Enterprise Edition - Central Server

Enterprise Edition Central Server is the master server through which you will be able to view consolidated data of all the Probe Servers.

• Installation
• Probe Server Configuration
• Adding a New Monitor in Central Server
• Probe Server Groups
• Creating Monitor Groups in Central Server
• Probe Server Actions

More:

• Proxy Probe Server request through Central Server
• User Administration In the Enterprise Editon
• Probe Server Access
• FAQ

Installation

During installation, you need to:

• Select the Edition option as 'Enterprise Edition'.
• Select the installation type as 'Central Server'.
• Enter the HostName, WebServer port, SSL port of the Central Server.
• Kindly carry on with the rest of the installation process.

Probe Server Configuration

The Probe Server automatically gets registered with the Central Server when it starts up. In case you want to edit the configuration, go to Settings tab. Click on Probe Servers link. This will take you to the Probe Server page from where you can configure the Probe Servers. Alternatively, this can be done by clicking on the Probe Servers link just below the main tabs.

Here is how you can configure a Probe Server:

• Click on the Add New link, it opens up the Add New Probe Server form
• Enter the Host Name of the Probe Server
• Enter the Web Server Port number, the port at which the web client is to be connected
• Enter the SSL port number, the port at which secure communication is to be made between the Admin and Probe Server.
• Enter the Server ID, the ID present under Installation Information table under Settings tab -> Tools -> Support of the Probe Server
• Enter the Admin Password for the Probe Server.(Note: This password should be same as that of Admin role password of that Probe server. If user changes that password in the Probe server, then the user has to manually update the same in central server)
• Click on Add Probe Server and the Probe Server gets added. It is displayed under Probe Servers link along with the details of the number of monitors, status, load factor, etc.,

The following Probe sever details are displayed in the table:

• Server ID - The id of the Probe server.
• Display Name - The display name of the Probe server.
• Probe Server Group - The Probe server group to which the server belongs.
• Monitors Status - The health status of the monitor
• Load Factor - The Load Factor of the server.
• Last Polled at - The time last polled at.
• Synching - The syncing status of the Probe server (completed or in progress)
• Download - The status of the Service pack download.
• Upgrade - The upgrade status of the Service Pack.

You can select one or more Probe Servers and click the Download Now link at the bottom of the table to download the Service Pack and the Upgrade Now link to upgrade the Service Pack.

Creating a New Monitor from an Central Server

Applications Manager Enterprise Edition allows you to add monitors and group them from the Central Server in a distributed setup. To add a new monitor in a host, refer these links.

However, while adding a new monitor from an central server, the Probe server under which the monitor is to be added can be selected manually by the user or using load factor by Applications Manager. The value for Maximum monitors allowed per Probe server can be configured in AMServer.properties. The key is am.max.monitorcount.mas and default value is 500.

Selecting Probe Server Using Load Factor:

You can select one of the following options in the Add Monitor Page:

• Least Loaded Probe Server from all Probe Servers
• Least Loaded Probe Server from a Probe Server Group

Selecting Probe Server Specified by the User:

The user can select the Probe server. This will add the monitor directly to the selected Probe server irrespective of load factor and monitor count.

Probe Server Groups

Certain resources can be monitored from Probe servers running in the same domain/ geographical location as the resource. Load factor calculation across all the distributed Probe servers can result in the addition of a monitor in a server located in another domain (since the load factor condition matches). Grouping Probe servers in the same area gives the user the option to use load balancing within the group of Probe servers.

Creating a Probe Server Group:

• Go to the Probe Servers link in Applications Manager.
• In the Probe Servers table, click on the edit icon near the Probe server that you wish to add to a group.
• In the Edit Probe Server window, choose a Probe Server Group from the drop-down menu after entering all the required details. You alternately have the option to Add New Probe Server Group to the list using the + icon.
• While creating a new monitor from an Central Server, after entering the required details, choose the Least Loaded Probe Server from a Probe Server Group load balancing option and select the Probe Server Group from the drop down menu that appears.
• Click Add monitor.

Creating Monitor Groups in Central Server

Various monitors in Probe Servers can be grouped and a consolidated view can be obtained in Central Server. For eg., consider a set up that has three Probe Servers and one Central Server. Each Probe Server has 200 monitors which includes 10 windows servers. If you want to monitor the windows servers in all the three Probe servers as a group, then you can create a new Monitor Group in the central server.

You can create Monitor Groups by following the steps in Create Monitor Group help document. Once you have created the Monitor Group, the next step would be to associate the required monitors from Probe Servers to the Monitor Group in the Central Server. After the setup is done, you can configure the alarms for the Monitor Group. Currently, only EMail and SMS alarm actions are supported.

Probe Server Actions

Fetch Data: There is an option to fetch the data from the Probe servers at the given instant, instead of waiting for the poll to happen.

Edit: You can edit the Probe server details using this option.

Enable/Disable: You can enable/disable data collection in the Probe Server. Note that when you disable, data collection will still take place, you only stop syncing with the Probe server.

Admin Email Settings: An EMail can be configured to be sent once a Probe Server goes down and also once every 24 hrs till the Probe Server is up again. The EMail setting is available in the Admin EMail Settings" option under the Settings tab. The option to enable/disable this EMail, is available in the "Edit" option of the respective Probe Server.

Proxy Probe Server request through Central Server

When you login to the Admin console, Graphs and images displayed for a monitor are retrieved directly from the corresponding Probe Server itself and are displayed in the Admin console. These graphs/images cannot be retrieved, if the Central Server is accessible from a particular machine/over the Internet and the Probe Server is not accessible.

In this case, select the "Proxy Probe Server request through Central Server" request option. This will result in the images/graphs being fetched to the Central Server from the Probe Server first and then the image from the Central Server is viewable in the Web Browser.

E.g., Central Server is running as part of IDC and accessible via the Internet (From a machine say "ClientMachine") but the Probe Servers are not accessible (from "ClientMachine") this option should be enabled.

Note: In case of a proxy server configured in the network, make sure to configure the proxy server for both Admin and Probe servers.

User Management In the Enterprise Editon

In the Enterprise setup, the User Management module functions independently in the Central Server and Probe Server. Hence, a user-based view assigned in the Probe Server will not reflect in the Central Server and vice-versa. Since, you will be viewing the data collectively from the Central Server, you need to assign owners to the various Monitor Groups of the Probe Server in the Central Server. Of course, if it is assigned in the Probe Server it will function independently. Also, in the Manager Console (SLA Management console), you can assign SLAs and associate actions to be invoked for SLA violation to the Monitor Groups in the Central Server.

Probe Server Access

Click on the Jump To link in the Central Server just above the toolbar, which brings down a list of the Probe Servers. Clicking on any of the Probe Server names in the list will take you to the web console of the respective Probe Server in a separate browser Window.

FAQ - How is the Probe server selected by APM using load factor?

The following two things are used to select the Probe server automatically:

• Load Factor (x.y) where,
  x represents Probe server polling load factor
  y represents Probe server data base load factor
  Max. value of x,y can be configured in AMServer.properties file of central server
  x - am.mas.polling.max.loadfactor - default value 5
  y - am.mas.database.max.loadfactor - default value 5
• Maximum monitor allowed per Probe server
  The value can be configurable in AMServer.properties. The key is am.max.monitorcount.mas and default value is 500.
  The Condition for choosing Probe server is,
  x < maxAllowedValueOfPollingLoad (and)
  y < maxAllowedValueOfDatabaseLoad (and)
  n < maxMonitorAllowed

If the condition is not matched then we show the "No Probe server is available" message to the user.