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IT Operations Cloud Blog
17 min read time

What’s New in Operations Bridge Manager and SiteScope 2023.05

by   in IT Operations Cloud

OpenText Operations Bridge 2023.05 has been released! Our latest release introduces the new versions of the Operations Bridge Classic, Container and SaaS deployments, with a lot of new features and usability improvements. This blog post focuses on the new releases of Operations Bridge Manager (OBM), SiteScope and the Operations Bridge content and is the first in a series of blogs that will cover the new Operations Bridge release.

The second post about Containerized Operations Bridge is described in What’s New in Operations Bridge Reporting, Application Monitoring and Agentless Monitoring.

The third post is Hyperscale Observability: What’s New in Operations Bridge 2023.05

Summary of changes

Operations Bridge Manager

In this release, we introduced numerous new features and enhancements, with a focus on usability, automation and simplification. Below is a summary of changes brought to you in version 2023.05, followed by detailed descriptions of the new features.

  • Configuration Management System (CMS) HTML UI in OBM
  • Integration with Operations Orchestration (OO) Containerized
  • Support for firewalls between a gateway and a data processing server in a distributed setup
  • Improved security:
    • Control embedding of UIs
    • The Action Web Service interface is disabled by default for new installations
  • Prioritization of deployment jobs with the new -high_prio option
  • Improved visualization of deployment status for the users assigning monitoring:
    • Show the deployment status in the context of an assignment
    • Show the deployment status of successful/deleted deployment jobs
  • New HTML Policy Editor to configure HA for Operations Connector/OA-based Connectors
  • Enable OPTIC Data Lake (DL) reporting on all event attributes (feature equivalence with Operations Bridge Reporter)
  • Performance Dashboard (PD) enhancements:
    • Enhanced opr-performance-dashboard command-line interface (CLI) to support graphs for multiple Configuration Items (CIs)
    • The PD CLI is now available as part of the remote CLI package
    • Faster navigation to a specific page in the process drilldown chart
    • Event Details can be opened from an event overlay in a PD graph
    • Optimized visualization of data gaps in PD line graphs
    • New infrastructure settings floating point digits single precision and floating point digits double precision
  • Operations Console improvements:
    • Allow storing of favorites
    • Context-sensitive launch of the Agent Health view from Operations Agent (OA) CIs and events
    • Watchlist customization improvement
    • Miscellaneous usability improvements in Event Details
  • Manage auto-grant tokens via the User Interface (UI)
  • User Management permission can now be assigned to non-super admin users (these users can create and assign roles which do not have more permissions than their own roles)
  • If the Identity Management (IdM) component is used for the OBM authentication, sessions for logged in users can now be listed and terminated using the IdM Admin UI
  • Support for Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol version 1.3

The new capabilities are available for both Classic and Containerized OBM 2023.05.

For additional information, see the OBM Release notes.

Note: OBM 2023.05 is shipped with Operations Agent 12.24. This new OA version offers security and usability enhancements, as well as open-source component upgrade and a platform refresh for a number of operating systems. For further details, refer to the Operations Agent Release notes.

SiteScope

  • History metric ingestion into the OPTIC DL
  • New Sizing Calculator for SiteScope
  • Static value support for the local SNMP V3 engine ID
  • Ability to access the SiteScope UI via a reverse proxy
  • Support for TLS Protocol v.1.3

For more information, refer to the SiteScope Release notes.

Operations Bridge content

For detailed information on supported components, versions, software and hardware requirements, as well as obsolescence announcements, please take a look at the latest Operations Bridge support matrices.

Details on the new OBM features

The CMS HTML UI in OBM

Starting for this release, you can directly access the CMS HTML UI from the OBM UI. The CMS UI is deployed and configured as part of the OBM default installation and can be accessed through a cross-launch link under Administration -> RTSM Administration -> CMS UI. This brings the ability to use the HTML UI in a browser instead of installing the UCMDB local client (but please note that this is not a full replacement yet). As a further benefit, you can now use the new features of the HTML UI, such as search and dashboards.

Figure 1. The CMS UI launched from the OBM UI

Note that the CMS UI is currently not available if OBM is used in the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) mode and in OBM SaaS, or if a custom context root is used.

For more information, see CMS UI and CMS UI modules. For details about permissions on roles and permissions required for seeing the content in the CMS UI, see Permissions summary.

Integration with OO Containerized

You can now integrate OBM with OO Containerized (provided as part of the Service Management Automation X (SMAX) / Hybrid Cloud Management X (HCMX) offering). This brings the ability to use a single OO for SMAX and OBM and use OO for Operations Bridge SaaS. The integration procedure is described in the section Integrate OBM with Operations Orchestration Containerized (note that additional settings for tenant and the IdM URL (for user authentication) are required to configure this integration).

OBM deployments across firewalls

Dedicated ports for all communication between OBM server processes now allow configuration of firewall rules between the gateway and the data processing servers. Previously, if you wanted to deploy OBM across two data centers (for example, to achieve HA), you needed to open a firewall between those data centers for the OBM RMI communication on a broad port range – which was often a no-go because of security reasons. Starting from this release, port ranges are no longer required: OBM now uses fixed (dedicated) ports for the RMI communication, which enables you to open only dedicated ports on the firewall.

For information on required ports and their descriptions, see the Port Usage topic.

Prioritize deployment jobs

In this release, we have introduced the new -high_prio option for opr-agt and opr-jobs CLIs. If you have a long list of pending deployment requests (for example, in large environments), this option allows you to prioritize a request that needs to be deployed as soon as possible.

The following possibilities are available:

  • You can speed up pending deployment jobs for given nodes by running opr-jobs -start -high_prio <nodeSpecifier>
  • You can redeploy the configuration immediately by running opr-agt -deploy -force -high_prio <nodeSpecifier>

Figure 2. Deployment jobs prioritized with -high_prio

Improved visualization of deployment status

  • Successful and deleted jobs can now be shown in the State column of the Deployment Jobs UI. To achieve this, OBM keeps track of the last job for each assignment to allow easier validation of whether assignments got deployed. This brings improved transparency, especially for automatic assignments, and facilitates troubleshooting in case of missing or incomplete deployments.
    Note that the deployment status reflects the latest operation per assignment. For example, if an initial aspect assignment succeeded but a parameter value update failed later, the deployment status would be shown as FAILED. The additional job states SUCCEEDED (job executed) and DELETED (jobs removed before execution) are also available to track the assignment jobs. You can also use the -include_terminated option in the opr-jobs CLI to view terminated jobs.
    See Deployment jobs for further information.
  • Deployment status for monitoring assignments is now visible in the context of an assignment. With this, we have improved transparency, as you now can see whether and when your assignments got deployed. Also, it is no longer necessary to switch to the different UI to check whether an assignment got deployed. For more information, see Assignments and Tuning.
    Note: Alternately, you can use the -list_deploy_status option of the opr-assign CLI.

Figure 3. Viewing deployment status in the OBM UI

New HTML Policy Editor to configure HA for Operations Connector/OA-based Connectors

In this release, we introduced the new HTML policy editor for Operations Connector HA policies (earlier, you could only use the RAW Editor). This feature enables you to quickly create and modify HA configurations. For more information, see Configure Operations Connector High Availability Policies.

Allow OPTIC DL reporting on all event attributes

In this release, we added additional attributes to the event schema in the OPTIC DL, as well as the new event annotation schema, to ensure feature equivalence with OBR. You can now create event reports on all event data, such as a report that shows events created by rule, top user actions, event annotations, etc. With this enhancement, if use the OPTIC DL for auditing, you have the key event information available at hand.

For information on available event attributes, see opr_event and opr_event_annotation.

PD enhancements

  • Enhanced opr-performance-dashboard CLI. Starting from this release, PD supports the input of multiple CI IDs and CI names in the CLI, making it easier to export PD graphs for multiple CIs:
    • You can automatically create images/CSV files of PD graphs for dashboards and scheduled reports
    • You can also create CI comparison graphs and export metrics for multiple CIs in a single CSV file for further processing
      For more information and the command synopsis, see opr-performance-dashboard.
  • In the process drilldown chart (the Performance pane), you can now use direct links to neighbor pages (available at the bottom of the page). You can also enter the page you want to navigate to directly into the text box. This improvement allows for a faster navigation to a desired location. For more information, see Editing Charts.

Figure 4. Direct navigation to desired pages 

  • Clicking an event overlay in a PD graph now opens Event Details in separate window (previously, only the title was displayed, so you had to switch to the Event Browser and search for the specific event to get this information). Event details can help you analyze a certain problem to find a quicker solution; moreover, you can now also launch tools from event details if necessary.
    For more information, see Visualizing Events in the Performance Dashboard.
  • Improved visualization of data gaps in PD line graphs. PD now provides an option for line charts to show no data for sections where no data points are available. This allows you to see if there were data gaps. This enhancement covers all data sources including the OPTIC DL.
    Note: Null is used as a default so that the gaps can be shown.

Figure 5. Data gaps in PD graphs: With and without the Null mode

Operations Console improvements

  • In the Launch component of the Event Browser, you can now pin your favorite action items, such as actions, runbooks or tools. This helps you launch your frequently used actions quickly, without having to go through the entire list or search. Pinned actions are shown under Favorites at the top of the Actions list and are taken over to all occurrences of the Launch component (the Launch menu, the Event Details pane and the Context menu of the events). This means that no matter where you add or remove the pin for the action items, the changes will be reflected at all three locations. Note that favorite actions are user-specific meaning that only you will be able to see them as favorites. For more information, see Use the Launch Pane.

Figure 6. Favorite actions are now shown in the UI

  • Context-sensitive launch of the Agent Health view from Operations Agent CIs and events. You can now launch the Agent Health view from the context menu of Operations Agent CIs and events. This direct drilldown enables you to quickly access the Agent status (this is faster than launching the Agent Health view from the Monitored Nodes UI) for troubleshooting or other purposes. For more information, see View Explorer Component.
  • Usability improvements in Event Details that include:
    • An easy way to copy values from event attributes
    • Fewer clicks are now required to update the event severity and priority (a new drop-down is available)
    • Easier access to the forwarding information

Figure 7. Usability improvements in Event Details

  • You can now arrange the CIs in a cross-view watchlist in a custom order. For more information, see Watch List Component.

Manage auto-grant tokens via the UI

In this release, we have introduced the Autogrant token UI (Administration -> Setup and Maintenance -> Certificate Requests -> Autogrant token tab), which allows you to manage tokens (in previous releases, this was only possible using the CLI). You can view all available autogrant tokens together with the token name, number of remaining activations and the number of days until token expiration. You can add, delete, modify, activate, deactivate a token, or export the token details.

For more information, see Autogrant tokens.

Figure 8. Using the OBM UI to autogrant tokens

New and obsolete infrastructure settings

  • The infrastructure setting Protection against Clickjacking attacks (true/false) has been replaced with Content Security Policy (CSP) trusted sources. In this new setting, you can configure the servers that you consider a trusted content source for the OBM UI (this way, you can control for which domains the embedding of UIs will be allowed). In this case, the OBM UI only shows the content (including logos, images and icons) from the trusted sources (earlier, it was only possible to allow embedding of UIs for all or no domains).
    Note: The OBM UI cannot show content from servers that are not added as trusted sources. Similarly, the servers that are not added cannot show content from OBM in their UIs. The default for this infrastructure setting is no trusted sources. For more information, see Infrastructure settings used in Security and Single Sign On.
  • The infrastructure settings IdM URL for OO Containerized authentication and Operations Orchestration tenant ID are added for the integration with OO Containerized. For more information, see Infrastructure settings used in Integrations with classic products.
  • Floating point digits double precision: This infrastructure setting specifies the number of floating point digits shown for metrics of the “double precision” type in the PD. For more information, see Infrastructure settings used in Performance Dashboard.
  • Floating point digits single precision: Specifies the number of floating point digits shown for metrics of the “single precision” type in the PD. For more information, see Infrastructure settings used in Performance Dashboard.
  • Connection timeout: Defines the waiting time (in seconds) for retrieving the data from the OPTIC DL. For more information, see Infrastructure settings used in Performance Dashboard.

Details on the new SiteScope features

Below is a list of major changes introduced in the new release of SiteScope:

  • Forwarding of the SiteScope history data. This is useful if you already have your SiteScope up and running for a while and want to set up an integration with the OPTIC DL: In this case, you can configure the forwarding of your already existing metric values, so that your System Infrastructure reports already have some data to display. For the detailed procedure on how to enable the forwarding, see Configure System Infrastructure Reports using SiteScope.

Figure 9. Configuring history data collection in the SiteScope UI

  • The new SiteScope Sizing Calculator helps you predict system behavior and perform capacity planning for SiteScope. The calculator displays the expected CPU and memory usage for each monitor type and the recommended SiteScope system requirements for the given workload. For detailed information, see SiteScope Capacity Calculator.

Figure 10. SiteScope Sizing Calculator

  • Support for a single instance or multiple instances of SiteScope residing behind the secured reverse proxy server. The number of SiteScope instances that can reside behind the proxy server depends on the number of available ports. For details, see Access SiteScope using Reverse Proxy Server.
  • Static value for the local SNMP V3 engine ID. Previously, SiteScope supported the local engine ID with every SNMP V3 trap as a dynamic value. You can now also configure it as a static value to receive a single ID (per SiteScope) at the receiver end.
  • TLS Protocol v.1.3 is now supported for secure communication between a local client and the SiteScope server. For details, see SiteScope local client.

For a complete list of SiteScope enhancements implemented in this release, see the SiteScope Release notes.

Changes in the Operations Bridge content

The section below describes the most prominent changes accomplished in the area of the Operations Bridge content. For a list of all implemented enhancements, please see the Release notes for Management Packs/Operations Connectors you are interested in.

OBM Management Pack for PostgreSQL 2023.05 includes the following enhancements:

  • Support for the log file monitoring. The Management Pack is now able to monitor a log file for specific errors and generate active events that are sent to OBM and can be viewed in the Event Browser. Log monitoring handles a specific set of error scenarios. For more information, see Log Monitoring.
  • The following new metrics can now be monitored (for these metrics, events are generated by measurement threshold policies):
    • Long Running Query
    • Database Status
    • Replication Status
    • Active Sessions
  • A new PD for the PostgreSQL Server and Database CITs for Operations Agent
  • Enhanced the collected dataset and data processing logic for the database connection status and database lock count metrics to generate more accurate events
  • Moved from the community support to being officially supported by OpenText

For detailed information on the new release changes, see Management Pack for PostgreSQL Release notes.

OBM Management Pack for Microsoft (Office) 365 2023.05 can now be deployed on multiple Operations Agents to assure HA and load balancing. HA is supported for the following features:

  • Discovery of Microsoft365 services
  • Collection of metrics of Microsoft365 services, such as SharePoint, OneDrive, Exchange Online and MS Teams
  • Health monitoring of Microsoft365 services
  • PD: HA ensures continuous data visualization in the dashboard even if not all connected servers are reachable

For a procedure on how to configure the HA setup, see Set up High Availability.

For detailed information on all new release changes, see the Management Pack for Microsoft365 Release notes.

OBM Management Pack for Infrastructure 2023.05 enables you to reset thresholds for the system infrastructure measurement policies. Resetting thresholds helps avoid an event storm on the server that can happen due to a small change in a metric value around the threshold. The reset threshold configuration thus suppresses short-term event storms and also stops possible delays in sending alerts.

For more information, see the Management Pack for Infrastructure Release notes and Configure reset threshold for Measurement Threshold policies.

OBM Management Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2023.05 comes with the following new features:

  • Custom port configuration. This helps you connect to a database using a non-default port for the listener in Always-On Availability Group (AOAG) setups. For more information, see Custom port configuration.
  • Collections can now run using custom time intervals. For more information, see Custom time interval.
  • Backup monitoring enhancements to skip the alarm when the database backup is still in progress
  • Metrics enhancements to include a list of long running jobs and support skipping of job names in the events
  • The new Performance Dashboard (PD) for SQL Server and MSSQL Database CITs for OA and the OPTIC DL data sources. For more information, see Performance Dashboard.
  • Change in the database CI name format to align with the unified OPTIC DL schema. For details, see Duplicate database CIs.

Refer to the Management Pack for Microsoft SQL Server Release notes for a complete list of enhancements.

More Operations Bridge 2023.05 release-related details are provided in the Operations Bridge Release Readiness Webinar. The slides and the recording are available on our Community page here.

We encourage you to try out our new features and enhancements! For further information on our offerings, visit the Operations Bridge product page, explore our documentation resources and check out our videos and blogs.

If you have feedback or suggestions, don’t hesitate to comment on this article below.

Explore the full capabilities of Operations Bridge by taking a look at these pages on our Practitioner Portal: Operations Bridge Manager, SiteScope, Operations Agent, Operations Connector (OpsCx), Operations Bridge Analytics, Application Performance Management (APM) and Operations Orchestration (OO).

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