NerveCenter^TM: Integration with Micromuse Netcool/OMNIbus - Contents - Overview -
Introduction      What is NerveCenter?

Overview

Recent trends within the communication industry have given rise to software tools designed to provide immediate support for real-time business and technology services. This type of service-level management is illustrated in Service-level Management.

Service-level Management

Internet, cellular, network, and other service providers all need a way to ensure the availability of services, devices, and applications in any IT environment. Service-oriented tools provide administrators the status of business and technology services being provided to the users. These tools do not necessarily replace network management platforms; rather, they can extend a platform's capability to provide real-time service-oriented views of the network.

The Micromuse Netcool/OMNIbus suite of tools has emerged as a viable solution for enterprises concerned with the availability, reliability, and quality of direct communication technologies. By partnering with key vendors like Open, Micromuse enables network administrators to organize, measure, predict, and improve service levels for applications, database systems, network devices, and business-critical services such as virtual private networks or Internet connections. In the event of an outage, administrators can quickly determine which device caused the problem, which customers and services are impacted, and how the condition affects their service level agreements.

What is Netcool/OMNIbus?

Netcool/OMNIbus is a suite of management tools that collect and distribute network events to the administrators responsible for monitoring related services. Netcool/OMNIbus uses specialized software agents, called probes, to intercept data coming from network systems, devices, and applications. Micromuse has over 100 probes, each designed to identify, collect, and format data from a particular management environment or network application. The Micromuse NerveCenter probe was developed specifically to gather network and system data from NerveCenter servers.

A probe formats events into Netcool alerts and forwards these alerts to the Object Server, Netcool's active database. The Object Server manipulates alerts based on user-defined associations, and groups the alerts into logical units. The Object Server then directs status information to the operators, administrators, help desk systems, or other applications responsible for monitoring the related services. Administrators who receive the alerts can compare each alert against existing service level agreements and determine which services -- and ultimately which users -- are affected by particular faults. Desktop tools enable administrators to design personalized views of service availability.

Netcool/OMNIbus

In addition to the Object Server, probes, and desktop tools, Netcool/OMNIbus includes the following:

• Gateways allow event data to be shared with other software programs.
• Process Control systems enable you to configure and manage UNIX processes remotely. Processes can be started in sequential order after any defined dependencies have been met.
• Java Event List provides event lists and views of service availability from Web browsers.

Micromuse also provides the following tools:

• Netcool/Reporter uses data from the Object Server and historical databases to generate graphical reports that can be configured to match service agreement specifications.
• Netcool/CNMview provides service-level information from remote Desktops at the customer site.
• Netcool/Internet Service Monitors are active probes that provide availability information about Internet services (HTTP, FTP, DNS, SMTP, POP-3, NNTP, and RADIUS). Each Monitor periodically attempts to access a URL or perform a file transfer. It then reports the time it took to get a response or indicates that the service is unavailable.