EMS-based discovery tasks

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Network administrators configure an EMS-based discovery by configuring and starting the different elements of the EMS-based discovery process. Network Manager ships with a number of ready-to-use collectors, each of which processes data from a different EMS, and with Java™ and Perl modules to support the development of custom collectors. Network Manager also provides CSV collectors, which process input data from CSV files.

These are the EMS-based discovery tasks:

  • Creating custom collectors
  • Configuring collectors
  • Starting collectors
  • Seeding the Collector finder
  • Enabling collector agents

Creating custom collectors

Network Manager ships with ready-to-use collectors, each of which processes data from a different EMS, and with Java and Perl modules to support the development of custom collectors. Network administrators can develop custom collectors to process data from other EMSs using the Java or Perl modules provided, or using other languages, as documented in the Tivoli® Field Guide: EMS Collector Developer Guide.

Configuring collectors

You must configure each collector so that it is able to pass data requests between Network Manager and the associated data source (for example, EMS or CSV file). Configuring the collector depends on the type of data source:
  • EMS: specify the hostname, port, username and password of the EMS.
  • CSV file: specify details of the CSV files and how to parse them.
You must also instruct the collector which port to listen on for XML-RPC requests from Network Manager. This is typically a one-time setup task required when a new collector is added to your Network Manager installation.

Starting collectors

Before discovery starts, all the collectors must be running.

Seeding the Collector finder

In order to enable Network Manager to find the collectors, you must seed the Collector finder. This task involves specifying for each collector, the hostname of the device on which the collector is running and the port on that device on which the collector is listening. If a collector is running on the same host as Network Manager, then you need only specify the port. This is typically a one-time setup task required when a new collector is added to your Network Manager installation.

Enabling collector agents

By default, the Collector agents are not enabled. You must enable these agents if you are running a discovery that includes collector-based discovery.