Systems Health Map Initial setup




  1. After logging in to the BVQ Server, navigate to the main tab Alerting (1) and then to the sub tab Configuration (2).
  2. The Alert rules are categorized by systems and chapters or system independent by severity (High, Medium, Low).
    Your screen may look different because BVQ only displays alert rules from scanned system types.
  3. Initially all predefined alert rules are disabled.
  4. Select a folder to get a list of all alert rules related to it. Each alert rule(3) has a description (4) with more information and a suggested action in case it is violated.
    The Rule name (3) is a link to more detailed alert results
  5. Adjust the INFO/WARN/ERROR conditions (5)  if necessary. The default thresholds are based on best practice recommendations.
  6. Enable some (slider) or all (7) alert rules from the selected folder.
  7. Existing Rules can be cloned into advanced error rules (6)  which can be tailored very detailed to any need.
    This operation is only available for BVQ enterprise edition
  8. Save the changes (6).
  9. Once alert rules are enabled, they will be evaluated automatically and displayed in the SHM.
 Click to expand screenshot: Alerting Configuration - initial setup




 All alert rules are disabled by default

If no alert rules are activated, no System Health Map will be shown.
Please click on your Platform, under Predefined rules and then enable all, to activate the BVQ systems health map!

The abbreviation of Systems Health map is SHM. We will use this in the following articles.





How to use the Systems Health Map


You can access the SHM in several ways:

  1. An image of the current SHM is displayed on the start screen of the server. If you click on this picture you will be forwarded to the SHM.
  2. Select the tab Alerting and then the sub tab Results


  • On the first overview, you get a grouping of the alert rules
    • by platforms (1) - platforms are grouped together - use this with platform filters
    • by severity by category (2) - alerts grouped by severity - can become your daily work list
    • by Category (3) - this is by system or user categories
    • by Alert rule (4) - list of alert rules with detailed results
    • excluded objects (5) - list of excluded objects
       
  • You can restrict the view to individual systems (6)
  • change the time period and switch the SHM to autoplay (7)
  • numerous result display which can be used interactively (8)


 Click to expand screenshot: Alerting results - overview

Select systems

The SHM can get very busy with all systems displayed. The selector (6) can be used to select individual systems that are to be displayed.
This allows you to concentrate better on the results of a single system or a group of systems that belong together.

Selected systems can be deleted from the display using the x after the name.

When all systems are deleted from the selection all systems are displayed.


Adjusting the timespan

The time interval, that will be checked, is selected in the upper right corner of the SHM.

Here you have the following options:

  • an automatic adjustment of the time to every 5 minutes, comparable to a live-check of the alert rules (Autoplay)
  • An explicit period of time that is being reviewed


 

Navigate the SHM

After enabling the alert rules that fits to your environment, the SHM will be shown and is ready for your interactivity with it.
By simply clicking on an section or alert rule, the shown area will be changed.

By clicking into the center, you can drill up again.

You can also click on "<Back" (3), to go one selection back.


Display results from the SHM

Now, that you can set up and navigate within the SHM, we will take a look into the results from the SHM.

Select a single alert rule.

Now you can see the following information:

  • (1) Mouseover a alert rule, will give you a short summary of the results of the alert rule
    • The partitioning of the results sorted by: OK (green), Info (blue), Warn (orange) and Error (red)
  • (2) Open this to find an overall results of alert rule for all objects
  • (3) detailed information about alert rule and SUGGESTED ACTION
  • (4) Edit alert rule
  • (5)  List with all affected objects, there current level and the action buttons.
  • (6) Search field to find anything in the list
  • (7) Exclude results and copy table to clipboard
  • (8) object alert detail information





SHM Analytics - automated guided reactions


With the SHM Automated Guided Reaction you can see with a few clicks, how a problem has developed and you can also start to dig deeper into analysis.
This feature provides information about the topology of the object, over the time history and about the status of all other alerts relating to this property.


Start Automated guided reactions

  • To start automated guided reactions select an object from the SHM alert result list

     
     
  • the following screen shows a detailed information about the object with the alert to give information like:

    • Alert rule name, condition, result, time

       
  • From here you can choose form a tabbed display what you want to see
    • Topology Changes - the last changes in the topology of the object
    • Performance - the performance of the object
    • All Alert Rules - all alert rules of the object and how their results have developed


Tab Topology Changes

  • It also displays the last changes in topology of the alerted object
    • use time settings to see more object changes
    • use "Go to incident" to see the whether changes in topology led to the incident


Tab Performance

Shows a chart of the selected objects with the alert metric

  • use time settings to change the time of the display see more or less object changes
  • use "Go to incident" to see what happened at alert time 
  • you can go deeper into analysis using add additional charts


Tab All alert rules

Shows all alerts for the selected objects.

  • use time settings to see more or less object changes
  • use "Go to incident" to see what happened at alert time 
  • With the (?) button you can directly jump into the "Automated guided reaction" screen for the object with the selected alert.