Specific Management and Monitoring Features

The features that are described in this section provide specific monitoring and management functionality. These features can be accessed through the consoles. Some of these features can also be accessed through the CLI.

Discovery Feature

The Sun Management Center includes a discovery feature. This feature enables you to automatically find network resources for Sun Management Center to monitor and manage. The discovery feature allows to specify discovery criteria based on several values such as IP range, host name, loaded modules, operating system, hardware type, or some combination of these values. For more information, see Chapter 4, Adding Objects to the Topology Database Using the Discovery Manager.

Main Console Window

Sun Management Center software provides Java and web interfaces that enable you to view, monitor, and interact with the software. You can monitor multiple administrative domains, spanning different locations, through multiple console windows. For more information about the Java Console, see Chapter 5, Managing Objects in Sun Management Center. For information about the web console, see Chapter 15, Managing Objects Using the Web Console.

The web console provides a subset of the functions that are available in the Java Console. Most of this document describes the functions that are available in the Java Console. Information that is specific to the web console is expressly identified.

Hierarchy and Topology Views

Sun Management Center software offers the following views:

• Hierarchy and topology views for every administrative domain

• Hierarchy and contents views for every object

The hierarchy view enables you to navigate through the administrative domain or host to find the object of interest. The topology view or contents view displays the members of the object that is selected in the hierarchy.

For an administrative domain, the hierarchy and topology views are displayed in the main console window. In addition, you can customize the administrative domain topology view by adding a background or creating a connection between objects in the administrative domain.

For an object, the hierarchy and contents views are displayed in the Details window. The Details window consists of a series of tabs. The available tabs depend on the type of object that is selected. For example, the following tabs would be displayed for a typical host object:

• Info

• Module Browser

• Alarms

• View Logs

• Applications

• Hardware

The View Logs, Applications, and Hardware tabs are described briefly in the sections that follow. For more information about the Details window, see Chapter 6, Viewing Detailed Information About a Managed Object.

View Logs Tab Overview

The View Logs tab enables you to view informational messages, including error messages, about your host.

Applications Tab Overview

The Applications tab enables you to view and select detailed information about processes running on the selected host or node. If you have any custom or third-party applications installed, this tab also enables you to view detailed information about processes running in the selected applications. The displays are continually updated.

Hardware Tab Overview

The physical view from the hardware tab provides you with photo-realistic front, back, and side views of the host. You can click individual components of the host to see detailed information about that component. For example, you can click a board in a server to see detailed information about that board, such as CPUs, memory, and board temperature.

Physical views are available only for some hardware platforms.

Sun Management Center software also provides a logical view of the overall hardware configuration of the host. Similar to the physical view, you can click a single component to obtain detailed information about that hardware component.

Logical views are available only for some hardware platforms.

Topology Import and Export Features

The topology import and export features enable you to import and export the topology database from or to an ASCII file that uses XML markup. These features provide a convenient way to migrate management domains from one Sun Management Center server to another server or to backup information for a server. For more information, see Chapter 19, Importing and Exporting Topology Information.

Graph Feature

Sun Management Center software enables you to create a two-dimensional graph of any monitored data property that has a numerical value. For more information, see Chapter 9, Viewing Data Properties in a Graph.

Dataviews Feature

The Attribute Editor window is used to browse management properties from a single agent by selecting an individual management object type. Sun Management Center also provides a dataviews feature that enables you to create a customized view or dashboard. In this customized view, you can put together a screen that shows individual properties that belong to different Sun Management Center modules that are loaded on separate Sun Management Center hosts. For more information, see Chapter 14, Dataviews.

Manage Jobs Feature

The Manage Jobs window enables you to create persistent jobs for topology objects. This feature provides a way to manage a collection of agents (or group) with the same ease as a single agent. Use the Manage Jobs window to define the objects to include, the specific tasks to run, and a schedule on which to run the job. For more information, see Chapter 13, Managing Group-related Jobs.

Module Configuration Propagation (MCP) Feature

MCP support enables you to make a persistent snapshot of an individual agent configuration. When you combine MCP support with the Manage Jobs feature, you can easily distribute agent configuration to multiple agents. For more information, see To Create a Configuration Task.