Monitoring Plugin Resources

Hyperic HQ's Plugin Framework allows a developer to customize, extend, and integrate their Hyperic HQ management solution to provide a perfect fit for their environment.

Hyperic HQ Plugins come in two distinct flavors – Management Plugins which allow HQ to discover, monitor, and control any of your applications or devices using an easy Java/XML API; and HQU Plugins which allow users to create custom UI components, web services integration, and create automation scripts using the Groovy language.

HyperFORGE Plugins

Hyperic HQ is packed with over 70 plugins ready for immediate use. Plugins developed and contributed by members of the Hyperic Community are also available. To obtain information about HQ plugins or to download community plugins, visit the HyperFORGE.

Management Plugins

Hyperic HQ Management plugins are self-contained .jar or .xml files which are deployed on the HQ Server and the HQ Agent. The HQ Server access metadata and other information from the plugin for:

• Platform, Server and Service resource types
• Config Schema for each resource type
• Measurements
• Optional help text to enable product-specific instrumentation
• Control actions

The HQ Agent invokes plugin implementations for:

• Measurement
• Control
• Auto Inventory
• Response Time

Plugin development documentation is available on the HQ Documentation site.

HQU Plugins

The HQU Framework is a framework for extending the HQ user interface, automating commonly performed processes, and integrating HQ with other management systems. Written in Groovy, a dynamic scripting language for the Java Virtual Machine – HQU's modular design enables plugins to be shared and added to live Hyperic HQ environments without stopping or restarting the HQ server.

Hyperic HQU plugins are typically developed to enable:

• Custom UI views — to provide improved tracking and automation of specific applications or hard-to-manage tasks. For example, an event log viewer makes it easier to find and fix problems through a comprehensive, filterable view of log data monitored across all HQ managed resources.
• Web Services integration — to allow Hyperic to syndicate key data to other systems that manage IT infrastructure. For example, the OpenNMS integration, which shares HQ inventory and alert information with the OpenNMS network management solution.
• Groovy script console — leverages templates to simplify manual, error-prone tasks through automation, such as creating HTTP check services for resources in a group.

HQU Framework documentation and examples are available on HyperFORGE.