OS8212EN16GLA00_StudentHandout.pdf

Nokia Networks

Network Operations and Maintenance Tasks with NetAct (NetAct 16.2) Student Guide OS8212-16A-NRM

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Network Operations and Maintenance Tasks with NetAct (NetAct 16.2)

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Contents

Contents Network Operations and Maintenance Tasks with NetAct (NetAct 16.2) Course Description................................................................................................ 13 Getting started with NetAct ...................................................................................17 Module Objectives ................................................................................................ 17 Nokia Operations and Support System ................................................................ 17 What is NetAct?..................................................................................................17 Nokia Cloud Application Manager...................................................................... 18 Cloud Network Director ..................................................................................... 19 NetAct Managed Network Model........................................................................20 Knowledge Check: NetAct functionality..............................................................22 Knowledge Check: NetAct Managed Network Model.........................................23 NetAct Architecture and virtualization....................................................................24 Three tiered Architecture.................................................................................... 24 Virtualization....................................................................................................... 25 NetAct Deployments...........................................................................................27 NetAct Interfaces ............................................................................................... 29 Knowledge Check: Virtualization........................................................................ 30 Knowledge Check: NetAct Deployments............................................................31 Accessing NetAct...................................................................................................32 NetAct Start Page...............................................................................................32 Lab exercise: Connecting to NetAct .................................................................. 34 Lab exercise: NetAct Start Page........................................................................ 35 NetAct Application Categories .............................................................................. 36 Start page Applications Categories.................................................................... 36 Reporting category............................................................................................. 37 Configuration category....................................................................................... 40 NetAct Configurator............................................................................................ 42 Monitor category.................................................................................................43 User Assistance Category.................................................................................. 46 Administration category...................................................................................... 47 Security category................................................................................................49 Optimization category.........................................................................................50 Lab exercise: Application Categories................................................................. 51 Managed Objects...................................................................................................52 Components of Network Topology..................................................................... 52 NetAct User Assistance ........................................................................................ 55 Operating Documentation...................................................................................55 Nokia Online Service (NOLS).............................................................................58 Online Documentation........................................................................................ 59 © Nokia Solutions and Networks. All rights reserved.

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Object Information Browser................................................................................ 61 Lab exercise: NetAct User Assistance (1/2)....................................................... 64 Lab exercise: NetAct User Assistance (2/2)....................................................... 66 Lab exercise: Object Information Browser..........................................................68 Summary: Getting started with NetAct ..................................................................69 Basic Fault Management with NetAct................................................................... 71 Module Objectives ................................................................................................ 71 Fault Management Basic Concepts ......................................................................71 Strategies for Effective Network Monitoring....................................................... 71 Fault Management Events..................................................................................73 Alarm Flow Supervision......................................................................................75 Defining the Components of Network Topology................................................. 76 Knowledge Check: Fault Management Concepts ............................................. 79 Common Operations in NetAct Monitor Desktop ..................................................80 Fault Management System in NetAct................................................................. 80 Monitor Applications........................................................................................... 82 Common Desktop Functionality..........................................................................83 Managing the Workspace...................................................................................84 Managing tool windows...................................................................................... 85 Editing data and saving the changes..................................................................86 Using the clipboard.............................................................................................87 Using the Properties tool.................................................................................... 88 Using default keyboard shortcuts....................................................................... 89 Customizing keyboard shortcuts........................................................................ 90 Audible Alarms................................................................................................... 91 Lab exercise: NetAct Monitor Desktop............................................................... 94 Monitoring Network ...............................................................................................96 Fault Management Workflow .............................................................................96 Alarm Monitoring Tools....................................................................................... 97 Alarm Monitoring using Alarm Lists.................................................................... 99 Special Columns in Alarm List..........................................................................101 Alarm Details.................................................................................................... 102 Alarm History.................................................................................................... 103 Warning List......................................................................................................104 Reconfiguring the Alarm and Warning Lists display......................................... 105 Immediate access to Alarm and Object Tasks from Alarm Lists...................... 106 Alarm Monitoring using Network Views ........................................................... 107 Loading Views in Network View....................................................................... 108 Network Views Monitor Modes......................................................................... 110 Switching between Monitor and Edit mode....................................................... 111


Contents

Navigating in the view hierarchy....................................................................... 112 Network Objects............................................................................................... 113 Topology view objects.......................................................................................114 Object States.................................................................................................... 116 Administrative State..........................................................................................117 Operational states.............................................................................................118 Maintenance Mode........................................................................................... 119 Tool tip and Notes indicator.............................................................................. 120 Alarm and Subview States............................................................................... 121 Single RAN Site View....................................................................................... 123 Site View...........................................................................................................125 Finding Managed Objects.................................................................................127 Object Explorer.................................................................................................128 Displaying the Managed Objects Attributes......................................................130 Alarm Operations in an Object......................................................................... 132 Searching for managed objects........................................................................135 Managed Objects List.......................................................................................137 Switching the view mode and selecting columns attributes..............................138 Filtering managed object classes..................................................................... 139 Object Search...................................................................................................141 Viewing objects associated with a Maintenance Region or Site.......................143 Navigating to other tools...................................................................................144 Lab exercise: Object Explorer Tool ..................................................................145 Lab exercise: Object Search ........................................................................... 148 Lab exercise: Configuration Database Modification......................................... 151 Lab exercise: Network Views........................................................................... 153 Lab exercise: Alarm Lists and Warning Lists....................................................155 Alarm Statistics Reporting .................................................................................. 157 Alarm Reports Dashboard................................................................................ 157 Alarm Reports Dashboard Configuration..........................................................158 Search Alarms.................................................................................................. 160 Search Result................................................................................................... 163 Scheduling Task List.........................................................................................165 Schedule Task Report...................................................................................... 166 Lab exercise: Alarm Report Dashboard........................................................... 167 Summary: Basic Fault Management ...................................................................169 Advanced Fault Management with NetAct..........................................................171 Module Objectives .............................................................................................. 171 Alarm Filtering and Reduction of Alarm Flow...................................................... 171 Filtering the Alarm and Warning Lists...............................................................171


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Creating an Alarm Filter....................................................................................172 Activating a Filter in Alarm or Warning Lists.....................................................174 Alarm Flow Reduction in NetAct.......................................................................175 Selecting the correct alarm reduction technique.............................................. 176 Implementing feasible alarm reduction techniques.......................................... 177 Configuring Alarm Reduction in NetAct............................................................ 178 Reducing alarms caused by network maintenance with Maintenance mode... 179 Managing Fault Management processing Rules.............................................. 181 Managing Rules and Rule Folders................................................................... 182 General Rules with Rule Editor........................................................................ 185 Alarm Definitions.............................................................................................. 186 Relation Conditions.......................................................................................... 188 Actions..............................................................................................................191 Scheduling Definitions...................................................................................... 193 Predefined Correlation Rules........................................................................... 194 Other Predefined Rules.................................................................................... 196 Rule Analyzer................................................................................................... 199 Lab exercise: Rule Explorer and Rule Editor....................................................201 Lab exercise: Alarm Filters............................................................................... 203 Lab exercise: Alarm Rules................................................................................205 Topology Management........................................................................................ 206 Managing Network Views................................................................................. 206 Network Views Monitor Modes......................................................................... 207 Creating and Editing Network Views................................................................ 209 Adding a link between two objects....................................................................211 Linking and unlinking a sub-view......................................................................212 Saving a view................................................................................................... 215 Creating Children Objects’ Subviews............................................................... 216 Automatic View Generation.............................................................................. 217 Working Set Manager.......................................................................................218 Creating managed objects................................................................................221 Associating a Managed Object to Maintenance Region...................................223 Associating a Managed Object to Site..............................................................224 Editing object attributes in the Properties tool.................................................. 226 Object Deletion................................................................................................. 228 Deleting managed objects in the operational state...........................................229 Handling of Alarm Processing............................................................................. 231 Fault Management Pipe Status........................................................................ 231 Manual upload of Alarms..................................................................................233 Deleting Alarms of an Object............................................................................235


Contents

Lab exercise: Enabling the FM Pipe Status......................................................236 Summary: Advanced Fault Management with NetAct......................................... 237 Basic Performance Management with NetAct....................................................239 Module Objectives .............................................................................................. 239 Performance Management Principles .................................................................239 Counters, Measurements and Observations.................................................... 239 Logical Counters and KPIs............................................................................... 241 Key Performance Indicators and Reports.........................................................242 Knowledge Check: Performance Management Concepts................................243 NetAct Performance Manager tools.....................................................................244 Performance Management system ..................................................................244 Performance Manager tools............................................................................. 245 Performance Manager start page.....................................................................247 Lab exercise: Performance Manager tools.......................................................249 Knowledge Check: Performance Manager applications...................................250 Create, customize and generate performance management reports and dashboards.......................................................................................................... 251 Creating reports................................................................................................251 Saving and generating reports......................................................................... 255 Lab exercise: Create report for active user equipment with category 5 for MRBTS............................................................................................................. 257 Creating Dashboards........................................................................................259 Viewing and customizing reports......................................................................261 Report Navigator.............................................................................................. 263 Report Suite Publisher......................................................................................264 Lab exercise: Report Creator........................................................................... 265 Summary: Basic Performance Management with NetAct....................................266 Advanced Performance Management................................................................. 267 Module Objectives .............................................................................................. 267 Create, modify and publish KPIs ........................................................................ 267 KPI Creator introduction................................................................................... 267 Creating a KPI.................................................................................................. 269 Create KPIs...................................................................................................... 274 KPI Publisher....................................................................................................275 Lab exercise: Creating, modifying and publishing KPI .................................... 276 Manage preferences and schedule reporting...................................................... 277 Preferences...................................................................................................... 277 Report Scheduler .............................................................................................278 Lab exercise: Scheduling a report.................................................................... 279 Set threshold values for alarms........................................................................... 280 Thresholder and Profiler .................................................................................. 280


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Lab exercise: Object selection..........................................................................281 Lab exercise: Time Selection........................................................................... 282 Lab exercise: Alarm Settings............................................................................283 Lab exercise: Threshold information and notification....................................... 284 Create and activate measurement plans............................................................. 285 Administration of Measurements...................................................................... 285 Creating plan.................................................................................................... 287 Activating plan.................................................................................................. 290 Lab exercise: Creating new measurement plan for LTE cell load ................... 292 Summary: Advanced Performance Management................................................293 Configuration Management..................................................................................295 Module Objectives .............................................................................................. 295 Configuration Management in NetAct .................................................................295 Overview...........................................................................................................295 Configuration Management Process................................................................ 296 Configurator Basic Concepts............................................................................297 Managed Objects............................................................................................. 298 Working sets.....................................................................................................299 Configuration Types..........................................................................................300 Configuration Rules and Checks...................................................................... 304 NetAct Configurator Applications.........................................................................305 Configurator Architecture..................................................................................305 CM Editor..........................................................................................................306 CM Analyzer..................................................................................................... 307 CM Rule Editor................................................................................................. 308 Selecting a template type................................................................................. 309 Filling in the templates parameters...................................................................310 CM Operations Manager.................................................................................. 311 CM Reference.................................................................................................. 312 Flexible CM Search.......................................................................................... 313 CM History........................................................................................................314 Hardware Management functionality................................................................ 315 Configurator Basic User Tasks............................................................................ 317 General Workflow............................................................................................. 317 Sychronize Network Data................................................................................. 318 Hardware Configuration Upload / Export..........................................................321 Viewing Actual Configuration............................................................................323 CM Editor: View Filter.......................................................................................326 Managing Working Sets................................................................................... 328 Selecting Working Set to be used as filter........................................................330


Contents

Adding managed objects to working set(s).......................................................332 Creating working set from CM Query............................................................... 334 Modifying Parameters via Working Set............................................................ 335 Deleting Objects from the NetAct CM Database ............................................. 340 Exporting Configuration.................................................................................... 345 Export / Import data with CM Editor..................................................................347 Exporting relationship plan using CM Editor - Table Editor.............................. 348 Importing relationship plan using CM Editor.....................................................351 Displaying plans............................................................................................... 352 Mass parameter changes and plan creation.................................................... 353 Changing Mass Parameter...............................................................................354 Creating Plan....................................................................................................357 Checking Plans.................................................................................................359 Provisioning Plans............................................................................................ 362 Procedure: Provisioning plans..........................................................................364 Comparing plans to actual configuration.......................................................... 366 Searching Managed Objects with Flexible CM Search.................................... 368 Operations with CM History..............................................................................370 Generating report on parameter changes........................................................ 371 Viewing historical configuration snapshots of NEs........................................... 374 Lab exercise: HW Inventory Management....................................................... 376 Lab exercise: CM tools..................................................................................... 377 Optimizer............................................................................................................. 380 Optimizer Overview.......................................................................................... 380 Optimizer main user interface...........................................................................382 Summary: Configuration Management................................................................ 386 License management in NetAct...........................................................................387 Module Objectives .............................................................................................. 387 NetAct licensing concepts....................................................................................387 NetAct Licensing...............................................................................................387 NetAct software asset protection......................................................................... 390 NetAct hard lock............................................................................................... 390 License Manager to check licenses ....................................................................395 License Management Overview ...................................................................... 395 Licensing Concepts: Pool License....................................................................398 Licensing Concepts: License Sets....................................................................399 License States.................................................................................................. 400 License Management Tasks............................................................................. 402 License Import.................................................................................................. 403 Viewing Licenses..............................................................................................405


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Uploading Licenses.......................................................................................... 408 Exporting Licenses........................................................................................... 409 Distributing Licenses........................................................................................ 410 Feature Templates............................................................................................414 Network Element Audit against Feature Template........................................... 415 License Pool Substitution................................................................................. 416 Licenses Reports..............................................................................................417 Viewing Recent Operations.............................................................................. 419 Software Asset Monitoring...................................................................................420 Introduction to Software Asset Monitoring........................................................420 Software Asset Monitoring Notifications........................................................... 423 Software Asset Monitoring Reports.................................................................. 424 LTE and SRAN Licenses..................................................................................... 427 LTE and SRAN License Management..............................................................427 Summary: License management in NetAct......................................................... 430 Software Management.......................................................................................... 431 Module Objectives .............................................................................................. 431 Software Management.........................................................................................431 Software Management in NetAct......................................................................431 Software Manager............................................................................................ 433 Software Manager Operations..........................................................................435 Software Manager Graphical User Interface.................................................... 436 Network Software Status.................................................................................. 437 Viewing Details of a Managed Object...............................................................439 Uploading software configuration information from NE to NetAct.................... 441 Network Operations- Tasks.............................................................................. 444 Software Archive.............................................................................................. 446 Attaching / Viewing Software Package Documentation....................................448 Viewing Compatible Managed Objects.............................................................450 Changing status of software package in Software Archive.............................. 452 Network Element Backup.................................................................................... 454 Network Elements Remote Backup from NetAct..............................................454 Network Elements Backup Archive.................................................................. 455 Summary: Software Management....................................................................... 457


Course Description

Course Description Course name Network Operations and Maintenance Tasks with NetAct (NetAct 16.2) Target Group Audience

This course was created for: Personnel who who operate and maintain: •

Telecom networks using NetAct.

•

NetAct when they are NetAct Key users.

Objectives Upon completion of this module, the participant will be able to: •

Explain the role of the NetAct in the mobile network.

•

Describe the NetAct architecture and virtualization concept .

•

Access the NetAct start page.

•

Describe the main functionalities of NetAct.

•

Describe the components of the managed object.

•

Use NetAct Documentation.

•

Explain how to use Fault Management and Topology based tools.

•

Use the Common Desktop within Monitor to arrange a customized user interface.

•

Use the NetAct Monitor Tools to find problems within the Network and begin to find a solution to fix them.

•

Create reports on the most frequent alarms and the most alarmed network elements in the network or in a part of it.

•

Manage the alarm processing using alarm filtering and alarm reduction in NetAct.

•

Manage the NetAct Topology.

•

Revise the status of the alarms processing in NetAct.

•

Explain the purpose of Performance Management describe what is a KPI.

•

Explain the Performance Manager tools.

•

Create, customize and generate performance management reports and dashboards.

•

Create, modify and publish KPIs.

•

Manage preferences and schedule reporting.

•

Set threshold values for alarms.

•

Create and activate measurement plans.

•

Explain the purpose of Configuration Management.

•

List the NetAct Configurator applications and explain their purpose.


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Use the Configurator tools for executing basic tasks for configuration management.

•

Explain the Radio Optimization Process in NetAct and the main functionalities of Optimizer.

•

Describe Nokia licensing concepts.

•

Describe NetAct Software Asset Protection.

•

Use License Manager to check license.

•

Use Software Asset monitoring.

•

Describe LTE and SRAN license.

•

Use Software Manager for network element software synchronization, reporting and import.

•

Perform backup tasks for the supported network elements.

Duration 4 days Delivery method CLT Prerequisites The following training course(s) or knowledge is recommended: •

PC literacy

•

Working experience in telecoms environment

Learning Modules • Getting started with NetAct • Basic Fault Management with NetAct • Advanced Fault Management with NetAct • Basic Performance Management with NetAct • Advanced Performance Management • Configuration Management • License management in NetAct • Software Management

Learning module objectives Getting started with NetAct • Explain the role of the NetAct in the mobile network. • Describe the NetAct architecture and the virtualization concept. • Access the NetAct start page. • Describe the main functionalities of NetAct. • Describe the components of the managed object.


Course Description

• Use NetAct Documentation.

Basic Fault Management with NetAct • Explain how to use Fault Management and Topology based tools. • Use the Common Desktop within Monitor to arrange a customized user interface. • Use the Network Monitor Tools to find problems within the Network and begin to find a solution to fix them. • Create reports on the most frequent alarms and the most alarmed network elements in the network or in a part of it.

Advanced Fault Management with NetAct • Manage the alarm processing using alarm filtering and alarm reduction in NetAct. • Manage the NetAct Topology. • Revise the status of the alarms processing in NetAct.

Basic Performance Management with NetAct • Explain the purpose of Performance Management and describe what is a KPI. • Explain the Performance Manager tools. • Create, customize and generate performance management reports and dashboards.

Advanced Performance Management • Create, modify and publish KPIs. • Manage preferences and schedule reporting. • Set threshold values for alarms. • Create and activate measurement plans.

Configuration Management • Explain the purpose of Configuration Management. • List the NetAct Configurator applications and explain their purpose. • Use the Configurator tools for executing basic tasks for configuration management. • Explain the Radio Optimization Process in NetAct and the main functionalities of Optimizer.

License management in NetAct • Describe NetAct licensing concepts. • Describe NetAct Software Asset Protection. • Use License Manager to check licenses. • Use Software Asset Monitoring. • Describe LTE and SRAN Licenses.


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Software Management • Use Software Manager for network element software synchronization, reporting and import. • Perform backup tasks for the supported network elements.


Getting started with NetAct

Getting started with NetAct Module Objectives • • • • • •

Explain the role of the NetAct in the mobile network. Describe the NetAct architecture and the virtualization concept. Access the NetAct start page. Describe the main functionalities of NetAct. Describe the components of the managed object. Use NetAct Documentation.

Nokia Operations and Support System What is NetAct? NetAct is the Network Element manager in the Nokia and OSS portfolio. Performance Manager, Advanced Monitor and Advanced Configurator are using the same platform as NetAct and have some applications in common. The following figure illustrates the Nokia and OSS portfolio.

Figure 1: Nokia and OSS portfolio


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Nokia Cloud Application Manager The following figure illustrates the key features of Nokia Cloud Application Manager.

Figure 2: Nokia Cloud Application Manager Overview



Cloud Network Director The following figure illustrates the Cloud Network Director.

Figure 3: Nokia Cloud Network Director


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NetAct Managed Network Model The role of NetAct in managing a network can be classified into two categories: •

NetAct operation system

•

NetAct Global Level (umbrella) products

A cluster is a networked grouping of one or more servers and disk drives that are designed to support each other if a failure occurs in one server or network component. A cluster consists of several co-operating nodes that are interconnected in a redundant way to distribute information and resources. A NetAct cluster is a hierarchical, highly available, and secured computing system that consists of multiple internal components, such as servers, a shared storage system, LAN switches, and routers. It contains the necessary security control, such as encryption capability in data communication, firewall protection, and a hardened system platform. Regional Cluster A Regional Cluster manages a specific region and provides a view to a particular network area or technology. The network elements of a certain sub-network are connected to and managed by a Regional Cluster, which contains the network management system for that region. NetAct can contain several Regional Clusters, which can be connected to the NetAct Products that work in a Global level. Each Regional Cluster runs a database that stores the data arriving from the network elements in the managed region. In the Regional Cluster you do not have access to the data that arrives from network elements belonging to another Regional Cluster. You can have an overview of all the managed objects in the network only in the Global level. Global Level Products The Global Level Products are umbrella solutions that provide an entire view of the network in areas of Fault Management, Performance Management and Configuration Management. The global level products are intended for centralized, network-wide management tasks. They are not connected directly to the network elements but communicate with one or more Regional Clusters. Because these platforms are connected to all the Regional Clusters, you can have a view of all the network elements. Multiple NetAct instances and other Network Management Systems or other vendors, for example MVI, can be connected to a single NetAct Global Product instance. There are three NetAct Global level Products: •

NetAct Advanced Monitor

•

NetAct Advanced Configurator

•

Nokia Performance Manager

The following figure illustrates the NetAct Managed Network Model.



Figure 4: NetAct Managed Network Model


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Knowledge Check: NetAct functionality This section test the students on differentiation of the functions of NetAct Products for Regional Clusters and Global Level. 1. What is the main functionality of NetAct? Notes 1. __________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________



Knowledge Check: NetAct Managed Network Model This section test the students on differentiation of the functions of NetAct Products for Regional Clusters and Global Level. 1. What is the relationship between NetAct (regional level) and the NetAct Advanced Monitor, Advanced Configurator and Nokia Performance Manager Systems? Notes 1. __________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________


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NetAct Architecture and virtualization Three tiered Architecture The hardware platform of NetAct consists of three main parts, namely servers, storage devices and network equipment, such as switches and routers. NetAct’s software architecture is three-tiered: the tiers are Presentation tier

Presentation tier hosts client applications. The client applications access Business logic tier and reside typically on a user workstation, for example, a laptop or a desktop computer. The recommended workstation is an office PC with either Windows or Linux operating system.

Business logic tier

Business logic tier hosts the business logic and data access specific for NetAct.

Data tier

Data tier hosts NetAct data storages, that is, the database and directory servers.

Business logic and Data tiers are separated from Presentation tier by firewalls and reside inside the secure domain. Both Business logic tier and Data tier utilize virtual machines running on one or more host servers dedicated to NetAct. The following figure illustrates the NetAct architecture.

Figure 5: NetAct Architecture



Virtualization With NetAct, we are stepping into a virtualized environment. In a virtualized infrastructure (VI), software is set up in such a way that it can operate independently from the underlying hardware. The physical resources of multiple machines are shared across the whole infrastructure, and they act as a resource pool. In a VI, the physical hardware resources are divided into smaller units, virtual machines (VMs) that have their own allocated virtual CPU and memory. The virtualization layer (HW virtualization capability) is provided by the VMware hypervisor. Servers simply add I/O, CPU and RAM computing resources to the HW pool and virtualization provides a logical view of data, computing power, storage capacity and other server resources. There are no longer dedicated hardware roles. Instead, NetAct applications, mediations, and services running on a number of VMs are powered by a hardware resource pool. Each VM is dimensioned and optimized for the service or services running in it. In this way, the same NetAct functions can be provided but with better high availability and scalability options. The following figure illustrates the virtual environment of NetAct architecture.

Figure 6: NetAct Architecture - Virtual environment Benefits of virtualization in NetAct Virtualization in NetAct brings the following benefits: •

Reduced CAPEX and OPEX by consolidation, for example, improved HW utilization, and the possibility to co-locate Nokia products.

•

Near zero downtime upgrade: Upgrade can be performed by cloning the system within the virtualized infrastructure. Upgrades are performed on the clone side and then after upgrade testing, the clone system becomes the live system.

•

Zero downtime hardware maintenance and capacity can be added without business impact.

•

Efficient high availability and disaster avoidance solutions by using shared redundancy resources.

•

All HW resources are in efficient use: No more fixed amount of physical servers or standby nodes as virtual machines are distributed by load. In addition, decoupling NetAct and 3rd party HW/SW makes HW planning more flexible.

•

Increased elasticity, in other words, scalability in a virtual environment.

The following figure illustrates the benefits of virtualization.


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Figure 7: Benefits of virtualization Scalability in virtualized infrastructure Scalability is an important feature of the virtual NetAct environment since there are software components that can be located on more than one VM, and conversely, one VM can contain more than one software component. If the load increases beyond a virtual machine’s ability to handle the load, then the software component and/or virtual machine must be scaled to cope with the increased demand. However, not all software components scale in a similar way: •

Some software components are designed to scale horizontally, which means that additional virtual machines need to be provisioned in order to enable the software component to distribute its load. Horizontal scalability is enabled by placing software components behind load balancers.

•

Other software components scale better vertically, which means that additional resources (CPU and memory) need to be allocated to the virtual machine where the software component is hosted.



NetAct Deployments NetAct is delivered on three standard configurations: Small, Mainstream, and Large using HP blade servers. Table 1: NetAct Deployments: EMC solution NetAct Configuration Small – 23 VMs

Server Model HP BL460c Gen9 1p12c 96GB

No. of Blades 4

Storage System VNX Small: VNX5200: 3x100GB SSD SSF + 9x600GB SAS SFF + 13x1TB NL_SAS SFF

Optional extra 1x Intel E5-2680v3 twelve – 15 VMs core processors 96 GB memory Diskless

3PAR7200: 8x480GB SSD + 8x900GB SAS SFF

2x10GbE LAN; fc controller (16G)

VNX Backup: VNX5200: 5x600GB SAS SFF + N x (8x1TB NL-SAS SFF) Mainstream – 29 VMs

HP BL460c Gen9 2p8c 128GB

6

VNX Medium: VNX5200: 5x100GB SSD SSF + 13x600GB SAS SFF + 21x1TB NL_SAS SFF

Optional extra 2x Intel E5-2680v3 eight core – 22 VMs processors 128GB memory Diskless 2x10GbE LAN; fc controller (16G)

VNX Backup: VNX5200: 5x600GB SAS SFF + N x (8x1TB NL-SAS SFF)

Large – 35 VMs


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Optional extra 2x Intel E5-2680v3 twelve – 26 VMs core processors 256GB memory Diskless 2x10GbE LAN; fc controller (16G)


VNX Large: VNX5200: 5x200GB SSD SSF + 17x600GB SAS SFF + 27x1TB NL_SAS SFF VNX Backup: VNX5200: 5x600GB SAS SFF + N x (8x1TB NL-SAS SFF)

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Table 2: NetAct Deployments: HP solution NetAct Configuration Small – 23 VMs

Server Model HP BL460c Gen9 1p12c 96GB

No. of Blades 4

HP Backup:

Diskless

P2040 G4: 6x2TB MDL LFF

2x10GbE LAN; fc controller (16G) HP BL460c Gen9 2p8c 128GB

6

HP Medium: 3PAR7200: 8x480GB SSD + 16x900GB SAS SFF

Optional extra 2x Intel E5-2680v3 eight core – 22 VMs processors 128GB memory

Large – 35 VMs

HP Small: 3PAR7200: 8x480GB SSD + 8x900GB SAS SFF

Optional extra 1x Intel E5-2680v3 twelve – 15 VMs core processors 96 GB memory

Mainstream – 29 VMs

Storage System

Diskless

HP Backup:

2x10GbE LAN; fc controller (16G)

P2040 G4: 6x2TB MDL LFF


6

Optional extra 2x Intel E5-2680v3 twelve – 26 VMs core processors 256GB memory Diskless 2x10GbE LAN; fc controller (16G)


HP Large: 3PAR7200: 12x480GB SSD + 24x900GB SAS SFF HP Backup: P2040 G4: 6x2TB MDL LFF


NetAct Interfaces In NetAct, interface-related issues are very important, since dependencies are controlled via interfaces, and controlled dependencies are a key enabler of modularity - an important property of the NetAct architecture. NetAct can be integrated into external systems via Northbound interfaces. External systems are employed for similar monitoring, reporting and network planning tasks as NetAct, but at a higher abstraction level. These higher-level systems can be either Nokia or third-party management systems. Lower-level systems or network elements can be integrated into NetAct via Southbound interfaces. Again, these lower-level systems can be either Nokia or third-party element management systems. Mediations are responsible for the interworking or conversion between the protocols or data formats used in the lower-level or higher-level systems and the protocols or data formats used in the NetAct system. Protocols used in the lower-level or higher-level systems are, for instance, SNMP, SOAP or HTTP, and data formats are, for instance, ASCII or XML.

Figure 8: NetAct Interfaces - Northbound and Southbound

Refer to the NetAct documentation to check what are the supported functions for each Network Elements and information on the Northbound interfaces.


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Knowledge Check: Virtualization This section test the students on the description of NetAct virtualization. 1. List two benefits of virtualization. Notes 1. __________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________



Knowledge Check: NetAct Deployments This section test the students on the differentiation of the three NetAct hardware deployments and explaination on how system scalability is implemented. 1. List the three configuration types of NetAct. How is the system size scaled taking into account the virtualization? Notes 1. __________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________


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Accessing NetAct NetAct Start Page NetAct Start Page is a centralized launch pad for starting NetAct user interface applications. You can start all the NetAct applications that have been configured and for which you have permission to launch from NetAct Start. NetAct uses Single Sign-On (SSO) for accessing applications through NetAct Start. To be able to access applications through NetAct Start, a user must have a valid user name and password. The user also must be granted the permissions for accessing the needed applications. Depending on the permissions granted for the user, a list of published applications is visible to the user. From the right-hand dropdown menu the user can select between two different views. Folder view shows the different fragments as folders. The applications are grouped into the following functional areas: •

Administration: Applications for administering adaptations.

•

Configuration: NetAct CM applications, License Manager and Software Manager.

•

Optimization: Applications for network Optimization.

•

Monitoring: NetAct Monitor.

•

Reporting: NetAct Reporter.

•

Security: Certificate, User Management and NE User Management applications.

•

User Assistance: Operating documentation library.

Clicking the Online Help icon opens the Online Help Browser. By selecting Show all applications from the dropdown menu the user can see all the applications in one view and access them by mouse click. All the Java applications are installed on the application server cluster when NetAct is deployed. When a Java Rich Client is accessed for the first time, it is downloaded by the Java Service Wrapper (JWS) to user workstation and launched for the user. The next time it is accessed, the application is started from the local JWS cache. JWS checks the version of the application every time it is launched on the user workstation, and if necessary, updates the application from the application server. The following figure illustrates the accessing NetAct.



Figure 9: Accessing NetAct The following figure illustrates the NetAct start page.

Figure 10: NetAct Start Page New applications visualization modes The following figure illustrates the start page view modes.

Figure 11: Start Page View modes


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Lab exercise: Connecting to NetAct Context This section test the students for setting up the connection to NetAct system and functions of the NetAct Start Page.

Figure 12: Lab exercise: Connecting to NetAct Procedure 1

Login to lab.

2

Open session to NetAct system as omc user. Result of this step Describe the access to NetAct. Did you need to install NetAct SW in your local machine to access the system? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________



Lab exercise: NetAct Start Page Context This section test the students on setting up connection to NetAct system and functions of the NetAct Start Page.

Figure 13: Lab exercise: NetAct Start Page Procedure 1

Login to NetAct and navigate to Start Page. Result of this step Describe the purpose of the NetAct Start Page. ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________

2

Change the visualization mode of NetAct Start Page from Show All Application to Show Applications by folder. Result of this step What is the difference between the two visualization modes? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________


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NetAct Application Categories Start page Applications Categories Each application that a user can launch from NetAct is grouped into the following categories according to what kind of tasks it is used for: Table 3: NetAct Applications Categories Categories

Description

Administration

Applications used for the administration of Mediations and Adaptations in NetAct. Provides as well access to Element Managers.

Deployment

For AddOns Management. AddOns are enterprise applications that can be deployed to the NetAct server.

Configuration

Set of applications used to manage the network configuration.

Optimization

Set of applications used to optimize the network configuration.

Monitoring

This is the group for fault management applications to monitor and troubleshoot the managed network.

Reporting

Use these applications to start measurements and generate reports on the performance of the managed network.

Security

Applications for User Account Management, Network Elements User Management and Certification Authority (Certificates generation).

User Assistance Applications to access User Documentation and Information Adaptation Browser. Some applications are optional and require a license, otherwise they are not visible in NetAct GUI. The applications are grouped into functionality areas. The following figure illustrates the NetAct application categories.

Figure 14: NetAct Application Categories



Reporting category The Performance Manager in the Reporting category is described as follows: Performance Manager Performance Manager is a centralized, multi-vendor, multi-technology data reporting solution, providing easy and accurate information on network wide performance, usage and quality statistics. The new easy-to-use GUI allows advanced reporting, threshold supervision, profiling and trending on long term raw and aggregated data. By using Performance Manager tools the NetAct users are able to: •

Create and edit reports, for private or public usage

•

Create and edit KPIs, for private or public usage

•

Crowse for existing KPIs and reports

•

Customize dashboards with tables and multiple chart types

•

Schedule reports and distribute them through email in CSV or XLS format

•

Customize the web portal look and feel and setup your preferences

Performance Manager is multi vendor-capable and collects data from the entire network that consists of network elements from Nokia and from other vendors. Performance Manager includes also several ready-made report packages. The following figure illustrates the Reporting category.

Figure 15: NetAct Applications Categories - Reporting Administration of Measurements (AoM) AoM application enables the PM Administrator user to manage (enable/disable) measurements on network elements to allow data collection from network elements to NetAct. This application can be used to view, create, modify and delete measurement plans and templates. Measurement plans can be used to start and stop the measurements on the network elements. AoM also helps to upload measurement plans from the network elements to NetAct. This tool contains the following tabs:


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•

Network Overview: It enables the user to view the activation status of measurements in the network.

•

Plans: It enables the user to create, modify, delete, activate and deactivate plans.

•

Templates: It enables the user to create, modify and delete a template. It also allows the user to create a plan based on an existing template.

•

Upload Overview: It enables the user to view a summary of all the upload operations carried out during a specific time period for specific NE Types.

Thresholder and Profiler Thresholder and Profiler are NetAct applications that are integrated with NetAct Performance Manager: they allow setting and managing thresholds or profiles, respectively, for the counters or KPIs calculated in Performance Manager. Profiler capitalizes on the observation that the measured values of a KPI often follow a pattern. Profiler tracks this pattern and provides a reliable approximation of the typical value of the KPI based on a week's data. Nevertheless, the user can define a threshold and a profile for the same KPI independently from each other: if a user enable thresholding and profiling but the threshold is not a profiled threshold, Profiler still maintains the profile for the KPI. This way a user can monitor the KPI actively (with the threshold and by receiving violation notifications) and at the same time user can also gather longer-term information on the KPI (with the profile). Software Asset Monitoring Software Asset Monitoring application collects and processes the configuration and measurement data based on customer specific settings. It generates a report on the feature usage and forwards the formatted monitoring data to the customer and Nokia Customer Team through an encrypted e-mail. The encrypted e-mail can be read and validated by Customer and Nokia Customer Team only. The report on the feature usage is used to generate an invoice. One software monitoring report comprises information related to one NetAct cluster. For LTE and Flexi Direct, software monitoring is the only way of usage control as License Keys are not implemented for these technologies. Software Asset Monitoring enables speed and efficiency with fast software activations through bypassing the pre-activation procurement process, and applying alternative pricing models where invoicing is based on network configuration or on used functionality. This results in OPEX savings and in an increased flexibility. The following figure illustrates the functions of Performance Management.



Figure 16: Performance Management Functions


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Configuration category This following section describes the NetAct Configurator. NetAct Configurator NetAct Configurator is a component in the scalable NetAct framework for operating mobile networks. Configurator gives access to real-time network configuration data and provides tools to manage network configuration. The basic functionality of NetAct Configurator is to define and manage parameter data in the network. Network architecture can be functionally grouped into the access network and the core network. The access network handles all radio-related functionality while the core network is responsible for routing calls and data connections to external networks. With Configurator, the access network and core network are managed in a centralized way. The main functionalities of Configurator are: •

Storing the network parameters in the database

•

Data exchange with external tools

•

Setting, modifying, viewing, and comparing network configuration data

•

Mass modifications on the network: integrating sites, extending and optimizing the network

•

Small scale tuning of the network configuration

Software Manager, License Manager Software Manager and License Manager are centralized NetAct applications for the network management of Software (NetAct and NEs Software) and Licenses (NetAct and NE's licenses). Self-Organizing Networks (SON) Scheduler SON Scheduler allows user to view and configure operations related to Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) Flexi BTS(s) as well as auto connection and auto configuration features both in the network and planned configuration. SON Scheduler functionality manages the four following features in Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks: •

Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Conflict Resolution

•

Mobility Robustness

•

Synchronization of Inter-Radio Access Technologies (RAT) Neighbors

•

Optimization of Intra LTE Neighbor Relations

It provides advanced filtering options to improve displaying required information as well as an array of scheduling options. Plan Editor Plan Editor allows the user to edit radio network plans offline, making it possible to modify all network parameters locally on a PC. Changes to the network topology or either single parameter changes or mass operations on large groups of parameters can be planned in a format that can be used by network planning and management systems.



Plan Editor Graphical User Interface (GUI) displays managed objects in a hierarchical order and provides a drag-and-drop functionality to ease the planning work. Plan Editor includes a reporting functionality, Parameter Dictionary, for online reference and help on parameter value ranges, and the possibility to store several default parameter sets.

Figure 17: NetAct Applications Categories - Configuration


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NetAct Configurator This section describes the NetAct configurator. Maintaining up-to-date picture of the network Working with the latest data is a precondition for exploiting the full potential of any network. Configurator not only retrieves configuration data from network elements whenever desired. It also saves this information to allow operators create an archive of configuration stages to give them vital insight and thus enables them to optimize their network. Built-in Northbound interface capability allows for the export of data towards third-party post-processing applications. Configuring the network Configurator provides offline planning capabilities to prevent any mistakes to be made on a running network. Current and planned configurations can be compared to identify the best solution. Plausibility checks prevent errors from the start. An Import functionality is available which enables to process network plans which have been prepared outside of Configurator in an operator’s planning environment. In the configure phase all three Configurator components work hand-in-hand: •

CM Editor is used for displaying configuration data and for comfortable editing of data when creating a network plan.

•

CM Analyzer is used for use case specific running of consistency checks.

•

CM Operations Manager comes into the game when externally created network plans are imported into the Configurator application for further processing. With the Command Manager, CM Operations Manager allows the direct execution of commands and command files (on-demand or scheduled) to network elements.

Once a new configuration has been defined automatic delta command generation takes care of spelling out all necessary changes in the relevant network element specific data formats. Controlled deployment of all administration is provided by the provisioning capability. The automation of all download tasks ensures network consistency and minimizes operational efforts, allowing a complete transparency of all planning and with minimized margin for error. All provisioning steps are controlled by the CM Operations Manager.

Figure 18: Configurator Functionality



Monitor category The Monitoring is described as follows: NetAct Monitor NetAct Monitor provides a new desktop and a new toolset for monitoring tasks. The fault management monitoring tools in NetAct Monitor can be used to manage alarms from various network elements and types, to perform root cause analysis, to troubleshoot faults that cause disruptions in network services, and to improve the quality of the network services for subscribers. NetAct Monitor provides: •

List and view based alarm monitoring

•

Object management tools

•

Rule management for automated alarm handling and correlation

•

Alarm filtering

•

Alarm forwarding to e-mail

•

Trouble Ticket management tools

•

OSS/J Trouble Ticket Northbound interface

•

3GPP CORBA Fault Management Northbound interface

•

Application launch for all NetAct tools, including NetAct OSS5 level applications

NetAct Monitor toolset accelerates the monitoring workflow by providing centralized monitoring tools on a single screen for different networks. Alarm filtering and correlation rules help to automate the regular fault management actions and reduce the alarm flow to NetAct Monitor alarm tools and upper level systems integrated through 3GPP CORBA Fault Management Northbound interface. OSS/J Trouble Ticket interface together with trouble ticket tools enhances the trouble ticket handling within monitoring tools. NetAct Monitor supports user specific customization on tool views and tool set-ups and its permission management supports user group specific tool and operation permissions. With this integrated toolset NetAct Monitor provides excellent support for daily monitoring tasks in operations helping operator to gain OPEX savings when tools are in full use.

Figure 20: NetAct Applications Categories - Monitoring The following figure illustrates the Alarm Report Dashboard.


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Figure 21: Monitoring Category: Alarm Reports Dashboard The following figure illustrates the troubleshooting with monitor tools.

Figure 22: Troubleshooting with Monitor Tools Trace Viewer Tracing is a concept name for an optional NetAct functionality, which is performed by the TraceViewer application, and allows the tracing of mobile equipment and subscribers in mobile networks. TraceViewer enables global tracing, which means that a user can trace an International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number or International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) number throughout the network. Additionally, the TraceViewer application provides a mechanism for administering, collecting and viewing information related to a specific subscriber or mobile equipment. TraceViewer can activate traces in several network elements, including Nokia RNC, FlexiNS. In addition, TraceViewer receives events from Nokia BSC and MGW network elements. Trace data is collected from the network elements and is sent to TraceViewer, where it can be viewed in the form of reports. TraceViewer can be also used to support network planning and optimization. After changing the network parameters, users can easily verify that all sites are working as planned, by using TraceViewer’s graphical and textual presentations. This tool is also used for real-time troubleshooting to follow the functionality of the network and possible problems with a call.



Operators can use tracing to troubleshoot problems with mobile equipment or subscriber’s connections and to follow up customer complaints. Tracing can be also used to monitor the network and to check the results of the network optimization.


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User Assistance Category The following section describes the user assistance category. Operating Documentation NetAct operating documentation contains the user assistance needed for the daily network management operations. The documentation is available on NetAct user workstations in a browsable format. The NetAct application Online Helps are available in the same NetAct Operating Documentation set, and they can be launched via context-sensitive launch from the NetAct applications. Object Information Browser (OIB) Object Information Browser (OIB) is an application used for browsing of alarm, measurement, counter, and both radio and core network parameter descriptions, as well as object class information and changes between network element releases. OIB user interface provides following functions for utilizing the adaptation reference information: •

Search

•

View

•

Browse

•

Compare

•

Export to spreadsheet or XML

•

Print

•

View release changes

•

Select GUI columns for browsing and export

The following figure illustrates the user assistance.

Figure 23: NetAct Applications Categories – User Assistance



Administration category The section describes the administration category. Adaptation Manager An adaptation is a set of fragments such as Configuration Management (CM), Performance Management (PM), Fault Management (FM), and other fragments. These fragments contain data that enables NetAct to communicate with any Network Element (NE). Several releases of an adaptation can be deployed to NetAct to support multiple versions of network elements. Adaptation Manager allows to manage adaptations. A user with adequate roles and permissions can perform the following actions with Adaptation Manager: •

Deploying adaptations, Un-deploying adaptations, Redeploying adaptations

•

Viewing adaptations

Dynamic Adaptation Dynamic Adaptation GUI is a web application, which provides an interface to view and trigger the Dynamic Adaption process. It allows as well monitoring the dynamic adaptation status. The network elements integrated via Dynamic Adaptation are those managed by @vantage agent, generic agent or ne3s agent. When Dynamic Adaptation is triggered for a network element from the Web UI, the request is dispatched to Dynamic Adaptation Mediation. After that, mediation starts to upload metadata for the network element. These metadata contents are processed, and then adaptations are generated dynamically. Adaptations for @vantage agent or generic agents are generated dynamically based on the fault management, performance management, and configuration management metadata present on the network element. Adaptations for ne3s agent are generated dynamically based on the fault management and performance management metadata present on the network element. The generated adaptations are then deployed into NetAct System dynamically. Once the Adaptation process is completed, Dynamic Adaptation GUI is updated with the status of the adaptation. NE Integration Wizard Network element integration wizard application is used by system administrator to automatically integrate a network element to NetAct. SNMP FM Mediator SNMP FM Mediator application allows system administrator to activate, deactivate, and configure parameters of agent supervision, trap reliability, and alarm upload functions for all network elements. Parameters as such as timeout, retries, number of messages to be handled and so on can be configured with this tool. With SNMP FM Mediator, you can: •

Configure global parameters for agent supervision

•

Configure global parameters for trap reliability

•

Configure parameters for agent supervision by network elements

•

Configure global parameters for alarm synchronization


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SNMP PM Mediator SNMP PM Mediator allows system administrator to activate, deactivate, and configure parameters of PM mediation (for example, timeout, retries and number messages handled in parallel mode). Using SNMP PM Mediator, administrator user can: •

Configure global parameters

•

Configure parameters for PM Polling by network element

•

Configure polling for existing network elements

SNMP PM Mediator application allows administrator to configure performance management measurement data polling for the SNMP based network elements and stores the performance indicators in the system. The performance indicators are configured in the performance management adaptation and the mapping between SNMP variables and performance indicators is defined by the SNMP PM fragment of the adaptation. The network elements having SNMP PM fragments deployed on NetAct can be polled by the SNMP PM mediation. If performance management adaptation exists, then the data is used by performance management and stored in performance management database. Map Administrator Map Administrator is an administration tool designed for managing the Geographic Information System (GIS). GIS combines data with location. The main usages for such a system are data retrieval and visualization based on the location, for example, showing computed network coverage or dominance on a map. The following figure illustrates the NetAct Applications Categories - Administration.

Figure 24: NetAct Applications Categories - Administration



Security category The following section describes the User Management. User Management User management is a web based management system for monitoring, managing and administering users and groups. The user management application manages user profile information, groups and password policies and ensures the security of a user. User management is integrated with Permission Management (PEM) of the different NetAct tools for the corresponding authorizations to be assigned to users. The authentication of a user is based on user profile information stored in the system specific authentication repository. The following operations are managed by user management: •

Creating, deleting and updating user and login profile

•

Creating, deleting and updating a group

•

Importing and Exporting users and permissions

•

Resetting user passwords

•

Configuring password policy

Certification Authority Certification Authority is the tool used to download the security server CA certificates used by the tier1 to communicate con NetAct applications (launch NetAct desktop). Network Element Access Control Web application used to administer Network Element credentials for the users that NetAct uses to access Network Elements. The following figure illustrates the NetAct Applications Categories - Security.

Figure 25: NetAct Applications Categories - Security


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Optimization category The optimization process usually takes place when the monitored performance drops below the set targets, when a periodical tuning task is to be started or when there is need to optimize the behavior of new network elements in the network. The existing network configuration and performance needs to be taken into account when adding the new elements. Measurements are used for analyzing the network and service performance development against set targets. A detailed analysis is performed to find the reasons behind decreased performance and to select the appropriate corrective actions. In this phase, the relations between performance indicators and element parameters are analyzed. After the analysis phase, the configuration parameter settings are optimized and the set quality criteria are checked. When the corrections are verified and implemented into the network, the quality monitoring cycle starts from the beginning. The following applications and tools are used in network optimization with NetAct: Optimizer

NetAct Optimizer is designed for automated, measurement based optimization of operational GSM, WCDMA and LTE networks. It provides the functionality for viewing, analyzing and optimizing the actual network performance and capacity.

Map Administrator

Map Administrator is an administration tool designed for managing the Geographic Information System (GIS). Map Administrator is located in the Administration folder on the NetAct Start Page.

Antenna Data Editor

Antenna Data Editor is an Optimizer functionality used for importing site and antenna relations to the cells and base stations of the actual network. The tool is run by the administrator user whenever new sites and antennas and relations to the cells in the network need to be updated. Antenna Data Editor supports data import from any external system producing a CSV (Comma Separated Values) data input file that complies with the import format definition.

Configurator

The following Configurator applications are used in the optimization process: CM Analyzer, for running consistency checks, CM Operations Manager, for downloading and activating plans and for running workflow-based optimization operations, CM Editor, for editing plans and templates, SON Scheduler, for running scheduled workflow-based optimization operations.

Performance Manager Optimizer uses mobile measurement reports collected by Performance Manager in interference matrix creation. The following figure illustrates the NetAct Applications Categories - Optimization.

Figure 26: NetAct Applications Categories - Optimization © Nokia Solutions and Networks. All rights reserved.


Lab exercise: Application Categories Context Explain the purpose of NetAct categories groups.

Figure 27: Lab exercise: Application Categories Procedure 1

Login to NetAct.

2

Navigate to Start Page. Result of this step List the NetAct Start Page Categories. Explain the purpose of each category? Explain the main functionalities of the following applications. Indicate to which category they belong to: •

NetAct Monitor

•

Performance Manager

•

CM Operations Manager

•

Online Documentation

•

Trace Viewer

•

Optimizer

________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________


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Managed Objects Components of Network Topology Topology The topology of a network is the representation of the actual physical elements of the network, where they are located, and how they are related to each other. To get an accurate representation of the network it is important to keep the topology as consistent with the actual physical network as possible. Managed Object (MO) A managed object represents a physical or a logical network element, or a piece of equipment that belongs to the network. This element must be connected to NetAct, so that NetAct can be used to manage it by gathering information, such as information on alarms, from it. In some cases information can be downloaded from NetAct to the managed object. Every Managed Object belongs to a specific Managed Object Class (MOC) which defines its characteristics, such as its parameters, operations, notifications and behavior. Managed Object Class All managed objects of the same type are grouped together to form a class. This enables NetAct to represent the elements in the network in a logical way. In NetAct software each class is represented by its own symbol. These symbols can be used in the NetAct Monitor to make graphical views of the network. It defines the characteristics of the MO, such as its parameters, operations, notifications and behavior. Object Instance The Object Instance and the associated Managed Object Class of the MO uniquely identify the MO within its Parent Object. Parent and child objects Managed objects are often hierarchical with certain objects controlling and containing others. This hierarchy is shown in the NetAct object model as well. A parent object controls or contains a child object. Site object A site is a place where one or more of the elements of the network are located. One site can contain more than one managed object. If there are multiple elements on one site, the site object represents the element which is highest in the hierarchy on that site. For example, a site may contain an OMC as well as one of its workstations. Distinguished Name (DN) Distinguished Name is an effective identifier of a particular managed object instance. It contains the relative Distinguished Name of the object instance in question, plus the relative Distinguished Names of all its parent objects. These are shown as a path of elements arranged in a hierarchical order and separated by a slash (/). For example, ClassName-InstanceValue/ClassNameInstanceValue/ClassName-InstanceValue



Global Identifier (GID) The Global Identifier is a number which uniquely identifies a MO in the Topology. The same MO always has the same GID in any NetAct system. Internal ID The internal ID is a number which uniquely identifies a MO within one NetAct system (within a regional or the global system). The same MO usually has not the same internal ID in different NetAct systems. Object State The Object State specifies whether the MO exists in the actual configuration (operational or created from network state) or not (non-operational state). Working Sets Managed object refers to an abstract representation of a network resource, which can be either a physical or logical entity, in a network managed by NetAct. Working set refers to a set of managed objects to which recurring management tasks are applied. Working sets facilitate network management, for example, when certain configuration changes are applied to a set of network elements recurrently. For example, network operators often want to configure a set of base stations with the same radio network parameters. In this case, the use of working sets can facilitate configuration management significantly. Maintenance Regions A maintenance region is a logical managed object in NetAct Object Model. It is a collection of managed objects that are grouped together, normally to represent some geographical part of the network.

Figure 28: Managed Objects, Maintenance Regions and Working Sets NetAct Monitor applications allow to define maintenance regions that should be monitored. Dividing the network view into two or more maintenance regions facilitates online monitoring because that way the number of alarms that different groups responsible for network operation need to analyze is reduced. Using maintenance regions: •

The system administrator can create separate Maintenance regions within the network.


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•

Dividing the network view into two or more maintenance regions makes online monitoring easier as it reduces the number of alarms that personnel in operation need to analyze.

For example, it may be useful to have separate maintenance regions for different geographical areas, for prioritized areas, or for certain types of alarms. You can set up monitoring criteria that narrow the focus of monitoring so that they can concentrate only on the network areas or alarm numbers needed.



NetAct User Assistance Operating Documentation NetAct operating documentation contains the user assistance needed for the daily network management operations. The documentation is available on NetAct user workstations in a browsable format. The NetAct application Online Helps are available in the same NetAct Operating Documentation set, and they can be launched via context-sensitive launch from the NetAct applications. Browsing the content 1. From Contents frame expand the category by clicking the plus icon or doubleclicking the category name. 2. Click the document name. The content appears in main frame. Additional information: •

On the top of Contents frame click Collapse all button to collapse all opened topics.

•

On the top of Contents frame click Link with Contents button to link viewed content in main frame with related topic in Contents frame.

•

On the top of Contents frame click Maximize button to maximize the Contents frame. Click Restore button to restore the view.

•

On the top of main frame click Maximize button to maximize the main frame. Click Restore button to restore the view.

Searching in the publication 1. Above the Contents frame fill in the Search field with the searched expression. 2. Click Search scope if you want to choose which categories and documents need to be searched through. 3. Click GO button to run the searching. The results are displayed in Search results frame. 4. Click on chapter name. The content appears in the main frame. You can return to browsing the content by clicking Contents button at the bottom of Search results frame. The following figure illustrates the operating documentation.


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Figure 29: Operating Documentation Operating Documentation: Browsing documentation The following figure illustrates the browsing documentation in operating documentation.

Figure 30: Browsing Documentation in Operating Documentation Searching currently browsed content When browsing the content (publication category) you can quickly run the search. 1. On the top of Contents frame click the Search selected topic and all subtopics button. The Search selected topic and all subtopics dialog appears. 2. Type the searched expression. 3. Click OK button to run the searching. The results are displayed in Search results frame. 4. Click on document or chapter name. The content appears in main frame.



You can return to browsing the content by clicking Contents button at the bottom of Search results frame. Navigating •

On the top of main frame click the Go Back button to return to previously viewed page.

•

On the top of main frame click the Go Forward button to go forward in the history of viewed pages.

•

On the top of main frame click the Home button to go to the top of the publication.

Adding viewed page to favorites This instruction is available only for Internet Explorer browser. •

On the top of main frame click the Bookmark Document button. The Add a Favorite dialog appears.

•

Type the name of the bookmark and select its location in favorites folder of your browser.

•

Click Add button.

Results page options The following figure illustrates the results page options in operating documentation.

Figure 31: Results page options in Operating Documentation


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Nokia Online Service (NOLS) The Nokia Online Service (NOLS) provides easy and secure access to solution and product documentation, downloadable software, project management tools, online entry and tracking of Help Desk cases, online ordering, e-learning and collaboration tools. The following screenshot displays the NOLS.

Figure 32: NOLS: Nokia Online Services Product Information Center The following figure illustrates the features of Product Information Center.

Figure 34: Product Information Center



Online Documentation The following section describes the online documentation. Online Documentation: Infocenter and Operating Documentation Library NetAct operating documentation is available in Infocenter as browsable HTMLlibrary. The browser window is divided to two parts: on the left side is the table of contents which can be used for fast access to any operating document, or part of a document. On the right side the document itself is visible. The topics can be opened and searched using: •

The table of contents

•

Search functions

The NetAct operating documentation set contains the documents needed for getting familiar with NetAct and the daily operations. The topics covered include: •

Overviews to NetAct functionality

•

Release change documentation

•

Operating concepts to network management and NetAct system administration

•

Network element integration instructions

•

System technical references

•

Troubleshooting principles

•

Open interface specification

The following screenshot displays the online help.

Figure 35: Online Help Rich Media in Operating Documentation HTML-format documentation is accompanied by rich media (Flash) presentations and sortable tables. The following screenshot displays the rich media in operating documentation.


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Figure 36: Rich Media in Operating Documentation



Object Information Browser Object Information Browser is a customer documentation browser designed specifically for browsing of Adaptation metadata information on object classes, and performance management, configuration management data, and fault management metadata. The content in Object Information Browser covers the descriptions of PM measurements and counters, CM parameters, alarm descriptions, and object classes for the Adaptations deployed in NetAct. Information on alarming, measured and configurable (CM) objects is available via managed object class metadata in Adaptation Information Browser. Adaptation Information Browser is a Web UI application which is accessed from the NetAct Start Page. The basic functionality in Adaptation Information Browser includes: •

Searching by data type (PM, CM, FM, Object Class) and by release, based on the free text.

•

Viewing the description of an individual counter, measurement, parameter, alarm manual, or object class based on search results, for example, viewing the description of an individual measurement.

•

Browsing counters, measurements, parameters, alarm manuals and object classes by release or by user-defined criteria and drilling down to details.

•

Comparing selected adaptation descriptions, for example, comparing the descriptions of two measurements, counters, or parameters.

•

Exporting to Excel and XML, based on search results.

•

Printing of search results.

The following screenshot displays the Object Information Browser.

Figure 37: Object Information Browser OIB Search functionalities To search for and browse measurements information: 1. In the main window, click Measurements.


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2. Click the drop-down list of Adaptation to choose a specific adaptation. The corresponding data are displayed in the result panel. If you do not want to designate a specific adaptation, you can choose all, and use Look for below directly. 3. Click the drop-down list of Release to choose a version. The corresponding data are displayed in the result pane below. Again, if you do not want to designate a specific version, you can choose all. If you do not choose a specific adaptation in Adaptation, you can not choose a specific version in Release. 4. Enter the keywords in the search box of Look for, and click Search. Keywords can be any part of the attributes of the data. To narrow down the search scope, enter two or more keywords separated by white-spaces. The search rules are listed below: The search supports fuzzy match. If there is no precisely matched result according to the keyword, items with similar keywords are displayed. If there is even no similar result, no record is displayed. The order of the search results is determined by the priority of the attributes. For example, you enter two keywords for attributes, one for ID and the other for Description. As the priority of ID is higher than that of Description, the searched items for ID are listed above the items for Description. 5. To show more detailed information about the measurements, follow the steps below: Click Column settings at right-top of the result panel to choose the information needed in the drop-down list, and then click Apply. You can also choose Default to reset the settings as default value. Click the attribute with hyperlink in ID, and then the details are displayed in a pop-up dialogue box. Click the attribute with hyperlink in Managed objects, and the detailed information of the selected item is displayed in the same window. Click the arrow icon next to the attribute name to view the whole description of the attribute. 6. To define how many items to show per page, click the drop-down list of items per page at the right-bottom of the result panel. 7. To export the measurements of the page, follow the steps below: •

Navigate to the page you want to use for exporting.

•

Click Export to export the measurements of the current page in a specific format.

•

Choose the format you want in the pop-up box, and then click Export in it. By default, the exporting is in xml format.

•

Save or open the exported data file.

The following screenshot displays the Object Information Browser search.



Figure 38: Object Information Browser Search The following screenshot displays the managed object browsing in OIB.

Figure 39: Managed Object Browsing in OIB


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Lab exercise: NetAct User Assistance (1/2) Context 1. List the different documentation references in NetAct. 2. Use the Online documentation for searching main NetAct topics. 3. Use the Online Help for searching for specific NetAct Operative procedures.

Figure 40: Lab exercise: NetAct User Assistance (1/2) Procedure 1

Login to NetAct. Result of this step List the applications available in NetAct to provide documentation and information about NetAct and the supported Network Elements. ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________

2

Go to User Assistance Category. a) Open the Operating Documentation. Result of this step List the some of the Main Contents items. ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________



3

Search for the NetAct Monitor Application and save the corresponding page for the Overview of this application. Result of this step List the steps to do this task. ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________


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Lab exercise: NetAct User Assistance (2/2) Context Use the Online documentation Rich Media to view videos on concepts and tasks execution in NetAct.

Figure 41: Lab exercise: NetAct User Assistance (2/2) Prerequisites You need to be logged into NetAct and at start page. Procedure 1

Open the NetAct Monitor application. a) Go to the menu Help ► Contents and find the corresponding help for using Network Views. Result of this step ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________



2

Open the Operating Documentation. Result of this step Find a Rich media item to get an overview of the Configuration Management Operations in NetAct. Describe the format and content of such overview. What can be advantages of the Rich Media information compared with the standard html Online Help? When would you use of Rich Media and when you use the standard documentation? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________


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Lab exercise: Object Information Browser Context Use the Object Information Browser application to browse, visualize and export detailed data of the supported network elements in NetAct.

Figure 42: Lab exercise: Object Information Browser Prerequisites You need to be logged in to NetAct and at start page. Procedure 1

Open the Object Information Browser application. Result of this step List the types of information about network elements that you can find using this. Explain how you can find information for certain type and version of network element. ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________

2

Browse the Measurements for the RNC network element and export the results. Result of this step What are the options for exporting the Measurements List. How can you find the counters that belong of those Measurements using OIB. Using OIB, find out how many alarms can be received in NetAct Monitor for the LTE Base Startions. ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________



Summary: Getting started with NetAct Module Summary This module covered the following learning objectives: •

Explain the role of the NetAct in the mobile network.

•

Describe the NetAct architecture and virtualization concept.

•

Access the NetAct start page.

•

Describe the main functionalities of NetAct.

•

Describe the components of the managed object

•

Use NetAct Documentation.


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Basic Fault Management with NetAct

Basic Fault Management with NetAct Module Objectives • Explain how to use Fault Management and Topology based tools. • Use the Common Desktop within Monitor to arrange a customized user interface. • Use the Network Monitor Tools to find problems within the Network and begin to find a solution to fix them. • Create reports on the most frequent alarms and the most alarmed network elements in the network or in a part of it.

Fault Management Basic Concepts Strategies for Effective Network Monitoring The primary aim of effective network monitoring is to prevent critical faults in the network and to identify the problems that directly affect the quality of the service, that is, the criteria by which subscribers judge the quality of the network. Network monitoring can be a reactive process where a high number of alarms arrive during a day, causing a lot of manual routine work in alarm handling. The operator can, however, develop a network monitoring process so that it becomes a planned, controlled process where monitoring personnel can focus their attention on the essential problems in the network. There are different ways to make network monitoring more effective. Using Views hierarchies A view is a logical representation of the object hierarchy that includes parent and child objects. A main view visualizes the parent objects of the network and the subview contains the child objects that are controlled by the same parent object. Subviews can be created to monitor, for instance, prioritized geographical areas, workstation networks, or transmission networks. For easy navigation in the view hierarchy, there can be links between the views, for example, from the main view to the workstation network view or to the transmission network view. Proper planning of the network main view and subviews makes it possible to trace an alarm to the correct source of the problem. Alarm Flow Reduction Alarm situations can be anticipated and operators can make plans to reduce the alarm flow. The reduced alarm flow makes it easier to spot the real source of problems and to start working on solutions as quickly as possible. The flow of alarms can be reduced by means of alarm filtering, alarm reclassification, and alarm correlation. Alarm Trigger The Alarm Trigger feature can be used for automating certain external and internal processes that support the daily routines of alarm handling. The default processes that can be triggered automatically vary. The operators can define the trigger rules. Maintenance Mode The Maintenance Mode can be used to block alarms that arrive from sites under maintenance. Alarms that arrive from objects in maintenance mode are not processed by NetAct. This mode can be activated for a managed object or for a managed object and its subordinate network.


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Figure 43: Strategies for an Effective Network Monitoring



Fault Management Events The figure illustrates the Fault Management Events.

Figure 44: Fault Management Events Table 4: Fault Management Events Alarm Class

Required Actions

Critical (***)

This type of alarm is likely to cause disturbances in traffic. You must take action within one hour

Major (**)

You must take action within working hours

Minor (*)

You do not have to take action unless the alarm occurs repeatedly

Warning (W)

You do not have to take any action

Alarm number

Each alarm has an alarm number for identification purposes. The alarm number can have a value between 1 and 99999.

Alarms An alarm is a message that notifies the management system of an abnormal condition in the managed system. The message carries information on the origins, time, and possible reasons for the abnormal condition. In NetAct this information is broken down into different fields. The fields are put together to construct the alarms which are shown in the alarm handling applications. All alarms have an alarm number that identifies the possible reason for the alarm. Alarms are placed into a class that indicates their severity. Alarm Acknowledgement If an alarm is raised an operator has to acknowledge the error condition to indicate that appropriate corrective action will be taken. Alarm Cancel Alarm Cancel is a message that clears an alarm when the fault situation is over. In managing a telecommunications network it is very important to clearly indicate the end of an alarm situation. If alarms are not canceled is not possible to have an accurate and up-to-date view of the network situation. Warnings NetAct also supports warnings that provide information on transient error situations. Unlike alarms, warnings do not have start and end times and are not canceled.


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Alarm Upload To ensure consistency of alarm information between the different databases, you can upload alarms from the network elements to the NetAct Cluster.



Alarm Flow Supervision Alarm Flow Supervision feature ensures that alarms from network elements are not lost or delayed on their way to NetAct. The supervision involves heartbeat alarms, which are sent by a network element if no other alarms have been sent for 15 minutes (by default). The heartbeat alarms are not stored in the NetAct database, nor are they relayed to NetAct alarm handling applications. If no heartbeat alarms are raised during the specified period, an alarm is generated and shown in the Active Alarms List. Alarm Types The event type provides more information on the problem that caused the alarm. The following event types are used in NetAct. Table 5: Fault Management Alarm Types Alarm Type

Explanation

Communication

An alarm that is associated with the procedures and/or processes which are required to convey information from one point to another (for example, loss of frame or call establishment error)

Environmental

An alarm that is associated with a condition relating to an enclosure in which the equipment resides (for example, door open or electricity failure)

Equipment

An alarm that is related to an equipment fault (for example, power problem, receiver failure or I/O device error)

Event processing

An alarm type that is associated with a software or data processing fault (for example, storage capacity problem, version mismatch, corrupt data, file error or out of memory)

Quality of Service

An alarm that is associated with certain degradation in the quality of service (for example, response time too long, resource limits near, or congestion)


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Defining the Components of Network Topology Topology The topology of a network is the representation of the actual physical elements of the network, where they are located, and how they are related to each other. To get an accurate representation of the network it is important to keep the topology as consistent with the actual physical network as possible. Managed object A managed object represents a physical or a logical network element, or a piece of equipment that belongs to the network. This element must be connected to NetAct, so that NetAct can be used to manage it by gathering information, such as information on alarms, from it. In some cases information can be downloaded from NetAct to the managed object. Managed object class All managed objects of the same type are grouped together to form a class. This enables NetAct to represent the elements in the network in a logical way. In NetAct software each class is represented by its own symbol. These symbols can be used in the NetAct Monitor to make graphical views of the network. Managed object instance In the same way that a managed object class represents a type of network element, a managed object instance represents one unique element. For example, workstation is an object class, while a workstation physically located in the monitoring room is an instance of the workstation class. Each managed object class can have several instances, depending on the configuration of the network. In the NetAct documentation, managed object instance is often referred to as managed object or object. Parent and child objects Managed objects are often hierarchical with certain objects controlling and containing others. This hierarchy is shown in the NetAct object model as well. A parent object controls or contains a child object. Site object A site is a place where one or more of the elements of the network are located. One site can contain more than one managed object. If there are multiple elements on one site, the site object represents the element which is highest in the hierarchy on that site. For example, a site may contain an OMC as well as one of its workstations. Distinguished Name Distinguished Name (DN) is an effective identifier of a particular managed object instance. It contains the relative Distinguished Name of the object instance in question, plus the relative Distinguished Names of all its parent objects. These are shown as a path of elements arranged in a hierarchical order and separated by a slash (/). For example: ClassName-InstanceValue/ClassName-InstanceValue/ClassNameInstanceValue which corresponds to: PLMN-PLMN/OMC-2/WS-4



ClassName is an abbreviation for a managed object class name and consists of numbers or capital letters. The maximum length of InstanceValue is ten characters and the value must contain printable characters. These are often numbers, but they do not necessarily have to be. DistinguishedName must contain at least two ClassName-InstanceValue levels. Interfaces can set their own limitations for the length of the Distinguished Name. The following figure shows how the DistinguishedName is formed in the NetAct Object Model. Global Identifier (GID) The Global Identifier is a number which uniquely identifies a MO in the Topology. The same MO always has the same GID in any NetAct system. Internal ID The internal ID is a number which uniquely identifies a MO within one NetAct system (within a regional or the global system). The same MO usually has not the same internal ID in different NetAct systems. Object State The Object State specifies whether the MO exists in the actual configuration ("operational" or "created from network" state) or not ("non-operational" state).

Figure 45: Network Topology, Managed Objects and Distinguished Names Working Sets Managed object refers to an abstract representation of a network resource, which can be either a physical or logical entity, in a network managed by NetAct. Working set refers to a set of managed objects to which recurring management tasks are applied. Working sets facilitate network management, for example, when certain configuration changes are applied to a set of network elements recurrently. For example, network operators often want to configure a set of base stations with the same radio network parameters. In this case, the use of working sets can facilitate configuration management significantly. Maintenance Regions A maintenance region is a logical managed object in NetAct Object Model. It is a collection of managed objects that are grouped together, normally to represent some geographical part of the network.


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NetAct Monitor applications allow to define maintenance regions that should be monitored. Dividing the network view into two or more maintenance regions facilitates online monitoring because that way the number of alarms that different groups responsible for network operation need to analyze is reduced. Using maintenance regions: •

The system administrator can create separate Maintenance regions within the network.

•

Dividing the network view into two or more maintenance regions makes online monitoring easier as it reduces the number of alarms that personnel in operation need to analyze. For example, it may be useful to have separate maintenance regions for different geographical areas, for prioritized areas, or for certain types of alarms.

•

The users can set up monitoring criteria that narrow the focus of monitoring so that they can concentrate only on the network areas or alarm numbers needed.

Figure 46: Managed Objects, Maintenance Regions and Working Sets



Knowledge Check: Fault Management Concepts Find the right answer under the following statement.


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Common Operations in NetAct Monitor Desktop Fault Management System in NetAct This figure illustrates the Fault Management and Topology Management in NetAct.

Figure 47: Fault Management and Topology Management in NetAct The fault management monitoring tools in NetAct Monitor are used to manage alarms from various network elements and types, to perform root cause analysis, to troubleshoot faults that cause disruptions in network services, and to improve the quality of the network services for subscribers. The NetAct Monitor fault management system consists of : •

FM event collection engine

•

FM event correlation engine

•

FM adaptation fragments

•

Mediation interfaces

•

FM monitoring tools

Event Collection Engine It collects and preprocesses the alarm events. Depending on selected filtering attributes, the alarm events are loaded into the alarm database and monitoring tools at defined intervals. Separate forwarding filters control the alarm forwarding to northbound mediations. Event Correlation Engine It is used to consolidate the volume of alarms produced in the network. The number of alarm events in a network can be higher than the number of actual faults. The Event Correlation Engine combines the alarms that are associated with one another. Instead of displaying each alarm separately, it displays the root cause to the end user. Users can implement operator-specific correlation rules to best suit their needs.



Fault Management Monitoring tools NetAct System provides fault management functionalities with versatile monitoring tools integrated on top of the Monitor Common Desktop. The available views and editing permissions for different rules depend of pre-defined user rights.


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Monitor Applications The figure illustrates the NetAct Monitor applications.

Figure 48: NetAct Monitor Applications Most of the NetAct Monitor Applications can be accessed from the Tools menu in NetAct Monitor graphical user interface. Some of the tools (for example, Properties) can be launched context-sensitively from a pop-up menu in another tool. Authorization in the Monitoring Desktop applications Several Monitoring Desktop applications require an authorization process. This process is used to determine, if you have permissions to access the data, functionality, or service. When you log in to the application, the login credentials are validated. If your login credentials are valid, you will be provided access to the application. The permissions to perform certain operations are based on the specific roles assigned to you. Authorization is given by the system administrator. Wizards NetAct Monitor provides wizards that support the creation of different items, for example objects or rules. The following wizards are available in the File menu: •

New Rule

•

New Alarm Filter

•

New View

•

New View Folder

•

New Object

•

New Group

•

New Role

These wizards can also be accessed via other tools. For example, the New Rule wizard can be started from Rule Explorer and the New Object wizard from Object Explorer.



Common Desktop Functionality Common desktop functionality refers to the generic functionality of the Desktop, shared by all the individual tools and the main application window. It includes general principles of how operations (such as copy and paste or sorting) work throughout the user interface. The NetAct Monitor tools are integrated in the Desktop Framework. On the Desktop the user can flexibly change the view that is used for the monitoring. Changing from one tool to another, and finding the relevant content are made easy for the user by context-sensitive navigation, drag-and-drop support and use of the menu entry. Each user can also set up the tools to match the requirements of their actual task and to store that setup. The Desktop Framework provides the following tool-independent services to support the daily workflow: •

Forward and backward navigation in sub-windows for fast workflow navigation

•

Object menu offering comprehensive context related services from other integrated tools and applications

•

Drag and drop support

•

Quick search for data filtering

•

Field information and tool tip when hovering over graphical user interface components

•

Automated information update for object properties and alarm help in case the instance selections changes within a tool

•

Easy and flexible window management

The tool utilization principles are the same across all tools, which means that when the user has learnt to use one tool, he or she can successfully use all the other tools in Desktop Framework.

Figure 49: NetAct Monitor Common Desktop Workspace


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Managing the Workspace In the context of the Desktop, workspace refers to how the application is displayed in the application window. The default configuration of the workspace contains four areas: •

Explorer area

•

Properties area

•

Editor area

•

Output area

Desktop tools open in windows that are displayed in these areas; the default location of a tool window depends on the settings for the tool and the workspace. Tools that you open in the same area are displayed on tabs. Which tools (tool windows) are available depends on how the desktop has been previously configured. The workspace is customizable and you can save your customized settings.



Managing tool windows In the Desktop workspace, tools display their data in tool windows. You can move the tool windows around in the workspace in the Explorer, Properties, Editor and Output areas and dock them in place where you like. The windows can also be stacked on top each other in the Explorer, Properties, Editor and Output areas so that a row of tabs is visible. You can display some of the tools in several windows at once, and changes made in one window are instantly reflected in all open windows for that tool.

Figure 50: Managing the Workspace Moving a tool window •

Click the window header and drag it to the desired position.

•

A preview box shows where the window will reside.

•

Drop the window.

Maximizing a window and restoring window size •

Double-click the window header.

•

The window is maximized or restored to its original size.

Browsing through tool windows If there are several windows open in an area, they are stacked and displayed as tabs. To browse through stacked windows, click on the tabs along the top edge of the tool window. If more windows are stacked in the same area than can be displayed (in other words, if all the tabs do not fit in the window and some are hidden), you can use the right and left arrows to the right of the row of tabs to display the hidden tabs. You can also click the downward-pointing arrow to display a list of all available tabs and then click the name of the tab you want.


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Editing data and saving the changes When you edit the properties, locations or other aspects of Desktop entities, the changes have to be saved. You have several options available for saving your changes: using the Save and Save All menu items or buttons and saving your changes when exiting the Desktop.

Figure 51: Saving changes in Workspace Menu items, buttons and keyboard shortcuts To perform a standard Save operation on the active tool, you can use the Save menu item, the Save toolbar button or the related keyboard shortcut. This Save operation saves the changes made in the active tool only. The Save All functionality accessed using the Save All menu item, Save All toolbar button or the related keyboard shortcut saves data changes made in all currently open tools, not just the active one. When you click the menu item or toolbar button, the workspace configuration is not saved. The Save dialog on exit When you close the main window without explicitly saving your changes, a Save dialog opens, allowing you to select which changes to save. To save changes to some items only, select an item or items in the dialog (hold down the Ctrl key to select multiple items) and click Save. When the save operation is complete, click Discard All to exit without saving any other changes. Save saves the changes made to selected items. Save All saves all changes. Discard All saves no changes.



Using the clipboard The Desktop supports copying and pasting data within the application. Some tools even support pasting operations to other applications, such as a text or spreadsheet editor. To place an item on the clipboard, select the item in the tool window and then, on the Edit menu, click Copy or Cut. To insert the contents of the clipboard, place the cursor or activate the tool where you want the data to be inserted and then, on the Edit menu, click Paste.


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Using the Properties tool To open the Properties tool, click Tools ► Properties. Some tools also offer the option of viewing the properties of an object by rightclicking and selecting Properties on the pop-up menu.

Figure 52: Using the Clipboard and Properties Tool Sorting in the Properties tool window 1. Right-click anywhere in the Properties tool window. A pop-up menu opens. 2. Sort by category sorts the properties to different categories depending on the set of properties that can be shown. 3. Sort by name sorts the properties by the name of the property. Showing the description area of the Properties tool To display additional information about the selected property, 1. Right-click anywhere in the Properties tool window 2. Click Show description area.



Using default keyboard shortcuts Table 6: Using Windows navigation shortcuts 1/2 Keys

Command

Action

Ctrl + P

Print

Prints the current selection

Ctrl + S

Save

Saves the changes on the selection

Ctrl + F

Find

Finds the required element

Ctrl + X

Cut

Cuts the element you want to remove or move to a new location

Ctrl + C

Copy

Copies the element to a new location

Ctrl + V

Paste

Pastes the cut or copied element to a new location

Ctrl + A

Select All

Selects the entire content of a window

Properties

Opens the Properties Tool

File Menu

Edit Menu

Tools Menu Ctrl + 1

Table 7: Using Windows navigation shortcuts 2/2 Keys

Action

Home

In Table views, goes to the first field on the current row. In tree view, goes to the first node.

End

In Table views, goes to the last field on the current row. In tree view, goes to the last node.

Ctrl + Tab

Toggles through windows that are collected in a set of tab in the order that they were last used. To toggle through the tabs, hold down the Ctrl key and press TAB as many times as required to reach the tab you want to activate.

Shift + Escape

Maximizes the current window or restores a maximized window to its previous size

Ctrl + W

Closes the current tab in the current window. If the window has no tabs, the whole window is closed

Alt + Right Arrow

Displays the next tab in the current window

Alt + Left Arrow

Displays the previous tab in the current window


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Customizing keyboard shortcuts The figure illustrates customizing keyboard shortcuts.

Figure 53: Customizing keyboard shortcuts Adding or changing keyboard shortcuts These instructions are for adding or changing keyboard shortcuts for actions that are located in the menus of the main window. 1. In the main window, select Tools ► Options. 2. In the bar on the left, click Keymap. 3. Select the action that you are creating a shortcut for. The actions are grouped according to categories. Some of the categories do not correspond to the names of the menus in the desktop. 4. Click Add. In the Add Shortcut dialog, press the keys you want to use for the selected action. As you press the key combination, the correct syntax for that combination automatically appears in the Shortcut text field. Example: If you press the key, the word Backspace appears. If you simultaneously hold down the key, the key, and the key, Alt+Ctrl+J appears. The dialog lets you specify only a keyboard shortcut that is not being used by another action. Removing keyboard shortcuts These instructions are for removing keyboard shortcuts for actions that are located in the menus of the main window. Resetting your workspace settings also removes customization from keyboard shortcuts. 1. In the main window, select Tools ► Options. 2. In the bar on the left, click Keymap. 3. Select the action that is associated with the shortcut you want to remove. Note that there can be more than one shortcut attached to an action. Select the correct shortcut to be removed. The first shortcut is selected by default. 4. Click Remove.



Audible Alarms The figure illustrates the managing Audible Alarms.

Figure 54: Managing Audible Alarms The Monitor user can configure different alarm sounds for the incoming alarms in the Alarm List. User can also configure the duration for which the Alarm Sound should be played. When two or more alarms are raised, the Alarm Sound is played for all the alarms that match the criteria in the sound rules configured. The sound stops when the Alarm Sound is acknowledged. The following Alarm Sound parameters are available for configuration: •

Type of Sound: Beep, Midi Note and Alarm Tone. Midi Note and Alarm Tone is supported only in Windows environment.

•

Severity: Critical, Major, Minor

•

Alarm Number: Alarm number

•

Beep delay: 0-500 ms

•

Sound Polling Interval: 10 to 60 seconds


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•

The Alarm Sound criteria is applicable only to the users who configure alarm sound settings.

•

When the alarm matches both the severity and alarm number criteria, the sound defined for the alarm number criteria takes precedence.

•

The Alarm Sound is not played for alarms if they are not displayed in the Alarm List due to filtering.

•

If the Alarm Sound column is added to the Alarm List, sound icon is displayed only for the new alarms appearing in the alarm list as part of polling. Sound icon is not displayed for the alarms that already exists in the Alarm List even though they match a sound rule.

•

Filter Drag and Drop, managed object Drag and Drop, reopening alarm list or clicking on Show correlated alarms or Hide correlated alarms button refreshes the Alarm List and removes the sound icon and the alarm sound.

•

When an alarm is canceled, the alarm sound for that alarm stops.

•

The Alarm Sound is played only once even if there are multiple alarms with the same alarm attribute (severity or alarm number) for which the sound is playing.

Example When the Alarm Sound is configured for critical, major, and minor alarms, the following scenarios are applicable: 1. When one critical, one major and one minor alarm is raised (after you configured the Alarm Sound criteria) and only Alarm Sound for the critical alarm is acknowledged. Result: The Alarm List plays only configured sound for both major and minor alarms. 2. A new critical alarm is raised. Result: The Alarm List plays sound for the critical alarm. It also continues to play sound for both major and minor alarms. 3. Alarm Sound for the major alarm is acknowledged. Result: The Alarm List continues to play the configured critical and minor Alarm Sound.

For the new changes or settings to be effective, close and reopen all the Alarm List instances. Adding Alarm Sound Rule To add a new Sound Rule, follow the steps mentioned below: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Log in to NetAct Start Page. To open NetAct Monitor, click Monitoring ► Monitor. Open Options, click Tools ► Options. In the left pane, click Audible Alarm. In the Audible Alarm pane, click Add Sound Rule.



Add Sound Rule dialog opens. 6. From the Alarm Criteria list, select either Severity or Alarm Number. 7. Based on the selected criteria: a. Select the alarm severity from the Value list. b. Enter the alarm number in the Value field. Alarm Number range is from 0 to 2147483647. 8. You can enter multiple alarm numbers separated by comma(,). For example, 9255, 9633, and so on. 9. Select the type of sound from the Type list. For example, Beep. 10. 11. 12. 13.

To check the Alarm Sound, click Play. Click OK. To set the sound interval, enter the value in Sound Polling Interval field. To save, click OK.

Result: Alarm Sound Rule is defined. If Alarm Sound Rule is added, Alarm Sound column in Alarm List displays the speaker icon only if the incoming alarms matches the Alarm Sound Rule.


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Lab exercise: NetAct Monitor Desktop Context This section tests the students on the following skills: •

Identify the parts of the Monitor desktop.

•

Identify the Tools groups.

•

Describe the purpose of each Tool group.

•

Rearrange the tools in the desktop.

The following figure illustrates the monitor desktop.

Figure 55: NetAct Monitor Desktop



Procedure 1

Identify the different parts of the Graphical User Interface: Menu Tools, Explorer window (accordingly to selected tool: for example managed object tab ) and Working Area (Monitoring Desktop). Result of this step Which applications groups can you find under the Tools menu? What is the purpose of each group? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________

2

Open the following tools (if not previously opened): Object Explorer, Alarm Monitor, Alarm History, Details. Information The tools will open in a predefined position into the desktop. a) Rearrange the position of the tools in the desktop and save the changes in the workspace. Result of this step Describe the procedure. ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________


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Monitoring Network Fault Management Workflow The basic requirement for keeping telecommunication services up and running, is a good understanding of the network situation. Network elements contain monitoring and diagnostic tools for detecting various types of fault situations. In a typical situation a network element recognizes malfunction and sends an alarm to NetAct. A single fault in the network can cause a number of various alarms in several network elements. The reliability of the alarm database and efficient network troubleshooting practices form a base for successful network management. Established alarm analysis practices are a part of the troubleshooting process. Faults that affect the quality of service and, therefore, are visible to the subscriber have to be recognized and corrected as soon as possible. NetAct offers network management tools for reliable alarm collection and monitoring. It provides a set of tools for pre-processing, storing, and displaying alarm and event information from the network in real time. NetAct Monitor offers tools for collecting and storing real-time information from the network to detect and analyze faults in network elements and for monitoring the quality of service provided by the network. There are a number of common fault management workflows. Fault management usually begins with routine monitoring and the discovery of a fault or faults in the system which triggers an alarm or a series of alarms. The workflow example below illustrates a typical monitoring workflow and combines services from different NetAct Managed Object and Monitoring tools like the Alarm List, Network View, Trouble Ticket List, Object Explorer, and Trouble Ticket Details. Alarms are displayed in the Alarm List tool. User can select an alarm from Alarm List to display the existing trouble tickets for the managed object or the site. The Find function in the Trouble Ticket List tool provides this output directly from the selected alarm. To display further object attributes, the user can navigate to the object properties in Object Explorer. From there they can navigate to views that include the object and investigate the connectivity or status of the object and environment. After collecting all the required information, the user can create a new ticket, if needed, or attach the alarm information to an existing ticket in one single step.

Figure 56: Fault Management Workflow



Alarm Monitoring Tools Alarm monitoring is executed by verifying the alarm status of the managed objects, identifying, prioritizing and processing the new incidents and executing the related actions in order to solve the faults. In NetAct, Alarm Monitoring tasks can be executed from two applications. Using the network views, incoming and existing alarms can be visualized directly on the symbols of the affected network elements in a summarized way. Using Alarm List, the active alarms are presented as a table in which each row represents one alarm received by NetAct and the complete group of alarms provides an instant overview of alarm status. With the network views or alarm list, the active alarms are shown instantly as they appear in the network. The context menu functionalities available in the two applications (right click pop-up menu in each managed object or alarm) work as a platform for investigating problems further, providing the operator with the ability to react immediately. In the following sections the alarm monitoring via alarm list will be explained in detail. Alarm List Monitoring Tools There is a group of applications in NetAct that provide the support for the Alarm Monitoring using alarm lists: •

Alarm List

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Alarm History

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Warning List

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Alarm Details

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Alarm Filter Explorer

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Rule Explorer

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Rule Analyzer

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FM Pipe Statistics

The access to these applications is provided from the menu Tools ► Monitoring Desktop or directly from different context menus in other applications. Managed Objects Tools The Managed Objects (MO) tools allow creation, modification, and management of network topology data. Managed Objects utilizes the concept of metadata that defines the types network element objects in the network and their relations. The MO tools can be used to model managed objects and network topology. The object data is available in the monitoring tools to support the monitoring process with the relevant information upon the objects. The desktop includes a set of integrated tools to administrate and configure the monitored objects.


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Figure 57: Alarm Monitoring Tools and Managed Objects Tools



Alarm Monitoring using Alarm Lists The Alarm List tool gives the user an overview of all alarms that are currently active. The Alarm List is presented as a table and each row of the table shows one alarm received by Event Collection Engine. Alarms are data objects that receive service actions from other tools. By right clicking an alarm it will be displayed all the actions that are currently possible and offered by all the tools available. With Alarm List the user can: •

Acknowledge, unacknowledge or clear an alarm

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Create, delete, attach, or query related trouble tickets

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Launch context related external application or element manager

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Navigate to related object information in explorer or views

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Display problem instructions in Alarm Details

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Consolidate using filter or quick filter

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Select the attributes to be displayed and configure row appearance.

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Sort by several attributes

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Manage the maintenance mode of the object

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Request alarm synchronization

It is important that all relevant information for the ongoing task is shown. For this purpose, the user can adjust the appearance of the table according to his / her needs. For a quick search inside the table, the Quick filter feature helps to select any cell of the table and show only the rows whose column content matches the selected cell. The Quick search option filters the loaded alarm data for a selected attribute using symbols like <, >, and <>. Alarm List interacts with other tools. For example, to view the alarms sent by the selected object, the user can drag a managed object to an open instance of Alarm List or select a managed object in any other tool and select Find in Alarm List from the pop-up menu. From Alarm List there is also access to actions and services from other tools . For example, the user can select an alarming object and Find in Network View to open a list of views containing this alarming or controlling object. To open an existing trouble ticket, the user can drag the alarm to the Trouble Ticket Details tool.


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Figure 58: Monitoring the Network Using Alarm Lists



Special Columns in Alarm List There are three columns in the Alarm Lists that allows a better visualization of alarm handling and alarm behavior: •

Instance counter column

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Consecutive Number

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Alarm Insertion Time

Instance counter column shows the number of times an alarm has been raised repeatedly (duplicates). For example, an alarm which has been repeatedly raised 10 times may indicate a critical problem, although the severity is only Major. However it is not clear with this counter alone how recent or old the duplicates have been. With the addition of Alarm Update Time column user can see if the alarm was repeated recently or was it an older duplicate, thereby gaining a valuable insight about the problem. Consecutive Number is an attribute that uniquely identifies the alarm at the Northbound (NB) system. So if a user at the higher management system wants to refer to NetAct and confirm that the issue is still active (and not cleared) on the NetAct side, it becomes easier to compare the Consec Number of the alarm on the NB system and on NetAct using this unique value. Earlier, the user had to compare this using three attributes (Distinguished Name, Alarm Number and Notification Id). Alarm Insertion Time is the time at which the alarm was actually inserted into the Alarm Database, whereas Alarm Time is the time at which the alarm was originally raised on the NE side. Insert Time gives valuable insight whether there are delays between the alarm getting raised and the time that it gets stored into the Alarm Database.

Figure 59: Special Columns in Alarm List


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Alarm Details The Alarm Details tool helps the user to troubleshoot alarms. It provides a deeper insight into the details of the alarm that cannot be shown as effective in the table view of Alarm List. Because the name of an alarm is often not meaningful enough to fully explain its origin, the Alarm Details tool explains the sense of each alarm in detail. Additional parameters like “Supplementary Info” and “Diagnostic Info” are detailed, and unclear value chains are translated to clear text. For inexperienced personnel, an instructions section explains for each alarm what to do next with this alarm in order to troubleshoot it. For correlated alarms, Alarm Details shows the source alarms to the user. The instructions section can be extended with the user own findings to reflect local working procedures. Alarm Details automatically displays the details of every alarm selected in Alarm List. When Alarm Details is launched within the context of a given alarm, the scope of the tool remains fixed. It is possible to launch a number of instances of the tool. With Alarm Details the user can: •

Compare, match and expand alarm fields

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Add or edit user information

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Acknowledge, Un-acknowledge and Cancel alarms

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Drag and drop managed objects

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Delete alarms of an object and its subnetwork

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Upload alarms

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Check active alarms of faulty objects

Figure 60: Alarm Details



Alarm History The Alarm History tool is used to examine the historical alarm data of one or more managed objects. Unlike the Alarm List tool that only shows current (not canceled) alarms, Alarm History shows all the alarms contained in the FM database that match the given filter criteria. The Alarm History tool displays all the alarms including warnings and canceled alarms contained in the Fault Management (FM) database. With Alarm History, the user can perform the following tasks: •

Acknowledge, unacknowledge and cancel the alarms

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View Alarm properties

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Perform a quick search for the required alarm

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Filter an Alarm

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Customize the tool

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Apply a quick filter

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Add note for an alarm

In Alarm List, Alarm History and Alarm Details, the user needs authorization rights to acknowledge, unacknowledge, and cancel an alarm.

Figure 62: Alarm History


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Warning List The warnings provide information on temporary error situations or alarms that indicate potential problems and unusual situations. Unlike problem alarms, warnings do not have start and end times and are not canceled. The Warning List tool is used to examine the warnings of one or more managed objects. The cancel, acknowledge and unacknowledge operations are not available when the object menu of an object is selected. The features and the appearance of the Warning List tool correspond to those described in the Alarm List section. With Warning List tool, the user can perform the following tasks: •

View properties of a warning

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Perform quick search for a required warning

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Filter an alarm

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Customize the tool

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Apply quick filter

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Add notes for alarm

Figure 63: Warning List



Reconfiguring the Alarm and Warning Lists display The figure illustrates the reconfiguring alarms and warning list display.

Figure 64: Reconfiguring Alarms and Warning List Display Displaying, hiding and reordering columns for Table views To select which columns to display, click the button just above the scroll bar or rightclick on the header row to open the Select Visible Columns dialog. The Available Columns list on the left shows hidden columns and the Selected Columns list on the right shows the columns that are displayed. To display a column, click to select it in the Available Columns list and then click the arrow button pointing to the right. To hide a column, click to select it in the Selected Columns list and then click the arrow button pointing to the left. To change the order in which columns are displayed, click the column name in the Available Columns list of the Select Visible Columns dialog and then use the up and down arrows to the right of the list to adjust the relative position of the column. In the Table itself, you can also click the column header and drag the column into a new location. Sorting data in Tables To sort data in Tables, click the column header you want to use as sort criterion. The current sorting criterion is indicated by a small arrow in the column header. The direction of the arrow in the column header indicates the sort order – up for ascending and down for descending. To sort data by using many columns as criteria, hold down the key and click the column headers in the order that you want sorting to be applied. Your first click is the primary sort criterion, your second click the secondary and so on.


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Immediate access to Alarm and Object Tasks from Alarm Lists Users can launch applications through context-sensitive menus for a selected alarm. These menus are visible in all the Alarm Lists tools (Alarm List, Alarm History and Warning List) and provide access to alarm processing tasks, managed objects tasks and alarm processing for the affected object and managed object tasks and alarm processing for the controlling object of the affected MO. Context-sensitive launch Right-click an alarm and select the desired application either from the shortcut menu, or from the corresponding submenu (for example, the submenu for Element Management). •

Fast access to many functions

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Menu adapts to the context

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Menu for alarms, working sets, network elements and so on.

Figure 65: Alarm List and Alarm Tasks



Alarm Monitoring using Network Views Managed Objects in NetAct can be monitored by using Network Views in the Network View Tool. The following sections explain how the managed objects are visualized and the views and the meaning of colors and ornaments in the corresponding symbols representing the objects. Hierarchical and scalable views over the entire managed network are visualized in the Network View tool. The graphical views can be adjusted to the different monitoring needs from network-wide monitoring to object-level and technologyspecific monitoring. In the upper-level views, users can quickly see the general situation of the managed network. Moving to a subview shows the alarming objects. Monitoring Desktop provides a range of monitoring tools that can be accessed from Network View. A common concept in network management is to have views to the managed network that is typically arranged according to the object hierarchy, connectivity, or other information levels. These views can model either logical or geographical aspects of the underlying network. View Explorer visualizes the view hierarchy that has been implemented. It shows the views in folders that can be used to structure views for a better overview. The View Explorer tool provides a search facility that can be used to find views for different aspects, for example for contained managed objects. You can select a view for manipulation or display the different attributes of the chosen view in the Properties window. You can also create new folders for new views or move views from one folder to another. Network View Tool The Network View tool provides hierarchical and scalable views over the entire managed network. The graphical views allow drilling down from a network-wide overview to the lowest modeled elements. In the upper level views, users can quickly visualize the general topology of the managed network. The detailed relationships between objects are shown when moving to a sub-view. A view contains the following types of view objects: •

A Symbol represents, for example, a managed object, a service, or a grouping object.

•

A Link represents a physical or logical connection between two symbols. Links do not have any relation to the managed object database.

•

Background graphics cover, for example, rectangles, polygons, lines, and text labels.

Sub-views can be attached to all kinds of view objects. The label of the view object is displayed similar to a hyperlink.


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Loading Views in Network View Context The following figure illustrates the View Explorer.

Figure 66: View Explorer The following figure illustrates the View Explorer and Network View.

Figure 67: View Explorer and Network View You can open a view by selecting it in the View Explorer tool, right-clicking it and selecting Open in the pop-up menu. The Network View tool starts with a new instance. The view is loaded into the tool, and the objects contained in the view are displayed with their states. You can also open views by dragging them from Network



View Explorer to the open Network View tool.

Procedure 1

On the Desktop menu bar, select Tools ► Managed Objects ► View Explorer.

2

Browse to the view you want to open. Information Views are loaded in any one of the following sub-step: a) Drag the view with the mouse and drop it on the Network View tool. Information For this you must have an instance of Network View open. b) Drag and drop a view onto the currently opened Network View tool. c) Right-click a view and select Open from the shortcut menu. d) Double-click a view.

3

You can select several views at once and open them from the shortcut menu. Information If a view is already opened in the Desktop, it is brought to the front and not opened a second time. The Network View opens on the right side of the screen. Use the Back and Forward buttons on the toolbar to switch between the views in the same panel.


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Network Views Monitor Modes You can view the Network View tool in two modes: Monitoring mode Views are constructed from the view objects and represent the monitored network. In this mode, you can monitor complete state information of the monitored objects. The tool displays two states: •

Topology state

•

Alarm state

In this mode, you can also search for managed objects. Drag and drop managed object from Object Explorer to network view to view all the network views in which the object exist. If the managed object does not exist in any view, a message is displayed. Edit mode In the Edit mode, you can modify the views. In this mode the state information is suppressed. Edit mode is restricted to some users, requires additional authorization. When another user modifies the views in the database, a message to reload the view is displayed and the views are automatically updated. The tools in the lower toolbar are available only in the Edit mode. In the toolbar, you can select one tool at a time. By default, deselecting a tool activates the Select tool and the Move and Resize tool. Some tools are active only for a single operation and get de-activated automatically, while others are permanent and hence you must activate a different tool (usually the Select tool and the Move and Resize tool to switch it off).



Switching between Monitor and Edit mode Open the shortcut menu of the tool by right clicking anywhere and selecting Switch to Edit Mode or Switch to Monitor Mode, depending on the current operation mode When changing a view and switch to Monitor mode, the users are still prompted to save changes when closing the view.

Figure 68: Network View Window: Switching from Edit to Monitor Mode


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Navigating in the view hierarchy Objects and links in views can be associated with sub-views. This is indicated by blue labels and a small sub-view indicator shows the aggregated alarm state of the sub-view. The labels of view objects with an associated sub-view are blue when they appear for the first time. However, the labels are pink when the sub-view has been previously loaded. You can navigate in view hierarchy in three ways: 1. To open its sub-view, click the label or sub-view indicator of an object. The subview indicator provides a tool tip with the name of the associated view. 2. Use the backward navigation button to return to the previous view. Similarly, use the forward navigation button to load the sub-view again. 3. Open the shortcut menu of the object having a sub-view and select Open and view view name.

Figure 69: View Tool: Navigating in the View Hierarchy



Network Objects Objects are represented by icons in the view. The color and the different virtual decorations of the icon represent the state of the object. The Network View tool supports the following states visualized by graphics or color code: •

Alarming State

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Administrative State

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Operational State

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Maintenance Mode

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Trouble Ticket existing

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Note existing

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Subview existing /subview state

Transmission objects can be visualized by different indicators for the transmission type. Complex transmission networks can be modeled and visualized by network views supporting efficient management. Context related actions on objects can be initiated by selecting the objects and then right-clicking on them. Depending on the tools available for the user, these actions can include showing all alarms for the object, finding the object in the object hierarchy, or opening an element manager session to the object. The colors of the symbols for the network elements change in real time according to the active alarm situation, that is, the incoming new alarm changes the color of the symbol indicating the network element and a number can be displayed for amount of alarms with highest severity. When the fault situation is cleared, the color changes back to normal. Alarms are divided into four different severity class, each class is represented by a specific color on the network element symbol: •

*** Critical (red)

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** Major (orange)

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* Minor (yellow)

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W Warning (blue)

Figure 70: Network Objects in the Network View


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Topology view objects

Figure 71: Topology Network View The managed objects are displayed as symbols or links. It is possible to group objects and use them as anchors for sub-views. Grouped objects are not managed objects; they only represent, for example, an office or a transmission equipment in the view. Symbols A managed object symbol provides the following information: •

The object class is represented by the symbol itself. If the object has no name, the relative distinguished name is used. The relative distinguished name has the form

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