gateway here. 

4. Accept the default installation destination or change the product installation directory 

by clicking Browse. The default destination is C:\Program Files\CA\Unicenter Service 

Delivery\agents. Before deciding where to install the product, check available disk 

space on various drives by clicking Disk Space. 

A subdirectory named WVserver will be created under this folder for the Core Gateway 

product. 

5. Click Next after the features have been selected and an installation path has been 

chosen. 

6. Specify the port numbers for the WVserver and SMA Notify Windows Services. The 

default port numbers are 6677 and 6676, respectively, but these can be changed to 

any other valid port numbers not already in use. 

7. Click Next to continue. 

A dialog requests the Unicenter MDB name, user id, and password. This information is 

required to add the Manage In SMA menu to the Unicenter NSM WorldView 2D Map and 

Management Command Center. 

8. Enter the requested information and click Next. 

The installer attempts to verify that a successful connection can be made to the 

Unicenter MDB. If the authentication fails, you will be given the opportunity to change 

the fields and try again. 

Note: If you opt to proceed without a valid user id and password, you can manually 

add the manageIA feature at a later time by running the command that was logged to 

the usm_agents_install.log file in the Unicenter Service Delivery agent’s directory. 


Note: If you opt to install the WMI Gateway on the feature tree dialog, you will first be 

asked for the configuration information for that product. Otherwise, the installation will 

proceed. 

Core Gateway Log Files 

Two log files are used to document the running of the Core Gateway processes. Both are 

saved to the WVserver installation directory by default. 

• The file named WVserver.log is used to record what happens with the Unicenter SMA 

WVserver Windows Service. The location of this log file can be modified by changing the 

environment variable SMA_CORE_GW_LOG. 

• The second log file, SMANotify.log, contains information written by the Unicenter 

SMANotify Windows Service. Its location can be altered by changing the value of the 

environment variable SMA_NOTIFY_LOG. 

These environmental variables are available in a command line window if that window has 

been launched after the conclusion of the Unicenter NSM COR Gateway installation process. 

Adding a Unicenter MDB 

After a Core Gateway has been installed and its port numbers have been configured, you 

can add the MDB to SMA. 

To add the MDB to SMA 

1. Launch Service View (if it is not already launched) by selecting Start, Programs, 

Computer Associates, Unicenter, Service Delivery, Service View, and log in. 

2. Click the Metric Analysis tab at the top of the window, navigate to Metrics, and then to 

Unicenter Repositories. From this window you can add a new MDB, edit, or remove an 

existing one, or create new metric instances using the Unicenter Repository Explorer 

Tree. Additionally, you can check the current status of each of the Core Gateways. 

This status icon is updated by the smmCheck process on a polling interval, but you can 

also force an update of one or more gateways by using the Update Status link found on 

the Unicenter Repositories page. 


3. Click Add Repository. 

This takes you to the first step of a wizard, which asks you for the information that is 

necessary to establish the connection to the Core Gateway. 

4. Enter the following information: 

Gateway Host 

Identifies the Hostname/IP address where Unicenter WorldView and the WV Gateway 

are installed 

Gateway Port number 

Specifies the Unicenter SMA WorldView server Service for the Core Gateway 

Default: 6677 

Repository Name. 

Specifies the name of the Unicenter NSM Repository. 

User Name. 

Specifies the Unicenter user id 

Default: admin 

Password. 

Specifies the password to access the database 


This step tests the connection before proceeding and is optional, but recommended. 


Note: Be aware that in case of slow or inconsistent network connections, you may get 

a generic socket error. 

a. Correct any network anomalies first, and then retry this step. 

The results of the test will appear in a message box at the top of the page. 

b. Whether or not the test was successful, you will need to reenter the password in 

the text field before proceeding. 

c. After clicking Finish, you will be asked to wait while SMA retrieves a list of available 

Core Object Classes and Business Process Views from the Unicenter NSM MDB. 

When this is complete, the Unicenter COR Object Explorer Tree will be displayed 

with the imported Core classes on the left side of the page. 

d. If WorldView classes and Business Process Views are not returned and visible, then 

from the Unicenter Repositories page click Edit on the far right, and then click 

Refresh Classes and BPVs on the right. 

Editing Connection Properties to Unicenter MDB 

To edit the connection properties of any Unicenter MDB that has been added, you can 

return to the list of Unicenter MDBs and perform one of the following steps. 

To edit the connection properties of a Unicenter MDB 

1. Click the Edit icon in the row for the MDB that you want to change 

2. Click the name of the MDB and then select the Properties tab. 

This lets you change the connection attributes for this Core Gateway. 

a. Click Test to verify your settings. Enter your password first and click Save to store 

the connection attributes in the database. 

b. You can also select Refresh Classes and BPVs to update the items in the Unicenter 

Repository Explorer Tree. 


Browsing the Unicenter Repository Explorer Tree 

The Unicenter Repository Explorer Tree displays a hierarchical view of the object classes 

that are defined for the Unicenter NSM MDB. To view the Explorer Tree, return to the list of 

Unicenter MDBs. 

To browse the Unicenter Repository Explorer Tree 

1. Click the name of the MDB whose tree you want to browse. 

2. Click Edit for the MDB and then select the Explorer tab, or simply click the name of the 

MDB to be placed into the Explorer. 

The top level of the class tree for that MDB will be listed on the left side. 

3. If you drill down into any of these folders (for instance, Agent and then CaiWinA3), you 

will see either subclasses or SMA metric types. Drill down to the vendor-specific class 

you want to use with SMA and select the SMA metric type link of interest. 

4. Select any of the metric types in the left pane to display a list of MDB objects that 

match the given device type and vendor name. 

5. Select check boxes from among the metric attributes to restart the collectors and test 

the connection to the object after the metric instance is saved. 

Note: The metric instances will not be activated until the corresponding collectors are 

restarted. 

6. After providing information for the metric attributes, select check boxes next to the 

objects for which you want to create metric instances. 

7. At this point, you can save the metric instances. 

Some SNMP metrics let you enter a MIB Instance value to collect data on a specific 

object. In this case, you will see a link labeled Explore Instances next to the Save link 

at the top. 

8. After placing checkmarks next to the objects you want to explore, you can click the 

Explore Instances link to view all of the available MIB Instance values for each of these 

objects. 

Note: If you entered a value in the MIB Instance field with the rest of the metric 

attributes, objects that match this MIB Instance value will be checked by default. 

Distinct metric instances can be created for each of these MIB Instances. 

To create a metric instance for each MIB instance 

1. Select a check box next to MIB Instance objects you want to save, and click the Save 

link. 

The metric instances are created. 

2. You will then be presented with a summary of the save command. 

a. If you try to save a metric instance for an object when data is already being 

collected for that object using the metric type and DC Hub (that you previously 

specified), you will see a duplicate data collection. This could occur with a metric 


instance of “IP Network and Delay,” “Availability based on Unicenter Severity 

property,” or “Availability based on Unicenter Propagated Severity property.” In 

this case, the existing metric instance will also be updated with attributes that were 

previously specified (for example, the data collection interval). 

b. Otherwise, a new metric instance will be created for this object. 

c. If you checked the box to perform the connection test, the metric instances will not 

be saved for any object that could not be reached through a simple availability test 

(such as ping). 

d. If the address field is not defined for an object, the test will attempt to use the 

object name as a hostname/IP address instead. 

After the metric instances are created, a summary view is presented showing the Metric 

Instance ID, Description and an action of Insert. 


Generating SMA Reports Using Unicenter NSM Collected Data 

After SMA has been configured to collect and monitor all desired Unicenter NSM metric 

instances, SMA reports can be generated based on that data. The following procedure 

outlines the steps to create a report. The SMA Implementation Guide should be consulted 

for full information on SMA reporting capabilities. 

To create an SMA report based on collected data 

1. From the Main SMA view after logging in, click Report Groups 

2. Click Create Report Group on the far right. 


3. Enter the name and description of the report, and click Next 

4. Select all metrics whose information you want to include in this report. You can use the 

top check box to select all of them; then click Next. 


5. Set Service Goal thresholds for the metrics selected earlier; then click Next. 


6. In this panel, edit or change the information as needed in the Define Schedule Reports 

section. 

Make sure to include the Unicenter Management Portal information if you are using that 

component. 

7. Click Create Report. 

When the view returns, you should be able to see your report entry at the bottom of 

the window. 

8. Click Finish to complete the process. 

9. Click Done when you get the Confirmation panel. 

You should now be able to select Report Groups and see the report just created. 

10. Click your report in the Report Groups list and then click the report title. 


View Severity and Propagated Severity Metric Instances 

To view a list of the metric instances using the Severity/Propagated Severity metric type 

that have been defined for objects in a particular Unicenter MDB, return to the list of 

Unicenter MDB and select the name of the MDB. The Metric Instances tab will display a list 

of those instances. 

Note: Metric instances created in the Unicenter MDB Explorer Tree that are not of the 

Severity or Propagated Severity metric type will not be shown in this list of metric 

instances. In these cases, the Explorer Tree is used only to find this target host. After the 

metric instances are created, non-severity type metrics have no further association with 

any particular Unicenter MDB. 

Create New Metric Instances without the Explorer Tree 

Severity and Propagated Severity metric instances are created under the Unicenter Objects 

folder of the SMA Metrics tree. From there you can create new metric instances (without 

using the Unicenter Explorer Tree) or edit and remove existing ones. 

To create new metric instances without using Unicenter Explorer Tree 

1. Click Create Metric Instance to open the configuration page and add a new metric 

instance. 

This page is similar to the ones used to create metric instances of other metric types. 

However, there are several noticeable additions to the metric attributes listed for 

Unicenter Object metrics. 

a. First, there is a drop-down list labeled Unicenter Repository that lets you select 

which Unicenter MDB to retrieve object state information. 

b. Second, there is an attribute field labeled Selection name to identify a unique 

object within this MDB. 

Note: The selection name is a read-only field that starts out as Undefined but you can 

construct the name by entering a hostname or IP address in the Target Host field and 

then clicking the icon next to the Selection Name field to find all objects in the 

Unicenter MDB whose names contain the target hostname or IP address. The name of 

each object found will be returned, including the address, device type, vendor name, 

and current state (severity or propagated severity, depending on the metric type) 

values, if they exist. 

2. Select one of the objects and press OK. 

This updates the Selection name metric attribute, using the object that you specified. 

3. After all required attributes have been set, click Save 

This creates the new metric instance for the object that you selected in the Unicenter 

MDB. 


Configuring Unicenter Management Portal Integration 

Service Level Dashboards and Reports created in SMA can be displayed within the portal. 

These portal content dashboards and reports can be found through the integration in the 

Available Content, Library portion of the Portal. The Dashboards are found under the 

Enterprise Management heading called Service Level Management. The SMA reports are 

displayed as a main heading under Library called Service Level Reports. 

Generating Unicenter Management Portal Reports 

The Unicenter Management Portal is a natural and ideal tool for displaying Service Level 

Agreement data and statuses of those configured service levels. After you have verified that 

SMA reports can be run, you need to identify the SMA server to Unicenter MP and then add 

the report to a workspace. 

To identify the SMA server to Unicenter MP and add the report to a workspace 

1. From the main UMP Administration screen, select Task 1, Manage Components to 

identify the SMA Server. 

2. Find the entry for Unicenter Service Metric Analysis / Unicenter Service Level 

Management and click the corresponding Connection link on the right. 

3. Enter the SMA server name and click OK. 

4. Select UMP Administration from the tool bar and click Task 2. Create or Modify 

Unicenter MP Portlets. 


5. Find Unicenter SLA Scoreboard from the list and select its corresponding New icon. 

This adds it as a new SMA scoreboard. 

6. Click the Host drop-down list and select the proper SMA Server Host, then click Next. 


7. Use the arrows to select the SMA Report Group or report and columns to appear in the 

portlet. 

8. Provide a View Name and change the other properties as appropriate on that page, and 

click Next. 

9. Click Add Content on the toolbar to the right. 

10. At the top of the screen click Edit Content of Workplace drop-down list and select which 

workplace to add the SLA scoreboard. 


11. In the Library, expand Enterprise Management and then Service Level Management. 

Now select the box for the scoreboard just created and then select the column you 

want to add it to. When you are done adjusting the portlet and views, click OK. 

You should see the SMA portlet in the Workplace you just configured. 

12. You can drill into the colored portion of the view to launch the graph to show the 

special properties you selected earlier when you created this report in SMA. 


Configuring Unicenter Performance Management Integration 

The integration with Unicenter Performance Management consists of importing performance 

cubes into the SMA product where service levels can be defined against these metrics. The 

SMA DC server component provides a method to transparently import performance cubes, 

effectively making this measurement infrastructure and rich set of metrics collected by 

Unicenter Performance Management agents available for reporting within Unicenter SMA. 

Importing Performance Cubes 

Unicenter Performance Management uses agents to collect performance data from a variety 

of systems and database resources. The collected data is stored and organized into binary 

files called performance data cubes. The Unicenter SMA DC server component provides a 

method to import performance cubes, effectively making this measurement infrastructure 

and set of metrics collected by Unicenter Performance Management agents available for 

reporting within Unicenter SMA. 

Configuring for Data Collection and Delivery 

The Unicenter Performance Management manager application provides functions to 

configure what data to collect and where to upload the data for processing. Use this 

application to configure agents to deliver data to SMA. Two scenarios exist: 

1. If Unicenter Performance Management manager is installed on the same system as the 

DC server component, this application will receive all uploaded cube files and organized 

them in its cube store. SMA will identify this situation and copy any newly arrived cube 

files into SMA as needed. In this situation you do not need to configure the SMA DC 

server as a recipient system as described below. 

2. If Unicenter Performance Management manager is not installed on the same system as 

the DC server component, uploaded cube files can be delivered directly to SMA as 

described below. 

Note: Because the New Recipient Machine list is extracted from the current Unicenter 

MDB, the Unicenter SMA DC servers to receive data must be discovered prior to this 

procedure. 


The procedure for importing performance data follows. 

To import performance data after collection 

1. From the Start menu, select Programs, Unicenter, Performance Management, 

Performance Configuration. 

2. Select Profile, Data Management, Daily Cubes, Full Daily Cube, Delivery Machines. If 

there are no Delivery Machines visible, click Modify, and then click Modify again to 

generate a list of machines. 

The right-frame lists all defined recipients for the profile. 

3. Select the SMA DC server as the Performance Management recipient from the list, click 

Add, and then OK. 

4. Execute the following command from the command line: 

camping {hostname | IP_address} 

The response tells you if the CAM session is running between the DC server and the 

host with the Performance Agent installed. 

5. Execute the following utility from the command line on the DC server. 

camstat 


The result displays the number of messages sent and received from any Performance 

Agent host delivering cubes to the DC server. When the camstat command is run on 

the performance management machine, you should see that the application queue 

CAIFTRANS is in the CON (connected) state. The Application name would be something 

like “CAI002508-00000.” 

Note: The CAM/CAFT protocol runs by default on UDP port 4104 on the performance 

management machine. It will be connected to port 4105 on the SMA recipient machine. 

You may need this information when specific protocol filtering is implemented through a 

firewall solution. 

Enabling Performance Cube import 

Unicenter SMA lets you import performance cubes on multiple DC server systems. The SMA 

system also contains the DC server component. For each data import, you need to create 

an Importer instance associated with a specific DC server. 

To enable performance cube data import 

1. Click the Importers link available in Metric Analysis, Metrics. 

2. Click Create Standard Import. 


3. Select CA Performance Cube data import, and then click Next. 

4. Enter specific properties for the importer (common properties were previously 

described): 

CSV separator 

Defines the separator character used when parsing import files. During data import 

SMA will convert the (binary) cube file to a CSV (comma separated value) file. On 

Windows systems the conversion character will depend on the system locale. The 

default separator is “,” (comma), but on some systems may be set to “;” 

(semicolon). 

Allow filter file 

Defines the full path to a file that specifies rules for what records to import. Rules 

are expressed as regular expressions. If the “allow” file does not exist or is empty, 

all records are allowed. See below for more information. The path may include the 

variable $SMM to identify the SMA install path. 

Deny filter file 

Defines the full path to a file that specify rules for what records to exclude in the 

import. Rules are expressed as regular expressions. If the “deny” file doesn’t exist 

or is empty, no records are excluded. See below for more information. The path 

may include the variable $SMM to identify the SMA install path. 

Filter order 

Specifies the ordering of how the Allow and Deny filters are applied. 

Import filter 

Specifies a list of regular expressions to filter what information to import from the 

performance cube. The default value is “Processor_ System_”, which only allows 

records containing the listed patterns to be imported. This attribute may not be 

visible in the UI. 

Note: The Import Filter feature is not available from the UI. 


To enable the import filter 

a. Edit the file USM_HOME/etc/PerfAgent.cfg by locating the following line 

importFilter {{Import filter} {hidden} {} {default_common} 

{Processor_System_}} 

b. Change the line to the following: 

importFilter {{Import filter} {entry} {} {default_common} 

{Processor_System_}} 

c. Execute the following command 

uslmInitDb –with-metrics CA_perfAgent 

5. Click Finish. 

6. Click Restart Collector to restart the DC server. 

This forces the DC server to fetch its configuration and initiate the newly created 

importer instance. 

7. Click Done. 

8. Select the ON/OFF Enable box to the left of the Import Instance, click enable, and then 

click Done. 

After the DC server is restarted, the new enabled importer instance will start scanning 

the incoming directory for new files. An import will be attempted on any file placed into 

this directory. The incoming directory is: 

[USM_HOME]/databases/incoming/CA_perfAgent 

Filtering Imported Data 

Unicenter Performance Management cube files may contain a vast amount of data. It is 

strongly advised that you only import data that is absolutely necessary for reporting 

purposes, because a lot of redundant information can degrade the responsiveness of certain 

SMA UIs, increase the database size considerably, and slow down the import process. 

A performance cube labels its data as follows: 

• Machine name 

• Resource type 

• Resource subtype 

• Resource instance 

• Date 

• Label 


During import, Unicenter SMA converts the cube file to a CSV file. Each record containing 

metric data will have six initial columns, as shown in the following example: 

"mymachine", "Processor","% Processor Time";"0","21 February 2005","Processor- 

>% Processor Time->0" 

"mymachine","SQLServer:Databases","Transactions/sec","MYDB","21 February 

2005","SQLServer:Databases->Transactions/sec->CAAMDB" 

"mymachine","CPU","%sys","","21 February 2005",”CPU->%sys” 

As seen in the previous example, the Resource instance column may be empty if none is 

relevant. For example, “mymachine” has only one CPU. During import, the Unicenter SMA 

importer will dynamically create new metrics and metric instances as needed. The metrics 

will be based upon the following: 

• Metrics will be created based on the combination of “Resource type” and “Resource 

subtype” 

• Metric instances will be created based on the combination metric (Resource type and 

subtype), Machine name and Resource instance. Use the import filter mechanism to 

control which metric and metric instances to import. The preferred import filter 

mechanism allows or denies files according to the filters you have established. The import 

filters will be applied after the cube file is converted to CSV. Filter rules are expressed as 

regular expressions. 

Note: For more documentation on regular expressions, see 

http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.5/TclCmd/re_syntax.htm. 

Filter rules must follow the syntax of the CVS file, possibly matching hostname, 

resource type, resource subtype, instance and label, in addition to quoting and 

separator characters. For example, importing cube metrics with resource type 

“Processor” and resource subtype containing “% * Time”, would be expressed as 

follows: Allow file: 

[,;]"Processor->% [^ ]+ Time-> 

This expression will match any record starting with the CSV separator, either “,” or “;”, 

followed by the string “Processor->% “. The “[^ ]+” match one or more characters but 

the space character. Thus, this expression will match the “label” column for record in 

these examples: 

"myhostname","Processor","% C1 Time","0","20 February 2004","Processor->% C1 

Time->0" 

"myhostname","Processor","% Idle Time","0","20 February 2004","Processor->% 

Idle Time->0" 

"myhostname","Processor","% Privileged Time","0","20 February 2004","Processor- 

>% Privileged Time->0" 

"myhostname","Processor","% Processor Time","0","20 February 2004","Processor- 

>% Processor Time->0" 

"myhostname","Processor","% User Time","0","20 February 2004","Processor->% 

User Time->0" Allow file: 

[,;]"Web Service"[,;] will match any record with resource type or subtype equal 

“Web service”. 


Import rule files can be tested using the “egrep” command, but the test cube file must first 

be converted to CVS. 

To test the import rule files 

1. Copy the cube file to a new empty folder on the SMA system. 

2. Run the following command within this folder: 

pcmtocsv “.” “.” /s , /f /r 

3. Replace “/” character with “-“ on Linux/UNIX. 

A new CSV file is created. 

4. Assuming that pcm.allow specifies the import rules, test these rules using the egrep 

command as follows: 

egrep –f pcm.allow my-converted-cube.csv 

Copying Performance Cubes on Linux 

When manually copying performance cube files into the incoming directory on a Linux-based 

C server note the following: 

• If performance cubes are manually copied from a Windows based performance agent, the 

files need to be converted using the Linux command dos2unix before being placed into 

the SMAHOME/database/incoming/CA_perfAgent directory. Without this conversion the 

cube files will be ignored and considered corrupted (seen in the import_remote_data.log 

file) 

• If performance cubes are manually copied into the 

SMAHOME/databases/incoming/CA_perfAgent directory the owner and group needs to 

match the permissions for the SMA data collector process (smmCollect). You should copy 

the files as user "smm" or make sure the owner/group for the files are "smm"/"users". 

Otherwise the error message "Error code 26" will be logged to import_remote_data.log 

file. 

Configuring Unicenter Remote Monitoring Integration 

Unicenter Remote Monitoring can be set up to gather service and performance data 

remotely from various operating system platforms. This data can be stored in log files that 

are imported into Unicenter SMA, and used as source data in service and performance 

reports. The Unicenter SMA – Unicenter Remote Monitoring data import feature uses the 

imported file content syntax and semantic to create new metrics and metric instances as 

required when importing a file. In order to use this data with Unicenter SMA, the collected 

files must be transferred from the manager to the selected Unicenter SMA DC server 

system for input to the import facility. 

Note: Currently a separate service must be set up to move these files automatically, such 

as CAM/CAFT or FTP. 


Enabling Unicenter Remote Monitoring Data Import 

Unicenter SMA lets you import Unicenter Remote Monitoring log files on multiple DC server 

systems. The SMA manager system also contains the DC server component. For each data 

import of this type, you will need to create an Importer instance associated with a specific 

DC server. 

To enable performance cubes data importing 

1. Click the Importers link available in Metric Analysis, Metrics. 

2. Click Create Standard Import. 

3. Select CA URM data import. 



5. Specify the following specific properties for the importer: 

Allow filter file 

Defines the full path to a file that specifies rules for what records to import. 

Rules are expressed as regular expressions. If the “allow” file doesn’t exist or is 

empty, all records are allowed. See below for more information. The path may 

include the variable $SMM to identify the SMA install path. 

Deny filter file 

Defines the full path to a file that specifies rules for what records to exclude in 

the import. Rules are expressed as regular expressions. If the “deny” file 

doesn’t exist or is empty, no records are excluded. See below for more 

information. The path may include the variable $SMM to identify the SMA 

install path. 

Filter order 

6. Click Finish. 

Specifies the order of how the allow and deny filters are applied. 

7. Click Restart Collector to restart the DC server 

This forces the DC server to fetch its configuration and initiate the newly created 

importer instance. 

8. Click Done. 

After the DC server is restarted, the new enabled importer instance will start scanning 

the incoming directory for new files. The incoming directory is: 

[USM_HOME]/databases/incoming/CA_URM. 

An import will be attempted on any file placed into this directory. 

Filtering Imported Data 

Unicenter Remote Monitoring log files may contain a vast amount of data, therefore, it is 

strongly advised to import only data that is absolutely necessary for reporting purposes, 

because a lot of redundant information can degrade the responsiveness of certain SMA UIs, 

increase the database size considerably and slow down the import process. 

A Unicenter Remote Monitoring log file has comma separated records that describe each 

sampled data. 

Typical entries look like this: 

IP,rsp,396-112-wi36,IP Response Time (msec),12/16/2004 

0:55:07,Informational,0 

WIN,sys,396-112-wi17,Number of Processors,12/16/2004 

0:55:08,Informational,1 

WIN,sys,396-112-wi17,Processor Load (%),12/16/2004 

0:55:08,Informational,1.06 

WIN,dtl,396-112-wi17,0.Processor Load (%),12/16/2004 



The columns can be described as follows: 

System 

Identifies a system type as one of: 

Resource 

› IP: IP network 

› LNX: Linux system 

› MAC: Apple Macintosh system 

› UNIX: UNIX system 

› WIN: Windows system 

Identifies a class of resources as one of: 

Hostname: 

› dtl: Detail 

› rsp: Response time 

› svc: Service 

› sys: System resource 

Identifies target hostname of the measured resource 

Resource Instance and Label: 

Identifies label for the measured resource. This label contains a “Resource Instance” 

identifier if the string is on the form xxxx., where “xxxx” will be the 

instance. 

Date/time: 

Status: 

Indicates date and time stamp for the sampled data 

Indicates the status of the sample as one of the following sampled values: 

› – Critical 

› – Informational 

› – Major 

› – Minor 

› – Warning 

During import, the Unicenter SMA importer dynamically creates new metrics and metric 

instances as needed. 

Metrics will be created based on the combination of System and Resource fields 

Metric instances will be created based on the combination metric (System and Resource), 

Hostname and Resource instance (if available). Use the import filter mechanisms to control 

what metric and metric instances to import. Filter rules are expressed as regular 

expressions. 


Note: See http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.5/TclCmd/re_syntax.htm for documentation on regular 

expressions. 

Filter rules must follow the syntax of the URL log file, possibly matching System, Resource, 

Hostname, Resource Instance and Label field as described above, in addition to quoting and 

separator characters. 

Example 

To import URM metrics measuring CPU Usage, Load Average, Number of Users Logged on 

System and Number of Processes on any Linux system: 

Allow file: 

^LNX,sys,[^,]+,CPU Usage 

^LNX,sys,[^,]+,Load Average 

^LNX,sys,[^,]+,Number of Users Logged On System 

^LNX,sys,[^,]+,Number of Processes 

This expression will match any record starting with “LNX,sys,”, followed by one or more 

characters until a “,” is reached, followed by a “,” and then the labels as listed above. Thus, 

this expression will match records such as the following: 

LNX,sys,uspywi39,CPU Usage in Idle Mode (%),1/20/2005 9:08:52,Warning,87 

LNX,sys,uspywi39,Load Average Over Last 1 Minute (%),1/20/2005 


LNX,sys,uspywi39,Load Average Over Last 5 Minutes (%),1/20/2005 


LNX,sys,uspywi39,Load Average Over Last 15 Minutes (%),1/20/2005 


LNX,sys,uspywi39,Number of Users Logged On System,1/20/2005 9:08:52,Informational,1 

LNX,sys,uspywi39,Number of Processes,1/20/2005 9:08:52,Informational,176 

LNX,sys,uscigp10.ca.com,CPU Usage in System Mode (%),1/20/2005 9:08:52,Informational,1 

LNX,sys,uscigp10.ca.com,CPU Usage in User Mode (%),1/20/2005 9:08:52,Informational,4 

LNX,sys,uscigp10.ca.com,CPU Usage in Idle Mode (%),1/20/2005 9:08:52,Warning,95 

Import rule files can be tested using the “egrep” command as follows: 

egrep –f urm.allow my-urm-file 


After service levels have been set in SMA, metrics of interest have been defined using a 

Unicenter WorldView MDB and portlets have been configured in the Unicenter Management 

Portal, the integration can be used in the following ways: 

• Service Level Management of Unicenter NSM WorldView objects from the MCC. This 

usage is described in the section below. 

• Service Level Management Reporting using the Unicenter Management Portal. This usage 

is described in a section below. 


• Using Systems Performance Data in SMA. The usage of this additional data feed into SMA 

is described in the configuration of Systems Performance Management within the 

integration previously described. 

• Using Unicenter Remote Monitor Data in SMA. The usage of this additional data feed into 

SMA is described in the configuration of Unicenter Remote Monitor within the integration 

previously described. 

Service Level Management of WorldView Objects from the MCC 

This integration gives you the ability to directly create Unicenter SMA metric instances from 

Unicenter NSM WorldView objects. Browsing your network using the WorldView 2D Map or 

the Management Command Center, the integration lets you select objects to monitor in 

SMA. 

These can be objects representing Business Process Views or objects representing systems 

or components, such as disks or network interfaces. 

To create Unicenter SMA metric instances from WorldView objects 

1. Right-click any object descended from the Managed Object root class and select 

Manage In SMA to open the configuration applet. 

2. You can create an “IP network delay & availability” and/or “Severity/Propagated 

severity” metric type by using either of the tabbed panes. 

The metric attributes listed on these panes will closely reflect the pages used to create 

metric instances of this type through the SMA Metrics windows. 

3. Specify the hostname/IP address of the Unicenter SMA Analysis Server and the port 

number used by the SMA Apache installation. 

Remember, this may be a different host than the one where Unicenter NSM is installed. 

4. Ensure that the information encircled in red below is accurate before testing the 

connection. 


5. Select the box next to “Test Connections” for the IPNet metric type or “Test Object” for 

the severity metrics. 

This tests the SMA Analysis Server’s connection to the target, only creating the metric 

instance if the test is successful. 

All confirmation and error messages will appear in the status bar at the bottom of the 

applet window. 

Important: The Unicenter Repository Name must exactly match the name of the 

MDB as you entered it when importing WorldView to SMA, or it may not be found. 

Service Level Management Reporting using the Unicenter 

Management Portal 

You can display in the portal the Service Level Dashboards and Reports created in SMA like 

any other report or information currently available simply by creating the appropriate 

portlet using the Portal’s wizard as previously discussed in the configuration section. 


After an SMA report or dashboard has been added to a Workspace, it will be available for 

display. In addition, it is possible to drill into the color portion of the dashboard to launch 

the actual SMA report. In addition, you can further drill into that report and launch a graph 

of the data being monitored. 



More information about this integration can be found in the following documents: 

• Unicenter Service Metric Analysis Implementation Guide. 


INDEX 

A 

Advanced Event Correlation, 196 

AEC. See Advanced Event Correlation 

Agent Technology--Agent Factory, 206 

Agent Technology--Agent View, 206 

Agent Technology--DSM. See DSM 

agent traps 

SPECTRUM integration, 120 

agents 

restarting, 120 

viewing in OneClick, 124 

alert event format 

Introscope agent alert, 179 

Alert Management 

escalation policy, 221 

translating eHealth alarms, 89 

Alert Management System, 197 

integration with eHealth, 97 

B 

Business Process View, 201 

removing unwanted objects, 189 

Business Process Viewing 

Introscope agents, 180 

business value 

Cisco integration, 151 

eHealth for Voice integration, 128 

eHealth integration, 84 

eHealth network performance 

management, 113 

HP Insight Manager integration, 155 

Introscope integration, 175 

MOM integration, 160 


third-party products, 191 

Unicenter Service Desk integration, 209 

C 

cache refreshing, 66 

calendar 

service, 58 


accessing NMIDB, 152 

business value, 151 

configuration files, 151 

how it works, 152 

installation procedure, 153 

reference documentation, 154 

uninstallation procedure, 153 

using, 153 

Cisco Network Management Integration 

Data Bundle, 152 

CiscoWorks 

launch from MCC, 153 

community string, 93 

component monitoring, 59 

configuring 

Alert Management integration with 

Unicenter Service Desk, 218 

alerts to open Service Desk tickets, 220 

eHealth Policy Manager, 136 


Introscope Proxy Service, 184 

MCC integration with Service Desk, 225 

Unicenter NSM for Introscope 

integration, 186 

Unicenter Service Desk in Unicenter MP, 

214 


context menu 

WorldView, 199 

D 

deployment architecture, 33 


discovery 

modeling a host, 123 

MOM, 160 

SPECTRUM, 121 

Unicenter Management for MOM, 171 

Distributed State Machine. See DSM 

dscvrehealth command, 98 

DSM 

class definition, 205 

classes, 204 

listing policy elements, 204 

policy for E, 88 

policy for eHealth, 88 

working with eHealth Gateway 

Extension, 98 

E 

eHealth 

Alarm Detail Report, 108 

At-a-Glance reports, 107 

Business Service Console, 83 

Trend report, 108 

eHealth alert scoreboard, 104 

eHealth Business Service Console or BSC 

ticker, 100 

eHealth for Voice 

configuring policy settings, 141 

configuring SNMP server, 137 

creating an action plan, 140 

creating an SNMP action, 138 

setting policy conditions, 142 

viewing details in Node View, 145 

viewing results, 143 

eHealth for Voice integration 


installing, 129 

integration removal, 130 

overview, 127 

Policy Manager, 128 

post-installation, 130 

prerequisites, 128 

using, 135 

eHealth Gateway Extension, 98 

eHealth integration 

configuring Life Exceptions, 92 

creating alerts in Alert Management 

System, 97 

dscvrehealth command, 98 

eHealth reports, 105 

enabling, 88 

enabling Alert Management policy, 89 

enabling links in NSM, 90 

enabling Links menu in MCC, 90 

forwarding traps to NSM, 92 


levels, 85 

MCC integration, 95 

patches, 99 

performance trend, 85 

real-time, 84 


setting up connection parameters, 90 

status breakdown scoreboard, 103 

using, 95 

using DSM policy, 98 

with Unicenter MP, 99 

eHealth interface status breakdown 

scoreboard, 102 


management 

applying patches, 114 


configuring poll method, 114 


overview, 113 


uxsEHPollMethod, 115 

winEHPollMethod, 115 

eHealth Policy Manager 

activating, 136 

configuring, 136 

eHealth Status Breakdown Scoreboard, 

102 

eHealth web interface, 101 

email notification method, 49 

escalation policy 

Alert Management, 222 

Event Console 

object severity change, 180 



capabilities, 19, 27 

integrating third-party products:, 194 

event picker, 196 

event rules, 196 

G 

granularity options, 57 

H 

hostname granularity, 68 

HP Insight Manager integration 


displaying agent objects in MCC, 157 

installing the integration, 158 

levels of integration, 156 

overview, 155 


imported data filter, 252 

installing 



Unicenter Management for MOM, 167, 

171 

integrating 

eHealth for Voice, 128 


Performance Management, 248 


Unicenter Management for MOM, 160 

Unicenter Service Desk, 210 

integration capabilities, 21 

integration kit 

HP Insight Manager, 158 

Introscope, 182 

Introscope 

alert messages, 176 

extension, 177 

sending alerts to Event Console, 178 

viewing alerts in Event Console, 179 

I 

Introscope agents, 175 

alert event format, 179 

Business Process View, 177 

changing status, 178 

dashboard, 177 

displaying in Unicenter Management 

Portal, 180 

launching agent dashboard, 181 

publish BPV Scoreboard, 187 

Introscope integration 



configuring MCC and Enterprise 

Management, 186 

configuring Proxy Service, 184 

configuring Unicenter MP, 187 

configuring Unicenter NSM, 186 

features, 176 



maintenance, 186 


requesting integration kit, 182 

troubleshooting, 185 

unpacking files, 183 

using, 189 

verifying prerequisites, 183 

Introscope Investigator hierarchy, 176 

IntroscopeNsmBridgeProxy properties, 

185 

IT service 

assigning, 54 

defining, 53 

L 

launching in context 


LiveHealth server, 84 

M 

Management Command Center 

accessing eHealth reports, 96 



defining icons in MCC class editor, 200 

enabling eHealth Links menu, 90 

MCC class editor, 199 

Management Portal, 31 

managing services, 11 

MDB 

adding, 234 

editing connection, 236 

mkconfig, 115 

MOM discovery, 160 

MOM integration 

acknowledging alerts, 164 

applying privileges, 170 



objects viewed from MCC, 161 

overview, 159 

patches, 168 


resolving alerts, 164 

setting up user account, 169 

status in WorldView, 166 

viewing events, 165 

viewing MOM alerts, 163 

N 

netHealthException, 85 

Node View 

eHealth for Voice, 145 

notification methods, 44 

notifier rule editor, 94 

NSMWV Core Gateway, 232 

O 

object severity change 

Introscope agent, 180 

OneClick 

launching in context, 121 

modeling a host, 123 

running discovery, 121 

verifying conditions, 125 

viewing the agents, 120 

overview 





eHealth Suite, 83 


SPECTRUM integration, 117, 147 


Unicenter Management for MOM 



Wily Introscope, 175 

pager notification method, 50 

patches 


performance cubes, 248 

performance cubes on Linux, 254 

Performance Management 

capabilities, 20, 32 

data collection, 248 

enabling data import, 250 

filtering data, 252 

importing data, 249 


Linux cubes, 254 

requirements, 35 

prerequisites 



MOM integration, 167 


professional services offerings, 21 

propagated severity metric instances, 

243 

P 

R 

reference documentation 








SPECTRUM integration, 125, 150 


Unicenter Management for MOM, 174, 

262 

Remote Monitoring 

filtering data, 256 

importing data, 255 


resetdsm command, 129 

S 

SAM pack 


defined, 28 

essentials, 13 


implementing, 62 


overview, 37 

post-installation, 43 


sample scenario, 73 

severity model, 53 

scoreboard 

displaying Introscope agents, 187 

servers 

classifying, 64 

service calendar, 58 

Service Desk notification method, 45 

service level management reporting, 260 

service metrics analysis, 229 

SMA Reports, 239 

SMA scoreboard, 245 

SPECTRUM integration 

adding agents manually, 123 


discovering in OneClick, 121 

enabling MIB extensions, 118 

how it works, 118, 148 

installing, 119, 148 

launch OneClick, 149 

overview, 117, 147 

reference documentation, 125, 150 

using, 149 

using the integration, 120 

verifying conditions, 125 

viewing agents in OneClick, 124 

Technical Integration Guide, 194 

third-party products 


common characteristics, 192 

Event Management integration, 194 

event-level integration, 192 

examples, 191 

integrating interfaces, 194 

integrating with AEC, 196 

integrating with Alert Management 

System, 197 

integrating with message records and 

actions, 194 

integrating with Trap Manager, 195 

integrating with WorldView, 198 

launching in context, 193 

overview, 191 


visualization in Unicenter NSM, 192 

trap destination, 120 

window, 93 

Trap Manager 

displaying message format, 196 

T 

U 

Unicenter Management for MOM 

discovery wizard, 172 

installing, 167, 171 

reference documentation, 174, 262 

running discovery, 171 

using, 173 

Unicenter MP 

accessing eHealth reports, 99 

displaying alert scoreboard, 104 

displaying eHealth business service 

console, 100 


displaying eHealth interface status 


displaying eHealth reports, 105 

displaying eHealth traps status, 102 

displaying eHealth Trend Report, 108 

displaying Introscope agents, 180 

displaying status breakdown 


launching eHealth web interface, 101 

overviewl, 203 

reports, 244 

Unicenter Service Desk 

Alert Management escalation policy, 

221 

configure in Unicenter MP, 214 

configuring Alert Management 


configuring alerts to open tickets, 220 

configuring users, 213 

customizing tickets, 223 

integrating with Alert Management, 211 

integrating with MCC, 211, 225 

integrating with Unicenter MP, 210 

launching from portal, 212 

overview, 209 

publishing portlet, 216 

registering Unicenter MP server, 213 

sharing an MDB, 211 

V 

variables 

IntroscopeNsmBridgeProxy, 185 

W 

Wily Introscope application management 

integration overview, 175 

WilyAgent classes 

removing objects from Business Process 

View, 189 

WorldView, 198 

business process views, 201 

class definition, 198 

context menu, 199 

icons, 199 

object creation, 200 

object status, 200 

viewing MOM status, 166

Service Availability Management - SupportConnect

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