Configuration of Monitored Assets

Overview

Configuration Items (CI) are the assets (e.g. servers, routers, VMs, applications) on your network that FireScope SPM will be monitoring. Grouped into Logical Groups and Service Groups, CIs contain Attributes, which are the metrics or logs you want to track (e.g., Processor Utilization, Free Disk Space, log entries). Each CI can be connected with FireScope SPM using an optional agent or through SNMP, Syslog, or other communication methods. 

Each monitored asset includes four key elements:# The Configuration Item – The CI acts as a container that identifies the IP Address or FQDN of the asset.

1. Attributes – Attributes are the individual metrics, logs, and operational states of the CI.
2. Event Definitions – Events can be configured to identify when a CI has an error or an Attribute’s value is outside of operational thresholds.
3. Visualization – Visualize current and trending conditions by building visual controls, which can be added to your custom Dashboards.

• Adding a Performance Data Display
• Adding a Pie or Bar Chart
• Adding a Trend Graph

Please note that this section describes the manual process for creating an individual CI, and is rarely followed. In most cases, CIs are created automatically using Discovery, Integration or the configuration web service. Additionally, attributes, event definitions and visual controls are ideally applied via Blueprints in any scenario where you have more than one of a given class of CI.

Configuration Item

In the first step to monitoring a server, networked device or application, we need to create a Configuration Item (CI)–also called a Device. Although the steps below follow the manual process of CI creation, FireScope SPM does include a Discovery feature that can automate this process. For more information, see Discovery

Create CI

Following are the steps to create CIs manually. # Log in to FireScope SPM.

1. Click Configuration > CIs > CI. The Configuration Items page will be displayed. 

1. Click on the Create button (in the top right corner). The Create Configuration Item page will be displayed.

1. Complete the form. Refer to the Section Description Table for information on each field.
2. Click on the Save button.

Section Description

Clone CI

1. Open an existing CI.
2. Edit the form. See Creating a Configuration Item for more information on the CI fields.
3. Click Clone (on the bottom of the page). The Create Configuration Item page will be displayed, duplicating the field values of the CI you choose.
4. Click on the Save button.  

Edit CI

1. Open an existing CI.
2. Edit the form. For more information on the CI fields, see Creating a Configuration Item.
3. Click on the Save button.

Activate or Disable CI

1. Click on Configuration > CIs > CI. The Configuration Items page lists all the current CIs.Note: You can filter this display by Service Group or Logical Group using the global navigation. You can sort the information by clicking a column header.
2. Check the box next to the CI you want to activate or disable.
3. In the drop-down at the bottom right corner of the page, select Activate selected or Disable selected.
4. Click Update. A confirmation window will be displayed. Note: Disabling a CI sets FireScope SPM to no longer collect data from that CI, but all previously collected data will still be accessible.
5. Click OK

Delete CI

1. Check the box next to the CI you want to delete.
2. In the drop-down at the bottom right corner of the page, select Delete selected.
3. Click Update. A confirmation window appears.Note: Deleting a CI will not delete any data but will mark this device and its historical data for deletion during the next Housekeeping cycle. For information on Housekeeping timing, please see History Settings and Cleaning History, in the Ongoing Administrative Tasks section.
4. Click OK.

Batch Update CI Properties

To Update CI properties:

1. Log in to FireScope SPM with configuration or administration privileges.
2. Click Configuration > CIS > CI. The Configuration Items page lists all the current CIs.Note: You can filter this display by Service Group or Logical Group using the global navigation. You can sort the information by clicking a column header.

1. Check the box next to the CI you want to update.
2. From the drop-down at the bottom right corner of the page, Select Update CI Profiles from the following options:
   1. Activate
   2. Disable
   3. Delete
   4. Update CI Profiles
   5. Update Business Availability

Update CI Profiles

CI properties are populated by Discovery profiles but are not updated by BP linkage. To edit several CIs at the same time,

1. Select the Check boxes next to the CIs you wish to update.
2. Select Update CI Profiles action from drop down box (bottom right hand corner)

1. Click on the Update button. Batch update CI Profile form will be displayed.Note: Leaving a field blank will preserve the existing values per CI.

1. The table below Selected CIs (at the end of the form) shows the existing values of the selected CIs prior to the batch update.

Update Business AvailabilityCI Business Availability are populated by Discovery profiles (typically defaults to a ping status) but are not updated by BP linkage. To edit several CIs at the same time,

1. Select the Check boxes next to the CIs you wish to update.
2. Select Update Business Availability action from drop down box (bottom right hand corner)

1. Click on the Update button. Batch update CI Profile form will be displayed.

1. Business Availability drop-down list displays Event Definitions of all selected CIs have in common, matching by description. Selecting an Event Definition and clicking Update Business Availability will assign each CI the corresponding ED as the new business availability.
2. The table below Selected CIs (at the end of the form) shows the current business availability assignments and the current status.

Migrate CI’s

Prerequisite

Before migrating any CIs, make sure that the FireScope agents running on the CIs are configured to point to the new Edge device IP address. This can be done by editing the Server property field in the agent configuration. For more information on how to include the new Edge device IP address, go to Agent Configuration page.

Migrate CI’s

There may be times, either because of growth in your infrastructure or for performance tuning reasons, where you may need to redistribute data collection for Configuration Items (CIs) across your Edge devices.  FireScope includes a mass-migration utility for these occasions.  It is important to note that CI GUIDs include the associated Edge device’s GUID, and therefore moving a CI to a different Edge device requires re-creating the CI with a new GUID.  While this has no impact on integration, AEDs or Policies, it does mean that the history of the CI will have to be recreated, which is why the migration capability includes options for the length of history to retain.

  To migrate CIs# Click on Administration > Utilities > Migrate CIs, Migrate CIs page will be displayed. 

1. Click on the Create button. Create Migration CI Job page will be displayed.
2. Select Edge Device from Migrate from drop down menu.
3. Select a type of item to migrate from Select Configuration Items To Migrate: drop down menu.

1. Click on the Select button, a Select (item type) page will be displayed.

1. Click on the check box next to the item to select it, then click on the Select button.
2. You will be redirected to the Create Migration CI Job page.
3. Enter Days of CI History Data to Migrate: or No history (0 days) option, on the Create Migration CI Job page.
4. Click on the Next button.

1. . Confirm Migration Job page will be displayed.

1. Click on the check box to confirm the migration and then click on the Execute button.