ITM Agent Insights: New attributes in the 6.30 FP5 Unix Data Collection Status Group

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This blog will discuss the new attributes related to the processes monitored by the Data Collection Status Group (the daemons used by the agent) introduced in the 6.30 FP5 Monitoring Agent for Unix OS.

Moreover a new value for the attribute Status is introduced: Stopped.
It applies to the fcp_daemon only, with the following logic:

When the script execution feature is enabled but the fcp_daemon is not running,  if it is in the status "No Restart" the corresponding status in Data Collection Status is "Failed", otherwise it is "Stopped".

The new attributes' complete list and their descriptions are listed below.

Five new attributes added to the Unix Data Collection Status attribute group:

1) CPU Pct
The percentage of CPU used by this process.
As this value is normalized, it does not exceed 100 percent, even if more than one processor is installed.

Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available and -2 indicates Not Collected. Use this attribute to determine which processes are using the most CPU time. High CPU percent might indicate a runaway or long running process.

Note that the attribute value is averaged in sync with the situation or historical collection interval.

For example, enter 50 to represent 50.00%, or 50.34 to represent 50.34%.

2) Size (KBytes)
The resident set size of the process, in kilobytes.

Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum.

Use this attribute to determine which processes are using too much memory. Excessive resident set size might lead to memory shortage and cause system performance problems.

3) Start Time
The time when the process was started.

Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available.

Valid entries are in the format CYYMMDDHHMMSSmmm, where:
C = Century (0=20th)
YY = Year
MM = Month of the Year (01-12)
DD = Day of the Month (01-31)
HH = Hour, in 24-hour time (00-23)
MM = Minute
SS = Second
mmm = Millisecond

Example: A value of 0951009130500000 indicates the agent collected the data on October 9, 1995 at 1:05 p.m.

4) Time
The total amount of CPU time that a process has consumed.

Should this value become large, it might indicate a runaway or long-running process.

Note that the CPU Time attribute indicates number of seconds, the Time attribute indicates MMMMM:SS (minutes:seconds), and the Total CPU Time attribute indicates DDD:HH:MM:SS (days:hours:minutes:seconds).

Example: To express 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 30 seconds, enter 00065:30.

Use this attribute to identify runaway or long-running processes.

5) Virtual Size
The size of the virtual memory used by this process, in kilobytes.

Note: the value -1 indicates Not Available, -2 indicates Not Collected, 2147483647 indicates Value_Exceeds_Maximum, and -2147483648 indicates Value_Exceeds_Minimum.

Use this attribute to determine the size of the virtual memory used by a process. Excessive virtual memory size might indicate a memory leak.

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

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