EMC Ionix: Integration Basics (part 3)

EMC Ionix: Integration Basics (part 3)

Abstract:
Network Management platforms normally have a variety of modules which interlock together. The different managers often subscribe to information from the underlying managers. The Open Integrations manager (OI) and Service Assurance Manager (SAM) are two such managers. The fields of data available in the OI, which can be subscribed to from the SAM is configurable.


Architecture:
The minimum modules available to make a workable system in a network management infrastructure include components such a graphical user interface , manager of managers, mid-level manager, and a polling manager. In EMC (formerly SMARTS) Ionix (formerly InCharge), the GUI (sm_gui) will subscribe to a Manager of Managers (SAM) or a mid-level manager (OI), which can subscribe to a polling type of manager (ex. IP Availability Manager) or some other kind of adapter (i.e. Syslog or SNMP Trap) correspondingly.

Configuring Subscriptions:
The subscriptions at the Open Integration layer can be configured through a command line file. For Version 7 of the software, this subscription interface is located:

/opt/InCharge7/SAM/smarts/local/conf/ics/dxa-oi.conf

Attributes to notifications can be passed up from underlying adapters, like the trap adapter or syslog adapter, through the OI, and ultimately to the SAM. Some attributes are designed to be passed-through (i.e. UserDefned attributes) while other attributes are designed to be manipulated at the SAM layer (i.e. maintenance mode, owner, trouble ticket id, etc.) This can be observed in the configuration of the file.

sunsparc/user777$ more /opt/InCharge7/SAM/smarts/local/conf/ics/dxa-oi.conf
...
notification
#attr Acknowledged
#attr InMaintenance
#attr Owner
#attr TroubleTicketID
attr UserDefined1
attr UserDefined2
attr UserDefined3
attr UserDefined4
attr UserDefined5
attr UserDefined6
attr UserDefined7
attr UserDefined8
attr UserDefined9
attr UserDefined10

Ticketing interfaces are normally managed at the SAM layer, but if there is a desire to pass this information through the OI, this line can be uncommented, in order to pass ticketing along through the OI layer to the SAM.

Demonstrating Subscriptions:

To summarize all notification list from the 3rd SAM instance, which can be subscribed to by an sm_gui:

sunsparc/user777$ sm_ems -s SAM-03 summarize
*****************************************
******SUMMARIZE NOTIFICATION LIST********

ClassDisplayName = Host
InstanceDisplayName = ABC_ACAZ02_BR
EventDisplayName = Down
Active = FALSE
Acknowledged = TRUE
Category = Availability
TroubleTicketID =
Owner = SYSTEM

ClassDisplayName = Host
InstanceDisplayName = ABC_AWKU55_ID
EventDisplayName = Down
Active = TRUE
Acknowledged = FALSE
Category = Availability
TroubleTicketID =
Owner =
...

This list looks identical to the Open Integrations manager instance 30, which is feeding notifications to the SAM instance 3 (note, in this implementation, there are no polling managers, only passive snmp trap managers.)

sunsparc/user777$ sm_ems -s OI-30 summarize
*****************************************
******SUMMARIZE NOTIFICATION LIST********

ClassDisplayName = Host
InstanceDisplayName = ABC_ACAZ02_BR
EventDisplayName = Down
Active = FALSE
Acknowledged = TRUE
Category = Availability
TroubleTicketID =
Owner = SYSTEM

ClassDisplayName = Host
InstanceDisplayName = ABC_AWKU55_ID
EventDisplayName = Down
Active = TRUE
Acknowledged = FALSE
Category =
TroubleTicketID =
Owner =
...

A change in the Category at the OI level, will propagate to the SAM.

sunsparc/user777$ sm_ems -s OI-30 \
update Host ABC_ANPN33_ID Down Category=Availability

sunsparc/user777$ sm_ems -s OI-30 summarize
*****************************************
******SUMMARIZE NOTIFICATION LIST********
...
ClassDisplayName = Host
InstanceDisplayName = ABC_AWKU55_ID
EventDisplayName = Down
Active = TRUE
Acknowledged = FALSE
Category = Availability
TroubleTicketID =
Owner =
...

sunsparc/user777$ sm_ems -s SAM-03 summarize
*****************************************
******SUMMARIZE NOTIFICATION LIST********
...
ClassDisplayName = Host
InstanceDisplayName = ABC_AWKU55_ID
EventDisplayName = Down
Active = TRUE
Acknowledged = FALSE
Category = Availability
TroubleTicketID =
Owner =
...

If a similar "update" action was done to the TroubleTicketID field at the OI level, it would not propagate. Such an action would need to be done directly against the SAM, unless the OI was configured to allow TroubleTicketID to be an attribute eligible to be subscribed to.