When monitoring client operation statuses in a large-scale system that uses relay managers, you can specify operation information management methods in detail. For instance, you can specify the method for managing the operation information of the clients under each relay manager, and the method for using the central manager to manage the operation information of the clients under multiple relay managers.

The following are examples of operation information management methods for monitoring the operation status in a large-scale system.

• Having the central manager centrally manage the operation information of the entire system
  When an operation monitoring policy is applied from a relay manager to a client, operation information reported by a lower system to the relay manager is not reported to the central manager in the default mode. If a relay manager is installed in each group and an operation monitoring policy is applied by each relay manager to its subordinate clients, the central manager cannot manage the operation information in each group.
  To enable the central manager to centrally manage the operation status of the entire system, set up the relay managers so that they report the received operation information to the central manager as well. Such a setup will enable the central manager to manage all operation information.
  For details about the items to set for the central manager and relay managers, see 4.2.14 Operation Monitoring page and 4.3.2 Report To Higher System page in the Setup Guide.
  
• Having each relay manager manage operation information
  If an operation monitoring policy is applied from the central manager to all clients, the operation information of all clients is reported to the central manager. In such an environment, if the volume of client operation information becomes very large, a disk capacity shortage might occur in the central manager, negatively impacting the system.
  To divide the operation information among the individual relay managers and manage it separately, set up the relay managers so that they will not report the operation information they receive to a higher system. Also, set up the relay managers so that they save the operation information that is reported to them.
  With such a setup, each relay manager manages the operation information of its subordinate clients, thus preventing a disk capacity shortage from occurring in the central manager.
  
• Having the central manager and relay managers share an operation monitoring policy
  The central manager and relay managers can output a created operation monitoring policy to a file. By loading the output file, an operation monitoring policy can be created from the file. This operation mode is convenient when it is necessary to have multiple relay managers share a policy, or to customize an already-created operation monitoring policy on a different computer.
  For details on how to share an operation monitoring policy, see 6.9 Sharing operation monitoring policies in the manual Administrator's Guide Volume 1.
  

Using an example in which the central manager manages the operation status of lower systems at the company headquarters while relay managers manage the operation status of lower systems at branch offices, the following figure shows how to manage operation information when the operation status of a large-scale system is to be monitored.

Figure 2-27 Managing operation information in a large-scale system