Centralized Operations
With automation, you can centralize operations so that you manage all systems, networks, and data centers from a single system or a few centralized systems. Often, you can run many of your systems unattended and consolidate your operation staff at a single location. This process has some of the same objectives as single-system console consolidation and can further reduce the number of consoles you monitor.
Before centralizing operations, use local automation on each system
to perform as many operation tasks as possible. Single-System Automation describes
the techniques for local automation on each system. Do not forward
problem notifications for a problem that you can solve locally. However,
you must forward the following types of information to the central
system:
- Forward information about the state of each local system, including the system portion of the network, so that operators and automation on the central system have an accurate, up-to-date description of every resource and application.
- Forward notifications about exceptions or problems that local automation alone cannot solve. These problems can be solved by automation on the central system or by operators logged on to that system.
A central system that receives information from distributed systems is called a focal point. For design guidelines about choosing a suitable focal point, refer to Designing an Automation Project.
This chapter describes how to transmit information between a distributed NetView® system and a focal-point NetView system.