Defining and editing applications (services)

Before you begin

• Ensure that you have your system set up with your required inventory integrations, such as for Kubernetes, VMware, or Instana, completed and working. These integrations provide the topological resource data for your applications.

• (Optionally) ensure that business criticality definitions have been created by an administrator user so that you can assign them to an application. This is described in the Defining business criticality topic.

• Ensure that groups of resources are created within your system and are available on the Resource management page.

  • Resource groups are used to manage specific resources. You can have resource groups within an application and also separate from any application. These groups can be from different sources.

  • Resource groups can be created and managed through a connected inventory provider, such as Kubernetes, VMware, or Instana, or through a group template. The resources within a group must be created and managed through the integration with the inventory provider.

  • If you need to change the resources within a resource group, do not directly manipulate your group. Use the group template or manage the group within the connected inventory provider.

  • When created and available, resource groups display on the Resource groups tab of the Resource management page and included within applications.

• Remember that you can use the searching and filtering functionality to identify and gather the components to include in your applications. For instance, you can define filter conditions to display the resources that have a specific tag applied to them. For more information, see Resource management: Searching and filtering.

Defining an application

Defining an application involves selecting the groups of resources to compose the application, previewing the application, and then adding any additional details as required.

1. Log in to the IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps console.

2. From the main navigation, click Resource management. You can select either the Applications, Resource groups or Resource tabs.

3. Click Define application. The page for defining an application is displayed.

4. Select the groups of resources that you want to include in the application.

   When you select a group, the group name is added to the sidebar. This sidebar shows all of the groups that you have selected for the application.

   You can browse through the table of resource groups to select groups or use search to find specific groups. You can search for groups by name, by the group type, or by tags to view similar groups. Use search to narrow the results to help you find specific groups. By default the results display the first results in the system. As you enter a search term, the results are narrowed down based on your entered term. The auto-suggest menu also displays suggested terms based on existing groups.

5. Click Next to preview the application.

   When you preview an application, you can use the left checkbox to deselect resource groups on the sidebar in order to visualize your application without those groups. To fully remove any superfluous resource groups from the application, use the X to the right of the resource group.

6. Click Next to add additional details.

   • Enter a name for the application.

   • Set an icon for the application by using the drop-down list. This icon is used to identify the resource type in the topology view of your applications.

   • (Optional:) Mark the application as a favorite.

   • (Optional:) Select any tags for classifying the application. Tags can be used to identify similar applications and to distinguish applications from other applications. To add a tag, you need to search for the tag by name and then select the tag. To create a new tag, type the tag and then select the Create tag option in the dropdown.

   • (Optional:) Select a business criticality from the Select business criticality drop-down list.

   • (Optional:) Enter an estimated disruption cost in the form of a numerical value in the Estimated cost per minute for service disruption box.

   • (Optional:) Remove any groups that you do not want in the application.

7. Click Define application. The application is added to the list of all applications on the page, and if selected, to the list of favorite applications.

After the application is defined, you can view the application in the list of applications on the Resource management page. You can also view the application details page to see the status and topology, and any associated incidents for the application. For more information, see Viewing applications.

Editing an application

1. Log in to the IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps console.

2. From the main navigation, click Resource management, then select the Applications tab.

3. In Favorites or All application results, find the application that you want to edit. You can use pagination or the search field to find the specific application.

4. Click the options (3-dot icon) for the application entry in the table. From the menu, click Edit application. The Edit application page is displayed.

5. Edit the groups of resources, then preview the application. Edit any additional details as required.

6. After you complete your changes, click Update application.

Assigning business criticality

Note: If you do not want to assign the default business criticalities, bespoke definitions must first be created by an administrator user as described in the Defining business criticality topic.

1. Log in to the IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps console.

2. From the main navigation, click Resource management, then select the Applications tab.

3. In Favorites or All application results, find the application that you want to edit. You can use pagination or the search field to find the specific application.

4. Click the options (3-dot icon) for the application entry in the table. From the menu, click Assign criticality. The Assign business criticality dialog is displayed.

5. Select a pre-defined business criticality from the drop-down list. Remember: Custom definitions can only be created by an administrator, as described in Defining business criticality.

6. Click Save to set the priority level for your application.

Adding estimated costs for service disruption

1. Log in to the IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps console.

2. From the main navigation, click Resource management, then select the Applications tab.

3. In Favorites or All application results, find the application that you want to edit. You can use pagination or the search field to find the specific application.

4. Click the options (3-dot icon) for the application entry in the table. From the menu, click Edit application.

5. In the Edit Application page, click the Add Details tab.

6. Enter a numerical value in the Estimated cost per minute for service disruption (optional) box. This value is used to chart disruption costs in the AIOps Insights dashboard. For more information, see AIOps Insights dashboard.

Deleting an application

1. Log in to the IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps console.

2. From the main navigation, click Resource management, then select the Applications tab.

3. In Favorites or All application results, find the application that you want to delete. You can use pagination or the search field to find the specific application.

4. Click the options (3-dot icon) for the application entry in the table. From the menu, click Delete service. (Reminder: Instana applications cannot be deleted. The delete function is grayed out.)

5. On the Confirm delete dialog, click Delete application to confirm the deletion. The application is deleted and no longer displays in the list of all applications. The groups and resources that composed the application are not deleted.