The Tivoli Log File Agent reads its configuration (.conf) and format (.fmt) files when it starts, and monitors their timestamp every 60 seconds thereafter.
If the timestamp of the configuration or format file changes, the agent reinitializes its configuration dynamically, without requiring a restart. During reinitialization monitoring is interrupted momentarily. When monitoring resumes, the agent must determine the position in the monitored logs from which to restart. In this situation, the agent behaves in the same way as a full stop and restart.
By default, the agent starts monitoring from the end of the file, when the reinitialization completes. This starting position can cause events that occurred during the interruption of monitoring to be missed. To ensure that such events are picked up when monitoring resumes, use the NumEventsToCatchUp=-1 setting.
Setting NumEventsToCatchUp=-1 causes a position file to be maintained. The position file is updated each time the agent reads the log file. The update saves the position of the agent in the log file, in case of an agent restart. Maintaining the position file has a small performance impact, and so maintain this file only if required. For more information about the NumEventsToCatchUp, see Configuration file.
Dynamic reinitialization of the agent configuration enables IBM® Tivoli® Monitoring Centralized Configuration, for management of configuration and format files. For more information, see Centralized Configuration