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Foglight for Databases 5.9.7 - User Guide

Online-Only Topics

You can use the Manage Reports dashboard to download and view details about generated reports. If you have the Advanced Operator role, this is also the dashboard from which you perform report-management tasks.

You can also use the Manage Reports dashboard to quickly generate and schedule new reports using an existing set of reports. From this dashboard you can run a report (see Online-Only Topics) and you can filter which reports are displayed in the table by selecting a template, module, or role.

If you have the Operator role, the Generated Reports table appears on this page. If you have the Advanced Operator role or Report Manager role, the Scheduled Reports table appears as well.

TIP: Show or hide columns in the views using the dialog box that appears when you click the Customizer icon ().Quickly find a report in one of these views using the Search field. You can also click the Search menu to perform an advanced search or use regular expressions.

Filter the list of reports to find reports listed in the Generated Reports and Scheduled Reports views more easily. You can filter these lists to show only the reports associated with a particular template, module, or role.

1
On the navigation panel, under Homes, click Reports.
2
Click Manage Reports.
3
Click Currently Showing all Reports.
4
Clear the Show All Reports check box.

The reports that Quest Foglight has generated appear in the Generated Reports view. Use this view to download generated reports and to see details about a report such as its name, format, and the date on which it was generated. Report details are listed in the table and in the popup that appears when you click the row for a report.

2
Click View () to start the process of saving or opening the report.

If you have the Operator role, you can delete reports that you generated. If you have the Advanced Operator role, you can also delete reports that other users generated.

2
Click Delete ().

Use the Generated Reports view to create a scheduled version of a generated report. For example, you view a one-time report and decide it should be generated automatically at the end of each month.

You can also use this view to create a new scheduled report using a previously generated scheduled report. For example, you want to create a new scheduled report using the same template and the same schedule as your "End-ofDay" report, but the new report is tailored to a different service and emailed to a different group of recipients.

2
Click Manage Reports.
4
Click Schedule.
a
In the Name field, type a unique name for the report.
b
Choose the Output Format:
PDF is the default option.
Excel creates a report that you can open in Microsoft Excel.
XML creates a report in the XML format. Select this format if you want to import the data into other applications.
c
In the Retain field, type the number of instances of a scheduled report that you want Quest Foglight to keep. For example, if you type 3, Quest Foglight deletes the oldest instance of this report when it generates a fourth instance.
d
The Enable Scheduling check box is selected by default. When this option is selected, the scheduled report is automatically enabled when you click Finish.
e
Optional—type a comma-separated list of the email addresses of the recipients to whom you want Quest Foglight to email this report.
f
Click Next.
b
To specify a value, click the Edit icon () next to the report input. The contents of the dialog that appears vary depending on the type of value that you are editing.
c
Click Next.
a
Select the schedule that determines when Quest Foglight runs the report. For example, choose End of day to run the report daily, at the end of each day (5:00 pm by default). Select a schedule from the list or click the Add icon to create your own schedule. If you have chosen to create your own schedule, select a schedule pattern type and enter the details.
TIP: If you have a long list of schedules, use the Search field to narrow it down.
Start typing the schedule name into the Search field. You can also click the Search menu to perform an advanced search or use regular expressions.
b
Click Next.
8
Confirm if the report values are correct. If they are not, click Previous and make the appropriate changes. If they are correct, click Finish to save your scheduled report.
2
Click Regenerate ().
3
Supply the values for the report input parameters. In the Optional or Required fields, click the Edit icon to select the new report input parameter value on which you want to base this report and then click Next.
a
In the Name field, type a unique name for the report.
b
Choose the Output Format:
PDF is the default option.
Excel creates a report that you can open in Microsoft Excel.
XML creates a report in the XML format. Select this format if you want to import the data into other applications.
c
Optional—if you want Quest Foglight to send this report to specific individuals, type a comma-separated list of email addresses of the required report recipients.
d
Click Next.
5
Confirm if the report values are correct. If they are not, click Previous and make the appropriate changes. If they are correct, click Finish to generate your report.

When you schedule a report, it appears in the Scheduled Reports view on the Manage Reports dashboard. Use this view to download a generated scheduled report to see details such as its name, the schedule and template on which it is based, and the user who created it. You can also view report details in the popup that appears when you click the row for a report, such as the recipients to whom Quest Foglight emails the report.

Use the Scheduled Reports table to:

You can select a previous scheduled report to view or download it.

2
In the Generated From Scheduled Report table, click a generated report in the Date column and click View to start the process of saving or opening the report.

When you delete a scheduled report, you also have the option to delete any generated reports that are associated with it.

2
Click Delete.
3
Optional — In the confirmation dialog, select the Delete related Generated Reports check box if you want to delete generated instances of this scheduled report. Once selected, click Delete.
Quest Foglight removes the report from the list of scheduled reports. If you selected Delete related Generated Reports, all generated instances of this scheduled report are removed from the list of generated reports.

When you create a scheduled report, you choose whether you want it to be enabled (runs automatically at the scheduled times) or disabled (does not run at the scheduled times until it is enabled).

You can change these settings at any time from the Scheduled Reports view.

2
Click Manage.
3
Click Enable or Disable.
If you click Enable, the value in the Enabled column changes to true.
If you click Disable, the value in the Enabled column changes to false.

You can create a new scheduled report by copying or editing an existing scheduled report.

2
Click Manage Reports.
a
In the Name field, type a unique name for the report.
b
Choose the Output Format:
PDF is the default option.
Excel creates a report that you can open in Microsoft Excel.
XML creates a report in the XML format. Select this format if you want to import the data into other applications.
c
In the Retain field, type the number of instances of a scheduled report that you want Quest Foglight to keep. For example, if you type 3, Quest Foglight deletes the oldest instance of this report when it generates a fourth instance.
d
The Enable Scheduling check box is selected by default. When this option is selected, the scheduled report is automatically enabled when you click Finish.
e
Optional—type a comma-separated list of the email addresses of the recipients to whom you want Quest Foglight to email this report.
f
Click Next.
b
To specify a value, click the Edit icon () next to the report input. The contents of the dialog that appears vary depending on the type of value that you are editing.
c
Click Next.
a
Select the schedule that determines when Quest Foglight runs the report. For example, choose End of day to run the report daily, at the end of each day (5:00 pm by default). Select a schedule from the list or click the add icon to create your own schedule. If you have chosen to create your own schedule, select a schedule pattern type and enter the details.
TIP: If you have a long list of schedules, filter the list of templates by typing the first few letters of the template name or module in the Search field. You can also click the Search menu to perform an advanced or regular expression search.
b
Click Next.
7
Confirm if the report values are correct. If they are not, click Previous and make the appropriate changes. If they are correct, click Finish to save your scheduled report.

Online-Only Topics

The Agents on All Hosts dashboard lists the agents that are available for each host. It is useful for monitoring from the perspective of hosts and agents. If you want to look at agents and the hosts where they are running, you will find this the most helpful dashboard.

You can also create a filter to display only certain groups of hosts. See Monitoring Remote System Agents for more information.

TIP: Visit http://eDocs.quest.com to watch our learning videos. See introduction to Managing Agents.
On the navigation panel, under Homes, click Agents.

The Monitored Hosts and Agents and the Outstanding Alarms views are displayed. The type of information contained in each column is described in the following table.

Agent or host

A popup that provides a summary of the agent/host, service, or application. This summary includes the number of alarms by severity, health status, and related links.

This is a common view in Quest Foglight. For a description of the host summary popup, see the topic: Online-Only Topics.

Type

Lists the type of agent. For example, WindowsAgent, or UnixAgent.

Health icon

Links to:

Alarm icon

A list of alarms for components that are being monitored. This is a common view in Quest Foglight. For information about working with alarms, see Viewing, Acknowledging, and Clearing Alarms.

Health History

A popup that focuses on the state history of a host condition such as fatal. Click on the colored segment that corresponds to the severity state to get information about the alarms contributing to this particular time interval. For more information, see Viewing an Agent’s Health History.

State

A popup that allows Administrators to activate or deactivate the agent as well as start and stop data collection.

Health State

Alarms for the host or agent selected in the Monitored Hosts and Agents view. This is a common view in Quest Foglight. For information about working with alarms, see Viewing, Acknowledging, and Clearing Alarms.

You can filter the hosts by clicking Agent Filter in the Action panel to open the Agent Filter dialog box.

The health history represents the state history of a host condition for specific periods of time, over the time period of the dashboard. You can click on any “state period” in the health history bar to drill-down on a list of the specific alarms that are associated with the host during that time period. This is useful in situations where the host condition frequently changes and a colorful health history bar is shown. By selecting a colored segment on the health history bar, you can get a closer look at what particular alarms are indicating a non-normal state severity.

1
Click the Health History bar for the appropriate host from one of the following dashboards:

You can group remote system agents to monitor Linux and Windows hosts using the Agents on All Hosts dashboard.

Use the Agents on All Hosts dashboard if you are interested in viewing a set of hosts rather than viewing the actual service.

When you create a group of agents or hosts to monitor, you are actually creating a global service which is a single service that can be reused in multiple places. For example, if you have a service that monitors legacy systems that are used in many places, you can define a single global service called LegacyService, then re-use it wherever you need it.

1
On the navigation panel, under Homes, click Agents.
2
Optional — On the Agents on all Hosts dashboard, use the filter at the top of the dashboard to search for a specific hosts or agents. The hosts found will be added to your group.
A unique Name for the service.
Optional — Add a Short Description and Description.
5
Click Create.

Editing a group of monitored agents takes you to the Service Builder dashboard.

1
On the navigation panel, under Homes, click Agents.
6
Optional — Click the Add icon and select the source services and the target services you want to visualize as a relationship and then click Create.
7
Optional — Select the domain to add.
8
Click Finish.
1
On the navigation panel, under Homes, click Agents.
4
Click Confirm.

Online-Only Topics

A service is a grouping of one or more components that interest you. Use the Service Builder dashboard to group monitored resources into services.

If you have the Advanced Operator role, you can use this dashboard to create a new service and edit existing services. When you create a service, a corresponding service level is automatically created.

In addition to the Service Operations Console dashboard, services appear in other dashboards (such as Hosts and Agents), as well as in reports. Defining a good set of services makes other dashboards more useful and easier to understand.

For more information, see the following topics:

When adding a service, using the Service Builder dashboard, the service is automatically displayed in the Service Operations Console dashboard.

When you create a service, you add different elements that compose its structure:

For example, you want to create a top-level service called Applications that contains your Banking Application and Customer Survey Application. First, you need to create a category, then add the services and components you want it to contain.

You classify the services you create as a global (common) service or a local (custom) service.

Use a global service if you want to define a single service and use it in multiple services. Since a global service is a common service, it must have a unique name in Quest Foglight. For example, if you have a service that monitors legacy systems that are used in many places, you can define a single global service called Legacy Service, then re-use it wherever you need it.

A local service is local to the parent service. It is also known as a custom service. Use a local service if that service is unique to the parent service. When a service is local to its parent, its name must be unique under its parent, but you can use the same name to create other local services in other parents. For example, you might create a local service called Database in several parent services.

A category is a top-level service. Create a new category to contain a hierarchy of related services if an appropriate category has not already been defined in your Foglight installation. You can create categories for a department, application set, business function, even a team or individual user.

For example, create a service called Accounting to monitor the performance of an accounting system. This accounting system has a web front-end for data entry and uses a Weblogic server and a SQL server in the back-end. The data collected on the end user response time, the Weblogic server, and the SQL server are added to this service as three separate components. By selecting Let Foglight Decide as the Tier, these components are assigned to their default tiers in the Service Operations Console. Also, by setting Select components used to determine the availability of this service to Only components in selected tiers and selecting only the User tier, only the end user response time (for example, time spent posting transactions using the web interface) is used to determine the availability of this service. This is reflected in the Service Level Compliance column in the Service Operations Console dashboard.

2
Type a Name for the category.
3
Optional — Enter text in the Short Description and Description fields. The text in the Description field appears in a dwell when you hover over a service.
4
Select a Tier. You can keep the default selection “Let Quest Foglight Decide” or optionally assign this service to a tier. Selecting a specific tier causes all objects in this service to be grouped under that tier. The results are displayed in the Service Operations Console.
5
From the Drilldown menu, you can specify a view to drill into from this service. Click Is not configured and select the view that Quest Foglight will use as the drilldown view from this service. If you have created a shared custom dashboard, this dashboard can be used as a drilldown view for this service. It also appears in the drilldown list under your user name and is available to other users with the same role permissions. In the example drilldown list below, the user test_user has the ability to set the custom dashboard called Test-dashboard as the drilldown view for this service.
Once set, you can view this drilldown view from the Service Operations Console dashboard by clicking the icon for this service in the Explore column.
Figure 80. Click the highlighted icon in the Explore column.
6
Optional — From the Quest Foglight can automatically add hosts that support any object you add to your service option, you can disable this setting. By default it is enabled to dynamically add and maintain hosts in this service. Click No to disable this option.
7
Optional — Set the Objects used to determine the availability of this service option. These selected tiers will be used to evaluate the Service Level Agreement (SLA). Select one of the following options:
All components added to this service. This is the default option.
Only components in selected tiers. Select this option to specify the individual tiers that you want to include. Click the check box beside the tier name to include it.
8
Click Next.
9
Optional — Select the domains to associate with this service category.
Figure 81. Assign domains.
10
Click Finish. The new top-level service is added to the Service Builder table.

You can specify the service components to monitor.

1
Under the Actions column, click in the Add column for the service or category with which you want to work.
2
From the dialog box, click Add components to this service.
3
Click Add specific component.
a
In the Name Containing field, type a search string.
b
Select a group using the From list, or by typing a keyword into the field, and then click Search.
You can use the Search and Advanced search features to find objects to add as components of a service.
c
Optional — Create your own object group by clicking View Object Groups. See Creating Custom Object Groups.
d
In the Object(s) found table at the bottom of the dialog box, select the specific components you want to add to your Object group. Click Select All to quickly select components listed on the table. Click Unselect All to clear the selection. To locate a component by name and type, click Advanced. You can also use regular expressions.
5
Click Add Components.

You can create your own object groups to collect instances for a specific object type. For example, you may be only interested in examining only CPU data for all instances in your environment.

2
In the Objects groups dialog box, click Add, and type a name and description for your custom Object Group.
3
Ensure the Is Disabled check box is cleared to enable the object group activation.
4
Click Create.
5
Click Add to select the object groups from the table.
6
In the Name field, type a unique name for the subgroup. In this example, type Example.
7
Specify the Data Type, Query Conditions, and if it Is Disabled by default. Once done, click
8
Optional—click Test to review the results.
9
Click Create.

Add services to a category or nest services within other services to create a hierarchy that corresponds to your needs. For example, add a service called Production Servers to your category Server Room. You can then add services to Server Room that reflect the different server operating systems they run or the different applications they host.

2
In the dialog box, click Create a child service.
New Local Service—creates a new local service and automatically attaches it to the selected service. As a local service, it is not listed in the Global Services and cannot be reused in different services.
New Global Service—creates a new global service and automatically attaches the service to the selected service. A global service is designed to be reused in other services in the service model. Once added, it will be listed as one of the existing global services from which you can select.
4
Type a Name for the category.
5
Optional—enter text in the Short Description and Description fields. The text in the Description field appears in a dwell when you hover over a service.
6
Select a Tier. You can keep the default selection “Let Quest Foglight Decide” or optionally assign this service to a tier.
7
From the Drilldown you can select a view to drill into from this service using the service dialog box. Click Is not configured and select the view that is going to be used as the drilldown of this service.
8
In the Yes/No field, indicate whether or not the hosts of the components added to the service should be included automatically as part of the service. By default, Quest Foglight automatically adds the hosts that support any object you add to this service. If you want Quest Foglight to dynamically add and maintain the hosts for this service, click Yes. Otherwise, if you prefer to manage hosts manually, click No. You can add hosts manually by using the Add Specific Components dialog box of the Service Builder. For more information, see Adding Service Components.
9
Click Create.
10
Add components to this service—select components such as hosts, servers, databases, or other services from the list of existing components. See Adding Service Components.
Create a child service—such as a new global or local service. See Creating a Service Contained by Another Service.

Adding a rule-based group to a service allows you to manage the components monitored by a service dynamically. If a component is added or removed, the service is automatically updated to handle the addition or removal of the component from the service.

For example, if you are monitoring an application that runs four WebLogic servers, you can create a service and specify a rule to add WebLogic server instances for a particular domain so that the service is updated when more servers are added or deleted. After adding the rule, you can see that the new WebLogic servers appear automatically in the service after adding more WebLogic servers. Likewise, if the original WebLogic instances running on Windows are decommissioned, they automatically disappear from the service.

In another example, if you create a service called “FX” on the infrastructure that monitors a Web service, you can create a rule to include another infrastructure that is used for extra capacity during peak times. When the other infrastructure for high capacity is used, it shows up in the service.

A service can contain many rule-based groups.

2
On the dialog box, click Add components to this service and then click Create a rule to add a group of components. Quest Foglight can auotmatically adds the hosts that support any object you add to a service.
4
Type a Name for the rule.
7
Click Test and confirm that the objects are found in the query result.
8
Click Create. At this point you should see a new rule-based group of components appear under the service that is associated with one host.

By clicking the Edit button on the Service Builder dashboard, you can:

2
On the Service Builder dashboard, click Edit for the service you want to change.
3
Optional—rename your service.
4
Optional—type a description, select a tier, or configure a drilldown, and if you do not want Quest Foglight to dynamically include the hosts to be added to the service select the No option button.
5
Click Next.
6
Click the Add icon, set the source and target relationship by selecting the Source Service and Target Service.
7
Click Create.
8
Click Next.
10
Click Finish.

You can remove a service, category, or a monitored component from its related service.

1
From the Service Builder dashboard, click Remove for the service or monitored components that you want to remove.
5
Click Confirm to continue.

You can associate a list of email addresses with a service. Use this feature if you want Quest Foglight to send notifications to a set of email addresses about the alarms that affect one of your services.

1
On the Service Builder dashboard, click Email in the row for the service for which you want to configure email notifications.
3
Optional—click Test to send a test email to the addresses in the list.
4
Click Save.

You can define alarm filters for any service in the Service Builder. Use alarm filters to specify alarms that are relevant to a given service as a way to keep an irrelevant alarm from falsely causing a service outage, rather than have all alarms impact the state of a service.

For example, alarm filtering can be used to ignore a certain state for a component with a high CPU usage. Quest Foglight is monitoring an application that runs on a WebLogic server and you create a service called “Retail” that includes the server and the host. The “Retail” service is shown as being unavailable when the host has a CPU usage greater than 90%. However, generally this is not considered a true service outage for this service. If you look at the host alarms, none of the alarms apply to the Retail service. As a result, you can use an alarm filter to filter out all host rules.

In another example, you can use an alarm filter to ignore the state of a service that appears as unavailable when the file system component for the D: drive fills up. Quest Foglight is monitoring an application that uses a host for the Siebel database and you want to filter out the Oracle database. The database is configured so that it uses only the C: drive, not the D: drive. A service was created to monitor the application that includes the Oracle agent and the host instance for the Oracle host. However, the service shows as unavailable if the D: drive fills up. Since the D: drive does not contribute to the availability of the application, you should add an alarm filter to exclude the monitoring of the D: drive. You can restrict the filter by choosing the FileSystem alarm, then specifying a Groovy script to refine the filter to apply only to the D: drive.

By specifying an alarm filter, you can decide what alarms impact the availability of a service.

1
On the navigation panel, under Homes, click Service Operations Console.
By Rule—select the By Rule check box and choose a rule for which its alarms are to be included or excluded. You can define more than one alarm filter for the same rule.
Alarms—select the types of alarms to include or exclude.
Groovy Script—refine the filtering by running an optional groovy script. The current alarm is the only parameter passed to this script, meaning you can filter on anything that is referenced by the alarm. An example of a groovy script is: @alarm.get('topologyObject').getType().getName() == 'Windows_System_System_Table'
7
Click Create.

For example, to include only alarms fired on processor 0 by the CPU_Utilization rule, you select the following parameters in the alarm filters dialog box:

 

Online-Only Topics

In Quest Foglight, services are automatically monitored for availability. By default, a service is considered available if it does not have a fatal alarm.

The Service Levels dashboard provides details about the service levels that are being monitored by Quest Foglight and measuring the availability of a service. Quest Foglight automatically examines the service and calculates its current availability. Then a percentage availability is calculated and used as the basis for service level evaluation, including alarms.

Service levels can be monitored in the Service Operations Console dashboard (Service Level Agreement tab) and the Service Levels dashboard. If you select the SLA name you are able to drill down to a more detailed summary of the service level performance. The Service Levels dashboard shows availability graphs on SLA performance in the last week and last month.

1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, click Services > Service Levels.
2
Choose a Service Level Agreement by clicking Service Level Selector in the action panel.
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