SGI's products range from desktop workstations to supercomputers, which makes its product line one of the broadest in the industry. Supporting such a diverse product line creates many challenges. Embedded Support Partner was created to address some of these challenges by automatically detecting system conditions that indicate potential future problems and notifying the appropriate personnel. This enables SGI customers and support personnel to proactively support systems and resolve issues before they develop into actual failures.
Embedded Support Partner integrates monitoring, notifying, and reporting functions. It enables users to monitor one or more systems at a site from a local or remote connection. It includes the following capabilities:
Monitoring the system(s)
Configuration monitoring
System monitoring
Event monitoring
Performance monitoring
Availability monitoring
Notifying the user
Proactive notification
Reporting
Usability enhancements
Common interface
Remote support and on-site troubleshooting
System group management (which enables you to manage an entire group of systems from a single system)
This document describes the version of Embedded Support Partner that is included in the IRIX 6.5.6 operating system release.
The Embedded Support Partner software is distributed in two levels:
A base package
An extended package
The base package includes the functionality necessary to:
Configure Embedded Support Partner
Monitor a single system for system and performance events, configuration changes, and availability
Notify support personnel when specific events occur
Generate basic reports
The features in the base package are included in the IRIX 6.5.5 and later releases at no extra cost. They are installed by default, and Embedded Support Partner begins monitoring the system as soon as the system is booted. You can configure the base package to specify what types of events it should monitor and whom it should notify when events occur.
 | Note: Embedded Support Partner can also monitor events from diagnostic tests and perform actions based on these events. To use these optional features, install the diagnostics from the Internal Support Tools 2.0 CD, which is available only to SGI personnel. |
The extended package adds features that work with the base package, including capabilities that enable it to monitor events on multiple systems at a site and provide enhanced reports.
The features in the extended package are also included in the IRIX 6.5.5 and later releases, but these features are not enabled unless the customer acquires a license to use them. (A 90-day free trial license is included; full licenses are included in some service contracts or may be purchased separately.)
Table 1-1 lists the benefits that Embedded Support Partner provides for service personnel and customers.
Table 1-1. Embedded Support Partner Benefits
Component | Feature | Benefit to Service Provider | Benefit to Customer |
|---|---|---|---|
Base Package | Single Web-based interface | Increases usability of support tools on a single system | Provides fast and effective service |
| Broad and useful support functionality | Provides an integrated set of tools that work in a single framework while increasing support coverage | Provides consistent and wide coverage on systems |
| Centralized event processing (single system) | Enables you to collect and display all information from one central location | Provides the entire set of circumstances in one place |
| Centralized automated response and notification (single system) | Provides visibility to problems as they occur | Enables proactive support Provides a quick insight to problems |
| Remote support | Provides a virtual seat into the site remotely | Provides an effective means of delivering service (which greatly increases system availability with accurate problem diagnosis) |
Extended Package | Centralized event processing (group management) | Enables you to collect and display all information from one central location (which helps to determine causes of problems on systems within the site) | Provides the entire set of circumstances in one place |
| Centralized support administration (group management) | Provides a single location from which all support activities can be performed for a group of systems | Eases administration and service tracking |
| Centralized automated response and notification (group management) | Provides visibility to problems as they occur | Provides proactive support Provides a quick insight to problems |
| Centralized site reporting | Provides accurate system and site data online | Enables extensive tracking of availability and system performance |
| Centralized troubleshooting | Provides the ability to resolve problems from a central location | Provides an efficient mechanism to fix problems on-site |
| Remote support | Provides a virtual seat into the site remotely | Provides an effective means of delivering service (which greatly increases system availability with accurate problem diagnosis) |
Performance Monitoring Tools | Proactive, automated performance analysis | Assists in diagnosis of system-level performance issues | Identifies performance hotspots and areas where system resource usage could be optimized for improved performance |
| Extensible rule evaluation mechanism | Provides easy method to add site- or system-specific rules to the default set | Enables use of additional software products to extend the range of monitored subsystems (for example, Cisco routers and Web servers) |
| Local or remote service failure detection and quality-of-service monitoring | Automates detection of failed services for proactive support | Increases service availability and quality by automating service probing and checking |
Embedded Support Partner is a modular system. Each module works independently on a specific function, and no functional overlap exists between the various modules. Some modules run as daemons and others run as standalone applications that are driven by events.
The daemon components of Embedded Support Partner are:
Core software
System Support Database (SSDB): espdbd
System Event Manager (SEM): eventmond
Monitoring software
Event monitor subsystem: eventmond
The standalone components of Embedded Support Partner are:
Monitoring software
Availability monitor: availmon
Configuration monitor: configmon
Notification software: espnotify
Console software
Configurable Web Server: esphttpd
Web-based interface
Report generator core
Report generator plugins
If you install the performance metrics inference engine application, pmie, which is included in the Performance Co-Pilot Execution Only Environment (pcp_eoe subsystem), Embedded Support Partner can receive notification of resource oversubscription, bandwidth saturation, and other adverse performance conditions.
If you install the Internal Support Tools 2.0 CD release, Embedded Support Partner can receive data from the following diagnostic software:
IRIX based field diagnostics
Field Stress Tool (FST)
System Verification Program (SVP)
The Internal Support Tools 2.0 CD is available only to SGI support personnel (for example, System Support Engineers).
Figure 1-1 shows the architecture that Embedded Support Partner uses on a single system. (Components shaded in blue are daemons; components shaded in green are standalone applications.)
Remote support capability is built into Embedded Support Partner. The only requirement is a communication channel (for example, a network connection) to the site.
Remote support is implemented as a client/server application. This implementation enables you to connect to the console software from a remote location, which lets you control Embedded Support Partner from the remote location. This capability provides SGI support personnel with a “virtual seat” on the system or systems on which they need to work.
Remote support offers significant benefits for the field, the Customer Support Center (CSC), and Global Product Support (GPS). It enables service providers to perform an online diagnosis remotely so that they can arrive on-site with an accurate solution.