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Tools - Observation Factory

Menu options: Observation Factory

This option opens the LEX Observation Factory. This is a place where you can monitor replicated objects and their attribute values on different servers in realtime. The Observation Factory gives you a single view where data changes and replication processes can easily monitored:

  • One object can be monitored on several LDAP servers
  • Several objects can be monitored on any LDAP server
  • You can choose if you want to monitor only certain attributes or all attributes of the object.

The observation factory is also accessible in the dropdown menu of entries in the attribute list panel, the regarding option in the context menus is called Use in ObservationFactory.. .Or you just press the CTRL-B key, no matter if you are in the treeview, object list panel or attribute list panel. If you activate the Observation Factory when you are in the treeview or object list, the observation is activated for the entire object with all its attributes. If you activate the Observation Factory in the attribute list, then only the currently marked attributes will be monitored.

Before the Observation can be started, you will be asked on which additional servers you want to monitor the choosen object / attributes. Basically, the monitoring will start at the server which was used in the current LDAP connection - but you could add some more servers for the monitoring process. In AD environments, LEX tries to show you all the AD domain controllers which could be replication partners for the monitoring, so that you just have to choose them from the list in "Choose one or several domain controllers as additional servers:"

The Observation Factory server selector dialog

The Observation Factory is shown with the selected servers in the following window:

The Observation Factory window

Each monitoring task will have its own panel - at the top of this panel, you see which server and object be monitored, on the left side, you have the list of monitored attributes. On the bottom, each monitor task panel is represented by an rectangle, which turns into a fading red whenever a value change was detected for this particular observation:

Realtime Monitoring

 

If you mouse-click on a rectangle, the view jumps to the according observation task (useful if you have a lot of active observation tasks).


Choosing another object or another server


You can choose another server in each observation panel by moving the mouse over the server name on the top. In this case a button appears which lets you open the server selection dialog:

Changing the LDAP server

When you move the mouse over the object name in the second field from the top, then you can choose another object to be monitored. This object could even be in an another directory!


Adding a new observation panel


You can add another observation panel with the PLUS button on the right upper corner of the Observation Factory. In this case an object picker dialog appears and you can choose any object from any available LDAP server to be monitored in realtime.

Adding a new observation panel



Configuration


You can configure a few parameters for the monitoring tasks in the Observation Factory. To open the configuration dialog, you have to use the Config Button in the Observation Factory window:



Config button

Observation Factory configuration

Observation request frequency: You can configure how often the observation task checks the directory to detect changes in the attibute data.

When a change is detected, continue: The observation tasks are constantly active.

When a change is detected, stop the observation on a server: The observation tasks runs only until the first attribute change is detected. The recorded time of the change is shown at the bottom, and the changed data is marked red in the attribute list. Only the regarding observation panel is affected, the other tasks are continued until a change is detected there.


Command Buttons


The following buttons are available in the Observation Factory window:


Config button Config Button
This opens the Observation Factory configuration. See the explanations above.

Reset button Reset Button
Whenever a value change was detected in a specific monitoring tasks, the color of this value is changed and the change detection time is shown at the bottom of the regaring task panel. If configured accordingly, the monitoring is stopped for this tasks. With this button, you can reset all the change detection states of all tasks in the Observation Factory. You can use also the STRG-F5 button for this.

Add attribute button Add Attribute Button
This allows you to add an additional attribute to the list of monitored attributes. You can also remove some attribute from this list, just mark them and press the DELETE key.

Reload button Reload Button
This allows you to trigger an explicite reload of attribute data in all observation panels. You can use also the F5 button for this.

Play button Start Button
This starts the monitoring tasks again after you stopped them before with the Pause button.

Pause button Pause Button
This stops all running monitoring tasks in the observation factory until you use the Start or Reload button.