Operations Center uses service models to provide a configurable outlook of an IT environment from a business perspective. A typical IT environment has multiple system management products that provide tools for monitoring the performance of networks, applications, and services. Service models are used to analyze, monitor and manage the impact of the business interactions that exist among these systems. A service model is a unique set of enterprise resources that pertain to an outlook. For example, service models can be created for a business function, department, or geographical location.
A service model presents a set of elements in a hierarchy that represents the relationships among the elements. Operations Center tools create element hierarchies based on criteria to provide a business view of an environment. Operations Center can associate information from various management platforms into these service models to provide an end-to-end view of the current state of the elements across an enterprise.
Condition algorithms are used to refine system reporting. For example, if one of two network routers is down, the network can be shown in a degraded state rather than completely down, as most system monitors might report. In a more complex situation, Operations Center software can greatly reduce the number of extraneous messages generated by a network outage and allow you to focus on the issues causing the network problem. To go one step further, condition algorithms can be used to create intelligent automated responses to changes across the enterprise.
The process of building a meaningful service model begins with a clear understanding of enterprise resources and a plan for organizing a business view. Table 2-1 lists IT resources that are commonly represented in a service model:
Table 2-1 Service Resource Categories
|
Category |
Monitored Objects |
Explanation |
|---|---|---|
|
Network |
Routers, switches, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), ports, and so on. |
The paths that exist between the enterprise management platforms and the servers where the application components exist. |
|
Users |
Workstations, routers, switches, Virtual Private Networks, ports, and so on. |
The devices and paths that allow users to connect to an application front-end (such as a Web server). |
|
Servers |
CPU, memory, and file system space utilization, and so on. |
Includes the servers on which application processes run, as well as other servers on which an application might be dependent. |
|
Application |
Running processes, services, tasks, and so on. |
Processes and services that must run to drive an application. |
|
Databases |
Database tables, locks, database processes and services, and so on. |
Also monitor the processes, services, and servers that support the database itself. |
Not all business services use all of these categories. Additional categories can be added, if necessary, to support more complex requirements, such as performance and messaging.