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Managing Distribution Operations

 

Systems Management teams are increasingly concerned about providing operational functionality in a "point and click" fashion. The activities given to operators can often be expressed in a fairly straightforward manner, for example:

• Patch all Windows 2000 systems with the latest Hotfix
• Update the inventory data for all desktops
• Check the status of all servers

 

Such simple conceptual terms often belie the extraordinary complexity of the chain of activities and processes required to ensure successful completion of the task. This not only includes the setup and initiation of the activity itself but also relies on a robust infrastructure, a well-configured environment and ongoing verification, tracking and troubleshooting processes.

 

It is true that the less repetitive tasks such as designing, installing and configuring the infrastructure, troubleshooting the environment and creating profiles require trained and skilled individuals. However, once the management services are established, there are plenty of more repetitive operational tasks for which less experience and knowledge is required. It is often the case that the same skilled technicians must undertake these simpler tasks as well because the operational interfaces are so heavily intertwined with the underlying technology.

 

Productivity can be greatly improved by tools that enable the more advanced users to delegate operational activities or at the very least reduce the length of time they must spend on them. The forthcoming release of Orb Data's Odyssey application introduces a number of new utilities for managing an IBM Tivoli environment including some specifically designed for distribution operations.

Step by Step

In order to simplify the process of setting up a distribution or similar activity a series of dialogs has been introduced that will walk the user through the required steps. When an operation type is selected a new window is launched with the series of steps listed down the right hand side. Relevant options are displayed for each step as the user navigates through the list.

When the user selects to install a particular software package, for example, the initial dialog will help to select the target systems for the installation.

When the steps have been completed the user is presented with a summary report of the activity to be performed and the choices they have made. The activity can then be initiated.

Pre and Post Distribution Actions

There are a number of reasons that distributions can be delayed, timeout or simply just fail. Success levels can be greatly improved by performing initial status checks or dependency activities before even initiating the distribution. Typical actions would be to check network connectivity, check Endpoint status, apply ProfileManager subscriptions, or possibly even upgrade Endpoint code.

Odyssey allows any number of pre-distribution and post-distribution actions to be chosen. A number of standard actions are provided and additional ones can be defined by senior users.

Distribution Control

The entire distribution process is managed by Odyssey's Wizard technology. This provides the front-end interface for visualization and analysis as well as the back-end technology for queuing, staging, tracking and logging all activities.

The pre-distribution actions are run on the Endpoints, processing a number of Endpoints in parallel. Once an endpoint is ready it is added to the queue for the next distribution. This distribution is launched after a set period of time or once a certain number of endpoints have passed the distribution checks. Additional Endpoints that become ready will be queued for a later launch.

The Wizard also allows the user to select from a variety of retry options. For example, if the initial checks fail then they will be tried again later, either from the start or from the last successful point.

Advanced Configuration

The Step-by-Step dialogs walk through the basic choices that need to be made to launch a distribution. Experienced users have the alternative of using more advanced dialogs in order to access additional configuration options and view more details of the Tivoli operations that are invoked beneath the covers.

Tracking Distributions

Monitoring and tracking the distribution activities once they have started is an essential part of taking control of the whole process.

The basic results dialog shows a table of Endpoints with a graphical indication of the progress at each stage of the activity. For advanced users it is possible to see the underlying Tivoli commands that are being run as well as the output on an individual Endpoint basis.

Odyssey contains an integrated MDist2 graphical interface. Relevant information from MDist2 is made available directly in the distributions results window with the capability of drilling down further or directly controlling the MDist2 operation if required.

Where appropriate Odyssey is able to automatically pull back relevant logfiles for the distribution. For example, the master logfile for a Software Distribution is determined from the attributes of the Software Package, the relevant ManagedNode is contacted and the logfile is shown in a tab next to the results dialog. This logfile is monitored dynamically so that the updated information is available immediately.