Configuring the SNMP Probe and Netcool/OMNIbus Knowledge Library

Netcool Configuration Manager requires the Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus nco-p-mttrapd probe and the Netcool/OMNIbus Knowledge Library to be installed on the ObjectServer host.

About this task

If you have existing custom rules the Netcool/OMNIbus Knowledge Library (NcKL) can be migrated from your previous installation, and the rules specific to Netcool Configuration Manager can be found in your Netcool Configuration Manager Presentation server installation.

If you do not have custom rules, install the latest Netcool/OMNIbus Knowledge Library Version 4.4, which already includes the Netcool Configuration Manager NcKL rules.

For the purposes of this integration, it is considered good practice to have a dedicated probe that can be configured with the set of customized lookup tables and rules that are supplied.

Table 1. Netcool/OMNIbus Knowledge Library configuration
Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus component Configuration applied
ObjectServer The ObjectServer is updated as follows:
  • New intra-device correlation tables are added to the alerts database.
  • Supplementary automations are added.
  • Additional fields are added to the alerts.status table.
  • The relevant conversions for the new fields are added to the ObjectServer.
SNMP Probe

The following configuration should be applied to the probe:
  • The Netcool Configuration Manager rules files and lookup files that are provided in the rules.tar.gz file are extracted to a rules subdirectory within the $NCHOME/etc directory on UNIX or Linux®, or a %NCHOME%\NcKL directory on Windows. For example:

    For UNIX operating system/opt/IBM/tivoli/netcool/etc/rules

    For Windows operating systemC:\IBM\tivoli\netcool\NcKL\rules

  • The $NCHOME/omnibus/probes/arch/mttrapd.props file is updated to enable the probe to use the updated rules files. The following properties are set in the mttrapd.props file:
    RulesFile : "$NC_RULES_HOME/snmptrap.rules" 
MIBFile : "" 
QuietOutput : 1
Tip: Before starting any components or working with any configuration files, you are required to set the Network Manager environment variables by running the env.sh script (UNIX or Linux) or env.bat script (Windows). This script is in the Netcool® home location; for example, /opt/IBM/tivoli/netcool or C:\IBM\tivoli\netcool. When you run the script, the $NC_RULES_HOME environment variable is set to the location to which the rules.tar.gz file contents were extracted; that is:
  • $NC_RULES_HOME: $NCHOME/etc/rules
  • %NC_RULES_HOME%: %NCHOME%\NcKL\rules
(Other environment variables, such as $NCHOME, which depicts the Netcool home location, and $TIPHOME, which depicts the installation location of DASH, are also set.)

Note that the Netcool/OMNIbus Knowledge Library configuration file named NcoGateInserts.cfg is also automatically added to the computer that hosts the Network Manager core components. This file is used for performing topology-based event correlation.

Tips for manually configuring the probe properties:
  • Ensure that the RulesFile property is specified after the Name property. Otherwise, the Name property will override the rules file name setting.
  • Ensure that the remainder of the probe properties, such as Server and Port, are appropriately set.
Note: If you installed Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus, the SNMP Probe, and Netcool/OMNIbus Knowledge Library independently of the Network Manager installer, you will be required to manually apply the configuration to obtain the results outlined in Table 1.