Posts from — December 2006

I’m enjoying my holiday break and have been able to get caught up some on my “to-do” list. I’ve submitted the following best practice, how to and engagement methodology “field guides” to the internal Tivoli Services knowledge library (ICE). I assume that any IBM’er can request access to this repository. I plan to get these released via the OPAL repository process for general client and partner use as well. Ping me for more information.

How To:

• Incorporating Text, String or VARCHAR Data into Netcool/RAD 3.0 or TBSM 4.1 Tree View Scorecards
• Enabling a Full Netcool/RAD 3.0 - TBSM 4.1 Internal Database Schema and Data Backup

Best Practices:

• Back Up Best Practices for Netcool/RAD 3.0 and TBSM 4.1

Engagement Methodology:

• Netcool/RAD 3.0 and TBSM 4.1 Requirements Discovery Interview Questions
• Netcool/RAD 3.0 and TBSM 4.1 Application Discovery and Modeling Interview
• Netcool/RAD 3.0 and TBSM 4.1 Template Portfolio
• Netcool/RAD 3.0 and TBSM 4.1 Service Instance Portfolio

The much awaited patch 1 release for Netcool/RAD 3.0 was released yesterday and is available for download here.

Aside for normal fixes (APARs and Defects), support for Firefox 1.5.x is now included! The first integration with IBM Tivoli Service Level Advsisor (TSLA) is included as well allowing Netcool/RAD SLA’s to automatically build configurations and start tracking SLAs historically in TSLA.

My upgrade was smooth, simply tar -cvzf’d my previous version of RAD as a backup and then ran the patch within the RAD directory. I do notice some weirdness with all of my demos that are built upon the internal PostGreSQL database. All of my data fetchers are generating errors for some reason. Need to dig in and see what happened here.

I look forward to using Firefox now and enjoying the performance and usability increases!

Atlanta Network and Systems Management Technical User Group
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December Meeting Announcement
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We see and hear a lot about Netcool in our meetings. Does it seem sometimes like everyone but you is using Netcool? That’s definitely not the case. Come find out what Emory University is doing at the December ANSMTUG meeting. Emory University will host and William Bryant, Supervisor of the Network Operations Center, will talk about SMARTS’ Application Connectivity Monitor, Performance Manager, Storage Insight for Availability along with Business Insight Manager.

EMC SMARTS
(http://www.emc.com/products/software/smarts/smarts_family/index.jsp) is sponsoring the food and drink for the meeting. Please help us out by RSVPing (see link below) by Monday, December 11th, if you intend to attend so we can provide a headcount to order the food and drink.

What is the ANSMTUG all about?
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The Atlanta Network and Systems Management Technical User Group was created to foster collaboration between administrators, architects, engineers, and operators of applications and tools used to manage and monitor networks, systems, applications, services, and business activities.

There are numerous enterprise and service provider companies in the Atlanta area who use best of breed applications and tools from companies such as IBM Tivoli/Micromuse (Netcool), OpenService (NerveCenter), Quest Software (Foglight), Hewlett-Packard (OpenView), EMC/SMARTS (InCharge), Concord Communications, InfoVista, etc. The intent of the group is not to be completely aligned with any particular vendor or solution, but rather focus on network and systems management applications and tools in general. There will likely be more focus on a select handful of vendor solutions than others, but this will be driven by the users and not the vendors.

Meeting Details
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Cost: Free!
Date: Wednesday, December 13th, 2006
Time: 7:00PM to 9:00(ish) PM
Host: Emory University
Location: 1762 Clifton Road, N.E., Atlanta, GA 30322

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=1762+Clifton+Road+N.E.,Atlanta,+Georgia,+30322&ie=UTF8&z=16&ll=33.802187,-84.331248&spn0.007774,0.020707
&om=1&iwloc=addr

Parking: Free. Make sure you drive straight to the back of the building, do not go to the top hill. We are in the door marked network communication dock door 8.

Refreshments: Food and drinks provided by EMC SMARTS.

Please RSVP by Monday, December 11th, 2006 to rsvp@ansmtug.org .

• Visual mapping on Squidoo
  Visual mapping is a way to think through complex issues or solve problems that has several benefits. Visual mapping makes it easier to work creatively and collaboratively with a group. It’s non-linear, so you can work out complex hierarchies and relations
  (tags: mindmap mapping strategy)
• Simon Willison: Graphing requests with Tamper Data
  (tags: Visualization webperf user-experience)
• mozdev.org - tamperdata: index
  What it is TamperData is an extension to track and modify http/https requests. What I use it for * security testing of Web based applications * tracking request/responses * It’s just cool.
  (tags: webperf Visualization user-experience)
• Performance Research, Part 1: What the 80/20 Rule Tells Us about Reducing HTTP Requests » Yahoo! User Interface Blog
  It’s no secret that users prefer faster web sites. I work in a dedicated team focused on quantifying and improving the performance of Yahoo! products worldwide. As part of our work, we conduct experiments related to web page performance. We are sharing
  (tags: webperf user-experience performancemgt)
• alphaWorks : IBM Page Detailer : Overview
  IBM Page Detailer is a graphical tool that enables Web site developers and editors to rapidly and accurately assess performance from the client’s perspective. IBM Page Detailer provides details about the manner in which Web pages are delivered to Web brow
  (tags: webperf user-experience performancemgt)
• Managed Objects New Product Exec
  Managed Objects, the Business Service Management Company, today announced it has named Prasanna Arkalgud to the position of vice president, product management, reporting to Managed Objects’ president and CEO, Siki Giunta. Arkalgud will drive the strategic
  (tags: ManagedObjects bsm business-service-management)

• SAP Business Activity Monitoring
  Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) provides the user with real time visibility into business critical process events. Such events may be blocked orders for major customers, overdue critical vendor shipments or deviation of plan versus actual sales figures
  (tags: SAP NetWeaver BAM Business-Activity-Monitoring)

• Wink
  Wink is a Tutorial and Presentation creation software, primarily aimed at creating tutorials on how to use software (like a tutor for MS-Word/Excel etc). Using Wink you can capture screenshots, add explanations boxes, buttons, titles etc and generate a hi
  (tags: demos presentations Visualization)
• Managed Objects to target virtual opportunity - Computing
  T management software specialist Managed Objects has revealed plans for a new suite specially designed for monitoring and managing virtual machines. Speaking exclusively to IT Week, Managed Objects’ president and CEO Siki Giunta said the rapid adoption of
  (tags: ManagedObjects virtualization strategy business-service-management BSM)
• SLA Management Vendor Digital Fuel Wins Service Excellence Award from O2
  O2 awards Digital Fuel its Vendor Quality Service Award, measured by key performance indicators of service delivery and performance SAN MATEO, Calif. (PRWEB) December 4, 2006 — Digital Fuel, the leader in Business Service Management, today announced that
  (tags: DigitalFuel SLM SLA business-service-management bsm)

• HandySoft Releases Business Activity Monitoring App for Manufacturing
  HandySoft Global, a provider of business process management (BPM) solutions, has released its BizFlow Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) solution, providing a dashboard-driven solution intended to allow manufacturing executives to track key performance in
  (tags: HandySoft Business-Activity-Monitoring BAM dashboard)
• Workflow Software and Business Process Management (BPM) Software by HandySoft
  HandySoft Global Corporation is the premier provider of enterprise solutions that automate and monitor business processes; capture and enforce best practices; ensure regulatory compliance; and reduce risk. With BizFlow, our award-winning business process
  (tags: HandySoft BPM Business-Activity-Monitoring BAM)