2 Key Capabilities and Features

Oracle Virtualization

Virtualization is a powerful method of maximizing the utilization of systems. You can virtualize operating systems or hardware platforms. Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center enables you to discover, provision, update, monitor, and manage the virtual systems, as if they were physical assets.

New in This Release

In addition to Oracle Solaris Zones and Oracle VM Server for SPARC, Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center now works with Oracle VM Manager to manage Oracle VM Server for x86 virtual systems. Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center can discover existing Oracle VM Manager instances. After discovery, you can manage these virtual systems from either the Oracle VM Manager user interface or from the Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center user interface.

Virtual Datacenter

New In This Release

Virtual data centers extend server pools to support isolated, secure, custom, and tuned environments for end-user accounts. Virtual datacenters are designed to drive policy-based use of resources. When the Enterprise Controller is installed on an Oracle Solaris 11 system, Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center can create and manage virtual datacenters.

From a virtual datacenter user account, you run applications that rely on the resources allocated to the virtual datacenter. You can perform operations within the virtual datacenter from the user interface or you can use the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center's IaaS web service provides an API and CLI for managing the physical or virtual resources in the virtual datacenter. You can use the IaaS web service to perform the following tasks:

• Create, update, and delete the templates for creating virtual servers.

• Create and manage virtual servers.

• Manage block storage in an elastic, on-demand way.

• Maintain virtual networks for security.

• Manage access to individual virtual servers using key pairs.

• Register server templates created in Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder.

Oracle Engineered Systems

New In This Release

Oracle Engineered Systems are hardware and software integrated systems that are designed for a specific enterprise purpose. The cost and complexity of the IT infrastructures is reduced and productivity and performance is increased. Oracle Engineered Systems are delivered with a dedicated customized instance of Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center to do the following:

• Discover all components of the Engineered System and provides a view of the full rack. Unify the management of servers, storage, and network fabric.

• Simplify the management of the virtual infrastructure.

• Monitor and maintain all assets and their components throughout their life cycle: servers, switches, operating systems, ZFS storage arrays, and all firmware and software.

• Connect to My Oracle Support to handle automatic service requests (ASR) and incident resolution.

Oracle Solaris 11

New In This Release

Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center supports Oracle Solaris 11 throughout its life cycle: provisioning, updating, managing boot environments, monitoring, and gathering resource utilization data.

The Oracle Solaris 11 Image Packaging System (IPS) Repository is one of the Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center's Software Libraries. You can perform basic management tasks on the IPS and use the data in the IPS for auto-install, provisioning, and update operations.

The following IPS operations are supported:

• Mirroring the repository on the Enterprise Controller and Proxy Controller

• Configuring the IPS software libraries

• Associating proxy IPS libraries to your managed Oracle Solaris 11 systems

• Viewing IPS software repository content

• Viewing additional IPS library types, which enables support for managing boot images and auto install scripts

• Updating IPS packages in the library

• Operating system compliance reporting

Information about both Oracle Solaris 11 and Oracle Solaris 10 boot environments is displayed and reported in a similar way:

• OS View is a table of all boot environments.

• Compliance reports and comparisons include boot environments.

The Automated Installer for Oracle Solaris 11 is integrated with the provisioning deployment plans. This feature requires that both the Enterprise Controller and a Proxy Controller use Oracle Solaris 11 so that the Proxy Controller can retrieve the IPS image from the Enterprise Controller's IPS repository.

Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center also supports SPARC WAN boot. This method becomes the default action when it is applicable.

Storage Resources

New In This Release

As in the previous version, storage libraries support virtualization hosts. However, they are now organized into the following categories:

• Block storage libraries contain groups of Logical Unit Numbers (LUNs) that you can associate with server pools, Oracle VM Server for SPARC and Oracle VM Server for x86, and global zones to store their data.

• File system storage libraries, whether local or shared, store virtual images and data.

The previous version's libraries that were called Fibre Channel storage are now called Block Libraries. In addition to Fibre Channel LUNs, iSCSI LUNs are now supported.

Network Resources

New In This Release

Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center now manages Layer 2 and Layer 3 network fabrics. Through integration with Oracle network switches, the software controls both physical and logical fabrics used in data centers. New features include management of ports, private networks, and InfiniBand partitions and Ethernet VLANs.

All managed networks now reside in a container called a network domain. Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center provides one network domain called the Default Network Domain. All existing managed networks are in this network domain and any new networks you create are in this domain. However, for virtual datacenters, you create a new network domain and then you re-assign a managed network from the Default network domain to the new network domain.

Oracle Solaris Zones and Virtual NICs

Oracle Solaris Zones consolidate NIC ports into a virtual NIC. Instead of each virtual host having a dedicated physical NIC, the NIC can be shared by several zones, at the threshold that each one needs.

Figure 2-1 Before and After Consolidation of NIC Ports

Description of "Figure 2-1 Before and After Consolidation of NIC Ports"

Command Line Interface

The Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center Command Line Interface (CLI) is an alternative to the standard user interface for Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center. The CLI can perform many, but not all, of the actions of the standard user interface.

New In This Release

To support deployment plans, two modes have been added. The deploy mode specifies the contents of the plan. The deploy-setup mode identifies the plan and the plan's target. Other modes have been enhanced.

Extensive Monitoring

The software is designed to make it easy to monitor and manage a large numbers of assets from a single console. Monitoring profiles and default policies are enabled as soon as assets are managed. You can track system-defined parameters for hardware power consumption, hardware status (temperature, fan speed, and voltage), and key statistics for operating systems such as utilization, load, CPU, and memory. An administrator can adjust the thresholds that trigger alerts for different severity levels (Critical, Warning, or Informational) based on your organization's policies, or disable rules and alert conditions.

An operating system asset's performance and status are displayed in charts, reports, and utilization details. Data is available for up to 6 months to aid in trend analysis. You can display charts for a group of operating systems or an individual operating system. Utilization details include the top five consumers. You can see details, such as CPU and memory usage, for a specific process.

New In This Release

Monitoring improvements include:

• Improved error detection for server hardware

• Fault management analysis for hardware faults.

• Agentless monitoring for operating system assets

When you change a monitoring policy, the change is applied to all assets that are associated with that policy.

For operating systems, the Utilization tab is now called OS Analytics and includes enhanced utilization monitoring for Oracle Solaris and Linux operating systems and provides the data to analyze physical and virtual behavior of an operating system, to improve performance, and to diagnose and correct incidents.The following data is collected:

• CPU Utilization

• Memory Utilization

• Network Utilization

• File System Utilization

• System Load

Asset Types

The management of assets is now broader and deeper. This version of the Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center software reports BIOS configuration for x86 platforms, and firmware provisioning for racks, switches, power distribution units, and storage appliances. Oracle Solaris Zones and Oracle VM Server for SPARC that were created outside of the product software's management can now be managed. In addition to the asset types of previous versions, Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center can now manage the following physical and virtual assets.

New In This Release

• SPARC T-4

• SPARC Enterprise M4000

• Oracle 10GigE and InfiniBand switches

• Cisco switch embedded in Engineered systems

• Exalogic Elastic Cloud X2-2 Hardware

• Sun Rack II

• Power Distribution Unit

• Switch ports

• Service processors

• Operating systems

• Virtual datacenter

• Oracle VM Server for x86

• Virtual network domain

Users and Roles

New In This Release

More types of roles have been added to the software. These roles give you fine control of the actions that each user can take and the assets that each user can view.

The user experience can be customized for each user and role. The starting view after log in, the timeout interval, and refresh interval can be changed. An administrator can modify the available views or actions, based on roles.

You can now add remote directory servers to Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center and import their user and role data.

Database Support

New In This Release

Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center can now store product data in an embedded or customer-managed Oracle Database Enterprise Edition database. You can set up a database specifically for the Enterprise Controller, or use an existing database that is accessible by the Enterprise Controller.

High Availability

New In This Release

Support for high availability using Oracle Clusterware has been added. You can set up multiple Enterprise Controller nodes and fail over to prevent downtime.

High Availability has also been implemented at the Proxy Controller level. If a Proxy Controller fails, you have the option to migrate assets from the failed Proxy Controller to another Proxy Controller on the same network.

Automatic Service Requests

New In This Release

You can configure Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center to generate automatic service requests for some assets. When a hardware fault occurs with an asset, a service request is generated using the credentials and contact information you provided for the asset.

Asset Discovery and Management

Discovery of the servers, storage devices, operating systems, and virtual systems in your data center uses one of several standard protocols, including SSH, IPMI, Telnet, and SNMP. You can also use discover assets by their service tags.

After assets are discovered, they are managed assets and are registered in Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center's database. In some cases, Agent Controller software is installed so the asset can be provisioned, monitored, and its firmware and operating system can be updated.

Managed assets are displayed in a hierarchy in one pane of the user interface and are also added to one or more groups based on the asset type. Groups are administrative structures that organize assets so that you can locate an asset quickly and perform operations on all assets of the same type. An asset can belong to multiple groups.

Groups enable you to quickly locate and view assets of a specific type. You can take action on groups, such as running compliance checks on all assets in the group, changing monitoring thresholds and updating discovery credentials. The Services group and subgroups contain all assets organized by the actions for which they can be targets. For example, the OS Update group contains all operating systems that can be updated.

New In This Release

Each discovery method now gives you the option of also managing the discovered assets.

You can discover assets by using specific criteria, by searching for service tags, or by specifying server information.

• Add Assets Using Discovery Profiles - This option uses a discovery profile, which specifies the type of asset and the host names or IP addresses to target.

• Find Assets - This option lets you perform a Service Tag discovery, then provide credentials for the discovered assets.

Operating systems can now be managed with or without an Agent Controller. When you manage an operating system, you choose whether it is managed with or without an Agent Controller.

The set of deployment plans has been increased to include profiles and plans for Sun ZFS Storage Appliances, Alternate Boot Environments, BIOS Configuration, Oracle VM Server for x86 virtual machines, Oracle Solaris Zones, and Discovery profiles.

Automated Provisioning

Provisioning a complex data center is a daunting task that can be repetitious, inconsistent, and error-prone. Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center facilitates firmware and operating system provisioning using a combination of image libraries, profiles, and deployment plans. You can maintain a library of golden images on the Enterprise Controller and use the profiles and plans to control how, when, and where the images are applied. A user with Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center administrator privileges can manage a library of firmware and operating system images and use profiles to establish controls for how and when the images are applied.

A profile is a template or script that defines deployment and configuration requirements. Use profiles to enforce consistency in tasks, such as configuring hardware assets, deploying firmware, provisioning operating systems, and updating Oracle Solaris and Linux operating systems. With profiles, you can consistently define what is allowed, and not allowed, to be installed on a system and enable images to be applied consistently across one or more data centers.

To provide greater automation, you can use deployment plans to define the sequence of operations or steps that must be performed to deploy an asset, the profiles to be used, and the target systems or hosts. When you use profiles as a step in a deployment plan with multiple targets, you can configure many assets simultaneously.

Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center provides a comprehensive set of templates for all assets, including the virtualization platforms and logical domains. Deployment templates contain the basic building blocks that you can use to create your customized plans.

Managing the Update Process

Updating operating systems can be a complex, time-consuming, and unpredictable process. You can encounter a seemingly never-ending list of dependencies which you must review for warnings, conflicts, and conditions.

Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center is designed to reduce the complexity of updating a large number of diverse operating systems, standardize the patch installation process, minimize downtime, track changes, and automate patching without user interaction. You control the update process, the level of automation, the scheduling, and the number of concurrent updates. You can apply customized controls for one system or a group of systems and schedule the updates to deploy during periods of low usage.

Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center supports update management for Oracle Solaris, Linux, and Microsoft Windows operating systems.For enterprise-level users, using Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center to update your operating systems offers several key advantages:

• Role-based update permissions – Restrict update capabilities to designated users.

• Custom update policies and profiles – Define which patches to install, patch dependencies, and the level of user interaction. Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center provides predefined update profiles apart from which you can create your own customized profiles and policies.

• Update simulations – Identify the required updates and choose whether to download updates in preparation for the actual deployment.

• Job scheduling – Schedule when to run an update simulation or update job. You can run it immediately, define a start day and time, or create a recurring schedule.

• Compliance and update reports – Generate a variety of compliance and other update reports to know the state of your operating system patch levels. You can use the report output to run a new operating system update job.

• Version control and rollback – A snapshot, known as a system catalog, is automatically taken and saved before an operating system update is performed. You can use the system catalog to revert back to a previous version.

• Variety of methods to detect and deploy updates – The Enterprise Controller obtains information about latest updates from the Knowledge Base and operating system vendor sites. You can deploy updates through the update profiles and policies, reports, and system catalogs.

The simulation feature enables you to test update dependencies by simulating an update job before you perform an actual update. You can manage different patching conditions that exist for installing a patch and keep track of the patching conditions. You can run an update simulation on Linux and Oracle Solaris hosts to identify the updates that apply and download updates in preparation for the actual deployment. By running a simulation, you can determine the outcome of the update job and adjust the update policies and procedures for the update before scheduling an operating system update job. You can deploy the update to individual systems or a group of systems simultaneously. This approach adds predictability and consistency in the status of your operating systems.

Dynamic Incident Management

Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center uses a help desk approach to managing incidents. When an incident is detected, it appears as a Critical, Warning or Informational alert in the Unassigned Incident queue in the Message Center. You can configure the software to send you notification of an incident to your e-mail address or pager. You can receive notification of all incidents, or filter to receive e-mail or pager notification based on the incident severity.

Use the Message Center to view unassigned incidents, incidents assigned to you, and incidents assigned to others. From this page, an administrator can assign the incident to an authorized user and then monitor the status and resolution. The following figure shows the Unassigned Incidents display in the Message Center, including the composition of the severity levels, a table of incidents, by category and severity, and a detail section.

Figure 2-2 Unassigned Incidents in the Message Center

Description of "Figure 2-2 Unassigned Incidents in the Message Center"

You can highlight an incident in the detail section to view the incident, any associated annotations, comments, or suggested actions. A variety of annotation options enable you to provide status updates, notes, or a suggested action. Depending on your permission level, you can add, edit, or remove annotations for an incident instance.

More sophisticated annotation options enable authorized users to add annotations to an Incidents Knowledge Base for a specific incident and asset type and associate annotations with an operational plan. This functionality enables you to provide a resolution or an automated response when an incident of this type occurs on an asset.

If an incident on a supported system requires Oracle support, you can file a service request from this page. In addition, you can view the status of service requests submitted through this UI.

Comprehensive Reports

Reports provide you with insight into all phases of the asset life cycle. You can gather more detailed information about job history, firmware, operating system updates, and then export that information to CSV or PDF output. Incident reports export to HTML.

You can create the following reports in Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center:

• Incident

• Firmware Compliance

• Update

• Server Provisioning

• Hardware Configuration

• OS Analytics

• Virtualization Analytics