Severity levels

IBM® Prerequisite Scanner provides a set of severity levels for its prerequisite properties. A severity level represents an attribute of the prerequisite property that Prerequisite Scanner uses to flag how critical the prerequisite property is to the success of a product's or component's installation or runtime environment.

The supported severity levels are as follows:

Fail
By default, all prerequisite properties have severity level of FAIL. It is implicit and is not specified for the prerequisite properties in the configuration files. If the scan returns a FAIL result for the prerequisite property with this severity level, then the overall scan result is FAIL. The product's or component's installation might fail because of the associated missing or incorrect prerequisite. The users must take appropriate actions before they install the product or component; for example, install the missing operating system packages, increase disk space for the file systems, or modify the configuration settings of the target environment to match the expected value for the prerequisite property.
Warning
A prerequisite property can have a severity level of WARN. It must be explicitly specified for the prerequisite property in the configuration file; unless the prerequisite property supports a range for the expected value and a range is specified. When a supported prerequisite property has an expected value range, the warning severity level is implicit. The list of prerequisite properties that support expected value ranges are outlined in Table 1.
If the scan returns a WARN result for the prerequisite property with this severity level, then the overall scan result is WARNING; unless there is a FAIL result for another prerequisite property, and then the overall result is FAIL. The product's or component's installation can continue; however, the product's or component's performance and the runtime environment might be impacted by the associated missing or incorrect prerequisite.

Severity levels must adhere to the following format:

[[sev:FAIL|WARN]][[qualifier_name:qualifier_value]]property_value
sev:FAIL|WARN is the optional severity level for the prerequisite property. The sev severity level identifier and its value must be delimited by the : special character. Valid values for the severity level are:
  • FAIL
  • WARN
Note: The severity level must be enclosed by [] square brackets.

With the following prerequisite property in a configuration file, the prerequisite check returns a WARN result if the number of logical CPUs on the target machine is less than 4. The overall result is WARNING, unless there is a FAIL result for another prerequisite property.

numLogicalCPU=[sev:WARN]4

Handling severity levels for ranges

An expected value range represents the minimum expected value for the prerequisite property, minimum_property_value, and the recommended expected value, recommended_property_value. When you specify a range for a supported prerequisite property, the scan sets a different severity level and returns a different result depending on whether the actual value is below, within, or above the specified range as follows:

Actual value < minimum_property_value
When the actual value is less than the minimum expected value, the implicit severity level is FAIL. The scan returns a FAIL result.
(Actual value >=minimum_property_value) AND (Actual value < recommended_property_value)
When the actual value is equal to or greater than the minimum expected value and is less than the recommended expected value, the implicit severity level is WARN. The scan returns a WARN result.
Actual value >=recommended_property_value
When the actual value is greater than or equal to the recommended expected value, the scan returns a PASS result.
Tip: Prerequisite Scanner uses the same mechanism to set a different severity level and return a different result for those prerequisite properties that are aggregated when multiple products or components are scanned. See Aggregating memory and disk space prerequisite properties.

The minimum and recommended expected values are delimited by the - special character. Table 1 summarizes the prerequisite properties that support a range.

Table 1. Prerequisite properties that support ranges with implicit severity levels
Prerequisite property Platform Description Valid values
db2.home.space UNIX The available disk space for the DB2® home directory The value can be any of the following types:
  • Numeric format in MBs and GBs, for example:
    8GB
  • A range of positive integers in MBs and GBs to represent the minimum and recommended disk space, which is specified by using the - character, for example:
    3-5GB
 
Disk
 Windows The amount of free disk space, with the following optional qualification attributes:
  • dir attribute, to determine which path to the directory to check
  • unit attribute, to determine which units for disk space to use
If you do not the specify dir attribute or set the path parameter when running the Prerequisite Scanner script, the tool checks the default installation directories for IBM Tivoli® products:
  • On Windows systems: C:\IBM\ITM
 The value can be any of the following types:
  • String with the following qualifier format:
    [dir:dir_path, unit:unit_name]disk_space
    For example: 
    Disk=
[dir:C:\Program Files\IBM\SQLLIB,
unit:MB]1431
  • Numeric format in MBs or GBs:
    disk_spaceMB|GB
    For example:
    Disk=250MB
  • A range of positive integers in MBs or GBs to represent the minimum and recommended disk space, which is specified by using the - character, for example:
    Disk=3-5GB

Disk=
[dir:C:\Program Files\IBM\Prerequisite Scanner,unit:MB]100-400
 
Disk
 UNIX

The amount of free disk space

If you do not set the path parameter when running the Prerequisite Scanner script, the tool checks the default installation directories for IBM Tivoli products:
  • On UNIX systems: /opt/IBM/ITM
 The value can be any of the following types:
  • Numeric format in MBs or GBs, for example:
    2GB
  • A range of positive integers in MBs or GBs to represent the minimum and recommended disk space, which is specified by using the - character, for example:
    3-5GB
 
intel.cpu
 All The CPU speed for the Intel processor The value can be any of the following types:
  • Numeric format in GHz and also in MHz on Windows only, for example: 
    2GHz
  • A range of positive integers, in GHz and also in MHz on Windows only, to represent the minimum and recommended CPU speed, which is specified by using the - character, for example:
    2.4-2.8GHz
 
Memory
 All The total amount of physical memory that is currently available on the machine.
Tip: Separately check for the amount of physical and virtual memory available by the using predefined prerequisite properties in the operating system category.

On AIX® systems only, the following conditions apply:

  • For AIX 5.3 TL9 or later, the prerequisite property checks for the available memory; For AIX 5.3 TL8 or earlier, it checks for the free physical memory.
  • For AIX 6.1 TL2 or later, the prerequisite property checks for the available memory; For AIX 6.1 TL1 or earlier, it checks for the free physical memory.
 The value can be any of the following types:
  • Numeric format in MBs or GBs, for example:
    300MB
  • A range of positive integers in MBs or GBs to represent the minimum and recommended physical memory, which is specified by using the - character, for example:
    500-900MB
 
risc.cpu
 UNIX The CPU speed for a RISC processor The value can be any of the following types:
  • Numeric format in GHz, for example: 
    2GHz
  • A range of positive integers in GHz to represent the minimum and recommended CPU speed, which is specified by using the - character, for example:
    2.4-2.8GHz
 
Temp
 UNIX The available disk space for the specified Temp file system The value can be any of the following types:
  • Numeric format in MBs or GBs, for example:
    300MB
  • A range of positive integers in MBs or GBs to represent the minimum and recommended disk space, which is specified by using the - character, for example:
    500-900MB
 
os.availableMemory

Windows

Checks the amount of virtual memory that is currently available but unused by the operating system

 The value can be any of the following types:
  • Numeric format in MBs, for example:
    900MB
  • A range of positive integers in MBs to represent the minimum and recommended available memory, which is specified by using the - character, for example:
    500-900MB
 
os.RAMSize

UNIX

Checks the RAM that the operating system can access and report on the machine, which might be less than the actual number of GBs of installed RAM depending on the operating system type

 The value can be any of the following types:
  • Numeric format in GBs, for example:
    2.8GB
  • A range of positive integers in GBs to represent the minimum and recommended RAM size, which is specified by using the - character, for example:
    2-3GB
 
os.space.dir_name

UNIX

Checks the available disk space for the specified dir_name file system based on one or more of the following qualification attributes:

  • dir attribute, to determine which path to the file system to check
  • unit attribute, to determine which units for disk space to use

The value for dir attribute is dependant on the logged on user; thus, the value is a name value pair to represent the user type, that is, root or non-root, and the associated path.

dir_name can represent for example:
  • home
  • opt
  • tmp
  • usr
  • var
Note: You cannot use this variant twice for the same file system but different user types in a single configuration file. Use a combination of the os.space.dir_name_nonroot and os.space.dir_name_root variants.

String with the following qualifier format for the file system of a root user:

[dir:root=dir_path, unit:unit_name]disk_space|minimum_value-recommended_value
For example: 
os.space.usr=[dir:root=/usr/ibm/common/acsi,unit:GB]2
os.space.usr=[dir:root=/usr/ibm/common/acsi,unit:GB]2-3

String with the following qualifier format for the file system of a non-root user:

[dir:non_root=dir_path, unit:unit_name]disk_space|minimum_value-recommended_value
For example:
os.space.home=[dir:non_root=USERHOME/.acsi_HOST,unit:MB]200
os.space.home=[dir:non_root=USERHOME/.acsi_HOST,unit:MB]200-500
os.space.dir_name continued    
String with the following qualifier format for the file system of both users, using only one qualifier:
[dir:root=dir_path;non_root=dir_path]disk_space|minimum_value-recommended_value MB
For example:
os.space.home=[dir:root=/usr/ibm/common;non_root=USERHOME]250MB
os.space.home=[dir:root=/usr/ibm/common;non_root=USERHOME]250-500MB
Numeric format in MB or GBs, for example:
os.space.opt=11GB
A range of positive integers in MBs or GBs to represent the minimum and recommended disk space, which is specified by using the - character, for example:
os.space.opt=500-900MB
 
os.space.dir_name_nonroot

UNIX

Checks the available disk space for the dir_name file system of the non-root user, based on one or more of the following qualification attributes:

  • dir attribute, to determine which path to the file system to check
  • unit attribute, to determine which units for disk space to use
dir_name can represent for example:
  • home
  • opt
  • tmp
  • usr
  • var

String with the following qualifier format for the file system of a non-root user:

[dir:non_root=dir_path, unit:unit_name]disk_space|minimum_value-recommended_value
For example: 
os.space.home_nonroot=[dir:non_root=USERHOME/.acsi_HOST,unit:MB]200
os.space.home_nonroot=[dir:non_root=USERHOME/.acsi_HOST,unit:MB]200-500

String with the dir qualification attribute only for the file system of a non-root user:

[dir:non_root=dir_path]disk_space|minimum_value-recommended_valueGB|MB
For example: 
os.space.opt_nonroot=[dir:non_root=/opt/IBM/ITM]1024MB
os.space.opt_nonroot=[dir:non_root=/opt/IBM/ITM]1-2GB
 
os.space.dir_name_root

UNIX

Checks the available disk space for the dir_name file system of the root user, based on one or more of the following qualification attributes:

  • dir attribute, to determine which path to the file system to check
  • unit attribute, to determine which units for disk space to use
dir_name can represent for example:
  • home
  • opt
  • tmp
  • usr
  • var

String with the following qualifier format for the file system of a root user:

[dir:root=dir_path, unit:unit_name]disk_space|minimum_value-recommended_value
For example:
os.space.usr_root=[dir:root=/usr/ibm/common/acsi,unit:GB]1
os.space.usr_root=[dir:root=/usr/ibm/common/acsi,unit:GB]1-2

String with the dir qualification attribute only for the file system of a root user:

[dir:root=dir_path]disk_space|minimum_value-recommended_valueGB|MB
For example: 
os.space.opt_root=[dir:root=/opt/IBM/ITM]1024MB
os.space.opt_root=[dir:root=/opt/IBM/ITM]1-2GB
 
os.swapSize

UNIX

Checks whether the swap space must be greater than the RAM size or the total amount of swap space

Note: On AIX systems only: If you are logged in as a non root user, you must have permissions to run the bootinfo command; otherwise, the returned results might be unexpected.
 The value can be any of the following types:
  • Boolean value, for example:
    True
  • Numeric format in MBs or GBs, for example: 2GB
  • A range of positive integers in MBs or GBs to represent the minimum and recommended swap size, which is specified by using the - character, for example:
    1-2GB
 
os.totalMemory

Windows

The total amount of virtual memory to which the operating system can access

 he value can be any of the following types:
  • Numeric format in MBs or GBs, for example:
    2030MB
  • A range of positive integers in MBs or GBs to represent the minimum and recommended total virtual memory, which is specified by using the - character, for example:
    1-2GB
 
os.totalPhysicalMemory

Windows

The total amount of physical memory that the operating system can access, but it does not indicate the true amount of physical memory on the target computer

 The value can be any of the following types:
  • Numeric format in MBs or GBs, for example:
    2030MB
  • A range of positive integers in MBs or GBs to represent the minimum and recommended total physical memory, which is specified by using the - character, for example:
    1-2GB
Parent topic: Prerequisite Scanner architecture