Glossary: Sybase Control Center for Sybase IQ

alert – a mechanism for notifying administrators when a managed resource experiences a status change, or when a performance metric passes a user-specified threshold.

alert instance – a copy of an alert type that has been configured to generate a particular kind of alert for a specific managed resource.

alert notification – an indication that an alert has fired. Alert notifications appear in the Alert Monitor view. If e-mail notification is enabled, alert notifications are also delivered to the specified e-mail address.

alert storm – the result of issuing many redundant alerts associated with a common or root occurrence. See also alert suppression.

alert storm suppression – a Sybase Control Center feature that can be configured to prevent alert storms by suppressing repeat alert notifications for a specified period of time.

alert target – the destination for an alert notification and source of an alert response.

alert type – (1) A template that defines the resource type and the key performance indicator associated with an alert instance. (2) The basis on which an alert fires: state or threshold. Some alerts are triggered by the state of their key performance indicator (for example, running or stopped), while other alerts are triggered when their KPI’s numerical value passes a specified threshold.

availability – indicates whether a resource is accessible and responsive.

catalog store – the portion of each Sybase IQ database that contains its metadata. (Metadata describes the layout of the Sybase IQ tables, columns, and indexes.) The catalog store contains the SYSTEM dbspace and up to 12 additional other catalog dbspaces. The default name for this file is <dbname>.db.

chart trend period – the period, in minutes, over which data is displayed in historical charts. Set the chart trend period on the Settings screen of the Sybase IQ Monitoring View. Contrast with screen refresh interval.

collection repeat interval – the period, in seconds, between successive repititions of a statistics collection job. The collection repeat interval determines how often new data on historical monitoring screens is available to be refreshed. Set the collection repeat interval in the scheduler. See also screen refresh interval.

collection – a named, predefined set of key performance indicators for which values are collected from monitored servers at the same time. Collections supply the performance and availability data shown on Sybase Control Center screens and charts. Use the scheduler to view a list of collections and to control which collections run, how often they run, and the length of time for which they run.

connection – a connection from a Sybase IQ server to a database.

database – a collection of tables that are related by primary and foreign keys. The tables hold the information in the database. The tables and keys together define the structure of the database. IQ databases are specially indexed to take advantage of the query speed of Sybase IQ.

dbspace – an additional database file that creates more space for data. A database can be held in up to 13 separate files (an initial file and 12 dbspaces). Each table, together with its indexes, must be contained in a single database file.

event – an activity in the system, such as a user logging in, a service starting or stopping, or a condition changing. Use the alerts feature to detect and notify you about system events.

heat chart – a graphical view of resource availability in the current perspective.

job – a task performed by the scheduler in Sybase Control Center.

key performance indicator (KPI) – a single metric used to evaluate the status or performance of a monitored resource. A KPI value can be a state (such as running, error, or stopped) or a numerical value. KPIs are grouped into collections (and also, for some product modules, into key performance areas, or KPAs). KPI values are collected by scheduled collection jobs and appear on monitoring screens and in the statistics and heat charts. Examples of KPIs are Server Availability and Number of Blocked Processes.

key performance area (KPA) – a group of related key performance indicators.

main store – the IQ main store is the portion of each Sybase IQ database that contains persistent database structures, such as backup metadata and rollback data for committed transactions.

multiplex – a powerful feature in Sybase IQ that provides application scalability through a clustered server configuration. Sybase IQ multiplex allows concurrent data loads and queries via independent data processing nodes connected to a shared data source. Each multiplex server has its own catalog store and IQ temporary store and all the servers share a common IQ store.

node – a topology object representing a server or other entity type, displayed visually in the form of an icon.

perspective – a named tab in Sybase Control Center that displays information related to a collection of managed resources (such as servers) and a set of views associated with those resources. The views in a perspective are chosen by users of the perspective. You can create as many perspectives as you need, and customize them to monitor and manage your resources. Perspectives allow you to group resources ways that make sense in your environment—for example by location, department, or project.

repository – a database that stores information related to managed resources, along with user preference data, operational data, and performance statistics.

resource – a unique Sybase product component (such as a server) or a subcomponent.

SCC-enabled login account – a user account that has been granted privileges in Sybase Control Center by mapping appropriate Sybase Control Center roles. (Roles are typically mapped to a group to which the account belongs rather than to the account itself.) The user account and group can be native to Sybase Control Center or created in the operating system or the LDAP directory service to which Sybase Control Center authentication is delegated. You must use an SCC-enabled account to log in to Sybase Control Center.

schedule – the definition of a task (such as the collection of a set of statistics) and the time interval at which Sybase Control Center executes the task.

screen refresh interval – the period in seconds between refreshes of screens in the Sybase IQ component of Sybase Control Center. Refreshing a screen redraws it with the most recent available data. Set the screen refresh interval on the Settings screen of the Sybase IQ Monitoring View. See also collection repeat interval.

store – a store is one or more dbspaces that store persistent or temporary data for a special purpose. See catalog store, main store, or temporary store.

table version – the unit of versioning is the table. Table-level versioning structures aggregate data for columns at the table level. With table-level versioning, Sybase IQ can control access to the data at the level where write operations occur, and where query results are focused.

temporary store – the IQ temporary store is the portion of each IQ database that stores temporary tables and temporary scratch space data structures.

topology – a graphical representation of how the servers in a multiplex environment are connected to each other. It is a network diagram that provides a visual map of the availability of the Sybase IQ server environment.

transaction – a set of related SQL statements that are treated as a single unit of work. To ensure consistency, if all the statements in the set cannot be executed, the changes made by the query are rolled back. The tables queried during the transaction are locked until a transaction is completed.

transaction log – the IQ transaction log records changes to the database. The transaction log includes version information, free space, and other information you can use to recover from a system failure. By default, the transaction log is created in the same directory as the catalog store. The default name for this dbfile is <dbname>.log.

trend period – See chart trend period.

view – a window in a perspective that displays information about one or more managed resources. Some views also let you interact with managed resources or with Sybase Control Center itself. For example, the Perspective Resources view lists all the resources managed by the current perspective. Other views allow you to configure alerts, view the topology of a replication environment, and graph performance statistics.