Configuring collectors

The purpose of a collector is to gather and standardise EMS data based on requests by the main Network Manager discovery process, for consumption by the discovery process. Collector configuration governs how the collector interrogates the EMS or data source in order to service requests from the Network Manager discovery process, and how the collector listens for requests from the Network Manager discovery process.

Collector configuration is made up of three areas:
  • Collector to EMS or data source configuration: these settings define how the collector interrogates the EMS or data source in order to service requests from the Network Manager discovery process.
  • Collector to Network Manager configuration: these settings define how the collector listens for requests from the Network Manager discovery process.
  • Miscellaneous configuration: these settings are optional and include settings such as debug mode.
These configuration settings are typically held in a single file on a per-collector basis inside the relevant collector directory.
Scripts and a plain-text configuration file for each collector are held in a separate directories within the $NCHOME/precision/collectors/ directory, as follows:
  • Collectors written in Java™ are stored in the $NCHOME/precision/collectors/javaCollectors/ directory.
  • Collectors written in Perl are stored in the $NCHOME/precision/collectors/perlCollectors/ directory.
Note: To allow the collectors to be run in isolation, that is, on another machine in a Network Manager installation, the collector directory can be moved to that machine and the collectors can be run there provided that the following hold:
  • For the Perl collector directory, Perl must be installed on the target machine.
  • For the Java collector directory, a suitable Java Virtual Machine must be available on the target machine.

Experienced users can develop new collectors to enable Network Manager to interact with other EMSs. Configuration and executable files for each new collector must be placed in an appropriately named directory within one of the directories listed above, depending on whether the collector is written in Java or Perl. For more information, see the EMS Collector Developer Guide.