Scalable Architecture

NetVigil is built on a powerful, fully-distributed architecture featuring three distributed components:

»1. Data Gathering Elements (DGEs)
»2. Business Visibility Engine (BVE)
»3. Business Visibility Engine Web UI

1. NetVigil Data Gathering Elements (DGEs)

Independent data gathering elements that collect, analyze, and store performance data locally from networks devices, systems and servers, and applications.

NetVigil DGEs collect the alarms, events, and polls from the various infrastructural elements such as servers, routers or application. Each DGE has its own distributed relational database. There is no central database into which they all have to feed for reporting (which is typical with other architectures).

Among the data collected by DGEs are traps, databases, routers, servers and syslogs.

DGEs collect data according to definitions it has been given from the Object Store. These definitions include which devices it should monitor, how frequently it should monitor them, and what it should do with the results. This information is then progressively summarized over time (5 minutes to 1 hour to 1 day to 1 week, etc.). It is also analyzed relative to thresholds, key events, alarms, and appropriate actions taken.

Queries and reports are then available (on demand or automatically) to IT personnel requesting information through the Web interface. These users are able to see real-time events and alarms or status. They can also quickly drill down to see historical performance of individual elements or business service containers showing particular views across the infrastructure related to specific geography, business area, or management perspective.

2. Business Visibility Engine (BVE) Web Interface

A Web-based reporting and graphing engine that consolidates system and application performance to provide real-time status and historical reports.

The NetVigil Business Visibility Engine software is responsible for coordinating information from all the DGEs and providing it to the user on demand. The BVE is Web-based; IT personnel log on and view data through any conventional browser. The BVE, which has its own small database, handles all data correlation for the NetVigil application.

In a distributed environment, a request will come in from a user via the browser for – as an example – a view of the Top 10 problems at the moment. The request is received by the BVE software module which then fans out the request to the appropriate DGEs that are monitoring the elements of interest to the user who requested the report.

Each DGE queried by the BVE will then run its Top 10 report and return the results to the BVE. The BVE then summarizes the multiple results into a consolidated view and presents it to the user. This unique interaction between the BVE and the multiple DGEs is highly efficient. Fidelia has three patents pending on this capability.

Most systems today require a central database for historical data reporting. This severely limits scalability. Fidelia’s BVE software removes the need for a central database through its coordination of multiple independent DGEs.

3. Business Visibility Engine (BVE)

An intelligent configuration object repository that keeps track of users, permissions, devices, connections, and the correlation between services and underlying infrastructure tests.

The NetVigil Object Store is an object-oriented database. The Object Store allows IT personnel to set up business services and containers, and maintains the data on all thresholds, traps, syslogs, etc. It also maintains the user permissions, definitions of what elements are in which business container view, which DGE monitors which elements, and at what frequency and with which tests.

Not only can NetVigil scale up, but it can scale down as well. IT personnel can, for example, have just one DGE, one BVE and the Object Store all on one very modestly sized server (even a laptop) to support a relatively small or simple environment.

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