| Oracle Mission Critical Support Platform User's Guide, Release 2.3 Part Number E23198-01 |
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PDF · Mobi · ePub |
| Oracle Mission Critical Support Platform User's Guide, Release 2.3 Part Number E23198-01 |
|
|
PDF · Mobi · ePub |
This chapter covers the following topics:
The Configuration Management System (CMS) constitutes a set of tools and databases that are used to manage the configuration data of an organization's IT infrastructure and services. The CMS contains data about users, suppliers, locations, business units, and customers.
The CMS Browser provides a set of tools for quick searching, viewing, and managing customizable sets of Configuration Items (CIs).
The ability to manipulate configuration data is controlled by roles and permissions and is primarily the domain of Oracle. Customer user permissions are most often focused on read-only and reporting activities.
The key features and benefits of CMS include the following:
Identifies Customer Assets
Enables you to tack and manage physical and logical assets. These assets are identified within the CMS as Configuration Items (CIs). CIs can be further combined into CI Groups to aggregated identification.
Manages Customer Assets
Enables you to search for CIs based on multi-criteria conditions, save search conditions, retrieve Level of Service (LOS) information for CIs associated with a detected event, and view customer level statistics associated with a CIs.
Enables export to CSV or MS Excel format
You can export lists of configuration items (along with their properties) to CSV and MS Excel format to be fed into other systems or for later analysis. This provides flexibility in viewing configuration items and enables their use in external systems such as billing systems.
Enables inventory views and management level summarized views
The CMS Browser page provides multiple customizable filtering options, as well as shows configuration item groups and a list of filtered results.
Provides the required level of information
The CMS System Dashboard shows the hierarchy of configuration items, and users are able to drill down to the required level of information.
You can access CMS through Oracle Mission Critical Support Portal and use it to manage CIs and their relationships. CMS feeds this CI and CI Group information to support the operations of Incident Management, Change Management, and the Event Dispatcher.
CMS assists Incident Management by:
Providing valuable information about how much of the IT infrastructure is affected.
Providing up-to-date information about customers, owners and status of CIs.
Assisting with identification of incidents of similar CI type.
CMS assists Change Management by:
Enabling you to choose CIs and assets as targets of a change.
Providing CMS relationship information to assess the potential impact on end-users and the IT infrastructure when a particular CI is taken offline.
Providing up-to-date information about customers, owners and status of CIs.
A relationship defines the link between two CIs. Relationships represent the dependencies and connections between the entities in a customer's IT environment. The same attributes defined for CI types are defined for relationships also.
CMS defines a set of rules that governs the creation of relationships between CIs to ensure that only valid relationships are created.
Contextual relationships are those that are created based on the context of the user when creating a new CI. For example, a computer system to operating system relationship is always contextual. The user never explicitly creates a relationship between the two items. Instead, the relationship is inferred based on the computer system that was visible when the user clicks the add operating system link. The table below outlines the contextual relationships that are supported by the CMS.
We can consider that the graph of implied relationships for a set of related CIs is a tree.
| Source Class | Target Class | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Physical System | Large systems | Large systems such as Exadata, are installed on a physical system. Physical elements can be nested to form trees. |
| Computer System | Operating System | An operating system is installed on a computer system. The computer system item may represent a physical or a virtual machine. |
| Operating System | Application | An application is installed on an operating system. Most applications are only valid within the context of an operating system. |
| Computer System | Application | An application that is installed on a computer system. This covers a subset of applications, which are not considered operating systems, which can be installed directly onto a computer system. Examples include hypervisor software like xVM Server and VMWare. Service processor firmware can also be modeled this way. |
Explicit relationships are relationships between configuration items that must be explicitly created by the end users. The user will choose the source configuration item, the relationship type, and the target configuration item.
| Source Class | Target Class | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Computer System | Computer System | Clustered |
| Location | Location | Models the location hierarchy. For example, a building contains a room. |
| Location | Computer System | A particular location contains a computer system. |
| Service | Computer System | Business service is hosted by computer system. |
| Computer System | Operating System | OS is running on computer system. |
| Service | Application | Business service is implemented by software application. |
This section provides a description of the CMS Browser controls and features that enable Oracle Mission Critical Support Portal users to access and manage their Configuration Items (CIs).
The scope of actions available to you in CMS Browser depends on your organization:
Service delivery users can access CIs that belong to their customers and can manage CIs they are authorized to access.
Customer users can access their own CIs only. Customer users are allowed to search and view detailed information on their own CIs only.
Figure 3-1 provides an example of the CMS Browser page. The following sections explain the three main areas of the page:
Use the Filter option to select multiple CIs based on multiple criteria. There are four filters in CMS Browser. Each filter consists of the following elements:
List of filter parameters
Status
Status of the CI, such as Staging, Production, or Retired.
Category
Category of the CI, such as Physical Element, Computer System, Application System, Operating System, or Service.
CI Name
Name of the CI.
Make
The vendor or manufacturer for the CI, such as Oracle or IBM.
Model
The model of the CI, such as Sun Fire E25K. This option depends on the value of the Make parameter.
Type
The type of CI, such as Server or UNIX.
Note:
You can specify multiple filter parameters in any order. For each filter, the set of options displayed in the list depends on the previously selected filter optionsThe Filter text box
To refine your search, enter a desired value in the Filter text box
List of items that match the specified conditions
Select an item to reduce the results
Show Result link
Select an item from the list and then click Show Result.
The system displays the CIs for the selected item in the Filtered Results table.
Use the Groups option to group CIs. Instead of managing inventory as a set of individual CIs, you can group them together logically and associate functions or attributes at the group level. This minimizes CMS administration work and increases data quality in CMS.
The Groups option contains the following two group types:
Smart CI Groups
Smart CI groups are defined by a set of criteria. Oracle Mission Critical Support Portal maintains the exact list of CIs automatically in each smart group. In the CMS Browser, these group names are displayed in the Smart Groups page in the Groups area.
Static CI Groups
Static CI groups are defined by the exact list of CIs. Users must add or remove CIs manually to the Static CI groups. In the CMS Browser, these group names are displayed in the Static Groups page in the Groups area
The result set of CIs that meets the filtering criteria or belongs to the selected CI group. Click any column to reorder the list. Click the name of the CI to access the Configuration Item Dashboard. From the Configuration Item Dashboard, you can view or modify the CI information. For more information about the Configuration Item Dashboard, see About the Configuration Item Dashboard.
CMS Browser provides Oracle Mission Critical Support Portal users with a variety of ways to locate and access CIs using both filtering and grouping features.
CMS Browser enables you to perform a number of tasks including the following:
Use this procedure to search for CIs you are authorized to access. Use a set of filters that enables you to customize the search criteria to fit your requirements based on one or more CI parameters. Use the following CI parameters as search criteria:
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| CI Name | Name of a CI. |
| Status | Staging, Production, Retired, Lab, No service. |
| Category | Computer System, Application System, Operating System, Service. |
| Make | CI vendor or manufacturer: Sun, Oracle, IBM, HP, and so on. |
| Model | CI model, for example, "Sun Fire E25K", "Ultra 20", and so on. |
Note:
The current list of CI parameters will be extended in future product releases.To search and view a CI:
Log in to Oracle Mission Critical Support Portal.
The Dashboard page appears.
From the Dashboard page, select CMS Browser from the CMS menu.
The CMS Browser page appears.
For each filter, specify one or more search criteria:
From the filter list, select the appropriate CI parameter.
In the Filter box, enter the parameter value (or its part) to narrow the search.
A list of items meeting the filter criteria appear.
In the list, click the item you want to use to narrow the search criteria.
To apply the current filter criteria, click Show Results, or move to the next filter to specify the next search criteria.
After you set and apply all required filter parameters, click Show Result.
The list of CIs meeting your search criteria appears in the Filtered Results table. You can view the following information for each CI:
CI Name
Status
Category
Type
Make/Model
From the CI Name column, click the name of the CI that you want to view.
The Configuration Item Dashboard page appears with information about the selected CI.
CMS Browser enables you to export lists of CIs parameters to CSV or Microsoft Excel format.
To export CI data to Excel or CSV format:
Search for CIs you want to export as described in Search and View Configuration Items.
From the Filtered Results table, select the CIs to be exported. Click Select All if you want to export all the CIs from the table.
Depending on the required format, click excel or csv.
Select the Open with option to review the CI data, or the Save File option to save the file, and then click OK.
The Configuration Item Dashboard provides Oracle Mission Critical Support Portal users with the ability to view and administer their CIs.
This section describes the following tasks:
The Configuration Item Dashboard displays the CIs for the selected system in a hierarchal tree in the upper left of the page as shown in Figure 3-2.
The Physical Element is a top-level CI, and Computer Systems, Operating System, Application Systems, and Services are the subordinates.
When you select a CI from the CI tree, Oracle Mission Critical Support Portal displays the information about that CI in the Details area of the Configuration Item Dashboard page. In this area, you can view both mandatory and optional CI attributes, such as name, category, and status.
Use the Production Readiness area to check if the selected CI is ready for production. It uses the following icons to provide status information:
 |
The specified requirement is met and is ready for production. |
 |
The specified requirement is not met and must be completed successfully before production. |
Use the Tickets area to view any Incident tickets or Change Management (CM) tickets associated with the selected CI.
Use the IP Addresses area to view IP Addresses for a Computer System CI. The IP Address is associated with a Computer System and is the same for all its subordinate CIs.
Use the Type of Service area to view the Type of Service (TOS) and Level of Service (LOS) assigned to the selected CI.
Use the Properties area to view and manage additional properties for the selected CI. Oracle Mission Critical Support Portal contains a predefined list of properties for a service delivery organization. For each property, Oracle Mission Critical Support Portal indicates whether the property is visible to service delivery users only or to all users.
Use the Location area to view the facility assigned to the selected CI. From the Select Facility ... list, you can change the location of the CI.
Use the Vendor Support Contracts area to view the vendor support contracts associated with the selected CI. Click Create Vendor Support Contract to add a vendor support contract to the list.
Use the Protocol Services area to view the protocols assigned to a CI. A CI can have one or more assigned protocols depending on the actions that a user can perform in the JumpGate application, or the level of security required for this CI.
Use the CI Groups area to view the list of CI Groups to which the selected CI is assigned. You can create a static group or add an existing group to the list.
Use the Attachments area to view and download files associated with the selected CI. Click Add Attachment to attach a file to the selected CI.
Use the Parent area to view a parent of the selected CI. You can change the parent for your Physical Element CIs and Computer System CIs. From the Select Parent ... list, select a new parent, then click Set. For other CIs, Oracle Mission Critical Support Portal creates the parent automatically and it cannot be changed.
Note:
You can remove a CI as a parent, that is, unparent a CI by selecting an empty entry from the Select Parent ... list.Note:
Only Physical Elements can be parents. Physical Elements can have other Physical Elements as Parents.To view CI attributes from the Configuration Item Dashboard:
Locate the required CI following the steps in the Search and View Configuration Items section.
From the Filtered Results table, click the CI Name you require.
The Configuration Item Dashboard page appears with the information of the selected CI.
From the Configuration Item Dashboard page, click the CI you want to view or modify.
Note:
The view in the hierarchy list depends on your user role in Oracle Mission Critical Support Portal.The Facilities page enables you to do the following tasks:
To view CI facilities:
From the CMS menu, select Facilities.
The Facilities page appears with a list of facilities.
Use the Name, State, or Country columns to reorder the results.
To view and update the cage and racks:
From the CMS menu, select Facilities.
The Facilities page appears with a list of facilities.
Locate the facility containing the required cage and racks, then click Cages and Racks.
The Cages and Racks page appears.
From the Facility list, select the facility where the cage is located.
From the Cage list, select the cage where the rack is located.
From the Rack list, select the required rack.
Oracle Mission Critical Support Portal displays the rack configuration, showing you the slots to which the CIs are assigned.
This section describes how to view contracts between customers and external vendors to support CIs monitored by Oracle. A Vendor Support Contract contains all the information required to connect to a particular external vendor including a list of CIs covered by the contract.
To view Vendor Support Contracts:
From the CMS menu, select Manage Vendor Support Contracts.
The Manage Vendor Support Contracts page appears, with a list of Vendor Support Contracts created for your company.
Locate the required contract and click the vendor's name.
The View Vendor Support Contract page appears where you can review the information on the selected contract.
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