Models configuration

First time execution

Go to Devo’s main menu and click on Applications > Service Operations. Please refer to the installation section if Service Operations does not appear in the list of available applications.

After the application’s initial loading process, you should see Service Operation’s welcome sections:

Service Operations manages two types of models: global and domain-specific. Typically, the first execution will yield no available results for domain models, and the application will inform about this status as shown in the previous screenshot. In the following sections of this document, the full procedure to create a new model will be explained, but at this point it is also possible to click on the Global maps tab and select one of the Devo-curated models that are available off-the-shelf. Please refer to the Global maps section in this documentation for more information on the access and usage of global models.

Click on the Go to administration button. The administration section of Service Operations will be loaded and it will go straight into the models management section, listing all available models in the current domain:

Creating a new model

Creating models in Service Operations is a fairly iterative process that commonly starts with sketching the general service or application model to monitor, and how it breaks down in terms of main building blocks, subsystems, and so forth, generally reaching the lowest level of detail with the atomic KPIs and/or KQIs that rule the operational, performance or business related-status of their affecting entities. Once that rough design of the service model is done, it becomes a far simpler task to begin translating that design in terms of actual entities and relationships in Service Operations. As a general recommendation, it is a good idea to work with two browser tabs simultaneously, the first one to navigate and perform the actual configurations on Service Operations and the second one to run and refine any queries that will be necessary for the model creation.

Please follow the steps specified in the next section to complete the creation of a new model:

1. Go to the administration interface by clicking on the config icon in the Service Operations main menu.

2. Click on Manage models under the Models main section on the left menu. A list of all available maps in the domain and their associated categories will be shown:

   

3. Click on the Create new model button. The interface changes to the model editing mode, showing a blank configuration for the newly created one.
4. Once there, to configure the new map, collapse the left menu (button 1 in the image): Hide the main menu of the administration module.
5. Contextual editing tools: Add entity "+", etc., (button 2 in the image): addition, cloning or deletion of entities in the model. Since it is a context-based tool, the number of active options will vary depending on the selected entity in the map.
6. General map setting (beside button 3, "Publish", in the image): Shows or hides the general configuration parameters of the model.
   
   

Creating entities

Click on the "+" button to add a new entity to the model. A form will be shown with all necessary parameters to be set in order to create the new entity:

Entity definition section

Metadata section

Impact assessment section

Linking entities 

To link two already-created entities use the following procedure:

1. Click on the source entity. The entity will be shown highlighted in the model, and a icon in the upper part of the node will be displayed.

2. Click on the button, keeping the button pressed down by your mouse, and start dragging the arrow to its destination.

3. Release the button on your mouse when the arrow is pointing at the border of the targeted entity.

NOTE: Remember the relationship you are establishing is based upon impact. That means, links should be read as ‘source entity impacts the status of the targeted entity’.

Linking entities using a link criteria

The mechanism described in the previous paragraph is the standard to link entities in an all-to-all way. That means, the following table of results shall be expected when linking entities using that approach:

In some situations though, it is necessary to link sources and targets based upon some criteria. In the event of this, it is possible to set a linking criteria to ensure only those links will be created.

The procedure to observe is as follows:

1. Create a link between two different entities using the procedure described in the previous section.

2. Click on the link (arrow). A form in the right hand side of the screen will be displayed with two options:

1. Use the dropdown selectors to set the linking criteria between the two entities. Service Operations will list all grouping keys defined in both source and target entities' value calculation queries. The way this should be interpreted is as follows: “link the entities whose value in the ‘from’ column matches exactly the value of the ‘to’ column".

1. Click apply. The link criteria is established and displayed in textual form on top of the arrow between the two linked entities.

NOTE: By definition, only those entities with grouping keys in their value calculation definition can be linked using this mechanism. If Service Operations cannot retrieve the grouping keys for both queries, a message in the same form will be displayed informing of this situation.

Setting the general configuration for the model

These settings describe the general characteristics and structure of a model. Among other things, these settings are used to configure the overall behavior of Service Operations mainly by enabling or disabling its main functional modules. Ancillary configurations are also performed in this block, such as the predefined analysis time range, etc:

Configuration subsections for Topology map

Configuration subsections for Incidents viewer, Monitors, Incidents diagnostics, Traffic viewer, Alerts and Workflows, User Experience

Administration of models

Under the Manage models section of the Service Operations administration section it is possible to perform the following actions:

1. List or filter out models based upon their category.

2. Perform the following actions:

   1. Edit: Go to the editing section with the selected model.

   2. Copy / clone: Create a new model using the selected one as template.

   3. Delete: Erase the selected model.

Administration from the editing section

There is a number of additional options available for the management of models, and accessible through the general settings menu in the editing section:

1. Combine model: Allows the addition of the entities and nodes definition of another existing model within the current one.

2. Rename / copy: Create a copy of the current model.

3. Delete: Erase the current model.