ITM Agent Insights: Multiple ITMAgent* files under /etc/init.d

Body

On UNIX and Linux machines hosting the OS (operating system) agents, multiple ITMAgent* files are present under /etc/init.d

* -> indicates a number such as 1, 2 etc

The following blog will help you answer: 

Q1) What do multiple files indicate?
Q2) Is there a way to have a single file instead of having multiple copies?

NOTE: On AIX, the file is named rc.itm* under /etc

• On a Solaris/Linux machine, navigate to the /etc/init.d folder. This will list the available ITMAgents* files. 
• On AIX machine, navigate to /etc folder. This will list the available rc.itm* files

1) ITMAgents* are generated by $CANDLEHOME/bin/UpdateAutoRun.sh and these can not be modified manually, except for commenting out specific start and stop lines. The $CANDLEHOME/config/kcirunas.cfg file and <HOST>_kdyrunas.cfg file can impact the user used to start the agents in the ITMAgents* file.

2) The number of ITMAgents* generally indicates the number of CANDLEHOMEs on the machine 

Example: 

ITMAgents1 = CANDLEHOME1 

ITMAgents2 = CANDLEHOME2

3) $CANDLEHOME/registry/AutoStart. contains the suffix number of the ITMAgents* file that should be used for the corresponding CANDLEHOME. 

Example: 

$CANDLEHOME1/registry# cat Autostart 

1 

$CANDLEHOME2/registry# cat Autostart 

2 

NOTE: If there is a single CANDLEHOME, and you still have multiple ITMAgents* files, these are redundant files. There are known bugs from older releases (before ITM 6.22) that can leave an extra ITMAgents* file behind. These are fixed in all the current release.

Example: Upgrade of ITM OS agent from V6.2 to V6.3 may leave redundant ITMAgents* files

4) You can remove the unwanted ITMAgents* file using the following approach

• If multiple CANDLEHOMEs exist on a machine, there should be multiple ITMAgents* files corresponding to each CANDLEHOME.
• If single CANDLEHOME exists on a machine and there are multiple ITMAgents* files left from the previous install, you can delete the unwanted file by confirming the Autostart suffix number. (It is a good idea to note the contents of both files as well).

Example: A machine which contains ITMAgents1 and ITMAgents2, you can delete the ITMAgents1 file after you confirm the Autostart suffix number. 

$CANDLEHOME/registry# cat Autostart 

2 

5) Alternately, if you only want ITMAgents1 on a single CANDLEHOME machine and remove ITMAgents2 which is being used as stated in the Example above, You can use the following steps to do this: 

• Modify CANDLEHOME/registry/Autostart and change the content from 2 to 1. 
• Run $CANDLEHOME/bin/UpdateAutoRun.sh (as root). 
• Verify that ITMAgents1 is correct (by matching it with contents of ITMAgents2). 
• Remove ITMAgents2.

NOTE: The key is to modify AutoStart before doing anything else. This SHOULD be done when the agents are STARTED, not to be executed by stopping the agents.

Additional ITM Agent Insights series of IBM Tivoli Monitoring Agent blogs are indexed under ITM Agent Insights: Introduction.

Subscribe and follow us for all the latest information directly on your social feeds: