WarningReleaseNotes

Important announcements

Migration of the web platform (Core) to Ubuntu 20.04

Note: This upgrade only applies to on-premises platforms.

From version 5.0 onwards, you can perform the migration of your web platform operating system to Ubuntu 20.04 (Note: The migration of Boxes to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS has been available since version 4.17).

This is a major upgrade with multiple enhancements related to security. As such, it involves prerequisites and platform unavailability.

Prerequisites to migration

• Full Internet access is required during the entire migration process, including APT/CPAN calls.
• 5 GB available disk space is required on the platform.

• Note: Due to the distributed nature of Ubuntu repositories, we are unable to provide a complete list of all sources upstream to the migration.
   

Platform unavailability

• The upgrade is performed together with version upgrade 5.0. You should expect platform unavailability for approximately half a day.
• The Ubuntu 20.04 Core Master is available on the FTP.

• Note: If you want to avoid this unavailability, a manual migration via the deployment of a new machine can be performed as a fee-based service by our teams.

Enhancements to the RemoteOperationBox monitoring process

A new service template has been implemented for the monitoring of the Boxes.

From version 5.1 onwards, the number of processes required for ensuring the nominal functioning of the RemoteOperationBox process has been reduced from six to four. These processes are monitored using two service templates, LIN-Process-StatusInstances and LIN-Process-StatusInstances-RemoteOperationBox.

• If you are using the LIN-Process-StatusInstances service template, you must replace it with the LIN-Process-StatusInstances-RemoteOperationBox service template for all of your services and adjust the threshold to 4.
• The adjustment is automatically managed during a version upgrade for services based on the LIN-Process-StatusInstances-RemoteOperationBox service template.

Deprecation of classic dashboards

The Classic Dashboard functionality has been deprecated from version 5.1 onwards and replaced by the Dataviz module that already exists in previous versions.

• You must deploy dashboards using the Dataviz module from this version onwards. These can be based on predefined widgets, e.g. Status Lists, Estate, World Map, Map, etc.
• To anticipate this obsolescence, a warning will appear in the Classic Dashboard menu.
         

Version 5.2 (11/04/2022)

ServiceNav is now EV Observe

Following the acquisition of ServiceNav by the EasyVista Group in October 2021, the name and design of your solution have changed.

• ServiceNav is now known as EV Observe.

• Its graphic interface, default styles and catalog have been adapted accordingly, with colors now in line with the EasyVista logo and style guide.

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
• MongoDB Atlas
• Pure Storage
• MySQL
• Sophos Cloud
• Trend Micro
• Kubernetes

Integration of EV Service Manager ticketing

The following functionalities are now available in EV Observe for an integration with EV Service Manager.

Automatic loading of the Title field when creating tickets

When you create a ticket in EV Observe, the ticket title can now be loaded automatically using information from the monitoring alert.

Implementation principle

• Configure the external connection (add_title: true).
• Specify the ticket title in the following format.

Monitoring of problems in the history of statuses

You can now monitor problems in the history of statuses when the host is associated with a Service Manager configuration item (CI).

Note: The relationship between EV Observe and Service Manager is established using a Service Manager auto connection link.

• Click the problem reference to open the corresponding form in EV Service Manager.

Integration of $ProductName_goverlan (formerly known as Goverlan)

Retrieval of inventory discovery

You can now retrieve the results of an $ProductName_goverlan discovery in EV Observe.

• To use this feature, you must set up an $ProductName_goverlan agent in the network to be discovered.

• It uses the legacy inventory feature in EV Observe.

Remote control

$ProductName_goverlan users can now start a remote control session directly from the Details form of a host.

Enhancements

Action log

User addition, update and deletion

Operations where users are added, updated or deleted are now traced in the action log.

Change history

You can now view the change history of elements present in the action log.

This enables you to quickly identify the most recent changes, their scope and modification user, thus ensuring data quality and confidentiality.

Kubernetes monitoring

New templates are now available for Kubernetes monitoring.

• KUBERNETES-Node-Status: Node status

• KUBERNETES-Event-Parse: Searches for a regular expression in Kubernetes events.

• KUBERNETES-Event-Count: Checks the number of Normal and Warning events on the Kubernetes cluster. Warning in case of error.

New Nagios macros

New macros are now available for action templates used in hosts and services. They make it easier to link EV Observe and a third-party ITSM tool by passing external company IDs and host IDs.

Use case: Automatic ticket creation using a script run by an action template
 

• Nagios macros for external company IDs:
  • For hosts: $_COMPANY_EXTERNAL_ID$ 
  • For services: $_HOSTCOMPANY_EXTERNAL_ID$
     

• Nagios macros for external host IDs:
  • For hosts: $_ITSM_ID$
  • For services: $_HOSTITSM_ID$

EV Observe REST API

New routes

New GET routes are now available for the following:

• Contacts
• Tags
• Host templates
• Timeslots
• Box
• Service templates

Updated routes

• POST /boxe/configurations : The return code changes from 400 to 202.
• GET {locale}/companies : Now systematically returns an array of companies (format [{...}]).
• POST /hosts : If the host is created, the return code changes to 201.

Version 5.1 (07/01/2022)

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.

• MongoDB
• Global-SNMP
• Nimble Storage
• EMC Unity

Integration with EV Service Manager (ITSM)

The following functionalities are now available in EV Observe for an integration with EV Service Manager.

Associate EV Observe hosts with EV Service Manager configuration items (CI)

You can now associate EV Observe hosts with EV Service Manager configuration items (CI).

• The common key will be the ID of the EV Service Manager configuration item (CI).
• You can update it via an import or an API.
• You can see the ID in the configuration form and in the host details.
   

Configuration form
        

Host Details form
        

Access EV Service Manager incidents through an external link

You can now access an Incident form in EV Service Manager if it is linked to a EV Observe host or service.

Note:

• This new functionality uses EV Service Manager auto-connection links.
• If SSO authentication is not enabled in EV Service Manager, users will be required to log in each time a new window is opened.
   

Access via Status Lists
        

Access via technical operations
        

Access via the Details form
        

Monitor change requests

The history of statuses now displays change requests when the parent hosts are linked to EV Service Manager configuration items (CI).

Note: This new functionality uses EV Service Manager auto-connection links.

• When you click the change request number, the corresponding form will open in EV Service Manager.
          

SAML authentication

SAML authentication is a secure method for exchanging authentication and authorization data between the identity provider and the service provider.

You can now enable it in EV Observe for a company by selecting Administration > External connections > SAML in the menu. This will also enable SAML authentication in all child companies.

Implementation principle

• You can implement SAML authentication in three steps:
  • Register EV Observe with the identity provider
  • Register the identity provider with EV Observe
  • Specify additional information specific to the identity provider
            

• Once you have configured SAML authentication, you can:
  • Convert existing users (this action is final)
            
  • Create new SAML users
            

Enhancements

Login window

The login window has been reviewed to include SAML authentication. Users will now enter their login before being redirected to their type of account, e.g. local, SAML or LDAP.

Dataviz

• Performance is now optimized, enabling quick display even in conditions of limited connectivity, e.g. weak Internet signal or saturated access.

• Enhancements have been added to the sort function of the User Services widget:
  • Sort by status (Down > Unknown > Undefined > Degraded > OK)
  • Then sort by name in alphabetical order

Ticketing systems

• Integration with ServiceNow: The Urgency field has been added to the priority matrix.

• Integration with Freshservice: The Group field is now taken into account with a priority matrix, i.e. entity, state, criticity, impact.

Version 5.0 (04/01/2022)

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.

• Anaplan
• DataDomain
• Kubernetes
• Web
• Windows

Discovery: Network interfaces - Change management

New functionalities can now facilitate the maintenance of your IT assets and lower TCO costs significantly.

What's new in the Discovery menu
New actions have been added to the Discovery menu.

• New actions in the Details form of monitored hosts:
  • (1) Run a discovery
  • (2) View the network interfaces that are detected but not monitored for a host
           

• New actions in the Configuration > Discovery menu:
  • (1) Run a discovery on a host currently being monitored
  • (2) View the network interfaces that are detected but not monitored for a host
  • (3) Filter the list of hosts with one or more changes
           

• New actions in the network interface monitoring window:
  • (1) View and modify the name, alias and description of a network interface
  •  (2) Set up monitoring for a new network interface
  • (3) Filter the list of network interfaces currently being monitored
           
     

What's new in the network interface naming convention

• A new naming convention now allows you to view the name (ifName) and alias (ifAlias) of a network interface in addition to its description.
• New naming convention: <name> - <description> - <alias>
         

     Note:

• This information is used by default when you set up monitoring for a new network interface.
• If an item of information is unspecified, the extra dash will automatically be removed.

Enhancements

Dataviz: Improved user design

Several enhancements have been added to dashboards (Dataviz).

Enhancements in run mode
These improvements optimize readability in dashboards.

• (1) Borders have been removed and empty spaces reduced
• (2) Status List widget: The height of rows has been reduced
         
   

Enhancements in edit mode
These improvements make it easier to design dashboards.

• (1) You can now simply click to rename a dashboard, without needing to validate
• (2) You can now simply click to rename a widget, without needing to validate
• (3) A contextual menu will now display all actions that can be performed in a widget
         

Status List: New Tickets last 30 days column

If your EV Observe solution is integrated with an ITSM tool, you can now display a new column called Tickets last 30 days in the Status List widget. This new functionality enables you to quickly identify recurring events that generate instability in an IT asset.

• This new column displays the number of tickets created or associated over a rolling 30-day period for the component.
• This data comes directly from EV Observe via the ticket history, without querying your ITSM tool.