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BMC Impact SolutionsGetting Started Guide

Supporting

BMC Impact Manager 7.3BMC Impact Event Adapters 7.3BMC Impact Administration Server 7.3BMC Impact Explorer 7.3BMC Impact Publishing Server 7.3BMC Impact Service Model Editor 7.3BMC Impact Portal 7.3

February 2009

Contacting BMC Software

You can access the BMC Software website at http://www.bmc.com. From this website, you can obtain information about the company, its products, corporate offices, special events, and career opportunities.

United States and Canada

Address BMC SOFTWARE INC2101 CITYWEST BLVDHOUSTON TX 77042-2827 USA

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Outside United States and Canada

Telephone (01) 713 918 8800 Fax (01) 713 918 8000

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http://www.bmc.com

3

Customer support

You can obtain technical support by using the BMC Software Customer Support website or by contacting Customer Support by telephone or e-mail. To expedite your inquiry, see “Before contacting BMC.”

Support website

You can obtain technical support from BMC 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at http://www.bmc.com/support_home. From this website, you can

■ read overviews about support services and programs that BMC offers■ find the most current information about BMC products■ search a database for issues similar to yours and possible solutions■ order or download product documentation■ download products and maintenance■ report an issue or ask a question■ subscribe to receive proactive e-mail alerts when new product notices are released■ find worldwide BMC support center locations and contact information, including e-mail addresses, fax numbers, and

telephone numbers

Support by telephone or e-mail

In the United States and Canada, if you need technical support and do not have access to the web, call 800 537 1813 or send an e-mail message to [email protected]. (In the subject line, enter SupID:<yourSupportContractID>, such as SupID:12345). Outside the United States and Canada, contact your local support center for assistance.

Before contacting BMC

Have the following information available so that Customer Support can begin working on your issue immediately:

■ product information

— product name— product version (release number)— license number and password (trial or permanent)

■ operating system and environment information

— machine type— operating system type, version, and service pack or other maintenance level such as PUT or PTF— system hardware configuration— serial numbers— related software (database, application, and communication) including type, version, and service pack or

maintenance level

■ sequence of events leading to the issue

■ commands and options that you used

■ messages received (and the time and date that you received them)

— product error messages— messages from the operating system, such as file system full— messages from related software

http://www.bmc.com/support_home

mailto:[email protected]

4 BMC Impact Solutions Getting Started Guide

ContentsChapter 1 Configure and start using the BMC Impact Solutions infrastructure 13

Infrastructure configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Basic deployment configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Standard deployment configurations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Atrium deployment configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Configuring BMC Impact Manager cells in internationalized environments . . . . . . 20Configuring user accounts, roles, groups, and passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Obtaining user accounts for BMC Impact Explorer in the BMC Impact Administration Server (IAS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Create new account and user for BMC Impact Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Synchronizing user accounts created in BMC Impact Portal with IAS . . . . . . . . . 22Changing your BMC Impact Explorer password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Resetting the Oracle password used during installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Configuring Impact Administration server for failover. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Defining primary and secondary BMC Impact Administration servers. . . . . . . . 23Defining a failover configuration for the Impact Administration cell. . . . . . . . . . 24

Creating additional cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Cell naming conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Creating a new cell and its associated Knowledge Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Creating cell-specific configuration files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Registering an additional cell with the BMC Impact Administration server (IAS) . . 27Configuring cells to communicate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Configuring cells on the same computer to communicate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Configuring cells on different computers to communicate with other cells or

components, such as BMC Impact Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Configuring high availability cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Setting up BMC Impact Event Adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Post-installation tasks for the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager . . . . . . . . 34Enabling and disabling BMC Impact Event Adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Starting and stopping the BMC Impact Event Adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Stopping the BMC Impact Event Adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Starting the BMC Impact Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Registering cells in BMC Impact Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Starting BMC IX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Configuring cell connection properties to BMC Impact Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Specifying ports in cell connection properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Connecting and disconnecting a cell or group of cells from BMC Impact Explorer . 47Adding and configuring additional Impact Administration servers in BMC IX . . . . 50

Setting BMC IAS connection properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Contents 5

Viewing cell information from BMC Impact Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Starting or stopping the cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Stopping or starting a cell on UNIX computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Starting or stopping a cell on Windows computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54Starting a high availability cell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Creating and managing cell groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Chapter 2 Start monitoring and managing events 61

Accessing the Events view in the BMC Impact Explorer console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Understanding elements of the event list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Determining the state of an event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66Understanding event status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Understanding event severity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Understanding event priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Viewing event lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Selecting the type of event list to view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71Viewing event details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Viewing related events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Refreshing and freezing the event list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Out-of-the-box event management policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Enabling and disabling out-of-the-box standard event management policies . . 75Verifying that the policy is running . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Chapter 3 Start service modeling 79

Service modeling overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Launching the BMC Service Model Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Building a service model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Creating service component instances in BMC Impact Service Model Editor . . . 81Finding existing component instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83Assigning components to a SIM cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85Defining relationships between component instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Define alias formulas to enable event-to-component associations. . . . . . . . . . . . . 87Assign components to service schedules (optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Promoting the service model to the BMC Atrium CMDB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91About the publishing process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91Before you promote . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92Submitting a promotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92Verifying promotion status. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Chapter 4 Start monitoring and managing services 95

Cross-launching to and from other consoles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96BMC Impact Explorer Services View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96Configuring BMC Impact Explorer for the Services View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98Monitoring business services in BMC Impact Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Opening an Impact/Cause View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102Viewing service component instances through the navigation pane . . . . . . . . . 102Finding service component instances to view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104


Viewing information about a service component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105Viewing the events associated with a component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106Filtering service component instances in the Impact/Cause View by status. . . 107

Searching for related service components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107Searching for the cause of or impact to a service component’s status . . . . . . . . 107Searching for provider and consumer components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Index 111

Contents 7

FiguresBasic event management infrastructure configuration workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Standard event management infrastructure configuration workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Atrium service impact management infrastructure configuration workflow . . . . . . 19Disconnected cells and cell groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Available Impact Managers list for a user account with administrator permissions 59Location of elements in the Events view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Events view navigation pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64How event operations affect event state . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Event Sources selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71List of event management policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76History tab showing executed dynamic data enrichment policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Service modeling workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Creating an alias association . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88Location of elements in the Services View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97Edit Configuration Services View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99Edit Configuration Graph Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100BMC Impact Explorer Services View - Impact/Cause View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101Services View navigation pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103Service component with associated events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106Related components cause search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108Related components - providers search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Figures 9

TablesBasic deployment infrastructure configuration procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Standard event management infrastructure configuration procedures . . . . . . . . . . . 17Atrium service impact management infrastructure configuration procedures . . . . . 19mcell.dir entries for failover pair of Impact Administration cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24mcxa command options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Cell connection properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45BMC IAS Configuration Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52Description of elements in the Events view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Description of elements in the Events view navigation pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64Event relations icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66Event states resulting from event operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Current operator information in event list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Event status icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Event severity levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Event priority icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Out-of-the-box policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74Icons in Objects-to-be-Published pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93Description of elements in the Services view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97Edit Configuration - Services View display settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99Edit Configuration - Graph Views display settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100Description of elements in the Services View navigation pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103Services View service component information subtabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Tables 11

C h a p t e r 1
1 Configure and start using the BMC Impact Solutions infrastructure
This chapter provides the information you need to configure the basic infrastructure required to manage events or services.

This chapter presents the following topics:

Infrastructure configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Configuring BMC Impact Manager cells in internationalized environments. . . . . . . 20Configuring user accounts, roles, groups, and passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Configuring Impact Administration server for failover. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Creating additional cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Registering an additional cell with the BMC Impact Administration server (IAS) . . 27Configuring cells to communicate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Configuring high availability cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Setting up BMC Impact Event Adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Starting the BMC Impact Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Registering cells in BMC Impact Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Starting BMC IX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Configuring cell connection properties to BMC Impact Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Connecting and disconnecting a cell or group of cells from BMC Impact Explorer . 47Adding and configuring additional Impact Administration servers in BMC IX . . . . 50Viewing cell information from BMC Impact Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Starting or stopping the cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Creating and managing cell groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Chapter 1 Configure and start using the BMC Impact Solutions infrastructure 13

Infrastructure configuration

Infrastructure configurationThere are several ways to configure the BMC Impact Solutions infrastructure components depending on whether you want to manage events or manage services and which products you want to use with BMC Impact Solutions. Your configuration tasks depend on which deployment option you selected to install—basic, standard, or Atrium. (For details on these deployment options, see the BMC Impact Solutions Planning and Implementation Guide.)

Basic deployment configuration

The foundation of BMC Impact Solutions consists of

■ a source event data collector such as, — event adapters— integration products

■ BMC Impact Manager cell■ Knowledge Base■ BMC Impact Administration Server■ BMC Impact Explorer console

These components provide the basis for event and service monitoring and management.

Figure 1 on page 15 provides a workflow of the tasks needed to set up these basic infrastructure components so that you can start monitoring and managing events.


Basic deployment configuration

Figure 1 Basic event management infrastructure configuration workflow

Table 1 Basic deployment infrastructure configuration procedures

Procedure See Notes

1. Configure cells for international environments. page 20 Required for non-ascii environments only

2. Define user accounts, roles, and groups for various components. page 20 Recommended

3. Configure Impact Administration server for high availability. page 23 Optional

4. Create additional cells. page 25 Optional

5. Create cell-specific configuration files. page 26 Optional

6. Register additional cells with BMC Impact Administration server. page 27 Required if additional cells are created

7. Configure cells to communicate. page 28 Required if additional cells are created and/or Impact Portal is used.

8. Configure high availability cells. page 30 Optional

9. Set up an event source. page 34

10. Start BMC Impact Explorer. page 43


Standard deployment configurations


The standard deployment configuration allows you to monitor and manage events, with the added capability of reporting.

Standard event management configuration

Figure 2 on page 17 illustrates the workflow for the standard event management configuration process. It is very similar to the Basic deployment workflow, but includes the BMC Impact Portal component and Reporting.

11. Configure additional cells to communicate with BMC Impact Explorer.

page 45 Required if additional cells are created

12. Connect additional cells to BMC Impact Explorer. page 47 Required if additional cells are created

13. Configure BMC Impact Explorer to access multiple BMC Impact Administration Servers.

page 50 Required if additional IASs are added

14. View cell information from BMC Impact Explorer. page 53

15. Start or stop the cell. page 53

16. Create and manage cell groups. page 57

Table 1 Basic deployment infrastructure configuration procedures

Procedure See Notes



Figure 2 Standard event management infrastructure configuration workflow

Table 2 Standard event management infrastructure configuration procedures

Procedure See Notes

1. Install the BMC Datastore and BMC Impact Portal. BMC Impact Solutions Installation Guide

BMC Impact Portal is required for Reporting

2. Install Reporting for BMC Service Assurance and BMC Event and Impact Reporting templates.

BMC Event and Impact Reporting Installation, Configuration, and User Guide

Optional


4. Define user accounts, roles, and groups for various components. page 20


6. Create additional cells. page 25 Optional

7. Create cell-specific configuration files. page 26 Optional


Atrium deployment configuration


If you have opted for the Atrium deployment, then you will be using the Atrium Configuration Management Database (CMDB) as your data repository.

Figure 3 illustrates the workflow for configuring service impact management infrastructure using the Atrium CMDB.

8. Register additional cells with BMC Impact Administration server. page 27 Required if additional cells are created

9. Configure cells to communicate. page 28 Required if additional cells are created and/or Impact Portal is used.


11. Set up an event source. page 34

12. Start the BMC Impact Portal. page 42

13. Register cells in the BMC Impact Portal. page 42

14. Start BMC Impact Explorer through the BMC Impact Portal. page 43

15. Configure additional cells to communicate with BMC Impact Explorer.

page 45 Required if additional cells are created

16. Connect additional cells to BMC Impact Explorer. page 47 Required if additional cells are created

17. Configure BMC Impact Explorer to access multiple BMC Impact Administration Servers.

page 50 Required if additional IASs are added




Table 2 Standard event management infrastructure configuration procedures

Procedure See Notes



Figure 3 Atrium service impact management infrastructure configuration workflow

Table 3 Atrium service impact management infrastructure configuration procedures

Procedure See Notes

1. Install the BMC Datastore and BMC Impact Portal. BMC Impact Solutions Installation Guide

2. Install Reporting for BMC Service Assurance and BMC Event and Impact Reporting templates.

BMC Event and Impact Reporting Installation, Configuration, and User Guide

Optional




6. Define user accounts, roles, and groups for various components. page 20

7. Start the BMC Impact Portal. page 42

8. Register cells in the BMC Impact Portal. page 42

9. Start BMC Impact Explorer through the BMC Impact Portal. page 43


Configuring BMC Impact Manager cells in internationalized environments

Configuring BMC Impact Manager cells in internationalized environments

To use BMC Impact Manager in non-ASCII environments, you must use UTF-8 encoding for the following files:

■ all KB source files■ all IM configuration files

These files must be encoded before they are used by the cell. All the other files must be encoded in the native encoding as set for the environment.

Configuring user accounts, roles, groups, and passwords

When BMC Impact Explorer (BMC IX), Impact Administration server, and BMC Impact Portal are installed, a default user account is created. For security reasons, BMC Software recommends that you create at least one unique user account and then delete the default account created when the product was installed.




Table 3 Atrium service impact management infrastructure configuration procedures

Procedure See Notes


Obtaining user accounts for BMC Impact Explorer in the BMC Impact Administration Server (IAS)

Obtaining user accounts for BMC Impact Explorer in the BMC Impact Administration Server (IAS)

In the IAS configuration, users are assigned to one or more groups. Each group includes one or more roles. The role determines the predefined permissions that the user has. Permissions determine which

■ BMC IX tab views ■ cells ■ events ■ collectors■ service model component objects

that the user can access, view, or edit.

You can set up user accounts by using the BMC Impact Administration server (BMC IAS) or the Administration tab of BMC Impact Explorer. For details about roles and groups, see the BMC Impact Solutions Infrastructure Administration Guide.

To obtain a user account for BMC Impact Explorer in the Impact Administration server

1 From a command line, enter the following command to request a user account in the IAS:

If you define a user account in the BMC Impact Portal, you can select the Synchronize Users with IAS function from the Superadmin->Portal tab to synchronize the Portal users and groups with those of the BMC IAS.

Users are added to the BMC IAS with the default password user.

2 Make the user a member of the Service Administrators group.

For example,

For information about requesting a user account in the BMC IAS, see BMC Impact Solutions Infrastructure Administration Guide.

iadmin -aru loginId=UserName:password=PassWord:usergroups=UserGroupName1, UserGroupName2, ...[:description=string]

iadmin -aru loginId=bhave:password=bp0wers:usergroups=”Service Administrators”


Create new account and user for BMC Impact Portal

Create new account and user for BMC Impact Portal

This task is necessary only if you are using BMC Impact Portal. For instructions on creating a new account for the BMC Impact Portal, see the BMC Portal Getting Started guide.

Synchronizing user accounts created in BMC Impact Portal with IAS

This task is necessary only if you are using BMC Impact Portal For instructions on sychronizing BMC Impact Portal user accounts with IAS, see the BMC Impact Portal online Help.

Changing your BMC Impact Explorer password

To keep your password secure, you should change it periodically.

To change the BMC Impact Explorer password

1 From the menu bar, choose Server => Change Password.

The Change Password dialog box appears.

2 In the Old Password box, enter your current password.

3 In the New Password and Confirm New Password boxes, enter a new password.

4 Click OK.

Your password for the BMC IX logon is changed immediately.

NOTE If you forget your password, your administrator must clear the encrypted form of your pass-word from the configuration file. The next time that you log on, you will enter a new pass-word, and you will be prompted to confirm it. This operation sets your new password.

In a setup where LDAP authentication is used, administrators must change password from the LDAP server and not within BMC IX.


Resetting the Oracle password used during installation

Resetting the Oracle password used during installation

When you install BMC Remedy AR System, you use the Oracle system password. After you finish installation, you should change the system password.

Configuring Impact Administration server for failover

You can configure the Impact Administration server for failover.

Defining primary and secondary BMC Impact Administration servers

By default the IAS is configured to work in standalone mode. However, after installation, you can choose to implement a failover configuration, in which you define a pair of primary and secondary servers to handle failover situations.

First, you must install another BMC IAS on a second system. Rerun the installation, and make the appropriate Standard or Master IAS selection for the second system. Primary and secondary servers must have the same name.

NOTE At installation, you can choose to install and implement a high availability configuration for the IAS. If you select to define a failover setup for the Master IAS, the accompanying Impact Administration cell also is defined as failover automatically.

NOTE If you define a standalone Master IAS as a failover pair, you must also define its accompanying Impact Administration cell as a failover pair.


Defining a failover configuration for the Impact Administration cell

When you define primary and secondary servers, you also define the synchronization properties for both. The synchronization process updates IAS records and files, such as the following files:

■ user_definitions.xml■ group_roles.xml■ role_permissions.xml■ cmdb.properties■ cell_info.list

During synchronization of failover pairs, data is carried from the primary to the secondary IAS and from the secondary to the primary. Each server of a failover pair has its own ias.properties and logging configuration files. These files are not synchronized.

When you execute the iadmin command on a primary or secondary IAS, the change is reflected on the corresponding secondary or primary IAS after the synchronization process is complete. To synchronize the servers immediately, use the iadmin -reinit fullsync | -sync command. See the BMC Impact Solutions Infrastructure Administration Guide for more information about setting up IAS synchronization properties.

Defining a failover configuration for the Impact Administration cell

As a general practice, you configure the Impact Administration cell as a failover pair whenever you configure the Master IAS as an a failover pair. Use this table as a guideline for changing the respective mcell.dir files of the primary Impact Administration cell on one host system and the secondary Impact Administration cell on the second host system:

NOTE To enable synchronization between servers, they must be installed on the same platform: either all on MS Windows or all on the same UNIX operating system (for example, Solaris to Solaris, Linux to Linux).

Table 4 mcell.dir entries for failover pair of Impact Administration cells

Primary IAC on Host 1 Secondary IAC on Host 2

cell Admin mc host1:1827 host2:1827cell IAC mc host1:1827 host2:1827

cell Admin mc host1:1827 host2:1827cell IAC mc host1:1827 host2:1827


Creating additional cells

Remember that the primary Impact Administration cell resides on the same host as the primary Master IAS and the secondary Impact Administration cell resides on the same host as the secondary Master IAS.

After you define the entries in the mcell.dir files, you must modify the respective mcell.conf files as you would any normal cell that you are configuring for high availability. Refer to the BMC Impact Solutions Infrastructure Administration Guide for more information.

Creating additional cellsWhen you install BMC Impact Manager on a system, one cell is installed. If you want to configure a multi-celled environment, then you must create and configure additional cells. You can create additional cells using the mcrtcell command. You can only run the mcrtcell command on the local computer where you are creating the new cell.

Cell naming conventions

Cell names must be unique throughout the enterprise.

The cell name cannot contain spaces or special characters. You can use any alphanumeric string and underscores (_) in a cell name, such as the following:

■ my_cell■ spike12■ oracle

Do not give a cell the same name as any item in the MCELL_HOME\etc directory, such as the KB directory or the mcell.conf, mcell.dir, or mcell.trace files.

Using the mcrtcell command to add cells ensures that the cell names are unique.

WARNING Cells with identical cell names on different computers within your enterprise will cause unexpected results.


Creating a new cell and its associated Knowledge Base

Creating a new cell and its associated Knowledge Base

You can create additional cells on a local computer by entering the mcrtcell command from a command prompt:

mcrtcell -as|-ae|-aa -p PortNumber NewcellName

Specifying either the -ae or -as option creates a unified Knowledge Base, which contains the default BEM and SIM KBs (see BMC Impact Solutions Concepts for information about the unified KB). If you do not specify the -ae, -as, or -aa option, you create an empty BEM cell.

For a full discussion of the mcrtcell CLI command and all its options, see the BMC Impact Solutions Infrastructure Administration Guide.

Creating cell-specific configuration files

By default, one set of configuration files is installed during installation of the BMC Impact Manager. These files are located in the MCELL_HOME\etc directory and multiple cells on a host can use them. You can also create unique configuration files for individual instances (cells) if you want the configuration for one or more cells to be different.

TIP When naming cells, adopt a naming convention for test and production cells that clearly identifies its purpose. For example, you could assign test cells names that use test as a prefix or suffix. A clear naming convention is important because in BMC Impact Explorer views there is no way to distinguish test and production cells other than by the cell name.

Option Description

-aa creates an Impact Administration cell with an Admin KB

-ae creates an BMC Event Manager cell

-as creates a Service Impact Manager cell

-p PortNumber specifies the cell port number (PortNumber)

Note: The -p option for mcrtcell overrides the common CLI -p option.

NewcellName specifies the name for the cell being created


Registering an additional cell with the BMC Impact Administration server (IAS)

To create cell-specific configuration files

1 Copy the configuration file that you want to be unique to the MCELL_HOME\etc\cellName directory. cellName represents the name of the cell.

2 Using a text editor, edit the configuration file and customize it for that cell and save it.

You can copy and edit any configuration file located in the MCELL_HOME\etc directory.

3 Either reload the cell configuration or stop and start the cell so that the changes take affect.

When a cell starts, it searches for configuration files in the MCELL_HOME\etc\cellName directory. If no configuration file is found, the cell uses the configuration file in the MCELL_HOME\etc directory. For example, if you copy the mcell.conf file into the MCELL_HOME\etc\cellName directory and modify it, the cell reads that mcell.conf file and all other files in the MCELL_HOME\etc directory. For instructions on how to stop and start a cell, see “Starting or stopping the cell” on page 53.

Registering an additional cell with the BMC Impact Administration server (IAS)

When a BMC Impact Manager cell is installed, it is automatically registered with the IAS.

However, after you create an additional cell using the mrctcell command as described in “Creating a new cell and its associated Knowledge Base” on page 26, you must register the cell with the Impact Administration server using the iadmin -ac command.

To register an additional cell with the Impact Administration server and the Impact Administration cell

Access the IMPACT_SOLUTIONS_HOME/server/bin directory and execute the following command:

The primary and failover port numbers should fall in the 1000-65535 range.

iadmin -ac name=CellName:key=EncryptionKey:primaryHost=PrimaryHostName:primaryPort=PrimaryPortNumber:failoverHost=FailoverHostName:failoverPort=FailoverPortNumber:environment=Production|Test:usergroups=*|usergroupname1, usergroupname2...


Configuring cells to communicate

For example:

The cell is added automatically to the IMPACT_SOLUTIONS_HOME/server/conf cell_info.list of the Impact Administration Server. It is also automatically added to the IMPACT_SOLUTIONS_HOME/server/data/admin admin.dir file of the Admin cell, as in the following example:

In the Event view, you see that the cell you have registered sends a registration event to the Admin cell.

The cell information is added to the cell_info.list. It is also added to the BMC Atrium CMDB if the cell is synchronized with BMC Atrium CMDB as defined in the cmdb.properties.

To ensure that the cell is registered with the IAS, be sure that its mcell.dir file contains the IAC entry, as in the following example:

The IAC entry enables event propagation between the cell and the Admin cell that is part of IAS.

Configuring cells to communicateEach cell can function as either a complete event management system or as part of a larger distributed network of cells. After you install a cell, it can run with no additional configuration; however, it cannot communicate with other cells and some components, such as the BMC Impact Portal, in a distributed BMC Impact Solutions network. To enable communication between cells and some clients, you must modify the mcell.dir file, which is also known as the cell directory file.

You should maintain a master mcell.dir file that contains directory entries for all cells on a computer. The file must be readable by all cells. As an alternative, make copies of this file available to all cells. This enables a cell to contact any other cell based on its cell name.

iadmin -ac name=sparkles_cell:key=mc:primaryHost=moondog:primaryPort=2008:failoverHost=suncat:failoverPort=2008:environment=Production:usergroups=*

cell moondog_10 mc moondog.bmc.com:1828cell Admin mc moondog.bmc.com:1827cell sparkles_cell mc moondog.bmc.com:2008 suncat.bmc.com:2008

cell IAC mc myComputer.adprod.bmc.com:1827


Configuring cells on the same computer to communicate

Configuring cells on the same computer to communicate

If adding a new cell on the same computer as the existing cell, the mcrtcell command automatically adds the information for the new cell to the master mcell.dir file found in the MCELL_HOME\etc directory.

Configuring cells on different computers to communicate with other cells or components, such as BMC Impact Portal

If you want cells to communicate with other cells or components that are not on the same computer, you must add the cell information for each cell or component into the the mcell.dir file for the cell to which you want the other cell to communicate.

For example, you have two computers, computer A and computer B. Cell A is on computer A and cell B is on computer B. For cells A and B to communicate, you would have to enter the information for cell A in the mcell.dir file on computer B and the information for cell B in the mcell.dir file on computer A.

To configure cells to communicate with other cells or components located on different computers

1 Open the mcell.dir file in a text editor.

The default location is MCELL_HOME\etc.

WARNING You must maintain each cell’s mcell.dir file to ensure event propagation between cells and the ability to connect to the BMC Impact Portal. Ensure that each directory entry is correct and that every cell has an up-to-date directory file. An error in the mcell.dir file prevents cells from connecting to each other and to other components, such as the BMC Impact Portal.


Configuring high availability cells

2 Create line entries using the following format:

cell Name EncryptionKey IpAddress:Port

3 Save the changes.

4 To make the changes take affect, complete one of the following actions:

Stop and start the cell. For more information, see “Starting or stopping the cell” on page 53.

-OR-

From a command prompt, reload the mcell.dir file by entering:

mcontrol -n cell_Name reload dir

5 If you are configuring cells to communicate with other cells, repeat the procedure to add the original cell’s information to the new cell’s mcell.dir file.

Configuring high availability cellsFor an explanation of how high availability functions in BMC Impact Solutions, see the BMC Impact Solutions Concepts Guide.

A high availability cell is implemented as two server processes. One of the two server processes is designated as the primary server, and the other server process is the secondary server. While installing Impact Manager, if you installed a Primary Cell Server of a failover pair on one machine and installed a Secondary Cell Server of a failover pair on another machine, then the default cells created with installation will be automatically configured for high availability.

Attribute Description

Name Name is an abstract name for the cell or gateway.portal. These names are not case-sensitive and may be any alphanumeric string, including underscores (_).

A Portal name is, by convention, the fully qualified host name of the Portal host, prefixed with bip.

EncryptionKey String to be used as part of the key for the encryption of the communication between a cell and the cell or other component. Default value is 0 (zero).

Note: If the string has an odd number of characters, the last character is ignored.

IPAddress/Port Host name or IP address and port number on which the cell or component is listening. Default port number for a cell is 1828 and for a Portal is 3783.



However, if you want to set up a failover pair on different machines, but did not select the Primary and Secondary Cell Server options during installation, you must use the mcrtcell command to create an identical cell on each computer. For example, if you ran the installation on host1 and installed a primary cell server on that computer, you must create an additional, identical cell on host2 using the mcrtcell command.

The highest possible availability for a cell occurs when two server machines are close to each other with a highly reliable network connection. When the two server machines are on remote sites, the high availability cell functions more like a Disaster Recovery system.

Only one of the two servers should be active at any time.

Configuring the primary and secondary cell servers

To get the same behavior for the primary and for the secondary cell servers, both should be installed and configured similarly. It is highly recommended that the Knowledge Bases for both servers are identical. Configuration parameters also should be set to the same values for both servers, except for the CellDuplicateMode parameter that indicates whether the server is a primary or a secondary server.

WARNING The primary and secondary servers of a high availability pair must run on two different logical OS images of the same type. Primary and secondary servers of a high availability pair running on the same system or running on different operating systems is not supported.

WARNING Although it is technically possible to activate both servers, this is not supported. If both servers are activated, incompatible server states can occur. If the server states are incompatible, manual intervention is required to resynchronize the primary and secondary servers. If this situation occurs, see the BMC Impact Solutions Infrastructure Administration Guide.

It is highly recommended that you disable automatic failover and enable manual failover when the connection between the primary and secondary server is unreliable. Otherwise, there is a risk that both primary and secondary servers would be active at the same time when they cannot communicate with each other. This situation is not supported. If this situation occurs, see BMC Impact Solutions Infrastructure Administration Guide.

NOTE Before configuring primary and secondary cell servers, you should have already followed the instructions for installing a high availability cell in the BMC Impact Solutions Installation Guide.



To configure a high availability cell, you must complete the following tasks:

1. Specify the primary and secondary server locations for the cell. For instructions, see “To specify the primary and secondary server locations for the cell” on page 32.

2. Configure high availability options. For instructions, see “To configure high availability options” on page 32.

3. Configure the primary server. For instructions, see “To configure the primary server” on page 33.

4. Configure the secondary server. For instructions, see “To configure the secondary server” on page 33.

To specify the primary and secondary server locations for the cell

1 On both servers, open the mcell.dir file in a text editor.

2 Replace the line for CellName with:

cell CellName mc host1:port1 host2:port2

CellName is the name of the cell created on both servers. host1:port1 is the host name and port number of the primary server, and host2:port2 is the host name and port number of the secondary server.

This indicates two locations (host name and port number) for the same cell.

3 Save and close mcell.dir.

To configure high availability options

1 On both servers, open the mcell.conf file in a text editor.

2 Assign identical values to the following high availability configuration parameters for both servers:

■ CellDuplicateAutoFailOver—To enable automatic failover, set the value to Yes. To fail over to the secondary cell manually, set the value to No. By default, the value is Yes.

NOTE Modifying mcell.conf globally modifies all cells. To modify a single cell, ensure that you modify the configuration file specific to the individual cell.



■ CellDuplicateAutoSwitchBack—To enable automatic switchback from the secondary cell to the primary cell, set the value to Yes. To switch back to the primary cell manually, set the value to No. By default, the value is Yes.

3 If you have opted for automatic failover, failover timeout values can also be configured. For more information, see the BMC Impact Solutions Infrastructure Administration Guide.

4 Save and close mcell.conf.

To configure the primary server

1 On the machine hosting the primary cell server, open the mcell.conf file in a text editor.

2 Set the value of the CellDuplicateMode parameter to 1.

The primary server is ready to be started. See “Starting a high availability cell.”

To configure the secondary server

1 On the machine hosting the secondary cell server, open the mcell.conf file in a text editor.

2 Set the value of the CellDuplicateMode parameter to 2.

3 Save and close mcell.conf.

The secondary server is ready to be started. See “Starting a high availability cell.”

For details on manually manipulating high availability cells, see the BMC Impact Solutions Infrastructure Administration Guide.

NOTE Failover and switchback can be configured independently. It is not required to configure both as manual or both as automatic. For example, you could configure high availability so that failover is manual, but switchback is automatic.


Setting up BMC Impact Event Adapters

Setting up BMC Impact Event AdaptersTo monitor events, you must collect source event data using either the BMC Impact Event Adapters included with BMC Impact Solutions or an integration product that provides event data for a specific product. See the BMC Impact Solutions Concepts Guide for a list of possible integration products.

Post-installation tasks for the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager

This section describes the post-installation tasks that you must perform after you have installed the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager.

Enabling the JDK plug-in

1 Open Internet Explorer.

2 Choose Tools => Internet Options.

3 Click the Advanced tab.

4 Under Microsoft VM, select the following options:

■ Java console enabled (requires restart)

■ JIT compiler for virtual machine enabled (requires restart)

5 Under Java (Sun), select Use JRE 1.6.x_xx for <applet> (requires restart).

NOTE This documentation only discusses the BMC Impact Event Adapters, which are included with BMC Impact Solutions. If you are using an integration product, see the documentation for that integration product for configuration and usage instructions.

NOTE If Java (Sun) is not visible, the Java plug-in is not installed on the computer. In that case, install the Java SE Development Kit (JDK) 6 from http://java.sun.com/javase/6/.


http://java.sun.com/javase/6/


Starting the Tomcat server

Perform this procedure if you chose not to automatically start the Tomcat server during installation of the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager. You must start the Tomcat server before you can use the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager.

1 At a command prompt, navigate to the installationDirectory\jakarta-tomcat-5.0.25\bin directory or the Catalina_Home\bin directory.

Catalina_Home is the path where the Tomcat server is installed.

2 Run the following command:

startup -security

Configuring the Tomcat server

If you did not install the Tomcat server that is bundled with the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager, you must manually configure your existing Tomcat server.

1 At the beginning of the Catalina.bat file that is located in the Catalina_Home\bin directory, add the following line:

SET PATH=Perl_Home\bin;NET_SNMP_EXEC;%PATH%

Perl_Home is the path where Perl is installed. NET_SNMP_EXEC is the Net-SNMP bin path that you specified when you installed the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager (for example, C:\net-snmp\usr\bin).

2 In the startup.bat file that is located in the Catalina_Home\bin directory, set the JAVA_HOME variable by adding the following line at the beginning of the file:

SET JAVA_HOME=JDK_Home

JDK_Home is the path where the JDK is installed.

WARNING You have to restart the Tomcat server each time you modify a configuration file related to the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager. Until you restart the Tomcat server, the changes made to the configuration files are not reflected in the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager.



3 At the beginning of the Catalina.bat file that is located in the Catalina_Home\bin directory, add the following lines:

set LOG_PROPERTIES=”MCELL_HOME\\etc\\snmpAdapter\\logging.properties”set JAVA_OPTS=%JAVA_OPTS% -Xms128m -Xmx512m

4 In the Catalina.bat file that is located in the Catalina_Home\bin directory, perform the following actions:

A add the java.util.logging.config.file and the MCELL_HOME system properties for all the EXECJAVA commands under the doSecurity label by adding the following lines:

-Djava.util.logging.config.file=%LOG_PROPERTIES%

-DMCELL_HOME=”MCELL_HOME”

B Ensure that the following java.security.policy system property has been set:.

-Djava.security.policy="%SECURITY_POLICY_FILE%"

5 In the setClasspath.bat file that is located in the Catalina_Home\bin directory, add the SnmpAdapterClient.jar file to the CLASSPATH variable by adding the following line:

set CLASSPATH=%JAVA_HOME%\lib\tools.jar;installationDirectory\lib\SnmpAdapterClient.jar;%CLASSPATH%

6 In the server.xml file that is located in the Catalina_Home\conf directory, specify the Connector port and the Server port.

Ensure that the ports you have specified are not being used by any other application.

EXAMPLE %_EXECJAVA% %JAVA_OPTS% %CATALINA_OPTS% %DEBUG_OPTS%-Djava.endorsed.dirs="%JAVA_ENDORSED_DIRS%" -Djava.util.logging.config.file=%LOG_PROPERTIES%-DMCELL_HOME="C:\\Program Files\\BMC Software\\MasterCell\\server\\"-classpath "%CLASSPATH%"-Djava.security.manager-Djava.security.policy="%SECURITY_POLICY_FILE%"-Dcatalina.base="%CATALINA_BASE%"-Dcatalina.home="%CATALINA_HOME%"-Djava.io.tmpdir="%CATALINA_TMPDIR%" %MAINCLASS% %CMD_LINE_ARGS% %ACTION%


Enabling and disabling BMC Impact Event Adapters

7 In the server.xml file that is located in the Catalina_Home\conf directory, set the value of maxPostSize to 0.

8 At the end of the catalina.policy file that is located in the Catalina_Home\conf directory, add the contents of the Client_Windows.policy file.

The Client_Windows.policy file is located in the product installation directory.

Stopping the Tomcat server

You must stop and then restart the Tomcat server each time you modify a configuration file related to the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager. Until you restart the Tomcat server, the changes made to the configuration files are not reflected in the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager. You must also stop the Tomcat server before you uninstall the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager.

1 At a command prompt, navigate to the installationDirectory\jakarta-tomcat-5.0.25\bin directory or the Catalina_Home\bin directory.

2 Enter the following command:

shutdown


Before you can start the various BMC Impact Event Adapters (either by starting them as services or starting the engine manager process), you must define and enable the Adapter that you want to run in the mcxa.conf file.

EXAMPLE <Server port="8005" shutdown="SHUTDOWN" debug="0"><Connector port="8080"maxThreads="150" minSpareThreads="25" maxSpareThreads="75"enableLookups="false" redirectPort="8443" acceptCount="100"debug="0" connectionTimeout="20000" maxPostSize="0" disableUploadTimeout="true" />

EXAMPLE <Connector port="8080"maxThreads="150" minSpareThreads="25" maxSpareThreads="75"enableLookups="false" redirectPort="8443" acceptCount="100"debug="0" connectionTimeout="20000" maxPostSize="0"disableUploadTimeout="true" />



To enable an Adapter instance

1 In a text editor, open the mcxa.conf file.

This file is located in one of the following directories, depending on your operating system:

■ Windows: MCELL_HOME\etc\

■ UNIX: MCELL_HOME/etc/

2 In the mcxa.conf file, navigate to the definition of the Adapter instance that you want to enable.

3 Remove or comment out the word DISABLE from the Adapter definition.

4 Repeat step 3 for each Adapter instance that you want to enable.

5 Save and close the file.

Adapter statuses will change within a minute or two.

To disable an Adapter instance

1 In a text editor, open the mcxa.conf file.

This file is located in one of the following directories, depending on your operating system:

■ Windows: MCELL_HOME\etc\

■ UNIX: MCELL_HOME/etc/

2 In the mcxa.conf file, navigate to the definition of the Adapter instance that you want to disable.

3 Add the word DISABLE to the Adapter definition or if DISABLE was commented out, remove the comment character (#).

4 Repeat step 3 for each Adapter instance that must be disabled.

5 Save and close the file.

Adapter statuses will change within a minute or two.


Starting and stopping the BMC Impact Event Adapters


You can use the following methods to start the various BMC Impact Event Adapters:

■ The Adapters that use the engine manager (LogFile Adapter, SNMP Adapter, and Perl Eventlog Adapter for Windows) can be started as follows:

— On Microsoft Windows computers, you start the engine manager (mxca process) from the command line or from the Services window.

— On UNIX computers, you start the engine manager (mxca) process from the command line.

For instructions, see “Starting the engine manager process from the command line” and “Starting the Adapter processes as services” on page 41.

■ The IP Adapters (on Windows and UNIX) can be started and stopped individually after the primary engine manager process is running. For more information, see the BMC Impact Solutions Event Adapter User Guide. When running on Microsoft Windows computers, all Adapters that use the engine manager can be started from the command line or from the Services window.

Starting the engine manager process from the command line

At a command prompt, run the mcxa.cmd (Windows) or mcxa.sh (UNIX) executable to start the engine manager (mcxa) process.

On Windows, the mcxa.cmd command starts the appropriate services. The services were created during product installation.

Table 5 lists the command options.

Table 5 mcxa command options (part 1 of 2)

Option Description

-c alternate configuration file

Default: MCELL_HOME\etc\mcxa.conf

-d Debug (prevents daemonization), available only on UNIX platforms

-h help



-n Send all events to a specific cell

Use this option to specify the cell to which you want to connect. Use one of the following option formats:

■ Designate a cell name by specifying –n cellname.

This format option maps the specified cellname to the host, port, and encryption key by looking the values up in the mcell.dir file.

■ Designate a host, port, and encryption key by using –n @host:port#key.

The variable host represents either a host name or an IP address value; port represents the port number value, and key represents the encryption key value.

You can specify the designation to accept –n @host:port or -@host and accept the default values for key(0) and port (1818).

This format uses the specified host, port, and encryption key to connect to the cell without looking up information in the mcell.dir.

-t Specifies trace file and/or level, such as 1–6

Use -T for long headers.

You can make minor changes to the command syntax to modify how debug output is displayed or stored.

■ Use a single colon (:) in the command to send output to the default trace file, MCELL_HOME\tmp\Adapters\mcxa.trace.

Example:

mcxa.cmd -t:6

■ Use a double colon (::) in the command to display output on-screen (stdout).■ Use a single colon (:) in the command to send output to the specified trace file.

Example:

mcxa.cmd -t \tmp\mytracefile.txt:6

will start the engine manager at trace level 6 and use tmp\mytracefile.txt trace file.

-z displays the Adapter version

Table 5 mcxa command options (part 2 of 2)

Option Description


Stopping the BMC Impact Event Adapters

Starting the Adapter processes as services

1 Choose Start => Settings => Control Panel => Administrative Tools => Services.

2 From the list of services, select BMC Impact Event Adapters.

3 From the menu bar, choose Action => Start.

The Adapters are running when the Status column of the Services window displays Started for the Adapters.

Stopping the BMC Impact Event Adapters

You can stop the Adapters by using one of the following methods:

■ On Windows, stop the BMC Impact Event Adapters service from the Services window.

This method sends an MC_ADAPTER_STOP event before the Adapters stop.

■ On UNIX, stop the Adapters by using either the kill command or a shell script, such as the mcxa script located in etc/init.d.

This method sends an MC_ADAPTER_STOP event before the Adapters stop.

■ On UNIX or Windows, create a file called mcxa.stop and add it to the MCELL_HOME/etc/ directory.

When this file is added to the MCELL_HOME/etc/ directory, the Adapters stop.

The contents of the mcxa.stop file are not important. When the Adapter detects the presence of the file, normally within five seconds, it deletes the file and then stops. This method sends an MC_ADAPTER_STOP event before the Adapters stop.

NOTE Command line interface options take priority over options in the mcxa.conf file.

NOTE Do not use the kill -9 command to stop the Adapters unless they are in an infinite loop. Use the regular kill command, instead.


Starting the BMC Impact Portal

If you used the -c option with the mcxa.sh command or mcxa.cmd command to specify a configuration file other than mcxa.conf, the stop file must have the same primary name as that configuration file, using the .stop extension. For example, if your Adapters configuration file is adap.conf, name the stop file adap.stop.

For details on starting and stopping Adapters as well as more advanced configuration and user tasks, see the BMC Impact Solutions Event Adapters User Guide.

Starting the BMC Impact PortalThis task is required only if you have installed and are planning to use the BMC Impact Portal. For instructions, see the BMC Portal Getting Started.

Registering cells in BMC Impact Portal This information is necessary only if you are using the BMC Impact Portal.

Production and test cells must be registered in BMC Impact Portal so that Impact Portal can access the data defined to cells. Administrators can register a cell by using the BMC Impact Portal Viewable Impact Managers tab. For information on registering a cell in BMC Impact Portal, see the online Help or the BMC Portal Getting Started.

If you install BMC IM before you install the BMC Impact Portal on the same computer, the BMC Impact Portal installation program automatically adds a bip.hostName entry to the computer’s mcell.dir file, which subscribes and registers the Impact Manager to the BMC Impact Portal. The bip.hostName entry identifies the location and port number of the BMC Impact Portal server to the cell.

NOTE If you stop and start the BMC Impact Event Adapters service in quick succession, or use the restart option in the service manager, you might see the following error messages in the BMC IX console:

Couldn't be an UDP server on port 16

MA: EngineMgr: Couldn’t be an UDP server on port 162

If you see these messages, wait a short time until the expected stop messages appear before restarting the Adapters. For example, with an SNMP Adapter enabled, wait until the messages BMC Impact Event Adapter stopped and Adapter Snmp (Engine: ‘MA:ESnmpTrap’) stopped by ‘mcxa’ appear before restarting the BMC Impact Event Adapters service.


Starting BMC IX

For BMC IM to recognize the Portal installation, you must restart the cell and then re-register cells with the Portal using the administration page of the BMC Impact Portal.

In the following situations, you must manually add the bip.hostName entry to the cell’s mcell.dir file to subscribe the BMC IM to the BMC Impact Portal, restart the cell, and register the cells with the BMC Impact Portal:

■ you installed BMC IM on a remote computer, whether the cell is stand-alone or high-availability

■ you installed BMC IM after the BMC Impact Portal on the same computer■ you want to connect the BMC Impact Portal to additional local or remote BMC IM

instances

For instructions on registering cells in the BMC Impact Portal, see the BMC Portal Getting Started.

Starting BMC IXBefore you can use BMC IX to view and manage events and/or services, you must access it in one of the following ways:

■ as a stand-alone console (classic) from the BMC Impact Manager product installation disk

As a stand-alone console, BMC Impact Explorer can reside on the same host computer as the BMC Portal or the BMC Impact Administration Server (BMC IAS), or it can reside on another host computer. However, all user validation and security is managed by the BMC IAS.

■ as a Java Web Start application from the BMC Impact Portal

As a Java Web Start application, after BMC Impact Explorer is deployed on your local desktop, you can launch it from

— the local desktop icon— a local startup menu— the Java Web Start Application Manager on your local host computer— from the BMC Portal Configure tab as a task

User authentication and security are managed centrally by the BMC Impact Administration server. To launch BMC Impact Explorer you must connect to the BMC Impact Administration server. The BMC Impact Manager cells to which you will connect are configured in the BMC Impact Administration server by the system administrator.


Starting BMC IX

Before you begin

From the administrator responsible for the BMC Impact Portal or the IAS, obtain

■ a valid user ID for an existing account on the authentication server

■ the name of the production or test cell where the events and/or services are defined

■ the host name and port number for each IAS to which you will connect

To start BMC Impact Explorer as a stand-alone application

1 Access the product as follows, depending on your operating system:

■ For Microsoft Windows, choose Start => Programs => BMC Software => BMC Impact Explorer.

■ For UNIX, access the opt/bmc/Impact/console directory and at the command prompt enter: ./console.sh

The BMC Impact Explorer splash screen is displayed, and then the Logon dialog box is displayed.

2 In Username, enter your logon ID.

3 In Password, enter your password.

4 From Server, select the Impact Administration server to which you want to connect.

You define additional Impact Administration servers in the Edit Configuration dialog box after you initially sign on to BMC IX. For instructions, see “Adding and configuring additional Impact Administration servers in BMC IX” on page 50.

5 Click OK to close the Logon dialog box and start BMC IX.

NOTE BMC Software recommends that you have only one BMC Portal account for BMC IX and that all BMC IX users are members of that account.

NOTE If the BMC IAS that you select from the Servers list is down and that BMC IAS is configured for failover capability, BMC IX automatically logs you on to the secondary server configured for this BMC IAS.


Configuring cell connection properties to BMC Impact Explorer


The first cell that you install is connected automatically to the BMC Impact Explorer. If you create additional cells, the connection between BMC IX and each additional cell must be configured.

To configure cell connection properties

1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Configuration.

The Edit Configuration dialog box is displayed.

2 Click the Impact Managers subtab.

3 Select a cell or cell group.

4 If necessary, click Advanced to display the Cell Properties section of the dialog box.

5 Use Table 6 to set cell connection properties as required.

NOTE If you select a cell group, changes are applied to all the cells contained in the cell group. If you select a single cell, changes are applied only to the individual cell.

Table 6 Cell connection properties

Property Description

Name displays the name of the cell whose properties you are changing

Primary Host displays the name of the primary host computer where the cell is installed

Port displays the port number the cell uses to connect to the primary host computer

Secondary Host displays the name of the secondary host computer if one has been installed and configured to provide failover capabilities for the primary host

Port displays the port number the cell uses to connect to the secondary host computer

Timeout specifies the length of time the console waits to receive data from the cell; default is 30 seconds

BMC IX saves any negative Timeout values that you type as positive values.

Refresh Freq sets the time interval between polls of the cell; default is 60 seconds

BMC IX saves any negative Refresh Freq values that you type as positive values.



Attempts sets the number of times the console attempts to connect to a cell; default is 10

BMC IX saves any negative Attempts values that you type as positive values.

Connect Freq time interval between connection attempts; default is 5 seconds

BMC IX saves any negative Connect Freq values that you type as positive values.

Encrypted Mode enables and disables encryption of data between the console and the cell; default is enabled (selected)

Auto Connect enables and disables automatic connection to the cell at logon; default is disabled (cleared)

Auto Switch enables and disables automatic and continuous switching of the connection from the backup cell to the primary cell after failover, using the value set in Connect Freq as the interval; default is disabled

Use Port Range enables and disables using a specified range of local ports (on the console) for establishing a connection between the console and a cell.

Designating a port range is useful if the console must communicate to a cell through a firewall with only specific ports available for communication. The console scans through the specified port range until a port is connected to the cell or the connection fails because the port range is exhausted.

■ For using port range, once you select the Use Port Range check box, BMC IX automatically changes the Min Port No. and Max Port No. values to 1.

■ If you type a value of zero in Min Port No., BMC IX clears the Use Port Range check box.

■ If you type a value of zero in Max Port No., BMC IX replaces it with the value of Min Port No.

■ If the value of Max Port No. is less than the value of Min Port No., BMC IX changes the value of Max Port No. to that of Min Port No.

Min Port No. specifies the lower limit of the port range

Max Port No. specifies the upper limit of the port range

Auto Bind enables and disables the automatic connection attempt of the console to the first network card it encounters. Clear this option to bind to a specific IP address.

If only one network card exists, ensure that Auto Bind is selected. See “Specifying ports in cell connection properties” on page 47 for additional information.

IP Address specifies the IP address assigned to the local network card to which the console connects; available only if Auto Bind is cleared

Table 6 Cell connection properties

Property Description


Specifying ports in cell connection properties

Specifying ports in cell connection properties

The following circumstances require that you provide more specific information about communications between the console and the cell:

■ the presence of a network interface card (NIC) between the console and the cell■ the presence of a firewall between the console and the cell■ using a multi-homed computer for the console

In these circumstances, you must select Use Port Range and specify the limits of the port range and then select either Auto Bind or a particular IP address.

The Auto Bind option configures the console to connect to an NIC before it can connect to a cell. If you specify no particular NIC, the console automatically attempts to connect to the first NIC it encounters.

On a multi-homed computer, you can specify the NIC by selecting the IP address that the card is using from the IP Address drop-down list box. If Auto Bind is not enabled, you must specify a port range for the network card to which the console binds.

Connecting and disconnecting a cell or group of cells from BMC Impact Explorer

The first cell that you install is automatically connected to BMC Impact Explorer. If you create additional cells, the connection between each additional cell and BMC Impact Explorer (IX) must be configured, as described in “Configuring cell connection properties to BMC Impact Explorer” on page 45.

After you have created an additional cell and added it to the IX console and before you can configure or manipulate that cell or access the event or service data for it, you must connect the console to it. Both unconnected and connected cells are displayed in the navigation pane. Cells that are not connected display a red X on their cell icon in the console, as shown in Figure 4:

NOTE If the console is running on a computer that is acting as a gateway between multiple subnets, the network card that you bind to must be on the same subnet as the cell to which the console connects.



Figure 4 Disconnected cells and cell groups

A cell may appear to be disconnected from the console for many reasons, including the following:

■ The cell may be down.■ The machine hosting the cell may be down.■ The BMC IAS component may contain an invalid name or port number.■ The cell may have been disconnected.■ The cell may have been added to the console but not yet connected.

You may want to disconnect a cell if you no longer want to receive data from that cell.

To connect to an individual cell

1 In the navigation pane in the Events tab or Administration tab, right-click the cell icon or name.

2 Select Connect from the pop-up menu.

This menu item toggles between Connect and Disconnect, depending on the state of the cell when you right-click it. The result of your action in the Administration

NOTE If you enable the Manager Group Status option on the Global tab of the Edit Configuration dialog box, the cell group icon will indicate that at least one cell is disconnected by showing a red X on its lower left portion, which makes the icon look the same as if the entire cell group is disconnected (as shown in the Infrastructure Management group in Figure 4).



view is reflected in the Events and Services views and the result of your action in the Events view is reflected in the Administration and Services views.

The red X disappears from the cell icon when you connect to the cell.

To connect to all cells contained in a cell group

1 In the navigation pane, right-click a cell group.

2 Choose Connect All from the pop-up menu.

The red X disappears from the cell group icon when you connect to all the cells contained in the cell group.

To disconnect from an individual cell

1 In the navigation pane, right-click the cell icon or name.

2 Choose Disconnect from the pop-up menu.

A red X appears in the cell icon to indicate that the cell is disconnected.

To disconnect from a cell group

1 In the navigation pane, right-click a cell group.

2 Choose Disconnect All from the pop-up menu.

A red X appears on the cell group icon, indicating that all the cells contained in the cell group are disconnected.

NOTE If Auto Connect is enabled for a cell, the next time you start the console a connection to the cell is automatically reestablished. For additional information about Auto Connect, see “Con-figuring cell connection properties to BMC Impact Explorer” on page 45.

NOTE If you enable the Manager Group Status option on the Global tab of the Edit Configuration dialog box, the icon for the disconnected cell group will look the same as the icon for a cell group in which only some of the cells are disconnected.


Adding and configuring additional Impact Administration servers in BMC IX

Adding and configuring additional Impact Administration servers in BMC IX

During the process of installing BMC Impact Explorer (BMC IX), you specify a BMC Impact Administration server (IAS) to be used for authentication for BMC IX. If you want to specify additional BMC Impact Administration servers to be used with a particular BIX, then you must add those IASs to the authentication list for that BMC IX.

To add an additional IAS to the list of authentication servers for BMC IX

1 From the BMC IX menu bar, choose Edit => Configuration.


2 Click the Login Servers subtab.

3 In Host, enter the name of the computer that hosts the IAS.

4 In Port, enter the port number for the IAS. The default port is 3084.

5 Click Add to include the server in the list of servers to which you want to connect.

6 Click OK to save the changes and exit the dialog box.

To edit a BMC Impact Administration server connection


The Edit Configuration dialog box appears.

2 Click the Login Servers tab.

3 From the list box, select the BMC IAS that you want to edit.

4 In Host, enter the name of the computer that hosts the BMC IAS component.

5 In Port, enter the port number for the BMC IAS.

6 Click Edit.

7 Click Apply to save the changes, or click OK to save and exit the dialog box.


Setting BMC IAS connection properties

To delete a BMC Impact Administration server connection




3 From the list box, select the BMC IAS that you want to remove.

4 Click Remove and click Yes.



In addition to adding and deleting connections in the console configuration, you must configure the connections themselves, as described in this section. Also, you can change the order in which the BMC Impact Administration servers that are available for connection are listed in the Logon dialog box.

To configure a BMC Impact Administration server




3 From the list box, select the BMC IAS to configure.



4 Modify any of the BMC IAS configuration parameters listed in Table 7, as needed:


To reorder the BMC Impact Administration server list




3 From the list box, select the BMC IAS that you want to move.

4 Click the up arrow to move it up, or the down arrow to move it down.

5 Click OK.

Table 7 BMC IAS Configuration Parameters

Field Description

Heartbeat Rate specifies the frequency, in minutes, at which the console sends a signal to the connected BMC IAS to determine whether the BMC IAS is func-tioning. The default heartbeat rate is 1.

Enable Port Range specifies the maximum and minimum port number for the console to use in establishing a connection to a BMC IAS

Designating a port range is useful if the console must communicate to a cell through a firewall with only specific ports available for communi-cation. The console scans through the ports in the specified range until a port, local to the console, is connected to the cell or fails because the port range is exhausted.

Auto Reconnect enables and disables automatic attempts to reconnect to the BMC IAS when the connection has been dropped

The console will attempt to reconnect using the interval specified in the Frequency and Number of Retries fields.


Viewing cell information from BMC Impact Explorer

Viewing cell information from BMC Impact Explorer

Use the View Manager Info menu command to view information about and the metrics associated with the cell selected.

To view cell information

1 Right-click a cell.

2 Choose View Manager Info.

The Impact Manager Info dialog box appears with cell property information presented on the Info tab.

3 To refresh the information in the Metrics tab of this dialog box, click Refresh in the top right corner of the tab.

Starting or stopping the cell The installation process automatically starts a cell’s service. However, as changes are made to a cell’s configuration files or KB, you must stop and start the cell to accept the changes.

Stopping or starting a cell on UNIX computers

By default, a cell runs as a UNIX daemon. You override this behavior with a command line option, not a configuration file parameter.

Before you begin

A cell can be installed as owned by any user. Only users with execute permission on the mcell binary can start the cell. All users with execute permission on the mkill or mcontrol CLIs can stop the cell. However, if a user without root permissions attempts to start the process, the following issues must be considered.

■ External actions run as the user ID that started the process. Those actions are defined in %MCELL_HOME%\etc\CellName\kb\bin on Windows platforms and in $MCELL_HOME/etc/CellName/kb/bin on UNIX platforms.


Starting or stopping a cell on Windows computers

Actions are defined in .mrl files located in the kb/bin directory and listed in .load in that directory. The action programs or scripts can be located in the kb/bin/A or kb/bin/Arch directory. They can also be located anywhere else on the system.

■ The user who starts the cell must be able to write to log and trace files in the directories specified through configuration parameters SystemLogDirName and SystemTmpDirName. Default values for these are the log and tmp subdirectories of MCELL_HOME.

To stop a cell on UNIX computers

To stop a cell, use the mkill command located in the MCELL_HOME/bin directory with the name of the cell you want to stop. If no cell name is provided, mkill attempts to stop a local cell whose name is the same as the local host name. For more information about the mkill command, see the BMC Impact Solutions Infrastructure Administration Guide.

To start a cell on UNIX computers

To start a cell, use the following command:

mcell -n cellName

It is possible to start a cell without specifying a cell name. If you start a cell without any options, the command attempts to start a cell with the same name as the host. You must set the MCELL_HOME environment variable to point to the directory in which the cell is installed. The home directory also can be indicated using the option -l followed by the path to the home, instead of defining it in the environment. To learn more about using the mcell command, see the BMC Impact Solutions Infrastructure Administration Guide.


On Windows computers, you can stop a cell by using one of the following options:

■ Windows Services■ the net stop command■ the mkill command

NOTE You can change all configurable cell parameters by making changes in the configuration file, mcell.conf. When you start the cell, the cell looks for the configuration file in the default location, MCELL_HOME\etc\cellName\mcell.conf. Use the -c option with the mcell command to have the cell look for the configuration file in a specified location.



On Windows computers, you can start a cell by using one of the following options:

■ Windows Services■ the net start command from a command prompt window

To stop a cell on Windows platforms by using services

1 Open the Services window by choosing Start => Settings => Control Panel => Administrative Tools => Services.

2 Select mcell_cellName.

3 Click Stop Service.

To stop a cell on Windows platforms by using the net stop command

1 Select Start => Programs => Command Prompt.

2 Enter net stop mcell_cellName.

To stop a cell on Windows platforms by using the mkill command


2 Enter mkill -n cellName.

To start a cell on Windows platforms by using services

1 Open the Services window by choosing Start => Settings => Control Panel => Administrative Tools => Services.

2 Select mcell_cellName.

3 Click Start Services.

NOTE If you do not use the -n option when stopping a cell, the default cell, named hostName, is stopped.


Starting a high availability cell

To start a cell on Windows platforms by using the net start command


2 Enter the following command:

net start mcell_cellName.

Starting a high availability cell

Both primary and secondary servers should be started almost at the same time. The preferred order is to start the secondary server first, and then immediately start the primary.

To re-initialize a high availability cell

1 Shut down the primary and secondary servers for the cell.

2 Erase the cell's entire log directory entirely on both servers.

3 Restart the secondary cell server and then the primary cell server without using any of the mcell -i options.

NOTE When used without the -d option, mcell contacts the Service Control Manager to start itself as a service. It uses mcell_%N as a service name. %N is the cell name as specified by the -n option. Without the -n option, the default cell name is the hostname.

WARNING ■ If the primary server is started and terminates before the secondary server is started, the

state of primary and secondary servers may become unsynchronized. If this occurs, you must manually synchronize the servers before restarting either of them.

■ Do not start a high availability cell using any of the mcell -i initialization options (for example, -ia, -id or other variants). This could cause the primary and secondary servers to become unsynchronized.

If the servers become unsynchronized for either of these reasons, see the BMC Impact Solutions Infrastructure Administration Guide for instructions on how to manually synchronize the servers.


Creating and managing cell groups

Creating and managing cell groupsYour access to additional Impact Managers (cells) depends on the access privileges assigned to you by your administrator. You may be able to add cells to your console that are not currently displayed in the navigation pane. You can view the available cells versus the cells already selected for monitoring on the Impact Managers subtab of the Edit Configuration dialog box in BMC Impact Explorer.

Each cell must belong to a group, so when you add cells to your console, you add them to a group. A group can contain just one cell, or it can contain multiple cells, and you can create as many cell groups as you need. Cell groups enable you to organize cells into manageable units.

By default, three cell groups labeled MyProduction, MyTest and Infrastructure Management are created during the installation process. If your user account has operator only permissions, only MyProduction and MyTest are displayed when you first use the BMC IX console. If your user account has administrator permissions, Infrastructure Management is also displayed. You can edit and delete these cell groups.

You can create cell groups and name them according to your organizational needs. For example, you can create a cell group for each of the office locations in your enterprise. Also, as your environment changes, you might need to change the names of the cell groups that you create.

To create a new cell group




3 In the Group text box, enter a new group name.

4 Click Add.

The new cell group is added to Selected Impact Managers.

5 Click OK.

The new cell group is displayed in the navigation pane.



To change a cell group name




3 From Selected Impact Managers, select a cell group.

4 In Group, enter a new name for the cell group.

5 Click Edit.

The Change Group Name Confirmation dialog box is displayed.

6 Click Yes to accept the name change.

7 Click OK.

To remove a cell group name




3 From Selected Impact Managers, select the group that you want to remove.

4 Click Remove.

The Delete Group confirmation dialog box is displayed.

5 Click Yes to remove the cell group.

6 Click OK.

To add cells to a cell group






Available Impact Managers lists all BMC Impact Managers (cells) to which you are connected, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5 Available Impact Managers list for a user account with administrator permissions

3 From Available Impact Managers, select the cell that you want to add to the console.

4 From Selected Impact Managers, select the group to which you want to add the cell.

5 Click the right arrow to move the selected Impact Manager to the selected Impact Manager group.

6 Click OK.

The cell that you added is displayed in its cell group in the navigation pane.

TIP You can select multiple cells at one time, as follows:

■ To select adjacent cells, select the first cell, hold down the Shift key, and select the last cell.

■ To select nonadjacent cells, select a cell, hold down the Ctrl key, and select each of the other cells.

TIP You can also select a cell from Available Impact Managers and drag it to the appropriate cell group in Selected Impact Managers.


C h a p t e r 2
2 Start monitoring and managing events

Accessing the Events view in the BMC Impact Explorer console. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Understanding elements of the event list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Determining the state of an event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66Understanding event status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Understanding event severity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Understanding event priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Viewing event lists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Selecting the type of event list to view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71Viewing event details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Viewing related events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Refreshing and freezing the event list. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Out-of-the-box event management policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Enabling and disabling out-of-the-box standard event management policies. . . 75Verifying that the policy is running . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77


Accessing the Events view in the BMC Impact Explorer console


To access the Events view in the BMC Impact Explorer (BMC IX) console, click the Events tab. The Events view contains a toolbar, a navigation pane, the event list, and subtabs containing various types of details about the events that are displayed in the events list. You can view events for a cell, a collector, a MetaCollector, or an event group.

Figure 6 identifies and Table 8 describes the main areas of the Events view.

Figure 6 Location of elements in the Events view

Table 8 Description of elements in the Events view (part 1 of 2)

# Name Description

1 View Selection tabs provide access to the Events, Services, and Administration Views

2 Information Display Selection tabs

provide access to the available categories of event information such as cells, cell groups, collectors, MetaCollectors, and event groups

12

3

4

5

6

7



Using the navigation pane on the Events tab, you can view cells, cell groups, collectors, and MetaCollectors in a hierarchical tree, as shown in Figure 7 on page 64 and described in Table 9 on page 64.

3 navigation pane displays cells, cell groups, collectors, MetaCollectors, and event groups in a hierarchical relationship tree

4 Event Sources list provides access to the default filters, which provide variations of the event list:

■ list all events

■ limit the event list to active, new, closed, or blackout events in the following categories:

— Basic Information: displays the default slots of the class EVENT

— Supervisor Information: displays the same slots as Basic Information, except that action count is replaced by current owner

— SMC Information: displays information from the collector MC_SMC_EVENT that collects all events in which the mc_smc_id slot contains information

■ list service model component events in the following categories:— impact events— status history events

For more information, see the BMC Impact Solutions Event Management Guide.

5 Slots columns that display the status, priority, severity, action count (Occurrences), event relation, receipt date (Occurred), and message for events

6 event list displays the contents of a cell or collector as a list of events with slot information and filters.

Each line of the list represents one event.

7 details pane displays details about the currently selected event in each subtab

For descriptions of each subtab, see the BMC Impact Solutions Event Management Guide.

Table 8 Description of elements in the Events view (part 2 of 2)

# Name Description



Figure 7 Events view navigation pane

Table 9 Description of elements in the Events view navigation pane (part 1 of 2)

# Name Icon Description

1 View Selection tabs

none access the Events, Services, or Administration Views

2 Collectors subtab

displays the cells, cell groups, and collectors available for viewing

3 MetaCollectors subtab

displays the MetaCollectors available for viewing

4 Event Groups subtab

displays the event groups available for viewing

5 cell group icon identifies a cell group

6 cell icon identifies a cell

7 hierarchy indicator

indicates existence of a hierarchy below the monitored cell, cell group, or collector

1

23

45

67

8

9 10


Understanding elements of the event list

Understanding elements of the event listFrom the event list, you can access the event data collected for the cells contained in your BMC Impact Manager (BMC IM) environment. Also, you can

■ select a different view for the event list of a cell or collector■ access the specific details collected for an event■ perform operations on an event, such as take or decline ownership or reopen■ annotate individual or multiple events ■ explore event relationships■ copy and print event data

The event list displays selected event details, including operational status. Each row in the table shows information for one event. The columns are determined by the type of information that you select in Event Sources and the slots (event attributes) selected for display. For example, if you select All Events and Basic Information from the Event Sources list, the default event list displays the following columns:

■ status■ priority■ severity■ action count (number of remote actions applied to the event)■ event relations■ receipt date of the event■ message associated with the event

8 collector icon identifies a collector

9 severity level indicator

identifies by color the highest severity level of the events contained in the collector (for the configured statuses).

For more information about the severity levels for events, see Table 14 on page 69.


10 event count none displays the number of events contained in the collector and the number of events that you selected to count.


Table 9 Description of elements in the Events view navigation pane (part 2 of 2)

# Name Icon Description


Determining the state of an event

The set of slots (columns) presented in the event list is called the slot order. Depending on your role and access privileges, you can select different slots to see other event information (and therefore other columns in the event list). When you change the slots presented, either by adding or removing slots or by rearranging them, you are changing the slot order. To use a new slot order, you must associate it with a filter. For instructions, see the BMC Impact Solutions Event Management Guide.

You can click a column heading in the event list to switch between ascending and descending sort order according to that column. For example, you could display the events sorted by date, either earliest to latest (ascending order) or newest to oldest (descending order). You could also display the events sorted by their messages, which would display them in alphabetical order (ascending order) or reverse alphabetical order (descending order).

If the event has related events, one of the icons shown in Table 10 on page 66 is displayed in the event relations column.

You can also customize the display of the event list, as described in the BMC Impact Solutions Event Management Guide.


The event list displays sufficient information for you to recognize an event’s current state quickly. Each event’s state depends on multiple factors:

■ severity, reflected in the severity icon and color of the event line■ priority, reflected in the priority icon■ the last event operation performed on the event, reflected in the status icon

When you perform an event operation on an event, the state of the event changes according to Table 11.

Table 10 Event relations icons

Icon Event relation

Generic

Notification

Incident

iBRSD-related incident errors



Figure 8 on page 67 shows how an event in any state is affected by the operations that are valid for that current state. The circles represent the event states. Each arrow represents an action, with the direction of the arrow indicating the flow of the action. For example, if the event is currently in the Acknowledged Event state, you can perform a Reopen Event, Close Event, Take Ownership, or Assign To action. Conversely, for that event to be in the Acknowledged Event state, an Acknowledge Event or Decline Ownership action must have been taken against it.

Figure 8 How event operations affect event state

A user with a supervisory role (Full Access is the only default supervisory role) can select Supervisor Information from the secondary menu of the Event Sources list to see current operator information based on the last event operation applied. This information is displayed in the mc_owner column in the event list, according to Table 12.

Table 11 Event states resulting from event operations

Event operation performed Resulting state

Acknowledge Event Acknowledged

Take Ownership Assigned

Decline Ownership Acknowledged

Assign To Assigned

Close Event Closed

Reopen Event Open

Black Out Blacked Out


Understanding event status

Other factors can also affect the information displayed, such as whether an event has been propagated, abstracted, correlated, or recycled.

Understanding event status

The status of an event provides basic information about the event’s response activity. The cell assigns a status value to each event, and then you can change the status by performing event operations or other actions on the event. Also, the status of the event can be changed automatically by a rule.

Table 13 lists the icons that are displayed in the event list to represent event status.

The color of the status icon is always the same. However, if you have configured the Events View to use the severity color for the event line, the color of the icon’s background varies with the severity of the event.

Table 12 Current operator information in event list

Last event operation action Current operator information displayed in mc_owner

Take Ownership logon user ID of the user who took ownership

Assign To logon user ID of the user to whom the event is assigned

Decline Ownership none

Close none

Acknowledge none

Reopen none; this operation clears previous information from the event list

Set Priority no change to displayed information

Table 13 Event status icons

Icon Event status

Open

Closed

Acknowledged (ACK)

Assigned

Blackout


Understanding event severity

Understanding event severity

Each event has a severity level associated with it that indicates the seriousness of the event. In combination with status and priority, the severity level indicates the urgency of the need to take action. For example, a high severity level for an event in the Closed status is no cause for alarm, but a high severity level for an event in the Open status and with a priority of 1 indicates an urgent need for action.

The color of each line (row) in the event list table is determined by settings in the Events View subtab in the Edit Configuration dialog box and by the severity of the event depicted in the line, as follows:

■ If you selected Line Color Severity in the configuration, the line shows the color associated with the severity level of the event.

For events that have no severity (statuses Closed and Blackout have no severity level associated with them), the line has no color (is displayed as white).

■ If you did not select Line Color Severity, the line has no color (is displayed as white).

Table 14 lists the default severity levels and colors for the events that appear in the navigation pane and event list and shows the icons used in the event list.

The event with the highest severity level in an event group on the Event Group tab determines the severity indicator that you see for the event group in the navigation tree. For example, if one event has a severity of Critical, the event group is displayed in the navigation tree with a Critical (red) severity indicator.

Table 14 Event severity levels

Color Icon in Event List Severity level

red CRITICAL

dark orange MAJOR

light orange MINOR

yellow WARNING

blue INFO

green OK

gray UNKNOWN


Understanding event priority

Understanding event priority

In addition to a severity level, each event has a priority level. Distinguishing between severity and priority helps you to understand which event requires action first. Table 15 lists the icons that are displayed in the event list to represent event priority.

Viewing event lists The procedures for viewing events for a cell, a collector, a MetaCollector, and an event group are similar. They differ in the tab or the tree icon that you select. BMC Impact Explorer (BMC IX) displays the events for the selected object in the event list pane.

To view the event list for a cell

1 At the top of the Events navigation pane, click the Collectors tab .

2 Expand the hierarchy to locate the cell whose events you want to display.

3 Click the cell.

To view the event list for a collector

1 At the top of the Events navigation pane, click the Collectors tab .

2 Expand the hierarchy to locate the collector whose events you want to display.

3 Click the collector.

Table 15 Event priority icons

Icon Event Priority

Priority 1 (highest)

Priority 2

Priority 3

Priority 4

Priority 5 (lowest)


Selecting the type of event list to view

To view the event list for a MetaCollector

1 At the top of the Events navigation pane, click the MetaCollectors tab .

2 Expand the hierarchy to locate the MetaCollector whose events you want to display.

3 Click the MetaCollector.

To view the event list for an event group

1 At the top of the Events navigation pane, click the Event Groups tab .

2 Expand the hierarchy to locate the event group whose events you want to display.

3 Click the event group.

Selecting the type of event list to view

From the Event Sources list box, you can select different views of the event list, including events that match specific criteria or the results from a filter, as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9 Event Sources selection

For more information about filtering, see BMC Impact Solutions Event Management Guide.

Available event list viewsEvent Sources list box


Viewing event details

Viewing event details

From the Events View, you can access various kinds of data for an event. The details pane provides tabs that categorize the data, as described in BMC Impact Solutions Event Management Guide. If you hide the details pane, you can access the same information by double-clicking the event in the event list or by selecting the event and choosing View => Event Details from the menu bar.

Viewing related events

An event in the event list displays one or more icons when that event has another event associated with it. The icon that is displayed depends on the type of event to which it is associated. For example, if the related event is about trouble ticket information, an icon that represents a trouble ticket is displayed.

You can view related events in the following ways:

■ from the events list■ from the main menu

To view related events from the events list

1 From the events list, right-click a row.

2 From the menu, choose Views => Related Events.

A list of related events is displayed.

3 Perform one of the following actions:

■ To view one type of related event, select a type.

An event list of the selected type, as denoted by its title, is displayed.

■ To view all related events, select Show all related events.

All related events are displayed.

NOTE If you move the cursor over an event relations icon, a summary of the number of related events by category is displayed briefly.


Refreshing and freezing the event list

To view related events from the main menu

1 From the main menu, choose View => Related events.

2 Perform one of the following actions:

■ To view one type of related event, select a type.

An event list of the selected event, as denoted by its title, is displayed.

■ To view all related events, select Show all related events.

All related events are displayed.

Refreshing and freezing the event list All of the event sources in the BMC Impact Manager system can generate thousands of events. You can choose whether to view all of those events as they occur. You can configure refresh of the event list to occur automatically or manually, and even if you use the automatic refresh, you can manually refresh at any time to be sure that you have the most recent data. When you manually refresh the event list, the cell is queried for any changes in events. The console updates the event list if changes are present.

Using manual refresh gives you the ability to freeze the event list at an instant. Freezing the event list can be useful for troubleshooting, in that it prevents the events of interest from being displaced in the view by new events at each refresh interval. Instead of being displayed in the event list, new events increment the Pending Events indicator at the lower right of the event list pane.

To automatically refresh the event list

1 In the Events View, choose Edit => Configuration.

2 In the Edit Configuration dialog box, configure the function and the refresh interval, as follows:

A On the Global subtab, select Auto Refresh active by default.

B On the Impact Managers subtab, in the advanced option, specify a value in Refresh Freq (in seconds).

3 On the event list, ensure that Auto Refresh is active.


Out-of-the-box event management policies

If Auto Refresh is not enabled and active when an event is modified externally from the console, the event is not updated until you manually refresh the event list.

To manually refresh the event list

Use any of the following methods:

■ From the menu bar, choose View => Refresh.■ On the toolbar, click Refresh .■ Press F5.

To freeze the event list

In the upper-left corner of the event list, click Auto Refresh .

The auto refresh activity stops. The list updates only when you click Auto Refresh or Refresh again.

Out-of-the-box event management policies Several event management policies are included with the product that enable you to interactively set up routine event processing quickly. Table 16 lists the out-of-the-box policies and indicates whether or not each out-of-the-box policy is enabled by default.

NOTE If the cell is extremely busy, the event list may not be refreshed until the cell completes the current event processing load.

Table 16 Out-of-the-box policies (part 1 of 2)

Policy type Policy name Description Enabled?

Closure PATROL_Portal_Closure closes previous Portal events for the same managed object

Yes

Adapter_Start_Stop_Closure closes previous events for the same adapter instance

Yes

Client_Stop_Closes_Start Client Stop events close Client Start events and then close themselves

Yes

Component Based Enrichment

Sample_Component_Based_Enrichment_Policy

enriches the definition of an event associated with a component by assigning selected component slot definitions to the event slots.

No


Enabling and disabling out-of-the-box standard event management policies

For instructions on using these out-of-the-box policies, see the BMC Impact Solutions Event Management Guide.


This section provides instructions for enabling and disabling out-of-the-box standard event management policies.

For instructions on enabling out-of-the-box dynamic data enrichment policies, see the BMC Impact Solutions Event Management Guide.

Dynamic Blackout Dynamic_Blackout suppresses events that meet a specified criteria during a specified time period.

No

Dynamic Enrichment Location_Enrichment appends the location of a server to an event

No

Service_Contact_Enrichment appends contact information for a server administrator to an event. For example, contact information may include the name of the administrator for that server and his or her telephone number.

No

PATROL_Message_Translation replaces the text of existing PATROL event messages with messages that can be more easily understood by operators in your enterprise.

No

Intelligent Incident Service

Sample_Intelligent_Incident_Service_Policy

creates Intelligent Incidents in Remedy No

Notification BASIC_EMAIL sends a notification email to a specified user or users when selected events occur

No

Propagation Event_Propagation_To_Remedy_Help_Desk

propagates events to Remedy Helpdesk No

Recurrence Apache_Login_Failed_Repeats handles repeating Apache Login Failed events

No

Patrol_Portal_DeDup_Policy handles repeating Portal events for the same managed object

Yes

Suppression Blackout_Suppression suppresses Blackout events No

Timeout PATROL_Portal_Timeout times out OK Portal events Yes

Table 16 Out-of-the-box policies (part 2 of 2)

Policy type Policy name Description Enabled?



To enable or disable a standard event management policy

1 From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration view, expand the Policy Type folder.

2 Under the By Policy Type folder, select the policy type for the out-of-the-box standard event policy that you want to enable.

Out-of-the-box standard event policies are included under the following policy types:

■ Closure Policy■ Recurrence Policy■ Suppression Policy■ Timeout Policy

A list of out-of-the-box standard event management policies of that policy type are displayed in the right pane of the Administration view as shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10 List of event management policies

3 From the list of event management policies, select the policy that you want to enable.

The Details tab for that policy is displayed in the details pane of the Administration view.

4 On the BMC Impact Manager toolbar, click the Update Policy button to enable the Details tab to be edited.

5 Enable or disable the policy by selecting or deselecting the Enabled check box.

6 Click OK.

BMC Impact Explorer saves the defined event management policy, and it is displayed in the list of event policies for the selected event selector.


Verifying that the policy is running


To verify that the policy is running,

1 Send an event that should trigger the policy

2 Access the History tab, scroll down to the Operations Log and verify that your policy has executed.

Figure 11 shows the History tab for a successfully executed dynamic data enrichment policy.

Figure 11 History tab showing executed dynamic data enrichment policy


C h a p t e r 3
3 Start service modeling
This chapter provides the basic tasks needed to build and publish a service model. For more detailed and advanced information, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Modeling and Publishing Guide. This chapter presents the following topics:

Service modeling overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Launching the BMC Service Model Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Building a service model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Creating service component instances in BMC Impact Service Model Editor . . . 81Finding existing component instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83Assigning components to a SIM cell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85Defining relationships between component instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Define alias formulas to enable event-to-component associations . . . . . . . . . . . . 87Assign components to service schedules (optional). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Promoting the service model to the BMC Atrium CMDB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91About the publishing process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91Before you promote. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92Submitting a promotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92Verifying promotion status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94


Service modeling overview

Service modeling overviewFigure 12 illustrates the procedures to create and view a service model. This chapter will provide a high-level procedural overview of these tasks. For more detailed information and advanced procedures, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Modeling and Publishing Guide.

Figure 12 Service modeling workflow

Launching the BMC Service Model EditorYou can open BMC Impact Service Model Editor from the BMC Portal.

To log on to BMC Impact Service Model Editor from BMC Portal

1 Access the following URL: https://serverName.

serverName represents the name of the server on which BMC Portal is installed.

2 Log on to BMC Portal as a user.

For instructions for logging on to BMC Portal, see the BMC Portal Getting Started.

3 On the Configure tab, in the navigation pane on left side, under Tasks, click BMC Impact Service Model Editor.


Building a service model

Building a service modelTo build a service model you must complete these procedures:

■ Find and create component instances■ Assign component instances to a SIM cell■ Define relationships between component instances■ Define alias formulas to enable event-to-component associations■ (Optional) assign components to service schedules

Creating service component instances in BMC Impact Service Model Editor

Service component instances are the building blocks of a Service Impact Model. You can create a service component instance in BMC Impact Service Model Editor using a menu command or you can use the Templates window.

Before you begin

Ensure that you have the service catalog spreadsheet that lists IT components and their relationships. For information on creating this spreadsheet, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Modeling and Publishing Guide.

To create a service component instance by using the menu command

1 With a sandbox View open, from the menu bar, choose Edit => Create Component.

2 In the Create Component dialog box, on the General tab, scroll in the Component Type pane and select the appropriate component type for the instance that you are creating.

NOTE When you open BMC Impact Service Model Editor, a new sandbox View opens automatically if you have no saved Views. You can also open a new sandbox View at any time by clicking on the toolbar.

If you have saved Views, you can open the appropriate View from the Views panel.

NOTE The service component types are listed in hierarchical order, not in alphabetical order.


Creating service component instances in BMC Impact Service Model Editor

3 On the General tab, perform the following steps:

A In the Component Name box, replace the default name with a specific component instance name that is meaningful to your enterprise and that you want to use as the component’s label in a View.

B In the Cell box, accept the default, unassigned, or select the cell that will receive events for the component instance.

BMC Impact Service Model Editor retrieves the list of cell names from the BMC Atrium CMDB. If the cell that you need is not listed, see the BMC Portal Getting Started guide for information about adding a cell.

To create a service component instance by using the Templates window

1 With a sandbox View open, find the appropriate service component type (class) for the instance that you are creating in the Templates window. The Templates window is on the left side of the screen.

2 Drag the component type from the Templates window to the View-Sandbox window.

When placing objects in the sandbox View window, place consumer instances above provider instances for a hierarchical layout.

3 In the View-Sandbox window, right-click the new component icon and select Edit Component Properties.

On the General tab, in the Component Type pane, the component type you chose is selected by default.

If you chose the wrong component type, click Cancel and start again with step 2.

NOTE When you open BMC Impact Service Model Editor, a new sandbox View opens automatically if you have no saved Views. You can also open a new sandbox View at any time by clicking on the toolbar.

If you have saved Views, you can open the appropriate View from the Views panel.


Finding existing component instances

4 On the General tab, perform the following steps:

A In the Component Name box, replace the default name with a specific component instance name that is meaningful to your enterprise and that you want to use as the component’s label in a View.

B In the Cell box, accept the default, unassigned, or select the cell that will receive events for the component instance.

BMC Impact Service Model Editor retrieves the list of cell names from the BMC Atrium CMDB. If the cell that you need is not listed, see the BMC Portal Getting Started guide for information about adding a cell.

5 If desired, specify other, optional, component properties in the General, Status and Alias, Permissions, Schedule, and Other tabs.

For instructions on defining these component properties, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Modeling and Publishing Guide.


You can search the BMC Atrium CMDB for existing component instances by using the Find command. Only component instances associated with classes that are designated for service impact management in the BMC Atrium CMDB can be found in the BMC Impact Service Model Editor.

You cannot search for relationships with the Find command, but when related component instances are found and placed in a View, their relationships are also placed in the View.

WARNING ■ If unassigned is chosen, the component instance is automatically set to Not In Model

and cannot be published.

■ BMC Impact Service Model Editor verifies that the cell name chosen is present in the BMC Impact Portal, but if the component instance is created outside of BMC Impact Service Model Editor or if the cell is deleted from BMC Impact Portal after it has been created but before it is published, data integrity errors may result.



To find existing component instances

1 From the menu bar, choose Window => Find.

2 On the Find tab, in the Component Name box, enter the name of the component instance that you want to find.

3 (optional) Save the search statement by clicking Add to Saved Finds and reuse it by clicking Open Saved Finds.

4 (optional) In the Look in area, accept the default, Sandbox and Production, or filter the list of component instances in the results pane by choosing Production Only or Test Only.

5 (optional) To define the attributes that are displayed in the results table and their order, right-click in any column heading and select Configure table columns.

The attributes shown in the Available Attributes pane are

■ listed in alphabetical order■ common to all component types

In the Configure Find Results dialog box, select the appropriate attributes.

■ To change the order of the columns in the final results display, use the up and down arrow buttons.

■ To move the attributes that you want to display into the Attributes to Show pane, use the left and right arrow buttons.

6 To start the search, click Find.

While the search is in progress, a find-activity indicator spins next to the Find button. You might see results before the search is complete. The indicator disappears when the search is complete.

7 In the Results pane, review the results of the search.

NOTE To display a list of all component instances, leave the Component Name box blank and click Find.

You can enter a partial name by using the % sign as a wildcard before the partial name, after it, or both (for example, %Sales%, Sales%, or %Sales).


Assigning components to a SIM cell

The default sort order is by component name, if component name is one of the columns you choose to display. If component name is not chosen for display, the default sort order is creation date and time.

To sort the values in any column, click the column heading. To change the order of the columns from left to right, drag the column headings.

For each user, the last-used settings are saved and reapplied at the next logon session.

8 (optional) In the results pane, select one of the instances and take any of the following actions:

■ To place objects in a new View window, click Open in New View.

■ To place objects in the active View window, drag the instances into the View window or select them and click Place in Selected View.

When you move one instance into a View, if the object already exists in that View window, the Duplicate Component dialog box opens. To shift the View focus so that you can see the existing object, click Go to Component.

If you select more than one component instance to move into view, the Go to Component button is not available.

■ To view the characteristics of a selected component instance, click Show Properties.

9 (optional) To start another search, click Reset to clear all the selection criteria options on the Find tab to the default values (blank component name field, All Components, no results in table).

For instructions on using the Advanced and Conditional Find capabilities, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Modeling and Publishing Guide.

Assigning components to a SIM cell

Before you can assign a component to a cell, first you must identify the target cells that share component relationships. Next, in the cells that share relationships, make entries in each mcell.dir file to identify the other related cells.

For example, you intend to publish different component instances of your model across five different cells (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), but only three cells (1, 3, 5) share a relationship. The mcell.dir file of cell 1 should have entries identifying cells 3 and 5; the mcell.dir file of cell 3 should have entries identifying cells 1 and 5; and the mcell.dir file of cell should have entries identifying cells 1 and 3.


Defining relationships between component instances

To assign related component instances to cells

1 In an active View window, from the menu bar, choose Edit => Edit Component Properties.

The General tab of the Edit Component Properties dialog box displays the corresponding component type in the component type hierarchy. The component instance name is displayed in the Component Name box.

If you chose more than one component instance, the Edit Multiple Component Properties dialog box is displayed.

2 In the Edit Component Properties dialog box (or Edit Multiple Component Properties dialog box), in the Cell box, select the cell to which you want to publish the components.

3 To assign other related components to a different cell, select them in the View window, and repeat steps 1 and 2.

Defining relationships between component instances

Impact relationships define how status propagation is passed from the provider component instance to the consumer component instance. An active relationship is an impact relationship and indicates that the status of the consumer instance depends on the status of the connected provider instance. An inactive relationship means that no dependency exists or that the dependency is irrelevant to the model; in either case, an impact relationship does not exist.

Whenever the status of the provider instance changes, it is propagated to the connected consumer component instance.

For each component instance for which you are creating relationships, you must know

■ whether it is a consumer or a provider for the related component■ its relationship state value (active or inactive)■ its status propagation model value (relationship policy)

After you have created relationships, test them to verify that they function in the way that you intended.


Define alias formulas to enable event-to-component associations

To create a component instance provider-consumer relationship

1 In the View window, on the toolbar, click .

The default relationship direction is from provider to consumer. If necessary, you can change it to consumer to provider by clicking on the arrow next to the tool.

In draw mode, the cursor changes to .

2 Draw a relationship line from provider to consumer by clicking at the top of the provider component and moving to the bottom of the consumer component, and then click again.

3 On the toolbar, click Selection and right-click on the relationship line you just drew.

For more information and other methods to create relationships, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Modeling and Publishing Guide.


When an event is received by a cell, its event alias slot is checked for a value. If this value does not exist, the cell uses an alias association formula to construct an alias. The constructed alias must match the value you entered in the Alias box on the Status and Alias tab in the Create (or Edit) Component Properties dialog box. This section describes how to create the formula. For more information about event alias association, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Modeling and Publishing Guide.

TIP To delete a graphic line that you have started and do not want to complete, press Esc.

WARNING ■ Only one promotion can be processed at a time. If you submit a promotion while a

previous promotion is being processed, the second promotion will not start until the second one is complete.

■ Event class definitions must be the same in all SIM cells. If you add custom event classes, you must manually modify the KB of each cell, recompile the KB, and then restart each cell.



To create an event alias association

1 From the menu bar, choose Tools =>Alias Formulas.

2 In the Event Alias Associations dialog box, click Add.

The list of existing alias event associations displays. To sort either column, click in the column heading.

3 In the Edit Event Alias Associations dialog box (show in Figure 13), in the Name box, enter a name for the event association.

Figure 13 Creating an alias association

4 In the Event Match Criteria area, from the Event Class drop list, select an event class.

BMC Impact Service Model Editor looks at the first available cell and uses its event classes in the list.

When an event comes in, its event class has to match the event class or a subclass of the event class before the alias formula is even considered.



5 (optional) In the Match Attributes box, choose attributes and enter values to refine which events (within the event class) will generate aliases. For details, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Modeling and Publishing Guide.

6 In the Alias Formula area, use the Attribute, Text, and Function buttons in any order and as many times as needed to build the formula:

A To insert an attribute in the formula, click the Attribute button. The attributes shown are those that belong to the event class you selected in the Event Definition area.

When an attribute is selected, the control shows the attribute name, and the preview area is updated to show the syntax of the formula as it currently exists.

B To insert literal text (for example, a period, semi-colon, the word Oracle), click on the Text button. In the text box, type the literal text that you want in the alias formula.

Literal text appears in the first part of the alias formula with data type definitions.

C To insert a function that defines the data type and an expression in the formula, click on the Function button. Type the function and choose the data type.

For a list of functions you can use, see BMC Impact Solutions: Knowledge Base Development.

7 When the alias formula is complete, click Save.

TIP If your formula for a component instance (CI) contains the mc_host slot with a host name value, then the mc_host slot of the matching event definition should also contain the host name value, not the IP address, of the CI. For example, if you assign the mc_host slot in your formula the value mycomputer.abc.com, then the mc_host slot of the incoming event should contain mycomputer.abc.com, not the IP address.

Ask your system administrator for the correct Domain Name System (DNS) resolution if the object represented by the component instance experiences host name resolution errors.


Assign components to service schedules (optional)

Assign components to service schedules (optional)

Schedule information is stored in the BMC Atrium CMDB and can be viewed in BMC Impact Portal and BMC IX. If a schedule is not selected for a component, the component will have a default schedule of 24 x 7 x 365 (always in schedule).

After service schedules are created, you can assign components to schedules.

Full Access, Service Administrators, and Service Managers user groups have access to the schedule editor.

To assign components to service schedules

1 Select one or more components in the active View to which you want to assign to a service schedule.

2 Choose Edit=>Edit Component Properties.

3 On the Schedule tab, in the Schedule pane, click Select.

The Select a Schedule dialog box contains the During Schedule and Exceptions Within During Schedule timeframes. By default, components are assigned the always-in-During Service schedule (24 x 7 x 365).

— To choose a schedule for the components, select the schedule from the Schedules pane and click OK.

— To edit an schedule, select a schedule and click Edit to display the Schedules Editor. For more information about editing schedules see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Modeling and Publishing Guide.

— To view what component instances are using the selected schedule, click Usages.

— To view the details of what times and dates are specified in a selected timeframe, click Timeframe Details.

4 Click OK.

NOTE For information about creating service schedules, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Modeling and Publishing Guide.


Promoting the service model to the BMC Atrium CMDB

Promoting the service model to the BMC Atrium CMDB

After promoting component instances in BMC Impact Service Model Editor, these changes are stored in the production dataset (BMC.ASSET) in the BMC Atrium CMDB and are automatically published (by default) to the assigned cells. When your service model data is successfully published to the cells, the BMC Impact Publishing Server updates the BMC.IMPACT.PROD dataset, which mirrors the last successful publish to the cells.

About the publishing process

Promotion and publishing are decoupled. Promotion is initiated and controlled from BMC Impact Service Model Editor, while publication is controlled by BMC Impact Publishing Server.

There are two modes of running the BMC Impact Publishing Server.

■ In automated mode, by default, publication is initiated by the completion of a reconciliation job run, such as after a promotion.

■ In manual mode, publication is initiated from CLI commands.

Note that a successful promotion does not guarantee that the automated publication will also be successful. For more details about automated publishing, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Modeling and Publishing Guide.

During the publishing of a service model, new or modified service model components and their relationships are selected from the BMC.ASSET dataset in the BMC Atrium CMDB and copied to respective BMC Impact Manager cells. The objects in BMC.ASSET are compared to any previously published instance in BMC.IMPACT.PROD and the changes between them are sent to the cell. BMC.IMPACT.PROD is then updated with the changes.

After events that affect service component instances are received by the cell, you can monitor status changes using BMC Impact Explorer or BMC Portal for the published component instances.


Before you promote

Before you promote

To ensure a successful promotion and publication of the service model, verify that:

■ each component instance is assigned to a cell

■ all target cells that are registered in the BMC Impact Portal are running and have a live connection with the BMC Impact Publishing Server

■ event types are associated with component instances

■ the BMC Impact Publishing Server is running in automated mode by using the CLI command psstat. This command should return Started - Automated mode.

■ your user account belongs to one of these user groups: Service Administrator, Service Manager, or Service Manager - Senior (these are the default user group assignments; you may change them)

■ the SIM class definitions are in sync. The BMC Impact Publishing Server validates the class definitions and establishes a live connection with BMC Impact Portal, the BMC Atrium CMDB, and the cells before submitting the publication.

Submitting a promotion

When you submit a promotion, the Promotion Preview dialog box offers the opportunity to compare your unpromoted sandbox service model component instances and relationships with those that have already been promoted so that you can verify the work done in the current editing session. When you click Begin Promotion, service model objects (component instances, impact relationships, and management data) shown in the preview are promoted (and subsequently automatically published).

To promote all sandbox component instances and relationships

1 From the menu bar, choose File => Promote All Sandbox Changes.

2 In the Promotion Preview dialog box, in the Objects to be Promoted area, choose how you want to filter the list of objects that you see. When you filter the list, it only affects what is visible, not what will be promoted. All items will be promoted.

In the first Show list, choose All, Components, Relationships, Components and Relationships, or Management Data.

In the second Show list, choose All Actions, New Objects, Changed Objects, or Deleted Objects.


Submitting a promotion

The component instances and relationships to be promoted are listed in the left pane.

3 In the results pane, review the list of objects.

The default sort order of objects is by Action, then Type (component or relationship), and then by Object Name. To change the sort order, click in the column heading.

The icons in the Action and Type columns are defined in Table 17. The icons in the Class column match the icons associated with the component type in the Templates dockable window.

4 In the Comparison of Sandbox and Promoted Property Values area, for the Show options, select Changed Properties or All Properties for the component instances you selected in the Objects to be Promoted pane.

5 Select one or more objects in the left pane and, in the right pane, compare the new and previously published property values to verify that the new data is correct before you publish it.

6 Click Begin Promotion.

The Promotion in Progress dialog box is displayed, along with the elapsed time since the promotion was started. Even if BMC Impact Service Model Editor is shut down and restarted, the elapsed time will reflect the total time since the promotion was originally started.

7 (optional) To stop the promotion, in the Promotion in Progress dialog box, click Stop.

Table 17 Icons in Objects-to-be-Published pane

Column heading Icon Description

Action object was deleted

object was added

object was modified

Type component

relationship

timeframe or service schedule


Verifying promotion status

Closing the dialog box does not stop the promotion; the promotion continues in the background.

8 (optional) To exit BMC Impact Service Model Editor, click Exit SME, then click the appropriate selection on the confirmation dialog box.

9 A status message indicates the success or failure of the promotion request.

If the promotion and subsequent automated publication processes are successful, the service model is available to the specified cells and you can monitor the component instances in BMC Impact Portal and in BMC Impact Explorer.

For troubleshooting information, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Modeling and Publishing Guide.

Verifying promotion status

After you submit a promotion request, you can view its status in the Promotion in Progress dialog box that displays after a promotion is requested.

After the promotion process completes, a dialog box will display indicating whether the promotion succeeded or failed.

If the promotion fails, the Promotion Status dialog box declares a promotion failure along with the error, a timestamp, and the user name of the submitter. Click OK to dismiss the dialog box.

Note that a publication success or failure is not shown in the dialog box, but can be viewed in the Promote and Publish History dialog box (Tools => Promote and Publish History) or using the plog requestID | plogdisplay -@ commands. For more information about CLI commands, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Modeling and Publishing Guide.


C h a p t e r 4
4 Start monitoring and managing services

Cross-launching to and from other consoles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96BMC Impact Explorer Services View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96Configuring BMC Impact Explorer for the Services View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98Monitoring business services in BMC Impact Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Opening an Impact/Cause View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102Viewing service component instances through the navigation pane . . . . . . . . . 102Finding service component instances to view. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104Viewing information about a service component. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105Viewing the events associated with a component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Searching for related service components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107Filtering service component instances in the Impact/Cause View by status. . . 107Searching for the cause of or impact to a service component’s status. . . . . . . . . 107Searching for provider and consumer components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109


Cross-launching to and from other consoles

Cross-launching to and from other consoles Use the Launch button in the Impact/Cause View to start or switch to the console of another BMC Software product so you can view additional information or perform tasks on the currently selected service component. The Launch menu command is available only if you have sufficient permission to perform the launch.

Other BMC Software consoles can cross-launch into the BMC Impact Explorer Services view. The component from which they cross-launch is displayed in the Impact/Cause View and its immediate consumers and providers are displayed.

BMC Impact Explorer Services ViewThe Services View of BMC IX is the view that service managers and IT operations staff use to monitor the service model. Service managers can view service models that represent a company’s business services. The service models are created in the service model editor by organizing service model components into hierarchical relationships that can then be navigated by operators and service managers from the Services View.

The service managers use the Services View to

■ see whether a service model component consumes the services of another service model component (consumer) or whether it provides service to another component (provider). The status of the provider component impacts the status of the consumer component via the service relationship.

■ see the Service View impact graph for the service model components.

■ see the relationships in which a service model component participates in the Impact/Cause View of the Services View, as shown in Figure 14 on page 97.

■ to monitor business services and determine the root cause of a problem or the impact that a service model component has on a business service.

NOTE The BMC Software product must be registered in the BMC Atrium CMDB. The class BMC_FederatedProduct in the BMC.CORE.CONFIG namespace holds the unique registry value for products.


BMC Impact Explorer Services View

Figure 14 Location of elements in the Services View

Table 18 describes the elements in the Services View, Figure 14 on page 97.

Table 18 Description of elements in the Services view

No. Name Description

1 menu bar provides commands for configuring and refreshing the Services view

2 Services Group tab provides access to the components contained in the Service model

3 navigation pane displays logical groups of components in a hierarchical relationship tree.

The navigation pane tree is created with the Console Navigation Tree in the BMC Impact Service Model Editor. It must be published before you can view it in the Services view.

4 Find Service Components box

enables you to search for specific components that you want to display in the Impact/Cause view

5 view selection tabs access the Events, Services, and Administration Views

6 Impact/Cause view shows the service component instances and the provider and consumer impact relationships between them

7 Line Style toggle toggles the color of the relationship lines in the Impact/Cause View between black or the color that represents the status that is being propagated from each provider to its consumer


Configuring BMC Impact Explorer for the Services View


In addition to the general display settings that affect all BMC Impact Explorer main tabs, you can configure additional display settings that affect the Services View.

To configure display settings for the Services View


The Edit Configuration dialog appears.

2 Click Services View, as shown in Figure 15.

8 Orientation toggle toggles the orientation of the components in the Impact/Cause View between horizontal and vertical

9 service component name tab

identifies the component whose causes or impacts are being explored

10 Zoom list box specifies the level of magnification of the view in the Impact/Cause View

11 Status Quick Filter list box

selects and displays in the Impact/Cause View only the components of the selected status and above

12 service component icons shows the individual components of the currently selected service, including the current status, the impact relationship, and the status of immediate subcomponents (if any subcomponents exist)

13 service component information tabs

display details about the selected component in the Impact/Cause View

14 Launch list box (not seen in the graphic)

enables you to cross-launch the selected published component to Remedy Service Desk.

Note: This list box is visible to the left of the Zoom list box only when BMC IX is configured with CMDB Atrium and Integration for BMC Remedy Service Desk (IBRSD).

Table 18 Description of elements in the Services view

No. Name Description



Figure 15 Edit Configuration Services View

3 Use the information in Table 19 to select the appropriate settings.

4 Click Graph Views as shown in Figure 16.

Table 19 Edit Configuration - Services View display settings

Setting Selections Description

Default Levels to Show Opened

Use the following ■ Consumers■ Providers

Select this option to specify the number of levels of related service component instances that you want to view when you double-click a component in the Impact/Cause View.

No limits - fully expand in both directions

Select this option to view all related service component instances.

Indicator Icons to Show Under a Component

Status Icon for Component Select this check box to show the status icon.

Priority Icon for Component Select this check box to show the priority icon.

SLAs - Status of Worst Targeted SLA

Select this check box to show the status of the worst associated Service Level Agreement.

Note: This indicator requires the BMC Service Level Management product to be installed.

New Service Group Name Type a service group name. The default is Service Group.



Figure 16 Edit Configuration Graph Views

5 Use the information in Table 20 to select the appropriate settings.


Figure 14 on page 97 and Table 18 on page 97 identify and describe the main areas of the Services view.

Table 20 Edit Configuration - Graph Views display settings

Setting Selections Description

Default Graph Orientation Horizontal Select an option to set the default orientation of the service component instances in the Impact/Cause View.

You can also toggle between horizontal and vertical in the Impact/Cause View.

Vertical

Component Label Name Select an option to set the default name for the service component instances in the Impact/Cause View.

Short Description

Relative Thickness of Links For normal links Specify a number to increase or decrease the thickness of the service component relationship lines.

A true impact link indicates the relationship affects the impact status of the consumer component.

For true impact links

New Service Group Name Type a service group name. The default is Service Group.


Monitoring business services in BMC Impact Explorer

Monitoring business services in BMC Impact Explorer

You monitor published service models that represent your business services in the BMC Impact Explorer Services View Impact/Cause View. The Impact/Cause View provides a graphical representation of the service component instances and how they relate to each other. Figure 17 shows an example of an Impact/Cause View.

Figure 17 BMC Impact Explorer Services View - Impact/Cause View

Depending on whether the default setting is set to horizontal or vertical expansion, the consumer components are displayed on the left or at the top and the direct provider components expand to the right or toward the bottom. A direct consumer or provider component is a component immediately linked to another component. The status of the provider has a direct impact relationship with the consumer component.

The lines between the service component instances represent the state and true impact status of the relationships between the components. For details about component status and relationships, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Impact Management Guide.

Consumer componentImpact relationship lines

Provider components


Opening an Impact/Cause View

Opening an Impact/Cause View

1 Click the Services View at the bottom of the navigation pane in BMC Impact Explorer.

2 Open an Impact/Cause View by using one of the following methods:

■ From the navigation pane, select a service component instance. See “Viewing service component instances through the navigation pane” on page 102.

■ Click and drag the service component instance from the Results list to an empty area of the Impact/Cause View. See “Finding service component instances to view” on page 104.

■ Right-click a service component instance and choose View Service Impact Graph.

3 Double-click a service component instance to open or close its related service component instances.

If you double-click a node that does not have any providers and consumers, the message This object does not have any consumers/providers is displayed.

Viewing service component instances through the navigation pane

Use the navigation pane to view the components associated with a service in the Impact/Causes View. Service managers create the navigation pane tree in BMC Impact Service Model Editor.

The navigation pane tree contains service component instances associated with a production cell. To view service component instances associated with a test cell, use the Find tool. For instructions, see “Finding service component instances to view” on page 104.

NOTE If the navigation pane tree does not reflect published changes, log out and log back in to BMC Impact Explorer.


Viewing service component instances through the navigation pane

The Services Group tab navigation pane is shown in Figure 18.

Figure 18 Services View navigation pane

Table 21 describes the elements in the Services view navigation pane.

Table 21 Description of elements in the Services View navigation pane (part 1 of 2)

Name Description

Services Group tab shows the available service groups

My Services group the top level for locally-defined service groups

subgroup icons identifies user-created subgroups of components (not pictured)

service component icons identifies individual components and subcomponents (not pictured)

Global Services group the top-level node for globally-defined service groups

Business group the top-level node for the navigation tree defined by the service manager in the BMC Impact Service Model Editor (not pictured)


Finding service component instances to view

Finding service component instances to view

Use the Find tool to locate a particular component in a BMC Impact Manager cell and view it in the Impact/Cause View.

To search for a service component instance

1 If the Find Services Component section of the navigation pane is not open, click the Show Find button on the toolbar of the Services View.

2 From In Impact Manager, select the production or test cell to be queried.

3 From Of type, select a component type, such as Computer System, application server, database, and so on. If you select BASE_ELEMENT, all service component instances for all types are returned. For a list of component types, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Impact Management Guide.

Find Service Components box

searches for service component instances that match specific criteria

Use the Find button in the toolbar to view or hide the Find Service Components box.

In Impact Manager list box

specifies the BMC Impact Manager cell to the search for components

Of type list box specifies the component type for the object of the search

For a list of component types, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Impact Management Guide.

Whose name contains text box

specifies all or part of the target component name

This field is case sensitive.

Propagates Priority check box

select this check box to show the Priority Propagator service component instances that pass their priority to a causal component when it is impacted

These components are considered the important components for your business. For further information, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Impact Management Guide.

In SLM Agreement check box

select to show the service components that are associated with a Service Level Agreement

Note: This feature requires the BMC Service Level Management product to be installed.

Results list displays the results of the component search

Table 21 Description of elements in the Services View navigation pane (part 2 of 2)

Name Description


Viewing information about a service component

4 In Whose Name Contains, enter a comparison value.

5 To find only those components that propagate their priority to causal components, select Priority Propagators.

6 Click Find.

All components matching the search criteria appear in Results.

7 Drag the service component to the Impact/Cause View.

Viewing information about a service component

To view information about a service component, click the component in the Impact/Cause View and then select one of the tabs in Table 22. For more information on any of these tabs, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Impact Management Guide.

NOTE If you leave Whose Name Contains or Of Type blank, the search could take a long time, depending on the number of service component instances. Also, the Results list could be very long. You should refine the search by specifying values in one or both of these fields.

TIP To uniquely identify each component listed in Results, you can hover the cursor over each component name to display its unique mc_udid slot value.

Table 22 Services View service component information subtabs (part 1 of 2)

Tab Purpose

General shows the value of slots that contain basic information about a service component

Status shows the value of slots that contain status information about a service component

Priority and Cost shows the value of slots that contain priority and impact information about a service component

Related Components provides search capabilities to find components that are ■ causing impact to the selected component■ impacted by the selected component■ consumers of the selected component■ providers of the selected component

SLM shows information about the service level agreement associated with the component

Note: This tab is visible only when BMC Service Level Management is installed.


Viewing the events associated with a component

Viewing the events associated with a component

Use the Impact/Cause View to locate the events affecting the status of a component, as described in the following procedure. Components that have associated events appear as icons with a blue disk in the upper right corner, as shown in Figure 19.

Figure 19 Service component with associated events

To access event information associated with a component

1 From the Impact/Cause View, find a component with associated events.

2 Right-click the component and select View Events => Impacts.

A floating event list pane is displayed, showing the related events for the component.

Schedule shows the schedule associated with a component

For more information about service component schedules, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Modeling and Publishing Guide.

Other shows attribute values specific to the class of the selected component type, such as a Computer System, Database, Application Server, and so on

These classes and attributes are defined by the BMC Atrium CMDB Common Data Model (CDM). For information about the CDM structure and for details about classes and their attributes, see the Common Data Model Diagram and the Common Data Model Help, both available in CMDB_Installation_Folder\sdk\doc\cdm.

Advanced shows the value of slots that contain creation and security information about a service component

Table 22 Services View service component information subtabs (part 2 of 2)

Tab Purpose


Filtering service component instances in the Impact/Cause View by status

Filtering service component instances in the Impact/Cause View by status

Use the Status Quick Filter to display only the components at and above the status that you specify.

To use the Status Quick Filter

1 Click the down arrow to the right of Status Quick Filter .

2 From the status list, select a status and only objects with that status and above will be shown. For information about service component status, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Impact Management Guide.

The selected status level is applied to the Impact/Cause View and the service component instances are filtered accordingly.

3 To toggle between the filtered view and the original view, click the left portion of

the Status Quick Filter .

Searching for related service components Use the Related Components tab to help determine the cause and impact of service outages and to view the service component instances that provide a service or consume a service. For information about component status, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Impact Management Guide.

To view the related components, perform the following tasks:

■ “Searching for the cause of or impact to a service component’s status”■ “Searching for provider and consumer components” on page 109

Searching for the cause of or impact to a service component’s status

1 Click a component in the Impact/Cause View. For instructions on how to view a component, see “Opening an Impact/Cause View” on page 102.

2 Click the Related Components subtab below the Impact/Cause View.


Searching for the cause of or impact to a service component’s status

3 Select one of the following Relationship types:

4 To search for related components of a specific type, select a Component type from the drop-down list. To view all related components regardless of type, leave the Component type set to Base Element. For a list of component types, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Impact Management Guide

5 Click Search.

Components matching the search criteria are displayed in the Components list, as shown in Figure 20.

Figure 20 Related components cause search

For details about the list, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Impact Management Guide.

6 To view a component in the Components list, select the component, right-click, and then select View => Service Impact Graph.

Select To view

Causes of this component’s status searches beyond the immediate, direct relationships to find the component whose status was propagated to this component to cause the impact

Possible Related Provider Problems shows providers with a negative status but those that are not the cause of the selected component’s status

Provides - All shows all the providers to this consumer

Providers - Direct shows provider components that directly impact the status of the consumer

Impacted Consumers - Direct locates the components impacted by the selected component that are in the level above this component

Consumers - All shows all the consumers to this provider

Consumers - Direct shows components that directly consume the services of the provider component


Searching for provider and consumer components

7 To view the impact or history events associated with a component in the Components list, select the component, right-click, and then select one of the following commands:

■ View => Events■ View => History

■ View => All


1 Click a component in the Impact/Cause View. For instructions on how to view a component, see “Opening an Impact/Cause View” on page 102.

2 Click the Related Components tab below the Impact/Cause View.

3 To view impacts or causes, select one of the following Relationship types:

4 Select a Component type from the drop-down list. To view all related components regardless of type, leave the Component type set to Base Element. For a list of component types, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Impact Management Guide.

5 Click Search.

Components matching the search criteria are displayed in the Components list, as shown in Figure 21.

Figure 21 Related components - providers search

Select To view

Providers - All all providers to this consumer

Providers - Direct provider components that directly impact the status of the consumer

Consumers - All all consumer components associated with the provider component

Consumers - Direct components that directly consume the services of the provider component



For details about the related components subtab, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Impact Management Guide.

6 To view a component in the Components list, select the component, right-click, and then select View=>Service Impact Graph.

7 To view the impact or history events associated with a component in the Components list, select the component, right-click, and then select one of the following commands:

■ View => Events■ View => History

■ View => All


A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Index

AAcknowledged (ACK) event status icon 68active relationship

defined 86adapters

starting 39stopping 41

Add to Saved Finds button 84additional cells

creating on Windows 25Advanced subtab 106alias formulas

creating 88functions in 89

Assigned event status icon 68Auto Bind cell connection property 47automatic refresh 73

BBlackout

event status icon 68blackout policy, creating 76BMC Impact Administration server

defining high availability for Impact Administration cell 24

defining primary and secondary servers 23defining standalone servers 23high availability 23Master server 23Standard server 23

BMC Impact Explorerconsoles, types of 43obtaining a user account on UNIX 21starting 43using to monitor business services 101

BMC Impact Explorer consoleJava Web Start, described 43

BMC Impact Explorer Server (BMC IXS)changing your password 22deleting a connection 51editing a connection 50rearrange BMC IXS list 52removing 51

BMC Impact Manager

creating additional cells 26encoding files for internationalization 20

BMC Impact Portalconnecting BMC IX 50

BMC IX. See BMC Impact ExplorerBMC Software, contacting 2BMC.ASSET data set 91BMC.CORE.CONFIG namespace 96BMC.IMPACT.PROD data set 91BMC_FederatedProduct class 96Business group 103business services

monitoring in BMC Impact Explorer 101

Ccausal components

searching for 107cell

defining high availability for Impact Administration 24

field 82, 83Impact Administration 24list of cell names 82, 83unassigned 82, 83

cell configurationcreating files for specific cells 26

cell groupsadding 58adding cells 58creating 57disconnecting from 47editing name 58icon 64Infrastructure Management 57MyProduction 57MyTest 57removing 58

cellsadding to cell group 58connecting to 47creating on Windows 25icon 64naming, mcrtcell command 25permissions required to start on UNIX 54

Index 111


registering on Windows 42starting and stopping 53starting and stopping on UNIX 53starting and stopping on Windows 54starting or stopping on Windows 54starting with services 55stopping with mkill 55stopping with services 55view information 53viewing event list 70

changing your BMC IXS password 22Closed event status icon 68CMDB

product registration 96collectors

icon 65viewing event list 70

Collectors tab (Events View navigation) 64color

affected by event severity 69event status icon 68

commandskill 41mcell 54mkill 54, 55net start 56net stop 55

component instancescreating 81

Component Label display setting 100configuration

BMC IXS 51configuration files

cell-specific, creating 26mcell.conf 27, 54

configuringdisplay settings for Services View 98setting cell-specific configurations up 26

connectingBMC IX to BMC Impact Portal 50

connecting to a cell or cell group 47connections

cell or cell group 47deleting, BMC IXS 51editing, BMC IXS 50

consoleadding cell groups 58BMC Impact Explorer, types of 43editing cell group names 58rearrange BMC IXS list 52removing BMC IXS 51removing cell groups 58

consolescross-launching 96Services View 100

consumer componentssearching for 109


creatinga cell group 57additional cells on Windows 25alias formulas 88configuration files

cell-specific 26cross-launching to other consoles 96customer support 3

Ddatasets

BMC.ASSET 91BMC.IMPACT.PROD 91

default filtersin Event Sources list 63

Default Levels to Show Opened display settings 99Default SMC Orientation display setting 100deleting

BMC IXS connection 51details pane (Events View) 63disconnecting from a cell or cell group 47display settings, configuring for Services View 98dockable windows

Template 82

EEdit Configuration dialog box

Global tab 48Impact Managers subtab 73

Edit Configuration Services View 99Edit Configuration Services View tab, illustrated 99editing

BMC IXS connection 50cell group names 58

event alias associationscreating 88

event countin Events View navigation 65

Event Details window 72event groups

viewing event list 71Event Groups tab 64event management policies

enabling and disabling 75event priority

icons 70understanding 70

event relationsicons 66

event severityicons 69levels 69

Event Sources list


effect on event list 65location in Events View 63using 71

event state 66See also event status

event statusicons 68understanding 68

eventsassociated with a component 106associated with service component indicator 106event details 72viewing details 72viewing impact or history 109, 110

events listcurrent operator information 68default columns 65elements 65location in Events View 63refreshing 73, 74selecting the type to view 71viewing 70

Events Viewdescribed 62illustrated 62location of elements 62navigation pane 64

Ffiles

mcell.conf 27, 54filtering

service component instances by status 107filters

default 63Find command

configuring results pane 84filtering the results 84

Find Service Components box 104finding

relationships 83finding service components to view 104functions

in alias formulas 89

GGeneral subtab 105General tab 82Global Services

group 103Global tab (Edit Configuration dialog box) 48Go to Component button 85

Hhistory events, viewing 109, 110

Iicons

cell 64cell group 64collector 65Collectors tab 64displaying indicators 99Event Groups tab 64event priority 70event relations 66event severity 69event status 68MetaCollectors tab 64severity level indicator 65

impact events, viewing 109, 110Impact/Cause View

display settings 99, 100filtering service components by status 107illustrated 101locating events affecting component status 106opening 102

impacted componentssearching for 107

In Impact Manager list box 104inactive relationship, defined 86Indicator Icons to Show Under a Component display

settings 99indicators

for events associated with a service component 106showing icons 99

Information Display Selection tabs (Events View) 62Infrastructure Management cell group 57installing

creating additional cells 26postinstallation tasks for SNMP Adapter

Configuration Manager on Windows computers 34

JJava Web Start application, BMC Impact Explorer 43

Kkill command 41

LLaunch button 96Line Color Severity check box 69

Index 113


Mmanually refresh event list 73Match Attributes box for event alias association 89mcell command 54mcrtcell command

options 26MetaCollectors

viewing event list 71MetaCollectors tab (Events View navigation) 64mkill command 54, 55monitoring

business services in BMC Impact Explorer 101My Services group 103MyProduction cell group 57MyTest cell group 57

Nnavigation pane

illustrated 103using to view service components 102

OOf Type list box 104Open event status icon 68Open Saved Finds button 84opening Impact/Cause Views 102options

mcrtcell 26Other subtab 106

Ppassword, changing, BMC IXS 22permissions

considerations for root user 53policies

Blackout 76enabling standard out-of-the-box 75

priorityshowing indicator icon 99

Priority and Cost subtab 105priority. See event priorityproduct support 3promotion

all instances 92guidelines 92requirements before 92status message 94step-by-step instructions 92submitting 92verifying status 94


Propagates Priority check box 104provider components

searching for 107, 109

Rrefreshing the event list

automatically 73manually 74

registering cellson Windows 42

Related Components subtabdescribed 105illustrated 108, 109searching for cause or impact 107searching for provider and consumer service

components 109relations, event

icons 66relationships

active 86finding 83inactive 86selecting 87

Relative Thickness of Links in Service Views display settings 100

removingBMC IXS 51

reorder list of available BMC IXSs 52Reset button in Find 85Results list 104root permissions

considerations 53

Ssave

a search statement 84Schedule subtab 106searching

for provider or consumer components 109for related service components 107for service components to view 104

selectingrelationships 87

service componentsaccessing through navigation pane 102associated events indicator 106event associated with 106filtering by status 107filtering by status in Impact/Cause View 107finding relations 107finding to view 104searching for providers 109viewing information about 105


servicesstarting cells with 55stopping cells with 54

Services Group tab 103Services View

configuring display settings 98console 100described 96illustrated 97Impact/Cause View display settings 99, 100navigation pane, illustrated 103

settingcell-specific configuration up 26

severityeffect on event status icon 68level indicator (Events View navigation) 65, 69

SLM subtab (Services View details) 105slot orders

described 66SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager

postinstallation tasks for Windows installation 34starting

adapters 39starting cells

UNIX platforms 53, 54using mcell 53Windows 54with net start 56with services 55

statusevent icons 68searching for cause or impact 107showing indicator icon 99

Status Quick Filter 107Status subtabs (BMC Impact Explorer)

described 105stopping adapters 41stopping cells

on Windows 54UNIX platforms 54using the mkill command 55with mkill 53with net stop 55with services 55

subtabStatus (BMC Impact Explorer) 105

subtabsAdvanced 106General 105Other 106Priority and Cost 105Related Components 105, 107Schedule 106

support, customer 3SystemLogDirName parameter

used to specify log and trace file directories 54SystemTmpDirName parameter

used to specify trace and log file directories 54

Ttechnical support 3

UUNIX

permissions required to start cells 54root user permissions 53starting cells 53, 54stopping cells 54

user accountsobtaining on UNIX 21

Vverifying promotion status 94View Selection tabs

Events View 62Events View navigation 64

viewingcause or impact 107event details 72event list 70, 71events associated with a component 106history or impact events 109, 110service component information 105service components with find 104types of event lists 71

WWeb Start application, BMC Impact Explorer 43Whose name contains text box 104wildcards

using with Find command 84Windows

starting a cell with services 55starting cells 54starting cells with net start 56stopping a cell with mkill command 55stopping a cell with services 55stopping cells 54stopping cells with net stop 55stopping with mkill 55

Index 115

*97716**97716**97716**97716*

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