White Papers - NerveCenter 3.7: An Overview - NerveCenter Integrated with a Network Management Platform - OVPA Integration -
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OVPA Integration

NerveCenter's OVPA platform adapter enables integration with Hewlett Packard's OpenView Network Node Manager or IBM Tivoli System's TME 10 NetView for AIX. In this configuration, the platform typically provides node information to NerveCenter.

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Note    NerveCenter can monitor nodes that are outside the platform's domain or that are not managed by the platform. Such nodes can be added manually to the NerveCenter database, discovered from traps, or loaded using ImportUtil.

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OVPA retrieves node and topology information from the platform and forwards this information to the NerveCenter Server. The Server can be configured to monitor all platform nodes, a subset of nodes, or nodes that have certain capabilities or system object IDs (OID). NerveCenter in turn forwards noteworthy events back to the platform by sending informs to OVPA, which relays them to the platform's event console.

When NerveCenter sends informs to the platform, if color changes are required, OVPA sends a message to NerveCenter's NCApp process, which then forwards instructions for color changes to the platform map.

Co-resident Installation

NerveCenter and the platform can have a co-resident installation, that is, they can be installed on the same system. Co-resident installations are supported both on Windows NT and UNIX.

The following diagram shows a typical co-resident platform integration.

NerveCenter Co-resident Platform Integration

In a co-resident configuration, SNMP traps are sent to the platform. NerveCenter's trapper process detects this information from the platform and forwards the traps to NerveCenter.

UNIX Installation

On UNIX, Trapper is always used whether or not the integration is co-resident. When NerveCenter and the platform are on separate machines, Trapper receives traps directly from the network and forwards the information to NerveCenter. The following diagram shows NerveCenter and the platform installed on separate machines. In the diagram, NerveCenter's OVPA and NCApp components are located on the platform host machine.

OVPA Integration on UNIX, not Co-resident

Windows NT installation on separate machines

The following diagram shows OVPA integration with NerveCenter on Windows NT. NerveCenter and the platform are installed on separate machines. In the diagram, NerveCenter's OVPA and NCApp components are located on the platform host machine.

NerveCenter OVPA Integration on Windows NT, not Co-resident

Note that Trapper is not required in the Windows NT configuration shown above. Traps are detected by Microsoft's trap service and forwarded to NerveCenter.

How NerveCenter integration helps the platform

For the platform, integration with NerveCenter means increased efficiency. NerveCenter can be configured to take over all event processing and minimize the number of events that appear in the platform's event console. NerveCenter does this by:

• Filtering out unimportant events.
• Correlating related events and notifying the platform only of the underlying problem.
• Handling an array of events through automated actions so that no notification is necessary.

The first figure below shows an OpenView event browser that contains a number of events all caused by the same problem.

Redundant and Unfiltered Events

The next figure shows what might appear in the browser if NerveCenter were used to screen and correlate the conditions and pass on only important information to the platform event browser.

Filtered, Important Events