Management ProtocolsUSB Cable

In the days of the mainframe, it was not uncommon to have hardware from a single vendor.

In the current computing environment, this is more the exception than the rule. You have servers, possibly from different vendors, along with routers and NAS storage. And you have to manage all of it.

Luckily, standard protocols have been developed to help in managing multi-vendor networks. The best known is the Simple Network Monitoring Protocol, or SNMP. There are others, however, such as WBEM and JMX.

Pull or Push?

Data for monitoring can be obtained through "pull" or "push" architectures. With a "pull" architecture, the monitor requests the data from some source. With a "push" architecture," some source sends the data to the monitor. ArteMon supports both types of data collection.

ArteMon Data Collection

Database schemaAll ArteMon data is collected by plug-in data providers. A data provider knows how to collect data from a particular hardware or software component, or how to collect data using a standardized protocol.

The actual data collection is done by a data manager that is provided by the plug-in. When a data provider is initialized, it creates one or more data managers. Some data providers allow you to create and remove data managers. The SNMP data provider is a good example. If you want to collect data from an SNMP device, you can easily add a data manager for the device. All you have to do is provide the MIB for the device to the SNMP data provider.

The data collected by a data manager is organized into sample sets. A sample set is a collection of data that is all sampled at the same time. A sample set has a configurable sample rate that determines how often the data is sampled. A sample set consists of a set of sample objects, each of which is composed of a number of data items.

Which sample sets, sample objects, and data items are actually monitored is also configurable.

Spreadsheet with dataData Providers

A data provider is a Java™ class library that can be loaded by ArteMon. The data provider, when it is initialized, can add data managers, which are responsible for defining monitored data. Data providers can optionally provide a configuration capability, which can create new data managers, as well as modify and remove them.

Handling filesData Managers

Data managers define monitored data. When they are initialized, they define the data that they can collect. They also provide configuration interfaces. The data they can collect is organized into sample sets, which in turn consist of monitored data objects. You don't have to collect all of the data defined by the data manager. You select which sample sets, data objects, and data items are collected.

Color samplesSample Sets

A sample set is a collection of data that is all sampled at the same time. A data manager defines one or more sample sets. Each sample set has a user configurable sample rate. The sample set is called by ArteMon to collect monitored data ("pull" data collection). But a sample set can also call on ArteMon to handle monitored data ("push" data collection).