Use case actors

COSMOS Main Page > COSMOS Use Cases

This article presents a high-level look at the key user-actors in Eclipse COSMOS.

Overview

Monitoring in IT Operations involves a series of complex user interfaces which serve many different use cases, performed by different users in different kinds of companies.

There are two key kinds of actors in Eclipse COSMOS. The first of these are the Software Developer actors, and the second are the Admins. (The term "Admin" is used because of its prevalence in the IT Management field.) The Software Developers make use of the Eclipse IDE and the environment that it provides for Build to Manage capabilities. The Admins make use of the rich client platform (and the web user interfaces) to do the work of IT Management that Eclipse COSMOS enables. There are also end-users who benefit from the knowledge available in the COSMOS monitoring framework, but whose jobs don't directly include responsibility for COSMOS itself or the systems that are monitored.

Among the Software Developers is the Architect, who in COSMOS is responsible for defining resource models (using SML), defining the management instrumentation for the resources in the models (e.g. by "mapping" a WSDM interface onto the resource type, or by indicating where to instrument for JMX). The Software Developer would then be able to use this information to actually build/test/debug the resource instrumentation.

The Admin is an "IT Person", the kind of do-everything person that can take a computer out of the shipping container, put in in the computer room, turn it on, install an operating system, add a few applications, get it functioning on the network, and keep it in tip-top shape for its useful life. In smaller companies, that's pretty much all you have in IT.

In larger companies, the infrastructure is more complicated, and roles start to specialize. Generally, the first two specializations to emerge are "Sys Admin" and "Network Admin". The Sys Admin is generally responsible for -- well -- systems. These are the computers and applications. The Network Admin is responsible for the networking equipment that connects systems to each other and to the outside world. In still larger (or more sophisticated) companies, these admin roles specialize further, and roles like "Database Administrator" and "Security Administrator" emerge as well.

Actors

The actors in Eclipse COSMOS use cases are described as follows:

Use case actors

User

The User is anyone who interacts with the user interface(s) to Eclipse COSMOS.

Software Developer

The Software Developer is a User who develops software components for deployment in the monitored environment.

Architect

The Architect is a Software Developer who defines models of resources, and defines management instrumentation for these models.

Admin

The Admin is a User who has responsibility in the IT team. The Admin is normally responsible for the condition of some or all of the monitored environments.

Monitor Admin

The Monitor Admin is an Admin who is responsible for the installation, configuration, and operation of COSMOS. This person is an Admin with additional skills specific to COSMOS.

Sys Admin

The Sys Admin is an Admin who is responsible for the condition of systems and applications. The Sys Admin's view of the resources that COSMOS is monitoring is configured by the Monitor Admin.

Network Admin

The Network Admin is an Admin who is responsible for the condition of the network infrastructure. The Network Admin's view of the resources that COSMOS is monitoring is configured by the Monitor Admin.

IT Manager

The IT Mgr is a User who is the boss of one or more of the Admins. Or, perhaps, the IT Mgr is just an Admin wearing a different hat this afternoon.

CIO

The CIO is the User who has overall responsibility for IT in the company.

Beyond Initial Scope

Omitted from the set of actors at this stage are a few that would be served by an Eclipse Cosmos monitoring application with a broader scope:

• Security Admin - Admin who is responsible for the security of the infrastructure in the monitored environment.
• Finance Analyst - User who is responsible for accounting for the budget and costs incurred in the monitored infrastructure.
• System Analyst - Software Developer who is responsible for defining the large building blocks of application architecture.
• Telecomm Admin - an Admin who is responsible for the condition of the telecommunications infrastructure.