Drivers overview

The drivers supplied with Netcool Configuration Manager, or obtained from the IBM Passport Advantage Web site, enable Netcool Configuration Manager to communicate with the different devices used within your network. Drivers are installed by the driver installer and consist of scripts and rules used by the application when communicating with the devices. After driver installation, you update your devices with the new drivers.

Note: The Netcool Configuration Manager Server might be slow to start after installing several individual drivers, because it revalidates the drivers installed on the system. During this startup period the worker server does not pick up any work.

Driver capabilities

Drivers are available for use with Netcool Configuration Manager that provide either Standard mode or SmartModel mode capabilities. Your driver requirements are determined by the devices in your network.

Note: Before selecting the driver to install, ensure that you have obtained the required device information from your network administrator or equivalent network device expert. Also view the drivers release notes packaged with the drivers for additional information.

These drivers can be installed by downloading them from the IBM Passport Advantage Web site: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/howtobuy/passportadvantage/

Standard drivers: When using Standard drivers, Netcool Configuration Manager limits the possible operations that can be performed on the device. Refer to Custom driver capabilities for more details.
SmartModel drivers: When using SmartModel drivers, Netcool Configuration Manager communicates with a device using a tailored set of scripts and metadata for access to an individual device.; SmartModel drivers can also be used in 'Standard' mode, where the generic set of scripts and metadata can be used to access a device if preferred. SmartModel drivers can be used to create Netcool Configuration Manager core compliance modeled definitions.; Drivers are initially installed in 'Standard' mode, and need to be upgraded to SmartModel mode using the SmartModel upgrade tool before the full SmartModel features on the device can be utilised.

Three options for installing drivers are provided: Graphical User Interface (GUI), the console (CLI), or Silent installation.

Individual installers: Individual installers provide a method to install a single driver with support for a small set of devices, thereby allowing for smaller downloads.; Individual installers are available for all drivers.; Individual installers may also be made available when support for new devices become available, or by IBM Support to resolve issues with a given driver.

Important: If you are using command set groups: When adding or removing Netcool Configuration Manager drivers, you must reevaluate all existing command set groups. Use the ReevaluateGroups option that is part of the icosutil utility located in the ncm_install_directory/bin directory to do so. This utility determines if the addition or deletion of drivers has an impact on the coverage of the command set groups and updates them accordingly. In addition to running the ReevaluateGroups utility following the addition or removal of drivers, you should also manually review the coverage of the command set groups after adding or removing drivers.

Upgrading to SmartModel

Drivers can be used in SmartModel mode or Standard mode. Drivers installed with Netcool Configuration Manager default to Standard mode until the SmartModel upgrade tool has been run.

The SmartModel installer package also deploys the SmartModel upgrade tool to allow drivers to be upgraded from Standard to SmartModel mode. Once upgraded to SmartModel mode it is not possible to downgrade a driver from SmartModel mode to Standard mode.

Drivers can be upgraded to SmartModel mode either on an individual basis, or for all drivers on the system.

Tip: You should perform a driver update of 'All Configurations' from the Netcool Configuration Manager GUI for all devices that have been upgraded from Standard to SmartModel.

Driver versioning after installation

After installing new Drivers, existing devices may be marked to indicate a newer version of the Driver has been installed. Devices which have been using the old Driver configuration may have an orange or red arrow icon against them, which indicates that a newer version of the same driver or a more optimal driver is installed and available for the device, and they need a Driver update to update to the newer driver. To perform this, select the network resource, right-click, and select Driver Update. Alternately, from the main Netcool Configuration Manager screen, select the search icon (the magnifier), and toggle the Search by Driver tab, then select the Non-Optimal option and click Search. You can then select all or some of the network resources for Driver Update.

Command Sets using the original driver configs are also affected when new drivers are installed. Refer to Command Set Migration (CmdSetMigration) for additional information on Command Set Migration.

Individual driver removal

To remove an individual driver, or a group of drivers, perform the following steps:

In the Netcool Configuration Manager GUI, open Systems Manager > Drivers.
If the status of the driver(s) to be removed is Active, right-click the driver(s), and click Set Driver Inactive.
Right click the driver(s) to be removed, and click Delete Driver.

Driver uninstallers

When drivers are installed, a corresponding uninstaller named Uninstall_ITNCM <Drivers Package Name> Drivers is placed in a directory named <ITNCM_INSTALLATION_DIRECTORY>/Uninstall_ITNCM <Drivers Package Name> Drivers.

CAUTION:

Uninstallers remove all drivers installed by their corresponding installer, including those that are in active use by Netcool Configuration Manager. Consequently, driver uninstallers should only be run when Netcool Configuration Manager is being completely removed from a server.

Note: Driver uninstaller directories are not removed during an uninstall of Netcool Configuration Manager, and must be deleted manually.