Tip of the Week: Using the Notifications System

 Hi, this is Matt Moore again, Director of Development here at Rove.

This week's blog post will be about Mobile Admin's Notifications feature. Picking up where we left off last week, we will see how we integrate VMware into the Mobile Admin's Notifications feature.

(you can read last week's VMware Interface post at http://www.wemanagethat.com/imported-20091122021639/2012/1/19/tip-of-the-week-using-vmware-interface.html )

To keep this vm up and running for my user, I’d like to be informed immediately if this machine goes into a suspended state.

To set up a notification that will inform me of a new event for vm ‘Rove-c45’ I just select ‘Subscribe to this feed...’ I then give the feed a name and optional contact info...

 

In two clicks I’m now set up to be notified on my iPhone,  as well as any other devices I own,  that a new event has occurred for this vm.

 Unfortunately,  I do get a notification a few minutes later....

From the iOS notification center I can open the Mobile Admin iOS client directly to the list of events from vSphere for the vm we are watching.

 

Selecting the most recent event gives me some bad news.  The vm is entering a suspended state again...

Mobile Admin’s Notification system has informed me that my fix didn’t take.

At this point I’m already in Mobile Admin’s VMware interface so I can quickly power on the vm again, add more ram and CPU power or even change the vm’s resource pool settings.

I could also leverage the power of other Mobile Admin
interfaces:

• Manage the Windows OS of this vm
• Telnet, RDP, VNC or SSH into this vm
• Open a support ticket for this vm in CA or Remedy
• Kick off a backup of this vm in NetBackup or Backup Exec

In this scenario I was able to triage the issue and set up a notification to let me know the status of my triage without too much interference in my personal life.  


Matt Moore

Tip of the Week: Using VMware Interface

 Hi, my name is Matt Moore and I’m the Director of Development here at Rove.

My first blog post will be a quick run down of a common Mobile Admin use-case involving Mobile Admin’s VMware interface.  

So I’m out to dinner with my family and I get a call from a high priority user complaining of a system outage.  I’m confident his issue is related to a virtual machine in my vSphere deployment.

There is not much I can do since I’m away from my desk or laptop, but in the meantime I’d like to be able to triage this situation and get notified if this issue escalates.

Here is how I accomplish this with Mobile Admin and my trusty iPhone.

At this point I have connected to my Mobile Admin server from my iOS Mobile Admin client and opened Mobile Admin’s VMware interface.

I see a list of my  ESX servers, virtual machines, data centers and resource pools much like I’d see if I was at my desk. Keep in mind that Mobile Admin can connect to vSphere servers or directly to ESX servers.

Suppose the virtual machine that I think is the source of the problem is ‘Rove-c45.’  I can clearly see that this vm is in a suspended state...

 First thing I need to do is get the virtual machine running again for my high priority user.  I select the ‘Rove-c45’ vm.

 

  Hit the menu button...

And power on the vm.

Once I confirm the power on command completed successfully I can leave a note in the vm’s settings page to let others know of the issue.

Now I need to find out why this machine went into a suspended state.

First I need to check the event log for this machine.  To do this I select Events from the menu.

Viewing the event log entries I see the machine powered on a few weeks ago, a reminder to install VMware tools and then the machine entering a suspended state.  There’s not much to go on here so I’ll need to find the root cause when I get back to my desk.

In the meantime I need to keep this vm up and running for my user so I’d like to be informed immediately if this machine goes into a suspended state. 

This is achieved via Mobile Admin’s Notifications feature.

Check out our blog next week for more tips on using the Notifications Feature.

Matt Moore

Mobile Admin 7.0 Coming Soon!

Rove is soon launching Mobile Admin 7.0

The new features in 7.0 include:

•   Microsoft ActiveSync

o    Wipe, delete partnerships and troubleshoot AS devices

•   Amazon EC2

o    One-click SSH into instances

o    Start/stop/reboot instances

o    Notfications for scheduled events and CloudWatch alarms  

•   SolarWinds NPM

o    View details for nodes, interfaces and events

o    Top 10 lists

o    Acknowledge events

o    Unmanage nodes

•   iLO 2 and 3

o    Power cycle server

o    View server logs

o    Flash UID to help locate server in datacenter 

•   Notifications for locked Active Directory user accounts

o    Once-click from notification to user account in AD  

Usability improvements in 7.0 include:

•   Improved Notification system

o    New top-level view showing number and severity of events for each subscribed feed 

o    Better badge number support

o    Notification payload indicates which feed triggered notification 

•   Share Mobile Admin

o    Share the details of any page in Mobile Admin with team members directly from device

o    Submit feedback or bugs to Rove directly from device

•   Better device integration

o    Caching Active Directory login on devices is back as a server-side configuration     option (tentative)

o    Better data compression (tentative)

o    Create a calendar entry on your device from any date field 

o    Place a  phone call from your device from any phone number field

o    Open the browser on your device from any URL field

o    Send an email form your device from any email field

We are currently looking for people to participate in our 7.0 Beta testing. If you are interested, please complete the information required at this link and we will contact you!

https://docs.google.com/a/roveit.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dENabUJhOE1xS2xSWnF2NGVIM21hU2c6MQ

Thank you,

Your Rove Team.

A great day to have rove mobile admin - Groundhog Day storm

It's days like these - buses and trains running late, cars stuck in traffic jams, users trying to access services from home - that Rove Mobile Admin shines. Stranded on a bus/train platform and need to address and IT issue, no problem. No internet availability, still no problem. Picking up slack from delayed teammates, even less of a problem. Working remotely but need to take a break from the laptop, less than less of a problem.

And the real-time Dashboard makes staying on top of everything, especially the stuff that's having trouble, much easier.

We're thinking on all our customers in the snow belt and hope they stay safe and warm. The Groundhog Day storm is hitting us now (started in the middle of the night) and the snow is building by the minute. Here's a snapshot of the view from Rove's first floor.

So stay safe and warm....the whole team here at Rove is with you!

Smartphones changing enterprise management

Don Reisinger of eWEEK kind of says it all in his latest slideshow - "Nowadays, workers are expected to be productive no matter where they are. And the enterprise has smartphones to thank for that."

See it here