Setting Up the Business Service Console

This document describes how to set up and customize the Business Service Console to provide a high-level view of the performance of business services across an organization’s infrastructure.

The Business Service Console (BSC) provides users with high-level “dashboard” views of the performance and availability of their business services. You can easily tailor the BSC to create a variety of customized business views that meet the needs of each user:

• For a corporate executive, you can configure dashboard views showing business services based on applications, locations, business units, or a configuration of your choice.

• For an IT or Operations manager, you can configure dashboard views that correlate business services with problems that occur in the IT infrastructure. This enables the IT team to determine which systems and applications need to be brought online first to minimize the business impact.

Overview of the Setup Process Before you begin setting up the BSC, you must first install eHealth and Live Health. You will also want to deploy Service Availability (SA) agents to monitor the availability of your applications, and deploy Application Response (AR) agents to measure the response times experienced by users of your applications.

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The following diagram depicts the general process for setting up a dashboard view for a user. To begin, meet with your business managers and executives to determine the business services that they want to monitor, and how they want these services organized (by location, application, and/or business unit). Next, map parts of the IT infrastructure to selected applications that drive the business services. This mapping is flexible and easy-to-manage using eHealth groups and group lists.

After you establish the appropriate groupings, activate the BSC using Live Health and then test it. Once you are satisfied with your dashboard view, set up the eHealth Web user account to provide the user with access to the BSC.

To ensure that you create each dashboard view successfully, complete these steps in order:

1. Plan how to effectively organize the BSC dashboard views to meet the needs of your BSC users.

2. Set up BSC eHealth groups and group lists to implement the BSC dashboard views.

3. Use Live Health to activate the BSC.

4. Test the BSC to verify and correct configuration issues.

5. Create an eHealth Web user account for each BSC user.

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Before You StartTo use the BSC, you need to install some core eHealth components. Before you begin this step, read the eHealth Focus Topic “Managing Your Business Using the Business Service Console.” To extend the BSC’s capabilities to monitor applications, you need to install some additional eHealth components and deploy agents to collect application data.

• To monitor the performance of systems and network devices, install eHealth 5.6.6 or later, install Live Health, and enter the BSC and Live Health license keys. The BSC is not supported on Distributed eHealth Consoles.

• To monitor the availability of applications, install and license SA and SystemEDGE agents; then deploy the agents in the infrastructure. eHealth 5.6.6 includes ten SystemEDGE agents. You may want to install more agents, depending on the size of your organization.

• To monitor the response of applications, install eHealth — Response, BT Studio, and AR agents; then deploy the agents in the infrastructure.

If you want to create tests that mimic user activity, you should also install WinTask.

STEP 1: Plan the BSC Dashboard ViewsEach BSC can monitor the performance and availability of applications, systems, devices, or all three, depending on the user’s needs. A dashboard view is a representation of groups of applications, systems, and network devices that the BSC is monitoring.

As the first step in planning a BSC dashboard view, do the following:

a. Identify the intended users and the views that they want to see.

b. Identify the resources (applications, systems, routers, interfaces, and so on) that users want to see in their views.

Based on the audience, the problems that the user wants to detect, and the resources to be monitored, you can determine the most appropriate dashboard views.

a.) Planning the Organization of Dashboard Views. You can create a single dashboard view for a user, or design up to five different ones for up to 30 different users. Different dashboard views satisfy different requirements. You should carefully plan each one to meet the needs of each user.

A dashboard view can focus on the response and availability of specific applications, watch the performance of devices within the infrastructure only, or provide a window into all activity that affects the organization. You can base the organization on business units, locations, or services:

• Business Units/Departments. A Business Units dashboard view allows you to see the status of each of your key businesses. You can organize it based on business areas, industries, or departments, depending on the way that various managers want to view their business units.

• Locations. A Locations dashboard view allows you to see the status of your business services at the geographical locations that interest you (for example, countries, regions, cities, buildings).

• Services/Applications. A Services dashboard view allows you to view the status of your important business services. You can group several applications under one service, or view individual applications.

If you create a Business Units dashboard view, consider creating a Locations dashboard view to see how problems are impacting the sites that are supporting the various functional areas.

Business Units/Departments Dashboard

Automotive Aviation Energy

Locations Dashboard

Boston New York Sydney

Services/Applications Dashboard

Web Outlook Remedy

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b.) Identify the Applications to Monitor and How to Monitor Them. After planning the types of dashboard views that you want, identify the applications that you want to see in the BSC dashboard views. Before you move on to the next step—setting up the BSC groups—it is critical to identify the applications and devices that support the services, locations, and functional areas that you are going to monitor.

Determine How to Monitor the Applications. Monitoring application performance is essential for ensuring productivity and effectiveness within an organization. Reliable applications offer enhanced productivity for application users and the IT staff who support those users. For the applications that you want to monitor, identify the eHealth tools that you will use to measure and observe their performance and availability.

Application Response (AR) provides information about true end-user experience. It monitors the response time and availability of critical applications, and measures application response as experienced by end users. It provides response data for client, network, and server time to pinpoint the source of problems or delays. AR provides data only when a user uses an application. It does not provide availability data. Table 2 describes the best practices for selecting AR resources to show in the BSC.

Table 1. Selecting AR Resources

Element Type

Purpose

Client sets Monitor the status of the applications that they observe. (Useful if you group client sets by location or business unit.)

Response destinations (servers)

Show problems associated with users who use application servers (in a Services/Applications dashboard view).

AR response paths

Provide information on tests that generate continuous data (for example, WinTask).

NOTE: Individual paths do not provide meaningful alarms because the status lights also change for the client set and/or destinations associated with them.

AR sources (clients)

Provide information on response sources that generate continuous activity and data. (Generally, it is better to use client sets or destinations.)

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Service Availability (SA) provides response time and availability data for tests that run 24x7. This continuous, automated testing enables you to be less dependent on actual user activity, allowing you to address problems before they affect your users. SA alone tests services such as HTTP and DNS. It does not test multi-step, end-user transactions. Table 2 describes the best practices for selecting SA resources to show in the BSC.

WinTask (from TaskWare) provides the bridge between SA and AR that enables to you obtain 24x7 end-user data without requiring your users to perform transactions 24x7. With WinTask, you can record and edit user transactions. You can schedule them to run continuously with either the WinTask Scheduler or SA, and monitor them with both SA and Application Response. It provides you with continuous, consistent data for all user transactions and services that you care about from the systems that you are monitoring, without waiting for actual user activity.

Identify the Key Network and System Resources. For your dashboard views, identify the key network and system components that relate to your applications and business services. As a best practice, start small; include only those interfaces, routers, or systems that have a direct impact on the availability and response time of the services, locations, and applications in the BSC.

Table 2. Selecting SA Resources

Element Type Purpose

SA test systems (response sources)

Monitor the status of the tests running from each system.

SA response paths View a status light for one or more specific tests. (Any test problems will change the status light for the SA test source.)

SA test destinations View a destination’s status without the granularity of destination tests.

NOTE: The BSC status light reflects the alarm states of the paths connected to the destination. eHealth does not generate poller statistics for the destinations.

NOTE: If you use Cisco Service Assurance Agents to test response, apply these guidelines similarly.

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STEP 2: Set Up BSC GroupsOnce you have identified your dashboard needs and the applications that you want to monitor, create a worksheet to help you identify and organize the information for your BSC views. As a best practice, start by creating a worksheet for each of your business units to identify the resources that support that business, broken down by location. This helps you to focus on a specific aspect of your business services; you can merge (combine) these groups to form new ones and create a variety of views.

Figure 1 shows a sample worksheet. To obtain a worksheet template, click Help on the BSC screen. On the BSC Help Contents page, select Sample Grouping Worksheets (Excel) under Procedures: Administrator.

Identify the Resources. For each resource type that you monitor with eHealth, identify the resources that support the specific business unit. If a resource supports more than one business unit or location, include it as a resource for each one. Ignore resources that are not critical to the availability of an application or the operation of a business unit. Also ignore any resources for any technology types that you do not monitor with eHealth.

To create a dashboard view, you create eHealth groups of elements and assign them to an eHealth multi-technology group list. The steps for creating groups and group lists are described on page 9.

• A group is a collection of elements that are related to the same technology. For example, a router group contains one or more router/switch elements.

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1. Create one sheet for each business unit.

2. Identify each locationyour business unit.

Figure 1. A Sample Worksheet

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• A multi-technology group list is a collection of different types of groups such as LAN/WAN, router, system and application groups. A multi-technology group list usually includes groups that are related to the same business unit, application, or geographical region. In the BSC, each multi-technology group list appears as a different dashboard view.

Give Your Elements Meaningful Names. As a best practice, before you group your elements, change the element names to aliases that will allow you to clearly identify them in the BSC. For instructions, refer to “b.) Replace Element Names with Aliases.” on page 9.

Organize the Resource Types. The worksheet divides resources into the three areas shown in a BSC dashboard view: Applications, Systems, and Network.

The Applications area contains resources that relate to applications and response time, such as AR, SA, Cisco SAA, and eHealth Application Insight Modules (AIMs). You can create two types of Applications groups: response and application.

• Response groups organize AR, SA, and Cisco SAA response elements for the location and business.

• Application groups organize AdvantEDGE AIM elements for the location and business.

The Systems area contains server systems such as application servers and Web servers that are critical to the status of that location and business unit. You create Systems groups to organize these server systems.

The Network area contains networking resources such as LAN and WAN links, routers, switches, hubs, voice gateways, remote access server (RAS) devices, and Quality of Service (QoS) elements for that location and business unit. You can create five types of Network groups:

• LAN/WAN

• Router (routers and switches)

• Remote Access (RAS, hubs, and voice gateways)

• QoS

• Mobile Wireless

in

3. Identify the resources in each location that support the business unit.

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Create a Locations Dashboard View for Your Business Unit

Using the Worksheet to Create a Locations Dashboard View for a Business Unit. This diagram shows how to apply your completed worksheet to create a Business Units/Department by location dashboard view. You can use this view to see the status of your business unit at each location. A business unit can be a separate business (such as Aviation and Energy), or it can be a department (such as Sales and Engineering).

To create this dashboard, create a multi-technology group list named AviationByLocation. In the BSC, the name appears in the Navigation frame on the left.

Using the worksheet above, assign all yellow, blue, and green groups—which represent the groups of resources for the business unit at each location—to the AviationByLocation group list.

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In the Content frame (middle), the three locations appear (Aviation_Boston, Aviation_NewYork, and Aviation_Sydney). These three names reflect the exact names of the groups that you created for each location.

When you click Aviation_Sydney, the Detail frame (right) expands to show the applications, systems, and network status for the Aviation_Sydney resources. The Applications area automatically shows all applications observed by the AR agents and those used by the SA tests that were assigned to the Aviation_Sydney response group.

You can create a version of this dashboard view for each business unit that you have identified within your company.

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Create a Business Units Dashboard View

Merge all three groups to one group named Automotive for each technology.

Using the Worksheet to Create a Business Units Dashboard View. This diagram shows how to apply your resource worksheets to create a Business Unit dashboard view. This allows you to monitor the status of each business unit or department within your company.

To create this dashboard view, create a new set of merged groups with the name of each business unit. To create the example above, open a command prompt window and merge the three groups shown in yellow (Auto_Boston, Auto_NewYork, and Auto_Sydney) into one group named Automotive as follows:

nhMergeGroups -i Auto_Boston,Auto_NewYork,Auto_Sydney -o Automotive -t response,application,system,lanWan,remoteAccess,router,qos

This command creates all of the merged Automotive groups, for all of the technologies, at the same time.

Using the nhMergeGroups command. If the groups that you specify for the -i argument do not exist for every technology type, eHealth returns errors.

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If you receive errors, you can safely ignore them, but do the following:

• Confirm that you specified the correct group names.

• Use the eHealth group editor to confirm that the command created the merged groups for the technology types that do exist.

To avoid generating errors, you could specify a technology type for every group. For instructions, refer to the eHealth Administration Reference.

Completing the dashboard. After you create the Automotive group, repeat the merge command for the Aviation business unit (blue), and the Energy business unit (green). As the final step, create a multi-technology group list named BusinessUnits, and assign to it all of the Automotive, Energy, and Aviation merged groups.

The three business units should now appear in the Content frame. When you click Automotive, the Detail frame (right) expands to show the applications, systems, and network status for the Automotive resources. The Applications area automatically shows all applications observed by the AR client sets and those used by the SA tests assigned to the Automotive response group.

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Create a Locations Dashboard View for the Entire Company

Merge all three groups into one group named Boston; repeat for each location and technology.

Using the Worksheet to Create a Locations Dashboard View. This diagram shows how to apply your resource worksheets to create a Locations dashboard view. This dashboard view shows the status of each location in your company.

To create this dashboard view, you create a new set of merged groups for each location, based on the three business-specific location groups. Create the Boston merged groups as follows:

nhMergeGroups -i Auto_Boston Aviation_Boston Energy_Boston -o Boston

This command creates all of the merged Automotive groups, for all of the technologies, at the same time. If the command returns errors, follow the instructions

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provided in “Using the Worksheet to Create a Business Units Dashboard View.” on page 6 to ensure that you have created the group successfully.

Completing the Dashboard View. After you create the Boston group, repeat the merge process for the New York and Sydney locations. As the final step, create a multi-technology group list named Locations and assign to it all of the Boston, NewYork, and Sydney merged groups. The Content frame should now show the three locations. Click a location, such as Sydney, to see the status of the applications, systems, and networks in that company location.

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Using the Worksheet to Create a Services/Applications Dashboard View. This diagram shows how to apply your completed worksheet to create a Services/Applications dashboard view. It shows the status of the critical services and applications in your company. To create this view, create groups of resources that support a given service, as shown in the worksheet above.

Assigning Resources to Your Response Groups. For a services view, use caution when assigning resources to your response groups. Assign only the AR destinations representing the application servers, as shown in the resource sheet. If AR paths, such as WinTask tests, have continuous activity for the service, you can include them.

NOTE

If you include AR client sets or clients, the Detail frame shows all applications that they use, which may be more than those associated with the service. This does not occur with SA elements.

Completing the Dashboard View. After you create your groups, create a multi-technology group list named Services. Assign all of the technology-specific groups for each service such as Outlook (blue), PayrollProcessing (yellow), Remedy (green), and SalesLogix (red) above.

The Content frame shows each of the four services. Click PayrollProcessing to show the applications, systems, and network status for that service. The Detail frame automatically lists the applications used by the service and expands to show the status of the Endpoints. It also shows associated SA tests (Voice Services) for PayrollProcessing, which appear only if you have assigned related SA sources, destinations, and paths to the response group for PayrollProcessing.

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STEP 2: Set Up BSC Groups (continued)To create groupings for your first dashboard view:

a. Create AR agent sets.

b. Replace element names with meaningful aliases.

c. Create groups.

d. Create a group list.

a.) Creating AR Agent Sets. If you have deployed AR agents across the infrastructure to collect response data, you should organize them into agent sets to enable Application Response to monitor activity within specified locations or business units. An agent set is a collection of AR agents that are related geographically or functionally. An AR agent can belong to only one agent set, so you should plan your organization carefully. In the eHealth console, agent sets appear as client sets; in the BSC, they appear as User Groups in the Detail frame.

As a best practice, you should assign agents to agents sets that match your business unit and location groups. For example, if you have a business unit named Energy with a location in Boston, you should create an agent set called Energy_Boston and assign to it all AR agents that collect response data.

To organize AR agents into a client set:

1. Log in to the eHealth Web interface and select the Systems & Apps tab.

2. On the Systems & Apps page, select Application Response; then select Agent Sets.

3. On the Agent Sets page, click Add Agent Set.

4. Specify a name for the agent set in the Name field and specify a description in the Description field. For example: Boston. Click Apply.

5. Click OK. The Agent Set Properties window closes and the new agent set appears on the Agent Set List page. (If the set does not appear, click the Refresh Data button to update the page.)

6. Select Agents under Application Response.

7. On the Agent List page, select the agents that you want to add to the new agent set. An agent can belong to only one agent set.

8. Click the Change Primary Agent Set of Selected Agents button at the top of the page.

9. In the Select Agent Set window, select the agent set name from the list under Existing; then click OK.

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10. Click OK to confirm. The screen displays the agent set names in the Agent Set column.

b.) Replace Element Names with Aliases. Element names are not very meaningful because they do not always clearly identify the application endpoints, servers, response paths, response destinations, response sources, and network devices that you are monitoring in the Detail frame of the BSC. Also, if an element or alias name extends beyond the width of the first column of the Detail frame, the BSC displays a portion of the name. To view the complete name, you must hover the mouse over the name.

As a best practice, Concord recommends that you use shorter and more meaningful alias names in the BSC to enable you to quickly identify elements. You can assign alias names to elements after eHealth discovers them. For example, you might want to change the name of an interface to indicate the name of the cities to which the interface connects or to show that the interface is a leased line. You might also want to change the names of your SA tests to be more meaningful.

To change element names to aliases:

1. Open the eHealth console, and select Setup → Poller Configuration.

2. Do one of the following:

• In the Poller Configuration dialog box, select the elements from the Element Name list and click Modify. In the Modify Elements dialog box, select Element Alias.

• Click Path/PVC Manager. In the Path/PVC Manager dialog box, select the elements from the Element Name list; then click Modify. In the Modify Path Elements dialog box, select Change Element Alias.

3. Specify the text for the part of the name that you want to replace in the Replace sub-string field; then specify the text for the new part of the name in the with field. The name strings are case-sensitive.

4. Click OK; then click OK in the Poller Configuration dialog box.

5. Select Setup → Options in the eHealth console; then select Show Alias Names and click OK.

c.) Creating Groups. The BSC combines groups across technologies if they have the same name. For example, to

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ensure that a Boston dashboard view displays all information relating to Boston, you must name each group Boston.

To organize resources into eHealth groups called Boston:

1. In the eHealth console, select Reports → Edit Groups; then select Response Groups.

2. In the Groups dialog box, click Add; then specify Boston in the Group Name field of the Add Groups dialog box.

3. Under Available Elements, select elements:

a. If you have deployed SA with SystemEDGE agents, do one of the following:

• Select Response Source and click Add to include SystemEDGE response sources. They will appear as Robots in the BSC.

• Select Response Path and click Add to include SystemEDGE response paths. They will appear as Tests in the BSC.

b. If you have deployed AR agents, do one of the following:

• Select Response Client Set and click Add to include client sets (agent sets). They will appear as User Groups in the BSC.

• Select Response Path and click Add to include application transactions. They will appear as Transactions in the BSC.

4. Click OK; the new group appears in the Groups dialog box.

5. Repeat Steps 1 through 4 to create other groups for different technologies. Be sure to enter each group name as Boston.

6. When you finish adding groups, click Close in the Groups dialog box.

d.) Creating a Group List. Once you create the groups that you want to display in the BSC, use the eHealth console to associate them to a multi-technology group list. Each multi-technology group list appears as a separate dashboard view in the Navigation frame (in alpha-numerical order).

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To organize the Boston groups into a group list that represents a Locations dashboard view:

1. In the eHealth console, select Reports → Edit Group Lists → Multi-Technology Group Lists.

2. In the Multi-Technology Group List dialog box, click Add.

3. In the Add Multi-Technology Group List dialog box, specify Locations in the Group List Name field. When you specify a group list name, follow these naming conventions:

• Specify a maximum of 64 single-byte or 32 double-byte characters using the letters A through Z and a through z, the numbers 0 through 9, periods (.), dashes (-), and underscores (_). If you use a combination of single- and double-byte characters, do not exceed 64 bytes.

• Do not include the word All, the word FirstSense, forward slashes, or spaces in the name.

4. Under Available Groups, select a technology type (for example, Application); then select the group named Boston.

5. Repeat Step 4 for each technology type and group until you have finished adding all applicable groups to the group list.

6. Confirm that the group list contains all groups that you want to monitor (all groups named Boston).

7. Click OK; then click Close in the Multi-Technology Group List dialog box.

STEP 3: Use Live Health to Activate the BSC

After you create the groups that you want the BSC to monitor and add them to a multi-technology group list, you must use Live Health to activate the BSC and indicate when performance and availability problems are occurring. The BSC does not activate the status lights until you associate Live Health profiles to the groups.

A Live Health profile is a set of alarm rules that eHealth applies to groups or group lists of elements. Alarm rules define the type of element and conditions to monitor, the problem thresholds and duration, and the problem severity.

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Once you assign a profile to a group or group list of elements, Live Exceptions monitors it (looking for any activity that violates the specified rules) and produces alarms when any of the rules in the profile are triggered. The BSC changes the dashboard view status lights when alarms occur.

You can use Live Health to activate the BSC in two ways:

• Use the default profiles provided. Initially, you can monitor performance based on the default Live Health rules; then create your own rules based on the performance data that you collect.

• Create customized profiles. If you have established meaningful thresholds, or upper limits, for performance problems in your Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and defined them in your eHealth report service profiles, you can create customized Live Health profiles based on that data.

Selecting Appropriate Default Profiles. Each default profile detects different problems. It is important to apply profiles that detect problems that the user should see. Table 3 lists the various types of Live Health profiles that eHealth provides.

Best Practice. You can associate profiles to the entire group list or to individual groups within it. However, if you know that the rules contained in a profile do not apply to every group, you should apply it to the

Table 3. Default Profiles

Profile Name Problems Detected

Delay An element is overutilized or congested and might cause network delay.

Failure An element is unavailable, logging many errors, or at risk for failing.

Unusual Workload

An element’s workload is unusual compared to a baseline.

Latency A given node is experiencing delay (based on how long it takes data to move from a sending to a receiving system).

Configuration Change

A device’s configuration has changed (for example, if a swappable module/card is inserted into a switch).

Security Various security problems have occurred, such as a firewall detecting a “ping of death” attack.

applicable groups only. Table 4 describes how to select profiles for a group.

The following procedure outlines the steps to associate default Live Health profiles to a multi-technology group list. Because they relate to response, they will apply to all response groups included in the group list.

To associate Live Health profiles to a group list:

1. Open a Live Exceptions browser and select Setup → Subjects to Monitor.

2. In the Setup Subjects dialog box, click New; then do the following in the Setup Subjects Editor dialog box:

a. Under Subject Type, select Group Lists; then select Multi-technology from the Technology list.

b. From the Subjects list, select the group list; then select Response - Delay and Response - Failure from the Profiles list.

c. Under Calendars, select a calendar to specify the time range during which Live Health should apply the profiles to the group list.

d. Click OK.

3. Click OK to confirm; then click OK in the Setup Subjects dialog box.

4. Ensure that the status lights are activated in the BSC by following the instructions provided in the next section, “STEP 4: Test and Troubleshoot the Dashboard.”

Table 4. Selecting Profiles to Apply

Group Type Profiles to Apply

System Contain the word System (for example, System - Unusual Workload)

Application Contain the word Application (for example, Application - Failure)

Router Contain the word Router (for example, Router or Switch - Configuration Change)

LAN WAN

Associated with the types of LAN/WAN links (for example, LAN Device - Security)

Response Contain the word Response (for example, Response - Failure)

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Creating Customized Profiles. To ensure that each status light provides the data that the user needs, you may need to create customized profiles for different groups. By customizing profiles, you can set different alarm thresholds for different people and turn off monitoring during specified time periods.

Specify different thresholds for different people. To ensure that the IT manager receives notifications of problems before the executive, you can create a profile for the manager with a lower threshold and assign it to the manager’s group; then create a profile for the executive with a higher threshold and assign it to the executive’s group. This will enable IT to investigate and fix minor problems before they become critical enough to warrant notification to upper management.

As a best practice, do not assign identical profiles with different thresholds to the same group. Create two different groups, and assign one profile to each of them.

Use a Live Health calendar to turn off monitoring during specific time periods. If you know that applications, systems, or network devices will be experiencing planned downtime (for maintenance or a regularly scheduled upgrade) or will be particularly stressed at a particular time, you can suppress monitoring during that period.

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Dashboard view names

Navigation frame allows you to switch from one dashboard view to another and filter the display of information.

Content frame provides a highstatus of applications, systemsnetwork devices, within the seledashboard view.

Service NoteAcknowledge

Dashboard lights

To prevent the BSC from generating false alarms, you can create a calendar based on the time period, customize a profile using the calendar, and associate it to the groups.

NOTE

If you previously added a group to a group list and then associated profiles to it, you must remove the associations to the group list before you can associate customized profiles to the individual groups.

STEP 4: Test and Troubleshoot the DashboardAfter you create a multi-technology group list, display the BSC and perform the following tests to ensure that the dashboard view matches your expectations:

1. Check the dashboard view and group names.

2. Confirm that application hierarchies appear in the Detail frame.

3. Confirm that the dashboard lights are functioning.

4. Check for acknowledgements.

5. Check the bar chart.

6. Create and view Service Notes.

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Detail frame shows all applications, systems, and network devices supporting the selected location.

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To display the BSC:

1. Open one of the following Web browsers:

• Internet Explorer 6.0 or greater

• Netscape 7.1 or greater on Windows

• Mozilla 1.2.1 or greater on any platform

NOTE

The BSC requires a 32-bit color setting. Verify your settings using the xdpyinfo command. If you have an 8-bit color graphics card, Concord recommends that you view the BSC from a Windows system instead of directly on a UNIX console.

2. Enter the following URL:

http://eHealthsystemName/bsc

3. Log in as the admin and click the Live Health tab.

4. Under Business Service Console on the Live Health page, select View BSC.

After the BSC appears, it updates the display with the latest data. While it updates, it displays Update in progress at the top of the Navigation frame.

TEST 1: Check Dashboard View and Group Names. Confirm that the dashboard view name and the group names appear in the BSC and are correct. In the Navigation frame, review the dashboard name; then review the group names in the Content frame.

To check the dashboard view and group names:

1. Review the Navigation frame of the BSC.

2. If the dashboard view name does not appear, create it by following the instructions provided in “d.) Creating a Group List.” on page 10.

3. If the dashboard view name is spelled incorrectly, do the following:

a. Select Reports → Edit Group Lists → Multi-Technology Group Lists.

b. In the Multi-Technology Group List dialog box, select the group list name; then click Modify.

c. In the Modify Multi-Technology Group List dialog box, enter the correct name in the Group List Name field; then click OK. After the BSC refreshes, it should display the dashboard name correctly in the Navigation frame.

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4. Under each group name listed in the Content frame, confirm the following:

• If you included application and/or response groups, Applications should appear.

• If you included system groups, Systems should appear.

• If you included LAN, WAN, QoS, Mobile Wireless, or router/switch groups, Network should appear.

5. If a group is missing or does not belong in the dashboard, follow the instructions provided in “d.) Creating a Group List.” on page 10.

TEST 2: Confirm That Applications Appear in the Detail Frame. If you included a response group within the group list and have defined module sets in your application hierarchy, application names (such as Web and Outlook) should appear in the Detail frame under Applications with this hierarchy:

• Module Sets (grouped transactions)

• User Groups (client sets, or AR agent sets)

• Endpoints (AR response destinations, or servers)

• Users (response sources, or AR agents)

• Transactions (AR response paths)

To ensure that application names appear in the Detail frame with a corresponding hierarchy:

1. Ensure that your AR agents are pointing to the eHealth server on which you have installed eHealth 5.6.6 or later. If you have more than one eHealth system, but the AR agents are not pointing to the system on which you have installed eHealth 5.6.6 or later, eHealth will not provide the BSC with data for those applications.

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2. Ensure that the applications are enabled:

a. Select Applications under Application Response on the Systems & Apps page.

b. Select each application on the Application List page.

c. Click the Enable Selected Applications button.

3. Ensure that you have included the agents (client sets) and the application transactions (AR response paths) in each response group. Follow the instructions provided in Step 3 of “To organize resources into eHealth groups called Boston:” on page 10.

4. Confirm that users are actively using the applications. If users are not actively performing transactions (such as opening and closing the applications), the BSC will not display the application in the Detail frame.

NOTENOTE

If your users do not use an application frequently, consider using WinTask to create test systems that run robotic tests continuously.

5. Confirm that you have defined specific module sets for each application:

a. Create a new appType for the module set based on the application by entering the following at the command line:

nhAddAppType -symbol symbolName -label labelName -level moduleSet -basedOn applicationName

For example, to create a module set named “Outlook-Mail” that would appear under Outlook in the Detail frame, you would enter the following:

nhAddAppType -symbol outlookMail -label Outlook-Mail -level moduleSet -basedOn Outlook

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b. Ensure that alarms are raised for modules associated with the Outlook-Mail module set by modifying the appType for each module to include it in the module set. Enter the following at the command line:

nhModifyAppType -symbol symbolName -newBasedOn symbolName

For example, to include the module “Outlook-Reply” in the Outlook-Mail module under the Outlook application in the BSC, you would enter the following:

nhModifyAppType -symbol Outlook-Reply -newBasedOn outlookMail

c. Add every module in your hierarchy to a module set. If you add one module to a module set, you must add all of your modules. Otherwise, the Users and Transactions fields will appear for each module set as well as the application in the Detail frame, as shown in this example.

d. Reset the BSC by doing either of the following:

• Stop the eHealth server; then restart it.

• Enter the following URL in your Web browser:

http://machineName/bscMsg?action=reset

6. Review the BSC. The applications and their corresponding hierarchies should appear in the Detail frame.

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TEST 3: Confirm That the Dashboard View Lights Are Functioning. Ensure that the dashboard is activated to indicate that alarms have occurred. For several minutes, review the activity shown in the Detail frame to determine if the status lights are changing color.

If none of the lights change, do the following:

1. Open a Live Exceptions browser and check to be sure that you have associated alarm profiles to the entire group list or every group. Follow the instructions provided in “To associate Live Health profiles to a group list:” on page 11.

2. Set the Web browser to update automatically:

• If you use Internet Explorer (IE), open an IE browser and select Tools → Internet Options. Under Temporary Internet files, select Settings. Under Check for newer versions of stored pages, select Automatically; then click OK.

• If you use Netscape, open a Netscape window and select Edit → Preferences → Advanced → Cache → Compare the page in the cache to the page on the network; then click OK.

• If you use Mozilla, open a Mozilla window and select Edit → Preferences → Advanced → Cache. Under Compare the page in the cache to the page on the network, select When the page is out of date; then click OK.

3. Return to the BSC and review it.

4. If status lights all remain green, cause an alarm by modifying a rule to lower the threshold specified for the problem:

a. Select Setup → Profiles. In the Profiles Manager dialog box, select the profile that contains the rule that you want to modify.

b. Under Existing Rules, select the rule that you want to modify; then click Modify Rule.

c. In the Rule Editor dialog box, lower the threshold specified for the problem to ensure that an alarm will occur and click OK.

d. In the Profiles Manager dialog box, click OK to save the change. The Live Exceptions Browser displays a message stating that it sent your change to eHealth.

e. Click OK in the message box.

5. Return to the BSC and observe the status light for the application, system, or network device associated

with the profile. It should change color to indicate that Live Exceptions has raised an alarm.

TEST 4: Check for Acknowledgements. Ensure that the acknowledgement feature is functioning properly. After Live Exceptions raises a critical alarm, the status light changes to red. After it raises a major or minor alarm, the status light changes to yellow (the BSC does not indicate when Live Exceptions issues a warning). If someone later uses the Live Exceptions browser to acknowledge the alarms, an acknowledgement appears in the BSC next to the red and yellow status lights.

Look for yellow or red lights next to group names or element names. An acknowledgement checkmark or exclamation mark should appear in the BSC next to all red and yellow status lights if the user account is configured to display acknowledgements. A checkmark should appear if the specified percentage of alarms has been acknowledged. (The percent is configurable; the default is 100%.)

If symbols do not appear for all yellow and red alarms, do the following:

1. Drill down to the Live Exceptions browser from the dashboard to determine if any alarms associated with the group have been acknowledged.

2. If alarms have not been acknowledged, acknowledge some of them by right-clicking the alarm and selecting Acknowledge Alarm from the pop-up menu.

3. On the Administration page of the eHealth Web interface, select User Management; then select Manage User Accounts. The Manage User Account page appears.

4. In the Select a user to modify or delete field, select Admin; then click Modify User. The Modify Account page appears.

5. In the BSC and Live Health Configuration section, do the following:

a. Ensure that Yes is selected in the Show Alarm Acknowledgement columns list.

b. In the Show checkmark in BSC when number of alarms acknowledged is list, select any.

6. Click Modify Account.

7. Return to the BSC. After it refreshes, confirm that a checkmark or exclamation mark appears next to every group and every item in the group that has a red or yellow status.

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TEST 5: Check the Bar Chart. Review the bar chart to confirm that it shows the progression of the status for each node. The chart represents 24 hours of state. Each pixel (dot) of color in the strip chart represents 20 minutes, so every hour is represented by three pixels.

For each 20-minute period, the BSC shows the highest status level at the start of that period. If a problem is resolved during a 20-minute period, that pixel in the strip chart will not change to green until the end of that 20-minute period.

TEST 6: Create and View Service Notes. Ensure that the Service Note feature is functioning properly. When a BSC user creates a Service Note for a particular application using the eHealth Web Administration interface, an icon should appear on the BSC screen next to the application name to alert BSC users that information is available concerning the status of the problem.

If BSC Web user accounts are configured to allow the users to view Service Notes, the users should be able to view Service Notes that they created or own, as well as notes for which their names are included in the list of Readers. Before you can create a Service Note, you must configure one or more rules to enable eHealth to automatically send Service Notes to designated individuals through e-mail and alert them of changes.

NOTE

You can create and update Service Notes by accessing the Service Note window through the BSC or by using eHealth command line tools. You can also list Service Notes at the command line. eHealth administrators can delete Service Notes using the nhDeleteServiceNote command. For instructions and information on using these command line tools, refer to the Web Help for the BSC or the eHealth Administration Reference.

6 hours = 18 pixels (3 pixels/hour)

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To create a Service Note:

1. Create a Service Note rule by doing the following:

a. Log in to eHealth as the Web Admin and select the Administration tab.

b. Select Site Management → Service Note Rule Configuration.

c. On the Service Note Rule Configuration page, click New. The Create Service Note Rule page appears.

d. Specify a name for the note in the Name field.

e. In the Action field, do one of the following:

• Select Run command from the list and enter a command in the Command field. Specify the full pathname to the location where the script is saved on the eHealth system. On Windows systems, you must specify the full pathname using UNIX-style forward slashes. The command can contain a maximum of 255 characters.

• Select E-mail from the list and enter one or more e-mail addresses in the E-mail field, separated by semicolons (;). For example: djones@blackwellcom;ckincaid@aol.com

f. Specify when the eHealth system should trigger a notification. Under When a Service Note is, select Created, Updated, or Deleted.

g. Under Match all of the following, do the following:

h. Optionally, specify a match string for the title in the Title field (a full, partial, or regular expression). The string cannot exceed 64 characters.

i. Select one or more Web user names from the Created by list.

j. Select one or more applications from the Applications list.

k. Optionally, select one or more Web users from the Owner list.

l. Optionally, select one or more Web user names from the Updated by list.

m.Select one or more Web user names from the Readers list.

n. Click Create Rule.

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2. Return to the BSC, left-click an application in the Detail frame, and select Create Service Note.

3. In the Create Service Note window, do the following:

a. Specify a title for the note in the Title field.

b. Optionally, select a different name from the Owner list.

c. Specify a problem ticket number in the Ticket field, if applicable.

d. Select the Web users from the Readers list who should read this note. Service Notes can be read by other individuals in addition to those specified in the Service Note Readers list. (Service Note administrators can read all Service Notes, regardless of the reader list specified).

e. Describe the problem or update the status in the Detail field.

f. Click Save.

NOTE

If a Service Note administrator is the owner of a note and then changes the owner to another user, the administrator still appears in the Reader list (although the user cannot see the name). Because the administrator is not in the user’s domain, the user cannot edit the Service Note. The administrator must remove his or her name from the Reader list to enable the new owner to make modifications.

To test a Service Note:

1. In the BSC, click on the Service Note icon next to the application to which it is associated or click Service Note in the upper-right corner. The BSC Service Notes window should appear.

NOTENOTE

To display Service Notes in the BSC, you must disable pop-up blockers for your BSC site. If a pop-up blocker is enabled on your system, you will not be able to access this feature.

2. If you configured the account to allow the user to edit Service Notes, click Edit. The Edit Service Notes window should appear.

3. Change the text in any of the fields or make a different selection from one of the lists; then click Save.

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STEP 5: Create a BSC Web User AccountThe final step in setting up the BSC is to create an eHealth Web user account for each user who will view it. An eHealth system can support up to 30 BSC users. If a BSC user already has an eHealth Web user account, you can modify the existing account configuration to allow the user to access the BSC.

More than one user can log in to the same BSC account at the same time with the same user name and password; however, Concord recommends that you create a separate user account for each user who will have access to the BSC. This allows each user to navigate to the various dashboards, expand and collapse the Details, and drill down to reports and Live Health without interference from other users who may be attempting to access different information at the same time.

NOTE

You can configure multiple user accounts identically, providing each user with access to the same set of groups and group lists.

You can configure each Web account to enable the user to do the following:

• Access the BSC from a Web browser.

• View one or more dashboard views in the BSC.

• Drill down to the Live Exceptions browser from the pop-up menu or Live Health button.

• Drill down to Live Trend from the pop-up menu.

• Drill down to eHealth reports from the pop-up menu or report icon.

• View alarm acknowledgements and alarm annotation columns in the Detail pop-up.

• View and edit Service Notes.

You can also modify the rate at which the BSC refreshes the display.

To create a Web user account for the BSC user:

1. Open a Web browser and log in to the eHealth Web interface as the Web admin.

2. Select the Administration tab.

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3. In the left pane of the Administration page, select User Management; then select Manage User Accounts. The Manage User Account page appears.

4. In the Enter a name to add field, specify an account name; then click Add User.

5. On the Create New Account page, specify a password in the New password field; then specify the same password in the Retype password field.

6. Accept the Default settings in the Copy account from field; then click Create Account.

7. The Create New Account page refreshes and displays a form with various configuration sections.

8. In the General Configuration section, do the following:

• Specify a user alias name in the User alias field. This name appears in the upper-right portion of the BSC screen next to User in place of the eHealth Web user account user name.

• Select Aliases next to Display elements using to ensure that the BSC displays shorter and more meaningful element names.

9. In the BSC and Live Health Configuration section, do one or more of the following:

• Optionally, allow the user to drill down to Live Health tools by selecting Yes from the Enable Live Trend and Enable Live Exceptions lists.

• Select Yes from the following lists:

• Show Alarm Acknowledgement columns

• Show Alarm Annotation columns

• Enable the Business Service Console

• If you want the user to be able to access Service Notes, select one of the following from the Show Service Notes list:

• Select Yes to allow the user to view Service Notes.

NOTENOTE

A user can view a Service Note if the user is included in the list of Readers for the note, or if the user is a BSC administrator, the owner of the note, or the creator of the note.

• Select Yes-Edit to allow the user to create new Service Notes and modify existing ones.

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• Select Yes-Administrator privileges to allow the user to create new Service Notes and modify existing ones regardless of whether they are included in the Readers list associated with the Service Note. The user will be able to access all notes, regardless of the domain to which you add the user.

g. Optionally, associate the user to a domain by doing one of the following:

• Select User can access these user domains and select one or more names from the list.

• Select New and enter a domain name in the text box. Do not include semicolons in the name.

NOTENOTE

As a best practice, when granting edit privileges to BSC Service Notes users, make sure that all editors of a given domain are assigned exactly the same set of domains as other editors of that domain. Only users with Service Note Admin privileges should edit global Service Notes.

h. If you have an eHealth — Fault Manager license, the BSC refreshes the status lights every minute by default. If you do not, it refreshes every 5 minutes. Optionally, change the refresh rate by selecting a different value from the BSC and Live Health client refresh rate (minutes) list.

i. Specify the percentage of alarms that must be acknowledged for a system, application, or network device before the BSC will display a checkmark in a dashboard view. Select a value from the Show checkmark in BSC when number of alarms acknowledged is list.

10. In the Access Configuration section, do the following:

• Under Groups, select the groups included in the multi-technology group list. This enables the user to drill down to reports on elements included in the groups.

• Under Group Lists, select the multi-technology group list. This enables the user to access it in the BSC as a dashboard view.

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NOTENOTE

Each multi-technology group list that the user can access appears as a separate BSC dashboard view.

11. In the Report Configuration section, select the reports that the user can run on demand from the BSC and the Web.

12. Click Modify Account.

Test the Web User Account Configuration. After you configure a Web account, ensure that the BSC user can now access the dashboard view and the drilldowns that you just enabled for the account.

To view and test the BSC:

1. If you have a BSC window open, close it and open a new Web browser window.

2. Enter the following URL:

http://eHealthSystemName/bsc

3. In the Enter Network Password dialog box, enter the user name and password; then click OK to display the BSC. If you cannot access the BSC, confirm that the Web user account is configured to allow access by repeating Step 9 in the previous procedure.

4. Confirm that the dashboard view to which the user has access appears in the Navigation frame. If it does not appear, enable account access to the group list by repeating Step 10 in the previous procedure.

5. Left-click on an application, system, or network device name in the Detail frame. Verify that a pop-up menu appears with drilldowns to reports. All report drilldowns are not available for every item in the Detail frame. Do one of the following:

• If drilldowns to reports do not appear in the pop-up menu, go to the Report Configuration section of the Modify Account page. Select the reports that the user can run on demand from the BSC and the Web.

• If report drilldowns do appear in the menu, but they produce an error message indicating that the user does not have access to the elements, go to the Access Configuration section of the Modify Account page. Under Groups, select the groups included in the multi-technology group list.

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NOTENOTE

The report drilldowns that are available for AIM and RAS elements drill down to the Run Report screens.

6. Left-click a report icon next to an application, system, or network. If the icon produces an error message or does not appear, refer to Step 5 for instructions. The report icon is not available for every level of the Detail frame, and it is not available for every element type.

7. If you enabled access to Live Exceptions, left-click an application, system, or network device name in the Detail frame and do the following:

a. Select Live Health from the pop-up menu and log in to Live Exceptions. Verify that the Live Exceptions browser appears. If you receive an error indicating that the application failed to start and instructing you to install the client locally, install it on your desktop.

b. Verify that the Live Health button appears in the upper-right corner of the console. Click the button and log in to Live Exceptions. Verify that the Live Exceptions browser appears.

8. If you enabled access to Live Trend, select Live Trend and log in. The Live Trend drilldown does not appear in the Detail menu for every item at every level. It is only available for elements (specific user groups, endpoints, users, transactions, systems, or network devices).

a. Verify that the Live Trend window appears.

b. If you receive an error indicating that the application failed to start and instructing you to install the client locally, install it on your desktop.

9. Test the Service Note feature by doing the following:

a. Click a Service Note icon next to an application name in the middle (Content) frame or in the far-right (Detail) frame. The BSC Service Notes window should appear. If you enabled the user to edit Service Notes, the Edit button should appear in the lower-left portion of the window. Click it and edit the note.

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NOTENOTE

If you have enabled pop-up blockers for your BSC site, you must disable them to access this feature.

b. Click Service Note in the upper-right corner of the BSC. The BSC Service Notes window should appear. If you enabled the user to edit Service Notes, when you select a Service Note from the list, the Edit button should appear in the lower-left portion of the window. Click it and edit the note.

10. Left-click a red or yellow status light in the Detail frame. Review the Detail window.

• The Impact field should appear at the top of the screen if you selected an Application Response element. It should not appear for any other type of item in the Detail frame.

• The Acknowledgment field should appear above the table. If it does not appear, return to “TEST 4: Check for Acknowledgements.” on page 15.

• The Tickets and Owners fields should appear if someone has completed the Ticket# and Assigned fields in the Alarm Detail window of the Live Exceptions browser for the specified alarm.

If they do not appear in the Detail window, return to “TEST 4: Check for Acknowledgements.” on page 15 to ensure that the user account is configured to view annotation columns. (These fields will not appear if the Ticket# column and Assigned column have been renamed in the Live Exceptions browser, regardless of the Web account setting.)

• The Rule Messages field should appear if Live Exceptions has raised one or more alarms for a system, application, or network device in the BSC.

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Creating the Next Dashboard ViewAfter you create and test your first dashboard view, create additional ones that you want to use. To configure the BSC for each user, follow the instructions provided in this document; be sure to complete the five steps in order.

When you create additional dashboard views, keep in mind the following:

• Each group list must have a unique name. Due to eHealth naming restrictions, you cannot create two multi-technology group lists with the same name.

• If you delete a group list, you may not be able to reuse the name immediately. You must wait until the eHealth FSA Scrubber system job removes the file from the database. By default, this job runs every four hours. If you need to reuse the name immediately, run the nhScrubFsa command to force the removal of the file.

• Several group lists can contain the same groups. For example, a manager may want a location-based dashboard called Sites, while an executive may want a location-based dashboard called Regions. Both group lists could contain the same groups. In other words, you may not have to create new groups for every user. You can reuse them.

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