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Conference azur::mcc

Title:DECmcc user notes file. Does not replace IPMT.
Notice:Use IPMT for problems. Newsletter location in note 6187
Moderator:TAEC::BEROUD
Created:Mon Aug 21 1989
Last Modified:Wed Jun 04 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:6497
Total number of notes:27359

160.0. "DECmcc, more questions" by CCIIS1::ROGGEBAND () Thu Jun 28 1990 14:23

    Hello,
    
    I have just sepnd two days working with a *LARGE* customer, who has
    officially announced his intention to go the DECmcc way to manage his
    network and his applications. For the applications management, the
    "applications team" have to commit to make their applications
    manageable in an EMA-compliant way, and they will for this purpose
    develop an entity model, an agent and an access module. 
    
    There are however some questions pending....so here we go !
    
    1) The historian FM provides recording of attribute data. Is there a
    mechanism to store asynchronous events ? Is this the "Historical
    Occurence recorder", and is there a defined timeframe for its
    availability ? Or could this handled by notification Services ? 

    2) I believe that ALARMS FM V1.1 will also handle asynchronous events,
    and not just "request attribute/ examine response / FIRE rule"
    mechanisms. Does this mean that an event notification could fire a
    user-written procedure ? 
    
    3) Our customer is investigating the possibility of developping some
    FM's. Because their applications will evolve, new applications will be
    added etc... they would like to make their FM's Generic, so the
    question is : do we have any estimates of how much more development
    effort it takes to write a generic FM as opposed to a specific FM ?
    Will the FM Cookbook give guidelins on how to make FM's generic ? Will
    there be a "SAMPLE FM" ? 
    
    4) A requirement we often get is how to follow up events / alarms (log
    calls to the vendor, etc...). Is this type of functionality planned at
    all ? 
    
    5) Initial Performance Analyzer works on exported data and produces
    "external" reports. Are there plans for a PM to present this type of
    data to the screen?  Will there be a PM to present,say an "real-time"
    graph of "<whatever resource>" utilization ? Will we have guidelines /
    a cookbook on how to write a PM ? 
    
    
    6) Last but definitely not least, thank you to all who answer these
    notes, your replies really help us to move ahead with DECmcc and beat
    Accumaster and Openview ! 
    
    An interesting comment from the project leader of the customer I'm
    dealing with : 
    
    "I have been imagining something like EMA for the past three years,
    when I first heard an EMA presentation, I thought I was hearing myself
    talking..." 

    Amicalement,
    
    Philippe.
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
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160.1A couple of answers...TOOK::PLOUFFEJerryThu Jun 28 1990 19:1637
RE: .0

>    2) I believe that ALARMS FM V1.1 will also handle asynchronous events,
>    and not just "request attribute/ examine response / FIRE rule"
>    mechanisms. Does this mean that an event notification could fire a
>    user-written procedure ? 
 
     Yes, in v1.1.
   
>    3) Our customer is investigating the possibility of developping some
>    FM's. Because their applications will evolve, new applications will be
>    added etc... they would like to make their FM's Generic, so the
>    question is : do we have any estimates of how much more development
>    effort it takes to write a generic FM as opposed to a specific FM ?

     Since Alarms is one of the first generic FMs I'll take a quick stab 
     at this question:

     This is not a very quantitative answer, but it isn't that much more
     difficult to make an application generic.  There are more calls necessary
     to the dictionary, but they aren't too difficult (once you get a handle 
     on how dictionary `things' are named.  The "reward" is worth the 
     additional effort! 

     I should add however that alot depends on what exactly you wish to make
     generic!  Should you find a need to post more specific questions, I'll
     be happy to try to answer them.

>    Will the FM Cookbook give guidelins on how to make FM's generic ? Will
>    there be a "SAMPLE FM" ? 

     I will leave this part for the Toolkit team to answer.
    
                                                                    - Jerry

                                                                  Alarms PL

160.2Another point.BSYBEE::EGOLFJohn C. Egolf LKG2-2/T02 x226-7874Fri Jun 29 1990 00:1622
    
>    5) Initial Performance Analyzer works on exported data and produces
>    "external" reports. Are there plans for a PM to present this type of
>    data to the screen?  Will there be a PM to present,say an "real-time"
>    graph of "<whatever resource>" utilization ? Will we have guidelines /
>    a cookbook on how to write a PM ? 
    
	The current PA does not work on exported data, it works on data
	previously stored in the MIR (for past time statistic), or data
	directly collected from the entity (current thru future time)

	The "reports" package being  developed  does  work  off  of the
	exported  data stored in the  Rdb  database.    The  Datatrieve
	routines produce reports and DECgraph produces  some  graphical
	reports.

	Yes,  we  are  planning  to do "real-time"  graphical  reports,
	perhaps as a part of the Iconic Map  PM.    The  timeframe  for
	these    is    still   be  determined,  but  be  assured  we're
	thinking/working on it.  A PM cookbook is being planned  for  a
	future release as well.
								JCE
160.3answers to questionsTOOK::STRUTTColin StruttFri Jun 29 1990 18:1376
    Some additional answers to what's been said (typed) already. In
    general, you won't get a commitment to a particular future version
    of MCC - you will just be told (and you should ALWAYS explain it
    to customers as) "future"
    
>    1) The historian FM provides recording of attribute data. Is there a
>    mechanism to store asynchronous events ? Is this the "Historical
>    Occurence recorder", and is there a defined timeframe for its
>    availability ? Or could this handled by notification Services ? 
>
    This is planned to be part of Notification Services, in some future
    release. Expect a capability similar to that needed to store historical
    attribute data.
    
>    2) I believe that ALARMS FM V1.1 will also handle asynchronous events,
>    and not just "request attribute/ examine response / FIRE rule"
>    mechanisms. Does this mean that an event notification could fire a
>    user-written procedure ? 
>    
    yes
    
>    3) Our customer is investigating the possibility of developping some
>    FM's. Because their applications will evolve, new applications will be
>    added etc... they would like to make their FM's Generic, so the
>    question is : do we have any estimates of how much more development
>    effort it takes to write a generic FM as opposed to a specific FM ?
>    Will the FM Cookbook give guidelins on how to make FM's generic ? Will
>    there be a "SAMPLE FM" ? 
>    
    We may not explain how to write Generic FMs when we first tell everyone
    how to write FMs (ie. the second version of the Management Module
    Programming guide). It is clearly more difficult to define the
    management model for a generic FM than it is for a class-specific FM.
    
    One aspect is the need to be able to augment both existing and future
    classes with operations that apply to all classes - the method we may
    choose to employ in early versions of MCC is likely to undergo changes
    in the future. It makes sense to wait and document them only when they
    are stable.
    
    I don't know how to interpret your statement "they would like to make
    their FMs generic". I'm not sure I believe that they understand what
    this means. If they do, then they are perhaps able to do it already
    based on the info we provide in the SRM.
    
>    4) A requirement we often get is how to follow up events / alarms (log
>    calls to the vendor, etc...). Is this type of functionality planned at
>    all ? 
>    
    I assume you are referring to some sort of trouble-tracking, work-order
    system. This is certainly in our thoughts for future work.
    
>    5) Initial Performance Analyzer works on exported data and produces
>    "external" reports. Are there plans for a PM to present this type of
>    data to the screen?  Will there be a PM to present,say an "real-time"
>    graph of "<whatever resource>" utilization ? Will we have guidelines /
>    a cookbook on how to write a PM ? 
>    
>    
    As John says, yes we plan to make PMs present this on the screen, yes 
    we plan to have PMs present graphs. Information in the Management
    Module Programming guide is likely to appear in a future version of that
    document.
    
>    6) Last but definitely not least, thank you to all who answer these
>    notes, your replies really help us to move ahead with DECmcc and beat
>    Accumaster and Openview ! 
>    
>    An interesting comment from the project leader of the customer I'm
>    dealing with : 
>    
>    "I have been imagining something like EMA for the past three years,
    That's funny - so have I
    
    
    Colin