Plugin Overview

Summary

In this section, we will explore the cycle of development to be able to set the right expectations with prospects if you plan to sell plugin development.

More Information

Plugins add incredible value to Continuity Engine. It defines the intelligence Continuity Engine needs to detect failure events and is the trigger for orchestration. Though plugins are not essential for Continuity Engine to provide continuous availability, very creative things can be done with a special purpose plugin. We will now discuss what it takes to develop a plugin and why it can add significant value to prospects who have 3rd highly valuable niche applications or who have custom designed applications.

Providing the Proper Focus

As we have stated in this training, failures can happen in many aspects on the IT infrastructure. Human error, application issues, hardware failures and networking make up the vast majority of failures. Continuity Engine focuses on building intelligence in these key areas with rules that make visible failures and performance issues that lead to downtime. The Application Management Framework (AMF) provides the knowledge underneath to detect these failures. This is the prime focus of the AMF and Engine provides the means of managing it.

Neverfail's approach to monitoring consist of the following:

1. Neverfail’s application level monitoring provides:
1. In-depth visibility to all service components
   
2. Industry best-practice recommendations
   
2. Notification and automation
   
1. Detect and correct issues in place
   
2. Switchover and switchback with ease

Plugin Levels

Plugins are simply a series of rules and Neverfail has separated plugin into three different components to make them easier to build and monetize. We will know talk about these different offerings with plugins.

OPERATIONAL PLUGIN: This provides a set of basic rules that relate to services, registry, and file/folder replication. This is the base set of rules that protect any application. You do not need an operational plugin to use Continuity Engine. These aspects of Continuity Engine can be setup using the EMS UI and NFCMD.EXE command. Operational plugins are good for complex applications with a lot of base rules and you want to ensure each deployment is 100% the same which increases performance and reduces errors. Operational plugins are not dependent on any other type of plugin. Many organizations can start with and operational plugin and build onto it over time. Operational plugins are part of the regional pricebook and adjusted by region.

PERFORMANCE PLUGIN: Application level monitor consists of understanding how the application is performing. These are rules that measure the performance using API's, perfmon or WMI counters implemented as threshold rules. Performance plugins are built on top of operational plugins. They are custom developed for specific applications. A typical plugin that has performance measurements in it is Neverfail SQL Server plugin. It has both operational rules and performance rules. Performance plugins are part of the regional pricebook and adjusted by region.

AWARENESS PLUGIN: Application awareness is more than just checking databases for consistency. With Continuity Engine, it takes it to a different level with API integration with the application to test accessibility buy simulating the user experience. Log files can be scanned and analyzed for events. It can test web services and even look for externally dependent services that are required for this protected application server to function. With awareness based plugins there literally is no limitation in the depth of integration. This must be built on top of a operational plugin but many are part of an operational and performance set of rules. Awareness plugins not part of the regional pricebook and should be treated as a custom development engagement with a SOW defined and priced.

Type	Components	Value Proposition
Operational	File Filters Registry Services	Ensures quality of failover by standardizing rules for each deployment Provides fast and easy deployment of rules Limits sales through OEM partner
Performance	All of Operational: WMI Counters Monitoring  Perfmon Counters Monitoring	All of Operational Plus Allows recovery actions via monitoring of application performance
Awareness	All of Performance: User Accessibility Tests Application API Integration Proactive Fault Correction External Application Failover Orchestration	All of Performance: Ensure end user web services are accessible Test internal indicators of a application health to trigger recovery actions. Run recovery actions based on external events

Advantages of Plugins

1. Enables consistent deployments
   
2. Easier to support
   
3. Can be bundled into and licensed via Continuity Engine which allows Neverfail and customer to control where they source Continuity Engine
4. Enables auto-discovery during deployment which installs plugins automatically
   
5. Enables faster deployments

How are Plugins Built?

It all starts with the completion of the plugin questionnaire which is submitted to Neverfail Product Management. A questions and answers session is scheduled with product management and development from both teams. A development lab is built and the application is tested to ensure its working prior development.  The design work tasks are added to the next Neverfail development sprint cycle.

Once completed, an estimate is given to Neverfail sales and communicated back to the partner for development work. All requirements for operational, performance and awareness rules must be defined and agreed by an SOW. The customer will then need to approve and fund the project and then development begins based on the next Neverfail sprint cycle.

Once the initial plugin has completed Neverfail QA testing, Neverfail will release it to the customer for QA testing and feedback. Generally there is a 45 day window for feedback and acceptance once delivered. Future changes to the plugin are billed at normal consulting rates as the protected application changes. It is highly recommended that a field trial of the plugin take place after delivery to ensure these plugins will meet customer requirements

NOTE: Unless the partner has completed the full plugin development training program, Neverfail exclusively will build and QA all plugins developed. Only Neverfail can publish the plugin into the next release of the product.

• Related Articles

• How to install a Neverfail Continuity Engine Plugin using Advanced Management Client

  Summary This knowledgebase article explains how to install a Neverfail Continuity Engine Plugin using Advanced Management Client. Install a Plugin To manually install a Neverfail Continuity Engine Plugin using the Neverfail Advanced Client, follow ...

• System Plugin v401.0.8 - Release Notes

  Summary This Knowledgebase article provides information about this specific release of the System Plugin designed to provide system performance monitoring capabilities for Continuity Engine servers. What's New Detect SMBv1 presence: the new plugin ...

• How To Configure Neverfail Continuity Engine To Protect An Application Without A Plugin

  Summary This article provides information on how to protect a custom application with Neverfail Continuity Engine. Automatic protection for an application happens only if Neverfail has a plugin for that application. For commonly used applications ...

• Neverfail Continuity Engine Environmental Overview

  Summary This Knowledgebase article describes the environment into which Neverfail Continuity Engine can be successfully installed.   More Information Neverfail Continuity Engine is a versatile solution that provides multiple configurations to suit ...

• Atlassian Confluence Plugin v201.5.1 - Release Notes

  Summary This Knowledgebase article provides information about this specific release of the Atlassian Confluence Plugin v201.5.1 More Information Atlassian Confluence Plugin provides protection and proactively monitors the Atlassian Confluence ...