Technology and Architecture
GroundWork Monitor Enterprise is built on a mix of technologies already familiar to most sysadmins. Using open source packages like JBOSS, Apache, Nagios, Cacti, and MySQL, GroundWork builds a powerful foundation on open tools.
We use open source for what it is strongest at: data gathering. We augment it with configuration tools and data normalization, where it is lacking. With this approach, the GroundWork system architecture is truly open and extensible, yet the product itself is secure, powerful, and sufficiently standardized to allow it to be supported in Enterprise deployments.
We use a three-tiered architecture to allow maximum power and flexibility in GroundWork deployments. All three tiers are included in a single standard GroundWork Monitor Enterprise server, though in large deployments, the database and polling server components may be distributed for performance reasons.
Tier 1: Instrumentation
This is the layer that utilizes the most varied components. Data gathering is performed by Nagios®, by Cacti, and by other optional components that use a standard, well documented data feeder for their output. Data is captured as state changes, events, and performance measures.
Tier 2: Normalization
Essentially, this layer stores the data in a normalized form, and presents it on demand through web services or database queries. Think of it as the data foundation of the next tier.
Tier 3: Portal
This is the tier most users see on a day-to-day basis: a dynamic, real-time display of the data from the Normalization tier, in the form of graphs of performance data, time stamped events, and current status representations.