Getting Started

To start your monitoring project, you will need access to the ServicePilot SaaS platform with a ServicePilot agent and a few basic configuration steps.

The following 2 steps are essential to get started:

• A valid ServicePilot account - to log in to the ServicePilot web pages
• A ServicePilot Agent - to collect data (downloadable from the platform once the account is created)

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 SETTINGS > Configuration
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 SETTINGS > Configuration
3. Click on Provisioning > View editor
4. Select the type of monitoring package needed by category and use the filter to limit the options displayed
5. Drag a package into the central view editor and let go
6. 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 *.
7. To view package documentation, click on the Documentation tab
8. Click OK
9. 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

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

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.

Settings

As an administrative user of ServicePilot, configuration may be changed under the Settings 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
- OK	Object source data is available and all of the object's indicators are nominal or unknown
- Minor	At least one of the object's indicators has passed a minor threshold but none of the indicators are currently major or critical
- Major	At least one of the object's indicators has passed a major threshold but none of the indicators are currently critical
- Critical	At least one of the object's indicators has passed a critical threshold or the object is in a critical service anomaly state.
- Unavailable	The object source data is unreachable or the object is in a unavailable service anomaly state.
- Unknown	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.