3.10 Computer Associates Unicenter

This section refers to integrating CA Unicenter TNG or NSM products. CA Unicenter does require an ORB in order to integrate with Operations Center.

Refer to the following topics to integrate to Unicenter:

3.10.1 Integrating Unicenter

To integrate CA Unicenter and Operations Center:

  1. Install the UniORB software on a supported system that has network access to the Unicenter system.

    For instructions, see Section 10.0, ORB Installation.

  2. Create a Unicenter adapter for each instance of UniORB on the network.

    For instructions, see Section 2.1, Creating an Adapter.

  3. Modify the adapter properties. For property descriptions, see Section A.11, Computer Associates (CA) Unicenter).

    In the adapter’s properties, specify the Unicenter server’s hostname, UniORB port number (1580, or the one chosen earlier), and the repository name (case sensitive).

    UniORB installs as a service under Windows. Typically, the CA Unicenter Enterprise Management System, Unicenter Enterprise Manager and Unicenter WorldView are installed on the same system. If the Unicenter Enterprise Manager exists on a different machine than Unicenter WorldView, the UniORB service must run logged in as an Administrator to access enterprise event manager information.

    For a detailed description of adapter properties, see Section A.11, Computer Associates (CA) Unicenter.

3.10.2 Masking Unwanted Alarms

Operations Center can compress duplicate messages into a single line. However, in some cases, it is desirable to prevent a subset of Unicenter alarm messages from ever reaching the Operations Center server.

For example, configure Unicenter to receive SNMP traps, which consist of a very large number of messages that are not associated with any object in Unicenter. As a result, these messages are also not associated with any Unicenter object displayed in the Operations Center console.

To prevent the UniORB from sending some messages to Operations Center:

  1. Create a file named uniorb.flt in the same directory as the UniORB.

    This file contains one line representing the unchanging portion of each message that should be masked.

    Each Unicenter message that the UniORB receives is matched against each line in the uniorb.flt file. It drops all incoming messages that contain the complete contents of any line in the uniorb.flt file without sending them to the Operations Center server.

  2. Verify that the lines contained in the uniorb.cfg file have sufficient detail so they do not unexpectedly match other alarm messages.

    This ability to eliminate messages that have no value to the user exists exclusively to ease the load on the Operations Center server and Operations Center console when maintaining and displaying messages.

3.10.3 Lazy Discovery and Show/Hide Details

For purposes of efficiency, Operations Center currently implements a Lazy Discovery for Unicenter. This means that it discovers only Unicenter World-View objects during the initial pass.

To discover all lower level (DSM) objects:

  1. In the Explorer pane, right-click the lowest level World-View object, then click Details > Show/Hide.

    The lower-level objects display.

The exceptions to this are DSM level objects that are referenced in views created using the Service Models element. The Unicenter adapter automatically discovers these objects during its initialization.

Operations Center initially associated alarms created by DSM level processes within Unicenter with the server object which contain them.

3.10.4 Propagate Flag Affects Parent Object Colors

Operations Center correctly supports the Propagate flag setting for World-View objects within the Unicenter 2‑D map. Disabling the status propagation for any World-View object results in the parent object no longer reflecting the state of that child object. Disabling status propagation for all child objects displays the state of the parent in its natural state.

3.10.5 Child Object Propagate_Status Flag Affects Parent Color

If an object’s condition color does not appear to be correct in the Operations Center console, it might be because of the presence of child objects that have other colors. Check each child object’s propagate_status flag.

Checking the propagate_status Flag

To check the propagate_status flag of an element:

  1. In the Explorer pane, right-click an element, then click Properties to open the Status property page.

    If the propagate_status value is Yes, the status propagation is enabled. If it is No, the status propagation is disabled. The parent of the object no longer reflects the state of that child.

Enabling or Disabling the propagate_status Flag

To enable or disable the propagate_status flag of an element:

  1. In the Explorer pane, right-click an element, then click one: Propagate, On, or Off.

3.10.6 Object Status between Unicenter and Operations Center

Status is a field in Unicenter that contains a predefined text string, showing the status of an object the last time Unicenter updated the state of the object. Operations Center supports modification of this property. Use the Severity right-click menu option to change the state of a Unicenter object.

For more information, see Section 3.10.9, Comparing the Object State between Operations Center and Unicenter.

3.10.7 Annotate Context Menu Option

The Annotate right-click menu option enables annotating alarm messages within Unicenter. Annotated alarms have a check mark in the Annotate Alarm column.

3.10.8 Operations Center Object Color versus Unicenter Object Color

Unicenter maintains two state values for each World-View object: the natural state of the object and the state of that object as determined by rolling up (propagating) the state of all child objects. Operations Center provides information about both states, but it is important to understand the differences between the two.

The color of a Unicenter object icon displayed in the Operations Center console is its propagated state. Unicenter determines the state of the object by propagating the state of all child objects that have the propagation flag enabled.

The color of an object displayed in the Operations Center console might not match the object’s Severity property. Operations Center displays the propagated status using the color of the object icon that matches the color shown on the NSM 2‑D map.

To check the value of a Unicenter object icon displayed in the Operations Center console:

  1. In the Explorer pane, right-click a Unicenter element, then click Properties to open the Status property page.

  2. Examine the propagated_sev field.

    It contains a numeric value which Operations Center maps to a color for display purposes.

    The following table shows the severity codes and their corresponding numeric and color values. The numeric value corresponds to the value in the propagated_sev field.

    Status

    Status Color

    Numeric Value

    OK

    Green

    5

    INFORMATIVE

    Blue

    4

    MINOR

    Yellow

    3

    MAJOR

    Orange

    2

    CRITICAL

    Red

    1

    UNKNOWN

    Gray

    0

    The color of a Unicenter World-View object displayed in the Unicenter 2‑D Map is also based on its propagated state. Operations Center and Unicenter always agree on the color of these two objects, using the color ranges supported by Operations Center (listed in Table 3-9).

    The color severity of a Unicenter object icon displayed in the Unicenter object’s Status property page is the natural state of the individual object, and might be a different color than the Unicenter object icon displayed in the Operations Center console. This can be true because Unicenter allows objects that do not monitor anything, but serve as a container for other objects. Thus, the severity of the container object might be green (Normal), while its propagated state (propagated_sev) is red (Critical).

3.10.9 Comparing the Object State between Operations Center and Unicenter

Viewing the Complete Picture of the State of a Unicenter Object

To view the complete picture of the state of a Unicenter object through Operations Center:

  1. Note the color of the element displayed in the Operations Center console. In this example, assume the element is red, representing the propagated status; children with red (CRITICAL) severity roll up into this parent element.

  2. Right-click the element in the Explorer pane, then click Properties to open the Status property page.

  3. Note the values.

    In the following figure, the green (OK) severity represents the natural status of the parent object.

Viewing the Complete Picture of the State of an Object in Unicenter

To view the complete picture of the state of an object in Unicenter:

  1. Note the color of the Unicenter object.

  2. Click Open Details on the context menu in the Unicenter 2‑D map.

  3. Display the Status tab and note the values.

Table 3-9 and Table 3-10 show the corresponding property values and colors used by Operations Center and Unicenter. Note that the Unicenter values are default values and can be customized.

Table 3-9 Operations Center and Unicenter Corresponding Property Values

Operations Center

Unicenter

Property

Value

Property

Value

propagate_status

Yes or No

Propagate

Selected or deselected.

propagated_sev

0–9

N/A

propagated_status_no

0–9

N/A

Default Unicenter Value.

severity

critical

 

major

minor

 

OK

informational

unmanaged

unknown

Severity

CRITICAL

down

MAJOR

MINOR

WARNING

NORMAL

INSERVICE

FUTURE

UNKNOWN

REMOVE

status_no

It might appear to be a free form text field, but is not.

For more information, see Table 3-10.

Status

String value is based on the Unicenter Alarm Set for the object.

Table 3-10 Operations Center and Unicenter Corresponding Colors and Values

Operations Center

Unicenter

Color

Value

Default Color

Default Value

Blue

Informational

Black

Inservice

Brown

Unmanaged

Black

Future

Gray

Unknown

Black

Remove

Gray

Unknown

Gray

Unknown

Green

Normal

Green

Normal

Orange

Major

Orange

Major

Red

Critical

Red

Critical

Red

Critical

Black

Down

Yellow

Minor

Yellow

Minor

Yellow

Minor

Yellow

Warning

3.10.10 Support for DSM Object Level Alarms

In Operations Center, the alarms for DSM level objects in the Unicenter repository display in the context of the actual DSM-level process that created them, and are color-coded according to their severity.

Operations Center can display objects in the Unicenter Common Object Repository (COR) that are not visible in the Unicenter 2‑D map. These DSM-level objects include specific instances of the processes, logs, file systems, and so on, that Unicenter agents monitor and display as child objects of the Unicenter agents that define and control them.