Properties and command line options

You use properties to specify how the probe interacts with the device. You can override the default values by using the properties file or the command line options.

The following table describes the properties and command line options specific to this probe. For information about default properties and command line options, see the IBM Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus Probe and Gateway Guide, (SC14-7530).

Table 1. Properties and command line options
Property name	Command line arguments	Description
AgentHeartbeat `integer`	-heartbeat `integer`	Use this property to specify the time (in milliseconds) that the probe waits to send a connection heartbeat. The default is 5000.
AgentProtocol `string`	-protocol `string`	Use this property to specify the protocol used by the probe to communicate with the agent. This property takes the following values: UDP: The UDP protocol is used to communicate with the agent. TCP: The TCP protocol is used to communicate with the agent. The default is UDP.
AgentReport `integer`	-agentreport (This is equivalent to AgentReport with a value of 1.)	Use this property to specify whether or not the reporting of agent connections is enabled. This property takes the following values: 0: The reporting of agent connections is disabled. 1: The reporting of agent connections is enabled. The default is 0. When reporting is enabled, the probe counts the number of agent connections that are dead, pending, open, or closed and sends a report as a ProbeWatch message. The probe also pings each agent that it is connected to. The BMC Patrol agents send one of the following responses: `OK` `WARN` `ALARM` `OFFLINE` `VOID` `timeout` If `timeout` is returned, the agent did not respond within the period specified in the AgentStatusTimeout property and the probe assumes that the connection is dead and needs to be reestablished.
AgentReportCheck `integer`	-agentreportcheck `integer`	When AgentReport is enabled, this property specifies the number of milliseconds between checking the number of agent connections that are dead, pending, open, or closed. The default is 180000.
AgentRetries `integer`	-retries `integer`	Use this property to specify the number of times the probe attempts to retry connecting. This property takes the following values: `0` (There is no limit on the number of attempts that the probe makes.) `2` through `10`. The default is 4. Note: You cannot set this property to `1`.
AgentStatusTimeout `integer`	-pingtimeout `integer`	Use this property to specify the maximum time (in milliseconds) that the probe waits for an agent to respond with a connection status message. This should be quite small as the probe must wait this amount of time to determine whether a connection is dead. The default is 2000.
AgentTimeout `integer`	-agenttimeout `integer`	Use this property to specify the communication connection timeout in milliseconds. The default is 5000.
ConnectedOnLogin `integer`	-connectedonlogin (This is equivalent to ConnectedOnLogin with a value of 1.)	Use this property to specify whether or not the probe sends the `Agent Connected` message when the probe receives the `User Logged In` message from that agent. The default is 0.
ConnectionCheck `integer`	-connectioncheck `integer`	Use this property to specify the interval (in milliseconds) between successive checks of the probe's agent connections. When the connection has been retried the number of times specified by the RetryInterval property, the probe issues a new connection request. The default is 60000.
DefFileInterval `integer`	-deffileinterval `integer`	Use this property to specify the time (in milliseconds) that the probe waits between checking the BMC Patrol definitions file for changes. If the probe detects that the file has been altered, it reloads this file and then opens or closes agent connections, as necessary. The default is 300000.
DisablePatrolPing `integer`	-disablepatrolping `integer`	Use this property to specify whether or not the probe pings the hosts. This property takes the following values: 0: The probe pings the hosts. 1: The probe does not ping the hosts. The default is 0.
ExtraDebug `integer`	-extradebug (This is equivalent to ExtraDebug with a value of 1.)	When this property is set to `1`, the probe logs extra information to the message log file. This extra debugging information shows the status of each agent connection and the number of cycles before the probe attempts to reconnect. The default is 0.
IgnorePasswordFailures `integer`	-ignorefailures (This is equivalent to IgnorePasswordFailures with a value of 1.)	When this property is set to `1`, the probe ignores the error messages returned when the connection to an agent has failed due to username/password problems. This causes the probe to retry the connection to the agent (instead of ignoring that agent). The probe picks up any username/password changes each time it checks the `patrol.def` file (as defined by the DefFileInterval). The default is 0.
InactivityTimeout `integer`	-inactivitytimeout `integer`	Use this property to specify the time (in seconds) that the probe allows an agent to be inactive before disconnecting from the agent and reopening the connection. This prompts the agent to send new alarms to the probe. The default is 3600. Note: The minimum value for this property is `300` seconds.
LocalPort `integer`	-localport `integer`	Use this property to specify the local port number to communicate with a BMC Patrol agent across a firewall. The default is 0.
MaxPingTimeouts `integer`	-maxpingtimeouts `integer`	Use this property to specify the number of consecutive timed-out ping responses that the probe allows before it attempts to reconnect to the agent. The default is 0.
PatrolDef `string`	-def `string`	Use this property to specify the name of the file that contains the definitions of all agents to which the probe connects. The default is $OMNIHOME/probes/`arch`/patrol.def.
RecoveryFileName `string`	-recoveryfile `string`	Use this property to specify the file to which recovery data is written. The recovery data is stored in an ASCII format as a sequence of `ipnumber-EventID: pairs`. The default is $OMNIHOME/probes/`arch`/patrol.reco.
RecoveryInterval `integer`	-recoveryinterval `integer`	Use this property to specify the interval (in milliseconds) between successive recovery file writes. Depending on the number of agents that the probe is connected to, raise or lower this value so that writing the recovery data does not affect the performance of the probe. The default is 60000.
RecoveryMaxEvents `integer`	-recoverymax `integer`	Use this property to specify the maximum number of events sent by an agent in response to a recovery query. When the probe is recovering from a previous session, it requests that no more than the maximum number of events are sent to it per agent. The default is 1000.
RecoveryMode `integer`	-recoverymode `integer`	Use this property to specify how the probe recovers if the connection between the agent and the probe is lost. This property takes the following values: 0: NORMAL recovery mode. The probe does not read the recovery file on startup, but immediately begins listening for new events from the agents. 1: RECOVERY mode. Forces the probe to read the recovery file and send requests to agents for events that may have occurred since the last event was received. You can use the RecoveryStatusMaskFilter and RecoveryTypeMaskFilter properties in conjunction with this mode. 2: RESYNCH mode. The probe ignores the recovery file on start up, but requests events from all agents that match the settings indicated in the RecoveryStatusMaskFilter and RecoveryTypeMaskFilter properties, regardless of when they were received. The default filter properties select ALL events. Using these in RESYNCH mode requests ALL events from the agent, which may not be advisable. The default is 0.
RecoveryStatusMask Filter `string`	-recoverystatusmask `string`	This property works in exactly the same way as StatusMaskFilter; however, it only applies to the query sent to agents when recovering from a previous session or when resynchronizing in RESYNCH mode. See the StatusMaskFilter property in this table for valid values and the default setting. When in RESYNCH mode, set the recovery filters to request only active alarms from the agents. See the RecoveryMode property in this table for more information. The default is O,A,E,C,D.
RecoveryTypeMask `string`	-recoverytypemask `string`	This property works in exactly the same way as TypeMaskFilter; however, it only applies to the query sent to agents when recovering from a previous session or when resynchronizing in RESYNCH mode. See the TypeMaskFilter property in this table for valid values and the default setting. When in RESYNCH mode, set the recovery filters to request only active alarms from the agents. See the RecoveryMode property in this table for more information. The default is I,S,E,W,A,R.
ResynchCheck `integer`	-resynchcheck `integer`	Use this property to specify the interval (in milliseconds) with which the probe checks whether a resynch request needs to be sent to one of the agents. It is only possible to send one request at a time, so this interval allows the probe to send resynch requests to the agents sequentially. The default is 30000.
RetryInterval `integer`	-interval `integer`	Use this property to specify the number of `ConnectionCheck` intervals for which the probe waits before retrying a connection to an agent. The default is 3.
StatusMaskFilter `string`	-statusmask `string`	Use this property to specify the status mask filter that the probe uses to select events. For this property you must specify a string containing one or more status tags separated by commas. This property takes the following values: O: open A: acknowledged C: closed E: escalated D: deleted The default is O,A,C,E,D (this selects events of any status).
TypeMaskFilter `string`	-typemask `string`	Use this property to specify the type mask filter that the probe uses to select events. For this property you must specify a string containing one or more event type tags separated by commas. This property takes the following values: I: information S: state change E: error W: warning A: alarm R: response The default is I,S,E,W,A,R (this selects events of any type).