AMDOCS OSS

RELEASE 8.1

Partition Manager 8.1.0

Product Description
Document Information

Release: 8.1
Publication Date: 31 December 2009
Catalog Number:
Version 7.5
Information Security: Level 2 – Sensitive
Created: 9/9/2008 4:20:00 PM
Account/FOP:
Author: Amdocs Partition Manager
Editor:
Last Edited: 11/05/2010 10:08:54 AM
File Name: Partition Manager 8.1.0 Product Description.docx
Template: Product.dot

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Table of Contents

1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 5
Key features and benefits .................................................................................................................... 6
Automatic maintenance of partitions ......................................................................................................... 6
Data access defined by existing Amdocs OSS inventory objects ............................................................. 6
Access control independent of access method ......................................................................................... 6
Flexible access control and visualization .................................................................................................. 6
Capacity information maintained when objects not available.................................................................... 6
Integrated product suite ....................................................................................................................... 6
Route Finder ............................................................................................................................................. 7
Delivery Engine and Task Engine ............................................................................................................. 7

2 Product Features .............................................................................................................. 9

Essential concepts ............................................................................................................................... 9
Defining partitioning scenarios ........................................................................................................... 10
Partition Maintenance Relationships ................................................................................................. 11
Partitioning for the end user ............................................................................................................... 11
Extensible framework ......................................................................................................................... 11

3 User Interface Functions ................................................................................................ 13

Views .................................................................................................................................................. 13
WebReports ....................................................................................................................................... 13
Wizards .............................................................................................................................................. 13
Resource and Relations Browsers..................................................................................................... 14
Resource Browser .................................................................................................................................. 14
Relations Browser................................................................................................................................... 14
Homepages ........................................................................................................................................ 14

4 Licensing Information..................................................................................................... 15

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1 Introduction
The responsibility for managing a large telecommunications network is often
sub-divided by network domain, by technology domain, by geographical
region (as illustrated in Figure 1), and even across different operating
companies and countries. This often places conflicting requirements on the
operational systems. For example, OSS processes require a single, end-to-end
model of network connectivity and capacity, but an organization’s policies for
access and security controls may require access to certain data and inventory
management functions to be restricted.

West Region
West East
North
North Region
Region Region
Region

South Region
South Region

Figure 1: Regional Access partitioning example

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Partition Manager 8.1.0 Product Description

Amdocs Partition Manager controls access to data in the inventory using data
partitions based on inventory objects. This offers the benefits of allowing users
to view only the data they need to see.
Partition Manager provides a framework for service providers to define
partitioning scenarios and grant access to partitions to users of Amdocs OSS
8.1.

Key features and benefits

Automatic maintenance of partitions
Partition Manager automatically maintains partitions. For example, when a
new device is created in a location, it will be automatically added to the
partition defined by that location.

Data access defined by existing Amdocs OSS inventory objects

Partition Manager allows service providers to define partitioning scenarios
based on any Amdocs OSS inventory object or meta-object. For example, for a
regional-based partitioning scenario, the partitions may be defined by
locations. In this scenario, users are granted access to devices and circuits
within a switching region.

Access control independent of access method

Partition Manager is applicable to Amdocs OSS 8.1 (with the exception of
Discovery Engine and Amdocs Service Manager) and is enforced no matter
how the Amdocs OSS inventory is accessed. For example, access restrictions
will be applied if the inventory is accessed through the Amdocs OSS client or
through the API.

Flexible access control and visualization

Partition Manager allows users to be granted read-only, read-write or no
access to partitions. Access is granted on a role basis.

Capacity information maintained when objects not available

Where Partition Manager restricts user access to an object, this object is either
hidden in the Amdocs OSS client, or an anonymous placeholder is displayed
to represent the object. Anonymous placeholders are valuable for showing
capacity. For example, in-service ports on a device may be identified by
anonymous placeholders without showing who is currently using them.

Integrated product suite

Partition Manager manages the partitioning of inventory data in all Amdocs
OSS products. In addition to Resource Manager and its options, this includes
Route Finder, Task Engine and Delivery Engine.

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 Chapter 1. Introduction

Figure 2: Partition Manager product positioning

Route Finder
Route Finder provides the capability to automate the identification of routes
through a network to support a new circuit. To create the new circuit, the user
must have access to the nodes or locations at each end of the circuit and the
underlying circuit/links/topologies. If Partition Manager has been used to
restrict a user’s access to a geographic region, when Route Finder searches for
possible routes through a network, it will only search using objects to which
the user has access.

Delivery Engine and Task Engine

Inventory objects are subject to the same restrictions in Delivery Engine and
Task Engine as in Resource Manager, including Browsers, Wizards,
Homepages and WebReports. In addition, support is provided for the
partitioning of Jobs and Tasks by Owner.

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2 Product Features

Essential concepts
PartitionManager associates inventory objects with partitions using labels in
the appropriate inventory table in the database. Partitioning relationships may
be established between inventory objects. For example, it is possible to define
a partitioning relationship between a topology and the devices contained in the
topology. Information on any related objects (such as cards and ports) are then
included in the partition.
Centre East
West

Node C Node A
Node B
Node D
Node E

Region Topology Node

Node E
Defined by
West
Node D
West

Centre Node C

Centre Node B

East
Node A

East
Partition Partitioning Objects Partitioned Objects

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Partition Manager 8.1.0 Product Description

Figure 3: Example partitioning scenario

Figure 3 shows a possible partitioning scenario where nodes are organized into
three topologies (West, Centre and East) and a Partition is defined for each
topology. Associated Nodes are partitioned according to the topology to which
they belong. In this example the topologies represent the partitioning objects
and Nodes the partitioned objects.

Defining partitioning scenarios

A partitioning scenario usually includes more than one partition and often
includes partitions with different partition objects. For example, a service
provider may manage their network regionally and by Core and Access as
shown in Figure 4.

Access
Cloud

North Region
West East
Region Region

Core
Cloud

South Region

Figure 4: Combined regional and structured partitioning

A Policy provides definitions for a related set of Partitions. For example, a
Policy based on geographical areas will contain definitions of Partitions based
on location types such as regions.
Where an object belongs to multiple Partitions, the Policy defines whether the
user must belong to all partitions for access to be granted. Since multiple
policies can be defined (for example, as shown in Figure 4), the policies define

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 Chapter 2. Product Features

how the policies’ permissions are combined to grant access to a particular

object.

Partition Maintenance Relationships

Partition Manager allows the service provider to define the relationships
between inventory objects that enforce automatic partition maintenance. For
example, the relationship between a circuit and its terminating devices may be
used to place a circuit in the same partition as its terminating devices.
When a user attempts to create or change an inventory object, the partition
maintenance rules define which partition(s) the object belongs.

Partitioning for the end user

On a role basis, users are granted access to partitions by the Amdocs OSS
administrator using the Role Wizard. Roles may be granted read only or
read/write access to one or more partitions.
When a user has been granted access to a partition, they may view and, if
granted read/write access, edit objects within that partition. When a user
creates or updates an object, the partition maintenance relationships are used
to determine which partition(s) the object is placed in. The user is not required
to select a partition.
When a user has not been granted access to a partition, they may not see
information about objects within that partition. Depending on the activity the
user is undertaking,
the object may be hidden or an anonymous placeholder may be displayed. For
example, if a user has not been granted access to a partition containing a
particular interface card, that card is not available for selection in a wizard and
is not shown in the browsers. An anonymous placeholder may be shown in the
Elevation View indicating a slot is in use: the card name, type and ports are
not shown.

Extensible framework
Partition Manager provides an extensible framework that enables service
providers to define their partitioning scenario. Amdocs OSS Configurator
allows the following to be defined:

Policies. These define the partitioning objects and the partitioned objects.

Partitions and their relationships with each other. For example, if a device
is included in two partitions, defining if a user requires access to both
partitions in order to access the device.

Partition maintenance relationships. For example, when cards are created,
they may be defined to be created automatically in the same partition as
their parent device.

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Partition Manager 8.1.0 Product Description

Restricted object behavior. If a user has no access to an object, defining

how the object should be displayed, that is, not at all or as an anonymous
placeholder.
Core Switching Network

Access Network Access Network

Access Core Core Access

CPE device device
Switch device device
CPE

Figure 5: Structured Access partitioning example

Partition Manager provides three example partitioning scenarios:

Regional Access. This may be used when the network is divided by
geographical area. This is illustrated in Figure 1.

Structured Access. This may be used when different departments manage
the access and core segments of the network. This is illustrated in Figure 5.

Managed Networks. This may be used by an organization managing
multiple independent networks.
These examples may be used as the starting point for different scenarios. Service
Providers may choose to partition inventory data by combining, configuring or
extending these examples to support their requirements.

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3 User Interface Functions
Views
Partition Manager has no Views.
Where a user has restricted the access to an object in a View, the object will be
hidden or an anonymous placeholder shown.

WebReports
Partition Manager has no WebReports.
Partition Manager extends the Resource Manager Owner WebReport to show
user access to partitions.
Where a user has restricted the access to an object in a WebReport, the object
will be hidden or an anonymous placeholder shown.

Wizards
Partition Manager has no Wizards.
Where a user has restricted access to an object, it will not be available to select
from a drop-down list in a Wizard. Where a user has restricted the access to an
object in a Wizard, an anonymous placeholder is shown in place of the object.
Partition Manager extends the Resource Manager Role Wizard to configure
user access to partitions.

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Partition Manager 8.1.0 Product Description

Resource and Relations Browsers

Resource Browser
Restricted objects will not be shown in the Resource Browser.
When the Partition tab is selected, a list of all the Policies is displayed and
may be expanded to display a list of the Partitions within the Policy. Each
Partition may be expanded to show the associated partitioning object.
Similarly the Owner objects in the browser displays the granted Partitions.

Relations Browser
Restricted objects will not be shown in the Relations Browser.
By clicking on an object in the Resource browser, the Partition(s) to which it
belongs (if any) is displayed in the Relations browser under the Partition tab.
By clicking on a Partition in the Resource browser, the roles with access to the
Partition are displayed under the Owner tab.
Clicking on an Owner in the Resource browser, the Partition(s) to which the
Owner has access will be displayed under the Partition tab.

Homepages
A standard Homepage is available for Partitions.

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4 Licensing Information
Product name Partition Manager
Product Code IN8-SV-0900-00
Product Pre-requisites IN8-SV-0100-00 Resource Manager
Platform Amdocs OSS 8.1 Platform Requirements.
Licensing The product is licensed on a deployed instance basis
Delivery list
Right to use license

Software

Documentation

Installation notes and release notes

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Document Release Information
Edited Doc
Release Editor Comments Sent to Site Approved By
Date Version
7.5 P. Eksteen 30/09/09 N/A 1.0
8.0 P. Eksteen 17/12/09 Updated for 8.0 N/A 1.1
8.1 P. Eksteen 05/11/10 Updated for 8.1 N/A 1.2

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