HP (Hewlett-Packard) OpenView Vantagepoint User Manual

HP OpenView VantagePoint Operations

for UNIX Developer’s Toolkit

Application Integration Guide

Edition 5

Manufacturing Part Number: B7492-90003

Version A.07.00

January 2002

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1. An Introduction to Integrating Partner Applications with VPO

Why Integrate with VPO? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

HP OpenView Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

A Word about Licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Integrating Partner Solutions with VPO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

VPO Conceptual Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

The HP OpenView Product Family and VPO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

VPO Concept and Key Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

VPO Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Problem Management with VPO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Collecting Management Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Logﬁles and SNMP Traps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Agent Message API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Threshold Monitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Legacy Link Interface API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Processing and Consolidating Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Presenting the Information to the User. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

IP Map Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Managed Nodes Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Message Groups Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Application Desktop Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Message Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Acting on the Information Provided. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Customizing VPO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

The VPO Java-based Operator User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Integration Beneﬁts to Partners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

VPO as an INSM Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Speciﬁc Beneﬁts for Integrators in the NIM, NSM, and INSM Markets . . . . . . . . . 51

NIM Market Segment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

NSM Market Segment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

INSM Market Segment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Service Management Market Segment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Integration Facilities Provided by VPO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Integrating Events Using Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Threshold Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Working with Message Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Adding Instructions, Annotations, and Actions to a Message Template . . . . . . . . 59

Integrating Events using Trouble Ticket and Notiﬁcation Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Contents

Integrating Applications into the Application Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Integrating via APIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

NNM Integration Through the VPO GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Integrating via NNM Functionality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

2. Integrating Solutions with VPO

Deciding Which Integration Capabilities to Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Deﬁning an Integration Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Adapting an Existing VPO Integration for VPO A.07.00 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Leveraging From an Integration into NNM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

SNMP Event Conﬁguration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Powerful GUI Application Integration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Monitoring Facilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Alternative Message Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

User Role Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Advantages of an INSM Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Starting from Scratch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Obtaining Coexistence of NNM and VPO Integrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Strategy 1: Use Transformed NNM Integration in VPO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Strategy 2: Develop a Separate VPO Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Summary of the Integration Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

The Role of Conﬁguration Data in an Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

3. Using the Integration Capabilities of the VPO Motif-based GUI

In This Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Event Integration Through Messages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Conﬁguring Messages in the Message Source Templates Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Deﬁning Templates for Logﬁle Encapsulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Using the Logﬁle Monitoring Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Deﬁning Templates for SNMP Trap Interception. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Deﬁning Templates for MPE/iX Console Message Interception. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Deﬁning Templates for Messages Sent to the

VPO Message Interface opcmsg(1|3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Deﬁning Templates for Threshold Monitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Overview of VPO Monitoring Capabilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Monitoring MIB Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Using Threshold Monitoring to Generate Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Message Generation Policies and Message Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Contents

Types of VPO Monitor Available . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Integrating Monitors into VPO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Sending Values Over the VPO Monitoring API or Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

MIB Data Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Setting Advanced Options for a Message Source Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Output to Agent and Server Message Stream Interface (MSI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Setting Message Correlation Options for a Message Source Template . . . . . . . . . . 118

Suppression of Duplicate Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Setting Options for a Message Source Template. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Adding Instructions to a Message Source Template. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Setting Message and Suppress Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Setting Conditions for Incoming Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Setting Custom Message Attributes for a Message Condition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Setting Conditions for Incoming SNMP Traps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Using SNMP Trap Templates Converted from NNM SNMP Trap

Conﬁguration Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Converting NNM SNMP Trap Conﬁguration Files to

VPO Trap Templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Hints and Tips for Event Integration from Message Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Adding Instructions, Annotations, Automatic- and

Operator-initiated Actions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Adding Instructions for Solving Known Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Adding Actions and Annotations to a Message. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

External Notiﬁcation and Trouble-ticket Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Deﬁning Notiﬁcation Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Deﬁning Trouble Ticket Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Manually Forwarding to Trouble Ticket or Notiﬁcation Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Integrating External Applications into the VPO GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

GUI Integration Points and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Advantages Gained by Integrating VPO Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Integrating VPO Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Integrating HP OpenView Windows Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

HP OpenView Applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

HP OpenView Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Integrating Applications into the Application Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Adding VPO Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Adding OpenView Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Adding an OpenView Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Using NNM-integrated Applications With VPO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Contents

NNM Applications in VPO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Structure of NNM Applications in VPO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Integrating Additional NNM Applications into VPO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

4. Using the VPO Application Programming Interfaces

In This Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Overview of the VPO APIs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

The VPO Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Overview of the Server Message-Stream Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Access to the Server Message-stream Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

VPO’s Serial MSI Conﬁguration File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Modifying Message IDs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Serial MSI Conﬁguration: Example Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Overview of the Agent Message Stream Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Overview of the Legacy Link Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Structure of the Legacy Link Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Overview of the Message Event Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Access to Message Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Overview of the Application Response Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Access to Action Responses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Read and Write Access to the VPO Message Stream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

The VPO Operator APIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

The VPO Interfaces and the VPO Operator API —

A Comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

The VPO Conﬁguration APIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Summary of VPO API Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Functions of the VPO Data API. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Functions to Manipulate VPO Data Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Functions of the VPO Iterator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

The VPO Data Structures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Functions of the VPO Service APIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Functions to Access the VPO Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Functions to Access the Registration Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Functions of the Server Message API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Functions to Manipulate Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Functions of the Agent Message API. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Functions to Send/Acknowledge Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Functions of the Agent Monitor API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Contents

Functions to Send Monitor Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Functions of the Connection API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Functions to Connect to the Management Server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Functions of the Application Conﬁguration API. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Functions to Conﬁgure VPO Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Functions of the Application Group Conﬁguration API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Functions to Conﬁgure VPO Application Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Functions of the Message Group Conﬁguration API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Functions to Conﬁgure VPO Message Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Functions of the Message Regroup Condition Conﬁguration API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Function to Conﬁgure VPO Message Regroup Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Functions of the Node Conﬁguration API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Function to Conﬁgure VPO Managed Nodes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Function to Conﬁgure VPO Node Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Functions of the Node Hierarchy Conﬁguration API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Functions to Conﬁgure VPO Node Hierarchies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Functions of the Template Conﬁguration API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Function to Conﬁgure VPO Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Functions to Conﬁgure VPO Template Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Functions of the User Proﬁle Conﬁguration API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Functions to Conﬁgure VPO User Proﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Functions of the User Conﬁguration API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Functions to Conﬁgure VPO Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Functions of the Distribution API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Functions to Distribute Conﬁguration to Managed Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Functions of the Server Synchronization API. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Functions to Modify and Update Conﬁguration Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

5. Integrating with VantagePoint Navigator

In This Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

The VantagePoint Navigator Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

The XML Data Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

The C++ APIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

The Query Interface for Service Status and Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

The Registration Interface for Service Status Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

The Registration Conditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Contents

6. Integration Facilities of the HP OpenView NNM Core Platform

In This Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

The OpenView Windows API. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Maps, Submaps, and Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

ClusterView: An Example of an Integrated Map Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

HP OpenView Data: Objects and Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

The OpenView SNMP API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

SNMP Communications API and Related Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Available C-API Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Related Commands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

SNMP Conﬁguration API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Topology Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

7. Creating and Distributing an Integration Package

In This Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Structure of VPO Conﬁguration Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Downloading Conﬁguration Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Preparing to Download: Adding Executables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Warnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Uploading Conﬁguration Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Example 1: Uploading in Add Mode (Default) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Example 2: Uploading in Replace Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Example 3: Uploading and Replacing Information at a Subentity Level . . . . . . . . 267

A. Syntax Used in VPO Conﬁguration Files

In This Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

Notation Used. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

General VPO Syntax Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

Conﬁguration Files for Templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Template Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Example of a VPO Logﬁle Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Example of a VPO Message Source Speciﬁcation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Example of an SNMP Trap Template File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Conﬁguration Files for Monitors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Example of a VPO Monitor Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Syntax for Message Pattern Matching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

Pattern Matching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Separator Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Case Insensitive Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Pattern Matching Examples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Conﬁguration Files for Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Example of a VPO Application Conﬁguration File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Syntax and Length of VPO Object Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

B. Notiﬁcation Services and Trouble Ticket Systems

In This Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Parameters for Notiﬁcation and Trouble Ticket Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Example of a Trouble Ticket Parameter List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

C. Symbols for Application Integration

Available Symbols for Application Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

D. About VPO Man Pages

In this Appendix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Accessing and Printing Man Pages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

To Access a VPO Man Page from the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

To Print a Man Page from the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

To Access the Man Pages in HTML Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Man Pages in VPO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Man Pages for VPO APIs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Man Pages for HP OpenView VantagePoint Navigator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Man Pages for the VPO Developer’s Kit APIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Contents

Printing History

The manual printing date and part number indicate its current edition. The printing date will change when a new edition is printed. Minor changes may be made at reprint without changing the printing date. the manual part number will change when extensive changes are made.

Manual updates may be issued between editions to correct errors or document product changes. To ensure that you receive the updated or new editions, you should subscribe to the appropriate product support service. See your HP sales representative for details.

First Edition: October 1996

Second Edition: August 1997

Third Edition: February 1999

Fourth Edition: June 2000

Fifth Edition: January 2002

Conventions

The following typographical conventions are used in this manual.

Table 1 Typographical Conventions

Font Meaning Example

Italic Book or manual titles, and man page

names

Emphasis You must follow these steps.

Variable that you must supply when entering a command

Parameters to a function The oper_name parameter returns

Bold New terms The monitor agent observes...

Computer Text and other items on the

computer screen

Command names Use the grep command ...

Function names Use the opc_connect() function

File and directory names /opt/OV/bin/OpC/

Process names Check to see if opcmona is running.

Refer to the VPO Administrator’s Reference Volume I and the opc(1M) manpage for more information.

At the prompt, enter rlogin username.

an integer response.

The following system message appears:

Are you sure you want to remove current group?

to connect ...

Window/dialog box names In the Add Logfile window ...

Menu name followed by a colon (:) means that you select the menu, then the item. When the item is followed by an arrow (->), a cascading menu follows.

Select Actions: Filtering -> All Active Messages from the menu bar.

Table 1 Typographical Conventions

Font Meaning Example

Computer

Text that you enter At the prompt, enter ls -l

Bold

Keycap Keyboard keys Press Return.

[Button] Buttons in the user interface Click [OK].

VPO Documentation Map

HP OpenView VantagePoint Operations (VPO) provides a set of manuals and online help that help you use the product and understand the concepts underlying the product. This section describes what information is available and where you can ﬁnd it.

NOTE HP OpenView VantagePoint Operations (VPO) has been renamed to HP

OpenView Operations (OVO) for UNIX. The name change has not yet been fully implemented across the VPO software and documentation. As a result, you will encounter references to the former product name.

Electronic Versions of the Manuals

All manuals are available as Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) ﬁles in the documentation directory on the VPO product CD-ROM.

With the exception of the VPO Software Release Notes, all manuals are also available in the following VPO web server directory:

http://<management_server>:8880/ITO_DOC/<lang>/manuals/*.pdf

In this URL, <management_server> is the fully qualiﬁed hostname of your management server, and <lang> stands for your system language, for example C for English and japanese for Japanese environments.

Alternatively, you can download the manuals from the following website:

http://ovweb.external.hp.com/lpe/doc_serv

VPO Manuals

This section provides an overview of the VPO manuals and their contents.

Table 2 VPO Manuals

Manual Description Media

VPO Installation Guide for the Management Server

VPO Concepts Guide

VPO Administrator’s Reference Volume I

VPO Administrator’s Reference Volume II

VPO Reporting and Database Schema

Designed for administrators who install VPO software on the management server and perform initial conﬁguration.

This manual describes:

• Software and hardware requirements

• Software installation and de-installation instructions

• Conﬁguration defaults

Provides you with an understanding of VPO on two levels. As an operator, you learn about the basic structure of VPO. As an administrator, you gain insight into the setup and conﬁguration of VPO in your own environment.

Designed for administrator’s who install VPO on the managed nodes and are responsible for VPO administration and troubleshooting. Contains conceptual and general information about the VPO managed nodes.

Provides platform-speciﬁc information about each managed node platform.

Provides a detailed description of the VPO database tables, as well as examples for generating reports from the VPO database.

Hardcopy

PDF

Hardcopy

PDF

PDF only

VPO Entity Relationship Diagrams

HP OpenView VPO Java GUI Operator’s Guide

Provides you with an overview of the relationships between the tables and the VPO database.

Provides you with a detailed description of the VPO Java-based operator GUI and VantagePoint Navigator. This manual contains detailed information about general VPO and VantagePoint Navigator concepts and tasks for VPO operators, as well as reference and troubleshooting information.

PDF only

Table 2 VPO Manuals

Manual Description Media

VPO Software Release Notes Describes new features and helps you:

• Compare features of the current software with

features of previous versions.

• Determine system and software compatibility.

• Solve known problems.

VPO Supplementary Guide to MPE/iX Templates

Managing Your Network with HP OpenView Network Node Manager

VP Navigator Concepts and Conﬁguration Guide

Describes the message source templates that are available for MPE/iX managed nodes. This guide is not available for VPO on Solaris.

Designed for administrators and operators. This manual describes the basic functionality of HP OpenView Network Node Manager, which is an embedded part of VPO.

Provides information for administrators who are responsible for installing, conﬁguring, maintaining, and troubleshooting the HP OpenView VantagePoint Navigator. This manual also contains a high-level overview of the concepts behind service management.

PDF only

Hardcopy

PDF

Hardcopy

PDF

Additional VPO-related Products

This section provides an overview of the VPO-related manuals and their contents.

Table 3 Additional VPO-related Manuals

Manual Description Media

HP OpenView VantagePoint Operations for UNIX Developer’s Toolkit

If you purchase the HP OpenView VantagePoint Operations for UNIX Developer’s Toolkit, you receive the full VPO documentation set, as well as the following manuals:

VPO Application Integration Guide

VPO Developer’s Reference

HP OpenView VantagePoint Advanced Security (VPAS)

If you purchase HP OpenView VantagePoint Advanced Security (VPAS), you receive the following additional documentation.

VPAS Installation and Concepts Guide

HP OpenView VantagePoint Operations Integration for Sun Management Center

If you purchase HP OpenView VantagePoint Operations for UNIX Integration for Sun Management Center, you receive the following additional documentation.

VPO Integration for Sun Management Center User’s Guide

Suggests several ways external applications can be integrated into VPO.

Provides an overview of all available application programming interfaces (APIs).

Provides information for administrators who are responsible for installing, conﬁguring, maintaining, and troubleshooting VPAS.

Provides information for administrators who are responsible for installing, conﬁguring, maintaining, and troubleshooting the VPO Sun Management Center integration.

Hardcopy

PDF

Hardcopy

PDF

Hardcopy

PDF

PDF only

Table 3 Additional VPO-related Manuals

Manual Description Media

HP OpenView Event Correlation Designer for NNM and VPO

If you purchase HP OpenView Event Correlation Designer for NNM and VPO, you receive the following additional documentation.

HP OpenView ECS Conﬁguring Circuits for

NNM and VPO

Explains how to use the ECS Designer product in the NNM and VPO environments.

VPO Online Information

The following information is available online.

Table 4 VPO Online Information

Online Information Description

HP OpenView VantagePoint Operations Administrator’s Guide to Online Information

HP OpenView VantagePoint Operations Operator’s Guide to Online Information

HP OpenView VantagePoint Operations Java GUI Online Information

Context-sensitive help system contains detailed help for each window of the VPO administrator GUI, as well as step-by-step instructions for performing administrative tasks.

Context-sensitive help system contains detailed help for each window of the VPO operator Motif GUI, as well as step-by-step instructions for operator tasks.

HTML-based help system for the VPO Java-based operator GUI and VantagePoint Navigator. This help system contains detailed information about general VPO and VantagePoint Navigator concepts and tasks for VPO operators, as well as reference and troubleshooting information.

Hardcopy

PDF

HP OpenView VantagePoint Operations Man Pages

Manual pages available online for VPO. These manual pages are also available in HTML format.

To access these pages, go to the following location (URL) with your web browser:

http://<management_server>:8880/ITO_MAN

In this URL, the variable <management_server> is the fully qualiﬁed hostname of your management server.

About VPO Online Help

This preface describes online documentation for the HP OpenView VantagePoint Operations (VPO) Motif and Java-based operator graphical user interfaces (GUIs).

Online Help for the Motif GUI

Online information for HP OpenView VantagePoint Operations (VPO) Motif graphical user interface (GUI) consists of two separate volumes, one for operators and one for administrators. In the operator’s volume, you will ﬁnd the HP OpenView VPO Quick Start describing the main operator windows.

Types of Online Help

The operator and administrator volumes include the following types of online help:

❏ Task Information

Information you need to perform tasks, whether you are an operator or an administrator.

❏ Icon Information

Popup menus and reference information about VPO icons. You access this information with a right-click of your mouse button.

❏ Error Information

Information about errors displayed in the VPO Error Information window. You can access context-sensitive help when an error occurs. Or you can use the number provided in an error message to perform a keyword search within the help system.

❏ Search Utility

Index search utility that takes you directly to topics by name.

❏ Glossary

Glossary of VPO terminology.

❏ Help Instructions

Instructions about the online help system itself for new users.

❏ Printing Facility

Printing facility, which enables you to print any or all topics in the help system. (An HP LaserJet printer is required to print graphics.)

To Access Online Help

You can access the help system in any of the following ways:

❏ F1 Key

Press F1 while the cursor is in any active text ﬁeld or on any active button.

❏ Help Button

Click [Help] in the bottom of any window.

❏ Help Menu

Open the drop-down Help menu from the menu bar.

❏ Right Mouse Click

Click a symbol, then right-click the mouse button to access the Help menu.

You can then select task lists, which are arranged by activity, or window and ﬁeld lists. You can access any topic in the help volume from every help screen. Hyperlinks provide related information on other help topics.

You can also access context-sensitive help in the Message Browser and Message Source Templates window. After selecting Help: On Context from the menu, the cursor changes into a question mark, which you can then position over the area about which you want help. When you click the mouse button, the appropriate help page is displayed in its help window.

Online Help for the Java-based GUI

The online help for the HP OpenView Vantage Point Operations (VPO) Java-based graphical user interface (GUI) helps operators to become familiar with and use the VPO product.

Types of Online Help

The online help for the VPO Java-based GUI includes the following information:

❏ Tasks

Step-by-step instructions.

❏ Concepts

Introduction to the key concepts and features.

❏ References

Detailed information about the product.

❏ Troubleshooting

Solutions to common problems you may encounter while using the product.

❏ Index

Alphabetized list of topics to help you ﬁnd the information you need quickly and easily.

To View a Topic

To view any topic, open the appropriate folder in the left frame of the online documentation window, then click on the topic title. Hyperlinks provide access to related help topics.

To Access Online Help

To access the help system, select Help: Contents from the menu bar of the Java GUI. A web browser opens and displays the help contents.

NOTE To access online help, you must ﬁrst conﬁgure VPO to use your preferred

browser. See the VPO Installation Guide for the Management Server for more information.

1 An Introduction to Integrating

Partner Applications with VPO

Chapter 1 27

An Introduction to Integrating Partner Applications with VPO

Why Integrate with VPO?

A successful system management solution must satisfy a customer’s requirements for uniﬁed management across all platforms and all applications in a distributed environment. These requirements can seldom be satisﬁed by a single vendor, making partnerships essential to extend the functions and scope of a system management solution. With the HP OpenView VantagePoint Operations Developer’s Toolkit you have a powerful tool at your disposal to integrate your network solutions into HP OpenView VantagePoint Operations. By employing the standard integration capabilities of VPO, and the extended capabilities of the VPO Developer’s Toolkit, you can create a solution that addresses a wider range of requirements, and that the customer perceives as a single, uniﬁed product.

The standard HP OpenView VantagePoint Operations (VPO) product provides operations and problem management for multivendor distributed systems, and combines:

❏ Management of databases, applications, and networks;

❏ Detection of events occurring on managed nodes or SNMP devices;

❏ Filtering mechanisms to separate relevant events from irrelevant

events;

❏ Generation of meaningful messages that include automatic and

operator-initiated actions, and instructions for operators;

❏ Sophisticated Motif-based GUIs for operators and administrators, as

well as a Java-based operator GUI.

For more information about the standard integration capabilities of VPO, see Chapter 3, “Using the Integration Capabilities of the VPO Motif-based GUI,” on page 87.

Chapter 128

An Introduction to Integrating Partner Applications with VPO

Why Integrate with VPO?

In addition to the standard functionality of VPO, the Developer’s Toolkit provides a powerful C-library of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), including:

❏ Operator APIs to operate on VPO messages, message events, and

applications responses, for example to own or disown a message.

Interface API to access VPO by opening an instance to the following interfaces:

• Server Message Stream Interface

• Agent Message Stream Interface

• Legacy Link Interface

• Application Response Interface

• Message Event Interface

❏ Conﬁguration APIs to conﬁgure VPO data directly in the database.

The functions allow you, for example, to conﬁgure new VPO templates or managed nodes, or to modify existing applications or users. In addition, functions are available to control access to VPO data, and to distribute conﬁguration changes to the managed nodes.

For more information about the VPO User APIs, see Chapter 4, “Using the VPO Application Programming Interfaces,” on page 163.

The OpenView Windows API and SNMP API of Network Node Manager are also available for use in generating an integrated solution. For information on these APIs, see Chapter 6, “Integration Facilities of the HP OpenView NNM Core Platform,” on page 227.

Chapter 1 29

An Introduction to Integrating Partner Applications with VPO

Why Integrate with VPO?

These features make VPO ideally suited as an integration framework for other applications or solutions which address the system and network management market. Integration with VPO is especially attractive to partners who provide solutions in the following areas:

❏ Other system management functional areas, such as backup,

spooling, job scheduling, security, or accounting.

❏ Problem management for speciﬁc applications, for example, database

systems.

❏ Problem management for platforms on which VPO intelligent agents

are not available.

❏ Enhanced problem handling, such as event correlation, helpdesk

systems, and trouble-ticket systems.

❏ Service management to monitor business-relevant services.

Chapter 130

+ 296 hidden pages