Tivoli Network Monitoring - Hybrid Cloud Integration

( All material here is opinion of my own and does not reflect that of IBM )

During any cloud discussion, often you come across a term like 'Hybrid
Cloud', with multiple vendors having their own interpretations and
definitions.

Here, I will write about our IBM Hybrid cloud scenarios and how we were
able to deploy a Hybrid Model where the 1. Servers being monitored are on
the Cloud and the 2. Tivoli Monitoring is on-premise and the 3. gateway is
placed in between, and this combination would suit the definition of a
"Hybrid Cloud".

(References to the term "On-Premise" means that they are behind a
firewall.)

A simple Hybrid model described in this blog is :

(Embedded image moved to file: pic23671.gif)

In this picture above, on the left is the On-Premise, where there is Tivoli
installed and on the right is the Cloud where there are servers that are to
be monitored, and in between is the gateway.
This gateway sits on-premise and has the ability to go out and collect
stats on the servers on the cloud.
The gateway is another piece of hardware, where the user installs an agent,
and that has the ability to pull down the Monitoring information from the
cloud and pass on to Tivoli.

In order that the cloud infrastructure provide the necessary Monitoring
data to the gateway, the user has to configure one of the servers on the
Cloud with appropriate security permissions,
This lead server would act as a central repository point ( at least that's
my interpretation) to other agents on the cloud.
Other agents in the cloud would send their monitoring data to the 'lead'
agent. The data from the lead agent ( in the cloud ) would in turn -on a
request from the gateway, provide that data to complete the monitoring
circle.

A better pictorial representation would be :
(Embedded image moved to file: pic06719.gif)

Here, the focus is on the On-Premise Data Center where Tivoli Monitoring is
installed (meaning the Monitoring Server a.k.a TEMS,and Portal Server a.k.a
TEPS and the gateway is an "IBM CastIron" hardware block,

The Tivoli Network Monitoring block renders the monitoring data of the
agent(s) on the cloud where it can be managed and remedial actions taken.

Security aspects of this will be covered in a later blog.