Computer and Neighborhood Status Widget
- Martin Moghadam
- Youssef Benarab
- Yüksel Aydemir (Unlicensed)
This widget is deprecated and has been removed in version 7.5
The Computer & Neighborhood Status widget makes it easy to compare the performance of a selected computer with the performance of other nearby computers. If there is a performance problem, the widget helps you quickly determine if a problem is computer-specific, or if the problem affects multiple computers.
Example: If you work in a Service Desk role, use this information to quickly decide whether to deal with a problem yourself or escalate it to Problem Management, Server Operations, Network Operations, or whatever those functions are called in your organization.
The widget looks at events that have happened on the selected computer, and compares that with events that have happened on neighboring computers. Remember what an event is? It's a threshold violation, for example a response time that isn't acceptable.
It's very simple to view the overall result of the comparison: If things are OK, you'll see a green icon . If things are bad, you'll see a red icon .
If you want to know which events have happened, click the widget's Computer or Network Neighborhood links.
However, there's something important that you need to know:
The widget displays the result of a comparison. A comparison gives you a good indication of the state of affairs, but it doesn't necessarily tell you the full truth about performance. For example, if the selected computer has performed better than computers in its neighborhood, does that mean that the selected computer has performed perfectly?
Not necessarily, because what if all the neighboring computers have performed really bad? In that case, the selected computer could get a green icon just because it has performed better than its neighbors, not because it has performed perfectly. There could thus still be performance problems on the selected computer. Always bear that in mind.
When you view the widget alongside the Computer Event Timeline Widget, you can easily determine if the selected computer has had any events even though it has a green icon .
Number of Computers in the Neighborhood
You use the neighborhood to compare the performance of a selected computer with the performance of other computers that are physically located near the selected computer.
When you or your PerformanceGuard administrator sets up the widget, you specify a minimum number of computers to compare with. If you specify 100, PerformanceGuard will look at the location of the selected computer and check if there is a minimum of 100 other computers to compare with at that location. If there is, PerformanceGuard will use all computers at the location for comparison—also if the location has 500 computers, because the 100 computers that you specified is a minimum number.
So, what if you specify 100, but there's only, say, 15 other computers at the selected computer's location? In such cases, PerformanceGuard will compare with all computers at the selected computer's location plus all computers at the location level above it.
Look at the illustration:
- The selected computer is at the Salford location, but because you want to compare with a minimum of 100 other computers, the 15 computers at the Salford location aren't enough.
- So PerformanceGuard moves one step up in the location hierarchy to the Manchester location. The Manchester location and its two sublocations have a total of 70 computers, but that's still not enough.
- So PerformanceGuard moves one step further up in the hierarchy to the UK location. The UK location and its sublocations have a total of 230 computers, so you'll compare the selected computer with 229 other computers.
In the top part of the widget you can see which part of the location hierarchy that's been used for the comparison. If you want to compare with more (or fewer) computers, you can click a location on another level in the hierarchy.
If you specify that you want to compare with, say, a minimum of 100 computers, but the entire location hierarchy doesn't contain that many computers, PerformanceGuard will instead automatically compare the selected computer with all computers in your organization that have the same type of operating system as the selected computer. So, if the selected computer has a workstation version of Windows, PerformanceGuard will compare it with all other computers that have a workstation version of Windows.
Yes, but you need to deliberately fool PerformanceGuard into doing this: Simply specify that you want to compare with a number of computers that's much higher than the actual number of computers in your entire organization, for example 1,000,000. Because PerformanceGuard will never be able to find that number of computers, even at the highest level of your location hierarchy, it will always compare with all computers that have the same type of operating system as the selected computer. Remember that your change will only apply for the widget instance in question; you'll need to change other instances of the widget too, if you want them to use this comparison method.
Just because a location has a server room, it doesn't necessarily mean that the servers in that room are included in the location's computer count. You would typically not include servers when you set up your organization's locations in PerformanceGuard. Instead, you would probably define a special type of location, called a super group, for the servers. That's why you typically don't risk that the presence of servers at a location distorts the widget's comparison. Note, however, that organizations have different needs, and that some may include servers in their locations. Ask your PerformanceGuard administrator if you're in doubt.
Comparison Period
PerformanceGuard compares the performance of the selected computer with the performance of the neighboring computers during the last hour as well as the same hour from the previous working day.
Example: If you load the widget at 10.35 on a Wednesday, the comparison period will consist of Wednesday 09.35-10.35 and Tuesday 09.35-10.35.
Example: You work in an organization where working days are defined as Monday-Friday. You load the widget at 10.35 on Monday 1 September. In that case the comparison period will consist of Monday 1 September 09.35-10.35 and Friday 29 August 09.35-10.35.
You can't change the comparison period in this version of PerformanceGuard. It will be possible in future versions.
More Information
If you want to learn about events, and how to define the thresholds that determine whether something is acceptable or not, read Manage Thresholds and Events.
If you want to learn how to set up location hierarchies, read Grouping of Computers.
You need administrator rights on PerformanceGuard to be able to set up events and locations.
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