Agent Information page

The Agent Information page (Figure 26) contains the following information:

• General agent information
• Agent Content information
  • Default Operating Systems link
  • Self-Describing Agent link
  • Environment Variables link
  • Watchdog Information link
  • Cognos® Information link
  • Data sources link
  • Runtime Configuration link
  • Outline View link
• Generate Agent Wizard link
• Commit Agent Version link

Figure 26. Agent Information page

General agent information

This general agent information was entered in the New Agent Wizard when the agent was created.

Default operating systems

Use the Default Operating Systems page to identify the operating systems for which your agent will be built. To open the Default Operating Systems page (Figure 27), click Default Operating Systems in the Agent Content section of the Agent Information page or the Default Operating Systems node in the Outline View. When you generate your agent, files unique to each of the operating systems you select here are added to your agent. Unless otherwise specified, data sources you add to your agent that are not specific to the Windows operating system will be available on any of the operating systems that are checked here. The list of operating systems on which any single data source is available can be changed from this list using the details page for that data source. If no operating systems are selected in this list, then operating systems must be selected for each individual data source on the details page for that data source.

Figure 27. Default Operating Systems page

Self-Describing Agent

Use the Self-Describing Agent page Figure 28 to specify whether the agent's support files are bundled with the agent. To open the Self-Describing Agent page, click Self-Describing Agent in the Agent Content section of the Agent Information page or the Self-Describing Agent node in the Outline View. Self-description is enabled by default for all new agents created with Agent Builder 6.2.3 or later.

When self-description is turned on for an agent, application support packages are included in the agent image which allows the agent to automatically seed the support files for the Tivoli® Enterprise Monitoring Server, Tivoli Enterprise Portal Server, and the Tivoli Enterprise Portal Browser. For more information about self-describing agents, see the IBM® Tivoli Monitoring Installation and Setup Guide and the IBM Tivoli Monitoring Administrator's Guide.

Figure 28. Self-Describing Agent page

Environment variables

Use the Environment Variables page (Figure 29).to view and modify environment variables that are available to your agent while it is running. To open the Environment Variables page, click Environment Variables in the Agent Content section of the Agent Information page or the Environment Variables node in the Outline View.

Figure 29. Environment Variables page

The environment variables can be ones that you define, for access inside a script, or predefined variables that cause the agent to behave in a certain way. See Table 45 for a list of predefined variables.

Use the following procedure to add an environment variable:

1. Click Environment Variables, in the Agent Content section of the Agent Information page.
2. In the Environment Variables page (Figure 29), click Add.
3. In the Environment Variable Information window (Figure 30), complete the information as follows:
   Figure 30. Environment Variable Information window

   
   1. In the Name field, type a variable name or select a predefined name from the drop-down list.
   2. In the Value field, type a value for the variable if you want to set a variable for the agent. If you do not enter a value, the agent propagates a value for the existing variable.
   3. In the Description field, type a description of the variable, or keep the existing description of a predefined variable.
   4. Click OK.

      The new variable is listed in the table on the Agent Information page.

Watchdog information

To open the Watchdog Information page (Figure 31), click Watchdog Information in the Agent Content section of the Agent Information page or the Watchdog Information node in the Outline View.

Figure 31. Watchdog Information page

Use the Watchdog Information page to specify configuration information for the Agent Watchdog:

• Monitor this agent by default

  Select this check box to put the agent under management by Agent Management Services when the agent is installed. The agent is watched for unhealthy behavior or abnormal termination and be restarted by a watchdog.

• Check frequency (seconds)

  How often the watchdog checks the agent process for unhealthy behavior or abnormal termination. The default is every 180 seconds.

• Maximum number of restarts

  How many times the Watchdog will restart the agent process because of unhealthy behavior or abnormal termination in a 24-hour period before alerting the administrator of the problem. The period starts at midnight each day. So, the first period from when the agent is started might be "short."

  A restart occurs if the agent goes down for any reason or if the Watchdog has to stop the agent because it is unresponsive or unhealthy. for example, the Watchdog stops and then starts the agent if the memory threshold is crossed. The default is 4 restarts in a 24-hour period, where the period is measured from midnight to 11:59 p.m. At midnight, the daily restart count for the agent returns to 0 automatically.

• Memory Threshold Information

  Size of the agent process (in megabytes) to which the agent is allowed to grow before its watchdog deems it unhealthy. There is a separate value for Windows, Linux, and UNIX. If the agent process grows beyond the threshold, the watchdog will stop the process and restart it. There are no defaults for these properties. If no value is specified, the Watchdog will not monitor the process size. This metric uses the working set size on Windows, and the user memory on UNIX and Linux.

If the Watchdog stops the agent and the maximum number of restarts has been reached, Watchdog sends an alert that the agent has exceeded its restart count, and stops doing auto-restarts. Watchdog still reports whether the agent is up or down assuming it is started in some sideband manner such as through the Tivoli Enterprise Portal or Manage Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Services.

You must manually restart the agent using the AMS Start Agent Take Action command so the restart count does not get reset.

The count gets reset in one of the following ways (the Watchdog continues to work and report status, but does not do auto-restarts):

• The clock strikes midnight.
• The user uses the AMS Start Agent Take Action command, which has an input parameter called resetRestartCount. If you enter a value of 1 (meaning "true" or "yes"), the daily restart count resets back to 0.

For additional information, see the following sections in the IBM Tivoli Monitoring Administrator’s Guide:

• For Tivoli System Monitor Agents

  "Configuring Agent Management Services on Tivoli System Monitor Agents"

• For Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Agents

  "Installing and configuring Tivoli Agent Management Services"

Cognos information

Use the Cognos Information page (Figure 32) to specify the information used when a Cognos data model is generated for your agent. You can use this data model to create Tivoli Common Reporting reports for your agent, see Appendix E. Cognos data model generation. To open the Cognos Information page, click Cognos Information in the Agent Content section of the Agent Information page or the Cognos Information node in the Outline View.

In the Data Source field, enter the name of the data source that connects Tivoli Common Reporting to the IBM Tivoli Data Warehouse. The default value is TDW. In the Schema field, enter the name of the database schema used for the Tivoli Data Warehouse, which is used to fully qualify table names in Cognos reports. The default value is ITMUSER. This value can be changed in Framework Manager when the generated Cognos model is loaded into Framework Manager.

Figure 32. Cognos Information page

The Add this attribute group to a reporting category check box in the Data Source Definition page Figure 33 determines where in the Cognos model the attribute group is placed. If not selected, the attribute group is placed in the extended attributes folder in the Cognos model. If checked, it is placed in the selected subfolder (availability or performance) in the Key Metrics folder.

Figure 33. Data Source Definition page for Cognos

For more information about the data source fields, see Table 5.

Generate Agent Wizard link

When you have finished creating or editing the new agent, click the Generate Agent Wizard link.

With the Generate Agent Wizard, you can:

• Generate the agent files with an IBM Tivoli Monitoring installation on the local system. See (Installing the agent locally).
• Create a package so the agent can be installed on other systems. See (Creating the agent image).
• Generate an ITM 5x mapping file. See (Appendix F. Upgrading custom IBM Tivoli Monitoring v5.x resource models to IBM Tivoli Monitoring v6.2 agents).

.

Commit Agent Version link

When you are certain you are finished developing this version of the agent and you are ready to deliver it, click the Commit Agent Version link. See Committing a version of the agent for more details.