HQ Enterprise 4.2 Now Available

Build #1260

HQ Enterprise 4.2 Features

Alerting Changes

HQ Enterprise 4.2 provides enhanced alert management capabilities that enable an HQ administrator to more easily control alert and alert notification volume. The new features can prevent redundant alerts and allow an administrator to more effectively respond to alert storms that do occur.

Managing Alerts in Resource Hierarchies

HQ Enterprise 4.2 introduces modified alert processing functionality that reduces the volume of alerts by preventing a single root cause from kicking off a cascade of alerts down a resource hierarchy. The new approach is referred to as "hierarchical alerting ". The goal of hierarchical alerting is to ensure that operations teams are not overloaded with multiple alerts resulting from the same root cause.

With hierarchical alerting enabled, when an agent reports that a resource with an active alert definition is down, HQ checks to see whether its parent (platform is the parent of a server, server is the parent of a service, etc.) in the resource hierarchy is up or down. HQ will process and generate an alert in accordance with its definition only in the following situations:

1. If the parent is available.
2. If the parent is unavailable and there is no active single-condition alert definition on its availability.

Hierarchical alerting is enabled by default. It can be disabled in the "Global Alert Properties" section of the HQ Server Settings page. When you disable or enable hierarchical alerting, the change takes effect immediately without need to restart the HQ Server. The setting will persist through HQ Server restarts.

When hierarchical alerting is enabled, HQ will process alerts as described above, leveraging its built-in knowledge of how each resource fits into HQ's three-level (platform-server-service) inventory model without requiring additional configuration. For more information see Controlling Alert and Notification Volume.

If your operating system platforms have a network dependency on network devices, like switches or routers, or virtual hosts, you can extend HQ's inventory knowledge to incorporate the relationship between a "higher level platform" such as a network or a virtual host and the platforms that depend upon it. This feature is described below, in Network and Host Dependency Manager.

Network and Host Dependency Manager

HQ 4.2's new Network and Host Dependency Manager allows you to define a relationship between a network device or a virtual host and the platforms that depend on it. In effect, you can extend the traditional three-level inventory hierarchy (platform-server-service) to a four-level hierarchy (platform-platform-server-service) where the top-level platform is a network device (for instance, a switch) or a virtual host, and second-level platforms are managed systems that depend on it. (In HQ, network devices and virtual hosts are explicitly defined by an HQ administrator as special platform types, as opposed to platform types for physical machines or computers that run an HQ-supported operating system (such as Linux, UNIX, or Win32) and host application resources of various sorts.)

Defining the relationship between top-level platforms and the operating system platforms that depend on it extends the reach of HQ's hierarchical alerting to the top of the stack.

The Network and Host Dependency Manager is available in the "Plug-ins" section of the Administration page. It provides filters and dialogs that allow you to select and associate a top-level platform, such as a network device or a virtual host, with the operating system platforms that depend on it. For more information see the associated help.

Alert Notification Throttling

In HQ Enterprise 4.2 you can configure the HQ Server to throttle back alert notifications in the event of an alert storm. You configure a maximum number of notifications that HQ will issue within a fifteen second interval. When that threshold is reached, HQ will stop sending individual alert notifications. Instead, HQ will send a rollup notification to designated notification recipients. HQ continues to evaluate alert volume, and continues to throttle notifications until alert volume decreases sufficiently. Rollup notification e-mails are sent every 10 minutes and indicate whether or not throttling will continue.

Notification throttling is disabled by default. You can figure it in the "Notification Throttling Configuration Properties" section of the HQ Server Settings page. To configure throttling, supply the threshold value — the upper limit of notifications to be sent in a 15 second interval — and one or more e-mail addresses to receive rollup notifications.

Notification throttling is disabled by default. You configure it on the HQ Server Settings page, available from the Administration tab.

Operations Center

HQ Enterprise 4.2 provides a new Operations Center page, available on the Analyze tab menu.

The Operations Center is a consolidated view of resource health, combining information about unfixed alerts and resources that are unavailable.

You can filter the resources included in the view by platform type and group. You can also control the content of the Operations Center page in terms of whether you want to see unfixed alerts, down resources, or both. When viewing only those resources with unfixed alerts, you can filter by whether or not the alerts have escalations. For more information, see the associated help.

Dashboard-Related Changes

Default Dashboard

In HQ Enterprise 4.2, a new user with access to multiple dashboards logging into HQ is no longer prompted to select a default dashboard. Instead, upon first login a new user is presented with his personal dashboard, which is his default dashboard until he explicitly designates a different dashboard to be the default. A user with access to multiple dashboards may select a different dashboard using the Select a Dashboard pulldown. When a dashboard other than the user's default is active it contains a Make Default button to make the current dashboard the default.

Save to Dashboard Enhancement

In HQ Enterprise 4.2, a user with modify permissions to multiple dashboards can add a resource, or save a chart, multiple dashboards with a single comand.  A user with modify permissions to more than one Dashboard can use the Add to Dashboard Favorites command on the Tools menu to select multiple Dashboards and add the resource to each.  Such users can also, when viewing a metric chart, use the Save Chart to Dashboards commands to select multiple Dashboards and add the chart to each. 

HQ API Updates

HQ 4.2 includes enhancements to the HQ Web services API, including the enhancements described in HQ 4.2 Features.

In addition, two new APIs, supported only in HQ Enterprise, are available:

• maintenance - enables creation and management of downtime schedules for groups, during which alerts on resources in the group will not fire. Provides an automated or command line alternative to using the Schedule Downtime option in the HQ Enterprise user interface.

• dependency - enables management of dependency relationships between network or virtual hosts and operating system platforms. Defining such relationships extends the reach of hierarchical alerting to network and virtual hosts. This API should be used only by advanced HQ administrators in consultation with Hyperic support or professional services. Under most circumstances, Hyperic recommends that administrators define network dependencies using the Network and Host Dependency Manager, available in the "Plugins" section of the Administration page in the HQ Enterprise user interface.

For documentation, see HQ API Command-Line Tools.

HQ Enterprise 4.2 also contains the features described below in HQ 4.2 Open Source Features.

HQ 4.2 Open Source Features

Alerting Changes

HQ 4.2 provides enhanced capabilities for controlling the volume of alert notifications.

Global Alert Notification Shutoff

In HQ 4.2 you can globally disable all alert notifications immediately, including notifications for alerts that have an escalation in progress. Disabling alert notifications is different from disabling alerts. When you globally disable alerts, HQ will continue to send out notifications for alerts that are currently in escalation until the escalation ends.

The Alert Notifications control is in the Global Alert Properties section of the "HQ Server Settings" page. The change takes effect immediately without need to restart the HQ Server. The setting will persist through HQ Server restarts. For more information see Key Facts about HQ Alerting and Controlling Alert and Notification Volume.

Notification Filtering Removed

The ability to filter notification for a specific alert definition, provided in previous versions of HQ, is removed in HQ 4.2, replaced by the Global Alert Notification Shutoff feature described above.

Global Alert Setting Changes are Immediate and Persistent

In HQ 4.2, changes to any of the configuration options in the Global Alert Properties section of the "HQ Server Settings" page take effect immediately, without HQ Server restart, and persist after HQ Server restart. For more information, see associated help.

HQ API Changes

HQ Web services API has multiple fixes and enhancements. Notably, the resource API now has full XML sync support is added. The APIs sync option now supports resource creation. For documentation, see Web Services API.

Changed Breadcrumb Behavior on Resource Pages

The breadcrumbs on resource pages in the HQ user interface have been revised to ease the process of navigating among related resources and backtracking to previously viewed resources.

Previous Breadcrumb Behavior

Prior to HQ 4.2, the breadcrumbs on a resource page reflected the inventory level and resource type of the currently selected resource, in this form:

InventoryLevel > ResourceType > ResourceName 

For example, the breadcrumbs when you select a Linux platform with FQDN "West10.demo.net" would be:

Platforms > Linux > West10.demo.net

The Platforms link opens the Browse page for all platforms; the Linux link opens the Browse page for platforms whose resource type is "Linux".

HQ 4.2 Breadcrumb Behavior

In HQ 4.2 the breadcrumbs on a resource page reflect where the resource fits in a resource hierarchy. Breadcrumbs correspond to steps you took (resources you selected) to navigate down a resource hierarchy. For example, if you navigate to a service, starting at the top of the hosting hierarchy - by browsing to a platform and drilling down -  the breadcrumbs are links to the platform and server you visited along the way:

Browse > PlatformName > ServerName > ServiceName

When you navigate to a resource that is outside the currently resource hierarchy, the breadcrumb trail is purged. For example, if you drill down to a service, as described above, and then navigate to an application that the service belongs to (from the service's  Inventory page) the breadcrumbs are purged and the application is your new starting point.  Note that, when you jump outside the current hosting hierarchy, a link to the previously viewed resource appears - so you can get back to it easily, if you wish.  For example

Browse > ApplicationName
Return to ServiceName

Clicking Browse in the breadcrumb trail opens the Browse page for the inventory level (platform, server, or service) most recently browsed.

Issues Fixed

Issues Fixed in 4.2 Enterprise

Issues Fixed for 4.2.0.7 Enterprise

Issues Fixed for 4.2 Enterprise

Issues Fixed for HQ 4.2

Issues Fixed for HQ 4.2.0.7

Issues Fixed for HQ 4.2

Known Issues

Known Issues in 4.2 Enterprise

Known Issues in 4.2 Enterprise

Known Issues in HQ 4.2

Known Issues in HQ 4.2