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Home > Best Practices > Accessing Tivoli Business Service Manager from Your BlackBerry
Accessing Tivoli Business Service Manager from Your BlackBerry
The BlackBerry® Tivoli Business Service Manager (TBSM) Access provides a means to monitor the status of resource instances from your BlackBerry using TBSM 4.2 as the server. The intent of the function is to enable mobile reach to the enterprise for status information of specific resources. Additionally, the BlackBerry TBSM Access enables the BlackBerry user to send eMail information for a particular resource as a prerogative. The "TO:" eMail address can be pre-filled with who is responsible for the resource.
The installation process is simple; a BlackBerry Browser access to a link for automatic installation on the device. The BlackBerry TBSM Access application requires BlackBerry OS 4.2.1 and later. The targeted devices are BlackBerry 8700s, 8800s, and 8300 Curve, 8110 and 8120 Pearl.
Using screen captures, this paper documents the BlackBerry TBSM Access Application for Blackberry. The application on a Blackberry 8700 can load 500 instances in 3.7 seconds for state information. Connection time can vary for Blackberry infrastructure from 200ms - 1800ms. It is recommended that you configure a list of the instances that you need to monitor.
When first installed, the host address for the TBSM service is set to 127.0.0.1, which displays the following panel when the application is started to notify for configuration.
The interface is phone oriented using the Command menu. The user is instructed to go to the configuration panel using the Command menu.
The following image shows the complete screen with all the controls. When available, the track ball can be used to view additional screen information. There are only two fields that need text.
You type in the host address of the TBSM server if it is not preconfigured. The periodic refresh option is set to zero for no automatic refreshing. The red vibrate-ceiling-value option vibrates the device if an update finds a ceiling value of red instances. To turn this option off, set it to zero. For example, if an update finds five instances that are red and the red vibrate ceiling is set to 5, the blackberry vibrates. If the application is in the background and the red vibrate ceiling is set, the application is brought to the foreground to notify you.
Another command menu is provided from the configuration panel for setting the instances that you want to monitor (edit group and edit list). If there are no instances set to monitor and your host address is correct, the result is what you see on the following screen after a refresh.
From the Configuration panel, selecting edit group displays the panel shown on the right. This is the group list of instances configured for refresh. This list can be provided at the deployment site as part of the JAD file for preconfiguration.
Selecting edit list displays the panel shown on the right. This is a list of all instances. The total number of items in the list is displayed as 409. You can select from this list the instances that you want to monitor. You should use the List filter field before initiating this request to limit the number of instances downloaded. The List Filter field is discussed later in this document.
A command menu is provided for a statistics panel. When nyou select the statistics panel, you see it as shown on the right. The statistics show that the Blackberry connection time was 1.859 seconds (first time), the actual data fetch was 4.297 seconds and the total time was 6.156 seconds.
You can change the color of the highlight bar using configuration.
Background tiles can be configured:
When you select okay, the main application window is displayed. You can then select update to see the results. If you had enabled the auto refresh function, this window would have updated automatically.
You can send e-mail about an instance using any of the fllowing methods:
- Pressing the Four-way button down
- Using the Blackberry space bar
- Using Command menu when an item is highlighted.
A mail screen is displayed and pre-filled with information. This panel has a command menu. You select the send button to send the e-mail.
You are then brought back to the main screen.
Fail Over Host Addressing
You can enter a host address like this:
*9.27.144.45*
*bbtbsm.raleigh.ibm.com*
*bbtbsm.raleigh.ibm.com:17310*
*http:*https:*https:
For a failover you can specify more than one address, separating them with commas:
bbtbsm.raleigh.ibm.com, bbtbsmlinux.raleigh.ibm.com, redpath.raleigh.ibm.com
TBSM Blackberry installation and deployment
USB
The generic TBSM Blackberry application is a Blackberry COD file called "tbsmMidlet.cod". The installation is through the USB port using the blackberry javaloader.
C:\BlackBerryJDE4.0\bin\javaloader -u load tbsmMidlet.cod
Web site
A Web server can be accessed to use the Device BlackBerry browser to install the TBSM mobile application;
Any server can provide access if they add the following types:
adp Content-Type: audio/adpcm
cod Content-Type: application/vnd.rim.cod
jad Content-Type: text/vnd.sun.j2me.app-descriptor
jar Content-Type: application/java-archive
This Web site concept might be good because you can modify the JAD File with a simple editor and have a preset HOST address for the application, thereby avoiding any configuration for some Blackberry devices that know about this JAD option built into Blackberry OS4.3 versions.
A Sample Web page would look like this:
<HTML>
<IMG SRC=tivolitree.png>
<font size="2" face="Arial">
<P>
Visit this page with your Blackberry Browser and simply
click on the appropriate configuration.
</FONT>
<table cellspacing="1" cellpadding="2" cols=2 BORDER=1>
<font size="2" face="Arial">
<tr style="background-color*:*#69c*;*">
<td>TBSM Mobile </td>
<td>Server configuration</td>
</tr>
<tr class="gray">
<td><img src="icon-link-download.png" /> <a href="*bbtbsm.jad*"><B>install </B></a></td>
<td align=left>bbtbsm.raleigh.ibm.com:17310</td>
</tr>
<tr class="gray">
<td><img src="icon-link-download.png" /> <a href="*non.jad*"><B>install </B></a></td>
<td align=left>not configured</td>
</tr>
</FONT>
</table>
</FONT>
</HTML>
Filter to add instances
The application loads all instances for selection when choosing the edit list option with an empty List filter. This is not a good configuration process because customers could have thousands of instances. The device can load 1500 instances and automaticallys stop though it could load 10 000. The List filter is used to specify a match criteria for instances to load and enable selection. Some BES servers issue an error (500) because they are configured for a ceiling of data to be sent to Blackberry devices.
The following scenario is available too. You can select edit group, to see the current configuration of instances monitored and to add an instance such as LWTC.
You then use edit list, which shows the current instances checked as monitored and the Filtered list driven by the List Filter. In this example 'New" is a filter.
TBSM Blackberry test
A BlackBerry 8700c was used for a long run of 17 hours. The auto refresh was set to every 5 minutes. The Device was on battery the entire time. The test was for a battery usage degrading effect for the application operation. The specification for the Blackberry 8700 for talk time is 4 hours, we ran for 17 hours and used only 15% of the battery.
A BlackBerry Pearl 8110 was used for a long run of 17 hours. The auto refresh was set to every 5 minutes. The Device was on battery the entire time. The test was for a battery usage degrading effect for the application operation. After 17 hours the battery power used was 15%.
The appropriate version of the BlackBerry for the TBSM Midlet application
When creating and building a Blackberry application, it is important to choose the correct version of the BlackBerry JDE, to make sure that the application is compatible with the target BlackBerry devices. Applications built in the BlackBerry JDE are forward-compatible with newer BlackBerry Device Software versions, but they are not backward-compatible with older versions.
For example, an application built in the 4.1 BlackBerry JDE version 4.1 runs on a BlackBerry device running BlackBerry Device Software 4.1 and later. It does not run on a BlackBerry device running BlackBerry Device Software 4.0. Thus, when building applications, you should use a BlackBerry JDE version that matches the lowest version of BlackBerry Device Software that you want to support.
Important: To verify the version of BlackBerry Device Software installed on the BlackBerry device, select Options > About.
The TBSM Midlet Application is Blackberry 4.2.1 which covers the 8700 Series phone and many others.
BlackBerry Licensing/Support
The TBSM BlackBerry application is using the Blackberry JDE 4.3 to create a support level of BlackBerry 4.2.1 application for BlackBerry keyboard devices. The devices for possible support: 8700, 8800, 8300 series, Pearl 8110, Pearl 8120, or possibly Pearl 8100 with Blackberry OS 4.2.1.96 upgrade.
BlackBerry Navigation Anatomy
The TBSM Blackberry Application.
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Business Service Management