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N1 Provisioning Server 3.1, Blades Edition, Control Center Management Guide

Part I Control Center Management Concepts

Part I of this guide provides a general overview of Control Center management concepts and the Control Center application.

Part I of this guide contains the following chapters.

Chapter 1 Control Center Management Overview

This chapter includes a high-level description of Infrastructure Fabric (I-Fabric) components, the N1 Provisioning Server software and server Farms. This chapter also describes application components and account administration tasks.

This chapter includes the following topics:

Overview

This section provides a brief overview of the I-Fabric components and the N1 Provisioning Server software. For a detailed description, please refer to the N1 Provisioning Server 3.1, Blades Edition, System Administration Guide.

An I-Fabric (Infrastructure Fabric) combines computing, storage, and networking resources into a contiguous infrastructure that you deploy and repurpose to meet changing requirements. An I-Fabric is controlled and managed by the N1 Provisioning Server Software.

I-Fabric Components

An I-Fabric integrates otherwise individual, heterogeneous networks, servers, storage, and infrastructure devices into a coordinated, automated fabric. This fabric enables easy management, deployment, and redeployment of logical server farms. An I-Fabric is made up of three functional areas:

The control, fabric, and resource layers work together to dynamically create logical server farms. A logical server farm is the fundamental structure deployed and managed within an I-Fabric. The N1 Provisioning Server software allocates logical server farms from the pool of resources available within the resource layer. Secure partitions enforced by the software and methodologies enable you to exercise independent administrative control over each logical server farm. Although you can have administrative access on all devices within a logical server farm, you cannot view, access, or modify the devices or data associated with a different logical server farm unless you have the appropriate permission.

The N1 Provisioning Server software provides a comprehensive set of infrastructure automation and management capabilities. The software comprises two primary components: the N1 Provisioning Server and the Control Center.

N1 Provisioning Server Software

The N1 Provisioning Server software provides the infrastructure automation services required to manage and deploy logical server farms within an I-Fabric. The N1 Provisioning Server software manages the logical-to-physical mappings between a logical server farm and the physical resources that are assigned to the server farm.

The N1 Provisioning Server software contains the following software subsystems.

The Control Center is the user interface to the control plane software from which you deploy and manage logical server farms. The Control Center is the primary farm management tool. See Chapter 2, Control Center Application Overview for an overview of the Control Center Management GUI.

Farm Lifecycle

The N1 Provisioning Server software uses the concept of a farm lifecycle as a means for managing farms.

All requests for creating and activating a new farm, or requests for changes to an existing farm, are sent from the Control Center or the command-line tools.

Note –

Refer to N1 Provisioning Server 3.1, Blades Edition, System Administration Guide for a detailed description of various components and functions of the N1 Provisioning Server software.

The state of the farm determines which administration task is required.

Farm States

The farm lifecycle is defined by various states. The lifecycle state of a farm is displayed graphically in the State Diagram icon as shown in the following illustration. The State Diagram icon is used throughout the Control Center to indicate farm lifecycle state.

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The farm lifecycle icon is displayed with a red circle to indicate the state of the farm. The following sections describe the four possible states of a farm.

Design Farm State

The design farm icon indicates a new, blank farm. This icon could also describe a farm that was created and saved through the Control Center but has not been submitted for approval and activation. This situation is similar to a paper design of the farm. The farm does not yet exist in the control plane database (CPDB). No hardware, storage, or network resources are deployed at this stage. During this phase, users can configure farm elements. Because no resources are actually allocated, any number of farms can exist in the design phase.

Active Farm State

The active farm icon indicates that the farm is activated and is running. Upon activation, IP addresses are available and users can perform additional configuration and load software images. The following Service Processor states are possible for an active farm: ACTIVE, IDLE, BACKUP, UPDATED, WIRED, and DISPATCHED.

A farm design that is submitted for activation awaits approval and subsequent activation by an administrator. Place your cursor over the icon to see that the icon is labeled pending activation to reflect the transition state.

Standby Farm State

The standby farm icon indicates that all farm elements (excluding local storage) are returned to the free pool. Because storage and farm network configuration is preserved, a farm can be rapidly reactivated. The following Service Processor states are possible for an active farm: STANDBY.

When an active farm is set to standby, farm awaits administrator action. Place your cursor over the active icon to see that the icon is labeled pending standby.

Inactive Farm State

The inactive farm icon indicates that the farm is inactive and all hardware resources (including storage) are returned to the free pool. The farm cannot be reactivated. However, you can make a copy of the design and subsequently activate the design. The following Service Processor states are possible for an active farm: DEACTIVATED

When an active farm or a farm on standby is made inactive, the farm awaits administrator action. Place your cursor over the icon to see that the active icon is labeled pending inactive.

Service Processor States

The internal farm state as maintained by the Service Processor is only visible to you through the Service Processor command-line interface. These internal states help you monitor the progress of a farm through the various stages of automated activation, updates, and decommissioning. These internal states help you troubleshoot problems if necessary. These states are described in Table 1–1.

Note –

See the N1 Provisioning Server 3.1, Blades Edition, System Administration Guide to learn how to access this information through the command-line interface. Some of these states do not typically occur during the normal farm lifecycle and are used for special administrative purposes only.

Table 1–1 Internal SP State

Service Processor State 

Control Center State  

Description 

CREATED

Design 

The farm has just been created but not submitted for activation. 

NEW_CONFIG

Design 

Same as CREATED in terms of farm resource changes, but the Service Processor has now taken over the farm.

ALLOCATED

Design 

Resources are allocated to the farm in the database. 

WIRED

Design, Active 

Physical devices are connected according to the farm topology. 

DISPATCHED

Design, Active 

A Service Processor owns the farm. Domain Name System (DNS), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), and Network Interface Card (NIC) are set up for the farm. Farm monitoring is also registered or in the process of registering at this stage, if applicable. This stage is part of both the initial activation process and the farm update process. 

ACTIVE

Active 

The farm is active and running. 

IDLE

Active 

A Service Processor does not own the farm. The farm might be active as before. No communication between farm devices and the Service Processor is allowed. 

STANDBY

Standby 

The farm is on standby. IP addresses and disks are still associated with the farm. 

SHUTDOWN

Active (pending standby or inactive) 

The farm devices are shut down. 

UNWIRED

Active (pending standby or inactive) 

Physical devices are detached from the farm. 

DEACTIVATED

Deactivated 

The farm is deactivated and all resources are freed. 

UPDATED

Active 

The farm has been updated. 

Chapter 2 Control Center Application Overview

Use the various screens in the Control Center to perform most farm management tasks, such as setting up accounts, building and activating farms, setting up monitors, and so on. Understanding how to use these screens is a key factor in successfully managing farms. This chapter describes how to navigate the major Control Center screens.

This chapter includes the following topics:

Control Center Concepts

The Control Center is a web-based user interface for the N1 Provisioning Server software. The interface provides for the automated deployment, management, and control of heterogeneous computing environments. The Control Center enables you to design, configure, deploy, and manage multiple independent, secure, logical server farms.

The visual, drag-and-drop interface enables you to express complex network topologies, add and remove hardware, and configure farm elements. You can also create libraries of farms and farm templates that enable rapid, standardized, and automated deployment of farms within a data center or across data centers.

For each new logical server farm you design, the Control Center enables you to do the following tasks:

The Control Center uses the concept of a farm lifecycle. The term "lifecycle" describes the process of managing the farm evolution from design to destruction.

  1. Design a new farm by using one of the following methods.

    • In the Control Center Editor screen, connect network component icons and configure as appropriate for your business needs. See How To Design a New Farm.

    • Import an existing farm by selecting Import from the File menu in the Editor screen. See How To Import a Farm.

  2. After you have designed a new farm, submit the design for activation. The network, devices, and storage are provisioned and configured according to your specifications in a very short time, as little as ten minutes, depending on the complexity of your design.

  3. After the farm is active, you can deploy server monitors and configure alarms. Monitors and alarms are important for farm maintenance and troubleshooting. See Setting Up Element Monitors and Alarms for detailed information. You can also add, remove, or reconfigure elements, servers, and images in an active farm as your business needs require. See Updating Active Farms for detailed instructions.

  4. The standby option on the Control Center enables you to put your farm on hold, releasing the servers and load balancers for others in your organization to use. Your data is maintained for later reactivation while in standby. See Placing a Farm On Standby. When you are completely finished using a particular farm, you can elect to completely decommission the farm, returning all hardware and disk resources to a pool of free resources.

Access Privileges

To administer access privileges in the Control Center, you define access in terms of the user's level of authority and associated privileges. There are three classes of access privileges:

Farm Management Tasks

After the I-Fabric has been built and the N1 Provisioning Server software installed, you are ready to begin farm management tasks. Generally, as part of system acceptance, you also create global and account software images before you begin to build farms. For instructions on creating software images, refer to Creating and Managing Images in N1 Provisioning Server 3.1, Blades Edition, System Administration Guide.

Farm management lifecycle involves the following major tasks:

Farm Management Responsibilities

In some I-Fabric implementations, end users design and configure farms, create monitors and alarms, and manage end-user accounts. In other I-Fabric implementations, administrators perform all farm management tasks.

This guide assumes that administrators perform all farm management tasks. However, this guide identifies those areas where end users can request administrative support.

Task Roles for Each Farm Lifecycle State

The Control Center supports various levels of access privileges. These access privileges enable end users, as well as administrators, to perform certain farm management tasks. In I-Fabric implementations that do not enable end users to interact with the Control Center, administrators perform all tasks.

Table 2–1 lists the various high-level tasks that need to be performed during each of the farm lifecycle states.

Note –

Administrators who are responsible for all farm management tasks perform all tasks listed in this table.

Table 2–1 Lifecycle States and Administration Tasks

User or Account Manager Tasks 

Administrator Tasks 

Lifecycle State 

New farm created but not yet submitted 

None 

Design 

The user submits the farm for approval and activation 

Manually validate the submitted farm. 

Activation 

 

Use the Administration screen to unblock the request, if the farm is valid. 

 

 

Set the contract parameters in the Control Center Administration screen. 

 

 

Turn over active farms to the users. 

 

Migrate application and data 

Work with users and assist in migration. 

Active 

Create server images 

Create global images, see Creating and Managing Images in N1 Provisioning Server 3.1, Blades Edition, System Administration Guide.

 

Change or flex farms 

Changing farms is an automated process if the resources are within the set contract type limits. If a farm is not bound by a contract, the request must be unblocked. 

 

Submit a redesigned farm as new 

Same task as when the new farm was submitted. 

 

Request that all farm elements (excluding storage) be returned to the free pool. 

Unblock the standby request through the Administration screen. 

Standby 

Request reactivation 

Unblock the reactivate request through the Administration screen. 

 

Request deactivation 

Unblock the Deactivate request through the Administration screen. 

Inactive 

Delete the farm 

 

Deleted 

Control Center Accounts

A Control Center account contains a group of people, or account members, who have management access and control of a set of logical server farms. Accounts include the following information:

The Control Center can contain multiple accounts, each managed by Account Managers serving multiple users managing multiple farms, potentially spanning multiple I-Fabrics.

An individual with user access in a particular account can manage a farm or group of farms in secure isolation from users in other accounts. For more information regarding Control Center accounts, see Chapter 3, Account Administration.

Control Center Security and Certificates

The Control Center includes the security aspects described in the following list.

Security Certificate

A default security certificate is provided for the Control Center. This security certificate will expire after six months. To update this certificate or to install a new certificate see Sun ONE Application Server 7 Administrator's Guide to Security.

Control Center Component Overview

The Control Center Main, Editor, and Monitor screens require user access privileges. The Administrator screen and the N1 Provisioning Server command line interface require administrator access privileges. Figure 2–1 describes the different screens of the Control Center and the user roles required to access each screen.

Figure 2–1 Navigation Model

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Main Screen

The Main screen is used primarily by end users whose management privileges and responsibilities are limited to a specific account and the related farms. This screen displays after you log into the Control Center. This screen provides a summary view of farms within the end user's account. This screen is also the starting point for various management tasks for those farms. Figure 2–2 shows the various areas of the Main screen.

You use the Main screen to do the following tasks:

Figure 2–2 Control Center Main Screen

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The Main screen gives you access to various features:

News Details and Farm Details

The Farm Details and News Details window displays details of the Main screen feature with which you previously interacted. For example, if you clicked one of the items listed under the News Details previously, then the window displays the details for that item. If you clicked the Farm Chooser previously, then the window displays the farm details.

News and Messages

The News and Messages section provides links to useful information published by the administrators of the system. News and messages may be published globally or per account. When you click the link, the related article displays in the News Details section.

Note –

The Control Center administrator sets up the links in this window to provide users with a variety of information.

Farm Details

The Farm Details section displays the following information about the farm:

Farm Chooser

When a new account is created and first used in the Control Center, the Farm Chooser is empty. However, after you start designing and activating farms, you use the Farm Chooser to do the following tasks:

The Farm Chooser lists the farms created by all users in the same account. Figure 2–3 shows an example of the Farm Chooser window.

Figure 2–3 Farm Chooser - Not Deployed

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Farm View Area

Farms selected in the Farm Chooser are displayed in the farm view area. When a selected farm is in Design state, the farm buttons that display include Edit a farm, create a New farm, and Delete a farm in Design or Inactive state. When the farm is in Active state, the Monitor button replaces the Delete button.

Note –

The Farm View Area displays a farm previously selected from the Farm Chooser every time you log on to the Control Center.

Administration Screen

You access most administrative functions associated with managing a farm from the Control Center Administration screen.

Note –

You must have administrator access privileges to use the Administration screen.

Use the Control Center Administration screen to do the following tasks:

This screen contains three main sections.

Figure 2–4 Administration Screen

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Navigation Bar

The navigation bar is common to all major screens in the Control Center. Use the navigation bar to perform the following actions.

The left part of the navigation bar provides access between the Main, Editor, and Monitor screens:

On the right side of the navigation bar are the following options:

The active screen in the Control Center is indicated by the highlighted screen name on the navigation bar and the title displayed on the bottom right. For example, Admin is highlighted on the navigation bar and the title Administration is displayed at the bottom right corner of the navigation bar.

Tools Bar

The tools bar of the Administration screen enables you to select the current account and farm, and various administration tools to perform administrative tasks. The tools bar includes the following features:

Current Selections

In the upper left corner of the window, you can select the account and farm associated with the account with which to work.

Figure 2–5 Current Selections

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Lock Current Farm

As an administrator, you can use the Lock Current Farm option to prevent others from modifying a farm as long as you have the farm locked. With this feature, you toggle the current farm between the locked and the unlocked state. When you lock (and unlock) the farm, you must enter and confirm a password that is specific to that lock. If you forget your farm lock password, you can reset the password by using the command-line interface.

This function is applied only to farms that are in the active state.

Modifying Current Farm

The Control Center is a multi-user application. Hence, any user can edit any farm, user, or account at any time if the user has permission to do so. If two users make a change to the same farm, user, or account at the same time, the changes that the first user saves are applied. The second user to save changes is given the opportunity to overwrite the change by the first user. Otherwise, the second user's changes are discarded.

Administration Tools

The features of the Administration section are grouped into three categories, as shown in the Administration Tools area of the Control Center window in Figure 2–6.

Figure 2–6 Administration Tools

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System Buttons

The Control Center window contains two system buttons, as described in the following list.

Also check the system configuration each time you change a configuration parameter, such as the connector or an IP address. A dialog box displays the validation information for the system configuration and any error messages. Depending on the error that occurred, make the appropriate corrections, then check the system configuration again to ensure that the correct adjustment was made.

Editor Screen

The Editor is used by administrators and end users. You use the Editor to do the following tasks:

Figure 2–7 shows an example of the Editor screen.

Figure 2–7 Editor Screen

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Note –

In the Editor screen, the farm view area is where you assemble, connect, and configure farm elements.

This section describes various components of the Editor and their usage:

Menus

There are three menu option buttons in the Editor. The menus for a farm in Design state are File, Edit, and Submit.

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Note –

This menu changes depending on the state of the farm.

Submit - Click Submit to submit a completed farm design for validation.

The following table describes the File options:

Table 2–2 File Menu Options

Options 

Description 

New

Click New to create a new farm.

Open

Click Open to display the Open Logical Server Farm dialog box. Select a farm from a filtered list, for example, All, Design, Active, Standby, and Inactive.  

Save

Click Save to save a new farm or save changes to an existing farm. If the farm does not have a name, you are prompted to provide one. 

SaveAs

Click SaveAs to save an existing farm as a new design. This is useful for using an existing farm as a template for creating new farm designs. 

Delete

Click Delete to delete a farm in Design state or Inactive state. The following message displays. 

You are about to permanently remove the current farm. Proceed? Click OK to proceed. 

Rename

Click Rename to change the name of current farm. Only farms in the Design state can be renamed. 

Summary

Click Summary to view a textual summary of farm elements and their configurations. 

Import 

Click to Import a farm. See How To Import a Farm.

Export 

Click to Export an existing farm. See How To Export a Farm.

The following table describes the Edit options.

Options 

Description 

Undo/Redo

Undo and redo the last action.  

  • The Editor provides infinite Undo and Redo for anything done in the Editor. However, the Undo history is not preserved across saves.

  • Any changes made when configuring an element are saved as a group of changes. These changes are undone as a group if more than one thing changes during a dialog session.

  • As a shortcut, press Ctrl-Z to undo an action and press Ctrl-Y to redo it.

Change I-Fabric

Choose Change I-Fabric to select a different I-Fabric in which to deploy your farm. The choice of a specific I-Fabric depends on your specific needs and the available resources in each I-Fabric. 

Configure VLANs 

Choose Configure VLANs to change the mode of configuration for VLANs between manual and automatic. When you change the VLAN policy to manual configuration, you can create, delete, and rename VLANs, as well as associate a wire color to each VLAN. 

Configure Disks 

Choose Configure Disks to view and manage storage resources. 

Farm Elements Palette

The Elements palette, available for farms in the Design and Active states, is a set of devices and networking components: External Subnet, Subnet, Load Balancer, Server, and Ethernet Port Connection.

Figure 2–8 Elements Palette

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Note –

The Control Center cannot be used to configure Firewalls. This element is disabled. See Configuring Unmanaged Devices for information about using the Ethernet Port Element to represent unmanaged devices such as firewalls.

Farm Details

The Farm Details panel displays the name and location of the farm you select when you create a new design. You can view the resources that your farm consumes. Highlight an item from the Request History list to display the farm design. If you need more information regarding a farm request, you can click the More Request Details button to open the Farm Request Log screen. Figure 2–9 shows the farm details for a farm in the Active state. Also, you can view the farm that is associated with a request by selecting that request.

Figure 2–9 Farm Details

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Table 2–3 describes the fields displayed on the Farm Details panel.

Table 2–3 Farm Details

Field 

Description 

Name 

Indicates the farm name, for example, a department name such as engineering. The name is part of each device's domain name. Refer to DNS Naming Conventions.

State 

Indicates the state of the farm, such as Design, Active, Standby, and Inactive.

Status 

Shows the current status or health of the farm based on the monitors you have deployed.

Contract Type

Shows the type of farm based on your terms of contract assigned by the administrator. For farms in the Design state, the value is “Not Set”. For more information on contract types, see Managing Contract Types.

I-Fabric 

Indicates the I-Fabric where the farm is deployed. 

Request History 

Indicates the status of previously submitted farm update requests. Click a request to display the farm topology for that request. To view more details relating to a request, click the More Request Details button.

Resources 

Displays the minimum and maximum limits for various resources in the farm and the current usage. These limits can be set and changed by the administrator for Active farms by changing the contract type. The display depends on various circumstances:

  • If the farm is in the Design state, the bar graph indicates the farm size in blue. For large farms, after the end of the bar is reached, the bar resizes as resources are added.

  • If you go over the maximum in your contract, the bar graph shows a red portion that indicates how much you are over the maximum value.

  • If you go under the minimum value, the bar graph shows a green portion that indicates how much you are under the minimum value.

    Note –

    The resource meters are updated as the farm is edited and might not reflect what resources are currently deployed.

Notes 

Provides a place to record information about a farm. Notes is a good place to note changes and activity among multiple users of a particular farm or account. 

Note –

Notes is the only editable field in the Farm Details panel.

More Request Details 

Click this button to display the Account Request Log. 

Session Expiration Checking

The Editor verifies that your login session has not expired before launching any dialog boxes. Your session time-out occurs after a specified period of inactivity (for example 30 minutes) which is configured by the administrator. The default is 120 minutes. You are prompted to log in again. after you log in again, you are allowed to continue with your tasks.

Tracking Change

All changes you make in the Editor are only local in your web browser until you save the farm. When required, you can discard any changes to your farm by navigating away from the Editor, by reloading the current farm, or by loading a new farm.

If you make unsaved changes and you attempt to navigate away from the Editor, you receive a warning message that you are about to lose unsaved data.

Viewing Farm Details

You can view the request history of a farm and view the farm that was associated with each request from the Main, Editor, and Monitor screens as shown in Figure 2–10.

Figure 2–10 Farm Details Panels in Main, Editor and Monitor Screens

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The Main, Editor, and Monitor screens enable you to see into the request queue for each farm. The Editor enables you to view the farm topology that is associated with the request.

Viewing the Account Request Log

Because users do not have access to the Farm Request option in the Administration screen, by viewing the Account Request Log users can keep track of and follow up on any of their farm update or action requests.

The Account Request Log also enables users to monitor jobs or tasks that are queued and waiting for the software automation, for example, snapshot, flex, and so on. Refer to Creating an Account Image By Using Snapshot and Adding and Removing Computing Resources from a Farm for more information on these topics.

Each request is processed in the order that the request is received. In some cases, problems in carrying out a specific task can stall the processing of subsequent requests. Users can use this feature to understand the current progress on their update request.

ProcedureHow to View the Account Request Log

Steps

  1. On the Main screen, click Account in the Navigation bar.

  2. On the Account screen, click the Account Request Log tools bar button.

    The Request Log screen appears as shown in Figure 2–11.

    Figure 2–11 Account Request Log

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  3. Select the desired farm from the Show Request For field.

  4. Select a From date and a To date to view all the requests within a date range.

  5. Click Go to display the information.

Viewing Pending Farm Requests

The Pending Requests screen lists farms for which users have requested a state change. This screen displays a list of farms that are awaiting a state change. View the Pending Requests screen by clicking the Pending Requests button on the tools bar in the Administration screen of the Control Center.

You can sort pending requests in the following ways by clicking on the appropriate column heading:

The Pending Transition screen displays the listed properties.

Table 2–4 Pending Transition Screen Properties

Property 

Description 

ID 

Farm ID 

Farm 

Farm name 

Requested Type 

The type of request. For example, a request could be to change a farm state or create an image. 

Requested on 

The date on which the request was made 

Requestor 

The user name of the requestor 

Account 

Account name associated with that farm 

I-Fabric 

The I-Fabric in which the farm resides 

 

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Indicates a blocked request 

 

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Indicates a high priority and is set by using the command-line interface. See Chapter 6, Troubleshooting for details.

 

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Indicates a critical request and is set using the command-line interface. See Chapter 6, Troubleshooting for details.

Viewing the Farm Request Screen

The Farm Request screen displays a history of farm requests. Access this screen by clicking the Farm Requests tools bar button from the Control Center Administration screen. You can filter the query to display farm requests in the following ways:

You can sort the resulting list by property by clicking the column heading. The following figure shows an example of the Farm Requests screen.

Figure 2–12 Farm Requests

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Viewing Active Farms

After your farm design is activated, the state of the farm transitions to Active and the farm appears in the list of Deployed farms on the Main screen.

ProcedureHow To View the Active Farm

Steps

  1. Open the Main screen.

  2. Click the Deployed tab in the Farm Chooser from the Control Center Main screen as shown in Figure 2–13:

    Figure 2–13 Farm Chooser

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  3. Select the desired farm to display.

    The lifecycle icon indicates the farm state.

    The farm opens automatically in the Main screen. The farm is available immediately after the farm is activated.

Viewing a Farm Summary

After you create a new design and start building a farm, the Control Center provides you with a textual summary of farm elements and the farm configuration. The farm summary reflects the most recently completed change that you have made to the farm.

For farms in the Active state, the Control Center updates items such as subnet masks, IP addresses, and fully qualified domain names (FQDNs) according to the information you input when you configure the elements. You can view this textual summary of the entire configuration of a farm.

The summary screen displays the following information:

You can print a farm summary through the print function in your browser.

Summary of Farm Configuration

The summary of farm information includes:

Element Configuration Details

The following table lists the summary of information displayed for each farm element and device:

Table 2–5 Elements Configuration Details

Device/Element 

Information Displayed 

Virtual LAN 

  • Name

  • List of subnets on the VLAN

Internal Subnet and External Subnet

Name 

Subnet IP, if available 

Subnet Mask 

List of all IP addresses and corresponding FQDNs allocated on the subnet 

User notes  

Server Group

Name 

Device Type 

Default Gateway 

Number of servers in the group 

Interface listing that shows on which subnet each interface is located 

Disk configuration information 

Image configuration information 

User notes  

Load Balancer

Name 

Device Type 

Default Gateway 

Interface listing that shows on which subnet each interface is located 

Balancing configuration on a per VIP basis 

User notes 

Ethernet Port

Name 

Interface listing that shows on which subnet each interface is located 

User notes 

Device Type 

ProcedureHow To View a Farm Summary

Steps

  1. On the Admin screen, click Editor in the Navigation Bar and choose the desired farm from the Editor drop-down list.

    The Editor screen appears.

  2. Choose Summary from the File menu.

    The Farm Summary appears.

Viewing Element Configuration

After a farm is active, the Control Center displays items such as subnet mask and IP addresses to reflect the specifics of the live farm. You can view the following details on individual element configurations:

Table 2–6 Element Configuration

For elements… 

You may view… 

Server/Group 

 

  • IP addresses for each server port configured

 

 

Load Balancer 

 

  • IP addresses for the virtual IP (incoming interface)

  • Virtual and physical IP addresses for the load-balancing group

Subnet 

 

  • IP address and mask

Ethernet Port 

 

  • IP address

You can view configuration on the Main, Editor, and Monitor screens.

ProcedureHow To View Element Configuration

Steps

  1. Open the active farm in the Main, Monitor, or Editor screens.

  2. Right-click the element.

    A pop-up menu appears

    In Main and Monitor 

    In Editor 
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  3. Select View Configuration (Main) or Configure (Editor) to display the following configuration screen.

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Monitor Screen

The Monitor screen is used by administrators and end users. Monitoring is the mechanism used to ensure that the elements that are associated with the farms are behaving as expected. Every element in the farm is monitored to ensure network connectivity and basic responsiveness of the device. In addition, servers contain a special monitoring agent that enables you to configure monitoring beyond that of basic network connectivity.

The monitor component gives you various options for setting up and controlling the monitoring of your farm element. Figure 2–14 shows an example of the Monitor window.

The monitoring component of the Control Center enables you to do the following tasks:

Monitors and alarms can be edited in the Configure Monitor dialog box or the Configure Alarm dialog box. You can reach dialog boxes through the Monitor screen.

Note –

Only the latest known (stable) state of the farm is displayed in the Control Center Monitor screen.

Figure 2–14 Monitor Screen

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Monitor Option Buttons

The Monitor option buttons located at the left side of the Editor area enable you to perform various operations in the Monitor. The User Groups and Contact Methods buttons are displayed only if you have account manager or administrator privileges. The Monitor buttons include the following options:

Option 

Description 

User Groups 

Enables you to group users for automatic notification of monitoring alarms. This button links to an option in the Accounts area and launches a separate window. 

Contact Methods 

Enables you to set up lists of groups and preferred methods of contact for monitoring alarm notification. This button links to an option in the Accounts area and launches in a separate window. 

Commit Changes 

Saves any monitor or alarm changes, causing them to be uploaded and deployed for monitoring. This action commits the changes made since the last commit and generates a farm update request. 

Caution – Caution –

Clicking Commit Changes can cause a disruption in monitoring while the changes are applied, because the update can take a while to be applied. Do not click Commit Changes twice because this action sends another update. Entries made in the various monitor and alarm windows and dialog boxes are recorded as you make them, but they are not saved until you click the Commit Changes button on the Monitor screen.

Logging In to the Control Center

The first time you log in as an administrator, the default username is root with password root. You should change this information immediately after you log in the first time.

A user default account has also been created for you. The user account default username is demo with password demo.

A default security certificate is provided for the Control Center. This security certificate will expire after six months. To update this certificate or to install a new certificate see Sun ONE Application Server 7 Administrator's Guide to Security.

ProcedureHow to Log In from the Browser

Steps

  1. Type the URL in the browser's address field to access the Control Center. The URL is the location where the Control Center software is installed.

    http://server.domain:port

  2. Click Login Page to display the Login screen.

  3. Provide your username and password.

  4. Click Log in to access the Control Center Administration screen.

    The Administration screen appears in a new secure window.

    The first time you log in, the Control Center Administration screen might be blank. On subsequent logins, the screen displays the Administration screen feature with which you previously interacted.

    Caution – Caution –

    The Control Center runs on a Microsoft® Internet Explorer 6.0 browser but does not work with the browser navigation controls. These controls are disabled intentionally. Do not navigate by using the keyboard short cuts such as Ctrl+K, F5, Alt+ Left or Right and so on, because unpredictable behavior occurs.

Chapter 3 Account Administration

This chapter describes Control Center account management concepts and procedures. This chapter shows you how to set up contract types, create users, and publish news content. Managing Control Center accounts requires administrator access privileges.

This chapter includes the following topics:

Account Concepts

A Control Center account contains a group of people, or account members, who have management access and control of a set of logical server farms within an I-Fabric.

The Control Center can contain multiple accounts, each managed by account managers. Accounts may serve multiple users that manage multiple farms across I-Fabrics.

Accounts include the following information:

Access to functions and capabilities within the Control Center is based on access privileges. You administer access privileges by defining users in the Control Center in terms of their level of authority and associated privileges. There are three classes of access privileges:

Administering accounts involves defining the following items:

Do not confuse Administrator privileges for the Control Center with administrative login access to special devices in an I-Fabric. There are other types of access for the administrators to I-Fabric components, such as the control plane, resource layer, and fabric layer. Access to these components is protected by login privileges. See I-Fabric Security in N1 Provisioning Server 3.1, Blades Edition, System Administration Guide for the details of managing login access to specific control and fabric layer devices.

Figure 3–1 illustrates how the administrator, account, account manager, and farms relate to each other within an I-Fabric:

Figure 3–1 Account Hierarchy

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Understanding User Accounts

Control Center users must have user accounts with the appropriate user roles defined for their job functions. The following table lists the Control Center user roles and the job functions and authority level:

Table 3–1 Control Center User Roles

Control Center User Role 

Job Function and Authority Level 

User 

Technical users who are authorized to: 

  • Design, activate, modify, and deactivate farm designs within an organization's account.

  • Edit their own personal information, user Information.

  • View account information in read-only mode.

  • Make flex changes to Active farms within the terms of the contract type.

    Note –

    Control Center users cannot manage other users within their account.

Account Manager 

Technical users who have the authority to perform all the job functions of a Control Center User and are responsible for account level management including:  

  • Creating and removing users within an organization's account.

  • Editing their own personal information.

  • Editing Account Information and manage the account users, such as, set-up user groups and contact methods.

Users and account managers have access to the following options:

Table 3–2 Account Options and User Privileges

Option 

Permitted Tasks 

User Privilege Required 

User Information 

Establish your user information, such as, email and telephone numbers, and identification question and answer. You can also view your user role. 

User, Account Manager 

Account Information 

Maintain company account information.  

Account Manager 

Account Request Queue 

Display all your requests, for example, submit or deactivate or activate a farm, in the order they were requested. 

User, Account Manager 

User Management 

Add and delete users from your organization who can have access to the account in the Control Center. Establish user's contact information, login account, user role, and authentication information.  

Account Manager 

User Group 

Add and delete user groups and associate users with each group for purposes of configuring alarms.  

Account Manager 

Contact Methods 

For monitoring alarms, define groups of users to be contacted and method of contact. 

Account Manager 

Server Image Management 

Manage software images for your account. 

Account Manager and User 

DNS Naming Conventions

All farm and element names must adhere to the following DNS naming conventions. The DNS name must satisfy the following requirements:

Farm Naming Conventions in the Control Center

The Control Center allocates the DNS name to a farm, which is installation specific. The name is based on the following criteria:

Managing Accounts

Use the Administration screen to manage accounts. Refer to Administration Screen for information on navigating the Control Center Administration screen.

This section describes how you can create, remove, or update an account. You might update an account to change the name of the organization and contact details.

Adding, Deleting, and Updating Accounts

You must create an account before you can perform any other account related actions. Figure 3–2 shows the Add Accounts screen.

Figure 3–2 Add Account Screen

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ProcedureHow To Add a New Account

Steps

  1. Login to the Administration screen of the Control Center.

    The Account Tools buttons are appear in the left pane.

  2. Click Accounts on the tools bar.

    The Accounts dialog box appears.

  3. Click the Add New Account button.

  4. Type the appropriate information in the Account Information dialog box fields.

    Fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory fields.

    Note –

    If the account name you have chosen already exists, an error message appears. Use a different account name. Account names are used in the Domain Name Service (DNS) names of farm elements. See DNS Naming Conventions.

  5. Click the Commit Changes button.

    The new account information is saved.

ProcedureHow To Delete an Account

Steps

  1. Login to the Administration screen of the Control Center.

    The Account Tools buttons are appear in the left pane.

  2. Click Accounts on the tools bar.

    The Accounts dialog box appears.

  3. Select the account you want to delete from the Account List.

    The account information appears in the right pane.

  4. Click the Delete Account button in the right pane.

    Note –

    You cannot delete an account if any user and farm is associated with the account. The users must be deleted first. See How To Delete a User Profile.

  5. Click the Commit Changes button.

    The account information is deleted.

ProcedureHow To Update an Existing Account

Steps

  1. Login to the Administration screen of the Control Center.

    The Account Tools buttons are appear in the left pane.

  2. Click Accounts on the tools bar.

    The Accounts dialog box appears.

  3. Select the account you want to delete from the Account List.

    The account information appears in the right pane.

  4. Type updated account information into the appropriate fields.

    Note –

    You cannot change an account name after the account is created.

  5. Click the Commit Changes button.

    The updated account information is saved.

Viewing and Updating Account Information

To modify account information, you must have at least Account Manager access privileges.

ProcedureHow To Access the Account Information

Steps

  1. From the Main screen, click Account in the Navigation Bar

  2. On the Account screen, click Account Information.

    The Account Information screen appears.

    Figure 3–3 Account Information Screen

    >

  3. Type new or updated account information into the appropriate fields.

    The following table describes all the fields on the Account Information screen.

    Field Name 

    Required/Optional/Display 

    Description 

    Name 

    Display 

    Display only. Shows the account name. 

    Street Address 1 

    Optional 

    Type the company street address—a maximum of 200 characters. 

    Street Address 2 

    Optional 

    Type a second street address, such as, a department for a large company or an alternative address, such as a post office box—maximum of 200 characters. 

    City 

    Optional 

    Type city name—a maximum of 30 characters. 

    State 

    Optional 

    Select a state from the drop-down list. 

    Zip Code 

    Optional 

    Type a zip code. 

    Country 

    Optional 

    Type the country name. 

    Primary Business Phone 

    Optional  

    Type a valid US telephone number as the company's business phone. 

    Note –

    The extension is optional.

    Primary Business Fax 

    Optional  

    Type a valid US telephone number as the company's business fax. 

    Note –

    The fax and extension is optional.

  4. Click the Save Changes button.

    The new account information is saved.

Adding, Viewing, and Removing Users

Account managers and administrators can set up additional users. From the User Management screen you can perform the following tasks:

ProcedureHow To Add New Users

Steps

  1. On the Main screen, click Account in the navigation bar.

    The Account screen appears.

  2. From the Account screen, click User Management on the tools bar.

    The User Management screen appears.

  3. To add a user, click the Add button near the left side of the User Management screen.

    The Add User Contact Information screen appears.

    Figure 3–4 User Management - Add User Contact Information Screen

    >

  4. Provide data to create a user account as described in Step 3.

  5. Set up user accounts as required.

  6. Click Save Changes.

  7. Click the Close button to exit the screen.

ProcedureHow To View Information for an Existing User

Steps

  1. On the Main screen, click Account in the navigation bar.

    The Account screen appears.

  2. From the Account screen, click User Management in the tools bar.

    The User Management screen appears.

  3. Select the user from the Account Users list in the left pane.

    The user information appears in the right pane.

  4. Click the Close button to exit the screen.

ProcedureHow To Remove a User

Steps

  1. On the Main screen, click Account in the navigation bar.

    The Accounts screen appears.

  2. From the Account screen, click User Management in the tools bar.

    The User Management screen appears.

  3. Select the user from the Account Users list in the left pane.

    The user information appears in the right pane.

  4. Click the Remove button.

  5. Confirm your choice.

  6. Click Close to exit the screen.

Adding User Groups

User groups provide a pool of people to contact for farm problems. The monitoring system can use this information for automatic notification when an alarm occurs. In addition, administrators use this information if they need to contact people as necessary. You cannot place a group within a group. You are required to have account manager or administrator access privileges to set up user groups.

You can do the following tasks:

ProcedureHow To Add a User Group

Steps

  1. On the Main screen, click Account in the navigation bar.

    The Account screen appears.

  2. From the Account screen, click User Groups in the tools bar.

    The User Groups screen appears.

  3. To add a new user group, click the Add button .

    The Add New User Group screen appears.

  4. Type a new user group name in the Name field.

  5. To add users to the new user group from the existing user list, select the user name and click the Add button.

  6. Click the Save Changes button.

    The new user group is saved.

  7. Click the Close button to exit the Add User Groups screen.

Changing User Information

When users receive their login name and password for the Control Center, only the user or the administrator can modify this contact information. Administrators or the user can change this password and set up the contact information that is used for monitoring alarms.

Across various Control Center account functions, the following conditions apply:

ProcedureHow To Change User Information

Steps

  1. On the Main screen, click Account on the navigation bar.

    The Accounts screen appears.

  2. From the Account screen, click User Information in the tools bar.

    The User Information screen appears with user information highlighted with a red pound sign.

  3. Provide user information using the guidelines in the following table.

    Field Name 

    Required or Optional 

    Description 

    First Name 

    Required  

    Type the first name (maximum of 30 character). This field is display-only for User privilege. 

    Last Name 

    Required  

    Type the last name (maximum of 30 characters). This field is display-only for User privilege. 

    Title 

    Optional  

    Type the job title (maximum of 20 characters). 

    Email 

    Required 

    Type the business email. The monitor alarm function can be configured to send alarms to this email.  

    Alternative Email 

    Optional  

    Provide a second email address, such as a personal email address. 

    Note –

    The administrator might require this information for contact purposes.

    Phone 

    Optional 

    Type the business telephone number and extension. The extension is optional. 

    Alternative Phone, Pager or Fax 

    Optional but recommended 

    Provide alternative contact numbers. 

    • A second telephone number, such as a home telephone number or cell phone number.

    • A pager or cell phone number where the user can be reached.

    • A fax number.

      Note –

      The administrator might require this information for contact purposes.

    Login Name 

    Optional  

    Enter the name used to log into the account—a maximum of 30 characters. This field is displayed only for User privilege. You cannot change this field from the User Information page. 

    User Role 

    Optional  

    Select a value from the drop-down list. This establishes the account privilege for the user account. 

    • Account manager: an administrative user who can edit account information.

    • User: a technical user who can design and edit farms.

    This field is display-only for User privilege. You cannot change this field from the User Information page. 

    Security Question 

    Optional 

    Type a string up to 80 characters in length. This string establishes an identification question, if the administrator needs to verify a user's identification. 

    Security Answer 

    Optional 

    Type a string up to 30 characters in length. This string is to verify the response provided in the identification answer if the administrator needs to verify an ID. 

    Password 

    Required 

    Type the current password used to log into the account (maximum of 15 characters). 

    New password 

    Optional 

    Type a new password (maximum of 15 characters). Changing passwords periodically is a good practice. 

    Confirm New Password 

    Optional 

    Type the new password to confirm it.  

  4. Click the Save Changes button.

    The updated user information is saved.

    Note –

    You can also click Reset to reset the screen to previously saved values.

ProcedureHow to Change Your User Password

Steps

  1. On the Main screen, click Account on the navigation bar.

    The Accounts screen appears.

  2. From the Account screen, click User Information in the tools bar.

    The User Information screen appears.

  3. Type the existing user password into the Password field.

    The password must be less than 15 characters in length.

  4. Type the new password into the New Password field.

    The password must be less than 15 characters in length.

  5. Retype the new password into the Re-enter New Password field.

  6. Click the Save Changes button.

    The new user password is saved.

Setting Up Contact Methods

A contact method defines a group or list of groups and a preferred method of contact for each group in case of a monitoring alarm. You need to have Account manager or administrator access privileges to set up Contact Methods.

You can do the following tasks:

ProcedureHow To Add Contact Methods

Steps

  1. On the Main screen, click Account on the navigation bar.

    The Account screen appears.

  2. Click Contact Methods in the tools bar.

    The Contact Lists screen appears.

    Figure 3–5 Contact Lists Screen

    >

  3. Click the Add button.

    The Account Contact Lists screen appears. This screen identifies users in each group to be contacted by the regular email address or by the alternate email address.

    Figure 3–6 Contact Method - Add

    >

  4. Type a contact method name.

  5. Select user groups from the existing user group list and click the Add button to add the user group to the appropriate contact option.

    • Use Contact via Email to contact users through a primary email account.

    • Use Contact via Alternate Email to contact users through a secondary email account such as a pager.

  6. Click the Save changes button.

    The new contact methods are saved.

  7. Click the Close button.

    The Account Contact Lists screen is closed.

Managing User Profiles

The User Profiles screen allows administrators to add, update, and delete administrators, account managers, and users. In addition, you can view a user's login status. Users and account managers are associated with the currently selected account from the current account drop-down list.

Administrators are not associated with any account.

In the User Profile section you can add, delete, or update user information.

Adding, Deleting, and Updating User Profiles

The User Profiles window has three sections of user information:

Figure 3–7 illustrates the screen to add a new user:

Figure 3–7 User Profiles

>

ProcedureHow To Add a New User Profile

Steps

  1. Log in to the Control Center Administration screen.

  2. Click the User Profiles button in the tools bar.

  3. Click the Add New User button and fill in all the required fields marked with an asterisk.

  4. Select the user role from the Role drop-down list in the Personal Information area.

    Select Administrator, Account Manager, or User.

    The format for the phone and fax field is ###-###-####.

  5. Click the Commit Changes button.

    The new user profile is saved.

ProcedureHow To Delete a User Profile

Steps

  1. Log in to the Control Center Administration screen.

  2. Click the User Profiles button in the tools bar.

  3. Select the user account from the Current Account drop—down list above the tools bar.

  4. Select a user name in the List of Users area.

    All pertinent information about the user is displayed automatically in the dialog box after you select the user to be removed.

  5. Click Delete User Profile and then click OK in the confirmation window.

    The user profile is removed.

ProcedureHow To Update a User Profile Information

Steps

  1. Log in to the Control Center Administration screen.

  2. Click the User Profiles button in the tools bar.

  3. Select the user profile from the List of Users in the User Profiles screen.

    All pertinent information about the user displays automatically in the dialog box after you select the user to be updated.

  4. Provide the update information in the appropriate fields.

    Fields marked with an asterisk require information.

    The format for the phone and fax field is ###-###-####.

  5. Click Commit Changes.

User Login Status

The Login Status dialog box enables you to view users login status and manually lock and unlock users. By default, users are locked out of the system if their login attempts fail a configurable number of times within a configurable number of minutes. The lock is automatically released after another configurable number of minutes.

ProcedureHow To View and Change the Login Status of Account Users

Steps

  1. Log in to the Control Center Administration screen.

  2. Click the User Profiles button in the tools bar.

  3. Click the View Login Status button on the top right corner of the User Profile screen.

  4. Select the account from the User Login Status For drop-down list to view the login status of the user profiles associated with the account.

  5. To change the login status of a user, use the Locked check box in the far right column.

    • To unlock a user, deselecting the Locked check box and clicking Commit Changes.

    • To lock out a user, select the Locked check box next to the user's name and click Commit Changes.

    Note –

    Manually set locks do not expire so, you need to manually unlock the Locked check box to enable the user access to the Control Center.

Managing Contract Types

Contract types define a profile, or template, of resource provisioning permissions that can be used to restrict the allowable changes that you can make to a farm or farms. For example, an administrator can create a contract type that only allows the addition and removal of servers and restricts a farm from all other changes. Consequently, any farms linked to that contract type are limited to changes only in number of servers.

Contract types are global and do not belong to any particular account. Contract Types provide the template from which specific contracts are derived for each server farm. Contract Types define the resource provisioning permissions on which the farm contracts are based. The following figure illustrates how the contract types, contracts, administrators, account, account manager, and farms relate to each other within an I-Fabric.

Figure 3–8 Contract Hierarchy

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Contract types enable you to set resource provisioning in the following ways:

ProcedureHow To Add a Contract Type

Note –

Contract type names are case sensitive.

Steps

  1. On the Main screen, click Admin on the navigation bar.

  2. Click the Contract Types button in the Configuration tools bar.

  3. Click Add Contract Type.

  4. In the Name field, type the name of the contract.

    The length cannot exceed 30 characters.

    Note –

    If another contract with the same name already exists within the system, an error message displays, and you are prompted to rename the contract.

  5. In the Description field, type a brief description, up to 255 characters in length, for the type of contract.

  6. Select a minimum system from the Minimum System drop-down menu. The available choices are No Minimum, SUs Only, Hardware Types only, or SUs and Hardware Types.

  7. If either the minimum or maximum parameter of the selected farm type is of SUs only or SUs and Hardware Types, you must enter a value between 0 and 2147483647 for the SU fields, except when No Maximum is selected.

    See How To Set Contract Parameters.

  8. Select a maximum system from the Maximum System drop-down menu. The available choices are No Maximum, SUs Only, Device Types only, or SUs and Hardware Types.

    Note –

    SUs defined during I-Fabric Implementation only denotes that the limit is based on total service units, while Device Types denotes that the limit is based on the types and quantities of devices.

  9. In the Flex Permissions for Active Farms window, select or deselect each resource type to grant or deny permissions for performing various actions on a resource type.

    • Select Create to give users permission to add the resource to an active farm.

    • Select Remove to give users permission to remove a resource from an active farm.

    Note –

    The flex permissions only apply to the Control Center User and Account Manager profiles. As an administrator, you are not bound by this restriction when working in the Editor. You can flex up or flex down a farm and commit your changes. However, this request for flex creates a BLOCKED_REQUEST in the I-Fabric to indicate that the flex request has been blocked. You can check whether the resources exist in the I—Fabric and unblock the request to allow flexing to become effective. Refer to How To Unblock a Farm Activation Request for information on how to unblock farm requests.

  10. Click Commit Changes to initiate the creation of the contract type.

See Also

ProcedureHow To Delete a Contract Type

Before You Begin

You cannot delete a contract type that is in use.

Steps

  1. On the Main screen, click Admin on the navigation bar.

  2. Click the Contract Types button in the Configuration tools bar.

  3. Select the contract type from the Contract Type List.

  4. Click the Delete Contract Type button.

  5. Click OK in the confirmation dialog box.

ProcedureHow To Update Contract Type

Before You Begin

You can update a contract type to include or exclude flex permissions or change the minimum and maximum system allowed in the farm.

Steps

  1. On the Main screen, click Admin on the navigation bar.

  2. Click the Contract Types button in the Configuration tools bar.

  3. Select the contract type from the Contract Type List.

  4. In the Description field, type a brief description, up to 255 characters in length, for the type of contract.

  5. Change the Minimum System and the Maximum System values, if required.

  6. Change the Flex Permissions for Active Farms, if required.

  7. Click Commit Changes when you finish updating the contract type.

Setting Contract Parameters

You set contract parameters to provide specific resource provisioning permissions for each farm. When you set contract parameters, you can accept the default resource provisioning that is defined by the contract type you select. You can also choose to adjust the resource provisioning permissions on a farm-by-farm basis. The Contract Parameters dialog box enables you to associate farms with predefined contract types as described in Chapter 3, Account Administration.

ProcedureHow To Set Contract Parameters

Steps

  1. On the Main screen, click Admin on the navigation bar.

    The Control Center Administration screen appears.

  2. Select the appropriate account and farm at the left-hand side of the screen.

    >

  3. Click Contract Parameters in the Farm Management tools bar.

  4. Select the contract type from the Farm Contract Type drop-down list that displays all the contract types currently defined in the system.

    Depending on the Minimum and Maximum parameters of the selected contract type, you can specify minimum and maximum values for service units, all hardware in the I-Fabric, or both. If either the minimum or maximum system parameter of the selected farm type is of Service Units (SU) only, or SUs and Hardware Types, you must enter a value between 0 and 2147483647 for the Service Units field(s), except when unlimited maximum is selected.

    Service Units is defined as a way to abstract any individual device to enable utility-like computing service. If you are interested in using SUs as a method for providing flexible pay-for-use computing resources to your users, contact Technical Support for information on the SU-based service model.

    The optional Start Date and End Date determine the effective period of the farm contract type. The Start Date field defaults to the Start Date entered during farm submission. Submit saves the changes, and Reset reloads the farm's last saved contract type.

  5. Click Submit.

Managing News Content

This section describes how to create news content for the Main screen of the Control Center. You can publish a news item to either all accounts or a specific account. You can choose whatever news item you deem pertinent to the user.

The News Content screen contains the following sections:

In the categories section, top left, you can add, remove, or update a news category. When you click Add Story, a dialog appears asking for the new category's name and a brief description. When you click Remove Story on a highlighted category, the highlighted category is removed from the category list. Click the Update Story button to update the description and name of an existing (highlighted) category in the list.

You can control the order in which the categories are displayed on the user Main screen in the Control Center by selecting a category and clicking the up or down arrow next to the list of categories. The order in which you select the categories is the same order in which the users will see them on the Main screen. When users first access the screen, the top-most category is selected by default.

The Story Preview window enables you to preview an article that you have selected from the Articles drop-down list in the Story Editor window.

The Articles drop-down list lets you preview, remove, or update existing articles, and create new articles. To preview an existing article, select an article from the drop-down list. To remove or update that article, click the Remove Story or Update Story button at the top right of the article management window.

Note –

You will receive an error if you copy and paste characters outside the supported Latin-1 character set (ISO-8859-1) into a news message.

ProcedureHow To Add and Publish An Article

Steps

  1. Choose Add Story from the drop-down menu.

  2. From the Account drop-down menu, select the account to which you want to publish the article.

    If you want to publish the article to all accounts, select All Accounts.

    Note –

    Carefully consider the content of the article before publishing the article to all accounts.

  3. In the Link Title field, enter the title for links to the article.

  4. Enter the Article Title in the next field.

  5. Enter the Byline in the next field.

  6. Choose the date, time, and time zone you want from the drop-down lists.

    Pacific Standard Time is the default time zone.

  7. Enter the content of the article in the content window. HTML tags entered in this window are properly interpreted.

    Caution – Caution –

    Use extreme caution, as careless usage of HTML tags can interfere with the appearance and function of the Control Center user interface.

  8. Click Preview Story to preview the article as the article will appear on the Main screen (user screen) of the Control Center and edit as necessary.

  9. When you are ready to publish the article, click Commit.