*** UPDATE ***
This is an old post. The information and screenshots in this post refers to an older version of RapidInsight. More up to date information on RapidInsight and Netcool can be found here.
*************
Netcool is one of the most popular (if not the most) manager of managers in the market, and it has been for quite some time. I still remember the first time I started using it 8 years ago. I was hooked at once. I could not believe how much better than Unicenter and TEC it was.
Through the years, number of different products were released to provide web based access to Netcool as it was a common requirement in the marketplace, but they did not live up to the quality of the core Netcool (Omnibus) product. Some customers (and consultants) became Webtop gurus, making the best of it, others rolled out their own solutions, almost everyone hoping a better version would come along “soon”.
Couple of months ago, we've started looking at whether/how RapidInsight can be an alternative solution to provide a web based interface for Netcool. So far, RapidInsight has been primarily used as the web interface for EMC/Smarts and databases. After some investigation, we've concluded that RapidInsight can indeed be a very good alternative as a web based interface for Netcool.
We first looked at how we can bring the events from Netcool to RapidInsight. There were couple of options.
- Netcool sends events out via “gateway” components (file/socket, etc). RapidInsight already has corresponding connectors we could use bring events in quite easily.
- Netcool keeps events in a proprietary database but uses Sybase libraries for communications, hence it is possible to access the events via JDBC.
In the end, we've decided to support both approaches. RapidInsight Netcool modules include the file connector to process the output of the Netcool file gateway, as well as the Netcool Event Connector, that integrates with Netcool via JDBC.
Next we've looked at whether we needed to add any functionality to the user interface. RapidInsight already had a grid component that we've been using with Smarts and databases. The grid component is optimized to present dynamically changing data, hence a good fit to show Netcool events. To be able an event manager like Netcool better, we've added a component that allows users to define filters and organize them in a tree, and we've added the capability to define different “views” for the grid to show different fields when using different filters, etc.
And last we looked at the "actions". RapidInsight already has robust functionality to implement context sensitive menu actions and include hyperlinks in the event fields to execute actions, so we did not have to develop anything new to provide the necessary functionality.
We've packaged all Netcool related files (configuration files, sample action scripts, etc.) as “RapidInsight Netcool Modules”. So why should anyone use RapidInsight as the web based UI for Netcool? Here is some of the functionality provided by RapidInsight:
- Dynamic, rich user interface developed with (ajax) javascript and html
- No java on the client side.
- Context sensitive actions (right click menu)
- Customizable colors for events
- Support for images in the event fields
- Support for dynamic hyperlinks (URL) in the event fields
- Support for dynamic string and drop down prompts
- Cross component data exchange mechanism facilitating mashups
- User and admin defined filters that can be organized in groups
- User defined views
- Quick filters
- Support for tabs
collasible panes - Support for different UI configurations per group/user
- Embedded web/application server (no dependencies)
- Embedded relational database
support for launching other web applications within or outside - Simple XML over HTTP web API exposing the server functionality to outside
- Groovy server side scripting to implement additional “operations” accessible via the web API
- Connectors (file, database, RSS, etc.) to integrate with other systems and data sources
- full power of a scripting language to process incoming data
- Support for data partitioning
There are also many features missing such as support for maps, limited chart support, etc. Our objective was to release a version that provides enough functionality to meet the most common requirements that we know off and give a hint of what's possible. What to add next? what is missing? We hope to collaborate with the Netcool user community in further development of the product to ensure it grows in a direction that is relevant to the community.
A live demo of the RapidInsight for Netcool is available for a quick look. The software is also available for download if you're inclined to give it a spin. We're confident it won't take it longer than 30 minutes to get it up and running to have a web based interface to Netcool that is free of java.
