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SF Info: Add Services to Servers and Set Up Monitoring

This article applies to: Managed Servers

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Three systems are important for monitoring and receiving information about your servers.

  • SF Info (Server Farm Information): SF Info stores information about servers including technical contacts and watchers, on-call list locations, server description and services attached, monitoring and response schedule (9-5, 7x24, etc.), billing data of record. SF Info refers to the on-call list created and stored in Opsgenie. 
  • FortiMonitor: FortiMonitor (formerly Panopta) handles our monitoring and event notifications, displays server and service status, and retains historical performance data. FortiMonitor pulls the service name, contacts, and on-call list from SF Info to populate a default description and auxiliary email notifications. The on-call URL from SF Info for a given server, referencing an Opsgenie Team, is used by FortiMonitor to trigger notification in the event of an alert.
  • Opsgenie: Opsgenie has three structures that combine to manage On-Call: Teams, Escalations, and Schedules. Information on managing these structures up can be found at On-Call Management in Opsgenie for Essential and Critical Systems in the TeamDynamix KB.

Attaching Services to a Server

After your server is set up, you should add services to the listing in SF Info and check that the information is correct.  

Why is this important?

  • If a server goes down, the managed servers group uses SF Info to determine what services are on that machine. Without a list of services, there is no way to know what services may be affected by a server problem.
  • When you add a service to the server in SF Info, you set up monitoring response hours, notification contacts, host groupings, and associate an on-call list. 
  1. Log in to SF Info at https://sfinfo.cit.cornell.edu.
  2. Click My Servers.
  3. You'll see a list of servers with which you are associated. In the DNS name column, click the server to which you want to add a service.
    SFinfo homepage pointing out server name in DNS name column
  4. The VServer Detail page displays all of the information currently stored in SF Info about the server.
    (Note: The patching schedule is displayed in SF Info, but can't be changed here. Area managers and technical contacts for the operating system service on the server can change the patch schedule. See the How to Change Patch Times procedure.)
  5. The Services on this VServer table displays services currently attached to the server.  If all of the services are already listed, continue with step 7.
    If you need to add an additional service, click Attach a Service. Attach a service  
  6. Put a check in the box next to the services you want to add to your server, and then click Save Changes.
    If you do not see the service name, you can create a new service. Follow the steps in the procedure Add a New Service and Attach to a Server and then return here.
  7. After you attach a service, click Details. The details page for that service is displayed.
    • Review the list of Technical Contacts and Watchers. Notifications about issues with the service are sent from FortiMonitor to the NetIDs of the listed contacts.
    • Take note of the Response Hours.
    • The On-Call URL must be correctly formatted and should point to a Team within Opsgenie. In order for our integration to parse the URL correctly, it must start with "opsgenie:team/". This should be followed by the Opsgenie Team name. The Team name itself should not contain any spaces. For more information about setting up on-call contacts, see On-Call Management in Opsgenie for Essential and Critical Systems.
      SF Info detailing links for List of Technical Contacts, Watchers, and the Response Hours

Add a New Service and Attach to a Server

If you don't see the service you want to attach to a server, you can add it to the list.

  1. Complete steps 1-5 in the procedure Attaching Services to a Server.
  2. Click Create a new service, and then do the following:
    • Select the Service Area.
    • Enter a Service Name. This name is used in lists so it's important to choose a clear, concise name.
    • Enter a Service Description. You can enter more details here, if necessary.
    • Select the Service Owner.
      Example of creating a new service
  3. To attach the service to your server, put a check in the Attach box.
  4. Click Submit.
  5. You can then follow steps 4-7 in the procedure Attaching Services to a Server to see the service and double-check the details.
Note: After you complete the server and service set up in SF Info, the data will propagate to FortiMonitor and Opsgenie.

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