Viewing collected data

A device is any entity that can be monitored by  BMC Helix Operations Management . A device is created when you define monitor policies and the monitoring begins .  

BMC Helix Operations Management collects data from sources. Built-in algorithms convert the information collected about entities into devices, determine whether two or more pieces of data refer to the same entity, and consolidate those entities into a single device.

The source for devices are PATROL Agents. Note that the PATROL Agent itself is treated as a device, in addition to any systems it monitors remotely.  When a monitoring policy is applied to a PATROL Agent, its  device  is automatically added. Device monitors are a way of classifying the data that is to be collected. They continuously monitor various parameters of the device. For example, CPU performance and memory utilization for OS monitoring.

When authorization profiles are set up in your product, you can view a device if the device belongs to your profile. Administrators manage authorization profiles. For more information, see Configuring-authorization-profiles.

The following screenshot displays the Devices page:

The following table describes the options on the Devices page:

To view device details

On the the Monitoring > Devices page, click a device to view the Device Details for the device. The following image shows the Device Details page for a device.

Use the Device Details page to perform the following actions:

• View device details
• View the list of device monitors
• Launch the Metrics Data dashboard in BMC Helix Dashboards
• View the event summary area

By default, all users can access all devices. To control access of devices to limited users, see Setting-up-access-control. 

You can also view third-party devices in a hierarchical structure.

To view monitor details

When you click a monitor name or an application class being monitored for a monitor (for example, Cache for Windows Operating System), the details of the monitor are displayed on the Monitor Details page. This page shows the following details:

• Monitor name or application class details
• Summary of the events created for the monitor name and its attributes
• List of the events created for the monitor name and options to perform actions on an event
• Performance overview of the attributes collected for the class where you get the following options:
  • Configure time period to view performance
  • Compare multiple metrics and view output on a graph
  • Show performance of a single metric on a graph

Customize monitor graphs to leverage the BMC Helix Operations Management data visualization capabilities.

The monitor graph might show data in decimals. For data that is less than a day old, all data points are shown on the graph. However, for data that is more than or equal to a day old, the average data is fetched for each hour. Therefore, you can see 1 data point per hour. For example, refer to the following graph:

To customize monitor graphs

From the Monitors tab, click a monitor to view its details. The default Performance Overview tab provides a graphical overview of the monitor. You can view graph data by customizing the following actions: 

• Click  beside the duration value to specify the time period for the graph.
• Click  beside the graph type to select a graph type — Multimetric Comparison or Single Metric Analysis . 
• For a Multimetric Comparison graph, select the metrics to compare and set the left- and right-axis attributes. 
• For a Single Metric Analysis graph, select Edit Settings, select the monitor metric from the list, and configure it:
  • Select Baselines to view hourly high and hourly low baselines on the graph (calculated weekly for the CPU monitor only). This option returns the metric data for a duration of 7 days and the aggregated metric data for a duration beyond 7 days. If you uncheck this option, the metric data for a duration of 2 days and the aggregated metric data for a duration beyond 2 days is returned.
  • Select threshold indicators for the data you are viewing. Thresholds have to be previously set for the metric in Alarm-policies.
  • Select Events to view associated events for a metric. This option returns the metric data for a duration of 7 days and the aggregated metric data for a duration beyond 7 days. If you uncheck this option, the metric data for a duration of 2 days and the aggregated metric data for a duration beyond 2 days is returned.
    Specify whether you want to include intelligent events. BMC PATROL Agent events that are associated with monitors are also considered intelligent events.
  • Specify whether you want to view the hourly highest or lowest values in the specified graph period. Only the hourly highest or lowest values for the aggregated data are returned.

The system displays metric data for a longer duration to provide better visualization of events, as the aggregated metric data might not indicate the actual position of the event on the graph.

For single metric analysis, the display of alarm thresholds on the monitor graph is determined in the following order:

1. Alarm policy configured with the Multi Instances option and the highest precedence
2. Alarm policy configured with the All Instances option and the highest precedence

The graph legend shows if the alarm thresholds are shown from a policy created with Multi Instances (Instance Threshold) or All Instances (Global Threshold). 

If thresholds are set for a metric, the graph is displayed in the severity color for the threshold range. This allows you to visualize the metric performance using the severity colors.

If baseline is selected for the CPU metric, the graph shows the hourly high and hourly low baselines. When the metric breaches the high or low baseline, an event is generated.   

You can export a graph to PDF or CSV format. The PDF format replicates the graph that is displayed in the Performance Overview tab. The CSV format contains values for the selected metrics.

To view data in BMC Helix Dashboards

For BMC Helix Operations Management, use out-of-the-box dashboards to quickly start creating visualizations to get an insight of your IT infrastructure. The following out-of-the box dashboards are available:

• Event Data dashboard
  As a tenant administrator, editor, or viewer, you can use the Event Data dashboard to view the number of open events and their severity, and the number of closed events. The dashboard also displays the trend of open events in your environment.

• Metrics Data dashboard
  As a tenant administrator, editor, or viewer, you can use the Metrics Data dashboard to view the performance metrics data of the devices in your environment and get an insight into the their health.