SOAP server

The SOAP server is an application server plug-in that receives and sends XML data, and provides XML SOAP interfaces into the Tivoli Management Services components and the monitoring agent. The SOAP server is installed with each monitoring server and is enabled during configuration of the hub monitoring server. During configuration, you specify the list of non-local hub monitoring servers with which the local SOAP server can communicate.

SOAP services can add a whole new dimension to your use of the OMEGAMON® monitors. You can invoke SOAP from the Tivoli administrative commands (tacmd) Command Line Interface (CLI) to issue commands to manage the monitoring environment, such as turning situations on or off. SOAP can also enable very sophisticated automation solutions by opening up monitoring data for use by an automation product such as System Automation for z/OS®. For example, an OMEGAMON situation that triggers an action in the automation product could be followed by a SOAP request to the monitor to get additional data. Automation could then use that data to validate the results or to take further action.

The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is a communication method that uses the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Extensible Markup Language (XML) as the mechanisms for information exchange. Because web protocols are installed and available for use by all major operating system platforms, HTTP and XML provide a ready solution to the problem of how programs running under different operating systems in a network can communicate with each other. SOAP specifies exactly how to encode an HTTP header and an XML file so that a program in one computer can call a program in another computer and pass it information. It also specifies how the called program can return a response.

An advantage of SOAP is that program calls are likely to get through firewall servers that screen out requests other than those for known applications (through the designated port mechanism). Because HTTP requests are usually allowed through firewalls, programs using SOAP to communicate can generally communicate with programs anywhere.