The interface software provides message services to Operations Sentinel. This enables Operations Sentinel to automate management and control of MCP host systems. There are several categories of messages from various sources sent across this interface to Operations Sentinel. These messages are matched against site-defined patterns in the SP-AMS database to determine the automated actions.
When a message matches a pattern, SP-AMS performs one or more of the following actions:
Raises, acknowledges, or clears an alarm.
Sends an attribute-change or delete-component event report to Operations Sentinel Server.
Creates an event entry in an Operations Sentinel log file.
Sends a command (message) from Operations Sentinel to interface software, which in turn sends the message to the monitored host system.
Sends a command to another host system, subject to security settings in Operations Sentinel.
Messages that are sent from the interface software to Operations Sentinel come in the following categories:
Interface control messages
These messages are sent to the Operations Sentinel server when a connection to the Operations Sentinel server is first established.
Utilization messages
Utilization data messages are periodically sent to Operations Sentinel based on the interval defined in the UTILIZATION_INTERVAL record in the MCP configuration file. This data populates bar charts and tables in Operations Sentinel Console.
System event messages
The host system generates a variety of system event messages. The interface software captures these messages and sends them to Operations Sentinel at the same time they are being sent to the system log for display. The filter file determines which Major,Minor types of messages are sent.
Disk monitoring messages
When the interface software is configured to monitor disk utilization thresholds, these messages provide information about available disk space.
Operations Sentinel messages
Messages are generated when Operations Sentinel requests information describing the hardware and software components that are to be monitored by Operation Sentinel Console.
Application program interface (API) user messages
MCP application programs linked to the API library send status messages and information messages to Operations Sentinel.
Host command response messages
As the result of a match between a pattern in the active SP-AMS database and a message sent by an MCP host system, SP-AMS may send a command back to the host system. Another application using Operations Sentinel cross-system automation capabilities may also send a command to the host system through the interface software. When the host system receives the command, it may respond by sending another message back to Operations Sentinel.