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Introduction to Zenoss Service Dynamics

The foundation of the Zenoss Service Dynamics product suite is Zenoss Resource Manager, the hybrid IT monitoring platform. Starting with release 5.0, Zenoss Resource Manager (or simply, Resource Manager) is deployed into a distributed architecture using Control Center. That is, Resource Manager is an application whose installation and deployment configuration is managed by Control Center.

Control Center and Resource Manager are independent and unaware of each other, although Control Center is designed for the unique requirements of Resource Manager. In particular, Resource Manager and Control Center have a different version numbering scheme and different release schedules. Some releases of Resource Manager include features that rely on capabilities available in specific releases of Control Center. A separate series of guides describes how to use Control Center.

Warning

In the Resource Manager context, a resource is a device to monitor. Devices include compute, storage, network, converged infrastructure, applications, and unified communications systems. In the Control Center context, a resource is a physical or virtual host in a Control Center deployment.

Zenoss Service Impact (Service Impact) and Zenoss Analytics (Analytics) are the final components of the Zenoss Service Dynamics product suite.

  • Service Impact correlates the infrastructure Resource Manager is monitoring with critical business services. In practical terms, Service Impact is additional services in a Resource Manager deployment, not a separate application that Control Center manages.
  • Analytics adds data warehouse ETL (extract, transform, and load) capabilities and data analysis capabilities to Resource Manager. Like Service Impact, Analytics adds services to a Resource Manager deployment, but also requires a separate, standalone host that is not managed by Control Center.

Key Resource Manager concepts

collector

A set of Resource Manager services that provide monitoring capabilities for a specific network location. Collector services are deployed into a Control Center resource pool through the Resource Manager browser interface.

collector pool

A Control Center resource pool that is dedicated for use by one or more Resource Manager collectors; usually, just one. Most deployments use one collector pool for each distinct network location, although each collector pool typically includes multiple Control Center hosts.

collector pool VIP

A virtual IP address that is assigned a collector pool, to float among the hosts that are members of the pool. Resource Manager services that require a permanent IP address are unaffected by the status of specific pool hosts. The virtual IP address is created and assigned through the Control Center browser interface.

master pool

A Control Center resource pool that contains only the Control Center master host. By isolating the master host in its own pool and configuring a ZooKeeper ensemble, Resource Manager services are not affected when Control Center internal services are temporarily unavailable. The recommended name for this pool is master.

Resource Manager pool

A Control Center resource pool that runs Resource Manager infrastructure services and other key services. This resource pool must be on the same subnet as the master pool. A Resource Manager pool includes a minimum of two Control Center hosts. The recommended name is Resource Manager.