A Design and Implementation Guide For Tivoli Decision Support Sg245499

A Design and Implementation Guide for Tivoli Decision Support
Edson Manoel, Fernando Bergamo, Dave Hulse, Rakesh Parshotam
International Technical Support Organization www.redbooks.ibm.com
SG24-5499-00
SG24-5499-00
International Technical Support Organization A Design and Implementation Guide for Tivoli Decision Support
October 1999
Take Note! Before using this information and the product it supports, be sure to read the general information in Appendix D, Special notices on page 191.
First Edition (October 1999) This edition applies to Tivoli Framework Version 3.6.1, Tivoli Enterprise Console Version 3.6.1, Tivoli Distributed Monitoring Version 3.6.1, Tivoli Service Desk Version 5.02, Tivoli Decision Support Version 2.0 for use with the AIX Version 4.3 and Windows NT 4.0 Operating Systems Comments may be addressed to: IBM Corporation, International Technical Support Organization Dept. OSJB Building 003 Internal Zip 2834 11400 Burnet Road Austin, Texas 78758-3493 When you send information to IBM, you grant IBM a non-exclusive right to use or distribute the information in any way it believes appropriate without incurring any obligation to you.
Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 1999. All rights reserved. Note to U.S Government Users Documentation related to restricted rights Use, duplication or disclosure is subject to restrictions set forth in GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.
Contents
Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii Tables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xi Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii The team that wrote this redbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii Comments welcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv Chapter 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 From fire fighting to business intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 The desired solution for business information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 Decision Support Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4 Positioning Tivoli Decision Support in the decision making process 1.5 Our approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chapter 2. Tivoli Decision Support general overview . 2.1 Overview of Tivoli Decision Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 Tivoli Decision Support product components . . . . . . . 2.2.1 Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Administrator . 2.2.2 Tivoli Decision Support Server component . . . . . 2.2.3 Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Interface . . . . 2.2.4 Cognos PowerPlay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.5 Crystal Reports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.6 Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guides . . . . . 2.3 Tivoli Decision Support implementation modes . . . . . 2.4 Supported platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5 Concepts and terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.6 How Tivoli Decision Support works. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.7 Who is making use of Tivoli Decision Support? . . . . . Chapter 3. Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1 Tivoli Implementation Methodology . . 3.2 Implementing Tivoli Decision Support. 3.2.1 Requirements gathering phase . . 3.2.2 Systems analysis phase . . . . . . . 3.2.3 Project planning phase . . . . . . . . 3.2.4 Deployment phase . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.5 Testing phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.6 Documentation phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 .1 .3 .4 .5 .7
. .9 . .9 . 10 . 11 . 12 . 12 . 12 . 12 . 12 . 14 . 15 . 16 . 19 . 21 . 23 . 23 . 25 . 25 . 30 . 40 . 47 . 52 . 54
Chapter 4. TDS architecture and design considerations . . . . . . . . . . . 59 4.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Copyright IBM Corp. 1999
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4.2 Integrating Decision Support with Tivoli Enterprise applications . 4.3 Tivoli Decision Support components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4 Integrating Tivoli Decision Support components . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.1 The cube-building process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.2 The Discovery Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5 Stand-alone vs. network architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.6 Suggested architecture and design solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.6.1 Tivoli Service Desk environment - Case study . . . . . . . . . . 4.6.2 Single TMR environment - Case study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.6.3 Multiple TMR environment - Case study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.7 Troubleshooting tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.7.1 ODBC source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.7.2 Cube building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.7.3 Discovery interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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. 60 . 61 . 63 . 64 . 68 . 70 . 72 . 72 . 74 . 77 . 81 . 81 . 81 . 82
Chapter 5. Case study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 5.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 5.2 Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 5.2.1 Requirements gathering phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 5.2.2 Systems analysis and design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 5.2.3 Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 5.3 The existing Tivoli environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 5.3.1 Tivoli general architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 5.3.2 TMR servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 5.3.3 Endpoint gateways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 5.3.4 TEC server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 5.3.5 RDBMS and RIM hosts configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 5.3.6 Tivoli DM and monitors for performance and capacity trend data 90 5.4 Identifying the reports requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 5.4.1 Customer reporting requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 5.4.2 The SDC actual solution for reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 5.4.3 The Reports of the NCO account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 5.5 Customer objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 5.6 Mapping Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guides . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 5.6.1 Detailed reports mapping workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 5.7 Tivoli Decision Support reports and business information . . . . . . . . . 116 5.7.1 Server Performance Prediction Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 5.7.2 Event Management Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 5.7.3 Domino Management Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 5.7.4 Network Element Performance Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 5.8 Suggested architecture and solution design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 5.9 Tivoli Decision Support deployment process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 5.9.1 Hardware and Software prerequisites installation . . . . . . . . . . . 145
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A Design and Implementation Guide for TDS
5.9.2 Installation of the Tivoli Decision Support server components. 5.9.3 Installation of the Tivoli Decision Support Administrator . . . . . 5.9.4 Installation of the Tivoli Decision Support client components . 5.9.5 Deploying TDS for server performance prediction . . . . . . . . . . 5.9.6 Deploying the Event Management Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.10 Future reporting requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.10.1 Additional reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.10.2 Additional recommended TDS Discovery Guides . . . . . . . . . Chapter 6. Reports and decision information usage 6.1 The scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2 The roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2.1 The systems analyst role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2.2 The IT manager role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2.3 The Chief Executive Officer role . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3 The discovery process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3.1 The system analyst discovery process . . . . . . 6.3.2 IT manager discovery process . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3.3 CEOs discovery process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 145 . 153 . 154 . 154 . 161 . 162 . 162 . 163 . 167 . 168 . 168 . 168 . 169 . 169 . 169 . 169 . 177 . 181 . 183
Appendix A. Tivoli Implementation Methodology (TIM) 3.6. . . . . . . . . 185 A.1 Target market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 A.2 Customer profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 A.3 The top three things to remember. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 A.4 What is new with TIM? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 A.5 What is unique? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 A.6 Where can I find information on TIM? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Appendix B. Tivoli Decision Support customer support . . . . . . . . . . . 187 B.1 The support process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Appendix C. Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guides availability . 189 Appendix D. Special notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 Appendix E. Related publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . E.1 International Technical Support Organization publications. . . . E.2 Redbooks on CD-ROM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . E.3 Other publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... ...... ...... ...... . . . . 195 195 196 196
How to get ITSO redbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 IBM Redbook fax order form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
List of abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 ITSO redbook evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
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Figures
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. The evolution to business intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The challenge of a better solution for business information. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 TDS in the decision making process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Tivoli Decision Support components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Tivoli Decision Support in stand alone implementation mode . . . . . . . . . . 14 Tivoli Decision Support network implementation mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 The operation of Tivoli Decision Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 TIM schematic overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Requirements gathering process flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Systems Analysis process flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Typical architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 File server information example form. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 TDS administrator PC information example form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 TDS client PC information example form. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Database server information example form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Network information example form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Project planning process flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Sample project plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Deployment process flow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Testing process flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Documentation process flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Tivoli Decision Support functionality diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Decision Support components integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Cube-building process - Step 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Cube-building process - Step 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Cube-building process - Step 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Cube-building process - Step 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Viewing the multidimensional reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Viewing Crystal Reports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 TDS in stand-alone mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Network installation architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Tivoli Service Desk environment case study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Single TMR environment case study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Single TMR environment with Tivoli Decision Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Multiple TMR environment case study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Multiple TMR environment with Tivoli Decision Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Service Delivery Center - West architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Tivoli Distributed Monitoring object relationships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 The Problem for reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 The in-house process for reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
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41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83.
The SRM method for reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 In-house performance and capacity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Detailed report - CPU utilization by server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Detailed report - process memory and paging utilization by server . . . . . 100 Detailed report - network I/O utilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Detailed report - DASD usage by server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Percentage availability by server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Detailed alert summary by server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Lotus Notes - Monthly mail server statistics report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Lotus Notes - Monthly database server report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Lotus Notes - Daily mail hub report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Lotus Notes - Daily MTA server report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Lotus Notes - Hourly response time report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Lotus Notes - Hourly concurrent users report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Lotus Notes - Hourly sessions-per-minute report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Lotus Notes - Hourly mail box size report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Lotus Notes - Hourly SMTP transferred messages report . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 AIX servers - CPU utilization reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 AIX servers - Hard disk and file systems utilization report . . . . . . . . . . . 111 AIX servers - Account summary report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 NT servers - CPU, memory, and disk utilization report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 NT servers - Account Summary Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 All System Metrics report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 CPU utilization by server report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Memory utilization report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Network I/O utilization report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 CPU utilization memory page rates by operating system . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Summary report by operating system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 CPU average forecast by system purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Under-provisioned/Over-provisioned servers report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 SLA statistics by event class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Which events take the longest to fix? report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Event source volume by hour report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Domino network traffic report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Domino server statistics - Mail routed by server report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Domino statistics - Total KB transferred report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Domino statistics - Number of users report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Domino statistics - Mail average delivery time report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Domino statistics - Replication statistics report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Domino statistics - Server average delivery time by hour report . . . . . . . 136 Domino statistics - Mail box file size by server report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Network Element Performance Guide - Cisco CPU utilization report . . . 138 Network Element Performance Guide - Name server speed by hour . . . 139
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84. Network Element Performance Guide-Top ten nodes by transition count 140 85. Recommended architecture in network mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 86. The update procedure first script - transfer.cmd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 87. The update procedure second script - copycubes.cmd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 88. The Transfer_Cubes task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 89. Defining the Transfer_Cubes task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 90. The Transfer_Cubes job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 91. Defining the Transfer_Cubes job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 92. The Copy_Cubes task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 93. Defining the Transfer_Cubes task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 94. The Copy_Cubes job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 95. Defining the Transfer_Cubes job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 96. Scheduling the jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 97. Scheduled jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 98. Lotus Notes mail servers by CPU utilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 99. Lotus Notes Mail Servers daily average run length cue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 100.Lotus Notes mail servers by memory utilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 101.Lotus Notes mail servers that need more memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 102.Lotus Notes mail servers by network utilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 103.Lotus Notes mail server - forecasted average mail delivery time . . . . . . 176 104.Under-provisioned and over-provisioned Notes servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 105.Performance anomalies by server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 106.Lotus Notes server approaching critical thresholds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 107.Lotus Notes server daily average performance trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
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Tables
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. Requirements gathering phase items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Systems analysis phase items. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Minimum configuration table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Project planning phase items. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 TDS workshop summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Deployment phase items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 TDS deployment guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Testing phase items. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Documentation phase items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 The TDS Discovery Guides mapping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Detailed mapping reference table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Macro procedure for deploying TDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Minimum hardware requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 TDS file server deployment steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 SPP Discovery Guide installation steps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 DM Roll-up installation steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Event Management Discovery Guide installation steps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Future requirements reference table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 TDS Discovery Guides general availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
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Preface
Deploying a Tivoli Decision Support solution requires careful planning and includes numerous activities. The primary objective of this redbook is to describe the methodology used to deploy and migrate from the current reporting tools to Tivoli Decision Support by using an IBM service delivery center as a case study. In addition, we will describe how decision makers with different roles and responsibilities can benefit from Tivoli Decision Support and make better decisions by simulating typical problems in IT business. This redbook is targeted at the technical professional responsible for migrating from the current reporting tools used in his or her organization to Tivoli Decision Support and will be available as a reference book upon the deployment of Tivoli Decision Support. This redbook is a valuable addition to existing product documentation and is aimed at both architects and implementors of enterprise systems management solutions. This redbook should be read in conjunction with the product documentation, which complements some of the concepts explained in this book.
The team that wrote this redbook

This redbook was produced by a team of specialists from around the world working at the International Technical Support Organization, Austin Center. Edson Manoel is an Advisory ITSO representative working as a project leader at the International Technical Support Organization, Tivoli Group, Austin Center. He applies his extensive field experience as an I/T Tivoli Specialist to his work at the ITSO where he writes extensively on all areas of systems management. Prior to joining the ITSO, Edson worked in IBM Brazils Professional Services Organization as an I/T Architect where he was involved in numerous projects designing and implementing systems and network management solutions for major IBM Brazil customers. Fernando Bergamo is an I/T Specialist working in the Technology and Automation Group at the IBM Technology Center, Brazil. He holds a Computer Engineering degree from the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP). His areas of expertise include system management, networking, database administration, data warehousing, and all Tivoli core applications.
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He is currently working on deploying Tivoli enterprise solutions for several IBM customers in Brazil. Dave Hulse is an Advisory IT Specialist working at IBM Global Services Johannesburg, South Africa. He has over 20 years of experience in the IT industry. He has been with IBM for 18 months and, during that time, was project leader responsible for the design and deployment of the largest Tivoli implementation in Southern Africa. His areas of expertise include designing customer IT solutions, and he has extensive experience in the field of systems management. Rakesh Parshotam is an Advisory IT Specialist working as a Tivoli Architect at IBM Global Services in South Africa. He holds a degree in Computer Science and is a Certified Tivoli Consultant and Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. He has been working with Tivoli for the past three years and has held various positions including Technical Team Leader for major Tivoli systems management deployment projects in South Africa. The team would like to express special thanks to Ling Tai, Senior Software Engineer working for Tivoli in Raleigh, for her major contribution to this book. Thanks also go to the following people for their invaluable contributions to this project: Kim Querner Tivoli Systems, Austin Bill Meloling Tivoli Systems, Raleigh Lisa Chaves, Axel Elfner IBM, Tucson Shawn Eldridge, Douglas Fuzie Tivoli Systems, Indianapolis Temi Rose International Technical Support Organization, Austin Center Milos Radosavljevic International Technical Support Organization, Austin Center
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Comments welcome
Your comments are important to us! We want our redbooks to be as helpful as possible. Send us your comments about this or other redbooks in one of the following ways: Fax the evaluation form found in ITSO redbook evaluation on page 209 to the fax number shown on the form. Use the online evaluation form found at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/ Send your comments in an internet note to redbook@us.ibm.com
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Chapter 1. Introduction
This redbook was written with the input and experience of many people, and the result is a suggested approach that may apply directly to your situation or can be a guide to anyone involved in implementing Tivoli Decision Support in a large-scale environment. Enterprises usually have some reporting tools that assist in the performance of daily tasks. Very often, these tools are neither well-integrated with the business of the enterprise nor are they able, for example, to provide predictable information about growth or change. In addition, these tools generally do not provide a good and easy way of interpreting information that helps to make better decisions because they are normally designed for and used by technical people (who often make the interpretation of information as easy as reading and understanding hieroglyphics). Decision making often requires the analysis of large amounts of data, complex relationships, and abstract correlations. Decision support systems usually help in the evaluation of consequences (the what if) of given decisions and may advise which decisions are best for achieving particular goals. We will move towards a real scenario explaining the methodology used, the architecture and design considerations, and all phases of deployment of the Tivoli solution for the decision-making process. Furthermore, we will simulate a typical problem showing how decision makers with different roles and responsibilities can benefit from the business information provided by Tivoli Decision Support in order to make more efficient decisions. We do not explain the product details of Tivoli applications in this book, but we assume that the reader is reasonably familiar with Tivoli architecture and Tivoli applications. We have dedicated Chapter 2, Tivoli Decision Support general overview on page 9 to providing the reader with a brief introduction to Tivoli Decision Support.
1.1 From fire fighting to business intelligence

The Information Technology (IT) business is changing. An evolution is in progress, a paradigm shift that is changing the way we do business. Customers are demanding end-to-end solutions tied to Service Level Agreements (SLAs). The challenge for technology is to manage and deliver these services, such as availability, performance, and capacity management
across the entire enterprise as e-Business spawns more and more devices that are connected to it. A few years ago, it was sufficient for service providers (IT Departments) to manage and plan business operations using monthly batch reports. Changes in the organizations took a long time to be implemented. After that, with the implementation of some management tools, we were able to execute queries from the historical operational data in order to get reports or charts that only allowed us to be reactive to problems. Today, enterprises need to provide decision makers with fast and easy access to information that reflects the constant changes in the environment. Decision makers and customers need to have access to tools that provide them with the ability to identify trends and model relationships in the data to find behavioral anomalies in the business environments.
Exception and Predictive Management Based on SLA
IT Investments
fa ti s o cti n
Proactive Inter Management Platform
Cu
st
om
er
Sa
Managed Environment Monitoring & Defined Process Reactive Few Defined Process
Fire Fighting No Tools No Process
Business Drivers
Figure 1. The evolution to business intelligence
Large amounts of data are stored in your enterprise. This data contains precious information about the way the enterprise does business, its process, and customers. In these competitive days, using the knowledge provided by
this data in order to make strategic business decisions can often move the enterprise ahead of the competition. Business intelligence is what we are describing in this section; It is the ability to be proactive to problems, leverage the assets in our business to gain profit from available data, and provide the know-how needed to make well-informed decisions for our business. As e-business drives the need for more network devices, we will need technologies that enable us to manage resources across the entire enterprise, end-to-end, not only by exception but by predictive analysis as well. One such technology is Tivoli Decision Support, soon people will ask: How did we manage without it?
1.2 The desired solution for business information

Historically, both Network and Systems Management tools have focused on the state and function of individually managed elements or groups of similar devices. However, these tools, with their incompatible and independent data, do little to help those who must manage based on a broader vision of the business and its supporting services, a capability that is now essential in enterprise distributed systems management. The challenge is to view systems and network management from the perspective of the business as a whole. End-to-end service delivery and reporting has become the model for distributed management. This model is commonly called service management or service level agreement management. The question facing IT managers is whether there are tools and products that are up to the challenge. The greatest obstacle to full end-to-end service level agreement management is not the lack of but the abundance of management tools. If you think of your own organization, there are probably numerous tools for managing the enterprise. Some are vendor-specific, and others are produced in-house, each defining its own standard for data formats and reporting. Every tool has been optimized to address a specific or limited set of management functions.
Introduction
Multiple Management Functions
Monitor A
Monitor B
Transforming the Data ......
. . . .
Monitor Z
... into Business Information Standard Format
Figure 2. The challenge of a better solution for business information.
As shown in Figure 2, the challenge is to find a complete solution that provides an integrated framework or platform offering multiple management functions across multiple vendor applications, services, or devices across the entire enterprise collecting the data and storing it in a standard format that can be processed and transformed into meaningful business information. Attempts to provide this capability are not new. One such solution is Tivoli, which offers centralized policy-based functions, such as user management, software distribution, and services accessible to third party vendors.
1.3 Decision Support Systems

The concept of a Decision Support System (DSS) is widely used in both research and in many different applications, but it has not yet been uniquely defined. In order to avoid possible misunderstandings, it is necessary to present the basic characteristics of the class of DSS we will define. Let us start with a brief discussion of the environment in which a DSS will be used. The key person in this consideration is an individual who uses a DSS in real life situations. By convention, such a person is called a Decision Maker (DM). By this term, we mean both a person who makes real decisions (depending on
an application, this person may be a manager, engineer, or operator) and an expert who may that persons supervisor. Decisions are made within a Decision Making Process (DMP), which, in situations that justify the use of a DSS, is a complex sequence of tasks. We assume that a final decision is to be made by the Decision Maker, and a Decision Support System does not serve as a replacement or control of a DM. In other words, a DSS is not aimed at the automatic selection of decisions. The following are characteristics of a DSS: Systems that facilitate/extend knowledge management capabilities. Systems that coordinate distributed decision making. Systems that offer advice, expectations, facts, analyses, and so on. The user interface of a DSS is designed in such a way that a DM may obtain, from the DSS, information and answers for questions that she or he considers to be important for a DMP. DSS are interactive by nature. Even though a DSS might be unable to solve a problem facing DM, it can be used to stimulate the DMs thoughts about the problems. The following DSS definition is the one that can better explain the class of DSS we will work with: DSS DSS is a supportive tool for the management and processing of large amounts of information and logical relations that helps a DM extend his or her habitual domain and, thus, helps him or her reach a better decision. In other words, a DSS can be considered a tool that, when under the full control of a DM, performs the difficult tasks of data processing and provides relevant information that enables a DM to concentrate on this part of the DMP.
1.4 Positioning Tivoli Decision Support in the decision making process

Tivoli Decision Support (TDS) is designed to provide the best possible environment for facilitating the Decision Making Process and helps you to be pro-active, planning future changes and determining their impact on the organization. The better the measurements and feedback regarding business processes, the better a decision maker can adjust for changes and maximize the results in the decision making process. In addition, when decisions are not made in a
Introduction
timely manner, windows of opportunity can close, and business is usually not done. Tivoli Decision Support as a technology is best known for dynamically providing the decision maker with interactive business indicators and then allowing the user to look at those indicators from many different perspectives. For example, let us suppose that a product manager wants to know how well the product is being supported in South America this month and compare the rates with the same month the previous year. Once she or he views the high-level report, she or he may drill into the region to only look at how Brazil is doing. Moreover, she or he may drill into the southeast region and look at how a particular city is doing. This technology is called On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP) or multidimensional analysis. In addition, Tivoli Decision Support allows us to benefit from information collected by the customers Tivoli solution. For example, the support centers collect a large quantity of transactional data from their customers, which contains valuable information about the way they interact with the business. With Tivoli Decision Support, Decision Makers have a way to manage this data and convert it into useful information providing a way to evaluate and identify trends, to gain insight into the way customers do business, and to make better decisions.
Tivoli Applications
Decision
RDBMS
Data processing and Management of logical relationship
Tivoli Decision Support

Decision Maker
Accessing business relevant information
Figure 3. TDS in the decision making process
As shown in Figure 3 on page 6, Tivoli Management Applications, such as Enterprise Console, Service Desk, Inventory, Distributed Monitoring, and so on collect the data and store it in databases. Tivoli Decision Support selects management data from these databases, performs calculations, and adds value to the data by managing the natural relationship in the data. At this point, only business relevant information is offered to the Decision Maker who is in charge of the decision. With Tivoli Decision Support, Tivoli Enterprise solution has moved a step forward to reach the desired solution for Business Decision Information providing the ability to: Measure the effectiveness of your operation Gain insight into the potential satisfaction level of customers Gain insight into the value of your customer relationships Further leverage your investment in technology and automation Identify areas of weakness to convert from reactive activities to proactive planning Discover patterns that influence your decision making and future planning Become more efficient and effective Gain control over your business faster
1.5 Our approach

The remaining sections of this redbook are divided into the following chapters: Chapter 2, Tivoli Decision Support general overview on page 9 This chapter provides information about the product describing the concepts and terminology used by Tivoli Decision Support. In addition, we provide basic information about the Tivoli Decision Support components. Chapter 3, Methodology on page 23 In a generic form, this chapter is intended to provide the reader with basic information about the methodology used to plan, deploy, and migrate to Tivoli Decision Support: Requirement Gathering phase Systems Analysis phase Project Planning phase
Introduction
Deployment phase Testing phase Documentation phase Chapter 4, TDS architecture and design considerations on page 59 In this chapter, we will describe some considerations for the Tivoli Decision Support architecture/topology/design solution, such as: How Tivoli Decision Support integrates with the Tivoli architecture How the Tivoli Decision Support components integration works Tivoli Decision Support architectures based on case studies environments Troubleshooting tips Chapter 5, Case study on page 85 This chapter exercises the knowledge acquired from the previous chapters performing an example by exploring one of the IBM Service Delivery Centers as a customer presenting a structured Tivoli Decision Support deployment solution. Chapter 6, Reports and decision information usage on page 167 This chapter demonstrates how Tivoli Decision Support can support the decision making process by describing a simple scenario and outlining the steps used to find and analyze critical data in order to make a well-informed decision.
Chapter 2. Tivoli Decision Support general overview

In the context of delivering services in a complex IT environment, to accomplish a high level of customer satisfaction requires the IT function of an organization to have a full understanding of and insight into the different aspects of its operation and performance in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. For example, for the network analyst of an organization to conduct network performance tuning, he or she may need to find out not only which portion of the corporate network has the most traffic, but also why, when, and which systems cause the most traffic. Similarly, for the IT manager, the network analyst may need to know how well his help desk operation performs not only in terms of, for example, how many problems were resolved within the SLA, but also in terms of what problems were resolved, by whom, and over a series of time intervals. Despite the high volume of data being collected by the different systems in an organization, without a suitable tool, it is increasingly difficult for technical analysts and IT managers alike to obtain answers to business-relevant questions, such as those discussed above. As a result, resolutions and decision making are frequently conducted using only a subset of the information stored in the organization. It is the goal of Tivoli Decision Support to maximize the value of the Tivoli data being collected across the various systems in organizations by making them available to aid analysis and decision making.
2.1 Overview of Tivoli Decision Support

Tivoli Decision Support provides a powerful mechanism to aid its users to dive into complex database structures and explore them in different scopes, levels of detail, and from different perspectives. It also allows its users to analyze data in multiple dimensions. Collectively, these features enable the user to gain a deeper understanding of and insight into the relationship between the data stored in different systems that affect the business operation and performance of an organization. Because of its flexibility in handling data in different scopes, levels of details, perspectives, and dimensions, Tivoli Decision Support addresses the information need of different users for conducting analyses and decision making - from technical analysts, through line managers, to executives. Finally, Tivoli Decision Support handles the delivery of and access to the data. It facilitates knowledge discovery and user access to information. Data
collected can be shared with others in the organization using delivery mechanisms including hard copy printouts, files, and push content. In the latter case, content that has been collected by one user can be sent to a central repository on a companys intranet from which other users can gain access to the content.
2.2 Tivoli Decision Support product components

Tivoli Decision Support can be categorized into two main parts: Tivoli Decision Support Base Product Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guides The base product provides functions that are necessary to configure, administer, and operate Tivoli Decision Support and is the prerequisite for using the TDS Discovery Guides. The base product is composed of the following components: Discovery Administrator TDS Server component Discovery Interface Cognos PowerPlay Crystal Reports The TDS Discovery Guides are software add-on modules that put the application of TDS in context. For example, the Call Center Management Guide deals with issues related to the decision making process associated with support requests, resolution rates, and so on. Figure 4 on page 11 shows the relationship between the Tivoli Decision Support Base Product and Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guides.
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Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guides: Ready-to-use Solutions
Figure 4. Tivoli Decision Support components
The following sections are dedicated to explaining each of the Tivoli Decision Support components. For further information, refer to the product documentation.
2.2.1 Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Administrator

The Discovery Administrator helps you ensure that Tivoli Decision Support functions correctly within your organization and information is kept up to date. The Discovery Administrator performs the following tasks: The Discovery Administrator has access to the database in order to gather and maintain all data used by Tivoli Decision Support. The Discovery Administrator can be customized to automatically gather the data, which is stored in special files (it populates these special files with current data from your organizations databases) at pre defined intervals or it can enable you to perform such operations manually. It provides specific parameters you can set when building or customizing cubes. These parameters affect the operation of specific cubes and enable you to customize the behavior of views in the Discovery Interface.
Tivoli Decision Support general overview
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It enables you to set parameters that are specific to your enterprises operation. These parameters, such as severity level thresholds and business hours, determine how Tivoli Decision Support interprets data and makes calculations when generating views.
2.2.2 Tivoli Decision Support Server component

The TDS Server component, best known as TDS File Server, acts as a repository for TDS. This component contains TDS related models, queries, templates, and other information required to generate views for the Discovery Interface.
2.2.3 Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Interface

The Discovery Interface is the client component of TDS. This is the interface to Decision Support. It provides all the tools needed to open and work with views of data from your organizations enterprise databases.
2.2.4 Cognos PowerPlay

Cognos PowerPlay is a third-party application from Cognos Inc. It is a multi-dimensional analysis and reporting tool that is included in Tivoli Decision Support. Cognos PowerPlay can generate customized views based on queries to the databases in your enterprise. It can also display views in a variety of graphical styles including bar, line, and pie charts. Using the tools provided by Tivoli Discovery Interface and PowerPlay, you can turn low-level detailed data into useful business knowledge. After a view is opened in PowerPlay format, you can analyze many dimensions of the data to determine relationships, trends, effects, and so on. PowerPlay also gives you the option of further accessing view details so that you can break out and analyze the data behind it.
2.2.5 Crystal Reports

Crystal Reports is a third-party reporting application from Seagate Software Inc. This application generates text-based views from standard database queries. Tivoli Decision Support uses many views in Crystal Reports format in the TDS Discovery Guides.
2.2.6 Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guides

A Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guide is a TDS module that groups enterprise data into specialized categories. Each category contains a series of topics that correspond to the different aspects of that category. Each topic
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contains a number of views that are associated with the data elements being examined. Tivoli Decision Support uses the Discovery Guides to aid in discovering key information. With this information, Tivoli Decision Support becomes a powerful end-user solution. This solution provides users with a comprehensive set of views into their enterprises data. Along with the views are methods (including algorithms, queries, and reports) for abstracting key business indicators from the business data. Managers can use these indicators as key business information to improve efficiency, performance, and profitability. TDS includes several Discovery Guides. Other Guides are available as additional options. Appendix C, Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guides availability on page 189, offers a complete list of the Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guides including those that are shipped with TDS Version 2.0. TDS Discovery Guides contain algorithms, queries, reports, views, and business models that best represent a business concept. Guides can be very robust and contain several hundred views and multiple business models. Along with the views, guides have embedded contextual information associated with views. The context helps users identify, discover, and understand what the view has to offer. For example, as the user views and interprets data in Tivoli Decision Support, the Tivoli Discovery Interface provides several features to facilitate the user. These features include hints, related views, and keyword searches. No customization, analysis, or programming is required to use Tivoli Decision Support guides. By selecting guides in the Discovery Interface, managers can define the scope of their data searches to yield the most relevant results for their needs. A call center manager, for instance, may want to see only data that pertains to his or her area of the business. He or she may not need to review data that another department manager needs to review. It is only necessary to activate all relevant TDS Discovery Guides and turn off all other guides. The views shown in the Tivoli Discovery Interface topic map are only those associated with the Call Center Management Discovery Guide. Managers can select as many Guides as they want to expand the scope of their data search, for instance, if the call center manager wants to review not only relevant call center data, but also data collected about the health of his or her business contacts. The call center manager selects the Call Center Management Discovery guide as well as the Relationship Management Discovery Guide. Now, the views available to the call center manager in the
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topic map are a combination of the two guides he or she selected. The call center managers scope has changed to encompass more views.
2.3 Tivoli Decision Support implementation modes

Tivoli Decision Support can be implemented in either Stand-alone or Network mode. Stand-alone mode All the TDS components are installed and run on one machine. The stand alone machine also requires the installation of the database client software and the ODBC driver in order to have access to the databases from which one or more cubes are built. This database connection also allows report generation by running database queries against the individual databases. Figure 5 shows an example of a Tivoli Decision Support implementation in stand alone mode:
INVENTORY
ODBC Connection
DM
TEC
Machine running TDS in stand alone mode

Figure 5. Tivoli Decision Support in stand alone implementation mode
DATABASES
Network mode Only TDS Discovery Interface and Cognos PowerPlay are installed on the client machine. In addition, the client requires the installation of both the Client Database and the ODBC Driver, in order to have access to the data stored in the database server, when generating Crystal reports. The TDS Version 2.0 installation CD contains the Intersolv 3.01 32-bit ODBC Driver for Oracle and Sybase. The TDS Server component is installed on a file server which the client machines have access to a shared drive that will contain all the cubes generated. A separate machine is used as the administrator system where the Discovery Administrator module is installed along with PowerPlay. The
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Administrator system should access the shared drive in the TDS File Server. In addition, it also requires the database client and the ODBC driver in order to have a connection to the database from which the cubes are built. The cube files created by the Discovery Administrator are stored on the TDS File server. The diagram in Figure 6 on page 15 shows an example of a Tivoli Decision Support in the network mode:
stores the Cubes access the Cubes
TDS File Server
access the Cubes
builds the Cubes
TDS Discovery Interface
TDS Discovery Interface TDS Discovery Administrator

ODBC connection
Crystal Reports
Crystal Reports
Database Server
Figure 6. Tivoli Decision Support network implementation mode
2.4 Supported platforms

The following software platforms are supported by Tivoli Decision Support Version 2.0: Operating Systems: Windows NT 4.0 Windows 95
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Database Management Systems: Oracle Sybase SQL Server Informix DB2
2.5 Concepts and terminology

This section provides some important Tivoli Decision Support concepts and terminology. Category A Category is a major division of data in the Tivoli Decision Support topic map. The enterprise data is grouped according to concepts, such as productivity or interaction trends. Within a Category, the user can find more specifically-related types of data. See also Topic and View. Cubes A cube is a data container used by PowerPlay. PowerPlay is a multi-dimensional reporting and analysis tool packaged with Tivoli Decision Support. As opposed to a flat two-dimensional table of rows and columns, a multi-dimensional array can be visualized as a cube with many sides, with each dimension forming a side. The cube is arranged so that every data item is located and accessed based on the intersection of the dimension members that define it. Cubes are built by the TDS Discovery Administrator, which runs a query against the database and executes the Cognos Transformer. Cognos Transformer is a component of Cognos PowerPlay. The function of the Cognos transformer is to input the queries and summarize the data (by counting, averaging, calculating percentage, and so on) and pack this information into a compressed cube file (*.MDC). The TDS Discovery Interface executes PowerPlay reports that look at these cube files for historical data rather than live data.
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Dimensions A dimension refers to a broad grouping of descriptive data about an aspect of a business, such as software products and dates. Each dimension includes categories in one or more drill-down paths and an optional set of special categories. See also drill-up and drill-down. Dimension line The dimension line shows the dimensions in the cube and the categories within each dimension currently being examined. Drill-up and Drill-down Drill-up refers to looking at data in a progressively more general way whereas drill-down refers to looking at data in a progressively more detailed way. Drill-through Drill-through is more detailed than drill-down. While drill-down stops at the lower level of consolidated data, drill-through goes one step further by looking at the actual data records themselves. For example, if the breakup of the types of problems resolved by a particular analyst is the lowest level of consolidation, drill-through looks at the actual records that correspond to the problem descriptions themselves. Filter A filter is a means of ensuring that a data search yields the most relevant results. In Tivoli Decision Support, the user can specify data selection criteria, such as data ranges or severity levels, that restrict the data search and result in only relevant data. Layer Layer is the third set of dimension categories, along with rows and columns, that you can add to the views in TDS. Layers offer details for another dimension to provide a new perspective on your views. A view can contain several layers, but you can look at only one at a time. Measures Measures refer to indicators you use to gauge the performance of your organization. For example, measures can be the number of problem requests received and the average time taken to resolve a problem.
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Models A model contains definitions of queries, dimensions, and measures as well as objects for one or more cubes that Cognos Transformer creates via the TDS Discovery Administrator for viewing and reporting in PowerPlay. Profile A profile is a feature in the Discovery Interface that enables each user to configure settings and views that pertain only to him or her. The Discovery Interface can contain several profiles. Related view A related view is a view that is different from the current view but may contain additional relevant data. Tivoli Decision Support automatically suggests views that are related to the current view. These additional views are listed in the Related Views tab in the hint pane. Role A role is a user-selected description that describes the users position in all areas of the business. A user can select one or more roles based on the scope of his or her position. By specifying one or more roles, the user establishes the scope of the information contained on the topic map. The more roles are specified, the greater the scope of the data searches displayed on the topic map. Selection criteria Selection criteria are the parameters specified by the user when conducting a data search. Selection criteria act as filters ensuring that only relevant data is yielded by a data search. See also Filter. Slicing and Dicing Slicing and Dicing refers to the process of extracting information for viewing from the cube file by selecting different dimensions. This process can be thought of as constructing a multi-dimensional space by using the selected dimensions for its constituent axes or as looking at the same data from a variety of angles. Topic A topic is a subcategory of data in the Tivoli Decision Support topic map. Within each category of enterprise data, data is subdivided into related
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topics. Within each topic, the user can choose an individual type of data for viewing. See also Category and View. Topic Map Topic map is the users primary means of navigating Tivoli Decision Support. In the topic map, the user can choose specific categories, topics, and views. When a view is selected, a specially-configured view appears in the view pane. See also View. View A view is the most detailed type of question in the topic map. A view provides the user with an outlook of the data stored in the cube file or the data retrieved from a special database query.
2.6 How Tivoli Decision Support works

The Tivoli Discovery Administrator module, which is installed on your system if you run in stand-alone mode or on the system administrators system if you run in network mode, connects to your enterprises databases. When you issue a request for information in the Tivoli Discovery Interface, Tivoli Decision Support either reads the information from the database directly (if the report requested is a Crystal report) or reads the cube file created by the Tivoli Discovery Administrator (if the report requested is a multi-dimensional report). The cube is summarized data that is read from the database when the cube is built by the Tivoli Discovery Administrator. The information is then returned to the Discovery Interface and presented to you.
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TDS Discovery Administrator Cubes
Multi-dimensional Reports Enterprise Databases
Crystal Reports
TDS Discovery Interface
Figure 7. The operation of Tivoli Decision Support
Because of its integration with PowerPlay and Crystal Reports, Tivoli Decision Support provides snapshot-style views of data that are displayed in the Discovery Interface. The data can be viewed in one of several formats: as text, a bar chart, a line chart, or some other graphical format. The default format depends on the type of data you are viewing, but you can select different formats for some types of views. These views allow you to: Analyze data from different perspectives Compare current activities to historical records Spot trends Troubleshoot Evaluate resource allocation Make projections and forecasts Perform other management tasks The Discovery Interface also provides features that can automate your search for data. For example, you can use bookmarks to collect your favorite views; so, they are instantly available. Instead of manually browsing for data, you can use the Search tool to find information based on keywords. The
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Discovery Interfaces History feature tracks your most recently used views; so, you can quickly return to them.
2.7 Who is making use of Tivoli Decision Support?

Tivoli has identified three distinct groups of users for Tivoli Decision Support: Explorers, Tourists, and One-minute managers. Each group defines a set of needs unique to the group: Explorers use existing Tivoli Decision Support metrics and reports as a stepping stone to discover additional trends and views. After they notice a trend in the data, they investigate why the trends occur. Most organizations have a limited number of employees devoted to the task of exploring, but they are typically required to continually research the effectiveness of their organization. The information they gather is funneled to other employees in the organization. Tourists want to explore, but they do not want to go into areas that are dead ends or areas that do not quickly meet their needs. Typically, tourists want as much freedom as possible to follow their touring needs as long as each step meets their needs. They spend time looking for data, but they want a high success rate in finding what they want when they want it. There are usually more tourists in an organization than there are explorers. One-minute managers do not want to spend their time exploring. They want to continually review a set of views that allow them to know what they need to know. One-minute managers need a fixed set of views they can reference, and they want views customized to their specific needs. For example, analysts may only want to look at their open calls. This view can be set in the Discovery Interface; so, it is readily accessible to the One-minute manager. Tivoli Decision Support satisfies the needs of different types of users with an environment that is highly-customizable. The customizable nature of Tivoli Decision Support lends itself well to explorers who are continually viewing the enterprises data sources to discover trends and views. Tourists also benefit from the customizable features of Tivoli Decision Support, which enable them to expand or limit the number of pre-packaged views. Finally, One-minute managers appreciate the user-friendly Discovery Interface, which assists them in locating the view or sets of views they want to reference. Also, Tivoli Decision Supports
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push-delivery feature enables all users to receive updated views but is particularly helpful to the One-minute manager.
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Chapter 3. Methodology
This chapter provides the reader with the recommended methodology that they should conform to in order to successfully plan, install, and configure the Tivoli Decision Support product. This chapter kicks off with an overview of the Tivoli Implementation Methodology (TIM), which has been branded as Tivolis best practice for identifying, designing, planning, installing, testing, and documenting a Tivoli Enterprise solution. Following the introduction to TIM, a recommended Tivoli Decision Support deployment process incorporating the structured procedure driven by the implementation methodology that TIM is based on will be presented to the reader.
3.1 Tivoli Implementation Methodology

The Tivoli Implementation Methodology (TIM) constitutes the methodology for successful deployments of Tivoli management software solutions. TIM uses structured, predictable, and repeatable processes, which result in efficient and effective deployments. Through the use of a set of documentation, guidelines, templates, and tools used to plan, develop, test, implement, and maintain Tivoli solutions, TIM is Tivolis best practice standard to: Understand a customer's system-management needs Select Tivoli management software that best addresses those needs Enable the sales team to use the consultant organization's experience to obtain accurate estimates of the effort required to implement the solution Assist Tivoli Certified Consultants and project managers in planning, designing, and implementing Tivoli solutions that meet customer needs Test Tivoli Solutions Document Tivoli Solutions, thus, enabling customers to independently manage their systems Assist the customer support team in supporting the deployed Tivoli Solutions. TIM is used by sales teams, project managers, architects, consultants, and account managers from both Tivoli Systems and approved Tivoli Business Partner consultant organizations. TIM was developed by Tivoli consultants, architects, project managers, support staff, and developers. It captures the best practices framework-wide deployments of Tivoli Management Software. TIM provides standard deployment processes and offers best-of-breed procedures continuously
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refined by Tivoli Professional Services and selected Business Partners. TIM is organized according to the Software Engineering Life Cycle model. This model addresses each element that is critical to the implementation of any software development activity. In Figure 8, a schematic overview of TIM is given.
Figure 8. TIM schematic overview
TIM provides standard verified methods for use by project managers and Tivoli-certified consultants to execute each phase of a Tivoli implementation. With this common deployment strategy, Tivoli and Tivolis business partners can provide: Accurate and complete requirements definitions for Tivoli solutions
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Efficient requirements analysis to generate an architecture and design for a solution Complete project planning and detailed design for a solution Accelerated deployment of Tivoli solutions Detailed solution verification that lends itself to customer regression test activities Completed solution documentation that can be used by the customer, consultants, Tivoli support staff, and Tivoli development to ensure the long-term success of that solution To find information on TIM, refer to the instructions in Appendix A, Tivoli Implementation Methodology (TIM) 3.6 on page 185.
3.2 Implementing Tivoli Decision Support

In order to ensure that the process of deploying Tivoli Decision Support is in line with TIM, we will follow the process flow defined in the TIM methodology to detail each phase of the TDS implementation. Since our main focus in this chapter is the implementation, the methodology detailed below will only highlight those procedures that are significant to TDS. It is assumed that TDS has already been identified as the solution that the customer requires; so, we will not go into detail about the pre-sales and best-fit Tivoli product analysis exercises, which are part of the Sales Engagement phase.
3.2.1 Requirements gathering phase

Requirements gathering, as it relates to Tivoli Decision Support, is a systematic process of identifying a customer's reporting requirements in order for us to deliver a well-thought-out implementation of Tivolis decision-making software. With the aid of detailed questionnaires, the consultant services organization works with the customer to identify complete and accurate requirements for their reporting solution. This activity also helps the customer establish the proper expectations of the breadth and scope of the TDS solution. In order to deliver a definitive TDS requirements document, we will tailor this requirements gathering phase to provide only the information necessary to define the scope, architecture, and estimated hours that will be required to implement the customers TDS solution. The objective of this segment is, therefore, to gather requirements that enable the following:
Methodology
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A system architect to analyze the information and successfully create a System Architecture and Design document The consultant, business operations, project management, sales team, and the deployment team to work together, led by business operations, to develop a technical proposal A deployment project team to create a detailed project plan Table 1 shows the input and output items, which highlight the components of the requirements-gathering phase:
Table 1. Requirements gathering phase items
Requirements gathering phase

Input Output Initial customer requirements questionnaire Tivoli decision support requirements questionnaires
Figure 9 outlines the process flow of the requirements-gathering phase:
Requirements Gathering Flow
INPUT
Customer Requirements Questionaire
TDS Requirements Questionaire
OUTPUT
Figure 9. Requirements gathering process flow
We will now take a look at the questionnaires shown in Figure 9. 3.2.1.1 Questionnaires Questionnaires serve as the main tool for gathering a detailed description and logical picture of the customers environment. It is a tool that portrays the customers environment and high-level goals for reporting on his or her IT environment. Gathering the customer-specific TDS requirements is the focal point of this exercise and will be investigated shortly. First, however, we must take a look at the systems management requirements of the customer in the form of the Customer Requirements Questionnaire.
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3.2.1.2 Initial customer requirements questionnaire The information gathered in this report serves as the single input element of the implementation solution. Our aim is to process this information and produce other questionnaires and reports that will serve as inputs to the subsequent phases of the implementation cycle.
In this questionnaire, many business-specific questions are answered. The most important and valuable pieces of information gathered would be the customer reporting goals and issues. For example, the answers to the following types of questions will be available to us: What are the immediate Tivoli-specific goals of the customer? What are the long-term Tivoli-specific goals of the customer? What are the customer's general immediate goals with TDS? What are the customer's general long-term goals with TDS? From this information, the TDS consultant will be able to identify the reporting solution components that are significant to the customers business. He or she can now focus on the implementation of the product functions of Tivoli Decision Support and gather all the necessary TDS requirements.
3.2.1.3 Tivoli Decision Support requirements questionnaire Having manipulated the information received above, we are now ready to draw up a questionnaire to extract the TDS product-specific information. The TDS provider will set up an interview with the customer requesting the relevant business leaders as well as the IT technical leader to be present. This interview is broken up into four steps, which are shown in the list below. The purpose, requirements, and process of each step will be clearly distinguished; furthermore, a set of suggested questions for the questionnaire will be proposed.
1. Decision-making/reporting requirements overview: Purpose It is during this step that Tivoli personnel acquire their initial information on the customers reporting requirements. It is assumed that the customer has an amateur solution in place and intends to migrate to Tivoli Decision Support. The customer will be questioned on his or her current reporting activities, and a document detailing his or her requirements will be drawn up. Required information Details of what the customer expects from the Tivoli Decision Support solution, current process, procedure, service levels, reports, and any
Methodology
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product(s) associated with accomplishing their current reporting task (if any) are required information. Process Document all customer expectations and reporting goals. Gather all existing reporting policies and procedures implemented by the customer. Review the customer's existing reporting policies and procedures to determine how data is collected and manipulated and what Tivoli Decision Support specifics need to be presented in order to migrate to this new reporting strategy. Suggested questions: What are the customers immediate report requirements? What report requirements are forecast as future needs? What is your current reporting strategy, and what are the shortfalls? Are you able to publish content to the Web? How often do you run your data mining and database interrogation procedures? Are any Tivoli products used to gather data for the current reporting solution?
Note
It is in the analysis phase that we will investigate how these existing policies and procedures can be migrated to Tivoli Decision Support
2. Existing Tivoli systems management products installed: Purpose Tivoli Decision Support is dependent on various Tivoli products to perform its reporting task. It is assumed that the customer has either an existing Tivoli Systems Management solution implemented, or it is in the process of implementation in their environment. Required information Tivoli Servers, Tivoli Products (including patch levels), installed Plus modules, TMR architecture, and Operating System platforms are required. Process
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Gather all existing architecture and deployment documents (if available). Identify process flows, and systems management procedures that the business is running with. Identify if Tivoli Decision Support dependent Tivoli products are installed for example, Distributed Monitoring, Enterprise Console, Netview, Service Desk etc. Suggested questions: Which systems management disciplines does your Tivoli solution integrate with? Describe the details of that integration including the flow of data and desktop configurations. Are there current architecture and deployment summary documents that describe the Tivoli deployment? If using a Master-Spoke TMR, where are the Spoke TMR Servers located? (For example, central data center, different geographic locations, one per branch office). 3. Determine hardware and operating system information For this step, we basically need to get an idea of the existing hardware that is deployed at the customer site. We will use this information in the Systems Analysis to decide if it is possible to share the roles of some of these machines with Tivoli Decision Support. Purpose The purpose is to gather a hardware and operating system inventory of all dedicated Systems Management machines as well as machines that need to be monitored. Required information System-specific information is required. Process Review the Tivoli Decision Support hardware requirements with the customer. Processor, memory, monitor, and hard disk space of the existing hardware are some of the main issues that need to be covered. 4. Determine network-specific information Purpose The purpose is to gather the following information to describe the network communication mechanisms used between the various components that may be used for the TDS deployment. Required information
Methodology
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The customer should provide a network topology diagram. If the following information is not on the diagram, annotate the diagram or provide details: Line speed of each network connection. Actual network bandwidth. If it varies by time of day, define the typical averages. Each firewall between nodes. Each firewall's configuration, monitoring, and policies. Socks configuration description. Protocols used within the current environment. Frame Relay (Committed Information Rate (CIR) and Burst Rate). Suggested questions: Are all systems reachable via TCP/IP? Describe the host and IP address naming conventions and scheme used to identify networking and computer system equipment. Is the TCP/IP routing structure static or dynamic? If DNS is used, provide a copy of the DNS map configuration. (Note that the integrity of these maps must be verified.) Describe how reverse lookups are performed. If DHCP or WINS is in use, identify the server and describe how these utilities are configured.
3.2.2 Systems analysis phase

During the Systems analysis phase, the TDS requirements that were gathered in the previous stage are processed. The goal of this system analysis is to provide a total reporting solution using Tivoli Decision Support that meets or exceeds customer expectations. This solution includes the development and presentation of a proposal for TDS. Furthermore, the architecture and detailed design is completed, and the Statement of Work for the deployment of the solution is developed and presented to the customer. The results of the questionnaires are now needed, and they serve as the main ingredient for systems analysis.
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The input and output items shown in Table 2 highlight the components of the systems analysis phase:
Table 2. Systems analysis phase items
Systems Analysis Phase

Tivoli Decision Support Requirements Questionnaires Input Tivoli Decision Support Installation Guide Technical Proposal Output System Architecture and Design Document
Figure 10 outlines The process flow of the Systems Analysis phase:
Systems Analysis Flow

Preparation Mapping TDS Guides Systems Architecture & Design Technical Proposal
INPUT
OUTPUT
Figure 10. Systems Analysis process flow
3.2.2.1 Preparing for systems analysis To create a TDS architecture, begin by translating the customer requirements and the proposals into a list of what functions and capabilities TDS must provide. Document this information so that it can be used to implement the technical solution.
As requirements are reviewed, carefully evaluate each customer requirement to ensure they have provided sufficient information to enable the analyst to meet these requirements using Tivoli Decision Support. Also, if the customer accepted an action item to provide requirements information during the requirements gathering phase, ensure that the customer has supplied this information. Once all the preparations have been completed, we can now be certain that focusing on customer requirements to create an architecture and design will ensure that the architecture and design is concise, and, thus, the deployment of the TDS solution will be successful.
Methodology
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We will begin with an analysis of the information received and then go on to explain the documentation or results that must emerge as a consequence of this analysis phase.
3.2.2.2 Tivoli Decision Support Guides A Decision Support Guide is a TDS module that groups the enterprise data into specialized categories. Each category contains a series of topics that correspond to the different aspects of that category. Each topic contains a number of views that are associated with the data elements being examined.
The following list provides some examples of Decision Support Guides that are available: Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction This provides capacity planning, forecasting, and trend analysis and identifies server performance issues using data from Tivoli Distributed Monitoring. Tivoli Decision Support for Event Management This uses information from the Tivoli Enterprise Console to provide an understanding of event handling versus service level agreements. Tivoli Decision Support for Network Event Analysis This leverages data captured by Tivoli NetView to indicate the performance of network devices, the state of network health, and the control of network event management. Tivoli Decision Support for Software Deployment Analysis This helps identify issues that impact software deployment using Tivoli Software Distribution and Tivoli Inventory. Tivoli Decision Support for Information Management This enables customers to analyze problem and change management information stored in Tivoli Service Desk for OS/390 host databases.
3.2.2.3 Working with Tivoli Decision Support Guides As soon as the questionnaires from the requirements gathering phase are ready, they will be used during this next phase to derive a TDS reporting solution that meets the customers requirements. A TDS analyst will study the reporting and decision information requirements from the questionnaires and he or she will then carry out an exercise to deliver a proposal to the customer on how we plan to meet their requirements with the use of TDS and TDS Discovery Guides.
This exercise is a two-fold process and is outlined in the following list:
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1. Mapping TDS guides to customer requirements The analyst needs to evaluate the various TDS guides available. He or she will need to implement a one-to-one mapping between each required report and TDS view, which is made possible by one of many TDS guides. The analyst will need to have detailed information available about the TDS Guides. This information can be obtained from various sources: Using Decision 2.0 Support Guides, GC32-0290 Release Notes Shipped with the TDS Discovery Guides Tivoli Website (Overview of Guides capabilities) In most situations, TDS, with the use of its Drill-Down capabilities, will be able to produce much more detailed information than is required by the customer. On the other hand, it is possible that some of the customer reporting requirements will not be provided by TDS. For this reason, there should be a second step where a solution for these unmatched reports is developed 2. Determine customization requirements (if necessary) For this process, the analyst will compare the list of items required by the customer (or collected by the current reporting tools), to the list of items collected by the TDS Guides. Reports that are required by the customer and are not available to TDS are listed down. A sub-project for delivering these reports will now need to be kicked off. This project will investigate the extent of work required and will produce a customized solution for the outstanding reports. Customization can include but is not limited to: Editing current guides Writing custom scripts to populate the DM database Creating Custom Crystal reports Creating Custom PowerPlay reports For detailed information, refer to Using Decision 2.0 Support Guides, GC32-0290, which is shipped with the product.
3.2.2.4 System architecture and design document The objectives of this process are to design and document the physical and logical aspects of the customers TDS deployment.
The following tasks need to be completed by this activity: Design a high-level architecture for TDS layout (Physical Design). Define logical architecture for the TDS implementation (Logical Design).
Methodology
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Identify and acquire the servers required for implementing Decision Support (Resource requirements). Document the system architecture and design. (Output Documentation). The TDS architecture Chapter 4, TDS architecture and design considerations on page 59 is dedicated to designing solutions and focuses a great deal on various architecture considerations. For this reason, we will not go into too much detail here on the TDS physical design. This architecture section will introduce some TDS architecture concerns and present to the reader a standard design on which the customers solution should be based. The foundation of the physical design depends on the customer requirements and the answers to the questionnaires presented to the customer in Section 3.2.1, Requirements gathering phase on page 25. The analysts will need to study the customers environment and business with the intention of identifying suitable TDS hardware components and personnel resources. They will then need to bring these two resources together and apply a process to deliver a suitable architecture. Insights into some of the thought processes that willcome into play are listed below: Does my customer require a stand-alone or network installation? How many TDS Servers does my customer need? How many administrator machines will be required? How many client interfaces will be required? Does the customer require Crystal Reports to be installed? Below is a recommended network configuration diagram. The figure depicts a typical TDS implementation in Network Mode. In Network Mode, only Decision Supports client component and PowerPlay are installed on the client machine. The other components are installed elsewhere. The user of the client system only has access to the Discovery Interface. You must administer Decision Support for all clients from the system administrators system.
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ODBC
INVENTORY
DM
TEC
DATABASES
Client system running Discovery Interface
Client system Client system running Discovery running Discovery Interface Interface
Service and support database system ODBC
Shared File Access
File server running server components including guides, cubes and models
System running Administrator and client
Figure 11. Typical architecture
As mentioned before, Chapter 4, TDS architecture and design considerations on page 59, will go into the details of the physical and logical design considerations of a TDS implementation. Resource availability Early in the process of developing a system architecture and design, a rough determination as to what hardware might be required for deployment is made. It is important to generate this information as soon as possible so that hardware can be procured and made available as soon as hands-on deployment work begins. The system requirements for Tivoli Decision Support may vary greatly and will depend on many environmental factors. For the purpose of simplifying this exercise, we will assume that a networked topology of clients fed by a file server will be the standard workgroup configuration. With that in mind, cube build times and view run time will vary based on the following: Number of datapoints included in the scope of the analysis Performance of the database server Demand on the database server Throughput of the network Performance of the Client
Methodology
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Performance of the File Server Performance of the processor that builds the cubes The Tivoli Decision Support Installation Guide, GC32-0289, lists the operating system and suggested hardware requirements for each Decision Support component. It differentiates between two classes of machines: a low-end and a high-end machine for each component. Although this serves as a good base, it is often not easy to rank the type of environment that you are in, and it makes the choice very difficult. Table 3 details the minimum configuration for various business environments. The sizings are based on Tivolis experience with the Service Desk product line. This table provides you with an easier method of deciding on the configuration that you require. The business environments are divided into four ranks: Small, Medium, Large, and Mega. The variable that we are interested in is the number of contacts, which gives us an idea of how large the business is.
Table 3. Minimum configuration table
Size of Center Small <10K contacts <50K calls/yr Medium 10-30K contacts 50-100K calls/yr Large 30-250K contacts 100-500K calls/yr Mega >250K contacts >500K calls/yr
Client PC Requirements
40 MB disk space 100 MHz Pentium 32 MB RAM NT 4.0/Win 95 40 MB disk space 100 MHz Pentium 48 MB RAM NT 4.0/Win 95 40 MB disk space 100 MHz Pentium 64 MB RAM NT 4.0/Win95 40 MB disk space 100 MHz Pentium 64 MB RAM NT 4.0/Win 95
Administrator PC Requirements
500 MB disk space 200 MHz Pentium 64 MB RAM NT 4.0/Win95 500 MB disk space 250 MHz Pentium 128 MB RAM NT 4.0 700 MB disk space 300 MHz Pentium 256 MB RAM NT 4.0 1 GB disk space 300 MHz Dual Pentium 512 MB RAM NT 4.0
File Server Requirements

200 MB disk space 133 MHz Pentium 64 MB RAM NT 4.0/Win95 300 MB disk space 150 MHz Pentium 128 MB RAM NT 4.0 400 MB disk space 200 MHz Pentium 256 MB RAM NT 4.0 500 MB disk space 300 MHz Pentium 256+ MB RAM NT 4.0
The best way to gather the TDS resource mapping information is through a survey sheet that should be filled in by the customer with help from the systems analysts. The survey should be structured in such a way that
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emphasis is placed on every machine identified as playing a specific role in the TDS architecture. What follows is a description of the machine roles and the accompanying survey sheets. File server information This is the repository for TDS and contains the TDS models, templates, queries, and other information required to generate views for the Discovery Interface. It is necessary for this to be reasonably fast to service the files. Every client machine will connect to this server and, thus, the network connection must be reasonably fast. These factors need to be investigated at this point. Figure 12 shows an example file server information form:
Example Form Machine Type:________________________________________________

Operating System: _____________________ Version: _____________
Network protocol used between server and workstations (Novell, NT, etc.): _______________________________________________________ Is this file server dedicated to TDS file storage? Amount of disc space available for TDS files? ___(300+MB recommended) Do all TDS client and admin machines have READ and WRITE access to the TDS file service/directory?
Figure 12. File server information example form
TDS Administrator PC information This component provides functions for TDS configuration and administration, for example, setting system parameters that control the behavior of TDS. This machine requires a fast hard drive and fast network access to the database server. Figure 13 on page 38 shows an example TDS administrator PC information form.
Methodology
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Example Form
Is this PC dedicated to Tivoli Decision Support or is it used for other applications? If it is used for other applications, what are they? Machine Type: ________________________ Operating System: _____________________ Version: ___________
Has a drive letter to the server components been mapped on this machine? If yes, what is the drive letter? ______________
Figure 13. TDS administrator PC information example form
TDS Client PC information ODBC connection to the database server, sufficient disk space, and shared access to the file server are some of the main criteria that need to be looked at in this step. Figure 14 shows an example TDS client PC information form:
Example Form
Machine Type: ___________________________________________ Operating System: _______________________ Version: _______
Free disk space: _________________________ RAM: __________ Number of client workstations for installation: __________________ Number of classroom workstations for installation: ______________
Figure 14. TDS client PC information example form
Database server information Identify the machine that will host and the type of RDBMS that will retain the respective configuration repositories. The following information is required to set up Tivolis RDBMS Interface Module: Database Vendor Database ID Database Home Directory Database Server ID User name
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Instance Home Directory (DB2 only) For database management purposes, identify what the customer wants to do with the data collected in the configuration repositories; this information will assist in engineering the database by determining the following: Structure of the Database Size of the Database Required Queries by users Customized Database tasks, scripts, and reports Database clean-up requirements (when and how often) Figure 15 shows an example database server information form:
Example Form
Is this a dedicated database server or is it used for other applications? If it is used for other applications, what are they? ___________________________________________________________ RDBMS: _____________________________ Version: ______________ Is your database backup hot or cold?__________________________ Day(s) and time(s) of database backup __________________________
Figure 15. Database server information example form
Note
In the example form shown in Figure 15, Hot refers to a backup where the database remains in use while the data is backed up. Cold refers to logging off all users, stopping all database activity, and then backing up the data. A cube build will fail during a cold backup of the data source or if a Tivoli Decision Support multidimensional view is open. Cube builds should be done during business off-hours. Network information Since TDS is comprised of three directly-related components functioning on different machines on the network, it is important that all network shortfalls be identified. Figure 16 on page 40 shows an example network information form.
Methodology
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Example Form
Network protocol used between Database Server and Application Server, Workstations and Servers (i.e. TCP/IP, IPX-SPX, etc.): ________________ Do you use network Login scripts to set application path statements?
Figure 16. Network information example form
3.2.3 Project planning phase

The consultant team uses data generated in previous TDS Methodology phases to develop the detailed project plan. The plan includes all project planning documents, identification of the specific tasks to meet customer requirements, identification of the consultant resources to perform each task, and a definition of how the consultant team will partner with the customer to finish the job. Project planning ensures that each engagement completes on time, stays within budget, and produces a TDS solution that satisfies the customer. Table 4 shows the input and output items, which highlight the components of the project planning phase:
Table 4. Project planning phase items
Project Planning Phase

Initial customer requirements Tivoli Decision Support requirements questionnaires Input Technical proposal System architecture and design document Project analysis Output Detailed project plan
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Figure 17 outlines the process flow of the Project Planning phase:
Project Planning Flow

Project Analysis
INPUT
Drawing up the Plan
Choosing a Project Team
Training Plan
OUTPUT
Figure 17. Project planning process flow
3.2.3.1 Project analysis At this point in the process, the sales team and the deployment team have established a strong working relationship with the customer and have completed a number of tasks.
Project analysis involves reviewing the results of these efforts. Data available for review includes: Technical Proposal Cost Proposal Statement of Work Results of all requirements gathering activities System Architecture and Design Document For the details of the review and verification process, refer to the Tivoli Implementation Methodology. To find information on how to access TIM, refer to the instructions outlined in Appendix A, Tivoli Implementation Methodology (TIM) 3.6 on page 185.
3.2.3.2 The TDS project plan After the analysis is complete, the project manager and the consultant services team consolidates the results of this activity and develops a detailed project plan for the customer engagement.
The project plan is a collection of the following information: TDS Solution Objectives Project task plan Project Team Phasing Plan Project Change Control Plan Risk Assessment and Mitigation Plan
Methodology
41
TDS Training Plan Status Reporting Plan The deliverables in the preceding list represent a high-level listing of what is expected of this TDS project plan. The details of each deliverable are clearly explained in TIM and should be referenced directly from TIM. It is however, important that we discuss some of the Decision Support details surrounding some of these core deliverables, namely, the solution objectives, project task plan, staff phasing plan, and training. Decision support solution objectives A plainly-written document called the Solution Objectives is written by the project manager that used to establish the scope of the project. The TDS Solution Objectives document summarizes the results of the initial project review documented in the project analysis and is created to assist with project task plan development. Elements of the TDS Solution Objective include the following: The TDS solution to be developed and the estimated completion date The customers business and information technology goals for the project The number of hours allocated to the consultant team to deliver this product A description of the functionality and limitations of the solution High-level tasks required to develop the TDS solution Assignment of high-level tasks to the customer or consultant organization Completion criteria established for each high-level task and for the project Key assumptions and risks associated with the project. Decision Support project task plan The project manager and the services consultant team consolidate the results of the Analysis and develop a project task plan for the customer engagement. The goal of the project task plan is to identify all project tasks, the duration of each task, and the individual responsible for performing each task. The project task plan also presents this data graphically. This plan is used to set customer expectations for consultant services engagements and to track progress and control the scope of these engagements. In line with the above-mentioned goal, the project task plan is supposed to do the following: Identify the TDS version and patches to be deployed
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List all prerequisite tasks that must be performed in preparation for each deployment task Define the schedule for the customer to provide consultant services facility access and office materials at the customer location Require that all outstanding requirements gathering or system analysis activities are complete or that tasks are documented in the project task plan to perform this work Define the TDS environment configuration and administrative tasks Define the date that the required hardware should be acquired Detail the configuration process of TDS hardware Identify work to be completed for each task in the project task plan Address each reporting requirement identified by the customer Identify each task required to implement the TDS architecture Identify all configuration and customization tasks not defined by the TDS architecture Identify each task necessary to perform system testing Identify each task necessary to generate deployment documentation Identify all management and administrative tasks essential to the success of the project Assign each task to an individual Specify the duration of each task For your reference, Figure 18 on page 44 shows a snapshot of a project task plan.
Methodology
43
Figure 18. Sample project plan
3.2.3.3 Project team phasing plan The formation of the Implementation Project Team is critical to the success of any project. The roles of the essential team members required for Tivoli Decision Support implementation projects are detailed in the following sections. Keep in mind that one team member may fulfill multiple roles during the implementation project.
Implementation project leader The Implementation project leader organizes the efforts of the team. His or her responsibilities include project management, direction setting, resource scheduling, and project acceptance. It is crucial that the customer provide an Implementation project leader. This role is typically filled by someone with authority to sign off and accept completion of contracted work. The project leader must be available to verify and accept any work completed by the
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implementation consultants. This person will be required to sign the acceptance document as the various project phases are completed. System administrator The responsibilities of the Tivoli Decision Support system administrator include long-term model administration, parameter administration, configuration changes, usage policies, and so on. If the reports analyst position detailed below is not filled, the system administrator assumes the reports analysts responsibilities. Management team The Management team provides the sponsorship necessary to successfully implement the products within the business units of the company. Their responsibilities will be to aid the team in marketing the application to other business areas, to provide the resources and funding needed for the implementation, and to remove organizational roadblocks. Participation is heaviest during the planning phase of the implementation but continues throughout the implementation process. Tivoli product system administrators Due to the integral nature of Tivoli's products, it may be important for the Tivoli system administrators (for those products for which TDS Discovery Guides have been purchased) to be on the Tivoli Decision Support deployment team. Responsibilities include describing any customizations to the product databases and determining the overall management objectives for the Tivoli Decision Support implementation. Participation is highest during planning and the first phase of implementation. Network administrator Someone familiar with the corporate network configuration is the best choice for this role. Responsibilities will be to aid the team in technology decisions and in the installation of software and the setup of user permissions to the directory structures of the applications. Participation is heaviest during the planning phase and first phase of the implementation. Database administrator The Database Administrator's participation is critical to the success of the implementation. Responsibilities will include team participation in technology decisions and in optimization of the database prior to deployment. Participation is heaviest during application setup, but will be ongoing as DBA issues arise.
Methodology
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Web administrator If your organization would like to take advantage of Tivoli Decision Support's ability to push views to a Web server, you will need a Web administrator. He or she will be responsible for the Web servers administration in your enterprise and will make sure that all the users have access to the reports stored on the Web servers. Reports analyst (optional) The best choice to fill this role is someone who has experience with a structured programming language and software development and who has experience with Crystal Reports. Responsibilities include completing cube customizations as defined during the implementation (This role can be filled by a customer resource if available, or by a Tivoli Systems resource). Trainer (optional) The TDS trainer will be responsible for attending all TDS Workshops and for training TDS administrators and users after the deployment.
3.2.3.4 Decision Support training plan During the services engagement, customer personnel working with Tivoli certified consultants will gain some informal knowledge of the Tivoli Decision Support software.
Additional formal training, however, is necessary for all customer personnel involved with the development, implementation, testing, transition, administration, or operation of the TDS solution. The consultant project manager works with the customer project manager to identify the training needed by each customer staff member and helps develop a training plan based on the individual's responsibilities, the necessary skills, and available training courses. At the time this redbook was published, Tivoli developed a series of workshops to deliver this necessary training. The training covers the entire deployment process starting from Installation and Configuration to the use of the Discover Interface. Table 5 highlights the content and value of these workshops:
Table 5. TDS workshop summary
Workshops
Application setup, Configuration, and Administration workshop
Description
Installation and configuration of the TDS components. TDS Administration options, cube builds, build schedules.
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Workshops
Advanced administration Customization workshop End-user workshop
Description
TDS usability, configuring profiles, publishing views, adding components to the topic map Modifying calculations, adding flex fields, creating new cube and report templates Use of the Discovery Interface including drill-through and adding dimensions
Note
Formal Tivoli training is offered by the Tivoli Worldwide Education department. Information about Tivoli Customer Education is available at
http://www.tivoli.com/services/education/
3.2.4 Deployment phase

The objective of this segment is to bring together the best project management organizational practices and technical team deployment knowledge to successfully deploy the customers TDS solution. The deployment implements the design defined for the solution according to the System Architecture and Design Document. The deployment follows the sequence of tasks defined by the project task plan. The input and output items listed in Table 6 highlight the components of the Deployment phase:
Table 6. Deployment phase items
Deployment Phase
Tivoli deployment guides Initial customer requirements questionnaire Input Tivoli Decision Support requirements questionnaires Technical proposal System Architecture and Design Document Detailed project task plan Output Tivoli TDS solution, ready for testing
Figure 19 outlines the process flow of the Deployment phase:
Methodology
47
Deployment Phase Flow

TDS Installation TDS Configuration TDS Customization
INPUT
Preparation
TDS Training
OUTPUT
Figure 19. Deployment process flow
For most Tivoli product deployments, Tivoli management software deployment guides are provided to the technical consultant to assist with all installation, configuration, customization, automation, and maintenance tasks. These guides contain a wealth of information by providing in-line tips and hints and Web-based links to online documentation, technical papers, and useful Web sites. The important topics of a TDS deployment guide are shown in Table 7:
Table 7. TDS deployment guide
Reference Type
Product Version, Shipped Manuals, Installation Patch Number /Patch References Tivoli External Web URL Pointers White paper References, Managed View Articles, URL Pointers
Subject
TDS Information Release Notes
Information Pointer
Available on TDS CD http://www.support.tivoli.com/Prodman/html/AB.html http://www.support.tivoli.com/Prodman/html/RN.html
Patches
http://www.support.tivoli.com/patches/ ftp://ftp.tivoli.com/support/
http://www.tivoli.com/products/index/decision_support/ TDS Information White Papers Managed View magazine Press Release
http://www.tivoli.com/products/documents/whitepapers/ http://www.wellesleyinfo.com/tmv/
http://www.tivoli.com/teamtivoli/press/
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Reference Type
Subject
Discovery Administrator
Information Pointer
Refer to TDS Administrator Guide, TOC Refer to TDS User Guide, TOC Refer to TDS Installation Guide, TOC Refer to TDS Administrator Guide, TOC
Configuration and Customization
Discovery Interface Server
Maintenance
Troubleshooting & Optimization
The phases of the Deployment Segment include: Preparing for deployment Installation and customization Configuration Advanced configuration and customization Training
3.2.4.1 Preparing for deployment A few important steps need to be performed before deployment can commence.
1. Hardware prerequisites Prior to deployment, the customer should have all the necessary hardware in position and ready to be rolled out with the TDS applications. The consultant services team should have information on all the machine access passwords with appropriate permissions to make configuration changes. 2. Software prerequisites It is necessary to verify that all prerequisite software installations and network configurations have been completed prior to the deployment of TDS. Some of the items to be checked include: 32-bit database client software is installed on every TDS client and the TDS Administrator PC. 32-bit SQL database connectivity has been verified on each TDS client and the TDS Administrator PC.
Methodology
49
The shared source path (the file service where the cubes, reports, models, and administrative databases will reside) has been mapped to the TDS Administrator and client PCs. Network connectivity between the TDS Administrator PC, client PCs, and the shared source path has been successfully tested. The TDS Administrator PC and TDS Client PCs have READ and WRITE access to the shared source file server. In order to optimize SQL processing time, database maintenance and backup has been recently performed, indices have been rebuilt, inactive records purged, and appropriate data archived. 3. Gathering documentation The deployment team should have all the necessary documentation on hand. This includes, but is not limited to, the input elements identified below: Tivoli deployment guides Initial customer requirements questionnaire Tivoli Decision Support requirements questionnaires Technical Proposal System architecture and design document Detailed project task plan
3.2.4.2 Product installation This section describes the method for an installation in Network Mode. The following tasks are accomplished in this phase:
Tivoli Decision Support file server example macro-tasks Installation of the Tivoli Decision Support Server Components on the Shared Source file server. Install the TDS Discovery Guides required to meet customer requirements as established in the systems analysis Tivoli Decision Support administrator example macro-tasks Installation of the following components on the TDS Administrator PC: Tivoli Decision Support Administrator components Cognos Administrator components - Transformer, On-line Books, and Help files 32-bit Crystal Reports 6.0
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32-bit ODBC driver (if not already installed) Tivoli Decision Support client example macro-tasks Installation of the following Tivoli Decision Support client components: Tivoli Decision Support Client Cognos Standard - PowerPlay, On-line Books, and Help 32-bit ODBC driver (if not already installed)
3.2.4.3 Product configuration The Discovery Administrator needs some configuration in order to work with the chosen guides and configured data source. The Discovery client needs to be configured for each user to enable their job-specific data and views to be available to them. The following tasks are accomplished in this phase:
TDS administrator Importing the required guides Adding the respective Data Sources for the cubes associated with the guides that have been imported Configuration of TDS Administrator options including cube parameters and date ranges, as well as other guide-specific parameters for the cubes. Review the cube build schedule and use the Tivoli Discovery Scheduler to automatically build the cubes after business hours as specified in the design document. TDS client Selecting the Guides that the user will require Setting up the appropriate user roles
3.2.4.4 Advanced configuration and customization The customer requirements not fulfilled by TDS now need to be integrated into the solution. This is a technically-intensive stage during which the following customization tasks are accomplished:
TDS calculations are modified. Flex fields are added as dimensions to cubes. Flex fields are added as parameters to Crystal reports. Terminology in PowerPlay or Crystal reports is changed. Existing reports are integrated. New Crystal and PowerPlay reports are created.
Methodology
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3.2.4.5 Training Customer personnel involved with the development, implementation, testing, transition, administration, or operation of the TDS solution require training based on the individual's respective responsibilities.
For details on the type of training available, refer to the workshops identified in Section 3.2.3.4, Decision Support training plan on page 46.
3.2.5 Testing phase

The intent of the test segment is twofold: To verify the operability of the customer's TDS solution To verify the service organization's methodology of deployment and integration of the TDS solution within the customer's environment The input and output items shown in Table 8 highlight the components of the Testing phase:
Table 8. Testing phase items
Testing Phase
Tivoli TDS solution, ready for testing Input System architecture and design document Detailed project task plan System test plan Output Verified TDS deployment
Figure 20 outlines the process flow of the testing phase:
Testing Phase Flow

Intergration Testing System Testing Production Testing
INPUT
Preperation
OUTPUT
Figure 20. Testing process flow
3.2.5.1 Preparing to test The customer should be involved with the testing of the TDS solution. This enables and encourages the customer to take an active role in the
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deployment, thus, becoming familiar with the Tivoli solution and more easily assuming ownership of the solution. Time and resources should have been allocated to test the TDS solution in the project task plan throughout the deployment.
3.2.5.2 Testing the solution Each phase of the deployment should be followed by a functionality testing exercise. It is required that the following set of test cases be applied in order to verify the TDS solution:
Integration testing System testing Production testing Each of these test case types identifies a unique level of testing to be performed to verify the solution. This will be made clear in a moment.
Note
Every product installation and configuration entry in the project task plan must be followed by a functionality test in this segment of the deployment cycle. Integration test These test cases verify the connection of the functional elements of the TDS solution. The following items are tested: Network communication between all Decision Support Components including RDBMS Server 32 bit ODBC connection between Decision Support Administrator Server and RDBMS Server The shared source path has been mapped to the TDS Administrator and client PCs. RDBMS Server is up and running and collecting data from the respective data sources The TDS Server has been installed and configured correctly All the Discovery Clients have been installed and configured correctly All the Discovery Administrators have been installed and configured correctly
Methodology
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System test This suite of test cases is used to verify that each element of the TDS solution executes properly and that all of the solution elements function properly in relation to one another. System testing verifies that the solution accommodates the following defined requirements: Installation and Importation of the Decision Support Guides. Data Source connections must be tested with the database. Manual population of the cubes (.mdc files) with representative sample data to verify that each cube builds properly and to validate data. Monitoring of the time it takes to build the cube and identify any network bandwidth issues. Use the Discovery Interface Client machines to test successful access to the cube and report directories on the server. Production test Production testing is the first time that the TDS solution is subjected to the production environment or a production-like environment. The intent of production testing is to verify that the solution performs properly and with acceptable performance under the load of the operational environment. Production testing can be conducted by mirroring events from the production system so that production-level testing and normal production system activities occur concurrently. Alternatively, a period of time may be specified during which the TDS solution utilizes the production system environment with concurrence from the customer that the solution is in test mode, and the results of the solution are not guaranteed. At this time, the following items require attention: Manual cube builds are completed successfully and in a suitable time period. Task Server is running and scheduling the builds on time without running into any errors. All the Administrators and Client operators display a good knowledge of the product/s that they handle.
3.2.6 Documentation phase

Documenting the customer's deployment is essential to the services engagement. The Project Deployment Summary addresses each element of the customer's TDS solution including installation, configuration, customization, automation, and maintenance scripts and programs.
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Each machine, user, group, and application used by TDS is identified. This document is the complete reference available to the customer after a services engagement and enables the customer to independently maintain and operate the TDS solution. The Project Deployment Summary also serves as a reference document for a services organization to perform future enhancements to the customer's TDS solution. The input and output items shown in Table 9 highlight the components of the documentation phase:
Table 9. Documentation phase items
Documentation Phase
Installed, configured, customized, and tested TDS solution

Input
System architecture and design document Detailed project task plan Project deployment summary
Output
A complete and well-documented TDS deployment Figure 21 outlines the process flow of the Documentation phase:
Documentation Phase Flow

System Overview Technical Overview Administration and Maintenance
INPUT
Preparation
OUTPUT
Implementation Discussion
Problem Determination
Figure 21. Documentation process flow
3.2.6.1 Preparing for documenting the deployment During the Detailed Project Planning segment and throughout the Deployment segment, elements of the Tivoli solution were documented. In support of this, the technical consultant in charge of the project plan has done the following:
Methodology
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Allocated a consultant with an additional project librarian role Verified and retained all configuration, customization, solution administration, and solution maintenance procedures
3.2.6.2 Project deployment summary This deployment summary is necessary to document all installation, configuration, customization, automation, maintenance scripts and programs developed for the customer. Each machine, user, group and application managed by Tivoli Decision Support is identified as well as the versions of each product installed. Finally, the Deployment Summary documents administration and maintenance tasks necessary to operate the TDS solution. Properly controlled and updated, the document will provide benefit to the TDS solution developed for the customer. The document is comprised of the following topics:
System overview This section introduces the TDS solution deployed at the customer's site. Using information already created in the System Architecture and Design document, a high level overview of the customer's TDS solution is presented. Technical overview The Technical Overview section of the deployment document provides detailed configuration and customization information for: The architecture of the solution Automation and maintenance scripts and programs developed for the customer Administration and maintenance procedures This section of the deployment document is the most valuable to the customer. It documents each Tivoli, system, network, application, and database administrator task necessary to operate and maintain the customer's TDS solution. Problem determination This is the section of the deployment guide that provides problem determination and analysis information to the customer. Items addressed in this section include the following: Log and Trace file information Performance Monitoring tools Daemon status information Developed script and program error code conditions
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Fail-over analysis Security permission failures Database failures Communications failures Discussion of implementation This is a brief project management discussion highlighting the methodologies used during deployment. This section of the deployment document includes the project team's recommendations for future enhancements of the customer's TDS solution.
Methodology
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Chapter 4. TDS architecture and design considerations

The design of any solution is part science and part art, and a number of aspects that need to be considered vary from customer to customer. Only through careful consideration of the receiving information about the organizations needs and limitations (obtained during the requirements-gathering phase of the project) and an understanding of the technical capabilities and restrictions of Tivoli Decision Support can an optimal architecture be created. This chapter describes the detailed design phase of a Tivoli Decision Support deployment project. The design issues that face us are explained, design strategies are presented, and recommendations are made.
4.1 Overview
Section 4.2, Integrating Decision Support with Tivoli Enterprise applications on page 60 illustrates how and where Tivoli Decision Support fits into a Tivoli enterprise environment. Section 4.3, Tivoli Decision Support components on page 61 describes the various Decision Support components and the software with which they are composed. Section 4.4, Integrating Tivoli Decision Support components on page 63 illustrates how the components fit together, what their roles are, and their resource requirement needs. Section 4.5, Stand-alone vs. network architecture on page 70 compares the Tivoli Decision Support installation modes, Stand Alone mode and Distributed Network mode. This section explains the differences and weigh the advantages and disadvantages of these two installation options. Section 4.6, Suggested architecture and design solutions on page 72 presents a set of suggested deployment solutions to common Tivoli environments. Section 4.7, Troubleshooting tips on page 81 touches on some of the common problems experienced with Tivoli Decision Support.
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4.2 Integrating Decision Support with Tivoli Enterprise applications

In this section, the integration process will be described to provide the reader with a clear picture of how Tivoli Decision Support works within a Tivoli environment, and to gather, manipulate, and present data to the user in an easy-to-interpret format. Tivoli Decision Support works in conjuction with Tivolis Enterprise software, such as Distributed Monitoring, Enterprise Console, Inventory, NetView, Software Distribution, and so on, in order to perform its role. These various management applications collect the information and store it in a database. Tivoli Decision Support then accesses these databases through its product-specific TDS Discovery Guides.
TMR Server
Tivoli Decision Support
RDBMS
Gateways Discovery Guides
Discovery Interface Network
Endpoints
Figure 22. Tivoli Decision Support functionality diagram
The above diagram delineates a high-level integration between Decision Support and a typical Tivoli Enterprise Environment.
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The Decision Support process flow is described in the numbered steps below: 1. At the bottom of the diagram, we have Tivoli Management agents (endpoints), running Tivoli products, such as Distributed Monitoring or Inventory. 2. Management Gateways consolidate the data and forward them to Tivoli Management Server. 3. Tivoli applications, such as Software Distribution, Enterprise Console, or Distributed Monitoring, continually update its database or table with data received from all the Tivoli Management agents. 4. Tivoli Decision Support accesses this data by means of an ODBC connection. 5. These data are interrogated by a set of algorithms that are defined by the Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guides, which are available in the TDS environment. 6. Tivoli Discovery Administrator then transform this processed data into multidimensional cubes consisting of business relevant information. 7. This information is then viewed by the Decision Support Discovery Interface where the decision maker can perform a drill-down analysis.
4.3 Tivoli Decision Support components

The basic concepts of the Tivoli Decision Support components have been discussed in Chapter 2, Tivoli Decision Support general overview on page 9. This section serves to highlight the technical role(s) that each component plays as well as the products that must be installed. TDS File Server TDS File Server components include the models, queries, templates, and other information required to build the cubes for the TDS Discovery Administrator and generate views for the TDS Discovery Interface. It is required to install the TDS Server Component product. The following are some important files stored in the TDS File Server component. These files are continually referenced by the other TDS components and are either automatically installed with or dynamically created on the TDS File Server machine. These files are located in the $TDS\Data directory. Cubes.mdb This file contains all the SQL queries that are executed during the cube-building process from the Discovery Administrator machine.
TDS architecture and design considerations
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Ed.mdb This file contains all the topic map data. It includes which views are in which categories and topic, and the filename for the view. It also contains the related views, view hint description, and keywords for searches. DrillThru.mdb This is created on the fly by TDS Administrator to cache the data used to create the cube. This data is then read during a drill-through operation issued from the Discovery Interface. TDS Discovery Administrator This specialized module enables you to administer Decision Support and to build and customize cubes. This module also assists in the configuration of Decision Support. It is not only required to install the Tivoli Discovery Administrator component on the Discovery Administrator machine, but also the database client component, 32-bit ODBC driver, and Cognos PowerPlay in Administrator mode. The Database Client and ODBC connection are required to access the database during the cube-building process. The kind of database client and ODBC Driver depends on the specific TDS Discovery Guide requirements. Always refer to the TDS Discovery Guide release notes in order to get specific details. The Crystal Reports runtime module is installed automatically at the time of the Discovery Administrator component installation. Note that the full installation of Crystal Reports is optional, and it is required only if the reports need to be changed. TDS Client Component This is the interface to TDS and provides all the tools needed to open and work with views of the data from your organizations enterprise databases. On this component, it is not only required to install the TDS Discovery Interface product but also Cognos PowerPlay in Standard mode, the database client, and a 32-bit ODBC Driver. The Database Client and ODBC connection are only required to access Crystal Report format data from the Repository. This depends on whether the topic structure of your respective TDS Guides contain data that uses the Crystal Report templates.
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4.4 Integrating Tivoli Decision Support components

Now, we are going to take a close look at the Tivoli Decision Support Components and how they integrate with each other. We will discuss the various components highlighting the workload and network bandwidth that each component utilizes in order to perform its tasks successfully.
Crystal Reports reports
INVENTORY
DM
TEC
DATABASES
DISCOVERY INTERFACES PowerPlay reports
ODBC connection
Cube building
Network connection
TDS DISCOVERY ADMINISTRATOR

Figure 23. Decision Support components integration
TDS FILE SERVER
Figure 23 portrays a high-level view of the components that make up Tivoli Decision Support and the integration between them. The Tivoli Discovery Administrator module, which is installed on the system administrators machine, connects to your enterprises databases through an ODBC data source connection and to the TDS File server through a network connection. These connections are used to perform the cube-building process. To provide the Crystal Reports reports, the Tivoli Discovery Interface connects to the enterprises databases through an ODBC data source
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connection. A network connection to the TDS file server is used to get information from the cubes in order to build multidimensional reports. When you issue a request for information from the Tivoli Discovery Interface, Tivoli Decision Support either reads the information from the database directly, for Crystal Reports reports, or reads the cube file previously created by the Tivoli Discovery Administrator, for PowerPlay reports. The information is then returned to the Discovery Interface and presented to the user in a graphical format. A detailed explanation of the process described above will be discussed in the subsequent sections of this chapter.
4.4.1 The cube-building process

Our explanation of the cube-building process is divided into four steps. A cube can either be built manually or scheduled. A build is normally scheduled to occur on a regular basis depending on the customers business requirements, and it is preferable that it be done during a period of low network and system usage. It is necessary to understand what actually gets out during the cube-building process and the components involved in order to decide on a suitable physical design. We will now describe the process used by Tivoli Decision Support at the time of cube-building highlighting the components involved. We aim to detail the entire process and to make clear that the network traffic that takes place between the TDS components is something to be considered when planning your design solution.
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INVENTORY
Step One
DM
TEC
TDS DISCOVERY DATABASES ADMINISTRATOR
SQL Queries
Figure 24. Cube-building process - Step 1
The most bandwidth-intensive task is the cube-building process which is executed by the Discovery Administrator. Figure 24 shows step one. A predefined set of SQL queries are executed on the database from this machine. All the queries are stored in the Cubes.mdb file. These queries perform exhaustive interrogation of the database and may take a long time to complete. In step two, as shown in Figure 25 on page 66, the raw data is gathered from the database through the SQL queries. The Discovery Administrator then creates the calculated columns and stores all the data on the TDS File server in the $TDS\data\export directory.
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Step Two
INVENTORY
DM
TEC
TDS DISCOVERY DATABASES ADMINISTRATOR TDS FILE SERVER
Raw Data
Processed Data
If the query has been designated to export to Drill-through databases, the Discovery Administrator also writes the processed data to a table of the same name as the query in the DrillThru.mdb file stored in the $TDS\data directory on the TDS File server. This table will be used during a drill-through operation issued from the Discovery Interface.
Step Three
Model Processing Raw Data
Delimited Text File
Transformer File
TDS DISCOVERY ADMINISTRATOR
TDS FILE SERVER
Processed Cube
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Figure 26 on page 66 shows step three. The Discovery Administrator first retrieves the information from the model files and the data stored in the delimited text files. Second, the information is stored into a Cognos Transformer file format. The Discovery Administrator then runs Cognos Transformer and processes the raw data packing it into a cube. The cube file is now ready to be transferred to the TDS File server machine. The Discovery Administrator then writes the cube file back to the TDS File server on the $TDS\cubes\temp directory.
Step Four
TDS DISCOVERY ADMINISTRATOR TDS FILE SERVER
Rover Program
As shown in Figure 27, the fourth step is when the Discovery Administrator runs a program called Rover to copy the completed cube from the $TDS\Cubes\Temp directory up to the $TDS\Cubes directory on the TDS File server. After studying this process, it is evident that there will be quite a bit of network traffic generated between the Discovery Administrator, TDS File Server, and Database repository. It is, therefore, suggested that the Discovery Administrator machine be installed on the same physical network and in the same location as the other two servers. This will result in faster cube build times and also prevent the process from failing due to packets timing out. There can be multiple Discovery Administrator machines, each building cubes for a separate Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guide. All of them can point to the server content on the same network TDS File server. A distributed Discovery Administrator environment is suggested when there is a need to speed up the cube-building process. Another reason can be for administrative purposes when there are various people involved with the available guides
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and there is a need to localize the Discovery Administrator console for specific users.
Note Note
When planning to have two or more Discovery Administrators, install the complete TDS Discovery Guide into only one Discovery Administrator machine. Installing separate Discovery Administrator Machines to build different cubes for the same guide IS NOT recommended.
4.4.2 The Discovery Interface

The Discovery Interface is located on the PC clients and will usually be pointing to the server content located on a TDS File server. The Discovery Interface also makes use of an ODBC connection to the database repository to pull out data for the Crystal Reports reports. The Discovery Interface communicates with the TDS file server to access the multidimensional cubes built by the Discovery Administrator. This is made possible by mapping to a network drive share on the TDS File server.
Accessing the cubes

Cube, Views, DrillThru ...
DISCOVERY INTERFACE
Figure 28. Viewing the multidimensional reports
TDS FILE SERVER
Figure 28 shows the process of accessing the cubes in order to make the information available on the Discovery Interface. The $TDS\Cubes directory on the file server contains all of the cubes (.mdc files). They are generated periodically through the TDS Discovery Administrator. The PowerPlay report (.ppr) files are also located in the same directory. These are installed by installing a new TDS Discovery Guide. Every time the Discovery Interface is
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started and a specific topic selected, these files are pulled over the network to produce the multidimensional views. In addition, the files Ed.mdb and DrillThru.mdb are also pulled over the network from the TDS File server to the Discovery Interface machine when using Tivoli Decision Support in a network mode architecture Figure 29 highlights the process of accessing the data and the templates in order to have Crystal Reports reports. The $TDS\Reports directory on the file server contains all the Crystal Report files (.rpt). These are also installed by installing TDS Discovery Guides. In a network mode architecture, these files are pulled over the network when a Crystal Report view is selected from the topic map.
Crystal Reports
Data
INVENTORY
Templates
TEC
DM
DISCOVERY INTERFACE
DATABASES
TDS FILE SERVER
Figure 29. Viewing Crystal Reports
The selection of a Crystal Report identified by a page-like icon in the topic map performs two network operations. An ODBC connection is established with the database from where the data is collected, and, the respective report templates stored in the $TDS\Reports directory on the file server are pulled over to the client machine where the TDS Discovery Interface is installed. The Crystal Report is then displayed on the Discovery Interface. The Discovery Interface also reads information from the $TDS\Data directory of the TDS File server. The necessary information includes all the topic map data, which views are in which Categories and Topics, the related views, the view hint description, and keywords for searches. This information is found in the Microsoft Access databases (.mdb) files.
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.
Note
When a new TDS Discovery Guide is installed on the TDS File server, the files Ed.mdb and Cubes.mdb are updated to include the new topic maps and view information. Both the Discovery Interface and the Discovery Administrator components access the contents of these files at application start-up time.
4.5 Stand-alone vs. network architecture

Before you install Tivoli Decision Support, you need to determine which installation method will be most suitable for your environment. The method you select depends on the way you run TDS. In stand-alone mode, Tivoli Decision Support runs on one machine, and none of its components are shared with anyone else in the entire enterprise. The user of the stand-alone system not only has access to the Discovery Interface but must also administer Tivoli Decision Support. When you install Decision Support to run in stand-alone mode, it is assumed that all Decision Support functions (querying, report generation, and administration) occur on that system. This means that you must install all the Decision Support components on that system with the possible exception of Crystal Reports, which is required only if you plan to change some reports. Figure 30 represents a stand-alone architecture. An installation of this type should only be implemented in a very small environment where a single person is responsible for the administering and decision-making process.
INVENTORY
ODBC Connection
DM
TEC
Machine running TDS in stand alone mode
DATABASES
Figure 30. TDS in stand-alone mode
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I n network mode, only the Discovery Interface component, PowerPlay in Standard Mode, Crystal Reports (if it is intended to change the Crystal reports), database client, and the ODBC driver are installed on the client machine. The other components are installed elsewhere as described below. The user of a client system only has access to the Discovery Interface. The Discovery Administrator machine is the only point to administer Tivoli Decision Support.
The configuration diagram shown in Figure 31 details the connections made between the various components in a Network Mode architecture. This is the architecture that should be used for medium to large environments
ODBC
INVENTORY
DM
TEC
DATABASES
Client system running Discovery Interface
Client system Client system running Discovery running Discovery Interface Interface
Service and support database system ODBC
Shared File Access
File server running server components including guides, cubes and models
System running Administrator and client
Figure 31. Network installation architecture
A network mode installation makes it possible for multiple users to access Decision Support in the various areas of the enterprise. All clients connect to the file server where the cubes are being updated on an pre scheduled, preferable off hours, basis. This is a more realistic and purposeful deployment method where the various Tivoli Decision Support operations are separated. Only the system administrator will be able to perform the Discovery Administrator tasks, with the client systems only having access to the Discovery Interface to open and work with the views of data. A mixture of the two installation methods can also be implemented. However, this will depend on the roles and resource capacity of the machines on which Decision Support runs. The Discovery Administrator and TDS File server can be installed on the same machine with multiple clients accessing the shared
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server component directory. A thing to watch out for, though, is that a cube build may severely reduce the responsiveness of a Client Discovery Interface that is trying to view and drill down into the data at the same time as the cube build.
4.6 Suggested architecture and design solutions

It is clear from Section 4.4, Integrating Tivoli Decision Support components on page 63, that both the Discovery Interface and Discovery Administrator are required to communicate extensively with the TDS File Server and the Database in order to play their roles. From Section 4.5, Stand-alone vs. network architecture on page 70, we learned that if multiple users want to run Decision Support in the various areas of their enterprise, they should install the programs components in network mode. This installation method gives each user access to the Discovery Interface while localizing the TDS Server components on a file server and the Tivoli Discovery Administrator on the system administrators machine. Now, we will exercise the lessons learned in this chapter so far. We will take some typical environments as case studies, and, from there, we will suggest a suitable Tivoli Decision Support Architecture. We will consider the following three types of Tivoli business environments: Typical Tivoli Service Desk Single TMR environment Multiple TMR environment
4.6.1 Tivoli Service Desk environment - Case study

Figure 32 on page 73 shows a Tivoli Service Desk Problem Management environment with Tivoli Decision Support installed on a single machine in stand-alone mode. This is a call center problem-management solution including servers and networked clients. These machines are all managed by Tivoli. The problem management data is stored in a database server on the TEC server. As in all Tivoli Decision Support deployments, one of the questions we must answer is in which architecture mode should TDS be installed? During the Requirements Gathering phase of the project, all information needed to answer this question should be obtained and analyzed. Such information can be, but is not limited to, which Tivoli Service Desk databases are required to
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be processed by a TDS Discovery Guide, who is going to utilize the TDS Discovery Interface, who will be responsible for the TDS Discovery Administration machines, and so on. In addition, all Tivoli Service Desk applications and servers of the customer as well as their physical location should be documented. The situation we are faced with represents an architecture in which all the servers are centrally located in one region running on the same network segment as the Problem Management databases. There exist no requirements for decision-making personnel at other locations to access the Decision Support business information.
Tivoli Decision Support in a Tivoli Service Desk environment

- Problem, Change and Asset Management File server - NSM Gateway
- TEC Server - Database Server - Distributed Monitoring
- TMR Server - Distributed Monitoring
Tivoli Decision Support Stand Alone Mode
- TME Netview - NSM Gateway - Tivoli Inventory
- Problem, Change and Asset Management (Stand-Alone Client)
- Problem, Change and Asset Management (Networked Client)
Figure 32. Tivoli Service Desk environment case study
Since TDS will be used by a single user, we can choose to install it in stand-alone mode. In stand-alone mode, everything runs on one system, and none of the modules are shared with anyone else on the network. In the environment under analysis, this case holds true. We have suggested a single machine to perform the Tivoli Decision Support functionality. This allows for central management and does not put extra traffic on the network.
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Communication is only between the Tivoli Decision Support system and the problem management database.
4.6.2 Single TMR environment - Case study

The most common Tivoli Decision Support implementations will probably be carried out in this type of environment as illustrated in Figure 33 on page 75. The Tivoli management environment servers consist of a TMR server, a TEC server and an RDBMS repository (usually on the same machine as the TEC server). There is only one TMR server with distributed gateways at remote sites. This type of Tivoli Enterprise management environment is usually the case with a single customer with one or more remote locations aside from the head office where the Tivoli Servers are located. It could also be a single location with multiple gateways servicing a large number of endpoints. In either case, systems management functions take place in the central location where the Tivoli management servers are located. The data collected by the management agents is passed from the endpoints through the gateways to the TMR server from where it will update the various database repositories. For the purpose of this particular exercise, we will assume that the Tivoli infrastructure sits in the same location down to the endpoint level.
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Single TMR environment

TEC Server
DM INVENTORY
TMR Server
TEC
Inventory
TEC
Database Repository
Distributed Monitoring
Software Distribution
Gateway
Gateway
Endpoints
Endpoints
Figure 33. Single TMR environment case study
As before, our first analytical decision is to determine whether we should deploy Tivoli Decision Support in a stand-alone or network mode. In most business, like the one managed in our example, there will be a need to present reports to various levels of management. These reports must present a wide range of data views filtered to the level of detail required by the person operating the Discovery Interface client. There should also be a dedicated systems administrator who is responsible for performing all the systems management technical administration for the business. This individual will, most probably, also be responsible for maintaining the entire Tivoli infrastructure.
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Tivoli Decision Support in a single TMR environment

TEC Server
DM INVENTORY
TMR Server
TEC
Inventory
TEC
Database Repository
TDS Administrator
TDS File Server
Gateway
Gateway
TDS Clients Endpoints Endpoints
Figure 34. Single TMR environment with Tivoli Decision Support
The TDS deployment solution shown in Figure 34 will have to be a network mode installation. The TDS File server, Discovery Interfaces, and Discovery Administrator will be set up to run from the main site along with the other Tivoli enterprise systems. There will be no clients located at the remote sites (if any) and only one Discovery Administrator is required. The solution shown in Figure 34 will integrate with the database repository where the administrators will run queries to build its multidimensional cubes and the Discovery Interface can read off the Crystal Reports reports. The Discovery Interface machine will also make a connection with the TDS file server to access the cubes. All these components are located in the same LAN and, thus, the Tivoli Decision Support process should function optimally.
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4.6.3 Multiple TMR environment - Case study

A typical multiple TMR environment is shown in Figure 35 on page 78. This environment consists of a Tier 1 TMR Server, a Tivoli Enterprise Console Server used to process events from managed servers and the Database Repository at Site A, and two Tier 2 TMR servers located at Site B and Site C. For each of these Tier 2 TMR servers, we have distributed gateways with the endpoints for each specific site. This type of TME environment is usually the case in a Service Delivery Center implementation with many customers at one or more remote locations and a head office where the Tivoli Tier 1 Servers are located and onto which the Tier 2 server is latched. In this multiple TMR scenario, the key systems-management functions take place in the central location where the Tivoli management Tier 1 servers are located. The data collected by the management agents is passed from the endpoints to their gateways and then to their Tier 2 TMRs. This data is finally passed on to the Tier1 TMR server from where it will update the various database repositories.
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Multiple TMR environment

TMR Server TEC Server
INVENTORY
DM
TEC
Inventory
TEC
Site A
Database Repository
Site B Site C
Gateway Gateway TMR Server TMR Server
Endpoints Endpoints
Figure 35. Multiple TMR environment case study
For this case, it is very clear that we will need to deploy Tivoli Decision Support in a network-mode. Unlike the single TMR environment, there will be decision makers who need to have access to the business information. This means that we will need to have Discovery Interfaces installed on the remote sites B and C. As in the single TMR environment, there will be a need to present reports to various levels of management, but, in this case, access to the TDS system from remote sites is required.
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Tivoli Decision Support in a multiple TMR environment

TMR Server TEC Server
INVENTORY
DM
TEC
Inventory
TEC
Distributed Monitoring Database Repository
TDS Administrator TDS Main File Server
Site B
TMR Server Gateway TDS Secondary File Server
TDS Clients
Endpoints TDS Clients
Figure 36. Multiple TMR environment with Tivoli Decision Support
As in all other cases, there should be a dedicated Discovery Administrator machine that will be installed on the same network segment as the database repository with the intention of improving performance at the time of the cube generation process. If the installation of additional TDS Discovery Guides is required, this will, in turn, result in increased resource utilization on the administration console. Consequently, the cube-building process will take longer to complete. In order to distribute the work load, it is appropriate to have additional Discovery Administrator machines installed. A scenario where we can have one TDS Discovery Guide per Discovery Administrator machine would be the best approach, but this results in the systems administration tasks being distributed. A separate Administrator machine should then only be
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implemented if the business requires that different people manage the guides that are relative to their job roles.
Note
The multi-dimensional Powerplay cubes are scheduled to be built on a regular basis. Depending on the number of TDS Discovery Guides installed, the number of cubes will increase. The cube building process occurs in a sequential order. The addition of more Discovery Administrators for different Guides will enable the workload to be shared. Now, we face the issue of the distributed Discovery Interface clients that are needed by personnel at the remote sites. Section 4.4.2, The Discovery Interface on page 68 discusses the operations and the communication that takes place between the Discovery Interface and all other TDS components. The Discovery Interface will connect to the TDS File Server to retrieve the Powerplay cubes and to the database server to retrieve the data needed to build Crystal Reports. The problem we face is that this connection will now take place over the WAN. This will obviously result in a delayed response while trying to access the various views over the network. To solve this problem, we recommend the implementation of one TDS file server per remote site. The main TDS file server will reside in the same LAN as the Discovery Administrator machine and will be responsible for serving both the Discovery Administrator machine and all the Discovery Interfaces in the main location. On the other sites, the TDS file server will be responsible for serving the Discovery Interfaces there. This configuration will have a significant positive impact on the response times for clients accessing information stored in the cubes. To implement this architecture, some sort of replication needs to take place from the main TDS File server to the local site TDS File servers. One method would be to write a script or program that triggers a file transfer from the main TDS file server to the remote TDS file servers. This process should be executed soon after the scheduled cube build takes place. This will ensure that cubes at all locations reflect the current environment. Besides the cubes, the TDS drill-through database files also need to be replicated.
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Note
The script has to perform a similar function to the TDS rover utility that copies the cubes from the $TDS/Cubes/Temp directory to the $TDS/Cubes directory on the TDS File server. This will ensure that the transfer of cube files does not fail if the Discovery Interfaces are using them.
4.7 Troubleshooting tips

This section touches on some of the common problems experienced with Tivoli Decision Support.
4.7.1 ODBC source

Typically, ODBC connectivity errors look like the following example: Error: 40002 - IM006: [Microsoft] [ODBC Driver Manager] Driver's SQLSetConnectAttr failed. Follow the checklist and hints below in order to verify the cause of the problem: Always verify whether you are using the ODBC database driver for their database platform. The Tivoli Decision Support CD provides ODBC drivers for several database servers. Check the ODBC setup in every Discovery Administrator and Discovery Interface machine. Notice that not all database platforms are set up the same way. Check to make sure that you have used the correct qualifier. Check whether you are able to connect to the database via a client tool, such as SQLplus, isql, command line processor, or other. Test the connectivity using the Discovery Administrator application by choosing Data Sources -> Test Connectivity; choose the specified data source in the displayed list. The database is pinged to make sure TDS has a connection with the database. If successful, the data source dialog box will appear telling you the connection was successful.
4.7.2 Cube building

Most customer problems will involve errors encountered when building cubes; therefore, most of the problems will have to do with the TDS administrator or Cognos Powerplay.
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Discovery Administrator errors include, but are not limited to, installation errors, ODBC connectivity issues, Visual Basic script syntax errors, SQL syntax errors, runtime errors, and data anomalies. Basically, if the error occurs before the data source file is created, the problem lies either with the Administrator or with the data that is attempting to be exported. After the transformation process, you can see if a cube does not build by examining the Rover window. This window appears as an icon on the task bar at the time of the cube-building process. One error you may receive is Error 53 - Cube did not build. This error is a consequence of a query that returns no data. Cognos creates a log file called EDAdmin.log in the $TDS directory. In addition, you may check the <model>.log file that is created each time a cube is being built. This file gets saved to the $TDS/Model directory. You should look for the entry (TR3201) update of cube XXX is incomplete and find the problem. If a <model>.log file gets created, the cube build has exported the data successfully. The problem then either lies with Cognos or the cube file has not been successfully copied from the $TDS\Cubes\Temp directory to the $TDS\Cubes directory. Another Rover error you may experience is Error 70 - Permission Denied. In this case, Rover tried to copy the temporary cube to the $TDS/Cubes folder and a user has a view opened that references the cube that is being built. The solution is to either try to build the cube later or ask all users to close the Discovery Interface. If Rover has timed out, you should copy the cubes manually. A failed copy message from Rover may also mean one of two things: The user does not have write/execute permissions on the $TDS directory. The cube does not contain at least one compressed record. If you think these two criteria have been satisfied, check the <model.log> file and the EDAdmin.log to find out why the cube did not generate. Cognos errors include, but are not limited to, General Protection Fault errors (GPFs), errors resulting from an incorrectly configured model (.pyg file), and data anomalies. Cognos errors are the opposite of administrator errors and can only originate once the data source file has been created.
4.7.3 Discovery interface

The following are some common problems and error messages you may receive when using the Discovery Interface:
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Discovery Interface does not close down properly If you shut down Windows and the Discovery Interface is still open, you may receive an error that TDS is not closed. You should always close the Discovery Interface before shutting down Windows in order to properly close the OLE link between the Discovery Interface and Cognos PowerPlay. Receive load_graph_from_powercube encountered error message This error is received when you attempt to display a view for which a cube is not built. You should certify that the cube is built using the Discovery Administrator Component. Discovery Interface does not display published tab To be able to publish push documents from the Discovery Interface, the published tab must be available from the Hints pane. If this tab is not available, select the Enable ADI Publish option on the Options dialog box of the Tivoli Discovery Publisher.
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Chapter 5. Case study

The purpose of this chapter is to apply all the knowledge gained in the previous chapters of this redbook in order to present a structured TDS deployment solution in a real-world customer environment. This chapter aims to provide a reference to assist in any Tivoli Decision Support Implementation. By identifying the similarities between the case study environment and the environment of your enterprise, this chapter can also be used as a guide to estimate time scales, tasks involved, and process flows for deploying a Tivoli Decision Support solution. For this case study, the customer will be the IBM Service Delivery Center (SDC) West. All the information, ideas, and strategies provided by Chapter 3, Methodology on page 23 and Chapter 4, TDS architecture and design considerations on page 59 will be utilized here to provide a recommended solution for the IBM SDC West environment. For any Tivoli deployment solution, there is normally a group of professionals composed of Tivoli Architects, Technical Experts, and others who are responsible for providing the official and complete Tivoli deployment architecture and solution design for all management products including Tivoli Decision Support. All information provided by this chapter should, therefore, only be used as a project guide and not as an official solution.
5.1 Overview
As mentioned above, this chapter suggests a Tivoli Decision Support implementation solution for the IBM SDC West Environment. The SDC West provides strategic I/T out-sourcing services to over 50 IBM and commercial customers all over the United States. The SDC delivers a broad scope of solutions including server management (from S390 servers to NT servers), desk-side support, and customer care services. They do this through four teams: Enterprise Services Delivery, Distributed Services Delivery, the Business & Technology office, and the Customer Service Center. They are one of four geographic service delivery centers in IBM Global Services. The purpose of the case study is to detail a Tivoli Decision Support solution, which will be integrated into the IBM SDC West Tivoli architecture with the intention of providing a simple flowing migration from the reporting tools currently implemented.
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We aim to exploit the Tivoli Decision Support technology using IBM as a showcase with the goal of reducing IBM IT reporting costs. This chapter will provide a list of Future Requirements for Tivoli Decision Support where ideas for extra features will be presented based on our experience with the case study.
5.2 Methodology
Now, we will practice the methodology described in Chapter 3, Methodology on page 23. The case study will start with a requirements-gathering phase where a survey of reporting requirements and the current SDC West environment will be carried out. We will then use predefined techniques to analyze all the received information to present a technical proposal to meet the customers requirements. A procedure-driven deployment exercise will then be presented illustrating the steps and task flow for each phase of the roll out.
5.2.1 Requirements gathering phase

The requirements gathering phase is split into three sections: Section 5.3, The existing Tivoli environment on page 87 describes the actual Tivoli environment used by the customer; Section 5.4, Identifying the reports requirements on page 92 details the current reporting strategy used by the customer and shows reports currently used by them to meet their requirements; Section 5.5, Customer objectives on page 113 describes a set of customer needs and objectives to meet their reporting requirements.
5.2.2 Systems analysis and design

In this phase, all the requirements gathered in the previously-described sections will be processed. Section 5.6, Mapping Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guides on page 114 will analyze the current reports generated by the customer. These reports will be reviewed and a specific TDS Guide will be recommended to produce similar results. In addition, we will show the corresponding graphic or a combination of graphics that fit the customer requirements. Section 5.8, Suggested architecture and solution design on page 140 presents a recommended architecture and design solution for the SDC West environment.
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5.2.3 Deployment
Section 5.9, Tivoli Decision Support deployment process on page 144 delineates the implementation of the design defined in Section 5.8, Suggested architecture and solution design on page 140. A high-level task flow will be presented for each step of the deployment process.
5.3 The existing Tivoli environment

This section provides information about the Tivoli environment deployed in the customers environment. We will discuss TMR servers, TEC servers, Database servers, RIM hosts, and all Tivoli applications that can be a potential source of information for reporting.
5.3.1 Tivoli general architecture

As shown in Figure 37 on page 88, the customer has implemented what they call a Hub-Spoke TMR architecture. This model consists of a Tier 1 (Hub) TMR server in Boulder, which performs a dual role as the Tivoli Enterprise Console (TEC) and the TMR server, and some Tier 2 (Spoke) TMR servers located at each site. The Hub TMR server has a two-way connection to each of the Spoke TMR servers. All monitors reside on the Hub TMR/TEC and are distributed downward to the Spoke TMR servers and Gateways. This allows SDC West to manage all monitors in the enterprise from a common repository avoiding duplication and inconsistency, as well as the means to quickly determine exactly which monitors are distributed to which systems. All rules processing of events takes place on the Hub TMR allowing the same consistency as with the monitors. In addition, all notifications are initiated from the Hub TMR. Performance and capacity data collected from servers running Tivoli Distributed Monitoring monitors are stored on the Hub TMR server and then processed at the end of the day by scripts and programs. The customer plans to have two separate Tivoli Management infrastructures. One is planned to manage the servers, and the other will be dedicated to managing all desktops. For this case study, we will focus on the server infrastructure since the desktop infrastructure has not been completed at the time of this requirement-gathering phase. The desktop infrastructure is expected to be
Case study
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similar to the server infrastructure with the need for fewer high-availability features.
HUB-Spoke TMR Arquitecture
Boulder HUB TMR TEC / Sybase
TEC Consoles
Boulder Spoke TMR
Boulder Spoke TMR
San Jose Spoke TMR
Boulder Gateways
Boulder Gateways
San Jose Gateways
Santa Teresa Gateways
Endpoints
Managed Nodes & Endpoints
Endpoints
Endpoints
Figure 37. Service Delivery Center - West architecture
5.3.2 TMR servers

The customer has a Hub-Spoke model TMR architecture. Due to the number of desktops and the need for a high-availability environment for the TMR servers, this architecture is considered optimal and can make tuning of the server and desktop infrastructures easier. The server infrastructure Hub TMR is located in Boulder, Colorado. Spoke TMR locations were based on analysis of the following criteria: LAN proximity and loading, geographic location, network topology, capacity management of the Spoke TMR, and the number of servers in a project or account. The actual location of the Spoke TMRs are: Two in Boulder, Colorado and one in San Jose, California.
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5.3.3 Endpoint gateways

Gateways are located using a static schema based on analysis of the following criteria: LAN proximity and loading, geographic location, network topology, capacity management of the Spoke TMR, and the number of servers in a project or account. Sizing guidelines are one gateway for every 500 endpoints. Note that there are two gateways under a spoke TMR, so 1000 endpoints can be managed under a particular spoke TMR. All endpoints have three possible Gateways. The first two are the ones located near (network-wise) the endpoints. The third gateway runs on a spoke TMR. The Spoke TMR works as a failover gateway, and no Endpoints are assigned to it. Two gateways are assigned under each spoke TMR in Boulder and four gateways are assigned under the spoke TMR in San Jose. Also, SDC West has two physical gateway servers placed in Santa Teresa assigned under the San Jose spoke TMR. Gateway code also runs on each spoke TMR.
5.3.4 TEC server

A master TEC server is used to process events from managed servers. It is located in Boulder, Colorado and physically resides in the Hub TMR server. TEC server configuration was based on analysis of the following criteria: Frequency of TEC events, LAN proximity and loading, geographic location, network topology, capacity management of the TEC, detail level of event management, number of Tivoli managers deployed, and the number of resources managed. Events come from both in-band and out-of-band sources. Events are originated from Tivoli products and non-Tivoli products. These events are sent to the TEC as TEC events either by the originating source or after conversion to TEC events by Netview. Events are processed by the TEC server and displayed on a TEC console in a 24x7 operations facility in Boulder, Colorado and sent by pager to the same group. Second-level support or any other individual can also receive events by page and e-mail. Three TEC consoles are used by operations. These consoles are operated through a Tivoli desktop running Windows 95. TEC events are defined by the following groups: Host availability, Netview node up/down, new ping (socksified host availability), process, file system,
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NotesView, Netfinity, AMA, CRT, MQSeries, NFS subsystem, SNA links, hardware, and SP switch interface. These events are stored in a Sybase SQL Server Database and will be used as a source of information for the Tivoli Decision Support Event Management Discovery Guide.
5.3.5 RDBMS and RIM hosts configuration

The Sybase SQL Server for AIX is installed in the Hub TMR Server in Boulder, Colorado. The TEC Database is configured on this server with 500 MB of space for data and 250 MB of space for log and stores all events processed by the TEC Server. This database is planned to accommodate the Event Management Discovery Guide data. The TEC RIM host for the server infrastructure is also located on the physical Hub TMR server.
5.3.6 Tivoli DM and monitors for performance and capacity trend data
The SDC West has implemented Tivoli Distributed Monitoring to provide standard monitors for AIX and Windows NT servers. These monitors store the data collected into flat files, which are processed later, on the Hub TMR. The standard monitors for AIX servers are: CPU Usage used to compute hourly average and sampled every minute Process memory and paging space sampled hourly Network packets (in/out) and errors (in/out) sampled daily. File system snapshot sampled daily. Today, the SDC West makes use of Netfinity Capacity Manager in order to collect performance and capacity data from the Windows NT servers. The DM monitors are used to collect availability information. The following are the standard monitors for Windows NT servers that will be implemented at the time of the TDS deployment: CPU usage - This is the percentage of processor time monitor (NT_Processor monitoring collection) and is sampled every 10 minutes. Memory usage - This is the pages/sec. and Available Bytes monitors (NT_Memory monitoring collection) and is sampled every 10 minutes with an hourly average.
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Network Activity - This reflects the ammount of Packets Outbound Errors and Packets Received Errors (NT_NetworkMonitor monitoring collection). Disk Utilization - This is the percentage of utilization of each drive or disk on the system. Currently using the Disk Space Percentage Used monitor in the Universal monitoring collection. The way monitors get distributed to servers is dependent upon the relationships between the various Tivoli container objects. Essentially, monitors are grouped in profile managers (and their sub-profiles) by account, platform, function, and so forth on the Hub TMR following a consistent naming convention. On the Spoke TMRs, similarly-named profiles exist, which have corresponding names and simply act as containers for subscribed servers. The Hub TMR profile manager then subscribes the Spoke TMR profile managers to it. Figure 38 on page 92 shows the actual profile structure implemented by the customer.
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HUB TMR
NCO
Customer ABC
NCO AIX Monitors
NCO NT Monitors
ABC WEB AIX Monitors
ABC DFS Monitors
ABC NT Monitors ABC WEB Domino Monitors ABC AIX Monitors
Spoke TMR
NCO.TMR2
TMR2
Customer ABC.TMR2
NCO AIX.TMR2
NCO NT.TMR2
ABC WEB AIX.TMR2
ABC DFS.TMR2 ABC AIX.TMR2
ABC NT.TMR2
AIX Managed Node
NT Managed Node
ABC WEB Domino.TMR2
Figure 38. Tivoli Distributed Monitoring object relationships
5.4 Identifying the reports requirements

One of the most important steps to be performed when planning to either migrate to or deploy Tivoli Decision Support is to gather all the customer reporting requirements. This will enable us to decide, for example, which TDS Discovery Guides will be used, how many Tivoli Discovery Administrator machines will be needed, and what the required hardware configuration for each component of TDS will be. In this section, we will discuss and identify both the customers requirements for reporting and all reports that are currently being used to satisfy these
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requirements. Future requirements, as well as future recommendations, will be discussed in Section 5.10, Future reporting requirements on page 162.
Note
It is beyond the scope of this redbook to identify all the reports generated and used by IBM SDC West. We will only consider the reports that cover the basic metrics of availability, capacity and performance, response time to failure (sla), and cost if available.
5.4.1 Customer reporting requirements

Reporting requirements in Distributed Systems Management (DSM) translate into five fundamental metrics: Availability Reports Performance Measurement Response Time to Failures (SLA) Cost Prediction and Measurement Detailed Applications Related Reports
5.4.2 The SDC actual solution for reporting

As shown in Figure 39 on page 94, IBM SDC West uses a variety of platforms and systems-management tools to collect the required data to generate reports of its distributed environment. The challenge is to find a solution that is able to process and interpret the data stored in different databases in different servers.
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Tool 1
Analysis
Tool 2
. . .
Tool n
Reports
Figure 39. The Problem for reporting
IBM SDC West uses two methods for reporting. Despite valiant efforts, these two methods are still facing the problem of using multiple tools, dealing with different sources of information, and storing the data in files with different formats. The first one will be referred as the in-house method, which has been developed by the IBM Service Delivery Center Tucson, Arizona. The second method, Server Resource Management (SRM), has been developed by the IBM Global Service South Performance & Capacity team. For organizational and security reasons, both methods utilize the concept of accounts to access the reports. Each group of people responsible for their account has the capability of looking only at the reports that are related to their business and interest. There are IBM internal accounts, which are related to IBM internal departments or locations, and external accounts, which are related to IBM customers. All these reports can be reached either through the IBM Intranet or Internet. For the purpose of this case study, we will look at the reports of an internal IBM account called Network Computing Offerings (NCO). The NCO account uses both methods of reports. We will identify the reports available in the actual SDC solution for reporting and then map these reports with those produced by Tivoli Decision Support.
5.4.2.1 The in-house method The in-house solution relies on many sources for collecting data, such as:
UNIX-based tools:
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The vmstat command is sampled every minute and used to compute an hourly average. Process memory is checked witht the ps gv command and paging space percentage full is checked with the lsps -a command and sampled hourly. Network packets in/out and errors in/out are sampled daily using the netstat command. File systems snapshot is checked with the df -k command and sampled daily. Tivoli Applications: Tivoli Distributed Monitoring Tivoli NetView Tivoli Enterprise Console Netfinity Capacity Manager Figure 40 shows how the process is used for reporting the in-house method:
M onitors Pe rl Scripts and Program s
Tivoli A pplications
HT M L and Ja va form at
AIX Tools
IBM Intra net Phase 3 - Report G eneration
Netfinity M onitors
Phase 2 - Data Processin g Phase 1 - Data Co llection
Figure 40. The in-house process for reporting
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The three phases of the in-house process are detailed in the following list: Phase 1 - Data Collection The monitors collect relevant information according to some predefined thresholds and write the data to files on a file server. Phase 2 - Data Processing As soon as the data is collected, it is processed daily by the in-house Perl scripts and programs populating some flat files for each server and metric. The rolling year of data is kept. Phase 3 - Report Generation The reports are generated in HTML and Java format showing each month's data in tabular format with links to applets that graph the data sets for the year by account (server group).
5.4.2.2 The SRM method In order to satisfy the actual requirement for reporting, IBM Global Service South Performance & Capacity team has developed a set of Server Resource Management tools to expand the performance and capacity trending on the Distributed Systems Management (DSM) platforms and applications, such as AIX/UNIX, Windows NT, OS/2, SAP R/3, and Lotus Notes. The SRM tool set is used for both internal and external account reporting.
The SRM solution relies on existing monitoring tools for each available platform, such as Netfinity Capacity Manager (CISC platforms), Perl Scripts (RISC platforms), Zperstat (for SAP R/3), and NotesView (Lotus environment) to collect and pass on event data. The SRM tool is divided into four main components that enable the performance and capacity trending process as detailed in the following list: Phase 1 - Collection The data is passively collected in multiple formats and stored into files. Phase 2 - Transmission The SRM tool receives the data and converts it to a common format. Then the data are stored in a single database in a convenient format. Phase 3 - Analysis An automated process provides Distributed Systems Management resource trending and exception analysis in this phase. Phase 4 - Web Preparation and Presentation
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The data is processed and HTML and Java reports are generated and published on the IBM Intranet. Figure 41 graphically represents the SRM collection and reporting process:
SRM
Netfinity Manager
Phase 4 - WEB Presentation Phase 3 - Analysis

Perl Scripts
SAS/VM
DB2
Zperstat
IBM Intranet
NotesView
Phase 2 - Transmission
Phase 1 - Collection
Figure 41. The SRM method for reporting
5.4.3 The Reports of the NCO account

In this section, we will show the reports generated by the two methods described in Section 5.4.2, The SDC actual solution for reporting on page 93. The goal here is to provide information about the current scenario of reporting used at IBM SDC West to satisfy the actual requirements.
5.4.3.1 In-house reports The following are the reports available for the NCO account using the in-house method for reporting: 1. Performance and capacity metric summary
As shown in Figure 42 on page 98, this report shows CPU utilization, memory paging utilization, and network I/O (IP packets and errors count)
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per server for a specified month. There are also links from which you can have access to detailed reports by server. For CPU and Memory/Paging, the first pair of numbers lists the averages of all samples and the average of the eight highest samples of data. The second average gives some indication of load during high usage bursts, which may or may not occur during consecutive prime shift hours. If the averages are similar, it can be inferred that usage of the system is relatively steady throughout the day. The number in parentheses lists the daily high sample. For Network IO, the daily IP packet and error counts in parentheses are shown for input and output.
Network IO Utilization DASD Usage Report Process Memory and Paging Utilization
CPU Utilization by server
Figure 42. In-house performance and capacity
The following are descriptions of the detailed reports of the server snjs1sm1.sanjose.ibm.com .
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Figure 43 states the high sample, the average of all samples, and the average of the highest eight samples for CPU utilization by server:
Figure 43. Detailed report - CPU utilization by server
CPU utilization by server For UNIX servers, the data is collected every minute using the vmstat command. For Windows NT servers, it is done by Netfinity Capacity Manager. The data shown for future months is from the previous year. Figure 44 on page 100 states the high sample, the average of all samples, and the average of the highest eight samples for process memory and paging utilization.
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Figure 44. Detailed report - process memory and paging utilization by server
Process Memory and Paging Utilization by Server For UNIX servers, the data is collected on a hourly basis using the ps and the lsps commands. For NT servers, all data is collected by Netfinity Capacity Manager. Figure 45 on page 101 states the number of IP packets In and Out.
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Figure 45. Detailed report - network I/O utilization
Network I/O utilization by server For UNIX servers, daily IP packet and error counts are collected using the netstat command for input and output. For Windows NT servers, the data is collected using Netfinity Capacity Manager. Figure 46 on page 102 shows the size and daily percentage of kilobytes used by the file systems for each server.
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DASD Usage for snjs1sm1.sanjose.ibm.com
Figure 46. Detailed report - DASD usage by server
DASD utilization by server For AIX Server, the data is collected using the df -k command. For Windows NT servers, the data is collected using Netfinity Capacity Manager.
2. Availability and alerts summary

The report shown in Figure 47 on page 103 displays the availability by server per month. Nodes are considered unavailable between node DOWN and node UP events received by the monitoring server (NetView, MLM, Tivoli applications, and so on). Availability windows are not currently factored in (assume 7x24). Data is generated at the end of each month; therefore, data for the current or future months, if shown, is from the previous year. In addition, percentages under 95 show up in red. The report shown in Figure 47 on page 103 shows a summary of the events for each system based on the current alert log for the account NCO.
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Availability for NCO Systems
Alert Summary
Figure 47. Percentage availability by server
Alert summary report Items covered by this report include the number of alerts and log entries, CPU and disk utilization, node up or down, and services stopped or started. Refer to Figure 48:
Alert summary for: amawest1.boulder.ibm.com

Note: Account alert logs are regularly trimmed -- the oldest events shown will vary by how many alerts a system receives.
Log Entry Count Alert

5 . . . . . . Node down (unpingable from monitor server) 5 . . . . . . Node up (pingable from monitor server)
Log Entries:
Tue Jun 8 05:49:33 MDT 1999 System [amawest.boulder.ibm.com (9.99.188.204)], Message [Node down (unpingable from monitor server)], Subsystem [os] Tue Jun 8 06:01:43 MDT 1999 System [amawest.boulder.ibm.com (9.99.188.204)], Message [Node up (pingable from monitor server)], Subsystem [os] Tue Jun 11 05:52:39 MDT 1999 System [amawest.boulder.ibm.com (9.99.188.204)], Message [Node down (unpingable from monitor server)], Subsystem [os] Tue Jun 13 05:50:09 MDT 1999 System [amawest.boulder.ibm.com (9.99.188.204)], Message [Node up (pingable from monitor server)], Subsystem [os] Tue Jun 13 05:50:09 MDT 1999 System [amawest.boulder.ibm.com (9.99.188.204)], Message [Node up (pingable from monitor server)], Subsystem [os] Tue Jun 14 06:00:29 MDT 1999 System [amawest.boulder.ibm.com (9.99.188.204)], Message [Node down (unpingable from monitor server)], Subsystem [os] Tue Jun 14 08:59:54 MDT 1999 System [amawest.boulder.ibm.com (9.99.188.204)], Message [Node up (pingable from monitor server)], Subsystem [os] Tue Jun 15 05:51:12 MDT 1999 System [amawest.boulder.ibm.com (9.99.188.204)], Message [Node down (unpingable from monitor server)], Subsystem [os] Tue Jun 15 08:42:49 MDT 1999 System [amawest.boulder.ibm.com (9.99.188.204)], Message [Node up (pingable from monitor server)], Subsystem [os] Tue Jun 16 06:20:51 MDT 1999 System [amawest.boulder.ibm.com (9.99.188.204)], Message [Node down (unpingable from monitor server)], Subsystem [os] Tue Jun 16 08:27:16 MDT 1999 System [amawest.boulder.ibm.com (9.99.188.204)], Message [Node up (pingable from monitor server)], Subsystem [os]
Figure 48. Detailed alert summary by server
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5.4.3.2 SRM Reports The following describes the reports available for the NCO South account using the SRM tool set. We will describe the reports for Lotus Notes application, AIX Performance, and Windows NT Performance. 1. Lotus Notes reports
The following are the reports available for NCO South Lotus Notes servers: Mail Server Report This report gives daily, weekly, and monthly statistics on Lotus Notes mail servers in the NCO South account, such as number of concurrent users, number of mail traffic messages, and response time. The report shown in Figure 49 is the monthly utilization statistic:
Figure 49. Lotus Notes - Monthly mail server statistics report
Database Server Report This report gives daily, weekly, and monthly statistics on Lotus Notes database servers in the NCO South account, such as number of
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concurrent users, the number of replicated documents, and so on. The report shown in Figure 50 is the monthly utilization statistic. There are also reports that include weekly and daily statistics.
Figure 50. Lotus Notes - Monthly database server report
Mail Hub Server Report This report gives daily, weekly, and monthly statistics on Lotus Notes database servers in the NCO South account, such as number of total mail traffic (MBytes) and the average response time. Figure 51 on page 106 shows the daily utilization statistic. Other reports include weekly and monthly statistics.
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Figure 51. Lotus Notes - Daily mail hub report
MTA Server Report This report gives daily, weekly, and monthly statistics on Lotus Notes MTA servers in the NCO South account, such as number of SMTP transferred messages and the average response time. Figure 52 shows the daily utilization statistic. Other reports include weekly and monthly statistics.
Figure 52. Lotus Notes - Daily MTA server report
Hourly Response Time Report This report gives hourly response time on the Lotus Notes database, MTA hub, and mail server in the NCO South account. Figure 53 shows the hourly response time for the Lotus Notes mail server.
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Figure 53. Lotus Notes - Hourly response time report
Hourly Concurrent Users Report This report gives hourly concurrent users on the Lotus Notes database and mail server in the NCO South account. Figure 54 shows the concurrent users report for the Lotus Notes mail server, which is produced daily.
Figure 54. Lotus Notes - Hourly concurrent users report
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Hourly Sessions per Minute Report This report gives hourly sessions per minute on Lotus Notes servers in the NCO South account. Figure 55 shows the hourly sessions per minute by server report, which is produced daily.
Figure 55. Lotus Notes - Hourly sessions-per-minute report
Hourly Mailbox Size Report This report gives hourly sessions mail box size on Lotus Notes servers in the NCO South account. Figure 56 shows the hourly mail box size by server report and is produced daily.
Figure 56. Lotus Notes - Hourly mail box size report
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Hourly SMTP Transferred Messages This report gives hourly SMTP transferred messages on Lotus Notes servers in the NCO South account. Figure 57 shows the hourly transferred messages by server report, which is produced daily.
Figure 57. Lotus Notes - Hourly SMTP transferred messages report
2. AIX reports
The following reports are produced by SRM for AIX servers in the NCO South account. CPU/Storage Utilization and IO Wait Report This report gives daily, weekly, and monthly CPU Utilization of the AIX servers in the NCO South account. Figure 58 on page 110 shows the monthly utilization statistics. There are also reports that include weekly and daily statistics. In addition, we can access data for a specific server.
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Figure 58. AIX servers - CPU utilization reports
Warnings Only (daily, weekly, monthly) This report gives the daily warnings during prime time of excessive CPU utilization by AIX servers in the NCO South account according to specified thresholds. This is a subset of the report shown in Figure 58, which contains only those servers with exceeded thresholds. Hard Disk/File System Utilization Report This report shows the hard disk and file system availability by AIX servers in the NCO South account. Figure 59 on page 111 shows the disk and file system utilization by server report, which is produced daily.
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Figure 59. AIX servers - Hard disk and file systems utilization report
AIX Capacity Summary This report gives a summary of the percentage of utilization for all available AIX servers in the NCO South account. The report shown in Figure 60 shows statistics on CPU utilization, Run Queue status, Memory status, IO Wait status, and Disk space status on a rolling month basis for all servers.
Figure 60. AIX servers - Account summary report
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3. Windows NT Reports
The following reports are produced by SRM for Windows NT servers in NCO South account. CPU, Memory and Disk Utilization (daily weekly monthly) This report gives daily, weekly and monthly CPU Utilization of the Windows NT servers in the NCO South. Figure 61 on page 112 shows the monthly utilization statistics. Other reports include weekly and daily statistics. In addition, we can access data for a specific server.
Figure 61. NT servers - CPU, memory, and disk utilization report
Windows NT capacity summary This report gives a summary of the percentage of utilization of all the available Windows NT servers in the NCO South account. The report shown in Figure 62 on page 113 shows statistics on CPU utilization, Memory status, and Disk space status on a rolling month basis for all servers.
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Figure 62. NT servers - Account Summary Report
5.5 Customer objectives

Although the customer has, over the years, developed a solution that works and meets the companys reporting requirements, there still exists, as in all IT solutions, room to improve and produce a more cost-effective and powerful solution. Most of todays businesses display a reasonable amount of concern about aspect,s such as gaining further savings on optimization of server resources while maintaining a high level of productivity. This is also the case with the SDC West. An ideal reporting tool that enables the customer to meet his or her goals would provide functions, such as Workload Characterization and Modelling. A brief discussion of these two reporting techniques follows: Workload Characterization This process maps an application metric against the server resources used, such as transaction rates/averages versus server storage and CPU utilization. For DSM machines, the quality of collection data varies by platform and kernel collection method used. Application workload data is collected and key metrics trended to produce historical usage, application drivers, and server resources used; the output is a baseline representing customer usage and server resources consumed.
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Modelling Once the workload characterization baseline is in place, What If models and scenarios may be built based on customer's estimated business drivers and/or the associated server resource to be assigned to meet future business drivers. With the actual solution for reporting being used by the SDC West, workload balancing and modeling is performed platform by platform, for example, RISC to RISC and CISC to CISC (but not RISC to OS/390 or other cross-platform combinations). Tivoli Decision Support along with its Discovery Guides is the best solution for the customers objectives and performs exceptionally well with most business strategies. Tivoli Decision Support best delivers on server requirements for expanded Data Collection, Database Interface, Workload Characterization, Modeling, and Web Publishing.
5.6 Mapping Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guides

During this phase, we have evaluated the various TDS Discovery Guides. In most situations, these guides, powered by the drill down capability of TDS, can completely cover the SDC requirements. In some situations, however, is necessary to use two or more TDS reports to map an SDC report. On the other hand, some reports requirements are not able to be covered by TDS and these reports will be mentioned in Section 5.10, Future reporting requirements on page 162. Table 10 shows the TDS Discovery Guides being mapped to the customers requirements.
Table 10. The TDS Discovery Guides mapping
TDS Discovery Guide

Server Performance Prediction Event Management Domino Management Network Element Performance
Customer requirements
Performance Measurement Cost Prediction Response Time to Failures (SLA) Detailed Application Related reports Network Capacity and Performance analysis
5.6.1 Detailed reports mapping workshop

As described in Section 5.4.2, The SDC actual solution for reporting on page 93, the customer has some reports that are used to partially attend their
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actual requirement for reporting. In this section, we will show the reports from various TDS Discovery Guides that have been analyzed in Section 5.6, Mapping Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guides on page 114 and compare them to the customers actual scenario. The following table shows the customer current reports and a reference for the recommended TDS report. These report will be displayed in Section 5.7, Tivoli Decision Support reports and business information on page 116.
Table 11. Detailed mapping reference table
Customer Current Reports

Performance and Capacity metrics Summary. Refer to Figure 42 on page 98 CPU utilization by server. Refer to Figure 43 on page 99 Process memory and Paging utilization by server. Refer to Figure 44 on page 100 Network I/O utilization by server. Refer to Figure 45 on page 101 DASD utilization by server. Refer to Figure 46 on page 102 Percent of Availability by server. Refer to Figure 47 on page 103 Alert Summary report. Refer to Figure 48 on page 103 Lotus Notes Mail server statistics. Refer to Figure 49 on page 104
Recommended TDS Report

Figure 63 on page 118 Figure 64 on page 119 Figure 65 on page 120 Figure 66 on page 121 Future requirement Future requirement Future requirement Figure 74 on page Figure 75 on page Figure 76 on page Figure 77 on page Figure 78 on page 130 131 132 133 134
Lotus Notes - Database server report. refer to Figure 50 on page 105 Lotus Notes - Mail Hub server report. Refer to Figure 51 on page 106 Lotus Notes - MTA server report. Refer to Figure 52 on page 106 Lotus Notes - Response time report. Refer to Figure 53 on page 107
Figure 77 on page 133 Figure 78 on page 134 Figure 79 on page 135 Figure 75 on page 131 Figure 78 on page 134 Future requirement Figure 80 on page 136
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Customer Current Reports

Lotus Notes - Concurrent users report. refer to Figure 54 on page 107 Lotus Notes - Sessions per minute report. Refer to Figure 55 on page 108 Lotus Notes - Mail box size report. Refer to Figure 56 on page 108 Lotus Notes - SMTP transferred messages report. Refer to Figure 57 on page 109 CPU and Memory utilization, and I/O wait report by Operating Systems (AIX and Windows NT). Refer to Figure 58 on page 110, and Figure 61 on page 112 Hard Disk and File System utilization report by Operating Systems. Refer to Figure 59 on page 111, and Figure 61 on page 112 Capacity Summary by Operating System. Refer to Figure 60 on page 111, and Figure 62 on page 113
Recommended TDS Report

Figure 77 on page 133 Future requirement Figure 81 on page 137
Future requirement
Figure 67 on page 122
Future requirement
Figure 68 on page 123
5.7 Tivoli Decision Support reports and business information

In this section, we will give a brief description of the identified Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guides that will be used to cover the customers reporting requirements for this case study. In addition, we will show some reports that were used in Section 5.6.1, Detailed reports mapping workshop on page 114 to map the existing customers reports. The intention here is to provide a report scenario with the same (or enhanced) quality as the current customers reporting scenario.
5.7.1 Server Performance Prediction Guide

The purpose of this guide is to supply data to help plan the network growth using basic trending of key system metrics. Most of the performance problems in workstation networks and servers are the result of system workload gradually increasing to the point where it exceeds the capacity of the system or, as a result of soft errors, gradually increasing in volume until a catastrophic hard (unrecoverable) error occurs.
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This guide relies on Tivoli Distributed Monitoring as the source of the network activity data and, if available, the Tivoli Inventory supporting enterprise system hardware information. The objective of the Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction (SPP) Discovery Guide is to provide the customer with the capacity to plan using basic trending of key system metrics. Most workstation and server performance problems in a network can be avoided by identifying the system workload on time before it exceeds the capacity of the systems. The SPP guide has subsections in the form of questions, such as: How might I improve performance on my systems? How is my overall performance? What performance problems are on the horizon? By clicking on these question icons, information can be obtained about your environment in a report format. The following are some reports available with the Server Performance Prediction Discovery Guide.
All System Metrics report The following metrics are intended for both UNIX and NT platforms:
CPU percent busy (user time and system time) CPU run queue length Disk I/O rate and Disk transfer rate Memory page-in/out rate (pages/sec.) Memory page-scan rate (seeks/sec.) Network packet collision rate (packet/sec.) Network packet input/output rate (packets/sec.) Network packet input/output error rate (packets/sec.) (packet # on NT) Figure 63 on page 118 shows the All System Metrics report, which displays a summary of all system performance metrics sorted down by system purpose.
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Figure 63. All System Metrics report
CPU utilization by server By using the drill down facility, we can have some variations of the All System Metrics report. Figure 64 on page 119 only shows CPU utilization for a particular server called ariel .
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Figure 64. CPU utilization by server report
Memory Utilization by Server From the All system metrics report, we can choose to show only the memory utilization. Once again, by using the drill down capability, we select only the DNS servers available in our network. Figure 65 on page 120 shows an example of the memory utilization for all DNS servers in July, 1999.
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Figure 65. Memory utilization report
Network I/O utilization by server This report provides network packet I/O rate, network packet I/O error rate, and network packet collision rate.
Figure 66 on page 121 shows example network I/O rate information for all SAP R/3 servers.
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Figure 66. Network I/O utilization report
CPU utilization and memory page rates by operating system As shown in Figure 67 on page 122, this report provides daily information about CPU Utilization (% units) and memory page rates by operating system for all Oracle servers in our environment.
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Figure 67. CPU utilization memory page rates by operating system
Summary by operating system This report gives a summary of utilization of all available servers by operating system for all collected metrics.
Figure 68 on page 123 shows the summary of all AIX servers for July, 1999.
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Figure 68. Summary report by operating system
Forecasts reports One of the most important features available in this TDS Discovery Guide is the ability to provide forecasts. We can, for example, predict future average CPU utilization of all servers in order to avoid a possible system slow down. In Figure 69 on page 124, we show examples of 30, 60, and 90 day average forecasts of CPU utilization of all servers grouped by system purpose.
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Figure 69. CPU average forecast by system purpose
Under-provisioned and Over-provisioned servers This view highlights systems where the CPU activity is disproportionate to the network activity. If you have a system that shows very high CPU utilization but has relatively low network activity, that system may be under-provisioned (the CPU is inadequate for the work load). If you have a system that shows very low CPU utilization but has relatively high network activity, that system may be over-provisioned (the CPU is excessive for the work load). The measure used for this view is the processor overload. This is expressed as a percentage of the difference between the CPU and network utilization divided by the network utilization. Figure 70 on page 125 is an example of this report for all SAP R/3 servers.
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Figure 70. Under-provisioned/Over-provisioned servers report
5.7.2 Event Management Guide

This TDS Discovery Guide provides a strategic view of network activity as recorded in TEC events and information about the response time for these events. In addition, it provides information about areas of high activity or recurring patterns of system activity. The combination of the Tivoli Discovery Administrator and the Tivoli Discovery Interface with Tivoli Decision Support for Event Management provides you with the following powerful analysis and reporting capabilities: It gathers and reviews information based on a set of powerful questions and reports that address success rates, effectiveness, trends, peak volume, and sources of events. It presents event management information as charts and tabular reports. It automates data acquisition and cube building This guide helps you to tune your event management process using TEC. It will help you assess your performance in terms of the number of problems being experienced and their severity as well as how effectively you are resolving them.
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The following are some reports available with the Event Management Discovery Guide.
SLA statistics by event class This report ranks the different types of events that you have handled according to which ones have most often not been resolved within the bounds of the Service Level Agreement. Figure 71 shows information, such as the percentage of met, missed, and nearly-missed SLAs.
Figure 71. SLA statistics by event class
Which events take the longest to fix? This view gives you a snapshot of the average duration (mean time to repair) for events of different classes and highlights the ones that take the longest to fix. Figure 72 on page 127 shows the amount of time in minutes that certain events, such as Link_Down_Cisco and certain, take to be fixed.
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Figure 72. Which events take the longest to fix? report
When are my peak times for event volume? Figure 73 on page 128 shows you the average number of events by event source for each hour of the day. This average is based on the previous 30 days worth of events. This can be helpful in establishing the shift schedules and staffing levels for your service center or in isolating a scheduled activity that is causing problems.
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Figure 73. Event source volume by hour report
5.7.3 Domino Management Guide

The Tivoli Decision Support Domino Management Discovery Guide allows data collected from Domino servers to be displayed in reports that meet the needs of customers by helping them make decisions about their Domino environment. The Domino Management Discovery Guide enhances the functions of the Tivoli Manager for Domino product allowing you to strategically manage the Domino installations in the enterprise network. Whereas the Tivoli Manager for Domino provides powerful rule-based management applications for the Domino environment, the Domino Manager Discovery Guide provides a general overview of how the systems are performing.
Note
The version of the Tivoli Domino Management Discovery Guide used during the course of this book was a beta code version. Functions, features, and supported environments for this product are subject to change without notice any time before or after general release.
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The content and detail of the reports provided by the Domino Management Discovery Guide are dependent on the type of data that can be collected and the database schema in which this data is stored. In a TMR environment, Tivoli Manager for Domino monitors are defined and distributed to collect data and then stored in a relational database. Once this data is in the relational database, the Domino guide can be used to extract and analyze the data through reports in the TDS Discovery Interface. Such reports include server performance, server ranking, and server prediction reports. For setting up the Domino Discovery Guide, the database schema must be defined first. Domino-specify monitors are then distributed in a TMR environment, and a Domino roll up job is run nightly to collect and aggregate the data into the database table. The Tivoli Discovery Administrator is used to define queries to extract data from this table into a comma-separated values (.csv) file. The Cognos Transformer builds the multidimensional cube from this file, which can then be reported by Cognos PowerPlay. Finally, once the guides and roles have been defined, the Tivoli Discovery Interface is used to view these reports. Since the Domino guide uses Domino-specific DM monitors for reporting, this guide must also use the Domino Roll Up module, which comes with the Domino Management Discovery Guide. This Domino Roll Up module, which is installed in a TMR environment, contains the scripts necessary to create the database schema and perform the Domino roll up job. The following are some reports available with the Domino Management Discovery Guide.
Domino Network Traffic This view shows how much TCP/IP traffic is sent and received by the Domino servers. These statistics reflect the values in bytes from the NET.TCPIP.BytesReceived and NET.TCPIP.BytesSent monitors from the Domino servers. Figure 74 on page 130 shows the monthly utilization statistics by hostname report.
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Figure 74. Domino network traffic report
Domino mail statistics These reports show the various Domino Mail statistics, such as:
Mail Total Routed Figure 75 on page 131 shows the total number of mails routed by the Domino servers. These statistics reflect the values from the Mail.TotalRouted monitor from the Domino servers. The daily total values in bytes are shown for July 1, 1999.
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Figure 75. Domino server statistics - Mail routed by server report
Mail total KBytes transferred Figure 76 on page 132 shows the Total KBytes transferred by the Domino servers. These statistics reflect the values from the Mail.TotalKBTransferred monitors from the Domino servers. The daily total values in KBytes are shown for July 1, 1999.
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Figure 76. Domino statistics - Total KB transferred report
Domino number of user statistics Figure 77 on page 133 shows the number of users managed by the Domino server Cartman1. These statistics reflect the values from the Server.Users monitor from the Domino servers. This view shows the server statistics by their hourly values. This is a good time to start looking for hourly trends to find specific server problems. The hourly values are shown for July 1,1999.
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Figure 77. Domino statistics - Number of users report
Domino mail average delivery time Figure 78 on page 134 shows the mail average Delivery time statistics for all Domino servers. The average daily message count for the mail average statistics is shown for July, 1999. The statistics shown in this report reflect the values from the Mail.AverageDeliverTime monitor from the Domino servers.
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Figure 78. Domino statistics - Mail average delivery time report
Domino replication statistics Figure 79 on page 135 shows the amount of requests for replication for the Domino servers. The daily total requests count for the mail average statistics is shown for July, 1999. The statistics shown in this report reflect the values from the Domino.Requests.Per1Hour.Total monitor from the Domino servers.
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Figure 79. Domino statistics - Replication statistics report
Domino server average delivery time by hour Figure 80 on page 136 shows the server average delivery time statistics for all Domino servers by hour. The average hourly delivery message time statistics shown are for July 1, 1999.
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Figure 80. Domino statistics - Server average delivery time by hour report
Domino server mail box file size Figure 81 on page 137 shows the server Mail Box file size statistics for specific Domino servers by hour. The average hourly mail box size statistics shown are for July 1, 1999.
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Figure 81. Domino statistics - Mail box file size by server report
5.7.4 Network Element Performance Guide

The Network Element Performance Discovery guide will automatically identify issues affecting the performance of critical network devices to allow network managers to identify problems before they affect network performance. This guide will allow you to investigate the elements affecting your server according to up time and down time, problem elements, and degrees of failure. This guide also helps identify memory usage issues, CPU utilization, traffic issues, and communication and router concerns. With the information discovered using this guide, you can make meaningful network performance decisions and resolve problems before they adversely affect your network performance. We use the Network Element Performance guide to quickly identify devices that are the most heavily used or that show the greatest usage or error rates. Use these reports to analyze the devices that are most critical to your network and to spot changes in error rate and usage behavior before they become major problems effecting users.
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The following sections detail reports available with the Network Element Performance Discovery Guide.
Cisco CPU utilization Figure 82 shows the daily average CPU utilization collected by date and by hostname from the Cisco routers in our network. In addition, it shows an average of CPU utilization. Watch this report for trends indicating an increase in router utilization.
Figure 82. Network Element Performance Guide - Cisco CPU utilization report
Name Server speed statistics NetView collects Name Server performance data periodically during the day. Figure 83 on page 139 presents data for a single day during business hours allowing you to spot trends in Name Server utilization and determine peak and off-peak hours. This information can be used to judge the remaining capacity, to schedule maintenance (during off-peak times), or to schedule bulk jobs that depend on name resolutions.
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Figure 83. Network Element Performance Guide - Name server speed by hour
Top ten problem systems Figure 84 on page 140 shows systems that are going down most frequently (although not necessarily accruing the most downtime) on July, 1999. Many transitions can indicate system problems that should be investigated.
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Figure 84. Network Element Performance Guide-Top ten nodes by transition count
5.8 Suggested architecture and solution design

Based on the information gathered in the previous phases of this case study, we will now outline a recommended architecture and solution design for Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction and Tivoli Decision Support for Event Management Discovery Guides in our case study environment. We will make the architecture and design as flexible as possible so that, if any additional TDS Discovery Guide is required, it can be added without major changes.
140
Boulder
TDS Discovery Interface Primary TDS File Server
Spoke TMR RIM Host HUB TMR TEC Sybase RIM Host TEC TDS Discovery Administrator
DM
Other sites
Secondary TDS File Server TDS Discovery Interface
ODBC Connection Network Connection FTP Process
Figure 85. Recommended architecture in network mode
Figure 85 shows the high-level physical design configuration recommended to the customer. The figure outlines an implementation of Tivoli Decision Support in network mode. Since all main Tivoli components and the database server are installed on the Hub TMR in Boulder, it is advised to implement all Tivoli Decision Support components on the same local network as the Hub TMR Server. In addition to that, a TDS file server will be installed in each of the other sites in order to provide access to the cubes for the Discovery Interface clients. The roles of each component of TDS in this picture will be explained as follows: The Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Administrator The TDS Discovery Administrator server provides the generation process for the cubes. This machine will be installed on the same local network as the Hub TMR, thus, improving performance at the time of the cube generation process.
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Cubes vary in size depending not only on the amount of data that is stored in the database and captured in them but also on the time range that is specified at the time they are built. Based on the number of endpoints and servers that are managed by the SDC, it might be a good approach to have reasonable disk space available at the Discovery Administrator machine in order to allocate all the temporary and comma-separated (.csv) files created during the cube-building process. For hardware specifications, see Table 13 on page 145. If the installation of additional TDS guides is required and results in increased resource utilization and, consequently, the time it takes to build all the cubes is not suitable to the customer, it is appropriate to have additional Discovery Administrator machines installed. A scenario where we can have only one TDS Discovery Guide per Discovery Administrator machine would be the best approach. Another reason to have additional Discovery Administrators would be for management reasons where each one would be maintained by different support people.
Note
Note that it is not recommended to split one TDS Discovery Guide into more than one Discovery Administrator machine. The TDS File Server The TDS server components include the models, queries, templates, and other information required to generate views for the Discovery Interface. These components must be installed on each TDS file server in our case study environment. The TDS file server should be a very fast computer to service files and should have a fast network connection to clients. For hardware specifications, refer to Table 13 on page 145. We recommend that you have one TDS file server per site. The one in Boulder should be called the primary TDS file server and will be responsible for serving both the Discovery Administration machine and the Discovery clients in Boulder. At other sites, the TDS file server should be called the secondary TDS file server and will be responsible for serving local clients. This configuration can increase the response time for clients when accessing information stored in the cubes. There will be an update process for the secondary file server that must be started after the cube-building process and after an installation of a new TDS Discovery Guide on the primary file server. This update process is automated by defining scripts, Tivoli Tasks, and Jobs that run in a predefined order and
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time. For additional details, refer to Section 5.9.2, Installation of the Tivoli Decision Support server components on page 145. Tivoli Decision Support Clients The Tivoli Decision Support client component is the Tivoli Discovery Interface that provides all the tools needed to open and work with views of data from your organizations enterprise databases. This component must be installed on every client machine on customer sites where Tivoli Decision Support is supposed to be used. These clients will have two kinds of connections: A network connection with the local Tivoli Decision Support File server to get all the necessary information stored in the multidimensional cubes for the multidimensional views. A direct ODBC connection with the databases in the Hub TMR server for online reports generated by Crystal reports. Cognos PowerPlay PowerPlay is a third-party application that generates multidimensional cubes and must be installed with Tivoli Decision Support. It must be installed on every Tivoli Discovery Administrator machine and every TivoliDiscovery Interface machine. TDS Discovery Guides Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guides are used to analyze the enterprises key information. These guides provide users with a comprehensive set of best practices and views into their enterprises databases. All recommended guides for this case study should be installed on each of the Tivoli Decision Support File servers (primaries and secondaries) and imported into the Discovery Administrator machine. The information repository (RDBMS) The TEC database, which is used by Tivoli Decision Support for Event Management Guide, is installed and configured in the Sybase server that resides in the Hub TMR. Similarly, the database for Distributed Monitoring, which is used by the Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction Guide, is created in the same Sybase server.
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Note
On the existing Sybase server, another database should be created to attend the Server Performance Prediction Discovery Guide data, and an extra table needs to be created on the TEC database to house the information source for the Event Management Discovery Guide. For additional details, refer to Section 5.9.5, Deploying TDS for server performance prediction on page 154, and Section 5.9.6, Deploying the Event Management Guide on page 161
5.9 Tivoli Decision Support deployment process

This section should be used as a guideline for the steps involved in installing all applications, patches, and configurations that need to be performed in order to have your Tivoli Decision Support solution up and running in this case study environment. The intention here is to provide a high-level view of the deployment process and outline the steps involved in the installation of Tivoli Decision Support and the Discovery Guides. For detailed information, refer to the product documentation. The Tivoli Decision Support deployment process involves several activities. Table 12 shows the macro procedures for deploying Tivoli Decision Support in network-mode and should be used as a guide in the SDC West environment. The following sections describe each procedure in more details.
Table 12. Macro procedure for deploying TDS
Step
1 2 3 4 5 6
Description
Hardware and software pre requisites installation Install the Tivoli Decision Support server components Install the Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Administrator Install the Tivoli Decision Support client component Install and configure the Server Performance Prediction Guide Install and configure the Event Management Guide
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5.9.1 Hardware and Software prerequisites installation

There is some prerequisite software that should be installed prior to the TDS deployment: It is recommended that Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 3 be installed on the Discovery Administrator machine and on all TDS File server machines. Microsoft Windows 95 should be installed on all Discovery Interface machines. The Sybase Open Client must be installed on all Discovery Interface and on all Discovery Administrator machines in order to establish the Client/Server Sybase connection . The ODBC driver should be installed on the Discovery Administrator machines and on all Discovery Interfaces machines. The TDS installation CD contains the Intersolv 3.01 32-bit Sybase ODBC driver. Table 13 shows the minimum recommended hardware configuration that should be used for the case study environment.
Table 13. Minimum hardware requirements
Hardware Characteristics CPU speed Memory (RAM) Free disk space
TDS File Server

Intel Pentium II 400 Mhz 128 MB 1.0 GB
Discovery Administrator
Intel Pentium II 400 Mhz 128 MB 80 MB
Discovery Interface
Intel Pentium II 300 Mhz 64 MB 60 MB
5.9.2 Installation of the Tivoli Decision Support server components

The Tivoli Decision Support Server components should be installed on the primary Tivoli Decision Support File server machine in Boulder and on all secondary Tivoli Decision Support File server machines at each of the other sites. Since these machines are shared source file servers, the directory that stores all cubes and queries should be available as a shared resource with full read and write permissions in the network so that it can be accessed by the Discovery Interface and Discovery Administrator machines.
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Table 14 shows the required steps to properly configure all file servers:
Table 14. TDS file server deployment steps
Step
Description
Where
Primary Tivoli Decision Support file server and all Secondary Tivoli Decision Support file servers Primary Tivoli Decision Support File Server All Secondary Tivoli Decision Support File servers HUB TMR
Reference
Install the Tivoli Decision Support File Server code
Tivoli Decision Support Installation Guide
Configure the primary Tivoli Decision Support File server as a Managed Node of the Hub TMR Configure the secondary Tivoli Decision Support File servers as Endpoints Create a dataless profile manager called Secondary_TDS_FileServers and subscribe all Secondary Tivoli Decision Support File servers to it. Make the Tivoli Decision Support installation directory a shared resource Create and configure the transfer.cmd and copycubes.cmd scripts Create the tasks and jobs to run the scripts defined in task 5 Schedule the jobs
Framework Planning and Installation Guide Framework Planning and Installation Guide
Framework Planning and Installation Guide
Primary and all secondary Tivoli Decision Support File servers Primary Tivoli Decision Support File server Hub TMR Hub TMR
Windows NT Server User Guide Task 6: Creating and configuring the scripts on page 146 Task 7: Creating the tasks and jobs on page 148 Task 8: Scheduling the jobs on page 152
7 8
Most of the above steps are fairly straightforward and can be easily accomplished by following the instructions in the referenced material. In the following sections, we will provide more detailed explanations of the following tasks starting with task 6.
Task 6: Creating and configuring the scripts As described in Section 5.8, Suggested architecture and solution design on page 140, all secondary TDS file servers are updated after the generation of a new cube or after the installation of a new TDS Discovery Guide.
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Because cube generation fails if a user has a view open during the cube updating process, the update process first runs a script (shown in Figure 86) that copies all the generated cubes in the \\PRIM_TDS_FS\SHARENAME\Cubes\temp directory on the Secondary TDS file servers. Later, another script (shown in Figure 87 on page 148) attempts to copy these cubes to the \\PRIM_TDS_FS\SHARENAME\Cubes directory where PRIM_TDS_FS is the hostname of the primary TDS File server and SHARENAME is the share name of the primary TDS file server directory. These two scripts should be created on the primary TDS file server.
Note
The files to be transferred from the primary file server to the secondary file servers are \\PRIM_TDS_FS\SHARENAME\Cubes\* and \\PRIM_TDS_FS\SHARENAME\Data\* where PRIM_TDS_FS is the hostname of the primary TDS File server and SHARENAME is the share name of the primary TDS file server directory. Figure 86 shows the update procedure first script:
@ECHO OFF :: :: The following commands set the drive that correspond to the :: TDS shared directory in the primary TDS file server :: and the Primary TDS File server hostname :: SET PRIM_TDS_FS="Here is your Primary TDS File server hostname" SET SHARENAME="Here is Sharename of the primary TDS File server directory" SET FS_DRIVE=\\%PRIM_TDS_FS%\%SHARENAME% SET FS_Cube=%FS_DRIVE%\Cubes SET FS_DATA=%FS_DRIVE%\Data :: :: The following are the secondary TDS File Server local directories :: SET DIR_TDS="Here is the complete path of the secondary TDS File server directory" SET DIR_CubeS=%DIR_TDS%\Cubes SET DIR_DATA=%DIR_TDS%\Data SET DIR_TEMP=%DIR_CubeS%\Temp :: :: This step copies all new Cubes from the primary TDS File server :: to the temporary directory on the secondary TDS File server :: ECHO ... Transfering the Cubes and configuration files from the primary TDS File Server ... xcopy %FS_Cube%\* %DIR_TEMP% /v xcopy %FS_DATA%\* %DIR_DATA% /v :: Figure 86. The update procedure first script - transfer.cmd
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Note
The scripts shown in Figure 86 were used in our Lab environment. The intention is to provide the reader with some example. These scripts may be modified to attend specific environment requirements. Figure 87 shows the update procedure second script:
@ECHO OFF :: :: The following commands set the secondary TDS File Server local directories :: SET DIR_TDS="Complete path of the secondary TDS File server directory" SET DIR_CubeS=%DIR_TDS%\Cubes SET DIR_TEMP=%DIR_CubeS%\Temp :: :: The following command copies the updated Cubes to the Cubes directory :: echo ... Copying the Cubes ... xcopy %DIR_TEMP%\* %DIR_CubeS% /v ::
Figure 87. The update procedure second script - copycubes.cmd
Task 7: Creating the tasks and jobs In order to have the above scripts executed in an automated fashion, two tasks and two jobs should be created in the SPR_TaskLib Task library. Figure 88 on page 149 shows the parameters of Transfer_Cubes, the first task to be created.
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Figure 88. The Transfer_Cubes task
This task will run the script transfer.cmd stored in the Primary TDS file server sunfish. You can define this task using wcommands as shown in Figure 89:
# wcrttask -t Transfer_Cubes -l SPR_TaskLib -r senior \ -i w32-ix86 sunfish C:\Program Files\TDS\transfer.cmd \ -c This task runs the transfer.cmd script
Figure 89. Defining the Transfer_Cubes task
Figure 90 on page 150 shows the configuration of the Transfer_Cubes job associated with the Transfer_Cubes task.
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Figure 90. The Transfer_Cubes job
If the execution mode is set to parallel, the Transfer_Cubes job will run at the same scheduled time in all hosts in the Secondary_TDS_FileServers Profile Manager.
# wcrtjob -j Transfer_Cubes -l SPR_TaskLib -t Transfer_Cubes -M parallel \ -m 60 -o 015 -D -p Secondary_TDS_FileServers
Figure 91. Defining the Transfer_Cubes job
Figure 92 shows the parameters of Copy_Cubes, which is the second task to be created.
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Figure 92. The Copy_Cubes task
Similarly, this task will run the script copycubes.cmd, which is stored in the Primary TDS file server sunfish. You can define this task using wcommands as shown in Figure 93:
# wcrttask -t Copy_Cubes -l SPR_TaskLib -r senior \ -i w32-ix86 sunfish C:\Program Files\TDS\copycubes.cmd \ -c This task runs the copyccubeubes.cmd script
Figure 93. Defining the Transfer_Cubes task
Figure 94 on page 152 shows the configuration of the Copy_Cubes job associated with the Copy_Cubes task.
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Figure 94. The Copy_Cubes job
If the execution mode is set to parallel, this job will run at the same scheduled time in all hosts in the Secondary_TDS_FileServers Profile Manager. You can define this task using wcommands as shown in Figure 95:
# wcrtjob -j Copy_Cubes -l SPR_TaskLib -t Copy_Cubes -M parallel \ -m 60 -o 015 -D -p Secondary_TDS_FileServers
Figure 95. Defining the Transfer_Cubes job
Task 8: Scheduling the jobs Once you have defined the tasks and jobs as described in Task 7: Creating the tasks and jobs on page 148, you should define the schedule.
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Note
These Jobs should be scheduled after the cube-building process is finished. For our example, we are assuming that the cubes are built daily and that this process is finished at 1:00 am. The Copy_Cubes job must run after the Transfer_Cubes job finishes. You can either use the Tivoli Desktop or the command line to schedule the Jobs. You can define this task using wcommands as shown in Figure 96:
# wschedjob -n Transfer_Cubes -L SPR_TaskLib -t 08/03/1999 02:00 \ -r 24 hour -h sunfish -f C:\Program Files\TDS\transfer.log \ -s "Transfer the TDS Cubes to all Secndary TDS File Servers # wschedjob -n Copy_Cubes -L SPR_TaskLib -t 08/03/1999 04:00 \ -r 24 hour -h sunfish -f C:\Program Files\TDS\copycubes.log \ -s "Transfer the TDS Cubes from the temporary directory
Figure 96. Scheduling the jobs
Figure 97 shows the scheduled jobs:
Figure 97. Scheduled jobs
5.9.3 Installation of the Tivoli Decision Support Administrator

The Tivoli Decision Support Administrator component should be installed on the Tivoli Decision Support Administrator machine in Boulder. In addition,
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Cognos PowerPlay in administrator mode, Sybase open client, and the 32-bit Sybase ODBC driver must be installed on this machine.
5.9.4 Installation of the Tivoli Decision Support client components

The TDS client components should be installed on every decision maker machine. The following software packages are part of the Tivoli Decision Support client components and should be installed and configured: Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Interface Cognos PowerPlay in Standard mode, On-line Books and Help Sybase open client 32-bit Sybase ODBC Driver
5.9.5 Deploying TDS for server performance prediction

The Server Performance Prediction Discovery Guide adds new monitors and tasks to the actual Distributed Monitoring environment. Table 15 lists the sequence of activities required to install and configure the Server Prediction Performance Guide in the SDC West environment.
Table 15. SPP Discovery Guide installation steps
Steps
1
Description
Install the Distributed Monitoring Roll-up Patches
Where
Hub and Spoke TMR servers and all Managed Nodes Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Administrator
Reference
Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction guide Release Notes Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction guide Release Notes Tivoli Decision Support Administrator guide and Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction guide Release Notes Tivoli Decision Support Administrator guide and Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction guide Release Notes
Set Up an ODBC data source connection
Install the Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction Guide
Tivoli Decision Support File servers
Import the TDS Discovery Guide
Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Administrator
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Steps
Description
Where
Reference
Tivoli Decision Support Administrator Guide and Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction guide Release Notes Tivoli Decision Support Administrator Guide and Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction guide Release Notes Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction guide Release Notes Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction guide Release Notes Tivoli Decision Support Administrator Guide and Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction guide Release Notes
Assign the ODBC data source.
Test the connectivity with the data source
Set all parameters in the cube, such as date range, etc.
Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Administrator Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Administrator
Build the cube
Schedule the cube build task
Most of the steps in Table 15 are fairly straightforward and can be easily accomplished by following the instructions in the respective referenced material. A certain amount of configuration and effort is required to complete the DM Rollup task. In the next section, we will provide a more detailed explanation of the installation and configuration of the DM Roll up tool.
5.9.5.1 Installing the Distributed Monitoring roll up tool Other than requiring the administrator to manually create the database and tables by running scripts included with this module for Sybase and Oracle, the standard Tivoli patch-style installation is almost fully automatic, and only a simple configuration/instrumentation is needed.
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The Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction Discovery Guide presents information collected by the systems metrics from the Tivoli Distributed Monitoring collection and archived by the DM Roll-up module. The DM Roll-up module components collect, collate, and store the raw data from the monitors in the database through a RIM connection. The data samples taken as part of Distributed Monitoring data collection will be aggregated and rolled up from each Tivoli Profile subscribed host into the DM Roll-up database by a predefined task. The Tivoli Distributed Monitoring (DM) 3.6.1 product must be installed on the Hub TMR and updated with the Roll up patches. Table 16 tabulates, in sequence, the tasks that need to be implemented in order to successfully install and configure the Server Performance Prediction Roll-up module:
Table 16. DM Roll-up installation steps
Step
Description
Where
Reference
Framework Installation Guide 3.6 and Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction guide Release Notes Framework Installation Guide 3.6 and Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction guide Release Notes Framework Installation Guide 3.6 and Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction guide Release Notes Framework Installation Guide 3.6 and Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction guide Release Notes
Install patch 361-DMN-03
Hub TMR, Spoke TMRs and all Managed Nodes
Install patch 361-UXM-03
Install patch 361-DMN-08
Install patch 361-DMN-9A
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Step
Description
Where
Reference
Framework Installation Guide 3.6 and Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction guide Release Notes Task 6: Creating RIM object on page 157 and SPP Release Notes Task 7: Create the SPP database repository on page 158 and Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction guide Release Notes Task 8: Setting up the SPP Roll up Tivoli environment on page 159 Task 9: Performing the administration tasks on page 160 Task 10: Scheduling the Roll-up tasks on page 160
Install patch 361-DMN-9C
Hub TMR
Creating the RIM object
Hub TMR and Spoke TMR
Size and create the Server Performance Prediction database repository
Hub TMR
Set up the Server Performance Prediction Roll Up Tivoli Environment
Desktop of Hub TMR and Spoke TMR Desktop of Hub TMR and Spoke TMR Hub TMR and Spoke TMRs
Perform the Administration tasks
10
Schedule the Roll up tasks
In the following sections we will highlight some of these tasks (starting with task 6) and supply the reader with pertinent deployment information.
Task 6: Creating RIM object The 361-DMN-9C patch creates the RIM object; however, the patch installation options do not allow the user to specify the RIM Host. This patch will, therefore, create the RIM host on the TMR server by default. In our case study, the HUB TMR server and the database server are on the same machine. If the TMR server is not your database server, which is the case with all Spoke TMRs, you will need to delete and re-create the RIM Object. This step is only necessary if the TMR server is not the database server.
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Note
The default RIM object name is spr_rim which connects to the dm_db database. The default database user is dm with the password dm_tds. To delete the DM Roll up RIM object, use the wdel command:
# wdel @RIM:spr_rim
To re-create the rim object, use the wcrtrim command. For a detailed explanation of this command, refer to the TME 10 Framework 3.6 Reference Manual, SC31-8434.
# wcrtrim -v Sybase -h rim_host -d dm_db -u dm -H /sybase -s SYBASE spr_rim
After the execution of this command, you will be prompted for the user password.
Note
The RIM host cannot be reset using the wsetrim command. The RIM object has to be deleted and recreated.
Task 7: Create the SPP database repository The Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction Guide relies on two Tivoli application databasesL: The Tivoli Distributed Monitoring Roll-up module database and the Tivoli Inventory database.
The Inventory database is optional for the operation of the Server Performance Prediction Guide and supplies additional enterprise hardware data when the customer has this product in their environment. If the Tivoli Inventory database is not available, as is the case with the SDC West environment, we will need to use a set of default files supplied with the TDS Discovery Guide installation in the $TDS/util directory. In order for all five cubes of the Server performance Prediction Guide to be built successfully, these files must be available as the default files or with data when the Inventory database is available and the inventory query can run. Always retain copies of the default versions of the following files: DM_INV_Memory.csv DM_INV_OsType.csv DM_INV_Processor.csv
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DM_INV_SysByIP.csv Move these files from the $TDS/Util/Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction directory into the $TDS/data/export directory. Before the DM TDS Roll up can store the aggregated metrics in an RDBMS, we must create the database or repository. Scripts have been provided to create the database and install the DM_METRICS schema. After a successful installation, the following RDBMS script files will be located in the $BINDIR/TME/SENTRY/TDS/rdbcfg directory of the Hub TMR server: cr_rollup_db.sh rm_rollup_db.sh new_passwd.sh cr_db.ora cr_tbl.ora rm_db.ora cr_db.syb cr_tbl.syb rm_db.syb There are two ways to create your SPP Roll-up database and tables. One is by customizing the SQL templates, such as cr_db.syb and cr_tbl.syb. The other is to run the cr_rollup_db.sh script on the RIM host. It will check the RIM object that was created for the SPP Roll-up to obtain database information, ask you about the size and device information, automatically customize the SQL scripts, and create the required database and tables. We run the cr_rollup_db.sh script on the Hub TMR and follow the simple instructions to create the DM repository.
Task 8: Setting up the SPP Roll up Tivoli environment The Installation process of the Tivoli Distributed Monitoring SPP Roll up Configuration Patch 3.6.1 creates a policy region called TMRHostname_SPR_Region on the Hub TMR Server. Within this region, the SPR_TaskLib Task library and the SPR_ProfileMgr profile manager are created. The SPR_ProfileMgr profile manager contains two profiles: SPR_NtProfile and SPR_UnixProfile, which are configured with prescanned monitors and created during installation.
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This TMRHostname_SPR_Region region is not visible on the administrators desktop after installation. It resides as a Top Level Policy Region. You will need to drag and drop this newly-created policy region from the Top Level Policy Region View onto the Administrator Desktop. From the desktop, select the following:
Desktop --> TMR Connections --> Top Level Policy Regions

Task 9: Performing the administration tasks After migrating the Policy Region to the administrator desktop, the next configuration step is to subscribe the Managed Nodes and Endpoints to the SPR_ProfileMgr Profile Manager. Once all the necessary subscriptions are completed, the administrator must distribute the platform-specific profiles to the respective subscribers.
Note
The SPR_ProfileMgr object is created as a dataless Profile Manager and, therefore, we cannot subscribe any other Profile Managers to it. If you have a large number of endpoints, it is convenient to group them into Dataless profiles managers and then make this profile a subscriber of the SPR_ProfileMgr. To do so, the properties of the SPR_ProfileMgr profile manager can be changed to convert it to a database profile manager. The SPR_ProfileMgr profile manager is, by default, assigned as a subscriber to the SPR_DataAggregation job. The TMR Server is, by default, a subscriber to the SPR_RollupIntoDB job.
Task 10: Scheduling the Roll-up tasks Tivoli Distributed Monitoring 3.6.1 has no problem monitoring a large number of servers per TMR server. Since SDC West has deployed the Hub-Spoke architecture, scalability should not be a problem. However, we recommend changing the schedule roll-up tasks differently for each Spoke TMR in order to ensure that all Spoke TMR servers will not be rolling their data up to the database server at the same time. This is more of a database server capacity concern than a TDS concern. The two tasks that should be rescheduled are SPR_DataAggregation and SPR_RollupIntoDB; they are located in the SPR_TaskLib task library.
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Note
You may choose to schedule the jobs to run at different times using the TME Scheduler. The point to remember is that the data aggregation job, SPR_DataAggregation, must be scheduled to run and finish before the SPR_RollupIntoDB task is scheduled to start.
5.9.6 Deploying the Event Management Guide

Table 17 lists the sequence of activities required to install and configure the Event Management Guide in the SDC West environment.
Table 17. Event Management Discovery Guide installation steps
Step
1
Description
Size the TEC Database.
Where
TEC Database on Sybase server Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Administrator TEC Database on Sybase server
Reference
Tivoli Decision Support for Event Management Release Notes Tivoli Decision Support for Event Management Release Notes Tivoli Decision Support for Event Management Release Notes Tivoli Decision Support Administrator Guide Tivoli Decision Support for Event Management Release Notes Tivoli Decision Support Administrator Guide Tivoli Decision Support for Event Management Release Notes Tivoli Decision Support Administrator Guide Tivoli Decision Support for Event Management Release Notes
Set up an ODBC data source connection.
Create the SQL table, trigger, and views.
Install the Event Management Discovery Guide.
Tivoli Decision Support File Server
Import the Discovery Guide.
Assign the ODBC data source.
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Step
Description
Where
Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Administrator Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Administrator Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Administrator Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Administrator
Reference
Tivoli Decision Support Administrator Guide Tivoli Decision Support for Event Management Release Notes Tivoli Decision Support for Event Management Release Notes Tivoli Decision Support for Event Management Release Notes Tivoli Decision Support Administrator Guide Tivoli Decision Support for Event Management Release Notes
Test the connectivity with the data source.
Set all parameters, such as date range, in the cube.
Build the cube.
10
Schedule the cube build task.
5.10 Future reporting requirements

In the following sections, we will discuss future reporting needs that may be used by the customer. We will map those required reports that could not be presented using Tivoli Decision Support. In addition, we will give a brief description of some additional TDS Discovery Guides that could be valuable if used in the customers environment. Some of these TDS Discovery Guides are either available or are being addressed by new or soon-to-be-released TDS Discovery Guides.
5.10.1 Additional reports

Based in the information gathered in Section 5.6.1, Detailed reports mapping workshop on page 114, all customer-required reports that are not available to the recommended TDS Discovery Guide should be built. An additional sub-project for delivering these reports should be initiated. In this case study chapter, we are not going to detail the contents of this sub-project but will, instead, present a table that details the additional report requirements. The ideas presented here are for your information only.
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Table 18 displays the reports that need to be developed:

Table 18. Future requirements reference table
Likely TDS Discovery Guide

Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction Either Tivoli Decision Support for Network Element Performance or Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction Either Tivoli Decision Support for Network Element Performance or Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction Tivoli Decision Support for Domino Management Tivoli Decision Support for Domino Management Tivoli Decision Support for Domino Management
Report
DASD utilization by server. Refer to Figure 46 on page 102 Percent of Availability by server. Refer to Figure 47 on page 103
Alert Summary report. Refer to Figure 48 on page 103 Lotus Notes - MTA server report. Refer to Figure 52 on page 106 Lotus Notes - Sessions per minute report. Refer to Figure 55 on page 108 Lotus Notes - SMTP transferred messages report. Refer to Figure 57 on page 109 Hard Disk and File System utilization report by Operating Systems. Refer to Figure 59 on page 111, and Figure 61 on page 112
Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction
5.10.2 Additional recommended TDS Discovery Guides

The following are some recommended Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guides that can improve the analysis and decision-making process in this customer scenario. Obviously, these TDS Discovery Guides may require additional Tivoli applications as prerequisites. Our goal here is only to provide information about how the customer can benefit from them.
5.10.2.1 Network Event Analysis Guide While the Network Event Performance Discovery Guide helps control the ever-growing management to do list, which network events create, this guide will track key performance indicators of your network by collecting, aggregating, and analyzing all the event traffic that NetView traps and can correlate. With the information discovered using this guide, you are able to
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make meaningful decisions about improving your network performance and identifying problems before they go out of control. The following topics are provided by the NetView Network Event Analysis Discovery Guide: How is the event rate (by smartset) affecting the network? How is the event rate affecting the network?
5.10.2.2 Network Segment Performance Guide The Network Segment Performance Discovery Guide provides the overall health of a segment for any period of time. It allows you to analyze collisions, broadcasts, multicasts, and performance locations within the network. This guide will also allow you to view information on network segment statistics. With the information discovered, you can identify performance problems and their causes.
The following topics are provided by the NetView Network Segment Performance Discovery Guide: How are errors affecting the network? How is Multicast and Broadcast traffic affecting the network? What is my network traffic pattern? What are the main failure points?
5.10.2.3 TDS for Information Management Guide This guide enables you to analyze the problem and change management information stored in your Tivoli Service Desk for OS/390 (formerly TME 10 Information/Management) host databases. This guide is organized into two categories - problem management and change management - to present the most typically sought-after information related to your service desk activities. This guide allows you to focus on activities and problems occurring within the service desk arena. The Information Management guide tracks the most common aspects encountered by a service desk including:
Total time spent resolving problems Open problem volume by type Distribution of problems by severity Activity distribution by associated changes Activities coming up in the next six months Estimated duration of upcoming activities
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5.10.2.4 Call Center Management Decision Support Guide By limiting your focus to this area and viewing only the relevant data, a call center management analysis will help you determine how effective, efficient, and profitable your support center is. This Tivoli Decision Support Guide presents the most typical data a support center collects including the number of interactions, the first-call resolution rate, the elapsed time of interaction, and time to resolution. 5.10.2.5 Relationship Management Decision Support Guide This guide highlights the relationship between the organization and its customers by focusing on how well requests are being resolved and the overall health of the relationship. By viewing data from the perspective of the request life cycle, you can identify obstacles or deviations from the most efficient service process. Working with key business indicators, such as Service Level Agreement (SLA) compliance and the number of call transfers, you are better able to understand how your customer perceives your service. 5.10.2.6 Knowledge Assessment Decision Support Guide With the knowledge assessment Decision Support guide, you can begin to understand what solutions and diagnostic aids are working best to help you manage your investment in knowledge. By looking at the Knowledge Engineering category, you can get a better idea of how well you are using diagnostics and what knowledge is most effective. Indicators to explore include the number of requests resolved with diagnostics and the number of solutions. 5.10.2.7 Service-level Management Decision Support Guide By treating your support commitments as a focal point for further exploration, the guide for service-level management helps you ascertain how well you are operating within budgeted guidelines and performing against the SLAs you have established. For example, the Support Commitments category compares your customers' expectations with how well your organization is meeting them. 5.10.2.8 Asset Management Decision Support Guide With the asset management Decision Support guide, you can get a better understanding of the assets your organization has deployed and their associated cost structures. This guide presents the most typical data an asset manager needs but, historically, does not have easy access to. This data includes purchasing trends, yearly trend for asset acquisition, percent of assets under lease or contract, asset base cost, as well as which network hubs have the most connections.
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5.10.2.9 Change Management Decision Support Guide If there is one thing that is constant, it is change, and in a dynamic work environment, the change management Decision Support guide can help you get a handle on corporate changes and give you the data you need to make solid management decisions. Focusing on how changes affect your bottom line, this guide includes:
Labor cost groupings What changes are completed, overdue, and upcoming Estimated labor costs Percent of changes over cost estimate Request submission trend Task distribution
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Chapter 6. Reports and decision information usage

In Chapter 5 of this redbook, we looked at the reports generated by one customer and offered a complete solution and design document equating the current reporting environment and usage to the reports and business information provided by Tivoli Decision Support. Tivoli Decision Support is much more than just a report writer; it gives decision makers the power to make well-informed decisions about their environment and business. Customers can identify and analyze trends that would be difficult to identify if data were studied in isolation. In addition, it is possible to evaluate the impact of a change that has been decided with the help of TDS, the time spent solving a particular problem, the quantity and location of some kind of asset to be upgraded or changed, how much must be spent, or the impact of a failure to accomplish a term of the Service Level Agreement. Leveraging today's rapidly-emerging On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP) technology, TDS Discovery Guides allow customers to exploit the vast amount of IT data and information needed to help meet business goals. This chapter demonstrates how Tivoli Decision Support can support the decision-making process in your organization by describing a simple scenario and outlining the steps used to find and analyze critical data with TDS. The following sections lead you through a brief but complete data search that yields specific results. The aim is to show how we can analyze and interpret information from the TDS Discovery Guides and make decisions based on the content. For this scenario, we are based on the assumption that the following products are up and running: Tivoli Framework TEC Distributed Monitoring Tivoli Netview Software Distribution TDS Server Performance Prediction Discovery Guide TDS Domino Management Discovery Guide
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6.1 The scenario

An IT Manager is concerned by the growing number of customer complaints about Lotus Notes mail service. It appears to be a response time-related problem, and not everyone is affected by it. The Executive Committee is cutting budgets, and one of the areas they are looking at is Lotus Notes usage. Based on the fact that the mail service is crucial for the business of the enterprise and that the Executive Committee had closed the annual plan of investments for the year, any additional acquisition of software or hardware must be very well-justified by the IT Manager. The IT Manager then asks the Systems Analyst if he or she can diagnose the cause of the problem and suggest a means to correct it. A detailed proposed solution report is presented to the Chief Executive Officer. The CEO then makes sure of the commitment of capital involved and the benefit to the organization of keeping the Service Level Agreement (SLA). The final report is then presented to the Executive Committee.
6.2 The roles

We will now describe the roles of each of the decision makers involved. This scenario is only expressed as a guide to show how TDS can be used by different role players in an organization and how each role player can view the information from different perspectives with the common goal of managing the business efficiently. In order to ensure that the Discovery Interface contains all the views that are relevant to the data search of each decision maker, the number of unnecessary views should be minimized by selecting the appropriate TDS Discovery Guide and role on the Topic Map tab.
6.2.1 The systems analyst role

In this scenario, the system analyst role represents an individual responsible for managing all Lotus Notes Mail servers in the enterprise. The system analyst is in charge of determining the overall performance of the servers and the effectiveness of the mail service. He or she will deliver a report to the IT Manager addressing the cause of the problem and advising a solution.
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6.2.2 The IT manager role

The role of the IT manager in this scenario is to look at the broader issue of current and future requirements of the IT infrastructure within the organization and to make decisions about further IT investments or changes to the environment. This individual is responsible for determining problem areas in the products their department supports and anticipating those problems before they occur.
6.2.3 The Chief Executive Officer role

The role of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in this scenario is to decide whether it is appropriate to approve any request for IT investment or changes in the organization and to present those requests to the executive committee.
6.3 The discovery process

Since the TDS Discovery Guide topics are worded as questions, a good model for any discovery process is to pose it as a series of questions with the goal of finding the answers with the help of Tivoli Decision Support. Based on the scenario description, we need to determine why the current Mail service does not handle a large percentage of the total number of requests within an acceptable response time. Based on the fact that not every customer is affected, there can be Lotus Notes mail servers operating near their capacity. If this is true, there is probably a strong case for investing in Mail service by upgrading hardware, thus, leveraging the service to conform to the SLA. If it is false, management may need to decide how to best use the current system instead of expanding it. The following sections take us through a decision process using the TDS Discovery Guides.
6.3.1 The system analyst discovery process

First, we will establish the scope of our data search by asking the following questions, which will help the system analyst focus on resolving the problem. Some typical questions follow: Which mail systems have CPU workload problems? Which systems have a high average CPU run length cue? Which mail systems have high memory utilization?
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Which systems have a high memory page scan rate? Which mail systems have high network utilization? What is the average forecast mail delivery time? The analysis of the views and information that these questions generate will allow the system analyst to identify whether there are any response- or workload-related problems with the mail servers. The systems analyst needs to do the following: Find out why the response from the Lotus Notes mail servers is poor Analyze the information Consider solution options Present the proposed technical solution to the IT Manager for a final decision on any changes or technology investment that may be necessary to resolve the problem. To begin the decision process, the system analyst will use the Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Interface, select both the Server Performance Prediction Discovery Guide and the Domino Management Discovery Guide, and choose the role of systems analyst.
6.3.1.1 Which mail systems have CPU workload problems? After selecting the All System Metrics report, we will filter the information to see only the Lotus Notes Servers. The resulting graph, as shown in Figure 98 on page 171, displays the Lotus Notes server performance metrics by CPU utilization. This view shows us the monthly average percentage CPU busy time of the Lotus Notes Mail servers: nickel, desdemona, cypress, and burnet. The graph shows several CPU metrics from which it is clear that the server nickel has high average CPU percentage busy, system time, and user time utilization. This could be an indication that the server has performance-related problems. We can also understand that all the other servers are under less stress.
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Figure 98. Lotus Notes mail servers by CPU utilization
6.3.1.2 Which systems have a high average CPU run length cue? We will find the answer to this question by selecting the Server Performance Prediction Discovery Guide and then selecting Busiest Systems report. In this view, as shown in Figure 99 on page 172, we can look at the busiest systems based on the average daily run queue length metric for each system. The run queue length metric is the number of processes that are ready to run (processes not waiting for Input/Output or user input) that the system cannot dispatch until it has free processor cycles. From the graph, we can see that the server nickel has a high run queue length. This a key metric for determining processor load and is measured in average number of waiting processes. The reports also show us that the other servers have average to normal workload characteristics.
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Figure 99. Lotus Notes Mail Servers daily average run length cue
6.3.1.3 Which mail systems have high memory utilization? Using the All System Metrics report in the Server Performance Prediction Discovery Guide and filtering on By Physical Memory, we can see, as shown in Figure 100 on page 173, the busiest systems based on the hourly average run queue length metric for each system. The report shows us the memory utilization for the Lotus Notes servers, and we can find out that the server nickel has a high utilization and that the usage for all the other servers is moderate to low.
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Figure 100. Lotus Notes mail servers by memory utilization
6.3.1.4 Which systems have a high memory page scan rate? By selecting the Systems That Need More Memory report from the Server Performance Prediction Discovery Guide, the system analyst can drill down and retrieve information from all Lotus Notes Servers. Figure 101 on page 174 highlights systems with physical memory from 32 MB up to 64 MB where the page scan rate is exceptionally high.
The page-scan rate is presented in terms of pages scanned per second. In order to evaluate this metric, you need to take into account the amount of physical memory on the system. It is known that the server nickel has 64 MB of physical memory installed. A scan rate of 1000 pages/second is considered very high on a system with 64 MB of physical memory but not on one with 256 MB of physical memory. We can also see that the server nickel has a scan rate of nearly 1000 pages per second. This can be regarded as high for this amount of memory and will need to be corrected.
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Figure 101. Lotus Notes mail servers that need more memory
6.3.1.5 Which mail systems have high network activity? By selecting All System Metrics from the Server Performance Prediction Discovery Guide, the system analyst can drill down and retrieve information on all Lotus Notes Servers. By filtering on network utilization the network activity is displayed. Figure 102 on page 175 highlights the systems with high network activity. It can be seen that the servers desdemona, cypress, and burnet have relatively low network utilization while that of nickel is high. Previously, we found that nickel had a high CPU utilization; this, coupled with high network activity, is an indication of an under-provisioned system.
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Figure 102. Lotus Notes mail servers by network utilization
6.3.1.6 What is the average forecast mail delivery time? From the Domino Management Discovery Guide and the When might servers begin experiencing problems report, the system analyst can filter by mail server and then by the Mail.AverageDeliveryTime measure. Figure 103 on page 176 shows the mail average and peak delivery time forecast of the server nickel. The forecast highlights that, for the next 30, 60, and 90 days, the averages and peaks of mail delivery time are increasing. In addition, since, according to the SLA, all mail deliveries must be within 20 seconds, nickel will exceed the SLA within 30 days.
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Figure 103. Lotus Notes mail server - forecasted average mail delivery time
6.3.1.7 The system analysts conclusions and suggestions Based on the results of the information gathered earlier in this section, the system analyst will deliver a report to the IT Manager addressing the cause of the problem and deciding on a course of action.
The following are conclusions that can be drawn from the discovery of the network: The servers desdemona, cypress, and burnet are operating within normal parameters and are attending the SLA. The server nickel is overloaded and under-provisioned. It means that the CPU is inadequate for the workload. The Lotus Notes mail service is currently operating at capacity, and the response problem only affects the customers attended by the server nickel, which is overloaded. The forecast to compromise the SLA is at least within 30 days since the workload on server nickel is increasing.
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The system analyst makes the following recommendations to resolve the problem: Add or upgrade the CPU to server nickel This will relieve the problem in the short term but does not address the underlying problem of nickel being overloaded. Increase the amount of physical memory in nickel to 128 MB. This will solve the problem in the medium term but still does not resolve the fact that nickel is overloaded. Redistribute the workload across the other servers This will offer a longer term solution but might be disruptive to the organization.
6.3.2 IT manager discovery process

The IT manager will now consider the recommendations from the system analysis and use Tivoli Decision Support to answer some questions before deciding on what course of action to take. First, the IT manager will establish the scope of the data search by writing down questions that will help him or her focus on resolving the problem. Some typical questions are: Which systems are over- or under-provisioned? Where are the performance anomalies? What performance problems are on the horizon? To begin the decision-making process, the IT Manager will use the Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Interface, select both the Server Performance Prediction Discovery Guide and the Domino Management Discovery Guide, and choose the role of IT manager.
6.3.2.1 Which systems are over- or under-provisioned? By selecting How might I improve performance on my systems report? from the Server Performance Prediction Discovery Guide, the IT Manager can drill down and retrieve information from all Lotus Notes Servers. Figure 104 on page 178 highlights all Lotus Notes servers that are either under- or over-provisioned.
If you have a system that shows very high CPU utilization but has relatively low network activity, we can say that the CPU is inadequate for the workload, that is, the system is under-provisioned. If you have a system that shows low CPU utilization but has relatively high network activity, we can say that the CPU is excessive for the workload, that is, the system is over-provisioned.
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The measure used for this view is the processor overload. This is expressed as a percentage of the difference between the CPU and network utilization divided by the network utilization. In this case, the report shows that the server nickel has high CPU utilization as well as relatively high network activity; this can be interpreted as being under-provisioned. It can also be noted that the other servers are over-provisioned.
Figure 104. Under-provisioned and over-provisioned Notes servers
6.3.2.2 Where are the performance anomalies? By selecting How might I improve performance on my systems report? from the Server Performance Prediction Discovery Guide, the IT Manager can drill down and retrieve information from all Lotus Notes Servers. Figure 105 on page 179 highlights the situation for all Lotus Notes servers.
This view can be useful in detecting areas where one or more of the systems is not performing as expected. The logic behind this view is that, for systems having the same purpose and the same hardware configuration, processor utilization should be proportional to the network activity on the system. If it is not, then there is probably something amiss with one of the systems.
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In this report, we can see that the server nickel does not have the same behavior as the other servers and that it has much higher average statistics.
Figure 105. Performance anomalies by server
6.3.2.3 What performance problems are on the horizon? By selecting What Performance Problems are on The Horizon? from the Server Performance Prediction Discovery Guide, the IT Manager can select the Systems most quickly approaching critical thresholds report and drill down in order to retrieve information from all Lotus Notes Servers. Figure 106 on page 180 highlights all Lotus Notes servers that are predicted to hit a critical performance threshold within the next 180 days. A critical situation is highlighted in red for server nickel.
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Figure 106. Lotus Notes server approaching critical thresholds
6.3.2.4 IT manager conclusions The IT managers role here is to look at the broader issue of managing the network in terms of meeting SLAs and providing a scalable cost-effective solution. Based on the results of the information gathered earlier in this section, the IT Manager will deliver a detailed proposed-solution report to the Chief Executive Officer.
It is clear from the analysis of the reports that the server nickel is overloaded and that there is an uneven distribution of workload among the Lotus Notes mail servers. It has also become apparent that there is no formal process to add users and services to the mail servers. After analyzing the reports, the IT manager and the system analyst decide on the following solution: Since the enterprise has an under-provisioned server, it is necessary to redistribute the workload among all Lotus Notes servers, thus, providing a longer term solution while maximizing the capabilities of the network. It must be done within 10 days because the server nickel will soon compromise the SLA. To implement a process to add users and services to the Lotus Notes mail servers will include the use of Tivoli Decision Support to identify which
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servers are best able to handle the extra workload. This will allow the IT manager to leverage the existing IT infrastructure and get a maximum return on the investment. Make budgetary provisions for memory and CPU upgrades for all the Lotus Notes servers. The trends from TDS show that there will be significant growth in workload and users. Note that TDS has given the manager the power to predict when systems will reach their critical thresholds and, therefore, can plan and budget well in advance in order to maintain SLAs. Finally, the manager must present his proposals and solutions to the CEO.
6.3.3 CEOs discovery process

The role of the CEO here is to make sure that the investments in the companys IT infrastructure and resources are being managed efficiently. The CEO is also concerned that any further investment or changes to the environment be of benefit to the organization. He or she considers the proposal from the IT Manager and, in order to begin the decision process, will use the Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Interface selecting the Server Performance Prediction Discovery Guide and then choose the role of CEO. The CEO needs to decide whether it is appropriate to approve the request made by the IT manager. A typical question might be: What are the performance trends? Analysis of the view and information provided by this question will allow the CEO to identify the performance behavior of the Lotus Notes servers and to certify that the commitment of capital and time involved will be conducive to the organization keeping on the Service Level Agreement.
6.3.3.1 What are the performance trends? By selecting Is my resource utilization growing? from the Server Performance Prediction Discovery Guide, the CEO can select the Daily average performance trend report and drill down in order to retrieve information from all Lotus Notes Servers.
Figure 107 on page 182 highlights the growth trend for critical system-performance metrics over the last four weeks. It looks at the average value on a day-by-day basis. This report is useful for spotting growth trends and changing patterns in resource utilization.
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Figure 107. Lotus Notes server daily average performance trends
We can see that the growth trend for the Notes server nickel is out of proportion to the rest of the Lotus Notes servers.
6.3.3.2 The CEOs conclusions Now, the problem and the solution proposed by the IT Manager are clear to the CEO. After considering all the information, the CEO approves the project.
Based on the information provided by the IT Manager, the CEO approves the project to redistribute the workload among all Lotus Notes servers. It must be done within 10 days in order to keep the SLA. The CEO also asks the IT Manager to prepare a detailed process to add services to the Lotus Notes Servers in order to better use the actual IT infrastructure and the investment that had been made in the Lotus Notes Mail service. Based on the information gathered from TDS, the CEO finally prepares a report requesting the budgetary provision for memory and CPU for all the Lotus Notes servers. The CEO now has a detailed description of the problem and is armed with confidence, answers, and solutions to present to the Executive Committee.
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6.4 Conclusion
In this simple scenario, we have attempted to show the power and diversity of TDS. By choosing different roles and following their decision-making strategies to resolve a problem, we can see how each decision maker has a part in the final decision. Each role player needs different information from the same data; the analyst needs to know the cause of the problem; the manager needs to understand the impact of the solution on the network as a whole, and the CEO needs to know what are the benefits to the organization. It would be almost impossible to show all the diverse roles and information that TDS can produce. Knowledge can help shape an organizations thinking and its approach to its customers and service issues. As you have seen in this scenario, even a brief and basic discovery strategy can yield surprising results and help IT professionals make better business decisions.
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Appendix A. Tivoli Implementation Methodology (TIM) 3.6

The Tivoli Implementation Methodology (TIM) provides Tivoli Business Partners and Tivoli Services with best practices for identifying, designing, planning, installing, testing, and documenting a Tivoli Enterprise solution.
A.1 Target market

The target market is Tivoli Services and Tivoli Business Partners customers that value quality services as part of the solution.
A.2 Customer profile

TIM can be used in two different ways: Internally - TIM is designed for Tivoli Business Partners and Tivoli Services. It is Tivolis process for a services engagement with Tivoli customers. All Tivoli professionals are strongly encouraged to leverage this methodology while selling and implementing Tivoli Solutions. Externally - TIM is designed to accelerate and optimize Tivoli services engagements. Customers should leverage service providers that utilize the TIM in its entirety or as part of their own best practices. The TIM, Tivoli Certification, and Training are all proof of Tivoli's commitment to an open services industry.
A.3 The top three things to remember

The top three things to remember about TIM are: TIM provides market and customer confidence: TIM is an industry-wide means of ensuring that our service providers are leveraging best practices and maximizing customer benefits. TIM enables accelerated and optimized deployments: TIM enables accelerated deployments and reduces the time required to deliver Tivoli benefits to the customer. TIM 3.6 Captures "Best of Breed" Tivoli intellectual capital: TIM captures years of Tivoli architecture and solution implementation experience from the Tivoli organization and partner groups, thus, providing customers with access to evolving best practices through their services providers.
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A.4 What is new with TIM?

New enhancements of TIM include the following: Manage the extended customer engagement: TIM now supports a complete customer engagement - beyond that of just a software installation. Enhanced Support for Tivoli Product Line: Improved support for the Tivoli product line includes detailed requirements and deployment guides, improved architecture and design information, and updated project management tools. This support includes the latest product offerings including Security Management, Framework 3.6, and Tivoli Migration. TIM will continue to be updated for the latest in Tivoli supported platforms.
A.5 What is unique?

TIM has the following unique characteristics: TIM Sets the standard for industry-wide methodologies: TIM provides an industry-wide methodology to all of our certified services providers. This gives the customer confidence in an accelerated, optimized deployment. TIM is a Full Engagement Tool: TIM goes beyond a simple software installation guide, and it provides management for the full engagement process.
A.6 Where can I find information on TIM?

TIM is available for use by Tivoli services professionals and certified Tivoli Business Partners. Business Partners order the Tivoli Implementation Methodology for Business Partners Version 3.6 from the Tivoli Information for Partners (TIPS) Web site by requesting part number LK3T-3567. Tivoli employees may access TIM internally at http://corp.tivoli.com/ under the Sales/Tivoli Services tab or at http://fortune.tivoli.com/TIM
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Appendix B. Tivoli Decision Support customer support

At Tivoli Systems, we know dependable ongoing support and services are essential extensions of Tivoli software and an integral part of your enterprise systems management solution.
B.1 The support process

The following list describes the process that will be carried out for any Tivoli Decision Support customer query. This aims to give the reader an idea of what the process is in order to understand how the call will be handled. 1. The customer will call the 1-800-Tivoli-8 number with a question or problem. 2. The CSR will dispatch the call to the Tivoli-Indianapolis Support Center. 3. If the call pertains to a core question (Cognos, basic functionality, and so on), analysts in Indianapolis will handle the call. If the call is a guide-specific issue, we will transfer the ticket to the appropriate site. 4. The Indianapolis analyst will provide as much detail as possible and include any pertinent suggestions in the ticket description to assist the analysts in Austin and Raleigh. 5. In some cases, analysts in Indianapolis will be able to solve foreign guide-specific issues without transferring the call to either Austin or Raleigh. 6. If the call is transferred to either site (Austin or Raleigh) and assistance from Tivoli is required in any way, please call them. 7. We anticipate that supporting TDS for Tivoli customers will be a joint effort between Indianapolis and Austin or Raleigh.
Note
Even though the support plan has been designed for Indianapolis to handle core issues (Cognos, basic functionality, and so on), some cases may be handled in Austin or Raleigh, and, therefore, an understanding of the core application is necessary. For related product support: 1. Cognos Support - For now, contact Indianapolis. 2. Seagate Support - oemcrw@img.seagatesoftware.com
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Appendix C. Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guides availability

The Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guides provide immediate access to key IT enterprise information. These predefined solutions provide direct answers to the most pertinent business questions through a simple question and topic paradigm and single views into the data. These solutions are created through knowledge of the data captured by Tivoli applications, knowledge of IT best practices, and knowledge of IT customer needs. The TDS Discovery Guides provide out-of-the-box data views and reports for immediate value. Table 19 can be used as a reference to the TDS Discovery Guides availability:
Table 19. TDS Discovery Guides general availability
Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guide

Tivoli Decision Support for Event Management Tivoli Decision Support for Server Performance Prediction Tivoli Decision Support for Network Element Performance Tivoli Decision Support for Network Segment Performance Tivoli Decision Support for Network Event Analysis Tivoli Decision Support for Software Deployment Analysis Tivoli Decision Support for Year 2000 Readiness Version 2.0 Tivoli Decision Support for Domino Management Tivoli Decision Support for SAP R3 Analysis Tivoli Decision Support for Storage Management Analysis Tivoli Decision Support for PeopleSoft Tivoli Decision Support for Information Management
General Availability
Currently available on 2nd Quarter 1999 Currently available on 3rd Quarter 1999 Currently available on 3rd Quarter 1999 Currently available on 3rd Quarter 1999 Currently available on 3rd Quarter 1999 Currently available on 3rd Quarter 1999 Currently available on 3rd Quarter 1999 3rd Quarter 1999 4th Quarter 1999 4th Quarter 1999 4th Quarter 1999 Currently available on 3rd Quarter 1999
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Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guide

Call Center Management Decision Support Guide
General Availability
Shipped with TDS. Currently available on Tivoli Decision Support version 2.0 Shipped with TDS. Currently available on Tivoli Decision Support version 2.0 Shipped with TDS. Currently available on Tivoli Decision Support version 2.0 Shipped with TDS. Currently available on Tivoli Decision Support version 2.0 Shipped with TDS. Currently available on Tivoli Decision Support version 2.0 Shipped with TDS. Currently available on Tivoli Decision Support version 2.0 Shipped with TDS. Currently available on Tivoli Decision Support version 2.0
Relationship Management Decision Support Guide
Knowledge Assessment Decision Support Guide
Service Level Management Decision Support Guide
Asset Management Decision Support Guide
Change Management Decision Support Guide
Telephony Decision Support Guide
Note
Tivoli frequently announces the availability of new Guides. For the latest information on Guide availability, refer to Tivolis Web page:
http://www.tivoli.com
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Appendix D. Special notices

This publication is intended to help anyone involved in the deployment of the Tivoli Decision Support and the Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guides. The information in this publication is not intended as the specification of any programming interfaces that are provided by the Tivoli applications. See the PUBLICATIONS section of the IBM Programming Announcement for the Tivoli applications suite for more information about what publications are considered to be product documentation. References in this publication to IBM products, programs, or services do not imply that IBM intends to make these available in all countries in which IBM operates. Any reference to an IBM product, program, or service is not intended to state or imply that only the IBM product, program, or service may be used. Any functionally-equivalent program that does not infringe any IBM intellectual property rights may be used instead of the IBM product, program, or service. Information in this book was developed in conjunction with the use of the equipment specified and is limited in application to those specific hardware and software products and levels. IBM may have patents or pending patent applications covering subject matter in this document. The furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents. You can send license inquiries, in writing, to the IBM Director of Licensing, IBM Corporation, North Castle Drive, Armonk, NY 10504-1785. Licensees of this program who wish to have information about it for the purpose of enabling: (i) the exchange of information between independently created programs and other programs (including this one) and (ii) the mutual use of the information which has been exchanged, should contact IBM Corporation, Dept. 600A, Mail Drop 1329, Somers, NY 10589 USA. Such information may be available, subject to appropriate terms and conditions, including, in some cases, payment of a fee. The information contained in this document has not been submitted to any formal IBM test and is distributed AS IS. The information about non-IBM ("vendor") products in this manual has been supplied by the vendor and IBM assumes no responsibility for its accuracy or completeness. The use of this information or the implementation of any of these techniques is a customer responsibility and depends on the customer's ability to evaluate and integrate them into the customer's operational environment. While each item may have
191
been reviewed by IBM for accuracy in a specific situation, there is no guarantee that the same or similar results will be obtained elsewhere. Customers attempting to adapt these techniques to their own environments do so at their own risk. Any pointers in this publication to external Web sites are provided for convenience only and do not in any manner serve as an endorsement of these Web sites. Any performance data contained in this document was determined in a controlled environment, and therefore, the results that may be obtained in other operating environments may vary significantly. Users of this document should verify the applicable data for their specific environment. Reference to PTF numbers that have not been released through the normal distribution process does not imply general availability. The purpose of including these reference numbers is to alert IBM customers to specific information relative to the implementation of the PTF when it becomes available to each customer according to the normal IBM PTF distribution process. The following terms are trademarks of the International Business Machines Corporation in the United States and/or other countries:
AIX AT Home Director MQ Netfinity OS/2 RS/6000 System/390 Tivoli Decision Support AS/400 DB2 IBM MQSeries NetView OS/390 S/390 Tivoli Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guide
The following terms are trademarks of other companies: Cognos, the Cognos logo, Impromptu, PowerPlay, PowerCube, and Scenario are trademarks of Cognos Inc. Oracle is a trademark of Oracle Inc. Sybase is a trademark of Sybase Inc. Crystal Reports is a trademark of Seagate Software Inc. Tivoli Service Desk is a trademark of Software Artistry, a Division of Tivoli.
192
C-bus is a trademark of Corollary, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft, Windows, Windows 95, Windows NT, and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. PC Direct is a trademark of Ziff Communications Company in the United States and/or other countries and is used by IBM Corporation under license. ActionMedia, LANDesk, MMX, Pentium and ProShare are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. (For a complete list of Intel trademarks, see www.intel.com/tradmarx.htm) UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and/or other countries licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Limited. SET and the SET logo are trademarks owned by SET Secure Electronic Transaction LLC. Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
Special notices
193
194
Appendix E. Related publications

The publications listed in this section are considered particularly suitable for a more detailed discussion of the topics covered in this redbook.
E.1 International Technical Support Organization publications

For information on ordering these ITSO publications see How to get ITSO redbooks on page 197. Creating Custom Monitors for Tivoli Distributed Monitoring , SG24-5211 Deploying a Tivoli Infrastructure in Large-Scale Environments, SG24-5210 TME 10 Deployment Cookbook: Inventory and Company, SG24-2120 TME 10 Deployment Cookbook: Courier and Friends, SG24-4976 TME 10 Framework Version 3.2: An introduction to the Lightweight Client Framework , SG24-2025 An Introduction to Tivolis TME 10, SG24-4948 An Industry around the Tivoli Framework: Examples from 10/Plus Association, SG24-2122 Using Tivoli Software Installation Service for Mass Installation, SG24-5109 All about Tivoli Management Agents, SG24-5134 A Project Guide for Deploying Tivoli Solutions, SG24-5310 Designing Tivoli Solutions for End-to-End Systems and Service Management, SG24-5104 High Availability Scenarios for Tivoli software, SG24-2032 Instrumenting Enterprise Applications Using Tivoli GEM, SG24-5399 Integrated Management Solutions Using NetView Version 5.1, SG24-5285 Using Tivolis ARM Response Time Agents, SG24-2124 Measuring Lotus Notes Response Time with Tivolis ARM Agents, SG24-4787 Using the Applications Management Specifications in a TMA Environment, SG24-4809
195
E.2 Redbooks on CD-ROM

Redbooks are also available on the following CD-ROMs. Click the CD-ROMs button at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/ for information about all the CD-ROMs offered, updates, and formats.
CD-ROM Title Collection Kit Number IBM System/390 Redbooks Collection SK2T-2177 IBM Networking and Systems Management Redbooks Collection SK2T-6022 IBM Transaction Processing and Data Management Redbooks CollectionSK2T-8038 IBM Lotus Redbooks Collection SK2T-8039 Tivoli Redbooks Collection SK2T-8044 IBM AS/400 Redbooks Collection Kit SK2T-2849 IBM Netfinity Hardware and Software Redbooks Collection SK2T-8046 IBM RS/6000 Redbooks Collection Kit (BkMgr Format) SK2T-8040 IBM RS/6000 Redbooks Collection (PDF Format) SK2T-8043 IBM Application Development Redbooks Collection Kit SK2T-8037 IBM Enterprise Storage and Systems Management Solutions SK3T-3694
E.3 Other publications

These publications are also relevant as further information sources: TME 10 Framework 3.6 Planning and Installation Guide, SC31-8432 Framework 3.6 Users Guide, GC31-8433 TME 10 Framework Release Notes Version 3.6, GI10-3028 TME 10 Framework 3.6 Reference Manual, SC31-8434 Tivoli Service Desk Enterprise Integration Users Guide, GC31-5203 Tivoli Service Desk Installation Guide, GC31-5167 Tivoli Decision Support Users Guide, GC31-5202 Using Decision 2.0 Support Guide, GC32-0290 Tivoli Decision Support Administrators Guide, GC31-5201 Tivoli Decision Support Installation Guide, GC32-0289
196
How to get ITSO redbooks

This section explains how both customers and IBM employees can find out about ITSO redbooks, redpieces, and CD-ROMs. A form for ordering books and CD-ROMs by fax or e-mail is also provided. Redbooks Web Site http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/ Search for, view, download, or order hardcopy/CD-ROM redbooks from the redbooks Web site. Also read redpieces and download additional materials (code samples or diskette/CD-ROM images) from this redbooks site. Redpieces are redbooks in progress; not all redbooks become redpieces and sometimes just a few chapters will be published this way. The intent is to get the information out much quicker than the formal publishing process allows. E-mail Orders Send orders by e-mail including information from the redbooks fax order form to: In United States Outside North America Telephone Orders United States (toll free) Canada (toll free) Outside North America 1-800-879-2755 1-800-IBM-4YOU Country coordinator phone number is in the How to Order section at this site: http://www.elink.ibmlink.ibm.com/pbl/pbl/
e-mail address usib6fpl@ibmmail.com Contact information is in the How to Order section at this site: http://www.elink.ibmlink.ibm.com/pbl/pbl/
Fax Orders United States (toll free) Canada Outside North America 1-800-445-9269 1-403-267-4455 Fax phone number is in the How to Order section at this site: http://www.elink.ibmlink.ibm.com/pbl/pbl/
This information was current at the time of publication, but is continually subject to change. The latest information may be found at the redbooks Web site.
IBM Intranet for Employees

IBM employees may register for information on workshops, residencies, and redbooks by accessing the IBM Intranet Web site at http://w3.itso.ibm.com/ and clicking the ITSO Mailing List button. Look in the Materials repository for workshops, presentations, papers, and Web pages developed and written by the ITSO technical professionals; click the Additional Materials button. Employees may access MyNews at http://w3.ibm.com/ for redbook, residency, and workshop announcements.
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List of abbreviations
CEO DM DMP DSM DSS DSM IBM ITSO IT MLM NCO ODBC OLAP OS RDBMS RIM SDC SLA SNMP SPP SQL Chief Executive Officer Decision Maker Decision Making Process Distributed Systems Management Decision Support Systems Distributed Systems Management International Business Machines Corporation International Technical Support Organization Information Technology Mid-level Manager Network Computing Offerings Open Database Connectivity Online Analytical Processing Operating System Relational Database Management System RDBMS Interface Module Service Delivery Center Service level Agreement Simple Network Management Protocol Server Performance Prediction Structured Query Language SRM TDS TEC TIM TMA TMR TPS TSD Server Resource Management Tivoli Decision Support Tivoli Enterprise Console Tivoli Implementation Methodology Tivoli Management Agent Tivoli Management Region Tivoli Professional Service Tivoli Service Desk
199
200
Index A
administering 70 administration 70 administrator 68 administrator system 14 AIX 102 AIX performance 104 AIX reports 109 alert log 102 algorithms 13, 61 Analysis 96 analytical decision 75 answers to questions 9 application 10 architecture 30 availability 1 CEO 169 CEO conclusions 182 CEOs discovery process 181 charts 2 Chief Executive Officer 168 Chief Executive Officer role 169 Cisco routers 138 Client Database 14 Cognos 12 Cognos PowerPlay 10, 12, 14, 62, 143 Cognos support 187 Cognos Transformer 16, 67 collection 96 comma separated values 129 CPU 99 CPU utilization 97 critical data 167 critical network 137 critical performance 179 critical system 181 critical thresholds 179 Crystal Report files 69 Crystal Reports 10, 12, 62 cube build times 67 Cube building problems 81 Cube building process 64 step 1 65 step 2 66 step 3 66 step 4 67 cube file 16 cubes 68 Cubes definition 16 cubes.mdb 61, 65 Customer confidence 185 customer profile 185 Customer reporting requirements 92 customer requirements questionnaire 27 customer satisfaction 9 customization requirements 33
B
bandwidth 65 batch reports 2 best practices 23, 185 better decisions 6 Boulder 88 Brazil 6 broader vision 3 budgetary provision 181 business data 13 Business Decision Information 7 business decisions 183 business hours 12 business indicators 13 business information 78 Business Intelligence 1 defined 3 business knowledge 12 business leaders 27 business models 13 business operation 9
C
calculations 12 Categories 12, 69 categories 62 Category definition 16 central repository 10
D
data elements 13 Database Administrator 45 Database Server Information 38 dataless profile manager 160 DB2 16
201
Decision 1, 5 Decision Makers 4, 6, 61, 73, 78 decision making 9 decision making process 1, 5 decision process 170 Decision Support Guides 32 Decision Support Systems 1, 4, 5 delivering services 9 delivery mechanisms 10 Deployment Phase 47 deployment guide 48 input and output components 47 process flow 48 Training 52 Deployment phase advanced configuration and customization 51 deployment preparation 49 product configuration 51 product installation 50 deployment strategy 24 detailed design 30 Dicing definition 18 Dimension Line definition 17 dimension members 16 dimensions 9 Dimensions definition 17 discovering key information 13 Discovery Administrator 10, 11 Discovery Administrator PC Information 37 Discovery Interface 10, 12 Discovery Interface PC Information 38 discovery process 169 Distributed Systems Management 93 distributed systems management 3 dive 9 DM 4 DM Roll Up patches 156 DM Roll Up Toll installation steps 156 DM Roll Up Tool 155 DMP 5 Documentation Phase 54 input and output components 55 process flow 55 Domino Roll Up module 129 Drill Down 72 Drill Through 80 Drill Through databases 66 Drill-Down 17, 33, 61 Drill-Down definition 17
Drill-Through definition 17 DrillThru.mdb 62, 66, 69 Drill-Up 17 Drill-Up definition 17 DSM 93 DSS 4 characteristics 5 definition 5
E
e-Business 2, 3 ed.mdb 62, 69 EDAdmin.log 82 effectiveness 9 effects 12 efficiency 9, 13 endpoints 61, 74, 77, 160 End-to-End service delivery 3 End-to-End solutions 1 end-user solution 13 enhanced quality 116 enterprise 2 Enterprise Console 29 Enterprise solution 23 enterprises data sources 21 enterprises databases 19 enterprises operation 12 enterprises service 13 Event Management 125 Event Management Discovery Guide deployment 161 Evolution to Business Intelligence 2 Executive Committee 168 existing 96 existing IT infrastructure 181 existing policies 28 existing reports 51 existing Tivoli Systems Management solution 28 Explorers 21
F
Fail-over analysis 57 fast access to information 2 File server 14 File Server Information 37 files 10 Filter definition 17 forecasts 20
202
formal process 180 function of an organization 9 functional elements 53 functionality and limitations 42 functionality testing 53 functions and capabilities 31 functions for TDS 37
gateways 74, 77 generating views 12 GPFs 82 guide the enterprise 3 Guides 10, 13
In-House reports 97 installation method 70 integration process 60 interactive business indicators 6 Intersolv 14 interview 27 intranet 10 investments 168 isql 81 IT 1 IT manager 9, 168 IT Manager conclusions 180 IT manager discovery process 177 IT manager role 169 IT technical leader 27
H
hardware requirements 145 help desk operation 9 high availability environment 88 high average CPU 169 high CPU utilization 124 high level 9 high level physical design 141 high level report 6 high memory page scan rate 170 high memory utilization 169 high network activity 124 high run queue length 171 high success 21 high-level task flow 87 highly customizable 21 hints 13 historical records 20 Hub 87 Hub TMR 87 Hub-Spoke 87
J
Job schedule 153 Jobs 148
K
key business 13 keyword searches 13 kickoff 33 knowledge 183 knowledge discovery 9
L
LAN 80 Layer definition 17 Leader 44 levels of details 9 local clients 142 local network 141 local TDS file server 143 log entries 103 log space 90 Logical Design 33
I
IBM 85 IBM Global Services 85 IBM SDC West 93 IBM SDC-West Environment 85 IBM Service Delivery Center 8 impact on the response times 80 Information Technology 1 Informix 16 In-House 94
M
managed nodes 160 management gateways 61 management tasks 20 management team 45 management tools 3 manipulate 60 mapping TDS Discovery Guides 33
203
Measures definition 17 methodology 23 methods 13 Microsoft Access databases 69 migrating 160 migration 85 miss the SLA 126 Modelling 113 Models 12 Models definition 18 multi-dimensional analysis 6, 12 multi-dimensional array 16 multi-dimensional Cubes 61, 80 multi-dimensional space 18 Multiple TMR Environment 77
organization's experience 23 organization's methodology 52 output documentation 34 over provisioned 124, 177 overall management 45 overview of the Customer 56 overview of TIM 24 Overview of Tivoli Decision Support 9
P
patches 42 performance 13 permissions 82 perspectives 9 Physical Design 33 policy region 159, 160 populates 11 PowerPlay 12, 16 PowerPlay report files 68 predictive analysis 3 preparation for deployment 43 primary TDS file server 142 printouts 10 pro-active 5 problem management 72 procedure for deploying TDS 144 Profile definition 18 profile manager 159, 160 profiles 159 profitability 13 Project Analysis 41 project Leader 44 Project Plan 26 Project plan 41 Project Planning Phase 40 input and output components 40 process flow 41 Project Task Plan 42 Project Team 26, 44 projections 20 proposal for TDS 30 proposals 181 push content 10 push-delivery 22
N
NCO 94 Netfinity Capacity Manager 96 Netfinity Capacity Manager. 95 NetView MLM 102 Network 39 network administrator 45 network analyst 9 network bandwidth 63 Network Computing Offerings 94 Network Management 3 network mode 14, 34 network traffic 64, 67 network-wise 89 NotesView 96
O
ODBC connection 61, 69 ODBC connectivity errors 81 ODBC data source 63 ODBC drive 14 OLAP 6, 167 OLE link 83 One-Minute Managers 21 On-Line Analytical Processing 167 On-line Analytical Processing 6 open calls 21 Operations 89 optimal 88 Optimization 49 optimization of server 113 Oracle 14, 16
Q
qualifier 81 quality 116
204
quality of collection 113 queries 12, 13 querying 70 quickly approaching thresholds 179
R
rapidly emerging 167 raw data 65 RDBMS 74, 143 realistic deployment 71 reducing IBM IT reporting costs related view definition 18 related views 13, 18, 62, 69 relationships 12 remote sites 74 replication 80 report generation 70 reporting requirements overview Reports Analyst 46 repository 12 Requirements Gathering Phase input and output components process flow 26 resolutions 9 resource allocation 20 resource availability 35 resource requirements 34 responsiveness 72 RIM Host 157 RIM host 87 RIM Object 157 Role definition 18 Rover 82 rover utility 81 Rover window 82
86
27
25 26
S
San Jose 89 Santa Teresa 89 scalability 160 scheduling the Jobs 152 scopes 9 SDC 85 SDC-West 85 Seagate 12 Seagate support 187 secondary TDS file server 142 Selection Criteria definition 18
Server Performance Prediction 117 Server Performance Prediction deployment steps 154 Server Resource Management 94, 96 Service Delivery Center 85 Service Delivery Center architecture 88 Service Level Agreement 168 service level agreement management 3 Service Level Agreements 1 service management 3 severity level 12 shared drive 15 Single TMR Environment 74 SLA 1, 9, 168 Slicing definition 18 snapshot-style views 20 Software Engineering Life Cycle Model 24 Spoke 87 Spoke TMR 87 Spot trends 20 SPP 117 SQL 61, 82 SQL queries 61 SQL Server 16 SQLplus 81 SRM 94, 96 SRM Reports 104 Stand-alone mode 14 stand-alone mode 34 support centers 6 support process 187 surprising results 183 Sybase 14, 16 System Administrator 45 System Analyst conclusions 176 System Analyst discovery process 169 System Analyst role 168 System Architecture and Design document 26, 33 Systems Analysis Phase 30 input and output components 31 process flow 31 Systems analysis phase preparation 31 Systems Analyst 168 Systems Management 3
T
target market 185
205
Task library 148, 159 Tasks 148 TDS 5 TDS Discovery Guides 143 TEC 74 technical proposal 26 technical solution 31 templates 12 Testing Phase 52 input and output components 52 process flow 52 the challenge 4 third-party application 12 TIM 23, 25, 185 Tivoli certified consultants 46 Tivoli commands wcrtjob 150, 152 wcrtrim 158 wcrttask 149, 151 wdel 158 wschedjob 153 Tivoli Decision Support 3, 5, 6, 7 architecture 34 Base Product 10 client component 62 components 14, 61 components integration 63 concepts 16 Discovery Administrator 11, 62, 141 Discovery Guides 10, 12 Discovery Guides availability 189 Discovery Interface 12, 14, 68, 143 environment 61 File Server 12, 61 , 142 File Server deployment steps 146 functionality 19 functionality diagram 60 functions 70 goal 9 Implementation Modes 14 implementations 74 into the Decision Making Process 5 network mode 71 overview 9 Product Components 10 resource mapping 36 Server Component 10, 12 solution objectives 42 stand-alone mode 70
support process 187 Supported Platforms 15 terminology 16 users 21 Tivoli Decision Support methodology 23 Deployment phase 47 Documentation phase 54 Project planning phase 40 Requirements gathering phase 25 Systems analysis phase 30 Testing phase 52 Tivoli Discovery Guides Call Center Management 165 Change Management 166 Domino Management 128 Event Management 125 Information Management 164 Knowledge Assessment 165 mapping 114 Network Element Performance Prediction 137 Network Event Performance 163 Network Segment Performance 164 Relationship Management 165 Server Performance Prediction 116 Service Level Management 165 Tivoli Distributed Monitoring 7, 60, 61, 95 Tivoli Distributed Monitoring object relationships 92 Tivoli Enterprise Console 7, 60, 95 Tivoli Enterprise Environment 60 Tivoli Enterprise solution 7 Tivoli Implementation Methodology 23, 185 Tivoli infrastructure 75 Tivoli Inventory 7, 60 Tivoli Management Agents 61 Tivoli Management Server 61 Tivoli NetView 60, 95 Tivoli Servers 74 Tivoli Service Desk 7, 72 Tivoli Software Distribution 60 Tivoli System Administrators 45 Tivoli Tier 1 Servers 77 Tivoli Tier 2 Servers 77 TMR 74, 77 top level policy region 160 topic 62 Topic definition 18 Topic Map 168 Topic Map definition 19 Tourists 21
206
Trainer 46 Training plan 46 transactional data 6 Transformer 16 Transmission 96 trends 12 Troubleshooting TDS 81 Tucson 94 Typical Architecture 35
Z
Zperstat 96
U
under provisioned 124, 174 UNIX commands df 95, 102 lsps 95, 100 netstat 95 ps 95, 100 vmstat 95, 99 user permissions 45 user-friendly 21
V
version 42 View definition 19 view hint description 62, 69 viewing Crystal reports 69 viewing multidimensional reports 68 views 13 vision 3
W
WAN 80 Web Administrator 46 Web Preparation 96 what if questions 1 Windows 95 15 Windows NT 4.0 15 Windows NT performance 104 workload 63 workload characteristics 171 Workload Characterization 113 Workshop summary 46 Workshops 46
Y
Year 2000 189
207
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A Design and Implementation Guide for Tivoli Decision Support

Edson Manoel, Fernando Bergamo, Dave Hulse, Rakesh Parshotam

International Technical Support Organization www.redbooks.ibm.com

Chapter 4. TDS architecture and design considerations . . . . . . . . . . . 59 4.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Copyright IBM Corp. 1999

A Design and Implementation Guide for TDS

A Design and Implementation Guide for TDS

Copyright IBM Corp. 1999

A Design and Implementation Guide for TDS

A Design and Implementation Guide for TDS

Copyright IBM Corp. 1999

A Design and Implementation Guide for TDS

The team that wrote this redbook

Copyright IBM Corp. 1999

A Design and Implementation Guide for TDS

A Design and Implementation Guide for TDS

1.1 From fire fighting to business intelligence

Copyright IBM Corp. 1999

Exception and Predictive Management Based on SLA

Fire Fighting No Tools No Process

A Design and Implementation Guide for TDS

1.2 The desired solution for business information

Multiple Management Functions

Transforming the Data ......

... into Business Information Standard Format

Figure 2. The challenge of a better solution for business information.

1.3 Decision Support Systems

A Design and Implementation Guide for TDS

1.4 Positioning Tivoli Decision Support in the decision making process

Data processing and Management of logical relationship

Tivoli Decision Support

Figure 3. TDS in the decision making process

A Design and Implementation Guide for TDS

1.5 Our approach

A Design and Implementation Guide for TDS

Chapter 2. Tivoli Decision Support general overview

2.1 Overview of Tivoli Decision Support

Copyright IBM Corp. 1999

2.2 Tivoli Decision Support product components

A Design and Implementation Guide for TDS

Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guides: Ready-to-use Solutions

Figure 4. Tivoli Decision Support components

2.2.1 Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Administrator

Tivoli Decision Support general overview

2.2.2 Tivoli Decision Support Server component

2.2.3 Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Interface

2.2.4 Cognos PowerPlay

2.2.5 Crystal Reports

2.2.6 Tivoli Decision Support Discovery Guides

A Design and Implementation Guide for TDS

Tivoli Decision Support general overview

2.3 Tivoli Decision Support implementation modes

Machine running TDS in stand alone mode

A Design and Implementation Guide for TDS

stores the Cubes access the Cubes

TDS File Server

access the Cubes

builds the Cubes

TDS Discovery Interface

TDS Discovery Interface TDS Discovery Administrator

Figure 6. Tivoli Decision Support network implementation mode

2.4 Supported platforms