Dynamic Applications lie at the core of EM7 monitoring power and flexibility.

Networks are like living organisms, they are in a constant state of change. EM7 Dynamic Applications provide a powerful new modeling technology that creates the intelligence to keep you a step ahead. With Dynamic Applications - as your network and applications environment change, EM7 provides a real-time vision into your IT infrastructure. Whether alerting on fan failure in your new Dell server that delivers your enterprise messaging solution, graphing the electrical current draw in your Liebert UPS, or reporting on VMware virtual infrastructure performance and configuration the advanced modeling capabilities of Dynamic Applications create the relationships of collected information, while automatically adjusting and alerting you as your network changes. Dynamic Applications is where the magic of EM7 comes alive.

EM7 Dynamic Applications may be applied to servers, applications, network devices and other data center hardware and software used for storage, environmental monitoring, virtualization, etc - regardless of vendor or operating system. When activated by the Dynamic Discovery process, and through intelligent automation, EM7 is "smart" enough to recognize what's running on your network and automatically apply pre-defined "best-practice" monitoring rules, event and notification policies, and associated reporting. Dynamic Applications allow customers ultimate flexibility to expand the EM7 monitoring platform to any networked device or application.

Dynamic Applications take IT monitoring to the next level by automatically applying pre-defined monitoring templates - included in the system or customer-built - to display real-time performance, availability and configuration information on-screen and in graphs and detailed reports.

Dynamic Applications come in two types:

• Configuration

• Configuration information such as hardware profile/configuration, software, network, application configuration are enhanced with change detection and reporting, dynamic threshold alerting, and auto asset record creation.

• Performance

• Think of graphing, trending, and advanced alert logic for any performance statistic that is of value for your Commercial Off the Shelf Application or a custom in-house application. Think of Dynamic Applications as your tool to harvest specific performance metrics from any layer 7 applications and, in the process, get rid of your complex and difficult to maintain custom scripts.

 

EM7 Dynamic Application Collection Methods supported:

• XML
• SQL - Agentless access to multi-vendor databases and applications
• SOAP, AXL SOAP
• SNMP V1, V2, V3, + Traps
• Scripted - Code Snippets

 

A sample of how customers are using EM7 Dynamic Applications:

• multi-national corporation uses Dynamic Applications to track toner usage across hundreds of high capacity printers from Seattle to Miami
• A satellite network provider uses Dynamic Applications to provide early warning of weather induced capacity problems and aid in the re-routing of traffic
• A government agency uses Dynamic Applications to monitor diverse maritime systems from a shipboard EM7 instance based in the Pacific Ocean
• ScienceLogic uses Dynamic Applications technology to instrument against Dell OpenManage and achieve the coveted OpenManage Certified Partner status for best practice monitoring for Dell equipment
• ScienceLogic uses Dynamic Applications to instrument Cisco Call Manager VOIP applications

 

Each EM7 Dynamic Application creates a detailed set of instructions about how to deal with a specific piece of hardware, system or application software. The instructions in each Dynamic Application tell EM7:

• How to recognize and automatically start collecting data about a target, such as Microsoft Exchange;
• How often to collect data, and by what protocol (SNMP, XML page, SOAP request, SQL query and more);
• Collect just the items that are useful for identifying trends, alerting and troubleshooting, and nothing more;
• Consistent presentation of the collected data - in a graph showing numeric trends, or in tabular reports for configuration details such as installed power supplies and used memory banks;
• To generate alerts based on simple checks such as a temperature being too high, or based on complex formulas that combine results from multiple sources

EM7 is shipped with Dynamic Applications providing detailed monitoring and reporting for over one hundred widely used hardware and software applications such as Cisco routers, NetApp filers and RIM Blackberry Enterprise Servers.

Many more are available for customers to download from the ScienceLogic knowledgebase.

Dynamic Applications features:

• Collections are defined describing what type of data is being collected (gauge, counter, etc) and how it is grouped
• Alerts and corresponding events can be generated for any combination of collection results
• Dynamic thresholds can be defined for the Dynamic Application and overridden as needed on any device that subscribes to the dynamic application
• Dynamic Applications Custom Builder - for administrators to create their own Dynamic Applications using SNMP, XML or SQL
• Library of over 300,000 SNMP Object IDs (OIDs) plus integrated MIB Browser, MIB Walker and MIB Viewer to select OIDs for specific attributes to be collected
• Custom Calculation Tool - to perform calculations against collected data and provide more meaningful results for users
• Automatic Graphing Tool - to select graphic format, polling frequency, etc that display reports/views of real-time monitoring information how users need to see them
• Alerts Editor - to define environment-specific alerts associated with any of the collection objects - pre-defined or customized

EM7 also includes a build-in Dynamic Application editor that allows point-and-click creation or modification of Dynamic Applications to suit your specific environment. EM7 ships with a comprehensive library of over 300,000 known SNMP objects sourced from over 4,000 MIBs. The EM7 OID browser greatly eases the task of identifying and selecting items to monitor, and in the rare event of coming across a device in your network that is not already known to EM7, importing your own MIB and creating a new device classification to match could not be easier.

New for G3

Dynamic Applications - Snippets

EM7 G3 provides a new and powerful capability for monitoring diverse systems and applications using a variety of proprietary and standard protocols. These network connection methods can be combined with any custom logic that can be expressed in a high level programming language in a manner that meets the needs of the component to be monitored. These connection methods and algorithms are stored in the EM7 G3 Central Database Repository as the core components of Snippet Dynamic Applications and distributed to the Collectors automatically.

Snippets allow applications with proprietary management interfaces to finally be integrated with the complete Management Fabric rather than costly special cases. Data many be gathered using Snippets in many ways, such as Telnet or a proprietary TCP/IP port. They can also be used for complex SNMP processing where OID must be dynamically constructed, or for chained database operations where a series of queries must be performed before the final result is obtained, or for a host of other challenging management needs.

Snippet Dynamic Applications extensions:

• Snippet Dynamic Applications allow a proprietary collection method to be defined and tested in one place
• Presentations are required for performance Snippet Dynamic Applications to define how data should be graphed. The presentations reference one or more collections as source data for the graphs
• Credentials are used to describe how authentication should occur for each dynamic application on each device. Snippet Dynamic Applications can use any credential type for authentication: the developer of the Snippet should specify which credential type is appropriate for the Snippet in question (SNMP, Database, SOAP/XML...)
• Can be exported in a PowerPack and imported to other systems

The key difference between Snippet Dynamic Application types and others is a code snippet must be specified and defines how data is to be collected rather than a default method. Once a code Snippet has been defined, multiple collection objects can be defined for each Snippet returning different results depending on how it is called.

 

EM7 PowerPacks

EM7 PowerPacks leverage all of the unique built-in features of Dynamic Applications, and package them with other components as self contained "best practice" modeling templates.

PowerPacks bundle, Dynamic Applications, Custom Event Definitions, Alarms, Custom Reports, NOC Screens, and Device classes as a integrated management snap-in.

Stay tuned: In the near future we will deliver even more value and intelligence direct from the Technology Manufacturers their best practice intellectual property as EM7 Powerpacks.