Entity Browser 

As described in the Entity Hierarchy concept document, an entity is a logical unit in the Lithium Entity Hierarchy. The entity hierarchy can be viewed using the Entity Browser.

The Browser is used to view in-depth monitoring telemetry collected for all monitored devices. The data sets and metrics available vary between device types. Some common monitoring data types that are available through the browser:Device Availability, System Information, CPU, Memory Pools, Storage Resources, ADSL Circuits, Network Interfaces, IP Addresses

The following options are available from the context menu (right mouse click) and apply to the selected entity:

Refresh Entity (Ctrl + R)

Fault History... (Ctrl + Shift + H)

Open Case for Selected... (Ctrl + Shift + C) 

Graph Selected...

Metric History

Select All Containers + Collapse Normal (Ctrl + Space) 

The following options apply only to the context menu for Objects (ie. Interfaces) and appear in addition to the above items:

Collapse All (Console v1.4)

Collapse Normal (Console v1.4)

 To open the Browser:

Window -> Browser (Ctrl+ N)

The Browser Window:

The Browser Window comprises four sections and a toolbar:

1. Customer List

2. Site List

3. Device List

4. Entity Viewer

 Toolbar

The options available in the toolbar for the Entity Browser are as follows:

Icon	Name	Description
	Refresh Entity	Refreshes the data for an entity
	New Case for Entity	Creates a new case, and binds the currently selected entity to it

The Customer List

At the top of the Entity Hierarchy are the Customers. The Customer List displays a list of all the current customers.

Site List

The next level in the Hierarchy are the Sites, these are visible in the panel below the customer list. Here all of the sites for the currently selected customer are listed. Selecting a particular site displays all of the devices at that site in the Device List.

Device List

At the third level of the Entity Hierarchy are the Devices. Devices are displayed at the top of the right hand side of the window. The Device list, lists all of the devices being monitored at a particular site. Selecting a device, displays all of the available metrics in the Metric List.

Entity Viewer

The last component of the Browser window (below the devices) shows the remaining entities: Containers, Objects, Metrics and Triggers. To drill down the hierarchy and see the next level, click on the '+' to the right of the entity. The Entity Viewer displays all of the information and metrics available for a device.

This view is designed to present the information in a logical manner, making it easy to view the status of the various containers (and device itself) within the selected device.

There are twoareas to this view: Containers, Objects.

Containers:

Displays the status of all available containers for the selected device. The status indicators are as follows:

Indicator	Description
	No fault present
	Impaired or At-Risk fault condition present
	Failed fault condition present

Objects:

This area displays the values for each metric grouped into their object containers.

Opening a new Case for an Entity

To open a new case for an entity, firstly you need to locate the desired Entity. This Entity can be anything from a Customer, to a specific Device, through to a Metric, and even a Trigger entity. Once it is selected, you then can click on the "New Case for Entity" button. This brings up the New Case window, with the Customer field filled in and the entity assigned to this case. You are now required to fill in the Requester, Headline, and Log Entry fields. Once you have filled in all of the details, clicking the "Open" button, creates the case.

Alternatively, you can right mouse click on any entity in the browser and select "Open Case for Selected..." from the contextual pop-up menu.  

Assigning an Entity to an existing Case

First you need to locate the Entity that needs to be assigned to the case. As above, this can be anything from a Customer, to a Device, through to a Metric or Trigger. The next step is to find the Case, by either using the Incident Manager or the Case Search tool. With the Case Window open and the required entity visible, you can select the Entity (from the entity browser) and drag it to the Entity list of the case window.

 

Viewing the Fault History of a Device

To view the history of an Entity (both Incidents and Case), right mouse click on the desired Entity, and select "Fault History...". At the top of this screen is a list of the details for the entity. The middle component displays all of the incidents that have occured for this entity. The final component lists all of the cases that this entity have been assigned to.

Managing a device with Errored Entities

On a device with many Objects (ie. interfaces) such as a stacked Cisco switch, it can be tedious sorting through the interface list to find the errored Objects. Now, a user can simply right-click on any part of the Object List and select 'Collapse All' or 'Collapse Normal' to perform the corresponding action. Collapse All, as the name suggests, collapses all Objects to their headings. 'Collapse Normal' performs this action for all Objects that have no errors associated with them, and leaves all Objects with errors in an expanded state.

Alternatively, all context menus in the Entity Browser feature now feature an option called 'Select All Containers + Collapse Normal', the function of which is to display all Objects within that container in the Object List, and collapse all Objects except for those that have errors associated with them.