Add Logic Before and After a Poll Executes

NerveCenter Release 6.1 (“NC6.1”) includes new controls for how you can manipulate polls while they execute.  This includes the ability to add logic before or after a poll executes.  As well, you can have a poll start in the midst of a table instead of from the first row, and additional controls allow an executing table sweep to jump forward, thereby skipping rows, or even jump out of the table if there’s no need to continue looking at any more rows.  All this provides a flexibility that has not been possible in prior releases.

Take, as an example, a search that needs to see if a service process is running on a remote host.  If while sweeping the table, your poll finds the service process’ entry, then your poll can skip looking at the remainder of the table.  A function that has been added in the polling logic that allows your poll logic to state that no more rows need to be examined for this table sweep.

As another example, a table sweep that needs to compute the average incoming data rate for all live data ports can be effectively created using the newly added pre and post polling abilities.  A typical average is computed by adding up the observed values and dividing by the number of observations.  Using the controls added in NC6.1, a pre function could initialize your row count and running tally to zero.  As live rows are observed, your logic could increment the row count and update the running tally.  And then a post function could perform the computation and decide how to react to the observed data rate.

Or, consider a search on a table where it is known that the first, say, three thousand rows are not of importance.  Your poll can tell the system to start after this set.  Thus, your logic can concentrate on examining the rows that are of significance to your interest.  Similarly, a table that ends with a set of rows which are known to not be of interest can be handled by ending a poll’s execution once they are reached.  This, as like all these examples, shows the dynamic polling controls you now have available in NC 6.1.