In today's Web-based, wireless world, many database administrators (DBAs) rarely see their desks, and virtually none want to be tied to their office PC for system monitoring and management tasks. The Teradata Viewpoint platform enables IT professionals and business users to create customized Web-based task and information portals to monitor and manage their Teradata systems from anywhere using a standard browser.

Additionally, the platform's suite of self-service tools enables employees across the enterprise to customize tasks and viewing options to their business needs. Such customization capabilities empower users to access current data, run queries and make timely business decisions quickly and easily, without requiring intervention from technical staff.

Teradata Viewpoint comes with a library of pre-configured content bundles called "portlets" that allow DBAs and business users to view system information such as query progress, performance data, and system saturation and health on a customizable portal site.

Because portal access is solely Web-based, a DBA can fire up a browser from anywhere to help resolve issues or triage system problems. With no client software to install, providing user access to Teradata Viewpoint is simple, and adding new portlets on the Viewpoint Server is easy since it needs to be done only in a single location.

Teradata Viewpoint components
Teradata Viewpoint is a state-of-the-art extensible Web 2.0 portal framework that requires minimal administrative maintenance. The framework consists of four primary components: (See figure 1 below.)

	Viewpoint Server is the hardware platform on which the other components in the solution stack are installed. It is an Ethernet-connected server that is housed in the Teradata rack and managed by the administration workstation and server management software. Though it is a rack-mounted appliance, the Viewpoint Server can be installed in any data center that has JDBC access to the Teradata systems (Teradata 5400 Server racks and newer) being monitored.
	Viewpoint Portal, a Java-based Web portal, resides on the Viewpoint Server and is the framework for delivering the Teradata Viewpoint applications.
	Data Collection Server is a stand-alone Java daemon process that runs on the Viewpoint Server. It keeps track of daily activities on the Teradata Database and maintains data history for comparison and reporting purposes. Since it maintains a local cache database, users can access the system even during critical events such as outages.
	Portlet Bundles are a library of portlets—small, reusable Web components—bundled by content type. The bundles enable easy Web portal content customization. All Teradata Viewpoint client applications are delivered as JSR-168-compliant portlets.

enlarge

These components combine to create a powerful "zero client footprint" Web portal solution, meaning that all Teradata Viewpoint users can access the system's functionality using a regular Internet browser. Additionally, the Web-based portal includes capabilities such as built-in security, user management and fine-grained, role-based permissions to provide maximum flexibility and control for defining which users can perform specific actions and for granting or limiting system access.

Portlets for the people
Portlets are small modules of content or functionality that can be placed on the portal screen for communicating to the user. On the Web, portlets allow users to configure their personal Web pages to display stock quotes, for instance. The Teradata Viewpoint platform's use of portlets makes the system a flexible, intuitive and robust solution for business and technical users alike.

Likewise, Viewpoint Portal allows users to customize their Teradata Viewpoint dashboard pages by selecting content from a menu of portlets. (See figure 2 below.) Users can also add, remove or rearrange their Teradata Viewpoint pages and personalize the content to accommodate individual work styles and job roles.

Because many users are accustomed to similar functions in Web sites, companies will likely find that minimal time and resources are needed to train employees in how to use and configure portlets in Viewpoint Portal.

Portlets for any purpose
Teradata Viewpoint offers 11 self-service and systems management portlets. The self-service portlets give employees across the enterprise the tools and information they need to make good business decisions daily. This new functionality has never before been extended to business users. The systems management portlets provide DBAs, IT operations staff and programmers the necessary tools to monitor, understand and optimally maintain their Teradata systems. User access to the different portlets can be configured by the system administrator on a per-role basis. These portlets are:

1.	My Queries provides query and session statistics to business users based on the selected system and statistics they want to monitor. From their Web browsers, users can track their report requests in the Teradata system to ensure that their query is progressing and to determine whether there are any problems. This self-service tool helps alleviate user anxiety and reduces calls and e-mails to the help desk.
2.	System Health aids in understanding overall system behavior by displaying key performance indicators (KPIs) of system performance and providing a color-coded, pictorial summary whether the system is healthy, degraded or in a critical state. Because multiple Teradata systems can be monitored simultaneously, the System Health portlet allows users to determine which system will respond quickest to their query. Users with appropriate permissions can drill down and view additional server details, including CPU usage, skew, memory, and spool and disk space usage. This makes Teradata Viewpoint a well-rounded tool that allows users to identify a problem at a high level and then drill down to find a solution. (See figure 3 below.)
3.	Calendar provides a mechanism to communicate events and scheduled downtime to the user community.
4.	Canary Response Times details the current canary query response time versus historical averages.
5.	External Content enables customers to integrate their pre-existing Web applications into the Viewpoint Portal. Like a mash-up, the External Content portlet supports displaying content from an enterprise Web page alongside content from Teradata portlets.
6.	Productivity displays current and historical trends for key system metrics.
7.	Capacity Heatmap offers an interactive visualization tool for analyzing various system metrics hotspots within a user-defined time period.
8.	Query Monitor allows DBAs to define thresholds for spotting problem queries.
9.	Metrics Graph displays a graphical representation of system metrics.
10.	Today's Statistics lists daily throughput statistics (e.g., number of queries completed in the last hour).
11.	Filtered Queries provides queries with a pre-defined list of filters (e.g., blocked, running, paused).

enlarge

The Query Monitor and Filtered Queries portlets enable IT to monitor and debug the Teradata system. Through these portlets, IT can drill down into the details view to see granular statistics such as I/Os, CPU time and skewing, and can observe the queries' SQL or Explain plan.

Besides the portlets listed, other administrative portlets are available for managing users, permissions, portlet configurations and performing other administration tasks.

Teradata Portlet Development Kit
With the Teradata Portlet Development Kit, companies can build their own portlets and incorporate some of the assets and libraries used by the Teradata Portlet team. The development kit can yield valuable results for DBAs and application developers who need to deliver KPIs and other graphical displays to their users or management. For example, DBAs can easily slice reports to match management requirements or preferences.

Because Teradata Viewpoint provides the Web application server, portal and other capabilities up front, developers need only to write the Java code to fetch data from the enterprise data warehouse and the HTML to display the new portlet content.

Empowering decisions
With Teradata Viewpoint, business users are empowered to make smarter daily decisions. Employees can better plan and prioritize their workday if they can quickly gauge the progress of their report requests, know whether their queries are running or stalled, and understand which issues are in their power to fix and which require a call to the help desk.

Whether on- or off-site, DBAs can use Teradata Viewpoint to easily monitor system or individual query status. By observing trends in system usage, IT professionals can avoid peak periods of use when planning new project implementations, batch jobs and system maintenance, and the help desk can use Teradata Viewpoint to quickly troubleshoot user query problems.

enlarge

Deploying Web-based Teradata Viewpoint offers many advantages over the traditional client-server applications:

	Reduced total cost of ownership. The Web-based platform eliminates the need to install specialized software on each user's machine. Maintenance fees are reduced because updates and changes can be made in a single location. Plus, using a familiar Web interface can reduce training and support costs.
	Improved user interface. Business and IT users can control their user interface to more easily act on job-critical data.
	Horizontal scalability. Each component of Teradata Viewpoint is scalable to support large numbers of end users monitoring many Teradata systems.

Perhaps the most compelling argument for deploying Teradata Viewpoint is that it is poised to become a cornerstone for Teradata's systems management tools. Expect more Teradata engineering teams to build utilities and administrative tools that will deliver new versions of their products as portlets for Teradata Viewpoint. T

Todd Papaioannou, CTO for Client Software at Teradata, has been the chief architect for Teradata Viewpoint since its inception.

Teradata Magazine-June 2008