Service Usage Policies

A service usage policy allows you to collect data points from multiple Dynamic Applications, each running on multiple devices. The collected data is then displayed in a graphical report. From the Service Usage page (Registry > Service Provider Utilities > Service Usage) you can view a list of existing service usage policies, create new service usage policies, edit and delete existing service usage policies, and view reports generated by service usage policies.

For example, you could define a policy to monitor information on CPU usage, collected by a Cisco Dynamic Application. The policy could collect this data from all Cisco hardware in your network. The resulting report would show total CPU usage by all Cisco hardware.

Use the following menu options to navigate the Skylar One user interface:

To view a pop-out list of menu options, click the menu icon ().
To view a page containing all of the menu options, click the Advanced menu icon ().

Viewing the List of Service Usage Policies

The Service Usage page contains a list of all existing service usage policies. From the Service Usage page you can view and manage service usage policies, and create reports on individual service usage policies, among other actions.

The Service Usage page is only available in the classic user interface.

To view the list of service usage policies:

In the classic user interface, go to the Service Usage page (Registry > Service Provider Utilities > Service Usage).
The Service Usage page contains the following about each service usage policy:

Policy Name. Name of the service usage policy.
Data Source. Default value of "incremental".
Elements. Specifies the total number of data points plus the total number of devices. For example, if a policy monitors two data points on five devices, this column would contain the value "7" (seven).
User Edit . User who created or last edited the policy.
Date Edit . Date and time the policy was created or last edited.

Filtering the List of Service Usage Policies

The Service Usage page includes five filters, in the top row in the list of policies. You can specify one or more parameters to filter the display of service usage policies. Only service usage policies that meet all the filter criteria will be displayed in the Service Usage page.

You can filter by one or more of the following parameters. The list of service usage policies is dynamically updated as you select each filter.

For each filter except Date Edit, you must enter text to match against. Skylar One will search for billing policies that match the text, including partial matches. Text matches are not case-sensitive. You can use the following special characters in each filter:

, (comma). Specifies an "or" operation. For example:

dell, micro

would match all values that contain the string "dell" OR the string "micro".

! (exclamation point). Specifies a "not" operation. For example:

!dell

would match all values that do not contain the string "dell".

Policy Name. You can enter text to match, and the Service Usage page will display only service usage policies that have a matching name.
Data Source. You can enter text to match, and the Service Usage page will display only service usage policies that are associated with a matching data source.
Elements. You can enter text to match, and the Service Usage page will display only service usage policies that have a matching number of elements.
User Edit. You can enter text to match, and the Service Usage page will display only service usage policies that have a matching username that created or last edited the policy.
Date Edit. You can select from a list of time periods. The Service Usage page will display only service usage policies that have been created or edited within that time period. The choices are:

All. Display all policies that match the other filters.
Last Minute. Display only policies that have been created within the last minute.
Last Hour. Display only policies that have been created within the last hour.
Last Day. Display only policies that have been created within the last day.
Last Week. Display only policies that have been created within the last week.
Last Month. Display only policies that have been created within the last month.
Last Year. Display only policies that have been created within the last year.

Creating a Service Usage Policy

You can create a new service usage policy from the Service Usage page.

To create a new service usage policy:

Go to the Service Usage page (Registry > Service Provider Utilities > Service Usage).
In the Service Usage page, click the Create button in the upper right of the page. The Service Usage Editor page appears.
Supply values in the following fields:

Policy Name. In this field, enter the name of the service usage policy.
Dynamic Application-Presentation. This field displays a list of SNMP performance Dynamic Applications that are currently being used to monitor one or more devices or applications. The field also displays the data points included in these Dynamic Applications.

After you select one ore more Dynamic Applications and data points, you will need to click Save so that Skylar One can populate the Selected Devices field with a list of the devices using the Dynamic Applications and data points you selected.
Selected Devices. This field displays all the devices using the Dynamic Application and data point you selected in the previous field. Select one or more devices to collect data from.
Data Source. By default, contains "Incremental".

Click the Save button to save the service usage policy. Clicking the Reset button will clear the values in each field.

Editing a Service Usage Policy

You can edit existing service usage policies from the Service Usage page. To edit an existing service usage policy:

Go to the Service Usage page (Registry > Service Provider Utilities > Service Usage).
In the Service Usage page, find the policy you want to edit. Click its wrench icon ().
The Service Usage Editor page appears, where you can edit one or more of the values described above in the section Creating a Service Usage Policy.
To save your changes, click the Save button. To discard your changes and reset each field to its previous content, click the Reset button.

Deleting a Service Usage Policy

You can delete all, multiple, or an individual service usage policy from the Service Usage page. To delete one or more service usage policies:

Go to the Service Usage page (Registry > Service Provider Utilities > Service Usage).
In the Service Usage page, find the policy or policies you want to delete.
Select the checkbox for each policy you want to delete. If you want to select all service usage policies, select the checkbox in the upper right of the page.
In the Select Action drop-down, select Delete Policy.
Click the Go button. The policy or policies will be deleted.

Viewing a Report on a Service Usage Policy

You can view a report an existing service usage policy from the Service Usage page. To view a report on a service usage policy:

Go to the Service Usage page (Registry > Service Provider Utilities > Service Usage).
In the Service Usage page, find the service usage policy for which you want to view a report. Click its bar graph icon () to the right of the page.
The Service Usage Report page appears and displays the following information:

The y-axis displays the average value of the data point(s).
The x-axis displays time. The increments vary, depending upon the selected data type (from the Options menu) and the date range (from the Date Range Selection pane).
Mousing over any point in any line displays the high, low, and average value at that time-point in the Data Table pane.
You can use your mouse to scroll the report to the left and right.
In a graph of normalized data, clicking on a data point zooms in on that time period and shows the non-normalized data.