Introduction › Device Support through Self-Certification

Device Support through Self-Certification

Data Aggregator supports common vendor devices using predefined certifications. Certifications specify how to collect configuration and operational metrics for a device. Data Aggregator uses the following methods for certification:

• Metric families
• Vendor certifications

How do you collect data when Data Aggregator does not provide a predefined certification for your device? You can self-certify support for a device.

Note: Metric families and vendor certifications are global (that is, not tenant aware). For more information about tenants, see the CA Performance Center Administrator Guide.

The self-certification support in Data Aggregator lets you create a custom vendor certification, a custom metric family, or both. Determine which method you need, as follows:

• Vendor certification only—A set of metrics you want are polled by default, but Data Aggregator does not support your device vendor MIB for these metrics. For example, Data Aggregator provides a CPU metric family to collect data such as CPU utilization. However, you want to gather CPU data for a server that Bargain Server Company manufactures. Using the MIB that the manufacturer provided, you can create a custom vendor certification for your server CPUs.
• Metric family only—Support for your device vendor MIB is included by default, but some metrics that the MIB supports are not polled. For example, your vendor MIB supports metrics for processes, but Data Aggregator does not provide a "Processes" metric family to gather that metric data.
• Both methods—Create both a metric family and vendor certification when Data Aggregator does not provide support for a device vendor MIB or its metrics.