One of the common requirements of an IT group is to rack the availability of a system. A system is the total end to end architecture for a particular product. All of the components need to be tracked to truly determine whether the system is available or not.
Within Oracle Enterprise Manager it is possible to track each component individually and is also possible to create a definition which groups the targets in an architecture together with some availability rules. This is known as a Generic System target within Oracle Enterprise Manager. Using the Oracle Application Management Pack for Oracle Utilities in combination with other targets it is possible to define such a target to track the overall availability of the Oracle Utilities product.
Here is how you can set it up. Note: The example below uses Oracle Utilities Customer Care And Billing as an example, this technique applies to any Oracle Utilities product supported by the Oracle Application Management Pack for Oracle Utilities.
- Logon to Oracle Enterprise Manager using an appropriate administration user.
- Navigate to the Setup --> Add Target --> Generic System menu option to initiate the maintenance of the Generic System target. For example:
- Fill in the appropriate settings for your Generic System.
- Name the system appropriately for your site.
- Add comments which are useful for other administrators to understand the target. This might sound trivial but some comments can help other administrators understand the system represented by this target
- The Privilege Propogating System allows administrators to grant priviledges to other administrators in a manner in which new administrators get the same privileges as its member targets. In other words, granting a privilege to a system target may grant the same privileges to the member targets, if Privilege Propogating System is enabled.
- Time Zone is set for the target just like any other target for scheduling etc..
- System Properties allows you to add additional tagging information.
- Select the targets to be added to the System definition. At a minimum consider the following:
- Add the Oracle Utilities Batch Server, Oracle Utilities Web Application and Oracle Utilities Web Services Application to the Generic System. Avoid adding the Oracle Utilities Home and Oracle Utilities System Environment targets as they do not have any availability status.
- Add the base Fusion Middleware targets including the Oracle WebLogic Domain, Oracle WebLogic Server and Application Deployment targets associated with Oracle Utilities products. Customers using Inbound Web Services should also add that Web Services Application Deployment to track Web Services availability. Oracle WebLogic Cluster targets can be also added if desired.
- Add the database targets associated with the environment (if you want to track them as well) whether that the Database Instance target (for non-PDB or Oracle 11 and below targets) or Pluggable Database targets (for PDB implementations in Oracle 12c).
- Avoid duplication of targets. For example, avoid adding Host targets as the child targets are already covered.
- If you have other targets in your architecture then consider adding them such as SOA etc.. Remember that you may only use targets that are in the base Oracle Enterprise Manager or you have licensed.
- Once all the targets are selected, you can proceed to the next stages. For example:
- Confirm the relationships between the targets. Oracle Enterprise Manager will typically default all of it for you but you can add or modify your own relationships as necessary. For example:
- The next step is to identify the Key Members used to track availability. Targets that are not Key Members are also tracked but do not contribute to the overall system definition of availability. You might ask then why we should added them into a definition. Well, Generic System targets are used for other purposes (that will be covered in another article). Here are a few guidelines:
- Select targets that are key to the architecture that will represent the critical points of your architecture.
- Use parent objects to cover as many child objects as possible. For example, use Oracle WebLogic Servers or Oracle WebLogic Cluster as Key Members to cover the Applications deployed within those servers/clusters. This optimizes the definition by minimizing the definitions.
- Ensure you cover each component of the architecture at least once in your Key Member definition to cover the end to end architecture.
- Decide whether you want to consider either all or at least one target is available to consider the system available.
- At a minimum use Oracle WebLogic Server target associated with the Oracle Utilities product deployments to cover online and Web Services, at least one Oracle Utilities Batch Server to cover batch and the database as Key Members for Oracle Utilities products. For example:
- The next step allows you to define the metrics and columns to be displayed on the home screen and dashboard for the Generic System target. For the example, the defaults are taken. For example:
- Review the definition for completeness. You can alter the definition at any time after saving it or now using the breadcrumbs at the top of the page to navigate to the definition you want to change. For example:
- The Generic System target is now available for your tracking within Oracle Enterprise Manager. For example:
- The Generic System target is now also available from the targets page like all other targets. For example:
These targets are very useful and can be defined at a low or high level (and any level in between those extremes). They can be modelled on your IT group or just generically. This technique can combine targets from many different compoennts of the architecture.