1 Understanding Application Management Pack for Oracle Communications

This chapter provides an overview of Oracle Application Management Pack for Oracle Communications.

Overview of Application Management Pack for Oracle Communications

Application Management Pack for Oracle Communications consists of a plug-in for Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control that provides management capabilities for supported Oracle Communications applications.

System administrators use Application Management Pack for Oracle Communications with Enterprise Manager Cloud Control to provision, configure, patch, and monitor Oracle Communications applications and solutions, allowing the deployment and maintenance of Oracle Communications applications from a centralized, Web-based console, simplifying implementations.

Figure 1-1 shows an Enterprise Manager Cloud Control dashboard with information from Oracle Communications operation support system (OSS) applications. This example presents a single view of information from Oracle Communications Order and Service Management, Oracle Communications Unified Inventory Management, and Oracle Communications ASAP. The dashboard includes application status and availability, alerts, and metrics such as hardware resource usage.

Application Management Pack for Oracle Communications also provides individual dashboard home pages for supported applications and application components.

Figure 1-1 Multi-Application Dashboard

Description of "Figure 1-1 Multi-Application Dashboard"

Application Management Pack for Oracle Communications displays managed Oracle Communications targets allowing you to view application, component, and host status. For example, view Billing and Revenue Management component topology such as the Connection Manager, Connection Manager Master Process, Data Managers, and host as shown in Figure 1-2.

Figure 1-2 Billing and Revenue Management Topology

Description of "Figure 1-2 Billing and Revenue Management Topology"

The configuration topology also provides a visual representation of managed target relationships. Hovering over a target in the topology map provides additional host details when needed as shown in Figure 1-3.

Figure 1-3 System Topology with Extended Detail Pop Up

Description of "Figure 1-3 System Topology with Extended Detail Pop Up"

Figure 1-4 shows an example of Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management parameter configuration. You can configure parameters for Oracle Communications applications from a single location and deploy the settings to multiple targets.

Figure 1-4 Application Parameter Configuration

Description of "Figure 1-4 Application Parameter Configuration"

Key Benefits

Application Management Pack for Oracle Communications provides the following key benefits:

Installation, configuration, and monitoring of one or more Oracle Communications applications, including supported suite solutions, from a centralized location.
Monitoring of Oracle Communications application infrastructure including Oracle Enterprise databases and Oracle WebLogic application servers.
Discovery of existing Oracle Communications application installations.
Graphical system topology views of monitored Oracle Communications system targets.
Ability to enforce compliance policies across multiple installations of Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management, ensuring consistent versioning and configuration.
Ability to update and patch Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management and management of support requests using direct integration with Oracle Support.
Multiple notification channels to alert system administrators when configurable operating thresholds are passed.

Supported Applications

Application Management Pack for Oracle Communications supports the installation, configuration, patching, and monitoring of the following Oracle Communications applications and versions:

Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management 7.5 PS6
Oracle Communications Elastic Charging Engine 11.2
Oracle Communications Pricing Design Center 11.1 PS3
Oracle Communications Pipeline Configuration Center 1.1
Oracle Communications Network Charging and Control 5.0.1
Oracle Communications Order and Service Management 7.2.2 and 7.2.4
Oracle Communications Unified Inventory Management 7.2.2, 7.2.3, and 7.2.4
Oracle Communications ASAP 7.2.0

Supported Suite Solutions

Application Management Pack for Oracle Communications supports the installation and configuration of the following Oracle Communications suite solutions:

Oracle Communications Order to Cash
Oracle Communications OSS Service Fulfillment

Application Management Process Flow

Implementing and using Application Management Pack for Oracle Communications requires the following process flow:

Installing Enterprise Manager Cloud Control and the Application Management Pack for Oracle Communications plug-in. See "Installing Application Management Pack for Oracle Communications" for more information.
Configuring Oracle Communications application targets, setting preferred credentials, and deploying the Oracle Management Agent to each target. See "Configuring Oracle Communications Targets" for more information.
Deploying the Application Management Pack for Oracle Communications agent to each Enterprise Manager Cloud Control server and target host. In most cases, agents for Oracle Enterprise Database and Oracle Fusion Middleware must also be deployed to targets. See "Configuring Oracle Communications Targets" for more information.
Managing, including installing, configuring, and updating Oracle Communications applications with Enterprise Manager Cloud Control. See "Managing Communications Applications with Enterprise Manager Cloud Control" for more information.
Monitoring Oracle Communications applications with Enterprise Manager Cloud Control. See "Managing Communications Applications with Enterprise Manager Cloud Control" for more information.

Application Management Pack for Oracle Communications Assumptions

This section discusses product assumptions.

Assumptions

The assumptions are:

Proper installation and configuration of Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control including the Oracle Enterprise Database.
Supported operating systems on the target hosts where Application Management Pack for Oracle Communications installs and monitors Oracle Communications applications.
Supported versions of Oracle Communications applications are used.
Network connectivity between the Enterprise Manager Cloud Control host and the Oracle Communications applications targets.
Availability and licensing of supported Oracle Communications application installers, patches, and updates.
An understanding of the installation and configuration parameters of supported Oracle Communications applications.

Solution Limitations

Application Management Pack for Oracle Communications has the following limitations:

Oracle RAC Database Limitations

Provisioning of Oracle Communications applications using Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) database is not supported. However, you can use the plug-in to discover and monitor existing application instances using Oracle RAC databases. Only versions of applications with official support for Oracle RAC database are discoverable.

Billing and Revenue Management Solution Limitations

Only two database schemas are supported for Multi-schema provisioning.
Multi-schema database configuration is not supported when using multiple database users (multiuser) configuration. You cannot use different database users for multiple instances of the Billing and Revenue Management schema on the same host.
Multi-schema provisioning only supports a Billing and Revenue Management instance on the same host.