EMC ControlCenter

Alerts, Data Collection Policies and User Administration

Summary:

Get familiarize with the management of Alerts, Data Collection Policies and User administration within EMC ControlCenter.

      1.            Login to the EMC ControlCenter Console

      2.            Alert Management

a)     Display all the active alerts for the objects managed by the EMC ControlCenter console:

(1)  Click on the “All Alerts” button near the top right corner of the console window. The Alerts can be sorted by any of the column headings. Click on the heading of the “Object Name” column to sort the alerts by the managed object to which they apply.

(2)  List the active alerts for your assigned Host and the Symmetrix to which it is attached.

(3)  An alternate method to get the active alerts for a managed object: Clear all the entities from the target panel by clicking on the “Eraser Button.” make sure the View is set to “Alerts” by clicking on the “Alerts” button in the short cut bar. Then click and drag your assigned host from the tree to the target panel. The active alerts for the host should be the same as the ones you listed in the previous step.

(4)  What do these alerts mean? You can get extensive online help.  Click in the message area of an active alert and then right-click and choose Alerts  -> Help. Check the on-line help for a host active alert and a Symmetrix active alert.

(5)  Clearing an active alert from the active alert display. You can choose to clear the alert from the Console that you are currently working on for all Console users. Pick one of the active alerts for your host. Click in the message box and then right-click and choose Alerts -> Clear Alert for all Users. This will bring up an Alert Note Window.  Enter a message in this window and click OK.

(6)  Right-click on an alert and choose Alerts -> Notes -> Note…If a note for this alert does not exist, add a new note and click OK. You will now see a paper clip icon displayed in the Note column.

(7)  Select an Object in the alert display, right-click and choose Alerts ->  Notes-> View Related Notes. You can search for related alert notes from this window. This feature can be very helpful in resolving problems that have occurred in the past.

(8)  Right-click on an alert and choose Alerts -> History…The history of this alert including any state changes for example change in severity, as well as any acknowledgement by Console users is displayed.

(9)  New alerts that are not yet acknowledged are displayed in bold letters. Right-click on a new alert and choose acknowledge. Write a meaningful note in the Alert Note field of the Acknowledge Alert window.

(10)                      Alerts can be assigned to other Console users. Right-click on an alert and choose Alerts -> Assign..In the Assign alert window, choose the User from the drop down menu and add a meaningful note. The alert window will now display the name of the user the alert has been assigned to. This feature will help in preventing duplication of efforts.

b)     Editing Alerts:

(1)  Clear all entities on the target panel by clicking on the “Eraser” button.

(2)  Drill down into the Administration Folder in the Object tree. Drill down into Alert Management. You will see four folders:

Alert Definitions – This folder contains all the alerts that have been defined for given EMC ControlCenter installation. Please note that some of these alerts may not be enabled.

Alert Templates – This folder contains templates for all the alerts that could be possibly defined in EMC ControlCenter.

Autofixes – This folder contains pre-defined and user defined “Autofixes” which can deal with alerts automatically.

Management Policies – User defined “Management Policies” to deal with alerts reside here.

(3)  Expand the Alerts Definitions folder then expand “Host agent for Solaris” -> FileSystem -> Space. List the defined alerts.

Is this alert enabled or disabled (Hint a Red “Bell” icon indicates an enabled alert): 

(4)  Right click on the “Percent Free Disk Space_00” alert and choose edit alert. In this exercise we will be just documenting what we see. Please not make any changes to the alert. Document the information that you see on each of the five tabs. Properties, Source, Conditions, Actions and Apply to. At the very top right corner of the Edit Alert window you will see a check box titled “Alert Enabled?”. Click on the Help button to get more help.

Is the Alert Enabled? ________________________

Properties Tab:

Alert Type: 

Last Modified: ____________________________________

Who Modified: ___________________________________

Description: 

Source Tab:

Source: 

Conditions Tab:  

Explain the use of the Before and After columns: ____________________

Actions Tab:

Schedule: _________________

Management Policy: ____________ (You can set up a new management policy by clicking on the New button. This will launch the Mgt Policy editor. Play with the editor, but please do not save the policy.)

Are there any available Autofixes? ______________________________

Apply to Tab:

Is the “Apply this alert to all applicable FileSystem object(s)” checked? _______________. Note that you can choose to apply this alert to all relevant FileSystems (on Solaris hosts in this example) or you can select the FileSystems of interest in your environment. This feature allows you to customize the alert for critical filesystems rather than applying it to all filesystems.

After you have recorded all the information about the Alert please click on the Cancel button to exit without making any changes to the alert.

c)      Creating new alerts: This can be done in two ways.

(1)  By copying an existing alert in the Alerts folder: Right click on an existing alert and chose “Copy As”. This will open up the Alert editor. Make the appropriate changes and click OK. Please consult  your instructor bfore saving the new alert.

(2)  From an Alert Template: Drill down into the Alert Template folder and find the template you want to use. Right click on the template and choose New. This will open up the Alert Editor, enter all the appropriate files and click on OK. Please consult your instructor before saving the new alert.

d)     How to determine if an Alert is Enabled or Disabled: You can determine this in a number of ways, two approaches are listed.

(1)   Drill down in the Alerts folder all the way to an alert. A Red Bell indicates an enabled alert.

(2)  Select Properties from the menu bar and then select Alert Definitions in the Tree Pane. This will display all the defined alerts and the red/gray bell indicates if the alert is active or not.

      3.            Data Collection Policies

a)     Clear all entities from the Target Panel by clicking on the “Eraser” button on the Tree Panel. Switch the Target Panel view to “Policies” by choosing “Policies” from the ControlCenter Administration pull down menu.

b)     Click and drag your assigned host to the Target Panel. The Data collection policy templates that apply to your host will appear on the target panel.  List the Policies, Agents, Status and time of next collection and the schedule (For the schedule look at the Collection policy template in the upper part of the screen).

c)      Clear the Target Panel of all entities. Click and drag the Symmetrix your host is attached to into the Target Panel and record the Collection Policy information for the Symmetrix.

d)     Editing and creating Data Collection Policies: 

(1)  Editing a Data Collection Policy: Right click on a Collection Policy either in the Policy view window or from the ”Policy” folder in the object tree and choose “Edit Policy”.

Right click on the “Host Agent for OS ” > “Discovery_00” policy. This opens up the Edit Policy window. Record the information from the Source, Properties, Actions and Apply to tabs.

Source Tab: ___________________________________

Properties Tab: (Description) _______________________________

Actions Tab: (Schedule) ___________________________________

Apply To Tab: (Selected Objects) _____________________________

Please cancel out of the Policy editor without making changes.

(2)   Creating a new policy: Right click on a Data Collection Policy template and choose “New Policy”. Please consult your instructor prior to creating a new policy. 

      4.            User Administration

a)     Login to ControlCenter as user 5t-ecc1-## (e.g. 5t-ecc1-01). Create a new ControlCenter User. Drill down in to Security Management folder. Right Click in Users and choose new. Create a user called student## (e.g. student01). Exit the console.

b)     Login to ControlCenter as user student## (e.g. student01). This user does not belong to any group nor does this user have any assigned permissions.

c)      Try to perform an SDR operation on a Symmetrix. Drill down into the Arrays folder. Right Click on a Symmetrix, Go to Configure  à SDR …. This operation should fail because of a lack of authorization.

d)     Logout and log back in as 5t-ecc1-##. This user has all privileges. Create a New User Group in the ECC User Group folder. Call this group “STUDENT ## Group”

e)     Create a New Rule by right clicking on the Authorization Rules Tab. Give the “Student ## Group” SDR Permission. Instructor will help you.

f)        Drag student## user into the New ECC Group you created.

g)     Exit console and log back in as student## and try to perform SDR. This operation should succeed.

END of exercise.

Good Luck!