BackHP Open View Service Activator
HP OpenView Service provides automated activation for services offered by various types of service providers. Service Activator brings the following benefits:
- Integrates into the HP Integrated Service Management solution.
- Provides tools, documentation, and training to significantly ease deployment by system integrators.
Service Activator Architecture
Workflow Manager
This engine, also called the Micro-Workflow Manager, provides the ability to run multiple, simultaneous activation workflows. Each workflow performs a sequence of tasks necessary to carry out an activation request. These tasks include:
- Extracting activation parameters from an incoming activation request message.
- Deriving new information from these parameters.
- Querying an inventory system, external applications, or the operator for activation parameters.
- Executing activation tasks through the Resource Manager.
The open architecture of Service Activator allows an System Integrator to customize and extend the Workflow Manager to define the exact sequence of tasks required to activate each service offered by the provider. The SI can also define the messages and integration technology (TCP, TCP over SSL, EAI bus) used to interact with the OSS.
Service Builder
This application allows the System Integrator to develop new activation plug-ins, define atomic tasks, define compound tasks, and deploy new plug-ins and/or compound tasks to the Service Activator run-time system. The Service Builder supports both the graphical and the command-line user interfaces.
Ressource Manager
This component starts atomic tasks in the context of a transaction by invoking the appropriate activation plug-ins. The Resource Manager participates in transactions coordinated by the JTA-compliant1 transaction manager provided with JBoss (the J2EE application server provided with Service Activator). If an atomic task fails, the transaction semantics causes the Resource Manager to roll back all the atomic tasks previously run within the same transaction. Service Activator maintains the state of each transaction in order to correctly recover in the event of a system failure.
Activation plugins
The open architecture of Service Activator allows the System Integrator to customize plug-ins, to extend them to provide different functionality, and to develop and integrate new plug-ins as necessary.
Invertory
The Service Activator inventory sub-system is a framework for building an inventory solution appropriate to the target environment. Service Activator includes a tool called InventoryBuilder. The tool takes as its input a set of Resource Definition files that describe the schema elements in XML vocabulary and produces the following items:
- An SQL schema for storing the entities in an Oracle database.
- Java Beans for interacting with the database using JDBC.
- Java Server Pages (JSPs) to facilitate manual, web based interaction with the inventory subsystem for inventory creation, modification, and deletion.
You can implement a Service Activator solution in three different ways:
- Using only the Service Activator built-in inventory sub-system.
- Combining the Service Activator built-in inventory with another inventory solution.
- Exclusively using an inventory solution other than the one provided.
Task Repository
This database stores the relationships between atomic tasks and activation plug-ins, as well as the definitions of compound tasks. When the System Integrator deploys plug-ins or creates compound tasks, information is stored in the task repository.
Sevice Instance Repository
The Workflow Manager can store the parameters used to perform an activation in the service instance repository, so that those parameters can be retrieved later during updates and deletions of an existing service. This information is stored in the same Oracle instance as the inventory objects.
Plug-in Repository
This database stores the activation plug-ins that an System Integrator has deployed into service Activator. Plug-ins are stored as Java Archive files (JARs)- the plug-in repository is a file storage system. Plug-ins shipped by HP or developed by the System Integrator must be explicitly deployed in the Service Activator run-time installation to be available for use. Plug-ins are deployed using the Service Builder.
Operator User Interface
Service Activator provides a web-based user interface (UI) that operators, System Integrators, and administrators can use to monitor active workflows, view logs, and maintain the inventory sub-system. The operator UI will only provide interaction with inventory objects that are stored in the Service Activator built-in inventory.
