Abbreviations and Terms for Cabletron SPECTRUM

Caution: The SPECTRUM examples and definitions are meant as a guide to setting up SPECTRUM. The examples and definitions were created using SPECTRUM Release 4.0 and work with that release. In cases where there is a discrepancy between the examples and definitions in this document and those in Cabletron SPECTRUM documents, the information from Cabletron takes precedence

• A landscape is the set of devices managed by a specific server. That is, a landscape is the server plus the devices managed by that server.
  
  
• A SPECTRUM database contains general information about the types of devices in a landscape and also contains current data collected about the devices in a landscape. Generally, current refers to the last few cycles of data collection.

  SPECTRUM archives collect data about devices in a statistics data base. Data are exported from the statistics data base to SAS staging data sets. The data in the data sets are then processed into your PDB.

• A model type is a set of similar devices. One model type might be HP workstations, another might be Cabletron Systems MRXI Repeaters, and so on. Each model type has a name, and model type names are case sensitive.
  
  
• A model type handle is a hex number that uniquely identifies a particular model type. Model type handles are assigned by SPECTRUM and, thus, are the same in every SPECTRUM landscape. For instance, HP workstations have a model type name of Host_HP, which corresponds to a model type handle of 0x1160008.

  Note: A table in an IT Service Vision performance data warehouse (PDB) contains the data from a given model type. The IT Service Vision table name is the same as the model type name (or shortened if the full name of the model type is too long).

• A model is a particular device managed by a server. Thus, a model is an instance of a model type. A SPECTRUM database typically has data about more than one model per model type.
  
  
• A model handle is a hex number that uniquely identifies that particular model (device) in a SPECTRUM database. A model handle is generated by SPECTRUM when a device is added to the landscape, and the model handle is unique within that landscape. For example, a particular Cabletron MRXI repeater could have model handle 0x04023a1 on one server, and no other device on that server would have that same model handle. And if that Cabletron MRXI repeater were also managed by another server, its model handle would be 0x04023a1 in the first SPECTRUM database and could be 0x04023a1 or, say, 0x23001b in the other SPECTRUM database.
  
  
• An attribute is the name of a variable (metric) that is defined for a model type and whose values are assigned or measured for the models of that model type. The attributes for each model type are controlled by that model type's Management Module. For example, some of the attributes for Cabletron MRXI repeaters are Model_handle (model id), Model_type_handle (model type id), and IP_In_Discards (the number of IP layer packets discarded). Thus, a SPECTRUM database generally has data about more than one attribute per model and, for all models of the same model type, has data on the same attributes.
  
  
• An attribute ID (attrid) is a hex number that uniquely identifies that particular attribute. Attribute IDs are assigned by SPECTRUM. For example, Model_type_handle is attribute ID 0x10001, IP_In_Discards is attribute ID 0x1009d, and so on.
  Note: The variable names in the IT Service Vision performance data warehouse are the same as the SPECTRUM attribute names (or shortened if the attribute names are too long).

In this document, the following terms refer to the Spectrum software:

• SpectroSERVER is the name of the SPECTRUM server software. It consists of the knowledge base server and a set of background processes (daemons).
  
  
• SPECTRUM_home (also called SPECTRUM_path or SPECTRUM_top) is the directory in which the SPECTRUM server software is installed. A typical value for SPECTRUM_path is /usr/spectrum.
  
  
• SpectroGRAPH is the name of the SPECTRUM client software.
  
  
• SPECTRUM Data Export (SDE) software is a tool that exports SPECTRUM data into SAS data sets (or ASCII files).
  
  
• SPECTRUM refers to the following:
  
  
  • SpectroSERVER
    
    
  • SpectroGRAPH
    
    
  • SPECTRUM Data Export (SDE)
    
    
  • other applications and tools that these three products use.

For detailed information on SPECTRUM, please refer to the following Cabletron Systems publications:

• SPECTRUM System Installation Guide
  
  
• SPECTRUM System Administrator's Guide
  
  
• SPECTRUM System User's Guide
  
  
• SPECTRUM Data Export User's Guide
  
  
• SPECTRUM Using Data Export and Reports with the Distributed Data Manager.