Choosing the level of agent capabilities to deploy on managed systems

IBM® Flex System Manager provides four tiers of agents for managed systems. For each managed system, you need to choose the tier that provides the amount and level of capabilities that you need for that managed system.

About this task

Depending on the type of managed system and the management tasks you need to perform, you can choose the level of agent capabilities that best fits your needs. IBM Flex System Manager has four agent tiers:
Agentless in-band
Managed systems without any IBM Flex System Manager software installed. IBM Flex System Manager communicates with the managed system through the operating system.
Agentless out-of-band
Managed systems without any IBM Flex System Manager software installed. IBM Flex System Manager communicates with the managed system through something other than the operating system, such as a service processor or a hardware management console.
Platform Agent
Managed systems with Platform Agent installed. IBM Flex System Manager communicates with the managed system through the Platform Agent.
Common Agent
Managed systems with Common Agent installed. IBM Flex System Manager communicates with the managed system through the Common Agent.
Considerations:
  • Common Agent requires a significant footprint in regard to memory, disk, and network requirements. For more information, see "Hardware requirements for systems running Common Agent or Platform Agent."
  • A managed system using Common Agent can be managed by only one IBM Flex System Manager.
These agent tiers provide different amounts and levels of capabilities in IBM Flex System Manager.

Procedure

  1. For each managed system, determine which agent tiers support the managed system based on the type of the managed system:
    Table 1. Agent tier support by managed system type1.d
    Managed system types Agentless in-band Agentless out-of-band Platform Agent Common Agent
    IBM systems running AIX® X1.a X1.a   X1.b
    IBM systems running IBM i X X X 1.c X
    IBM systems running Linux     X X
    IBM systems running Linux and supporting the SSH 1.e protocol X X X X
    IBM systems running Windows     X X
    IBM systems running Windows and supporting either the SSH or DCOM1.f protocol X X X X
    Non-IBM systems running Linux and supporting either the SSH or DCOM protocol X     X
    Non-IBM systems running Windows and supporting either the SSH or DCOM protocol X     X
    Other managed resources, including management processors supporting SSH, racks, and SNMP devices X X    
    Notes:
    1. Agentless management is supported only with SSH, and it is limited agentless support.
    2. Common Agent is supported with and without SSH.
    3. Platform Agent managed system support is not provided by the Platform Agent but by either the 5722UME or 5770UME product.
    4. In this table, "systems" include servers, desktop computers, workstations, and mobile computers.
    5. SSH = Secure Shell
    6. DCOM = Distributed Component Object Model
  2. For each managed system, determine which agent tiers support the managed system based on the attributes of the managed system:
    Table 2. Agent tier support by managed system attribute1.d
    Managed system attributes Agentless in-band Agentless out-of-band Platform Agent
    Managed system has a supported workgroup/enterprise management agent installed     X
    Minimal additional memory constraint on managed system     X
    No additional memory constraint on managed system X X  
    No Common Agent license required X X X
    No software required on managed system X X  
  3. For each managed system, determine the capabilities of IBM Flex System Manager that you need and decide which agent tier you want to deploy. For instructions, see one or both of the following tasks:
Parent topic: Agents