Monitoring data from a Common Information Model (CIM)

You can define a data source to receive data from a Common Information Model (CIM) data source. A data source monitors a single CIM class and places all values from this class into the data set that it produces. If the class provides several instances, the data set has multiple rows; you can filter by instance name to ensure the data set has one row.

About this task

This task describes the steps to configure a Common Information Model (CIM) data source.

Procedure

  1. On the Agent Initial Data Source page or the Data Source Location page, click Data from a server in the Monitoring Data Categories area.
  2. In the Data Sources area, click CIM.
  3. Click Next.
  4. On the Common Information Model (CIM) Information page CIM information area, make one of the following choices:
    • Complete the Namespace and CIM class name fields for the data that you want to collect.
    • Click Browse to browse a CIM repository on a specific system.

      The Common Information Model (CIM) Class Browser window is displayed. This browser connects to a CIM server and provides you with information about the classes that exist on that server.

      To browse a remote system, select a system from the Hostname list (if one is defined). Alternatively click Add to add the host name of the system where the CIM server is located.

      The syntax for specifying the host name is http[s]://hostname:port. If you provide the host name only, the Common Information Model (CIM) Class Browser connects by using a default URL of http://hostname:5988.

      If you provide a protocol without specifying a port, 5988 is used as the default for http or 5989 as the default for https.

      If you provide a port without specifying a protocol, http is used with the port provided.

      Provide a user ID and password for an account with read permission to the objects in the namespace that you want to browse. The window is updated with the information for the remote system.

      Agent Builder attempts to discover the namespaces available on the CIM Server. The discovered namespaces are displayed in the Namespace list. However, the Agent Builder might not be able to discover all namespaces that are available on the server. If you want to browse a namespace that is not listed in the Namespace list, click the plus (+) icon next to the Namespace list. Enter the name of the namespace in the field and click OK. If the namespace is present on the CIM server, the classes that are defined in the namespace are listed. The namespaces you type are saved and put into the Namespace list the next time you browse that particular CIM server.

      When you select a namespace from the Namespace list, the Agent Builder collects all of the class information for that particular namespace. Then, the Agent Builder caches this information so you can switch between namespaces quickly. If you want to force the Agent Builder to recollect the class information for a particular namespace, select the namespace and click Connect. Clicking Connect deletes any cached information, and causes the Agent Builder to recollect the class information.

      You can click the Search (binoculars) icon to find your selection in the list. Type a phrase in the Search phrase field; specify your preference by clicking either the Search by name or Search by class properties fields; and click OK. If you find the item for which you are searching, select it and click OK.

  5. On the Common Information Model (CIM) Information page, Operating systems area, select the operating systems on which the collection is to take place.
  6. If you typed the Namespace and CIM class name in the CIM information area, do the following steps:
    1. Click Next to display the Attribute Information page and define the first attribute in the attribute group.
    2. Specify the information about the Attribute Information page, and click Finish.
  7. If you browsed the CIM information, the Select key attributes page is displayed. On the Select key attributes page, select key attributes or indicate that this data source produces only one data row. For more information, see (Selecting key attributes).
  8. If you browsed to the CIM information, click Finish.
  9. Optional: You can test this attribute group by clicking Test. For more information about testing, see Testing CIM attribute groups
  10. Optional: You can create a filter to limit the data that is returned by this attribute group by clicking Advanced. For more information about filtering data from an attribute group, see Filtering attribute groups
  11. Do one of the following steps:
    1. If you are using the Agent wizard, click Next.
    2. Click Finish to save the data source and open the Agent Editor.