3.3 Technical Considerations in Operations Center v5.5

3.3.1 Operations Center Installation and Upgrade

As of Operations Center 5.5, the default installation directory is NetIQOperationsCenter. Previously, the Operations Center server, Dashboard, and Experience Manager installed to the NovellOperationsCenter directory by default.

Do not install Operations Center software into a directory created with spaces as there are known technical issues. If this is unavoidable and you are installing on a Windows 64-bit platform, after completing the Operations Center software installation, copy the bin\win64\launcher.exe file into the \OperationsCenter_install_path\bin directory and rename it to replace the existing mosformula.exe file.

If installing the Operations Center server, Dashboard or CMS on Windows 2012 using a DVD/CD, Mounted ISO , or Mounted Network install; you will need to modify the property settings of the respective install.exe file to run the program in compatibility mode for Windows 7. See the installation instructions in Operations Center 5.6 Server Installation Guide, Operations Center 5.6 Dashboard Guide, and Operations Center 5.6 Configuration Management System (CMS) Guide for further details.

Java 1.6.0 Runtime Environment (J2RE) is not supported in Operations Center 5.5. You must be running Java 1.7 before upgrading to or installing Operations Center 5.5. For more information, see Java Runtime Environment in the Operations Center 5.6 Getting Started Guide.

If upgrading to Operations Center 5.6 from Operations Center 5.0, and the NetIQ Operations Center Daemon service is not using the Local System account; you must reconfigure the account information in the Daemon service’s Log On account settings. See Upgrading to Operations Center v5.6 from Previous Versions in the Operations Center 5.6 Server Installation Guide.

3.3.2 Operations Center Server Configurations

Updated Drivers for Sybase

An updated version of Sybase JDBC drivers are included in the Operations Center 5.0 March 2014 patch release. If the database was created with an earlier version of the JDBC drivers (pre 7.0.7), then it may be necessary to update the metadata accessor scripts using the scripts provided with your Sybase installation.

If receiving an Out-of-date metadata accessor information was found on this database error in the formula.trc logs, your scripts need to be updated. To determine if the scripts need to be updated, run sp_version. If a version earlier than 7.0.7 is reported, you must update your scripts. For additional information, see TID 7014672

Timeout Setting for Console and Server Calls

After installing or upgrading Operations Center, add the following properties to the Formula.custom.properties file to set a timeout properties for calls between the Operations Center console and Operations Center server:

#Set CORBA TimeoutsCORBA.transactionTimeout=600000CORBA.operationTimeout=600000

For more information about the Formula.custom.properties file, see Making Custom Changes in the Operations Center 5.6 Server Configuration Guide.

Remote Container Connections

Duplicate remotecontainer connections are created on non-master Operations Server clients in a cluster environment.

Alarm Filters

The “is” comparison option on Alarm Filters is not working properly.

Alarm Suppression and Event Data Store

Sybase is not supported for alarm suppression.

For more information about supported databases, see Supported Databases in the Operations Center 5.6 Getting Started Guide.

Algorithms

The algorithm Band command configured with invert="yes" is not working properly.

When using banding thresholds in the Algorithms.xml file to set element condition, define no more than 10 banding definitions. Any banding definitions in excess of 10 are ignored by the Operations Center server and not executed.

For more information about defining algorithms in the Algorithms.xml file, see Modifying the Algorithm Library in the Operations Center 5.6 Server Configuration Guide.

Database and Service Warehouse Definitions

The Function configuration option for database definitions (Administration > Database Definitions) is no longer needed and has been removed.

The Operations Center server must be restarted if the database type for the Service Warehouse is changed.

For more information database definitions, see Configuring and Administering the Database in the Operations Center 5.6 Server Configuration Guide.

Profile Purge Dates

Profiles created with no purge date will still result in the data expiring on Jan 1, 2038. This is happening because of the Y2038 Problem.

Web Services Authentication

The WSAPI authentication scheme can only be used for local Operations Center user accounts, and not LDAP users.

3.3.3 Operations Center Console Considerations

Please consider the following technical issues for the Operations Center console:

Error Messages on Console Login

The following error messages can occur on Operations Center console login when running JRE 1.7.0_25:

  • org.omg.CORBA.OBJECT_NOT_EXIST

    To resolve the Corba error, clear the Java Web Start cache and the Web browser history.

    For instructions, see Troubleshooting Java Web Start.

  • Missing Permissions/Codebase manifest attribute

    These messages display in the Java Console and can be ignored.

JAR Components Must Be Signed by Operations Center

If you have problems starting the client, you may receive an error message similar to JAR resources in JNLP file are not signed by the same certificate. Because of the tightened security model introduced by Oracle Java 7 Update 45, all .jar components, including those from third-parties, must be signed by Operations Center.

Contact Support to have your content signed.

Performance Considerations for Console Configurations

There can be performance implications related to activating Show nonsource element indicators and Show linked element indicators options in the Explorer pane. There can be significant overhead for these options when expanding elements that have more than 100 element children.

We recommend using these options only when required and turning them off for daily use.

3.3.4 Adapter Considerations

Please consider the following technical issues when configuring and using the Operations Center adapters:

Considerations for Adapters

Every Operations Center release can include new adapter properties for various adapter types. On upgrade, existing adapter instances do not automatically update with default values for these new properties which can cause unexpected behavior. After upgrading Operations Center, adapter definitions must be recreated to pick up new properties.

The following adapters have new properties in Operations Center v5.0:

  • IBM Tivoli Application Dependency Discovery Manager (TADDM)

  • Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) and Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)

  • SolarWinds Orion

For more information on adapter properties, see the Operations Center 5.6 Adapter and Integration Guide.

InterConnection Adapter Considerations

The InterConnection adapter (ICA) (formerly known as the InterCommunication adapter or the F2F adapter) allows Operations Center servers to communication through firewalls. To use the ICA, the versions of the Operations Center server must be as follows:

  • Both servers must be v5.6

  • One server is v5.6 and the other is v5.5

BMC Remedy Action Request System (ARS) Adapter Considerations

Please consider the following technical issues when configuring and using the BMC Remedy ARS adapter:

  • An incompatibility exists when running the 32‑bit Remedy libraries, as distributed with Operations Center and used by the Remedy adapter, on a Operations Center server running under a 64‑bit JVM. Create the BMC Remedy ARS adapter on an Operations Center 32-bit JVM remote container, then use a container adapter to connect from the Operations Center 64-bit JVM server. For more information about containers, see Using Remote Containers in the Operations Center 5.6 Adapter and Integration Guide.

    Be sure that the BMC Remedy libraries are installed and configured correctly, following the instructions in the Operations Center 5.6 Adapter and Integration Guide.

  • After updating the Remedy configuration file by modifying the configuration file directly, or by using Edit Remedy Configuration or Show Server Information right-click options, the adapter must be restarted.

  • When removing a configured schema from a BMC Remedy ARS adapter, alarms are removed immediately for the removed schema. However, to remove the elements, the adapter must be restarted.

  • Adding fields to an existing schema in Remedy Administrator won’t be reflected in Operations Center until the BMC Remedy ARS adapter is restarted.

Computer Associates Spectrum Adapter Considerations

Please consider the following technical issues when configuring and using the CA Spectrum adapter:

  • The CA Spectrum adapter does not support the Show Root Cause and Show Impacted features.

  • When using the CA Spectrum adapter, the Operations Center Layout view displays topology views similar to those presented in CA Spectrum. Operations Center can display models and their positions and the links between them. However, Operations Center does not display the more complex pictographs that represent composite sites.

  • When referencing distinguished names (DNames) for Spectrum elements, be sure to use the entire DName as the display names used for elements can consist of shortened names that could be duplicates. The DName is encoded with a model handle that can uniquely identify the element. Distinguished names are explained in Viewing Element Properties of the Operations Center 5.6 User Guide.

  • When integrating to a CA Spectrum server containing the remote landscape server, a direct connection must be established with the Operations Center server since Computer Associate’s API doesn’t support the relaying of traffic from remote landscapes. Please verify all necessary appliances are configured appropriately to allow traffic.

EMC SMARTS Adapter Considerations

The DName structure for EMC SMARTS adapter elements has been modified for the support of multiple domains. After patch installation, you must recreate any links to existing EMC SMARTS objects from the Services hierarchy or in BSCM definitions.

HP OpenView Network Node i-series (NNMi) Adapter Considerations

The Operations Center HP NNMi Integration adapter requires an NNMi SDK Enablement license from HP.

IBM Tivoli Application Dependency Discovery Manager (TADDM) Adapter Considerations

The TADDM hierarchy file, TADDMHierarchy.xml, overwrites the hierarchy file used by the legacy Collation Confignia adapter.

With the TADDM 7.1.2 adapter, the xml tag attribute of case=no or case=yes, set in the TADDMHierarchy.xml file and traditionally used to control case of the resulting display data, is ignored.

Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) Considerations

It is no longer necessary to copy the EZJcomLib18 and JScomIntegrationHelper library files to the System32 and SysWOW64 directories in order to integrate to SCOM. When upgrading to Operations Center 5.0 May 2012 Patch Release, we recommend deleting the EZJcomLib18.dll and JScomIntegrationHelper.dll files from your C:\Windows\System32 and C:\Windows\SysWOW64 (on Windows 64-bit Server only) directories.

After creating a new alarm resolution state in Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2012, you must restart any Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2012 adapters in Operations Center in order to have the new resolution state(s) available from alarms in Operations Center.

SCOM 2012 is unsupported on Windows Server running 32-bit Java.

SCOM 2012 requires Microsoft.NET 4 to be installed on the Operations Center server. If you have an existing integration to SCOM 2012, it is necessary to unregister the Scom2012IntegrationHelper.dll file and reregister it for Microsoft.NET 4.

To unregister the Scom2012IntegrationHelper.dll file:

  1. Open a command prompt and issue the following command from the \OperationsCenter_install_path\Integrations\ext\SCOM2012Integration\ directory:

    C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\regAsm.exe /u Scom2012IntegrationHelper.dll

To reregister the Scom2012IntegrationHelper.dll file after Microsoft.NET 4 is installed, refer to the integration instructions, Integrating to SCOM, in the Operations Center 5.6 Adapter and Integration Guide.

For information about the SCOM 2012 adapter, see Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) in the Operations Center 5.6 Adapter and Integration Guide.

NetIQ AppManager Adapter Considerations

The AgentMsglong alarm field value is now converted to HTML in order to show correctly in Operations Center historical alarm properties. If you have existing scripts that are reading this property in the original XML, you may need to change your script in order to extract the raw data without the HTML code. For more information and a script example, see Technical Information Document 701604.

The severity mappings for the NetIQ AppManager adapter have changed to more efficiently match the AppManager console. The following severity mappings now apply:

Operations Center

AppManager

Critical

Severe

Minor

Warning

Informational

Informational

OK

Diagnostic

OK

OK

Tideway Foundation Adapter Considerations

Unlike other adapters, the Tideway Adapter does not change to critical when the adapter loses network connectivity.

SolarWinds Orion Adapter Considerations

The SolarWinds Orion 9.1 Adapter throws the following warning in the logs but will start successfully:

WARN Integration.orion.Adapter: SolarWinds Orion.DefaultControl - Exception while processing query for [_ID16_Application]: select LTrim(RTrim("Applications"."Status")) as "elementCondition", "Applications"."LastStatusChange...java.sql.SQLException: Invalid object name 'Applications'.

This warning message can be ignored.

3.3.5 Event Manager

Event Manager agents running local to the Operations Center server use the Operations Center server's keystore. If running a remote Event Manager Agent in secure mode (Client/Server Communications Mode is set to either Secured communications using SSL or Support both secured and unsecured communications), you must set up a keystore for the Event Manager Agent. This is set up in the same way as for the Operations Center server. For information, see Keystore and Trust Store Configuration in the Operations Center 5.6 Security Management Guide.

Operations Center does not support Event Manager agents running in SSL mode.

3.3.6 Experience Manager Considerations

The Experience Manager application deployment options have changed so that the full application is installed by the installer. It is no longer a requirement to have a Operations Center server running in order to run Experience Manager. There is a new mechanism for centralized patch deployment. For more information about deploying patches, see the Operations Center 5.6 Experience Manager Guide.

3.3.7 SNMP Integrator Considerations

The SNMP adapter is supported only for Oracle JRE. It will not run with other JREs.

SNMP V3 devices are not auto discovered and must be added manually. See Importing Management Information Bases (MIBs) in the Operations Center 5.6 SNMP Integrator Guide.

With SNMP Adapters, the directory used as the MIB repository per adapter instance has changed from OperationsCenter_install_path/database/mibs/adapter_name to OperationsCenter_install_path/database/mibs_repository/adapter_name .

The set of MIBs included the new repository is a super set of the MIBs previously provided in the old repository. The only MIB no longer included in new repository is BEA-WEBLOGIC-MIB. If you previously imported a vendor's product MIB for a given adapter instance, then you may need to re-import the MIB for the adapter instance if it is not included in the new repository. For information about importing a MIB, see Importing Management Information Bases (MIBs) in the Operations Center 5.6 SNMP Integrator Guide.

For information about the SNMP Integrator, see the Operations Center 5.6 SNMP Integrator Guide.

3.3.8 Service Level Manager Considerations

Agreement Objectives

Do not create Agreement Objectives that measure the same agreement where the Agreement Objective is defined, where an infinite loop is created. Agreement Objectives are designed to measure agreements other than the one containing the Agreement Objective.

How Missing or Unknown Data is Handled

Missing or Unknown data is considered available when calculating availability and outage metrics.

Store Suppressed or Real-time State Changes

Regardless of Data Warehouse settings, the suppressed state is stored for all Historical Performance profiles that use condition-based expressions. The only exception to this is the Service Levels profile which stores real-time state of suppressed elements and suppressed state of impacted elements if the Use suppressed element condition for performance data and Service Level calculations option is not selected. Data Warehouse settings are configured in the Data Warehouse element's Properties, in System Settings under the Data Warehouse property tab.

Data Consistency on Server and Warehouse Restart

If multiple profiles are created with the same expressions for data capture (such as two profiles capturing element condition data), slight discrepancies can exist in collected data points whenever the Operations Center server or the Data Warehouse is restarted. This occurs because profiles are restarted serially.

For example, one profile might show data at 12:01pm but another profile might not have data until 12:02 pm if the second profile started at 12:02 pm. If audit alarms are stored for profiles, it is possible to confirm this has occurred by checking the profile start times against the collected audit alarm data.

Killing the Operations Center server Can Cause Data Loss

If the Operations Center server process is manually terminated rather than shutdown properly, there will be a loss of SLM data. Be sure to use the mosstop ‑shutdown command to shutdown all Operations Center services and the Operations Center server to guard against losing any unnecessary data. Note that it takes several minutes to shutdown the server because of writing queued data to the backup repository.

For more information about shutting down the server, see the Operations Center 5.6 Server Configuration Guide.

Rolling Objectives

Rolling objectives are not currently supported.

Showing Service Level Outage Root Cause

When the Operations Center server or an adapter is restarted, an existing outage condition might continue if the affected element’s current condition is considered an outage state and its last known state prior to stopping the server or adapter was an outage state. If this occurs, no Root Cause information for the outage is available in the dashboard SLA reports.

3.3.9 Alarm Date/Time Discrepancy

If server time is different from the management system versus Operations Center, then the date/time associated with incoming alarms could be inconsistent with the Operations Center receipt time. This can happen in cases of having management servers in a different time zone or just being behind/ahead of the Operations Center server.

By default, alarm date/time is taken directly from the alarm information. The UseAlarmTimesForCondChanges adapter property can be modified, on appropriate adapters, to use the date/time that the alarm is received by the Operations Center server.

However, if feeding in a batch of old alarms, the date/time that the alarms actually occurred is probably more important. Similarly, if storing alarm information, it is probably more important to record the properties based on the alarm time versus the time that Operations Center received the alarm. However, element condition and element condition change values are affected when Operations Center receives the alarm.

The UseAlarmTimesForCondChanges option is available for the following adapters:

  • BMC Software PATROL Enterprise Manager®

  • Cisco Info Center®

  • IBM Micromuse Netcool

  • IBM Tivoli T/EC®

  • IBM Tivoli T/EC+

  • Operations Center Event Manager™

  • Operations Center NOC Script™

For further information on specific adapters and associated adapter properties, see the Operations Center 5.6 Adapter and Integration Guide.

3.3.10 ConfigStore

If using Windows Server 2008 R2, do not run moscfg while the Operations Center server is running. Stop the Operations Center server, then run moscfg.

The following consideration applies to using ConfigStore in a clustered environment:

  • While using Operations Center in a clustered environment, you might see the following error in the logs when adding adapters to nodes. It is safe to ignore this error.

    2010-01-25 12:06:12,688 ERROR Server - Class name missing from [Adapters] in IniFile facade for adapters=Adapters/root=Administration Adapters.ini; skipping.2010-01-25 12:06:12,688 WARN Adapter.Meta.Container Connections - Cannot load adapter from data: Adapters

3.3.11 Dashboard Considerations

The following technical considerations apply to Operations Center Dashboard:

  • Required Database Configurations: While the Dashboard installs by default with an embedded Hypersonic SQL database, the Dashboard must be configured to use an Oracle or SQL Server database.

  • Java settings are now configured using the Configuration Manager for CMS and the Dashboard. These settings include Initial/Max Memory Pool and Java Runtime Options, and will override any configurations manually set using Tomcat6w.exe or UNIX shell scripts.

    For more information, see Configuring the Dashboard, Operations Center Server, and the Image Server in the Operations Center 5.6 Dashboard Guide.

  • User/Group Synchronization: Operations Center server user and group accounts are leveraged by the Dashboard to grant user access to dashboard portal pages and Operations Center data via Operations Center portlets. If the e-mail address of a user in Operations Center is invalid, then the user will not synchronize. If the Dashboard is unable to synchronize a user account for this reason, a notification occurs alerting that the email address must be updated.

    The Dashboard is unable to synchronize group accounts having a numeric-only group name.

  • Internationalization: Although the Dashboard can be internationalized, not all language packs are included. To localize to a specific language that is not currently implemented, contact NetIQ Consulting.

  • Chart Builder Portlet: It is necessary to use Flash, PNG, or JPG formats in Chart Builder when using Firefox, Chrome or Internet Explorer 11 to access the Dashboard.

    The Chart Builder portlet SVG output requires the Document Mode selection in Developer Tools for the Internet Explorer browser to be set to Internet Explorer 8 standards or below. The Chart Builder portlet SVG viewer is not supported on Internet Explorer with document mode higher than 8, and on Internet Explorer 11.

  • Information Portlet: The April 2013 patch introduced a new charting feature available in the Information portlet. Any currently configured Information portlets won’t automatically have the Charts tab enabled after patch install. To enable, open the preferences for each Information portlet and configure the Charts feature.

  • Layout Portlet: Background color is not displayed if layout portlet is configured to use Flash.

  • Performance Portlet: When charting bar and line charts together, the data point details pop-up is not available.

    The "Constrain size to width/height" configuration option for pie charts does not work properly.

  • Default Password Policies: The Dashboard is initialized with a default password policy, (Control Panel > Password Policies). The Changeable setting is enabled and read-only, to support Operations Center user synchronization requirements.

  • Unsupported Liferay Password Policies: Liferay Password Policies settings for Password Lockout and Password Expiration are unsupported by the Dashboard.

  • The Impersonate User feature as documented in Verifying User Permissions in the Operations Center 5.6 Dashboard Guide shows you the dashboard based on the permissions for the account you are currently logged in as, instead of based on the permissions for a user account you selected.

  • Server Communications Error: A NOC Server is currently not accessible error message can display in some of the Dashboard portlets after release upgrade. To resolve this issue, log out of the Dashboard and log in again, or increase the value of the mo.remoteserver.context.keepAliveTime property in the Formula.custom.properties file. Note that this property affects all Operations Center users.

    For more information about using the Formula.custom.properties file to customize configuration options, see Making Custom Changes in the Operations Center 5.6 Server Configuration Guide.

  • Icon Caching: To resolve any icon caching issues that cause new icons to not show in the Operations Center Dashboard, clear the Web browser’s cache.

3.3.12 AppManager Operations Portal Considerations

If you are installing AppManager Operations Portal, note that installation instructions have changed from previous releases, see Installing and Configuring the AppManager Operations Portal in the NetIQ AppManager Operations 5.6 Portal Getting Started Guide.

Existing AppManager Operations Portal users must import the /OperationsCenter_install_path/NetIQControlCenter/ControlCenterUpdate.config.xml file to apply updates. To import the file, right-click Administration > Server and select Configuration, then Import. Browse to select the file, then click OK.

Operations Center now implements and renders all service map shapes including rectangles, rounded rectangles, comment text and link properties (label, color and line style) that were not previously supported. For more information, see the NetIQ AppManager Operations 5.6 Portal Getting Started Guide.

Minor differences might exist when using custom colors for Service Map elements or applying multiple attributes on labels. Some fonts might not render correctly in all platforms resulting in incorrect font substitutions or word wrapping issues. For more information, see Technical Considerations in the NetIQ AppManager Operations 5.6 Portal Getting Started Guide.

For information about the AppManager Operations Portal, see the NetIQ AppManager Operations 5.6 Portal Getting Started Guide.

3.3.13 Configuration Management System (CMS) Considerations

Java settings are now configured using the Configuration Manager for CMS and the Dashboard. These settings include Initial/Max Memory Pool and Java Runtime Options, and will override any configurations manually set using Tomcat6w.exe or UNIX shell scripts.

You might experience difficulties exporting reports from CMS to Excel and Powerpoint. If issues with the exported reports occur, do the following:

  • When opening Excel reports and receiving an invalid extension warning, ignore the warning and continue to open the file. This can occur because the file is generated in XML format.

  • To open Powerpoint files in MS Powerpoint 2010, rename the file changing it from a .ppt extension to a .pht extension. Open the file and save it as a .pptx presentation.

For further information on CMS, see the Operations Center 5.6 Configuration Management System (CMS) Guide.

3.3.14 Java Related Known Issues

ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException errors have occurred in the Operations Center console when deleting and highlighting text in alarm columns. This error is harmless and can be ignored.

3.3.15 Operations Center Documentation (PDFs)

Hypertext links between documentation guides only function correctly if PDF files are viewed in Adobe Acrobat/Reader, or when using Firefox or Internet Explorer with the Acrobat Reader plug-in.

Documentation PDF files installed with the Operations Center contain relative hypertext links between guides). If PDF files are copied from the Operations Center server and viewed on a different machine, links require and expect each PDF file to be saved in a subdirectory with the same name as the guide’s file name. For example,

/adapter_ingtegration/adapter_integration.pdf
/getting_started/getting_started.pdf

If you need to distribute documentation to your staff members, we suggest referring them to the NetIQ Documentation Web site for Operations Center, or downloading PDF files from the Web site because cross-document links refer back to the Web site and don’t rely on the physical location of the files.

3.3.16 Uninstalling Operations Center and Operations Center Components

When uninstalling some features, the installer might indicate that a reboot to the server is required to complete some install processes, such as removing the Event Manager service. If you do not reboot the server before a re-install, it is possible that the next time the server is rebooted, the service or other features might be removed even though Operations Center has been reinstalled.

For instructions on uninstalling, see Uninstalling Operations Center from a Server in the Operations Center 5.6 Server Installation Guide.