N1 Service Provisioning System 4.1 User's Guide

Chapter 2 Assessing Your Application Environment

The N1 Service Provisioning System software provides a framework for organizing your data center and automating data center operations.

This chapter guides you through a series of questions that will enable you to begin using N1 Service Provisioning System software in your data center.

This section discusses the following topics:

Preparing to Use the Command Line Interface

As described in Chapter 1, An Overview of the N1 Service Provisioning System Software, you can use the CLI to run individual commands and batch scripts on the Master Server.

To begin make a list of the systems from which you expect to use command-line tools, and install the Command-Line Interface Client on each of these systems.

Consider these questions to help you to decide which systems to include in your list.

From which server are you likely to execute these commands?
Is there a command console used by the entire data center?
Does each IT operator have his or her own system for executing commands?

The table below summarizes the planning steps involved with the Command-Line Interface Client.

Table 2–1 Preparing to Use the CLI


Question	Action
If you plan to use the CLI, which servers will you run it on?	Install the Command-Line Interface Client on each of these servers. See the N1 Service Provisioning System 4.1 Installation Guide.
Is Jython 2.0 or higher already installed on any of these servers?	If Jython 2.0 or higher is installed on a server, you may choose not to re-install Jython from the installer.

Note –

You can access HTML interface from any system that can establish an HTTP connection to the Master Server. You do not need to install any N1 Service Provisioning System software on a local machine in order to access the Master Server.

Preparing to Use the HTML User Interface

As described in Chapter 1, An Overview of the N1 Service Provisioning System Software, you can use the HTML user interface to model components, to develop plans, to perform direct run procedures such as installations, and to develop and run plans that include complex, multi-step procedures.

Before you begin make a list of the systems on which you will be modeling components.

The table below lists questions that will help you plan your use of the HTML user interface.

Table 2–2 Preparing to Use the HTML User Interface


Question	Action
Which servers hold the components that you are going to model with the HTML user interface?	Install a Remote Agent on each of these servers. See the N1 Service Provisioning System 4.1 Installation Guide.
Which web browser is installed on your local system (the system from which you plan to access web pages)?	Make sure you have one of the web browsers listed Table 1–1

Giving Authorized Users Access to the N1 Service Provisioning System Software

Before you begin consider these questions:

Which users will be using the provisioning software?
Do you plan to create an account for each user or create a general user account that users will share?
Do you want to grant different privileges to different users? Restrict certain users from performing certain operations?

The table below will help you plan your management of users and groups.

Table 2–3 Managing Users


Question	Action
Which users will be using the system? Will users need individual accounts or generic accounts that they will share?	Define each user account you plan to use. See Managing User Accounts and User Groups.
Will different groups of users be accessing the provisioning software? Would it be convenient to define user groups with different access privileges, rather than assign privileges on a user-by-user basis?	Define user groups and use the permissions assigned to each group to control permissions for users. (All the users in a group receive the privileges granted to that group.) See Managing User Accounts and User Groups.

Managing Hosts

Your data center may include tens, hundreds, or even thousands of hosts. To prepare to manage these hosts, answer the questions listed in the table below.

The table below lists questions that will help you plan your management of hosts.

Table 2–4 Managing Hosts.


Question	Action
How do you classify your hosts? What classifications would make them easier to identify and work with?	For each type of host, define a host type. See Working With Host Types.
What hosts are you working with?	Enter each host in the repository by defining it. See Working with Hosts.
How would you group hosts to make them easier to work with?	For each group, define a host set. [To define a host set based on a host type, use a host search as described in Chapter 4, Hosts. ] You can define host sets based on different types of criteria, such as location, purpose, and configuration. A host can belong to more than one host set. Host sets may overlap and may contain other host sets. See Working with Host Sets.
What query executed in real time would identify a group of hosts needed for a particular operation?	To record a query that you will use to identify hosts, define a host search. See Working With Host Searches.

Managing Applications

The table below lists the questions you should ask when developing a strategy for managing applications.

Table 2–5 Managing Applications.


Question	Action
For each application you want to manage, determine its source: is it a gold server or a source code control system? Where is it?	Install a Remote Agent on the gold server or the server with source code control system. See the N1 Service Provisioning System 4.1 Installation Guide.
What are the components that make up this application?	Using the CLI `cdb.c.ci` and `cdb.rsrc.ci` or the Components pages in the HTML user interface, check each application component into the repository.
Do you want to extend the component with additional information and controls? These can include: · configuration variables · dependencies among components · information about content to include or exclude in comparisons	Use an XML editor to add component schema tags to the component. Then check the extended version of the component back into the repository. See The Component Schema for an overview of component schema tags. See the N1 Service Provisioning System 4.1 Reference Guide for details about component schema tags.
Do you want to install the component on a single set of target hosts? Can this component be installed directly without the need for coordinating activities with other components and hosts?	Install the component using the direct run controls in the HTML user interface.
Do you want to automate the installation of this component on more than one set of hosts? Do you want to manage this installation as part of larger process?	Use an XML editor to author a plan for the component. See Chapter 6, Plans for an overview of plans. See the N1 Service Provisioning System 4.1 Reference Guide for details about plan schema tags.
When you perform an operation such as an installation, do you want to notify specific users when procedures complete or if exceptions occur?	Use the `rule.add` CLI command to add a notification rule, to edit the XML tags for the component, or to plan to add a `sendCustomEvent` tag. See Chapter 8, Configuring Notifications.
Do you want to compare one application component to another?	Run a model-to-model (M-M) comparison. See Model to Model Comparisons.
Do you want to compare an application component to an installed instance of the application?	Run a model-to-install (M-I) comparison. See Model-to-Install Comparisons.
Do you want to compare two installed instances of the same component?	Run an install-to-install (I-I) comparison. See Install-to-Install Comparisons.