This chapter reviews the new features and enhancements to the Tivoli Enterprise Portal interface and Tivoli Management Services administrative features, followed by a list of the administrative tasks you can expect to perform.
For information on how to use the Version 6.2.2 Tivoli Enterprise Portal features, please consult the integrated help (Help → Contents and Index) or the IBM Tivoli Monitoring Tivoli Enterprise Portal User's Guide.
New in this release
Review the latest enhancements to the Tivoli Enterprise Portal and to the Tivoli Management Services components that are relevant to the Administrator's Guide.
New in Version 6.2.2 Fix Pack 2
This topic describes enhancements to the Tivoli Management Services components that affect the system administrator since the release of Version 6.2.2 Fix Pack 1.
Centralized Configuration to maintain local configuration files from a central location
You can implement a configuration load list XML file to pull local configuration file updates from one or more central locations that serve agents throughout the monitored enterprise. Using the repository, you can install or maintain monitoring agents (or both) and download all required files to become fully operational. See Chapter 13, “Centralized
Configuration,” on page 255.
The new tacmd getfile and tacmd putfile CLI commands are useful for implementing Centralized Configuration and agent autonomy. See IBM Tivoli Monitoring Command Reference for details.
Send agent heartbeat as an EIF event or SNMP alert to a receiver You can now monitor the online status of a monitoring agent by
configuring the heartbeat interval that sends a heartbeat event to a receiver after each interval. See “EIF heartbeat event” on page 225
Agent Management Services enables instance-specific CAP files
In previous releases only one executable or 'family' of executable files was supported per CAP (common agent package) file, thus multi-instance monitoring agent instances were governed by the same CAP file. Now you have the ability to configure CAP files for specific instances of monitoring agents.
Agent Management Services disabled on zLinux OS agent
In previous versions Agent Management Services was enabled on the zLinux OS agent. Now it is disabled, even if it was enabled before upgrading to V6.2.2 Fix Pack 2. The watchdog must be enabled manually.
See “Tivoli Agent Management Services installation and configuration” on page 151.
Autonomous operation of the Tivoli Data Warehouse agents
To enable autonomous agents to write out their accumulated historical data to the Tivoli Data Warehouse without the intervention of the Tivoli
Enterprise Monitoring Server and thereby prevent loss of such data, the warehouse agents have been enhanced to allow them to run autonomously.
Run Warehouse Proxy agent without requiring registration with the Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server
The Warehouse Proxy can be configured to run with no connection to the hub monitoring server.
Monitoring agents can be configured to specify the location of their Warehouse Proxy agent instance, bypassing any other methods of obtaining its address. See the KHD-prefixed environment variables in
“Control autonomy in Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Agents” on page 161.
Run Summarization and Pruning agent without requiring connection to the Tivoli Enterprise Portal Server
In previous releases the summarization and pruning configuration settings for attribute groups that have been configured for historical data collection were stored on the Tivoli Enterprise Portal Server database in a table named KDWHISTDATA. The summarization and pruning configuration has been moved from the portal server to the Tivoli Data Warehouse database in a table named WAREHOUSESUMPRUNE. After the portal server and summarization and pruning agent have been upgraded to Tivoli Monitoring V6.2.2 Fix Pack 2, the next time summarization and pruning takes place and the portal server is restarted, the migration of the summarization and pruning configuration occurs automatically.
See “Configuring a Summarization and Pruning agent to run autonomously” in IBM Tivoli Monitoring Installation and Setup for a complete description.
Tivoli Common Reporting V1.3
The current version of Tivoli Common Reporting is Version 1.3, which introduces IBM Cognos Business Intelligence and Reporting Version 8.4 reports for the Tivoli Monitoring OS Agents and other monitoring
products. A set of predefined reports is provided on a separate eAssembly media package for monitoring individual, multiple, and enterprise
resources. See Chapter 15, “Tivoli Common Reporting,” on page 327 and the user's guide for your Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Agent.
Filtered historical data collection
The Tivoli Monitoring Version 6.2.2 release included the added capability of configuring multiple data collections for the same attribute groups with different settings and managed system distributions. Also added was the ability to create historical groups of historical collections that share the same managed system distribution.
Now you can write filter criteria to specify the data to collect. The new Filtertab in the Historical Collection Configuration editor has a formula editor much like what you have in the Situation editor. Historical collection of a data sample occurs only if the values in the data row fulfill the filter criteria. For example, if the data sample has % Disk Write Time greater than 50%, it is saved to short-term history; otherwise the sample is not saved. See step 9 of “Creating a historical collection” in the Tivoli Enterprise Portal User's Guide.
The command-line interface tacmd histcreatecollection and tacmd histeditcollectioncommands have been updated to include the filter option for adding a filter formula; the tacmd histviewcollection and tacmd histlistcollections commands display any defined filter for a historical collection; and tacmd histviewattributegroup has been updated to add the
-v verbose option to include the table name and attribute names in the display. See IBM Tivoli Monitoring Command Reference.
Dynamic items for custom Navigator views
The Navigator Physical view is a discovered view and the Navigator Logical view is a predefined, customizable view. You can also create custom Navigator views for different logical hierarchies. Because custom Navigator views are user-defined, these views are not updated in the Tivoli Enterprise Portal when new managed systems come online. You must manually add them using Navigator editor.
Now you can assign managed system groups to Navigator items as dynamic members in the new Dynamic itemstab of the Navigator item properties editor. As managed systems are added or removed from the group, the constituent members change dynamically within this branch of the Navigator. New managed systems that fit the filter criteria of the managed system group are added automatically.
See “Navigator item properties”.
Define schedules for running situation overrides
In previous releases you could apply a predefined schedule, such as Weekend, to specify when the situation expression override is run. You can now create your own calendar-based schedule or hourly schedule for each expression override that you create for a situation.
Also in previous releases, the only way to define a schedule for a situation expression override was through the command-line interface tacmd addCalendarEntry. As well as shared calendar-based schedules in the Situation editor, you can define repeating hourly schedules that apply to specific hourly time ranges.
See “Creating a situation override”.
The CLI tacmd setOverride, tacmd deleteOverride, tacmd
suggestBaseline, and tacmd acceptBaseline commands have been updated to include the inlinecal option for specifying the inline (hourly) calendar schedule. See IBM Tivoli Monitoring Command Reference.
Model Expression dialog for testing situation override scenarios
Tivoli Monitoring V6.2.2 introduced the expression modeling feature to visually assist the situation author in establishing proper threshold values based on historical data and statistical analysis (see “Model Situation”).
That same capability has now been added for situation expression overrides.
This new visual modeling capability also integrates the ability to dynamically build and associate daily schedules to expression overrides using drag-and-drop gesturing. See “Model Expression”.
Monitored baselining for charts indicate situation override expressions The Add Monitored Baselinetool was added to the chart views in Tivoli Monitoring V6.2.2 for you to visualize the attribute threshold values from associated situations alongside the historical or real-time information displayed. If expression overrides are associated with the situation, you can now visualize them in the chart as well. You can optionally filter out situation and expression overrides that are inactive based on the data sample and time span being rendered in the view.
See “Adding monitored baselines to a chart”.
New and enhanced CLI tacmds
New tacmd getfile and tacmd putfile commands are available for transferring files between remote managed systems and a local computer.
New tacmd commands are available for replicating Navigator view or Navigator item managed system assignments:
listSysAssignmentsto list all managed systems and managed system groups that are assigned to a Navigator item.
exportSysAssignmentsto export all managed system assignments for the specified Navigator item or the entire Navigator view..
importSysAssignmentsto import all managed system assignments for a Navigator item or Navigator view.
deleteSysAssignmentsto delete the specified situation association for the given navigator item
The tacmd listworkspaces has been enhanced to include the Tivoli
Enterprise Portal objectid in the workspace listing. By using the new tacmd deleteWorkspacecommand, you can indicate the workspace to delete by its objectid name.
New tacmd commands are available for changing situation associations with Navigator items:
listSitAssociationsto list all situation associations defined for a navigator item
createSitAssociationto create a situation association for the given navigator item
exportSitAssociationsto export all situation associations on the server importSitAssociationsto import all situation associations specified in a file
deleteSitAssociationto delete the specified situation association for the given navigator item
These commands have a new inlinecal option for specifying an inline (hourly schedule) calendar entry for situation overridses: tacmd
setOverride, tacmd suggestBaseline, tacmd acceptBaseline, and tacmd deleteOverride.
These commands have a new filter option for adding a formula for pre-filtering data collection: tacmd histcreatecollection and tacmd
histeditcollection. The tacmd histviewattributegroup command has a new verbose option for displaying the table name and attributes names defined for an attribute group.
See IBM Tivoli Monitoring Command Reference
New in Version 6.2.2 Fix Pack 1
This topic describes enhancements to the Tivoli Management Services administration since the release of Version 6.2.2.
TEDGEN can be run from the hub monitoring server or portal server
The TEDGEN tool provides an alternate method for generating a new XML file for EIF Slot Customization. There are now three places where you can run the TEDGEN tool if the necessary baroc files are on the same
computer:
1. On the computer where the Tivoli Enterprise Console event server is installed.
2. On the computer where the hub Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server is installed.
3. On the computer where the Tivoli Enterprise Portal Server is installed.
See “Updating the XML used by the MCS Attribute Service” on page 115.
Send EIF events for private situations
You can configure a monitoring agent and an EIF event configuration file to emit life cycle events or private situation events, or both, directly to an EIF receiver such as the Tivoli Enterprise Console event server or
Netcool/OMNIbus Probe for Tivoli EIF, with no connection to the Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server. See “EIF event configuration” on page 213.
Agent Management Services expanded support Support has been added for these products:
v IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Databases: Oracle Agent v IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Databases: Sybase Agent
v IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Messaging and Collaboration: Lotus Domino Agent (including 64-bit)
v IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON XE for Messaging
Also, Windows OS agents and Lotus Domino agents on 64-bit systems have Common Agent Package XML files installed in the TMAITM6_x64\CAP directory rather than TMAITM\CAP. See Chapter 11, “Agent Management Services,” on page 149.
New in Version 6.2.2
This topic describes enhancements to the Tivoli Management Services that are relevant to this guide since the release of Version 6.2.1. Many of the changes are obvious as soon as you log on, such as the new toolbar icons. Others are changes in behavior or changes that are not apparent until you open workspaces or one of the editors.
The Tivoli Enterprise Portal client features are described in the online help and IBM Tivoli Monitoring Tivoli Enterprise Portal User's Guide.
User interface updates
The toolbar buttons and graphic icons have been updated and consolidated to further align the Tivoli user interfaces. Move the mouse pointer over a tool in the Tivoli Enterprise Portal to see its identity.
Tivoli Enterprise Portal Version 6.2.1 Desktop mode:
Browser mode:
Tivoli Enterprise Portal toolbar for Version 6.2.2
Some of the icons have been regrouped to align them with their function: Switch to Home Workspacehas moved to the first position in the toolbar, next to Backin the desktop mode toolbar, and Savein the browser mode toolbar; and the Situation Event Console, Common Event Console, and Tivoli Enterprise Consoleviews are grouped near the end of the toolbar.
Browser mode:
Workspace gallery for identification and selection
As well as the default workspace that opens when you click a Navigator item, additional workspaces are often available for the item and selectable through the Navigator pop-up menu or the View menu. Now you have the Workspace Gallery tool for showing you the workspaces that you can open for the current Navigator item. See Opening a workspace.
Manage Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server workspaces and situations
New self-monitoring workspaces and situations have been added and are accessible through the Enterprise Navigator item to help you monitor for and diagnose typical monitoring server configuration issues. See Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server status.
Configure historical data collection with distribution lists
The Historical Collection Configuration window has been redesigned. It looks similar to the Situation editor, with a tree on the left and user assistance on the right until you select a tree item: The summarization and pruning settings are displayed when you select a managed application;
and the historical collection configuration is displayed when you select a collection name within the managed application branch.
You can now have multiple collection configurations for an attribute group.
There is also a new distribution method called Managed System (TEMA) that enables you to specify the managed systems that data collection will occur on. (With this method, the managed systems must connect to a V6.2.2 Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server.) See Historical collection configuration.
Several tacmd commands have been added for creating, deleting, editing, listing, viewing the configuration of historical data collections. Although not new for this release, the bulkExportSit -h and bulkImportSit -h commands can be used to export and import historical collection configurations. See the IBM Tivoli Monitoring Command Reference.
Granular data collection with historical configuration object groups
Object grouping was introduced in the previous release for situations and managed systems. Now you can create historical configuration object groups, which can include managed system distribution, and assign historical collections to them. See Object group editor.
Managed system lists renamed to managed system groups
The term managed system list has been renamed to managed system group to follow the naming used in the Object Group editor.
Modeling conditions for situations
Now you can capture data from a query-based view and use it to model possible threshold scenarios, then apply the results to a situation. You can also select a situation from the Manage Situations at Managed System window, compare the criteria with current and historical data samples, for modeling, and use the results to edit the situation thresholds. See Modeling conditions for situations.
Baselining added to charts for trend analysis
The bar chart, plot chart, and area chart have a new Add Monitored
Baselinetool for selecting a situation to compare with the current
sampling and anticipated values. The plot chart and area chart also have a new Add Statistical Baseline tool with statistical functions. In addition, the plot chart has a new Add Historical Baselinetool for comparing current samplings with a historical period. See Chart baselines.
Situation overrides can be assigned to subnodes
Situation overrides for dynamic thresholding has been extended to include subnodes. For situations that are distributed to managed systems that are subnodes of other managed systems, you can now apply expression overrides to the managed system subnodes. See Situation overrides for dynamic thresholding.
Tivoli System Monitor Agent
The Tivoli System Monitor Agent is a new category of monitoring agent. It is an OS agent that is installed and configured to have no dependency on nor any connection to a monitoring server. It must be installed on a computer where no other Tivoli Monitoring products or Tivoli Management Services components are installed, with the exception of agents created with Agent Builder.
The system monitor agent can run private situations that are defined in a situation configuration XML file; collect historical data, also defined in the situation configuration XML file, and send SNMP alerts that are defined in a trap destination XML file to an event receiver such as the
Netcool/OMNIbus SNMP Probe. See Chapter 12, “Agent autonomy,” on page 157
Agent autonomy
Agent autonomy is the ability of a monitoring agent to perform independently of the Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server. With
environment variables introduced in IBM Tivoli Monitoring V6.2.1, the Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Agent can retain event information when communications with its monitoring server are interrupted. Now it is the default behavior that agent startup is independent of the monitoring server and information is collected at the agent and maintained even if the agent is stopped and started again, ready for transfer to the monitoring server when a connection is made.
Features introduced in this release that can be used by agents without a monitoring server connection are private situations, private history, SNMP alerts, and the Agent Service Interface. See Chapter 12, “Agent autonomy,”
on page 157.
Create private situations that run locally, independent of the monitoring server Private situations are created in a local private situation configuration XML file for a monitoring agent. Situation definitions that were exported from the monitored enterprise can also be added to the file to create situations.
The events generated by private situations remain local to your workstation or can be sent as SNMP alerts to a receiver such as the Netcool/OMNIbus SNMP Probe.
Private situations have the same capability as enterprise situations, with some limitations. For example, only the Value of expressionand Check for Missing Itemsformula functions can be used. See “Situation limitations” on page 167.
Create private history collections that run locally, independent of the monitoring server Private history is the collection and short-term storage of data from a local
monitoring agent. Define historical collection for each attribute group in a private situation configuration file for an agent, then use the Agent Service Interface to view the short-term history.
Private history is local only; there is no interaction with a warehouse proxy for long-term storage on the Tivoli Data Warehouse. However, when defining the private history, you can change the default 24-hour limit for historical data storage to as many hours as you like, limited only by the storage space on the computer. See “Private history” on page 190 Send SNMP traps
Send SNMP alerts from the local Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Agent or
Send SNMP alerts from the local Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Agent or