Virtual Units

Virtual Units (indicated with the icon) are virtual elements that can have instances on one or more physical servers (nodes). Virtual units can have active instances on two or more nodes at the same time, then they are sharing the load; or they can have just one active instance at the time, and other instances work as redundant ones.

All software on Sinch Contact Pro servers is installed in virtual units.

To manage virtual units, right click the Virtual units element and choose the item. The context menu items depend on the mode, they are listed in the table below.

Table 1. Virtual Units Context Menu in Different Modes
Item	Deployment Mode, Not Connected	Deployment Mode, Connected	Monitoring Mode, Connected	Function
Node name and element number.	yes	yes	yes	For information only. Element number may be referred to in the Element Properties pane, or for example in a log file.
Set Role	-	yes	yes	Choose the system role of Active, Inactive, Standby, Spare, Unassigned. Use the roles active/inactive when you make changes to the model, for example, when installing hotfixes.
Set Mode	-	yes	yes	Choose the system mode of Normal, Freeze, Maintenance
Mark as Repaired	-	yes	yes	After corrective actions, choose this option to deploy corrections to the system model.
Reset	-	yes	yes	Inactivate and activate all system components.
Get Local Diagnostics	-	yes	yes	Collect information received from current nodes.
Add Virtual Unit...	yes	yes	-	Start the procedure of adding a virtual unit, see Installing Virtual Units.
Refresh All Hosts	-	yes	yes	Scan the host system for deployed virtual units and available software packages. You can also use the function for clearing all changes that you have not yet committed.
Update System Landscape Directory	-	yes	yes	Update manually the model information that is sent to System Landscape Directory (SLD) monitoring of this virtual unit. Otherwise, the SLD model is updated automatically when a new system model is saved.
Apply All Changes to All Hosts	-	yes	-	Apply any changes made in the system. Bold text in element names indicates that changes have not been applied. If the option is grayed out though the element name is displayed bold, some of the mandatory variables are undefined in virtual units instantiated in this node. When applied, the changes are not really taken into use on HAC nodes but only after Monitoring Mode is started.
Change Base Installation...	yes	yes	-	Define the used software version.
Synchronize Instances...	yes	yes	-	Deploy the changes made (base installation, software, hotfixes, components) to virtual units to all its instances on HAC nodes of the model, but do not apply them.
Switch to Monitoring Mode	-	yes	-	Switch the system to Monitoring mode. The changes made to system model are taken into use only when Monitoring Mode is started.
Switch to Deployment Mode	-	-	yes	Switch the system to Deployment mode. This enables making changes to system model.
Set Mode	-	yes	yes	Choose the system mode of Normal, Freeze, Maintenance.

Defined Virtual Units <Virtual Unit Name>

After a virtual unit has been defined, it appears with its name to the tree. To manage virtual units, right-click the <virtual unit name> in the tree, and choose one of the context menu items.

Context menu items depend on the mode, they are listed in the table below.

Table 2. A Virtual Unit's <Virtual Unit Name> Context Menu in Different Modes
Item	Deployment Mode, Not Connected	Deployment Mode, Connected	Monitoring Mode, Connected	Function
Node name and element number.	yes	yes	yes	For information only. Element number may be referred to in the Element Properties pane, or for example in a log file.
Set Role	-	yes	yes	Choose the system role of Active, Inactive, Standby, Spare, Unassigned. Set the roles to inactive when you make changes to the model, for example, when installing hotfixes, and then back to active.
Set Mode	-	yes	yes	Choose the system mode of Normal, Freeze, Maintenance
Mark as Repaired	-	yes	yes	After corrective actions, choose this option to deploy corrections to the system model.
Reset	-	yes	yes	Inactivate and activate all system components.
Get Local Diagnostics	-	yes	yes	Collect information received from current nodes.
Switch to Instance	-	yes	yes	Switch this virtual unit's activity to another instance. Currently active instance is grayed out. If there are no redundant instances, this option has no function.
Break into Redundant System	yes	yes	-	Refresh the latest changes to system model tree.
Synchronize Instances...	yes	yes	-	Deploy the changes made (base installation, software, hotfixes, components) to this virtual unit to all its instances on HAC nodes of the model, but do not apply them.
Delete	yes	yes	-	Delete this virtual unit.
Add Software	yes	yes	-	Add a software package to a template or an empty virtual unit.
Change Base Installation...	yes	yes	-	Define the used software version.
Apply All Changes to All Hosts	-	yes	-	Apply any changes made in the system. Bold text in node element names indicates that changes have not been applied. If the option is grayed out though the element name is displayed bold, some of the mandatory variables are undefined in virtual units instantiated in this node.
Assign to Logical System	yes	yes	-	Add this VU to a logical system.
Download Logs	-	yes	yes	Enables downloading logs or traces to specified files. See Downloading Logs.
Switch to Monitoring Mode	-	yes	-	Switch the system to Monitoring mode. The changes made to system model are taken into use only when Monitoring Mode is started.
Switch to Deployment Mode	-	-	yes	Switch the system to Deployment mode. This enables making changes to system model.

Software

The Software element (indicated with the icon) displays all the software packages that have been installed in the VU.

To manage software in the virtual unit, right-click the Software element, and choose from the following options:

Table 3. Software Context Menu in Different Modes
Item	Deployment Mode, Not Connected	Deployment Mode, Connected	Monitoring Mode, Connected	Function
Add Software	yes	yes	-	The virtual unit is created using either a template with specified software content, or an empty one. To add more software packages to the preplanned (or empty) template, choose this option, and select the software package to be added.
Change Base Installation...	yes	yes	-	Define the used software version.
Edit Virtual Unit	-	yes	-	Start the editing mode in the element properties pane on the right.
Purge Unused Variables	yes	yes	-	When a software package is removed, the variables with possibly defined values remain. Delete the variables that are not used in the current installation.
Switch to Monitoring Mode	-	yes	-	Switch the system to Monitoring mode. The changes made to system model are taken into use only when Monitoring Mode is started.
Switch to Deployment Mode	-	-	yes	Switch the system to Deployment mode. This enables making changes to system model.

Right-clicking a software package under the Software element enables two additional tasks:

Add Hotfixes: Add a correction patch to the software package. See specific instruction in Installing and Removing Hotfixes.
Delete: Delete the current software package from the virtual unit. Use this when the VU template includes a software package you do not need in your system.

Components

The Components element displays all software components that have been installed in the virtual unit. Selecting the element enables editing its variables in the Element Properties pane.

To add a component, for example an access point, right-click the Components element and choose Add Component and choose the component from the list.

Instances

To make an instance of this virtual unit on a desired node, right-click and choose the node from the list. Only the nodes that have been configured and saved in the system model are displayed in the list. For context menu options, see Virtual Unit Instances.