IT Services Monitoring with

Transcription

1 IT Services Monitoring with OmniAnalyser

2 Maintaining IT Services with Monitoring and Analysis Modern business environments, being significantly dependant on IT services, face the growing challenge of understanding and managing service availability to end-users. Can users actually do the work that they are supposed to do? A simple and direct yes or no and if yes then how well is what service management software has to deliver. OmniAnalyser automatically checks the availability of all core IT services to the end-user, allowing Operations to monitor performance in real time and providing historical knowledge via out-of-the-box web reports for Service Level Management. Some of the services, on which OmniAnalyser monitors and reports are: - Delivery time service - User mailbox service - Domino Database service - Exchange Public Folder service - Fax service - Web service - Conferencing service - Backup service - Replication service - Directory service - SMTP service A scalable implementation design allows monitoring and reporting for global installations of IT services.

3 1. Methodology OmniAnalyser controls all levels of IT services starting from basic protocol checks to the highest level end-user simulation, end-user experience measuring and dashboard monitoring. Robotic actions performed during end-user simulation include sending an e- mail or an instant message, accessing a business application, or running directory requests. Such automated testing can be accomplished from any internal or external location, to determine whether an eventual bottleneck is on the server side or on the network between the end-user and the data center. OmniAnalyser also measures resource availability and http connectivity to a URL from different geographical locations (example: OWA/DWA), the time to access a mailbox or an URL-address, the availability of specific ports (i.e. services) etc. The end-user experience, expressed in business terms and aligned with business-specific requirements, creates a predictable environment for business and contributes to increased credibility of IT service operators. All checks complement each other. For example, if server-side metrics demonstrate that each component of the IT infrastructure is running well, they will not neccessarily report on the service availability to an end-user who accesses the service from another machine therefore OmniAnalyser measures service availability from an end-user perspective. OmniAnalyser s technology simulates end-user behaviour and measures the time necessary to perform typical user actions. Service availability can be measured from any location across the globe.

4 2. Service Availability from an End-User Perspective OmniAnalyser offers a great variety of end-user modelling scenarios for various IT services. The ability to create complex, custom transactions from those that are readily available and measure their execution time on a historical and topological perspective provides a real-world service delivery picture as seen by the actual users using an IT service. Lotus Domino transactions MS Exchange transactions SIP transactions Input Output transactions Read File transactions LDAP transactions Web transactions Execution transactions SQL transactions SIP SQL Available transactions for Lotus Domino: Login Access Database Archive Mail with Attachment Calendar Entry Register Change to Folder SIP server Send Delete SIP Mail message with Attachment SIP Detach user search Attachment Logoff Move Mail with Attachment NAB Search Open Address Dialog Open Address Plus Dialog Open Document Open Mail Connect to SQL Database Execute SQL Query The data on service availability is measured in real-time and is stored to allow statistical evaluation. This information saves time & effort on internal troubleshooting when a problem is on the client side, provides details of availability for a particular service for users trying to access it from outside, and reports on the quality of service based on the company s SLA standards. Sample Transaction set Register to SIP server Send SIP message Unregister from SIP server

5 3. Proactive SLA Monitoring and Analysis End user modelling statistics are available for viewing in different graphical and topological formats presenting an objective picture of service quality in the organisation. Additionally, extensive filtering enables separate statistics to be shown only for the service in question, minimizing overheads from a service manager s side and improving the effectiveness of the analysis. Tying service performance to different logical units, business hours, SLA and custom enduser service probes presents a wealth of opportunities for proactive maintenance of IT services with an end-to-end accent. End-user experience reporting enables different views for assessing each service time-slice picture of service delivery, trending information on the maximum, minimum and average time it takes to perform an end-user action set, topological mappings; and with the ability of drilling down to details about transaction probes.

6 4. Lower Level View on IT Infrastructure In contrast to the end-user modelling OmniAnalyser offers a series of reports that enable quick trouble-shooting at lower levels of IT service performance. Detailed statistics on ICMP hosts availability, HTTP polling and TCP/IP port availability and interrupts that have occurred are available with the ability to drill down to problem transactions.

7 5. Monitoring IT Resources Health Another useful metric of importance to service reliability is IT services Availability. Designed to comply with IT landscape maintenance policies, like planned server downtimes or operating hours, it offers both historical and realtime views on all parts of the organization in an easily understandable format. Additionally, OmniAnalyser offers different reports reflecting on how well a service is reacting to particular actions that constitute to service quality. Metrics on basic server functions like access time, how long does it take a message or fax to respond presents extended information for the analysis of service availability to the end-users.

8 6. Real-Time Service Availability One powerful feature that comes with OmniAnalyser is a built-in ability to monitor IT services in real-time from one central location. Operations personnel and service managers can have constant access to information on server status, services which are currently running, queues as well as numerous performance counters. Real-time topology reports offer additional insight into the current status of IT services, pinpointing services that require instant attention. With this capability, IT can implement threshold alerting for those services that are of importance and take action to correct performance before users have a chance of running into obstacles with the services they are using.

9 7. Usage Dynamics Monitoring resource usage and the availability of resources requires a different set of metrics. By applying historical analysis to traffic and database usage, replication and back-ups operations, IT can leverage and optimise infrastructure performance and improve its adaptation to new services. Reporting on database and public folder growth rates, server capacity with free, used and recoverable space and how it is distributed between organisational units is helpful for forecasting needs and infrastructure optimisation. Identifying clogged areas of the IT infrastructure provides additional information for resource consolidation.

10 8. Monitoring Services and Events These IT infrastructure metrics concentrate on services uptime, Windows WMI counters and event log monitoring on all servers. Extensive filering is used for locating an event of interest such as a security audit, an error or warning which was issued during device operation. Since all metrics are transaction-based, high and mid-level reports are directly linked with details of a transaction that caused the problem.

11 9. Business-Level Service Monitoring The highest level of service quality and availability metrics are dashboard monitoring tools that encapsulate and aggregate all technical transactional data. To ensure both the service provider and service receiver each have a clear picture of the status-of-service contract to which they have agreed, dashboards offer a quick view of quality and performance of an IT service contract by means of temperature bars and graphs. The Service Definition Framework, is an integral part of the OmniAnalyser reporting package It offers a flexible environment for the creation and maintenance of a customized service portfolio allowing selection from a vast variety of readily available KPIs, graphs, filters and complementary reports that cover the needs of IT service providers in monitoring service availability to the end-users.

12 Choosing the Right Metrics for IT Services Monitoring Choosing the right way to monitor IT services requires a thorough analysis and assessment of what constitutes service quality. To be able to maintain a service in a healthy condition, companies have to look at service delivery process from different perspectives and try to proactively resolve any issues that require attention. OmniAnalyser provides a unique solution to companies whose IT is conscious and proactive in IT-to-business alignment. OmniAnalyser offers measurable and visible IT services to the business. The Hypersoft solution offers mechanisms for realtime monitoring of the core corporate services, and reporting on quality and consumption of those services, allowing Service Level Management and cost allocation.