Creating and viewing entities

Entity-creation scenario

When you choose to add an entity, the on-screen instructions guide you through the process. Before you begin, you might want to review the following sample scenario, which shows how you might add a system entity to a domain. 

1. In the Helix Capacity Optimization Console, select Workspace > All Domains > domainName. 
2. In the Navigation panel, select the domain in which you want to create an entity.
   The domain details are displayed in the right work area.
3. Click Add > Add system to create a new system.
4. In the Welcome page, click Next.
5. In the Creation Mode page, choose how you want to define the system from the available options.
   In this example, the Import existing system option is selected.
6. Click Next.

7. In the Import from page, select the system you want to add. 
   Under Source, all the systems are listed under several categories like All Domains, Newly discovered, Unassigned and Shared Systems.You can expand the node you want and select the system you want. 

   Tip

   You can use Search to add a system or business driver. Type the name of the system (or business driver) in the Search field to locate the entity. 

   You can also use wildcards to search for the system (or business driver) you want to add. For example, if you type *vm* the search lists all systems with 'vm' in their names. You can then select the system (or business driver) to add. The number of search results is displayed at the bottom of the Search box.

   You can also restrict results of the search for a system (or business driver) based on its status. For example:

   • status:newly - restricts results to Newly discovered systems (or business drivers)
   • status:unassigned - restricts results to Unassigned systems (or business drivers)

   • status:shared - restricts results to Shared systems
   • status:common - restricts results to Common business drivers

   For more information on the various Search fields available, see Search-syntax.

8. Select the system you want to add and click  to add it under Selection.
9. Click Next.
10. In the Share page, select the system if you want to share it. 
11. Choose the period for which you want to maintain the relation between the system and the domain to which you are adding it. By default, the 
12. Click Next and then click Finish.
    The system is added to the domain.

Deriving a new entity from existing resources

To derive a new entity as a result of mathematical calculations based on existing entities, complete the following steps:

1. Access one of the domains by navigating to Workspace > All Domains.
2. Click Systems (or Business drivers) showing under the selected domain on the left navigation tree.
3. In the detail page on the right, click Add.
4. On the wizard displayed, click Next.
5. Select the creation mode as Derive a new system from existing resources and click Next.
6. Select one or more entities from which to derive the new system or business driver. Click Next.
7. Select the derivation type that you want to use, and specify the coefficients to substitute in the final equation for each of the selected entities. For more information, see Derivation types. Click Next.

8. Perform the following actions and click Next:

   1. Under Input metrics, select the metrics that you want to include in the derived entity.
   2. Under Output metrics, specify how input metrics will be rendered in the new entity, after aggregation using the selected derivation rule:

   • 
     
     • Same as input metric: Use the name of input metrics for output metrics.
     • All to metric: Map all input metrics to the selected dataset and metric.
9. Perform the following actions:
   1. Specify a name, description (optional), and system type (default: Generic) for the new entity.
   2. Click Domain - system relation always valid to display the available options and specify the start date from which to import values.
   3. Click Next.
10. Click Finish.

Derivation types

The derivation type is the aggregation function applied to the selected metrics to derive new metrics.

Alpha and beta coefficients are used to parametrize the equation; alpha is used as a multiplicative factor to the value of a metric, while beta is the power applied to it. If not specified, the default value (1) will be used.

The available derivation types are:

• Sum
• Average
  
• Min
• Max
• Implicit calculation
  
• Cluster A/A
• Cluster A/P
• Duration weighted average
  
• Weighted average
  

The following derivation types apply different aggregation functions depending on the type of input metrics used for the derived entity:

• Implicit calculation: The derivate tries to be the most effective representation of the selected systems from the capacity point of view; some metrics are averaged (for example, CPU utilization) while different aggregation functions are applied to other metrics (for example, the minimum value of disk free space is computed).
• Cluster A/A: The derivate is an Active/Active cluster of the selected systems.
• Cluster A/P: The derivate is an Active/Passive cluster of the selected systems.

Derivation rules table

Importing an existing entity

1. Access one of the domains by navigating to Workspace > All Domains.
2. Click Systems (or Business drivers) showing under the selected domain on the left navigation tree.
3. In the detail page on the right, click Add. On the wizard displayed, click Next.
4. Select the Import existing system creation mode.
5. Select an entity from the provided list of auto configured, shared (or common), and inactive systems (or business drivers). You can select as many entities that you want to import.
6. (Optional) You can also remove any of the selected entities by clicking the Delete icon, as shown in the figure.
   
   Example: Removing systems from the list of selected entities
   
7. Click Next.
8. Click Domain - system relation always valid to see the available options, specify the date from which you want to import the existing entity, and click Next.
9. Click Finish.

Viewing an entity

Locate the container domain in the Workspace > All Domains navigation panel and expand the corresponding node; then, choose one of the following actions:

• Expand the Systems (or Business drivers) node.
  1. Locate the desired system (or business driver) in the navigation tree.
  2. Click on its name to display its detail page in the working area.
• Click Systems (or Business drivers) in the navigation tree.
  1. Locate the desired system (or business driver) in the Systems (or Business Drivers) table.
  2. Click on its name to display its detail page in the working area.