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Glossary


administrative domain

An arbitrary collection of hosts and networks that are monitored by the software as a single hierarchal entity. Users may choose to divide their enterprise into several domains, each to be managed by different users.

agent

A software process, usually corresponding to a particular local managed host, that carries out manager requests and makes local system and application information available to remote users.

alarm

An abnormal event, which may be indicative of current or impending problems, is detected by a Sun Management Center agent. The agent passes information about the abnormal event to the Sun Management Center server. The server passes this information on to the user as an alarm, when the abnormal event matches a predefined alarm threshold.

alarm acknowledgment

Sun Management Center users can acknowledge alarms, indicating that the alarm does not represent a serious problem or that the problem is being resolved. Acknowledged alarms take a lower priority than unacknowledged alarms.

Attribute Editor

A window which provides information about the selected object. In addition, the Attribute Editor enables you to customize various monitoring criteria for that object. The monitoring criteria are dependent on the type of object. There are Attribute Editors for domains, hosts, modules, and data properties.

bus

A point-to-point network component. Used by the software to represent a network link to which many other hosts may be connected.

community

A string similar to a password that is used to authenticate access to an agent's monitored data.

complex alarm

A complex alarm is based on a set of conditions becoming true. Unlike simple alarms, you cannot set thresholds for complex alarms.

composite object

Composite object refers to hardware with multiple instances of the Solaris operating environment running inside a single chassis. They are "composites" from the Sun Management Center point of view because they consist of several parts shown inside a group or container; one object for each instance of the Solaris operating environment, two objects representing an active and backup "system controller," and one object representing the hardware chassis and related equipment such as fans and power supplies.

Console window

A graphical user interface component of Sun Management Center software based on Java technology that is used to view monitored hosts (and managed objects) information and status and to interact with Sun Management Center agents.

developer environment

A "demonstration" environment in which developers can test customized modules designed to work with the Sun Management Center software. See the Sun Management Center 3.0 Developer Environment Reference Manual for more information.

Discovery

A Sun Management Center tool available from the main console window that is used to find hosts, routers, networks, and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) devices that can be reached from the Sun Management Center server.

dynamic loadable modules

A Sun Management Center agent module that can be loaded or unloaded at run time, enabling monitored properties to be displayed on the main console window without having to restart the console or agent.

event

A change in the state of a managed object.

file scanning

The act of scanning a file (usually a log file) for certain patterns (regular expressions) that may be indicative of problems or significant information. Sun Management Center agents use file scanning to assist in the monitoring of systems and applications when these components do not provide direct access to status information.

graphical user interface

The graphical user interface, or GUI, is a window that provides the user with a method of interacting with the computer and its special applications, usually with a mouse or other selection device. The window usually includes such things as windows, an intuitive method of manipulating directories and files, and icons.

hierarchy view

A window view that defines objects in a hierarchy or tree relationship to one another. Objects are grouped depending on the rank of the object in the hierarchy.

hop

The number of routers a packet goes through before reaching its destination.

instance

A single word or alpha-character string that is used internally within the Sun Management Center agent to identify uniquely a particular module or a row within a module.

manage

In Sun Management Center software, manage is defined as being able to monitor, as well as manipulate the object. For example, management privileges include acknowledging and closing alarms, loading and unloading modules, changing alarm thresholds, and so on. Management privileges are similar to read, write, and execute access.

MIB

Management Information Base. A MIB is a hierarchical database schema describing the data available from an agent. The MIB is used by Sun Management Center agents to store monitored data that can be accessed remotely.

module

A software component that may be loaded dynamically to monitor data resources of systems, applications and network devices.

monitor

In Sun Management Center software, monitor is defined as being able to observe an object, view alarms and properties. Monitoring privileges are similar to read-only access.

node

A node is a workstation or server.

object

A particular resource (computer host, network interface, software process, and so on) which is subject to monitoring or management by Sun Management Center software. A managed object is one that you can manipulate. For example, you can acknowledge and turn off an alarm condition for an object that you can manage. A monitored object is one that you can observe but not acknowledge or otherwise manage.

production environment

One of two environments in which Sun Management Center software is deployed. The production environment is a "real" environment (as opposed to a test environment) in which you manage and monitor your hardware.

remote server context

A remote server context refers to a collection of Sun Management Center agents and a particular server layer with which the remote agents are associated.

request caching

The Sun Management Center server consolidates duplicate outstanding requests originating from multiple consoles and eliminates the execution of redundant requests.

rule

A rule is an alarm check mechanism that allows for complex or special purpose logic in determining the status of a monitored host or node.

segment

An object representing a "segment" of the network, and used as a basis for a local network.

seed

The password for the Sun Management Center user group called esmaster. The seed is an alpha-numeric string of up to 8 characters. (This is not necessarily a UNIX password.) You can select your own seed, or accept the default seed (maplesyr) provided by the Sun Management Center software. If you select your own seed, be sure to record it for later reference.

server

The collection of programs and processes (SNMP-based trap, event, topology, configuration, and Java server) that work on behalf of a Sun Management Center user to help manage a particular set of networks, hosts and devices. Usually sends requests to Sun Management Center agents, accepts collected data from them, and passes the data to the main console window for display.

server context

See "remote server context."

simple alarm

Simple alarms are based on one condition becoming true. You may set alarm thresholds for simple alarms.

SNMP

Simple Network Management Protocol. A simple protocol designed to allow networked entities (hosts, routers, and so on) to exchange monitoring information.

SNMPv2 usec

SNMP version 2, user-based security model security standards.

Sun Management Center superuser

Sun Management Center superuser is a valid user on a server host. The superuser decides what the agents are in the context of the server. By default, the superuser password is used as a seed for security key generation.

Sun Management Center user

Sun Management Center users are the members of the symon group in the
/etc/group file.

topology view

The topology view displays the members of the object selected in the hierarchy view.

URL

Uniform Resource Locator. An URL is a textual specification describing a resource which is network-accessible.




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