4 Setting Up IP Service Activator for Integration

This chapter provides information about modeling external systems and creating collectors in Oracle Communications IP Service Activator.

Modeling External Systems

IP Service Activator's SLA monitoring capability is provided through integrated third party reporting software. Before you configure IP Service Activator to support the third party reporting tool, it is important to understand the reporting tool's architecture and functionality.

For more information on integrating with InfoVista, see "InfoVista Integration".

For more information on integrating with Micromuse, see "Micromuse Integration".

To enable IP Service Activator's support for third party reporting software, you must model the reporting software's components as external systems through the IP Service Activator client. The type and number of components to be modelled depends on which reporting software you are using.

Types of External System

IP Service Activator supports four types of external system for reporting purposes:

InfoVista Server
Vista Plug-in for NetFlow
NetFlow FlowCollector
Micromuse Netcool

As shown in Table 4-1, you should select the external system type based on the reporting tool you will use and the statistics type you want to collect.

Table 4-1 External Systems

External System Type	Reporting Tool	Statistics Type
InfoVista Server	InfoVista	SAA MIB-based data
Vista Plug-in for NetFlow	InfoVista	NetFlow
NetFlow FlowCollector	Third party tool that reports on Cisco's NetFlow data	NetFlow
Micromuse	Micromuse Netcool Impact Server	CoS MIBs

An external system does not have to be dedicated to collecting one particular data type. For example, the InfoVista Server can collect both SAA and MIB-based data.

Creating an External System

To create an external system:

On the System tab, select the External Systems folder and select Add External System from the folder's context menu.

The External System dialog box appears.
Select the External System property page and specify values including Name, Remarks, Type, Primary IP, Port, Secondary IP, Port and URL.
Select the Security property page, and select values including Username and Login password. These apply to Infovista Server.

Creating Collectors

One or more collectors must be added to each device that you want to monitor. The collector links the device to the external system that performs data collection and aggregation. In IP Service Activator, the link between the device and the external system is called a collector parameter.

A collector behaves in a similar way to IP Service Activator's PHB groups in that it may be applied to any number of policy targets, and is inherited through IP Service Activator's policy inheritance hierarchy. Device and interface roles specify the points from which data is collected. Figure 4-1 illustrates this concept. For more information on defining and using roles, see IP Service Activator User's Guide.

Figure 4-1 Collectors and IP Service Activator Device Roles

Description of "Figure 4-1 Collectors and IP Service Activator Device Roles"

Roles and Measurement Parameters

The roles that you associate with a collector depend on the type of data to be collected and from which devices.

For NetFlow and MIB-based measurement, the roles should be the same as those associated with at least one measurement parameter.

SAA is configured at device level and so only the device role that you associate with a collector is significant.

Note:

Though only device role is significant, you must also specify an interface role when you apply a collector that collects SAA data. Oracle recommends that you use the system-defined Any Role.

SAA measurement can be applied to an MPLS VPN or to a measurement-only VPN.

If SAA is applied to devices that participate in an MPLS VPN, the device role you associate with a collector depends on which connection you are measuring:

For CE to CE, the device role must be Access or Shadow

It is possible to monitor the CE to CE connection by applying SAA to the CE device, or by deploying shadow routers.
For PE to PE, the device role is Shadow

Shadow routers must always be deployed when monitoring the PE to PE connection.
For PE to CE, data must be collected from devices tagged with two different roles: Shadow and Access.

It is not possible to associate two device roles with a collector. Oracle recommends that you assign an additional user-defined role to the relevant Shadow and Access devices and associate this role with the collector.

If you have applied SAA to devices that do not participate in an MPLS VPN, the device role must be Access or Shadow, depending on which role you have assigned to the monitored devices.

Note:

If you are collecting measurement data for a VPN and generating reports using InfoVista, Oracle recommends that you assign a single collector to the VPN. If you distribute collection between multiple collectors, VPN-level reports will not be available as there is currently no mechanism for aggregating VPN data from multiple collectors.

If you apply a collector at domain level, the collector is inherited through IP Service Activator's logical inheritance line; that is, through customer, VPN, and site. Do not apply the collector at domain level unless you have created at least one customer and VPN, populated by the devices from which you wish to collect data

When you have associated a collector with a policy target, the measurement component exports the relevant topology details to the collector. For example, if the collector is associated with a VPN, the component exports topology details for all devices participating in the VPN. If the topology changes, the measurement component exports the updated details to the collector.

Creating a Collector in IP Service Activator

If you are creating more than one collector, and if you are creating a Vista Plug-in for Netflow, ensure that you create the plug-in collector first.

To create a collector in IP Service Activator:

From a policy target's context menu, select Add Collector Parameter.

The Collector Parameter dialog box appears.
On the Collector property page, specify values including Name, Collector, and Driver Type.

Measurement data may be collected from Cisco devices only.
On the Role property page, specify the device and interface roles to which the collector applies.

You must specify both a device and an interface role for the collector to be applied. If necessary, you can use the system-defined Any Role as the device or interface role which effectively acts as a wildcard.