Cover Story

HP OpenView OperationsCenter And AdminCenter

OpenView is a platform that can support a number of applications. Among those that run under OpenView are OperationsCenter and AdminCenter. OperationsCenter manages critical processes throughout the network. AdminCenter manages users, software, operating systems and file systems throughout an HP network.

OperationsCenter is intended to be a tool for monitoring and fixing systemic problems on servers--usually Unix servers. A daemon runs on the managed system and "watches" the other processes and system parameters. Should something go wrong, alerts are sent to the OperationsCenter console. So far, nothing too special, right?

Still, the interesting thing about OperationsCenter is that it can instruct the local agent to take predefined actions to correct problems that arise. For example, if a process dies, OperationsCenter might try to restart it. If that doesn't work, OperationsCenter can ask the operator to take further action. Everything is tracked and logged. It's a good concept and works well, particularly if you own mostly HP equipment.

AdminCenter manages a network of Unix servers en masse. You can add users, manage disk space and easily create, delete or change groups of users and objects, and so on. It is the sort of tool you need to make managing a large farm of Unix workstations a more reasonable task.

Both products are intended to lower the expertise bar in the MIS operation center. They have GUIs that are consistent with other OpenView applications and they do simplify the task of managing a large group of servers running comp lex applications. HP has made the API available to vendors like Oracle, and many of those vendors now provide agents for their software. The products are no panacea for system management. You'll still need expertise in your organization just to get these products to a useful state. However, they do aid in the day-to-day running of a data center.

October 15, 1995