The first component of Management Site Services you need to know about is the network discovery component. Network discovery is the process of determining the topology of your network by actively probing your network, searching for services and devices that support management information bases (MIB). After you collect the information about the topology of your network, it can be used to enable you to display, monitor, and manage your network from the management console.

The following are the two main pieces of software that make up the network discovery component:

Discovery software. A group of modules that run on a management server and search the network, discovering devices to build the network topology. This information is stored in the NETXPLOR.DAT file.

Consolidator software. Software that runs on the ZENworks for Servers 3 management server. It reads data from the NETXPLOR.DAT file, which was created by the discovery software and populates the ZENworks for Servers 3 database.

Now that you understand how the ZENworks for Servers 3 database gets populated, you need to understand the best way to access the information. One of the best tools for accessing information about managed sites is topology mapping through the Atlas Manager. The Atlas Manager is made up of software that reads the ZENworks for Servers 3 database and uses it to create an atlas database and software that displays the network topology in an atlas on the management console. (An atlas database is a database that resides on the management server that contains the data used to create the Network Topology view.)

The atlas is a simple view that can be configured to give you the quickest look at your management sites. You can use this atlas of your network topology as a powerful tool to help you monitor your network for heavy usage, outages, and other problems.

The next component for ZENworks for Servers 3 Management Site Services you should know about is the MIB tools. ZENworks for Servers 3 includes tools to help you monitor and manage all SNMP devices on your network. The following are the two main MIB tools you use to administer SNMP devices:

SNMP MIB Compiler. Parses a set of predefined SNMP MIB files written in ASN.1 and SNMP V2 format, stores the compiled files in the ZENworks for Servers 3 database, and updates trap definitions in the alarm template database. The MIB Compiler also enables you to set new SNMP alarm templates into ZENworks for Servers 3 so that the SNMP alarm templates can be recognized and interpreted as alarms.

SNMP MIB Browser. The MIB Browser takes the compiled MIB and displays the objects in a tree format. The MIB Browser also lets you walk the tree to view and manage the selected MIB objects.

Other components for ZENworks for Servers 3 Management Site Services you need to know about are the SNMP services that run on managed sites to provide information about connectivity and availability of resources and services within the managed group. These services notify the management console whenever the status of what they are monitoring changes. This gives network administrators immediate alarms and information about what is happening on their network.

The following are services that can be monitored by the ZENworks for Servers SNMP agents:

DNS. Domain Name System

IP. Internet Protocol

DHCP. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

IPX. Internet Packet Exchange

FTP. File Transfer Protocol

TFTP. Trivial File Transfer Protocol

SMTP. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

SNMP. Simple Network Management Protocol

NNTP. Network News Transfer Protocol

HTTP. Hypertext Transfer Protocol

HTTPS. Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure

NFS. Network File System

Echo. Network Echoes

Time Service. Network Time Services

Another important component of Management Site Services is administration of the ZENworks for Servers 3 database. ZENworks for Servers 3 includes a powerful CIM-compliant database on the management server. The database acts as a repository for management site information collected from the network. That information can be displayed or formatted in various ways to provide you with specific information you need to manage your network. The information ZENworks for Servers 3 collects from your network is stored in the following three logical databases:

Topology database. Contains topology, alarms, and map information.

Inventory database. Contains server inventory data.

Policy and Distribution Services database. Logs successes and failures for server policies and Tiered Electronic Distribution components.

Another important component of Management Site Services you should be aware of is the capability to manage network alarms throughout the management site. ZENworks for Servers 3 uses alarms to monitor the state of your network and perform predefined actions when an alarm is detected. Alarms recognized by ZENworks for Servers 3 include SNMP traps, connectivity testing, and threshold profiling.

The ZENworks for Servers 3 alarm management system processes SNMP traps and proprietary alarms and then forwards the alarms to subscribing management consoles. You can configure ZENworks for Servers 3 to perform specific actions on an alarm by specifying the desired action in an alarm disposition. The following are some actions that can be automatically performed:

Execute a program.

Send an email notification.

Create an archive.

ZENworks for Servers 3 alarm management enables you to set specific processed alarms to be forwarded to other ZENworks for Servers 3 management servers. You can also forward unprocessed SNMP traps directly to a target address of third-party enterprise management applications.

The role-based services component of ZENworks for Servers 3 Management Site Services gives you very tight and manageable control of your network. ZENworks for Servers 3 uses role-based services, defined in NDS, to organize ZENworks for Servers 3 tasks into roles and to assign scope information to each role. Role-based services enable you to organize your network management by specifying the tasks that each user is authorized to perform.

The final component of ZENworks for Servers 3 Management Site Services you should be aware of is the capability to generate and use reports. ZENworks for Servers 3 provides reporting services for the generation of statistical reports. These reports can be displayed on the management consoles or exported to popular database and Web formats.

ZENworks for Servers 3 reports are powerful tools to help you understand the state of your network, resolve network problems, and plan for network growth. The following is a list of reports that can be generated by ZENworks for Servers:

Health reports. General network health

Topology reports. Current network configurations

Alarm reports. List of active alarms

Server inventory reports. Current server configurations

Server policies reports. Current server policy information

TED (Tiered Electronic Distribution) reports. Software distribution information

Now that you understand the components that are involved with ZENworks for Servers 3 network management services, you need to get an understanding of how to access, control, and monitor them. ZENworks for Servers 3 includes several snap-ins to the ConsoleOne management tool, which expand its capabilities. This section covers how to use the ConsoleOne snap-ins to manage and monitor your network.

Now that you understand the hierarchy of the ZENworks for Servers namespace in ConsoleOne and can navigate through it to find objects, you need to understand what options you have for managing those objects. From ConsoleOne, you can view objects in many different ways, set properties for the object, and perform specific actions on the object. The following sections describe the various options available from the ZENworks for Servers 3 management console.

The first console option you should be aware of is console views. Views are basically different ways of looking at information. ZENworks for Servers 3 provides several different views designed to help you efficiently manage and monitor your network resources. The following is a list of the views that you will be using most often to manage your network:

Atlas. Provides a graphical representation of the discovered network topology, the physical location of nodes, node configuration, and alarm information. This is the easiest view to use to quickly understand the status of your managed network sites.

Console. Displays the objects contained in the selected container object. This is the view to use to navigate the ZENworks for Servers 3 site. It enables you to quickly expand and shrink containers.

Trend. Provides a graphical representation of current and historical trend data by hour, day, week, month, or year. Use this view to monitor network trends, which will help you determine who is using the server, which server is used heavily, troubleshoot network problems, determine how to balance loads across multiple servers, and plan strategies for how to deploy new network resources.

Active Alarms. Provides a tabular display of alarm statistics for all current alarms received from segments or devices, per management site. Use this view to determine any current network alerts because it is updated whenever a new alarm occurs on the network.

Alarm History. Provides a tabular display of all archived alarms, including the handling status of each alarm.

Summary. Provides a tabular view about the selected object's current configuration. The summary view for a server object, for example, displays information about NLMs, memory usage, adapters, network interfaces, disks and disk controllers, volumes, queues, users, connections, open files, and alarms, as well as installed software.

ZENworks for Servers 3 provides several other views for specific objects in addition to the main views already listed. If you select a memory object, for example, you can select a Disk Cache view that displays utilization for disk cache memory. Similarly, if you select a connections object, you can display an Open Files view that displays information and statistics for the connections on the server.

ZENworks for Servers 3 provides property pages as well as views for its objects. The property pages enable you to modify settings for each individual object. They are accessed the same way other properties pages are in ConsoleOne: you right-click them and select Properties. ZENworks for Servers 3 provides property pages at the following levels in its hierarchy:

Site level. Enables you to edit global properties, including alarm dispositions, ZENworks for Servers 3 database settings, SNMP settings, MIB pool entries, and health report profiles.

Server level. Enables you to modify SNMP settings for the managed server.

Another option available on some managed objects in the ZENworks for Servers 3 management console is the capability to perform an action on the object. The following is a list of actions that you can perform on ZENworks for Servers 3 objects:

Capture packets to and from the server.

Browse the MIB database for the server.

Ping the server's DNS name, IP address, or IPX address.

Perform a connectivity test on the server.

Open a Remote Management Session to load/unload NLMs, mount/dismount Volumes, and so on.

Restart the server.

Shut down the server.

One of the most powerful and important things you should be aware of in the ZENworks for Servers 3 management console is the capability to manage the console views. From the management console, you have different options to manage each view based on which of the following types of view it is:

Tabular. Information is organized and displayed in table format. The Console, Active Alarms, and Alarm History are tabular views.

Graphical. The Atlas, Trend, and Summary are graphical views. (The Summary view also contains tabular elements.)

The following sections cover the many options available for you to customize and work with the views to provide you with the most up-to-date and easiest-to-read information about your network.

One of the most useful things you should know about console views is how to modify their appearance. Modifying the appearance can help you make the view easier to read. The following sections cover how to use the ZENworks for Servers 3 console to modify the font, add grid lines, and display the view title.

Another modification you may want to make to a tabular view is to modify its columns to make it more readable or fit more data in. The following are operations you can perform on the columns in a tabular view.

An extremely useful way to manage a tabular view is to filter the entries to limit the amount of information displayed. You can set up simple filters by selecting a single criterion or more complex filters by using several criteria and logical relationships as filters.

Follow these steps to set up a filter to limit entries in a tabular view:

1. Select View → Settings → Filter.

2. Select the column by which you want to filter alarms from the first drop-down list.

3. Select an operator from the second drop-down list. The operator defines how to constrain the column you've selected to a value—for example, equal to, not equal to, greater than, less than, greater than or equal to, less than or equal to, contain, or starts with.

4. Select a value for the logical operation set in the previous step.

5. Specify how this filter statement relates to other statements you plan to define by selecting one of the values listed in the fourth drop-down list, described in the following bulleted list.

6. Click OK when you are finished adding filter statements, and the entries in the view will be filtered according to your criteria.

The following is a list of values that can be used to describe the relationships between different filters for views:

End. Last statement.

New Row. Adds a new line and you must define a logical relationship between the previous line and the new line.

Delete Row. Removes the current filter row from the filter, enabling you to remove unwanted filters without starting over.

And. In the case of a filter statement, both filter statements must be met. In the case of a group of filter statements, the filter statements in both groups must be met.

Or. In the case of a filter statement, at least one of the filter statements must be met. In the case of a group of filter statements, the filter statements in at least one of the groups must be met.

New Group. Begins a new group and a new line that is separated from the rest by an additional drop-down list.

Another useful way to manage a tabular view is to sort the entries. Sorting the entries can be very useful to organize the data obtained from the view.

You can sort the entries based on a single column by simply double-clicking the header of the column you want to use. Double-clicking once sorts the entries in descending order, with the most recent entries first. Double-clicking again sorts the entries in ascending order, with the oldest entries first.

You can also sort a view based on multiple columns by following these steps:

1. Click View → Settings → Sort.

2. Select the first column by which you want the entries sorted from the Sort Items By field.

3. Indicate whether you want the entries sorted in ascending or descending order.

4. Select the second column by which you want entries sorted from the Then By field, and then select the ascending or descending sort order.

5. Repeat Step 4 for each subsequent column for which you want entries sorted.

6. Click OK to finish and the entries are sorted based on your criteria.

At any time, you can export a view to a more useful format. This can be useful to put the information on an internal Web site, to store it in a database, or to use it in a document. The following is a list of formats to which ZENworks for Servers 3 views can be exported if you select File → Export in ConsoleOne:

HTML

Comma-delimited .CVS file

Tab-delimited text

Blank-space-delimited text

ZENworks for Servers 3 enables you to save and use any customizations that you may have done to views. You should customize ZENworks for Servers 3 views to meet your networks needs and organize them by using the steps in the following sections.

ZENworks for Servers 3 aggressively searches for IP addresses during the discovery process. The following is a list of considerations that you should check for devices you want to be discovered and managed by IP addresses:

The device must have a valid IP address.

TCP/IP must be bound on the designated management console workstations.

IP must be bound on the management server.

A static IP address must be assigned to the management server.

You must verify that a router's addresses are defined in either its management information base (MIB) or seed router table.

Routers must have static IP addresses.

Verify that the subnet mask configurations on all IP networks are correct.

After you verify your IP addressing, look for any software that needs to communicate over IPX. After identifying the IPX transport software, verify that it is configured with an IPX/SPX-compatible transport protocol.

After you verify your IPX software, check and set up NDS and DNS names for your network devices. ZENworks for Servers 3 uses the server name or hostname instead of the IP or IPX addresses to display maps and configuration views. Set up the most important devices with NDS and DNS names, because they are much easier to understand than network addresses. Name resolution can be in the form of local host files, NDS objects, or bindery tables.

After setting up your NDS and DNS names, define the community names for your SNMP configuration. SNMP agents and RMON agents, as well as SNMP-enabled devices, require a community name to be identified. You need to configure each SNMP-enabled device with a community name and trap target destination that includes the ZENworks for Servers 3 management server.

The community name secures communication channels between the manager and the agent from intruders. The names are set to “public” by default; however, you should change the names to something else to prevent outside intruders from accessing information and modifying your system configurations.

The management role you should use most frequently is the management site administrator. The ZENworks for Servers 3 management site sets boundaries for access to object data through role-based services. You create roles and tasks that utilize management functions of ZENworks for Servers 3 in the network container space. This defines the level of access to network objects and information.

You need to develop a strategy for creating roles in a management site that reflects your management organization. Use your list of individuals and the scope of their administration needs to plan for roles that manage printers, monitor network traffic, handle alarms, and manage server systems through your network.

NDS user or group objects can be assigned to appropriate roles, thereby acquiring the permissions of the role. The following are the different levels within a role:

Roles. Created for the various network management functions in your organization. This simplifies setting permissions and restrictions to management tools and network data.

Tasks. Actions performed that utilize components of ZENworks for Servers 3 management servers based on assigned responsibility.

Component/modules. A specific tool that provides a network management function. (For more information about the components included with ZENworks for Servers 3 Management Services, see the first section in this chapter.)

After you define the management site roles for your network, take a look at some general roles to cover any individual and management tasks that are not yet covered.

Several predefined roles exist, or you can define a role by creating an RBS role object in NDS and specifying tasks that the role can perform. The tasks are listed in properties of the RBS task objects in NDS.

The following is a list of predefined roles that ZENworks for Servers 3 creates:

RBS Admin role. Responsible for defining, creating, and administrating management roles.

Segment Administrator role. Responsible for administrating individual segments, such as adding or deleting users.

Segment Manager role. Responsible for maintaining individual segments, such as adding new workstations or protocols.

Segment Monitor role. Responsible for monitoring network traffic on individual segments.

Server Administrator role. Responsible for administrating specific servers, such as for adding or deleting users.

Server Manager role. Responsible for maintaining users and applications on specific servers.

Server Monitor role. Responsible for monitoring traffic and services on specific servers.

Site Database Administrator role. Responsible for creating and maintaining ZENworks for Servers 3 database sites.

The following is a list of tasks that are available to be assigned to role objects:

Alarm Manager. Gives a role the appropriate rights and assignments to manage alarms that are raised on a server or segment level.

Database Object Editor. Gives a role the appropriate rights and assignments to manage ZENworks database object through the Database Object Editor tool.

DB_ADMIN_TOOL. Gives a role the appropriate rights and assignments to create and maintain ZENworks databases.

MIB browser. Gives a role the appropriate rights and assignments to view MIB objects through MIB browser.

MIB compiler. Gives a role the appropriate rights and assignments to modify and recompile MIBs by using MIB compiler.

Node management. Gives a role the appropriate rights and assignments to manage individual nodes on a segment.

Remote ping. Gives a role the appropriate rights and assignments to ping nodes on the network remotely.

Traffic management. Gives a role the appropriate rights and assignments to monitor traffic on a server or segment level.

Unified View. Gives a role the appropriate rights and assignments to gain access to the unified view for full network administration.

ZfS maps. Gives a role the appropriate rights and assignments to gain access to the ZfS maps for a complete graphical view of the network.