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If our most outspoken math and science professors (Jordan Ellenberg, Brian Greene), self-styled education experts (Alfie Kohn, Susan Engel), education reporters, and even literature professors (Cathy Davidson) are to be believed, our k12 schools are still mired in the 19th century, led by drill masters who force meaningless facts and meaninglessly abstract math and science concepts down students' throats, totally oblivious to the 21st century world all around them.
Our eager diagnosticians propose the same basic cures for this supposed illness: make classrooms more student centered (preferably student group-centered), and make the curriculum more concrete and relevant to students' lives. And our major newspapers--especially The New York Times--are equally eager to give them a forum.
In the latest collusion between armchair academia and the Fourth Estate, we hear from Sol Garfunkel, executive director of the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications, and David Mumford, an emeritus professor of mathematics at Brown. Writing in past Thursday's New York Time OP-Ed pages on How to Fix Our Math Education, they begin by diagnosing the illness. Our current math curriculum, they write, is "highly abstract," "'pure' math with no context," with its "mysterious variable x" and its emphasis on solving quadratic equations, understanding transformations and complex numbers. This, they write, is "simply not the best way to prepare a vast majority of high school students for life":
Of course professional mathematicians, physicists and engineers need to know all this, but most citizens would be better served by studying how mortgages are priced, how computers are programmed and how the statistical results of a medical trial are to be understood.In its place: "a math curriculum that focused on real-life problems" and that "will lead students to appreciate how a mathematical formula models and clarifies real-world situations--what they call a "contextual approach, in the style of all working scientists," where instead of x and y, you have, for example, E, m and c, as in Einstein's E=mc2.
Presumably Garfunkel and Mumford have never actually looked at the latest high school math texts, which contain such problems as this and this. While arguably not good examples of real world math, this stuff is hardly abstract and "pure." For truly real-world algebra you have to go back in time to the 1960's or before.
But Garfunkel and Mumford want to do more than just tinker with the curriculum; they want to stop teaching algebra, geometry and calculus, at least to most students:
Imagine replacing the sequence of algebra, geometry and calculus with a sequence of finance, data and basic engineering. In the finance course, students would learn the exponential function, use formulas in spreadsheets and study the budgets of people, companies and governments. In the data course, students would gather their own data sets and learn how, in fields as diverse as sports and medicine, larger samples give better estimates of averages. In the basic engineering course, students would learn the workings of engines, sound waves, TV signals and computers.In short:
What we need is "quantitative literacy," the ability to make quantitative connections whenever life requires (as when we are confronted with conflicting medical test results but need to decide whether to undergo a further procedure) and "mathematical modeling," the ability to move practically between everyday problems and mathematical formulations (as when we decide whether it is better to buy or lease a new car).We've been here before: back in 1920, when the Committee on the Problem of Mathematics, headed by William Heard Kilpatrick, argued that algebra and geometry should be eliminated from most courses of study. As Diane Ravitch describes it in Left Back:
The Kilpatrick committee recommended that mathematics be tailored for four different groups: first, the "general readers," who needed only ordinary arithmetic in their everyday lives; second, students preparing for certain trades (e.g., plumbers or machinists), who needed a modest amount of mathematics, but certainly not algebra and geometry; third, the few students who wanted to become engineers who needed certain mathematical skills and knowledge for their jobs; and last, the "group of specializers," including students "who 'like' mathematics," for whom the existing program seemed about right, although the committee proposed "even for this group a far-reaching reorganization of practically all of secondary mathematics."This sounds an awful like the European system of vocational tracking which so many Americans rightly bemoan. Is this really what Garfunkel and Mumford want? Do they really want it determined in high school who is going to pursue physics and mathematics, or major in one of the many subjects for which college-level math is the prerequisite?
Equally questionable are Garfunkel and Mumford's closing assertions. First:
We believe that the best way for the United States to compete globally is to strive for universal quantitative literacy: teaching topics that make sense to all students and can be used by them throughout their lives.Perhaps Garfunkel and Mumford no longer see mathematics and science as worthwhile areas for American competition. Second:
It is through real-life applications that mathematics emerged in the past, has flourished for centuries and connects to our culture now.Here Garfunkel and Mumford aren't repeating history, but rewriting it. While mathematical guess and check procedures often emerge out of real-world application, in general, real-world mathematical application has lagged several hundred years behind pure mathematical theory. As irrelevant to today's non-mathematicians as today's mathematical advancements may appear to be, they may turn out in several centuries to be crucial to solving real-world problems in anything from cryptography to quantum computing to the generation of sustainable energy. Assuming, of course, that future scientists and engineers are still getting adequate training in basic high school math.


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This chapter provides an overview of the Cloud Service Assurance for VMDC (CLSA VMDC) system architecture.
•Functional View and Component View provide the functional and component views of the CLSA VMDC system architecture.
•System Components defines the components and interfaces used to deliver the system functions.
•Monitored Components and Services lists the VMDC devices that are monitored by CLSA VMDC.
•Key Functions defines the functions of the new architecture.
Figure 3-1 illustrates the functional framework for CLSA VMDC. This functionality is delivered with one or more of the integrated products/components. In CLSA VMDC, only a subset of this functionality is available. This section defines the functional layers of this architecture and identifies the layers that are available in CLSA VMDC.
Figure 3-1 Functional View of CLSA VMDC Architecture
The Managed Device Layer consists of Data Center (DC) infrastructure including compute, storage, and network components with instrumentation for inventory, fault, and performance data collection. The instrumentation used in this system includes Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), syslog, XML Application Programming Interface (API), NETCONF, vSphere API, and so on. Details of interfaces used per VMDC component are included in Monitored Components and Services.
The Domain/Element Management Layer includes the UCS Manager (UCSM) and vCenter. They provide intra-domain inventory, fault, and performance monitoring for UCS and VMware hosts and VMs. These domain managers offer northbound interfaces APIs as well as SNMP and syslog interfaces. CLSA VMDC utilizes UCS XML API and vSphere API interfaces. CLSA VMDC 3.0 also introduces the Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) Provider domain manager to incorporate EMC VMAX and VNX inventory, fault, and performance monitoring.
The Service Assurance Manager (SAM) Layer provides all inter-domain functions and a single pane of glass to monitor all VMDC domains including compute, storage, and network. The high-level functions of each of the SAM layers are as follows:
•Data Collection Layer. This layer leverages domain managers, third-party tools, and so on to obtain performance, availability, and event data for the end-to-end multi-domain system via a range of open protocols such as SNMP, SSL, WMI, and so on. This layer is responsible for normalizing this data into a consistent format and persisting data. Collected data includes inventory, fault, and performance type of information.
•Modeling Layer. This layer performs discovery, classification, and modeling to determine component dependencies and service dependency graphs. Both performance and fault data should be included in device and service models.
•Service Model-based Technology. CLSA VMDC uses service model-based technology which is described in more detail in Root Cause Analysis and Service Impact Analysis and Zenoss Cloud Service Assurance Overview, page 4-1CLSA VMDC.
•Root Cause Analysis (RCA). Leverages the dependency graph or analytics algorithms to determine which events are the probable root cause of the problem and which ones are just consequences that create noise. Therefore, RCA reduces Mean Time to Repair (MTTR). There are a number of different approaches to RCA, but most of them can be classified in one of the following technologies:
1. Event correlation rules-based
2. Topology and service model-based
3. Analytics based
•Service-Impact Analysis (SIA). Leverages the dependency graph or analytics algorithms and collects fault and performance data to do the following:
–Answer who is impacted by the failures
–Prioritize urgency of failure tickets based on business relevance
–Determine whether redundancy protected the service
–Identify failure impacted customers/tenants
–Prevent future failures by identifying potential service impacting technical risks before they impact service
–Provide data for SLA measurements and reporting
•Performance Aggregation Layer. This layer aggregates performance data from multiple domains (e.g, storage, network, compute for VMDC), normalizes it in the same format and units, provides threshold crossing alerts to the fault management part of the SAM, trends the data over time, and in some cases, performs additional analysis of the data.
•Presentation Layer. This layer provides a single view to do both fault and performance monitoring for the entire system. Presentation is done both via dashboards and reports. CLSA VMDC includes SP dashboards for both fault and performance.
•Northbound Interface. The Northbound Interface (NBI) is a special form of the presentation layer where normalized and enriched data is presented to northbound OSS/BSS systems via open interfaces such as WS API, SNMP, and email.
This section defines the components used to deliver those functions, as well as their interfaces. The key component of the architecture for CLSA VMDC is Zenoss Cloud Service Assurance (CSA), which plays the role of the SAM. In addition, several domain managers are utilized - UCS Manager (UCSM) for UCS hardware monitoring, VMware vCenter for monitoring the virtualized infrastructure, and SMI-S Provider for EMC VMAX and VNX monitoring.
Figure 3-2 illustrates the components and interfaces used to deliver the functional layers of the CLSA VMDC architecture.
Figure 3-2 Component View of CLSA VMDC Architecture
Key system interfaces include:
•Southbound interface instrumentation to collect data from managed system devices.
•Northbound interface to integrate with OSS/BSS systems such Manager-of-Managers (MoM) (e.g., IBM Netcool), ticketing systems (e.g., Remedy) and so on. The interfaces available from CLSA VMDC are SNMP, JSON API, email, page, commands, and Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP).
•CLSA VMDC offers the JSON API interface for integration with orchestration and fulfillment systems.
Table 3-1 lists the Cisco and third-party components used in CLSA VMDC.
Resource Manager 4.2.3
Zenoss CSA software module that performs resource discovery, monitoring, and modeling.
Impact 4.2.3
Zenoss CSA software module that performs service impact discovery and analysis.
Analytics 4.2.3
Zenoss CSA software module that performs long term data trending, processing, and reporting.
vCenter 5.0
Domain manager for VMware based virtualization
Domain manager for UCS platform
SMI-S Provider 126.96.36.199
Domain manager for EMC VMAX and VNX platforms
Note The Zenoss software modules are packaged together as Zenoss CSA 4.2.3.
Table 3-2 lists the VMDC devices that are monitored by the CLSA VMDC system out-of-the-box and the instrumentation (interfaces) utilized by Zenoss CSA to collect data.
Compute Components
UCS 5108; B-series blades
VMware ESX and ESXi Hypervisors
ICMP, vSphere API
VMware Virtual Machines
ICMP, vSphere API
Storage Components
Network Components
Nexus 7000 (e.g., 7018, 7010, 7009, 7004 including M1 and F1/F2 cards) 3,4
Nexus 5000 (e.g., 5548, 5596, and 5020)
Nexus 3000 1
Nexus 2000 (e.g., 2248 and 2232)
Nexus 1000V / Nexus 1010 1
Network Services Components
Catalyst 6500 VSS
ACE (e.g., ACE20, ACE30, ACE4710 2)
Virtual Security Gateway
For detailed information on software releases, please refer to the following documents:
•VMDC 2.2 Implementation Guide
•VMDC 2.3 Implementation Guide
•VMDC 3.0 Implementation Guide
Note Information on previous VMDC system releases can be found at VMDC System Releases.
This section describes the key functions of CLSA VMDC.
In the overall lifecycle of assurance services, the first task that has to be completed is enablement of service assurance services. Automatic Enablement of Service Assurance provides details about enabling service assurance, including provisioning and automatic discovery. Once assurance services are enabled, they can be used for Day 2 operations. Figure 3-3 illustrates and explains the high-level, end-to-end data flow through the fault and problem management part of CLSA VMDC.
Figure 3-3 End-to-End Fault and Problem Management Data and Processing Flow
The following sections discuss each of the stages and functions in this sample data flow:
•Fault Performance, Configuration Data Collection, and Device Modeling
•Root Cause Analysis and Service Impact Analysis
This section also discusses the following additional functions related to the overall platform and its use:
Automatic enablement of service assurance can be achieved in a couple of different ways. Fundamentally, the following are approaches that can be taken to automate service enablement and life cycle:
1. Reduce necessary amount of configuration (by using technology that is self learning (e.g., self learning thresholds))
2. Automatic discovery (by assurance system)
3. Programmatic orchestrated provisioning (via integration with orchestration system)
CLSA VMDC focuses on automatic discovery. CLSA VMDC also provide APIs for programmatic orchestrated provisioning, but they are not integrated or validated with any particular orchestration system. Automatic discovery and APIs are discussed in the following sections.
•Zenoss APIs for Programmatic Provisioning
The following types of objects are automatically discovered in CLSA VMDC:
•Monitored devices (e.g., UCS, Nexus 7000, MDS 9000, etc.)
•Sub-components of devices and their relationships (e.g., UCS chassis, blades, fabric interconnect, etc.)
•Tenant-based Service Impact Analysis (SIA) model for the compute (e.g., tenant Virtual Machine (VM) mapping to service impacting resources, both dedicated and shared vCenter and UCSM managed resources). The exception is tenant name and its link to the service, which cannot be discovered, but relies on orchestrated provisioning. In this release, tenant name and mapping to the VM are provisioned manually, but the API is provided.
Figure 3-4 and Figure 3-5 illustrate examples of automatic enablement of service assurance.
Figure 3-4 Real-time Automatic Discovery of Device Components - Cisco UCS
Figure 3-5 Real-time Automatic Discovery of Tenant Service Impact Model
CLSA VMDC offers APIs to programmatically provision the following components in the service impact tree:
•Tenant Name
•Tenant ID
•Service Name
•Service ID
•VM Name
This enables automatic onboarding of the tenant and tenant compute service, which maps them to the already automatically discovered VM and its relationships to shared hardware.
Note Proof of Concept (PoC) of this functionality integrated with the Cisco Intelligent Automation for Cloud (CIAC) orchestration stack has been performed by Cisco Advanced Services; however, it was not validated as part of the CLSA VMDC system. If this functionality is desired in the field before it is included as part of the Systems Development Unit (SDU) system release, then Cisco Advanced Services can perform integration with the desired orchestration stack using the provided API.
Figure 3-6 illustrates the high-level workflow that provisions the tenant and tenant service and then maps the workflow to the automatically discovered VM and the rest of the automatically discovered infrastructure.
Figure 3-6 Zenoss Tenant Provisioning Using CIAC Orchestration
Consolidated monitoring and data collection at the SAM layer is one of the fundamental functions of CLSA VMDC. Consolidated monitoring and data collection is characterized by the following attributes:
•Various domains (applications, compute, storage, network). The cloud assurance system needs to provide a single pane of glass to monitor components from various domains.
•Fault and performance data. The cloud assurance system needs to consolidate fault and performance data and leverage both for all of its higher order functions like RCA and SIA.
•Various data sources, interfaces, and protocols. The cloud assurance system needs to collect data from multiple data sources and protocols and consolidate this data in unified device and service models. Some examples of different data sources and protocols are SNMP, syslog, WS API, Netflow, customer opened tickets, and so on.
Zenoss Data Collection
Zenoss CSA offers consolidated monitoring for VMDC, including consolidation of domains (i.e., support for OS, compute, storage, and network), consolidation of performance and fault data (i.e., takes into consideration both polled performance data, asynchronous events it receives, as well as synthetic events it generates for both performance and availability), and consolidation of data sources (i.e., device monitoring models utilize multiple data sources such as SNMP, syslog, API, and consolidate it within unified device model).
Zenoss CSA uses an agentless data collection approach, which is critical for the type of scale expected in cloud systems. Instead of installing an agent on monitored devices, Zenoss supports a rich set of protocols to enable data collection. A list of protocols used for data collection from VMDC devices is included in Monitored Components and Services. The following is a more comprehensive list of data collection interfaces that the Zenoss CSA platform supports:
Event input:
•XML Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
•JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)/API
•Windows Event Log
Easily configurable protocol usage:
•Secure Shell (SSH)
•Java Management Extensions (JMX)
•Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)
•Any script that returns data in a known format (such as Nagios)
Other collection mechanisms (model/performance/event data):
•Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)
•Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) - Web Transactions
•Structured Query Language (SQL) Server
•Apache (mod_status)
•Splunk Queries
•Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
•SMI-S Provider
•Post Office Protocol (POP)
•vSphere Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) API
•vCloud Director
•Amazon EC2 and CloudWatch
•Cisco CallManager (AXL)
•Domain Name System (DNS)
•Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
•Network Time Protocol (NTP)
•File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
•Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
•Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP)
•Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
•Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)
Zenoss Device Modeling
Device modeling in Zenoss goes beyond traditional device discovery; it also uses standard Management Information Bases (MIBs) to discover interesting aspects of the device and automatically defines models for that device type. Once modeled, these learned attributes can be inherited as part of the model when a new device of the same type is discovered again. The information below describes various attributes of the Zenoss device modeling process.
Initial Zenoss Model (plugins):
•Interfaces to access device and objects of interest (KPI statistics, events, thresholds, etc.) are statically defined
•Models are assigned to a device class
Device Modeling:
•During individual device discovery, all modeler plug-ins for the device class are automatically considered, and a model per instance of the device is created.
•After discovery modeling, monitoring and event processing automatically starts.
Device Remodeling:
•Model per device instance can dynamically change in response to events (e.g., blade removed, etc.)
•ZenModelerDeamon - per collector configuration happens every 12 hours
•ZenVMwareDeamon (exception for VMware and remodels every 4 hours)
•List of events that trigger remodeling is configurable (default set exists)
An example of unified monitoring using Zenoss CSA is illustrated in Figure 3-7.
Figure 3-7 Unified Monitoring Using Zenoss CSA
In CLSA VMDC, event processing is divided into two categories:
•Basic event processing
•Event processing that is part of RCA and SIA
This section only describes basic event processing functions, while RCA and SIA are discussed in the following sections. The basic event processing functions included in this system are event classification, normalization, de-duplication, enrichment, persistence, and clearing.
Event classification groups similar events in event classes, so that some of the more complex processing may be simplified by looking at event classes rather than each individual event.
Event normalization translates various formats of the raw collected data into a single format that is used by the SAM. Often, the same format or subset of the fields of normalized format can be sent to northbound systems. This function allows simplified integration of northbound systems since they have to deal with a single event format for multiple device types and instrumentation protocols.
Event de-duplication eliminates multiple events that have the exact same content with the exception of the time stamp. After de-duplication, a single event is kept, and typically a counter indicating the number of occurrences of the event is added, as well as a timestamp indicating the first and last occurrence of the duplicate event.
Event persistence archives all events to be used for forensic analysis. In some systems, persistence exists only on post-processed events, while in others, for raw events as well.
Event clearing is used to indicate when the original condition for which the event was raised is removed. Explicit event clearing is done by generating clearing events with the field within the clearing event, which points to the ID of the event that it is clearing. For example, if an interface down event for a specific interface had an ID of ID1, when the interface goes up again, an event with ID2 should be raised, which includes as one of its fields a reference to event ID1. Explicit event clearing is recommended. In addition to explicit clearing, time-based clearing can be utilized as well. Time-based clearing clears the event after a specific time interval elapses from the time that the original event was received.
One of the key functions of CLSA VMDC is Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and tenant-based Service Impact Analysis (SIA).
The objective of RCA is to reduce MTTR by determining which events are probable root causes of the problem and which events are just consequences that create noise.
The following are the objectives of tenant-based SIA:
•To prioritize the urgency of failure tickets based on business relevance.
•To determine whether redundancy protected the service.
•To identify failure impacted customers/tenants.
•To prevent future failures by identifying potential service impacting technical risks before they impact service.
•To enable Service Level Agreement (SLA) measurements and reporting.
The following sections are detailed:
•VMDC Assurance Service Models
Zenoss CSA uses model-based SIA, which produces a set of ranked probable root causes as a by-product of SIA. This service impact-based approach to RCA is a fundamentally different approach from legacy rule-based systems:
•Bottom-up. What services are impacted by conditions below (Zenoss) vs.
•Top-down. What is the cause of problem at service level (legacy products)
Zenoss does not determine a single root cause, but instead identifies multiple related events (probable root cause events) and presents the following:
•A root cause ranking algorithm is utilized to rank probable root cause events in order of confidence that the event is the actual root cause event. This algorithm ranks impact events based on a variety of criteria, including the severity of the event, service graph depth, and the number of graph branches affected by an event.
•Hierarchical service dependency graphs provide a visual indication of probable root causes leading to a service impact.
Events flow through the graph referencing molecular node policies to determine whether they should be passed, filtered, aggregated, or masked. There are a few key elements of RCA and SIA in Zenoss CSA. Each assurance service within Zenoss is modeled with a service impact tree that consists of a set of nodes, policies applied to the nodes, and the relationships between the nodes:
•The service can be arbitrarily defined and can be a very abstract service that consists of other sub-services, or on other extreme, one can even define a single physical interface as a service. This provides a very flexible framework for service definition.
•Model nodes represent arbitrary components such as physical, logical, or virtual resource. For example, nodes can represent an end-to-end service such as voice, a virtual resource such as a VM, or a physical resource such as a chassis or physical interface. The following four types of nodes are currently supported, as illustrated in Figure 3-8:
–Physical. Systems, infrastructure, and network devices that a service relies on.
–Virtual. Software components that make up a service.
–Logical. Aspects of a service that must be measured or evaluated as a set to determine state (facilitates extension of an impact graph by providing a hook to incorporate arbitrary events into impact analysis).
–Reference (future release). Provide a link to dependencies managed by an external instance of Zenoss or other management system capable of propagating state information to Zenoss.
Figure 3-8 Node Types
•Policy is defined per node, which allows it to move as the resources move, which is a critical characteristic for the cloud environment. Zenoss refers to this policy as a molecular policy since it is defined per node. Zenoss utilizes a very simple policy that can define the state of the node solely as a function of the state of its children nodes, which allows for service impact "rules" decoupling from device events resulting in the following:
–"Rules" defined in a single place for any given device or service: device events processing in event processing software modules, service impact processing in service impact graphs (i.e., device events do not need to be considered in service level rules)
–Simplified development and maintenance of cross-domain service impact and RCA customizations: do not have to correlate device events from multiple devices to determine cross-domain service impact and possible root causes
–Note that whenever desired, device events can be used as part of service impact "rules" via use of logical nodes whose rules define how to interpret the service impact of specific events based on its type and severity.
–Policy can be global or contextual:
Global policy applies to device/service type in any service graph.
Contextual policy applies only to device/service in the particular service graph.
–Each node has a default policy applied, which reduces the need for custom configuration. The default policy is often sufficient, but can be modified where required via GUI or API. Figure 3-8 illustrates a sample node policy.
In order to perform SIA, CLSA VMDC uses service models with polled and asynchronous data to perform SIA and RCA. CLSA VMDC offers an out-of-the-box tenant service model for compute. In future releases, CLSA VMDC will expand the library of out-of-the-box service models that will be validated and delivered as part of this system, however, note that users can easily customize service models as well as create new ones.
Tenant Compute Assurance Service
Figure 3-9 defines the out-of-the-box tenant compute service model to be delivered as part of CLSA VMDC. More details are provided about this service model in Zenoss SIA and RCA.
Figure 3-9 Tenant Compute Assurance Service Model - Generic Application
Service Model Policy
Each node (referred to as the parent node) in the service model has a policy defined that calculates the state of that node based on the state of its children and any explicit events associated with the parent node.
For the particular service model illustrated in Figure 3-9, the specific policies listed in Table 3-3 should be applied.
Tenant Compute Service
Tenant Guest OS
Tenant VM
ESXi Cluster
All Children up/down
ESXi Host
UCS Blade
Out-of-the-box, all nodes use the default policy where the worst impact wins. The one exception is the VMware cluster, which is DOWN if all children are DOWN and DEGRADED if any nodes are DOWN or DEGRADED.
In addition to considering the parent/child policy, the explicit state of the nodes is determined by both availability and events for components the node represents. For VMware and UCS nodes, the explicit node impact status is determined mainly by modeled properties. As modeling occurs or various events are received, Zenoss reassesses the impact state by querying the Zenoss model. For example, when a VM power off event is received, the model is updated and the VM status is reassessed and updated.
Service Model Variations
Note that the model defined in this section illustrates a single-tier application with a single VM. Variation of this service model would be models for the following:
•Multi-tier application, where there would be multiple "tenant dedicated VM" blocks tied to the tenant compute service. The tenant compute service default policy may need to be customized.
•Single-tier application that supports application level redundancy via clustering (e.g., Cisco UC applications such as CUCM). In this case, the model would be modified to include multiples of "tenant dedicated VM" blocks. The default policy used for the "tenant compute service" should be applicable. An example of this service model is illustrated in Figure 3-9.
Service Model Enablement
Most of this model is automatically discovered, while the top node of the service model needs to be provisioned. Typically, provisioning would be done in an automated way when the tenant and VM get onboarded. In CLSA VMDC, there is no integration with the orchestration stack, and as such, the top node of the service model is manually provisioned. Note that in real deployments, per-tenant manual provisioning is not an option, in which case either an available Zenoss API can be used by the orchestration platform of choice, or if not provisioned, the tenant service impact is still possible but results are given in the VM context rather than tenant service context. For example, there would be no automatic mapping between tenant name, tenant service name, and VM ID.
In future CLSA VMDC releases, integration with VMDC orchestration stacks will be implemented and validated. In addition to automatic discovery of the service model from VM down, if operating systems such as Windows or Linux are deployed, they should also be automatically discovered.
Mobility Handling
The host to VM relationship is given by VMware during modeling stage. Whenever VMware generates an event that indicates VM movement, Zenoss reacts and remodels the source and target hosts to update its model. Depending on the event collection interval specified in the Zenoss configuration, the model change can take anywhere from 15 seconds to 3 minutes. With the out-of-the-box configuration, the average time would be about 1 minute.
Redundancy Implications
A service model with three service states accounts for redundancy. The AT RISK state is used to indicate conditions where the service or service model node is still functioning despite a failure of one of its children because redundancy protected the service. For the particular service model shown in Figure 3-9, redundancy capabilities that are accounted for include the following:
•If one of the blades/hosts fails, and the vCenter cluster that VM belongs to has multiple blades/hosts, then the VM node is marked AT RISK as opposed to DOWN based on the status of its children. Note that explicit VM related state and events can result in the state of the VM node being down even though the state of its children alone would result in an AT RISK state
•In a case where there is application level redundancy and thus more than one VM and application deployed for single tier applications, there is also service model redundancy built in on the application/VM level. For example, a service is AT RISK if one of the application nodes/VMs is DOWN because the remaining application/VM nodes provides redundancy for the failed application/VM node.
Once service impact models are defined, the data is applied to service impact models to maintain real-time state of the service availability and performance, as well as to determine probable root cause of any failures that may happen. This section provides a list of failure scenarios (use cases) validated as part of the CLSA VMDC test effort, for which the out-of-the-box compute service model can determine correct probable root cause and service state for previously defined services. All of the use cases are validated in an environment where VMware High Availability (HA) is deployed.
Refer to Root Cause Analysis and Service Impact Analysis for an example workflow illustrating a UCS switch failure event, including screen shots.
Use Case Name (Fault):
•VM Failure
•VM vNIC failure
•VM vMotion - VM vMotion is not a true fault event, since the VM stays up, however, the impact graph does track the VM's host swap.
•ESXi host failure
•UCS Blade failure
•UCS chassis failure
•UCS P/S failure
•UCS FEX failure
•UCS 6100 chassis failure
•UCS 6100 interfaces to UCS 5100 failure
•VM CPU degradation (Threshold Crossing Alert (TCA))
•VM Memory degradation (TCA)
•Host CPU degradation (TCA)
•Host Memory degradation (TCA)
One of the key, new functions of CLSA VMDC architecture is a single, normalized Northbound Interface (NBI) provided by the SAM.
The key objectives of the single, normalized interface are:
•To simplify and reduce the cost of integrating providers existing northbound system with the CLSA VMDC system. The provider needs to integrate and maintain just one interface rather than multiple dozens of interfaces towards individual devices and/or domain managers. CLSA VMDC is responsible for absorbing updates related to any relevant changes in the underlying system and devices.
•To enable CLSA VMDC to be inserted in various business and operational deployment environments. This is achieved by offering a variety of interface protocols, rich filtering capabilities, and notifications with tenant awareness.
•To enable CLSA VMDC to simplify service assurance of overlaid application based systems that are deployed on top of VMDC infrastructure. An example of this type of system is the Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS). This is achieved by providing tenant service level notifications rather than device level notifications, which enables a service overlay (or multi-tier SIA) to be implemented by HCS, and as such, Cloud Service Assurance-HCS (CLSA-HCS) would have to deal with the state of only a handful of services coming from CLSA VMDC, rather than thousands of events coming from individual VMDC devices.
Zenoss northbound integration is supported via:
•JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)/Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface (ReST API)
•SNMP Traps (ZENOSS-MIB.txt and ZENOSS-IMPACT-MIB.txt)
•Event queues (AMQP and Java/Python wrappers) and event commands (command line call with event context)
•SMTP email
Configurable filtering capabilities are offered to provide different data to different northbound consumers. The following sections describe the interfaces, data, and filtering capabilities in more detail.
•Zenoss SNMP Notification Content
•Zenoss Notification Filtering
•Zenoss Service Impact SNMP Trap
•Northbound Integration Use Case Examples
One of the key requirements for CLSA VMDC is to offer asynchronous notifications via SNMP. These notifications are consumed either by the provider's existing northbound systems such as MoM, ticketing, and SLA management systems, or by other Cisco systems deployed on VMDC architecture such as HCS.
Regardless of the source or type of the event, all events should be sent using the same normalized format, however, as discussed in this chapter, there may be differences in the values of the populated fields based on the type of events (e.g., service impact events contain information about service name and state, while device level events do not).
Zenoss CSA uses custom Zenoss MIB implementations for northbound notifications. The original SNMP MIB addresses the resource manager part of the product, but not the service impact part. MIB extensions have been designed to address service impact events and related probable root cause events as a part of the this phase of CLSA VMDC. For a discussion of the new service impact trap, see Zenoss Service Impact SNMP Trap.
Events associated with devices use ZENOSS-MIB for notifications. The ZENOSS-MIB.txt file is located in the following Zenoss directory: $ZENHOME/share/mibs/site. Device level SNMP notifications can be sent to multiple destinations. Refer to the Zenoss Cloud Service Assurance Installation and Administration Guide for more information regarding notifications.
Table 3-4 maps the fields of Zenoss MIBs to the SAM requirements.
Unique identifier ID of the event
De-duplication ID of the event
Device associated with event
Device component associated with event
Event classification
Event key used for refining event granularity beyond device and component. Used in de-duplication, automatic clearing.
Event message truncated to 128 characters
Event severity number: 0=clear(normal), 1=debug, 2=info, 3=warning,4=error, 5=critical
Event state number: 0=new, 1=acknowledged, 2=suppressed
Class key for rule processing often matches component
Logical grouping of event sources
Last time event changed through administrative activity
First time an event was received
Last time an event was received
Number of times this event has been seen
Production state of the device or component associated with this event
Collector process that received or created this event
Class of device that this event is associated with
Location of device that this event is associated with
Systems containing the device that this event is associated with
Groups containing the device that this event is associated with
IP address that this event was generated or sent from
Syslog facility if the event was initially sent as a syslog
Syslog priority if the event was initially sent as a syslog
Windows NT_EVENT_ID if the event was initially received from Windows event log
User that acknowledged this event
evtId that cleared this event
Priority of the device that this event is associated with
Name of the event class mapping that matched this event
Filtering capabilities using Zenoss Triggers can be used to customize notifications based on the needs of different northbound consumers:
•Multiple subscribers/receivers may receive notifications.
•Each notification subscriber/receiver may apply a different filter: one receiver may subscribe to service events, another may subscribe to compute events, and a third may subscribe to network events.
•Each system user should be able to apply different filters.
For more information regarding Triggers, refer to the Zenoss Cloud Service Assurance Installation and Administration Guide.
This section defines the SNMP notification for Zenoss Impact, which is new for CLSA VMDC 3.0. The following data is available internally within Zenoss Impact for service related events. This data was used by the notification script in CLSA VMDC 2.2.
•Service Name
•Service state
•URLs to EventDetail, page to acknowledge and close events, device events
•All events in the impact chain. Each event in impact chain includes:
–Device Class
–Event Class
–URLs to EventDetail, page to acknowledge and close events, device events
Zenoss Impact provides a flexible framework to define arbitrary services, including support for hierarchical service nesting. In such environments, the question arises for which nodes and/or levels of hierarchy notifications should be sent. Services are collected under Service Organizers. A Service Organizer consists of multiple folders and in each folder there is set of services. In Zenoss Impact, the notification trigger criteria is configured for Service Organizer folders and its services and not based on individual nodes and their hierarchy level in the impact tree. This approach provides good balance between flexibility to select notification trigger criteria and simplicity of implementation.
For CLSA VMDC to send notifications per service instance state change, the appropriate structure must be created to organize the services. The following sections discuss the folders and the structure used for the services defined in CLSA VMDC 3.0.
Service Organizers
Service Organizers are located on the left tab in the Impact GUI.
The Shared Services folder includes:
•Service Name X (e.g., Network Aggregation service, Network Core service, etc.)
•Service Name Y
The Customer Name folder includes:
•Tenant Service 1 (e.g., Tenant Compute service, Tenant Network service, etc.)
•Tenant Service 2
Notification Triggers
The user is able to select services and or/folders for which to send notifications. This action is available both in the GUI, as well as via the REST API so that the orchestration system at the time of onboarding the tenant service can select whether or not to enable notification for the service.
The notification policy should be selectable both per folder or per service instance. This enables support for the following use cases:
•Where a single operator or NB system manages and/or provides visibility to all services of single tenant/customer (since one folder is defined per tenant).
•Where different services of the same tenant are managed by different operators/NB systems, e.g., notification for IaaS services are sent to the IaaS operator while notifications for Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) services are sent to the UC operator.
Notification Timing
This section defines the guidelines for service impact notification triggers and timing. An attempt is made to balance any delay in notifications indicating change with excessive noise in events sent due to transient state during service impact analysis. In order to have the capability to delay some service impact notifications, there is a timer that can be configured (value range 0-10 minutes with default of three minutes).
Service impact notifications are triggered when the following events occur:
•If the service state changes (top-level service in each folder):
–The notification indicating a service state change should always be sent immediately, regardless of the value of the notification delay timer. This enables the northbound system to immediately detect the change. Also, for northbound systems that are using service state notifications to measure service availability and SLA, this immediate notification enables more accurate service availability measurements.
–When the service state changes back to UP, the event should serve as a clearing event for the previous service state change event. As such, the ID of the service event that it is clearing must be included.
•If the service state does not change, but most a probable root-cause event changes (i.e., root cause ranked with highest confidence% changes):
–This trigger honors the notification delay timer, and as such, it is sent only if the event is generated after the notification timer expires.
The following example shows the use of the notification delay timer and the two notification types listed above. Assume that the following conditions exist:
1. The notification delay timer is set to three minutes.
2. The root cause is a UCS blade failure, and the final service state for the IaaS service is AT RISK.
If these conditions exist, the following occurs:
1. At zero seconds, event E1 (VMware event for the VM) arrives. The root cause at that time is RC1= VM Failure.
2. A service impact event is sent northbound indicating that the IaaS state = AT RISK, RC=VM.
3. At one minute, event E2 (VMware event for the host) arrives. The root cause at that time is RC2= Host Failure. Since the notification delay timer is set to three minutes, there are no events sent northbound due to the change of root-cause events. Only one minute has passed since the service state change time.
4. At four minutes, event E3 (UCSM event for blade) arrives. The root cause at that time is RC3=UCS blade failure. A service impact event is sent northbound indicating that the IaaS state = AT RISK, RC= Blade.
Figure 3-10 shows the existing capability that Zenoss has to delay notifications and also to send the clearing events. The same capabilities would be extended to the service impact events.
Figure 3-10 Edit Notification Timer
Notification Content
The following fields should be included in the northbound service impact notification:
•Folder Name (one up only). The customer name would typically be placed here, but keeping the field generic allows flexibility to use folders in any way desired (e.g., to represent shared infrastructure services, reseller, etc.). The operator can include the option to have a full folder path.
•Folder Type. The folder type indicates what the folder represent, e.g., for folders representing the customer name, the folder type would have value the value "customer."
•Service Instance Name and systemwide unique ID.
•Service Type. This field can be used to filter notifications by type of service that the northbound consumer is interested in, even though each instance of the service may be in different folders which are representing different customers.
•Service State. The service state is UP, DOWN, AT RISK, or DEGRADED.
•URLs to Service Impact EventDetail. This page acknowledges and closes events and device events.
•Event clearing ID. The ID of the event that is being cleared by this event.
•Probable root-cause event name and systemwide unique ID (event with highest confidence level).
•Probable root-cause confidence level.
•Probable root-cause device, component, and severity.
•Impact chain and ID to events in impact chain. The ID can be used to retrieve the impact chain via REST API upon receipt of the notification.
•URLs to probable root-cause EventDetail. This page acknowledges and closes events and device events.
Note In CLSA VMDC 3.0, the following fields are not supported: Folder Type, Service Type, and URLs to probable root-cause event detail. In addition, the Event Clearing ID is implemented slightly differently than proposed above. The Service Instance Name & system wide unique ID is implemented in a field called zenImpactUUID. The initial and clearing events have the same zenImpactUUID, however they have states new and cleared.
Root-cause Event Notification
In addition to sending probable root-cause events as part of service impact notification, there is also a need to be able to send only probable root-cause events. For example, in cases of more catastrophic failures where a single root-cause event impacts a larger number of services, northbound systems that are not service focused may prefer to receive only one notification representing the root-cause event and not receive multiple service impacting notifications.
Even in this case, it is desirable to provide the relationship between the root-cause event and the services it impacted. This can be done by including a list of services impacted by the same root-cause event in the root-cause event notification URL or ID.
Root-cause notification is not a separate notification in CLSA VMDC 3.0; instead, the root-cause event is communicated as a field via the service impact notification.
The JSON API can be used to obtain the following:
•Device model and attributes data
•Performance data
•Event data
•Service data
Most of the information visible via the GUI can also be obtained via the JSON API.
In addition to retrieving data, the JSON API can also be used for the following:
•Managing events (acknowledge, clear, close)
•Adding devices to be monitored
•Setting production state
•Initiating discovery and modeling of devices
•Managing thresholds
•Managing reports
•Other configurations
More information on the JSON API can be found at the following URL:
This section includes typical use cases that illustrate the rich filtering capabilities of the NBI.
•Abstraction via Single Interface
•Integration With Multiple Northbound Systems
•Abstraction Through Service Overlays
One of the key functions of the SAM layer as defined in CLSA VMDC architecture is the capability to provide a single, normalized NBI that is consistent regardless of the formats of data used by the underlying VMDC components. This allows simplified integration and ongoing interface maintenance with providers existing OSS systems as:
•There is only one integration point as opposed to the number of integration points being proportional to the number of VMDC devices and domain managers.
•Changes in any of the underlying interfaces on managed devices are absorbed by the SAM as opposed to the provider having to update OSS systems every time there is a change in one of the managed components.
Figure 3-11 illustrates how the VMDC system is abstracted via a single interface to the provider's existing OSS system. The purple areas represent the enhancements for CLSA VMDC 3.0.
Figure 3-11 Single Normalized and Service Abstraction NBI
This use case example illustrates the need for different types of notifications and northbound filtering capabilities.
Figure 3-12 VMDC CSA Integration in Northbound OSS Systems
In this use case example (Figure 3-12), there is an IT department with two operations teams: one for network operations and one for server/compute operations. In addition, each one of the teams has a ticketing system and a MoM capable of further event processing and RCA. Assume also that the server/compute operations team has an SLA management system used to measure and manage SLA compliance.
Using the extensive filtering capabilities of the northbound notifications, the needs of both of these operations teams and their various northbound systems can be satisfied with a single instance of the service assurance system. In this example, five northbound notification destinations are configured, each with a different filter (also known as a notification trigger) as follows:
•All root cause events originated by vCenter or UCSM are sent to the Compute Operations ticketing system.
•All service-impact events originated by vCenter or UCSM are sent to the Compute Operations SLA management system.
•All other compute events that may require additional analysis are sent to the Compute Operations MoM.
•All root cause events originated by network devices are sent to the Network Operations ticketing system.
•All other compute events that may require additional analysis are sent to the Network Operations MoM.
This use case illustrates the need for service impact notifications from CLSA VMDC. This use case is a prerequisite for integrating CLSA VMDC into CLSA-HCS. To deliver HCS services (voice, voicemail, etc.) to the end customer/tenant, multiple services need to be provided to the customer, which are referred to as service overlays. In a scenario for top-level service such as HCS, there are a number of benefits to only processing abstracted events related to a few underlying services:
•Complexity of its fault management system can be reduced significantly if it is only receiving events related to few underlying services (IaaS, MPLS VPN WAN service, etc.) rather than having to deal with device level events from tens of underlying components.
•More flexibility to support various business and operational deployment models that vary in which domains and services are owned and operated by the provider offering top-level (e.g., HCS) services.
Figure 3-13 and Figure 3-14 illustrate the service overlay approach for application-based services such as HCS, and the need for service level abstraction from the underlying infrastructure system.
Figure 3-13 HCS Services and Operational Domains
Figure 3-14 Multi-tiered SIA
The following performance management capabilities are provided out-of-the-box in CLSA VMDC:
•KPI statistics resource monitoring and trending:
–Resource monitoring is partially validated as part of CLSA VMDC.
•Performance service impact models for compute and storage:
–TCAs utilized as part of SIA
–Validated as part of CLSA VMDC
•Application response time measurements:
–Not validated as part of CLSA VMDC
–For details, refer to product documentation on www.zenoss.com.
•Performance reporting:
–Not validated as part of CLSA VMDC
–For details, refer to product documentation on www.zenoss.com.
CLSA VMDC features aggregated SP dashboards, as well as both device level and service level dashboards that operators can use to obtain more details. The following are the key dashboard categories for Zenoss CSA:
•Aggregated systemwide resources status dashboards
•Service inventory and status dashboards
•Infrastructure/resource monitoring dashboards
•Event dashboards
Aggregated Systemwide Resources Status Dashboards
These dashboards list all devices with events systemwide, sorted by number of highest priority events, as shown in Figure 3-15.
Figure 3-15 Aggregated Systemwide Resources Status Dashboard
Service Inventory and Status Dashboards
These dashboards show the availability and performance state of all services in the system, as shown in Figure 3-16.
Figure 3-16 Service Inventory and Status Dashboard
Figure 3-17 shows a per-service detailed dashboard, which lists service impact events and related probable root cause events, as well as a visualization of the service model tree.
Figure 3-17 Per-service Detailed Dashboard
Infrastructure/Resource Monitoring Dashboards
These dashboards list the inventory of all devices and their status, as shown in Figure 3-18.
Figure 3-18 Infrastructure Dashboard
Figure 3-19 and Figure 3-20 show a detailed component dashboard and graphical view (example UCS server blade).
Figure 3-19 Detailed Component Dashboard
Figure 3-20 UCS Server Blade Graphical View
Event Dashboards
These dashboards show all events in the console (similar consoles exist per component as well), as shown in Figure 3-21.
Figure 3-21 Event Dashboard
Refer to Dashboards for a use case example of dashboard monitoring.
CLSA VMDC provides a range of defined and custom report options, including the following:
Reports can be exported to external files and systems or can be viewed locally. Reports can also be generated ad hoc or scheduled. Refer to the Zenoss Cloud Service Assurance Installation and Administration Guide for more information.
The following is a list of reports supported out-of-the-box for CLSA VMDC:
•Device Reports (9)
–All Devices
–All Monitored Components
–Device Changes
–MAC Addresses
–Model Collection Age
–New Devices
–Ping Status Issues
–SNMP Status Issues
–Software Inventory
•Custom Device Reports
•Graph Reports
•Multi-graph Reports
•Event Reports (3)
–All EventClasses
–All EventMappings
–All Heartbeats
•Performance Reports (7)
–Aggregate Reports
–Availability Report
–CPU Utilization
–Filesystem Util Report
–Interface Utilization
–Memory Utilization
–Threshold Summary
•Storage (3)
–Disk Firmware
•Enterprise Reports (17)
–Organizer Graphs
–95th Percentile
–Defined Thresholds
–Interface Volume
–Network Topology
–Customized Performance Templates
–User Event Activity
–Notifications and Triggers by Recipient
–Datapoints by Collector
–Organizer Availability
–Maintenance Windows
–Interface Utilization
–Event Time to Resolution
–Data Sources in Use
–Users Group Membership
–Cisco Inventory
–Guest to Datapools
•MSExchange (1)
•VMware (5)
–VMware Utilization
•Cisco UCS Reports (2)
–Hardware Inventory
–Free Slots
This section discusses the CLSA VMDC approach to multitenancy. VMDC architecture supports multitenant delivery, and CLSA VMDC must therefore support an assurance window into these tenant services to equip cloud providers with the ability to assure logically distinct customer services. A related topic, Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), is also presented in this section.
CLSA VMDC Multitenancy
VMDC provides a multitenancy cloud infrastructure by logically separating tenant services that are implemented on a shared physical infrastructure. Tenants consume a portion of network, storage, and compute resources that have been allocated from the larger pool represented by the cloud. CLSA VMDC delivers cloud provider assurance of shared infrastructure devices and their sub-components. In addition, CLSA VMDC supports the multitenancy aspect of the VMDC architecture through the use of defined Tenant Services.
Zenoss CSA enables an administrator to stitch together service element nodes which taken as a whole comprise a specific tenant service. A CLSA VMDC tenant service begins with the creation of the topmost element node named for the tenant. To this tenant node, underlying VMware vSphere and UCS shared infrastructure elements can be discovered and attached. Refer to VMDC Assurance Service Models for more details regarding tenant services.
Using the tenant service modeling feature of CLSA VMDC, cloud customers' services can be assured independently. Elements of the tenant service that are unique to that tenant customer such as specific VM's are visible only to the cloud provider or the service owner. Elements of the service that belong to shared infrastructure, such as a UCS chassis or a storage device are visible across multiple tenant services, as would be expected. In fact, if a shared device experiences a fault condition, all services associated with that device should be impacted, however, any fault condition associated with unique elements of a tenant service are not visible to other tenants.
Note This phase of CLSA VMDC only supports cloud provider visibility into dashboards and service impact trees. Tenant customer visibility into service impact trees via customer portals will be supported in future releases.
RBAC Implementation
As a cloud providers' infrastructure increases in scale, it becomes important to provide a segmentation of operations capability to implement a division of responsibility. CLSA VMDC fulfills this need with its RBAC implementation. Beyond this division of responsibility capability, RBAC can also be used to support groups of users with limited visibility into specific tenant services. Table 3-5 lists the out-of-the-box roles that may be used to segment cloud provider operations responsibilities and access.
Provides global read-only access to system objects.
Provides global read-write access to system objects.
Provides global read-write access to system objects and read-write access to the Zope object database (which includes all devices, users, and event mappings)
Provides users the ability to manage events, i.e. acknowledge, move to archive, etc.
These predefined roles are global in scope, such that an operator may access all cloud objects, but only be allowed certain operations. In addition to these global user roles, users may be defined that are more limited in scope. These user roles may be assigned to organizational groups to manage a subset of the entire infrastructure or even specific tenant services.
Organizational groups are used to collect subsets of infrastructure and/or services into logical categories for segmented operations. Table 3-6 lists the broad group categories and suggested uses for each group type. Groups can be devised for each tenant such that a customer's tenant services can be assigned to a tenant group.
Can be used for collecting similar devices, e.g. all switches group, all compute devices group
Can be used to collect all equipment with a specific data center, e.g. data center A, data center B
Can be used to collect devices by geographic boundaries, e.g. city, state, or even specific device rack
Figure 3-22 illustrates a list of users with either global or customized group role assignments. Users with the global user roles would belong to the cloud provider.
Figure 3-22 Custom User Groups
Users with non-global roles can belong to either the cloud provider or even a cloud customer. While RBAC is only supported for the cloud provider in this phase, it could be the mechanism to deliver a cloud customer, or multiservices, assurance portal in future phases.

subset: commoncrawl


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Save Your Data With One of These Top Backup Programs
The Traditionalists
NTI Backup 5 Advanced
NTI Backup 5 Advanced (price $70 as of 7/23/2008) is by far the most complete backup application that NTI has ever released. It brings continuous data protection, file-based backup, and what the company calls "drive-based backup" (otherwise known as disk imaging), all inside a single extremely friendly package. This version introduces the ability to back up open files, too--a long-standing omission.
Backup 5 Advanced uses the same impressively intuitive interface that has been the program's trademark for several years, with the more-polished look that was introduced last year. The step-by-step buttons located on the left and the relevant options and selectors on the right are the perfect blend of easy to learn and easy to use. Many wizardlike interfaces get in the way once you know them; this one doesn't.
The software's imaging module includes adjustments for compression level, encryption, and verification. You can get more granular with your tweaks for Backup 5 Advanced's file-based backup and continuous data backup. For the latter, you can back up by filter or location (choose a directory), as well as back up your "profile," consisting of your e-mail, desktop settings, address book, Outlook .pst file, and the like. You can schedule all three types of backup at any time, and you may instruct the PC to enter standby, hibernation, or power-down mode after a job completes. You can also have the application notify you by e-mail upon the completion (or failure) of a job, though it lacks a provision for running other programs before and after a job.
Broadly speaking, NTI Backup 5 Advanced worked extremely well for me--its backups were flawless. I did have a couple of minor operational issues with the software, however. To back up to a network location, I first had to map the destination as a drive within Windows Explorer--a rather odd approach considering that the program allows you to select an FTP site as your backup destination. Also, though you can arrange for daily backups, you can't have them run in alternate weeks. Nor can you set the program to write to different media, as you can Retrospect. And I discovered a very minor bug where the drive-based backup wouldn't show the drives on my system while an internal 100MB IDE Zip drive was attached. This was most likely a conflict with the ASPI layer used by NTI for low-level drive access.
Regardless, Backup 5 Advanced is the first NTI backup product I can wholeheartedly recommend: It's a solid and reliable performer, its file-based backup is more than adequate for typical use, and it offers continuous data protection and imaging as well. Alas, at $100 it's twice the price of NovaBackup 10, a product that's nearly as friendly--and more powerful.
Download NTI Backup 5 Advanced (Price: $70; 30-day free trial)
Paragon Drive Backup 9.0 Personal
Paragon's disk-imaging application, Drive Backup 9.0 Personal (price $40, as of 7/15/08), may still be a feature or two shy of competitor Acronis True Image Home 11, but you probably don't need whatever is missing. Drive Backup 9.0's newfound ability to back up and restore individual files and folders, in addition to imaging whole drives and partitions, makes the two programs nearly equal. If the restore implementation were a little friendlier, you could throw out the "nearly"; at any rate, considering Drive Backup 9's friendlier, configurable GUI and its $10 price advantage over Acronis True Image, choosing between the two is difficult.
While Paragon makes selecting individual files and folders for backup easy, selecting them for restore is harder. When you browse, instead of seeing a separate window with the files listed, you have to navigate a tree in the same browser you used to select the archive. If you're restoring from a long-path network location, this approach becomes unwieldy. The other, more serious problem is that you can restore a file only to its original location. This is a pain when you want to recover an older version of a file without overwriting the newer one.
The other major new feature in this version is the rescue-media builder's ability to write its recovery image to a thumb drive as well as to CD. Flash USB drives boot much faster (on newer PCs whose BIOS supports booting from a USB device), and they're easier to carry around. Also, as always, if you own the company's Partition Manager, the abilities of that program are added automatically to the recovery media, making for a very nice all-around emergency tool kit and boot disc.
The other changes to the program are minor: bug fixes, more drivers, and better support for various operating systems, including Apple's Boot Camp for both Mac and PC support. In the end, for straight disk imaging, Drive Backup 9 is as good as it gets. But Paragon needs to make restoring individual files and folders easier, and--in light of NovaBackup 10, which has imaging as well as a host of other backup features--it must lower the price.
Download Paragon Drive Backup 9.0 Personal (Price: $40; 30-day free trial)
Titan Backup
Having reviewed literally dozens of backup programs, I'm not easy to impress. But I was impressed with Titan Backup (price $40 as of 7/15/2008). Though it lacks the ability to back up open files and has no imaging capability, it has just about everything else you could wish for in a backup program. The interface is also one of the best I've seen--an intuitive combination of tabbed dialog and step-by-step wizard that I have only minor quibbles with.
Titan Backup's performance and abilities were pretty much on a par with other second-tier backup programs. You can opt for plain file backup, backup to a zip file, or backup to an executable zip (with a 4GB size limit--a zip limitation). Options include 256-bit AES encryption, the ability to run other programs before and after the backup, and user-name or password entry for backing up to protected network locations. The password didn't work with my Synology DS508 NAS box when the destination was a password-protected folder, but I'm inclined to blame this on the NAS box, which has a somewhat odd security implementation. There were no problems backing up to public folders, hard drives, a flash drive, CD/DVD, or via FTP.
Other features include e-mail notifications (with account settings), syncing of folders, a comprehensive scheduler, command-line execution, and some very nicely written help files. There's no support for tape, but on the consumer level, this is a not an issue these days.
As to those GUI quibbles, they were as petty as wishing the company had put the "Edit Task" button on the upper toolbar with "Delete" and "Import Task" configuration buttons instead of with the primary operational "Start" and "Restore" buttons on the side panel.
Download Titan Backup (Price: $40; 15-day free trial)


text:
- Admissions
- Academics
- Research
- University Life
- Alumni
- About
Office of Enrollment
Fax: 202-885-1044
Sharon M. Alston
Vice Provost for Undergraduate Enrollment
Photo by Jeff Watts
Dr. Sharon Alston is Vice Provost for Undergraduate Enrollment. This is the area within the Office of the Provost which is tasked with the recruitment, admission, and enrollment of new first year and transfer students to American University, as well as providing financial support for students attending the university. In her capacity as Vice Provost for Undergraduate Enrollment Management, she oversees the offices of Admissions, Administration and Fiscal Affairs, Enrollment Marketing (including the Admissions Welcome Center), Financial Aid, and Systems.
Sharon has been a member of the American University community since 2000, serving as Director of Admissions and Executive Director for Enrollment Management prior to being named as Vice Provost in July of 2011. In addition to her service to the university, Sharon's professional affiliations include The College Board, the Common Application, the National Association for College Admission Counseling and the Potomac and Chesapeake Association for College Admission Counseling. Her experiences prior to joining the AU community include serving for seven years as a director of college counseling at a local independent school as well as admissions experience at four other public and private universities.
B.A. (Psychology) Franklin and Marshall College
M. Ed. (Urban Education) Temple University
Ph. D. (Education Policy, Planning, and Administration) University of Maryland College Park


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Playing a motorbike stunt rider who finds out that he has fathered a son from his girlfriend, Gosling gives his convincing performance alongside Bradley Cooper and Eva Mendes.
"The Place Beyond the Pines" has debuted its first trailer, which boasts dramatic scenes involving Ryan Gosling as a man who is forced to take a responsibility for fathering a son from his girlfriend. Gosling gives his convincing performance as he tries to be a good dad for his baby, but decides to do it in a wrong way.
Gosling plays Luke, a motorcycle stunt rider and habitual loner who works for a traveling carnival, roaming from town to town. After reuniting with his sometime girlfriend Romina (Eva Mendes), Luke discovers that he has fathered a son.
Determined to meet his responsibility but unable to support a family, Luke opts to start robbing banks. On his getaway motorcycle, Luke is magnificent: skilled, daring, reckless and macho. But on one heist he draws the pursuit of rookie cop Avery (Bradley Cooper). It proves a fateful confrontation.
Derek Cianfrance directs the compelling crime drama film in addition to co-writing the script alongside Ben Coccio and Darius Marder. The movie is also supported by Rose Byrne, Dane DeHaan and Ray Liotta.
Focus Features will release "The Place Beyond the Pines" in the U.S. on March 29, 2013.


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Chilli Tomato Pesto
Recipe by SugaredAlmond
Probably not entirely authentic, but it tastes fabulous! I'm a bit of a Luddite and enjoy making this with a pestle and mortar, but do use a food processor if that's more your bag.
Top Review by stormylee
Fabulous indeed! I used my trusty food processor to make this, and was having One of Those Days in the kitchen. First, I realized while already blending things that I'd, in fact, run out of sun-dried tomato paste! In order to make up for it (even if just a bit), I used a few more sun-dried tomatoes and the oil from the jar instead of regular olive oil. Then, after I'd seasoned the paste with Tabasco and tasted it (and gone "oooh, yummmm!"), my eyes wandered over to the counter and saw the chopped tomatoes I'd forgotten to throw in!! So, I blended them in last and added a touch more Tabasco. Served with pasta for lunch and will try this on brushcetta tonight too. Great stuff! Thanks for sharing!
See Discussion:1 Review
Ingredients Nutrition
- 1 large red bell pepper
- 1 mild red chili pepper
- 29.58 ml pine nuts, toasted
- 2 medium tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and roughly chopped
- 1.23-2.46 ml Tabasco sauce
- 1 garlic clove, peeled
- 50 g fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
- 8 piece sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, chopped
- 44.37 ml sun-dried tomato paste
- 88.74-177.48 ml olive oil
- 28.34-56.69 g pecorino romano cheese or 28.34-56.69 g fresh parmesan cheese, grated
Directions See How It's Made
- Grill both the chilli and red pepper under a very hot grilluntil the skin blackens and blisters. Allow to cool for a few minutes.
- Peel the chilli and pepper and remove the seeds. Roughly chop.
- With a large pestle and mortar crush the garlic together with the toasted pine nuts.
- One at a time, add the red pepper, chilli, basil, sundried tomato and tomato paste, squashing together until everything is roughly blended.
- Stir in the grated Pecorino or Parmesan.
- Stir in the oil, stirring until everything has become a paste, but still retains a little of it's own identity.
- Add tabasco to taste.


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I'm trying to insert an array into a mysql databaseheres my array [amenities] => Array ( [0] => 1 )
So I'll use the implode() to convert the array into a comma seperated string
$amenities = implode(",",$_POST['amenities[]']);
but when I echo that variable, I get nothing.
Is that right?
$amenities = implode(",",$_POST['amenities']);
oh, got it, just had to remove the [] from the POST variable.
Yep. Keep in mind although you may put [] in your form name (so it is designated as an array), the post accessor for that element does not contain those characters. You simply reference it by its name without the []
If you find yourself needing to store an array in a database its advisable to use a child table so that the data stored therein can be searched.
If it needs to be searched. No sense in decoupling data that would never be searched on (ie: preference settings).


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As of part of the results of this past election where the Mayor of San Diego will now be Congressman Bob Filner, his position will now be covered by Senator Juan Vargas, who will now be representing a vast area of San Diego.
Now with all of these changes that are being made, who will take over the seat that Senator Vargas will leave vacant?
This vacant seat which is for Senator of California mainly covers the border cities of Southern California to Baja California, Mexico.
According to an expert, the person who will take the seat may be decided in a special election to be held in the beginning of next year 2013, which will be held in the southern part of San Diego County and Imperial County that will determine who the new Senator will be.
All indications point out that the position will be covered by Assembly Member, Ben Hueso, who naturally is the candidate to represent the border area in the Senate, because he has represented that area for San Diego County before in many different positions in his career.
Translation : email@example.com


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Posted by Perri
Mrs. Miller did a will and trust revision for me. She did an incredible job for me. We had a pre-conference and after she had done the trust, will, and living will for me we had a post-conference. Everything I had requested was included and she made some very important suggestions to me that were included as well. I would recommend her highly.


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|Home > World News > Article
Direct transport links, along with commerce and postal services, were severed between Taiwan and China in 1949 at the end of a civil war. China regards Taiwan as a renegade province.
Taiwan's government in November agreed to allow indirect chartered flights between Taipei and Shanghai during the lucrative Lunar New Year period, from January 26 to February 10.
But it rejected a call from Taiwanese parliamentarians to permit direct cross-strait chartered flights, citing national security concerns.
Also yesterday, three boats carrying some 300 Taiwanese businessmen and their families sailed from China's Xiamen city to the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen island, from where they were scheduled to fly back to Taiwan after the holidays.
Another passenger plane from Taiwan's TransAsia Airways also left Taiwan for Shanghai via Macau yesterday morning.
Six Taiwan airlines will operate a total of eight chartered flights to and from China between the holiday period, when traffic is high as people reunite with their families. However the flights must transit through Hong Kong or Macau.
"We are more than happy to witness this historical moment," CAL president Philip Wei said after the CAL planed landed at Pudong airport.
"China Airlines is honoured in representing the airline industry in Taiwan to operate the first chartered flight to Shanghai prior to Chinese New Year."
A top official from Taiwan's China policy decision making body also hailed the occasion.
"The flight is the result of joint efforts by the two sides of the straits to help Taiwanese businessmen. It is an event of meaning," said Jan Jyh-horng, director of the Mainland Affairs Council's (MAC) Department of Research and Planning.
Jan doubles as deputy secretary general of the semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) which handles negotiations with China in the absence of official ties.
The permission for him to visit China was widely seen as a goodwill gesture on the part of Beijing, which has shunned contacts with the SEF since it suspended dialogue with Taipei more than three years ago.
However, Jan did not get off the plane until shortly before its departure. The MAC said he had had to discuss issues with Chinese officials on board.
The holiday flights were welcomed by popular Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou, from the opposition Kuomintang (KMT). "This is a good start after the cross-strait ties have hovered in low-levels for some years," he said.
Up to 1200 of the 1700 seats available for the flights have already been booked, according to the MAC.
Local business and industrial leaders have pushed for direct links between the island and mainland, insisting they would help lower shipping costs and facilitate economic ties across the Taiwan Strait.
With or without government approval, Taiwanese businesses are estimated to have invested some $US70 billion ($118.74 billion) in the mainland since 1987.
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|text | handheld (how to)
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Toyota Motor Mfg. Texas Inc. announces appointments to the management team of its new San Antonio truck plant. Don Jackson will serve as vice president-quality planning and production. He currently works as vice president-manufacturing for body weld, stamping, production control, die manufacturing and paint at Toyota Motor Mfg. Kentucky Inc. David Crouch, now at Toyota Motor Mfg. Indiana Inc., will serve as general manager-manufacturing planning. Daniel Antis has been appointed assistant ...
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text:
Subscribe to Filmibeat
"We've provided them with more than 20 Volkswagens while they're here," the New York Daily News quoted Mya Walters, a PR manager for the car company, as telling Life&Style magazine. The whole family has relocated to Germany for three months while Pitt prepares for his role as Lt. Aldo Raine in the upcoming Quentin Tarantino thriller, Inglorious Bastards.
The Berlin-area chateau, where the family is staying, includes a dinner table that seats 16. Jolie has been open about relying on help when it comes to childcare, but told Vanity Fair in June "we don't ever have anybody spend the night. We may have to adjust that when the next one comes," she had added.
Story first published: Friday, October 31, 2008, 10:15 [IST]
Other articles published on Oct 31, 2008


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Portugal, Portalegre, Catholic Church Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
|This article describes a collection of historical records available at FamilySearch.org.
Access the records: Portugal, Portalegre, Catholic Church Records .
- 1 Title in the Language of the Record
- 2 Record Description
- 3 Record Content
- 4 How to Use the Record
- 5 Known Issues with This Collecton
- 6 Related Websites
- 7 Related Wiki Articles
- 8 Contributions to This Article
- 9 Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
Title in the Language of the Record
Registros Paroquiais da Igreja Católica do Distrito de Portalegre, Portugal.
Record Description
This Collection will include records from 1846 to 1911.
This is a collection of baptisms, marriages, and deaths for the year of 1911 from parishes in the District of Portalegre, which is divided into 15 municipalities (municípios):
- Alter do Chão (Vila)
- Arronches (Vila)
- Avis (Vila)
- Campo Maior (Vila)
- Castelo de Vide (Vila)
- Crato (Vila)
- Elvas (Cidade)
- Fronteira (Vila)
- Gavião (Vila)
- Marvão (Vila)
- Monforte (Vila)
- Nisa (Vila)
- Ponte de Sôr (Cidade)
- Portalegre (Cidade)
- Sousel (Vila)
The records were handwritten in Portuguese. Parishes in the District of Portalegre are part of the Portalegre-Castelo Branco Diocese. Each parish priest kept the original register in the parish archive and a duplicate copy was later sent to the Diocesan Archive to keep the records centralized and kept at a higher state of preservation. However, this collection of records is housed at the Portalegre District Archive.
Additional images will be published as they become available.
For a list of records by localities and dates currently published in this collection, select the Browse.
Citation for This Collection
The following citation refers to the original source of the information published in FamilySearch.org Historical Record collections. Sources include the author, custodian, publisher and archive for the original records.
- Portugal. Catholic Church parishes in the Diocese of Portalegre. Parish records, 1911. Arquivo Distrital de Portalegre, Portalegre, Portugal.
Suggested citation format for a record in this collection.
Record ContentSome key genealogical facts found in baptism records are:
- Date and place of the event
- Name of child
- Date of birth and gender
- Legitimacy
- Parents' names, residence, and/or places of origin
- Names of witnesses or godparents' names
- Date and place of the event
- Names of the bride and groom
- Civil statuses (widowed, single, divorced) of bride and groom at time of the event
- Place of origin and/or residence of bride and groom
- Names of parents
- Names of witnesses
Some key genealogical facts found in death records are:
- Place and date of death
- Name of the deceased
- Civil status of deceased person at time of death
- Civil status and name of spouse, if married at time of death
- Cause of death
- Sometimes names of living parents and children
- Sometime if the deceased left a testament (will)
- Place of burial (cemetery)
How to Use the Record
To search the collection, select "Browse through images" on the initial collection page ⇒ Select the "Nome do distrito"
⇒ Select the "Nome do município"
⇒ Select the "Nome da freguesia"
⇒ Select the "Nome da paróquia"
⇒ Select the "Tipo de registro e anos" which takes you to the images.
Look at the images one by one comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine which one is your ancestor. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to make this determination.
Known Issues with This Collecton
|Problems with this collection?
See a list of known issues, workarounds, tips, restrictions, future fixes, news and other helpful information.
For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection see the attached Wiki article. If you encounter additional problems, please email them to firstname.lastname@example.com. Please include the full path to the link and a description of the problem in your e-mail. Your assistance will help ensure that future reworks will be considered.
Related Websites
Related Wiki Articles
Contributions to This Article
| We welcome user additions to FamilySearch Historical Records wiki articles. We are looking for additional information that will help readers understand the topic and better use the available records. We also need translations for collection titles and images in articles about records written in languages other than English. For specific needs, please visit WikiProject FamilySearch Records.
Please follow these guidelines as you make changes. Thank you for any contributions you may provide.
Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
When you copy information from a record, you should list where you found the information. This will help you or others to find the record again. It is also good to keep track of records where you did not find information, including the names of the people you looked for in the records.
A suggested format for keeping track of records that you have searched is found in the wiki article Help:How to Cite FamilySearch Collections.
Citation Example for a Record Found in This Collection
"Portugal, Portalegre, Catholic Church Records", Images, FamilySearch (https://ds.familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1971-29457-26324-8?cc=2014755&wc=MMMS-HCM:n548395248 : accessed 19 July 2012), Portlegre > Elvas > Vila Fernado > Nossa Senhora de Concicao > Baptismos 1911 > image 7 of 12; Maria Isabel, born 25 March 1911; citing Portugal. Catholic Church parishes in the Diocese of Portalegre. Parish records, 1911. Arquivo Distrital de Portalegre, Portalegre, Portugal.


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ASK A QUESTION Crushed red pepper flakes
For Class i have to make a video using my favorite recipe and I need to know how to say, Crushed red pepper flakes, in spanish.... Can anyone help me?
Thanks in advance
1 Answer
You would think that I would remember this, after making a trip to the store to check a spice bottle. I can''t though & I can't find where I wrote it, but it's some version of pimienta roja.
Answer this Question


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Canon EOS Digital Rebel Xt
You must be cute, obviously, but if you're a girl then being a photographer is also a huge plus... but you have to have a professional digital SLR for anybody to care. They run a bit expensive, but it's a small price to pay for e-fame. Be sure to get lots of close-ups on flowers, insects, and other things in nature--things that look the same even though every photographer insists on continuously taking pictures of them... or take pictures of yourself doing something that's not that clever, but add a catchy caption to it.
Needwant.Tags: gifts, cameras, technology, gadgets, digital cameras, digital, travel, photography, techAdded 8 Years Ago from Amazon.com
WOW! my dream camera! imagine taking pictures with this! outstandingggggggg picture quality with DSLR 12MP!Tags: electronics, digital cameras, photography, cameras, Canon, dslr, photos, SLR, rebelAdded 9 Years Ago from Buy.com


text: The historic city of Canterbury has been a favourite with travellers since the time of Chaucer. The four star ABode Canterbury is a small and friendly hotel that was first licensed as a hotel in 1892. Its history can be traced further back thanks to the 12th Century Cellars and the 15th Century public areas. The rooms however offer the facilities and comfort of the present.The ABode Canterbury enjoys one of the finest locations the city right in the heart of the High Street and less than 5 minutes walk from the cathedral. At the rear of the hotel where weary travellers once tethered their horses there is parking space for up to 60 cars and the Tudor Bar is the perfect meeting point.


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TRESemme Flawless Curls Curl Definition Jelly
TRESemme Flawless Curls Curl Definition Jelly Reviews
Only Thing I Use!I have fine, limp, 'straight as a ruler' hair, which I perm and layer to give it volume. Even then, my hair is still limp. At nearly age 60, I have probably lost a quarter or more of my hair, which only magnifies its listlessness. Several years ago and desperate to find some kind of leave-in product to counter this problem, I discovered TRESemme Flawless Curls Curl Definition Jelly. WOW! ...read moreAll I can say is it added so much volume to my hair that it feels full and lush throughout the week. You shouldn't use too much, though; otherwise you will get a white chalky glaze on your hair. After applying a leave-in smoothing milk product, I use about a small grape size portion of TRESemme Flawless Curls Curl Definition Jelly (use less if you have shorter hair!). I then I rub this between my hands before fluffing it into my hair with upward strokes, beginning at the back. I work the last bit into my crown and bang area, and then run my hands over my hair from the hairline above my forehead, grabbing my hair up (as if making a ponytail) all the way to the ends. I make sure to get the underside, too! Using a wide-toothed comb (a five prong hair pick, to be exact), I detangle my hair, and then use my diffuser to enhance my curls. I sometimes blow-dry the top if the perm has grown out too much. Nevertheless, not once in-between shampooings (I shampoo once a week, btw) does my hair go limp! Unfortunately, TreSemme has taken this product off the market (due to clients' complaining about the white chalky glaze issue), so I've had to go through an online store in order to refill my supply. Again, I believe that if you put too much in, you're going to have problems, but if you are stingy with the application, you will have full, luxurious hair! — 5 years, 10 months agorene_perlich | 1 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 2 of 2 people said helpful
awesome and i need more!!it makes my curls soft and doesnt look like i put anything in it! i dont know what everyone else is talking about! — 7 years, 1 month agodevinlouise | 1 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 1 of 1 people said helpful
a must havei hve slightly curly hair . i now can scrunch my hair without that stiff hairspray feeling. i absolutly love this product — 7 years, 5 months agohollier | 1 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 1 of 1 people said helpful
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Aviva Premiership champions Harlequins maintained their impressive start to the season with a hard-earned 22-9 victory at Leicester - the team they beat in May's Twickenham final.
Their victory was Quins' fourth on the trot and sent a strong message to their rivals that they are determined to hang on to the title they won with a 30-23 win over the Tigers.
Winger Tom Williams scored the only try of the match, while fly-half Nick Evans kicked four penalties and a conversion and Danny Care was successful with a drop-goal attempt. Leicester created little and their points all came from England fly-half Toby Flood, who kicked three penalties.
Gloucester recorded their first Premiership home win since February after fly-half Freddie Burns ran the show for them in a 29-22 win against Wasps at Kingsholm.
The young England prospect booted 19 points, including conversions of both Gloucester tries by wing James Simpson-Daniel and flanker Sione Kalamafoni.
Wasps left the west country with a losing bonus point after centre Eliot Daly's quality try, 11 points for fly-half Stephen Jones and penalties by full-back Tommy Bell and substitute Nicky Robinson.
Two tries from Luther Burrell saw Northampton power to four wins out of four with a 37-31 success, but Worcester collected two points with four late tries.
London Irish climbed off the foot of the table with their first win in four attempts as they defeated Bath 29-22.
The kicking contest was won by Irish centre Steve Shingler, who landed 19 of his side's points.