HP SST Operations Bridge
Concepts Guide
Part number: 544637-002
Second edition: 07/2009
Legal notices
Hewlett-Packard makes no warranty of any kind with regard to this manual, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of
merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Hewlett-Packard shall not be held liable for errors contained herein or direct, indirect,
special, incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this material.
Warranty: A copy of the specific warranty terms applicable to your Hewlett-Packard product can be obtained from your local Sales and
Service Office.
Restricted Rights Legend: All rights are reserved. No part of this document may be copied, reproduced, or translated to another language
without the prior written consent of Hewlett-Packard Company. The information contained in this material is subject to change without
notice.
Use, duplication or disclosure by the U.S. Government is subject to restrictions as set forth in subparagraph (c) (1) (ii) of the Rights in
Technical Data and Computer Software clause at DFARS 252.227-7013 for DOD agencies, and subparagraphs (c) (1) and (c) (2) of the
Commercial Computer Software Restricted Rights clause at FAR 52.227-19 for other agencies.
HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY
United States of America
Copyright Notices: ©Copyright 1983-2007 Hewlett-Packard Company, all rights reserved.
Reproduction, adaptation, or translation of this material without prior written permission is prohibited, except as allowed under the
copyright laws.
Part number: 544637-002
Second edition: 07/2009
Printing History
The printing date and part number of the manual indicate the edition of the manual. The printing date will change when a new edition is
printed. Minor changes may be made at reprint without changing the printing date. The part number of the manual will change when
extensive changes are made.
Manual updates may be issued between editions to correct errors or document product changes. To ensure that you receive the updated or
new editions, you should subscribe to the appropriate product support service. See your HP sales representative for details.
First Edition: 07/2008
2
Contents
Preface
Before You Begin ..................................................................................................................................... 4
Who Should Read This Guide ................................................................................................................... 4
Goals of Documentation ........................................................................................................................... 4
Organization .......................................................................................................................................... 4
HP SST Operations Bridge Documentation .................................................................................................. 5
1 HP SST/OB: Overview
1-1
1-2
What is HP SST/OB? ..................................................................................................................... 6
Features & Benefits......................................................................................................................... 7
2 SST/OB Components and Architecture
2-1
2-2
2-3
Data Source .................................................................................................................................. 9
SST/OB Architecture ...................................................................................................................... 9
SST/OB Components ................................................................................................................... 10
2-3-1
HP SST NonStop Agent Components .................................................................................... 10
2-3-2
Communication Channel ..................................................................................................... 10
2-3-3
Windows Components ....................................................................................................... 11
Document Feedback Form
Preface
HP SST Operations Bridge (SST/OB) is specially designed to provide an across-the-board solution for managing
Problem, Change and Asset management in your Terminal environment.
This guide describes the concepts and design goals of SST/OB. It introduces you with the software and explains
its various components along with the architecture.
Before You Begin
As the administrator who administers the SST/OB, you should be familiar with the Terminal environment, HP
NonStop Servers, network protocols, client/server architecture and basic Microsoft Windows navigation.
Who Should Read This Guide
The target audiences for the Guide are the people working in the systems operation/support groups, responsible
for installing/using SST/OB for managing the Terminal environment.
Goals of Documentation
After reading the SST Operations Bridge Concepts Guide, you should know the following information.
•
What is SST/OB?
•
Various components of SST/OB
•
SST/OB overview and architecture
Organization
The guide is organized as follows:
Sr. No
Chapter Name
Description
Chapter 1.
SST/OB Overview
This chapter lists the main features of SST/OB and points out
the advantages this software offers.
Chapter 2.
Components and Architecture
This section describes the architecture and lists the
components of SST/OB.
Document
Feedback Form
Document Feedback Form
Provides a documentation feedback form for the users.
Preface 4
HP SST Operations Bridge Documentation
Manual
Description
Media
SST Operations Bridge Concepts
Guide
Provides information on the SST/OB product, the features/benefits the
software offers along with its architecture and data-flow.
PDF
SST Operations Bridge
Installation Guide
Provides information on how to install the various components of SST/OB.
PDF
HP NonStop SST Agent
Installation Guide
Provides information on how to install HP NonStop SST/Agent
PDF
SST Operations Bridge
Administrator Guide
Provides information on the SST/OB Client Application and how to use
various features of the product for the SST/OB Administrator.
PDF
SST Operations Bridge User
Guide
Provides information on the SST/OB Client Application and how to use
various features of the product.
PDF
SST Operations Bridge Web
Client Guide
Provides information on the SST/OB Web Client Application and how to use
various features of the product.
PDF
SST Operations Bridge
Troubleshooting Guide
Provides information on the common SST/OB troubleshooting queries.
PDF
SST Operations Bridge Client
Help
Provides help on the SST/OB Client Application. Also provides information
on how to configure and use the product.
CHM
SST Operations Bridge
Configuration Client Help
Provides help on the SST/OB Configuration Client Application.
CHM
Preface 5
Preface
This section provides an overview of the Operations Bridge documentation and their contents.
1 HP SST/OB: Overview
This chapter lists the main features of SST/OB and points out the advantages this software offers.
1-1 What is HP SST/OB?
The infrastructure supporting the Terminal environment can be both complex and extremely diverse.
Management of such an environment requires a consistent, service oriented and Enterprise fluent approach. The
ability to monitor what is happening in your Terminal environment – across an array of distributed networks,
system and application components – and automatically identifying the source of the problem is what is needed
for your SST business to provide your customers with a hassle-free service. HP SST Operations Bridge (SST/OB)
accomplishes this quickly, easily and effectively.
The SST/OB is specially designed to provide an across-the-board solution for monitoring and managing the SST
network in real time. SST/OB helps in identifying and addressing problems and improving customer service. It
allows you to clearly see what is happening with your business, in the monitoring of normal operations along
with detection and management of problem situations before they can impact your business.
With SST/OB you will be able to:
•
Maximize Availability
Maximize the availability of your Terminal network.
•
Reduce Downtime
Reduce the time lost due to system downtime.
•
Decrease Workload
Reduce unnecessary actions by automatically solving problems.
•
Prevent Problems
Reduce the number of problems through preventive actions.
•
Decrease Operations Cost
Decrease the cost of maintaining the Terminal environment.
•
Improve Management Efficiency
Increase efficiency with the power of getting the right information, at the right time.
•
Increase Customer Satisfaction
Increase customer satisfaction by providing error free service.
Figure 1-1 SST/OB Client Interface
HP SST/OB: Overview 6
1-2 Features & Benefits
Real-Time Monitoring
SST/OB uses the following methods for monitoring the Terminal environment:
•
Terminal data file based monitoring
•
Event based monitoring
Together, they ensure round-the-clock real-time monitoring of your precious Terminal network.
Dashboards
Policies
Policies are business rules that manifest the existing business practices of your Terminal environment. Creating a
Policy in SST/OB defines the acceptable operational values for the Terminals. If the policies defined become
true, a violation is said to have occurred and appropriate actions are executed. The actions may include
automated e-mail alerts, if defined.
Local and Policy Views
Views are the building blocks for creating Dashboards. A Dashboard can contain one or more Views. Local
Views are used for general monitoring of the Terminal environment. Unlike the Policy Views, you can NOT
specify actions or set Parking and SLA Timers for a Local View. Policy Views are associated with Standard
Policies.
Pin-Point Impact of Outages
SST/OB provides the ability of tracking Terminal status for normal and abnormal conditions in real-time as and
when they happen. You can immediately see when and where a problem occurs on your Terminal network, drilldown to identify the root cause of the problem, and take steps to rectify it before it affects your customers. This
helps you to deliver improved customer service.
Terminal Browser
The Terminal Browser is used to browse the SST network just like Windows Explorer. You can search for a
particular Terminal or a set of Terminals. It can also be used to look for certain Terminal attributes like Open,
Close, Up, Down, etc. You can use the Terminal Browser interface to Blacklist Terminals and also to mark a
Terminal as a high priority one.
Clicking on any of the levels provides further details related to all the Terminals at the selected level. You can
update and refresh the entire object tree, or you can selectively refresh individual objects. Right-clicking an
object yields further options.
Information at Your Fingertips
The SST/OB has been designed for people who want to stay in control of their business. The Terminals at a
selected level can be filtered to display Terminals in groups.
•
All
•
Open
•
Closed
•
Up
•
Down
•
Blacklisted
•
Faulted
•
No Faults
You can further select individual Terminals to get detailed information.
HP SST/OB: Overview 7
HP SST/OB: Overview
Real-time SST/OB Dashboards provide you business intelligence across all areas of your Terminal environment.
Dashboards offer a correlated collection of Views that helps you to quickly see alerts and identify problems.
Views categorize each state as a different container and display the individual Terminals falling under that
category. The software comes fully loaded with canned, ready-to-use Dashboards. You can also configure
Dashboards as per your business requirements.
SLA Monitoring
SST/OB provides a mechanism of SLA monitoring by color codes in the views that are triggered using
configurable timers. The information can be used for providing analysis of availability and service times along
with tracking history, and Terminal performance. This enables you to increase your Terminal network efficiency,
compare performance between various service providers and regions along with identifying the probable costly
SLA breaches.
Alerts
SST/OB provides alerts through emails for faster identification and problem solving.
Command & Control
SST/OB provides operator initiated commands for specific Terminal problems. The commands can be used to
rectify or minimize impact of a certain problem or to troubleshoot further.
Industry Leading Performance
SST/OB details the status of all the Terminals in a network that are defined in the Terminal data files. It identifies
Terminal statistics on all resource nodes defined in the targeted logical network, with data updated continuously.
Common Terminal types (Diebold and NCR) are supported; however, other Terminal types may be bound into
this application for your environment.
EMS Event Correlation
EMS event correlation is an added source of information that can be utilized to either corroborate the existing
information coming from BASE24 or can also introduce new custom faults depending on the customer needs.
Custom SST Data Management
SST/OB provides the ability to import existing Terminal data from various sources into the SST/OB database and
in turn provides the customer a central point of managing their Terminal asset attributes. These attributes can be
further used in creating business rules that suit the user’s business requirements.
Thresholds and Threshold Alerts
SST/OB provides the ability to create thresholds to define acceptable operational rules and threshold alert
templates to create thresholds in a specific format. Thresholds are conditions that can be apply on SST/OB Views
or its contents and if there is a violation, actions can be configured accordingly.
Browsing Faults and Events data
SST/OB provides the ability to view faults and events generated on terminals. The user can also scrutinize the
data by grouping and viewing the data under various column headers. It provides a feature to customize the
data by applying various filter conditions. You can also add group conditions on the terminals.
Reports
The SST/OB Reports component provides pre-defined and ad-hoc management reports on device availability and
problems.
HP SST/OB: Overview 8
2 SST/OB Components and Architecture
This chapter provides information on the various components of SST/OB and its architecture.
2-1 Data Source
SST/OB uses the following methods for monitoring the Terminal environment:
•
Terminal data file based monitoring
•
Events-based monitoring
Together, they ensure round-the-clock real-time monitoring of your Terminal network.
2-2 SST/OB Architecture
SST/OB Components and
Architecture
Figure 2-1 SST/OB Architecture
This topic covers the architecture of the SST/OB. The architecture will be emphasizing the data flow in the
environment with brief information about the control flow. The SST/OB architecture consists of a set of modules
that interact efficiently to provide an out-of-the-box Terminal management solution. SST/OB architecture is
flexible by design to adapt dynamically to new/future requirements.
SST/OB Components and Architecture 9
2-3 SST/OB Components
2-3-1 HP SST NonStop Agent Components
The SST/OB installation on the HP NonStop Server installs the following components on the NonStop Server.
•
AOBMGR
This is the main manager SST/OB process, running as a process pair to make the solution fault-tolerant.
This process monitors all the SST/OB components on the HP NonStop Server and starts them in case of
failures.
•
Readers
The Reader processes on the HP NonStop Server are responsible for reading data from the TDF/ATD files
in the BASE24 environment. A single NonStop backend can have multiple reader processes, one for each
logical network configured within the environment. Each reader can be started in the desired CPU to
balance the load. The reader(s) pass the information to the status collector processes. The reader processes
are responsible for polling the ATD/TDF files to check for changes. The minimum polling interval is 15
seconds.
•
EMON Process
The EMON is responsible for passing on the EMS events information from the collectors to the Event Logger
Service on the SST/OB Application Server on the Windows environment.
•
Status Collector
The Status Collector process(s) is responsible for collecting information from the reader(s) and passing it on
to the DB Writer.
•
DB Writer
DB Writer process is responsible for collecting information from the Status Collector(s) and writing it to the
temporary Host Database.
•
Host DB
Host DB is a temporary database, which acts as a store and forward file to deal with network outage
problems. The data in Host database is written by DB Writer process. Multiple writer processes use filelocking facility to synchronize data writing to this SAF (Store and Forward) database. The database size
can be configured as per customer requirement.
•
Query Server
The Query Server is the SST/OB Feeder component, which feeds the collected data from the temporary
database to the Elink on the HP NonStop Server.
2-3-2 Communication Channel
SST/OB uses an independent communications process residing on both HP NonStop Server and the front-end
SST/OB Application Server as the communication channel between the SST/OB Application Server and the HP
NonStop host(s). Acting as a gateway for the NonStop environment, the channel host running on the NonStop
system passes structured information to the SST/OB Application Server through its service. It is the middleware
between the backend and front-end components of SST/OB. Its configuration is handled through the ELKCONF
file on the HP NonStop Server and a configuration file on the SST/OB Application Server.
SST/OB Components and Architecture 10
2-3-3 Windows Components
The SST/OB consists of the following components installed on the front-end.
•
SST/OB Database
The SSTOB Database is installed on a system which has Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or above installed on it.
It can reside on an independent system or coexist with other SST/OB front-end components.
•
SST/OB Application Server
The various SST/OB services, for example: SST/OB Gather service, Event Logger service and Elink. These
services can reside on the system with the SST/OB Database or on an independent system.
Service
Description
SST/OB Alerts Processor
Logs the alerts generated by threshold processing to NT event log and/or to NonStop
EMS logs.
SST/OB Command and Control
Responsible for centralized execution of commands.
Elink
TCP/IP based proprietary communication link with the switch.
SST/OB Event Correlator Agent
Responsible for processing incoming events against canned and user-defined Policies
and for taking actions.
SST/OB Gather
Responsible for maintaining the stat changes in the Database. Processes and logs
status, cash and faults data from the switch to the database.
SST/OB Mail Agent
Responsible for sending email alerts for problems occurring on the Terminals.
SST/OB Processor
Creates canned and user-defined policies and views for monitoring of Terminals.
SST/OB NSK Event Logger
Logs BASE24 and other related NSK events from the NonStop switch to the database.
SST/OB Transaction Stat Agent
Polls the ATM Transaction Analyzer (ATM/TA) database for latest transactions and
maintains them in SST/OB database.
You can use the Service Manager interface to check the status and start/stop various SST/OB services. Use the
Start->Programs->HP SST->SST OB->Server->Service Manager option to access the Service Manager.
Figure 2-2 Service Manager Window
SST/OB Components and Architecture 11
SST/OB Components and
Architecture
Table 2-1 SST/OB Services
The Service Manager enables you to perform the following functions:
Table 2-2 Service Manager Functions
Buttons
Description
Refresh the status of the selected SST/OB service(s). The command can also be accessed from the
listed service(s) right-click menu.
Start the selected SST/OB service(s). The command can also be accessed from the listed service(s)
right-click menu.
Stop the selected SST/OB service(s). The command can also be accessed from the listed service(s)
right-click menu.
Restart the selected SST/OB service(s). The command can also be accessed from the listed
service(s) right-click menu.
Start all the SST/OB services.
Stop all the SST/OB services.
•
SST/OB Configuration Client
The SST/OB Configuration Client is an interface, which enables you to edit configuration settings of the
various SST/OB Application Server components.
Use the Start->Programs->HP SST->SST OB->Server->Configuration Client option to access the SST/OB
Configuration Client.
Figure 2-3 SST/OB Configuration Client Window
Select a component category from the Components and Categories area and specify the values to be
changed for various parameters in the Settings area.
SST/OB Components and Architecture 12
•
SST/OB Client Application
The SST/OB Client application is the front-end graphical user interface. It can be installed on the same
machine where the Database/Application Server are installed, or on a separate system. The SST/OB uses
the ODBC connectivity and displays the data on the GUI interface.
SST/OB Web Client
The SST/OB Web Client is specially designed as a web-based solution for monitoring the Terminal
environment, allowing you to clearly see what is happening with your business. It monitors the normal
operations along with detection and management of problem situations. SST/OB Web Client also
provides platform and location independence by providing the ability to monitor through a web-browser
like the Microsoft Internet Explorer. It has a remarkable add-on feature of Reports generation which gives
you a quick and comparative data analysis of your terminal environment.
SST/OB Components and
Architecture
•
SST/OB Components and Architecture 13
Document Feedback Form
We would appreciate your comments on the HP SST Operations Bridge Concepts Guide. After you have read the
Guide and used the software, please take a few moments to complete this form and return it to appropriate HP
product support service.
1.
The organization of the Guide makes it easy to locate topics quickly.
Strongly Disagree
1
2.
Strongly Agree
2
3
4
The appearance of the pages makes it easy to locate information quickly.
Strongly Disagree
1
3.
Strongly Agree
2
3
4
1
Strongly Agree
2
3
4
1
Strongly Agree
2
3
4
5
I use the index frequently.
Strongly Disagree
1
6.
5
The notes stand out in the text.
Strongly Disagree
5.
5
The flow of information allows me to complete tasks in a logical order.
Strongly Disagree
4.
5
Strongly Agree
2
3
4
5
I can usually find the topic I am looking for using the index.
Strongly Disagree
1
Strongly Agree
2
3
4
5
7.
Are sections of the book confusing? If so, do you have any recommendations of how we can improve
them? (Please be specific.)
8.
Have we left out any information that you believe should be included?
Document Feedback Form 14
9.
The level of writing in this book is:
Too Basic
Just Right
Too Technical
(Please be specific.)
Do you have any other suggestions for improvement?
Document Feedback Form
10.
Document Feedback Form 15