WarningReleaseNotes

Important announcements

Migration of Boxes to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

From EV Observe version 4.17 onwards, you can perform the migration of your Boxes operating system to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS autonomously using the EV Observe interface.

Caution: At the time of writing, numerous Boxes have yet to be migrated. We are available to help you perform the migration of your Boxes to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

• Please contact our Support team.
• If you have an SDM service subscription, please get in touch with your dedicated EV Observe contact.
   

What are the consequences and risks in continuing to run Boxes in Ubuntu 16.04?

• Boxes will remain locked in version 4.17. Thy will no longer enjoy updates, enhancements or new service templates.
• From version 4.18 onwards, regressions will increase for existing services that are modified and validated only for Ubuntu 20.04.
• From version 4.19 onwards, we will no longer guarantee the smooth running of Boxes using Ubuntu 16.04.
• Ubuntu version 16.04 is no longer supported by Canonical. As such, security patches are no longer available.
   

Availability of an Ubuntu 20.04 – 4.17 Master Box

• The version upgrade of the Box to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS requires two to four hours of total unavailability. During this downtime, there will be no notifications and no raw data will be collected.
• This is why we have provided an Ubuntu 20.04 – 4.17 Master Box associated with a migration script for the configuration. This is used to migrate the OS in two steps: first, the deployment of the VM followed by the migration of the configuration. This forestalls unavailability and the absence of raw data.
       See Precautions prior to running the migration

DCOM hardening on Windows servers

Following the CVE-2021-16414 security vulnerability, Microsoft announced a hardening of the DCOM/WMI functionality with mandatory progressive implementation in Q1 2022. Because of these hardening measures, and in customer contexts as regards the security inspection of WMI monitoring flows, customers will be required to adopt certain measures, such as the freezing of dynamic DCOM ports, the reconfiguration of firewalls, etc.

Caution: 

• EV Observe plugins using WMIC and widely found in the catalog will be affected.
• A fix is available in version 4.19.
• This fix is not deployed on Boxes in version 4.17 (Ubuntu 16.04). As such, plugins and the associated controls will no longer work.

End of support for the Inventory module

Support for the Inventory module, including fixes and enhancements, ended effective December 31, 2021.

• Support requests related to the Inventory module were closed on this date.
• We are available to help you in this transition that involves change management for your teams and customers, by considering interconnections with EV Observe, e.g. via API calls or the implementation of a third-party solution such as EasyVista EV Reach.

Version 4.19 (12/20/2021)

What's new

Service templates

New service templates have been added for the following products: To find out more, please see the relevant product documentation in the service template catalog.

• Azure
• Cisco
• Dell EMC
• EV Observe Global-API
• Veeam

Integration with ITSM solution Freshservice

Integration with ITSM solution Freshservice has been added to our catalog.

The functionalities proposed are similar to those for other integrations:

• Ticket creation via alerts 
• Real-time retrieval of status and logging of historical data in EV Observe

Uses

• Reduce first response time
• Optimize costs
• Log incidents in EV Observe

REST API: New routes for maintenance

New routes for maintenance are now available.

• Delete a maintenance task
• Delete a host or service in a maintenance task
   

Removal of deprecated routes: To further simplify the REST API routes introduced in version 4.18, deprecated routes and their redirection have been removed in version 4.19.

Enhancements

Deep linking for hosts and services

• You can now generate a direct link to a host or a service.
  • This link can be generated in the Details tab of a device and copied directly to the clipboard. 
  • It is also integrated in email notifications and action templates via macros.

• A new field called Platform URL is available in the theme management menu for users with the Administrator profile. It is used for specifying the prefix to be used in generating the final URL.
   

Uses

• Direct access from an email notification, ITSM or hypervisor
• Easier internal communication via Teams or Slack, for faster analysis and resolution times

Dataviz: Display of metrics

Two user-friendly developments have now been added to the display of metrics.
         

• Details form > Metric: You can now select multiple metrics.

• Technical operation: You can now display the metric graph on hover over the icon.

Dataviz: Map widget

New shapes now available in the Map widget can be used to represent the monitored devices.
         

You can also add text to a shape to optimize the display.

• New shapes available for monitored devices
• Title and text can be added

Uses

• Enhance the capabilities of the commonly used Map widget

Version 4.18 (10/20/2021)

What's new

Service templates

New service templates have been added for the following products: To find out more, please see the relevant product documentation in the service template catalog.

• Huawei
• Veeam

Additional controls in templates

Additional controls have now been added to host control templates and service templates. Controls can now be inherited when hosts or services are deployed.

This enhancement offers high value-added in the optimization of the configuration, namely in reducing the number of false positives.

Uses

• These additional controls have default values in the templates.
• Once monitoring is set up, these values enable you to significantly reduce the number of alerts, and in particular, the number of false positives

REST API: New routes

New routes dedicated to the creation of hosts, services, user services, maintenance tasks, customers and sites are now available.

• Existing routes have been simplified.
• The REST API documentation can now be found on a single Web page that can be directly accessed from your platform. Its URL is in the following format://<Your_Platform_URL>/servicenav/doc.
   

Caution: Deprecated routes will remain in use until version 4.19 to ensure that users have enough time to adapt their code. They will then be removed, including any redirection, from version 4.19 onwards.

Host and Service forms: New Additional Information field

This new field can contain an ID or a series of variables required by a third-party system.

The additional information is accessible:

• In an import, update or export - Note: Between versions 4.17 and 4.18, changes have been made to the file structure that is exported and required by the import. You may be required to regenerate it for template purposes.
• Via create, update and delete REST APIs
• As a macro available in the Box, e.g. for use in action templates
   

Uses

• Store external IDs to simplify the update of IT assets imported from a third-party system

Dataviz: Dashboard search

In run mode, you can now filter the list of dashboards to fine-tune your search.

Uses

• Because MSPs centralize the dashboards of their customers at the root, this leads to a significant number of dashboards. This is why a search field is required.

Enhancements

Dataviz: Gauge

 widget

The Gauge widget is now called the Value widget. 

• The Minimized mode is now the default display mode.
• The operating principle of the widget remains unchanged. 
• The last known value is displayed.

Version 4.17 (06/30/2021)

What's new

Service templates

New service templates have been added for the following products: To find out more, please see the relevant product documentation in the service template catalog.

• Riverbed

Migration of Boxes to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

You can now perform the migration of your Box operating system to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS autonomously using the EV Observe interface.

Compared with the previous OS upgrade from version 12.04 to 16.04, this migration has been considerably simplified thanks to a packaged functionality and effortless bulk operations. You are no longer required to deploy a second Box in order to migrate the configuration in your current Box.

Caution: 

• The version upgrade of the Box to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS requires two to four hours of total unavailability. During this downtime, there will be no notifications and no raw data will be collected.
• This is why we have provided an Ubuntu 20.04 – 4.17 Master Box associated with a migration script for the configuration. This is used to migrate the OS in two steps: first, the deployment of the VM followed by the migration of the configuration. This forestalls unavailability and the absence of raw data.
       See Precautions prior to running the migration

Configure: ID

 column

To facilitate the mass import/update and the use of APIs, you can now display the IDs associated with the main application components using the Configure menu and in the lists below:

• Hosts > List
• Services > List
• Hosts > Templates
• Services > Templates
• General > Timeslots
• General > Contacts
• General > Tags
• General > Action Templates
• Hosts > Categories
   

Note: The ID column is hidden by default.

Host and Service forms: Search using metric names

You can now run a search in the list of metrics in the Details form of a host or service.

Uses

• This is especially useful when controls return a large number of metrics and when changes may be made to the names of metrics over time (Note: The former names of metrics are logged and remain visible)

Enhancements

Integration with Artis v3: Field mapping based on tags

Enhancements have been added to the integration with ITSM solution Artis v3.

• The default value of the field called codeOrgInt will now depend on the host tag associated with the alert or with the service triggering the alert.
• The default value of the field called codeDomaine will now depend on the host tag associated with the alert or with the service triggering the alert.

Integration with Akuiteo: Criticality management and links to existing tickets

Enhancements have been added to the integration with ITSM solution Akuiteo.

• Acknowledgments are linked to existing tickets.
• Instructions are included in the text of the alert.
• Default criticality management can be configured in the connection.

Obsolescence of service templates

End-of-life service templates replaced by more generic templates or adapted to more recent versions of the target application or host are now deprecated. They can no longer be assigned to a service via a create or modify operation.

Note: 

• The templates associated with existing services are kept in order to ensure backward compatibility and monitoring continuity.
• For each deprecated template, a newer improved template is available.

Click the list to see the list of deprecated service templates in version 4.17

Version 4.16 (05/17/2021)

What's new

Service templates

New service templates have been added for the following products: To find out more, please see the relevant product documentation in the service template catalog.

• Huawei
• MariaDB
• Riverbed

Enhancements

User services: Removal of action templates

To ensure that we continue to offer high value-added functionalities in an easy-to-understand interface, we have removed the least used and least relevant components. This applies to action templates that have been removed from user services.

Version 4.15 (04/05/2021)

What's new

Service templates

New service templates have been added for the following products: To find out more, please see the relevant product documentation in the service template catalog.

• Aruba
• Check Point
• Dell
• Fortigate
• Hewlett Packard
• Huawei
• IBM-V7000
• IP-Label
• MySQL
• Pulse
• Riverbed
• SMTP-Auth
• SolarWinds Orion
• Synology
• Veeam

New notification channel: Teams

You can now use a new notification channel, Teams.  

• In the Contact form, you must specify the Teams Webhook URL to indicate the target notification channel of the alert.
   

Uses

• With the rise of collaborative tools, it is essential to be able to use new notification channels for alerts in order to reduce the volume of emails and centralize real-time information within a single tool

Integration with ITSM solution EasyVista: Via REST APIs

Ticketing integration with ITSM solution EasyVista is now possible using REST APIs in addition to SOAP services.

• The configuration remains similar.
• You can also link acknowledgments to existing tickets. 

Version 4.14 (03/01/2021)

What's new

Service templates

New service templates have been added for the following products: To find out more, please see the relevant product documentation in the service template catalog.

• Azure
• Check Point
• Docker
• Hewlett Packard
• MS Windows
• Palo Alto
• Pulse
• EV Observe Dataviz

Recommended thresholds

EV Observe pursues its AIOps strategy through its recommended thresholds. One of the major challenges in any monitoring solution is the reduction of false positives. To reduce the number of alerts triggered by false positives, thresholds must be adjusted accurately based on experience.

Our recommendations, based on an analysis of three months of data collected daily, propose adapted thresholds as regards each metric for a given host or service.
         

Note: This new functionality is currently available for the SaaS version. It will be progressively deployed on dedicated platforms with the enabling of the big data flow.

New interface for availability reports

Availability reports have been completely revamped. Clearer and more streamlined, the interface now provides a customer-oriented overview of the availability of user services and hosts.
         

You can view the following information:

• Ten lowest-ranking user services/hosts
• For each component:
  • Availability (period + last six months)
  • Unavailability (period + last six months)
  • Performance (time spent in each status)
  • Maintenance (number and total duration/average for the period)
     

Uses

• IT departments for presentations at internal meetings
• MSPs that provide SLA monitoring reports to customers on a regular basis

Technical operation: Strict search

The technical operation search field now offers a Strict option.
         

• When enabled, the search will be run strictly based on the value entered in the field.

  example Strict search for 192.168.1.12

  • Only one value returned: 192.168.1.12
  • Values not returned: 192.168.1.12 and 192.168.1.121

• The % wildcard can be used.
   

Uses

• Find a host using its IP or exact name.
   

Note: This new functionality is currently available for the SaaS version. It will be progressively deployed on dedicated platforms with the enabling of the big data flow.

Declaration and deletion of maintenance tasks

You can no longer delete a maintenance task when it is incorrectly declared on the Box. The system is now less permissive but more accurate as it is based on the display of data retrieved from the Box.

• A message will appear, indicating that deletion is prohibited and the procedure to be followed instead.

Enhancements

Import of hosts: Creation of services

During a host import, if host templates are specified in the new or updated hosts to be imported, the services associated with these templates can now be automatically created. This enables you to save considerable time when setting up monitoring for IT assets based on templates.

• You can enable automatic creation by selecting the Manage services associated with host templates option during the import.

Multi-metric graph widget: Clickable legends

In Dataviz dashboards, you can now click the legends in Multi-metric graph widgets to access the relevant Details form easily.

Notifications for services: Tags displayed

Notifications for services now display tags when they exist for the associated hosts.

• The tag format is as follows:
  Host tags: tag 1, tag 2, etc.
   

Uses

• Facilitate the classification of alerts linked to services

Integration with ITSM solution ServiceNow: Links to existing tickets

Ticketing integration with ITSM solution ServiceNow now enables you to link acknowledgments to existing tickets.

Uses

• Reduce the number of administrative tasks related to entering and purging tickets and process a single ticket when multiple alerts are triggered by the same cause

Dataviz: Default tab

The Dataviz tab is now the default tab when Dashboard is defined as the default page in the user profile.

This enhancement aims to progressively replace Classic dashboards with Dataviz.