BMC Impact Solutions 7.3 - Getting Started Guide PDF

BMC Impact Solutions
Getting Started Guide
Supporting
BMC Impact Manager 7.3
BMC Impact Event Adapters 7.3
BMC Impact Administration Server 7.3
BMC Impact Explorer 7.3
BMC Impact Publishing Server 7.3
BMC Impact Service Model Editor 7.3
BMC Impact Portal 7.3
February 2009
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BMC Impact Solutions Getting Started Guide
Contents
Chapter 1
Configure and start using the BMC Impact Solutions infrastructure
Infrastructure configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Basic deployment configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Standard deployment configurations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Atrium deployment configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Configuring BMC Impact Manager cells in internationalized environments . . . . . .
Configuring user accounts, roles, groups, and passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Obtaining user accounts for BMC Impact Explorer in the BMC Impact
Administration Server (IAS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Create new account and user for BMC Impact Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Synchronizing user accounts created in BMC Impact Portal with IAS . . . . . . . . .
Changing your BMC Impact Explorer password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Resetting the Oracle password used during installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Configuring Impact Administration server for failover. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Defining primary and secondary BMC Impact Administration servers. . . . . . . .
Defining a failover configuration for the Impact Administration cell. . . . . . . . . .
Creating additional cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Cell naming conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Creating a new cell and its associated Knowledge Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Creating cell-specific configuration files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Registering an additional cell with the BMC Impact Administration server (IAS) . .
Configuring cells to communicate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Configuring cells on the same computer to communicate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Configuring cells on different computers to communicate with other cells or
components, such as BMC Impact Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Configuring high availability cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Setting up BMC Impact Event Adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Post-installation tasks for the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager . . . . . . . .
Enabling and disabling BMC Impact Event Adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Starting and stopping the BMC Impact Event Adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Stopping the BMC Impact Event Adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Starting the BMC Impact Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Registering cells in BMC Impact Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Starting BMC IX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Configuring cell connection properties to BMC Impact Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Specifying ports in cell connection properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Connecting and disconnecting a cell or group of cells from BMC Impact Explorer .
Adding and configuring additional Impact Administration servers in BMC IX . . . .
Setting BMC IAS connection properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Contents
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Viewing cell information from BMC Impact Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Starting or stopping the cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Stopping or starting a cell on UNIX computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Starting or stopping a cell on Windows computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Starting a high availability cell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Creating and managing cell groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Chapter 2
Start monitoring and managing events
61
Accessing the Events view in the BMC Impact Explorer console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Understanding elements of the event list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Determining the state of an event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Understanding event status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Understanding event severity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Understanding event priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Viewing event lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Selecting the type of event list to view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Viewing event details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Viewing related events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Refreshing and freezing the event list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Out-of-the-box event management policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Enabling and disabling out-of-the-box standard event management policies . . 75
Verifying that the policy is running . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Chapter 3
Start service modeling
79
Service modeling overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Launching the BMC Service Model Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Building a service model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Creating service component instances in BMC Impact Service Model Editor . . . 81
Finding existing component instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Assigning components to a SIM cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Defining relationships between component instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Define alias formulas to enable event-to-component associations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Assign components to service schedules (optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Promoting the service model to the BMC Atrium CMDB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
About the publishing process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Before you promote . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Submitting a promotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Verifying promotion status. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Chapter 4
Start monitoring and managing services
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Cross-launching to and from other consoles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

BMC Impact Explorer Services View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Configuring BMC Impact Explorer for the Services View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Monitoring business services in BMC Impact Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Opening an Impact/Cause View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Viewing service component instances through the navigation pane . . . . . . . . . 102
Finding service component instances to view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Viewing information about a service component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Viewing the events associated with a component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Filtering service component instances in the Impact/Cause View by status. . .
Searching for related service components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Searching for the cause of or impact to a service components status . . . . . . . .
Searching for provider and consumer components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Index
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Contents
Figures
Basic event management infrastructure configuration workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Standard event management infrastructure configuration workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Atrium service impact management infrastructure configuration workflow . . . . . . 19
Disconnected cells and cell groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Available Impact Managers list for a user account with administrator permissions 59
Location of elements in the Events view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Events view navigation pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
How event operations affect event state . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Event Sources selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
List of event management policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
History tab showing executed dynamic data enrichment policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Service modeling workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Creating an alias association . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Location of elements in the Services View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Edit Configuration Services View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Edit Configuration Graph Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
BMC Impact Explorer Services View - Impact/Cause View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Services View navigation pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Service component with associated events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Related components cause search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Related components - providers search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Figures
10
Tables
Basic deployment infrastructure configuration procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Standard event management infrastructure configuration procedures . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Atrium service impact management infrastructure configuration procedures . . . . . 19
mcell.dir entries for failover pair of Impact Administration cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
mcxa command options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Cell connection properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
BMC IAS Configuration Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Description of elements in the Events view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Description of elements in the Events view navigation pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Event relations icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Event states resulting from event operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Current operator information in event list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Event status icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Event severity levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Event priority icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Out-of-the-box policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Icons in Objects-to-be-Published pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Description of elements in the Services view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Edit Configuration - Services View display settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Edit Configuration - Graph Views display settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Description of elements in the Services View navigation pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Services View service component information subtabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Tables
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Chapter
Configure and start using the BMC

Impact Solutions infrastructure
1
This chapter provides the information you need to configure the basic infrastructure
required to manage events or services.
This chapter presents the following topics:
Infrastructure configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Configuring BMC Impact Manager cells in internationalized environments. . . . . . .
Configuring user accounts, roles, groups, and passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Configuring Impact Administration server for failover. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Creating additional cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Registering an additional cell with the BMC Impact Administration server (IAS) . .
Configuring cells to communicate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Configuring high availability cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Setting up BMC Impact Event Adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Starting the BMC Impact Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Registering cells in BMC Impact Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Starting BMC IX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Configuring cell connection properties to BMC Impact Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Connecting and disconnecting a cell or group of cells from BMC Impact Explorer .
Adding and configuring additional Impact Administration servers in BMC IX . . . .
Viewing cell information from BMC Impact Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Starting or stopping the cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Creating and managing cell groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 1 Configure and start using the BMC Impact Solutions infrastructure
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Infrastructure configuration
Infrastructure configuration
There are several ways to configure the BMC Impact Solutions infrastructure
components depending on whether you want to manage events or manage services
and which products you want to use with BMC Impact Solutions. Your configuration
tasks depend on which deployment option you selected to installbasic, standard, or
Atrium. (For details on these deployment options, see the BMC Impact Solutions
Planning and Implementation Guide.)
Basic deployment configuration

The foundation of BMC Impact Solutions consists of
s
s
s
s
s
a source event data collector such as,

event adapters
integration products
BMC Impact Manager cell
Knowledge Base
BMC Impact Administration Server
BMC Impact Explorer console
These components provide the basis for event and service monitoring and
management.
Figure 1 on page 15 provides a workflow of the tasks needed to set up these basic
infrastructure components so that you can start monitoring and managing events.
14
Basic deployment configuration
Figure 1
Table 1
Basic event management infrastructure configuration workflow
Basic deployment infrastructure configuration procedures
Procedure
See
Notes
1. Configure cells for international environments.
page 20
Required for non-ascii

environments only
2. Define user accounts, roles, and groups for various components.
page 20
Recommended
3. Configure Impact Administration server for high availability.
page 23
Optional
4. Create additional cells.
page 25
Optional
5. Create cell-specific configuration files.
page 26
Optional
6. Register additional cells with BMC Impact Administration server. page 27
Required if additional cells

are created
7. Configure cells to communicate.
page 28

are created and/or Impact
Portal is used.
8. Configure high availability cells.
page 30
Optional
9. Set up an event source.
page 34
10. Start BMC Impact Explorer.
page 43
15
Standard deployment configurations
Table 1
Basic deployment infrastructure configuration procedures
Procedure
See
Notes
11. Configure additional cells to communicate with BMC Impact

Explorer.
page 45

are created
12. Connect additional cells to BMC Impact Explorer.
page 47

are created
13. Configure BMC Impact Explorer to access multiple BMC Impact

Administration Servers.
page 50
Required if additional
IASs are added
14. View cell information from BMC Impact Explorer.
page 53
15. Start or stop the cell.
page 53
16. Create and manage cell groups.
page 57

The standard deployment configuration allows you to monitor and manage events,
with the added capability of reporting.
Standard event management configuration

Figure 2 on page 17 illustrates the workflow for the standard event management
configuration process. It is very similar to the Basic deployment workflow, but
includes the BMC Impact Portal component and Reporting.
16
Figure 2
Table 2
Standard event management infrastructure configuration workflow
Standard event management infrastructure configuration procedures
Procedure
See
1. Install the BMC Datastore and BMC Impact Portal.
Notes
BMC Impact
Solutions
Installation
Guide
BMC Impact Portal is

required for Reporting
Optional
2. Install Reporting for BMC Service Assurance and BMC Event and BMC Event
Impact Reporting templates.
and Impact
Reporting
Installation,
Configuration,
and User
Guide
page 20
Required for non-ascii

environments only
page 20
page 23
Optional
6. Create additional cells.
page 25
Optional
7. Create cell-specific configuration files.
page 26
Optional
17
Atrium deployment configuration
Table 2
Standard event management infrastructure configuration procedures
Procedure
See
Notes
8. Register additional cells with BMC Impact Administration server. page 27
cells are created
9. Configure cells to communicate.
page 28
cells are created
and/or Impact Portal
is used.
page 30
Optional
11. Set up an event source.
page 34
12. Start the BMC Impact Portal.
page 42
13. Register cells in the BMC Impact Portal.
page 42
14. Start BMC Impact Explorer through the BMC Impact Portal.
page 43
15. Configure additional cells to communicate with BMC Impact

Explorer.
page 45
cells are created
16. Connect additional cells to BMC Impact Explorer.
page 47
cells are created
17. Configure BMC Impact Explorer to access multiple BMC Impact

Administration Servers.
page 50
IASs are added
page 53
page 53
page 57

If you have opted for the Atrium deployment, then you will be using the Atrium
Configuration Management Database (CMDB) as your data repository.
Figure 3 illustrates the workflow for configuring service impact management
infrastructure using the Atrium CMDB.
18
Figure 3
Table 3
Atrium service impact management infrastructure configuration workflow
Atrium service impact management infrastructure configuration procedures
Procedure
See
Notes
1. Install the BMC Datastore and BMC Impact Portal.
BMC Impact
Solutions
Installation
Guide
2. Install Reporting for BMC Service Assurance and BMC Event and
Impact Reporting templates.
BMC Event and Optional

Impact
Reporting
Installation,
Configuration,
and User Guide
page 20
Required for nonascii environments

only
page 23
Optional
page 30
Optional
page 20
7. Start the BMC Impact Portal.
page 42
8. Register cells in the BMC Impact Portal.
page 42
9. Start BMC Impact Explorer through the BMC Impact Portal.
page 43
19
Configuring BMC Impact Manager cells in internationalized environments
Table 3
Atrium service impact management infrastructure configuration procedures
Procedure
See
page 53
page 53
Notes
page 57
Configuring BMC Impact Manager cells in

internationalized environments
To use BMC Impact Manager in non-ASCII environments, you must use UTF-8
encoding for the following files:
s
s
all KB source files

all IM configuration files
These files must be encoded before they are used by the cell. All the other files must
be encoded in the native encoding as set for the environment.
Configuring user accounts, roles, groups, and

passwords
When BMC Impact Explorer (BMC IX), Impact Administration server, and BMC
Impact Portal are installed, a default user account is created. For security reasons,
BMC Software recommends that you create at least one unique user account and then
delete the default account created when the product was installed.
20
Obtaining user accounts for BMC Impact Explorer in the BMC Impact Administration Server (IAS)
Obtaining user accounts for BMC Impact Explorer in the BMC

Impact Administration Server (IAS)
In the IAS configuration, users are assigned to one or more groups. Each group
includes one or more roles. The role determines the predefined permissions that the
user has. Permissions determine which
s
s
s
s
s
BMC IX tab views

cells
events
collectors
service model component objects
that the user can access, view, or edit.

You can set up user accounts by using the BMC Impact Administration server (BMC
IAS) or the Administration tab of BMC Impact Explorer. For details about roles and
groups, see the BMC Impact Solutions Infrastructure Administration Guide.
To obtain a user account for BMC Impact Explorer in the Impact Administration
server
1 From a command line, enter the following command to request a user account in
the IAS:
iadmin -aru
loginId=UserName:password=PassWord:usergroups=UserGroupName1,
UserGroupName2, ...[:description=string]
If you define a user account in the BMC Impact Portal, you can select the
Synchronize Users with IAS function from the Superadmin->Portal tab to synchronize
the Portal users and groups with those of the BMC IAS.
Users are added to the BMC IAS with the default password user.
2 Make the user a member of the Service Administrators group.

For example,
iadmin -aru
loginId=bhave:password=bp0wers:usergroups=Service Administrators
For information about requesting a user account in the BMC IAS, see BMC Impact
Solutions Infrastructure Administration Guide.
21
Create new account and user for BMC Impact Portal
Create new account and user for BMC Impact Portal

This task is necessary only if you are using BMC Impact Portal. For instructions on
creating a new account for the BMC Impact Portal, see the BMC Portal Getting Started
guide.
Synchronizing user accounts created in BMC Impact Portal

with IAS
This task is necessary only if you are using BMC Impact Portal For instructions on
sychronizing BMC Impact Portal user accounts with IAS, see the BMC Impact Portal
online Help.
Changing your BMC Impact Explorer password

To keep your password secure, you should change it periodically.
To change the BMC Impact Explorer password

1 From the menu bar, choose Server => Change Password.
The Change Password dialog box appears.
2 In the Old Password box, enter your current password.

3 In the New Password and Confirm New Password boxes, enter a new password.
4 Click OK.
Your password for the BMC IX logon is changed immediately.
NOTE
If you forget your password, your administrator must clear the encrypted form of your password from the configuration file. The next time that you log on, you will enter a new password, and you will be prompted to confirm it. This operation sets your new password.
In a setup where LDAP authentication is used, administrators must change password from
the LDAP server and not within BMC IX.
22
Resetting the Oracle password used during installation
Resetting the Oracle password used during installation

When you install BMC Remedy AR System, you use the Oracle system password.
After you finish installation, you should change the system password.
Configuring Impact Administration server for

failover
You can configure the Impact Administration server for failover.
Defining primary and secondary BMC Impact Administration

servers
NOTE
At installation, you can choose to install and implement a high availability configuration for
the IAS. If you select to define a failover setup for the Master IAS, the accompanying Impact
Administration cell also is defined as failover automatically.
By default the IAS is configured to work in standalone mode. However, after

installation, you can choose to implement a failover configuration, in which you
define a pair of primary and secondary servers to handle failover situations.
First, you must install another BMC IAS on a second system. Rerun the installation,
and make the appropriate Standard or Master IAS selection for the second system.
Primary and secondary servers must have the same name.
NOTE
If you define a standalone Master IAS as a failover pair, you must also define its
accompanying Impact Administration cell as a failover pair.
23
Defining a failover configuration for the Impact Administration cell
When you define primary and secondary servers, you also define the synchronization
properties for both. The synchronization process updates IAS records and files, such
as the following files:
s
s
s
s
s
user_definitions.xml
group_roles.xml
role_permissions.xml
cmdb.properties
cell_info.list
During synchronization of failover pairs, data is carried from the primary to the
secondary IAS and from the secondary to the primary. Each server of a failover pair
has its own ias.properties and logging configuration files. These files are not
synchronized.
NOTE
To enable synchronization between servers, they must be installed on the same platform:
either all on MS Windows or all on the same UNIX operating system (for example, Solaris to
Solaris, Linux to Linux).
When you execute the iadmin command on a primary or secondary IAS, the change is
reflected on the corresponding secondary or primary IAS after the synchronization
process is complete. To synchronize the servers immediately, use the iadmin -reinit
fullsync | -sync command. See the BMC Impact Solutions Infrastructure Administration
Guide for more information about setting up IAS synchronization properties.
Defining a failover configuration for the Impact

Administration cell
As a general practice, you configure the Impact Administration cell as a failover pair
whenever you configure the Master IAS as an a failover pair. Use this table as a
guideline for changing the respective mcell.dir files of the primary Impact
Administration cell on one host system and the secondary Impact Administration cell
on the second host system:
Table 4
mcell.dir entries for failover pair of Impact Administration cells
Primary IAC on Host 1

cell
cell
24
Admin mc
IAC
mc
Secondary IAC on Host 2

host1:1827 host2:1827
host1:1827 host2:1827
cell
cell
Admin mc
IAC
mc
host1:1827 host2:1827
host1:1827 host2:1827
Creating additional cells
Remember that the primary Impact Administration cell resides on the same host as
the primary Master IAS and the secondary Impact Administration cell resides on the
same host as the secondary Master IAS.
After you define the entries in the mcell.dir files, you must modify the respective
mcell.conf files as you would any normal cell that you are configuring for high
availability. Refer to the BMC Impact Solutions Infrastructure Administration Guide for
more information.
Creating additional cells

When you install BMC Impact Manager on a system, one cell is installed. If you want
to configure a multi-celled environment, then you must create and configure
additional cells. You can create additional cells using the mcrtcell command. You can
only run the mcrtcell command on the local computer where you are creating the
new cell.
Cell naming conventions

Cell names must be unique throughout the enterprise.
WARNING
Cells with identical cell names on different computers within your enterprise will cause
unexpected results.
The cell name cannot contain spaces or special characters. You can use any
alphanumeric string and underscores (_) in a cell name, such as the following:
s
s
s
my_cell
spike12
oracle
Do not give a cell the same name as any item in the MCELL_HOME\etc directory, such
as the KB directory or the mcell.conf, mcell.dir, or mcell.trace files.
Using the mcrtcell command to add cells ensures that the cell names are unique.
25
Creating a new cell and its associated Knowledge Base
TIP
When naming cells, adopt a naming convention for test and production cells that clearly
identifies its purpose. For example, you could assign test cells names that use test as a prefix
or suffix. A clear naming convention is important because in BMC Impact Explorer views
there is no way to distinguish test and production cells other than by the cell name.
Creating a new cell and its associated Knowledge Base

You can create additional cells on a local computer by entering the mcrtcell command
from a command prompt:
mcrtcell -as|-ae|-aa -p PortNumber NewcellName
Option
Description
-aa
creates an Impact Administration cell with an Admin KB
-ae
creates an BMC Event Manager cell
-as
creates a Service Impact Manager cell
-p PortNumber
specifies the cell port number (PortNumber)

Note: The -p option for mcrtcell overrides the common CLI -p option.
NewcellName
specifies the name for the cell being created
Specifying either the -ae or -as option creates a unified Knowledge Base, which
contains the default BEM and SIM KBs (see BMC Impact Solutions Concepts for
information about the unified KB). If you do not specify the -ae, -as, or -aa option,
you create an empty BEM cell.
For a full discussion of the mcrtcell CLI command and all its options, see the BMC
Impact Solutions Infrastructure Administration Guide.
Creating cell-specific configuration files

By default, one set of configuration files is installed during installation of the BMC
Impact Manager. These files are located in the MCELL_HOME\etc directory and
multiple cells on a host can use them. You can also create unique configuration files
for individual instances (cells) if you want the configuration for one or more cells to
be different.
26
Registering an additional cell with the BMC Impact Administration server (IAS)
To create cell-specific configuration files

1 Copy the configuration file that you want to be unique to the
MCELL_HOME\etc\cellName directory. cellName represents the name of the cell.
2 Using a text editor, edit the configuration file and customize it for that cell and
save it.
You can copy and edit any configuration file located in the MCELL_HOME\etc
directory.
3 Either reload the cell configuration or stop and start the cell so that the changes
take affect.
When a cell starts, it searches for configuration files in the
MCELL_HOME\etc\cellName directory. If no configuration file is found, the cell
uses the configuration file in the MCELL_HOME\etc directory. For example, if you
copy the mcell.conf file into the MCELL_HOME\etc\cellName directory and modify
it, the cell reads that mcell.conf file and all other files in the MCELL_HOME\etc
directory. For instructions on how to stop and start a cell, see Starting or stopping
the cell on page 53.
Registering an additional cell with the BMC

Impact Administration server (IAS)
When a BMC Impact Manager cell is installed, it is automatically registered with the
IAS.
However, after you create an additional cell using the mrctcell command as described
in Creating a new cell and its associated Knowledge Base on page 26, you must
register the cell with the Impact Administration server using the iadmin -ac command.
To register an additional cell with the Impact Administration server and the
Impact Administration cell
Access the IMPACT_SOLUTIONS_HOME/server/bin directory and execute the
following command:
iadmin -ac
name=CellName:key=EncryptionKey:primaryHost=PrimaryHostName:primaryPort=
PrimaryPortNumber:failoverHost=FailoverHostName:failoverPort=FailoverPortNumber:
environment=Production|Test:usergroups=*|usergroupname1, usergroupname2...
The primary and failover port numbers should fall in the 1000-65535 range.
27
Configuring cells to communicate
For example:
iadmin -ac
name=sparkles_cell:key=mc:primaryHost=moondog:primaryPort=2008:
failoverHost=suncat:failoverPort=2008:environment=Production:
usergroups=*
The cell is added automatically to the IMPACT_SOLUTIONS_HOME/server/conf

cell_info.list of the Impact Administration Server. It is also automatically added to the
IMPACT_SOLUTIONS_HOME/server/data/admin admin.dir file of the Admin cell,
as in the following example:
cell
cell
cell
moondog_10
mc
Admin
mc
sparkles_cell mc
moondog.bmc.com:1828
moondog.bmc.com:1827
moondog.bmc.com:2008 suncat.bmc.com:2008
In the Event view, you see that the cell you have registered sends a registration event
to the Admin cell.
The cell information is added to the cell_info.list. It is also added to the BMC Atrium
CMDB if the cell is synchronized with BMC Atrium CMDB as defined in the
cmdb.properties.
To ensure that the cell is registered with the IAS, be sure that its mcell.dir file contains
the IAC entry, as in the following example:
cell
IAC
mc
myComputer.adprod.bmc.com:1827
The IAC entry enables event propagation between the cell and the Admin cell that is
part of IAS.
Configuring cells to communicate

Each cell can function as either a complete event management system or as part of a
larger distributed network of cells. After you install a cell, it can run with no
additional configuration; however, it cannot communicate with other cells and some
components, such as the BMC Impact Portal, in a distributed BMC Impact Solutions
network. To enable communication between cells and some clients, you must modify
the mcell.dir file, which is also known as the cell directory file.
You should maintain a master mcell.dir file that contains directory entries for all cells
on a computer. The file must be readable by all cells. As an alternative, make copies of
this file available to all cells. This enables a cell to contact any other cell based on its
cell name.
28
Configuring cells on the same computer to communicate
WARNING
You must maintain each cells mcell.dir file to ensure event propagation between cells and the
ability to connect to the BMC Impact Portal. Ensure that each directory entry is correct and
that every cell has an up-to-date directory file. An error in the mcell.dir file prevents cells
from connecting to each other and to other components, such as the BMC Impact Portal.
Configuring cells on the same computer to communicate

If adding a new cell on the same computer as the existing cell, the mcrtcell command
automatically adds the information for the new cell to the master mcell.dir file found
in the MCELL_HOME\etc directory.
Configuring cells on different computers to communicate

with other cells or components, such as BMC Impact Portal
If you want cells to communicate with other cells or components that are not on the
same computer, you must add the cell information for each cell or component into the
the mcell.dir file for the cell to which you want the other cell to communicate.
For example, you have two computers, computer A and computer B. Cell A is on
computer A and cell B is on computer B. For cells A and B to communicate, you
would have to enter the information for cell A in the mcell.dir file on computer B and
the information for cell B in the mcell.dir file on computer A.
To configure cells to communicate with other cells or components located on

different computers
1 Open the mcell.dir file in a text editor.
The default location is MCELL_HOME\etc.
29
Configuring high availability cells
2 Create line entries using the following format:

cell Name EncryptionKey IpAddress:Port
Attribute
Description
Name
Name is an abstract name for the cell or gateway.portal. These names are not case-sensitive
and may be any alphanumeric string, including underscores (_).
A Portal name is, by convention, the fully qualified host name of the Portal host, prefixed
with bip.
String to be used as part of the key for the encryption of the communication between a cell
and the cell or other component. Default value is 0 (zero).
EncryptionKey
Note: If the string has an odd number of characters, the last character is ignored.
IPAddress/Port
Host name or IP address and port number on which the cell or component is listening.
Default port number for a cell is 1828 and for a Portal is 3783.
3 Save the changes.

4 To make the changes take affect, complete one of the following actions:
Stop and start the cell. For more information, see Starting or stopping the cell on
page 53.
-ORFrom a command prompt, reload the mcell.dir file by entering:
mcontrol -n cell_Name reload dir
5 If you are configuring cells to communicate with other cells, repeat the procedure
to add the original cells information to the new cells mcell.dir file.

For an explanation of how high availability functions in BMC Impact Solutions, see
the BMC Impact Solutions Concepts Guide.
A high availability cell is implemented as two server processes. One of the two server
processes is designated as the primary server, and the other server process is the
secondary server. While installing Impact Manager, if you installed a Primary Cell
Server of a failover pair on one machine and installed a Secondary Cell Server of a
failover pair on another machine, then the default cells created with installation will
be automatically configured for high availability.
30
However, if you want to set up a failover pair on different machines, but did not
select the Primary and Secondary Cell Server options during installation, you must
use the mcrtcell command to create an identical cell on each computer. For example,
if you ran the installation on host1 and installed a primary cell server on that
computer, you must create an additional, identical cell on host2 using the mcrtcell
command.
The highest possible availability for a cell occurs when two server machines are close
to each other with a highly reliable network connection. When the two server
machines are on remote sites, the high availability cell functions more like a Disaster
Recovery system.
WARNING
The primary and secondary servers of a high availability pair must run on two different
logical OS images of the same type. Primary and secondary servers of a high availability pair
running on the same system or running on different operating systems is not supported.
Only one of the two servers should be active at any time.
WARNING
Although it is technically possible to activate both servers, this is not supported. If both
servers are activated, incompatible server states can occur. If the server states are
incompatible, manual intervention is required to resynchronize the primary and secondary
servers. If this situation occurs, see the BMC Impact Solutions Infrastructure Administration
Guide.
It is highly recommended that you disable automatic failover and enable manual failover
when the connection between the primary and secondary server is unreliable. Otherwise,
there is a risk that both primary and secondary servers would be active at the same time when
they cannot communicate with each other. This situation is not supported. If this situation
occurs, see BMC Impact Solutions Infrastructure Administration Guide.
Configuring the primary and secondary cell servers

NOTE
Before configuring primary and secondary cell servers, you should have already followed the
instructions for installing a high availability cell in the BMC Impact Solutions Installation Guide.
To get the same behavior for the primary and for the secondary cell servers, both
should be installed and configured similarly. It is highly recommended that the
Knowledge Bases for both servers are identical. Configuration parameters also
should be set to the same values for both servers, except for the CellDuplicateMode
parameter that indicates whether the server is a primary or a secondary server.
31
To configure a high availability cell, you must complete the following tasks:
1. Specify the primary and secondary server locations for the cell. For instructions,
see To specify the primary and secondary server locations for the cell on page 32.
2. Configure high availability options. For instructions, see To configure high
availability options on page 32.
3. Configure the primary server. For instructions, see To configure the primary
server on page 33.
4. Configure the secondary server. For instructions, see To configure the secondary
server on page 33.
To specify the primary and secondary server locations for the cell
1 On both servers, open the mcell.dir file in a text editor.
cell
CellName
emaNlleC
2 Replace the line for
mc
with:
host1:port1
host2:port2
CellName is the name of the cell created on both servers. host1:port1 is the host
name and port number of the primary server, and host2:port2 is the host name
and port number of the secondary server.

This indicates two locations (host name and port number) for the same cell.
3 Save and close mcell.dir.

To configure high availability options
1 On both servers, open the mcell.conf file in a text editor.
NOTE
Modifying mcell.conf globally modifies all cells. To modify a single cell, ensure that you
modify the configuration file specific to the individual cell.
2 Assign identical values to the following high availability configuration parameters

for both servers:
s
32
CellDuplicateAutoFailOverTo enable automatic failover, set the value to Yes.

To fail over to the secondary cell manually, set the value to No. By default, the
value is Yes.
CellDuplicateAutoSwitchBackTo enable automatic switchback from the

secondary cell to the primary cell, set the value to Yes. To switch back to the
primary cell manually, set the value to No. By default, the value is Yes.
NOTE
Failover and switchback can be configured independently. It is not required to
configure both as manual or both as automatic. For example, you could configure
high availability so that failover is manual, but switchback is automatic.
3 If you have opted for automatic failover, failover timeout values can also be
configured. For more information, see the BMC Impact Solutions Infrastructure
Administration Guide.
4 Save and close mcell.conf.

To configure the primary server
1 On the machine hosting the primary cell server, open the mcell.conf file in a text
editor.
2 Set the value of the CellDuplicateMode parameter to 1.

The primary server is ready to be started. See Starting a high availability cell.
To configure the secondary server

1 On the machine hosting the secondary cell server, open the mcell.conf file in a text
editor.
2 Set the value of the CellDuplicateMode parameter to 2.

3 Save and close mcell.conf.
The secondary server is ready to be started. See Starting a high availability cell.
For details on manually manipulating high availability cells, see the BMC Impact
Solutions Infrastructure Administration Guide.
33
Setting up BMC Impact Event Adapters
Setting up BMC Impact Event Adapters

To monitor events, you must collect source event data using either the BMC Impact
Event Adapters included with BMC Impact Solutions or an integration product that
provides event data for a specific product. See the BMC Impact Solutions Concepts
Guide for a list of possible integration products.
NOTE
This documentation only discusses the BMC Impact Event Adapters, which are included with
BMC Impact Solutions. If you are using an integration product, see the documentation for that
integration product for configuration and usage instructions.
Post-installation tasks for the SNMP Adapter Configuration

Manager
This section describes the post-installation tasks that you must perform after you
have installed the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager.
Enabling the JDK plug-in

1 Open Internet Explorer.
2 Choose Tools => Internet Options.
3 Click the Advanced tab.
4 Under Microsoft VM, select the following options:
s
Java console enabled (requires restart)
JIT compiler for virtual machine enabled (requires restart)
5 Under Java (Sun), select Use JRE 1.6.x_xx for <applet> (requires restart).
NOTE
If Java (Sun) is not visible, the Java plug-in is not installed on the computer. In that case, install
the Java SE Development Kit (JDK) 6 from http://java.sun.com/javase/6/.
34
Post-installation tasks for the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager
Starting the Tomcat server

Perform this procedure if you chose not to automatically start the Tomcat server
during installation of the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager. You must start the
Tomcat server before you can use the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager.
1 At a command prompt, navigate to the installationDirectory\jakarta-tomcat5.0.25\bin directory or the Catalina_Home\bin directory.

Catalina_Home is the path where the Tomcat server is installed.
2 Run the following command:

startup -security
WARNING
You have to restart the Tomcat server each time you modify a configuration file related to the
SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager. Until you restart the Tomcat server, the changes
made to the configuration files are not reflected in the SNMP Adapter Configuration
Manager.
Configuring the Tomcat server

If you did not install the Tomcat server that is bundled with the SNMP Adapter
Configuration Manager, you must manually configure your existing Tomcat server.
1 At the beginning of the Catalina.bat file that is located in the Catalina_Home\bin

directory, add the following line:
SET PATH=Perl_Home\bin;NET_SNMP_EXEC;%PATH%
Perl_Home is the path where Perl is installed. NET_SNMP_EXEC is the Net-SNMP

bin path that you specified when you installed the SNMP Adapter Configuration
Manager (for example, C:\net-snmp\usr\bin).
2 In the startup.bat file that is located in the Catalina_Home\bin directory, set the
JAVA_HOME variable by adding the following line at the beginning of the file:
SET JAVA_HOME=JDK_Home
JDK_Home is the path where the JDK is installed.
35
Post-installation tasks for the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager
3 At the beginning of the Catalina.bat file that is located in the Catalina_Home\bin

directory, add the following lines:
set LOG_PROPERTIES=MCELL_HOME\\etc\\snmpAdapter\\logging.properties
set JAVA_OPTS=%JAVA_OPTS% -Xms128m -Xmx512m
4 In the Catalina.bat file that is located in the Catalina_Home\bin directory, perform

the following actions:
A add the java.util.logging.config.file and the MCELL_HOME system properties for

all the EXECJAVA commands under the doSecurity label by adding the
following lines:
-Djava.util.logging.config.file=%LOG_PROPERTIES%
-DMCELL_HOME=MCELL_HOME
B Ensure that the following java.security.policy system property has been set:.
-Djava.security.policy="%SECURITY_POLICY_FILE%"
EXAMPLE
%_EXECJAVA% %JAVA_OPTS% %CATALINA_OPTS% %DEBUG_OPTS%
-Djava.endorsed.dirs="%JAVA_ENDORSED_DIRS%"
-Djava.util.logging.config.file=%LOG_PROPERTIES%
-DMCELL_HOME="C:\\Program Files\\BMC Software\\MasterCell\\server\\"
-classpath "%CLASSPATH%"
-Djava.security.manager
-Djava.security.policy="%SECURITY_POLICY_FILE%"
-Dcatalina.base="%CATALINA_BASE%"
-Dcatalina.home="%CATALINA_HOME%"
-Djava.io.tmpdir="%CATALINA_TMPDIR%" %MAINCLASS% %CMD_LINE_ARGS%
%ACTION%
5 In the setClasspath.bat file that is located in the Catalina_Home\bin directory, add

the SnmpAdapterClient.jar file to the CLASSPATH variable by adding the following
line:
set
CLASSPATH=%JAVA_HOME%\lib\tools.jar;installationDirectory\lib\SnmpAdapter
Client.jar;%CLASSPATH%
6 In the server.xml file that is located in the Catalina_Home\conf directory, specify the
Connector port and the Server port.
Ensure that the ports you have specified are not being used by any other
application.
36
Enabling and disabling BMC Impact Event Adapters
EXAMPLE
<Server port="8005" shutdown="SHUTDOWN" debug="0">
<Connector port="8080"
maxThreads="150" minSpareThreads="25" maxSpareThreads="75"
enableLookups="false" redirectPort="8443" acceptCount="100"
debug="0" connectionTimeout="20000" maxPostSize="0"
disableUploadTimeout="true" />
7 In the server.xml file that is located in the Catalina_Home\conf directory, set the
value of maxPostSize to 0.
EXAMPLE
<Connector port="8080"
maxThreads="150" minSpareThreads="25" maxSpareThreads="75"
enableLookups="false" redirectPort="8443" acceptCount="100"
debug="0" connectionTimeout="20000" maxPostSize="0"
disableUploadTimeout="true" />
8 At the end of the catalina.policy file that is located in the Catalina_Home\conf

directory, add the contents of the Client_Windows.policy file.
The Client_Windows.policy file is located in the product installation directory.
Stopping the Tomcat server

You must stop and then restart the Tomcat server each time you modify a
configuration file related to the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager. Until you
restart the Tomcat server, the changes made to the configuration files are not reflected
in the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager. You must also stop the Tomcat server
before you uninstall the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager.
1 At a command prompt, navigate to the installationDirectory\jakarta-tomcat5.0.25\bin directory or the Catalina_Home\bin directory.
2 Enter the following command:

shutdown

Before you can start the various BMC Impact Event Adapters (either by starting them
as services or starting the engine manager process), you must define and enable the
Adapter that you want to run in the mcxa.conf file.
37
To enable an Adapter instance

1 In a text editor, open the mcxa.conf file.
This file is located in one of the following directories, depending on your operating
system:
s
s
Windows: MCELL_HOME\etc\
UNIX: MCELL_HOME/etc/
2 In the mcxa.conf file, navigate to the definition of the Adapter instance that you
want to enable.
3 Remove or comment out the word DISABLE from the Adapter definition.
4 Repeat step 3 for each Adapter instance that you want to enable.
5 Save and close the file.
Adapter statuses will change within a minute or two.
To disable an Adapter instance

1 In a text editor, open the mcxa.conf file.
This file is located in one of the following directories, depending on your operating
system:
s
s
Windows: MCELL_HOME\etc\
UNIX: MCELL_HOME/etc/
2 In the mcxa.conf file, navigate to the definition of the Adapter instance that you
want to disable.
3 Add the word DISABLE to the Adapter definition or if DISABLE was commented
out, remove the comment character (# ).
4 Repeat step 3 for each Adapter instance that must be disabled.

5 Save and close the file.
Adapter statuses will change within a minute or two.
38
Starting and stopping the BMC Impact Event Adapters

You can use the following methods to start the various BMC Impact Event Adapters:
s
The Adapters that use the engine manager (LogFile Adapter, SNMP Adapter, and
Perl Eventlog Adapter for Windows) can be started as follows:
On Microsoft Windows computers, you start the engine manager (mxca
process) from the command line or from the Services window.
On UNIX computers, you start the engine manager (mxca) process from the
command line.
For instructions, see Starting the engine manager process from the command
line and Starting the Adapter processes as services on page 41.
The IP Adapters (on Windows and UNIX) can be started and stopped individually
after the primary engine manager process is running. For more information, see
the BMC Impact Solutions Event Adapter User Guide. When running on Microsoft
Windows computers, all Adapters that use the engine manager can be started from
the command line or from the Services window.
Starting the engine manager process from the command

line
At a command prompt, run the mcxa.cmd (Windows) or mcxa.sh (UNIX) executable to
start the engine manager (mcxa) process.
On Windows, the mcxa.cmd command starts the appropriate services. The services
were created during product installation.
Table 5 lists the command options.
Table 5
mcxa command options (part 1 of 2)
Option Description
-c
alternate configuration file

Default: MCELL_HOME\etc\mcxa.conf
-d
Debug (prevents daemonization), available only on UNIX platforms
-h
help
39
Table 5
mcxa command options (part 2 of 2)
Option Description
-n
Send all events to a specific cell

Use this option to specify the cell to which you want to connect. Use one of the
following option formats:
s
Designate a cell name by specifying n cellname.

This format option maps the specified cellname to the host, port, and encryption
key by looking the values up in the mcell.dir file.
Designate a host, port, and encryption key by using n @host:port# key.

The variable host represents either a host name or an IP address value; port
represents the port number value, and key represents the encryption key value.
You can specify the designation to accept n @host:port or -@host and accept
the default values for key(0) and port (1818).
This format uses the specified host, port, and encryption key to connect to the
cell without looking up information in the mcell.dir.
-t
Specifies trace file and/or level, such as 16

Use -T for long headers.
You can make minor changes to the command syntax to modify how debug output
is displayed or stored.
s
Use a single colon (:) in the command to send output to the default trace file,
MCELL_HOME\tmp\Adapters\mcxa.trace.
Example:
mcxa.cmd -t:6
s
s
Use a double colon (::) in the command to display output on-screen (stdout).
Use a single colon (:) in the command to send output to the specified trace file.
Example:
mcxa.cmd -t \tmp\mytracefile.txt:6
will start the engine manager at trace level 6 and use tmp\mytracefile.txt trace
file.
-z
40
displays the Adapter version
Stopping the BMC Impact Event Adapters
NOTE
Command line interface options take priority over options in the mcxa.conf file.
Starting the Adapter processes as services

1 Choose Start => Settings => Control Panel => Administrative Tools => Services.
2 From the list of services, select BMC Impact Event Adapters.
3 From the menu bar, choose Action => Start.
The Adapters are running when the Status column of the Services window
displays Started for the Adapters.
Stopping the BMC Impact Event Adapters

You can stop the Adapters by using one of the following methods:
s
On Windows, stop the BMC Impact Event Adapters service from the Services
window.
This method sends an MC_ADAPTER_STOP event before the Adapters stop.
On UNIX, stop the Adapters by using either the kill command or a shell script,
such as the mcxa script located in etc/init.d.
NOTE
Do not use the kill -9 command to stop the Adapters unless they are in an infinite loop. Use
the regular kill command, instead.
On UNIX or Windows, create a file called mcxa.stop and add it to the

MCELL_HOME/etc/ directory.
When this file is added to the MCELL_HOME/etc/ directory, the Adapters stop.
The contents of the mcxa.stop file are not important. When the Adapter detects the
presence of the file, normally within five seconds, it deletes the file and then stops.
41
Starting the BMC Impact Portal
If you used the -c option with the mcxa.sh command or mcxa.cmd command to
specify a configuration file other than mcxa.conf, the stop file must have the same
primary name as that configuration file, using the .stop extension. For example, if
your Adapters configuration file is adap.conf, name the stop file adap.stop.
NOTE
If you stop and start the BMC Impact Event Adapters service in quick succession, or use the
restart option in the service manager, you might see the following error messages in the BMC
IX console:
Couldn't be an UDP server on port 16
MA: EngineMgr: Couldnt be an UDP server on port 162
If you see these messages, wait a short time until the expected stop messages appear before
restarting the Adapters. For example, with an SNMP Adapter enabled, wait until the
messages BMC Impact Event Adapter stopped and Adapter Snmp (Engine:
MA:ESnmpTrap) stopped by mcxa appear before restarting the BMC Impact Event
Adapters service.
For details on starting and stopping Adapters as well as more advanced

configuration and user tasks, see the BMC Impact Solutions Event Adapters User Guide.
Starting the BMC Impact Portal

This task is required only if you have installed and are planning to use the BMC
Impact Portal. For instructions, see the BMC Portal Getting Started.
Registering cells in BMC Impact Portal

This information is necessary only if you are using the BMC Impact Portal.
Production and test cells must be registered in BMC Impact Portal so that Impact
Portal can access the data defined to cells. Administrators can register a cell by using
the BMC Impact Portal Viewable Impact Managers tab. For information on registering
a cell in BMC Impact Portal, see the online Help or the BMC Portal Getting Started.
If you install BMC IM before you install the BMC Impact Portal on the same
computer, the BMC Impact Portal installation program automatically adds a
bip.hostName entry to the computers mcell.dir file, which subscribes and registers the
Impact Manager to the BMC Impact Portal. The bip.hostName entry identifies the
location and port number of the BMC Impact Portal server to the cell.
42
Starting BMC IX
For BMC IM to recognize the Portal installation, you must restart the cell and then reregister cells with the Portal using the administration page of the BMC Impact Portal.
In the following situations, you must manually add the bip.hostName entry to the
cells mcell.dir file to subscribe the BMC IM to the BMC Impact Portal, restart the cell,
and register the cells with the BMC Impact Portal:
s
s
s
you installed BMC IM on a remote computer, whether the cell is stand-alone or

high-availability
you installed BMC IM after the BMC Impact Portal on the same computer
you want to connect the BMC Impact Portal to additional local or remote BMC IM
instances
For instructions on registering cells in the BMC Impact Portal, see the BMC Portal
Getting Started.
Starting BMC IX
Before you can use BMC IX to view and manage events and/or services, you must
access it in one of the following ways:
s
as a stand-alone console (classic) from the BMC Impact Manager product

installation disk
As a stand-alone console, BMC Impact Explorer can reside on the same host
computer as the BMC Portal or the BMC Impact Administration Server (BMC IAS),
or it can reside on another host computer. However, all user validation and
security is managed by the BMC IAS.
as a Java Web Start application from the BMC Impact Portal

As a Java Web Start application, after BMC Impact Explorer is deployed on your
local desktop, you can launch it from
the local desktop icon
a local startup menu
the Java Web Start Application Manager on your local host computer
from the BMC Portal Configure tab as a task
User authentication and security are managed centrally by the BMC Impact
Administration server. To launch BMC Impact Explorer you must connect to the
BMC Impact Administration server. The BMC Impact Manager cells to which you
will connect are configured in the BMC Impact Administration server by the system
administrator.
43
Starting BMC IX
Before you begin

From the administrator responsible for the BMC Impact Portal or the IAS, obtain
s
a valid user ID for an existing account on the authentication server
the name of the production or test cell where the events and/or services are
defined
the host name and port number for each IAS to which you will connect
NOTE
BMC Software recommends that you have only one BMC Portal account for BMC IX and that
all BMC IX users are members of that account.
To start BMC Impact Explorer as a stand-alone application

1 Access the product as follows, depending on your operating system:
s
For Microsoft Windows, choose

Start => Programs => BMC Software => BMC Impact Explorer.
For UNIX, access the opt/bmc/Impact/console directory and at the command

prompt enter: ./console.sh
The BMC Impact Explorer splash screen is displayed, and then the Logon dialog
box is displayed.
2 In Username, enter your logon ID.

3 In Password, enter your password.
4 From Server, select the Impact Administration server to which you want to
connect.
NOTE
If the BMC IAS that you select from the Servers list is down and that BMC IAS is
configured for failover capability, BMC IX automatically logs you on to the secondary
server configured for this BMC IAS.
You define additional Impact Administration servers in the Edit Configuration

dialog box after you initially sign on to BMC IX. For instructions, see Adding and
configuring additional Impact Administration servers in BMC IX on page 50.
5 Click OK to close the Logon dialog box and start BMC IX.
44
Configuring cell connection properties to BMC Impact Explorer
Configuring cell connection properties to BMC

Impact Explorer
The first cell that you install is connected automatically to the BMC Impact Explorer.
If you create additional cells, the connection between BMC IX and each additional cell
must be configured.
To configure cell connection properties

1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Configuration.
The Edit Configuration dialog box is displayed.
2 Click the Impact Managers subtab.

3 Select a cell or cell group.
4 If necessary, click Advanced to display the Cell Properties section of the dialog box.
NOTE
If you select a cell group, changes are applied to all the cells contained in the cell group. If you
select a single cell, changes are applied only to the individual cell.
5 Use Table 6 to set cell connection properties as required.

Table 6
Cell connection properties
Property
Description
Name
displays the name of the cell whose properties you are changing
Primary Host
displays the name of the primary host computer where the cell is installed
Port
displays the port number the cell uses to connect to the primary host computer
Secondary Host
displays the name of the secondary host computer if one has been installed and
configured to provide failover capabilities for the primary host
Port
displays the port number the cell uses to connect to the secondary host computer
Timeout
specifies the length of time the console waits to receive data from the cell; default is 30
seconds
BMC IX saves any negative Timeout values that you type as positive values.
Refresh Freq
sets the time interval between polls of the cell; default is 60 seconds
BMC IX saves any negative Refresh Freq values that you type as positive values.
45
Configuring cell connection properties to BMC Impact Explorer
Table 6
Cell connection properties
Property
Description
Attempts
sets the number of times the console attempts to connect to a cell; default is 10
BMC IX saves any negative Attempts values that you type as positive values.
Connect Freq
time interval between connection attempts; default is 5 seconds

BMC IX saves any negative Connect Freq values that you type as positive values.
Encrypted Mode enables and disables encryption of data between the console and the cell; default is
enabled (selected)
Auto Connect
enables and disables automatic connection to the cell at logon; default is disabled (cleared)
Auto Switch
enables and disables automatic and continuous switching of the connection from the
backup cell to the primary cell after failover, using the value set in Connect Freq as the
interval; default is disabled
Use Port Range
enables and disables using a specified range of local ports (on the console) for establishing
a connection between the console and a cell.
Designating a port range is useful if the console must communicate to a cell through a
firewall with only specific ports available for communication. The console scans through
the specified port range until a port is connected to the cell or the connection fails because
the port range is exhausted.
s
For using port range, once you select the Use Port Range check box, BMC IX
automatically changes the Min Port No. and Max Port No. values to 1.
If you type a value of zero in Min Port No., BMC IX clears the Use Port Range check
box.
If you type a value of zero in Max Port No., BMC IX replaces it with the value of Min
Port No.
If the value of Max Port No. is less than the value of Min Port No., BMC IX changes
the value of Max Port No. to that of Min Port No.
Min Port No.
specifies the lower limit of the port range
Max Port No.
specifies the upper limit of the port range
Auto Bind
enables and disables the automatic connection attempt of the console to the first network
card it encounters. Clear this option to bind to a specific IP address.
If only one network card exists, ensure that Auto Bind is selected. See Specifying ports in
cell connection properties on page 47 for additional information.
IP Address
46
specifies the IP address assigned to the local network card to which the console connects;
available only if Auto Bind is cleared
Specifying ports in cell connection properties
Specifying ports in cell connection properties

The following circumstances require that you provide more specific information
about communications between the console and the cell:
s
s
s
the presence of a network interface card (NIC) between the console and the cell
the presence of a firewall between the console and the cell
using a multi-homed computer for the console
In these circumstances, you must select Use Port Range and specify the limits of the
port range and then select either Auto Bind or a particular IP address.
The Auto Bind option configures the console to connect to an NIC before it can
connect to a cell. If you specify no particular NIC, the console automatically attempts
to connect to the first NIC it encounters.
On a multi-homed computer, you can specify the NIC by selecting the IP address that
the card is using from the IP Address drop-down list box. If Auto Bind is not enabled,
you must specify a port range for the network card to which the console binds.
NOTE
If the console is running on a computer that is acting as a gateway between multiple subnets,
the network card that you bind to must be on the same subnet as the cell to which the console
connects.
Connecting and disconnecting a cell or group

of cells from BMC Impact Explorer
The first cell that you install is automatically connected to BMC Impact Explorer. If
you create additional cells, the connection between each additional cell and BMC
Impact Explorer (IX) must be configured, as described in Configuring cell
connection properties to BMC Impact Explorer on page 45.
After you have created an additional cell and added it to the IX console and before
you can configure or manipulate that cell or access the event or service data for it, you
must connect the console to it. Both unconnected and connected cells are displayed in
the navigation pane. Cells that are not connected display a red X on their cell icon in
the console, as shown in Figure 4:
47
Connecting and disconnecting a cell or group of cells from BMC Impact Explorer
Figure 4
Disconnected cells and cell groups
NOTE
If you enable the Manager Group Status option on the Global tab of the Edit Configuration
dialog box, the cell group icon will indicate that at least one cell is disconnected by showing a
red X on its lower left portion, which makes the icon look the same as if the entire cell group is
disconnected (as shown in the Infrastructure Management group in Figure 4).
A cell may appear to be disconnected from the console for many reasons, including
the following:
s
s
s
s
s
The cell may be down.

The machine hosting the cell may be down.
The BMC IAS component may contain an invalid name or port number.
The cell may have been disconnected.
The cell may have been added to the console but not yet connected.
You may want to disconnect a cell if you no longer want to receive data from that cell.
To connect to an individual cell

1 In the navigation pane in the Events tab or Administration tab, right-click the cell
icon or name.
2 Select Connect from the pop-up menu.

This menu item toggles between Connect and Disconnect, depending on the state of
the cell when you right-click it. The result of your action in the Administration
48
Connecting and disconnecting a cell or group of cells from BMC Impact Explorer
view is reflected in the Events and Services views and the result of your action in
the Events view is reflected in the Administration and Services views.
The red X disappears from the cell icon when you connect to the cell.
To connect to all cells contained in a cell group

1 In the navigation pane, right-click a cell group.
2 Choose Connect All from the pop-up menu.
The red X disappears from the cell group icon when you connect to all the cells
contained in the cell group.
To disconnect from an individual cell

1 In the navigation pane, right-click the cell icon or name.
2 Choose Disconnect from the pop-up menu.
A red X appears in the cell icon to indicate that the cell is disconnected.
NOTE
If Auto Connect is enabled for a cell, the next time you start the console a connection to the
cell is automatically reestablished. For additional information about Auto Connect, see Configuring cell connection properties to BMC Impact Explorer on page 45.
To disconnect from a cell group

1 In the navigation pane, right-click a cell group.
2 Choose Disconnect All from the pop-up menu.
A red X appears on the cell group icon, indicating that all the cells contained in the
cell group are disconnected.
NOTE
If you enable the Manager Group Status option on the Global tab of the Edit Configuration
dialog box, the icon for the disconnected cell group will look the same as the icon for a cell
group in which only some of the cells are disconnected.
49
Adding and configuring additional Impact Administration servers in BMC IX
Adding and configuring additional Impact

Administration servers in BMC IX
During the process of installing BMC Impact Explorer (BMC IX), you specify a BMC
Impact Administration server (IAS) to be used for authentication for BMC IX. If you
want to specify additional BMC Impact Administration servers to be used with a
particular BIX, then you must add those IASs to the authentication list for that BMC
IX.
To add an additional IAS to the list of authentication servers for BMC IX

1 From the BMC IX menu bar, choose Edit => Configuration.
2 Click the Login Servers subtab.

3 In Host, enter the name of the computer that hosts the IAS.
4 In Port, enter the port number for the IAS. The default port is 3084.
5 Click Add to include the server in the list of servers to which you want to connect.
6 Click OK to save the changes and exit the dialog box.
To edit a BMC Impact Administration server connection
The Edit Configuration dialog box appears.
2 Click the Login Servers tab.

3 From the list box, select the BMC IAS that you want to edit.
4 In Host, enter the name of the computer that hosts the BMC IAS component.
5 In Port, enter the port number for the BMC IAS.
6 Click Edit.
7 Click Apply to save the changes, or click OK to save and exit the dialog box.
50
Setting BMC IAS connection properties
To delete a BMC Impact Administration server connection


3 From the list box, select the BMC IAS that you want to remove.
4 Click Remove and click Yes.

In addition to adding and deleting connections in the console configuration, you
must configure the connections themselves, as described in this section. Also, you can
change the order in which the BMC Impact Administration servers that are available
for connection are listed in the Logon dialog box.
To configure a BMC Impact Administration server


3 From the list box, select the BMC IAS to configure.
51
4 Modify any of the BMC IAS configuration parameters listed in Table 7, as needed:
Table 7
BMC IAS Configuration Parameters
Field
Description
Heartbeat Rate
specifies the frequency, in minutes, at which the console sends a signal

to the connected BMC IAS to determine whether the BMC IAS is functioning. The default heartbeat rate is 1.
Enable Port Range specifies the maximum and minimum port number for the console to
use in establishing a connection to a BMC IAS
Designating a port range is useful if the console must communicate to a
cell through a firewall with only specific ports available for communication. The console scans through the ports in the specified range until
a port, local to the console, is connected to the cell or fails because the
port range is exhausted.
Auto Reconnect
enables and disables automatic attempts to reconnect to the BMC IAS

when the connection has been dropped
The console will attempt to reconnect using the interval specified in the
Frequency and Number of Retries fields.
To reorder the BMC Impact Administration server list

3 From the list box, select the BMC IAS that you want to move.
4 Click the up arrow to move it up, or the down arrow to move it down.
5 Click OK.
52
Viewing cell information from BMC Impact Explorer
Viewing cell information from BMC Impact

Explorer
Use the View Manager Info menu command to view information about and the
metrics associated with the cell selected.
To view cell information

1 Right-click a cell.
2 Choose View Manager Info.
The Impact Manager Info dialog box appears with cell property information
presented on the Info tab.
3 To refresh the information in the Metrics tab of this dialog box, click Refresh in the
top right corner of the tab.
Starting or stopping the cell

The installation process automatically starts a cells service. However, as changes are
made to a cells configuration files or KB, you must stop and start the cell to accept the
changes.
Stopping or starting a cell on UNIX computers

By default, a cell runs as a UNIX daemon. You override this behavior with a
command line option, not a configuration file parameter.
Before you begin

A cell can be installed as owned by any user. Only users with execute permission on
the mcell binary can start the cell. All users with execute permission on the mkill or
mcontrol CLIs can stop the cell. However, if a user without root permissions attempts
to start the process, the following issues must be considered.
s
External actions run as the user ID that started the process. Those actions are
defined in %MCELL_HOME%\etc\CellName\kb\bin on Windows platforms and in
$MCELL_HOME/etc/CellName/kb/bin on UNIX platforms.
53
Starting or stopping a cell on Windows computers
Actions are defined in .mrl files located in the kb/bin directory and listed in .load in
that directory. The action programs or scripts can be located in the kb/bin/A or
kb/bin/Arch directory. They can also be located anywhere else on the system.
s
The user who starts the cell must be able to write to log and trace files in the
directories specified through configuration parameters SystemLogDirName and
SystemTmpDirName. Default values for these are the log and tmp subdirectories of
MCELL_HOME.
To stop a cell on UNIX computers

To stop a cell, use the mkill command located in the MCELL_HOME/bin directory
with the name of the cell you want to stop. If no cell name is provided, mkill attempts
to stop a local cell whose name is the same as the local host name. For more
information about the mkill command, see the BMC Impact Solutions Infrastructure
Administration Guide.
To start a cell on UNIX computers

To start a cell, use the following command:
mcell -n cellName
It is possible to start a cell without specifying a cell name. If you start a cell without
any options, the command attempts to start a cell with the same name as the host.
You must set the MCELL_HOME environment variable to point to the directory in
which the cell is installed. The home directory also can be indicated using the option
-l followed by the path to the home, instead of defining it in the environment. To
learn more about using the mcell command, see the BMC Impact Solutions
Infrastructure Administration Guide.
NOTE
You can change all configurable cell parameters by making changes in the configuration file,
mcell.conf. When you start the cell, the cell looks for the configuration file in the default
location, MCELL_HOME\etc\cellName\mcell.conf. Use the -c option with the mcell
command to have the cell look for the configuration file in a specified location.

On Windows computers, you can stop a cell by using one of the following options:
s
s
s
54
Windows Services
the net stop command
the mkill command
On Windows computers, you can start a cell by using one of the following options:
s
s
Windows Services
the net start command from a command prompt window
To stop a cell on Windows platforms by using services

1 Open the Services window by choosing Start => Settings => Control
Panel => Administrative Tools => Services.
2 Select mcell_cellName.
3 Click Stop Service.
To stop a cell on Windows platforms by using the net stop command
1 Select Start => Programs => Command Prompt.
2 Enter net stop mcell_cellName.
To stop a cell on Windows platforms by using the mkill command
2 Enter mkill -n cellName.
NOTE
If you do not use the -n option when stopping a cell, the default cell, named hostName, is
stopped.
To start a cell on Windows platforms by using services

1 Open the Services window by choosing Start => Settings => Control Panel =>
Administrative Tools => Services.
2 Select mcell_cellName.
3 Click Start Services.
55
Starting a high availability cell
To start a cell on Windows platforms by using the net start command

2 Enter the following command:
net start mcell_cellName.
NOTE
When used without the -d option, mcell contacts the Service Control Manager to start itself as
a service. It uses mcell_%N as a service name. %N is the cell name as specified by the -n option.
Without the -n option, the default cell name is the hostname.
Starting a high availability cell

Both primary and secondary servers should be started almost at the same time. The
preferred order is to start the secondary server first, and then immediately start the
primary.
WARNING
s
If the primary server is started and terminates before the secondary server is started, the
state of primary and secondary servers may become unsynchronized. If this occurs, you
must manually synchronize the servers before restarting either of them.
Do not start a high availability cell using any of the mcell -i initialization options (for
example, -ia, -id or other variants). This could cause the primary and secondary servers
to become unsynchronized.
If the servers become unsynchronized for either of these reasons, see the BMC Impact Solutions
Infrastructure Administration Guide for instructions on how to manually synchronize the
servers.
To re-initialize a high availability cell

1 Shut down the primary and secondary servers for the cell.
2 Erase the cell's entire log directory entirely on both servers.
3 Restart the secondary cell server and then the primary cell server without using
any of the mcell -i options.
56
Creating and managing cell groups

Your access to additional Impact Managers (cells) depends on the access privileges
assigned to you by your administrator. You may be able to add cells to your console
that are not currently displayed in the navigation pane. You can view the available
cells versus the cells already selected for monitoring on the Impact Managers subtab of
the Edit Configuration dialog box in BMC Impact Explorer.
Each cell must belong to a group, so when you add cells to your console, you add
them to a group. A group can contain just one cell, or it can contain multiple cells, and
you can create as many cell groups as you need. Cell groups enable you to organize
cells into manageable units.
By default, three cell groups labeled MyProduction, MyTest and Infrastructure
Management are created during the installation process. If your user account has
operator only permissions, only MyProduction and MyTest are displayed when you
first use the BMC IX console. If your user account has administrator permissions,
Infrastructure Management is also displayed. You can edit and delete these cell groups.
You can create cell groups and name them according to your organizational needs.
For example, you can create a cell group for each of the office locations in your
enterprise. Also, as your environment changes, you might need to change the names
of the cell groups that you create.
To create a new cell group


3 In the Group text box, enter a new group name.
4 Click Add.
The new cell group is added to Selected Impact Managers.
5 Click OK.
The new cell group is displayed in the navigation pane.
57
To change a cell group name


3 From Selected Impact Managers, select a cell group.
4 In Group, enter a new name for the cell group.
5 Click Edit.
The Change Group Name Confirmation dialog box is displayed.
6 Click Yes to accept the name change.

7 Click OK.
To remove a cell group name

3 From Selected Impact Managers, select the group that you want to remove.
4 Click Remove.
The Delete Group confirmation dialog box is displayed.
5 Click Yes to remove the cell group.

6 Click OK.
To add cells to a cell group
58
Available Impact Managers lists all BMC Impact Managers (cells) to which you are
connected, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5
Available Impact Managers list for a user account with administrator

permissions
3 From Available Impact Managers, select the cell that you want to add to the console.
4 From Selected Impact Managers, select the group to which you want to add the cell.
TIP
You can select multiple cells at one time, as follows:
s
To select adjacent cells, select the first cell, hold down the Shift key, and select the last
cell.
To select nonadjacent cells, select a cell, hold down the Ctrl key, and select each of the
other cells.
5 Click the right arrow to move the selected Impact Manager to the selected Impact
Manager group.
TIP
You can also select a cell from Available Impact Managers and drag it to the appropriate
cell group in Selected Impact Managers.
6 Click OK.
The cell that you added is displayed in its cell group in the navigation pane.
59
60
Chapter
Start monitoring and managing

events
2

Accessing the Events view in the BMC Impact Explorer console. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Understanding elements of the event list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Determining the state of an event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Understanding event status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Understanding event severity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Understanding event priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Viewing event lists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Selecting the type of event list to view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Viewing event details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Viewing related events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Refreshing and freezing the event list. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Out-of-the-box event management policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Enabling and disabling out-of-the-box standard event management policies. . .
Verifying that the policy is running . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 2
62
65
66
68
69
70
70
71
72
72
73
74
75
77
61
Accessing the Events view in the BMC Impact Explorer console
Accessing the Events view in the BMC Impact

Explorer console
To access the Events view in the BMC Impact Explorer (BMC IX) console, click the
Events tab. The Events view contains a toolbar, a navigation pane, the event list, and
subtabs containing various types of details about the events that are displayed in the
events list. You can view events for a cell, a collector, a MetaCollector, or an event
group.
Figure 6 identifies and Table 8 describes the main areas of the Events view.
Figure 6
Location of elements in the Events view
1
2
4
5
6
Table 8
Description of elements in the Events view (part 1 of 2)
Name
Description
View Selection tabs
provide access to the Events, Services, and Administration Views
Information Display
Selection tabs
provide access to the available categories of event information such as cells, cell
groups, collectors, MetaCollectors, and event groups
62
Table 8
Description of elements in the Events view (part 2 of 2)
Name
Description
navigation pane
displays cells, cell groups, collectors, MetaCollectors, and event groups in a

hierarchical relationship tree
Event Sources list
provides access to the default filters, which provide variations of the event list:
s
list all events
limit the event list to active, new, closed, or blackout events in the following
categories:
Basic Information: displays the default slots of the class EVENT
Supervisor Information: displays the same slots as Basic Information,
except that action count is replaced by current owner
SMC Information: displays information from the collector
MC_SMC_EVENT that collects all events in which the mc_smc_id slot
contains information
list service model component events in the following categories:

impact events
status history events
For more information, see the BMC Impact Solutions Event Management Guide.
5
Slots
columns that display the status, priority, severity, action count (Occurrences),
event relation, receipt date (Occurred), and message for events
event list
displays the contents of a cell or collector as a list of events with slot information
and filters.
Each line of the list represents one event.
details pane
displays details about the currently selected event in each subtab

For descriptions of each subtab, see the BMC Impact Solutions Event Management
Guide.
Using the navigation pane on the Events tab, you can view cells, cell groups,
collectors, and MetaCollectors in a hierarchical tree, as shown in Figure 7 on page 64
and described in Table 9 on page 64.
Chapter 2
63
Figure 7
Events view navigation pane

1
3
2
5
6
7
8
10
Table 9
Description of elements in the Events view navigation pane (part 1 of 2)
Name
Icon
Description
View Selection
tabs
none
access the Events, Services, or Administration Views
Collectors
subtab
displays the cells, cell groups, and collectors available for viewing
MetaCollectors
subtab
displays the MetaCollectors available for viewing
Event Groups
subtab
displays the event groups available for viewing
cell group icon
identifies a cell group
cell icon
identifies a cell
hierarchy
indicator
indicates existence of a hierarchy below the monitored cell, cell group, or

collector
64
Understanding elements of the event list
Table 9
Description of elements in the Events view navigation pane (part 2 of 2)
Name
Icon
Description
collector icon
identifies a collector
severity level
indicator
identifies by color the highest severity level of the events contained in the
collector (for the configured statuses).
For more information about the severity levels for events, see Table 14 on
page 69.
10 event count
none
displays the number of events contained in the collector and the number of
events that you selected to count.
Understanding elements of the event list

From the event list, you can access the event data collected for the cells contained in
your BMC Impact Manager (BMC IM) environment. Also, you can
s
s
s
s
s
s
select a different view for the event list of a cell or collector

access the specific details collected for an event
perform operations on an event, such as take or decline ownership or reopen
annotate individual or multiple events
explore event relationships
copy and print event data
The event list displays selected event details, including operational status. Each row
in the table shows information for one event. The columns are determined by the type
of information that you select in Event Sources and the slots (event attributes) selected
for display. For example, if you select All Events and Basic Information from the Event
Sources list, the default event list displays the following columns:
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
status
priority
severity
action count (number of remote actions applied to the event)
event relations
receipt date of the event
message associated with the event
Chapter 2
65
Determining the state of an event
The set of slots (columns) presented in the event list is called the slot order. Depending
on your role and access privileges, you can select different slots to see other event
information (and therefore other columns in the event list). When you change the
slots presented, either by adding or removing slots or by rearranging them, you are
changing the slot order. To use a new slot order, you must associate it with a filter.
For instructions, see the BMC Impact Solutions Event Management Guide.
You can click a column heading in the event list to switch between ascending and
descending sort order according to that column. For example, you could display the
events sorted by date, either earliest to latest (ascending order) or newest to oldest
(descending order). You could also display the events sorted by their messages,
which would display them in alphabetical order (ascending order) or reverse
alphabetical order (descending order).
If the event has related events, one of the icons shown in Table 10 on page 66 is
displayed in the event relations column.
Table 10
Icon
Event relations icons

Event relation
Generic
Notification
Incident
iBRSD-related incident errors
You can also customize the display of the event list, as described in the BMC Impact
Solutions Event Management Guide.

The event list displays sufficient information for you to recognize an events current
state quickly. Each events state depends on multiple factors:
s
s
s
severity, reflected in the severity icon and color of the event line
priority, reflected in the priority icon
the last event operation performed on the event, reflected in the status icon
When you perform an event operation on an event, the state of the event changes
according to Table 11.
66
Table 11
Event states resulting from event operations
Event operation performed
Resulting state
Acknowledge Event
Acknowledged
Take Ownership
Assigned
Decline Ownership
Acknowledged
Assign To
Assigned
Close Event
Closed
Reopen Event
Open
Black Out
Blacked Out
Figure 8 on page 67 shows how an event in any state is affected by the operations that
are valid for that current state. The circles represent the event states. Each arrow
represents an action, with the direction of the arrow indicating the flow of the action.
For example, if the event is currently in the Acknowledged Event state, you can
perform a Reopen Event, Close Event, Take Ownership, or Assign To action.
Conversely, for that event to be in the Acknowledged Event state, an Acknowledge
Event or Decline Ownership action must have been taken against it.
Figure 8
How event operations affect event state
A user with a supervisory role (Full Access is the only default supervisory role) can
select Supervisor Information from the secondary menu of the Event Sources list to see
current operator information based on the last event operation applied. This
information is displayed in the mc_owner column in the event list, according to
Table 12.
Chapter 2
67
Understanding event status
Table 12
Current operator information in event list
Last event operation action Current operator information displayed in mc_owner

Take Ownership
logon user ID of the user who took ownership
Assign To
logon user ID of the user to whom the event is assigned
Decline Ownership
none
Close
none
Acknowledge
none
Reopen
none; this operation clears previous information from the event

list
Set Priority
no change to displayed information
Other factors can also affect the information displayed, such as whether an event has
been propagated, abstracted, correlated, or recycled.
Understanding event status

The status of an event provides basic information about the events response activity.
The cell assigns a status value to each event, and then you can change the status by
performing event operations or other actions on the event. Also, the status of the
event can be changed automatically by a rule.
Table 13 lists the icons that are displayed in the event list to represent event status.
Table 13
Icon
Event status icons

Event status
Open
Closed
Acknowledged (ACK)
Assigned
Blackout
The color of the status icon is always the same. However, if you have configured the
Events View to use the severity color for the event line, the color of the icons
background varies with the severity of the event.
68
Understanding event severity
Understanding event severity

Each event has a severity level associated with it that indicates the seriousness of the
event. In combination with status and priority, the severity level indicates the
urgency of the need to take action. For example, a high severity level for an event in
the Closed status is no cause for alarm, but a high severity level for an event in the
Open status and with a priority of 1 indicates an urgent need for action.
The color of each line (row) in the event list table is determined by settings in the
Events View subtab in the Edit Configuration dialog box and by the severity of the
event depicted in the line, as follows:
s
If you selected Line Color Severity in the configuration, the line shows the color
associated with the severity level of the event.
For events that have no severity (statuses Closed and Blackout have no severity
level associated with them), the line has no color (is displayed as white).
If you did not select Line Color Severity, the line has no color (is displayed as
white).
Table 14 lists the default severity levels and colors for the events that appear in the
navigation pane and event list and shows the icons used in the event list.
Table 14
Event severity levels
Color
Icon in Event List
Severity level
red
CRITICAL
dark orange
MAJOR
light orange
MINOR
yellow
WARNING
blue
INFO
green
OK
gray
UNKNOWN
The event with the highest severity level in an event group on the Event Group tab
determines the severity indicator that you see for the event group in the navigation
tree. For example, if one event has a severity of Critical, the event group is displayed
in the navigation tree with a Critical (red) severity indicator.
Chapter 2
69
Understanding event priority
Understanding event priority

In addition to a severity level, each event has a priority level. Distinguishing between
severity and priority helps you to understand which event requires action first.
Table 15 lists the icons that are displayed in the event list to represent event priority.
Table 15
Icon
Event priority icons

Event Priority
Priority 1 (highest)
Priority 2
Priority 3
Priority 4
Priority 5 (lowest)
Viewing event lists

The procedures for viewing events for a cell, a collector, a MetaCollector, and an
event group are similar. They differ in the tab or the tree icon that you select. BMC
Impact Explorer (BMC IX) displays the events for the selected object in the event list
pane.
To view the event list for a cell

1 At the top of the Events navigation pane, click the Collectors tab
2 Expand the hierarchy to locate the cell
whose events you want to display.
3 Click the cell.

To view the event list for a collector
1 At the top of the Events navigation pane, click the Collectors tab
2 Expand the hierarchy to locate the collector
3 Click the collector.
70
whose events you want to display.
Selecting the type of event list to view
To view the event list for a MetaCollector

1 At the top of the Events navigation pane, click the MetaCollectors tab
2 Expand the hierarchy to locate the MetaCollector whose events you want to
display.
3 Click the MetaCollector.

To view the event list for an event group
1 At the top of the Events navigation pane, click the Event Groups tab
2 Expand the hierarchy to locate the event group whose events you want to display.
3 Click the event group.
Selecting the type of event list to view

From the Event Sources list box, you can select different views of the event list,
including events that match specific criteria or the results from a filter, as shown in
Figure 9.
Figure 9
Event Sources selection
Event Sources list box
Available event list views
For more information about filtering, see BMC Impact Solutions Event Management
Guide.
Chapter 2
71
Viewing event details
Viewing event details

From the Events View, you can access various kinds of data for an event. The details
pane provides tabs that categorize the data, as described in BMC Impact Solutions
Event Management Guide. If you hide the details pane, you can access the same
information by double-clicking the event in the event list or by selecting the event and
choosing View => Event Details from the menu bar.
Viewing related events

An event in the event list displays one or more icons when that event has another
event associated with it. The icon that is displayed depends on the type of event to
which it is associated. For example, if the related event is about trouble ticket
information, an icon that represents a trouble ticket is displayed.
You can view related events in the following ways:
s
s
from the events list

from the main menu
To view related events from the events list

1 From the events list, right-click a row.
2 From the menu, choose Views => Related Events.
A list of related events is displayed.
3 Perform one of the following actions:

s
To view one type of related event, select a type.

An event list of the selected type, as denoted by its title, is displayed.
To view all related events, select Show all related events.

All related events are displayed.
NOTE
If you move the cursor over an event relations icon, a summary of the number of related
events by category is displayed briefly.
72
Refreshing and freezing the event list
To view related events from the main menu

1 From the main menu, choose View => Related events.
2 Perform one of the following actions:
s
To view one type of related event, select a type.

An event list of the selected event, as denoted by its title, is displayed.
To view all related events, select Show all related events.

All related events are displayed.
Refreshing and freezing the event list

All of the event sources in the BMC Impact Manager system can generate thousands
of events. You can choose whether to view all of those events as they occur. You can
configure refresh of the event list to occur automatically or manually, and even if you
use the automatic refresh, you can manually refresh at any time to be sure that you
have the most recent data. When you manually refresh the event list, the cell is
queried for any changes in events. The console updates the event list if changes are
present.
Using manual refresh gives you the ability to freeze the event list at an instant.
Freezing the event list can be useful for troubleshooting, in that it prevents the events
of interest from being displaced in the view by new events at each refresh interval.
Instead of being displayed in the event list, new events increment the Pending Events
indicator at the lower right of the event list pane.
To automatically refresh the event list

1 In the Events View, choose Edit => Configuration.
2 In the Edit Configuration dialog box, configure the function and the refresh
interval, as follows:
A On the Global subtab, select Auto Refresh active by default.

B On the Impact Managers subtab, in the advanced option, specify a value in
Refresh Freq (in seconds).
3 On the event list, ensure that Auto Refresh
Chapter 2
is active.
73
Out-of-the-box event management policies
If Auto Refresh is not enabled and active when an event is modified externally from
the console, the event is not updated until you manually refresh the event list.
NOTE
If the cell is extremely busy, the event list may not be refreshed until the cell completes the
current event processing load.
To manually refresh the event list

Use any of the following methods:
s
s
s
From the menu bar, choose View => Refresh.

On the toolbar, click Refresh
.
Press F5.
To freeze the event list

In the upper-left corner of the event list, click Auto Refresh
The auto refresh activity stops. The list updates only when you click Auto Refresh
or Refresh
again.
Out-of-the-box event management policies

Several event management policies are included with the product that enable you to
interactively set up routine event processing quickly. Table 16 lists the out-of-the-box
policies and indicates whether or not each out-of-the-box policy is enabled by default.
Table 16
Out-of-the-box policies (part 1 of 2)
Policy type
Policy name
Description
Enabled?
Closure
PATROL_Portal_Closure
closes previous Portal events for the

same managed object
Yes
Adapter_Start_Stop_Closure
closes previous events for the same

adapter instance
Yes
Client_Stop_Closes_Start
Client Stop events close Client Start

events and then close themselves
Yes
Sample_Component_Based_
Enrichment_Policy
enriches the definition of an event

associated with a component by
assigning selected component slot
definitions to the event slots.
No
Component Based
Enrichment
74
Enabling and disabling out-of-the-box standard event management policies
Table 16
Out-of-the-box policies (part 2 of 2)
Policy type
Policy name
Description
Dynamic Blackout
Dynamic_Blackout
suppresses events that meet a specified No

criteria during a specified time period.
Dynamic Enrichment Location_Enrichment
Enabled?
appends the location of a server to an

event
appends contact information for a
server administrator to an event. For
example, contact information may
include the name of the administrator
for that server and his or her telephone
number.
Service_Contact_Enrichment
No
No
No
PATROL_Message_Translation replaces the text of existing PATROL
event messages with messages that can
be more easily understood by operators
in your enterprise.
Intelligent Incident
Service
Sample_Intelligent_Incident_
Service_Policy
creates Intelligent Incidents in Remedy
No
Notification
BASIC_EMAIL
sends a notification email to a specified No

user or users when selected events
occur
Propagation
Event_Propagation_To_Remedy propagates events to Remedy Helpdesk No

_Help_Desk
Recurrence
Apache_Login_Failed_Repeats
handles repeating Apache Login Failed No

events
Patrol_Portal_DeDup_Policy
handles repeating Portal events for the

same managed object
Yes
Suppression
Blackout_Suppression
suppresses Blackout events
No
Timeout
PATROL_Portal_Timeout
times out OK Portal events
Yes
For instructions on using these out-of-the-box policies, see the BMC Impact Solutions
Event Management Guide.
Enabling and disabling out-of-the-box standard event

management policies
This section provides instructions for enabling and disabling out-of-the-box standard
event management policies.
For instructions on enabling out-of-the-box dynamic data enrichment policies, see the
BMC Impact Solutions Event Management Guide.
Chapter 2
75
Enabling and disabling out-of-the-box standard event management policies
To enable or disable a standard event management policy

1 From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration view, expand the
Policy Type folder.
2 Under the By Policy Type folder, select the policy type for the out-of-the-box
standard event policy that you want to enable.
Out-of-the-box standard event policies are included under the following policy
types:
s
s
s
s
Closure Policy
Recurrence Policy
Suppression Policy
Timeout Policy
A list of out-of-the-box standard event management policies of that policy type are
displayed in the right pane of the Administration view as shown in Figure 10.
Figure 10
List of event management policies
3 From the list of event management policies, select the policy that you want to
enable.
The Details tab for that policy is displayed in the details pane of the Administration
view.
4 On the BMC Impact Manager toolbar, click the Update Policy button
to enable
the Details tab to be edited.
5 Enable or disable the policy by selecting or deselecting the Enabled check box.
6 Click OK.
BMC Impact Explorer saves the defined event management policy, and it is
displayed in the list of event policies for the selected event selector.
76
Verifying that the policy is running

To verify that the policy is running,
1 Send an event that should trigger the policy

2 Access the History tab, scroll down to the Operations Log and verify that your
policy has executed.
Figure 11 shows the History tab for a successfully executed dynamic data enrichment
policy.
Figure 11
History tab showing executed dynamic data enrichment policy
Chapter 2
77
78
Chapter

This chapter provides the basic tasks needed to build and publish a service model.
For more detailed and advanced information, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service
Modeling and Publishing Guide. This chapter presents the following topics:
Service modeling overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Launching the BMC Service Model Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Building a service model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Creating service component instances in BMC Impact Service Model Editor . . .
Finding existing component instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Assigning components to a SIM cell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Defining relationships between component instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Define alias formulas to enable event-to-component associations . . . . . . . . . . . .
Assign components to service schedules (optional). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Promoting the service model to the BMC Atrium CMDB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
About the publishing process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Before you promote. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Submitting a promotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Verifying promotion status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 3
80
80
81
81
83
85
86
87
90
91
91
92
92
94
79
Service modeling overview
Service modeling overview

Figure 12 illustrates the procedures to create and view a service model. This chapter
will provide a high-level procedural overview of these tasks. For more detailed
information and advanced procedures, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Modeling
and Publishing Guide.
Figure 12
Service modeling workflow
Launching the BMC Service Model Editor

You can open BMC Impact Service Model Editor from the BMC Portal.
To log on to BMC Impact Service Model Editor from BMC Portal

1 Access the following URL: https://serverName.
serverName represents the name of the server on which BMC Portal is installed.
2 Log on to BMC Portal as a user.

For instructions for logging on to BMC Portal, see the BMC Portal Getting Started.
3 On the Configure tab, in the navigation pane on left side, under Tasks, click BMC
Impact Service Model Editor.
80
Building a service model
Building a service model

To build a service model you must complete these procedures:
s
s
s
s
s
Find and create component instances

Assign component instances to a SIM cell
Define relationships between component instances
Define alias formulas to enable event-to-component associations
(Optional) assign components to service schedules
Creating service component instances in BMC Impact Service

Model Editor
Service component instances are the building blocks of a Service Impact Model. You
can create a service component instance in BMC Impact Service Model Editor using a
menu command or you can use the Templates window.
Before you begin

Ensure that you have the service catalog spreadsheet that lists IT components and
their relationships. For information on creating this spreadsheet, see the BMC Impact
Solutions Service Modeling and Publishing Guide.
To create a service component instance by using the menu command

1 With a sandbox View open, from the menu bar, choose Edit => Create Component.
NOTE
When you open BMC Impact Service Model Editor, a new sandbox View opens
automatically if you have no saved Views. You can also open a new sandbox View at any
time by clicking
on the toolbar.
If you have saved Views, you can open the appropriate View from the Views panel.
2 In the Create Component dialog box, on the General tab, scroll in the Component
Type pane and select the appropriate component type for the instance that you are
creating.
NOTE
The service component types are listed in hierarchical order, not in alphabetical order.
Chapter 3
81
Creating service component instances in BMC Impact Service Model Editor
3 On the General tab, perform the following steps:

A In the Component Name box, replace the default name with a specific component
instance name that is meaningful to your enterprise and that you want to use as
the components label in a View.
B In the Cell box, accept the default, unassigned, or select the cell that will receive
events for the component instance.
BMC Impact Service Model Editor retrieves the list of cell names from the BMC
Atrium CMDB. If the cell that you need is not listed, see the BMC Portal Getting
Started guide for information about adding a cell.
To create a service component instance by using the Templates window

1 With a sandbox View open, find the appropriate service component type (class) for
the instance that you are creating in the Templates window. The Templates
window is on the left side of the screen.
NOTE
When you open BMC Impact Service Model Editor, a new sandbox View opens
automatically if you have no saved Views. You can also open a new sandbox View at any
time by clicking
on the toolbar.
If you have saved Views, you can open the appropriate View from the Views panel.
2 Drag the component type from the Templates window to the View-Sandbox
window.
When placing objects in the sandbox View window, place consumer instances
above provider instances for a hierarchical layout.
3 In the View-Sandbox window, right-click the new component icon and select Edit
Component Properties.
On the General tab, in the Component Type pane, the component type you chose is
selected by default.
If you chose the wrong component type, click Cancel and start again with step 2.
82
Finding existing component instances
4 On the General tab, perform the following steps:

A In the Component Name box, replace the default name with a specific component
instance name that is meaningful to your enterprise and that you want to use as
the components label in a View.
B In the Cell box, accept the default, unassigned, or select the cell that will receive
events for the component instance.
BMC Impact Service Model Editor retrieves the list of cell names from the BMC
Atrium CMDB. If the cell that you need is not listed, see the BMC Portal Getting
Started guide for information about adding a cell.
WARNING
s
If unassigned is chosen, the component instance is automatically set to Not In Model

and cannot be published.
BMC Impact Service Model Editor verifies that the cell name chosen is present in the
BMC Impact Portal, but if the component instance is created outside of BMC Impact
Service Model Editor or if the cell is deleted from BMC Impact Portal after it has been
created but before it is published, data integrity errors may result.
5 If desired, specify other, optional, component properties in the General, Status and
Alias, Permissions, Schedule, and Other tabs.
For instructions on defining these component properties, see the BMC Impact

You can search the BMC Atrium CMDB for existing component instances by using
the Find command. Only component instances associated with classes that are
designated for service impact management in the BMC Atrium CMDB can be found
in the BMC Impact Service Model Editor.
You cannot search for relationships with the Find command, but when related
component instances are found and placed in a View, their relationships are also
placed in the View.
Chapter 3
83
To find existing component instances

1 From the menu bar, choose Window => Find.
2 On the Find tab, in the Component Name box, enter the name of the component
instance that you want to find.
NOTE
To display a list of all component instances, leave the Component Name box blank and
click Find.
You can enter a partial name by using the % sign as a wildcard before the partial name,
after it, or both (for example, %Sales%, Sales%, or %Sales).
3 (optional) Save the search statement by clicking Add to Saved Finds and reuse it by
clicking Open Saved Finds.
4 (optional) In the Look in area, accept the default, Sandbox and Production, or filter
the list of component instances in the results pane by choosing Production Only or
Test Only.
5 (optional) To define the attributes that are displayed in the results table and their
order, right-click in any column heading and select Configure table columns.
The attributes shown in the Available Attributes pane are
s
s
listed in alphabetical order

common to all component types
In the Configure Find Results dialog box, select the appropriate attributes.
s
To change the order of the columns in the final results display, use the up and
down arrow buttons.
To move the attributes that you want to display into the Attributes to Show pane,
use the left and right arrow buttons.
6 To start the search, click Find.

While the search is in progress, a find-activity indicator spins next to the Find
button. You might see results before the search is complete. The indicator
disappears when the search is complete.
7 In the Results pane, review the results of the search.
84
Assigning components to a SIM cell
The default sort order is by component name, if component name is one of the
columns you choose to display. If component name is not chosen for display, the
default sort order is creation date and time.
To sort the values in any column, click the column heading. To change the order of
the columns from left to right, drag the column headings.
For each user, the last-used settings are saved and reapplied at the next logon
session.
8 (optional) In the results pane, select one of the instances and take any of the
following actions:
s
s
To place objects in a new View window, click Open in New View.

To place objects in the active View window, drag the instances into the View
window or select them and click Place in Selected View.
When you move one instance into a View, if the object already exists in that
View window, the Duplicate Component dialog box opens. To shift the View
focus so that you can see the existing object, click Go to Component.
If you select more than one component instance to move into view, the Go to
Component button is not available.
To view the characteristics of a selected component instance, click Show

Properties.
9 (optional) To start another search, click Reset to clear all the selection criteria
options on the Find tab to the default values (blank component name field, All
Components, no results in table).
For instructions on using the Advanced and Conditional Find capabilities, see the
BMC Impact Solutions Service Modeling and Publishing Guide.
Assigning components to a SIM cell

Before you can assign a component to a cell, first you must identify the target cells
that share component relationships. Next, in the cells that share relationships, make
entries in each mcell.dir file to identify the other related cells.
For example, you intend to publish different component instances of your model
across five different cells (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), but only three cells (1, 3, 5) share a
relationship. The mcell.dir file of cell 1 should have entries identifying cells 3 and 5;
the mcell.dir file of cell 3 should have entries identifying cells 1 and 5; and the
mcell.dir file of cell should have entries identifying cells 1 and 3.
Chapter 3
85
Defining relationships between component instances
To assign related component instances to cells

1 In an active View window, from the menu bar, choose Edit => Edit Component
Properties.
The General tab of the Edit Component Properties dialog box displays the
corresponding component type in the component type hierarchy. The component
instance name is displayed in the Component Name box.
If you chose more than one component instance, the Edit Multiple Component
Properties dialog box is displayed.
2 In the Edit Component Properties dialog box (or Edit Multiple Component
Properties dialog box), in the Cell box, select the cell to which you want to publish
the components.
3 To assign other related components to a different cell, select them in the View
window, and repeat steps 1 and 2.
Defining relationships between component instances

Impact relationships define how status propagation is passed from the provider
component instance to the consumer component instance. An active relationship is an
impact relationship and indicates that the status of the consumer instance depends on
the status of the connected provider instance. An inactive relationship means that no
dependency exists or that the dependency is irrelevant to the model; in either case, an
impact relationship does not exist.
Whenever the status of the provider instance changes, it is propagated to the
connected consumer component instance.
For each component instance for which you are creating relationships, you must
know
s
s
s
whether it is a consumer or a provider for the related component

its relationship state value (active or inactive)
its status propagation model value (relationship policy)
After you have created relationships, test them to verify that they function in the way
that you intended.
86
To create a component instance provider-consumer relationship

1 In the View window, on the toolbar, click
The default relationship direction is from provider to consumer. If necessary, you

can change it to consumer to provider by clicking on the arrow next to the tool.
In draw mode, the cursor changes to
2 Draw a relationship line from provider to consumer by clicking at the top of the
provider component and moving to the bottom of the consumer component, and
then click again.
TIP
To delete a graphic line that you have started and do not want to complete, press Esc.
3 On the toolbar, click Selection
and right-click on the relationship line you just
drew.
For more information and other methods to create relationships, see the BMC Impact
Define alias formulas to enable event-to-component

associations
When an event is received by a cell, its event alias slot is checked for a value. If this
value does not exist, the cell uses an alias association formula to construct an alias.
The constructed alias must match the value you entered in the Alias box on the Status
and Alias tab in the Create (or Edit) Component Properties dialog box. This section
describes how to create the formula. For more information about event alias
association, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Modeling and Publishing Guide.
WARNING
s
Only one promotion can be processed at a time. If you submit a promotion while a
previous promotion is being processed, the second promotion will not start until the
second one is complete.
Event class definitions must be the same in all SIM cells. If you add custom event classes,
you must manually modify the KB of each cell, recompile the KB, and then restart each
cell.
Chapter 3
87
To create an event alias association

1 From the menu bar, choose Tools =>Alias Formulas.
2 In the Event Alias Associations dialog box, click Add.
The list of existing alias event associations displays. To sort either column, click in
the column heading.
3 In the Edit Event Alias Associations dialog box (show in Figure 13), in the Name
box, enter a name for the event association.
Figure 13
Creating an alias association
4 In the Event Match Criteria area, from the Event Class drop list, select an event class.
BMC Impact Service Model Editor looks at the first available cell and uses its event
classes in the list.
When an event comes in, its event class has to match the event class or a subclass of
the event class before the alias formula is even considered.
88
5 (optional) In the Match Attributes box, choose attributes and enter values to refine
which events (within the event class) will generate aliases. For details, see the BMC
Impact Solutions Service Modeling and Publishing Guide.
6 In the Alias Formula area, use the Attribute, Text, and Function buttons in any order
and as many times as needed to build the formula:
A To insert an attribute in the formula, click the Attribute button. The attributes
shown are those that belong to the event class you selected in the Event
Definition area.
When an attribute is selected, the control shows the attribute name, and the
preview area is updated to show the syntax of the formula as it currently exists.
TIP
If your formula for a component instance (CI) contains the mc_host slot with a host name
value, then the mc_host slot of the matching event definition should also contain the host
name value, not the IP address, of the CI. For example, if you assign the mc_host slot in
your formula the value mycomputer.abc.com, then the mc_host slot of the incoming event
should contain mycomputer.abc.com, not the IP address.
Ask your system administrator for the correct Domain Name System (DNS) resolution if
the object represented by the component instance experiences host name resolution errors.
B To insert literal text (for example, a period, semi-colon, the word Oracle), click
on the Text button. In the text box, type the literal text that you want in the alias
formula.
Literal text appears in the first part of the alias formula with data type
definitions.
C To insert a function that defines the data type and an expression in the formula,
click on the Function button. Type the function and choose the data type.
For a list of functions you can use, see BMC Impact Solutions: Knowledge Base
Development.
7 When the alias formula is complete, click Save.
Chapter 3
89
Assign components to service schedules (optional)
Assign components to service schedules (optional)

NOTE
For information about creating service schedules, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service
Modeling and Publishing Guide.
Schedule information is stored in the BMC Atrium CMDB and can be viewed in BMC
Impact Portal and BMC IX. If a schedule is not selected for a component, the
component will have a default schedule of 24 x 7 x 365 (always in schedule).
After service schedules are created, you can assign components to schedules.
Full Access, Service Administrators, and Service Managers user groups have access to
the schedule editor.
To assign components to service schedules

1 Select one or more components in the active View to which you want to assign to a
service schedule.
2 Choose Edit=>Edit Component Properties.

3 On the Schedule tab, in the Schedule pane, click Select.
The Select a Schedule dialog box contains the During Schedule and Exceptions
Within During Schedule timeframes. By default, components are assigned the
always-in-During Service schedule (24 x 7 x 365).
To choose a schedule for the components, select the schedule from the
Schedules pane and click OK.
To edit an schedule, select a schedule and click Edit to display the Schedules
Editor. For more information about editing schedules see the BMC Impact
To view what component instances are using the selected schedule, click Usages.
To view the details of what times and dates are specified in a selected
timeframe, click Timeframe Details.
4 Click OK.
90
Promoting the service model to the BMC Atrium CMDB
Promoting the service model to the BMC

Atrium CMDB
After promoting component instances in BMC Impact Service Model Editor, these
changes are stored in the production dataset (BMC.ASSET) in the BMC Atrium
CMDB and are automatically published (by default) to the assigned cells. When your
service model data is successfully published to the cells, the BMC Impact Publishing
Server updates the BMC.IMPACT.PROD dataset, which mirrors the last successful
publish to the cells.
About the publishing process

Promotion and publishing are decoupled. Promotion is initiated and controlled from
BMC Impact Service Model Editor, while publication is controlled by BMC Impact
Publishing Server.
There are two modes of running the BMC Impact Publishing Server.
s
In automated mode, by default, publication is initiated by the completion of a

reconciliation job run, such as after a promotion.
In manual mode, publication is initiated from CLI commands.
Note that a successful promotion does not guarantee that the automated publication
will also be successful. For more details about automated publishing, see the BMC
Impact Solutions Service Modeling and Publishing Guide.
During the publishing of a service model, new or modified service model
components and their relationships are selected from the BMC.ASSET dataset in the
BMC Atrium CMDB and copied to respective BMC Impact Manager cells. The objects
in BMC.ASSET are compared to any previously published instance in
BMC.IMPACT.PROD and the changes between them are sent to the cell.
BMC.IMPACT.PROD is then updated with the changes.
After events that affect service component instances are received by the cell, you can
monitor status changes using BMC Impact Explorer or BMC Portal for the published
component instances.
Chapter 3
91
Before you promote
Before you promote

To ensure a successful promotion and publication of the service model, verify that:
s
each component instance is assigned to a cell
all target cells that are registered in the BMC Impact Portal are running and have a
live connection with the BMC Impact Publishing Server
event types are associated with component instances
the BMC Impact Publishing Server is running in automated mode by using the CLI
command psstat. This command should return Started - Automated mode.
your user account belongs to one of these user groups: Service Administrator,
Service Manager, or Service Manager - Senior (these are the default user group
assignments; you may change them)
the SIM class definitions are in sync. The BMC Impact Publishing Server validates
the class definitions and establishes a live connection with BMC Impact Portal, the
BMC Atrium CMDB, and the cells before submitting the publication.
Submitting a promotion
When you submit a promotion, the Promotion Preview dialog box offers the
opportunity to compare your unpromoted sandbox service model component
instances and relationships with those that have already been promoted so that you
can verify the work done in the current editing session. When you click Begin
Promotion, service model objects (component instances, impact relationships, and
management data) shown in the preview are promoted (and subsequently
automatically published).
To promote all sandbox component instances and relationships

1 From the menu bar, choose File => Promote All Sandbox Changes.
2 In the Promotion Preview dialog box, in the Objects to be Promoted area, choose
how you want to filter the list of objects that you see. When you filter the list, it
only affects what is visible, not what will be promoted. All items will be promoted.
In the first Show list, choose All, Components, Relationships, Components and
Relationships, or Management Data.
In the second Show list, choose All Actions, New Objects, Changed Objects, or
Deleted Objects.
92
Submitting a promotion
The component instances and relationships to be promoted are listed in the left
pane.
3 In the results pane, review the list of objects.

The default sort order of objects is by Action, then Type (component or
relationship), and then by Object Name. To change the sort order, click in the
column heading.
The icons in the Action and Type columns are defined in Table 17. The icons in the
Class column match the icons associated with the component type in the
Templates dockable window.
Table 17
Icons in Objects-to-be-Published pane
Column heading
Icon
Action
Description
object was deleted
object was added
object was modified
Type
component
relationship
timeframe or service schedule
4 In the Comparison of Sandbox and Promoted Property Values area, for the Show
options, select Changed Properties or All Properties for the component instances you
selected in the Objects to be Promoted pane.
5 Select one or more objects in the left pane and, in the right pane, compare the new
and previously published property values to verify that the new data is correct
before you publish it.
6 Click Begin Promotion.

The Promotion in Progress dialog box is displayed, along with the elapsed time
since the promotion was started. Even if BMC Impact Service Model Editor is shut
down and restarted, the elapsed time will reflect the total time since the promotion
was originally started.
7 (optional) To stop the promotion, in the Promotion in Progress dialog box, click
Stop.
Chapter 3
93
Verifying promotion status
Closing the dialog box does not stop the promotion; the promotion continues in
the background.
8 (optional) To exit BMC Impact Service Model Editor, click Exit SME, then click the
appropriate selection on the confirmation dialog box.
9 A status message indicates the success or failure of the promotion request.

If the promotion and subsequent automated publication processes are successful,
the service model is available to the specified cells and you can monitor the
component instances in BMC Impact Portal and in BMC Impact Explorer.
For troubleshooting information, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Modeling and
Publishing Guide.
Verifying promotion status

After you submit a promotion request, you can view its status in the Promotion in
Progress dialog box that displays after a promotion is requested.
After the promotion process completes, a dialog box will display indicating whether
the promotion succeeded or failed.
If the promotion fails, the Promotion Status dialog box declares a promotion failure
along with the error, a timestamp, and the user name of the submitter. Click OK to
dismiss the dialog box.
Note that a publication success or failure is not shown in the dialog box, but can be
viewed in the Promote and Publish History dialog box (Tools => Promote and Publish
History) or using the plog requestID | plogdisplay -@ commands. For more
information about CLI commands, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Modeling and
Publishing Guide.
94
Chapter
Start monitoring and managing

services
4

Cross-launching to and from other consoles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
BMC Impact Explorer Services View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Configuring BMC Impact Explorer for the Services View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Monitoring business services in BMC Impact Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Opening an Impact/Cause View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Viewing service component instances through the navigation pane . . . . . . . . . 102
Finding service component instances to view. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Viewing information about a service component. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Viewing the events associated with a component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Searching for related service components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Filtering service component instances in the Impact/Cause View by status. . . 107
Searching for the cause of or impact to a service components status. . . . . . . . . 107
Searching for provider and consumer components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Chapter 4 Start monitoring and managing services
95
Cross-launching to and from other consoles
Cross-launching to and from other consoles

Use the Launch button
in the Impact/Cause View to start or switch to the
console of another BMC Software product so you can view additional information or
perform tasks on the currently selected service component. The Launch menu
command is available only if you have sufficient permission to perform the launch.
Other BMC Software consoles can cross-launch into the BMC Impact Explorer
Services view. The component from which they cross-launch is displayed in the
Impact/Cause View and its immediate consumers and providers are displayed.
NOTE
The BMC Software product must be registered in the BMC Atrium CMDB. The class
BMC_FederatedProduct in the BMC.CORE.CONFIG namespace holds the unique registry
value for products.
BMC Impact Explorer Services View

The Services View of BMC IX is the view that service managers and IT operations staff
use to monitor the service model. Service managers can view service models that
represent a companys business services. The service models are created in the service
model editor by organizing service model components into hierarchical relationships
that can then be navigated by operators and service managers from the Services
View.
The service managers use the Services View to
s
see the Service View impact graph for the service model components.
see the relationships in which a service model component participates in the

Impact/Cause View of the Services View, as shown in Figure 14 on page 97.
96
see whether a service model component consumes the services of another service
model component (consumer) or whether it provides service to another
component (provider). The status of the provider component impacts the status of
the consumer component via the service relationship.
to monitor business services and determine the root cause of a problem or the
impact that a service model component has on a business service.
BMC Impact Explorer Services View
Figure 14
Location of elements in the Services View
Table 18 describes the elements in the Services View, Figure 14 on page 97.
Table 18
Description of elements in the Services view
No. Name
Description
menu bar
provides commands for configuring and refreshing the Services view
Services Group tab
provides access to the components contained in the Service model
navigation pane
displays logical groups of components in a hierarchical relationship tree.

The navigation pane tree is created with the Console Navigation Tree in the
BMC Impact Service Model Editor. It must be published before you can
view it in the Services view.
Find Service
Components box
enables you to search for specific components that you want to display in
the Impact/Cause view
view selection tabs
access the Events, Services, and Administration Views
Impact/Cause view
shows the service component instances and the provider and consumer
impact relationships between them
Line Style toggle
toggles the color of the relationship lines in the Impact/Cause View

between black or the color that represents the status that is being
propagated from each provider to its consumer
97
Configuring BMC Impact Explorer for the Services View
Table 18
Description of elements in the Services view
No. Name
Description
Orientation toggle
toggles the orientation of the components in the Impact/Cause View

between horizontal and vertical
service component name

tab
identifies the component whose causes or impacts are being explored
10
Zoom list box
specifies the level of magnification of the view in the Impact/Cause View
11
Status Quick Filter list

box
selects and displays in the Impact/Cause View only the components of the
selected status and above
12
service component icons
shows the individual components of the currently selected service,

including the current status, the impact relationship, and the status of
immediate subcomponents (if any subcomponents exist)
13
service component
information tabs
display details about the selected component in the Impact/Cause View
14
Launch list box (not seen

in the graphic)
enables you to cross-launch the selected published component to Remedy

Service Desk.
Note: This list box is visible to the left of the Zoom list box only when BMC
IX is configured with CMDB Atrium and Integration for BMC Remedy
Service Desk (IBRSD).
Configuring BMC Impact Explorer for the

Services View
In addition to the general display settings that affect all BMC Impact Explorer main
tabs, you can configure additional display settings that affect the Services View.
To configure display settings for the Services View

The Edit Configuration dialog appears.
2 Click Services View, as shown in Figure 15.
98
Figure 15
Edit Configuration Services View
3 Use the information in Table 19 to select the appropriate settings.

Table 19
Edit Configuration - Services View display settings
Setting
Selections
Description
Default Levels to Show

Opened
Use the following

s Consumers
s Providers
Select this option to specify the number of

levels of related service component instances
that you want to view when you double-click a
component in the Impact/Cause View.
No limits - fully expand in

both directions
Select this option to view all related service

Status Icon for Component
Select this check box to show the status icon.
Indicator Icons to Show

Under a Component
Priority Icon for Component Select this check box to show the priority icon.
SLAs - Status of Worst
Targeted SLA
Select this check box to show the status of the

worst associated Service Level Agreement.
Note: This indicator requires the BMC Service
Level Management product to be installed.
New Service Group Name
Type a service group name. The default is

Service Group.
4 Click Graph Views as shown in Figure 16.
99
Figure 16
Edit Configuration Graph Views
5 Use the information in Table 20 to select the appropriate settings.

Table 20
Edit Configuration - Graph Views display settings
Setting
Selections
Description
Default Graph Orientation
Horizontal
Select an option to set the default orientation of

the service component instances in the
Impact/Cause View.
Vertical
You can also toggle between horizontal and

vertical in the Impact/Cause View.
Component Label
Name
Short Description
Relative Thickness of Links For normal links

For true impact links
Select an option to set the default name for the

service component instances in the
Impact/Cause View.
Specify a number to increase or decrease the
thickness of the service component relationship
lines.
A true impact link indicates the relationship
affects the impact status of the consumer
component.
New Service Group Name
Type a service group name. The default is

Service Group.
Figure 14 on page 97 and Table 18 on page 97 identify and describe the main areas of
the Services view.
100
Monitoring business services in BMC Impact Explorer
Monitoring business services in BMC Impact

Explorer
You monitor published service models that represent your business services in the
BMC Impact Explorer Services View Impact/Cause View. The Impact/Cause View
provides a graphical representation of the service component instances and how they
relate to each other. Figure 17 shows an example of an Impact/Cause View.
Figure 17
BMC Impact Explorer Services View - Impact/Cause View
Impact relationship lines
Consumer component
Provider components
Depending on whether the default setting is set to horizontal or vertical expansion,

the consumer components are displayed on the left or at the top and the direct
provider components expand to the right or toward the bottom. A direct consumer or
provider component is a component immediately linked to another component. The
status of the provider has a direct impact relationship with the consumer component.
The lines between the service component instances represent the state and true
impact status of the relationships between the components. For details about
component status and relationships, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Impact
Management Guide.
Chapter 4
101
Opening an Impact/Cause View
Opening an Impact/Cause View

1 Click the Services View at the bottom of the navigation pane in BMC Impact
Explorer.
2 Open an Impact/Cause View by using one of the following methods:

s
From the navigation pane, select a service component instance. See Viewing
service component instances through the navigation pane on page 102.
Click and drag the service component instance from the Results list to an empty
area of the Impact/Cause View. See Finding service component instances to
view on page 104.
Right-click a service component instance and choose View Service Impact Graph.
3 Double-click a service component instance to open or close its related service

If you double-click a node that does not have any providers and consumers, the
message This object does not have any consumers/providers is
displayed.
Viewing service component instances through the navigation

pane
Use the navigation pane to view the components associated with a service in the
Impact/Causes View. Service managers create the navigation pane tree in BMC Impact
Service Model Editor.
NOTE
If the navigation pane tree does not reflect published changes, log out and log back in to BMC
Impact Explorer.
The navigation pane tree contains service component instances associated with a
production cell. To view service component instances associated with a test cell, use
the Find tool. For instructions, see Finding service component instances to view on
page 104.
102
Viewing service component instances through the navigation pane
The Services Group tab navigation pane is shown in Figure 18.

Figure 18
Services View navigation pane
Table 21 describes the elements in the Services view navigation pane.

Table 21
Description of elements in the Services View navigation pane (part 1 of 2)
Name
Description
Services Group tab
shows the available service groups
My Services group
the top level for locally-defined service groups
subgroup icons
identifies user-created subgroups of components (not pictured)
service component icons
identifies individual components and subcomponents (not pictured)
Global Services group
the top-level node for globally-defined service groups
Business group
the top-level node for the navigation tree defined by the service manager in the
BMC Impact Service Model Editor (not pictured)
Chapter 4
103
Finding service component instances to view
Table 21
Description of elements in the Services View navigation pane (part 2 of 2)
Name
Description
Find Service
Components box
searches for service component instances that match specific criteria

Use the Find button in the toolbar to view or hide the Find Service Components
box.
In Impact Manager list

box
specifies the BMC Impact Manager cell to the search for components
Of type list box
specifies the component type for the object of the search

For a list of component types, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Impact
Management Guide.
Whose name contains

text box
specifies all or part of the target component name

This field is case sensitive.
Propagates Priority check select this check box to show the Priority Propagator service component instances
box
that pass their priority to a causal component when it is impacted
These components are considered the important components for your business.
For further information, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Impact Management
Guide.
In SLM Agreement check select to show the service components that are associated with a Service Level
box
Agreement
Note: This feature requires the BMC Service Level Management product to be
installed.
Results list
displays the results of the component search
Finding service component instances to view

Use the Find tool to locate a particular component in a BMC Impact Manager cell and
view it in the Impact/Cause View.
To search for a service component instance

1 If the Find Services Component section of the navigation pane is not open, click the
Show Find button on the toolbar of the Services View.
2 From In Impact Manager, select the production or test cell to be queried.

3 From Of type, select a component type, such as Computer System, application server,
database, and so on. If you select BASE_ELEMENT, all service component instances
for all types are returned. For a list of component types, see the BMC Impact
Solutions Service Impact Management Guide.
104
Viewing information about a service component
4 In Whose Name Contains, enter a comparison value.

NOTE
If you leave Whose Name Contains or Of Type blank, the search could take a long time,
depending on the number of service component instances. Also, the Results list could be
very long. You should refine the search by specifying values in one or both of these fields.
5 To find only those components that propagate their priority to causal components,
select Priority Propagators.
6 Click Find.
All components matching the search criteria appear in Results.
7 Drag the service component to the Impact/Cause View.

TIP
To uniquely identify each component listed in Results, you can hover the cursor over each
component name to display its unique mc_udid slot value.
Viewing information about a service component

To view information about a service component, click the component in the
Impact/Cause View and then select one of the tabs in Table 22. For more information
on any of these tabs, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Impact Management Guide.
Table 22
Services View service component information subtabs (part 1 of 2)
Tab
Purpose
General
shows the value of slots that contain basic information about a service component
Status
shows the value of slots that contain status information about a service component
Priority and Cost
shows the value of slots that contain priority and impact information about a service
component
Related Components
provides search capabilities to find components that are

s causing impact to the selected component
s impacted by the selected component
s consumers of the selected component
s providers of the selected component
SLM
shows information about the service level agreement associated with the component
Note: This tab is visible only when BMC Service Level Management is installed.
Chapter 4
105
Viewing the events associated with a component
Table 22
Services View service component information subtabs (part 2 of 2)
Tab
Purpose
Schedule
shows the schedule associated with a component

For more information about service component schedules, see the BMC Impact
shows attribute values specific to the class of the selected component type, such as a
Computer System, Database, Application Server, and so on
Other
These classes and attributes are defined by the BMC Atrium CMDB Common Data
Model (CDM). For information about the CDM structure and for details about
classes and their attributes, see the Common Data Model Diagram and the Common
Data Model Help, both available in CMDB_Installation_Folder\sdk\doc\cdm.
Advanced
shows the value of slots that contain creation and security information about a
service component
Viewing the events associated with a component

Use the Impact/Cause View to locate the events affecting the status of a component, as
described in the following procedure. Components that have associated events
appear as icons with a blue disk in the upper right corner, as shown in Figure 19.
Figure 19
Service component with associated events
To access event information associated with a component

1 From the Impact/Cause View, find a component with associated events.
2 Right-click the component and select View Events => Impacts.
A floating event list pane is displayed, showing the related events for the
component.
106
Filtering service component instances in the Impact/Cause View by status
Filtering service component instances in the Impact/Cause

View by status
Use the Status Quick Filter to display only the components at and above the status
that you specify.
To use the Status Quick Filter

1 Click the down arrow to the right of Status Quick Filter
2 From the status list, select a status and only objects with that status and above will
be shown. For information about service component status, see the BMC Impact
The selected status level is applied to the Impact/Cause View and the service
component instances are filtered accordingly.
3 To toggle between the filtered view and the original view, click the left portion of
the Status Quick Filter
Searching for related service components

Use the Related Components tab to help determine the cause and impact of service
outages and to view the service component instances that provide a service or
consume a service. For information about component status, see the BMC Impact
To view the related components, perform the following tasks:
s
s
Searching for the cause of or impact to a service components status

Searching for provider and consumer components on page 109
Searching for the cause of or impact to a service components

status
1 Click a component in the Impact/Cause View. For instructions on how to view a
component, see Opening an Impact/Cause View on page 102.
2 Click the Related Components subtab below the Impact/Cause View.
Chapter 4
107
Searching for the cause of or impact to a service components status
3 Select one of the following Relationship types:

Select
To view
Causes of this components status
searches beyond the immediate, direct relationships

to find the component whose status was propagated
to this component to cause the impact
Possible Related Provider Problems
shows providers with a negative status but those

that are not the cause of the selected components
status
Provides - All
shows all the providers to this consumer
Providers - Direct
shows provider components that directly impact the

status of the consumer
Impacted Consumers - Direct
locates the components impacted by the selected

component that are in the level above this
component
Consumers - All
shows all the consumers to this provider
Consumers - Direct
shows components that directly consume the

services of the provider component
4 To search for related components of a specific type, select a Component type from
the drop-down list. To view all related components regardless of type, leave the
Component type set to Base Element. For a list of component types, see the BMC
Impact Solutions Service Impact Management Guide
5 Click Search.
Components matching the search criteria are displayed in the Components list, as
shown in Figure 20.
Figure 20
Related components cause search
For details about the list, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Impact Management
Guide.
6 To view a component in the Components list, select the component, right-click, and
then select View => Service Impact Graph.
108
Searching for provider and consumer components
7 To view the impact or history events associated with a component in the

Components list, select the component, right-click, and then select one of the
following commands:
View => Events

View => History
View => All

1 Click a component in the Impact/Cause View. For instructions on how to view a
component, see Opening an Impact/Cause View on page 102.
2 Click the Related Components tab below the Impact/Cause View.

3 To view impacts or causes, select one of the following Relationship types:
Select
To view
Providers - All
all providers to this consumer
Providers - Direct
provider components that directly impact the status of the consumer
Consumers - All
all consumer components associated with the provider component
Consumers - Direct
components that directly consume the services of the provider

component
4 Select a Component type from the drop-down list. To view all related components
regardless of type, leave the Component type set to Base Element. For a list of
component types, see the BMC Impact Solutions Service Impact Management Guide.
5 Click Search.
Components matching the search criteria are displayed in the Components list, as
shown in Figure 21.
Figure 21
Related components - providers search
Chapter 4
109
For details about the related components subtab, see the BMC Impact Solutions
Service Impact Management Guide.
6 To view a component in the Components list, select the component, right-click, and
then select View=>Service Impact Graph.
7 To view the impact or history events associated with a component in the

Components list, select the component, right-click, and then select one of the
following commands:
View => Events

View => History
View => All
110
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Index
A
Acknowledged (ACK) event status icon 68
active relationship
defined 86
adapters
starting 39
stopping 41
Add to Saved Finds button 84
additional cells
creating on Windows 25
Advanced subtab 106
alias formulas
creating 88
functions in 89
Assigned event status icon 68
Auto Bind cell connection property 47
automatic refresh 73
B
Blackout
event status icon 68
blackout policy, creating 76
BMC Impact Administration server
defining high availability for Impact Administration
cell 24
defining primary and secondary servers 23
defining standalone servers 23
high availability 23
Master server 23
Standard server 23
BMC Impact Explorer
consoles, types of 43
obtaining a user account on UNIX 21
starting 43
using to monitor business services 101
BMC Impact Explorer console
Java Web Start, described 43
BMC Impact Explorer Server (BMC IXS)
changing your password 22
deleting a connection 51
editing a connection 50
rearrange BMC IXS list 52
removing 51
BMC Impact Manager
creating additional cells 26

encoding files for internationalization 20
BMC Impact Portal
connecting BMC IX 50
BMC IX. See BMC Impact Explorer
BMC Software, contacting 2
BMC.ASSET data set 91
BMC.CORE.CONFIG namespace 96
BMC.IMPACT.PROD data set 91
BMC_FederatedProduct class 96
Business group 103
business services
monitoring in BMC Impact Explorer 101
C
causal components
searching for 107
cell
defining high availability for Impact Administration
24
field 82, 83
Impact Administration 24
list of cell names 82, 83
unassigned 82, 83
cell configuration
creating files for specific cells 26
cell groups
adding 58
adding cells 58
creating 57
disconnecting from 47
editing name 58
icon 64
Infrastructure Management 57
MyProduction 57
MyTest 57
removing 58
cells
adding to cell group 58
connecting to 47
creating on Windows 25
icon 64
naming, mcrtcell command 25
permissions required to start on UNIX 54
Index
111
registering on Windows 42
starting and stopping 53
starting and stopping on UNIX 53
starting and stopping on Windows 54
starting or stopping on Windows 54
starting with services 55
stopping with mkill 55
stopping with services 55
view information 53
viewing event list 70
changing your BMC IXS password 22
Closed event status icon 68
CMDB
product registration 96
collectors
icon 65
Collectors tab (Events View navigation) 64
color
affected by event severity 69
event status icon 68
commands
kill 41
mcell 54
mkill 54, 55
net start 56
net stop 55
component instances
creating 81
Component Label display setting 100
configuration
BMC IXS 51
configuration files
cell-specific, creating 26
mcell.conf 27, 54
configuring
display settings for Services View 98
setting cell-specific configurations up 26
connecting
BMC IX to BMC Impact Portal 50
connecting to a cell or cell group 47
connections
cell or cell group 47
deleting, BMC IXS 51
editing, BMC IXS 50
console
adding cell groups 58
BMC Impact Explorer, types of 43
editing cell group names 58
rearrange BMC IXS list 52
removing BMC IXS 51
removing cell groups 58
consoles
cross-launching 96
Services View 100
consumer components
searching for 109
112
creating
a cell group 57
additional cells on Windows 25
alias formulas 88
configuration files
cell-specific 26
cross-launching to other consoles 96
customer support 3
D
datasets
BMC.ASSET 91
BMC.IMPACT.PROD 91
default filters
in Event Sources list 63
Default Levels to Show Opened display settings 99
Default SMC Orientation display setting 100
deleting
BMC IXS connection 51
details pane (Events View) 63
disconnecting from a cell or cell group 47
display settings, configuring for Services View 98
dockable windows
Template 82
E
Edit Configuration dialog box
Global tab 48
Impact Managers subtab 73
Edit Configuration Services View 99
Edit Configuration Services View tab, illustrated 99
editing
BMC IXS connection 50
cell group names 58
event alias associations
creating 88
event count
in Events View navigation 65
Event Details window 72
event groups
Event Groups tab 64
event management policies
enabling and disabling 75
event priority
icons 70
understanding 70
event relations
icons 66
event severity
icons 69
levels 69
Event Sources list
effect on event list 65
location in Events View 63
using 71
event state 66
See also event status
event status
icons 68
understanding 68
events
associated with a component 106
associated with service component indicator 106
event details 72
viewing details 72
viewing impact or history 109, 110
events list
current operator information 68
default columns 65
elements 65
location in Events View 63
refreshing 73, 74
selecting the type to view 71
viewing 70
Events View
described 62
illustrated 62
location of elements 62
navigation pane 64
F
files
mcell.conf 27, 54
filtering
service component instances by status 107
filters
default 63
Find command
configuring results pane 84
filtering the results 84
Find Service Components box 104
finding
relationships 83
finding service components to view 104
functions
in alias formulas 89
H
history events, viewing 109, 110
I
icons
cell 64
cell group 64
collector 65
Collectors tab 64
displaying indicators 99
Event Groups tab 64
event priority 70
event relations 66
event severity 69
event status 68
MetaCollectors tab 64
severity level indicator 65
impact events, viewing 109, 110
Impact/Cause View
display settings 99, 100
filtering service components by status 107
illustrated 101
locating events affecting component status 106
opening 102
impacted components
searching for 107
In Impact Manager list box 104
inactive relationship, defined 86
Indicator Icons to Show Under a Component display
settings 99
indicators
for events associated with a service component 106
showing icons 99
Information Display Selection tabs (Events View) 62
Infrastructure Management cell group 57
installing
creating additional cells 26
postinstallation tasks for SNMP Adapter
Configuration Manager on Windows computers 34
J
Java Web Start application, BMC Impact Explorer 43
G
General subtab 105
General tab 82
Global Services
group 103
Global tab (Edit Configuration dialog box) 48
Go to Component button 85
K
kill command 41
L
Launch button 96
Line Color Severity check box 69
Index
113
M
manually refresh event list 73
Match Attributes box for event alias association 89
mcell command 54
mcrtcell command
options 26
MetaCollectors
MetaCollectors tab (Events View navigation) 64
mkill command 54, 55
monitoring
business services in BMC Impact Explorer 101
My Services group 103
MyProduction cell group 57
MyTest cell group 57
Propagates Priority check box 104

provider components
searching for 107, 109
Of Type list box 104

Open event status icon 68
Open Saved Finds button 84
opening Impact/Cause Views 102
options
mcrtcell 26
Other subtab 106
refreshing the event list

automatically 73
manually 74
registering cells
on Windows 42
Related Components subtab
described 105
illustrated 108, 109
searching for cause or impact 107
searching for provider and consumer service
components 109
relations, event
icons 66
relationships
active 86
finding 83
inactive 86
selecting 87
Relative Thickness of Links in Service Views display
settings 100
removing
BMC IXS 51
reorder list of available BMC IXSs 52
Reset button in Find 85
Results list 104
root permissions
considerations 53
password, changing, BMC IXS 22

permissions
considerations for root user 53
policies
Blackout 76
enabling standard out-of-the-box 75
priority
showing indicator icon 99
Priority and Cost subtab 105
priority. See event priority
product support 3
promotion
all instances 92
guidelines 92
requirements before 92
status message 94
step-by-step instructions 92
submitting 92
verifying status 94
save
N
navigation pane
illustrated 103
using to view service components 102
114
a search statement 84
Schedule subtab 106
searching
for provider or consumer components 109
for related service components 107
for service components to view 104
selecting
relationships 87
service components
accessing through navigation pane 102
associated events indicator 106
event associated with 106
filtering by status 107
filtering by status in Impact/Cause View 107
finding relations 107
finding to view 104
searching for providers 109
viewing information about 105
services
starting cells with 55
stopping cells with 54
Services Group tab 103
Services View
configuring display settings 98
console 100
described 96
illustrated 97
Impact/Cause View display settings 99, 100
navigation pane, illustrated 103
setting
cell-specific configuration up 26
severity
effect on event status icon 68
level indicator (Events View navigation) 65, 69
SLM subtab (Services View details) 105
slot orders
described 66
SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager
postinstallation tasks for Windows installation 34
starting
adapters 39
starting cells
UNIX platforms 53, 54
using mcell 53
Windows 54
with net start 56
with services 55
status
event icons 68
searching for cause or impact 107
showing indicator icon 99
Status Quick Filter 107
Status subtabs (BMC Impact Explorer)
described 105
stopping adapters 41
stopping cells
on Windows 54
UNIX platforms 54
using the mkill command 55
with mkill 53
with net stop 55
with services 55
subtab
Status (BMC Impact Explorer) 105
subtabs
Advanced 106
General 105
Other 106
Priority and Cost 105
Related Components 105, 107
Schedule 106
support, customer 3
SystemLogDirName parameter
used to specify log and trace file directories 54
SystemTmpDirName parameter
used to specify trace and log file directories 54
T
technical support 3
U
UNIX
permissions required to start cells 54
root user permissions 53
starting cells 53, 54
stopping cells 54
user accounts
obtaining on UNIX 21
V
verifying promotion status 94
View Selection tabs
Events View 62
Events View navigation 64
viewing
cause or impact 107
event details 72
event list 70, 71
events associated with a component 106
history or impact events 109, 110
service component information 105
service components with find 104
types of event lists 71
W
Web Start application, BMC Impact Explorer 43
Whose name contains text box 104
wildcards
using with Find command 84
Windows
starting a cell with services 55
starting cells 54
starting cells with net start 56
stopping a cell with mkill command 55
stopping a cell with services 55
stopping cells 54
stopping cells with net stop 55
stopping with mkill 55
Index
115
116
Notes
*97716*
*61779*
*61779*
*61779*
*61779*

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BMC Impact Solutions

Getting Started Guide

Contacting BMC Software

United States and Canada

BMC SOFTWARE INC

713 918 8800 or

(01) 713 918 8000

713 918 8000

Outside United States and Canada

(01) 713 918 8800

Copyright 2009 BMC Software, Inc.

Restricted rights legend

Support by telephone or e-mail

Before contacting BMC

operating system and environment information

sequence of events leading to the issue

commands and options that you used

product error messages

BMC Impact Solutions Getting Started Guide

Configure and start using the BMC Impact Solutions infrastructure

Viewing cell information from BMC Impact Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Start monitoring and managing events

Accessing the Events view in the BMC Impact Explorer console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Start service modeling

Service modeling overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Start monitoring and managing services

Cross-launching to and from other consoles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

BMC Impact Solutions Getting Started Guide

Viewing information about a service component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

BMC Impact Solutions Getting Started Guide

BMC Impact Solutions Getting Started Guide

BMC Impact Solutions Getting Started Guide

Configure and start using the BMC

Basic deployment configuration

a source event data collector such as,

BMC Impact Solutions Getting Started Guide

Basic deployment configuration

Basic event management infrastructure configuration workflow

Basic deployment infrastructure configuration procedures

1. Configure cells for international environments.

Required for non-ascii

2. Define user accounts, roles, and groups for various components.

3. Configure Impact Administration server for high availability.

4. Create additional cells.

5. Create cell-specific configuration files.

6. Register additional cells with BMC Impact Administration server. page 27

Required if additional cells

7. Configure cells to communicate.

Required if additional cells

8. Configure high availability cells.

9. Set up an event source.

10. Start BMC Impact Explorer.

Standard deployment configurations

Basic deployment infrastructure configuration procedures

11. Configure additional cells to communicate with BMC Impact

Required if additional cells

12. Connect additional cells to BMC Impact Explorer.

Required if additional cells

13. Configure BMC Impact Explorer to access multiple BMC Impact

14. View cell information from BMC Impact Explorer.

15. Start or stop the cell.

16. Create and manage cell groups.

Standard deployment configurations