a. Definition
A Software Element exists under a defined managed software system. It is designed to represent an installed element of software, and can contain sub elements, or other software elements that are dependent on the top-level software element. Its main functional features include the ability to monitor log files and NT Services for any defined Software Element.
In most cases the definition of a software element will involve defining the location of a specific software element on a particular Host. The software element can be defined as a NT Service, and definitions for log file monitoring for the software element can be added easily through the GUI.
Because in some cases a software element is a logical representation of software, such as a Siebel Enterprise Server, which does not actually exist as an installed software component, not all properties of a software element are required.
b. Properties
i. Name The name of the software element. Gets concatenated with the Type property to display in the GUI.
ii. Description Defined for informational purposes as a description of the software element
iii. Type Concatenated with the Name property for display purposes. Also determines in some cases whether the Processes and Server Tasks and Components folder exist under the Software Element. Restricted types include: gateway, enterprise, appserver, vlsm, and vcservice
iv. Host Provides a drop down list of Hosts defined under the Host object. This property will not be updated for the software element if the Host object itself is changed.
v. Install Dir Path to the base directory where the executable is installed.
vi. Log Dir Path to the directory where logs are generated for the application. Must end with a \ for log monitoring purposes.
vii. .exe Name of the executable being monitored
viii. Service Name Provides a list of Service Names for the Host defined for the Software Element. The services list is dynamically created via WMI calls, so a WMI agent must be installed on the target host to provide the list of services. Furthermore, the Windows User logged into the Vadmin2 MMC console, must have sufficient administrative privileges to display the services on the remote computer. Alternatively, the service name can be typed in. The service name is displayed in the list, instead of the Service Description that is viewable in the windows control panel > services viewer.
ix. Monitor Service If selected, the Service will be monitored if a Vadmin2 LMA software agent is installed on the host defined for the software element.
x. Restart If the service is monitored, the LMA will attempt to restart the Service if it is not running
xi. Send Event If the Service is monitored, an event will be sent if the service is not restart-able. If the service is set to restart, and it is successfully restarted, no event will be sent.
c. Software Element Options
i. Software Element Options are extended Key Value pairs that may be specific to certain software Elements. For example, the Siebel Enterprise software element stores Software Element options that represent the login and username of the Enterprise Dataource.