Introduction to NonStop Operations Management

Production Management
Introduction to NonStop Operations Management–125507
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Step 1—Establishing a Strategy
Step 1—Establishing a Strategy
The accounting strategy is based on the service-level agreements. To help ensure that the
service agreements are being adhered to, the staff responsible for tracking system usage
should develop:
•
The process used to keep track of the usage of system and network resources by
users
•
The chargeback process for the use of those resources
The accounting strategy used can vary depending on the type of environment and service
provided. For example, an internal accounting system may be used to assess the overall
usage of resources and determine what proportion of the cost of each shared resource
should be allotted to each department. In other environments, where usage is broken
down by account, by project, or even by individual user for the purpose of billing, the
information gathered by the accounting system must be more detailed and more accurate
than that required for a general system.
Step 2—Determining the System Resources to Be Monitored
After the accounting strategy is established, the staff develops a list of system resources
to be monitored to support the accounting strategy. Examples of resources that might be
subject to accounting include:
•
Communications facilities (LANs, WANs, leased lines, dial-up lines)
•
Computer hardware (workstations, servers)
•
Software and systems (applications, server software, a data center, end-user sites)
•
Services (commercial communications, services available to network users)
Step 3—Collecting Accounting Data
For any given type of resource, and based on the requirements of the accounting system,
accounting data is collected. For example, the following communications-related
accounting data might be gathered and maintained for each user:
•
User identification (provided by the originator of a transaction)
•
Receiver (identifies the network component to which a connection is made or
attempted)
•
Number of packets (count of data transmitted)
•
Security level (identifies the transmission and processing priorities)
•
Timestamps (transaction start and stop times)
•
Status codes (indicate the nature of any errors or malfunctions that are detected)
•
Resources used (indicates which resources are invoked by this transaction)