Getting Started
To start your monitoring project, you will need access to a ServicePilot server. There are two ways of deploying ServicePilot:
- Software as a Service: Cloud-based ServicePilot Web interface managed by ServicePilot Technologies that customers will connect to via the Internet. Only an agent needs to be installed to start monitoring.
- On Premise: Customers install the ServicePilot software on premise. Customers manage their own deployment and data.
ServicePilot SaaS platform
To use the ServicePilot SaaS platform, 3 steps are essential to get started:
- Create a ServicePilot account - to log in to the ServicePilot web pages
- Install a ServicePilot Agent - to collect data (downloadable from the ServicePilot web interface)
- Start monitoring equipment - by adding provisioning rules and resources to monitor your environment
ServicePilot OnPremise deployment
ServicePilot On Premise only requires a few steps to get started:
- Obtain the ServicePilot installer - by contacting ServicePilot Technologies to get the software
- Install ServicePilot - by following the installation guide
- Obtain a ServicePilot license - by contacting ServicePilot Technologies to get a trial license
- Start monitoring equipment - by adding provisioning rules and resources to monitor your environment
Set up a ServicePilot account
Before being able to access ServicePilot web pages, a customer account will be required. Go to the ServicePilot SaaS Login page and use the Sign up link to create an account.
Once you have your login Username and Password you can use these to open your ServicePilot web pages.
To manage your account and create other users and groups, see the Users documentation.
Install a ServicePilot Agent
There are a number of different ServicePilot Agents. Choose the ServicePilot agent you require, download and install the agent from the ServicePilot web pages.
1. Using a user with administrative privileges, log in to ServicePilot |
2. Click on Agents > Install an agent |
3. Select the Agent to install and follow the instructions under Get started |
ServicePilot Agents are explained in more detail in the Agents documentation.
Start monitoring equipment
A ServicePilot Agent may be able to collect data but ServicePilot still needs to be told what each Agent should do. There are two main ways in which equipment may be added to the configuration:
- Rules to provision resources automatically when equipment is discovered
- Adding resource configuration manually
The provisioning required will depend on the type of resource monitored. See package documentation for details when adding a resource manually.
ServicePilot provisioning is explained in more detail in the Provisioning documentation.
Add an Auto-provisioning rule
It is also possible to automatically monitor resources when new agents are deployed. Set up auto-provisioning rules to tell ServicePilot what package to use when adding a new agent and where to place the resource in the monitoring hierarchy.
1. Using a user with administrative privileges, log in to ServicePilot |
2. Open SETUP > Parameters |
3. Click on Provisioning > Auto-provisioning |
4. Click on Add a rule |
5. Complete the Automatic provisioning rule dialog. Specify at least a Rule name and set the Discovery type based on the Agent installed. |
6. Click OK |
7. Finally, click Save |
See Auto-provisioning for more details.
Add a manual resource
To monitor a device, pick one of the pre-configured packages and add it to the configuration by answering a few questions. These normally include the device IP address, which ServicePilot Agent to use to query this device and what sort of supervision is required.
1. Using a user with administrative privileges, log in to ServicePilot |
2. Open SETUP > Provisioning |
3. Select the type of monitoring package needed by category and use the filter to limit the options displayed |
4. Drag a package into the central view editor and let go |
5. Set the resource properties based on the package type selected. A unique resource name is always required as well as all fields highlighted with a *. |
6. To view package documentation, click on the Documentation tab |
7. Click OK |
8. Finally, click Save all changes |
Note: many packages use SNMP queries to obtain information. You may need to specify an SNMP policy with the correct credentials to monitor the device. See the Policies documentation for details.
See Add a manual resource for more details.
View data collected
Once equipment or resources are monitored, data is collected and can be viewed in different ways.
Monitoring
Real-time data and the current resource status can be viewed in different ways.
Menu item | Data display | |
---|---|---|
View | The View sub-menu shows data as a hierarchy of views that contain further views and objects and graphical elements. The objects contain indicators which store the data obtained. | |
Topology | The Topology sub-menu shows relationships between hardware, networks and web applications when collecting data from different sources | |
Hosts | The Hosts sub-menu allows you to view the status of the Hosts | |
Resources | The Resources sub-menu provides lists of resources, objects, views and classes by status |
Sub-Menu - Views / Topology
Menu item | Data display | |
---|---|---|
Topology | The Topology sub-menu shows relationships between hardware, networks and web applications when collecting data from different sources. | ![]() |
Map | The Map submenu displays the different elements distributed on the map according to their coordinates. | ![]() |
Treemap | The Treemap sub-menu shows an area map hierarchy of views | ![]() |
Tree | The Tree sub-menu shows a tree of views. | ![]() |
Matrix | The Matrix sub-menu shows tables of hosts or resources set against views or the collection types the resources perform. | ![]() |
Uptime | The Uptime sub-menu shows Availability & Performance of views and objects as a table over time. | ![]() |
Service | The Service sub-menu shows a table of Availability & Performance statistics and alarm counts for all views. | ![]() |
Sub-Menu - Hosts / Resources
Menu item | Data display | |
---|---|---|
Hosts | The Hosts sub-menu displays all IP as a hexagonal map. | ![]() |
Resources | The Resources sub-menu displays all your resources and their status. | ![]() |
Object | The Object sub-menu displays all the objects and their status. | ![]() |
Object ML | The Object ML sub-menu displays all the objects with anomalies. | ![]() |
Class | The Class sub-menu displays all the classes and their status. | ![]() |
View | The View sub-menu displays all the views in a table form with their status. | ![]() |
Analysis
For event data received by ServicePilot that is not associated with objects and the composition of data from multiple sources into dashboards, see the menu items under Analysis. ServicePilot provides multiple dashboards that are composed of widgets, each of which querying the ServicePilot database and presenting data in a particular form.
Dashboards may be added to a list of favorites for quicker access.
Custom dashboards can be created built from existing widgets or from completely new queries into the ServicePilot database.
See the Dashboards documentation for more details.
Menu item | Data display | |
---|---|---|
Dashboards | View favorite dashboards, custom dashboards, global dashboards and manage the favorite dashboard list | |
Metrics | View the per package summary dashboards and the per resource detail dashboards as well as alerts, avaibility and performances of different recources by package. You can also analyze the trend of your indicators by resource. | |
Logs | View alerts as well as received Syslogs and SNMP Traps | |
Traces | View Application and Network Performance Monitoring statistic dashboards |
Sub-Menu - Dashboards
Menu item | Data display | |
---|---|---|
Portal | The Portal sub-menu displays a global view of all the dashboards: Favorites, your dashboards, Account dashboards, Global dashboards. | ![]() |
Favorites | The Favorites sub-menu displays the bookmarked dashboards. | ![]() |
ML | The ML sub-menu displays the anomalies present on each object. | ![]() |
Service | The Service sub-menu displays a global view of the performance, the availability as well as the alerts. You can also find: real-time service, top alerts and SLA. | ![]() |
Packages | The Packages sub-menu displays all the deployed packages as well as the number of deployed packages. | ![]() |
Class | The Class sub-menu displays the classes used as well as the number of deployed objects | ![]() |
Top Object | The Top Object sub-menu displays the top objects on one indicator. | ![]() |
Uptime | The Uptime sub-menu displays for each minute and each class its status. | ![]() |
TV | The TV sub-menu displays a dashboard example without any menu for a TV display. | ![]() |
Sub-Menu - Metrics
Menu item | Data display | |
---|---|---|
Summary | The Summary lists all the packages by category and presents automatic and custom dashboards of each package. | ![]() |
Anomalies | The Anomalies sub-menu displays all the abnormal peaks of all indicators. | ![]() |
Service | The Service sub-menu displays for each technology family, package and resources, some service widgets corresponding to the specified catefories. | ![]() |
Capacity | The Capacity sub-menu displays an estimate of the indicator evolution over time. | ![]() |
Sub-Menu - Logs
Menu item | Data display | |
---|---|---|
Object Events | The Object Events sub-menu displays all the status changes of each object. | ![]() |
Object ML | The Object ML displays all the abnormal status changes of each object. | ![]() |
Object Log | The Object Log allows analyzing the object logs in a filterable dashboard. | ![]() |
Syslogs | The Syslogs sub-menu allows analyzing syslogs in a filterable dashboard. | ![]() |
Traps | The Traps sub-menu allows analyzing SNMP traps in a filterable dashboard. | ![]() |
Live Syslogs | The Live Syslogs sub-menu displays in real-time syslogs in an event tray. | ![]() |
Live Traps | The Live Traps sub-menu displays in real-time the SNMP traps in an event tray. | ![]() |
Sub-Menu - Traces
Menu item | Data display | |
---|---|---|
APP Trace | The APP Trace sub-menu allows analyzing the APM traces in a filterable dashboard. | ![]() |
NET Trace | The NET Trace sub-menu allows analyzing network traces in a filerable dashboard. | ![]() |
APP Map | The APP Map sub-menu displays APM traces as a map. | ![]() |
NET Map | The NET Map sub-menu displays network traces as a map. | ![]() |
APPTrace Live | The APPTrace Live sub-menu displays in real-time application traces. | ![]() |
NETTrace Live | The NETTrace Live sub-menu displays in real-time network traces. | ![]() |
VoIP | The VoIP sub-menu allows analyzing VoIP Calls in a filterable dashboard. | ![]() |
Tools
The Tools menu groups together items that are used on occasion, either to define a new database search or diagnose in detail why a device is unreachable or view historical PDF reports.
See the Search documentation for details on custom searches.
Menu item | Data display |
---|---|
Widget | Perform custom ServicePilot database searches and save them for later inclusion in dashboards and PDF reports. |
Inventory | Display the different servers, endpoints and IPAM (IP address management). |
Diagnostics | Check connectivity between ServicePilot Agents and devices as well ServicePilot Agent host inventory. |
PDF reports | The PDF reports view allows for the generation of PDF reports based on templates built-in or generated by ServicePilot administrators. Scheduled reports might also be retrieved. |
Sub-Menu - Widget
Menu item | Data display | |
---|---|---|
Widget | The Widget sub-menu allows building custom widgets. | ![]() |
Query | The Query sub-menu allows building and making custom SQL requests. | ![]() |
Database | The Database sub-menu presents a graphical interface allowing the management of the database and interect with the ServicePilot data. | ![]() |
Sub-Menu - Inventory
Menu item | Data display | |
---|---|---|
Servers | The Servers sub-menu displays an inventory of the monitored servers. | ![]() |
Endpoints | The Endpoints sub-menu displays an inventory of the servers on which an Endpoint agent has been installed. | ![]() |
IPAM | The IPAM sub-menu displays an inventory of the IP available in a sub-network with more information: open ports, hostname, constructor, ... | ![]() |
Sub-Menu - Diagnostics
Menu item | Data display | |
---|---|---|
Diagnostics | The Diagnostics sub-menu allows diagnosing if your equipement communicates correctly. | ![]() |
Operations | The Operations sub-menu allows identifying all the object in a particular status: Acknowledgement, Managed, Unmanaged, etc. | ![]() |
Settings
As an administrative user of ServicePilot, configuration may be changed under the SETUP menu items. Start with Users, Agents, Provisioning and Policies documentation for more details.
Menu item | Data display | |
---|---|---|
Configuration | Landing page for ServicePilot Administration and settings | ![]() |
Agents | Shortcut access to the status and management of ServicePilot Agents | ![]() |
View editor | Quickly add a new resource to monitor | ![]() |
Documentation | Link to this external documentation | ![]() |
Concepts
What is a Package?
A deployment entity which contains definitions (classes, view, objects, dashboard, PDF reports)
A package is a collection of pre-configured elements that can be imported into a ServicePilot configuration. A number of parameters are applied to the package when importing it into the configuration to monitor equipment as desired. These parameters are package dependent but a graphical wizard presents the information requested.
ServicePilot provides a host of build-in packages to monitor different equipment types. If a package does not exist for a particular device, it is often possible to monitor this device using a collection of built-in packages to monitor different parts of the device's operation.
Example: A
server-microsoft-windows-snmp
package defines components of a Windows Server to monitor (Disk, CPU, Memory, Ethernet, etc) and how to discover and monitor each of these using SNMP.
What is a Resource?
Use of package
A resource is one use of a package in the running configuration. The package definition plus the unique parameters applied in the package wizard result in a unique resource that helps build up the elements monitored by ServicePilot.
Example: A
server-microsoft-windows-snmp
package is added to the ServicePilot configuration and becomes a resource to be monitored by the provisioning of this package with specific package parameters such as SNMP access credentials.
What are Views?
Hierarchical containers to organize resources by location or business function
Objects containing statistics are added to ServicePilot by placing them in a logical hierarchy of elements called views. Each uniquely named view may contain other views or objects as well as other graphical elements. The nested views allow different hierarchies to be built up by ServicePilot administrators, possibly to present equipment by geographic location or service grouping.
The worst status of the monitored equipment percolates up from the indicators to their container objects and then on to the view in which the object is placed, all the way up the hierarchy to the root MAIN view.
Example: An
Office A
view might be created as a container in which to place all servers, network switches and applications that are based at this particular location.
What are Objects?
A collection of statistics
Objects are uniquely named collections of indicators, each indicator being a captured or calculated statistic. Each object will collect data from a single source. Based on the availability of source data, object availability over time is calculated. If any indicators exceed defined thresholds then the object will also take on the state of the worst performing indicator. Objects may therefore be in the following states:
State | Description |
---|---|
![]() |
Object source data is available and all of the object's indicators are nominal or unknown |
![]() |
At least one of the object's indicators has passed a minor threshold but none of the indicators are currently major or critical |
![]() |
At least one of the object's indicators has passed a major threshold but none of the indicators are currently critical |
![]() |
At least one of the object's indicators has passed a critical threshold or the object is in a critical service anomaly state. |
![]() |
The object source data is unreachable or the object is in a unavailable service anomaly state. |
![]() |
The object's state has not been determined either because it has yet to collect data or it has specifically been told to ignore data by placing the object in an unmanaged state. An unknown state can also be the result of all indicator thresholds being set to unknown. |
Example: An object named
Server - eth0
collects data from a single Ethernet interface.
What are Classes?
Object technical properties (definition of the collection, indicators, thresholds, …)
Classes regroup a series of properties forming the basis of a family of like objects. Each object is based on only one class definition, however multiple objects can be based on the same class. Classes define what indicators an object will have, the type of data expected for each indicator and how this data is calculated before being stored. Classes can also contain scripts to discover elements to be monitored and indicator statistics calculated from captured data. Finally, classes also specify the default indicator thresholds and capture frequency for objects.
Example: An 'Interface' class defines what objects based on this class will collect and their status thresholds. Each object based on this class will behave in the same way apart from collecting the information from a different source.
What is an Indicator?
A single statistic
Each indicator in an object presents a single statistic over time.
Indicators are either collected from monitored equipment or calculated:
Indicator type | Source |
---|---|
Monitor | The indicator data is obtained by querying the monitored device |
Complex | The indicator data is calculated based on the values of the monitored indicator data received |
Information | An SNMP indicator or table that can be retrieved on demand |
Control | An SNMP indicator used to check that values retrieved for the object still correspond to the same monitored element |
Example: An object named
Server - eth0
includes indicators 'Status' and 'In Traffic'. Indicators like the 'In Load' percentage are then calculated.
What is a Threshold?
A threshold is a condition giving a status to an indicator
Each indicator can have up to 3 fixed thresholds, 1 dynamic threshold and 2 Machine Learning thresholds that will change the status of the indicator, the object and its view hierarchy.
Thresholds type | Details |
---|---|
Fixed thresholds | These are three sucessive operators, three corresponding states and three fixed values that are tested against the indicator value. If no value matches, the state of the Else field is applied to the indicator. |
ML spike threshold | If the indicator value deviates abruptly from its expected value, a ML spike threshold exception will be raised. ML spike is calculated only if a critical or unavailable fixed threshold is present on the indicator and a regression line could be determined. |
ML cluster threshold | If the indicator value deviates from its expected value a number of times within a short time period, a ML cluster threshold will be raised. ML cluster is calculated only if a critical or unavailable fixed thresholds is present on the indicator and a regression line could be determined. |
Dynamic threshold | Based on a script, determines whether or not it is necessary to activate the indicator thresholds. |
What are Events?
Unsolicited data receipt
ServicePilot may be sent SNMP Traps, Notifications, Syslogs or other custom log data. On receipt of events, additional meta-data can be added before storage in data collections by event type. This resource can then be queried and filtered as well as performing statistical analysis to produce graphs, lists and alerts.
Example: An SNMP Trap is received by ServicePilot. It is decoded and tagged with a 'Severity' label and stored in the Trap database collection.
What are Policies?
Common configuration applied to resources. Specified in resources or views.
See the Policies documentation for details.
Further information
The ServicePilot web interface contains texts and descriptions to help use the tool.
To view explanations, go to the built-in help pages:
1. Open the Help pop-up | ![]() |
2. Select one of the tabs | ![]() |
Built-in help
In many places a question mark icon provides further information, either as a tooltip or as more detailed web pages. | ![]() |