An element is a piece of an own or vendor-provided hardware or software making up a service (e.g., a router, a network interface, an Apache Tomcat instance, a SQL database, a DNS server, etc.).
An element can be assigned to multiple services (e.g., many services may rely on the same DNS server, physical host or storage).
Element Monitoring and Data Collection
Nextian RMM can automatically retrieve element information from a monitoring system (e.g., NMS, APM, Observability or other), including:
- Status – Operational status of the element (Up, Down, etc.).
- Availability – Availability metrics (percentage of uptime over the last 24 hours, 7 days, month, and year).
- Inventory Information – Details such as Make, Model, and Serial Number retrieved from the monitoring system.
- Performance Metrics – Dynamic metrics such as Bandwidth Utilization, CPU Usage, Latency, Packet Loss and others.
Based on the element data, Nextian can also generate aggregate service status, metrics and upgrade opportunities for the parent service.
Service Cost and Margin Calculation
Apart from monitoring/observability function, elements are used to calculate recurring service cost (all elements’ costs roll up to a total on the service). This information is used to calculate service profit and margin. In other words, service elements can be thought of as a recurring “bill of materials” for a service.
Click here for more information on the service financial model.
Element Data Model
Element information is stored in the custom Element__c object:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Element Name | A standard Salesforce name field used as a unique, customer-defined service designation, e.g., CISCO-192.168.100.11. |
| System Name (SysName) | Internal system name of the element, this field is typically updated from the RMM/NMS. |
| Managed | Managed elements are not monitored (e.g., a 9U shelf space in a data center), but they still might have an associated cost and provider, and thus affect service revenue/profit and margin. Unmanaged objects have Operational Status automatically set to Unmanaged. |
| Network Address | A human-readable network IP or DNS address of the element, e.g., 192.168.4.11 or switch-1312.nextian.com. This string is automatically created by the RMM based on element’s actual address (IPv6 or IPv4, DNS or dotted, static or dynamic). |
| Dynamic Network Address | Checked if element has a dynamic network address, unchecked if static (static is the default value). |
| Type | Element type such as Service, Network Device, Network Interface, Host, Application, Virtualization, CPU, Storage, etc. |
| Make | Element manufacturer and/or device type, e.g., Cisco ASA, Dell PowerEdge, etc. |
| Model/Version | Element model or version designation (e.g., 2821). |
| Firmware | Firmware version, revision, etc. |
| MAC Address | MAC (physical) address of the device (usually associate with the WAN or primary interface), obtained from the NMS/RMM inventory. MAC address can be used in Salesforce search (it is an external id). |
| Contact | Textual identification of the contact person for the device (usually MIB-2::sysContact) retrieved from the NMS/RMM inventory. |
| Operational Status | Operational status (Up, Down, Has Issues) of the element. The status is determined by the RMM based on element probing. |
| Last Operational Status Change | The date and time when the operational status of the element was last changed, regardless of the type of change. This value is automatically copied from the Changed Date in the operational status history when new history records are created. It reflects the time the change was detected by the NMS/RMM. |
| Provider | Provider (Salesforce account) of the element used to indicate elements that have been purchased from third parties. Empty value indicates own element (which can still carry MRC). |
| Monthly Recurring Cost | Monthly Recurring Cost (MRC) of the element — monthly provider charge or internal monthly cost. |
| Serial Number | Optional serial number for inventory tracking. |
| Asset Tag | Optional asset tag inventory tracking (e.g., can be used along with bar-code readers, etc.). |
| Last Boot Time | Read-only time when element was booted up last, updated from RMM/NMS. |
| Uptime | Uptime (days since last boot time) for operational elements (Up, Has Issues), empty for non-operational elements. For example, a 12-hour uptime is equal to 0.5. An additional, string version of this field returns uptime in a human-readable format, e.g. 1 days 23 hr 19 mins. |
| Last Configuration Change | Datetime when element configuration was changed last (retrieved directly from the element if available, otherwise left empty). This field is read-only and should be only updated automatically by the RMM/NMS. |
| RMM Element/Node Id | Element id in the RMM/NMS system with additional attributes. The value depends on the monitoring system used to source element information.The detailed syntax is described here. |
| Suppress RMM Updates | When checked, RMM will not make any updates to the element (availability, performance, etc.). |
| Last Update In RMM/NMS | Date and time when element was last updated in RMM/NMS. |
| Monitoring System URL | URL of the monitoring system for element (e.g., a link to a Zabbix host, a SolarWinds Orion node or other). |
Accessing Elements
To view all elements, go to App Launcher → Elements.
To view elements related to a specific service:
- Open service details.
- Scroll down to Service Elements.
- Click on the element to open.
