Lifeline Agents

The Lifeline Agent receives from the Lifeline Advisor a list of server applications that are configured to receive workload requests from registered external load balancers. The Lifeline Agent gathers data about these server applications and returns the information to the Advisor.

The Lifeline Agent also receives from the Lifeline Advisor, a list of MQ queue managers and MQ cluster queues that are configured to receive workload messages. The Lifeline Agent gathers data about these MQ queue managers and MQ cluster queues and returns the information to the Advisor.

Lifeline Agents can reside on z/OS® systems or Linux® on z Systems® Management Guests.
  • For TCP/IP workloads, the Lifeline Agents reside on z/OS. The Agent monitors the health and availability of both the z/OS system and the workload's TCP/IP server applications on that system.
  • For MQ cluster workloads, the Lifeline Agents reside on z/OS. The Agent monitors the health and availability of both the z/OS system and the workload's MQ queue managers and MQ cluster queues on that system.
  • For SNA workloads, the Lifeline Agents reside on z/OS. The Agent monitors the health and availability of the z/OS system and the availability of the workload's SNA applications on that system.
  • For Linux on z Systems workloads, the Lifeline Agents reside on both z/OS and Linux on z Systems. A Linux on z Systems workload consists of server applications residing on Linux on z Systems guests, and the database subsystem or SNA applications being accessed by these server applications, residing on z/OS systems.
    • The Agent on Linux on z Systems runs on a Linux on z Systems Management Guest. The Agent monitors the availability of the Linux on z Systems guests configured for the workload that reside on the same z/VM® system as the Management Guest. The Agent also monitors the availability of the server applications that run on each of these guests.
    • The Agent on z/OS monitors the health and availability of both the z/OS system and the workload's database subsystem or SNA applications.
    • The Agent on Linux on z Systems does not monitor any MQ queue managers and MQ cluster queues on Linux on z Systems guests for MQ cluster workloads.
    See Linux on z Systems Workloads for details about Lifeline Agents that reside on Linux on z Systems.
Rule: In this information, the term z/OS Agent refers to the Lifeline Agent that resides on z/OS. The term Linux on z Systems Management Agent refers to the Lifeline Agent that resides on the Linux on z Systems Management Guest. The term Agent by itself refers to both the z/OS Agent and the Linux on z Systems Management Agent.

The Lifeline Linux on z Systems Management Agent maintains a single connection to the Lifeline Advisor. The Lifeline z/OS Agent maintains two connections to the Lifeline Advisor. The first connection is used to communicate status information. For z/OS Agents, the second connection is used to send and receive MQ messages that are being transferred as a result of a MODIFY advisor_proc,TRANSFER command. These connections can be either an IPv4 or IPv6 connection. If the TCP/IP stack where the Agent resides is not IPv6-enabled, you will not be able to create the IPv6 connection.

See the Recommendations provided by the Lifeline Advisor section in Lifeline Advisors for the set of metrics gather by the Agents about the server applications, MQ queue managers and MQ cluster queues, and z/OS system being monitored.