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BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Supporting
BMC ProactiveNet version 8.6.01
April 2011

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BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Contents
Chapter 1 Getting started with the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console 17 Accessing the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console ....................................17 Launching the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console on Windows computers ..............................................................................................................18 Launching the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console on Solaris computers ..............................................................................................................20 Using the Search function in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console ......................................................................................................................................21 Configuring cell connection properties to the BMC ProactiveNet Server .............25 Specifying ports in cell connection properties ................................................28 Setting BMC ProactiveNet Server connection properties .........................................29 Logging out of and into the BMC ProactiveNet Server from the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console .................................................................................................30 Changing your BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console password ...............31 BMC ProactiveNet profiles ............................................................................................31 Accessing online Help ....................................................................................................32 Chapter 2 Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents 33 Adding Agents ................................................................................................................33 Editing an agent ..............................................................................................................35 About Remote Agents ...................................................................................................35 Local Agents vs. Remote Agents .......................................................................36 Adding remote agents .........................................................................................36 Editing remote agents ........................................................................................39 Connecting, disconnecting, and restarting agents ..........................................40 Deleting a remote agent ......................................................................................41 How do Tunnel Agents work? ......................................................................................42 Installing tunnel agents ..................................................................................................44 Tunnel proxy setup ........................................................................................................48 Adding a proxy agent to the BMC ProactiveNet Server ................................49 Adding the agent to connect through the proxy agent ..................................50 Adding a tunnel agent to the BMC ProactiveNet Server ...............................51 Converting an HTTP/HTTPS Agent to a TCP Agent ...............................................51 Converting an HTTP/Secure or HTTP Agent to HTTPS Agent .............................52 Convert TCP Agent to HTTP/HTTPS Agent .............................................................53 Configuration properties ...............................................................................................54

Contents

Available properties ............................................................................................55 Properties used by Tunnel Agent ......................................................................56 SSL TCP/IP Agent ..........................................................................................................57 Connecting to Agents using SSL .......................................................................57 Converting a TCP Agent to SSL-TCP/IP Agent .............................................57 Configuring a SSL TCP/IP Agent ...............................................................................58 Creating new keystore for the agent controller ...............................................59 Creating new keystore for the agent .................................................................60 Updating the Agent keystore with new self-signed certificate .....................61 Updating the Agent keystore with an existing (CA signed) certificate .......62 Updating the Agent Controller keystore with a new self-signed certificate ...............................................................................................................63 Updating the Agent Controller keystore with an existing (CA signed) certificate ...............................................................................................................64 Examples for Configuring SSL TCP/IP Agents ..............................................65 TCP Proxy Agent ............................................................................................................70 Adding a TCP Proxy Agent ...............................................................................71 Limitations ............................................................................................................73 Chapter 3 Managing devices 75 Summary of devices .......................................................................................................75 Using device aliases ........................................................................................................76 Avoiding duplicate devices ...........................................................................................77 Creating a device ............................................................................................................78 Selecting monitors for the device ................................................................................81 Editing devices ................................................................................................................82 Duplicating devices ........................................................................................................83 Deleting devices ..............................................................................................................84 Creating a monitor template .........................................................................................85 Adding a device from a template .................................................................................86 Applying templates to a single device .........................................................................89 Warning message ............................................................................................................91 Applying templates to multiple devices .....................................................................91 Editing an existing template ...............................................................................92 Deleting a Template .............................................................................................94 Changing device associations .......................................................................................94 Limitations ............................................................................................................95 Domain name ..................................................................................................................95 Adding a domain name ......................................................................................96 Editing a domain name .......................................................................................96 Deleting a domain name .....................................................................................96

BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Port name .........................................................................................................................97 Adding a port name ............................................................................................97 Editing a port name .............................................................................................98 Delete Port name ..................................................................................................98 Choosing monitors for the device ...............................................................................99 Creating a group ...........................................................................................................100 Group checklist ..................................................................................................101 Working with Dynamic Groups or Rule-based Groups ..............................101 Applying rules to Dynamic Groups ................................................................102 Defining Group display ....................................................................................103 Group made by existing groups ......................................................................103 Group made by specifying rules .....................................................................104 Adding Child Groups ..................................................................................................105 Editing Groups ..............................................................................................................107 Deleting Groups ............................................................................................................107 Chapter 4 Integrating with the BMC Atrium CMDB 109 Benefits of BMC Atrium CMDB integration .............................................................109 User scenario .................................................................................................................110 Creating and editing publication filters in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console ...........................................................................................................................112 Understanding Atrium Filters ....................................................................................115 Viewing publication history ........................................................................................116 Viewing computer system CIs ....................................................................................117 Chapter 5 Configuring and using Remote Actions/Diagnostics 119 What are Remote Actions/Diagnostics? ...................................................................119 Properties files ...............................................................................................................120 Creating Remote Actions .............................................................................................121 Defining the performance managed remote actions ....................................123 Defining the remote action rule and task .......................................................126 Assigning roles to actions .................................................................................131 Providing Remote Actions credentials ......................................................................131 Working with credential records for event management rules option ......132 Working with credential records for events ..................................................133 Triggering Remote Actions .........................................................................................138 Defining the remote action policy ..................................................................138 Executing remote actions ..................................................................................141 Adding the AlarmPoint integration ................................................................142 Executing remote actions .............................................................................................143 Generating Remote Action results .............................................................................144

Contents

Macros for Remote Action ...........................................................................................144 Troubleshooting remote actions .................................................................................147 Remote actions\diagnostics exit codes .....................................................................148 Chapter 6 Setting up diagnostic commands 151 Diagnostics wizard .......................................................................................................151 Script ..............................................................................................................................152 Register a user-defined Script command .......................................................152 Editing script commands ..................................................................................159 Deleting script commands ................................................................................159 Creating a detailed diagnostic script for Windows ......................................159 Log file ............................................................................................................................160 Registering a user-defined log file command ................................................161 Editing a log file command ..............................................................................165 Deleting a log file command ............................................................................166 Preconfigured commands ...........................................................................................166 User-defined commands ..............................................................................................166 Configuration of poll driven detailed diagnostics ...................................................167 Chapter 7 Administering BMC ProactiveNet 171 SSL server certificate for Apache server ....................................................................171 Creating a Real SSL server certificate for the Apache Server ......................171 Removing the pass-phrase at Apache startup time ......................................173 Changing the pass-phrase on the private key file .........................................173 Creating and using your own certificate authority (CA) ............................173 Configuring the Apache web server to accept HTTPS connection only .....................................................................................................................................174 Removing the pass-phrase window displayed during Apache startup .....................................................................................................................................175 BMC ProactiveNet Security .........................................................................................175 Securing port communication ..........................................................................176 Security related FAQs .......................................................................................177 Customizing the BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console ......................................183 Customizing event text .....................................................................................183 Customizing the logo on the Operations Console ........................................185 Adding background images .............................................................................186 Changing the default number of breadcrumbs displayed in the operations console .................................................................................................................187 Improving performance when the navigation tree is loaded in the operations console .............................................................................................188 Changing the maximum number of configuration items in a folder .........188

BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Configuring the operations console to automatically switch views ..........189 Scheduling downtime ..................................................................................................190 Adding a downtime schedule ..........................................................................192 Editing or deleting a downtime schedule ......................................................195 Special notes .......................................................................................................196 Changing the default BMC ProactiveNet Agent TCP control port ......................196 Determining which TCP control ports are being used ...........................................198 Device application monitors and TCP control ports ..............................................200 Admin tunneling through HTTP ...............................................................................200 Firewalls and BMC ProactiveNet interfaces ..................................................201 Dealing with TCP/IP port restrictions ...........................................................201 Dealing with NAT .............................................................................................202 Activating the APACHE proxy server ............................................................203 Admin tunnel limitations .................................................................................204 Fine tuning BMC ProactiveNet system components ...............................................204 Important information for all configuration files ..........................................205 BMC ProactiveNet Server - Solaris edition ....................................................205 BMC ProactiveNet Server Windows edition ..............................................206 BMC ProactiveNet Agent Windows edition ..............................................207 Chapter 8 Managing users 209 Overview ........................................................................................................................209 Default users, user groups and roles .........................................................................210 Users ...............................................................................................................................210 Adding or editing users ....................................................................................211 Associating user(s) to user groups ..................................................................213 Deleting users .....................................................................................................213 User Groups ...................................................................................................................214 Adding or editing user groups ........................................................................214 Deleting user groups .........................................................................................215 Roles and Permissions ..................................................................................................216 Defining or editing roles and permissions .....................................................216 Deleting roles and permissions ........................................................................217 Configuring the system for external authentication ................................................218 Chapter 9 Deploying multiple ProactiveNet Servers 223 Multiple ProactiveNet Server deployment overview ............................................223 Configuring an originating ProactiveNet Server .........................................224 Configuring a central ProactiveNet Server ...................................................227 Chapter 10 Setting up web transactions 229

Contents

System requirements ....................................................................................................230 How and where do I begin? .............................................................................230 Backward compatibility ....................................................................................231 Web transaction capture screen field descriptions ..................................................232 Menu bar options ...............................................................................................232 Buttons .................................................................................................................234 Planning a Web Transaction .......................................................................................236 Creating a web transaction ..........................................................................................238 Need for the transaction file ............................................................................238 Launching the Web Transaction Capture tool ...............................................239 Recording a new Web Transaction .................................................................239 Creating a test monitor ......................................................................................244 Playing a transaction file created with the Web Transaction Capture tool 245 Working with a previously recorded web transaction ................................247 Recording another transaction in the same user session .............................247 Authentication ...............................................................................................................247 How to insert authentication information? ....................................................248 Subtransactions .............................................................................................................249 Working with subtransactions .........................................................................250 Configuring a Web Transaction monitor ..................................................................251 Web transaction test utility ..........................................................................................254 Pop-up Windows ..........................................................................................................255 System authentication pop-up Windows .......................................................255 Browser pop-up Windows ...............................................................................257 Exporting Web Transaction files ................................................................................257 Editing Web Transaction files .....................................................................................258 Editing Web Transaction files created in BMC ProactiveNet 7.0 and later 258 Editing Web Transaction files created prior to BMC ProactiveNet 7.0 ......263 Content match for Web Transaction monitor ...........................................................263 Best practices to record content match ...........................................................264 International characters ....................................................................................264 Extra line feed characters ..................................................................................264 Web Transaction macro ...............................................................................................265 Types of Web Transaction macros ..................................................................266 Managing Web Transaction macros ................................................................267 Usage scenarios ..................................................................................................269 Limitations of Web Transaction capture ...................................................................271 Chapter 11 Working with event management policies 277

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BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Displaying the Infrastructure Management node ....................................................277 Event management policy types ................................................................................278 Out-of-the-box event management policies ..............................................................279 How event management policies work .....................................................................282 Event management policy workflow overview ............................................282 Event selectors ....................................................................................................283 Event selector groups ........................................................................................284 Event selection criteria ......................................................................................285 Timeframes .........................................................................................................285 Evaluation order of event policy types ...........................................................286 How dynamic enrichment event management policies work ...............................287 External enrichment data sources ...................................................................287 How to create a new local timeframe ........................................................................289 How to add a notification service (notification policies only) ...............................291 How to create and edit a dynamic enrichment source file .....................................292 Using the sample PATROL messaging text translation dynamic enrichment source file ............................................................................................................294 How to create an event selector and specify event selection criteria ....................297 Alias formulas ...............................................................................................................301 Working with Event Alias Formulas ..............................................................301 Devices with multiple IP addresses ................................................................306 Creating new standard event management policies ...............................................307 Creating a new standard blackout policy .....................................................308 Creating a new component based enrichment policy .................................313 Creating a new component based blackout policy .......................................318 Creating a new closure policy .........................................................................322 Creating a new correlation policy ..................................................................325 Creating a new enrichment policy .................................................................329 Creating a new escalation policy ....................................................................334 Creating a new notification policy .................................................................338 Creating a new propagation policy ................................................................342 Creating a new recurrence policy ...................................................................344 Creating a new remote action policy ..............................................................347 Creating a new suppression policy ................................................................347 Creating a new threshold policy .....................................................................350 Creating a new timeout policy ........................................................................354 Enabling and disabling out-of-the-box standard event management policies ... 356 Creating a new dynamic enrichment event management policy .........................357 Enabling out-of-the-box dynamic enrichment event management policies ........369 Enabling a dynamic enrichment blackout policy ..........................................370

Contents

11

Enabling a dynamic enrichment location policy ...........................................373 Enabling a dynamic enrichment service contact policy ...............................377 Enabling a dynamic enrichment PATROL message text translation policy ...................................................................................................................381 Importing dynamic enrichment source .....................................................................385 Verifying that the policy is running ...........................................................................386 Editing event selection criteria ....................................................................................387 Deleting an event selector ............................................................................................388 Troubleshooting event management policies ...........................................................388 Chapter 12 Working with the dynamic data editor 393 Displaying the Infrastructure Management node ....................................................393 Dynamic data definition using the Dynamic Data Editor ......................................394 Navigating the Dynamic Data Editor ........................................................................394 Filtering and sorting the Data List .............................................................................396 Filtering slots .....................................................................................................396 Sorting data fields ..............................................................................................397 Working with data instances ......................................................................................399 Adding a new data instance ............................................................................399 Editing slots .......................................................................................................401 Exporting data ....................................................................................................402 Chapter 13 Creating and using user-defined policies 405 Understanding user-defined event policy types ......................................................405 Understanding event processing rules (MRL) for policy types .............................405 Format of event processing rules for policy types ........................................405 How a rule for a policy type is processed ......................................................406 Sources of information about rules .................................................................406 User-defined event policy type creation ...................................................................407 Creating user-defined policy types .................................................................407 Defining the policy data class for a new policy type ....................................407 Defining presentation names for a new policy type .....................................409 Creating the event processing rule(s) for a new policy type .......................410 Chapter 14 Working with BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management 413 Default BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management service model ..............413 Roles and permissions .......................................................................................415 Walkthrough ..................................................................................................................415 Displaying the out-of-the-box real-time service model ...............................415 Sampling context-sensitive information .........................................................417 Managing files on remote systems ..................................................................418

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BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Packaging support files .....................................................................................419 Launching remote actions ................................................................................420 Common BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management tasks ...........................422 Navigating the interface ....................................................................................422 Displaying and understanding the Details and Administer tab data ...................424 Details tab data ...................................................................................................424 Administer tab data ...........................................................................................427 Editing infrastructure relationships ...........................................................................428 Creating logical components .......................................................................................430 Deleting components ....................................................................................................430 Usage reporting .............................................................................................................431 Executing Remote Actions ...........................................................................................432 Reloading cell configuration .......................................................................................432 Forcing event propagation ..........................................................................................434 Collecting metrics .........................................................................................................434 Executing other actions ................................................................................................435 Audit log parameters ..................................................................................................435 Supported component or application types ..................................................436 Sample logs .........................................................................................................437 Audit log properties in the ias.properties file ................................................437 Creating the support package .....................................................................................438 Slots for specifying support files .....................................................................439 UNIX processing note .......................................................................................440 Reviewing the audit log of the support package ..........................................441 Background to BPPM Infrastructure Management .................................................442 How a product component registers and communicates with the IAC ... 442 Registering a remote cell with the Impact Administration Cell .................442 Recreating an Impact Administration Cell ....................................................443 Unregistering with the IAC ..............................................................................444 Remote actions ...................................................................................................444 Displaying remote cells in the Infrastructure Management tab after upgrading the BMC ProactiveNet Server ............................................................................................447 Chapter 15 Using the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console for service monitoring 449 BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console Services Editor tab ..........................449 Monitoring business services in BMC ProactiveNet ...............................................449 Opening a Service Model View .......................................................................450 Viewing service component instances through the navigation pane ........451 Finding service component instances to view ...............................................453 Viewing information about a service component .........................................454

Contents

13

Searching for provider and consumer components ................................................455 Viewing a service components SLM agreements ...................................................456 Viewing property and performance data about a cell ............................................457 The General subtab ............................................................................................457 The Workload subtab ........................................................................................458 The Components subtab ...................................................................................459 Editing Service Model data in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console . 459 Managing Service Model components ...........................................................459 Managing Service Model component relationships .....................................464 Launching BMC Atrium Explorer from the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console ...........................................................................................................................469 Using a customized SSL certificate to create a secure connection to the BMC Atrium CMDB ..............................................................................................................469 Associate monitors to CIs through the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console ...........................................................................................................................470 Associate monitors to CI in Service Model View ..........................................471 Associating monitors to a CI and verifying that they are associated .........472 Associate a monitor to a CI when CI Alias is unknown to the BMC ProactiveNet Server ...........................................................................................473 Associating a monitor to a CI in the Monitor edit page ...............................474 How aliases are used depends on how the BMC ProactiveNet Servers are deployed ..............................................................................................................474 Chapter 16 Managing cells 475 Production cells and test cells ....................................................................................475 Cell configuration tasks ...............................................................................................476 Configuring mcell.conf parameters .................................................................477 Creating cell-specific configuration files ........................................................480 Configuring event slot propagation ................................................................481 About mcell.dir, the cell directory file ............................................................484 Configuring passive connections ....................................................................486 Configuring slots for time stamping ...............................................................487 Configuring encryption ....................................................................................488 Configuring cell exception handling ...............................................................493 Reloading cell configuration .......................................................................................493 Starting or stopping the cell .......................................................................................494 Stopping or starting a cell on UNIX computers ............................................495 Starting or stopping a cell on Windows computers ....................................496 Creating and managing cell groups ..........................................................................497 Monitoring event performance ...................................................................................500

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BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Monitoring client to cell interactions .........................................................................502 Configuring cell tracing ...............................................................................................503 Configuring mcell.trace ....................................................................................504 Configuring a destination for cell trace output .............................................506 Sending trace output to another cell ...............................................................507 Event processing errors .....................................................................................509 Automatic notification of trace configuration changes ................................509 Interpreting cell execution failure codes ...................................................................510 Using the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console to manage cells .............511 Connecting or disconnecting a cell ..................................................................511 Viewing cell information ..................................................................................512 Chapter 17 Configuring StateBuilder and gateways 513 Understanding the StateBuilder and gateways .......................................................513 StateBuilder configuration file .........................................................................514 statbld return codes ...........................................................................................515 Gateway configuration ......................................................................................515 Exporting events ...........................................................................................................521 Modifying a statbld.conf file to export events ...............................................521 Modifying a gateway.export file to export events ........................................522 Configuring tracing for StateBuilder .........................................................................523 Troubleshooting the StateBuilder process ................................................................523 Chapter 18 Setting up data views for external reports 525 External reports benefits ..............................................................................................525 Performance considerations .......................................................................................525 Creating dataviews ......................................................................................................526 Populating dataviews ...................................................................................................527 Types of information available in dataviews ..........................................................527 Default dataviews ..............................................................................................527 Configuration information .........................................................................................540 Performance (stats, raw) information ........................................................................541 Rate (rolled up, condensed) information ..................................................................542 Baseline information .....................................................................................................543 Event information .........................................................................................................543 All alarms and events information ............................................................................544 Command line option ..................................................................................................545 Sample data dictionary ................................................................................................545 Create ASA database interface ....................................................................................547 Installing the ASA ODBC driver ....................................................................547 Downloading and installing Crystal Reports ...........................................................549

Contents

15

Connect to ASA database through Crystal Reports .....................................551 Accessing the ASA database through Microsoft Excel ...........................................551 Creating sample reports using Microsoft Excel ............................................552 Appendix A mcell.conf file parameters 557 Action result event parameters ...................................................................................557 Cell configuration parameters ....................................................................................558 Cell failover configuration parameters ......................................................................560 Client communication parameters .............................................................................562 Encryption parameters .................................................................................................564 Event repository cleanup parameters ........................................................................565 Heartbeat parameters ...................................................................................................567 Internal cell monitor parameters ................................................................................569 KB parameters ...............................................................................................................570 Propagation parameters ...............................................................................................570 Deprecated MessageBuffer propagation parameters ...................................573 Reporting client connection parameters ....................................................................574 Service model parameters ...........................................................................................575 State Builder parameters ..............................................................................................575 Trace parameters ...........................................................................................................581

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BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

1
Getting started with the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console
Accessing the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console
You can access BMC ProactiveNet Administrative functions in the following ways:
the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console the Command Line Interface (CLI); for details, see the BMC ProactiveNet Command

Line Interface Reference Manual

These administrative functions allow you to modify and manage the BMC ProactiveNet Server and the BMC ProactiveNet Agent network management areas, such as adding or deleting users, groups, monitored devices, applications, and services, or changing event notifications and thresholds. All operational procedures in this guide (unless explicitly mentioned) use the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console interface. For details about using the CLI commands, see the BMC ProactiveNet Command Line Interface Reference Manual. Some administrative options are also available through the BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console. For details, see the BMC ProactiveNet User Guide.

Before you begin


Ensure that you have successfully installed the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console on the computer that is hosting the BMC ProactiveNet Server. For installation instructions, see the BMC ProactiveNet Getting Started Guide.

Chapter 1 Getting started with the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console 17

Accessing the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console

Connection protocols used to access the BMC ProactiveNet Server


The BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console can connect to the BMC ProactiveNet Server using one of the following methods:
Direct: Use this connection protocol when BMC ProactiveNet components are

installed on computers that reside on the same side of the firewall. All functionality in the Administration tab (General Administration, Event Management Policies, Dynamic Data Editor, and Infrastructure Management) and the Services Editor tab in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console is accessible through this connection protocol. and the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console are installed on computers that reside on different sides of the firewall. Only the General Administration functionality in the Administration tab is accessible through this connection protocol. The Event Management Policies, Dynamic Data Editor, Infrastructure Management, and Services Editor tabs will be grayed out.

HTTP Tunnel: Use this connection protocol when the BMC ProactiveNet Server

In an HTTPS environment, BMC ProactiveNet encrypts the information relay from the Web interface. The Administration Console uses Secured Socket Layer (SSL) connections and encryption to connect to the BMC ProactiveNet Server. For more information on Secure Login, see the BMC ProactiveNet Troubleshooting Guide.

Launching the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console on Windows computers


Perform the following procedure to start the administration console on Windows computers.

To launch the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console on Windows computers


1 On the computer where the BMC ProactiveNet Server is installed, go to Start => Programs => BMC ProactiveNet Server => BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console. 2 In the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console Logon screen, specify the following information:
Name or IP Address of the BMC ProactiveNet Server that you want to connect

to.

18 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Accessing the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console

User name with access rights to the BMC ProactiveNet Server. The default is

admin.

Password corresponding to the user name. The default is admin. The type of connection to use to connect to the BMC ProactiveNet Server, either

Direct or HTTP Tunnel.

For details about the connection types, see Accessing the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console on page 17. 3 Click OK. The BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console is displayed as shown in the following figure.

Multiple Administration Consoles on Windows computers


You can have multiple BMC ProactiveNet Administration Consoles open on the same system. Any new installation of the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console will be a fresh installation. If a previous version of the Administration Console already exists on a system and you try to install the Administration Console again, the following message is displayed:

Chapter 1 Getting started with the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console 19

Accessing the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console

ProactiveNet Admin is already installed in the system. This


installation will be a fresh installation and will not upgrade previous Admin.

For troubleshooting information, see the BMC ProactiveNet Troubleshooting Guide.

Launching the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console on Solaris computers


Perform the following procedure to start the administration console on Solaris computers.

To launch the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console on Solaris computers


1 On the Solaris computer where the BMC ProactiveNet Server is installed, from a command line, enter the following command:
pw admin

For remote utilization of BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console, source the profile using the .tmcsh script located in the /usr/pw/pronto/bin directory before entering the pw admin command. 2 Specify the following information:
Name or IP Address of the BMC ProactiveNet Server that you want to connect

Note

to.

User name with access rights to the BMC ProactiveNet Server. The default is

admin.

Password corresponding to the user name. The default is admin. The type of connection to use to connect to the BMC ProactiveNet Server, either

Direct or HTTP Tunnel.

For details about the connection types, see Accessing the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console on page 17. 3 Click OK.
The BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console is displayed as shown in the

following figure.

20 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Accessing the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console

Using the Search function in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console


The Search function provides a method for finding BMC ProactiveNet resources and enables you to search for monitors by applying various filters. This is useful in cases where you want to change all monitors on an existing agent or change all monitors in a certain group. The monitors listed in the search result can be edited. Also, you can select multiple monitors in the search result and edit common control attributes among them. You access the Search function from the Edit menu in the Administration => General Administration view. For details about how to perform a search, see To use the search function in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console on page 23. The following filters can be applied to the search:
Search for Monitors using the Group filter: When the user selects the Group filter

to search for monitors, the remaining search filters are disabled and the user is presented with a list of groups to select from. After the user selects a group and clicks the Search option, the search result displays the list of all monitors that belong to the selected group.

Chapter 1 Getting started with the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console 21

Accessing the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console

Search for Monitors using the Source Agent filter: When the user selects the

Source Agent filter to search for monitors, the remaining search filters are disabled and the user is presented with a list of Agents associated with BMC ProactiveNet Server. After the user selects an Agent and clicks the Search option, the search result displays the list of all monitors that have the selected Agent as the Source Agent. Target Device filter to search for monitors, the remaining search filters are disabled and the user is presented with a list of devices associated with BMC ProactiveNet Server. After the user selects a device and clicks the Search option, the search result displays the list of monitors on the selected device. Monitor Type filter to search for monitors, the remaining filters are disabled and the user is presented with a list of Monitor types for the available monitors. Monitor type option 'ALL' is also allowed. Previously, the list of Managed object types was presented to the user. Now, the list of Monitor Types is displayed. Managed object types like 'Device' are eliminated from the list now. When the user selects a Monitor type, the user can refine the search criteria using Attribute Name-value conditions. The Attribute Name-value conditions has the following:
List of configuration and control attributes for the selected Monitor type List of operators (Contains, Does not contain, Starts with, Equals, Does not

Search for Monitors using the Target Device filter: When the user selects the

Search for Monitors using the Monitor Type filter: When the user selects the

Note

Equal, Less than, Greater than)

Field to specify attribute value

The user can select an attribute from the list, specify the attribute value, and select the operator to be applied to the selected attribute and its value. For example, if a user selects an attribute 'Statistics Poll Interval', specifies the attribute value as '20 min' and selects the operator as 'Equals', it implies that the search result should display those monitors whose attribute 'Statistics Poll Interval' equals '20 min'. The user can specify multiple Attribute Name-value conditions, by using the 'MORE' option. If there are multiple Attribute Name-value conditions, users can also indicate whether all the attribute Name-value conditions should be matched or any one of the specified attribute Name-value conditions can be matched.

22 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Accessing the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console

When Monitor type option 'ALL' is selected, only the control attributes (PollRate, PollTimeout, DataCollect) and Source Agent attributes are allowed to be used. The search results show a list of all monitors fulfilling the search criteria. When the search result is displayed, the user can do one of the following:
Select one of the monitors and edit/delete the selected monitor Select multiple or all monitors and edit common control attributes Select multiple or all monitors and delete them

Note

To use the search function in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console


1 From the menu bar in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console, choose Edit => Search. 2 In the Search for Monitors window, select the required filter option (select the radio button on left), and its associated value from the list.

Chapter 1 Getting started with the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console 23

Accessing the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console

If you select Monitor Type, you can further refine your search by using the

Attribute, Operator, and Attribute Value fields.

Figure 1 on page 24 shows the Search for Monitors window with the Monitor Type search criteria selected. Figure 1: Search for Monitors with Monitor Type refining

3 Click OK.

24 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Configuring cell connection properties to the BMC ProactiveNet Server

4 The results of the search are displayed in the Search Results window as shown in Figure 2 on page 25. Figure 2: Example of Search Results

5 In the Search Results window, perform the following actions:


To edit a monitor, select the required monitor from the list and click Edit. To edit common control attributes of all monitors retrieved by the Search

function, click Edit All.

To delete a monitor, select the required monitor from the list and click Delete. Click Cancel to close the Search Results window.

Configuring cell connection properties to the BMC ProactiveNet Server


The first Impact Manager (cell) that you install is connected automatically to the BMC ProactiveNet Server. If you create additional cells, the connection between BMC ProactiveNet Server and each additional cell must be configured.

Chapter 1 Getting started with the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console 25

Configuring cell connection properties to the BMC ProactiveNet Server

To configure cell connection properties to the server and Impact Manager (cell)
1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Configure => Administration Settings. 2 In the Configure Administration Settings dialog box, click the Impact Managers tab. 3 Select a cell or cell group. 4 If necessary, click Advanced to display the Cell Properties section of the dialog box. If you select a cell group, changes are applied to all the cells contained in the cell group. If you select a single cell, changes are applied only to the individual cell. 5 Use Table 1 on page 26 to set cell connection properties as required. Table 1: Cell connection properties
Property Name Host Port Timeout Description displays the name of the cell whose properties you are changing displays the name of the host computer where the cell is installed displays the port number the cell uses to connect to the host computer specifies the length of time the console waits to receive data from the cell; default is 30 seconds BMC ProactiveNet saves any negative Timeout values that you type as positive values. Refresh Freq Attempts Connect Freq sets the time interval between polls of the cell; default is 60 seconds BMC ProactiveNet saves any negative Refresh Freq values that you type as positive values. sets the number of times the console attempts to connect to a cell; default is 10 BMC ProactiveNet saves any negative Attempts values that you type as positive values. time interval between connection attempts; default is 5 seconds BMC ProactiveNet saves any negative Connect Freq values that you type as positive values. Encrypted Mode enables and disables encryption of data between the console and the cell; default is enabled (selected) Auto Connect Auto Switch enables and disables automatic connection to the cell at logon; default is disabled (cleared) enables and disables automatic and continuous switching of the connection from the backup cell to the primary cell after failover, using the value set in Connect Freq as the interval; default is disabled

Note

26 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Configuring cell connection properties to the BMC ProactiveNet Server

Property Use Port Range

Description enables and disables using a specified range of local ports (on the console) for establishing a connection between the console and a cell. Designating a port range is useful if the console must communicate to a cell through a firewall with only specific ports available for communication. The console scans through the specified port range until a port is connected to the cell or the connection fails because the port range is exhausted. For using port range, once you select the Use Port Range check box, BMC ProactiveNet automatically changes the Min Port No. and Max Port No. values to 1. You must have at least four open ports within the port range, including the Min Port No. and the Max Port No.

Min Port No. Max Port No. Auto Bind

specifies the lower limit of the port range specifies the upper limit of the port range enables and disables the automatic connection attempt of the console to the first network card it encounters. Clear this option to bind to a specific IP address. If only one network card exists, ensure that Auto Bind is selected. See Specifying ports in cell connection properties on page 28 for additional information.

IP Address

specifies the IP address assigned to the local network card to which the console connects; available only if Auto Bind is cleared

To configure cell connection properties in the jserver


This feature enables you to configure the cell connection properties directly in the jserver. You need to log in as an admin user to perform this operation. To configure the server cell settings, follow these steps: 1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Configure => Server Impact Manager Properties.
Or, from the Event Management Policies tab, right-click on the cell and choose

Edit => Server Impact Manager Properties.

Or, from the Dynamic Data Editor tab, right-click on the cell and choose Edit

=> Server Impact Manager Properties.

2 In the Edit Server Cell Settings dialog box, select a cell to edit. 3 Use Table 1 on page 26 to set cell connection properties as required.

Chapter 1 Getting started with the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console 27

Configuring cell connection properties to the BMC ProactiveNet Server

Note You can configure cell connection properties only on individual cells, and not on cell groups.
4 Click OK to save changes and close the dialog box.

To apply IP address, encrypted mode, and maximum and minumum port cell connection properties to connections to the jserver
By default, when you use the Administration Console to configure connections to a remote cell, those changes are not applied to connections opened by the jserver to the remote cell. To extend the connection properties to the connections opened by the jserver, follow these steps: 1 In a text editor, open the pw/admin/etc/ix.properties file. 2 Set pronet.admin.applyCellConnectionPropertiesInJserver=true. 3 Save and close the file. 4 Restart the Administration Console.

Specifying ports in cell connection properties


The following circumstances require that you provide more specific information about communications between the console and the cell:
the presence of a network interface card (NIC) between the console and the cell the presence of a firewall between the console and the cell using a multi-homed computer for the console

In these circumstances, you must select Use Port Range and specify the limits of the port range and then select either Auto Bind or a particular IP address. The Auto Bind option configures the console to connect to an NIC before it can connect to a cell. If you specify no particular NIC, the console automatically attempts to connect to the first NIC it encounters. On a multi-homed computer, you can specify the NIC by selecting the IP address that the card is using from the IP Address list box. If Auto Bind is not enabled, you must specify a port range for the network card to which the console binds.

28 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Setting BMC ProactiveNet Server connection properties

Note If the console is running on a computer that is acting as a gateway between multiple subnets, the network card that you bind to must be on the same subnet as the cell to which the console connects.

Setting BMC ProactiveNet Server connection properties


In addition to adding and deleting connections in the console configuration, you must configure the connections themselves, as described in this section.

To configure a BMC ProactiveNet Server


1 From the menu bar of the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console, choose Edit => Configure => Administration Settings. 2 In the Configure Administration Settings dialog box, click the Login Servers tab. 3 Modify any of the BMC ProactiveNet Server configuration parameters listed in Table 2 on page 29, as needed: Table 2: BMC ProactiveNet Server Configuration Parameters
Field Heartbeat Rate Description specifies the frequency, in minutes, at which the console sends a signal to the connected BMC IAS to determine whether the BMC IAS is functioning. The default heartbeat rate is 1. specifies the maximum and minimum port number for the console to use in establishing a connection to a BMC IAS Designating a port range is useful if the console must communicate to a cell through a firewall with only specific ports available for communication. The console scans through the ports in the specified range until a port, local to the console, is connected to the cell or fails because the port range is exhausted.

Enable Port Range

Chapter 1 Getting started with the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console 29

Logging out of and into the BMC ProactiveNet Server from the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console

Field Auto Reconnect

Description enables and disables automatic attempts to reconnect to the BMC ProactiveNet Server when the connection has been dropped The Administration Console will attempt to reconnect to the server at the Frequency and for the Number of Retries that you specify. If, after the final try the server is still not reconnected, an error message is displayed stating that the server is down, and you must manually restart the server and log back on to the Administration Console. A status message is displayed in the status area of the Administration Console showing the number of reconnection attempts.

4 Click Apply to save the changes, or click OK to save and exit the dialog box.

Logging out of and into the BMC ProactiveNet Server from the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console
You can log out of the BMC ProactiveNet Server and log in from the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console interface without closing the console.

To log out of the BMC ProactiveNet Server from the Administration Console
1 From the menu bar of the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console, choose Server => Logout. 2 In the Logout Confirmation dialog box, click Yes.

To log on to the BMC ProactiveNet Server from the Administration Console


1 From the menu bar of the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console, choose Server => Login. 2 In the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console Logon screen, specify the following information, enter the password for the user name that you are using to log on to the BMC ProactiveNet Server and click OK.
The default password is admin.

30 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Changing your BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console password

Changing your BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console password


To keep your password secure, you should change it periodically.

To change the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console password


1 From the menu bar, choose Server => Change Password. 2 In the Change Password dialog box, in the Old Password box, enter your current password. 3 In the New Password and Confirm New Password boxes, enter a new password. 4 Click OK. Your password for the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console logon is changed immediately. If you forget your password, your administrator must clear the encrypted form of your password from the configuration file. The next time that you log on, you will enter a new password, and you will be prompted to confirm it. This operation sets your new password. In a setup where LDAP authentication is used, administrators must change password from the LDAP server and not within the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console.

Note

BMC ProactiveNet profiles


BMC ProactiveNet acknowledges the following two types of profiles when logging into the product:
Admin User

BMC ProactiveNet Administrator manages profiles (and access rights) for individual users.

Chapter 1 Getting started with the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console 31

Accessing online Help

Admin profile
Administrators have unlimited access to BMC ProactiveNet. They can configure the environment, define individual user profiles, and perform full administrative functions.

User profile
The BMC ProactiveNet administrator creates user profiles, and can restrict users access to BMC ProactiveNet features. The user profile (as set by the administrator) governs the functionality available to each user in the BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console. BMC ProactiveNet enables the administrator to assign access rights at both micro and macro levels.

Accessing online Help


Choose Help => Online Help to access online versions of the BMC ProactiveNet documentation. Context sensitive Help is provided through Help buttons on the various dialog boxes and windows within the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console.

32 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

2
Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents
Adding Agents
Use the Add Agent option to add an agent after a device has already been set up. To set up the device and the agent simultaneously, see About Remote Agents on page 35. The BMC ProactiveNet local agent (BMC ProactiveNet Agent) resides on the computer where the BMC ProactiveNet Server is installed. Remote agents are agents that reside on computers outside of the BMC ProactiveNet Server.

To add an agent after the device is set up


1 If not already done, install the agent software on the system where you want to add the agent. For information about installing the agent software, see the BMC ProactiveNet Getting Started Guide. 2 In the Administration Console, in the Administration => General Administration tab, expand the Devices folder. a Drill down to the Instance level. b Right-click the instance where you want to add the agent and click Agent => Add Agent. 3 In the Add Agent window, enter data in the required fields and select a Connection option.

Chapter 2 Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents 33

Adding Agents

Control Port - The default control port (TCP connection port) is 12124. Change

the port if 12124 is forbidden by a firewall or if it is being used by an existing application. To change the port, click Close, and then see Changing the default BMC ProactiveNet Agent TCP control port on page 196.

Agent Name - BMC ProactiveNet inserts the device name that you specified. Agent IP Address - BMC ProactiveNet inserts the IP Address (or name of the

Agent if using DNS) that you specified in the IP Address field when you created the device. By default, the one created on the previous screen is selected.

Associated Device - BMC ProactiveNet lists devices with the same IP address.

Connection Options. Direct Access using TCP/IP - Select if the remote agent uses TCP/IP. Direct Access using SSL TCP/IP - Select if the remote agent uses SSL TCP/IP. HTTP Tunnel Proxy - Select if the remote agent uses an HTTP Tunnel. For

installation and configuration of the remote agent, see Installing tunnel agents on page 44.

TCP Proxy - Select if the remote agent uses TCP Proxy. For further details,

see TCP Proxy Agent on page 70.

4 Click Next to create the agent.


When the agent is created, a second Add Agent window is displayed, in which

you can choose the monitor for the device

5 Choose the monitor. 6 Follow the procedure in Choosing monitors for the device on page 99. To view the new agent, expand (or close and expand) the Agents folder. To view the monitor, expand (or close and expand) the Monitors folder. If a problem occurs while you are adding an agent, BMC ProactiveNet displays an error message. For more information, see SSL server certificate for Apache server on page 171.

34 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Editing an agent

Editing an agent
You can edit the properties of the BMC ProactiveNet Agent by using the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console.

To edit agent properties


1 In the Administration Console in the Administration => General Administration tab, open the Advanced Options folder. 2 Expand the Agent folder and locate the agent from the list. 3 Right-click the agent and select Edit. 4 In the Edit Remote Agent dialog box, change the values as necessary and click OK.

About Remote Agents


The BMC ProactiveNet Agent is responsible for spawning the creation of monitors, collecting data, and delivering data to BMC ProactiveNet Server for storage in the database. Remote Agents are those agents that reside on computers outside BMC ProactiveNet Server. The Local Agent (aka BMC ProactiveNet Server Agent) resides on BMC ProactiveNet Server. Figure 3 on page 36 shows how to associate any number of BMC ProactiveNet Agents with a BMC ProactiveNet Server. BMC ProactiveNet Agent cannot be connected to more than one server simultaneously. Once a BMC ProactiveNet Server is disconnected from a BMC ProactiveNet Agent, the BMC ProactiveNet Agent becomes available to be connected to any another BMC ProactiveNet Server.

Chapter 2 Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents 35

About Remote Agents

Note If BMC ProactiveNet Server or BMC ProactiveNet Agent is rebooted or shut down for any reason, or if the network goes down, everything reconnects automatically on restart.
Figure 3: Connecting Server and Agents

Local Agents vs. Remote Agents


Generally, all monitors that require direct access to the devices local resource will require an agent to be on that same computer. For example, to parse a log file, the agent will need to reside on the device where the log file exists in order to access it. An easy way to know if an agent is required on the device for which you want to add a monitor is by noting the configuration parameters for the monitor. If 'Source Agent' is one of the configuration parameters, then you have the ability to run the monitor from any BMC ProactiveNet Agent. Two exceptions apply:
Windows monitors - These system monitors have a Source Agent configuration

parameter, but can monitor systems without an agent. source agent.

Agents status monitors must always be done from BMC ProactiveNet Server

BMC ProactiveNet Agent residing on the BMC ProactiveNet Server must always be labeled BMC ProactiveNet Server for this monitor to work correctly.

Note

Adding remote agents


Use this procedure to add new BMC ProactiveNet Agents to the computer where the BMC ProactiveNet Server is installed.

36 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

About Remote Agents

To add agents
1 In the Administration Console in the Administration => General Administration tab, expand the Advanced Options folder, right-click the Agent folder and select Add Remote Agent. The Add Device and Agent window is displayed. 2 In the Add Device and Agent window, enter the following required information and click Next.
Device Type - Select a device type from the list. Device Name - Enter a descriptive name for the device. IP Address - Enter the IP address (or name of the Agent if using DNS) you are

adding to the BMC ProactiveNet system. Example: 208.176.147.83.

3 Specify Control attributes on Control tab. 4 Click Next. 5 Specify Group Membership on the Groups Tab. 6 Click Next to open the Remote Diagnostics tab.
Protocol Types rexec, rlogin, rsh, ssh, and telnet. Select a Protocol Type from

the list.

PortNo Enter the port number where the remote service is running. Initially,

the default PortNo of the selected Protocol Type is displayed.

Local User Name Mandatory when using the rsh and rlogin Protocol Type.

The user name on the local system from where the DD is fired. Enter the Local User Name. Name.

Remote User Name Mandatory for all Protocol Types. Enter the Remote User

Remote User Password Mandatory for rexec, rlogin, telnet, and ssh Protocol

Types. Enter the Remote User Password. Confirm the Remote User Password. Types.

Remote System Prompt Mandatory when using rlogin and telnet Protocol

Chapter 2 Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents 37

About Remote Agents

Note
The user should give a complete remote system prompt while using rlogin

and telnet protocols. For example, if the remote system prompt is [root@kadamba root]#, then the user should enter correctly in the remote system prompt field. If the user uses partial system prompt, i.e. # instead of [root@kadamba root]#, then the system is prevented from logging into the remote device. The maximum number of characters supported for remote system prompt is 512 characters. based authentication. It is users responsibility to set the proper rhosts authentication before using the rhost protocol.

The rhosts file works only on the rhosts authentication. There is no password-

For details about protocol types, see Diagnostics wizard on page 151.

7 Click Next to open the Baseline tab. 8 If required, select the device from which baseline values of existing monitors must be copied to new monitors being created on the new device. 9 Click Next. 10 In the window that seeks server connection details, fill in the required fields.
Control Port - The default Control Port (TCP connection port) is 12124. Change

the Control Port when 12124 is forbidden by a Firewall, or because it is being used by an existing application.

To change, click Close, then see: TCP Control Ports. For a Windows Agent, see: Changing BMC ProactiveNet Agent (NT/2000/2003) Control Port. Otherwise, accept the default 12124 and continue with the next step.
Agent Name - The default value is the Device Name specified on the previous

screen.

Agent IP Address - The default value is the IP Address (or name of the Agent if

using DNS) entered in the IP Address field.

Associated Device - The lists devices with the same IP address are listed. By

default, the one created on the previous screen is selected.

11 In the window that seeks server connection details, select a Connection option.
Select Direct Access using TCP/IP option if the remote agent uses TCP/IP. Select Direct Access using SSL TCP/IP option if the remote agent uses SSL TCP/

IP. For more information, see SSL TCP/IP Agent on page 57.

38 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

About Remote Agents

Select HTTP Tunnel Proxy option if the remote agent uses an HTTP Tunnel.

Refer Tunnel Agent topic for information on installation and configuration of the remote agent. TCP Remote Agent. TCP Proxy Agent on page 70.

Select TCP Proxy option if the remote agent is to be proxied behind another

12 Click Next to create the agent and add monitors. When the agent is created, the second Add Agent window is displayed to allow selection of monitors for the device. a Choose the monitor. b Follow the procedure detailed in Choosing monitors for the device on page 99. To view the new agent, expand (or close/expand) the Agents folder. To view the monitor, expand (or close/expand) the Monitors folder. For information, see SSL server certificate for Apache server on page 171. To view the new agent, expand (or close/expand) the Agents folder. To view the monitor, expand (or close/expand) the Monitors folder. 13 Select the monitors to be created on the Agent. 14 Click Finish.
BMC ProactiveNet registers the new agent and creates the specified monitors.

The status of each action is listed on the screen. 15 Click OK to complete the procedure.

Editing remote agents


When the system date/time has been changed on an Agent computer, then the Agent must be restarted to resume data collection. You can also use the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console to edit remote agent properties.

To edit remote agent properties


1 In the Administration Console, expand the Advanced Options and Agents folders.

Chapter 2 Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents 39

About Remote Agents

2 Right-click the Agent to be edited and select Edit. The Edit Remote Agent window is displayed. 3 Choose from the following:
Control Port - The default Control Port (TCP connection port) is 12124. You

change the Control Port when 12124 is forbidden by a Firewall, or because it is used by an existing application.

To change, click Close, then see: About TCP Control Ports. For a Windows Agent, see: Changing BMC ProactiveNet Agent (NT/2000/2003) Control Port. Otherwise, accept the default 12124 and continue with the next step. To change, click Close, then see: About TCP Control Ports. For a Windows Agent, see: Changing BMC ProactiveNet Agent (NT/2000/2003) Control Port. Otherwise, accept the default 12124 and continue with the next step.
Agent Name - Edit or rename the agent. (You cannot edit or rename 'BMC

ProactiveNet Server').

Agent IP Address - Change the agent IP address. Associated Device - Device associated with this agent.

4 Click OK. If you have changed any values, click OK before doing a reconnect. If you do not click OK, changes made will not be saved.

Note

Connecting, disconnecting, and restarting agents


Use the Administration Console to connect, disconnect, and restart local and remote agents.

To connect, disconnect, and restart agents


1 In the Administration Console in the Administration => General Administration tab, expand the Advanced Options folder and then the Agent folder. 2 Right-click the Agent to be connected, disconnected, or restarted.
Connect Agent - Select to connect the Agent to this BMC ProactiveNet Server.

If dimmed, the agent is already connected.

40 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

About Remote Agents

Disconnect Agent - Select to disconnect the Agent from this BMC ProactiveNet

Server. If dimmed, this agent is already disconnected. is 'Connection Active').

Restart Agent - Select to restart the Agent. (This works only if the agent status

Deleting a remote agent


When you delete an Agent from the Advanced folder, the device corresponding to the Agent remains in the Devices folder, but all monitors which relied upon the Agent are deleted (i.e., system monitors of the Agent or monitors using the Agent as source IP).

Note On deleting an Agent, the Administration Console displays the message 'all monitors associated with Agent will be deleted'. This can be construed as that the device will also be deleted, which is not always the case. To remove the device, which contained the Agent, you need to delete it from the Devices folder using the Administration Console. However, if you create a new device/agent pair, a certain number of default monitors are automatically added (i.e., Agent Status, Node Ping, System, and so on).
When the agent is deleted, these default monitors also get deleted. If there are no other monitors tied to the device at this point, the device also gets deleted. If you wish to permanently remove the Agent, you need to use the un-install function.

To delete an agent
1 From the Administration Console in the Administration => General Administration tab, expand the Advanced Options folder and then the Agent folder. 2 Right-click the Agent to delete, and select Delete.
If the Remote Agent is currently monitoring applications, a Warning message is

displayed.

Do not delete BMC ProactiveNet Server! It must always appear in the Agent folder. The Confirm Deletion window is displayed. 3 Click OK. To confirm that the agent has been deleted, close and expand the Agents folder.

Note

Chapter 2 Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents 41

How do Tunnel Agents work?

Tech tip
To permanently remove the Agent, you must uninstall it. For UNIX or Linux Agents, you can uninstall the agent whether the Administration Console is open or not. For Windows Agents, however, you must close the Administration Console first. For instructions for uninstalling the agent, see the BMC ProactiveNet Getting Started Guide.

How do Tunnel Agents work?


When BMC ProactiveNet Server is outside the firewall, and BMC ProactiveNet Agent is inside, using an HTTP tunnel aids in BMC ProactiveNet Agent deployment without any changes to the Firewall configuration. In case BMC ProactiveNet Server is inside the firewall and BMC ProactiveNet Agent is outside, this type of tunneling will not work. In such cases, it is best to open the Firewall for outgoing connections on port 12124 and use normal TCP/IP Agents. Alternatively, you could open the Firewall to incoming connections on port 80 and make agents Tunneled Agents. However, this results in additional load on the CPU. Most Firewall configurations allow outgoing connections on port 80. HTTP tunnel acts as a virtual socket connecting BMC ProactiveNet Agent (inside the Firewall) to BMC ProactiveNet Server (outside the Firewall). BMC ProactiveNet HTTP proxies send and receive messages on behalf of the Agent Controller and Agent. The Agent side of the HTTP Proxy acts as the HTTP client which sends POST to Apache Web servlet on BMC ProactiveNet Server. From the Agent and Agent Controller point of view, a simple socket connection is being used (which just happens to be over a tunnel). Figure 4: Tunneled Agent Connections - Proxy Embedded in Agent

Note

42 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

How do Tunnel Agents work?

BMC ProactiveNet Server identifies proxies using the tunnel ID assigned to the Agent during installation. The Tunnel ID is stored in the Agents pronet.conf file. If the assigned tunnel ID does not match the actual tunnel ID set in pronet.conf file, the Agent will not connect. The pronet.conf file also tells the Agent proxy which URL to connect to. As shown in the figure 'Tunneled Agent Connections - Proxy Embedded in Agent', the URL should point to the Apache Web servlet on BMC ProactiveNet Server.

The Agent Tunnel always uses port 12124. To change the port number because of a conflict, you must open the pronet.conf file and change it there. You cannot change the port number via the console.

Note

Supported modes
Tunnel Agents run in both the HTTP and HTTPS modes, but, it is advised to not use secure tunneling.

Limitations
Tunnel Agents put additional load on CPU usage and I/O of the host computer

due to embedded HTTP proxy. The impact is proportional to the amount of data being collected by the Agent. Generally, it is an additional 1-5 percent on CPU usage. data transfer. Adding/editing monitors to Tunnel Agents requires more time. Tunnel Agent does not perform as well as standard BMC ProactiveNet Agents. Although there is no limit on how much data can be collected with a tunnel Agent, in general, poll frequencies and number of instances supported will not be as high as regular BMC ProactiveNet Agents.

Tunnel Agent connection is virtual, and requires Agent proxy to connect before

AIX agents cannot be connected in secure tunnel mode. The .jre file used in Red Hat Linux versions 7.1 and 9 is 1.3.1, and .jre on BMC

ProactiveNet Server is 1.4.2. Due to this mismatch in the .jre files, BMC ProactiveNet Agent cannot connect in the Tunnel mode.

Windows Server will not perform the desired number of retries as mentioned by

the pronet.conf entry "pronet.apps.agent.pollperiod.allowednoreplies.tcp=2" when an agent is unreachable. The agent will be set as AgentUnreachable immediately.

The process 'tunnelproxy', which shows up under 'pw process list', is the one that takes care of tunnel connections on the server side. However, this does not affect the way tunnel agents are configured.

Note

Chapter 2 Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents 43

Installing tunnel agents

Installing tunnel agents


This section provides procedures for how to install tunnel agents based on your operating system.

To install tunnel agents


1 Log on to the Agent computer as 'root' (Solaris, AIX, Linux, and HP-UX) or with Administrative privileges (Windows). 2 Insert the BMC ProactiveNet CD. 3 Follow the appropriate instructions given below based on the operating system of the Agent computer.

To install a Solaris Agent as a tunnel agent


1 Open Command prompt. 2 Go to CD (Disc 2) => BMC ProactiveNet Agent => Solaris folder. 3 Execute setupagent.sh specifying Tunnel as additional parameter. The actual command is as follows:
./setupagent.sh tunnel

4 On the prompt, specify the installation path. For example: /datadisk/tunnelagent 5 Accept the Terms and other prompts. 6 On the prompt, specify the unique Tunnel ID. For example: MyTunnel33. The Tunnel ID is an alphanumeric string (maximum length 32 characters). Special characters and spaces are not supported. 7 This Tunnel ID is stored in pronet.conf file on the Agent computer. installDirectory /pw/pronto/custom/conf/pronet.conf 8 Enter 'true' when prompted to 'Allow Secure Tunneling'. This is optional. Secure mode includes Authenticated, Encrypted, and Compressed methods for sending information through the Tunnel. 9 Specify BMC ProactiveNet Server location on the following prompt:

44 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Installing tunnel agents

Enter the server name/IP address that you want to connect to:

Location is the name or IP Address of the host. For non-DNS environments, include the computer and domain name (server.mycompany.com). In case BMC ProactiveNet Server is using a port other than 80, you need to append that server port number to the IP address. For BMC ProactiveNet Server using port 8080, specify Server IP as xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8080. 10 The installation program records the information, and completes the installation.
On completion of the process, the message 'Proactive Agent Installation

Completed' is displayed.

To install an AIX Agent as a tunnel agent


1 Open Command prompt. 2 Go to CD (Disc 2) => BMC ProactiveNet Agent => AIX folder. 3 Execute setupagent.sh specifying Tunnel as additional parameter. The actual command is as follows:
./setupagent.sh tunnel

4 On the prompt, specify the installation path. For example: /datadisk/tunnelagent. 5 Accept the Terms and other prompts. 6 On the prompt, specify the unique Tunnel ID. For example: MyTunnel33. The Tunnel ID is an alphanumeric string (maximum length 32 characters). Special characters and spaces are not supported.
This Tunnel ID is stored in pronet.conf file on the Agent computer.

<installedpath>/pw/pronto/custom/conf/pronet.conf

7 Enter 'false' when prompted to 'Allow Secure Tunneling'. AIX agents cannot be configured in secure mode 8 Specify BMC ProactiveNet Server location on the following prompt:
Enter the server name/IP address that you want to connect to:

Location is the name or IP Address of the host. For non-DNS environments, include the computer and domain name (server.mycompany.com). In case BMC ProactiveNet Server is using a port other than 80, you need to append that server port number to the IP address. For example: for BMC ProactiveNet Server using port 8080, specify Server IP as xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8080.
Chapter 2 Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents 45

Installing tunnel agents

9 The installation program records the information, and completes the installation.
On completion of the process, the message 'Proactive Agent Installation

Completed' is displayed.

To install a Linux Agent as a tunnel agent


1 Open Command prompt. 2 Go to CD (Disc 2) => BMC ProactiveNet Agent => Linux folder. 3 Execute setupagent.sh specifying Tunnel as additional parameter. The actual command is as follows:
./setupagent.sh tunnel

4 On the prompt, specify the installation path. For example: /datadisk/tunnelagent. 5 Accept the Terms and other prompts. 6 On the prompt, specify the unique Tunnel ID. For example: MyTunnel33. The Tunnel ID is an alphanumeric string (maximum length 32 characters). Special characters and spaces are not supported.
This Tunnel ID is stored in pronet.conf file on the Agent computer.

<installedpath>/pw/pronto/custom/conf/pronet.conf

7 Enter 'true' when prompted to 'Allow Secure Tunneling'. This is optional. Secure mode includes Authenticated, Encrypted, and Compressed methods for sending information through the Tunnel. 8 Specify BMC ProactiveNet Server location on the following prompt:
Enter the server name/IP address that you want to connect to:

Location is the name or IP Address of the host. For non-DNS environments, include the computer and domain name (server.mycompany.com). In case BMC ProactiveNet Server is using a port other than 80, you need to append that server port number to the IP address. For example: for BMC ProactiveNet Server using port 8080, specify Server IP as xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8080. 9 The installation program records the information, and completes the installation.
On completion of the process, the message 'Proactive Agent Installation

Completed' is displayed.

46 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Installing tunnel agents

To install an HP-UX Agent as a tunnel agent


1 Open Command prompt. 2 Go to CD (Disk 2) => BMC ProactiveNet Agent => HPUX folder. 3 Execute setupagent.sh specifying Tunnel as additional parameter. The actual command is as follows:
./setupagent.sh tunnel

4 On the prompt, specify the installation path. For Example: /datadisk/tunnelagent. 5 Accept the Terms and other prompts. 6 On the prompt, specify the unique Tunnel ID. For example: MyTunnel33. The Tunnel ID is an alphanumeric string (maximum length 32 characters). Special characters and spaces are not supported.
This Tunnel ID is stored in pronet.conf file on the Agent computer.

installDirectory /pw/pronto/custom/conf/pronet.conf

7 Enter 'true' when prompted to 'Allow Secure Tunneling'. This is optional. Secure mode includes Authenticated, Encrypted, and Compressed methods for sending information through the Tunnel. 8 Specify BMC ProactiveNet Server location on the following prompt:
Enter the server name/IP address that you want to connect to:

Location is the name or IP Address of the host. For non-DNS environments, include the computer and domain name (server.mycompany.com). In case BMC ProactiveNet Server is using a port other than 80, you need to append that server port number to the IP address. For example: for BMC ProactiveNet Server using port 8080, specify Server IP as xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8080. 9 The installation program records the information, and completes the installation.
On completion of the process, the message 'Proactive Agent Installation

Completed' is displayed.

To install a Windows Agent as a tunnel agent


1 Run cmd.exe. 2 Go to CD (Disc 2) => BMC ProactiveNet Agent => Windows folder.

Chapter 2 Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents 47

Tunnel proxy setup

3 Execute Agentx.x_byyy.exe (x.x is the BMC ProactiveNet Release and yyy is the build number) by running the following command:
Agentx.x_Byyy.exe tunnel

4 On the Install shield window, navigate through the screens, accept terms, and specify the path for installation.
Install shield starts the installation process. It prompts for the Tunnel ID and

Server name.

5 Specify Tunnel ID and Server Name. a Tunnel ID It is an alphanumeric string with maximum 32 characters (no special characters or spaces allowed). This ID is stored in the Agents pronet.conf file. b Server Name/IP Address Name/IP Address of the host computer. For nonDNS environments, be sure to include the computer name plus the domain name (server.mycompany.com). If BMC ProactiveNet Server is using a port other than 80, you need to append that Server port number to the IP address. For example, suppose the Server is using the alternate HTTP port 8080. When specifying the Server IP for this field, the IP to enter would be xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx: 8080. 6 Click Next.
You are prompted to select the mode (secure/standard).

7 Select as required and click Finish.

Tunnel proxy setup


If multiple remote agents are present behind the firewall, it is possible to use one agent as a Proxy Agent. The proxy agent collects data from other agents and delivers it to BMC ProactiveNet Server via http tunneling. Proxy agent provides the following advantages:
Reduces the number of connections across the firewall Minimizes the communications overhead introduced by secure HTTP tunneling

The Proxy agent is installed as a Tunnel Agent. It collects data from other remote agents (normal TCP Agents) and communicates with BMC ProactiveNet Server.
48 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Tunnel proxy setup

All NON-tunnel agents should be installed as normal TCP type. Any tunnel agent that uses proxy agent needs to be installed as a tunnel agent with the proxy on a different computer.

Adding a proxy agent to the BMC ProactiveNet Server


Select a computer with minimal or no monitors for hosting Proxy Agent (so it can devote its resources to communication).

To add Proxy Agent to the BMC ProactiveNet Server


1 In the Administration Console in the Administration => General Administration tab, expand the Advanced Options folder. 2 Select the Agent folder, right click and select Add Remote Agent. 3 In the Add Device and Agent window, select the Device Type. 4 Specify the Device Name and IP Address. For example: Device Type = Server, Device Name = Gandaki, IP Address = 192.168.3.62. 5 Select the Agent Installed on Device option. 6 Click Next. The following window is displayed. Figure 5: Window 2 of Add Device and Agent window

7 In Connection to Server, select HTTP Tunnel Proxy.


Chapter 2 Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents 49

Tunnel proxy setup

8 Specify Tunnel ID. For example: MyTunnel33. 9 Select On same machine as agent. 10 Click Finish. Only default monitors will be created.

Adding the agent to connect through the proxy agent


BMC ProactiveNet Server uses the Tunnel ID to determine the agent to use as proxy. Note that only tunneling agents can be used as proxy agents.

To add an agent to collect through the proxy agent


1 In the Administration Console in the Administration => General Administration tab, expand the Advanced Options folder. 2 Select the Agent folder, right click and select Add Remote Agent. 3 Select/specify Device Type, Device Name, and IP Address. 4 Select Agent Installed on Device option. 5 Click Next. 6 In the next window that displays, select HTTP Tunnel Proxy. 7 Specify Tunnel ID. For example: MyTunnel33. 8 Select On same machine as agent. 9 Click Next to view the list of default monitors. 10 On the Add Device and Agent window listing Default Monitors, clear Ping monitor (under Network tab). 11 Click Finish. Alternatively, click Next through the various monitors. When you get to Ping monitor, specify the IP address of the proxy agent computer as the Source Agent. Otherwise the monitor will not be created due to firewall constraints. Repeat the process for other remote agents to collect via the proxy agent.

50 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Converting an HTTP/HTTPS Agent to a TCP Agent

Adding a tunnel agent to the BMC ProactiveNet Server


The procedure is same as adding remote agents. Under Connection to server option,
Select Behind Firewall using HTTP Tunnel Proxy. Specify the Tunnel ID and Port details.

Converting an HTTP/HTTPS Agent to a TCP Agent


You can use the Administration Console to change the connection protocol of an agent from HTTP/HTTPS to TCP.

To convert an HTTP/HTTPS-based Tunnel agent to TCP-based agent


1 In the Administration console, go to Advanced Options => Agent. 2 Right-click the agent instance and click Disconnect Agent. 3 Open pronet.conf file on the remote agent computer. The pronet.conf file is available in the agentHome\Agent\custom\conf folder. If the pronet.conf file is not available under agentHome\Agent\custom\conf directory, check for the file under agentHome\Agent\pronet\conf 4 Comment the following lines:
pronet.ipc.proxy.serverproxy.url pronet.ipc.proxy.agentproxy.isruninternally=false pronet.ipc.tunnel.authenticate=false pronet.ipc.tunnel.compress=false pronet.ipc.tunnel.encrypt=false pronet.ipc.tunnel.mac=false

Note

5 Restart Remote Agent.

Chapter 2 Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents 51

Converting an HTTP/Secure or HTTP Agent to HTTPS Agent

6 In the Administration console in the Administration => General Administration tab, expand the Advanced Optionsfolder and then the Agent folder. 7 Right-click the agent instance and click Edit. 8 On the Edit screen, change the connection type to TCP/IP and click OK. The Agent reconnects during the next poll. However, the agent can be manually reconnected at anytime.

Converting an HTTP/Secure or HTTP Agent to HTTPS Agent


You can use the Administration Console to change the connection protocol of an agent from HTTP to HTTPS.

To convert an HTTP agent to an HTTPS agent


1 In the Administration console, go to Advanced Options => Agent. 2 Right-click the agent instance and click Disconnect Agent. 3 Open pronet.conf file on the remote agent computer.

Note pronet.conf file is available under a gentHome \Agent\pronto\conf folder. Ensure that duplicate pronet.conf files are not present under a gentHome \Agent \custom\conf\pronet.conf. In case another file is present, you can either delete that file or make the modifications on this file.
4 For the tunnel agents which were running under HTTP in secure mode, delete the following lines:
pronet.ipc.tunnel.authenticate=True pronet.ipc.tunnel.compress=True pronet.ipc.tunnel.encrypt=True pronet.ipc.tunnel.mac=True

5 For agents outside the server's network, qualify the server name. For example:

52 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Convert TCP Agent to HTTP/HTTPS Agent

pronet.ipc.proxy.serverproxy.url=https://aqua.bmc.com/controller/

com.proactivenet.ipc.tunnel.Outside

6 The IP Address of the server can also be used. For example:


pronet.ipc.proxy.serverproxy.ip=https://209.11.112.186/controller/

com.proactivenet.ipc.tunnel.Outside

7 Restart Remote Agent. 8 In the Administration console, go to Advanced Options => Agent. 9 Right-click the agent instance and click Edit. 10 On the Edit screen, change the connection type to HTTP Tunnel Proxy and click OK.

Convert TCP Agent to HTTP/HTTPS Agent


You can use the Administration Console to change the connection protocol of an agent from TCP to HTTP/HTTPS.

To convert a TCP agent to an HTTP/HTTPS agent


1 In the Administration console, go to Advanced Options => Agent. 2 Right-click the agent instance and click Disconnect Agent. 3 Open pronet.conf file on the remote agent computer.

Note pronet.conf file is available under <Agent Home>\Agent\pronto\conf folder. Please make sure that duplicate pronet.conf files are not present under <Agent Home>\Agent\custom\conf\pronet.conf. In case another file is present, you can either delete that file or make the modifications on this file.
4 Add the following lines:
pronet.ipc.proxy.agentproxy.isruninternally=true pronet.ipc.tunnel.inside.terminalid=<tunnelid>(UNIQUE)

5 To convert the TCP Agents to HTTP Agent in secure mode, add the following properties in the pronet.conf file:

Chapter 2 Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents 53

Configuration properties

pronet.ipc.tunnel.authenticate=true pronet.ipc.tunnel.compress=true pronet.ipc.tunnel.encrypt=true pronet.ipc.tunnel.mac=true

6 For agents outside the server's network, qualify the server name. For example:
For HTTP:

pronet.ipc.proxy.serverproxy.url=http://aqua.bmc.com/controller/ com.proactivenet.ipc.tunnel.Outside
For HTTPS:

pronet.ipc.proxy.serverproxy.url=https://aqua.bmc.com/controller/ com.proactivenet.ipc.tunnel.Outside 7 The IP Address of the server can also be used. For example:
For HTTP:

pronet.ipc.proxy.serverproxy.ip=http://209.11.112.186/controller/ com.proactivenet.ipc.tunnel.Outside
For HTTPS:

pronet.ipc.proxy.serverproxy.ip=https://209.11.112.186/controller/ com.proactivenet.ipc.tunnel.Outside 8 Restart Remote Agent. 9 In the Administration console, go to Advanced Options => Agent. 10 Right-click the agent instance and click Edit. 11 On the Edit screen, change the connection type to HTTP Tunnel Proxy and click OK.

Configuration properties
BMC ProactiveNet Agent installation has separate configuration files available at two locations in the BMC ProactiveNet Agent installation directory:
agentHome /Agent/pronet/conf/pronet.conf

54 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Configuration properties

agentHome /Agent/custom/conf/pronet.conf

Properties available in pronet.conf file available under custom/conf/ overrides the properties available in the other pronet.conf file. For BMC ProactiveNet Agents installed as TCP, pronet.conf file is not available under custom/conf/ directory.

Available properties
Secure Tunnel agents can be configured only on MS Windows platform. During Tunnel Agent installation, some of the properties are set in pronet.conf file available under custom/conf/ directory. The change are based on user input. For NON_SECURE mode installations, the properties are set as follows:
pronet.ipc.proxy.serverproxy.url=http\://luni/controller/ com.proactivenet.ipc.tunnel.Outside pronet.ipc.tunnel.inside.terminalid=bismi pronet.ipc.proxy.agentproxy.isruninternally=true

Note

"pronet.ipc.proxy.serverproxy.url" provides the information about the server

proxy handling URL to which tunnel agent needs to communicate. This property is commented in the pronet.conf file under \pronto\conf\ directory. The Tunnel ID is specified during the Tunnel Agent installation. The default value is set as 1 in the pronet.conf file under \pronto\conf\ directory. determines whether to start the Agent Tunnel proxy or not. In case this property is not set, the Agent Tunnel Proxy will not be started. The default value in pronet.conf file under \pronto\conf\ directory.

"pronet.ipc.tunnel.inside.terminalid" specifies the unique Tunnel ID for the Agent.

"pronet.ipc.proxy.agentproxy.isruninternally" is the most important property. It

For SECURE mode installations, the properties are set as follows:


pronet.ipc.proxy.serverproxy.url=http\://luni/controller/ com.proactivenet.ipc.tunnel.Outside pronet.ipc.tunnel.inside.terminalid=test1 pronet.ipc.proxy.agentproxy.isruninternally=true pronet.ipc.tunnel.authenticate=true pronet.ipc.tunnel.compress=true pronet.ipc.tunnel.encrypt=true pronet.ipc.tunnel.mac=true

Chapter 2 Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents 55

Configuration properties

The first three properties are similar to the NON_SECURE installation. Remaining four properties provide the authentication. The default values for the four properties is set to false in the pronet.conf file under \pronto\conf\ directory.
"pronet.ipc.tunnel.authenticate" provides the verification that the remote terminal

is the same remote terminal that was communicated with last time.

"pronet.ipc.tunnel.compress" specifies compression. Compression may save some

bytes and randomizes the data. This results in higher quality encryption. likely be discovered and handled in case of encryption. extremely difficult to view or even tamper with data.

"pronet.ipc.tunnel.mac" verifies that data has not been tampered with. It will very

"pronet.ipc.tunnel.encrypt" provides the encryption status. Encryption makes it

Properties used by Tunnel Agent


Web proxy can be configured using the following properties: pronet.ipc.tunnel.inside.httpproxy.name=<IP Address of Web proxy server>
pronet.ipc.tunnel.inside.httpproxy.port=<Port of Web proxy server> pronet.ipc.tunnel.inside.httpproxy.user=<User name for Web proxy server> pronet.ipc.tunnel.inside.httpproxy.password=<Password for Web proxy server>

The system uses default values for the following unchangeable properties:
pronet.ipc.tunnel.security.signatureKeyAlgorithm = DSA(ONLY DEFAULT) pronet.ipc.tunnel.security.signatureKeyProvider=SUN(ONLY DEFAULT) pronet.ipc.tunnel.security.signatureKeySize=1024(ONLY DEFAULT) pronet.ipc.tunnel.security.signatureAlgorithm= SHA1withDSA(ONLY DEFAULT) pronet.ipc.tunnel.security.signatureProvider=SUN(ONLY DEFAULT) pronet.ipc.tunnel.security.secureRandomAlgorithm= SHA1PRNG(ONLY DEFAULT) pronet.ipc.tunnel.security.secureRandomProvider=SUN(ONLY DEFAULT) pronet.ipc.tunnel.security.keyAgreeParamSize=512(ONLY DEFAULT) pronet.ipc.tunnel.security.keyAgreeAlgorithm=DH(ONLY DEFAULT) pronet.ipc.tunnel.security.keyAgreeProvider= SunJCE(ONLY DEFAULT) pronet.ipc.tunnel.security.keyAgreeAlgorithmParameterSpec= javax.crypto.spec.DHParameterSpec(ONLY DEFAULT) pronet.ipc.tunnel.security.cipherParamSize=56(ONLY DEFAULT) pronet.ipc.tunnel.security.cipherAlgorithm=DES(ONLY DEFAULT) pronet.ipc.tunnel.security.cipherMode=CBC(ONLY DEFAULT) pronet.ipc.tunnel.security.cipherPadding= PKCS5Padding(ONLY DEFAULT) pronet.ipc.tunnel.security.cipherProvider= SunJCE(ONLY DEFAULT) pronet.ipc.tunnel.security.macAlgorithm= HmacMD5(ONLY DEFAULT) pronet.ipc.tunnel.security.macProvider= SunJCE(ONLY DEFAULT) pronet.ipc.tunnel.security.macKeyAlgorithm= HmacMD5(ONLY DEFAULT) pronet.ipc.tunnel.security.macKeyProvider= SunJCE(ONLY DEFAULT) pronet.ipc.tunnel.security.macKeySize=64(ONLY DEFAULT)

56 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

SSL TCP/IP Agent

SSL TCP/IP Agent


By default, SSL-TCP agent connections use the following SSL configurations:
128 bits of encryption RSA keys SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA cipher suite SSLv3 ssl version

The connections are authenticated both on BMC ProactiveNet Server and the Agent using a certificate issued by the BMC ProactiveNet Certificate Authority (to use certificates issued by another CA, contact support).

Connecting to Agents using SSL


Follow the steps given below to connect to agents using SSL-based TCP/IP connections.

To connect to agents using SSL


1 Install an agent as a TCP agent. 2 Set pronet.conf file.
From the agent end, create a custom/pronet.conf file under the BMC

ProactiveNet home directory to configure the remote agent to accept SSL TCP/ IP connections from the server. Set the property in the pronet.conf file to:
pronet.apps.agent.conntype=ssltcp

3 Restart the Agent. 4 Configure the agent on the server using the 'SSL TCP/IP' mode from the Administration Console.

Converting a TCP Agent to SSL-TCP/IP Agent


You can use the Administration Console to change the connection protocol of an agent from TCP to SSL-TCP/IP agent.

Chapter 2 Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents 57

Configuring a SSL TCP/IP Agent

To convert a TCP agent to an SSL-TCP/IP agent


1 Use the Administration Console to disconnect the existing TCP agent. 2 Add the following line to the file installDirectory /pw/custom/conf/pronet.conf
pronet.apps.agent.conntype=ssltcp

3 Restart the agent 4 Edit the remote agent connection type in the Administration Console to change to 'SSL-TCP' 5 Click OK. 6 Reconnect the agent using the Administration Console or CLI.

Configuring a SSL TCP/IP Agent


Secure communication between an Agent and the Agent controller is achieved by configuring an Agent to be SSL Agent. (Refer to online documentation on how to add a Remote Agent.) This secure communication has the following default settings:
Trust and key management for the Agent Controller is driven by the pnserver.ks

and for Agent is driven by pnAgent.ks, keystores present in the /pw/pronto/ conf/ directory.

Trust management and key management are driven by keystores which can be

created using the keytool utility. The keystores for the Agent Controller & Agent are specified using the following pronet.conf entries, respectively:
pronet.apps.ipc.ssl.context.controller.keystore.filename pronet.apps.ipc.ssl.context.Agent.keystore.filename

The public-private keypairs for the Agent and Agent Controller are generated using the RSA algorithm.
Password that is necessary for these keystores is specified in the .ks_pass file

present in the same (/pw/pronto/conf/) directory. Agent controller communication:

BMC ProactiveNet supports the following protocol suites by default for Agent-

58 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Configuring a SSL TCP/IP Agent

SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA SSL_DH_anon_WITH_RC4_128_MD5 SSL_DH_anon_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA SSL_DH_anon_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA SSL_DH_anon_EXPORT_WITH_RC4_40_MD5 SSL_DH_anon_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA

This list is specified using the pronet.conf entry pronet.apps.ipc.ssl.enabledsuites, which can be enhanced, depending on the type of certificates to be used.

Changing security configuration


SSL configuration of BMC ProactiveNet can be configured broadly, in the following areas:
Create a new keystore for Agent and/or Agent Controller To enable Agent to use a new self signed/existing certificates To enable Agent Controller to use a new self signed/existing certificates

Limitations
As of BMC ProactiveNet 7.1 only keystore in jks format is supported. Though it

may be configurable from java.security, java.policy and pronet.conf entries, it is not verified. ProactiveNet product only, with no other JRETM/JVMTMs installed on the same system or at least not present in the path.

BMC Software recommends using the keytool provided as part of the BMC

Creating new keystore for the agent controller


You can create a new keystore and use this keystore for trust and key management for the Agent controller.

To create a new keystore for the agent controller


1 Issue the following keytool command to generate a new keystore:

Chapter 2 Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents 59

Configuring a SSL TCP/IP Agent

keytool -keystore <path>/<keystore-name> alias <alias-name> -genkey

keyalg RSA.

This command will generate a new public-private key pair. This public key will be wrapped in a certificate by default. This key pair along with the certificate will be stored in the keystore file mentioned in the keystore option. Use the RSA algorithm to generate the key pair as it is supported by default. Additional configurations required to be changed are listed under Default Configuration section. 2 The keystore for the Agent controller can be specified in the, pronet.conf entry pronet.apps.ipc.ssl.context.controller.keystore.filename. Enter the path to the newly generated keystore in this entry. 3 For trust management, add certificates into this keystore by issuing the following command:
keytool -keystore <path> -import -alias <alias-name> -file <certificate-path>.

Type in yes when the tool prompts Trust this certificate? [no]:. All the certificates added like this will be trusted by the Agent controller. 4 Password for this keystore must be specified in the .ks_pass file present in the / pw/pronto/conf/ directory. 5 Restart the Agent controller for the changes to take effect.

Creating new keystore for the agent


You can create a new keystore and use this keystore for trust and key management for the Agent.

To create a new keystore for the agent


1 Issue the following keytool command to generate a new keystore:
keytool -keystore <path>/<keystore-name> alias <alias-name> -genkey

keyalg RSA.

This command will generate a new public-private key pair. This public key will be wrapped in a certificate by default. This key pair along with the certificate will be stored in the keystore file mentioned in the keystore option. Use the RSA algorithm to generate the key pair as it is supported by default. Additional configurations required to be changed to use any other algorithm are mentioned later. 2 The keystore for the Agent can be specified in the, pronet.apps.ipc.ssl.context.Agent.keystore.filename pronet.conf entry.
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Configuring a SSL TCP/IP Agent

Enter the path to the newly generated keystore in this entry.

3 For trust management, add certificates into this keystore by issuing the following command:
keytool -keystore <path> -import -alias <alias-name> -file <certificate-path>.

Type in yes when the tool prompts Trust this certificate? [no]:. All the certificates added like this will be trusted by the Agent. 4 Password for this keystore must be specified in the .ks_pass file present in the installDirectory /pw/pronto/conf/ directory. 5 Restart the Agent controller for the changes to take effect.

Updating the Agent keystore with new self-signed certificate


The following procedure assumes that the default pnAgent.ks and pnserver.ks files are being used. If you want to use your own keystore files then the file name must be specified correctly in the keystore option when you update the keystore.

To update the agent keystore with a new self-signed certificate


1 Generate a key pair for the Agent by running the following command:
keytool -keystore " installationDirectory \Agent\pronto\conf\pnAgent.ks"

alias ALIAS -genkey keyalg RSA.

2 Export the newly generated key into a certificate:


keytool keystore " installationDirectory \Agent\pronto\conf\pnAgent.ks"

alias<ALIAS> -export file "certificate name"

The alias provided must match with the alias provided while generating the keys in the previous step. Unless the destination directory is specified, the certificate will be generated in the users home directory. 3 Make this as a trusted certificate on the Agent controller end:
Copy the certificate generated above, onto the Agent controllers computer.

Now import this certificate as a trusted certificate into the pnserver.ks keystore by executing the following command: keytool -keystore "<Server Installation Dir>\pw\pronto\conf\pnserver.ks" import -alias ALIAS -file "PATH\certificate name"

Chapter 2 Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents 61

Configuring a SSL TCP/IP Agent

Note Alias provided above must be a new Alias. See TCP Proxy Agent on page 70 for further information.
The certificate name provided must be the name of the certificate, which was supplied when the Agents certificate was created. The PATH is the path to the directory where the certificate is kept. Type in yes when the tool prompts Trust this certificate? [no]:. After this step the certificate copied onto the Agent controller computer can be deleted. 4 Restart the server and the Agent for the changes to take effect.

Updating the Agent keystore with an existing (CA signed) certificate


The following procedure assumes that the default pnAgent.ks and pnserver.ks files are being used. If you want to use your own keystore files then the file name must be specified correctly in the keystore option when you update the keystore.

To update the agent keystore with an existing certificate


1 Import the existing key pair of the Agent into the pnAgent.ks file: Create a pkcs12 format file using the existing keypair and the certificate using the openssl tool: openssl pkcs12 -export -inkey key name -in certificate name -out server-new file name.pkcs12

The openssl tool is shipped as part of the BMC ProactiveNet product and can be found in installationDirectory /pw/apache/bin or installationDirectory \pw \ApacheGroup\Apache\bin directory. This can be imported as a key entry, into the existing JKS format keystore using the IBMs freely downloadable KeyMan tool. 2 Import the existing certificate of the Agent into the pnserver.ks file: Copy the Agent certificate onto the Agent controller computer. Now import this certificate as a trusted certificate into the pnserver.ks keystore using the command:

Note

62 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Configuring a SSL TCP/IP Agent

keytool -keystore " installationDirectory \pw\pronto\conf\pnserver.ks" import -alias ALIAS -file "PATH\Certificate name"

Note Alias provided above must be a new Alias. Refer Troubleshooting for further information.
The certificate name provided must be the name of the Agents certificate. The PATH is the path to the directory where the certificate is kept. Type in yes when the tool prompts Trust this certificate? [no]:. After this step the certificate copied onto the Agent controller computer can be deleted. 3 Restart the server and the Agent for the changes to take effect.

Updating the Agent Controller keystore with a new selfsigned certificate


The following procedure assumes that the default pnAgent.ks and pnserver.ks files are being used. If you want to use your own keystore files then the file name must be specified correctly in the keystore option when you update the keystore.

To update the agent controller keystore with a new self-signed certificate


1 Generate a key pair for the Agent controller by running the following command: keytool -keystore " installationDirectory \pw\pronto\conf\pnserver.ks" alias ALIAS -genkey keyalg RSA. 2 Export the newly generated key into a certificate: keytool keystore " installationDirectory \pw\pronto\conf\pnserver.ks" alias ALIAS -export file "Certificate name" The alias provided must match with the alias provided while generating the keys in the previous step. Unless the destination directory is specified, the certificate will be generated in the users home directory. 3 Make this as a trusted certificate on the remote Agents end: Copy the certificate generated above, onto the Agents computer. Now import this certificate as a trusted certificate into the pnAgent.ks keystore by executing the following command:

Chapter 2 Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents 63

Configuring a SSL TCP/IP Agent

keytool -keystore " installationDirectory \Agent\pronto\conf\pnAgent.ks" import -alias ALIAS -file "PATH\certificate name"

Note Alias provided above must be a new Alias. Refer Troubleshooting for further information.
The certificate name provided must be the name of the certificate, which was supplied when the Agent controllers certificate was created. The PATH is the path to the directory where the certificate is kept. Type in yes when the tool prompts Trust this certificate? [no]:. After this step the certificate copied onto the Agents computer can be deleted. This step has to repeated for all the remote SSL TCP/IP Agents the Agent controller is connected to. 4 Restart the server and all the SSL TCP/IP Agents for the changes to take effect.

Updating the Agent Controller keystore with an existing (CA signed) certificate
The following procedure assumes that the default pnAgent.ks and pnserver.ks files are being used. If you want to use your own keystore files then the file name must be specified correctly in the keystore option when you update the keystore.

To update the agent controller keystore with an existing certificate


1 Import the existing key pair of the Agent controller into the pnserver.ks file: Procedure is same as mentioned in Updating the Agent keystore with an existing (CA signed) certificate on page 62. 2 Import the existing certificate of the Agent controller into the pnAgent.ks file: Copy the Agent controllers certificate onto the remote Agents computer. Now import this certificate as a trusted certificate into the pnAgent.ks keystore by executing the following command: keytool -keystore " installationDirectory \Agent\pronto\conf\pnserver.ks" import -alias ALIAS -file "PATH\Certificate name"

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Configuring a SSL TCP/IP Agent

Note Alias provided above must be a new Alias. Refer Troubleshooting for further information.
The certificate name provided must be the name of the Agents certificate. The PATH is the path to the directory where the certificate is kept. Type in yes when the tool prompts Trust this certificate? [no]:. After this step the certificate copied onto the Agents computer can be deleted. This step will have to be repeated for all the Agents the Agent controller is connected to. 3 Restart the server and the all Agents for the changes to take effect.

Examples for Configuring SSL TCP/IP Agents


This section provides example procedures for configuring SSL TCP/IP agents with different keystore certificates.

Configuring a remote agent to present a new self-signed certificate


This procedure provides an example configuration.

To configure a remote agent to present a new self-signed certificate


1 Generate a key pair for the agent by running the following command: keytool -keystore " installationDirectory \agent\pronto\conf\pnagent.ks" alias ALIAS -genkey keyalg RSA.

The ALIAS provided must be a new alias. 2 Export the newly generated key into a certificate: keytool keystore " installationDirectory \agent\pronto\conf\pnagent.ks" alias ALIAS -export file "certificate name"

Note

Chapter 2 Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents 65

Configuring a SSL TCP/IP Agent

The ALIAS provided must match with the alias provided while generating the keys in the previous step. Unless the destination directory is specified, the certificate will be generated in the users home directory. 3 Make this as a trusted certificate on the agent controller end: Copy the certificate generated above onto the agent controllers computer. Now import this certificate as a trusted certificate into the pnserver.ks keystore by executing the following command: keytool -keystore " installationDirectory \pw\pronto\conf\pnserver.ks" -import alias ALIAS -file "PATH\certificate name" The certificate name provided must be the name of the certificate, which was supplied when the agents certificate was created. The PATH is the location to the directory where the certificate is stored. Type in yes when the tool prompts Trust this certificate? [no]:. After this step the certificate copied onto the agent controller computer can be deleted. The ALIAS provided must be a new alias. 4 Restart the server and the agent for the changes to take effect.

Note

Configuring a remote agent to present an existing certificate


This procedure provides an example configuration.

To configure a remote agent to present an existing certificate


1 Import the existing key pair of the agent into the pnagent.ks file: Create a pkcs12 format file using the existing keypair and the certificate. Run the following openssl command to achieve this: openssl pkcs12 -export -inkey key name -in certificate name -out new file name.pkcs12 Download IBM KeyMan tool, which is available for free download and import the pkcs12 format file generated above, into pnagent.ks file.

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Configuring a SSL TCP/IP Agent

Note The openssl tool is shipped along with Apache and can be found in: installationDirectory \pw\ApacheGroup\Apache\bin\
2 Import the existing certificate of the agent into the pnserver.ks file:
Copy the agent certificate onto the agent controller computer. Now import this

certificate as a trusted certificate into the pnserver.ks keystore by executing the following command:

keytool -keystore " installationDirectory \pw\pronto\conf\pnserver.ks" import -alias ALIAS -file "PATH\certificate name" The certificate name provided must be the name of the agents certificate. The PATH is the location to the directory where the certificate is stored. Type in yes when the tool prompts Trust this certificate? [no]:. After this step the certificate copied onto the agent controller computer can be deleted. The ALIAS provided must be a new alias. 3 Restart the server and the agent for the changes to take effect.

Note

Configuring the agent controller to present a new selfsigned certificate


This procedure provides an example configuration.

To configure the agent controller to present a new self-signed certificate


1 Generate a key pair for the agent controller by running the following command: keytool -keystore " installationDirectory \pw\pronto\conf\pnserver.ks" alias ALIAS -genkey keyalg RSA.

The ALIAS provided must be a new alias. 2 Export the newly generated key into a certificate: keytool keystore " installationDirectory \pw\pronto\conf\pnserver.ks" alias ALIAS -export file "certificate name"

Note

Chapter 2 Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents 67

Configuring a SSL TCP/IP Agent

The alias provided must match with the alias provided while generating the keys in the previous step. Unless the destination directory is specified, the certificate will be generated in the users home directory. 3 Make this as a trusted certificate on the remote agents end: Copy the certificate generated above onto the agents computer. Import this certificate as a trusted certificate into the pnagent.ks keystore by executing the following command: keytool -keystore " installationDirectory \agent\pronto\conf\pnagent.ks" import -alias ALIAS -file "PATH\certificate name" The certificate name provided must be the name of the certificate, which was supplied when the agent controllers certificate was created. The PATH is the location to the directory where the certificate is stored. Type in yes when the tool prompts Trust this certificate? [no]:. The Agent's controller's certificate, which was copied onto the agent's computer, can now be deleted. This step has to be repeated for all the remote agents (which use SSL TCP/IP) and which are connected to the agent controller. The ALIAS provided must be a new ALIAS. 4 Restart the server and all the agent(s) for the changes to take effect.

Note

Note
To ease the transfer of agent's controller certificate to remote agents, the

following steps can be considered:

On the server, update the local agent's pnagent.ks with the agent controller's

new certificate (as mentioned above).

Transfer this pnagent.ks onto all the remote agents (which use SSL TCP/IP)

using Transfer Files to Agents feature.

Configuring the agent controller to present an existing certificate


This procedure provides an example configuration.

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Configuring a SSL TCP/IP Agent

To configure the agent controller to present an existing certificate


1 Import the existing key pair of the agent controller into the pnserver.ks file: Create a pkcs12 format file using the existing keypair and the certificate. Run the following openssl command to achieve this: openssl pkcs12 -export -inkey key name -in certificate name -out new file name.pkcs12 Download IBM KeyMan tool, which is available for free download and import the pkcs12 format file generated above, into pnserver.ks file. The openssl tool is shipped along with Apache and can be found in: installDirectory \pw\ApacheGroup\Apache\bin\ 2 Import the existing certificate of the agent controller into the pnagent.ks file: Copy the agent controllers certificate onto the remote agents computer. Now import this certificate as a trusted certificate into the pnagent.ks keystore by executing the following command: keytool -keystore " installationDirectory \agent\pronto\conf\pnagent.ks" import -alias ALIAS -file "PATH\certificate name" The certificate name provided must be the name of the agent controllers certificate. The PATH is the location to the directory where the certificate is stored. Type in yes when the tool prompts Trust this certificate? [no]:. After this step the certificate copied onto the agents computer can be deleted. This step will have to be repeated for all the agents (which use SSL TCP/IP)connected to the agent controller.

Note

Note The ALIAS provided must be a new alias.


3 Restart the server and the all agents for the changes to take effect. To ease the transfer of agent's controller certificate to remote agents, the following steps can be considered:

Note

Chapter 2 Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents 69

TCP Proxy Agent

4 On the server, update the local agent's pnagent.ks with the agent controller's new certificate (as mentioned above). 5 Transfer this pnagent.ks onto all the remote agents (which use SSL TCP/IP) using Transfer Files to Agents feature. All the above examples assume that you are using the default pnagent.ks and pnserver.ks keystore files. These keystores, as mentioned in the Default Configuration, can be configured. Refer Troubleshooting Section for frequently observed errors and their possible solutions.

Note

TCP Proxy Agent


TCP Proxy Agent can be used if multiple remote agents exist behind the firewall. It is possible to use one agent as Proxy Agent, which collects data from other agents and delivers it to BMC ProactiveNet Server.

How does a TCP Proxy Agent work?


Any normal TCP agent can act as a proxy, collect data from agents behind it and send them to BMC ProactiveNet Server over TCP. With the use of TCP Proxy, there will be a dedicated connection between BMC ProactiveNet Server and ProxyAgent. Messages can flow faster even in the environments that have network latency. The main advantage of this feature over HTTP Tunnel is that a new connection between proxy agent and BMC ProactiveNet Server is not created for each message that is to be delivered to the server. Messages can flow to and from within a single TCP Connection between agent proxy and BMC ProactiveNet Server. Figure 6: Flow Chart of TCP Agent Proxy

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TCP Proxy Agent

Features of a TCP Proxy Agent


The TCP Proxy Agent has the following features:
Any TCP/IP Agent can be used as a Proxy Agent. To add a remote agent behind a TCP/IP Agent, select the TCP Proxy option and

a TCP Agent from list. The drop-down will list all the TCP Proxy capable Agents on the Server.

When Proxy Agent gets disconnected from the Server, all agents will also get

disconnected and the status of these agents is shown as Proxy Agent Unreachable. The only requirement is that the agent version should be 7.1 or higher.

No configuration is required on the agent to make a TCP Agent act as a Proxy.

For proxy communication to be secure, use a SSL/TCP Agent as the Proxy Agent. TCP/IP Agents will have the capability to automatically detect messages to other

proxied agents and forward them correspondingly.

Messages from remote agents are sent to the agent controller using the dedicated

TCP connection established between TCP agent and Agent Controller. The following Agents cannot be configured as a TCP Proxy Agent:
HTTP Tunnel Agents. BMC ProactiveNet Agents prior to 7.1 Version.

Note

TCP Proxied Agents (Agents using a TCP Proxy to connect to the server).

Adding a TCP Proxy Agent


Use the Administration Console to add a TCP Proxy agent.

To add a TCP Proxy Agent


1 In the Administration Console in the Administration General Administration tab, expand the Advanced Options. 2 Select the Agent folder, right click and choose Add Remote Agent.

Chapter 2 Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents 71

TCP Proxy Agent

The Add Device and Agent window displays as shown in Figure 7 on page 72. Figure 7: Configuration tab of Add Device and Agent window

3 In the Add Device and Agent window, select the Device Type. 4 Specify the Device Name and IP Address. For example: Device Type = Server, Device Name = PN1, IP Address = 192.168.1.66. 5 Select the Agent Installed on Device option.

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TCP Proxy Agent

6 Click Next. The following window is displayed. Figure 8: Add Device and Agent window - continued

7 Select TCP Proxy as the Connection to Server option. 8 Select the Agent from the list containing the TCP Proxy capable agents. Select a computer with minimal or no monitors as the Proxy Agent (so it can devote its resources to communication). 9 Click Finish. Only default monitors will be created.

Note

Limitations
If a TCP Proxy Agent is disconnected or shutdown, then all the agents behind it

will be unreachable.

If the Agent is behind a firewall, then the firewall has to be configured to allow

incoming connection to the Proxy Agent for the port on which Agent is listening the pronet.conf entry "pronet.apps.agent.pollperiod.allowednoreplies.tcp=2" when an agent is unreachable. The agent will be set as AgentUnreachable immediately.

Windows Server will not perform the desired number of retries as mentioned by

Chapter 2 Managing BMC ProactiveNet Agents 73

TCP Proxy Agent

74 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

3
Managing devices
Summary of devices
You add devices to BMC ProactiveNet through the Device folder on the Administration Console. When you add a device for BMC ProactiveNet to monitor, you are initially presented with the Add Device window in which you identify the device by type. BMC ProactiveNet offers the following device type categories:
AppServer DBServer Firewall MailServer Other RemoteAgent Router Server Switch WebServer

BMC ProactiveNet automatically creates a set of default monitors for each device type. After you add a device to BMC ProactiveNet, you can choose to monitor applications residing on the device or collect statistics from its Management Information Base (MIB), as described in the following sections.

Chapter 3 Managing devices 75

Using device aliases

For detailed information about individual BMC ProactiveNet monitors, see the BMC ProactiveNet Data Adapter and Monitor Guide.

Using device aliases


BMC ProactiveNet uses aliases to associate internal and external events to devices. Device alias are generated when a device is created. They can be generated automatically by BMC ProactiveNet or you can define them. BMC ProactiveNet compares the device aliases from events with the alias defined for each device, and when a match is found, the event is associated with the device that matches the alias. Aliases generated automatically are prefixed with BMC_ComputerSystem and use the following naming conventions, depending on how the device is generated:
BMC_ComputerSystem:deviceid BMC_ComputerSystem:deviceName BMC_ComputerSystem:fullyQualifedDomainName BMC_ComputerSystem:devicename_ip (if BMC_ComputerSystem:deviceName is a

duplicate)

BMC_ComputerSystem:reconid (if device is from the BMC Atrium CMDB)

When the BMC ProactiveNet cell receives an event, the event is processed as follows, depending on whether the event is internal or external:
For internal events, BMC ProactiveNet compares the device ID from the device

alias with the device ID from the event and if a match is found, then the event is associated with the device.

For external events, BMC ProactiveNet compares other alias values, such as

BMC_ComputerSystem:deviceName or BMC_ComputerSystem:fullyQualifiedDomainName, with the event mc_sms_alias slot value, which contains device information. If a match is found, then the event is associated with the device.

If no matches are found, then the event does not get associated to any device. When a device is created, update, or deleted in the Administration Console, the device is also created, updated, or deleted in the BMC ProactiveNet cell.

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Avoiding duplicate devices

WARNING If a device is associated with multiple domains, the domain of the device must be the same domain captured by the mc_host event or aliasing will fail.

Avoiding duplicate devices


In BMC ProactiveNet, a device can be created in the following ways:
through one of the following adapters: BMC PATROL Adapter BMC Portal Adapter System Center Operation Manager (SCOM) Adapter BMC Transaction Management Application Response Time (BMC TM ART)

Adapter

IBM Tivoli Monitoring HP Operations Manager manually by using the Administration Console or a Command Line Option integrating with the BMC Atrium CMDB

When duplicate devices are created


Duplicate devices could result if multiple different sources that use different naming conventions are used to create the devices; for example, if the PATROL adapter uses the host name of the computer where the device is located to name the device and the BMC Atrium CMDB uses the IP address of the computer where the device is located to name the device, then duplicate device instances would be created in BMC ProactiveNet.

When duplicate devices are not created


Duplicate devices are not created in the following situations:
Devices are created by only one source. Devices are created from different sources independently.

Chapter 3 Managing devices 77

Creating a device

The different sources use the same naming convention when creating the devices;

for example, IP address, host name, or fully qualified domain name.

Device aliases are created by using alias formulas

Best practices for device creation


To avoid creating duplicate devices,
Ensure that the device is created using the fully qualified domain name of the host

computer where the device is located.

Ensure that if the device is referenced from multiple adapters that each adapter

uses the fully qualified domain name of the device.

Creating a device
Before you add devices, have the following information available:
A list of devices (by type) to add DNS names, if you want to add devices by name IP addresses, if you want to add devices by their IP address For servers, a list of applications running on each server and a checklist of

applications that you want to monitor

For adding SNMP devices, a list of MIBs and community strings for each device.

BMC ProactiveNet Server uses the community string as a password for MIB access. If you do not enter a community string, the default community string, public, is used.

If you are not using the DNS, ensure that the BMC ProactiveNet Server IP address exists on the DNS server, mail server, or hosts file. This should have been completed during BMC ProactiveNet Server installation. If the IP address is not included, BMC ProactiveNet cannot poll the device and issues an error message. To verify the BMC ProactiveNet Server environment settings, see the BMC ProactiveNet Getting Started Guide.

Note

To create a device
1 In the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console, select the Devices folder, right click, and select Add => Device.
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Creating a device

2 In the Add Device window, enter the required information in the Configuration tab.
Device Type - Select a Device Type from the list.

Ensure that you select the correct Device Type. It is used by Probable Cause Analysis algorithm to determine correlations between events and abnormalities within the system. If the Device type is not accurate, it alters Probable Cause Analysis behavior. Example, if a computer is a Web Server, set Device Type as WebServer (and not just Server).
Device Name - Specify the name of the device. If the device name is a DNS

Note

name, then the device name will be filled in automatically if it has not already been set. This may take a few moments. Ensure that you do not use any special characters, such as /, in the device name. If the device name includes special characters, then you cannot see the monitors for the device when you click on the device name in the Grid view of the BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console.

Note

DNS Name / IP Address - Specify the devices IP address. The address

127.0.0.1 is the loop back address for any computer and should not be added to the Device List. If the device IP address has a DNS name, then the device name will be filled in automatically if it has not already been set.

Tag - Select a descriptive tag about the device that you are creating. Click the

plus icon to display the Enter Tag Details dialog box, where you can select the Tag Class as None, Location, Building, Department, or Owner, and enter a Tag Value. For example, if the device that you are creating is located in a particular city, you would select Location as the Tag Class and then specify the city where the device is located as the Tag Value. Click Add to enter the values that you specify, and then click Finish to return to the Add Device dialog box.
Aliases - Add one or more aliases to the device that you are creating. Use

device aliases to associate events to the device, so that remote actions can be performed on those associated events. For details about remote actions, see Configuring and using Remote Actions/Diagnostics on page 119. that you are creating, if that device has multiple IP addresses. The first IP address that is associated with the Device Name that you specify is used as the primary IP address. Any additional IP addresses are used as secondary IP addresses. If no secondary IP addresses exist, then N.A is displayed in this field. To view all secondary IP addresses, click on the ellipses button.

Secondary IPs - View any secondary IP addresses associated with the device

Chapter 3 Managing devices 79

Creating a device

Note Only devices that have been synchronized with the BMC Atrium CMDB display secondary IP addresses. Manually created devices will not display secondary IP addresses even if multiple IP addresses exist for that device.
Device Description - Enter a description about the device that you are creating. Agent Installed on Device - Select this option if you have installed a BMC

ProactiveNet Agent on this device. Some monitors require that an agent be installed on the target device.

3 Click the Control tab to edit the control attributes. Information in the Control tab tells the BMC ProactiveNet Server about the desired data collection and polling frequencies for the device. You can accept the defaults or change them as required.
SNMP Data Collection - Select this option to enable BMC ProactiveNet Server

to collect data for the entire device. If this option is not selected, data collection for the device stops (or for new devices, never starts). This flag lets you set up monitors for devices that may not yet be online. Or, you can conduct maintenance on existing devices without generating events. for BMC ProactiveNet Server access to the device MIB. To change this entry, you must have prior knowledge of how this device is set up. For example, if this device is set up for the Community String snmpget, then enter snmpget. must request data from the device before reporting an event. Default is 2 retries. must wait for data from the device before reporting an event. Default is 2 seconds.

SNMP Read Community String - The Community String acts as a password

SNMP Retries - Specifies how many times (count) BMC ProactiveNet Server

SNMP Timeout - Specifies the duration (seconds) BMC ProactiveNet Server

SNMP Use V2 - Select this option if the device is using version 2 of the protocol.

4 Click the Group Tab and enter the required information.


This tab enables you to add a device and its monitors to one or more groups.

Optionally, you may associate the device with a group. A group is used to logically organize devices and monitors by department, geographic area, or service. Assigning a device to a group also enables the system administrator to restrict or allow access to certain devices by group. If you want the device to be associated with a group, select the group name here.

5 Click the Remote Actions/Diagnostics tab and enter the required information.

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Selecting monitors for the device

Protocol Types Select a protocol type from the list. The supported protocols

are psExec, ssh (Secure Shell), and telnet.

PortNo Default port number of the selected Protocol Type is displayed. Remote User Name Enter the remote user name. This is mandatory for all

Protocol Types.

Remote User Password Enter the remote user password. Mandatory for

psExec, ssh, and telnet protocol types. Confirm the remote user password.

You should give a complete remote system prompt while using telnet protocols. For example, if the remote system prompt is [root@kadamba root]#, then you should enter correctly in the remote system prompt field. You should not use a partial system prompt, for example, # for [root@kadamba root]#, which might prevent the system from logging into the remote device. The maximum number of characters supported for remote system prompt is 512 characters. For detailed information about Remote Actions, see Configuring and using Remote Actions/Diagnostics on page 119. 6 Open the Baseline tab.
By default, no device is selected when you access the Baseline tab. When you

Note

select a device to copy baseline values from, then for all monitors being added to the new device, a corresponding monitor is searched on the selected device. If matching monitors are present, then all baseline values (hourly and weekly) are copied from the existing monitor to the new monitor instances being created.

7 Click Finish to save your actions and execute all remaining actions (using defaults). This opens a summary panel. Click Finish.

Selecting monitors for the device


Based upon the Device Type selected in the Configuration tab, the system automatically pre-selects some default monitors and pre-selects the Monitor tab. For example, for the Device Type 'Server', the NodePing monitor is pre-selected; and if an agent is installed on the device, System and TCP/IP and Agent Status Monitors are pre-selected, and the System Tab is pre-selected. You can add additional monitors for the applications and components installed on the device.

Chapter 3 Managing devices 81

Editing devices

To select monitors for a device


1 Select the monitors that you want to create for this device.
If the device has more than one application that needs monitoring, for example,

a server running Mail and IP services, select all of the monitors here using the various tabs, or go back and add the monitors later.

2 Click Next.
First the Creating... Monitor screen opens, followed by the configuration

windows for each monitor you selected.

The Configuration window contains specific entry fields, as shown in this example. Refer to the BMC ProactiveNet Data Adapter and Monitor Guide for detailed instructions regarding setting the parameters for the monitors. Notice that each monitor also has a Control tab, which specifies the data collection and polling frequency for individual Application or Intelliscope. And similar to the Configuration tab, the input fields in the Control tab vary depending on the selected monitor. Click Skip if you have selected several monitors to add and you change your mind about one of them or you are uncertain about an entry field Clicking Skip moves on to the next monitors configuration. The skipped monitor is not added. The program continues normally. When the last monitor is configured, the Summary screen appears to show what was created. 3 Click Finish. To view the new device listing, expand (or close and expand) the corresponding device folder.

Editing devices
Perform the following steps to modify an existing device.

To edit devices
Devices published from the BMC Atrium CMDB cannot be edited in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console. Also, you cannot edit a device alias for a published device. 1 In the Administration Console, expand the Device folder 2 Expand the device type folder, and select the device to edit.

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Duplicating devices

3 Right click on the device and select Edit. 4 On the Configuration tab, make any required changes. 5 On the Control tab, make any required changes. 6 Click OK. If you make changes on the Control tab, all SNMP-based monitors are updated. However, if a Distributed Interface MIB Monitor instance exists on the device and you make any changes on the Control tab, the Affected SNMP-based Auto Discovery-enabled Monitors window is displayed. 7 Select the monitor to which to apply the new control settings. 8 Click OK.

Duplicating devices
You use the Duplicate option to use an existing device and its monitors as a prototype for creating a new device. For example, if you have three servers with four similar applications that you want to monitor, you can add the first server with the applications, and then use that server as a template for creating the other two servers. For each additional server, you only need to enter the new IP address or DNS name.

To duplicate a device
1 In the Administration Console, expand the Devices folder. 2 Expand the device type folder, and select the device that you want to duplicate. 3 Right-click the device and select Duplicate. 4 In the Duplicate Device window, configure information on the Configuration, Control, and Group tabs, as required. The Duplicate option enables you to use the highlighted device and its monitors as a prototype for creating a new device. For example, if you have 3 servers with 4 similar applications that you want to monitor, you can add the first server with the applications, and then use that server as a template for creating the other two. For each additional server, you only need to enter the new IP address or DNS name.

Chapter 3 Managing devices 83

Deleting devices

Note
The Duplicate option does not save or store information. If you want to save

the information for future use when creating the same monitors on different devices, use the Create Template feature. instance thresholds for auto-created SNMP objects like Interface and DLCI. However, these details are captured for custom SNMP monitors that you create using the Monitor Wizard.

The Duplicate option does not duplicate or capture line graphs and absolute

Deleting devices
Auto-discovered devices can be deleted, if there are no auto-discovered monitor instances under the devices. You can delete one or many devices at a time from the Administration Console or through executing CLI commands. You cannot delete devices that are published from the BMC Atrium CMDB.

Note

To delete a single device


1 In the Administration Console, expand the Devices folder. 2 Expand the device type folder, and select the device that you want to delete. 3 Right-click the device and select Delete. 4 In the Confirm Deletion window, click OK to delete the device. After a pause, the window closes and a beep signals deletion. To confirm that the delete operation was successful, close and then expand the Devices folder and verify that the device is no longer listed.

To delete multiple devices


1 Expand the Device folder and continue to expand the folders to display the devices. 2 Select one or more devices (use shift key to select multiple devices). 3 Right-click on the open space of the screen and click Delete.

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Creating a monitor template

4 Click OK on the confirmation message. BMC ProactiveNet deletes the selected device and returns to Administration Console screen.
To return to Administration Console without deleting the selected device, click

Cancel.

Creating a monitor template


The easiest way to develop a template is to start with an existing device. For example, if you have a cluster of 10 systems that you want to provision for monitoring, add one of the systems using the Administration Console, and then create a template to add the other nine. You can create a template in the Administration Console or from the command line. The Create Template command is not supported for Resource Pool Monitors and Abnormality Index Monitors.

Note

To create a template using the Administration Console


1 In the Administration Console, drill down to an instance of a device in the Device folder. 2 Right-click on the device and select Create Template.
The Create Template window is displayed.

3 In the Create Template window, specify a name for the template. 4 If you want the template to save control parameters such as collect data, stats poll interval, stats timeout, and so on, select the Preserve control attributes option. 5 Select or clear the existing monitors of the device. 6 Click Add to create a template with the selected options.

Chapter 3 Managing devices 85

Adding a device from a template

Note
In the Administration Console, the Templates folder does not update

automatically when you add or delete templates. You must close and then reopen the Templates folder to reflect changes.

Templates can capture absolute instance thresholds and line graphs. Autosync-created devices, groups, and monitor instances are not part of the

template.

To create a template using the command line interface


1 Run the following command: pw template add templateName -d device Use -savecontrol to save control parameters in the template. In general, you should not save control attributes to a template. Usually you want the same control parameters for all instances of a monitor, but you can control the global defaults by editing the monitor defaults. If you save the control parameters to the template, and then later change the monitor defaults, the monitors created with the template will retain the old value because the template takes precedence over the monitor defaults. So, set control parameters in the template only if it is important that these monitors have specific individual settings. For more information, see the BMC ProactiveNet Command Line Interface Reference Manual. 2 Verify that the template exists. The template created can be found on the computer that hosts the BMC ProactiveNet Server at /usr/pronto/usr_config/templates/ templateName.

The Create Template command does not duplicate or capture line graphs and absolute instance thresholds for auto-created SNMP objects like Interface and DLCI. However, these details are captured for custom SNMP monitors that you create by using the Monitor Wizard.

Note

Adding a device from a template


Templates enable you to create devices quickly or add a set of monitors to many devices using a single blueprint. You can replicate and save the definition of every monitor on the device, which is useful when you want to create the same monitors
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Adding a device from a template

on different devices. Using templates means you do not have to re-create the monitors every time you want to add them to a different device. You save the templates for later use or edit them as necessary. This significantly streamlines and automates the administration process. Also, if you have a cluster of servers and you want to monitor each with the same set of monitors, you can create one template to provision all of the systems. You can use the template repeatedly to provision new servers that are added to the cluster. For example, you have a series of URLs to monitor and the URLs are identical except for the host name. If you want to keep the control parameters the same for all the URLs, you can create a template for this URL by using a macro for the hostname portion of the URL, example, http://$(HOST)/search.jsp?keyword=java. For more information about creating templates and using macros, see the BMC ProactiveNet Command Line Interface Reference Manual.

To add a device from a template


1 Launch the Administration Console. 2 Right-click the Device folder, and select Add From Template => Samples. 3 Select one of the sample templates. 4 Enter the required information in the Configuration tab
Device Type - Select a device type from one of the ten categories in the list. Device Name - Specify the name of the device. If the device name is a DNS

name, then the device name will be filled in automatically if it has not already been set. This may take a few moments. Ensure that you do not use any special characters, such as /, in the device name. If the device name includes special characters, then you cannot see the monitors for the device when you click on the device name in the Grid view of the BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console.

Note

DNS / IP Address - Enter the device's IP address. The address 127.0.0.1 is the

loopback address for any computer and should not be added to the Device List. If the device IP has a DNS name, then the device name will be filled in automatically if it has not already been set.

Tag - Select a descriptive tag about the device that you are creating. Click the

to display the Enter Tag Details dialog box, where you can plus icon select the Tag Class as None, Location, Building, Department, or Owner, and enter a Tag Value. For example, if the device that you are creating is located in a particular city, you would select Location as the Tag Class and then specify
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Adding a device from a template

the city where the device is located as the Tag Value. Click Add to enter the values that you specify, and then click Finish to return to the Add Device dialog box.
Aliases - Add one or more aliases to the device that you are creating. Use

device aliases to associate events to the device, so that remote actions can be performed on those associated events. For details about remote actions, see Configuring and using Remote Actions/Diagnostics on page 119. that you are creating, if that device has multiple IP addresses. The first IP address that is associated with the Device Name that you specify is used as the primary IP address. Any additional IP addresses are used as secondary IP addresses. If no secondary IP addresses exist, then N.A is displayed in this field. To view all secondary IP addresses, click on the ellipses button.

Secondary IPs - View any secondary IP addresses associated with the device

Only devices that are synchronized with the BMC Atrium CMDB display secondary IP addresses. Manually created devices will not display secondary IP addresses even if multiple IP addresses exist for that device.
Device Description - Enter a description about the device that you are creating. Agent Installed on Device - Select this option if you have installed a BMC

Note

ProactiveNet Agent on this device. Some monitors require that an agent be installed on the target device.

5 Click the Control tab to edit the control attributes. Information in the Control tab tells BMC ProactiveNet about the desired data collection and polling frequencies for the device. You can accept the defaults or change them as required.
SNMP Data Collection - Select this option to enable BMC ProactiveNet Server

to collect data for the entire device. If this option is not selected, data collection for the device stops (or for new devices, never starts). This flag lets you set up monitors for devices that may not yet be online. Or, you can conduct maintenance on existing devices without generating events. BMC ProactiveNet Server access to the device MIB. To change this entry, you must have prior knowledge of how this device is set up. For example, if this device is set up for the Community String 'snmpget', then enter snmpget. Default is 'public'. must request data from the device before reporting an event. Default is 2 retries.

SNMP Read Community String - Community string acts as a password for

SNMP Retries - Specifies how many times (count) BMC ProactiveNet Server

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SNMP Timeout - Specifies how long (seconds) BMC ProactiveNet Server must

wait for data from the device before reporting an event. Default is 2 seconds.

SNMP Use V2 - Select this option if the device is using version 2 of the protocol.

6 Click the Group tab and enter the required information. The Group tab enables you to add a device and its monitors to one or more groups. Optionally, you may associate the device with a group. A group is used to logically organize devices and monitors by department, geographic area, or service. Assigning a device to a group can also allow the system administrator to restrict or allow access to certain devices by group. If you want the device to be associated with a group, select the group name here. 7 Click Next. 8 Click Finish. A summary panel is displayed.

Applying templates to a single device


You can apply a template to an existing device to add a set of monitors using a single blueprint.

To apply a template to a device


1 In the Administration Console, expand the Device folder and continue to expand the folders to display the device to which you want to apply a template. 2 Select the device, right-click, and select Apply Template. You can apply a sample template or a user-created template. 3 Select the template to apply.

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Applying templates to a single device

If the device does not have all the parameters required for this template, you

must enter certain parameters. See Adding a device from a template on page 86 for input information. If the device has all parameters required for the template, the Apply Template Test window is displayed as shown in Figure 9 on page 90: Figure 9: Select/Clear monitors

4 Select or clear the options as needed. 5 Click Next. 6 Click Finish. If a particular device does not have an agent with respect to the template, you must enter agent information. See Adding Agents on page 33.

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Warning message

Warning message
If a template specific to an operating system is applied to another operating system, the following warning message is displayed: Figure 10: Error Message displayed when the wrong template is applied

Applying templates to multiple devices


You can apply a template to more than one device at a time.

To apply a template to multiple devices


1 In the Administration Console, expand the Device folder and continue to expand the folders to display the devices to which you want to apply a template. 2 Press the Shift key while selecting multiple devices. 3 Right-click on the open space of the window and select Apply Template.
You can apply either a sample template or a template that you created.

4 Select the template to apply.

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Applying templates to multiple devices

If the device does not have all the parameters required for this template, you

must enter certain parameters. See Adding a device from a template on page 86 for input information. If the device has all parameters required for the template, the following window appears: Figure 11: Select/Clear monitors

5 Select or clear the options as needed. 6 Click Next. 7 Click Finish.


The Apply Template Summary window is displayed. This window shows all

the changes that you made to the devices.

8 Click Finish.

Editing an existing template


Perform the following steps to edit an existing template.

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To edit an existing template


1 Right-click the template. 2 Click Edit. 3 On the Edit Template window, make required changes. Templates can capture absolute instance thresholds and line graphs. Threshold values can also be edited. 4 Click Syntax Check to validate the syntax of the template.
In case of any errors in the syntax, BMC ProactiveNet displays an error message.

Note

5 Click OK to return to the Edit window and correct the entry. Figure 12: Syntax Check - Edit Template

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Changing device associations

6 After making all necessary changes and checking the syntax, click OK.

Deleting a Template
Perform the following steps to delete a template.

To delete a template,
1 Right-click the template to delete. 2 Click Delete. 3 In the Confirm Deletion window, click OK.

Changing device associations


Monitors are associated to at least one device, and this feature will give you the flexibility to change the device association from one device to another device.
This feature will be activated if more than one device is available in the server,

and the selected monitor is a ghost monitor. activated.

If any of the selected monitors is not a ghost monitor, then this feature will not be

To change the device association of multiple monitors


1 Click Edit => Change Device Association. 2 The Select new device dialog box is displayed.
This dialog box lists all the devices supported by the selected monitors along

with a search utility. The search utility lists all the devices including the current device.

3 Enter the initial letters of the name of the device that you want to search for in the search box and click Go.
Selection will be set to the first matching device and that device will be

highlighted.

4 Click OK.

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Domain name

5 In the Confirm Change Device Association dialog box, click OK. The monitor is now associated with the selected device. When Device Association of monitor is changed, all open events or events for those instances are closed. Any configured event actions will be executed. Imported events associated with the Changed Device Association monitor instance will be closed. If the error condition still continues, then a new event or event is triggered after the duration defined in threshold.

Note

Limitations
The closed event count is displayed incorrectly in the Device Matrix page. Device

Matrix page will include the closed events of the updated instance in the previous parent device. The closed events of the updated monitor instances can be viewed by clicking on the Closed Event Count of the new parent device. is not applicable.

For monitors with source agent in disconnected state, changing device association

Domain name
The Domain Name feature enables you to truncate the domain name portion of elements added to the Device folder. For example, without this feature, adding two servers to the Device listing shows:
server1.mycompany.com server2.mycompany.com

After entering the domain name mycompany.com using this feature, adding these same two servers, the domain name is truncated and the Device listing shows:
server1 server2

This feature is not retroactive for existing devices. Listings entered before the use of the domain name feature that already include mycompany.com remain unchanged. Also, if you delete the domain name mycompany.com, the previously truncated device listings remain truncated.

Chapter 3 Managing devices 95

Domain name

Adding a domain name


There is only one Domain Name file; additional Domain Names files cannot be created nor can the existing file be deleted. There are no Control attributes even though the tab appears on the domain name window.

To create a domain name entry


1 Expand the Advanced Options and Domain Name folder. 2 Right-click the Domain Names file. 3 Select Edit. The Edit Domain Name window is displayed. 4 In the Name field, specify the Domain Name you want to truncate. 5 Click Add. The name appears in the Truncated Names box. 6 After adding each domain name you want to truncate to the Truncated Names box, click Add. 7 When all names have been added, click OK. To stop the operation, click Cancel. When you add any device using this Domain Name, the domain name portion is automatically truncated.

Editing a domain name


You cannot edit a domain name that appears in the Truncated Names list. Instead, you must first delete the Domain Name using the procedure described in the Delete Domain Name topic, and then enter the Domain Name again using the Add Domain Name procedure.

Deleting a domain name


If you want to modify the Domain Names entry, you must first delete the existing name and then add the name again using the Add Domain Name procedure.

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Port name

To delete a domain name


1 Expand the Advanced Options and Domain Names folder. 2 Right-click the Domain Names file. 3 Select Edit.
The Edit Domain Name window displays with a list of truncated names.

4 In the Truncated Names window, select the listings you want to delete. 5 Click Delete.
The names are removed from the list of truncated names.

6 Click OK.

Port name
Port Name (TCP Control Port) is used to add a Port Monitor to any device that appears on the Device list. Port Name entries are used to add and edit Device configurations. For more information, see TCP Control Ports. The instructions assume that the Administration Console is open.

Adding a port name


Perform the following procedure to add a port name.

To add a port name to a device


1 Expand the Advanced Options folder. 2 Right-click the Port Name folder. 3 Click Add Port Name.
The Add Port Name window is displayed.

4 In the Port Name field, specify a name for the port.

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Port name

5 In the Port Number field, enter the port number.


For example, to monitor Agent port you would enter: Agent as the Port Name

and 12124 as the Port Number.

6 Click Next. The message 'failed to create port name' indicates that you have entered a Port Number or Port Name already in use. If this occurs, click OK on the window, change your settings, and try again.
The Summary of Created Monitors window is displayed.

Note

7 Click Finish. 8 To view the new Port Name, expand (or close and expand) the Port Name folder. The new port name now appears on the list.

Editing a port name


Perform the following procedure to edit a port name.

To edit a port name for a device


1 In the Administration Console, expand the Advanced Options and Port Name folders. 2 Right-click the Port Name file to edit and select Edit.
The Edit Port Name window is displayed.

3 Change the Port Name as desired. You cannot edit the Port Number. To change the Port Number, you must delete the Port Name file and then create it again using the desired Port Number. 4 Click OK.

Note

Delete Port name


Perform the following procedure to delete a port name.
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Choosing monitors for the device

To delete a port name from a device


1 In the Administration Console, expand the Advanced Options and Port Name folders. 2 Right-click the Port Name file to delete and select Delete.
The Confirm Deletion window is displayed.

3 In the Confirm Deletion window, click OK.


To verify that the Port Name is deleted, close and then expand the Port Name

folder. The Port Name will no longer be listed under the Port Name folder.

Choosing monitors for the device


Based on the device type that you selected in the Configuration tab, the system automatically pre-selects some default monitors and the Monitor tab. For example, for the Server device type, the NodePing monitor is pre-selected; if an agent is installed on the device, System and TCP/IP and Agent Status Monitors are preselected, and the System tab is pre-selected. You can add additional monitors for the applications and components installed on the device.

To choose monitors for a device


1 Select the monitors that you want to create for this device.
If the device has more than one application that needs monitoring (for example,

a server running Mail and IP services), select the applicable monitors using the various tabs, or go back and add the monitors later.

2 Click Next.
The Creating Monitor window opens, followed by the configuration window

for each monitor that you selected.

The Configuration window contains specific entry fields, as shown in this example. See the BMC ProactiveNet Data Adapter and Monitor Guide for detailed instructions in setting the parameters for the monitors. Each monitor also has a Control tab, which specifies the data collection and polling frequency for individual Application, Intelliscope, or SNMP monitors.

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Creating a group

And similar to the Configuration tab, the input fields in the Control tab vary depending on the selected monitor. Click Skip if you have selected several monitors to add and you change your mind about one of them or you are uncertain about an entry field. Clicking Skip moves on to the next monitors configuration. The skipped monitor is not added. The program continues normally. When the last monitor is configured, the Summary screen appears to show what was created. 3 Click Finish.
To view the new device listing, expand (or close and expand) the

corresponding device folder.

To view the new device listing, expand (or close and expand) the corresponding device folder. Use the ProxyAgent category for all dedicated computers used for monitoring. The Source Agent list on the Creating Monitor window lists only the BMC ProactiveNet Server, local agent, and agents running on the device under ProxyAgent. To view other available agents, click More from the list for Source Agents.

Creating a group
The Group category represents a collection of monitored resources that you define. To make information easier to find and manage, groups corresponding to a variety of real-world relationships (such as by city, a specific department, or the type of resource, etc.) are set up. There is no limit on the number of groups you can define. Groups can also provide a means of access control. As you set up user views, reports, and events, you can filter access by using groups. The Group function lets you select individual devices, applications, and interfaces added to the BMC ProactiveNet database, and put them together into a single unit (group) for management purposes. Before creating a group, add all corresponding devices, interfaces, and applications to the BMC ProactiveNet database, and complete at least one poll. Avoid creating a single group with hundreds or thousands of monitors. Not only does this reduce the usefulness of the group, it can also hamper the performance of Probable Cause Analysis if the group is used as a filter. When creating a group that encompasses a large number of monitors or devices, it is best to create it from smaller groups that have real meaning in terms of function, dependency, or topological relationships. For example, if you are grouping devices according to network topology, BMC ProactiveNet recommends a maximum of 254, i.e., the number of addresses in a length-24 class-C subnet.
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Creating a group

Group checklist
Have the following information available before using the Group function:
A list of devices, applications, and/or interfaces to group A unique name for the group and an informative description

To add a new group from the Add Group window


1 From the administration console, select the Group folder, right-click and select Add Group. 2 In the Add Group window, in the Group Name field, specify a name (maximum length of 60 characters; no spaces) for the group you want to create. 3 In the Group Description field, enter description of the group. 4 Select Group made by selected each Managed Object to create the new group. 5 Click Next.
The Add instances window is displayed.

6 Select the Monitored Resource in the left pane, and click Add to move it to the right pane. Alternatively, use the Search for Devices field to search and select the device.
You can add multiple Monitored Resources to a group, and if required, create a

group of aggregate monitors.

Similarly, click Remove to remove objects from the right pane. 7 Click Finish to add the group to the Administration Console.
If required, click Close to cancel the operation.

The newly added Group is now available under the Group folder.

Working with Dynamic Groups or Rule-based Groups


BMC ProactiveNet enables you to create dynamic groups or rule-based groups that automatically update their content based on the given rule. A rule is a combination of a pattern match on entity name, entity tag, and monitor-type filter. These groups contain only monitor instances.

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Creating a group

Assume that an organization has offices in three different locations Chicago, Perth, and Copenhagen. Each office has two departments Planning and Procurement.

Scenario 1
Assume that you have multiple devices that have names based on the location of each office. For example, assume that all devices in Perth have names starting with "PERTH". You can create a group that consists of only those URL monitors that belong to the Perth office. With rule-based groups, you can create a rule with the name pattern match PERTH.* on devices and a monitor-type filter for all URL monitors. BMC ProactiveNet consolidates all the URL monitor instances that match PERTH.* in one dynamic group. When new instances are added or existing instances are removed from the device, they are also added or removed from the dynamic group.

Scenario 2
Assume that you have some devices that are dedicated to the Planning department in all the 3 locations. Let us assume the devices are tagged as dept=planning. To create a dynamic group that contains entities that are used by planning department, you can attach the tag pattern match dept.*planning on devices. BMC ProactiveNet consolidates all the instances associated with the devices with matching tag in the group. Note that the name and tag pattern match work independently. If you have a device whose name does not match the name pattern string but has a matching tag, BMC ProactiveNet includes all those monitor instances in the dynamic group.

Applying rules to Dynamic Groups


You can use a regular expression to apply a rule to a group. BMC ProactiveNet uses a regular expression as pattern match on group, device, instance name, and tag. The name pattern match can be applied to only of the chosen entities - group, device, or monitor instance. Tag pattern match is applied to the tag string. You can also specify a selected list of monitor types or you can choose to add all instances irrespective of the monitor type filter.

Pattern match on entity name


If your entity is a group and name regex pattern matches a group name, BMC

ProactiveNet considers all instances for that group.

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If your entity is a device and name regex pattern matches a device name, BMC

ProactiveNet considers all instances for that device.

If your entity is a monitor instance and name regex pattern matches an instance

name, BMC ProactiveNet considers all instances whose names match that pattern.

Pattern match on tag


You can tag entities with meaningful information such as location, owner,

department, and so on.

If your entity is a group and tag regex pattern matches a group tag, BMC

ProactiveNet considers all the instances in that group.

If the chosen entity is device and tag regex pattern matches a device tag, BMC

ProactiveNet considers all that instances associated to that device.

If your entity is a monitor instance and tag regex pattern matches an instance

name, BMC ProactiveNet considers all instances whose tag match that pattern.

Monitor-type filter
All instances that result from the above pattern match are then checked for the

monitor-type filter.

If you choose a set of monitor types, BMC ProactiveNet considers only those

instances whose monitor type matches the selected types and discards the rest. Every instance has a monitor type. If you do not specify monitor type, BMC ProactiveNet considers all the instances.

Defining Group display


You can choose to display group names in the following two ways:
Flat - Select this to display groups created on the server in a fixed and flat manner.

By default, this option is selected.

Hierarchical - Select this to display groups in a classified manner.

Group made by existing groups


Groups can also be created by grouping existing groups. The groups attached to the main group, in this case, are child groups.
Chapter 3 Managing devices 103

Creating a group

To create a new Group with the existing groups


1 From the Administration Console, select the Group folder, right-click and select Add Group. 2 In the Add Group window in the Group Name field, specify a name (maximum length of 60 characters; no spaces) for the new group. 3 In the Group Description field, specify a description for the group. 4 Select Group made by grouping existing groups option to create a subgroup of existing groups. 5 Click Next. 6 In the Select Group dialog box, select the groups to be added from the list of existing groups and click Add. 7 Click Finish to add the group to the Administration Console.

Group made by specifying rules


Groups can also be created by specifying rules; these groups are known as rule based groups. Rule based groups are dynamic groups.

To create a new Group by specifying rules


1 From the Administration Console, select the Group folder, right-click and select Add Group. 2 In the Add Group window in the Group Name field, specify a name (maximum length of 60 characters; no spaces) for the new group. 3 In the Group Description field, specify a description for the group. 4 Select Group made by specifying rules. 5 Click Next. The Select Group window is displayed. 6 Select the Group Name, Device Name, or Monitor Instance Name. 7 Specify the Pattern Match. Instances which belong to any of the matching group name, device name or monitor instance name are automatically included as the members of this group. This supports all Java Regular Expression pattern match.

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8 Select the Monitor Types that need to be associated to the group. Select All to include all the monitor types, or select Selected to associate the selected monitor types. 9 Click Add or Remove to add or remove the selected monitor types. 10 Click Show Members to display the list of monitor types that match the pattern. 11 Click Finish. The rule based group is created and listed under the group folder. 12 Click Close to return back to the Administration Console without creating the group.

Adding Child Groups


You can use the Administration Console to add child groups to the groups that you create.

To add a new child group to the selected group


1 From the Administration Console, expand the Group folder, right-click on a group, and select Add Child Group. 2 In the Add Child Group dialog box, complete the screen options.
Group Name Specify a name (maximum length of 60 characters; no spaces)

for the new group.

Tag - Specify tag value to search or group the objects. You can enter multiple

name-value pairs, text, or include both (name-value pair and text). This gives you the option to group objects in different forms. Click icon + to select a default tag class. The Enter Tag Details screen opens. Select Tag Class from the list and enter a tag value, click Add to append tag class and value. Click Finish. The tag specified by you is not considered as a default class. You cannot enter special characters &"/<>' in the tag field.

Note

Editing Tag Value on Enter Tag Details screen. Select a tag value and click edit.

Make the necessary modifications in Tag Value text box and click Set to add the changes. Delete, dialog box is displayed with the options Yes or No. click Yes to delete the tag value.
Chapter 3 Managing devices 105

Deleting a Tag Value on Enter Tag Details screen. Select a tag value and click

Adding Child Groups

Group Description Specify a meaningful description for the group. This

description will be displayed in the group matrix screen, when you bring the mouse over the group name. Select this option to create a new group.

Group made by selecting Managed Objects and grouping existing groups -

3 Click Next.
The Monitored Resources/Group Members window is displayed.

4 Select the Monitored Resource in the left panel, and click Add to move it to the right panel. Alternatively, use the Search for Devices field to search and select the device. You can add multiple Monitored Resources to a group, and if required, create a group of aggregate monitors.
Similarly, click Remove to remove objects from the right panel.

5 Click Next.
The Add Group screen is displayed.

6 Click Add.
The Group Chooser window is displayed.

7 Select the groups to be added from the list of existing groups. Refer Search Groups for information on how to locate groups.
Click Parent Group to add the group being created to the existing parent group(s). Click Add New, only if you need to create a new parent group. After adding resources to the group, click the appropriate action button.

Note

8 Click Finish to add the group to the Administration Console. For details about creating Resource Pool monitors, see Resource PoolResource Pool Monitors have variable number of Stats attributes. They can monitor complex combinations of metrics and monitor higher-level abstractions like pools or clusters. Creating a monitor at this level enables setting thresholds that are otherwise not possible. .
The newly added Group is now available under the Group folder.

Note

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Editing Groups

Editing Groups
Perform the following steps to edit groups.

To edit an existing group,


1 Right-click the Group and click Edit Group. 2 In the Edit Group dialog box, make required changes, and click Finish. BMC ProactiveNet updates the group information in its database. Alternatively, click Close to cancel the operation.

Deleting Groups
Perform the following steps to delete groups.

To delete a group
1 Right-click the Group and click Delete. The Confirm Deletion window is displayed. 2 Click OK. When a group is deleted, BMC ProactiveNet does not update all event rules that refer to the group. Although the Edit Event Rules screen does not show the associated group, the database entry corresponding to the event rule still records reference to the deleted group. Such events rules are invalid and do not work. To correct the event rules, open the edit screen and save the event rule again to wipe out reference to the deleted group.

Note

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Deleting Groups

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4
Integrating with the BMC Atrium CMDB
This chapter provides details about retrieving and viewing BMC Atrium CMDB component information in BMC ProactiveNet service models.

Note If you are integrating with the BMC Atrium CMDB, all BMC ProactiveNet Servers in your environment must be synchronized with a single CMDB for probable cause analysis and event propagation to work properly.
Although it is possible to configure event propagation among the nodes of one BMC ProactiveNet Enterprise setup, status propagation will not occur. Therefore BMC ProactiveNet does not support distribution of service models across the nodes of BMC ProactiveNet Enterprise setup. If you configure a new Atrium CMDB with the BMC ProactiveNet Server; and you need to publish a service model; you must manually update and restart the publishing server configuration. For information about installing and configuring the BMC ProactiveNet CMDB extensions, see the BMC ProactiveNet Getting Started Guide.

Benefits of BMC Atrium CMDB integration


The BMC Configuration Management Database (BMC Atrium CMDB) is used for sharing configuration data among various BMC products. BMC Atrium CMDB uses a federated data model, featuring a centralized database linked to other data stores, to share configuration data without the high setup and maintenance costs associated with a pure centralized approach. Integrating BMC ProactiveNet with the BMC Atrium CMDB has the following benefits:
Provides more effective Probable Cause Analysis: BMC ProactiveNet leverages

the service relationship information from the configuration items (CIs) in BMC
Chapter 4 Integrating with the BMC Atrium CMDB

109

User scenario

Atrium CMDB for the service model components that you are monitoring in BMC ProactiveNet to produce better results for Probable Cause Analysis.
Keeps the service model components of BMC ProactiveNet synchronized with the

service model components stored in the BMC Atrium CMDB: By default, BMC Atrium CMDB automatically publishes service model components to the BMC ProactiveNet cell.

Faster deployment of BMC ProactiveNet: Instead of manually configuring CIs in

BMC ProactiveNet, you can import CIs from BMC Atrium CMDB to define the components for monitoring.

User scenario
The section provides a high-level example of how service model objects in BMC Atrium CMDB are published to the BMC ProactiveNet cell and how they are viewed and monitored in BMC ProactiveNet. Suppose that your BMC Atrium CMDB maintains an online ordering service model that has three services - online ordering, databases, and web servers.
The database service consists of two database devices (BMC_Database

configuration items) called DB1 and DB2.

The web server service consists of two web server devices (BMC_SoftwareServer

configuration items) called Web1 and Web2.

The online ordering service is dependent on, and impacted by, the database

service, the web server service, and the configuration items.

The following illustration describes this relationship.

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User scenario

In BMC Atrium CMDB, you use the BMC Impact Model Designer to plot out the service model objects. In a sandbox dataset, you specify how each component in the service model will be published to the cell. Because the Online ordering service is a top-level consumer component, you configure it to publish with its provider components. Do not change the default publication setting for the provider components; by default, their publication is determined by the setting of their consumer components. After setting up the service model components, you promote the service model. Promotion reconciles objects from the sandbox dataset to the production dataset. By default, service model objects are automatically published to the BMC ProactiveNet cell. In the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console, you select the published component and view the impact relationships in the service model. In the BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console, you monitor the status of components and the impact on their consumers. Figure 13 on page 112 shows an example of how the service model looks in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console. The lock icon that is displayed by each

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111

Creating and editing publication filters in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console

component indicates that the component cannot be edited in the Administration Console. You can only edit a service model object in its source environment. Figure 13: Example of a service model in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console

After you publish components, you associate the required monitors to these components. You can also use templates to add monitors. For details, see the BMC ProactiveNet Data Adapter and Monitor Guide. By default, the services that you publish from BMC Atrium CMDB do not contain any metrics. For an effective Probable Cause Analysis, you have to add those metrics that indicate the health/status of the services. For details, see the BMC ProactiveNet User Guide.

Creating and editing publication filters in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console
Use publication filters to determine which components are published to the cell from BMC Atrium CMDB. The filters retrieve the service model objects from the cell for viewing and monitoring in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console or in the BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console. You can create publication filters using one of the following configuration item (CI) selection methods:

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Creating and editing publication filters in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console

Static CI selection method: select CIs imported from BMC Atrium CMDB from a

static list.

Dynamic CI selection method: select CIs imported from BMC Atrium CMDB

whose names match a specified pattern. The specified pattern uses regular expressions.

After you filter CIs, you can select a component from those retrieved in the Services Editor tab, and see the service model associated with that component (see Using the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console for service monitoring on page 449 for details). The service models show components that are specified for publication that is, CIs that are set to Inherit, Yes and Propagate, and Yes, Only Me in the BMC Impact Model Designer. You can locate and view a CI that is not specified for publicationthat is, set to No: Do not publish me nor my providers in the BMC Impact Model Designer. You can display the CI and its providers separately, but not as impact providers to components in a service model where they are specified as No. See BMC Service Modeling and Publishing Guide for details about component settings.

Note
If a previous filter is deleted, removal from the system could take some time. The

amount of time can depend on the number of CIs or other factors, such as an inability to communicate with the cell (as when the cell is not running). During this time the system cannot create another filter with the same filter ID.

Service models and instances of components and relationships are not imported if they are marked for deletion (MarkAsDeleted=Yes) in BMC Atrium CMDB

For a list of supported service model component types, see the BMC ProactiveNet Service Modeling and Publishing Guide.

To create a static publication filter


1 In the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console, expand the Root => Advanced Options => BMC Atrium CMDB => Publication Filter folder. 2 Select and right-click the Publication Filter folder and select Create Publication Filter. 3 Enter values for Filter Name and Filter ID. By default, the Filter ID is the same as the Filter Name, but with spaces removed. For example, if the filter name is CS Filter, the filter ID is CSFilter 4 (optional) Enter a 255-character-or-less description in the Description field.

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Creating and editing publication filters in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console

5 Select Static (the default) from the CI Selection Method list. 6 Select (the default) or clear Include all impact providers of selected CIs. 7 Select (the default) or clear Show only top level CIs. Top-level CIs are top-level consumers, that is, consumers that are not providers to other CIs. 8 Select the CI type and click Retrieve. 9 From the list of available CIs that matches the selected CI type, select CIs that you want to show in the service model and click Add, or click Add All to add all the available CIs. You can select CIs in the following ways:
Type a character in the Name field to show only CIs that contain that character.

The field is case sensitive.

Hold the Shift key to select adjacent CIs in the list, or hold the Ctrl key to select

non-adjacent CIs in the list.

10 Click OK to close the Create Publication Filter dialog box.

To create a dynamic publication filter


1 In the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console, expand the Root => Advanced Options => BMC Atrium CMDB => Publication Filter folder. 2 Select and right-click the Publication Filter folder and select Create Publication Filter. 3 Enter values for Filter Name and Filter ID. By default, the Filter ID is the same as the Filter Name, but with spaces removed. For example, if the filter name is CS Filter, the filter ID is CSFilter 4 (optional) Enter a 255-character-or-less description in the Description field. 5 Select Dynamic from the CI Selection Method list. 6 Select (the default) or clear Include all impact providers of selected CIs. 7 Using regular expressions, type a pattern by which to match CI names. 8 Click the + button to add another pattern.

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You can use up to 11 patterns. The patterns are connected by a logical AND operator. 9 Click OK to close the Create Publication Filter dialog box.

To edit publication filters


You can edit the following 1 In the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console, expand the Root => Advanced Options => BMC Atrium CMDB => Publication Filter folder. 2 Select and right-click the publication filter name and select Edit . 3 Make the required changes and click OK.

Understanding Atrium Filters


After you designate service model components for publication in the BMC Impact Model Designer (an extension for BMC Atrium CMDB), and then promote and publish the objects to the cell, you can view these objects through filters in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console. The Administration tab of the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console indicates whether service model components that originated from BMC Atrium CMDB and published to the cell. Expand the folder Root => Advanced Options => BMC Atrium CMDB => Publication Filter. The appearance of the Atrium Filter CIs and Providers and the Atrium Filter Individual CIs folders confirm that components from BMC Atrium CMDB are available from the cell.
Filter Atrium Filter CIs and Providers Description CIs that are published to the cell from BMC Atrium CMDB, with their impact providers. This includes CIs that are specified in the BMC Impact Model Designer as Yes and Propagate, and their impact providers that are specified either as Yes and Propagate or as Inherit. Individual CIs that are published to the cell from BMC Atrium CMDB, without their impact providers. This includes CIs that are specified in the BMC Impact Model Designer as Yes, Only Me.

Atrium Filter Individual CIs

If you create additional filters in the Administration Console, the names of the filters are displayed under the Atrium Filter folders.

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Viewing publication history

Note By default, imported components create devices without any monitor instances associated with them. You must add the required monitored instances after you import the components. See Associate monitors to CIs through the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console on page 470 for details.

Viewing publication history


You can view the history of publication requests to confirm the status of the request or to troubleshoot issues. From the Administration tab of the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console, expand the folder Root => Advanced Options => BMC Atrium CMDB. Select and right-click Publication History and select View Publication History. The Publication History window shows the date and time of each request, the request status, and the publication source (or publisher) of the request. The following table describes the different publication request statuses.
Table 3: Publication request statuses Status Success Unknown Description Publication request passed to the cell successfully Status of the publication request is unknown. The status can indicate that the publishing server is waiting for a response from the system, or that a publication is in progress. Wait some time and then click Refresh to the updated status. You can also close the window and reopen it later. Failure Publication request failed to be passed to the cell. Common reasons include parts of the system that are down, or responses that time out. Refer to the Publication Details pane of the Publication History window for details.

The following table describes different kinds of publishers that can be the source of requests to the publishing server.
Table 4: Publication sources for requests Publisher Automated Publisher Description Publication request sent automatically from the BMC Impact Model Designer

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Publisher cli@proactiveNetServer

Description

Publication request sent through the CLI publish command on the where proactiveNetServer is the name BMC ProactiveNet server of the BMC ProactiveNet server computer pclassinfo@proactiveNetServer pint@proactiveNetServer penv@proactiveNetServer psapi@proactiveNetServer Publishing Server Publication request sent through the CLI pclassinfo command on the BMC ProactiveNet server Publication request sent through the CLI pint command on the BMC ProactiveNet server Publication request sent through the CLI penv command on the BMC ProactiveNet server Publication request sent by creating or editing static or dynamic filters in the Administration Console Indicates that the publishing server was restarted

For details about CLI commands, see BMC ProactiveNet Command Line Interface Reference Manual Detailed information about each publication request is displayed in the Publication Details pane of the Publication History window. See BMC ProactiveNet Service Modeling and Publishing Guide to diagnose publication issues.

The publishing server retrieves publication changes for a subscription from the Notification Engine, a component in BMC Atrium CMDB. If the publication fails, the system removes the current subscriptions and subscribes again to the Notification Engine. This process causes the publishing server to retrieve and publish all service model components, not only the latest changes. The Publication History window reflects this activity.

Note

Viewing computer system CIs


Computer system configuration items (CIs) that are published to the cell from BMC Atrium CMDB are displayed as devices in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console. In the Administration Console, you can view the computer system devices under the Root => Device => Server folder. You cannot edit devices in the Administration Console. A device that is synchronized with BMC Atrium CMDB shows the following icon:

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Viewing computer system CIs

Note Devices that are created by the following adapters, and published through BMC Atrium CMDB, do not display icons as CMDB-synchronized devices:
VMware PATROL VMware

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Configuring and using Remote Actions/Diagnostics
What are Remote Actions/Diagnostics?
The remote actions/diagnostics executes a command on a remote device. For example, if you want to view the Top 10 CPU processes running on a remote system, the remote diagnostics executes the required command on the remote system and lists the Top 10 processes using remote login protocols. A detailed diagnostics can only be triggered from BMC ProactiveNet server and not from any other remote agent source. The protocols supported by remote actions/diagnostics are:
xCmd protocol

The xCmd protocol enables an application to execute a command on a remote host and does not require a port number. The xCmd protocol requires a remote user name and password. xCmd is only supported on Windows server.
ssh (Secure Shell) protocol

The ssh protocol provides secure, encrypted connections for logging on to remote computers, transferring files, setting up encrypted tunnels, and running remote commands without manual authentication. The ssh protocol requires a remote user name, password, and a port. ssh is the recommended protocol on Windows and Solaris servers.
telnet protocol

The telnet protocol can pass on the data it has received to many other types of processes including the remote logon server. Communication is established using TCP/IP and is based on a Network Virtual Terminal (NVT). The telnet protocol requires a remote user name, user password, system prompt, and a port.

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Properties files

Note You need to change the protocol, if you have used a different protocol after upgrading to the recent version of BMC ProactiveNet.

Properties files
When defining remote execution tasks, you may need to configure values in the following properties files that reside on JServer server:
..\conf\ias.properties ..\conf\resources\centraladmin-strings.properties ..\conf\resources\remoteexecution.properties

Restart the JServer, if you have modified any of the .properties file.

ias.properties
The ias.properties file specifies the event slot names, key name values, and other configuration items of remote execution under the text properties for remote execution. Table 5: Remote execution properties in jserver.properties
Property name com.bmc.sms.ixs.remoteexecution.hostname_slot com.bmc.sms.ixs.remoteexecution.instance_slot com.bmc.sms.ixs.remoteexecution.application_slot com.bmc.sms.ixs.remoteexecution.domain_slot com.bmc.sms.ixs.remoteexecution.ias_user_key com.bmc.sms.ixs.remoteexecution.ias_user_passwor d_key com.bmc.sms.ixs.remoteexecution.action_context_ke y Description Specifies the event slot name that contains the host name value. The default value is mc_host. Specifies the event slot name that contains the instance. The default value is mc_object. Specifies the event slot name that contains the application. The default value is mc_object_class. Specifies the event slot name that contains the domain value. The default value is mc_location. Specifies the key name that contains the name of the user. The default value is ias_user. Specifies the key name that contains the password. The default value is ias_user_password. Specifies the root element in the action.xml file. You can enter the root element in the Action Name field of the Create Remote Actions dialog box. The default value is 2.

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Property name

Description

com.bmc.sms.ixs.remoteexecution.search_credential_ Indicates the argument number (1, 2, 3, and so on) or repository_key slot name. com.bmc.sms.ixs.remoteexecution.search_in_credent If the client does not send the key, then this ialrepository parameter determines whether to search in the credential repository. Valid values are true and false. com.bmc.sms.ixs.dataparser.allowHostVerification Boolean true/false values that tells whether host verification is done when you add a record to the credential_repository. xml file. The default value is set equal to true, meaning that host verification is required.

centraladmin-strings.properties
The centraladmin-strings.properties file defines the default communication protocols for different operating systems. If you modify the properties in the centraladmin-strings.properties file, you must restart the BMC ProactiveNet Server to apply the changes.

Note

remoteexecution.properties
The remoteexecution.properties file defines the timeout values and default ports for the SSH, FTP, SCP, and Telnet protocols.

Creating Remote Actions


You can create remote actions to define the commands to be executed on the remote device.

Before you begin


To create a remote action for the cell installed with a remote BMC ProactiveNet Agent, you must add the following line to the mcell.dir file for that cell:
admin ias_Admin userName/passWord ProactiveNet_Server_hostName:3084

Once you have updated the mcell.dir file, restart the cell.

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Creating Remote Actions

Note You can create and execute remote actions only for BMC ProactiveNet cells version 8.5 and later.

To create remote actions


1 Log on to the Administration Console. 2 From the Tools menu, choose Remote Actions/Diagnostics => Remote Actions/ Diagnostics. The Remote Actions/Diagnostics Command definition dialog box appears: Figure 14: Remote Actions/Diagnostics Command dialog box

3 On the Remote Actions/Diagnostics screen,


Select the Detailed Diagnostics option: to use the event criteria formulae. to use actions on an event only scenario.

For more information, see Defining the performance managed remote actions on page 123
Select the Event management rules option: to use actions/diagnostics for events.

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to use actions associated with devices and monitor types.

For more information, see Defining the remote action rule and task on page 126 4 Click OK. Note: Out-of-the-box remote actions that are available with the BMC ProactiveNet Server use the psExec protocol. Remote actions that you create use the xCmd protocol. The psExec protocol is not supported for user-created remote actions.

Defining the performance managed remote actions


You can create remote actions to define the commands to be executed on the remote device.

To create performance managed remote actions through detailed diagnostics


1 From the Tools menu, choose Remote Actions/Diagnostics > Remote Actions/ Diagnostics. 2 On the Remote Actions/Diagnostics dialog box, select the Detailed Diagnostics option. The Remote Actions/Diagnostics Command dialog box is displayed: Figure 15: Remote Actions/Diagnostics Command dialog box

3 On the Remote Action/Diagnostics Command dialog box, click Add. 4 On the Add Command screen, enter or select the following and click Next.

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Item Name Command

Description Enter a unique name for the command. Enter the syntax for the command that will be executed on the target computer. For example netstat. You can include macros in this command. For more information, see Macros for Remote Action on page 144. If the command is very long, you can use the Edit button to enter or edit the command syntax.

Show Output Configuration Diagnostic Time-out

Select this option to view the output in the Operations Console. Select this option to qualify this command to be run with every configuration poll of select system monitors. Select the time-out period for execution of the command. An error message is displayed if the time-out period is exceeded.

5 On the Device screen, select the operating system of device and click Next.By default, all devices are selected. If you have selected a specific operating system then the remote action/ diagnostics will not be listed in the third page of Event Rule Wizard unless you select the monitor type for the specific operating system in second page. For Event Only Buyer, you have to select all Operating System while defining the remote action/diagnostics. 6 On the Monitor Type screen, select the monitor types and click Next.By default, all monitors are selected. 7 On the User Group screen, select the desired user group and click Finish.

Note

Note The access permissions set while defining the User groups takes precedence. If the user group is defined with All Diagnostics in the Diagnostics tab, then the newly created diagnostics will be available to those user groups irrespective of whether they are selected/non-selected in the Add to User Group screen in the Add Command module of the Remote Actions/Diagnostics wizard.
8 On Test your command screen, select the Target IP from the list and click Test to test the command.

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The Test your command dialog box is displayed. Figure 16: Test your command dialog box

From the test button, the command does not execute properly if it requires the cell slot values that is to be resolved at run time. This occurs since there is no associated event with the particular command. For example:
msend a EVENT r CRITICAL m $msg

Note

The value for $msg is not available while executing from Test button. This option is available from an event. 9 Click Finish to save the detail diagnostics/remote actions.

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Note
Upgrading the path for Remote DD's is not supported when you upgrade from

older version of the BMC ProactiveNet Server to a recent version.

By default the remote actions logs the error messages in the

RemoteExecution.log. To debug remote actions, set the property log4j.rootCategory to DEBUG in the du_logger. properties file located in the installDirectory\pw\pronto\conf\resources directory. changing the access roles.

When you edit a defined remote action/diagnostics, there is no provision for

Remote actions/diagnostics is executed for events whose status changes from blackout to closed. If Windows server to Windows remote computer telnet fails, increase the value

of the maxconn and maxfail parameters as follows.


C:\>tlntadmn config maxfail=10 C:\>tlntadmn config maxconn=20

Defining the remote action rule and task


You can create remote actions to define the commands that are executed on the remote device.

To create remote actions on events


1 From the Tools menu, choose Remote Actions/Diagnostics > Remote Actions/ Diagnostics. 2 On the Remote Actions/Diagnostics dialog box, select the Event management rules option.

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The Create Remote Actions dialog box is displayed. 3 On the Create Remote Actions dialog box, enter or select the following options and click Next.
Item Action Name Description Name that describes the action to be performed. This is the label that appears on the Action >Remote Actions menu. Each action name must be unique. WARNING: Duplicate action names will result in KB compilation errors. Action Group Name of the group to which the customized action belongs. You can group similar actions under the same group name. However, you cannot nest groups. String that contains the command to be run on the jserver or remote system If the command string includes double quotation marks, as in the ping command, ping "{$mc_host}", forward slash is added to the command in the action_name.xml file under the BMC_PROACTIVENET_HOME/ server/data/admin/actions directory: ping \{$mc_host}\. You must manually edit the action_name.xml file to remove the slash characters from the command string. Save the action_name.xml file to return to the Infrastructure Management tab. Select the jserver instance object, right-click to open the pop-up menu, and choose Action > Reload. If the command string includes a hard-coded path, then always specify the path name using the UNIX style forward slash /, as in c:/Program Files/BMC Software/Test1.exe, even if the target systems is Windows. User Access Roles Roles including Full Access, Service Administrators, Read Only, and so onthat have permission to execute this action. You can choose one or more roles. The available roles are listed in the Impact Administration server to which your BMC Administration console is currently connected. Note: The remote actions that are listed on the Remote Actions/ Diagnostics menu in the operations console are defined in both the cell and the ProactiveNet database server. When you create a remote action or detailed diagnostic from the administration console and restrict access to a particular user group or role, you restrict the remote actions from the ProactiveNet database server only and not from cell. Users would still see the remote actions defined in the cell even though they might be restricted from seeing and executing remote actions defined in the database server.

Command

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Item Run Location

Description System on which the action is run. It can be any remote system that can be pinged from the BMC ProactiveNet Server, or the local system on which the BMC ProactiveNet Server resides. If you select Remote, you can deploy scripts to the remote system.

Operating System on Run Machine Specifies the operating system on which the remote action is to be executed. This can be the operating system of the remote computer or the operation system of the computer where the jserver resides. Impact Manager(cell) Impact Administration Server Name of the cell that receives the event associated with the action. The action rule is defined in this cell. The name of the Impact Administration Server instance on which the action task is defined.

Adding event criteria


The Event Criteria Formula field of the Create Remote Actions dialog box, allows you to enter an event criteria. When you define an event criteria, you build a selector that acts as a filter for the incoming event that is associated with the action rule and action task. You can define the selector, and the consequent event both broadly or narrowly. If the event does not satisfy the criteria, then the action rule and action task for that event are not available. You should be familiar with Master Rule Language and Baroc class definitions before developing complex event selectors. For more information on developing complex event selectors, see the BMC Knowledge Base Development Reference Guide. Event criteria are essentially Master Rule Language (MRL) event definition. You can specify the event class, slot values, and operators of the event definition. For interactive remote execution, this is the definition that the incoming event must satisfy before the action rule invokes the remote action.

Automatic remote execution requires a two-step validation. First, an event policy automatically calls a specified action rule provided it satisfies the event criteria of the policy. Second, the action rule that you define in the Create Remote Actions dialog box, invokes the remote action provided it satisfies the event criteria that you have defined in the Add Event Criteria dialog box. Refer to the following table for event criteria descriptions fileds.

Note

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Table 6: Add Event Criteria descriptions Field/Control button Description Event Class Slot Operator Value Insert Description Optional. Enter a description of the event. This field can be used to classify the selectors. Select the list of event classes and subclasses in the Class Chooser dialog box. List of available slots. List of available operators that link the slots to the value strings. Enter a value for the slot. Places the slot-operator-value string in the display area, where you can review and edit. When placing multiple slot-value combinations, the default connector is AND. You can specify other connectors from the list. Displays the selected slot-value combination in the editable fields above the display area. Removes the selected object from the display area. Adds parentheses around the selected object to indicate the order and the logic of the operation. You can create nested objects using the Group button. Moves the placement of the selected object to the left or right.

Edit Delete Group

Move

1 Complete the remaining fields using the guidelines from the following table:
Table 7: Data fields (part 2): Create Remote Actions dialog box Field Time Out (Milliseconds) Description Interval in milliseconds before the action is canceled. The action can be canceled if the Impact Administration server does not receive a response before the customized or default timeout interval.

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Field Use Stored Login Credentials

Description Boolean value (True or False) that indicates if you can execute the action using either of the following: the user credentials of the remote host system = True public key authentication = False (default) Note: Only Event Management remote actions use the credential_repository.xml file for credentials. Because ProactiveNet remote actions only can be triggered on a device-associated event, and ProactiveNet remote actions use credentials provided in the device data. If you choose False (default), then your public key account on the system is sufficient to launch the action. The procedure does not search the credential_repository.xml file for login credentials. If you choose True, then the routine uses the remote systems account information as defined in the credential_repository.xml file (login_user and login_password). Reminder: For automatic remote execution, you must specify an JServer user name and password in the Admin record. By default, admin/admin. If you want to modify, restart the cell.

Deploy(Use with Remote Run Location Only)

Boolean value (True or False) that indicates if you can deploy a script from the JServer system to the remote system and then execute the script through a RunRemoteTask command. The default is False, indicating that no script is deployed. You can only deploy a script when the selected Run Location option is Remote. You cannot deploy a script on a remote system when the Run Location option is Local (jserver System). For more information on Run Location, see Defining the remote action rule and task on page 126

Script To Deploy (optional) Script Path on Destination Machine

Name of the script or .bat file. If the boolean value is set to True, the the script or .bat file is displayed. File path of the script on the system on which it is executed.

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2 Click Add Actions. Run iadmin -reinit actions to reload the Jserver

Assigning roles to actions


You can add or remove user roles for these actions by modifying the action definition files (mc_actions.mrl or ao_actions.mrl depending on the type of action) found at installDirectory \server\etc\ cellName \kb\bin.

For upgrade users


If you have created devices during the previous releases, the device does not update to the latest port. You must manually edit the port.

Providing Remote Actions credentials


Provide the required credentials to execute a remote action/diagnostics on a remote device.

To provide credentials for detailed diagnostics option


1 Log on to the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console. 2 In the General Administration tab, expand the Devices folder and select the device for which you want to add credentials. 3 Right click on the device name, and select Edit.

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4 On the Remote Actions/Diagnostics tab in the Edit Device dialog box, enter the credentials and click OK. Figure 17: Remote Actions/Diagnostics tab of the Edit Device dialog box

There can be only one credential per device. All remote actions will use the same credentials. The supported protocols are ssh, telnet, and xCmd.

Working with credential records for event management rules option


You can define a credential record for each application on a remote system for which you want a specific user to execute actions. You can use the iadmin command line interface for the following options to update credential records in the credential_repository.xml file and to initialize any changes to the action task definitions in the .xml files under the installDirectory\pw\server\data\admin \actions\folder. Following are the iadmin options for the credential record:
-acr: adds a credential record to the credential_repository.xml -mcr: modifies an existing credential record -dcr: deletes a credential record

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-lcr: lists the credential -reinit actions: loads the action files after any additions or changes to the action

tasks defined in the .xml files under installDirectory\pw\server\data\admin \actions\

Guidelines for the credential records The asterisk (*) functions as a wildcard. It is a valid entry only for the applicationname and applicationinstancename fields. It indicates that any value of the applicationname or applicationinstancename field is acceptable. The search algorithm does not support pattern matching. Your entry must match exactly the underlying value. Any alphanumeric value is valid for the applicationname and applicationinstancename fields. Enclose any password values in double quotation marks to ensure proper processing. On UNIX systems, run the iadmin command without the bash shell to reinforce the proper processing of the password value. The required fields in which you must enter a value are:
credentialId hostname_or_domain applicationname (wildcard is permitted) applicationinstancename (wildcard is permitted) loginuser

Working with credential records for events


You can define a credential record for each application on a remote system for which you want a specific user to execute actions. You can use the iadmin command line interface for the following options to update credential records in the credential_repository.xml file and to initialize any changes to the action task definitions in the .xml files under the installDirectory\pw\server\data\admin \actions\folder. Following are the iadmin options for the credential record:
-acr: adds a credential record to the credential_repository.xml

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-mcr: modifies an existing credential record -dcr: deletes a credential record -lcr: lists the credential -reinit actions: loads the action files after any additions or changes to the action

tasks defined in the .xml files under installDirectory\pw\server\data\admin \actions\

Guidelines for the credential records The asterisk (*) functions as a wildcard. It is a valid entry only for the applicationname and applicationinstancename fields. It indicates that any value of the applicationname or applicationinstancename field is acceptable. The search algorithm does not support pattern matching. Your entry must match exactly the underlying value. Any alphanumeric value is valid for the applicationname and applicationinstancename fields. Enclose any password values in double quotation marks to ensure proper processing. On UNIX systems, run the iadmin command without the bash shell to reinforce the proper processing of the password value. The required fields in which you must enter a value are:
credentialId hostname_or_domain applicationname (wildcard is permitted) applicationinstancename (wildcard is permitted) loginuser

To add a credential record


1 From the installDirectory\pw\server\bin directory, execute the iadmin command using the -acr option, and follow the syntax in the example.
iadmin -acr userorgroup=<user/group>:credentialId=<string>: applicationname=<string>:applicationinstance=<string>: hostname_or_domain=<Hostname or Domain>:loginuser=<string>: loginpassword=<string>:executeuser=<string>:executepassword=<string>: login_user_domain=<string>

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The following table lists the required fields for the -acr option. You must include values for the required fields; otherwise the credentials record is not created. Table 8: Required fields: adding a credential record
-acr field name credentialId hostname_or_domain Description The user account (default) or the group Id value. The host name of the remote system, as in myremotecomputer123, or the domain name in which it resides. Name of the application. You can enter an asterisk * to bypass a specific application value. Name of the application instance. You can enter an asterisk * to bypass a specific instance value. This option is required when the login account belongs to an MS Windows system.

applicationname applicationinstance login_user_domain

The userorgroup field is optional. If you leave the userorgroup field blank, the acr argument assumes that user is the selection, and the value you enter in the credentialId field (required) is the user account. To specify a group Id value, set the userorgroup field equal to group, and then specify the group value in the credentialId field. Using the iadmin command syntax, you enter password values in clear text. However, the passwords are encrypted when they are added to the credential_repository.xml file.

To modify a credential record


1 From the installDirectory\pw\server\bin directory, execute the iadmin command using the -mcr option, following the syntax shown in the example:
iadmin -mcr userorgroup=<user/group>: credentialId=<string>:hostname_or_domain=<string>: applicationname=<string>:applicationinstance=<string>: login_user_domain=<string>:loginuser=<string>: loginpassword=<string>:executeuser=<string>: executepassword=<string>

You can modify any of the fields, but you must enter required fields listed in the following table to create a record

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Table 9: Required fields: modifying a credential record


-acr field name credentialId Description The user account (default) or the group Id value. If you specify a group Id value, you must set userorgroup equal to group. The host name of the remote system, as in myremotecomputer123, or the domain name where it resides (domain). Name of the application. You can enter an asterisk * to bypass a specific application value. Name of the application instance. You can enter an asterisk * to bypass a specific instance value.

hostname_or_domain

applicationname applicationinstance

To delete a credential record


1 From the installDirectory\pw\server\bin directory, execute the iadmin command using the -dcr option, as in the following syntax example.
iadmin -dcr userorgroup=<user/group>:credentialId=<string>: hostname_or_domain=<string>:applicationname=<string>: applicationinstance=<string>

To delete a record, you must specify values for the required fields listed in the following table Table 10: Required fields: deleting a credential record
-acr field name credentialId hostname_or_domain Description The user account (default) or the group Id value. The host name of the remote system, as in myremotecomputer123, or the domain name where it resides. Name of the application. You can enter an asterisk * to include all values. Name of the application instance. You can enter an asterisk * to include all values.

applicationname applicationinstance

To list credential records


1 From the installDirectory\pw\server\bin directory, execute the iadmin command using the -lcr option, as in the following example. You do not have to specify any credential record parameters.
iadmin -lcr

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Providing Remote Actions credentials

How Jserver searches for credentials


After the action task is invoked by the action rule, the Jserver searches the credential record for the corresponding remote login credentials in the following sequence: 1 Jserver_USER + ApplicationName + ApplicationInstanceName + Host 2 Jserver_USER_GROUP + ApplicationName + ApplicationInstanceName + Host 3 Jserver_USER + ApplicationName + ApplicationInstanceName + Domain 4 Jserver_USER_GROUP + ApplicationName + ApplicationInstanceName + Domain 5 Jserver_USER + ApplicationName + * + Host 6 Jserver_USER_GROUP + ApplicationName + * + Host 7 Jserver_USER + ApplicationName + * + Domain 8 Jserver_USER_GROUP + ApplicationName + * + Domain 9 Jserver_USER + * + * + Host 10 Jserver_USER_GROUP + * + * + Host 11 Jserver_USER + * + * + Domain 12 Jserver_USER_GROUP + * + * + Domain 13 Jserver_USER + * + ApplicationInstanceName + Host 14 Jserver_USER_GROUP + * + ApplicationInstanceName + Host 15 Jserver_USER + * + ApplicationInstanceName + Domain 16 Jserver_USER_GROUP + * + ApplicationInstanceName + Domain The wildcard * in the ApplicationName and ApplicationInstanceName fields indicates any value. If you are implementing automatic remote execution, the Jserver searches the credential records for an Jserver_USER with the same value as the Jserver user name defined under the Encryption Key parameter of the Admin record. Therefore, to use the default Admin record, you must modify the default Encryption Key value of 0 by changing it to a specific Jserver user name and password. Then you define in the credential record the jserver User with the

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credential Id set equal to the value you specified in the Encryption Key value of the Admin record.

Triggering Remote Actions


Remote action execution gets triggered on the following scenarios:
Using Event Rule Wizard: On receiving an event, matching event rules are

identified. If the matching event rule has a remote action assigned, the remote action is executed. An event rule can be defined through the BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console. For more information about adding an event rule, see the BMC ProactiveNet User Guide. triggered by events, you must first define a remote execution policy using the remote execution policy feature of the BMC ProactiveNet Console. The policy contains the definition of the event that triggers it. When the specified event is received, it triggers the rule, which invokes the remote action. For more information, see Defining the remote action policy on page 138

Using Remote Action policies: To set up automatic remote executions that are

Using the Event list User Interface(UI): You can also trigger a remote action from

the Event list User Interface. For more information, see Executing remote actions on page 141. From the event list UI you can select any of the pre-configured commands which is defined. You can select the command and execute. For more information, see BMC ProactiveNet User Guide.

Using All devices Grid View in the BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console: If a

remote action is defined for an associated device of a particular operating system and monitor types, the remote action is listed under the tools option for the device and instance of the monitor type in the Operations Console.

Defining the remote action policy


In this procedure you are defining a policy that will automatically call a specified action rule provided the incoming event satisfies the remote action policys event criteria. The associated action rule, in turn, invokes the remote action provided the same event satisfies its event criteria.

Before you begin


If an appropriate selector definition does not already exist, use the Edit => Selectors => New Selector... menu option to define the event criteria for the incoming event. Be sure that the selectors event criteria correlate with the event criteria of the selector you defined for the action rule in the Create Remote Actions dialog.
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To define selector criteria


Follow these steps to define the event selection criteria: 1 In the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console, go to the Administration tab, and select the Event Management Policies tab. 2 In the tree view, open the By Selector folder and highlight the selector that you added to the remote action policy to open the Selector panel. 3 Highlight this selector in the selector list of the Selector panel. 4 Click the Update Event Selector icon in the tool bar to enable the edit function. 5 In the Event Selector Criteria list of the Selector panel, highlight the selector and click Edit to open the Edit Criteria dialog box. 6 In the Edit Criteria dialog box, specify the slots and values for events that you want the selector to match.
For example, you can specify the matching criteria in the event message slot, such as $EV.msg contains unreachable.

7 Click OK.

To define a policy
1 In the tree view under My Production, open the server cell entry. 2 Choose the Remote Action Policy type under the By Policy Type folder.

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The Remote Action Policy definition window is opened, as shown in Figure 18

on page 140.

Figure 18: Remote Action Policy definition window

3 Choose Edit => New Policy , or click the Add Event Policy icon in the tool bar. 4 In the Selector Chooser dialog box, choose the selector to which this policy and designated remote action apply. Then click OK.
You can use a default or a custom selector.

5 In the Remote Action Policy tab, enter the policy name (required) and a description (optional). 6 Designate whether the timeframes are enabled. If enabled, indicate whether policy activation timeframes are always active (default value), or select the option to define your timeframes schedule. 7 In the Action name list, select the remote action to apply to this policy. The action rule that you select should have event criteria that correlate with event criteria of the policy. You can select from predefined or customized actions, including BMC Atrium Orchestrator workflow actions. 8 Click OK.

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The event selection criteria and the remote action are applied to the remote action policy.

Executing remote actions


Remote Actions can be executed through automated actions and on demand. You can execute the automated actions by creating an event rule. If an action is executed in an event rule, the request is sent to the server. The server in-turn contacts the particular remote devices with the credentials of the specific devices. The server is connected to the remote devices and the command is executed on the remote devices. When the actions are executed for device automatically, you can view the result of actions by clicking the Detailed Diagnostics icon on the Intelligent Event History page or on the Events List page of the BMC ProactiveNet Operation Console. Click the relevant event using Tools menu from the event list of BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console to view the results of the action. When you use a remote action, it is issued from your local installation of the Operations Console but is executed on the computer where the BMC ProactiveNet Operations Management cell or the BMC ProactiveNet cell is installed.

To respond to an event by using a remote action


1 From the event list, select an event. 2 Click the blue wrench icon in the Tools Menu column. 3 Click Remote Actions/Diagnostics and then select a remote action.

Note The number of remote actions that you can execute for a BMC ProactiveNet Operations Management cell varies from that available for a BMC ProactiveNet cell.
4 To access the results of the remote action, in the event list row, click the Action Result(s) icon in the Message column. 5 In the Event Remote Action Results dialog box, you can perform the following operations:
Export the information about the remote action to a file by selecting the action

information and clicking Export. corresponding tab.

View the output, errors, and details about the remote action by clicking the

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Adding the AlarmPoint integration


The AlarmPoint integration for BMC ProactiveNet provides the ability to notify AlarmPoint users on any device if an event in BMC ProactiveNet meets the notification criteria. BMC ProactiveNet processes the events it receives, and sends them to the AlarmPoint Java Client. The AlarmPoint Java client forwards the events to AlarmPoint, which notifies the user on the specified notification device. AlarmPoint client must be installed where the BMC ProactiveNet cell server is installed. With the AlarmPoint integration, the user is notified through sms, email, and phone messages. On successful setup of BMC ProactiveNet server cell with AlarmPoint, the notified event collectors are created in the Operations Console. Collectors are created when an event rule is generated. Figure 19 on page 142 shows an example of the notified event collectors in the Operations Console. Figure 19: Notified events in the Operations Console

To notify an AlarmPoint user of alarms or events, create an event rule using Run Command on ProacativeServer. Enter the pw_AlarmPoint - u<user name> in the Path field. If you do not enter the user name, the event is notified to the default user. E-mail will be sent to the configured user. For more information on the AlarmPoint integration, see the Event Administration chapter of the BMC ProactiveNet User Guide.

Configuring Alarm Point for Window and Solaris


The following configuration should be done in custom/conf/pronet.conf for AlarmPoint to function with the JServer. Change the property for Alarm Point in custom/conf/pronet.conf.
Windows: #pronet.jserver.alarmpoint.path=[<AP_Path>\\APAgent. By default the property is pronet.jserver.alarmpoint.path=C:\\APAgent, or the

path where APAgent is installed.

Solaris: pronet.jserver.alarmpoint.path= <AP_Path>/APAgent. For example, pronet.jserver.alarmpoint.path=/opt/alarmpointsystems/


APAgent.

Execute the following BMC ProactiveNet CLI command to initialize the change:
pw jproperties reload

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Executing remote actions


Remote Actions can be executed through automated actions and on demand. You can execute the automated actions by creating an event rule. If an action is executed in an event rule, the request is sent to the server. The server in-turn contacts the particular remote devices with the credentials of the specific devices. The server is connected to the remote devices and the command is executed on the remote devices. When the actions are executed for device automatically, you can view the result of actions by clicking the Detailed Diagnostics icon on the Intelligent Event History page or on the Events List page of the BMC ProactiveNet Operation Console. Click the relevant event using Tools menu from the event list of BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console to view the results of the action. When you use a remote action, it is issued from your local installation of the Operations Console but is executed on the computer where the BMC ProactiveNet Operations Management cell or the BMC ProactiveNet cell is installed.

To respond to an event by using a remote action


1 From the event list, select an event. 2 Click the blue wrench icon in the Tools Menu column. 3 Click Remote Actions/Diagnostics and then select a remote action.

Note The number of remote actions that you can execute for a BMC ProactiveNet Operations Management cell varies from that available for a BMC ProactiveNet cell.
4 To access the results of the remote action, in the event list row, click the Action Result(s) icon in the Message column. 5 In the Event Remote Action Results dialog box, you can perform the following operations:
Export the information about the remote action to a file by selecting the action

information and clicking Export. corresponding tab.

View the output, errors, and details about the remote action by clicking the

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Generating Remote Action results

Generating Remote Action results


Remote Action/Diagnostics that are auto-triggered have their output saved in the database and this information is accessible from the Diagnostics column in the Intelligent Action History page. The Detailed Diagnostics icon is displayed if a diagnostics has been triggered. Click the Detailed Diagnostics icon to show the diagnostic output. If this column displays None, then there are no diagnostics for that event. To view the actions result for external events, select particular event and select Logs and Notes.

To manually view the results of Remote Action on an event


1 Log on the BMC ProactiveNet Operations console. 2 From the event list, select an event. 3 From the Tools menu, select Remote Actions/Diagnostics.

To view the results of Remote Action


1 From the event list, select an event. 2 View the results of the remote action by using one of the following methods:
Click the Action Results Click the wrench icon In the Tools Menu column. From the pop-menu select Action Results

icon on the message column.

When the DD is edited and renamed, then the display of the DD output of the associated events from the BMC ProactiveNet Operation Console is not shown.

Note

Macros for Remote Action


The command option while creating a remote action lets you define the following parameters:
$device - Device name

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$srcip - This is the IP of the source agent on which the monitor instance is

running. If there is no Source Agent attribute for a monitor or if it is a Non PNET Event, then this will be the IP of the device instance. If there is no TargetIP attribute for the monitor or if it is a Non PNET Event, this will be N/A there is no TargetIP attribute, this will be the Device IP. monitor instance.

$targetip - This is the IP of the TargetIP attribute available for the monitor

$ip - If there is an attribute Target IP for the monitor, $IP will show the ServerIP. If

$instancename - The name of the monitor instance while creating/updating a

$monitortype - Name of a Monitor Type created by BMC ProactiveNet developers

or external developers if users write an SDK monitor.

$rulename - event rule name that triggers this command. This is applicable only if the diagnostic command was triggered by an event rule. If not, a N/A would be

displayed as a result for this parameter.

$pronethome - Home directory where BMC ProactiveNet software is installed. $status - The status of an event (Open or Closed). Applicable only when the

diagnostic command is triggered from Event List page and Event history page. From other pages, N/A will be displayed as output for this parameter. the diagnostic command is triggered from Event List page and Event history page. From other pages, N/A will be displayed as output for this parameter.

$severity - The severity of an event (Critical, Major, Minor). Applicable only when

$mc_ueid - The universal event identifier. When an event is propagated, the

receiving cell gets a new local identifier, event_handle, but the event keeps the old universal identifier mc_ueid. For example, t2000-alr-2356.
Events that are BMC ProactiveNet events have the format as <host><number>. Events that are BMC ProactiveNet abnormalities have the format as

<host><number>. <host><number>.

Events that are BMC ProactiveNet external/imported events have the format as

$mc_location - Location at which the managed object resides. For example,

labs.bmc.com

$mc_host - Fully qualified name of the host on which the problem occurred. For

example, t2000.labs.bmc.com

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$mc_host_address - Network address corresponding to the mc_host slot. For

example, 172.23.30.78

Note This slot can contain some other type of information in which a host value is not meaningful.
$mc_object_class - Identifies the class of an object. For example, Windows Process.

If the object class cannot be derived from the original event, it should be filled in during enrichment.

$mc_object - Subcomponent of the host to which the event is related. For example,

http://www.bmc.com or Drive = C:\Program Files\ProactiveNet, Target IP/Host Name = 172.22.173.108 example, the mc_tool_class value for an SNMP adapter could be SNMP. And the mc_tool_Class value for an NT EventLog Adapter might be NT_EVLOG. The mc_tool_class value for native events is PNET. For BMC ProactiveNet events, this slot contains the string PNET.

$mc_tool_class - A user-defined categorization of the tool reporting the event. For

$mc_tool - Any event is within any value that can further distinguish whether the

event is coming from within a mc_tool_class value. For example, for the NT Event Log Adapter, it could be the name of the log to which the incident was logged. If the mc_tool_class is a management tool such as PATROL or ITO, then the mc_tool should be a string that enables an action on the event to initiate a communication in context with the mc_tool. For BMC ProactiveNet events, this slot contains the fully-qualified DNS name of the BMC ProactiveNet Server.

$status - Status value of the event. $severity - Severity value of the event. $mc_priority - Current priority of the event. Possible value include PRIORITY_5 is

considered as lowest priority, PRIORITY_4, PRIORITY_3,PRIORITY_2,PRIORITY_1 are considered as highest priority.

Macros are whole-word substitutions and do not work the way regular expressions does. The given example illustrates the usage of macros in general. For example on usage of $MC_PRIORITY. If $MC_PRIORITY is used as /tmp/ $MC_PRORITY, the macro replacement will not work. The correct usage for this macro is $MC_PRIORITY as a standalone word. It will not work if you use suffixes or prefixes with the macro.
$msg - Text description of the event. For example, Sybase ASA Intelliscope Forced Commits, 7.370 per sec is above All Baseline. 146 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

Note

Troubleshooting remote actions

$mc_notes - List of free text annotations added to the event. The contents of this

slot is implementation dependant. Rules or users should not rely on a particular value in this slot. mc_long_msg.

$mc_long_msg - BMC ProactiveNet events, more information is stored in

$mc_owner - Current user assigned to the event. $mc_origin_class - Identifies the event management system type. This slot may

have the same value as the mc_tool_class slot if this is only a two-layer implementation.

Troubleshooting remote actions


This section provides information to help you troubleshoot issues that you might encounter when implementing remote actions in your environment.

Executing reboot command via remote action results in timeout messages


When you execute the reboot command on a remote system, you may receive a timeout message on an action result event even though the remote system was rebooted successfully. For example, if you execute a reboot action without specifying the execute_user parameter in the credential_repository.xml, the remote system is rebooted, but the Server does not receive a response from the remote system. Because it does not receive any response, it displays a timeout message, such as exit code 111: Timeout occurred while reading commands output. If you execute a reboot action by specifying the execute_user parameter in the credential_repository.xml, the remote system is rebooted, but the Server also does not receive a response from the remote system. The server cannot determine whether the lack of a response is due to a timeout or some other failure such as loss of a network connection. In this context, it displays a message, such as exit code 1007:
Encountered error while waiting for system response. May be timed out.

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Remote actions\diagnostics exit codes

Remote actions\diagnostics exit codes


The following table describes the common error codes that could be displayed while executing the remote actions. Table 11: Remote actions\diagnostics error codes
Error code 2001 1007 1006 1004 1003 1002 129 125 121 120 111 99 0 -1 -2 -3 -4 -8 -9 -10 -12 Description Wrong command prompt for the specified protocol or timeout occurred while waiting for the command prompt. Encountered error while waiting for system response. Action may have timed out. Action timeout for the run remote task Remote action has failed. Check the log file $PRONTO_HOME /logs/ias/ ias0.log for additional information. Invalid credentials for SSH Protocol not available. Unable to connect to host. Connection refused. Binary command not found in path Invalid credentials for SSH Error when trying to connect with the PsExec service PsExec protocol issue: client or server is down Action timeout occurred for Run task. The timeout occurred while reading the command output. Credentials not found Remote action executed successfully Remote action execution is pending. User Response: Press F5 to refresh. Exit code returns to 0. ExecuteActionException. Check the log file $PRONTO_HOME /logs/ias/ ias0.log for additional information. ExecuteActionException. Check the log file $PRONTO_HOME /logs/ias/ ias0.log for additional information. Event deviceID is invalid Invalid device ID Invalid credentials for SSH Unable to get device credentials for device ID Could not retrieve command arguments for actionID

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Error code -13 -14

Description Unable to retrieve remote action details for actionID or Detailed Diagnostics not available and may have been deleted Unable to retrieve remote action details for actionID

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6
Setting up diagnostic commands
Diagnostics wizard
Launched from the Diagnostics Wizard option in the Administration Console and triggered from the Operations Console, this powerful diagnostics feature helps identify problems by executing specific commands registered on the BMC ProactiveNet system. Unlike scripts that are used in the Monitor Wizard, userdefined 'diagnostic' scripts are not restricted to numeric data, but may also contain text. Defining this type of command is appropriate when there is a large amount of data that may not be well-defined, but is useful for diagnosing a problem. For example, returning the output of a netstat command. User-defined diagnostic commands are extremely valuable in helping isolate a problem, which would not be possible to do using only statistical data returned from monitors. Consider the system commands normally run on a system when troubleshooting a particular problem. These are the same commands you may want to integrate with BMC ProactiveNet as a 'diagnostic' command to leverage the full power of BMC ProactiveNet infrastructure. BMC ProactiveNet offers two types of registered commands:
Preconfigured Commands User-defined Commands

These diagnostic commands can be launched (on any agent) from the Operations Console on demand or can be auto-triggered when tied to an Event Rule. When a diagnostic is auto-triggered, the output of the script is auto-saved and correlated with the event. The output appears in block text format. Refer Event Rule Management for more details on setting up auto-triggered diagnostics. For example, if a Web server in your network is suddenly receiving a flood of connections, you might normally run the 'netstat -an' command to view the source of

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connections. Rather than require this domain knowledge to be remembered by all users, and simultaneously require them to manually access each computer in the network, you can register these commands with BMC ProactiveNet. This enables users to have centralized Web access to these troubleshooting scripts. This saves time in isolating problems and enables greater leverage of domain knowledge. A diagnostic command registered using Diagnostics Wizard (Administration Console) is displayed as an available tool in the Tools menu (Operations Console). For executing a DD, the user account associated with the corresponding monitor requires Read access to the various tables in the database.

Note
Do not begin a detailed diagnostic command name with a number or special

character if you are going to associate it with an event rule. Such commands do not get executed. Operating System association. Monitor type against DD association will be used only when the DD's are shown against a monitor instance.

DD's are listed under a device based on Detailed Diagnostics (DD) against

Script
Note
It is the responsibility of the administrator to ensure that the required scripts are

accessible to BMC ProactiveNet Agent.

Do not begin a detailed diagnostic command name with a number or special

character if you are going to associate it with an event rule. Such commands do not get executed.

Register a user-defined Script command


Follow the procedure given below to register a command.

To register a user-defined script command


1 In the Administration Console, select Tools => Diagnostics Wizard => Script

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The Diagnostics Command window appears. Available commands, if any, will

be listed on the window. Button Options

Add - Click this to add a new command. Edit - Click this to modify a previously registered command. Delete - Click this to remove the command from the system. Cancel - Click this to exit the Diagnostics Wizard.

2 Click Add. The Add Command window appears. 3 Fill in the required information on the configuration screen.
Name - Specify a unique name to the command you are adding. Processing Options - Command or URL URL option lets you add URL addresses. Parameters are also applicable to this

option.

For example: http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=$instancename&d=t . If this URL is launched against a monitor instance with instance name SUNW, it launches Yahoo's stock quote page for Sun Microsystems. The Command option lets you define the following system parameters:
$pronethome - Home directory where BMC ProactiveNet software is installed. $ip - IP address of the device. If the diagnostic command triggered by event

rule or the diagnostic command invoked from the event matrix or All Events then the value of this parameter is the IP address of the source agent for the monitor associated with the event.

$device - Device name. $targetip - IP address of the target device. If the target device is not

applicable, N/A will be displayed.

$scrip IP address of the source agent. $instancename - Also known as Monitor Instance Name. It is the name

given by a BMC ProactiveNet Administrator when creating/updating a monitor instance. developers or external developers if users write an SDK monitor.

$monitortype - Name of a Monitor Type created by BMC ProactiveNet

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$rulename - Also known as the Event Rule name. This is the event rule that

triggers this user command. This is applicable only if the diagnostic command was triggered by an event rule. If not, a 'N/A' would be displayed as a result for this parameter. if there is no event.

$status - The status of an event (Open or Closed). 'Normal' will be displayed

$severity - The severity of an event (Critical,Major, Minor). 'Normal' will be

displayed if there is no event.

Instance Input Configuration Parameters


Input Configuration Parameters for the monitor instance also serve as useful parameters for user-defined scripts. To access the parameters, you must know their names internal to BMC ProactiveNet. The procedure to obtain the names is described as follows:
Run the command pw device help -mlist to obtain a list monitor names.

Monitor type names are in the extreme right column of the output.

Run the command pw export meta config MonitorTypeName to retrieve a list of configuration parameters for the given monitor type. For example:
$ pw export meta config MSSQLServerQuery MSSQLServerQuery (25061) CONN_TYPE (250602) DATA_SOURCE (250606) DB (250611) INI_FILE (250603) INSTANCE_NAME (250601) PASSWORD (250605) PORT (250610) PW_MON_VER (250626) SQL (250607) SRCIP (250615) TARGETIP (250693) USER_NAME (250604)

With this monitor type, the possible parameters are $INSTANCE_NAME, $USER_NAME, $PASSWORD, $PORT, etc. If you use this option, you must ensure that this command is attached to the right monitor type. In this example, the command should only be attached to 'MS SQL Server Query'. Refer 'attaching the command under a 'Monitor Type' section for further information. Example command:
/usr/bin/sh -c 'cd /home/kchong; find . -name "*.java" -print' $pronethome/scripts/querydb.sh $USER_NAME $PASSWORD $PORT

Note

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Show Output - This option is displayed only if Command is selected as the

Processing Option. Determines whether to display the output or not while executing the command. If this option is not selected, BMC ProactiveNet launches the script without waiting for its completion, but reports back right away whether the script has been successfully launched or not. There is a default timeout period of 300 secs for executing a user command.

Note If the operation times out, the script that is still being executed on the agent is terminated.
Configuration Diagnostic - Select this option to qualify this Detailed Diagnostic

command to be run with every configuration poll of select system monitors (AIX, HPUX, Linux, Solaris, Windows, and X86). before timing out this command.

Timeout - Specify the duration (between 5 and 55 minutes) the system must wait

Agent from which CMD is launched - This option is displayed only if Command

is selected as the Processing Option. When you are registering a command, you must select the Agent where this command will be executed. In using a URL the agent selection is not required. You need not select an agent if you are registering a URL. on the agent to which the commands monitor belongs.

Use Agent on which the monitor is running - This enables running the command

Prompt for Agent - In this case, the Agent is known when the command is being

executed. This option is ignored if the command was triggered by an event rule. It defaults to as if the first option was selected.

Predefined Agent - Choose the Agent from the list of predefined agents. Use Agent on which the monitor is targeted This enables running the command

on the agent to which the commands monitor is targeted. 1 Click Next. Select the Device OS on the new window.
The left list contains all available OS. The right list contains all selected OS.

Click >> to move a selected OS from the left list to the right. Click << to move a selected OS from the right list to the left. Select All to select all items in the left list.

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Select None to not attach any specific OS type.

2 Click Next after selecting the required OS.


The left list contains all available Monitor Types. The right list contains all selected Monitor Types under which you want to

attach this command.

Click >> to move a selected monitor from the left list to the right. Click << to move a selected monitor from the right list to the left. Select All to select all items in the left list. Select None to not attach any specific monitory type.

Note If you choose to use instance configuration parameters to define the command, the parameters selected should be in the monitor type selected.
3 Click Next. Select the User Groups on the new screen.
The left list contains all available User Groups. The right list contains all selected User Groups. Click >> to move a selected User Group from the left list to the right. Click << to move a selected User Group from the right list to the left. Select All to select all items in the left list. Select None to not attach any specific User Group.

The access permissions that are set while defining the User groups takes precedence, that is, if the user group is defined with All Diagnostics in the Diagnostics tab, then the newly created diagnostics will be available to those user groups irrespective of whether they are selected/non-selected in the Add to User Group screen in the Add Command module of the Diagnostics wizard. 4 Click Finish. This registers the commands with BMC ProactiveNet Server and opens a 'Test' window, if the command type is 'Command'.

Note

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5 Click Transfer. No need to define script if you use this option. To transfer the script, see Transfering files to agentsAfter a script monitor is defined, the corresponding script(s) and any dependent file(s) need to be deployed on the required agent(s) so that monitor instances may be created and run from those agents. Script(s) and any dependent file(s) needed for the operation of Script DDs may also need to be deployed on required agent(s) in order to run those DDs on those agent(s). A need may also arise to distribute arbitrary file(s) (Example: keystore file containing new self-signed or CAsigned certificates) from BMC ProactiveNet Server to various connected agents. This can be done using the transfer files to agents functionality. Transfer Files to Agents enables the user to select files that need to be transferred to agent(s) and optionally also specify a single destination directory on the agent(s) where all the files will be transferred. The user can also select the agent(s) to transfer file(s). If you do not have the proper access rights, then the Transfer files to agents feature is disabled. . Once transferring is finished BMC ProactiveNet returns to Test Your Command screen. 6 Test the Command in the Test Your Command window. a From the Source Agent list, select the Agent on which you want to test the command. b Use Target IP to execute the command on the given target IP. If the required Target IP is not available in the list, use 'Edit Target IP', which will bring editable Target IP text fields as shown in the Administration console, from the list. This is applicable only if $ip is one of the parameters. c Click Test to invoke a test. The output is displayed in the Output area and the status is displayed at the bottom of the window. Data returned from the Detail Diagnostic history output is ordered by the timestamp when the data is gathered.
Server Time - Time when the action is triggered. Agent Time - Time when the agent actually executes the action. Agent Time could

be different from the Server Time for the following reasons:

The Agent is a remote agent and its time is different from the server's. The Agent is a local agent but the action didn't take place immediately after the event has occurred. Depending on the state of the server, a busy server could cause some delay. 1 Click Ok to close the window and bring up a list of all commands that have been registered. These diagnostic commands will now be available from the Operations Console's Tools menu as well as from the Event Rule Creation/Edit page.

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a Check Event Summary tables. Verify that the command is available in the Tools menu from the Device Matrix, Service Matrix, and All Events tables. If it is present, then the new command is available for use. From the Service Matrix table you need to drill down to the Show Monitor level to access the Tools menu. You can now:
Execute this command manually from the Tools menu, and Attach it to an event rule so that it executes automatically when an event is

Note

triggered (recommended).

These commands will only be displayed in the Tools menu against the monitor types where the diagnostic was registered. 1 Attach Script Command to an Event Rule. Once you register the Script Command, it is recommended that you attach it to an event rule so that it executes automatically when an event is triggered. Check the thresholds to ensure that the attributes you want are enabled. 1 Options => Edit Thresholds 2 Modify the default settings, if necessary. 3 Select Enabled for the attributes required. 4 Click Apply. a Create the Event Rule. Once you have selected and edited the thresholds as required, you can create the rule and attach it to an event. 1 Click Options => Event Rule Admin. A list of default scripts appears on the Event Rule Administration screen. These are the Preconfigured Commands that come with BMC ProactiveNet. 2 Click Add. The Create Event Rule screen is displayed. Follow the instructions to create and attach the event rule to the new command you just registered. Diagnostics that are auto-triggered have their output saved in the database and this info is easily accessible from the Diagnostics column in the Event Summary
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Script

table. The Diagnostics Double Arrow icon is displayed when an event has been triggered. When it is displayed, click the Double Arrow icon to show the diagnostic output. If this column displays None, then there are no diagnostics for that event.

Editing script commands


Perform the following procedure to edit script commands.\

To edit script commands


1 In the Administration Console, select Tools => Diagnostics Wizard => Script. This launches the Diagnosis Command screen with a list of all available commands. 2 Highlight the command you want to edit and click Edit. 3 Make necessary changes. 4 Test your changes. 5 Click Ok.

Deleting script commands


Peform the following procedure to delete script commands.

To delete script commands


1 In the Administration Console, select Tools => Diagnostics Wizard => Script. The Diagnosis Command screen displays with a list of available commands. 2 Highlight the command you want to delete and click Delete. 3 Click Ok.

Creating a detailed diagnostic script for Windows


Perform the following procedure to create a detailed diagnotic script to be run on Windows computers.

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To run a Detailed Diagnostic script on Windows host


1 Add the path of the executable/batch file in the Command field.
The batch/executable file is basically a pointer to the main script. Example, to

run a script (filename basic.java),

2 Write a batch file/executable with the following info:


set classpath=d:\nataraj\java java -classpath d:\nataraj\java basic

The final script to execute is basic.java, which is available under d:\nataraj

\java.

3 Save the batch file/executable (Example, first.bat) at a particular destination (ensure that the final script is accessible from this location). 4 To run the script (basic.java), enter the following in the Command field:
fileLocationPhysicalPath\first.bat

When you run the test, BMC ProactiveNet executes first.bat, which in turn executes basic.java file.

Log file
This template-based diagnostic tool enables you to create user-defined log file search commands without having to write scripts. The total number of lines displayed in the output for all matches of all files in a given instance is limited to 100,000 characters. Irrespective of the number of files scanned or the number of matches found, the implementation always restricts the output to this global value. Analysis of log file monitors shows that more than 100,000 characters being pushed into the database at same time affects database performance.

Note
While 'Log File Search DD' can match for patterns in any file, it displays correct

output only for files containing all printable characters. This is because of XML parser limitations. If the searched file contains non-printable characters, the output may not be displayed correctly.

Do not begin a Detailed Diagnostic command name with a number or special

character if you are going to associate it with an event rule. Such commands do not get executed.

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Registering a user-defined log file command


Follow the procedure given below to register a log file command.

To register a user-defined log file command


1 In the Administration Console, select Tools => Diagnostics Wizard => Log File
This launches the Create Log File Search Diagnostics window. Available

commands, if any, will be listed on this window. Button Options


Add: Click this to add a new command.

Edit: Click this to modify a previously registered command. Delete: Click this to remove the command from the system. Cancel: Click this to exit the Diagnostics Wizard.

2 Click Add. The Add Command window appears. a In the Name field, enter a unique name for the search and click Add. The Add Log File Search window is displayed. b Log File - select the file to be searched.
Alternatively,

For input = '*', the system reads the most recent file. For input = '<prefix> + *', the system retrieves all files with names containing <prefix> For input = '* + <suffix>', the system retrieves all files with names containing <suffix> c Match on Regular Expression - This pattern is used to sort and retrieve lines from the specified file. However, For input = '*', the system retrieves all lines from the file. In this case, advanced filters will not be available.

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For input = '<valid pattern>', the system sequentially parses the file content and retrieves matches. Additional filters available in the Advanced section can be applied for more specific search. d Negative Pattern Match - This acts as an additional sort filter for displaying output. e Match Case Sensitivity - Select this to enable case-sensitivity for the search. Select this to make the search case-sensitive. Advanced - The filters below work in tandem to further refine the search. f Show +/- - The number of lines before and after the match to be considered for output. This value is restricted to a maximum of 1500. g Limit search to the last X lines of the file - This limits the search to the specified number of lines in the file. This value is restricted to a maximum of 50,000. h Limit output to X matches - This limits the search output to the specified maximum. This value is restricted to a maximum of 50,000.

Note For optimum system performance and output accuracy, enter values judiciously in the Advanced section. Very large values may result in the action getting timed out (Timeout is set to 5 mins), and the displayed result may not be complete (the system truncates output to 100,000 characters).
i Click Apply. This displays the Add Command window again. 3 Select Configuration Diagnostic option to qualify this Detailed Diagnostic command to be run with every configuration poll of select system monitors (AIX, HPUX, Linux, Solaris, Windows, and X86). 4 In the Timeout field, specify the duration (between 5 and 55 minutes) the system must wait before timing out this command. 5 Choose the agents on which the log files will be searched. a Select Use Agent on which monitor is running option. b Alternatively, select a predefined Agent from the list. 6 Click Next. 7 On the window that is displayed, select device types. Use this window to attach the command under a 'Device Type'.
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Move the device types from the left panel to the right. The left list contains all available Device Types. The right list contains all selected Device Types under which you want to

attach this command.

Click >> to move a selected monitor from the left list to the right. Click << to move a selected monitor from the right list to left list. Select All to select all items in the left list. Select None to not attach any specific monitory type.

8 Click Next. 9 Select Monitor Types.


Move the monitor types from the left to the right panel. The left list contains all available Monitor Types. The right list contains all selected Monitor Types under which you want to

attach this command.

Click >> to move a selected monitor from the left list to the right. Click << to move a selected monitor from the right list to the left. Select All to select all items in the left list. Select None to not attach any specific monitory type.

10 Click Next.
Select the User Group as specified in the previous screens.

The access permissions that are set while defining the User groups takes precedence, that is, if the user group is defined with All Diagnostics in the Diagnostics tab, then the newly created diagnostics will be available to those user groups irrespective of whether they are selected/non-selected in the Add to User Group screen in the Add Command module of the Diagnostics wizard. 11 Click Finish.

Note

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This registers the commands with BMC ProactiveNet Server and opens a 'Test

window if the command type is 'Command'.

12 Test the Command on the Test Your Command window.


From the Source Agent list, select the 'Agent' on which you want to test the

command.

Use Target IP to execute the command on given target IP. If the required Target

IP is not available in the drop down list, select Edit Target IP from the list which displays editable Target IP text fields as shown in the Administration Console. This is applicable only if $ip is one of the parameters.

Click Test to invoke a test. The output is displayed in the Output section of the window and the status is

displayed at the bottom. Click Ok to close the window and display a list of commands that have been registered. These diagnostic commands will now be available from the Operations Console tools menu, but ONLY to users who have access control privileges to execute commands.

13 Check Event Summary tables.


Verify that the command is available on the Tools menu from the Device

Matrix, Service Matrix, and All Events tables. If it is present, then the new command is available for use. From the Service Matrix table you need to drill down to the Show Monitor level to access the Tools menu. You can now:
Execute this command manually from the Tools menu, and Attach it to an event rule so that it executes automatically when an event is

Note

triggered (recommended).

These commands are displayed in the Tools menu against the monitor types where the diagnostic was registered. 14 Attach the script command to an event rule.
Once you have registered the Script Command, it is recommended that you

Note

attach it to an event rule so that it executes automatically when an event is triggered. Check the thresholds to ensure that the attributes you want are enabled.

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a Click Options => Edit Thresholds. b Modify the default settings, if necessary. c Select Enabled for the attributes required. d Click Apply. 15 Create the event rule.
After you have checked and edited the thresholds as required, you can create

the rule and attach it to an event.

a Click Options => Event Rule Admin.


A list of default scripts appears on the Event Rule Administration screen.

These are the Preconfigured Commands that come with BMC ProactiveNet.

b Click Add.
The Create Event Rule screen appears. Follow the instructions on how to

create and attach the event rule to the new command you just registered, which is described in the Adding Event Rules section.

Editing a log file command


Perform the following procedure to edit a log file command.

To edit a log file command


1 In the Administration Console, select Tools => Diagnostics Wizard => Log File.
The Command window displays with a list of available commands.

2 Highlight the command you want to edit and click Edit. 3 Make necessary changes. 4 Test your changes. 5 Click Ok.

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Preconfigured commands

Deleting a log file command


Perform the following procedure to delete a log file command.

To delete a log file command


1 In the Administration Console, select Tools => Diagnostics Wizard => Log File.
The Command window displays with a list of available commands.

2 Highlight the command you want to delete and click Delete. 3 Click Ok.

Preconfigured commands
Preconfigured commands are displayed in the Operations Console under the Tools menu. Refer to the BMC ProactiveNet Data Adapater and Monitor Guide for more information.

User-defined commands
Custom user-defined commands are registered through the Administration Console using the Diagnostics Wizard option on the Tools menu. Once defined, both preconfigured commands and user-defined commands can be run using the Tools menu in the Operations Console. There are two user-defined command options from which to choose:
Script Command

Use this option to create custom script-based commands that can be executed through the Operations Console under the Tools menu or Event Rules.
Log File Command

Use this option to create custom Log File Search commands that can be executed through the Operations Console under the Tools menu or Event Rules. Once defined, you can use the Diagnostics Wizard tool to add a new command, edit a previously registered command, or delete a command from the system.

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To leverage the diagnostics feature to its full potential, it is recommended that you configure Event Rules to trigger your diagnostic command. Whenever possible this should be set up to trigger off of the signature thresholds (as opposed to just absolute thresholds), since signature thresholds detect abnormalities that are not usually caught by absolute thresholds. Triggering diagnostics through signature thresholds ties the power of diagnostics with the power of BMC ProactiveNets probable cause correlation capabilities. These commands, when attached to event rules, automatically launch when event conditions are met.

URL Diagnostic Commands, or other Custom commands requiring user interaction at run time, should not be used with Event Rules, since these commands will be ignored by the system. The best way to capture the desired information and run a diagnostics against a Web site is to write a program/script and run it against the site.
Remote Diagnostics Command

Note

Use this option to create Remote Commands that can be executed through the Operations Console under the Tools menu or Event Rules.

Configuration of poll driven detailed diagnostics


While creating Script or log file detailed diagnostic commands, the option Configuration Diagnostic enables you to make them available to be run with every configuration poll. Such commands are referred to as Configuration poll driven detailed diagnostics. For information on creating such commands, refer Script and Log File Detailed Diagnostic topics. BMC ProactiveNet enables you to run Detailed Diagnostic commands in the following situations:
On Demand - The commands can be run (on any agent) from the Operations

Console (Tools menu)

Auto run - When the commands are associated with an event rule Periodic basis - When the commands are defined to be run with every

configuration poll. This can be set from the Control tab of select monitors using the Configuration Diagnostic field. The Detailed Diagnostic commands are run once the configuration poll has been completed successfully.
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The advantage of running Detailed Diagnostic commands on a periodic basis is that data is collected at regular intervals and most of this data can be considered as data collected under normal conditions. This helps us compare data collected under normal conditions with data from abnormal situations. For example, when data is collected from commands auto run with an event rule. This feature is available only for the following monitors:
Linux System monitor Solaris System monitor Windows System monitor X86 Solaris System monitor

Data collected from Configuration Poll Driven Detailed Diagnostics can be viewed from the following pages of the Operations Console:
Graph Display page Probable Cause Analysis for selected Event page

The Monitor Information tab of the Graph Display page displays the column Configuration Diagnostic for monitors that support configuration poll-driven detailed diagnostic commands. Click the Detailed Diagnostic icon in the configuration diagnostic column to display the Configuration Detail Diagnostics information for the monitor. The column displays None if no Detailed Diagnostics command is associated with the monitor. For a Configuration Poll Detailed Diagnostic command output, the Server Time and Agent Time are the same. However, the Date Executed column displays the time on the BMC ProactiveNet Server computer when the Detailed Diagnostic command output was received from the agent. This time will be equal to the Server Time and Agent Time of the command output if it was executed on the local agent. This time of execution of the Detailed Diagnostic command may be different from the Server Time and Agent Time if the command was executed on a remote agent. Clicking the Diagnostics icon on the Probable Cause Analysis for Selected Event page displays the result of the Detailed Diagnostics command associated with the event rule in the Detail Diagnostics window. Clicking the Configuration Diagnostics icon in the Detail Diagnostics window displays the results of the periodically run Configuration poll driven detailed diagnostic commands for the monitor. The Diagnostics column displays None if no

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Detailed Diagnostic command was triggered for this event rule and the Detail Diagnostic icon if a Detail Diagnostic command was triggered for the event rule.

Limitations
You cannot stop running a periodic Detailed Diagnostic command when the

monitor with which it is associated is functioning.

Configuration poll driven Detailed Diagnostics cannot be associated with

monitors running on older BMC ProactiveNet Agents (prior to version 7.0). (with which the command is associated to be run at every configuration poll) for changes to be effective. If you delete a Detailed Diagnostic command, the command is not listed in the Control tab of the Edit <Monitor> screen. However, you must edit the monitor instance with which the command was associated.

After you edit or delete a Detailed Diagnostic command, edit monitor instances

If you change a Detailed Diagnostic command name, the old name of the command is no longer listed in the Control tab of the Edit <Monitor> screen. Instead, the new name of the command is listed. Enable the command by selecting it in the Control tab. If you don't change the command name but alter the command properties, edit the monitor instance with which the command is associated. Configuration poll driven Detailed Diagnostics may not run for the first configuration poll for any monitor instance with which the configuration poll Detailed Diagnostic is associated. This usually happens when the agent on which the monitor is running is busy. In such conditions, the configuration poll Detailed Diagnostic output may not be available for the monitor from the Monitor Information tab of the Graph Display page in the Operations Console. Please wait for the next configuration poll for the configuration poll Detailed Diagnostic output to be available.

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Administering BMC ProactiveNet
SSL server certificate for Apache server
BMC ProactiveNet Server installs a SSL-enabled Apache Server. The SSL Web server uses a dummy certificate that needs to be replaced before HTTPS protocol is seriously used.

Creating a Real SSL server certificate for the Apache Server


Perform the following procedure to create a real SSL server certificate for the Apache server.

To create a real SSL server certificate for the Apache server


1 Create a RSA private key for your Apache server.
This will be Triple-DES encrypted and PEM formatted:
$ /usr/pw/apache/bin/openssl genrsa -des3 -out server.key 1024

The private key sizes for SSL must either be 512 or 1024, for compatibility with certain Web browsers. A keysize of 1024 bits is recommended because keys larger than 1024 bits are incompatible with some versions of Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, and with other browsers that use RSA's BSAFE cryptography toolkit. Back up server.key file and remember the pass-phrase you had to enter at a secure location. You can see the details of this RSA private key via the command:
$ /usr/pw/apache/bin/openssl rsa -noout -text -in server.key

2 Create a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) with the server RSA private key.

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This output will be PEM formatted.


$ /usr/pw/apache/bin/openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr

Ensure that you enter the FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) of the server when OpenSSL prompts you for the 'CommonName', i.e. when you generate a CSR for a Web site, which will be later accessed via https://www.foo.dom/ , enter 'www.foo.dom' here. You can see details of this CSR via the command
$ /usr/pw/apache/bin/openssl req -noout -text -in server.csr

3 Now send this Certificate Signing Request (CSR) to a Certifying Authority (CA) for signing.
The result is then a real certificate that can be used for Apache.

Here you have two options: a First, you can let the CSR be signed by a commercial CA like Verisign or Thawte. Then you usually have to post the CSR into a Web form, pay for the signing, and await the signed certificate that you can then store in a server.crt file. For more information about commercial CAs see: Verisign: http://digitalid.verisign.com/server Thawte Consulting: http://www.thawte.com/certs/server/request.html CertiSign Certificadora Digital Ltd: http://www.certisign.com.br IKS GmbH: http://www.iks-jena.de/produkte/ca/ Uptime Commerce Ltd: http://www.uptimecommerce.com BelSign NV/SA: http://www.belsign.be b Second, you can use your own CA and get the CSR signed by this CA. Read below on how to get CSR signed by your CA yourself. You can see details of the received certificate via the command:
$ /usr/pw/apache/bin/openssl x509 -noout -text -in server.crt

c Now you have two files: server.key and server.crt. They replace the two corresponding files in /usr/pw/apache/conf/ssl.key/ and / usr/pw/apache/conf/ssl.crt/. server.csr file is no longer needed. The Verisign site http://www.verisign.com/support/csr/apache/v00.html also has some info on this subject.
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Removing the pass-phrase at Apache startup time


Since RSA private key inside server.key file is stored in encrypted format for security reasons, the pass-phrase is required to read and parse this file. When you are sure that your server is secure enough, perform the following procedure.

To remove the pass-phrase at Apache startup time


1 Remove the encryption from the RSA private key while preserving the original file:
$ cp server.key server.key.org $ /usr/pw/apache/bin/openssl rsa -in server.key.org -out server.key

2 Ensure that server.key is now readable only by root:


$ chmod 400 server.key

Now server.key will contain an unencrypted copy of the key. When Apache

server starts, it will not prompt you for a pass-phrase. If anyone gets this key, they will be able to impersonate you on the net. So ensure that permissions on that file are such that only root or Web server user can read it (preferably get your Web server to start as root but run as another server, and have the key readable only by root).

Changing the pass-phrase on the private key file


Here are the commands to accomplish pass-phrase change:
$ /usr/pw/apache/bin/openssl rsa -des3 -in server.key -out server.key.new $ mv server.key.new server.key

You will be asked twice for a PEM pass-phrase. At the first prompt, enter the old passphrase and at the second prompt enter the new pass-phrase.

Creating and using your own certificate authority (CA)


Perform the following procedure to create and use your own certificate authority.

To create and use your own certificate authority


1 Create a RSA private key for your CA (will be Triple-DES encrypted and PEM formatted):
$ /usr/pw/apache/bin/openssl genrsa -des3 -out ca.key 1024

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SSL server certificate for Apache server

Back up ca.key file and remember the pass-phrase you currently entered at a

secure location. You can see details of this RSA private key via the following command:
$ /usr/pw/apache/bin/openssl rsa -noout -text -in ca.key

2 Create a self-signed CA certificate (X509 structure) with the RSA key of the CA (output will be PEM formatted):
$ /usr/pw/apache/bin/openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -key ca.key -out ca.crt

You can see details of this certificate via the following command:
$ /usr/pw/apache/bin/openssl x509 -noout -text -in ca.crt

3 Prepare a script for signing.


This is needed because the 'openssl ca' command has some strange

requirements and the default OpenSSL config doesn't allow one easily to use 'openssl ca' directly. So a script named sign.sh is distributed with apache mod_ssl. Use this script for signing. Now you can use this CA to sign server CSRs to create real SSL certificates for use inside an Apache Web server (assuming you already have a server.csr at hand): $ /usr/pw/apache/openssl/misc/sign.sh server.csr This signs the server CSR and results in a server.crt file.

Configuring the Apache web server to accept HTTPS connection only


In case your site does not need a HTTP connection, here are the steps to reconfigure Apache.

To configure the Apache web server to accept HTTPS connections


1 cd /usr/pw/apache/conf. 2 Save a copy of the httpd.conf file. 3 Edit the httpd.conf fileto comment out line 292 'Port 80' and line 301 'Listen 80', so the two lines become '#Port 80' and '#Listen 80'. 4 Restart httpd by running the following command:
pw process restart httpd

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Note Switching Apache server from HTTP to HTTPS mode requires restarting the system. BMC Software recommends due diligence before restarting the system.

Removing the pass-phrase window displayed during Apache startup


The RSA private key inside the server.key file is stored in encrypted format for security reasons. The pass-phrase window is displayed at startup and every restart because the pass-phrase is required to decrypt the RSA private key (so it can be read and parsed). Removing the pass-phrase removes a layer of security from your server - proceed with caution!

To remove the pass-phrase window displayed during Apache startup


1 Remove the encryption from the RSA private key (while keeping a backup copy of the original file) by following the steps given below:
$ cp server.key server.key.org $ openssl rsa -in server.key.org -out server.key

2 Ensure that the server.key file is readable only by root:


$ chmod 400 server.key

Now server.key contains an unencrypted copy of the key. Directing your server to the server.key file ensures that the pass-phrase is not prompted for. However, if anyone gets this key, they will be able to impersonate you on the Internet. PLEASE make sure that the permissions on this file are such that only root or the Web server user can read it (It is recommended that you start the Web server as root but run it as another user, and have the key readable only by root). As an alternative approach you can use the 'SSLPassPhraseDialog exec:/path/to/ program' facility. But remember that this is neither more nor less secure.

BMC ProactiveNet Security


This section provides details about configuring security for BMC ProactiveNet.

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Securing port communication


Certain BMC ProactiveNet Server ports are used for communication between processes. Some ports are used by processes running on the server only; these are internal and need not be accessed by other computers in the network (Event server). For security reasons, BMC Software recommends that all internal ports be made accessible only via the loopback address (127.0.0.1). By default, ports that are not required by external computers are secured, ie the properties associated with the ports are set to the loopback address. To make BMC ProactiveNet Server accessible to other computers in a network, certain ports on the server must be made available. From a multi-homed computer, BMC ProactiveNet Server processes can be accessed using any of the available IP addresses.
Table 12: Secure port communication Port 2638 Process Database Server Properties Default Procedure to Secure Multi-homed port computer Setup Set the property value to 127.0.0.1. Then the database server can not be accessed from other servers for reporting. Internal process Set the IP address of the required server as the value of the property.

pronet.api.database.hostname Available ( serverInstallDirectory /pw/ server IP address pronto/conf/pronet.conf)

12124

Local Agent

pronet.apps.agent.port serverInstallDirectory /pw/ pronto/conf/pronet.conf

IP address of the available server

Set the IP address of the required server as the value of the property. Port not required by an external computer Port not required by an external computer Port not required by an external computer

15000

Rate

pronet.rate.hostIp( serverInsta 127.0.0.1 llDirectory /pw/pronto/conf/ pronet.conf) pronet.jserver.event.hostIp( se 127.0.0.1 rverInstallDirectory/pw/ pronto/conf/pronet.conf)

Internal process used by JServer; secured by default Internal process used by JServer; secured by default Internal process; secured by default

9149

JServer Event Server

12141

Log Server pronet.apps.logging.logServer 127.0.0.1 .hostnamepronet.apps.logging .logServer.port( serverInstallD irectory/ pw/pronto/conf/ pronet.conf)

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Port 8093

Process JBoss JMS Server

Properties ( serverInstallDirectory /pw/ jboss/server/minimal_jms/ conf/jboss-serivice.xml) Line # 58 change bind address<attribute name=BindAddress>{jboss. bind.address}</attribute>

Default

Procedure to Secure Multi-homed port computer Setup Internal process; secured by default Port not required by an external computer

1100

JBoss JNDI pronet.apps.jboss.bind.addres 0.0.0.0 s ( serverInstallDirectory/pw/ pronto/conf/pronet.conf)

Set the property Port not required value to 127.0.0.1. by an external If the BMC Atrium computer CMDB is integrated with BMC ProactiveNet and you change this property, then the BMC Impact Model Designer can not communicate with the publishing server. Internal process; secured by default Port not required by an external computer

12123

Agent pronet.apps.agentcontrollerho 127.0.0.1 Controller stIp (serverInstallDirectory / / JServer pw/pronto/conf/pronet.conf communic ation

To retain changes made to properties even after upgrade, copy the values to serverInstallDirectory /pw/custom/conf/pronet.conf file.

Note

Security related FAQs


1 How can I restrict to see only One Console (Operations/Service Mgmt/Enterprise)? The options Enable Operations Console Access Controls, Allow EC Display under general tab, and 'Enable SLO Access Controls under SLO tab can be used to grant/restrict access to only one console. 2 How can I disable the HTTP interface and run BMC ProactiveNet over HTTPS interface? To disable HTTP interface, configure the Apache configuration file httpd.conf and remove entries for port 80.

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3 How can I set up BMC ProactiveNet to use PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) to access computer level credentials? This feature is not available in the current BMC ProactiveNet release. 4 How can I configure the HTML headers to display "Internal FR" label on top of each page? This is only partially supported. You can only change the logo and/or navigation bar on the HTML page. For details on this, refer Customize logo on the Operations Console topic. 5 How can I disable the default Pronto account? To disable the default pronto account, simply delete the account after creating a new account with Administrative privileges. 6 Where does BMC ProactiveNet store user names and passwords? User names and passwords are stored in the database on BMC ProactiveNet Server. All passwords are kept in encrypted format. 7 Are user names and passwords accessible via regular database access? Database access to user name and password information is available to only to database users with administrative privileges. 8 How to change the BMC ProactiveNet password policy? The following entries in pronet.conf file can be used to set Password strength
pronet.login.minLength=6 pronet.login.maxLength=15 pronet.login.numericChars=1

9 Where is the HTTPS/SSL private key stored on BMC ProactiveNet Server? This information is stored in a file under /usr/pw/apache/conf/, which can be read only by the 'root' (BMC ProactiveNet install User) user. Refer Troubleshooting section for details on working with these keys. 10 How can I print user activity lists? To view user activity on BMC ProactiveNet, print Access.log ( located in usr/pw/ pronto/logs directory). These files record information related to user logons, logouts, and logon failures. 11 Does BMC ProactiveNet automatically lock user accounts after certain number of failed logon attempts? BMC ProactiveNet does not lock the user account. However, all logon failures are recorded in ProactiveNet.log. To lock such accounts, you can write a script to delete the account based on the log file entries.

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12 How to restrict the agent so that it will only receive connections from a specific IPAddress? Use the following property in pronet.conf pronet.apps.agent.authorizedcontrolleraddress=<ipaddress> 13 How to configure agent controller to present a specific IP Address to an agent if server has more than one NIC? pronet.apps.agentcontroller.useIPForAgentConnection=<ipaddress> If the servers computer has got more than one IP (more than one NIC), set this property to IP address that agent controller will present while connecting to the agent 14 Does BMC ProactiveNet automatically log out users after a certain period of inactivity? By default, inactive users are logged out of the Operations Console after 24 hours. However, BMC ProactiveNet can be customized globally for all users. Use the property pronet.html.globalsession.timeout in pronet.conf file located in usr/pw/ pronto/conf directory to configure this value. If you change this property, ensure that you set the same log out period in the Tom Cat config file /usr/pw/tomcat/conf/web.xml (line 321).
<session-config> <session-timeout>1440</session-timeout> </session-config>

Restart the httpd process by running the command 'pw p r httpd'. On restarting the httpd process, all users will be logged out. 15 What encryption method is used for storing password information used by BMC ProactiveNet monitors? Passwords used by BMC ProactiveNet monitors are protected by Passphrase Based Encryption (PBE) as defined in PKCS#5 version 2.0. This encryption is applied to passwords stored in the BMC ProactiveNet Server database that may be used by a monitor to execute a transaction that requires user authentication. 16 How can I configure BMC ProactiveNet Server to run as non-root? Run the script 'configNonRoot' to configure an installed BMC ProactiveNet Server to run as a non-root user. The script prompts for the new HTTP and HTTPS ports to be used by Apache server and performs necessary changes. However, it is important that the initial installation be performed by 'root' user. After conversion to non-root, upgrades can be performed by a non-root user. The Apache and Tomcat components of the server run as user 'nobody'. After running this utility, however, they will run as the designated user.

Note

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Note The server after being changed to run as non-root will have the following limitations:
Web interface can no longer be accessed on ports 80 or 443; instead, you must

choose alternate ports above 1024 -- you will be prompted for these ports when you run the conversion program "configNonRoot". You can also choose the alternate ports by editing the file /usr/pw/apache/conf/httpd.conf

You cannot revert the ownership once you change it to non-root. The local agent also experiences its own limitations in monitoring. More details

on this are provided later in this section. Example

To make BMC ProactiveNet Server run as user "john":


# csh # source /usr/pronto/bin/.tmcsh # configNonRoot john

Follow the instructions to make BMC ProactiveNet Server run as user "john". The same ConfigNonRoot command can also be run to switch BMC ProactiveNet Server from one non-root user to another non-root user. BMC ProactiveNet Server running as a non-root user can be upgraded either by the same non-root user or by root. If upgraded by the same non-root user, the same HTTP(S) ports will be used by the Apache Web Server during upgrade. When BMC ProactiveNet Agent - Linux is run as non-root, the following limitations are applicable:
Process monitor will not collect data for certain attributes (such as # file

descriptors), if process being monitored does not belong to the same user as the agent. raw socket (requires root privileges). However, these utilities can be executed from the command line by non-root users only because the sticky bit is set, allowing them to run as root no matter who executes them. read privileges on the log files. The workaround is to assign Read privileges on the particular log file to "all" or to a particular group. read the device files.

Ping or Traceroute monitors cannot be run, since these require creation of

Log File monitor will not work if the user running the agent does not have

Disk Performance Monitor will not work since root privileges are required to

17 For enhanced security, Apache server can be configured to accept only SSL v3 requests. To accomplish this add the following entry in apache configuration file httpd-ssl.conf.

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SSLProtocol +SSLv3 ( Just above the directive SSLEngine on).

SSL communication between BMC ProactiveNet Server and BMC ProactiveNet Agents
1 Does BMC ProactiveNet include its keystore files as part of the agent and server SSL communication? Yes, BMC ProactiveNet provides its own keystore files (pnserver.ks and pnagent.ks) as part of the Agent and Server SSL communication. The keystore files are stored under:
BMC ProactiveNet Server: /usr/pw/pronto/conf BMC ProactiveNet Agent: <Agent Install Directory>/pw/pronto/conf

These files are only available to the root user for Read and Write. 2 Can you replace this keystore certificate with another one? Yes, you can replace this keystore certificate with your own self-signed certificate. 3 How can I replace the keystore certificate with my own self-signed one? To replace the BMC ProactiveNet certificate: a Create a new keystore and self-signed certificate with corresponding public/ private keys.
*keytool -genkey -alias agent_<name> -keyalg RSA -validity 365 keystore agent_<name>.ks

This is the keystore that BMC ProactiveNet Agent uses. 1 Examine the keystore. Notice the entry type is |keyEntry|, which means that this entry has a private key associated with it.
keytool -list -v -keystore agent_<name>

2 Export and examine the self-signed certificate.


*keytool -export -alias agent_<name> -keystore **agent_<name>.ks -rfc file agent_<name>.cer

3 Import the certificate into a new truststore.


*keytool -import -alias agent_<name>cert -file agent_<name>.cer -keystore pnserver.ks

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4 Examine the truststore. Note that the entry |trustedCertEntry| has been created. *keytool -list -v -keystore pnserver.ks
keytool -export -alias pnca -keystore pnserver.ks -rfc -file pnserver.cer keytool -import -alias pnca -file pnserver.cer -keystore agent_<name>.ks

5 Copy agent_<name>.ks to the respective pronto/conf directory of the remote agent computer. 6 Change the following entry in the pronet.conf of the remote agent computer.
pronet.apps.ipc.ssl.context.agent.keystore.filename=pronto/conf/ agent_<name>.ks

7 Change the following entry in the .ks_pass file present in pronet/conf/ directory of the remote computer. pronet.apps.ipc.ssl.context.agent.keystore.passwd=<password provided during creation of agent_<name>.ks> 8 Restart BMC ProactiveNet Agent using ./startremotepw multiple from the agent's pronto/bin directory. SSL communication between the agent and agent controller must be successful.

SSL communication architecture


BMC ProactiveNet Agent acts as the SSL server and the agent controller acts as the SSL client. On both the agent and agent controller, a single keystore is used to manage keys and certificates. The default keystores are pnagent.ks on the agent and pnserver.ks on the server (found in <install directory>/conf directory). The keystore file contains keyEntries (private keys) and trustedCertKey (public key) to trust the opposite party. Certificate authentication/trust happens on both the agent and agent controller. Key pairs are generated through the keytool, and self-signed certificates are exported from each keystore file. The exported certificates are imported to the other party's keystore as trustedCertEntries (the public key of the agent keystore is imported as a trusted entry in the server and vice-versa). For more information, see SSL TCP/IP Agent on page 57.

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Customizing the BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console


This section provides details about ways that you can customize the BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console.

Customizing event text


You can customize the Event Rule Name and add it to the event description by modifying the appropriate strings in the pronet.conf file. This adds an additional variable called $EVENTRULE_NAME and causes the event processing system to insert the name of the event rule into the description. The properties to modify the Event Rule Name start with the following lines:
pronet.events.abs pronet.events.sig

Multiple event rules could affect a singe event. In this case, only the first event rule name gets inserted into the description text. Event messages may be customized to include additional information in the Description field of an Event table. By editing the event text template in the pronet.conf file, you can modify the event text and add additional event data to email notifications and event summary links. The event definitions and default event text can be found in the main configuration file:/usr/pw/pronto/conf/pronet.conf. However, when making configuration changes, it is best to place them in the custom configuration file: /usr/pw/custom/conf/ pronet.conf. You can use the definitions in the main file pronet.conf as templates. There are four templates for absolute events and four for signature events.

Note

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Note If you make changes to the main pronet.conf file, the changes will NOT be preserved on upgrade, but will be over-written. However, the custom pronet.conf file is always preserved during upgrade. When a BMC ProactiveNet process starts, it first reads the main pronet.conf file for initialization. It then reads the custom pronet.conf, and any properties defined in the custom file will override the definitions in the main pronet.conf.
One application of this feature is to provide users with specific procedures to follow when a problem occurs (i.e., "runbooks"). Such procedures can be referenced as a URL supplied in custom event text. For example, changing the definition in pronet.conf from pronet.events.abs.abovethresh=$MO_TYPE $ATTR_NAME above $THRESH $UNITS.<$EVENT_CODE,$ABNORMALITY,$AVG,$LAST,$DUR> to pronet.events.abs.abovethresh=$MO_TYPE $ATTR_NAME above $THRESH$UNITS. Please see http://helpserver.mycompany.com/runbooks/$MO_TYPE/ $ATTR_NAME<$EVENT_CODE,$ABNORMALITY,$AVG,$LAST,$DUR>. This could be used to reference a Web page on a Web server called 'helpserver' that tells an operator what to do when an event is issued for (example) Solaris System Memory Utilization. You could make it even more specific by referring a procedure for a particular monitor instance, for example: http://helpserver.mycompany.com/runbooks/$MO_TYPE/$ATTR_NAME/ $INSTANCE_NAME Of course, this would mean creating an extra Web page for each particular monitor instance that needs its own procedure. The above examples are simplified and are useful only in notification e-mails sent as ASCII. They cannot be used to drill-down from the event summary. Below is a more sophisticated example that embeds an HTML reference in the definition so it can be referenced directly from the event summary. Note that in this example the Web server provides dynamic Web content using active server pages: pronet.events.abs.abovethresh=$MO_TYPE $ATTR_NAME above $THRESH $UNITS.<A HREF http://helpserver.mycompany.com/proserver1/runbook.asp? INST=$INSTANCE_NAME&MOTYPE=$MO_TYPE&ATTR_NAME= $ATTR_NAME>Runbook1</A><$EVENT_CODE,$ABNORMALITY,$AVG,$LAST, $DUR>

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Note
It is very important NOT to modify the following string: <$EVENT_CODE,

$ABNORMALITY,$AVG,$LAST,$DUR>. Modifying this string will adversely affect certain operations in the system.

Each definition must appear on a single line (ignore the line breaks in the examples). Expanded text appearing after "=" sign should not exceed 254 characters (this

limit is imposed by the database tables). Expanded text is one that already has variable substitutions. To prevent this, please avoid using long URL paths for runbooks pages. recommended to have runbooks URL within quotes.

To avoid inappropriate navigation or event history generation failure, it is

Once the changes are completed, you must restart BMC ProactiveNet Server for the changes to take effect. Alternatively, you can just start the rate process (pw process restart rate)., and then restart the snmpdc process (pw process restart snmpdc).

Customizing the logo on the Operations Console


BMC ProactiveNet enables the Administrator to change the ProactiveNet.gif logo on the Operations Console. Figure 20 on page 185 shows that the 'ProactiveNet' logo has been changed. When such a change is made, the 'Powered by ProactiveNet' logo is placed on the top right of the navigation bar. The 'About' link can also be changed to reflect your companys name and point to a company Web site or other location. Figure 20: Changing BMC ProactiveNet logo on the Operations Console

The properties files for these GIFs are located in /usr/pw/custom/conf/pronet.conf. Properties not present by default need to be created by the user. The default GIF size for the logo is 210 X 20 pixels and you must reload the properties by running the following command:
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pw jproperties reload pronet.conf file contains the following properties:


pronet.toplogo=/custom/ART/gui_top_logo.gif pronet.about.href=http://my.about.com

Note If you change the GIFs, the replacement GIFs must be copied from pronet.conf and placed in the installDirectory /pw/custom/ART directory. The install script will ensure that your new art files are restored during upgrades (thereby preserving your changes)

Adding background images


BMC ProactiveNet comes with default images that you can use to customize the background of the Tile and Canvas views in the Operations Console; however, you can also add your own images to the BMC ProactiveNet Server and then select those images to display in the Tile and Canvas views.

To add background images


1 On the computer that hosts the BMC ProactiveNet Server, copy the image files that you want to add to the following directory:
installDirectory \tomcat\webapps\pronto\jsp\swf\assets\

backgrounds The installDirectory variable is the installation directory for the BMC ProactiveNet Server. BMC ProactiveNet supports common graphic file types such as .png, .gif, .bmp, .jpg, and .swf. 2 Backup the background.xml file.
The file is located in the following directory:

installDirectory \tomcat\webapps\pronto\jsp\swf\assets 3 In a text editor that does not add new line characters to a file, open the background.xml file. 4 In the <backgroundImages> section of the background.xml file, add an entry for each new image by entering the name of the image that you want to display in the

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Operations Console and the file name of the image, including the path where the image is located.
For example, if you want to add a file named CompanyHQ.gif, then the entry

in the background.xml file would be as follows:

<backgroundImages> <image name="Company Headquarters" path="/jsp/swf/assets/backgrounds/ CompanyHQ.gif"/>

Ensure that the entries that you add are formatted the same as the entries that exist in the file. If the background.xml file is not configured correctly, the BMC ProactiveNet Server will be unable to read it. 5 Save the background.xml file and close it.

To display the new images in the Tile and Canvas views


1 If you are logged on to the Operations Console, log out, clear the browser cache and close the browser. 2 Open the browser, and log on to the Operations Console again. 3 Select an object in the Navigation Tree and then select Tile View or Canvas View. 4 Open the Preferences dialog box in the Tile View or Canvas View. 5 In the Background pane of the Preferences dialog box, select the Image check box and then use the list to select the new background image that you want to display.

Changing the default number of breadcrumbs displayed in the operations console


By default, the number of breadcrumbs displayed in the operations console is five. Perform the following procedure to change the default value.

To change the number of breadcrumbs displayed in the operations console


1 In a text editor, open the pronet.conf file. The file is located in the installDirectory\pw\custom\conf directory. 2 Change the value for the following parameter: pronet.breadcrumb.maximum=5 3 Close and save the pronet.conf file.
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4 Enter the following command from a command line: pw jproperties reload 5 If the operations console is open, refresh the browser to view the change.

Improving performance when the navigation tree is loaded in the operations console
By default, when you open the navigation tree in the operations console, all nodes and subnodes are loaded even if a node is not expanded. If you have a lot of nodes defined in the navigation tree, you could experience a delay in the navigation tree loading completely. You can change the way that the navigation tree loads by turning on an option called lazy loading. When lazy loading is turned on, a branch in the navigation tree gets loaded only when it is expanded.

To turn on lazy loading


1 In a text editor, open the pronet.conf file. The file is located in the installDirectory\pw\pronto\conf directory. 2 Change the value for the following parameter to True: pronet.navtree.lazyloading 3 Close and save the pronet.conf file. 4 Enter the following command from a command line: pw jproperties reload 5 If the operations console is open, refresh the browser to view the change.

Changing the maximum number of configuration items in a folder


By default, a static or dynamic folder can hold a maximum of 500 configuration items. You can configure this value in the pronet.conf file.

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To change the maximum number of CIs in a folder


1 In a text editor, open the pronet.conf file. The file is located in the installDirectory\pw\pronto\conf directory. 2 Enter a number for the following parameter:
pronet.max.ci.count=500

If you enter a value that is more than 500, you might experience performance issues when folders are loaded into the navigation tree. 3 Close and save the pronet.conf file. 4 Restart the jserver.

WARNING

Configuring the operations console to automatically switch views


You use the view icons in the operations console to change the views for the object types that you select in the navigation tree. The view stays the same until you select a different view. Perform the following task to enable a configuration option that allows the view to be changed automatically. When this option is enabled, the operations console automatically changes to the default view defined for the object type that you select. You can still use the toolbar to change to other views. The view does not change when you select objects of the same type.

To automatically change views when navigating in the operations console


1 In a text editor, open the pronet.conf file. The file is located in the installDirectory\pw\pronto\conf directory. 2 Set the following option to true:
pronet.navigation.use.default.view

3 Close and save the pronet.conf file. 4 Enter the following command from a command line to reload the property files:
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Scheduling downtime

pw jproperties reload 5 If the operations console is open, refresh the browser.

Scheduling downtime
Tip For information on the relation between the Scheduled Down Time feature and the blackout event management policy, see Relation to Scheduled Down Time feature on page 308.
The Scheduled Down Time feature for devices, monitors, and groups enables BMC ProactiveNet administrators to specify a time range during which the monitor, device, or group stops collecting data. The Scheduled Down Time feature supports multiple schedules with different time ranges. You can schedule down time for the following frequencies:
one-time daily weekly monthly

The scheduler polls the database periodically for downtime events. By default, this period is five minutes; therefore, down-time events cannot be scheduled with finer granularity than five minutes. In addition, if a large number of devices is scheduled, it may take some time for the scheduler to turn off data collection for the scheduled devices. To avoid the possibility of false events at the beginning of the maintenance window, BMC ProactiveNet recommends that the downtime event be scheduled 15-20 minutes ahead of the actual maintenance period.

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Note While scheduling downtime, allow fair time for the device, monitor, or group to stop data collection. The time taken to stop data collection and then resume data collection depends on the server load, number of agents, and number of monitors scheduled for down time. In Windows Day and Time Properties, select Automatically adjust clock for daylight saving changes. This should always be selected to show the appropriate default time zone.

Note for upgrade users


New and upgrade users have different options available to them in this feature. Upgrade users can still access the Alarm/Event Generation, AlarmRule Action/ Notification, and Calculate Baseline options from the Add Device for Scheduled Down Time dialog. For example, upgrade users can
stop alarm/event generation stop alarm-related notifications/actions calculate baseline parameters

If an upgrade user turns on the Data Collection option , then the Calculate Baseline option is enabled. Upgrade users have the option to turn baseline calculation off or on when Data Collection is on. (When Data Collection is off, the Calculate Baseline option is disabled because there is no data to calculate.)

Usage scenario
A typical data sample can consist of the following test data:
Load on BMC ProactiveNet Server: Moderate (system load <1.5) Number of agents scheduled down: 4 Number of monitors scheduled down: 1200 Scheduled down duration: 45 mins Time taken to stop data collection: 10 - 15 mins Time taken to resume data collection: 1 - 5 mins

To understand the usage of the Scheduled Down Time feature, let us look at the following example:

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Assumptions:
BMC ProactiveNet is monitoring a web server for availability and response time. The web server is brought down on Sunday between 4 A.M. and 8 A.M. for

maintenance.

Operations:
During regular monitoring, BMC ProactiveNet will poll for the monitored

attributes and report.

During downtime, both availability and response time will not return data and

events may be generated.

These events will automatically close after the web server is online again.

Scheduling: The web server downtime can be scheduled as follows: 1 Select web server. 2 Select the Downtime Option. Data collection is on. Alarm/Event generation is on. AlarmRule Action/Notification is off. 3 Frequency is Weekly. 4 Specify the Time and Date as applicable. 5 Add Time Range. Application: In the above case, BMC ProactiveNet will monitor the Web server for availability and response time even during the device downtime and generate event/ alarm. However, any event/alarm generated during this period will not be notified. The advantage of this setup is that, BMC ProactiveNet console will display the events. Once the device is up again, the events will close. Thus the administrator can check the system and ensure that the web server is working as expected before the time to get it online. However, in case of SLOs defined for availability of this device , data collection can be switched off to avoid inconsistent SLO compliance calculation.

Adding a downtime schedule


Perform the following procedure to add a downtime schedule.

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To add a downtime schedule


1 In the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console, select Tools => Schedule Device Downtime.
Alternatively, in the BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console, launch the

Scheduled Down Time Administration window. Choose Options => Administration => Data Collection => Scheduled Down Time => Edit. The Scheduled Downtime Administration window is displayed. All devices/groups that are currently down are highlighted in Red. The exact display of time (for each entry in "Devices Already Scheduled for Down Time" section) may vary depending on the Administration Console (Windows and Solaris).

2 Choose a Filter.
You can choose to filter the list by Device or by Group.

If you choose to filter by Device, and are monitoring numerous devices, the list can be quite extensive. You can narrow your device search if Groups have been set up for your devices. 3 Click Add to open the Scheduler.
Next, you specify the duration of the down time. You have the following options: one-time setting daily weekly monthly

To specify the duration of the down time


On the Add Device for Scheduled Down Time screen, 1 Select the Device to be scheduled. New users can skip to step 3. 2 Upgrade users only. Select the Downtime Option. These settings govern BMC ProactiveNet behavior during the scheduled downtime.
Data Collection - Select On or Off to continue collecting data or stop data

collection respectively.

In case data collection is On,

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Alarm/Event Generation - Specify if BMC ProactiveNet should generate Events/

Alarms against the data collected.

In case Alarm/Event Generation is On,


Alarm Rule Action/Notification - Specify if BMC ProactiveNet should send

event notification for the events generated during this period.

In case Calculate Baseline is Off,


Calculate Baseline is a scheduled downtime for baseline calculations. During

this period, previously calculated baseline is used. The baseline stays unaffected by new data. Hourly baseline is not recalculated and previous values are used. Daily and weekly baseline values are recalculated based on the hourly baseline. At the time of baseline calculation, BMC ProactiveNet checks for the pause period corresponding to the current time. During the pause period, only old values are used. Outside the pause period baseline calculation is performed using current data.

3 Select the Frequency:


Frequency One Time Setting Daily Weekly Monthly Description The downtime is scheduled to run once. It is not a recurring setting. The downtime is scheduled run daily at the specified time. The downtime is scheduled weekly at the specified day and time. The downtime is scheduled to occur monthly on the specified day and time.

4 Under Time Pattern field, select the Start and End Date.
Manually specify the dates in mm/dd/yyyy format. Alternatively click on the

calendar link and select from the pop-up calendar.

5 Select the Start Time and End Time. By default, the server time is displayed here. 6 From the list, select the Time Zone. By default, the server time zone is displayed here. When you change the time zone, the Start Time and End Time change accordingly. If you change the Time Zone and the corresponding time falls either in the previous day or the next day, the Start Date changes accordingly. The Time Zone field displays GMT + Time Zone difference in hours, together with location.

Note

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For example, from 7.1, Time Zone for Indiana-Starke displays GMT 05:00 US/

Indiana-Starke instead of GMT 5:00 as in 7.0.

7 Click Add time Range. 8 Click Yes to confirm.


To change the specified time and date combinations, Select the entry under Time Range Entry. Click Remove Time Range.

After specifying the required time and date combination, 9 Click Add. The system presents various alerts/confirmatory messages. On confirmation, BMC ProactiveNet adds the schedule to the device. 10 Click Yes to confirm the schedule. 11 Click Ok on the 'Added Successfully' message.
After defining the required Device Downtime,

12 Click Close to exit the screen.

Editing or deleting a downtime schedule


Once a schedule is set, you can view and edit it by following the procedure given below.

To edit or delete a downtime schedule


1 If the Scheduler is closed, open it from Tools menu on the Administration Console.
The Scheduler presents the Devices Scheduled selection. Selection is displayed

in red if opened during its own scheduled time.

2 Highlight the device whose schedule you want to change and click Edit. (If you want to delete the schedule, click Delete.) 3 Modify the schedule as required, and click OK.

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Note BMC ProactiveNet does not allow editing of multiple schedules at a time.
To delete a schedule, select the schedule from the list and click Delete.

Special notes
Do not perform any operations (monitor creation, flash check, etc) on devices

during their scheduled downtime. This can result in unexpected behavior and display of invalid data. data collection.

If the devices data collection is off, schedule downtime has no affect on the device

From Release 6.5, editing multiple schedules is not allowed. A schedule cannot be edited while it is active (during downtime). In case of overlapping downtime, data collection resumes after the higher

schedule is completed.

Example: Consider the following schedules: Weekly: down at 9:00 A.M. - up at 10:30 A.M. Daily: down at 9:30 A.M. - up at 10:00 A.M. In this case, data collection resumes only after 10:30 A.M. (though the daily

downtime is from 9:30 A.M. to 10:00 A.M., we have an overlapping weekly downtime from 9 A.M. to 10:30 A.M.). previously scheduled downtime might get effected.

In 7.1, Day Light Savings settings have been taken care of. Time settings for the

Changing the default BMC ProactiveNet Agent TCP control port


The default BMC ProactiveNet Agent TCP control port is 12124. You might need to change the default TCP control port if it is forbidden by a firewall, or if it is being used by an existing application. The procedure to change the TCP control port varies by whether the BMC ProactiveNet Agent is installed on Solaris or Windows.

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To change the BMC ProactiveNet Agent control port on Solaris


1 On the BMC ProactiveNet Agent Server computer,open the /usr/pw/custom/conf/ pronet.conf file in a text editor. 2 Scroll to the # Apps properties section and find (assuming the factory defaults are still listed) the following entry:
pronet.apps.agent.port=12124

Figure 21: Apps properties

3 Change the port to the desired value. For example, from 12124 to 12199. 4 Save the changes and exit the text editor. 5 From a command line, run the following command to restart the BMC ProactiveNet Agent:
pw agent start

The BMC ProactiveNet Agent stops, then starts again using the revised pronet.conf file. (Allow several minutes for this action to complete.)

To change the BMC ProactiveNet Agent control port on Windows


1 On the BMC ProactiveNet Agent Server computer, in a text editor, open Program Files\Proactive\Agent\Custom\conf\pronet.conf. 2 Scroll to the following entry (assuming the factory defaults are still listed):
pronet.apps.agent.port=12124

3 Edit this entry by replacing the port number to the desired value.
For example: change 12124 to 12199.

4 Save the changes and close the text editor. 5 To stop and then re-start BMC ProactiveNet Agent (Windows), navigate to Start => Settings => Control Panel.

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a Double-click the Services icon to launch the Services screen. b Locate BMC ProactiveNet Agent on the list of services, highlight, then click Stop. Click Yes in the warning message that is displayed. Status for BMC ProactiveNet Agent changes from Started to (blank). c With BMC ProactiveNet Agent still highlighted, click Start.
Status for BMC ProactiveNet Agent changes from (blank) to Started.

d Close Service and Control Panel windows.

Determining which TCP control ports are being used


Before you change or assign a new TCP control port, you may want to determine which TCP control ports are already in use on that server. The procedure for retrieving this information depends on whether the server is running Solaris or Windows.

Before you begin


Ensure that all applications on the server that are using TCP control ports are running.

To determine which TCP control ports are in use on a Windows server


1 On a Windows server, access a command line and run the following command: netstat
On the command screen, active connections are listed, with the active TCP

control ports shown in the Local Address column in the format: pcuser:control_port. For example, the listing hjohnson:12124 indicates that

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system name hjohnson is running the BMC ProactiveNet Agent on the default TCP control port 12124. Figure 22: Active connections

2 Check the TCP control port listings to see if the TCP control port entry that you want to use is not already in use.

To determine if a TCP control port is in use on a Solaris server


Note
This procedure logs you in as root (Super User), which gives you special privileges. 1 On the UNIX server, access the command line interface and run the following command:
netstat -a|grep LISTEN|grep ". control_port "

No return indicates port 80 is not being used. Repeat for each of the following ports: 443, 1099, 9149, 12123, 12124, 12125, 12130, and 45000. These ports are required by the ProactiveNet product and if any are used, you need to resolve the conflict before continuing. Refer Port Configuration Details section for more information.
Table 13: Non-configurable (Internal Process) Ports Control port Description

BMC Software recommends that the following port configuration be not changed. 1099 8008 8009 pronet.rmi.port Connector port between Apache Web server and Tomcat servlet engine Connector port between Apache Web server and Tomcat servlet engine used for agent and agent controller tunneling

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Device application monitors and TCP control ports

Device application monitors and TCP control ports


The table below shows the TCP Control Ports for each Device Application monitor. These port numbers appear on the configuration screens when you create a particular Device Application Monitor. In most cases you use the default port, but have the ability to change a port when necessary. Table 14: Device Application Monitor TCP Control Ports
Application Port Monitor SMTP Monitor DNS Monitor Web Monitor POP3 Monitor NNTP Monitor IMAP4 Monitor (IMAP) IMAP4 IMAP4 MS-SQL Server Monitor Oracle 8 Monitor Radius Monitor Informix 7.3 Monitor Sybase 11 Monitor NT Disk Space Monitor NT Process Info Monitor NT System Info Monitor Check Point Firewall Monitor Port [Any] 25 53 80 443 110 119 143 585 993 1433 1521 1645 2055 4100 12124 12124 12124 18184 Comment Configure monitor for any TCP Control Port Well-known Port Well-known Port Well-Known Port (http, www) Well-Known Port (https) Well-known Port Well-known Port Well-known Port (reserved) no/SSL - Well-known Port w/SSL - Well-known Port Microsoft SQL Server registered port Oracle (nCube License Manager) registered port Radius (Datametrics) registered port Informix registered port Sybase registered port Agent registered port Agent registered port Agent registered port

Admin tunneling through HTTP


If BMC ProactiveNet Server and Administration Console are on different sides of the firewall, the default BMC ProactiveNet setup may be affected. In such cases, special
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configuration may be required - Accessing the Administration Console from a Windows Client through a firewall.

Firewalls and BMC ProactiveNet interfaces


Firewalls block a wide range of TCP ports required by one or more BMC

ProactiveNet UI tools. Usually, this only affects the Administration Console because it requires a wide range of TCP ports for efficient operation. HTML interface is usually unaffected by port restrictions because most firewalls allow incoming connections on port 80, which is needed for HTTP (Web browser) access. one, it causes problems for both the Administration and Operations Console. To overcome this, certain configuration changes must be made on the server. to-one (i.e., the firewall uses IP masquerading), then it is inaccessible to both the Administration and Operations Consoles.

If a firewall uses NAT (Network Address Translation) whose translation is one-to-

If BMC ProactiveNet Server is behind a firewall and the NAT translation is many-

Dealing with TCP/IP port restrictions


Port restrictions affect the Administration Console because it uses a Java communications protocol called RMI (Remote Method Invocation). The Administration Console connects to BMC ProactiveNet Server using one of the different ways listed below:
The client first tries to contact the server on TCP port 1099. If the connection is

successful, the client and server randomly negotiate a free port between 10000 and 65000, and then reconnect on that port (the connection on port 1099 is closed). This direct connection is the most efficient form of RMI communication. If a wide range of ports is not available, this first form cannot be used. uses an HTTP POST request on that URL, sending the information to the server's method skeleton as the body of the POST. This method is slower than the direct TCP connection because the HTTP encapsulation adds over-head to the client's RMI requests.

If the first method fails, the client builds a URL to the server's host and port, and

Note This method requires that Apache proxy be activated on BMC ProactiveNet Server. Refer to instructions on Apache proxy provided at the end of this section.

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If the second method also fails, the client builds URLs to the server's HTTP port,

using a CGI script that will forward the posted RMI request to the server. This is the slowest technique because the CGI wrapper adds considerable overhead in addition to the HTTP encapsulation.

Methods 2 and 3 are noticeably slower than the direct TCP method of remote invocation. If the Administration Console operations seem sluggish, the first test you must try is to attempt a direct connection on port 1099 by running the following command: telnet BMC ProactiveNet Server.mycompany.com 1099 If the command times out without connecting, then the communication is likely to be happening through some form of HTTP tunneling (method 2 or 3). Under special circumstances, it is possible to avoid the tardiness of methods 2 and 3. This workaround, if permissible, would require you to launch pw admin from the server and direct the xwindow output across the firewall to the user's computer. This can be accomplished by setting the DISPLAY variable to point to the IP address of the user's console ("setenv DISPLAY 123.45.67.89:0.0") and punching holes through the firewall for TCP ports 6000-6004 and UDP ports 177 and 32798.

The above-mentioned workaround involves some security risk and may not always work. For more information, refer Sunsolve Infodoc 18370.

Note

Dealing with NAT


When BMC ProactiveNet Server and a user are on opposite sides of a NATed firewall, it can create difficulties when trying to access the server, either with the Administration or Operations Console. These difficulties can be overcome by making two configuration changes. You must modify the following two files on BMC ProactiveNet Server when dealing with a NATed firewall (Ensure that you make a backup of each file before modifying):
In /usr/pw/apache/conf/httpd.conf, modify the ServerName entry to use the host

name of the Proactive system rather than the private address (note that there are two of these entries). By default, this entry uses the private IP address of BMC ProactiveNet Server.

In /usr/pw/pronto/conf/pronet.conf, modify the pronet.rmi.server.hostname

entry to use the host name of BMC ProactiveNet Server. By default, this value is not assigned and defaults to the private IP address of BMC ProactiveNet Server (to make this change permanent and to ensure that the change is preserved during upgrade, copy the entire line to /usr/pw/custom/conf/pronet.conf.

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Note Ensure that you do not insert any extra spaces or tabs within the line or at the end of line as it can cause problems.
The host name must resolve to the proper address on both sides of the firewall. If DNS service cannot resolve the name, then an entry must be made in the hosts file of BMC ProactiveNet Server and every computer that runs the administrator client. On Solaris, the hosts file is /etc/hosts and on Windows it is \WINNT \SYSTEM32\drivers\etc\hosts. After making these changes, restart BMC ProactiveNet Server using the "pw system start" command.

Activating the APACHE proxy server


When the proxy feature of Apache Web server is activated, it enables the administrator client to form a virtual RMI connection with BMC ProactiveNet Server using HTTP POSTs and GETs for RMI. For security, the proxy is deactivated in the default configuration of BMC ProactiveNet Server.

To activate Apache proxy server


1 Go to cd /usr/pw/apache/conf. 2 Edit httpd.conf file. 3 Locate the group of lines that read.
# Proxy Server directives. Uncomment the following lines to # enable the proxy server: # # # ProxyRequests On # # # Order deny,allow # Deny from all # Allow from .your_domain.com # Allow from all # # and uncomment the line "ProxyRequests On" and one or more of the appropriate access rules. For Example: "Allow from all" or "Allow from .your_domain.com" where you substitute the actual domain name of your network. # Proxy Server directives. Uncomment the following lines to # enable the proxy server: # ProxyRequests On # # Order deny,allow # Deny from all

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# #

Allow from .your_domain.com Allow from all

Note Unless BMC ProactiveNet Server is protected by a firewall, do not comment the 'Allow from all' line as shown above. This can make BMC ProactiveNet Server and your internal network vulnerable to attack from outside.
For minimum security risk, specify a list of specific host and/or network addresses in this allowed hosts section. For example,
Order deny, allow Deny from all Allow from 192.16.26.0/24 #specify network address as (network addr.)/(subnet mask) Allow from 192.16.27.0/24 Allow from 192.16.31.0/24 Allow from 172.17.52.150 # specify host address as 4 octets Allow from 172.17.52.151 Allow from 172.17.52.148 Deny from all Allow from 192.16.26.0/24 #specify network address as (network addr.)/(subnet mask) Allow from 192.16.27.0/24 Allow from 192.16.31.0/24 Allow from 172.17.52.150 # specify host address as 4 octets Allow from 172.17.52.151 Allow from 172.17.52.148

Admin tunnel limitations


Using HTTP Tunneling as the connection type has the following limitations:
Admin tunnel does not work if Apache HTTP is configured for a port other than 80. Only the functionality in the Administration => General Administration tab is

available. All other functionality is disabled.

Fine tuning BMC ProactiveNet system components


Various JRE settings for BMC ProactiveNet Server components and BMC ProactiveNet Agent can be set and used for fine tuning various aspects of the JRE. These settings are present in various configuration files corresponding to each component and can be edited to suit a particular environment. Each link below contains more details for each component and agent.

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Important information for all configuration files


The configuration files are located in the installDirectory /pw/pronto/conf directory on Solaris computers. They are located in the installDirectory \pronto\conf directory on Windows computers. The settings present in the configuration files in these directories must never be modified directly, instead the required settings from these files should be copied to the custom configuration directory installDirectory /pw/custom/conf directory on Solaris computers and installDirectory \custom\conf directory on Windows computers into an identically named file and then edited. Only settings in the Variable section present at the top of each configuration file may be edited. Settings in the Fixed section should never be edited and if edited will be ignored.

WARNING

Note To modify any part of the variable section, the whole variable section of the conf file need to be copied over to pw\custom\conf directory & modified.

BMC ProactiveNet Server - Solaris edition


The following table shows which BMC ProactiveNet Server components are supported by which configuration files:
Component Jserver Agent controller Rate Admin Local agent Configuration file name pnjserver.conf pnagent_cntl.conf pnrate.conf pnadmin.conf pnagent.conf

Common settings
Following are the common settings for the BMC ProactiveNet Server Solaris Edition, the BMC ProactiveNet Agent UNIX Edition, and the ProactiveAdmin Solaris Edition:

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Table 15: Common settings for Solaris edition


Setting Minheap MaxHeap Explanation This is the initial size of memory allocation pool required for the component to function. This is the maximum size of memory allocation pool that a component can use. This is not applicable for local agent on Solaris Edition, instead use LOCMaxHeap.

Specific settings
Following are the specific settings for the Local BMC ProactiveNet Agent Solaris Edition: Table 16: Specific settings for local agent
Setting LOCMaxHeap Default Values 512m Explanation This is the maximum size of memory allocation pool for Solaris local agent. This setting is ignored for remote Unix agents. Default size for remote Unix agent is 256m.

BMC ProactiveNet Server Windows edition


In order to maintain the consistency of file between Windows and Solaris, existing Windows files have been changed. The table below lists old and new files:
Table 17: BMC ProactiveNet Configuration files Old configuration file (Earlier version) pnadmin.txt pnagent.txt pnagentcntl.txt pnapache.txt pndbsrv.txt pnjboss.txt pnjserver.txt pnrate.txt pntomcat.txt New configuration file (beginning in version 7.1) pnadmin.conf pnagent.conf pnagentcntl.conf pnhttpd.conf pndbsrv.conf pnservices.conf pnjserver.conf pnrate.conf pnjservlets.conf

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Note In earlier version these files were available in pronto/bin folder, from 7.1 onwards these new files will be available in pronto/conf. If you upgrade to 7.1 version .txt files will be deleted from pronto/bin folder and will be added as .conf files in pronto/ conf folders.

Common settings
Following are the common settings for the BMC ProactiveNet Server Windows Edition and ProactiveAdmin Windows Edition: Table 18: Common settings for Windows edition
Setting Minheap MaxHeap Default Values 16 MB 256 BM Explanation This is the initial size of memory required. This is the maximum amount of memory that can be used.

BMC ProactiveNet Agent Windows edition


Following are the specific settings for the BMC ProactiveNet Agent Windows Edition:
Table 19: Specific JRE settings for Local Agent Setting LOCMaxHeap Default Values 512m Explanation This is the maximum size of memory allocation pool for windows local agent. This setting is ignored for remote windows agents. Default size for remote Windows agent is 256m.

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8
Managing users
Overview
BMC ProactiveNet supports a hierarchical classification scheme that defines the relationships among permissions that are assigned to user groups, which, in turn, are assigned roles. All of these elements are contained in user definitions. Figure 23: Relationships among users, user groups, roles and permissions

You can create new users, user groups, and roles. You cannot, however, create new permissions. You can only select from a predefined list of existing permissions.

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Default users, user groups and roles

Default users, user groups and roles


BMC ProactiveNet provides default user groups and roles that can be used to control access to functionality in the Operations Console and the Administration Console. Table 20 on page 210 describes the default user groups and roles provided in BMC ProactiveNet.
Table 20: User Groups and roles Users admin ops user slm event_admin User Groups Full Access Operators Supervisors Service Administrators Event Administrators Read Only Service Manager Service Manager Senior Service Operator Service Operator Senior Roles Full Access Event Operator, Data Collection Operator Event Supervisor, Data Collection Supervisor ServiceAdministrator Event Administrator, Data Collection Administrator Read Only

WARNING Ensure that there is another admin user in the system before deleting the admin user or the related objects (user group/role).
For more information on the permissions that are assigned to each role and user group, see the BMC ProactiveNet Upgrade Guide.

Users
You can add users from the BMC ProactiveNet Administration console and associate them to a user group. You must associate at least one user group to create a user. The list of available user groups are listed in the User Groups pane. You can also edit and delete users. The User folder maintains user accounts, letting you identify who has access to the BMC ProactiveNet system. The following operations are available:
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Add User Edit User Delete User

The user activity on BMC ProactiveNet is available in the access logs which are available under: usr/pronto/logs/access.log

Adding or editing users


Use the Administration Console to create new user accounts for BMC ProactiveNet or edit properties for existing user accounts.

To add a new user


1 In the Administration Console, go to Administration => General Administration. 2 Select the User folder, right-click, and choose Add User. 3 In the User dialog box, enter the following information: Table 21: Properties for adding a user account
Item User Name Display Name Password Description the name of the user. the name that is displayed when the user logs on to the Operations Console. a password to be used with the user name. The password should be at least 6 characters in length and should contain at least one letter and one number. Re-enter Password Email Address Force Change Password Disable User Password will expire in x days password verification the recipients e-mail address allow users to change the password the first time they log on to the system disable the user account the number of days after which the password of the user account will expire The default is 60 days. Chapter 8 Managing users 211

Users

4 Under User Groups, select the user groups that you want this account to belong to. 5 Click Add. A confirmation message is displayed stating that the user account has been successfully created.

To edit information for an existing user


1 In the Administration Console, go to Administration => General Administration. 2 Expand the User folder and select a user. 3 Right-click on the user name and choose Edit User. 4 In the User dialog box, change any of the following information: Table 22: Properties for editing a user account
Item User Name Display Name Password Description / Task the name of the user whose account you are changing the name that is displayed when the user logs in to the Operations Console password to be used with the logon name The password should be at least 6 characters in length and should contain at least one letter and one number. Re-enter Password Email Address Last Login Force Change Password Disable User Password will expire in x days password the recipients e-mail address. the date and time that the user last logged on to BMC ProactiveNet allow users to change the password the first time they log on to the system. disable the user account the number of days after which the password of the user account will expire The default is 60 days.

5 Under User Groups, change the user groups that this account is associated with. 6 Click Finish.

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A confirmation message is displayed stating that the user account has been successfully changed. The following default user names and passwords are used in BMC ProactiveNet:
Administrator: admin/admin

Service Manager: slm/slm


Event Administrator: event_admin/event_admin Operator: ops/ops Supervisor: user/user

For security reasons, the administrator should change the password for these accounts after the initial log on to BMC ProactiveNet. By default, no user account is created for Read Only groups.

Note

Where to go from here


You can add, edit, and delete user groups from the User dialog box by using the New, Edit, and Delete buttons. For details, see Adding or editing user groups on page 214 .

Associating user(s) to user groups


Perform the following procedure to associate users to user groups.

To associate user(s) to user groups


1 Select the user group from the Available User Groups list in the User Groups pane. 2 Click New to create a user group. For more information on adding user groups, see User Groups on page 214.

Deleting users
Perform the following procedure to delete a user account.

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User Groups

To delete an existing BMC ProactiveNet User account


1 In the Administration Console and expand the User folder. 2 Select and right-click the user and click Delete. 3 In the Confirm Deletion window, click OK. Impact of deleting a user is that, any event rules or reports created by the deleted user will display None as owner of the object.

WARNING

User Groups
User groups are groups of users that have a specified set of roles and permissions assigned to them. You must associate at least one role to create a user group. Default user groups defined in BMC ProactiveNet are Full Access, Operators, Supervisors, Service Administrators, Event Administrators, and Read Only. For more information about these user groups and what access they control, see Default users, user groups and roles on page 210.

Adding or editing user groups


Perform the following procedure to add or edit a user group.

To create or edit user group(s)


1 In the BMC ProactiveNet Administation Console, expand Advanced Options. 2 Right-click on User Group and click Add User Group or select the User Group, right-click and select Edit User Group. 3 In the Add/Edit User Group screen, enter/edit the Name of the user group. 4 In the Roles/Users tab select the available roles for the user or click New to create a new role. For more information on creating roles, see Roles and Permissions on page 216. You can add, edit and delete roles from the Roles pane in the Add User Group screen.

Note

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5 The Views tab, permits you to either allow all views or selected views. 6 The Groups tab, provides you access to all or selected groups defined in the system. 7 The SLOs tab provides access to all or selected SLOs. 8 The Diagnostics tab provides access to all or selected Detailed Diagnostic commands and execute them. 9 The Reports tab provides access to all or selected reports. 10 The Folders tab provides access to all or selected event/component folders. 11 Click Finish/OK for adding/editing the user groups.

Note
The SLOs, Diagnostics and Reports tab are disabled by default. To enable the

tabs, you should select the appropriate Roles. the user group.

Managing the objects of the User Group are dependent on the role attached to

Deleting user groups


Perform the following procedure to delete a user group.

To delete user group(s)


1 Open the Administration Console, expand Advanced Options and User Group folder. 2 Select and right-click the User Group and click Delete. 3 In the Confirm Deletion window, click OK. If a user is attached to only one user group, you cannot delete that user group until you disassociate the user group from the user.

Note

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Roles and Permissions

Roles and Permissions


The availability of various BMC ProactiveNet features for a user depends on the roles and permissions defined to that user. The roles attached to the user group gives the permission to have access to the objects in the User Group. The predefined roles are displayed in the available list box of the roles/permission tab in the User Group screen. The actions on permissions are:
view (read-only access) edit (create, edit and delete) edit only (only edit permissions)

The permissions are categorized based on usability such as Events, Product Administration, SLOs, Reports, Graphs and so on.

The default event list does not display events based on permissions of devices. It displays all events based on the permissions of event collectors. There are filters available in the Roles screen which will ease the process of selecting permissions. The filter are on Action and Category. For example, if you want a user to be able to only edit graphs, you can set the action to View and select the Graphs category. You can assign roles and permissions to a user from the User Group screen.

Note

Defining or editing roles and permissions


Perform the following procedure to define or edit roles and permissions.

To define or edit roles and permissions


1 In the Administration Console, expand Advanced Options. 2 Right-click on Role and select Add Role or expand Role, select the role, right-click and select Edit Role. 3 In the Roles and Permissions screen, enter or edit the name for Roles. 4 Select the filters here if required.
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5 Click Finish/OK. A confirmation message is displayed on successful creation or after successfully editing the role. 6 Add the new user role to the following .mrl files in the Knowledge Base of the cell.
ibrsd_collectors.mrl pom_activeevents_collectors.mrl pom_byuser_collectors.mrl pom_intelligentevents_collectors.mrl For more details about .mrl files, see the BMC Knowledge Base Development

Reference Guide.

7 After you add the custom role to the .mrl files, compile and reload the cell by opening a command prompt and entering the following commands:
mccomp -n cellName

mcontrol -n cellName reload kb 8 Log on to the BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console by using a user account from the group to which you added the custom role. You can also define roles and permissions by clicking New from the User Group screen.

Note

Deleting roles and permissions


Perform the following procedure to delete roles and permissions.

To delete roles and permissions


1 In the Administration Console, expand Advanced Options. 2 Expand Role, select the role, right-click and select Delete 3 In the Confirm Deletion window, click OK. If a user group is attached to only one role, you cannot delete that role until you disassociate the role from the user group.

Note

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Configuring the system for external authentication

Configuring the system for external authentication


Both LDAP authentication over SSL and Windows Active Directory are supported for centralized user authentication. Both server certificate and client certificate authentication are supported. To enable secure LDAP authentication and LDAP queries, set the property (com.bmc.sms.ixs.enable.ldap.login) in the ias.properties file to True. This enables server certificate authentication and encrypted data communication with the LDAP server and BMC ProactiveNet login modules.

To authenticate external users for LDAP server


1 Access the /pw/pronto/conf folder. 2 Edit the ias.properties file, update the following entry to TRUE and save the file.com.bmc.sms.ixs.enable.ldap.login=true. This will enable you to log into LDAP if you are a LDAP user. To avoid overwriting the parameter values of a .properties file, do not copy any backup or reserved file with the .properties extension into the same ../conf folder as the .properties file or files you are accessing. The system reads the .properties files randomly and can overwrite the current values of duplicate parameters with older values. Instead, store any backup or reserved files in a separate directory. 3 Open the ldap_configuration.xml file using a text editor. 4 Configure a LDAP server host by adding the following lines for example, before the </ldapList> tag.
<ldap alias="sun-ldap"> <host>LDAP_SERVER_HOST</host> <port>389</port> <version>3</version> <baseDN>dc=bmc,dc=com</baseDN> <connectionUserName>uid=abc,ou=Dev,ou=Groups,dc=bmc,dc=com</ connectionUserName> <connectionPassword encrypted="true">AtrRpWDUoaMnIw5w52M4m2tQ==</ connectionPassword> <userIdAttribute>uid</userIdAttribute> <useSSL>false</useSSL> <groupMemberAttribute>uniqueMember</groupMemberAttribute> <userSearchFilter>(objectClass=inetOrgPerson)</userSearchFilter> <groupSearchFilter>(objectClass=groupOfUniqueNames)</ groupSearchFilter> </ldap>

Tip

5 Save the ldap_configuration.xml file.

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6 Open the ldap_ppm_group_mapping .xml file using a text editor and create a map between LDAP groups and BMC ProactiveNet Performance Management (PPM) groups. For example, if you have a LDAP group called MyLdapGroup and you need to map it against a PPM group called "Full Access" then the ldap_ppm_group_mappings.xml file should have an entry for example, <entry key="MyLdapGroup">Full Access</entry>. 7 Enter the comma separated list of LDAP groups that you need to authenticate the user against in the ias.properties file. The property used to store this value is com.bmc.sms.ixs.search.ldap.group in the ias.properties file. For example, if you have LdapGroup1, LdapGroup2, LdapGroup3, LdapGroup4 groups configured on LDAP and you want only the user "username" to be validated against LdapGroup1 and LdapGroup2 then the ias.properties file should have the entry for example, com.bmc.sms.ixs.search.ldap.group=LdapGroup1,LdapGroup2 8 Check whether the property com.bmc.sms.ixs.default.group.present.check is set to false in the ias.properties file. By default this property is set to false. If this property is set to true, you must create a separate group for the corresponding LDAP group in the PPM environment. For example, if the value of this property is set to true, you must use the Administration Console to create a new group called MyLdapGroup for successful authentication of the users belonging to the group MyLdapGroup. 9 Restart the jserver (in BMC ProactiveNet Server, either restart the jserver or the BMC ProactiveNet Server). 10 Log in as external user from both Administration Console as well as the Operations Console.

To authenticate external users for LDAP server with SSL


The LDAP server should be configured with User Groups and Users. LDAP authentication should be SSL that is, SSL Server certificate must be applied to the the LDAP server. 1 Access the /pw/pronto/conf folder. 2 Edit the ias.properties file, update the following entry to TRUE and save the file.com.bmc.sms.ixs.enable.ldap.login=true. This will enable you to login to LDAP if you are a LDAP user. 3 Open the ldap_configuration.xml file using a text editor. 4 Configure the LDAP server host by adding the following lines for example, before the </ldapList> tag.
port = LDAP SSL port UseSSL =true

Note

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<ldap alias="sun-ldap"> <host>LDAP_SERVER_HOST</host> <port>636</port> <version>3</version> <baseDN>dc=bmc,dc=com</baseDN> <connectionUserName>uid=abc,ou=Dev,ou=Groups*,*dc=bmc,dc=com </connectionUserName> <connectionPassword encrypted="false">password</connectionPassword> <userIdAttribute>uid</userIdAttribute> <useSSL>true</useSSL> <groupMemberAttribute>uniqueMember</groupMemberAttribute> <userSearchFilter>(objectClass=inetOrgPerson)</userSearchFilter> <groupSearchFilter>(objectClass=groupOfUniqueNames)</ groupSearchFilter> </ldap>

5 Save the ldap_configuration.xml file. 6 Open the ldap_ppm_group_mapping .xml file using a text editor, and create the map between LDAP groups and BMC ProactiveNet groups. For example, if you have a LDAP group called MyLdapGroup and you need to map it against a PPM group called "Full Access" then the ldap_ppm_group_mappings.xml file should have an entry like <entry key="MyLdapGroup">Full Access</entry>. 7 Enter the comma separated list of LDAP groups that you need to authenticate the user against in the ias.properties file. The property used to store this value is com.bmc.sms.ixs.search.ldap.group in the ias.properties file. For example, if you have LdapGroup1, LdapGroup2, LdapGroup3, LdapGroup4 groups configured on LDAP and out of these you want only the user "username" to be validated against LdapGroup1 and LdapGroup2 then the ias.properties file should have the entry like com.bmc.sms.ixs.search.ldap.group=LdapGroup1,LdapGroup2 8 Check whether the property com.bmc.sms.ixs.default.group.present.check is set to false in ias.properties file. By default this property is set to false. If this property is set to true, you must create a separate group for the corresponding LDAP group in the PPM environment. For example, if the value of this property is set to true, you must use the Administration Console to create a new group called MyLdapGroup for successful authentication of the users belonging to the group MyLdapGroup. 9 Copy the SSL certificate to any local folder. 10 The SSL certificate should be imported into the jserver keystore pnserver.ks under /install_directory/pw/pronto/conf. 11 Use the command keytool -import [-trustcacerts] [-alias <alias>] [-file <cert_file>] [-keystore <keystore>] [-storepass <storepass>] For example, filename = ldapcert.cer keytool -import -trustcacerts -alias pnetv2 -file ldapcert.cer -keystore "e:\Program Files\ProactiveNet\pw\pronto\conf\pnserver.ks" -storepass get2net

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12 Restart the jserver (in the case of BMC ProactiveNet Server, either restart the jserver or the BMC ProactiveNet Server). 13 Log in as external user from both Administration Console as well as the Operations Console.

To authenticate external users using Windows Active Directory


1 Access the \pw\pronto\conf folder. 2 Edit the ias.properties file, update the following entry to TRUE and save the file.com.bmc.sms.ixs.enable.ldap.login=true. To avoid overwriting the parameter values of a .properties file, do not copy any backup or reserved file with the .properties extension into the same ../conf folder as the .properties file or files you are accessing. The system reads the .properties files randomly and can overwrite the current values of duplicate parameters with older values. Instead, store any backup or reserved files in a separate directory. 3 Open the ldap_configuration.xml file using a text editor. 4 Configure a server host by adding the following lines, for example, before the </ ldapList> tag.
<ldap alias="ABCDOMAIN"> <host>ABCdomain.bmc.com</host> <port>389</port> <version>3</version> <baseDN>DC=ABCdomain,DC=bmc,DC=com</baseDN> <connectionUserName>user1@ABCdomain.bmc.com</connectionUserName> <connectionPassword encrypted="false">xyz123</connectionPassword> <userIdAttribute>sAMAccountName</userIdAttribute> <useSSL>false</useSSL> <groupMemberAttribute>member</groupMemberAttribute> <memberOfAttribute>memberOf</memberOfAttribute> <userSearchFilter>(objectClass=organizationalPerson)</userSearchFilter> <groupSearchFilter/> </ldap>

Tip

5 Save the ldap_configuration.xml file. 6 Open the ldap_ppm_group_mapping .xml file using a text editor and create a map between the Windows Active Directory domain group and ProactiveNet Server. For example, the sample code above shows a Windows domain group called ITgroup. To map ITgroup to a ProactiveNet group called Full Access add the following entry to the ldap_ppm_group_mappings.xml file:
<entry key="ITgroup">Full Access</entry>

Chapter 8 Managing users

221

Configuring the system for external authentication

Note If there are multiple Windows domain groups, than add a new line entry in the ldap_ppm_group_mapping.xml file for each domain group.
7 Save the ldap_ppm_group_mapping.xml file. 8 Open the ias.properties file in a text editor and set the value of the com.bmc.sms.ixs.search.ldap.group property to the name of the Windows domain group. For example: com.bmc.sms.ixs.search.ldap.group=ITgroupCheck Separate multiple Windows domain groups with commas. For example: com.bmc.sms.ixs.search.ldap.group=ITgroup,DomainGroup2 9 In the ias.properties file, verify whether the com.bmc.sms.ixs.default.group.present.check property is set to false. If this property is set to true, you must create a separate group for the corresponding Windows domain group. For example, if the value of this property is set to true, you would use the Adminstration console to create a new group called ITgroup to successfully authenticate users belonging to the ITgroup group. 10 Restart either the jserver or the BMC ProactiveNet Server. 11 Log in as external user from both the Administration Console and the Operations Console.

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Deploying multiple ProactiveNet Servers
This chapter describes how to deploy and configure multiple BMC ProactiveNet Servers.

Multiple ProactiveNet Server deployment overview


You can configure a central BMC ProactiveNet Server to monitor events from multiple BMC ProactiveNet Servers for centralized event administration, and to expand the abilities of a single event processing BMC ProactiveNet Server. You can also use central BMC ProactiveNet Servers to structure event and data collection around a distributed hierarchy based on geography, business operation, or other dispersed functions for your organization. In a central BMC ProactiveNet Server, you can aggregate the following types of events:
abnormality events and early warning events that are automatically detected

from statistically significant abnormal trends

monitoring events that are generated from BMC ProactiveNet monitors or third-

party adapters that retrieve performance data from other monitoring solutions

third-party events that are sent by other monitoring applications

Through a central ProactiveNet Server, you can perform the following activities on events from other servers:
view event details execute event operations, such as taking ownership of events or assigning events export events

Chapter 9 Deploying multiple ProactiveNet Servers 223

Multiple ProactiveNet Server deployment overview

copy events launch the ProactiveNet Server from where an event originated view BladeLogic device history if BMC ProactiveNet is integrated with BladeLogic

In the Event View, you can also launch Detail Diagnostics, Related Events, and View Remote Action Results from the central BMC ProactiveNet Server, when the relevant icon is displayed in the Message column of the event. A central ProactiveNet Server does not require a separate installation, but it does require configuration. On the originating ProactiveNet Servers that supply data (also called child ProactiveNet Servers), you must configure the propagation policies to propagate events to the central ProactiveNet Server. On the central ProactiveNet Server, you must add details about the supplying servers. This section provides procedures for completing the following tasks:
Configuring an originating ProactiveNet Server on page 224 Configuring a central ProactiveNet Server on page 227

To configure ProactiveNet Servers for multiple deployment, verify the following prerequisites:
Ensure that all ProactiveNet Servers are the same version, BMC ProactiveNet 8.0

or later.

Confirm the server port and protocol of the originating ProactiveNet Servers. The

default server port is 80 and the default protocol is HTTP. originating ProactiveNet Servers.

When working behind a firewall, open the server ports for the central and

Configuring an originating ProactiveNet Server


Use the following procedure to configure the propagation policies on an originating ProactiveNet Server to forward events to the central ProactiveNet Server. For details about the propagation policy, see the BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide .

To configure an originating ProactiveNet Server to forward events to the central ProactiveNet Server
Repeat this procedure on every originating ProactiveNet Server in your environment.

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1 On the originating ProactiveNet Server, add details for the central ProactiveNet Server to the mcell.dir file: a On the originating ProactiveNet Server, open the mcell.dir file, located in the installDirectory \pw\server\etc directory. b At the end of the file, add a line with the following cell server information for the central ProactiveNet Server, then save and close the file:
cell centralCellName mc cellHostName : cellPort

where
centralCellName is the name of the central ProactiveNet Server cell cellHostName is the name of the central ProactiveNet Server host cellPort is the cell port For example: cell pncell_central mc central.bmc.com:1828

c To reload the mcell.dir file with the updated information, open a command prompt and run the following command:
mcontrol -n childCellName reload dir

where childCellName is the name of the originating ProactiveNet Server cell. 2 Create a rule (mrl) file to propagate MC_CELL_ACTION_RESULT events: Refer to Knowledge Base Development Reference Guide for details about rule files. a Create a text file with the following rule:
# ACTION_RESULTS propagate cell_action_results_event: MC_CELL_ACTION_RESULT to <'centralCellName'> END

Note

where centralCellName is the name of the central ProactiveNet Server cell.

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Multiple ProactiveNet Server deployment overview

b Save the file with an mrl extension in the installDirectory \MCELL_HOME\ server\etc\ childCellName \kb\rules directory. c Add the file name (without the mrl extension) to the.load file in the same directory. d Compile the cell by opening a command prompt and running the following command:
mccomp -n childCellName

e Restart the cell by opening a command prompt and running the following commands:
mkill -n childCellName

and then
mcell -n childCellName

Alternatively, instead of restarting the cell, you can reload the Knowledge Base of the cell by running the following command:
mcontrol -n childCellName reload kb

3 Open the Administration Console and in the Administration View, click the Event Management Policies tab. 4 Expand MyProduction => childCellName => By Policy Type => Propagation Policy =>All_Events. 5 Click to add a policy or to edit an existing policy. 6 In the Propagation Policy Details tab, ensure the following settings:
Select the Enabled check box to enable the event management policy. In the Policy Activation Timeframes section, select Always Active to make the

event management policy active continuously. Server.

In the Propagate to all of list, select the cell server for the central ProactiveNet

7 Click OK to save the changes.

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Configuring a central ProactiveNet Server


Use the following procedure to configure a central ProactiveNet Server to collect data from originating ProactiveNet Servers.

To configure a central ProactiveNet Server to collect data


1 On a server designated as the central ProactiveNet Server, open the mcell.dir file, located in the installDirectory \pw\server\etc directory. 2 At the end of the file, add a line for each originating ProactiveNet Server with the following cell server information, then save and close the file:
cell childCellName mc cellHostName : cellPort

where
childCellName is the name of the originating ProactiveNet Server cell cellHostName is the name of the originating ProactiveNet Server host cellPort is the cell port

For example:
cell pncell_01 mc 01_server.bmc.com:1828

3 To reload the mcell.dir file with the updated information, open a command prompt and run the following command:
mcontrol -n centralCellName reload dir

where centralCellName is the name of the central ProactiveNet Server cell. 4 On the central ProactiveNet Server, open the serverlist.xml file, located in the installDirectory \pw\prono\conf directory. 5 For each originating ProactiveNet Server, type values under the <OriginatingProactiveNetServer> element.
The information for <cellname> and <hostname_or_ipaddress> are the same

as those entered in step 2. For example:

<OriginatingProactiveNetServer> <cellname>pncell_01_server</cellname> <hostname_or_ipaddress>01_server_bmc.com </hostname_or_ipaddress> <serverport></serverport>

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<protocol></protocol> </OriginatingProactiveNetServer>

where
pncell_01_server is the name of the originating ProactiveNet Server cell 01_server.bmc.com is the name of the originating ProactiveNet Server host If you use the default server port, 80 (for HTTP), you can leave this element

blank; otherwise, type the server port. otherwise, type the server port.

If you use the default protocol, HTTP, you can leave this element blank;

6 Save the serverlist.xml file. 7 For device aliases that were manually added to originating ProactiveNet Servers, manually add the device aliases to the central ProactiveNet Server, too, to ensure that events are associated with the appropriate devices.
Refer to BMC Knowledge Base Development Reference Guide for details about

device alias associations.

8 In the Event View of the central ProactiveNet Server, click the Refresh icon (not the browser Refresh), or wait for the screen to refresh automatically. Events from the originating ProactiveNet Servers are displayed in the central ProactiveNet Server.

Note When an originating BMC ProactiveNet Server receives events in a blackout period, the events are not propagated to the central BMC ProactiveNet Server.

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10
Setting up web transactions
This chapter presents the following topics:

Web Transaction capture


BMC ProactiveNet Web Capture Tool helps you monitor Web site and application availability in real-time from an end-user's perspective. It emulates end-user business processes and helps report response times and availability. A store that offers its users the convenience to shop online will definitely want to be aware of customer satisfaction at its Web site. The store's Web site provider may want to measure the performance of a Web transaction, such as a series of steps, that a typical user might traverse while navigating through the store's Web site. By measuring network response time and total user response time of these steps at regular intervals, the Web site provider can take proactive measures to improve degrading response times and maintain customer satisfaction. This is where the Web Capture Tool is useful. The Web Transaction Capture tool can be used to capture the series of steps that form a transaction on a Web site. This transaction can be saved to a file, to be used by the Web Transaction Monitor to provide important information such as availability of the site, total response time for the transactions, Sum of the connect time for each URL of the transaction and the like. The most important feature of the Web Transaction capture tool is that it records the series of URLs involved in a transaction as a single Transaction File. Web Transaction Monitor then runs this recorded Web transaction file and collects data for the series of URLs in the file instead of collecting data for a single URL (Web Monitor). The recorded transaction file can be configured to include subtransactions as well. For more information on subtransactions, refer Subtransaction section. For performance data collected, refer Web Transaction Monitor under User Transaction Monitors in the BMC ProactiveNet Data Adapter and Monitor Guide.

Chapter 10 Setting up web transactions 229

System requirements

System requirements
Operating System: Windows NT 4.0 (with Service Pack 6a), Windows 2000/XP/

2003

.Net version: 2.0 (Installed automatically with remote BMC ProactiveNet

Administration Console installation) Administration Console installation)

.Net version: 3.0 (Installed automatically with local BMC ProactiveNet Server and

Browser: Internet Explorer 6.0 and 7.0.

Note
Supported for 32-bit and 64-bit processors. Any other version of .net already installed on the system will not get

uninstalled since other applications might be using it.

Fresh installation of BMC ProactiveNet 7.6 server on Windows 2000 does not

support this feature on local BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console installation.

Upgrading BMC ProactiveNet server to version 7.6 on Windows 2000

supports this feature on local BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console installation.

How and where do I begin?


To ensure your Web Transaction Monitors are complete and successfully collecting data, follow the steps given below to create the transaction file correctly: 1 Plan the Web Transaction Use a text editor (or pen and paper) to plan your Web transaction. 2 Record the Web Transaction Use the Web Transaction Capture Tool to record your transaction and create a Web Transaction File. You may include Subtransactions in the transaction file and store authentication information. To learn to deal with pop-up windows that may appear while you are recording, refer Pop-up Windows topic.

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3 Playback and validate the Web Transaction File Use the Playback option in the Web Capture tool to verify that the transaction just recorded will replay successfully. This step is recommended, but is optional. Use the Validate option to verify whether a Web Transaction Monitor can be created successfully using the Web Transaction file you saved. 4 Export the Transaction File Use the export tool to transfer your transaction file to BMC ProactiveNet Server. a Playback and validate the Web Transaction File Use the Playback option in the Web Capture tool to verify that the transaction just recorded will replay successfully. This step is recommended, but is optional. 5 Configure a Web Transaction Monitor Use the Administration Console to create the Transaction Monitor. Certain limitations exist while recording and playing back Web transactions. To learn more about them, refer Web Transaction Monitor Troubleshooting section.

Note

Backward compatibility
The table below indicates the various features of the Web Capture Tool that are supported for Transaction files created using earlier versions of BMC ProactiveNet:
Table 23: Backward compatibility of the web capture tool in BMC ProactiveNet 7.0 & above Feature Open Edit Whether Supported No Yes (only from the menu bar option in the Administration Console) No Yes Yes Alternative, if feature not supported None You cannot make changes to an old transaction file using the Web Capture tool None

Playback Validate Creation of Monitor using the old transaction file

Best Practices
If you are using a Web transaction file created in a version prior to BMC ProactiveNet 7.0, it is recommended that you record and save the same transaction in a different file using the new Web Capture tool. However, if you want to use an
Chapter 10 Setting up web transactions 231

Web transaction capture screen field descriptions

old transaction file, the combination of BMC ProactiveNet Agent 6.5 and BMC ProactiveNet Server 7.0 and above, is recommended.

Web transaction capture screen field descriptions


This section describes options in the Web transaction capture tool.

Menu bar options


The following menu bar options are included in the web transaction capture tool.

File
Open - Click this to display the Open BMC ProactiveNet Transaction File

window. From here, select a previously recorded transaction to work with. usr_apps/Webtranx directory. You cannot save transaction files in any other directory or folder.

Save - Click this to save the transaction file in the installDirectory /pw/pronto/

Exit - Click this to close and quit the application.

Options
Advanced Settings The Advanced Settings window enables you to set certain properties to govern the recording tool. Session Only Settings The options that you select here are applicable to only one session of the recording.
Enable Title Match - Select this option to automatically record the title of the Web

pages as Positive Content Match.

Allow Popups - Select this option to allow other pop-up windows and screens

associated with the Web site you are viewing to be displayed while you are

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recording the transaction. This does not interfere with the system authentication pop-up windows that may be displayed. This feature helps to record a transaction by blocking unwanted pop-up windows that may appear on a site. Permanent Settings The options that you select here are applicable across all sessions. Debug
Simple Logging - Select this to record basic logging of the navigation steps. Only

sequence of the navigation is saved.

Advanced Logging - Select this to record more detailed information about the

navigation. This info will be useful to debug problem areas in a transaction that failed. recorded in the transaction file and the same cookie must be used for the playback of the recorded transaction. debug problem areas in a transaction that failed.

Record Persistent Cookies - Select this if persistent cookie information has to be

Enable Snoop - Select this to get the snoop output. This info will be useful to

Edit - Click this to open a previously recorded file and make changes to it. Test Monitor - Click this to check whether this transaction can be played correctly

from the monitor. This is the same as the Test Monitor button on the menu bar.

Reset - Click this to delete any unsaved transaction information.

Record
Start Recording - Click this to begin recording a new transaction. This option is

disabled when you open a previously recorded transaction.

Stop - Click this to stop recording a transaction. View Source - Click this to view the HTML source of the Web page you are

viewing. This lets you copy the desired content for Content Match from the HTML source so that extra line feeds or in-between newline characters are not copied.

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Web transaction capture screen field descriptions

Play
All Steps - Click this to replay all steps of the recorded transaction without

intervention.

Step-by-Step - Click this to replay one step of the recorded transaction at a time.

You must click Next to view the next step in the transaction.

Next - Click this to play the next step in the recorded transaction. This option is

available only when you are viewing a transaction step-by-step.

Help
Help Topics - Click this to view Help topics related to the Web Transaction

Capture tool.

About - Click this to view information about the version of BMC ProactiveNet

installed on the system.

Buttons
The following buttons are included in the Web transaction capture tool.

Web capture section


Open - Click this to open a previously recorded transaction. Record - Click this to record a new transaction file. Save - Click this to save the transaction steps to a file. Stop - Click this to stop recording a transaction. Test monitor - Click this to test whether the recorded transaction can be played

successfully by the Web Transaction Monitor. Click here to know more about the validate process.

Edit - Click this to open a previously recorded transaction and make changes to it. Sub Transactions - Click this to display the Add/Edit Sub Transactions window.

Here you can group several steps of a transaction to form a subtransaction.

Play - Click this to view the recorded transaction.

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All Steps - Click this to replay all steps of the recorded transaction without

intervention.

Step by Step - Click this to replay one step of the recorded transaction at a time.

You must click Next to view the next step in the transaction.

Reset - Click this to clear the screen without saving any changes. Step Info - This section displays information about the steps that are recorded as

a transaction in a tree structure. Step information also displays content match and title match, if specified. The URLs of the steps recorded are displayed in this section. Positive content match is displayed with a '+' symbol next to the inserted content match string and negative content match is displayed with a '-' symbol. Title match string recorded is displayed with the letter 'T' displayed. Debug tab contains all debug messages and the Error tab lists errors that occurred during recording. its name. This is displayed in the field next to the Update Step Name button. Change the step name displayed in the field and click this button to assign the name to the step.

Log Info - When you select this tab, two additional tabs 'Debug' and 'Error' are

Update Step Name - By default, the URL of a step in a transaction is considered as

Content Match - The Content match feature enables the Web Transaction user to

verify that the monitor navigates to the correct web pages during the transaction playback. Content match can be specified for each step of the transaction file. During playback, the downloaded page is parsed and the recorded content is matched with the corresponding page to check the authenticity of the transaction playback. positive match content. If the content is present in the page, then the playback is considered as successful. If the content is not present, then an error is reported and availability is set to zero. match content. If the content is not present in the page, then the playback is considered as successful. If the content is present, then an error is reported and availability is set to zero. found in a page on the Web site, then the transaction is considered successful. The content match text that you assign is displayed in the field next to the Content Match section. Go to Record => View Source to copy text for content match.

Positive - During playback, the downloaded page is checked for the specified

Negative - During playback, the downloaded page is checked for the negative

Insert - Click this to insert text as the content match. If the text assigned here is

Note

Chapter 10 Setting up web transactions 235

Planning a Web Transaction

Delete - Select a content match text and click this to delete it from being a content

match.

Update - Click this to select an already assigned content match text and make

changes to it.

Title Match - Select this option to enable Title Match. Page title can be recorded as

part of the transaction file. As with Positive Content Match, the downloaded page is checked for the Title during playback. Title match can be used to validate rendered pages without manually insert content matches.

Ready - Indicates the status of the Web Capture tool. Recording - Indicates the status of the Web Capture tool.

Planning a Web Transaction


Before you start using the Web Transaction capture tool, BMC recommends that you plan out and 'rehearse' the transaction that you want to record using a Web browser. It is important to plan the transaction you intend to replay before you actually start recording it since any erroneous mouse clicks or keystrokes will result in an invalid transaction that may fail when executed by the monitor. This step will also help you anticipate the actions you want to record, as well as avoid any surprises that might pop up (literally!) when you are working with and recording live Web sites. 1 Delete cookies and temporary files from your browser. Before launching your browser, it is critical to delete all cookies that have been set in your browser and clear all pages that may be stored in cache. Failure to do this might produce unexpected results, like an incorrect HTML page, when your transaction is later executed by the monitor. Internet Explorer on a Windows computer is the preferred platform since this is the environment supported by the Web Transaction capture tool. 2 Launch a text editor, such as Notepad, or use a pencil and paper to keep track of your actions. It is strongly advised that you write down the exact steps you take and the actions you want to execute as you click through the intended transaction. In reality, most Web sites are fairly complex and you may be confronted with pop up windows, log in forms, advertisements, and other such innovative features. In the next topic 'Recording your Transaction', we will discuss these specific issues, but for now it is important to note your steps and any 'surprises' that might appear.

Note

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3 Launch your browser and start your transaction with the first URL. For this tutorial, we use the bmc.com Web site to record a transaction. As you click through the site, remember to write these steps on paper or in the text editor. Your transaction planning sheet would look like this:
Go to http://www.bmc.com Click Contact Us option in Company menu. Click BMC ProactiveNet's world wide office. Stop (close the browser).

Remember - this is the trial run of the transaction. Take time to look at the Web pages and plan out what you actually want to record. 4 Note the Content Match parameters. You will most likely want to ensure that the transaction you are about to record actually returns the content you were expecting. To do this you will use Content Matching. For this sample transaction, you want to ensure that you have reached the International Office page. To do so, make a note on your planning sheet to attach a Positive Content Match for the string ""International Offices"" (step b below). Alternately, add a note to attach a Negative Content Match for the string ""No listings were found"" (step e below). Your transaction planning sheet would now look like the following:
BMC ProactiveNet International Offices transaction with content matches: http://

www.bmc.com

Go to Company => Contact Us => International Offices Positive content match: International Offices Negative Content match: No listings were found Stop (close the browser)

Positive Content Match A positive content match on a page verifies that the specified text string is found on the page. If that string is not found, the transaction fails. Negative Content Match A negative content match flags the transaction as failed if the specified string appears anywhere on the page. More on how to specify content matching is explained in the Content Match topic.

Chapter 10 Setting up web transactions 237

Creating a web transaction

5 Plan Sub transactions You may want to record sub transactions. A transaction can include multiple subtransactions. 6 Planning step completed You have now completed the first step of planning the transaction and will now use your planning sheet to go back and actually record the same steps you just rehearsed and made notations about. You will find that the more detailed your planning is, the easier it is to create a reliable and effective monitor.

Creating a web transaction


Before you actually create a new web transaction, you should plan your transaction and practice creating a transaction using a Web browser. For details, see Planning a Web Transaction on page 236. For details about creating a new Web transaction, see Recording a new Web Transaction on page 239.

Need for the transaction file


The Web Transaction File is the basis for the Web Transaction Monitor. A Web Transaction File saves Web browser activities, which the monitor plays back to record the Web site availability and response time. This file can created using the Windows Administration Console and exported to BMC ProactiveNet Server as part of the file creation process. If you set up the Web Transaction Monitor using BMC ProactiveNet Server as the 'Source IP', then the transaction file, for example, testfile.tran, must already reside in the following BMC ProactiveNet Server directory: /usr/pronto/usr_apps/webtranx/testfile.tran If you select a BMC ProactiveNet Agent (UNIX) as the 'Source IP' when setting up this monitor, the transaction file you select (currently on BMC ProactiveNet Server) is automatically copied to the Agent (UNIX) directory: /usr/pronto/usr_apps/webtranx/testfile.tran A common configuration is to install BMC ProactiveNet Server inside the Domain and BMC ProactiveNet Agent (UNIX) outside the Domain. This requires that your Firewall or Proxy policy enables TCP Control Port 12124 (the default port for BMC

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ProactiveNet Server and BMC ProactiveNet Agent communications) to be enabled for Proactive operations. Setting up your Firewall server and proxy server are your responsibility, with the only requirement that your proxy server set up does not require a user name or password.

Launching the Web Transaction Capture tool


You create Web Transaction files using a Windows PC, then export the files to the BMC ProactiveNet Server for use with Web Transaction Monitors.

To launch the Web Transaction Capture tool


1 From the Tools menu in the Administration Console, select Web Transaction Capture => Launch Web Capture. 2 In the BMC ProactiveNet Web Capture screen, perform one of the following actions:
To start recording a series of steps as a transaction, click Record. For details, see

Recording a new Web Transaction on page 239.

To work with a previously recorded transaction, click Open. For details, see

Working with a previously recorded web transaction on page 247.

For a description of each option available in the BMC ProactiveNet Web Capture screen, see Web transaction capture screen field descriptions on page 232.

Recording a new Web Transaction


Perform the following procedure to record a new web transaction.

To record a new web transaction


1 In the URL field, enter the address of the Web site and click Go.
The static BMC ProactiveNet icon next to the Go button turns dynamic. The

icon returns to its static state to indicate that the navigation to the intended URL is complete.

Chapter 10 Setting up web transactions 239

Creating a web transaction

Note Do not click any button or option on the screen when the icon is changing its status. This may lead to errors.
Figure 24: Web recorder in the record mode

If the Title Match check box in the Recorder is turned on, then title of the Web pages are automatically recorded as Positive Content Match and the Title Match is enabled automatically in Content Match Details screen. 2 Enter the starting URL, that is the first step of the transaction, in the URL field. In this example, we use http://www.bmc.com as the first step.

Note

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You can record additional links within the Web site by simply clicking on the

respective links. They will automatically be added to the transaction file. Figure 25: Recording a transaction

3 Follow the steps you have planned. To continue the trial transaction recording, go to Solutions => Infrastructure monitoring => User Transaction Recorder.
The Web Recorder window records every page you visit in the Web site. This

info is available to you in the Step Info section. Figure 26: Step Info

While recording there will always be a slight delay from when you click on a link and when the next page is actually rendered (more of a delay than usual). Be sure to wait until the page is completely loaded before clicking on the next button or link. If you do not wait there is a chance that the step will not be
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Creating a web transaction

recorded correctly in the transaction file, which will cause the transaction to fail. One way to verify that you have correctly recorded each step is to verify that the step is recorded in the Step Info section after each click. The Log Info tab is useful when you are trying to troubleshoot a failed transaction. This tab consists of two more tabs - Debug and Error. The Debug tab contains all debug messages associated with the transactions and the Error tab lists errors that occurred during recording. 4 Insert text for Content Match. For example, Infrastructure Availability. The recommended way to insert a content match is to copy the text from the View Source feature. For proper content match, the text should be pasted directly from the HTML source of the URL. Do not copy the text from the page as displayed in the browser, for there could be extra characters in the HTML source that are hidden.
Use this feature to monitor changes in the Web content on the Web sites.

Content matches apply to specific pages.

Content Matching may only contain alphanumeric characters (Internationalization support).


In the Step Info section, select the step for which you want to add a content

Note

match.

Go to Record => View Source. Copy the content match text and paste it in the Content Match section of the

recorder.

Select Positive or Negative. Click Insert.

Follow the above steps to insert multiple content match strings for a step. Figure 27: Insert Content Match

Positive Match: This displays an error if the string is not found on the designated page. The text strings must appear in the designated URL or frame for the monitor to report success. The monitor reports success only if *all* strings are found. If all the multiple strings are found, then the monitor reports success.
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Negative Match: This displays an error if the string is found on the designated page. If the text strings appear in the designated URL or frame, the monitor reports failure (no response). The monitor reports failure if any one of the strings is found). Example:
HTTP 404;The page cannot be found

If any one of the negative content match strings is found, then the monitor reports failure. This is the exact string that must be used for defining content matches. Remember that the monitor is case-sensitive and the string should be entered EXACTLY as it appears on the HTML source. The reason is that there may be multiple frames in the Web page, and this option will not display any of the frame source text (it is, however, useful for identifying the URLs for all frames in the page). Instead, you should right-click on the frame of interest and select View Source. The Operations Console lists Web monitor attributes such as Source Agent and Collect Data. You can define multiple content matches on a page by repeating this step. Once the form is open, you can insert content match strings for every steps without having to open and close the form every time you want to insert a content matching string. If you make a mistake, such as typing an incorrect string or inserting it in the wrong place, you can change it by clicking Edit. The Web Transaction Monitor supports Unicode characters in Web content. However, it does not support Unicode characters in a 'pop-up' login Authentication Info. POP-UP log in: If a logon pop-up (Basic/Digest/NTLM Authentication) window appears during the transaction, refer Pop-up Windows help topic. You may also run into more complicated transaction recordings, such as System Authentication pop-up screens, advertisement windows, and other complex transactions. For information on working with these, refer Pop-up Windows topic. 5 Click Stop to stop the transaction recording.
The Save Transaction File window is displayed. Specify a name for your

Note

transaction file and click Save. The file is saved with the extension .tran in installDirectory \agent\pronto\usr_apps\webtranx directory

Once you save a transaction file, you can do either of the following:

Chapter 10 Setting up web transactions 243

Creating a web transaction

Test whether a Web Transaction Monitor can be created using the transaction

file you saved

Play back the saved transaction file

Creating a test monitor


This option helps you to verify whether a Web Transaction Monitor can be created successfully using the transaction file created. The Test Monitor option is enabled only when you are working with a previously saved transaction file or immediately after you save the transaction file. On clicking Test Monitor, the Validate Transaction window is displayed. This window seeks proxy setting and security information.

Advanced options - proxy details


Proxy Server - Specify the IP address of the proxy server. Proxy Port - Specify the port number on which the proxy server is listening. Proxy User Name - Specify the user name to access the proxy server. Proxy Password - Specify the password associated with the proxy server user name.

Security
JSSE - Select this option to use JSSE package for HTTP connections. Cryptix - Select this option to use Cryptix (ice storm) package for HTTP

connections.

Emulate Netscape - Select this option to set Netscape as the user agent in the

HTTP request header.

Full Download - Select this option to download all images in the page. Timeout (in secs) - Specify the timeout value for the validate process. By default,

the timeout period is 600 seconds.

Validate - Click this to begin testing the transaction file.

The View Logfile button is disabled before the file is validated. After validation, the result (SUCCESS or FAIL) is displayed on the screen.
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Success: Indicates that a monitor can be created using this transaction file to

collect data.

Fail: Indicates that a monitor cannot be created using this transaction file.

Figure 28: Transaction File Validation Result

View Logfile - Click this to view the log file of the played back transaction. This

helps in debugging a failed transaction. The log file will be stored in the logs folder installDirectory \agent\webrecorder\logs) with the same name as the Transaction File.

Playing a transaction file created with the Web Transaction Capture tool
The Play feature is enabled when you are working with a previously saved transaction file or immediately after you save the transaction file. This feature enables you to view, playback, and add or edit content match to your transaction file. You can also change step names using this feature. The Step by Step and All Steps features are enabled only after you click Play. 1 Click Play. Steps in the transaction file are displayed in the Playback Details section. You can either playback the transaction one step at a time (Step by Step) or all steps continuously without user intervention (All Steps). 2 Click either All Steps or Step by Step, as required. 3 If required, insert or change content match text and update the step name. 4 Click Stop.

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Successfully played back transactions with Title match enabled in the Recorder and Content Match Details screen are displayed in green and without enabling Title match are displayed in gray color. Figure 29: Title match playback transactions

Successfully played back transactions are displayed in green and failed transactions in red. If a step fails, the playback process stops. Figure 30: Playback transactions

If a step fails, you cannot continue playing back the other steps in the transaction file. 1 A message seeking confirmation to save changes made to the transaction file is displayed. You can choose to select the same file to save current changes or save the set of transactions with the new properties as a different file.

Note Log entries for GUI playback of a transaction are available in the running log file (installDirectory \agent\webrecorder\logs\WebRecorder.log). However, the log entries are overwritten after each session.

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Working with a previously recorded web transaction


When you open a previously recorded transaction file, you can do any of the following:
Test whether a Web Transaction Monitor can be created using the transaction file Play back the transaction file Edit the transaction file

Recording another transaction in the same user session


If required, you can record another transaction immediately after you have saved one. To do this, click Reset on the BMC ProactiveNet Web Recorder window. This clears the recorder window and displays the default setting of the Web Capture tool. Click Record and begin recording the second transaction. If you close the Web Capture tool after saving a transaction file on the local system, a confirmation message may be displayed, asking you whether you want to export web transaction files that you have created from the local system to BMC ProactiveNet Server. After you have created the transaction file, you may need to export it to BMC ProactiveNet Server (if you have created the transaction file on a remote administration console). To do this, refer Export Web Transaction File topic.

Authentication
This procedure is required to record system authentication pop-up windows that appear while recording a transaction and is not necessary for logons, which are presented as form data. In other words, it is not needed when user name and password fields are part of the Web page. If a pop-up logon (Basic/Digest/NTLM Authentication) window appears during the transaction, you must follow the steps given below to ensure that it is recorded. Open the Web Recorder and enter the first URL. The Enter Network Password window pops up but notice that there is no new URL recorded in the Web Recorder window. This pop-up window is not a browser window. Let us refer to it as a System Authentication pop-up window. Some additional steps are called for to record such a transaction.
Chapter 10 Setting up web transactions 247

Authentication

How to insert authentication information?


When you click Add Authentication in the Web Transaction Recorder, the Add/Edit Authentication window is displayed.
Step - Select the step/URL for which you want to add authentication information. UserName - Specify the user name that is to be used to gain access to the

particular page in the Web site.

Password - Specify the password associated with the user name. Domain - Specify the domain where the user name and password combination is

to be used.

Authentication Type - Select the type of authentication mechanism supported by

your Web site. You can select Basic, Digest, or NTLM from the list.

Basic authentication
Upon receiving a 401-response header, the client's browser, if it supports basic authentication, seeks user name and password information to be sent to the server. If you are using a graphical browser, such as Netscape or Internet Explorer, a window is displayed where you must specify your user name and password. The information you type in is sent back to the server. If the user name is in the approved list, and the password specified is correct, the resource will be returned to the client.

Digest authentication
Digest authentication is implemented by the module mod_auth_digest. There is an older module, mod_digest, which implemented an older version of the digest authentication specification, but which will probably not work with latest browsers. Using digest authentication, your password is never sent across the network in the clear, but is always transmitted as an MD5 digest of the user's password. In this way, the password cannot be determined by sniffing network traffic.

NTLM authentication
NTLM is an authentication protocol used in various Microsoft network protocol implementations and supported by the NTLM Security Support Provider (NTLMSSP). Originally used for authentication and negotiation of secure DCE/RPC, NTLM is also used throughout Microsoft's systems as an integrated single sign-on mechanism. NTLM employs a challenge-response mechanism for authentication, in which clients are able to prove their identities without sending a password to the server. It consists
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of three messages, commonly referred to as Type 1 (negotiation), Type 2 (challenge), and Type 3 (authentication). The client sends a Type 1 message to the server. This primarily contains a list of features supported by the client and requested of the server. The server responds with a Type 2 message. This contains a list of features supported and agreed upon by the server. Most importantly, however, it contains a challenge generated by the server. The client replies to the challenge with a Type 3 message. This contains several pieces of information about the client, including the domain and user name of the client user. It also contains one or more responses to the Type 2 challenge. Responses in the Type 3 message are the most critical piece, as they prove to the server that the client user has knowledge of the account password.
Insert - Click this to save data that you have specified as user logon information. Delete - Click this to delete saved user logon information. Update - Click this to save changes made to the existing user logon information. Close - Click this to close and exit from the window.

Authentication information that you save is not displayed in the Step Info section. However, if you want to view the authentication information that you have added for a step, open the Add/Edit Authentication window.

Subtransactions
The Web Transaction Capture tool enables you to group several transactional steps under one transaction. These transactional steps may be referred to as 'Subtransactions'. Subtransactions allow you to record and display more detailed data for attributes collected by the Web Transaction Monitor. The monitor in turn reports more granular set of stats data. This way the monitor can not only report the 'Total Response Time' of an entire transaction but also the sub 'Response Time' of each step in the transaction. Apart from reporting the response time of each step in the transaction, the monitor also maintains a baseline of each step. This is a powerful feature since it enables any abnormal behavior associated with the subtransactions to be correlated automatically to the degradation in Total Response Time (without having to set a threshold on it).

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Subtransactions

Working with subtransactions


Click Subtransactions to display the Add/Edit Sub Transactions window. Alternatively, go to Record => SubTransactions. This window enables you to configure sub transactions for a transaction by grouping different URLs/steps. Figure 31: Add/Edit Subtransactions window

To add a subtransaction, The Starting Step and Ending Step drop-down lists consist of URLS/steps recorded until then. The lists display the URLs in the order they were accessed and are numbered accordingly. You can select a single step as a subtransaction or choose multiple steps to form a single subtransaction.
Select the first and last step to define the subtransaction. If required, specify a name for the subtransaction in the Name field. By default,

this field displays the URL of the starting step.

Click Add.

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Note
To add a single step/URL as a subtransaction, select the same step as the

first and last steps. For example, to add Step.2 as a subtransaction, select Step. 2 as both the first and last steps. ending URL/step in the order of access. For example, you can configure a subtransaction that navigates from Step1 to Step2 but not from Step2 to Step1.

The starting URL/step of a sub transaction should always precede the

To edit a subtransaction,
From the Select Sub Transaction list, choose the subtransaction that you want to

edit.

Change the starting and/or ending steps of the subtransaction. If required, provide a new name for the subtransaction. Click Update.

To delete a subtransaction
From the Select Sub Transaction list, choose the subtransaction to be removed. Click Delete.

Notes about subtransactions:


To take advantage of this feature, BMC ProactiveNet Agent running the Web

Transaction monitor must be Version 5.1 or later.

Only 20 subtransaction attributes are supported. No nested subtransactions are allowed. Over lapping subtransactions are not allowed.

Configuring a Web Transaction monitor


Now that the Web Transaction File is created and exported to BMC ProactiveNet Server, you are ready to create the Web Transaction Monitor.

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Configuring a Web Transaction monitor

To create a Web Transaction Monitor


1 In the Administration Console, right-click on the device and navigate to Add Monitor => User Transactions => Web Transaction Monitor.
The Add Web Transaction window is displayed.

2 Enter information required in the Basic Information tab of the Add Web Transaction window.
Transaction File - Select the transaction file you created for this monitor from

the list. This is the transaction file created previously. If there are no files in the list or the file you want is not present, you may have a problem with the location or generation of your transaction file. The list contains files only in the / usr/pronto/usr_apps/webtranx directory. If no transaction file exists, or the file you want is not present, check the location or generation of your transaction file.

View/Edit option is discussed in the Playback the Web Transaction File topic. Source Agent - BMC ProactiveNet Server, unless you own an enhanced BMC

ProactiveNet license. Choose the BMC ProactiveNet Server or BMC ProactiveNet Agent where this monitor will run.

HTTP User Agent String - Select the HTTP user agent string. Each browser

type identifies itself to the Web server by sending a HTTP user agent string with each request. You can simulate various browser types by modifying the user agent string, which may be useful if a site launches different content based on the browser type making the request. the browser making the HTTP request. Under most circumstances, this field should not be changed, since setting it to incorrect formats could cause the monitor to fail when making requests to the Web server.

User Agent string is used by BMC ProactiveNet to identify information about

Instance Name - Provide a unique instance name that better describes your

transaction. This is displayed on folders, graphs, lists, and so forth. Example: Web Trans test

3 Click Advanced Options tab.


Select the options that meet your requirements for this monitor, or accept the

defaults.

Full Page Option


Download Full Page - Select this option to download the entire Web page.

By default, only the text of the base page is downloaded. When this option is selected, response time includes the download of links referenced on that page. Select this option only if you want all images on the page, frames, and

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HTML text to be downloaded. If this option is NOT selected, only frames and text is downloaded. This option is not recommended since it affects performance. HTTP Proxy
Use Proxy - Optionally, a proxy server can be used to access the URL. Select

this option if a proxy is required to access the Web site specified. server.

Proxy Server - Enter the name/IP address of the computer hosting the proxy

Proxy Port - Enter the port of a HTTP Proxy Server. Proxy User - Enter the user name of a HTTP Proxy Server.

Your proxy server must support Proxy-Authenticate for this option to function.
Proxy Password - If the proxy server requires a password to access the URL,

Note

enter the password here.

Statistics Polling Options


Collect Data - Select this option to enable BMC ProactiveNet Server to

collect data for the monitor device. If this option is not selected, data collection for the device stops (or never starts for new devices); you can conduct maintenance on the device without generating events. Used to set data collection parameters. transactions. Default is 5 minutes. For performance purposes, it is not recommended that you replay the transaction more than every 5 minutes. a poll response before reporting 'No Response'. Default is 2 minutes.

Statistics Poll Interval (min) - Specify the time interval between playing two

Statistics Poll Timeout (min) - Specify the duration the system must wait for

Number of Retries - Enter number of times to retry the Monitor before

generating an event.

Retries Wait (sec) - Enter the number of seconds to wait before retrying the

Monitor after an error condition is detected.

Page Capturing Option


Capture Page on Failure - Select this checkbox to capture the page in which

the error (if any) has occurred during playback by the monitor instance. The captured error page can be viewed from more info option in the Operations Console.
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Web transaction test utility

4 Click Finish to view the Summary screen.


The Web Transaction Monitor is now ready. Creating a Web Transaction

Monitor automatically creates a device type called WebServer and places the newly created Web Transaction monitor under this device. Expand the Web Transaction subfolder under the Monitors folder in the Administration Console to see that the new monitor is listed.

Web transaction test utility


The Web Transaction monitor can be tested from the command line using the program webtranmon. This program is available in the directory /usr/pronto/bin/. webtranmon can be run both at the server as well as the agent. webtranmon can be used as described below:
webtranmon [-options] webtranfilename

where options include:


-proxy:host:port:user:pass

Use proxy to get pages.


-emulateNS

Set Netscape as user agent.


-fulldownload

Download objects like browser.


-jsse

Use JSSE for SSL3 support.


-cryptix

Use cryptix for SSL support.


-timeout

Should be a positive integer in seconds. webtranmon utility implements the same functionality as Web Transaction monitors during polling. The final status of processing of the transaction is displayed on the screen. The examples below list the format of the output.

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Note On non-Windows platforms, the transaction file is looked for in the directory /usr/pw/ pronto/usr_apps/webtranx
Example 1 - Success Transaction

UNIX# webtranmon yahoo.tranStarting webtranmon test with webtran file: /usr/ pw/pronto/usr_apps/webtranx/yahoo.tranWebTran test result: SUCCESS -- see more details in the file /data/pw/pronto/usr_apps/ webtranx/yahoo.log
Example 2 - Failure Transaction

UNIX# webtranmon failure.tranStarting webtranmon test with webtran file: /usr/ pw/pronto/usr_apps/webtranx/failure.tran WebTran test result: FAIL -- see more details in the file /data/pw/pronto/usr_apps/ webtranx/failure.log

Pop-up Windows
This section provides details about how to record pop-up windows with the web transaction capture tool.

System authentication pop-up Windows


This procedure is required to record system authentication pop-up windows that appear while recording a transaction and is not necessary for logons, which are presented as form data. In other words, it is not needed when user name and password fields are part of the Web page. If a pop-up logon (Basic/Digest/NTLM Authentication) window appears during the transaction, you must follow the steps given below to ensure that it is recorded. 1 Click Add Authentication in the Web Transaction Recorder to display the Add/ Edit Authentication window.
Step - Select the step/URL for which you want to add authentication information. UserName - Specify the user name that is to be used to gain access to the

particular page in the Web site.

Password - Specify the password associated with the user name.

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Pop-up Windows

Domain - Specify the domain where the user name and password combination

is to be used.

Authentication Type - Select the type of authentication mechanism supported

by your Web site. You can select Basic, Digest, or NTLM from the list.

Basic authentication
Upon receiving a 401-response header, the client's browser, if it supports basic authentication, seeks user name and password information to be sent to the server. If you are using a graphical browser, such as Netscape or Internet Explorer, a window is displayed where you must specify your user name and password. The information you type in is sent back to the server. If the user name is in the approved list, and the password specified is correct, the resource will be returned to the client.

Digest authentication
Digest authentication is implemented by the module mod_auth_digest. There is an older module, mod_digest, which implemented an older version of the digest authentication specification, but which will probably not work with latest browsers. Using digest authentication, your password is never sent across the network in the clear, but is always transmitted as an MD5 digest of the user's password. In this way, the password cannot be determined by sniffing network traffic.

NTLM authentication
NTLM is an authentication protocol used in various Microsoft network protocol implementations and supported by the NTLM Security Support Provider (NTLMSSP). Originally used for authentication and negotiation of secure DCE/RPC, NTLM is also used throughout Microsoft's systems as an integrated single sign-on mechanism. NTLM employs a challenge-response mechanism for authentication, in which clients are able to prove their identities without sending a password to the server. It consists of three messages, commonly referred to as Type 1 (negotiation), Type 2 (challenge), and Type 3 (authentication). The client sends a Type 1 message to the server. This primarily contains a list of features supported by the client and requested of the server. The server responds with a Type 2 message. This contains a list of features supported and agreed upon by the server. Most importantly, however, it contains a challenge generated by the server. The client replies to the challenge with a Type 3 message. This contains several pieces of information about the client, including the domain and user name of the client user. It also contains one or more responses to the Type 2 challenge. Responses in the Type 3 message are the most critical piece, as they prove to the server that the client user has knowledge of the account password.
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Insert - Click this to save data that you have specified as user logon information. Delete - Click this to delete saved user logon information. Update - Click this to save changes made to the existing user logon information. Close - Click this to close and exit from the window.

Authentication information that you save is not displayed in the Step Info section. However, if you want to view the authentication information that you have added for a step, open the Add/Edit Authentication window.

Browser pop-up Windows


Several sites automatically pop up small windows with advertisements. These will be referred to as Browser pop-up windows and can be recognized by the IE logo on the top left. While these windows may not be of interest most of the time, they affect the way one records a content match on the main window. If you do not want to record browser pop-up windows, 1 Go to Options => Advanced Settings. 2 Select Allow Popups option. The Allow Popups option enables other pop-up windows and screens associated with the Web site you are viewing to be displayed while you are recording the transaction. This does not interfere with the system authentication pop-up windows that may be displayed.

Exporting Web Transaction files


Transaction files need to be exported from a remote Windows Administration console to BMC ProactiveNet Server. After you save a Web Transaction file, a window is displayed that seeks confirmation whether you want to export the saved transaction file from the local system to BMC ProactiveNet Server. If you click Yes, then the Transaction File Export window is displayed.

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Editing Web Transaction files

To export web transaction files


1 Select the file(s) that you want to export from the local system to BMC ProactiveNet Server. 2 Click Export. To delete Web Transaction files from the server, select the files and click Delete.

Editing Web Transaction files


Perform one of the following procedures depending on which version of BMC ProactiveNet you are using.

Editing Web Transaction files created in BMC ProactiveNet 7.0 and later
To edit a previously recorded Web Transaction file, 1 Go to Tools => Web Transaction Capture => Edit. Alternatively, Go to Tools => Web Transaction Capture => Launch WebCapture. The ProactiveNet Web Capture window is displayed. 2 Click Open to list all the saved transaction files. 3 Select a transaction file to be edited.

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4 Click Edit, the ProactiveNet Transaction File Editor window is displayed. All steps of the transaction are listed in the left pane. The right pane consists of different attribute groups that can be edited for each step. Figure 32: Transaction File Editor window

Content match details tab


Title Match Displays the name of the title match. Enable Title Match Select this option to automatically record the title of the

Web pages as Positive Content Match.

Content Match The Content match feature enables the Web Transaction user to

verify that the monitor navigates to the correct web pages during the transaction playback. Content match can be specified for each step of the transaction file. During playback, the downloaded page is parsed and the recorded content is matched with the corresponding page to check the authenticity of the transaction playback.

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Positive Match - If the content is present in the page, then the playback is

considered as successful. If the content is not present, then an error is reported and availability is set to zero. Positive content match strings are preceded by the '+' symbol in the Content Match section. Change the content match and title match strings, if required.

Negative Match During playback, the downloaded page is checked for the

negative match content. If the content is not present in the page, then the playback is considered as successful. If the content is present, then an error is reported and availability is set to zero. Negative match is used ascertain that error condition related content is not present on the page. Negative content match strings are preceded by the '-' symbol in the Content Match section. Change the content match and title match strings, if required.

Note
If the title match is enabled in Recorder or can be enabled from Edit option

manually, the Content Match will be displayed in green color. manually, the content match will be displayed in gray color.

If the title match is disabled in Recorder or can be disabled from Edit option

Add Click to add a new content match. Update Click to save any changes made to the selected content match. Delete Click to delete the selected content match.

Sub transaction tab


This tab displays the subtransactions that you have defined for the transaction. Change the properties of the subtransactions, if required.
Select Sub Transaction From the Select Sub Transaction list, choose the

subtransaction that you want to edit. of the sub transaction recorded. the sub transaction recorded.

Select Starting URL for the Sub Transaction From the list, select the first URL

Select Ending URL for the Sub Transaction From the list, select the last URL of

Sub Transaction Name Specify a name for the sub transaction. Add Click this to add a new sub transaction.

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Update Click to save any changes made to the selected sub transaction. Delete Click this to delete the selected sub transaction.

Advanced settings tab


From the drop-down menu of View, select either Authentication, Step Details, Form Details, or Request Header. By default, Authentication is selected. Advanced Settings tab is intended for advanced users. The steps involved in creating, editing, and deleting macros are same across the Advanced Settings tab. There are four types of View: 1 Authentication This tab displays information to be used during system authentication. Change any details, if required. By default, Authentication is enabled.
User Name Specify the user name that is to be used to gain access to the

particular page in the Web site and is mandatory. Left-click or right-click macro icon to enter the new macro or edit the existing macros. See Web Transaction macro on page 265.

Password Specify the password associated with the user name and is

mandatory. Left-click or right-click to enter the new macro or edit the existing macros. See Web Transaction macro on page 265. is to be used. Left-click or right-click to enter the new macro or edit the existing macros. See Web Transaction macro on page 265.

Domain Specify the domain where the user name and password combination

Type From drop-down menu, select either BASIC, DIGEST, or NTLM. Add Click this to add new authentication. Delete Click this to delete the selected authentication.

2 Step Details
Protocol - Indicates the protocol used (for example, HTTP 1.1 HTTP 1.0) (non

editable).

Method - Indicates the method used. Name - Name assigned to the transaction step. URL - The URL of the transaction step and is mandatory. Left-click or right-

click to enter the new macro or edit the existing macros. See Web Transaction macro on page 265.
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Update - Click to update the transaction step details with any changes you made.

3 Form Details
Form Name - Name of the form associated with the URL/step. Form Index - Index of occurrence of the form with the same name in the page Form Source - URL of the page where the form is present. Form Action URL - Associated URL action of the form. Input elements involved in the form are displayed in the name value pair format. Name - The attribute name. Value - The attribute value. Left-click or right-click to enter the new macro or

edit the existing macros. See Web Transaction macro on page 265.

Update - Click this to save any changes made to the form details. Delete - Click this to delete the selected form details.

4 Request Header In HTTP protocols, the client sends a request and associated options for response from the server. This request consists of a set of properties like User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; .NET CLR 1.1.4322).
Name The attribute name.

macro icon to enter the new macro or Value The attribute value. Click edit the existing macros. See Web Transaction macro on page 265.

Add Click this to add a new request header. Update Click this to save any changes made to the request header. Delete Click this to delete the selected request header.

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Editing Web Transaction files created prior to BMC ProactiveNet 7.0


BMC ProactiveNet enables you to view a previously created transaction file and refresh your memory on the steps performed in the chosen transaction. At this point, some of the features can be edited.

To view or edit a transaction file


1 From the menu bar on the Administration Console, select Tools => Web Transaction Capture => Edit. The Select a Transaction File window is displayed. This lists all the transaction files saved on the server. Select the file to edit and click OK. Edit the file under the available tabs. The step being modified is highlighted in the right window.

Content match for Web Transaction monitor


The Content match feature enables the Web Transaction user to verify that the monitor navigates to the correct web pages during the transaction playback. Content match can be specified for each step of the transaction file. During playback, the downloaded page is parsed and the recorded content is matched with the corresponding page to check the authenticity of the transaction playback. Web Transaction monitor supports three types of content match: 1 Positive Match During playback, the downloaded page is checked for the specified positive match content. If the content is present in the page, then the playback is considered as successful. If the content is not present, then an error is reported and availability is set to zero. 2 Negative Match During playback, the downloaded page is checked for the negative match content. If the content is not present in the page, then the playback is considered as successful. If the content is present, then an error is reported and availability is set to zero. Negative match is used ascertain that error condition related content is not present on the page.

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3 Title Match Page title can be recorded as part of the transaction file. As with Positive Content Match, the downloaded page is checked for the Title during playback. Title match can be used to validate rendered pages without manually insert content matches. To enable Title Match, select the checkbox on the recorder GUI. Content match validation is supported both by the Web Transaction Monitor as well as the Browser Playback feature.

Note

Best practices to record content match


To insert text for content match on a given HTML page:
Locate the content using the View Source feature (Record => View Source).

Alternatively, right-click in the browser section of the BMC ProactiveNet Web Capture screen to access the View Source feature. between newline characters are not copied. Do not copy the content from the HTML page directly. source (and not the HTML page), than typed manually.

Copy the desired content from the HTML source so that extra line feeds or in-

Content match is case-specific. So it is best if the content is copied from the HTML

International characters
You can insert international characters as content match strings.

Extra line feed characters


User must ensure that the content is not copied from the browser window, but from the actual HTML source. This is important since the HTML source maybe different from the way the content is rendered in the browser. The actual HTML source may contain tags such as &nbsp; line feed characters, etc.

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Web Transaction macro


A web transaction macro is a set of tasks combined together so that you can run or replay the entire task together with a single command. Macros are a powerful productivity tool. A web transaction macro is defined with a name, type, and value. Web transaction macros are available only in Advanced Settings section.

Chapter 10 Setting up web transactions 265

Web Transaction macro

Types of Web Transaction macros


The types of Macros that can be embedded in a transaction file, so that it is executed during monitor playback, are: Figure 33: Web Transaction Macro flowchart

Static Macro - Simplest of all macros. The value of the macro is statistically

defined in the transaction file.

ValueList Macro - Reads the value of the macro from the specified property file. It

uses the macro name as the name of the property and gets the value of that from the property file. Multiple values can be specified for the macro as semicolon (;) separated values in the property file. playback of the transaction.

Dynamic Macro - The value of the macro is obtained dynamically during

Dynamic JavaScript Macro The value is obtained by executing the JavaScript. Dynamic Predefined Macro The value is obtained by executing a predefined script. Dynamic HTLM Macro You should be able to indicate variables which have to

be replaced dynamically during playback. Form data or hidden-form data, changed through JavaScript, session information, cookies, URLs, and other information may need to be replaced dynamically.

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Managing Web Transaction macros


Through the BMC ProactiveNet Transaction File Editor window, you can create new transaction macros, edit existing macros, or delete existing macros.

To create a new Web Transaction macro


1 Click the macro icon .

The Macro Input Dialog window is displayed. From the list of Type, select the type of the macro to be created. 2 Enter appropriate input details for the type of the macro you want to create. The fields displayed on the Macro Input Dialog window differ, depending on the type of macro.
STATIC Name Indicates the name of the macro and is mandatory. Type Indicates the type of the macro and is mandatory. Value Indicates value of the macro and is mandatory. Default Value Indicates the default value to be replaced. VALUELIST Name Indicates the name of the macro and is mandatory. Type Indicates the type of the macro and is mandatory. ValueList File Indicates the name of the file from which the value is to be

picked along with path and is mandatory. the defined file.

Default Value Indicates default value to be replaced, if there is no value in

DYNAMIC_EXTERNALJS Name Indicates the name of the macro and is mandatory. Type Indicates the type of the macro and is mandatory. Enter JavaScript or Browse Indicates free-form editor to write java script

or click on browse to load any java script file.

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Web Transaction macro

Name Indicates the name of the macro and is mandatory. Type Indicates the type of the macro and is mandatory. Select PreDefined Script Name From the drop-down menu, select the

predefined script that is bundled along with BMC ProactiveNet Server.

Dynamic ID Indicates input parameters for the predefined scripts and is

mandatory. mandatory.

Step number - Indicates input parameters for the predefined scripts and is

3 Click OK to create a new macro. Web Transaction Macro name should not contain characters $$#$ as it is a reserved key word for the web transaction macro. The web transaction macro name field can contain any characters except in the sequence of $$#$.

Note

To edit an existing macro


1 Click the macro icon .

2 Select the macro to be edited and click Edit. Name and type fields are disabled in edit mode. 3 Click OK to save the changes made and exit.

To delete the already created macro


1 Click the macro icon .

2 Select the macro to be deleted. 3 Click Delete. 4 Click Yes in the confirmation message to delete the selected macro and exit.

Limitation
An already applied web transaction macro cannot be deleted; however, the web transaction macro can only be deleted if the defined web transaction macro is not applied to any field.

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Usage scenarios
Static Macro
If you want to test the same application on different web servers, then instead of recording several similar transactions, you have to just provide the server IP addresses as web transaction macros. You can change the IP addresses easily. For example, The following are the steps of a recorded transaction: http://192.168.3.105/servlets/com.proactivenet.servlet.Login http://192.168.3.105/jsp/LayoutPage.jsp http://192.168.3.105/jsp/AlarmSummary.jsp If you want to test the same application running on different web servers, then you define a Static macro by name ServerMacro (see xml snippet below). The value of this macro is set to http://192.168.1.122. $$#$[ServerMacro]$$#$ indicates a variable, which has to be replaced by value of Macro ServerMacro. After replacing the values, the transaction is changed to the following steps: http://192.168.1.122/servlets/com.proactivenet.servlet.Login http://192.168.1.122/jsp/LayoutPage.jsp http://192.168.1.122/jsp/AlarmSummary.jsp Table 24: Web transaction file StaticMacro snippet
<MACRO NAME=ServerMacro TYPE=STATIC VALUE=http://192.168.1.122 DEFAULTVALUE=192.168.3.105></MACRO><STEP URL=$$#$[ServerMacro]$$#$/servlets/ com.proactivenet.servlet.Login></STEP><STEP URL=$$#$[ServerMacro]$$#$/jsp/ LayoutPage.jsp></STEP><STEP URL=$$#$[ServerMacro]$$#$/jsp/AlarmSummary.jsp></STEP>

ValueList macro
The transaction recorded maybe for an application, which the user wants to test for different login information. The user should be able to indicate different login information in the transaction file. Otherwise, the user has to record several similar transactions with just the login information changed. You can indicate the login information as ValueList macro in the transaction file and the Web transaction monitor can use different login information.

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Web Transaction macro

For example, in the xml snippet below, a ValueList macro by name Login is defined. The value for this macro is read from the property Login in the properties file /home1/user.list. It is then used to replace the login information in the form data. Table 25: Web transaction file ValueList macro snippet
<MACRO NAME=Login TYPE=VALUELIST SRC=/home1/user.list DEFAULTVALUE=admin></ MACRO><STEP><FORMDATA><INPUTDATA NAME=username VALUE=$$#$[Login]$$#$></FORMDATA></ STEP>

Dynamic Macro
In a transaction, there is currentDate as one of the form input data. When this form data is submitted, next page validates if the currentDate is same as todays date. If the validation fails, it throws up error page. In this case, you can use a Dynamic JavaScript macro. The macro is defined with a JavaScript that returns todays date. That macro can be used for form input data currentDate. This makes the transaction successful. For example, in the transaction file snippet below, a Dynamic JavaScript macro by name todayDate is defined. The value of this macro is a JavaScript, which returns todays date. The macro can be used in the form input data currentDate. Table 26: Web transaction file DynamicMacro snippet
<MACRO NAME="todayDate" TYPE="DYNAMIC_EXTERNALJS" VALUE="new Date ();"></MACRO><STEP ><FORMDATA> <INPUTDATA NAME="currentDate" VALUE="$$#$[todayDate]$$#$" TYPE="text" ENCRYPTED="FALSE" DOMSIGNATURE=""/></FORMDATA></STEP>

Dynamic predefined macro


If the value is obtained by executing a predefined script, then it is a Dynamic Predefined Script Macro. Below is the list of predefined scripts that can be used in macros. Table 27: Web transaction Dynamic Predefined Macro snippet
1 pn_getFromHTML(String dynamicId, int stepNum) pn_getFromHTML(String dynamicId) 2 pn_getFromHeader(String headerName, int stepNum)pn_getFromHeader(String headerName) It is used to get the value dynamically from the HTTP header It is used to get the value dynamically from the downloaded HTML page.

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pn_getFromCookie(String cookieName)pn_getFromCookie(Strin g cookieName, int stepNum) pn_getFromHtmlDomPath(String domPath, String attributeName)pn_getFromHtmlDom Path(String domPath, String attributeName, int stepNum)

It is used to get the value dynamically from a cookie.

It is used to get the value dynamically from the downloaded HTML page DOM path. DOM path matches the HTML element. If attributeName is null, then the HTML elements value is considered.

Limitations of Web Transaction capture


An already applied web transaction macro cannot be deleted; however, the web transaction macro can only be deleted if the defined web transaction macro is not applied to any field.

AJAX
AJAX-enabled sites are not supported
Web sites that include Asychronous Javascript and XML (AJAX) content are not

supported.

Example: www.flickr.com , www.maps.google.com


Web sites with DHTML layers are not supported.

Example: www.sonystyle.com

Files/Plug-ins
Web sites that download content are not supported

BMC ProactiveNet Web Capture tool does not support transactions that download or upload files such as MS Word documents, spreadsheets, presentation files, PDF files, and ASCII text files. For example: http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf
Web sites with Plug-ins are not supported

The Web Capture tool does not support transactions that involve plug-ins such as Applets, Flash, SVG, and multimedia features. For example: www.ebay.com , www.macromedia.com (Flash)

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Forms
Web sites that reset passwords before a POST are not supported

Some Web sites clear the password field in a form before doing a POST to the server. In such situations, the Web Capture tool does not record the password. Example: www.traderji.com
Flash-based Forms are not supported

This tool does not record data from Flash Forms. Example: Search form at www.macromedia.com
Form POST is not supported The Web Capture tool does not support pages, which do a POST of values from

different forms in the page.

The Web Capture tool fails to record the password value when the Password field

in a form is reset to an empty string or to a predefined default value before a POST. In such situations, playback and monitor creation fail.

This tool does not support forms that do not POST but redirect. Some pages do

not POST selected values, but use JavaScript redirection to load the required page. This event may not be recorded by the Web Capture tool. Example: www.hsbc.co.in

Form Action URLs with dynamic session IDs are not supported The monitor and the Playback tool do not support transactions that have dynamic

session ID values as part of the Form action URL. Example: www.homedepot.com

Frames
Web sites with Cross-scripting feature are not supported Due to cross-site scripting (XSS) limitation of Internet Explorer, Web sites that contain frames from a different domain (or a sub-domain) are not recorded. For example: www.federaldaily.com

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Images
ImageMaps are not supported

The Web Capture tool does not support Web sites with ImageMaps. (An Image Map is a list of coordinates relating to a specific image, created in order to hyperlink areas of the image to various destinations) Example: http://www.ihip.com/
Image tags with OnClick eventhandlers are not supported

The Web Capture tool does not record the click event, when the action URL of a form is manipulated and a POST happens in the OnClick eventhandler of Image tags. Example: www.americanairlines.com

Internationalization
URLs with internationalized Domain Names are not supported

The Web Transaction monitor does not support URLs with Internationalized Domain Names (IDN). Example: http://www.nestle.com/All_About/All+About+Nestl.htm
Internationalization is not supported in the Attribute pages of the Operations

Console

Attribute pages of the Operations Console do not display Non-English Unicode characters correctly. For more information on Internationalization support, refer Internationalization Support topic.

Javascript
Javascript redirection is not supported

The Web Capture tool does not record JavaScript redirection in Web pages.
Suppressing JavaScript Error window

While recording and playing back a transaction, the Web Capture tool does not suppress JavaScript Error windows that may appear. Example: www.perbio.com
Transactions with DOM object manipulation not supported

The Web Capture tool does not support transactions wherein the DOM object of the page is manipulated explicitly in JavaScript functions. Example: www.mappoint.msn.com

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Log files
Unicode characters not displayed correctly Web Recorder log files and log files generated by the Validate tool do not display all Unicode characters correctly. Non-English characters may be displayed as '?' or other symbols.

Miscellaneous
Pop-up windows with the Close button/hyperlink are not supported

The Web Capture Tool does not close a pop-up window when the Close button or hyperlink on it is clicked. Workaround: Close the pop-up window manually.
Monitor plays back blocked pop-up windows

The Web Transaction monitor does not suppress pop-up windows even if transactions are recorded without selecting the Allow Popups option.
Web sites that accept inputs from soft keyboard not supported

Transactions that require you to specify inputs using a soft keyboard (an on screen keyboard that duplicates the hardware keyboard. One uses the mouse pointer to choose which key/characters to enter) are not recorded. Example: www.citibank.co.in
URLs with dynamic session IDs are not supported

The monitor and Playback tool do not support transactions that have dynamic session ID values as part of the URL. Example: www.lexus.com
Dynamic Page Titles are not supported Page in a site where the title is frequently altered fails in Title Match. Such

transactions should be treated as site-specific.

Some Web servers change page titles dynamically. In such situations, the

Playback tool and Web Transaction monitors fail to match the recorded Title. Workaround: Record the transaction without Title Match or edit the transaction file and delete the title of the particular step.

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Playback
Persistent Cookies not supported

BMC ProactiveNet Web Capture tool does not support persistent cookies while playing back a transaction file (GUI mode).
Digest Authentication information not supported

While playing back a transaction (GUI mode), access information for Digest type authentication must be entered manually.
NTLM Authentication

If user name or password with special characters such as '@' or domain name is specified as NTLM authentication information for a transaction while recording, then the same information must be entered manually during GUI playback
Support for Transactions recorded using earlier versions of BMC ProactiveNet

BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console does not support playback for transactions recorded using earlier versions of BMC ProactiveNet that are saved on BMC ProactiveNet Server (upgrade setups). Only those transactions that are locally available on the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console are played back.

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Working with event management policies
This chapter describes the components of event management policies and explains how to implement them. It contains the following topics:

Displaying the Infrastructure Management node


By default, the Infrastructure Management node is not displayed in the Event Management Policies tab or the Dynamic Data Editor tab in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console. Perform the following procedure to display the node in these tabs.

To display the Infrastructure Management node


1 In a text editor such as Notepad, open the ix.properties file. By default, the file is located in the following directory: BMC_PROACTIVENET_HOME\admin\etc\ 2 Change the value of the following parameter to True:
infrastructure_management_node_visibility

3 Save and close the ix.properties file. 4 Restart the Administration Console. The Infrastructure Management node is displayed in the Event Management Policies and the Dynamic Data Editor tabs.

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Event management policy types

Event management policy types


Event management policy types provide a base policy definition that enables you to quickly create certain types of policies. Policy types allow you to quickly set up routine event management processes. Table 28 on page 278 describes the standard event management policy types.
Table 28: Standard event management policy types Policy name Blackout Closure Component Based Enrichment Correlation Enrichment Definition sets the status of an event to BLACKOUT. A blackout policy might be used during a maintenance window or holiday period. closes a specified event in response to receipt of a separate event enriches the definition of an event associated with a component by assigning selected component slot definitions to the event slots relates one or more cause events to an effect event, and can close the effect event The cell maintains the association between these cause-and-effect events. adds values for specific event slots if those slots are empty as received from the event source An enrichment event management policy can also reformat slots or normalize slot values. Escalation raises or lowers the priority level of an event after a specified period of time A specified number of event recurrences can also trigger escalation of an event. For example, if the abnormally high temperature of a storage device goes unchecked for 10 minutes or if a cell receives more than five high-temperature warning events in 25 minutes, an escalation event management policy might increase the priority level of the event to critical. Notification sends a request to an external service to notify a user or group of users of the event A notification event management policy might notify a system administrator by means of a pager about the imminent unavailability of mission-critical piece of storage hardware. Propagation Recurrence Remote action forwards events to other cells or to integrations to other products combines duplicate events into one event that maintains a counter of the number of duplicates automatically calls a specified action rule provided the incoming event satisfies the remote execution policys event criteria See also Configuring and using Remote Actions/Diagnostics on page 119 for more information. Suppression specifies which events that the receiving cell should delete Unlike a blackout event management policy, the suppression event management policy maintains no record of the deleted event.

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Policy name Threshold

Definition specifies a minimum number of duplicate events that must occur within a specific period of time before the cell accepts the event For events allowed to pass through to the cell, the event severity can be escalated or de-escalated a relative number of levels or set to a specific level. If the event occurrence rate falls below a specified level, the cell can take action against the event, such as changing the event to closed or acknowledged status.

Timeout Component Based Blackout

changes an event status to closed after a specified period of time elapses Specifies which events the receiving cell should classify as unimportant and therefore not process . The events are logged for reporting purposes. A Component Based Blackout event management policy might specify that the cell ignore events generated from a component or device based on component selection criteria for this policy.

It is also possible to define custom policy types that allow you to do specialized event processing not supported by the out-of-the-box policy types. For more information about creating user-defined policy types, see Creating and using user-defined policies on page 405.

Out-of-the-box event management policies


Several event management policies are included with the product that enable you to interactively set up routine event processing quickly. Standard event management policies that are provided out-of-the-box include:
PATROL_Portal_Closure_on_OK_Events Apache_Login_Failed_Repeats Blackout_Suppression Adapter_Start_Stop_Closure Client_Stop_Closes_Start Sample_Component_Based_Enrichment_Policy Sample_Intelligent_Incident_Service_Policy Event_Reporting_Propagation Event_Propagation_To_Remedy_Help_Desk

Dynamic enrichment policies that are provided out-of-the-box include:


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Out-of-the-box event management policies

Location_Enrichment Service_Contact_Enrichment PATROL_Message_Translation BPM_STATE_CHANGE BPM_RSM_STATE_CHANGE PATROL_EVENT

To use these out-of-the-box dynamic enrichment policies, you must enable the policy, import useful data into the sample .csv files and then import the data into the cell using the policy mechanism. For instructions on creating dynamic enrichment policies, see Creating a new dynamic enrichment event management policy on page 357. Table 29 on page 280 lists the out-of-the-box policies and indicates whether or not each out-of-the-box policy is enabled by default.
Table 29: Out-of-the-box policies Policy type Closure Policy name PATROL_Portal_Closure_on_ OK_Events Adapter_Start_Stop_Closure Client_Stop_Closes_Start JSERVERCellConnectionStatu sPolicy Close_Open_Alarms RATECellConnectionStatusPol icy Component Based Enrichment Dynamic Blackout Sample_Component_Based_ Enrichment_Policy Dynamic_Blackout enriches events by filling selected event slots with the slot values of the component type blacks out events that meet a specified criteria during a specified time period Description closes previous Portal events for the same managed object closes previous events for the same adapter instance Client Stop events close Client Start events and then close themselves Enabled? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No

No

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Policy type

Policy name

Description appends the location of a server to an event appends contact information for a server administrator to an event. For example, contact information may include the name of the administrator for that server and his or her telephone number.

Enabled? No No

Dynamic Enrichment Location_Enrichment Service_Contact_Enrichment

PATROL_Message_Translatio n Intelligent Incident Service Propagation

replaces the text of existing PATROL No event messages with messages that can be more easily understood by operators No

Sample_Intelligent_Incident_S sample policy for creating Intelligent ervice_Policy Incidents for Remedy Helpdesk

Event_Propagation_To_Remed propagates events to Remedy Helpdesk No y_Help_Desk Event_Reporting_Propagation propagates events to the Portal for event reporting No No Yes No No

Recurrence

Apache_Login_Failed_Repeats handles repeating Apache Login Failed events Patrol_Portal_DeDup_Policy handles repeating Portal events for the same managed object suppresses Blackout events suppresses events that meet a specified criteria during a specified time period for specified components

Suppression Component Based Blackout

Blackout_Suppression Component_Based_Blackout

For instructions on using these out-of-the-box policies, see Creating new standard event management policies on page 307 and Creating a new dynamic enrichment event management policy on page 357.

Note The BMC Impact Integration for PATROL product can detect duplicate events and can correlate events that come from the same origin. The rules for detecting duplicated events are located in the MCELL_HOME /etc/ cellName /kb/rules/ bii4p.mrl file. See the patrol_duplicates and the correlate alarm_and_ra definitions. You can use the new patrol_duplicates rule to delete duplicate events and the correlate alarm_and_ra rule to close a current event after a subsequent event arrives from the same origin. BMC Impact Integration for PATROL does not provide a policy for these events.

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How event management policies work

How event management policies work


All event management policies must include the following components:
event selector process(es) timeframe(s) evaluation order

Each event management policy defines selection criteria that is applied to incoming events to determine which events are processed. A timeframe determines when the policy is active or inactive. The evaluation order determines which policies are implemented first if there is a conflict. In addition to these components, dynamic enrichment policies also require a dynamic enrichment source file, for more information on how dynamic enrichment policies interact with dynamic enrichment source files, see How dynamic enrichment event management policies work on page 287.

Event management policy workflow overview


The following figure illustrates the workflow for creating and implementing an event management policy. Figure 34: Event management policy definition workflow

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Event selectors
An event selector is the component of an event management policy that selects one or more events to which an event management policy applies. Rather than specifying a particular event to process, as a rule does, a selector specifies a list of event selection criteria (also called an Event Condition Formula (ECF)). When an incoming event meets any of the specified event selection criteria, the cell applies the associated event management policy to the event. For more information, see Event selection criteria on page 285. Table 30 on page 283 lists the out-of-the-box event selectors.
Table 30: Out-of-the-box event selectors Event selector Group Default Default Default Default Default IBRSD IBRSD None None None None None None PPM PPM PPM Event selector Adapter_Start_Stop Apache_Login_Failed Client Stop PATROL_Portal_Events PATROL_Portal_OK_Events All_Critical_Events Component_Change All_Events BPM_RSM_STATE_CHANGE BPM_STATE_CHANGE Blackout_Events PATROL_Event PATROL_Events Events selected Adapter starting and stopping events Apache web server login failed events client stop events events coming from PATROL Portal OK severity events coming from PATROL Portal critical events propagated to the Integration with BMC Remedy Service Desk service model component change events from BMC Service Impact Management all events state change events coming from the BMC Portal Remote Service Monitor state change events coming from the BMC Performance Manager all blacked-out events not used events coming from PATROL agents

JSERVERCellConnectionStatusSelect events coming from the Jserver or RATECellConnectionStatusSelector OK_Alarms RATE events events with a status of OK

You can create custom event selectors. For information about creating event selectors, see How to create an event selector and specify event selection criteria on page 297.
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Note The maximum number of selectors that can be displayed in the Event Management Policies view is 2500. The view will display 1024 selectors if you set the query_size parameter in the %BMC_PROACTIVENET_HOME%\admin\etc\ix.properties file to less than 100 (< 100) or greater than 2500 (> 2500).

Event selector groups


An event selector group, created when an event selector is defined, enables you to organize event selectors. For example, you could create event selector groups that classify event selectors by the severity of events. You could create one event selector group for major severity events and one for minor severity events. Event selector groups appear as folders in the By Selector subtree in the Event Management Policies navigation pane. The names of event selectors which belong to a group are displayed as group.event_selector_name in the selectors lists in the list pane and in the By Event Class subtree. The name also is displayed in a separate field in the Selector Details tab. Figure 35 on page 284 shows an event selector group called Default that has the Adapter Start Stop event selector highlighted. Notice that details about the highlighted event selector appear in the Selector list in the right pane of the Administration View. Figure 35: Event selector group name

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Event selectors do not have to belong to a group. Event selectors that do not belong to a group are displayed directly under the By Selector subtree.

Event selection criteria


Event selection criteria tells a cell to which incoming events to apply the associated event policies. By using selection criteria to choose events rather than creating a single event management policy for each event type, event selection criteria perform the event management policy equivalent of dynamic data for rules. One event management policy using event selection criteria that spans a range of event types can be easier to maintain than a separate rule for each of many event types. The BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console interface enables you to interactively create syntactically accurate event selection criteria expressions without the need for specific syntax knowledge because the editor verifies that the expression has the correct syntax. For more information see, How to create an event selector and specify event selection criteria on page 297.

Timeframes
Timeframes allow you to specify when the event management policy is active. For example, during scheduled database maintenance periods, you might want to activate an event suppression policy for maintenance-related events to reduce unnecessary event accumulation. For events to be impacted by a timeframe setting, the timeframe must be active for the entire time that is specified in the policy.

Example An escalation policy is defined to escalate an event to priority level 1 (escalated one level) after 10 minutes. Events are generated. No event will be escalated for at least 10 minutes. Five minutes after the policy is enabled, the policy is disabled. Even though the policy was active at the beginning of the 10 minute period, no event is impacted by the policy because it is not active at the end of the 10 minutes. An escalation policy is defined to escalate an event priority after 30 minutes with an active timeframe from 4:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. At 4:45 P.M. Events are generated. The active time period expires at 5:00 P.M. Events generated at 4:45 P.M. are not impacted by the policy because the timeframe is not active at 5:15 P.M.
Table 31 on page 286 describes the types of timeframes you can use in an event management policy.
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Table 31: Timeframe types and descriptions Type local timeframe Icon Description Local timeframes are used for event policies only. They are maintained in the cell and are only visible to a single cell. You create local timeframes from the Event Management Policies tab of the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console, as described in How to create a new local timeframe on page 289.

Evaluation order of event policy types


BMC ProactiveNet cells evaluate event policies of different types based on the order of the rule phase in which the event management policy executes. Table 32 on page 286 describes the standard rule phases and their associated event policy types.
Table 32: Evaluation order of event policy types Evaluation order 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Rule phase refine filter NOPASS regulate threshold new abstract correlate execute propagate delete timer Event policy type blackoutenrichmentdynamic blackoutdynamic enrichmenttimeout (initialization) suppression a threshold a threshold escalation closurerecurrence no related event management policy correlation timeout (arm)notification propagation no related event management policy timeout (execute)escalation

a Unlike other event policies, cells evaluate threshold event policies in two distinct phasesthe first phase
for the hold threshold and the second phase for the pass through threshold.

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WARNING Although event policies of different types are evaluated according to their associated rule phase, event policies of the same type do not have an evaluation order. For example, if event selectors for two event policies of the same type select the same event, the cell evaluates the event according to one event management policy and ignores the other event management policy. To prevent omission of event management policy evaluation, you must create mutually exclusive event selection criteria for two event policies of the same type. With the exception of dynamic blackout, dynamic enrichment, notification and propagation event policies, two or more policies of the same type should not execute against the same event. In the case of exceptional event policies, the cell evaluates all event policies of those four types, even if their selectors reference the same event.

How dynamic enrichment event management policies work


Dynamic enrichment event management policies require the same components as standard event management policies. However, dynamic enrichment policies allow you to import external enrichment data into the policy, rather than having to enter it manually. First, you must either export data from a data source (such as an asset database) or manually enter information into the enrichment file (.csv). Once the data enrichment source file contains the data required, you can use the policy to import the data into BMC ProactiveNet for use in the enrichment process. Figure 36 on page 287 illustrates the dynamic enrichment flow. Figure 36: Flow of data required to implement a dynamic enrichment policy

External enrichment data sources


An external enrichment data source can provide additional information about an event that is not available from the technology from which the event originates. An example of an external enrichment data source is a database such as an asset data store. Information from the database must be manually exported into a flat delimited

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file, so that BMC ProactiveNet can access the information. The recommended format to export the data to is a .csv file. BMC provides some sample policies and associated enrichment data sources in the %BMC_PROACTIVENET_HOME% \admin\etc\samples directory.

Dynamic enrichment source files


A dynamic enrichment source file must contain at least one match field and at least one output field. A match field is the lookup or key field which the dynamic enrichment policy uses to identify the incoming event. You may use multiple match fields to identify an incoming event. An output field identifies the type of enrichment information that is to be added to the event. Once the policy has matched the event data of the match field(s) with the data in the enrichment file, it will add the associated enrichment data from the enrichment file into the output field identified in the policy.

It is critical that the policy definition and the data enrichment source file contain the exact same number of match fields and output fields in the same order. If the match fields and output fields in the enrichment file and the policy do not match, the policy will not run. For example, if you are using the contact.csv file that is included with the product, you must select the Host Class, Host, Object Class, and Object slots as the Match Fields and the Service and Owner slots as the Output Fields to correspond to the slots in the contact.csv file. Wildcards are supported for pattern matching which enables for more generic policy rules to be written.

WARNING

Sample dynamic enrichment source files


Table 33 on page 289 lists the product-supplied dynamic enrichment source files that are located in the %BMC_PROACTIVENET_HOME%\admin\etc\samples directory. These sample files provide commonly needed enrichment information. You can use these files as a guide to create your own dynamic enrichment source files or you can modify and use these sample files.

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Table 33: Dynamic enrichment source files


Data source file location.csv contact.csv Policy name Location_Enrichment Service_Contact_Enrichment Description appends the location of a server to an event appends contact information for a server administrator to an event. For example, contact information may include the name of the administrator for that server and his or her telephone number replaces the text of existing PATROL event messages with messages that can be more easily understood by operators in your enterprise. This file includes predefined message translations that will be immediately useful. For more information, see Using the sample PATROL messaging text translation dynamic enrichment source file on page 294. blacks out events that meet a specified criteria during a specified time period supports event categorization for BMC Performance Manager (BPM) supports event categorization for Remote Service Monitor (RSM) events supports event categorization for PATROL 7 events

TextTranslation.cs v

PATROL_Message_Translation

blackout.csv BPM_Category_ Table.csv

Dynamic_Blackout Dynamic_Enrichment_Policy

BPM_RSM_STATE Dynamic_Enrichment_Policy _CHANGE_ Category_Table.csv PATROL_P7_ Dynamic_Enrichment_Policy Category_Table.csv

For information on creating and using dynamic enrichment source files, see How to create and edit a dynamic enrichment source file on page 292.

How to create a new local timeframe


Local timeframes allow you to specify periods of time that determine when an event management policy will or will not run. You can set up a single timeframe that can apply to multiple policies. For example, if you have several policies that you do not want to run on weekends, you can set up a timeframe from 12:00AM to 12:00 AM on both Saturday and Sunday and call that timeframe Weekend. You can then apply the timeframe Weekend to all policies that you do not want to run on weekends.

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Timeframes are required for blackout policies.

Note

To define an event management policy timeframe


1 From the toolbar of the Event Management Policies tab in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console, click the View/Update Timeframes button .

The Timeframes window is displayed, as shown in Figure 37 on page 290. Figure 37: Timeframes

2 From the Timeframes toolbar, click the New Timeframe button. 3 In the Timeframe New dialog box, enter or modify the information described in Table 34 on page 291.

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Table 34: Timeframe New dialog box options


Field Name Description Start, End Description Name of the timeframe Description of the timeframe Period when the timeframe begins and ends. You can specify the End value as either a Time or Duration. If you select Time, select the appropriate value from the list. If you select Duration, select the number of hours that you want the timeframe to be active. The individual time zone of the cell will be used in timeframe calculations. Recurrence pattern Schedules how often the timeframe will recur. Changing the selection in the left side list will change the options available on the right side. Besides the Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Yearly timeframe options, you can select individual dates that are part of the timeframe by selecting Date List and choosing dates from the displayed calendar. Range of recurrence When you have selected a Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly timeframe option, you can choose the starting and ending date range for the recurrence. Optionally, instead of choosing an end date, you can enter the number of recurrences for the timeframe.

4 To create additional timeframes, click Save and repeat this procedure starting with step 2. 5 To close the editor, click Close.

How to add a notification service (notification policies only)


Before you can create or enable a standard notification event management policy, you must add a notification service. A BASIC_EMAIL notification service that sends an email notification to a specified user or group of users when selected events occur is provided by default.

To add a notification service


1 On the Administration View, choose the Dynamic Data Editor tab. 2 In the Dynamic Data Editor tree, expand the server for which you want to add notification.

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3 Expand the Data section, and then expand the Cell Data section. 4 Select Notification Service. The available notification services are listed in the Notification Service tab in the right pane of the Administration View. 5 Click the Add data instance icon .

A New notification service tab is displayed. 6 On the New tab, in the Name field, enter a unique name for the service. 7 In the Type field, choose one of the following notification service types:
Commandthe notification service is implemented using a command or script Gatewaya gateway to an external notification service will be used

8 In the Service field, enter the appropriate information based on the notification service type:
Commandenter the command or script used to initiate notification. For

example, the script for the default BASIC_EMAIL notification service is mc_sendmail.

Note If the notification service will be executed using a script, the script must be located in the kb/bin/ platform directory of the cell Knowledge Base.
Gatewayenter the name of the destination gateway. This gateway must be

referenced in the directory file of your cell (mcell.dir).

9 [Optional.] In the available_targets field, within the square brackets enter a commaseparated list of predefined users that you want to receive the notification. The list must be known to the notification service. If no predefined list exists, any target string may be entered (such as an email address). 10 Click OK.

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Dynamic enrichment source files are not required for standard event management policies. You only need a dynamic enrichment source file if you are creating a dynamic enrichment policy. Before you enable a dynamic enrichment policy, you must import or enter the data that you want to use for enrichment into a data file. You can import the enrichment data into any delimited flat file; however, BMC Software recommends importing the data into a .csv file and using Microsoft Excel to view and manipulate the contents of the file. The spreadsheet format of Microsoft Excel makes it easier to view and manipulate the information in the file. You can use the sample data enrichment files provided with the product as a guide to set up your own data enrichment source files. The sample files are located in the %BMC_PROACTIVENET_HOME%\admin\etc\samples directory. For a list of sample files provided with the product, see Sample dynamic enrichment source files on page 288.

Note

Before you begin


If you will be referencing a timeframe in your dynamic enrichment source file, you must ensure that the timeframe that you will be referencing already exists. If the timeframe you want to reference does not exist, you must define it as described in How to create a new local timeframe on page 289.

To create a dynamic enrichment source file


1 In Microsoft Excel, create a new file and save it as type .csv. 2 In each column of the spreadsheet, enter information that corresponds to each match value and output value that will be included in your dynamic enrichment policy. It is critical that the policy definition and the data enrichment source file contain the exact same number of match fields and output fields in the same order. If the match fields and output fields in the enrichment file and the policy do not match, the policy will not run. For example, if you are using the location.csv file that is included as a sample with the product, this file has two columnsmc_host and mc_location. If you are creating a dynamic enrichment location policy that uses the location.csv file as the data enrichment source file, you must select the Host slot as the Match Field and the Location slot as the Output Field to correspond to the columns in the location.csv file. 3 Save and close the file.

WARNING

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To edit a sample dynamic enrichment source file


1 Open one of the sample data source files included with the product located in the %BMC_PROACTIVENET_HOME%\admin\etc\samples directory. 2 Import or enter information specific to your enterprise.
Figure 38 on page 294 shows an example of an edited location.csv file.

Figure 38: Example edited location.csv file


# This enrichment file is used to add an extra field "mc_location" to an event. # This can be useful to group together or understand the physical location of IT components to help with event assignment and resolution. # mc_host, mc_location Texan1, Houston Texan2, Houston Cowboy*, Dallas

The location for hosts Texan1 and Texan2 is listed as Houston. The location for all hosts beginning with Cowboy (for example, Cowboy1, CowboySmith, CowboyAikman) is listed as Dallas. 3 Save and close the file. 4 The data enrichment source must be imported into the policy each time you modify the .csv file. For instructions on importing dynamic enrichment data source, see Importing dynamic enrichment source on page 385.

Using the sample PATROL messaging text translation dynamic enrichment source file
The sample PATROL messaging text translation data enrichment source file, TextTranslation.csv, provided in the %BMC_PROACTIVENET_HOME%\admin \etc\samples directory is prepopulated with over two hundred translations for messages from the following Knowledge Modules:
BMC SQL-BackTrack NetWorker OBSI Module PATROL KM for CONTROL-M PATROL KM for UNIX and Linux PATROL KM for Microsoft Windows Servers PATROL KM for Netware PATROL KM for Sybase

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PATROL KM for Internet Server Manager PATROL KM for Oracle BMC Performance Manager for Microsoft Windows Terminal Services

If you are integrated with PATROL, you can gain instant value by enabling this policy and importing the data from TextTranslation.csv into the cell as described in Enabling a dynamic enrichment PATROL message text translation policy on page 381. This policy enables you to reword ambiguous event messages into messages more easily understood by the IT operators handling the events in the BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console. The sample policy, TextTranslation.csv, will translate PATROL event messages coming from either BMC Impact Integration for PATROL 3 or BMC Impact Integration for PATROL 7.

Overview of the PATROL messaging text translation dynamic enrichment source file
The following figure shows some sample rows included in the TextTranslation.csv file. Figure 39: Sample rows in the TextTranslation.csv file

The first three columns are match fields for incoming events. The first column contains the object class or application class of the KM. The second column contains the parameter. The third column contains the origin class. The last column is the output field or the message that should be displayed when an event matching the criteria in the first three columns is received. For example, in the first row, the cell will look for an event coming from the CPUCpuUtil parameter of the CPU application class. When the cell receives that event, it will display the message:
CPU Utilisation is at 97%

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or whatever number the CPU utilization percentage is at that time. Many of the messages in the sample file contain slots that will be populated with values from the parameter. For information on the syntax for using slots in a text message see, Editing the PATROL messaging text translation dynamic enrichment source file on page 296

Editing the PATROL messaging text translation dynamic enrichment source file
You can also add to and edit the TextTranslation.csv file, if required. For example, you might want to translate the messages included in the file into your native language. Or, you might want to include messages related to a KM that is not already included in the file. One of the most powerful features of the text translation file is the ability to include CORE_EVENT base event class slots that will allow you to dynamically populate the message with information from parameters or other components. This feature enables you to create messages that are very meaningful. Figure 39 on page 295 shows some actual messages in the TextTranslation.csv file that include variables. For example, Figure 40: Variable syntax example
FILESYSTEM FSCapacity Filesystem %mc_object% is %mc_parameter_value%\% full

This message includes the %mc_object% and %mc_parameter_value% variables. This syntax in the enrichment source file enables you to substitute the value of the slot you have referenced into the event message. To insert a slot value into a message, use the following syntax:
Message text %<slot_name>% message text

If you need to include a % sign in the actual message text, you must precede the % character with a back slash (\). For example, in Figure 40 on page 296 the desired text message includes a % character. The syntax for the message is
%mc_parameter_value%\% full.

If the value of mc_object is D: and the value of mc_parameter is 97 the reworded message would be:
Filesystem D: is 97% full.

For a list of CORE_EVENT base event class slots that you can use in text messages, see BMC Knowledge Base Development Reference Manual.
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How to create an event selector and specify event selection criteria


An event selector is the component of an event management policy that selects one or more events to which an event management policy applies using specified event selection criteria. When an incoming event matches any of the specified event selection criteria, the cell applies the associated event management policy to the event.

Before you begin


Unless you want the event management policy to run continuously, you must

define a timeframe as described in How to create a new local timeframe on page 289. described in How to create and edit a dynamic enrichment source file on page 292.

[For dynamic enrichment policies only.] Create a data enrichment source file as

To create an event selector and specify event selection criteria


1 From the Administration View, select the Event Management Polices tab. 2 Select a valid node (non-cell group) from the navigation pane.
Valid nodes for event selector creation are all visible nodes except the top-level

cell group node. When the Add Event Selector button in the toolbar becomes active, this is an indication that valid node is selected. .

On the Administration View toolbar, click the Add Event Selector button

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The Selector Details tab, shown in Figure 41 on page 298, is displayed. Figure 41: Selector Details tab

4 In the Selector Name field, type the event selector name. 5 In the Group field, type an event selector group name. The event selector that you create in the next step will belong to the event selector group that you enter. If you enter a name of an event selector group that does not exist, that group will be created.

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To the right of the Base Event Class field, click the ellipses button to display an event class chooser dialog box (shown in Figure 42 on page 299) from which to choose the event class. Figure 42: Class Chooser dialog box

7 Select an event class from the tree and click OK to accept the class. For more information about event classes, see the BMC Knowledge Base Development Reference Guide. 8 In the Description field, type an optional description for the event selector. 9 Click Add to add event selection criteria to this event selector. The Add Event Criteria editor is displayed.
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10 From the Add Event Criteria editor, type a description for the event selection criteria in the Description slot. 11 In the Event Class field, use one of the following methods to select an event class on which to base the event selection criteria:
Accept the default event class in the Event Class field. Change the class by clicking the browse button. The Class Chooser dialog box

is displayed, select a class and click OK.

You cannot change the event class specified in an ECF to any class that is not at the same level or below the event class already specified in the ECF. If the ECF contains slots in the current class that are not in the new class, you cannot change to the new class, even when it occurs in the hierarchy rooted in the base event class. 12 In the Selection Definition section, shown in Figure 43 on page 300, create an expression that is used to determine whether an event of the selected class is processed by the policy by choosing a Slot, Operation, and Value. Figure 43: Selection Definition section of the Add Event Criteria editor

Note

The example expression in Figure 44 on page 300 tests events for Windows

security messages containing logon and logoff messages. You might use this expression as part of an event selector for implementation in an event blackout policy that hides these security events from display but maintains their history.

Figure 44: Example event selection criteria expression

For a list and definitions of EVENT slots available for selection, see the event and

data classes appendix of the BMC Knowledge Base Development Reference Guide. For a list and definitions of the operators available for each slot, see the section on operators in the Master Rule Language (MRL) appendix of the BMC Knowledge Base Development Reference Guide.

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13 Click OK to save the expression and close the Add Event Criteria editor. The event selection criteria is displayed in the Event Selection Criteria section of the Selector Details tab, as shown in Figure 45 on page 301. Figure 45: Completed event selection criteria in Selector Details tab

14 To add more event selection criteria, click Add and repeat List item. on page 300 through List item. on page 301. 15 Click OK to save the event selector and its event selector group.

Alias formulas
You can add and edit alias formulas provided you
belong to the Full Access or Service Administrators group have at least one cell connection to the BMC ProactiveNet Server

Several default alias formulas are provided out-of-the-box. For example, default aliases for the BMC PATROL product are offered for PATROL events of class PATROL_EV. These aliases can be used by the BMC Impact Integration for PATROL product.

Working with Event Alias Formulas


This section provides details about how to create event alias formulas.

To create a new event alias formula


1 From the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console menu bar, choose Tools =>Event Alias Formulas.

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The Alias Formulas Editor window is displayed. It lists the connected cells in

the Cell list. It displays all current alias formulas for the selected cell in the list, as shown in Figure 46 on page 302. Figure 46: Alias Formulas Editor

The menu bar at the top of the window contains the following icons:
Icon Purpose to edit a selected alias formula to create a new alias formula to copy an existing alias formula to use as a template for creating a new alias formula to delete a selected alias formula to copy an existing alias formula to paste an alias formula

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2 In the Cell list, select the cell you want to work on. 3 To add a new alias formula, click the New Alias Formula icon.
The Add Alias Formula dialog box is opened.

Figure 47: Add Alias Formula dialog

4 In the Formula Name text box, enter a name for the alias formula. 5 Under the Event Match Criteria label, in the Event Class box, select an event class from the list.
When an event arrives at the cell, its event class has to match the event class or a

subclass of the event class before the alias formula is even considered.

6 (optional) In the Match Attributes box, choose attributes and enter values to refine which events (within the event class) will generate aliases.
For each attribute you choose, select one of the conditional operators, as

described in Table 35 on page 304, and enter a value in the text box to further define the events that are used to generate aliases using this formula.

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Table 35: Description of conditional operators Conditional operators Description anything the attribute can contain any value and is not used as a selection criteria If every attribute listed has anything that means that every incoming event that belongs to the event class will pass through alias formula processing contains has prefix has suffix equals the characters you enter in the text box occur someplace in the value the value starts with the characters you enter in the text box the value ends with the characters you enter in the text box the value exactly matches the characters you enter in the text box

If you use more than one attribute, each condition must test true (the Boolean operator between the selection criteria phrases is AND) before the alias formula process is performed. For example, in Figure 48 on page 304, the search phrase would read: Hostname contains SALLOG and IP address equals 555.22.19.105. Both conditions must be true for the event to be selected for alias processing. Figure 48: Example of match attributes

7 In the Alias Formula area, use the Attribute, Text, and Function buttons in any order and as many times as needed to build the formula: a To insert an attribute in the formula, click the Attribute button. The attributes shown are those that belong to the event class you selected in the Event Definition area. When an attribute is selected, the control shows the attribute name, and the preview area is updated to show the syntax of the formula as it currently exists.

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Tip If your formula for a configuration item contains the mc_host slot with a host name value, then the mc_host slot of the matching event definition should also contain the host name value, not the IP address, of the configuration item. For example, if you assign the mc_host slot in your formula the value mycomputer.abc.com, then the mc_host slot of the incoming event should contain the same host name value, not the IP address. You can check with your system administrator for the correct Domain Name System (DNS) resolution if the object represented by the configuration item experiences host name resolution errors.
b To insert literal text (for example, a period, semi-colon, the word Oracle), click on the Text button. In the text box, type the literal text that you want in the alias formula. Literal text appears in the first part of the alias formula with data type definitions. c To insert a function that defines the data type and an expression in the formula, click on the Function button. Type the function and choose the data type. For a list of functions you can use, see BMC Knowledge Base Development Reference Guide . d (optional) To change the order of the elements in the alias formula, select the part of the formula you want to move and click the Move arrow button as appropriate. e (optional) To delete one of the elements in the alias formula, select the part of the formula you want to delete and click the Delete button. 8 When the alias formula is complete, click Save.

To edit an event alias formula


1 Choose Tools => Event Alias Formulas. 2 In the Alias Formulas Editor window, select an existing alias computing formula. 3 Click the Edit Alias Formula icon. 4 In the Edit Alias Formula dialog box, make changes as needed. 5 When your changes are complete, click OK.

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To delete an event alias formula


1 Choose Tools =>Event Alias Formula s . 2 In the Alias Formulas Editor window, select an existing alias computing formula. 3 Click the Delete Alias Formula icon .

Devices with multiple IP addresses


BMC ProactiveNet 8.0 supplies aliases and alias formulas for all devices. However, the alias only applies to the first device-IP association, when the device is associated with multiple IP addresses. You have to create a custom alias formula to supply an alias to any subsequent device-IP associations. For example, the following alias formula associates the alias pn_vm-w23-sms29_<IPAddress> to a device with the attributes EA_EVENT class and with the mc_object slot equal to testobj1:
BMC_SIM_MATCH_TABLE; data_handle=966; mc_udid='mc.pncell_vm-w23-rds847.ad85f87.0'; mc_creation_time=1255694215; mc_modification_time=1255694275; mc_modification_requestor=admin; publish_env_id=''; ReadSecurity=[]; WriteSecurity=[]; name=Custom_AF1; tag=alias; input_match=['<EA_EVENT>','*','*','*','*','<testobj1>','*']; ref_instances_classes=[EA_EVENT]; output_expressions=['sprintf("pn_vm-w23-sms29_%s", [$1.mc_host_address])']; END

To add/edit an alias formula associated with a component instance


1 Open a service model in a View window of the Services tab. 2 Select a component instance, right-click to display the pop-up, and choose Event Alias Formulas to open the Alias Formulas Editor window. If the host names of the component instances are not in lower case, then you must define a custom alias formula to associate the event with the CI. 3 Refer to the procedures described in this topic, Working with Event Alias Formulas on page 301.

Note

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Creating new standard event management policies


This section provides instructions for creating new standard event policies based on default event management policy types. If you want to create an event management policy based on a custom policy type, see Creating and using user-defined policies on page 405.
Unless you want the event management policy to run continuously, you must

define a timeframe as described in How to create a new local timeframe on page 289. to create an event selector and specify event selection criteria on page 297.

Define an event selector and specify event selection criteria as described in How

Table 36 on page 307 lists each standard event management policy type and the page number of the procedure for each type.
Table 36: Standard event management policy types and procedures To create this event policy... Blackout Component Based Enrichment Closure Correlation Enrichment Escalation Notification Propagation Recurrence Suppression Threshold Timeout Component Based Blackout See... To create new a standard blackout policy on page 309 To create a new component based enrichment policy on page 313 To create a new closure policy on page 322 To create a new correlation policy on page 325 To create an enrichment policy on page 329 To create an escalation policy on page 334 To create a new notification policy on page 339 To create a new propagation policy on page 342 To create a new recurrence policy on page 345 To create a new suppression policy on page 348 To create a new threshold policy on page 350 To create a new timeout policy on page 354 To create a new component based blackout policy on page 318

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Creating a new standard blackout policy


A blackout policy specifies a period of time during which notifications about incoming events that match the event specification criteria are ignored. The blackout events, however, are logged. You can view the blackout events when you open the collector that is specific to the events. Typically you define a blackout policy for a specific time frame or time frames, indicating when the policy is active, inactive, or both. Although the events originating from the device are blacked out, you can still collect data from the device.

Relation to Scheduled Down Time feature


Note See Scheduling downtime on page 190 for information on the Scheduled Down Time feature.
To stop data collection from a device or monitor, you can schedule a downtime period that effectively makes the device or monitor unavailable. Data-only users must use the Scheduled Down Time feature to manage data collection. You schedule a device or monitor downtime through the BMC ProactiveNet Administration or Operations console. Event-only users must use the blackout policy to manage event notifications. You define an event management policy through the BMC ProactiveNet Administration console. When you stop data collection through the Scheduled Down Time feature on a monitored device, the monitors stop generating events. You do not have to schedule a blackout policy in this instance. However, if external events are generated from the same device components, then you should schedule a blackout policy to stop the event notifications. Event and data users must use both the blackout policy and the Scheduled Down Time feature to stop external event notification and data collection. You can simultaneously
schedule a downtime period for a device to stop data collection apply a blackout event mangement policy to events that originate from the device

Tip

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You can schedule the downtime period and the event management policy at separate or overlapping time periods. The following matrix outlines the interrelationship among the Scheduled Down Time, managing data collection, and the event management blackout policy features. It focuses on the impact on internal and external events, event views, and event rules. Table 37: Relationship among scheduled downtime, managing data collection, and blackout policy
Scheduled downtime/ Managing data collection On or Off? On On Off Off Internal events generated? Yes Yes No No External Blackout events policy for generated? monitored events? Yes Yes Yes Yes True False True False Events displayed in Event View Event rule triggered?

internal (Blackout state) and external events

external only

internal and external events internal and external only external events only only external events only external only extermal only

When to use a blackout policy


You would schedule a blackout policy for events for several reasons. Some of them include
upgrading the BMC ProactiveNet device changing your network environment reducing the volume of event messages displayed in the consoles eliminate misleading events and notifications during a maintenance window

To create new a standard blackout policy


1 From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration View, expand the By Policy Type folder. 2 Under the By Policy Type folder, select Blackout Policy. 3 Click the Add Policy button .

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A Selector Chooser dialog box is displayed.

4 From the Selector Chooser dialog box, choose the event selector that you want to use for this policy and click OK. The Blackout Policy Details tab is displayed in the details pane of the Administration View as shown in Figure 49 on page 310. Figure 49: Blackout Policy Details tab

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5 In the Policy Name field, type a unique alphanumeric name for the event management policy. The name must contain no spaces. 6 In the Description field, type a description of the event management policy. 7 To enable the event management policy, select the Enabled check box. If you do not want to enable the policy at this time, you can return to this dialog box and enable the policy later. 8 In the Policy Activation Timeframes section, define the periods of time the event management policy should be active (when enabled) by performing the following actions: a Select one of the following choices:
To make the event management policy active continuously, select Always

Active. You would choose this option rarely, only under special circumstances.

To specify when the policy is active or inactive, select Define Activation

Timeframes. This is the typical option for scheduling blackout events.

The Active Timeframes and Not Active Timeframes selections are shown, as shown in Figure 50 on page 311. Figure 50: Policy Activation Timeframe panel

b If you selected Define Activation Timeframes, depending on how you want to define the timeframe for your policy do one or both of the following:
To specify the periods of time when the policy should be active, select the

Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

To specify the periods of time when the policy should be inactive, select the

Not Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

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Note You can select both check boxes to create active and inactive time periods. However, the inactive time period takes precedence over the active time period.
9 When specifying the time frames, you can indicate how you want to handle blackout events at the start, during, and at the end of the timeframe schedule. The actions under each timeframe period are mutually exclusive and are described in Table 38 on page 312. During the processing phase, the blackout event policy evaluates each event for a match based on its selector only once, when it arrives at the cell. To maintain adequate system performance, the blackout policy does not evaluate events at the start and the end of every active time frame. Table 38: Actions for blackout events
Timeframe period At start of Blackout Window Action Do not change status of existing events This default option leaves all existing events in their current status. Change status of existing open events to blackout You would choose this option to reclassify open events, effectively removing unneeded statuses that would no longer make sense during the blackout time frame. During Blackout Window

Keep incoming events and set their status to blackout This default option converts all incoming matching events to blackout status. Discard incoming events This option filters out all incoming blacked-out events so that you do not have to see them.

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Timeframe period At End of Blackout Window

Action Leave blacked-out events in blackout status This default option maintains the blackout status of the events received during the blackout window and those events whose status was changed to blackout at the start of the blackout window. Change existing blacked-out events to open status This option changes all events in blackout status to open status. It does not impact events in closed status. Choosing this option lets you see events which arrived during the blackout time frame that are still valid.

Note Blackout event actions are applied to events based on their policy selectors when the events first arrive at the cell. If you modify an event after it has been processed by the cell so that it no longer matches its policy selector, the blackout event action is still applied to the event based on the initial evaluation.
10 Click OK. BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console saves the defined event management policy, and it is displayed in the list of event policies for the selected event selector.

Creating a new component based enrichment policy


A component based enrichment policy enables you to enhance the event definition of an incoming event that is already associated with a component through an mc_smc_id or mc_smc_alias match. When you define the component based policy, you assign specified slot values from a standard list of component slots (BMC_BaseElement class) to matching slots in the associated event definition. Whenever an event that matches the selection criteria is received, its definition is automatically enriched by the specified component slot values.

To create a new component based enrichment policy


1 From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration View, expand the By Policy Type folder. 2 Under the By Policy Type folder, select Component Based Enrichment Policy. 3 Click the Add Event Policy button.
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A Selector Chooser dialog box is displayed.

4 From the Selector Chooser dialog box, choose the event selector that you want to use for this policy and click OK. The event selector controls which events are processed by the policy and, consequently, which event slots are displayed in the Event fields list.

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The Component Based Enrichment Policy Details tab is displayed in the details pane of the Administration View as shown in Figure 51 on page 315. Figure 51: Component Based Enrichment Policy Details tab

5 In the Policy Name field, type a unique alphanumeric name for the event management policy. The name must contain no spaces. 6 In the Description field, type a description of the event management policy. 7 To enable the event management policy, select the Enabled check box. If you do not want to enable the policy at this time, you can return to this dialog box and enable the policy later. 8 Assign a numerical value to the policy in the Execution Order combo box. The numerical value indicates the order in which policies are automatically executed. Policies are executed in ascending chronological order. A policy with the lowest numerical value is executed first while the policy with the highest numerical value is executed last. During the execution phase, policies with higher numerical values always overwrite the preceding policies with lower numerical values.

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Example You have defined four component based enrichment policies and have assigned each a unique numerical value (1, 2, 3, or 4) in the Execution Order combo box. The policy assigned the value 1 is executed first, followed in ascending numerical order by policies assigned the values 2, 3, and 4. During the execution sequence, the policy with the value 2 overwrites the policy with the value 1; the policy with value 3 overwrites the policy with value 2; and the policy with value 4 overwrites the policy with value 3.
You should assign higher numerical values to policies that you want to execute last and lower values to policies that you want to execute first. 9 In the Policy Activation Timeframes section, define the periods of time the event management policy should be active (when enabled) by performing the following actions: a Select one of the following choices:
To make the event management policy active continuously, select Always

Active.

To specify when the policy is active or inactive, select Define Activation

Timeframes.

The Active Timeframes and Not Active Timeframes check boxes are enabled. b If you selected Define Activation Timeframes, depending on how you want to define the timeframe for your policy do one or both of the following:
To specify the periods of time when the policy should be active, select the

Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

To specify the periods of time when the policy should be inactive, select the

Not Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

You can select both check boxes to create active and inactive time periods. However, the inactive time period takes precedence over the active time period. 10 In the Component Based Event Enrichment Details tab, assign the component slots to the matching event slots in the Match the Component and Event Slots section. Consider these guidelines before you make the assignments:

Note

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The list of event slots is dynamic insofar as it depends on the base event class

you chose in the selector. The list that you see always contains a subset of the CORE_EVENT class. It also contains any additional slot or slots derived from the subclass you specified as the base event class. BMC_BaseElement class.

The list of component slots is static. The component slots are derived from the

You can view and edit a list of excluded event and component slots in the

%BMC_PROACTIVENET_HOME%\pronto\data\ix \configurationItemPolicies\

configurationItemEnrichment.slotFiltering.properties file. You can specify event and component slots to be excluded in the appropriate field: excluded.event.slots and excluded component.slots. Add or update the slots using a comma-separated list. After updating and saving the configurationItemEnrichment.slotFiltering.properties file, restart the jserver by entering the following commands: pw p e jserver pw p s jserver
The component slot value overwrites any current value in the matching event

slot.

You must match slots of similar types: STRING with STRING, INTEGER with

INTEGER, BOOLEAN with BOOLEAN, and so forth.

The table does not support the assignment of LIST or LIST OF slots. To make the assignment, select a slot name in the Event fields column and, using the arrow button, move it to the Assignment Table, where you match it with a slot in the Component fields column. 11 Click OK. BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console saves the defined component based enrichment policy, and it is displayed in the list of event policies for the selected event selector.

Note

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Creating a new component based blackout policy


A component based blackout policy specifies a period of time during which incoming events that match the component selection criteria will be ignored. All ignored events are logged. Typically you define a blackout policy for a specific time frame or time frames, indicating when the policy is active, inactive, or both.

To create a new component based blackout policy


1 From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration View, expand the By Policy Type folder. 2 Under the By Policy Type folder, select Component Based Blackout Policy. 3 Click the Add Policy button .

A Selector Chooser dialog box is displayed.

4 From the Selector Chooser dialog box, choose the event selector that you want to use for this policy and click OK.

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The Component Based Blackout policy Details tab is displayed as shown in Figure 52 on page 319. Figure 52: Component Based Blackout Policy Details tab

5 In the Policy Name field, type a unique alphanumeric name for the event management policy. The name must contain no spaces. 6 In the Description field, type a description of the event management policy. 7 To enable the event management policy, select the Enabled check box. If you do not want to enable the policy at this time, you can return to this dialog box and enable the policy later. 8 Edit the component selection criteria by clicking Edit Component Selector to open the Edit Criteria dialog box. You can devise component selector criteria by specifying the component class, a slot within the class, and a corresponding slot value. You can include multiple conditions by using the AND operator.
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Some example component selectors are shown below:


BMC_BaseElement($CI) where [$CI.Name contains 'HR_Workways'] BMC_BaseElement($CI) where [$CI.Name contains 'HR_Workways' AND $CI.Department contains 'Warehousing'] BMC_BaseElement($CI) where [$CI.Name contains 'HR_Workways' AND $CI.Company contains 'ENEL']

9 Enter the component selection criteria, and click OK. 10 In the Policy Activation Timeframes section, define the periods of time the event management policy should be active (when enabled) by performing the following actions: a Select one of the following choices:
To make the event management policy active continuously, select Always

Active. You would choose this option rarely, only under special circumstances.

To specify when the policy is active or inactive, select Define Activation

Timeframes. This is the typical option for scheduling blackout events.

The Active Timeframes and Not Active Timeframes selections are shown, as shown in Figure 53 on page 320. Figure 53: Policy Activation Timeframe panel

b If you selected Define Activation Timeframes, depending on how you want to define the timeframe for your policy do one or both of the following:
To specify the periods of time when the policy should be active, select the

Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

To specify the periods of time when the policy should be inactive, select the

Not Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

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Note You can select both check boxes to create active and inactive time periods. However, the inactive time period takes precedence over the active time period.
11 When specifying the time frames, you can indicate how you want to handle blackout events at the start, during, and at the end of the timeframe schedule. The actions under each timeframe period are mutually exclusive and are described in Table 39 on page 321. During the processing phase, the blackout event policy evaluates each event for a match based on its selector only once, when it arrives at the cell. To maintain adequate system performance, the blackout policy does not evaluate events at the start and the end of every active time frame.
Table 39: Actions for blackout events Timeframe period At start of Blackout Window Action Do not change status of existing events This default option leaves all existing events in their current status. Change status of existing open events to blackout You would choose this option to reclassify open events, effectively removing unneeded statuses that would no longer make sense during the blackout time frame. During Blackout Window

Keep incoming events and set their status to blackout This default option converts all incoming matching events to blackout status. Discard incoming events This option filters out all incoming blacked-out events so that you do not have to see them.

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Timeframe period At End of Blackout Window

Action Leave blacked-out events in blackout status This default option maintains the blackout status of the events received during the blackout window and those events whose status was changed to blackout at the start of the blackout window. Change existing blacked-out events to open status This option changes all events in blackout status to open status. It does not impact events in closed status. Choosing this option lets you see events which arrived during the blackout time frame that are still valid.

Blackout event actions are applied to events based on their policy selectors when the events first arrive at the cell. If you modify an event after it has been processed by the cell so that it no longer matches its policy selector, the blackout event action is still applied to the event based on the initial evaluation. 12 Click OK. BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console saves the defined event management policy, and it is displayed in the list of event policies for the selected event selector.

Note

Creating a new closure policy


An closure policy closes a specified event when a separate specified event is received.

To create a new closure policy


1 From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration View, expand the By Policy Type folder. 2 Under the By Policy Type folder, select Closure Policy. 3 Click the Add Policy button .

A Selector Chooser dialog box is displayed.

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4 From the Selector Chooser dialog box, choose the event selector that you want to use for this policy and click OK. The Closure Policy Details tab is displayed in the details pane of the Administration View as shown in Figure 54 on page 323. Figure 54: Closure Policy Details tab

5 In the Policy Name field, type a unique alphanumeric name for the event management policy. The name must contain no spaces.
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6 In the Description field, type a description of the event management policy. 7 To enable the event management policy, select the Enabled check box. If you do not want to enable the policy at this time, you can return to this dialog box and enable the policy later. 8 In the Policy Activation Timeframes section, define the periods of time the event management policy should be active (when enabled) by performing the following actions: a Select one of the following choices:
To make the event management policy active continuously, select Always

Active.

To specify when the policy is active or inactive, select Define Activation

Timeframes.

The Active Timeframes and Not Active Timeframes check boxes are enabled. b If you selected Define Activation Timeframes, depending on how you want to define the timeframe for your policy do one or both of the following:
To specify the periods of time when the policy should be active, select the

Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

To specify the periods of time when the policy should be inactive, select the

Not Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

You can select both check boxes to create active and inactive time periods. However, the inactive time period takes precedence over the active time period. 9 Click Edit Event Criteria. The Add Event Criteria window is displayed. 10 In the Add Event Criteria window, specify event selection criteria for the event type that you want to close and click OK. 11 To close only matching events that occur within a certain timeframe, check the Close Events with Age Less Than check box and specify an amount of time. If the Close Events with Age Less Than check box is not checked, there is no limit on the time between the closed event and the closing event.

Note

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12 To suppress (drop) the closing event, check the Suppress the Closing Event check box. In this context, the closing event is the event that matches the selector criteria and that closes the previously received events, which are identified in the Events to Close section. For example, a client-stop event can be chosen to close a clientstart event. When you choose to suppress the closing event, you are instructing the system to drop the event that matches the selector and that closes the previously received events in the Events to Close section. In the example, the client-stop event, after closing the client-start event, would then be dropped. 13 To save the completed event closure policy, click OK. BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console saves the defined event management policy, and it is displayed in the list of event policies for the specified event selector.

Creating a new correlation policy


A correlation policy relates one or more cause events to an effect event. If desired, this policy can close the effect event. The cell maintains the association between these cause-and-effect events.

To create a new correlation policy


1 From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration View, expand the By Policy Type folder. 2 Under the By Policy Type folder, select Correlation Policy. 3 Click the Add Policy button .

A Selector Chooser dialog box is displayed.

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4 From the Selector Chooser dialog box, choose the event selector that you want to use for this policy and click OK.

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The Correlation Policy Details tab is displayed in the details pane of the Administration View, as shown in Figure 55 on page 327. Figure 55: Correlation Policy Details tab

5 In the Policy Name field, type a unique alphanumeric name for the event management policy. The name must contain no spaces. 6 To enable the event management policy immediately, select the Enabled check box. If you do not want to enable the policy at this time, you can return to this dialog box and enable the policy later.
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7 In the Description field, type a description of the event management policy. 8 In the Policy Activation Timeframes section, define the periods of time the event management policy should be active (when enabled) by performing the following actions: a Select one of the following choices:
To make the event management policy active continuously, select Always

Active.

To specify when the policy is active or inactive, select Define Activation

Timeframes.

The Active Timeframes and Not Active Timeframes lists are enabled. b If you selected Define Activation Timeframes, depending on how you want to define the timeframe for your policy do one or both of the following:
To specify the periods of time when the policy should be active, select the

Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

To specify the periods of time when the policy should be inactive, select the

Not Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

You can select both check boxes to create active and inactive time periods. However, the inactive time period takes precedence over the active time period. 9 Complete a separate Cause Event tab as appropriate for each cause event that you want to define. Table 40 on page 328 describes each of the controls in the Cause Event tabs.
Table 40: Cause Event tab controls Field name Enable check box Edit Event Criteria button Correlation Timespan check box Description Select this check box to relate the cause events to the effect events; this information is stored in the cell. Click this button to specify the selection criteria for the cause event. Select this check box and enter a time limit within which the cause event must occur to produce the effect event.

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Field name Close Effect Event radio buttons

Description Choose one of the following radio buttons to specify the circumstances under which the effect event will be closed: Upon Correlationas soon as events are associated (cause and effect), the effect event is closed On Cause Event Closurewhen the cause event closes, the effect event is closed also On Its Ownclosing the cause event has no consequence to the effect event

Escalate Cause Event check box De-escalate Effect Event check box

select this check box to escalate the cause event to the specified priority level select this check box to de-escalate the effect event

10 To save the completed event correlation policy, click OK. BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console saves the defined event management policy, and it is displayed in the list of event policies for the selected event selector.

Creating a new enrichment policy


An enrichment policy adds values for specific event slots if those slots are empty when the event is received from the event source. An enrichment policy can also reformat slots or normalize slot values.

To create an enrichment policy


1 From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration View, expand the By Policy Type folder. 2 Under the By Policy Type folder, select Enrichment Policy. 3 Click the Add Policy button .

A Selector Chooser dialog box is displayed.

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4 From the Selector Chooser dialog box, choose the event selector that you want to use for this policy and click OK.

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The Enrichment Policy Details tab is displayed in the details pane as shown in Figure 56 on page 331. Figure 56: Enrichment Policy Details tab

5 In the Description field, type a description of the event management policy. 6 To enable the event management policy, select the Enabled check box. If you do not want to enable the policy at this time, you can return to this dialog box and enable the policy later. 7 In the Policy Activation Timeframes section, define the periods of time that the event management policy should be active (when enabled) by performing the following actions: a Select one of the following choices:
To make the event management policy active continuously, select Always

Active.

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To specify when the policy is active or inactive, select Define Activation

Timeframes.

The Active Timeframes and Not Active Timeframes lists are enabled. b If you selected Define Activation Timeframes, depending on how you want to define the timeframe for your policy do one or both of the following:
To specify the periods of time when the policy should be active, select the

Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

To specify the periods of time when the policy should be inactive, select the

Not Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

You can select both check boxes to create active and inactive time periods. However, the inactive time period takes precedence over the active time period. 8 Enable the following check boxes as necessary to assign appropriate settings:
Event Prioritythe relative priority to assign to the event (1 is a high priority) Event Categorythe classification to assign to the event; categories include AVAILABILITY_MANAGEMENT CAPACITY_MANAGEMENT CHANGE_MANAGEMENT CONFIGURATION_MANAGEMENT FINANCIAL_MANAGEMENT INCIDENT_MANAGEMENT OPERATIONS_MANAGEMENT PROBLEM_MANAGEMENT RELEASE_MANAGEMENT SECURITY_MANAGEMENT SERVICE_CONTONUITY_MANAGEMENT SERVICE_DESK_MANAGEMENT

Note

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SLA_MANAGEMENT Event Severitythe severity to assign to the event Location to Setthe physical location of the object, such as a city Services to Setthe service that the event is associated with

9 In the Message Text Format box, define the message slot enrichment for the event as follows: a From the list of available event slots in the Event Slot box, select an event slot to which to add enrichment information and click Insert. b To insert a a slot value into the message, either type the slot name surrounded by % characters or select the slot name from the Event Slot list and click Insert. The box is a standard text box. You can position the cursor and type or insert text and slot references in any order. The Event Slot list and Insert button are provided as a convenience so you do not have to remember the valid slot names. The resulting string of characters in the Message Text Format box, %<slot name>%, whether typed or inserted, is used as a template to create the message (msg slot) for the event. Repeat steps these steps to add more enrichment information to the event slot, if necessary. The hidden and list of slots are not available for message enrichment. To avoid unpredictable results when adding a text message, use no more than one set of quotation marks. 10 To save the completed event enrichment policy, click OK. BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console saves the defined event management policy, and it is displayed in the list of event policies for the selected event selector. The enrichment policy is ineffective when an event is updated by the RATE process.

Note

Note

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Creating a new escalation policy


An escalation policy raises or lowers the priority level of an event after a specified period of time. A specified number of event recurrences can also trigger escalation of an event. For example, if the abnormally high temperature of a storage device goes unchecked for 10 minutes or if a cell receives more than five high-temperature warning events in 25 minutes, an escalation event management policy could increase the priority level of the event to critical.

To create an escalation policy


1 From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration View, expand the By Policy Type folder. 2 Under the By Policy Type folder, select Escalation Policy and click OK. 3 Click the Add Policy button .

A Selector Chooser dialog box is displayed.

4 From the Selector Chooser dialog box, choose the event selector that you want to use for this policy and click OK.

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The Escalation Policy Details tab is displayed in the details pane of the Administration View, as shown in Figure 57 on page 335. Figure 57: Escalation Policy Details tab

5 In the Policy Name field, type a unique alphanumeric name for the event management policy. The name must contain no spaces. 6 In the Description field, type a description of the event management policy. 7 To enable the event management policy, select the Enabled check box. If you do not want to enable the policy at this time, you can return to this dialog box and enable the policy later.

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8 In the Policy Activation Timeframes section, define the periods of time the event management policy should be active (when enabled) by performing the following actions: a Select one of the following choices:
To make the event management policy active continuously, select Always

Active.

To specify when the policy is active or inactive, select Define Activation

Timeframes.

The Active Timeframes and Not Active Timeframes lists are enabled. b If you selected Define Activation Timeframes, depending on how you want to define the timeframe for your policy do one or both of the following:
To specify the periods of time when the policy should be active, select the

Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

To specify the periods of time when the policy should be inactive, select the

Not Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

You can select both check boxes to create active and inactive time periods. However, the inactive time period takes precedence over the active time period. 9 In the Time Escalation section, shown in Figure 58 on page 337, use the Timespan Before Priority is Escalated selectors to enter the number of a specified period of time that must elapse before an event is escalated. The default time period is seconds, but this time period can be changed to minutes, hours, or days by selecting one of these time periods from the drop list.

Note

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Note You can set Time Escalation or Rate of Event Arrival, or both. To set only one, leave the fields of the other set to zero.
Figure 58: Time Escalation Controls

10 Choose one of the following radio buttons to determine how the priority of the event will be escalated after the specified time has elapsed:
Levels to Escalate/De-escalate Priority ByChoose this radio button to

escalate or de-escalate the event by a specified number of levels after the time period specified by the Timespan Before Priority is Escalated selector has elapsed. Enter the number of levels that the event is to be escalated. specified priority level after the time period specified by the Timespan Before Priority is Escalated selector has elapsed. Choose the priority level from the drop list.

Set Priority to This ValueChoose this radio button to set the event to a

11 (optional) To prevent the event from being escalated after it has been acknowledged, select the Do not Escalate if Acknowledged check box. 12 (optional) To prevent the event from being escalated after it has been assigned, select the Do not Escalate if Assigned check box. 13 In the Rate of Event Arrival section, shown in Figure 59 on page 338, in the Number of Events Needed for Escalation selector, enter the number of events that must occur before the event is escalated.

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Note You can set Time Escalation or Rate of Event Arrival or both. To set only one, leave the fields of the other set to zero.
Figure 59: Rate of Event Arrival Controls

14 In the Timespan in which Events Must Arrive selector, enter the time in which the events must arrive before the event is escalated or the event priority is changed. 15 Choose one of the following radio buttons to determine how the priority of the event will be escalated after the number of events have arrived within the specified timespan:
Levels to Escalate Causal Event PriorityChoose this radio button to escalate

the causal event by a specified number of levels after the number of events specified Number of Events Needed for Escalation selector have occurred within the time period specified by the Timespan in which Events Must Arrive selector. Enter the number of levels that the event is to be escalated.

Set Priority to This ValueChoose this radio button to set the event to a

specified priority level after the number of events specified Number of Events Needed for Escalation selector have occurred within the time period specified by the Timespan in which Events Must Arrive selector. Choose the priority level from the drop list.

16 To save the completed event escalation policy, click OK. BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console saves the defined event management policy, and it is displayed in the list of event policies for the selected event selector.

Creating a new notification policy


A notification policy sends a request to an external service to notify a user or group of users that the event has occurred.

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For example, a notification event management policy might notify a system administrator about the imminent unavailability of a mission-critical piece of storage hardware.

Before you begin


You must add a notification service as described in How to add a notification service (notification policies only) on page 291.

To create a new notification policy


1 From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration View, expand the By Policy Type folder. 2 Under the By Policy Type folder, select Notification Policy and click OK. 3 Click the Add Policy button .

A Selector Chooser dialog box is displayed.

4 From the Selector Chooser dialog box, choose the event selector that you want to use for this policy and click OK.

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The Notification Policy Details tab is displayed in the details pane of the Administration View, as show in Figure 60 on page 340. Figure 60: Notification Policy Details tab

5 In the Policy Name field, type a unique alphanumeric name for the event management policy. The name must contain no spaces. 6 In the Description field, type a description of the event management policy. 7 To enable the event management policy, select the Enabled check box. If you do not want to enable the policy at this time, you can return to this dialog box and enable the policy later. 8 In the Policy Activation Timeframes section, define the periods of time the event management policy should be active (when enabled) by performing the following actions: a Select one of the following choices:

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To make the event management policy active continuously, select Always

Active.

To specify when the policy is active or inactive, select Define Activation

Timeframes.

The Active Timeframes and Not Active Timeframes check boxes are enabled. b If you selected Define Activation Timeframes, depending on how you want to define the timeframe for your policy do one or both of the following:
To specify the periods of time when the policy should be active, select the

Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

To specify the periods of time when the policy should be inactive, select the

Not Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

You can select both check boxes to create active and inactive time periods. However, the inactive time period takes precedence over the active time period. 9 From the Notification Service drop list, select the service to use as the notification mechanism. The default service is email. 10 In the Notification Source field, enter the source of the notification. 11 In the Add field, type the name of a person or group to notify. Click Add to add the name to the Notify slot. Add more names or groups if necessary. 12 From the Event Status that will Notify Users list, choose the event status that you want to trigger the notification. 13 In the Notification Subject field, enter the subject of the notification message. If desired, you can use the Event Slot drop list to choose event slots to add to the notification subject. Click the Insert button to insert the slots into the subject. Enter a space before and after each slot that you add. 14 In the Notification Text field, enter the notification message. If desired, you can use the Event Slot drop list to choose event slots to add to the notification message. Click the Insert button to insert the slots into the message. Enter a space before and after each slot that you add. 15 (optional) Select the Auto Acknowledge check box to automatically acknowledge the event.

Note

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16 (optional) Select the Auto Assign check box to automatically assign the event to the user you select from the list. 17 To save the completed event notification policy, click OK. BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console saves the defined event management policy, and it is displayed in the list of event policies for the selected event selector.

Creating a new propagation policy


A propagation policy forwards events to other cells or to integrations to other products.

To create a new propagation policy


1 From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration View, expand the By Policy Type folder. 2 Under the By Policy Type folder, select Propagation Policy and click OK. 3 Click the Add Policy button .

A Selector Chooser dialog box is displayed.

4 From the Selector Chooser dialog box, choose the event selector that you want to use for this policy and click OK.

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The Propagation Policy Details tab is displayed in the details pane of the Administration View, as shown in Figure 61 on page 343. Figure 61: Propagation Policy Details tab

5 In the Policy Name field, type a unique alphanumeric name for the event management policy. The name must contain no spaces. 6 In the Description box, type a description of the event management policy. 7 To enable the event management policy, select the Enabled check box. If you do not want to enable the policy at this time, you can return to this dialog box and enable the policy later. 8 In the Policy Activation Timeframes section, define the periods of time the event management policy should be active (when enabled) by performing the following actions: a Select one of the following choices:
To make the event management policy active continuously, select Always

Active.

To specify when the policy is active or inactive, select Define Activation

Timeframes.

The Active Timeframes and Not Active Timeframes check boxes are enabled.
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b If you selected Define Activation Timeframes, depending on how you want to define the timeframe for your policy do one or both of the following:
To specify the periods of time when the policy should be active, select the

Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

To specify the periods of time when the policy should be inactive, select the

Not Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

You can select both check boxes to create active and inactive time periods. However, the inactive time period takes precedence over the active time period. 9 In the Propagate to all of list, choose one or more cells. Figure 62: Propagation cell list

Note

10 In the Propagate to one of list, select one or more cells. 11 To save the completed event propagation policy, click OK. BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console saves the defined event management policy, and it is displayed in the list of event policies for the selected event selector.

Creating a new recurrence policy


A recurrence policy combines duplicate events into one event that maintains a counter of the number of duplicates. All of the dup_detect slots on the incoming event must be the same for all events that match the selector or the recurrence policy will not function. Because PATROL integration has dup_detect set on the mc_origin_key and these keys are unique, recurrence policies will not operate as expected for PATROL integration events.

Note

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To create a new recurrence policy


1 From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration View, expand the By Policy Type folder. 2 Under the By Policy Type folder, select Recurrence Policy and click OK. 3 Click the Add Policy button .

A Selector Chooser dialog box is displayed.

4 From the Selector Chooser dialog box, choose the event selector that you want to use for this policy and click OK.

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The Recurrence Policy Details tab is displayed in the details pane of the Administration View, as shown in Figure 63 on page 346. Figure 63: Recurrence Policy Details tab

5 In the Policy Name box, type a unique alphanumeric name (with no spaces) for the event management policy. 6 In the Description box, type a description of the event management policy. 7 To enable the event management policy, select the Enabled check box. If you do not want to enable the policy at this time, you can return to this dialog box and enable the policy later. 8 In the Policy Activation Timeframes section, define the periods of time the event management policy should be active (when enabled) by performing the following actions: a Select one of the following choices:
To make the event management policy active continuously, select Always

Active.

To specify when the policy is active or inactive, select Define Activation

Timeframes.

The Active Timeframes and Not Active Timeframes check boxes are enabled.

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b If you selected Define Activation Timeframes, depending on how you want to define the timeframe for your policy do one or both of the following:
To specify the periods of time when the policy should be active, select the

Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

To specify the periods of time when the policy should be inactive, select the

Not Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

You can select both check boxes to create active and inactive time periods. However, the inactive time period takes precedence over the active time period. 9 If you want to define a time window for events that are considered to be recurring, check the Recurring Events Must Arrive Within this Timespan check box and set the maximum time after the initial event within which an event must arrive to count toward recurrence. If the box is not checked, there is no limit on the time between duplicate events that are counted as recurring. 10 In the Slot Updates section, select any original event values that you want updated by the latest recurrent event values. 11 To save the completed event recurrence policy, click OK. BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console saves the defined event management policy, and it is displayed in the list of event policies for the selected event selector.

Note

Creating a new remote action policy


To set up automatic remote actions that are triggered by events, you must first define a remote action policy using the remote action policy feature of the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console. For instructions for creating a remote action policy, see Configuring and using Remote Actions/Diagnostics on page 119.

Creating a new suppression policy


A suppression policy specifies the events that the receiving cell should delete. Unlike a blackout event management policy, the suppression event management policy maintains no record of the deleted event.

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To create a new suppression policy


1 From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration View, expand the By Policy Type folder. 2 Under the By Policy Type folder, select Suppression Policy. 3 Click the Add Policy button .

A Selector Chooser dialog box is displayed.

4 From the Selector Chooser dialog box, choose the event selector that you want to use for this policy and click OK. The Suppression Policy Details tab is displayed in the details pane of the Administration View, as shown in Figure 64 on page 348. Figure 64: Suppression Policy Details tab

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5 In the Policy Name field, type a unique alphanumeric name for the event management policy. The name must contain no spaces. 6 In the Description box, type a description of the event management policy. 7 To enable the event management policy, select the Enabled check box. If you do not want to enable the policy at this time, you can return to this dialog box and enable the policy later. 8 In the Policy Activation Timeframes section, define the periods of time the event management policy should be active (when enabled) by performing the following actions: a Select one of the following choices:
To make the event management policy active continuously, select Always

Active.

To specify when the policy is active or inactive, select Define Activation

Timeframes.

The Active Timeframes and Not Active Timeframes check boxes are enabled. b If you selected Define Activation Timeframes, depending on how you want to define the timeframe for your policy do one or both of the following:
To specify the periods of time when the policy should be active, select the

Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

To specify the periods of time when the policy should be inactive, select the

Not Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

Note You can select both check boxes to create active and inactive time periods. However, the inactive time period takes precedence over the active time period.
9 Click OK. BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console saves the defined event management policy, and it is displayed in the list of event policies for the selected event selector.

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Creating a new threshold policy


A threshold policy specifies a minimum number of duplicate events that must occur within a specific period of time before the cell accepts the event. For events allowed to pass through to the cell, the event severity can be escalated or de-escalated a relative number of levels or set to a specified level. If the event occurrence rate falls below a specified level, the cell can take action against the event, such as changing the event to closed or acknowledged status.

To create a new threshold policy


1 From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration View, expand the By Policy Type folder. 2 Under the By Policy Type folder, select Threshold Policy. 3 Click the Add Policy button .

A Selector Chooser dialog box is displayed.

4 From the Selector Chooser dialog box, choose the event selector that you want to use for this policy and click OK.

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The Threshold Policy Details tab is displayed in the details pane of the Administration View as shown in Figure 65 on page 351. Figure 65: Threshold Policy Details tab

5 In the Policy Name field, type a unique alphanumeric name for the event management policy. The name must contain no spaces. 6 In the Description field, type a description of the event management policy. 7 To enable the event management policy, select the Enabled check box. If you do not want to enable the policy at this time, you can return to this dialog box and enable the policy later. 8 In the Policy Activation Timeframes section, define the periods of time the event management policy should be active (when enabled) by performing the following actions: a Select one of the following choices:

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To make the event management policy active continuously, select Always

Active.

To specify when the policy is active or inactive, select Define Activation

Timeframes.

The Active Timeframes and Not Active Timeframes check boxes are enabled. b If you selected Define Activation Timeframes, depending on how you want to define the timeframe for your policy do one or both of the following:
To specify the periods of time when the policy should be active, select the

Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

To specify the periods of time when the policy should be inactive, select the

Not Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

You can select both check boxes to create active and inactive time periods. However, the inactive time period takes precedence over the active time period. 9 For the Number of Duplicate Events Received slot, supply a numeric value and an associated time measurement to specify the threshold above which an event is accepted. 10 Select one of the following radio buttons (The threshold-specific options displayed on the tab change depending on which button you select.):
Hold Events Until Threshold is MetSelect this option to prevent creation of

Note

any specified event until the number of events exceeds the threshold within the specified time period.

If you select Hold Events Until Threshold is Met, the options shown in Figure 66 on page 353 are displayed. Specify whether to include allowing the last, first,

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highest, or lowest severity event to pass and whether to acknowledge or close the passed event when incoming (new) events fall below a specified low threshold rate. Figure 66: Hold Events options

Pass Events throughselect this option to create all events when they meet the

required threshold rate.

If you select Pass Events through, the options shown in Figure 67 on page 353 are displayed. Figure 67: Pass Events Through options

Choose one of the following radio buttons to determine how the severity of the event will be escalated or de-escalated:
Levels to Escalate/De-Escalate Event Severity ByChoose this radio button to

escalate or de-escalate the severity of the event by a specified number of levels after the number of events specified Number of Duplicated Events Received selector have occurred within the time period specified by the Timespan in which Events the Must Arrive selector. Enter the number of severity levels that the event is to be escalated. specified severity level after the number of events specified Number of Duplicated Events Received selector have occurred within the time period specified by the Timespan in which Events the Must Arrive selector. Choose the severity level from the drop list.

Set Severity to This ValueChoose this radio button to set the event to a

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Note From the Set Severity to This Value drop list, choose Critical, Non-critical, Minor, Warning, or OK. Do not choose Unknown, as it is considered a status rather than a severity.
11 To save the completed event threshold policy, click OK. BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console saves the defined event management policy, and it is displayed in the list of event policies for the selected event selector.

Creating a new timeout policy


A timeout policy changes an event status to closed after a specified period of time elapses.

To create a new timeout policy


1 From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration View, expand the By Policy Type folder. 2 Under the By Policy Type folder, select Timeout Policy. 3 Click the Add Policy button .

A Selector Chooser dialog box is displayed.

4 From the Selector Chooser dialog box, choose the event selector that you want to use for this policy and click OK.
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The Timeout Policy Details tab is displayed in the details pane of the Administration View as shown in Figure 68 on page 355. Figure 68: Timeout Policy Details tab

5 In the Policy Name field, type a unique alphanumeric name for the event management policy. The name must contain no spaces. 6 In the Description field, type a description of the event management policy. 7 To enable the event management policy, select the Enabled check box. If you do not want to enable the policy at this time, you can return to this dialog box and enable the policy later. 8 In the Policy Activation Timeframes section, define the periods of time the event management policy should be active (when enabled) by performing the following actions: a Select one of the following choices:
To make the event management policy active continuously, select Always

Active.

To specify when the policy is active or inactive, select Define Activation

Timeframes.

The Active Timeframes and Not Active Timeframes check boxes are enabled. b If you selected Define Activation Timeframes, depending on how you want to define the timeframe for your policy do one or both of the following:
To specify the periods of time when the policy should be active, select the

Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

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To specify the periods of time when the policy should be inactive, select the

Not Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

You can select both check boxes to create active and inactive time periods. However, the inactive time period takes precedence over the active time period. 9 In the Timeout Event After field, enter a number of time periods that must elapse before an event will time out. The default time period is seconds, but this time period can be changed to minutes, hours, or days by selecting one of these time periods from the drop list. 10 To save the completed event timeout policy, click OK. BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console saves the defined event management policy, and it is displayed in the list of event policies for the selected event selector.

Note

Enabling and disabling out-of-the-box standard event management policies


This section provides instructions for enabling and disabling out-of-the-box standard event management policies. For a list of out-of-the-box event management policies, see Out-of-the-box event management policies on page 279. For instructions on enabling out-of-the-box dynamic enrichment policies, see Enabling out-of-the-box dynamic enrichment event management policies on page 369.

To enable or disable a standard event management policy


1 From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration View, expand the By Policy Type folder. 2 Under the By Policy Type folder, select the policy type for the out-of-the-box standard event policy that you want to enable. Out-of-the-box standard event policies are included under the following policy types:
Closure Policy

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Recurrence Policy Suppression Policy Timeout Policy

A list of out-of-the-box standard event management policies of that policy type are displayed in the right pane of the Administration View as shown in Figure 69 on page 357. Figure 69: List of event management policies

3 From the list of event management policies, select the policy that you want to enable.
The Details tab for that policy is displayed in the details pane of the

Administration View.

4 On the BMC Impact Manager toolbar, click the Update Policy button enable the Details tab to be edited. to

5 Enable or disable the policy by selecting or deselecting the Enabled check box. 6 Click OK. BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console saves the defined event management policy, and it is displayed in the list of event policies for the selected event selector.

Creating a new dynamic enrichment event management policy


This section provides instructions for creating a new dynamic enrichment event management policy and for creating a new dynamic enrichment blackout policy.

Before you begin

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Ensure that the timeframe referenced in your dynamic enrichment source file

exists. If it does not exist, you must define the timeframe as described in How to create a new local timeframe on page 289. policy. If none of the out-of-the-box event selectors are appropriate for your policy, define an event selector and specify event selection criteria as described in How to create an event selector and specify event selection criteria on page 297. dynamic enrichment source file on page 292.

Determine which event selector you want to apply to your dynamic enrichment

Create a data enrichment source file as described in How to create and edit a

To create a new dynamic enrichment policy


1 From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration View, expand the By Policy Type folder. 2 Under the By Policy Type folder, select Dynamic Enrichment Policy. 3 Click the Add Policy button .

A Selector Chooser dialog box is displayed.

4 From the Selector Chooser dialog box, choose the event selector that you want to use for this policy and click OK.

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The Dynamic Enrichment Policy Details tab, shown in Figure 70 on page 359, is displayed in the details pane of the Administration View. Figure 70: Dynamic Enrichment Policy Details tab

5 In the Policy Name field, type a unique alphanumeric name for the event management policy. The name must contain no spaces. 6 In the Description field, type a description of the event management policy.
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7 To enable the policy immediately, select the Enabled check box. If you do not want to enable the policy at this time, you can return to this dialog box and enable the policy later. 8 In the Execution Order field, if more than one policy exists, specify the order of execution. When a new policy is created, the number shown in the Execution Order field should be one greater the largest current execution order. If two policies have the same execution order, they will run in indeterminate order. 9 In the Policy Activation Timeframes section, define the periods of time the event management policy should be active (when enabled) by performing the following actions: a Select one of the following choices:
To make the event management policy active continuously, select Always

Note

Active.

To specify when the policy is active or inactive, select Define Activation

Timeframes.

The Active Timeframes and Not Active Timeframes lists are displayed. b If you selected Define Activation Timeframes, depending on how you want to define the timeframe for your policy do one or both of the following:
To specify the periods of time when the policy should be active, select the

Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

To specify the periods of time when the policy should be inactive, select the

Not Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

You can select both check boxes to create active and inactive time periods. However, the inactive time period takes precedence over the active time period. 10 If you do not want to accept the default event class, you can select an event class by clicking the ellipses button in the Event Class field of the Match Fields section, selecting a new event class, and clicking OK. The Event Class determines what slots are available in the Available Event Fields column.

Note

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11 In the Class Chooser dialog box, select an event class and click OK. 12 In Available Event Fields column, select the slots that correspond to the match fields in your dynamic enrichment source file. Use the left arrow button to move those slots into the Match Fields column. You may select and move multiple slots at the same time. 13 In Available Event Fields column, select the slots that correspond to the output fields in your dynamic enrichment source file. Use the right arrow button to move those slots into the Output Fields column. You may select and move multiple slots at the same time. It is critical that the policy definition and the data enrichment source file contain the exact same number of match fields and output fields in the same order. If the match fields and output fields in the enrichment file and the policy do not match, the policy will not run. For example, if you were creating a file similar to the location.csv file that is included with the product, you must select the Host slot as the Match Field and the Location slot as the Output Field to correspond to the slots in the location.csv file. 14 (optional) In the Match Fields section, activate the Match Tracing check box to add diagnostic notes to the event, if necessary. 15 In the Match Table section, in the Type field, accept the default. Typically, you do not need to the change the value of the Type field. You can override the default; however, you must use a unique tag within the given match table. 16 In the Match Table section, in the Tag field, accept the default. The Tag field uniquely identifies the match table that will be used by the policy instance. You do not need to the change the value of this field. You can override the default; however, you must use a unique tag within the given match table. 17 In the Match Table section, in the Data File field, do one of the following actions:
Type the path to the enrichment data source.

WARNING

Note

Note

To browse for the enrichment data source, click the ellipses button .. In the File Chooser dialog box, select the dynamic enrichment source file appropriate
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for your policy and click OK. For more information, see External enrichment data sources on page 287. 18 In the Match Table section, in the File Format field, select one of the following radio buttons to specify the type of data enrichment file to import:
Data file with this separatorChoose this radio button to import a flat,

delimited file, such as a .csv file. Enter a separator to delimit the data column in the file.

For example, if you are using a .csv file, enter a comma (,) as the separator.
PMEP fileChoose this radio button to import a PMEP table and select the

appropriate PMEP format for your policy from the drop list:
Blackout Blackout CSV Location Location CSV Service Service CSV Text Text CSV

Note If you select the PMEP file button, the Event Class, Match Fields, and Output Fields are autopopulated with predefined values and become read-only.
19 Click OK.

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If this is the first time a policy is saved, the a confirmation dialog box is displayed as shown in Figure 71 on page 363. Figure 71: Import confirmation

20 Click Yes. A green check mark should be displayed in the Enable column next to the policy in the event management policies list. (You may need to scroll the window to the right to see the Enable column.) The policy also should show up in the tree in the left pane of the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console window. 21 Import the data from the dynamic enrichment source enrichment file as described in Importing dynamic enrichment source on page 385.

To create a new dynamic enrichment blackout policy


1 From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration View, expand the By Policy Type folder. 2 Under the By Policy Type folder, select Dynamic Blackout Policy. 3 Click the Add Policy button A Selector Chooser dialog box is displayed.

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4 From the Selector Chooser dialog box, choose the event selector that you want to use for this policy and click OK.

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The Dynamic Blackout Policy Details tab is displayed in the details pane of the Administration View, as shown in Figure 72 on page 365. Figure 72: Dynamic Blackout Policy Details tab

5 In the Policy Name field, type a unique alphanumeric name for the event management policy. The name must contain no spaces.

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6 In the Description field, type a description of the event management policy. 7 To enable the policy immediately, select the Enabled check box. If you do not want to enable the policy at this time, you can return to this dialog box and enable the policy later. 8 In the Execution Order field, if more than one policy exists, specify the order of execution. When a new policy is created, the number shown in the Execution Order field should be one greater the largest current execution order. If two policies have the same execution order, they will run in indeterminate order. 9 In the Policy Activation Timeframes section, define the periods of time the event management policy should be active (when enabled) by performing the following actions: a Select one of the following choices:
To make the event management policy active continuously, select Always

Note

Active.

To specify when the policy is active or inactive, select Define Activation

Timeframes.

The Active Timeframes and Not Active Timeframes lists are displayed. b If you selected Define Activation Timeframes, depending on how you want to define the timeframe for your policy do one or both of the following:
To specify the periods of time when the policy should be active, select the

Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

To specify the periods of time when the policy should be inactive, select the

Not Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

You can select both check boxes to create active and inactive time periods. However, the inactive time period takes precedence over the active time period. 10 If you do not want to accept the default event class, you can select an event class by clicking the ellipses button in the Event Class field of the Match Fields section, selecting a new event class, and clicking OK.

Note

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The event class determines what slots are available in the Available Event Fields column. 11 In the Class Chooser dialog box, select an event class and click OK. 12 In Available Event Fields column, select the slots that correspond to the match fields in your dynamic enrichment source file. Use the left arrow button to move those slots into the Match Fields column. You may select and move multiple slots at the same time. 13 In Available Event Fields column, select the slots that correspond to the output fields in your dynamic enrichment source file. Use the right arrow button to move those slots into the Output Fields column. You may select and move multiple slots at the same time. It is critical that the policy definition and the data enrichment source file contain the exact same number of match fields and output fields in the same order. If the match fields and output fields in the enrichment file and the policy do not match, the policy will not run. For example, if you were creating a file similar to the location.csv file that is included with the product, you must select the Host slot as the Match Field and the Location slot as the Output Field to correspond to the slots in the location.csv file. 14 (optional) In the Match Fields section, activate the Match Tracing check box to add diagnostic notes to the event, if necessary. 15 In the Match Table section, in the Type field, accept the default. Typically, you do not need to the change the value of the Type field. You can override the default; however, you must use a unique tag within the given match table. 16 In the Match Table section, in the Tag field, accept the default. The Tag field uniquely identifies the match table that will be used by the policy instance. You do not need to the change the value of this field. You can override the default; however, you must use a unique tag within the given match table. 17 In the Match Table section, in the Data File field, do one of the following actions:
Type the path to the enrichment data source.

WARNING

Note

Note

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To browse for the enrichment data source, click the ellipses button .In the File Chooser dialog box, select the dynamic enrichment source file appropriate for your policy and click OK. For more information, see External enrichment data sources on page 287.

18 In the Match Table section, in the File Format field, select one of the following radio buttons to specify the type of data enrichment file to import:
Data file with this separatorChoose this radio button to import a flat,

delimited file, such as a .csv file. Enter a separator to delimit the data column in the file.

For example, if you are using a .csv file, enter a comma (,) as the separator.
PMEP fileChoose this radio button to import a PMEP table and select the

appropriate PMEP format for your policy from the drop list:
Blackout Blackout CSV Location Location CSV Service Service CSV Text Text CSV

Note If you select the PMEP file button, the Event Class, Match Fields, and Output Fields are autopopulated with predefined values and become read-only.
19 Click OK.

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If this is the first time a policy is saved, the following confirmation dialog box is displayed: Figure 73: Import confirmation

20 Click Yes. A green check mark should be displayed in the Enable column next to the policy in the event management policies list. (You may need to scroll the window to the right to see the Enable column.) The policy also should show up in the tree in the left pane of the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console window. 21 Import the data from the dynamic enrichment source enrichment file as described in Importing dynamic enrichment source on page 385.

Enabling out-of-the-box dynamic enrichment event management policies


This section provides instructions for enabling out-of-the-box dynamic enrichment event management policies. You must export data from an external enrichment data source into the dynamic enrichment source files provided with the product before you can enable any of the out-of-the-box dynamic enrichment policies. For more information see, How to create and edit a dynamic enrichment source file on page 292. The dynamic enrichment source file for the PATROL Message Text Translation policy (TextTrans.csv) is the only out-of-the-box dynamic enrichment source file that includes valid data. You can enable PATROL Message Text Translation policy without exporting data into TextTrans.csv. For more information about TextTrans.csv, see Using the sample PATROL messaging text translation dynamic enrichment source file on page 294. Table 41 on page 370 lists each out-of-the-box dynamic enrichment event management policy type and the page number of the procedure for each type.

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Table 41: Out-of-the-box dynamic enrichment event policy types and procedures To enable this event policy... Dynamic blackout Dynamic location enrichment See... Enabling a dynamic enrichment blackout policy on page 370 Enabling a dynamic enrichment location policy on page 373

Dynamic service contact enrichment Enabling a dynamic enrichment service contact policy on page 377 Dynamic PATROL message translation Enabling a dynamic enrichment PATROL message text translation policy on page 381

Enabling a dynamic enrichment blackout policy


A dynamic enrichment blackout policy specifies external schedules that initiate event blackout.

Before you begin


For the dynamic blackout policy to work, you must define the timeframes referenced in the enrichment source file (blackout.csv). If any of the timeframes referenced in the enrichment source file have not been created in BEM, then the policy will not run. For instructions on defining timeframes, see How to create a new local timeframe on page 289.

To enable a dynamic enrichment blackout policy


1 From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration View, expand the By Policy Type folder. 2 Under the By Policy Type folder, select Dynamic Blackout Policy.

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The Dynamic Blackout Policy Details tab is displayed in the details pane of the Administration View, as shown in Figure 74 on page 371. Figure 74: Dynamic Blackout Policy Details tab

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3 On the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console toolbar, click the Update Policy button to make the Dynamic Blackout Policy Details tab editable.

4 On the Dynamic Blackout Policy Details tab, select the Enabled check box. 5 In the Execution Order field, if more than one policy of this type exists, specify the order of execution.

Note When a new policy is created, the number shown in the Execution Order field should be one greater the largest current execution order. If two policies have the same execution order, they will run in indeterminate order.
6 In the Policy Activation Timeframes section, define the periods of time the event management policy should be active and/or inactive (when enabled) by performing the following actions: a Select one of the following choices:
To make the event management policy active continuously, select Always

Active.

To specify when the policy is active or inactive, select Define Activation

Timeframes.

The Active Timeframes and Not Active Timeframes timeframe lists are displayed. b If you selected Define Activation Timeframes, depending on how you want to define the timeframe for your policy do one or both of the following:
To specify the periods of time when the policy should be active, select the

Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

To specify the periods of time when the policy should be inactive, select the

Not Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

You can select both check boxes to create active and inactive time periods. However, the inactive time period takes precedence over the active time period. 7 (optional) In the Match Fields section, activate the Match Tracing check box to add diagnostic notes to the event to assist with trouble-shooting an event. 8 Click OK.
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A confirmation dialog box is displayed, asking if you want to import data now, as shown in Figure 75 on page 373. Figure 75: Import Data Confirmation dialog box

9 Click Yes. A green check mark should be displayed in the Enable column next to the policy in the event management policies list. (You may need to scroll the window to the right to see the Enable column.) The policy also should show up in the tree in the left pane of the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console window. 10 Import the data from the dynamic enrichment source enrichment file as described in Importing dynamic enrichment source on page 385.

Enabling a dynamic enrichment location policy


The dynamic enrichment location policy adds location information to an event. Some examples of uses for a dynamic enrichment location policy include:
Provides information to IT Operations so that they know which area/datacenter

the problematic technology is located in and can direct engineers more quickly to the problem. Console of specific areas/data centers and understand at a glance where the problems are.

Enables IT Operations to build views in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration

Enables IT Operations to view reports in BMC Impact Reporting based on

location. For example, they can identify which locations which are generating the most events. along with the rest of event, providing more useful information to the engineer that will be assigned to handle the incident.

If you are integrating with a service desk the location identifier can be passed

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To enable a dynamic enrichment location policy


1 From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration View, expand the By Policy Type folder. 2 Under the By Policy Type folder, select Dynamic Enrichment Policy. A list of out-of-the-box dynamic enrichment policies are displayed in the right pane of the Administration View as shown in Figure 76 on page 374. Figure 76: List of out-of-the-box dynamic enrichment policies

3 From the list of out-of-the-box dynamic enrichment policies, select Location_Enrichment.

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The Dynamic Enrichment Policy Details tab, shown in Figure 77 on page 375, is displayed in the details pane of the Administration View. Figure 77: Dynamic Enrichment Policy Details tab

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4 On the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console toolbar, click the Update Policy button to make the Dynamic Enrichment Policy Details tab editable.

5 To enable the policy, select the Enabled check box. 6 In the Execution Order field, if more than one of this type of policy exists, specify the order of execution. When a new policy is created, the number shown in the Execution Order field should be one greater the largest current execution order. If two policies have the same execution order, they will run in indeterminate order. 7 In the Policy Activation Timeframes section, define the periods of time the event management policy should be active (when enabled) by performing the following actions: a Select one of the following choices:
To make the event management policy active continuously, select Always

Note

Active.

To specify when the policy is active or inactive, select Define Activation

Timeframes.

The Active Timeframes and Not Active Timeframes lists are displayed. b If you selected Define Activation Timeframes, depending on how you want to define the timeframe for your policy do one or both of the following:
To specify the periods of time when the policy should be active, select the

Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

To specify the periods of time when the policy should be inactive, select the

Not Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

Note You can select both check boxes to create active and inactive time periods. However, the inactive time period takes precedence over the active time period.
8 (optional) In the Match Fields section, activate the Match Tracing check box to add diagnostic notes to the event, if necessary. 9 Click OK.

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If this is the first time a policy is saved, the following confirmation dialog box is displayed: Figure 78: Import confirmation

10 Click Yes. A green check mark should be displayed in the Enable column next to the policy in the event management policies list. (You may need to scroll the window to the right to see the Enable column.) The policy also should show up in the tree in the left pane of the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console window. 11 Import the data from the dynamic enrichment source enrichment file as described in Importing dynamic enrichment source on page 385.

Enabling a dynamic enrichment service contact policy


The dynamic enrichment location policy adds contact information related to the originating technology to an event. For example, you can add a server administrators name and telephone number to all events originating from a particular server

To enable a dynamic enrichment service contact policy


1 From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration View, expand the By Policy Type folder. 2 Under the By Policy Type folder, select Dynamic Enrichment Policy.

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A list of out-of-the-box dynamic enrichment policies are displayed in the right pane of the Administration View as shown in Figure 79 on page 378. Figure 79: List of out-of-the-box dynamic enrichment policies

3 From the list of out-of-the-box dynamic enrichment policies, select Service_Contact_Enrichment.

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The Dynamic Enrichment Policy Details tab, shown in Figure 80 on page 379, is displayed in the details pane of the Administration View. Figure 80: Dynamic Enrichment Policy Details tab

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4 On the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console toolbar, click the Update Policy button to make the Dynamic Enrichment Policy Details tab editable.

5 To enable the policy, select the Enabled check box. 6 In the Execution Order field, if more than one type of this policy exists, specify the order of execution. When a new policy is created, the number shown in the Execution Order field should be one greater the largest current execution order. If two policies have the same execution order, they will run in indeterminate order. 7 In the Policy Activation Timeframes section, define the periods of time the event management policy should be active (when enabled) by performing the following actions: a Select one of the following choices:
To make the event management policy active continuously, select Always

Note

Active.

To specify when the policy is active or inactive, select Define Activation

Timeframes.

The Active Timeframes and Not Active Timeframes lists are displayed. b If you selected Define Activation Timeframes, depending on how you want to define the timeframe for your policy do one or both of the following:
To specify the periods of time when the policy should be active, select the

Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

To specify the periods of time when the policy should be inactive, select the

Not Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

Note You can select both check boxes to create active and inactive time periods. However, the inactive time period takes precedence over the active time period.
8 (optional) In the Match Fields section, activate the Match Tracing check box to add diagnostic notes to the event, if necessary. 9 Click OK.

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If this is the first time a policy is saved, the following confirmation dialog box is displayed: Figure 81: Import confirmation

10 Click Yes. A green check mark should be displayed in the Enable column next to the policy in the event management policies list. (You may need to scroll the window to the right to see the Enable column.) The policy also should show up in the tree in the left pane of the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console window. 11 Import the data from the dynamic enrichment source enrichment file as described in Importing dynamic enrichment source on page 385.

Enabling a dynamic enrichment PATROL message text translation policy


If you are integrated with PATROL, the dynamic enrichment PATROL message translation policy enables you to substitute existing PATROL messages with messages that are meaningful to your enterprise. For example, you can use the PATROL message translation policy to change this message:
NT_CPU.CPU_0.CPUprcrUserTimePercent parameter CPUCputil triggered on 90 <= 97 <= 100

to the following, more comprehensible message:


CPU Utilization is at 97%

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Enabling out-of-the-box dynamic enrichment event management policies

A sample dynamic enrichment service contact policy data source file, TextTranslation.csv, is provided in the %PROACTIVENET_HOME%\admin\etc \samples directory. The TextTranslation.csv file includes translations for many common messages that will be useful in your enterprise. If you are integrated with PATROL, BMC Software recommends that you take advantage of the data that is already included in this sample file. For information about using the TextTranslation.csv file, see Using the sample PATROL messaging text translation dynamic enrichment source file on page 294.

Note

To enable a dynamic enrichment PATROL message translation policy


1 From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration View, expand the By Policy Type folder. 2 Under the By Policy Type folder, select Dynamic Enrichment Policy. A list of out-of-the-box dynamic enrichment policies are displayed in the right pane of the Administration View as shown in Figure 82 on page 382. Figure 82: List of out-of-the-box dynamic enrichment policies

3 From the list of out-of-the-box dynamic enrichment policies, select PATROL_Message_Translation. 4 Click the Update Policy button .

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The Dynamic Enrichment Policy Details tab, shown in Figure 83 on page 383, is displayed in the details pane of the Administration View. Figure 83: Dynamic Enrichment Policy Details tab

5 To enable the event management policy, select the Enabled check box. If you do not want to enable the event management policy at this time, it can be enabled later. 6 In the Execution Order field, if more than one policy exists, specify the order of execution. When a new policy is created, the number shown in the Execution Order field should be one greater the largest current execution order. If two policies have the same execution order, they will run in indeterminate order. 7 In the Policy Activation Timeframes section, define the periods of time the event management policy should be active (when enabled) by performing the following actions: a Select one of the following choices:
To make the event management policy active continuously, select Always

Note

Active.

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To specify when the policy is active or inactive, select Define Activation

Timeframes.

The Active Timeframes and Not Active Timeframes lists are displayed. b If you selected Define Activation Timeframes, depending on how you want to define the timeframe for your policy do one or both of the following:
To specify the periods of time when the policy should be active, select the

Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

To specify the periods of time when the policy should be inactive, select the

Not Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

You can select both check boxes to create active and inactive time periods. However, the inactive time period takes precedence over the active time period. 8 (optional) In the Match Fields section, activate the Match Tracing check box to add diagnostic notes to the event, if necessary. 9 Click OK. If this is the first time a policy is saved, the following confirmation dialog box is displayed: Figure 84: Import confirmation

Note

10 Click Yes. A green check mark should be displayed in the Enable column next to the policy in the event management policies list. (You may need to scroll the window to the right to see the Enable column.) The policy also should show up in the tree in the left pane of the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console window. 11 Import the data from the dynamic enrichment source enrichment file as described in Importing dynamic enrichment source on page 385.

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Importing dynamic enrichment source


Before a dynamic enrichment policy can take effect, the data in the dynamic enrichment source file must be imported.

Before you begin


If you are importing a file that contains more than 500 entries, before you begin the import procedure, change the import_method_new parameter to true in the %BMC_PROACTIVENET_HOME%\admin\etc\ix.properties file and restart the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console.

To import dynamic enrichment source


1 Ensure that the policy is enabled. 2 Select Import tab.
The Import tab is displayed as shown in Figure 85 on page 385.

Figure 85: Import tab

Table 42 on page 385 describes the uneditable fields of the Import tab. These fields are for your information only.
Table 42: Import tab uneditable fields Field Data File File Format Last Action Description Path to the enrichment data source Type of file used by the policy Last time an import (replace or merge) was completed.

3 In the field opposite the Import button, select whether you want to Replace the existing data in the cell or Merge new data with existing data in the cell.
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4 Click Import.
The data is imported from the file into the cell.

5 Verify that the information has been uploaded by ensuring that the Last Action information in the Import tab shows a completed upload message.

Verifying that the policy is running


Perform the following procedure to verify that the policy that you created is running.

To verify that a policy is running


1 Send an event that should trigger the policy. 2 In the BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console, review the Historical Attributes for the event in the Logs & Notes pane of the Event List Details notebook and verify that your policy has executed. Figure 86 on page 387 shows the Logs & Notes pane in the Event List Details notebook. Click the More Info button to expand the pane. Figure 87 on page 387

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shows the expanded pane and the events that verify that the policy was executed properly. Figure 86: Logs & Notes pane in the Details notebook

Figure 87: Expanded Logs & Notes page showing dynamic enrichment policy has been executed

Editing event selection criteria


If you need to edit event selection criteria that you have already defined, follow these steps.

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Deleting an event selector

To edit event selection criteria


1 From the event management policy tab navigation tree, select an event selector. 2 Click the Update Event Selector button .

3 From the Event Selection Criteria section of the Selector Details tab, select an event selection criteria in the list and click Edit. The Edit button remains inactive until you select an event selection criteria. 4 Use the Edit Event Criteria editor to make the necessary changes to the description, event class, or expression. 5 To save the edited event selection criteria, click OK. 6 From the Selector Details tab, click OK to save the edited event selection criteria and the event selector.

Deleting an event selector


If you need to delete an event selector that you have defined, follow these steps.

To delete an event selector


1 From the event management policy navigation tree, select the appropriate event selector. 2 Click the Delete Event Selector button .

The Delete Confirmation dialog box is displayed. 3 Click Yes. The event selector is deleted.

Troubleshooting event management policies


This section lists some common problems encountered with event management policies and some tools to assist you trouble-shoot problems not listed here.

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Problem: The policy is not running


If the policy is not running, try the following:
Access the Policy Details tab for the policy and ensure that the Enabled check box

is selected.

(Dynamic enrichment policies only) Access the Policy Details tab for the policy

and ensure that the Match Fields and Output Fields contain the exact same number of match fields in the same order as the associated data enrichment source file. the data enrichment source file into the cell using the Import tab.

(Dynamic enrichment policies only) Ensure that you have imported the data from

For policies that use a schedule, check to see if CellEventEnable=No is set in mcell.conf. If it is then change it to CellEventEnable=Yes.

Problem: I receive an invalid data error when running a dynamic enrichment policy
Access the Policy Details tab for the policy and ensure that the Match Fields and Output Fields contain the exact same number of match fields in the same order as the associated data enrichment source file. Figure 88 on page 389 shows an example error message generated by dynamic enrichment policy that has a mismatch between the match and output fields defined in the policy and the number of columns included in the enrichment data source file. Figure 88: Invalid data error: dynamic enrichment policy

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Problem: I receive an error message when running a dynamic enrichment blackout policy
Ensure that the timeframe defined in the data source enrichment file actually exists. For information on creating valid timeframes, see How to create a new local timeframe on page 289. Figure 89 on page 390 shows an example error message generated by dynamic blackout policy that has an invalid timeframes. Figure 89: Invalid timeframe error: dynamic blackout policy

Problem: I have several thousand data records displayed in the Dynamic Data Editor tab
If your Match Table contains several thousand data records (testing has noted 7500), then when you try to execute a copy, paste, export, or print action, you can encounter poor response times from the BMC ProactiveNet Server and find message buffer full exceptions in the trace files. To overcome this limitation, you can uncomment out the five sizing properties in the %BMC_PROACTIVENET_HOME%\admin\etc\ix.properties file.
#data_handle_method_new=true #IX will handle below specified chunk size data at a time. Default data chunk size is 100 #data_handle_chunk_size=100 #sleep interval (in milliseconds) between the specified chunk size data handling. Default Sleep interval is 500 milliseconds #data_handle_sleep_interval=500 #IX will handle specified chunk size data at a time while paste action. Default data chunk size is 25 #data_paste_chunk_size=25 #sleep interval (in Milliseconds) between the specified paste chunk size

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data handling. Default Sleep interval is 1000 milliseconds #data_paste_sleep_interval=1000

After modifying the ix.properties file, you must log out and log back in to the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console.

Troubleshooting tools for dynamic enrichment policies


You can use the following methods to trouble-shoot the dynamic enrichment policies that you have defined:
Enable the Match Tracing check box in the Dynamic Enrichment Policy Details

tab to to add diagnostic notes to the event.

Access the History tab and check the Operations Log to determine which dynamic

enrichment policy added the information into the event.

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Working with the dynamic data editor
This chapter describes the Dynamic Data Editor.

Displaying the Infrastructure Management node


By default, the Infrastructure Management node is not displayed in the Event Management Policies tab or the Dynamic Data Editor tab in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console. Perform the following procedure to display the node in these tabs.

To display the Infrastructure Management node


1 In a text editor such as Notepad, open the ix.properties file. By default, the file is located in the following directory: BMC_PROACTIVENET_HOME\admin\etc\ 2 Change the value of the following parameter to True:
infrastructure_management_node_visibility

3 Save and close the ix.properties file. 4 Restart the Administration Console. The Infrastructure Management node is displayed in the Event Management Policies and the Dynamic Data Editor tabs.

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Dynamic data definition using the Dynamic Data Editor

Dynamic data definition using the Dynamic Data Editor


Dynamic data is contextual reference data that is stored in the event repository and updated whenever the context changes while the cell is running. Its function is similar to a global variable. You use the Dynamic Data Editor to define data class instances for use in event management rules or service models. To define the data instances, you must first define a data class. See BMC Knowledge Base Development Reference Guide for additional information about dynamic data.

Navigating the Dynamic Data Editor


You can use the Dynamic Data Editor to add a dynamic data instance to use as a contextual variable in MRL rules and policies. This section discusses the basics of how to navigate the Dynamic Data Editor.

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Navigation pane
In the Dynamic Data Editor tab on the Administration View you can view the data classes for a cell in a hierarchical tree, as illustrated in Figure 90 on page 395. Figure 90: Dynamic Data Editor Navigation Pane

Table 43 on page 395 lists the parts on the Administration Tab Navigation pane. Table 43: Administration tab navigation pane
# 1 2 3 Name Dynamic Data Editor tab cell group icon cell icon Description identifies the dynamic data editor identifies a cell group identifies a cell

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# 4 5

Name DATA class DATA subclass

Description root class to which all data classes belong data class defined as a subclass of the root class DATA Data subclasses comprise the dynamic data tables in the current cell.

view selection tabs

access to the events, services, or administration portions of the console

Toolbar functions
Figure 91 on page 396 describes the toolbar buttons available in the Dynamic Data Editor. Figure 91: Dynamic Data Editor toolbar

Filtering and sorting the Data List


The Data List of the Dynamic Data Editor tab in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console provides an interface to assist you in working with a cells dynamic data. From the Data List, you can
filter slots sort data

Filtering slots
The Slot Quick Filter enables you to filter the displayed data list according to specified slot criteria.

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To filter slots
1 or the down arrow to its right to display Click on the Slot Quick Filter button the Slot Quick Filter dialog box, shown in Figure 92 on page 397, in which you set the filter criteria. Figure 92: Slot Quick Filter dialog box

2 From the Slot list, select the slot name. 3 From the Operator list, select the specific operator with which the filter acts. 4 In the Value box, enter the value with which you want to filter the Data List. 5 Click OK. The filter you specified appears in place of the Slot Quick Filter button and the data instances that meet the criteria are displayed in the Data List. To toggle the quick filter on and off, click on the Slot Quick Filter button or on the filter specifications currently displayed in place of the icon.

Sorting data fields


You can sort fields in the Data List using two methods: a multiple column sort order or single-click on a column to sort immediately by that column.

To sort using multiple column sorting


Designating multiple columns for a sorting order is useful in resolving sort order conflicts in the data list. Multiple column sorting functions as the following illustrates. Set a multiple column sort order for a maximum of three columns with these steps. 1 Right-click on a column head to display the Slot Order Indicator.

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2 Select the order position desired for that column.


The Slot Order Indicator permits you to select a column as having no influence

on the sort order, or as first, second or third in the order.

When you select the first column to include in your sort order the only options available in the Slot Order Indicator are None and First. After you designate a column as first in the sort order, the option Second is available in the Slot Order Indicator when you right-click on the second column. The Third option is available when you have designated a column as Second in the sort order. 3 Right-click next on the column you want to include in the sort order. 4 Select the order position desired for that column. 5 Repeat if you want to establish a third column in the sort order. An alternative method of multiple-column sorting is to press the Ctrl key and singleclick on a header to add that column as the next column in the sort order. That is, pressing Ctrl and single-clicking on a column sets it as the first in the sort order, pressing Ctrl and single-clicking on the next column sets it as the second in the sort order, and the third column is set as the third in the sort order by again pressing the Ctrl key and single-clicking on the column header. Currently only three columns can be included in the sort order. Pressing the Ctrl key and single-clicking on a fourth column will designate it as third in the sort order in place of the column previously designated as third. Also, pressing the Ctrl key and single-clicking on a column that is part of a sort order will remove it from the sort order. The remaining columns in the designated sort order will reposition in the sort order to replace the one that has been removed. For example, if you press the Ctrl key and single-click on the column previously designated as first in the sort order, it will be removed from the order and the two remaining will move from second to first and from third to second in the new sort order. Remember the following facts about sorting:
Only if there is a sorting conflict in the First sort column will the sorting be

Note

resolved by use of the Second sort column. conflict in the Second sort column.

The sorting will extend to the Third sort column only if there is a sorting

Establishing a multiple column sort simply ensures that any sorting conflicts

that may arise can be resolved to the third column level.

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If you have established a multiple sort order in the Data List, clicking on one of the sort order columns toggles that columns display between ascending and descending order, as indicated by the small arrow next to the sort order number in the column head.

To sort using single-click sorting


1 Sorting also can be done by single-clicking on the column you want to use as the basis of your Data List sort. Even if a multiple sort order has been established, as in the preceding section, you can click on any column that is not part of the designated multiple sort order to reset sorting. This action establishes single column sorting and the column on which you clicked is designated as the First, and only, column in the new sort order.

Working with data instances


From the Administration View, you can edit and manipulate a cells dynamic data instances. All classes that are visible in the Administration View are subclasses of the base data class DATA and MC_SM_DATA. Subclasses of MC_SM_DATA are shown in the navigation pane, but data instances are not shown for these classes. Each cells data class definitions reside in its Knowledge Base. To define data instances in the Administration View for a custom data class, you must first define that data class in the KB of the cell. For further information, see the BMC Knowledge Base Development Reference Guide. The Details pane for each data instance contains the following tabs:
Extended Details tab: Displays extended details of a selected data instance. Internals tab: Displays the internal data as defined on the base DATA class.

The Data List of the Dynamic Data Editor tab of the Administration Console provides an interface to assist you in working with a cells dynamic data. Right-click on a data instance in the Data List on the right side of the Administration Console to display the pop-up context menu. For instructions on adding a data instance, see Adding a new data instance on page 399

Adding a new data instance


The following procedures focus on creating data instances by using the New and New Copy menu options.

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To create a new data instance with the New option


1 In the Data List of the Dynamic Data Editor, right-click on a data instance. 2 Select New. The New tab is displayed in the Details pane next to the Extended Data and Internals tabs. The fields on the New tab are the slots for which data information can be entered for this new data instance. The fields with a white background can be edited; fields with an asterisk are required. The unique data identifier slot (mc_udid) has a white background and is empty. The mc_udid slot information is assigned by the cell and BMC Software recommends that you allow the cell to assign this value rather than entering one of your own. The cell assigns a valid value for this slot. The slot fields that are dimmed will be completed automatically by the cell. The only exception to this is the list associated with the Type field that permits you to select from specified options, as shown in Figure 93 on page 400. Figure 93: Type field list

Note

3 Click OK to complete the new data instance and close the New tab. The success or failure of your attempt to create a new data instance will be reflected in the message bar at the bottom of BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console window. Figure 94 on page 400 illustrates a notification of a failed attempt to create a new data instance. Figure 94: Message bar

To create a new data instance with the New Copy option


1 When you use the New Copy menu option, certain of the editable fields contain slot information that is copied from the selected data instance in the Data List, as
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shown in below.

The New Copy menu option provides the same selection in the type field list as the New menu option, as shown in Figure 93 on page 400. When you have entered or edited the appropriate slot information, click OK to create the new data instance and close the New tab. The success or failure of your attempt to create a new data instance is reflected in the message bar of the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console window.

Editing slots
A class definition consists of one or more slots. Each slot has a data type and can have specific attributes called facets that can control the values that the slot can have or control aspects of a class instances processing. A class that is a subclass to another class inherits all the slots of the parent class. The Edit pop-up menu option enables you to update the selected data instance of the current data list in the Data List display pane.

To edit slots
1 Select and right-click on the data instance and click Edit to display the Edit tab in the Details pane of the Dynamic Data Editor tab.

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The Edit tab contains the slot value information of the selected data instance. Fields that can be changed have a white background. 2 To save the edited information and close the Edit tab, click OK.

Exporting data
From the Data List in the Administration View, you can export a data instance as a file with a specified file name, in a format selected from a list, and containing all or only the visible slot information available for the data instance. Multiple data instances can be exported to the same file at the same time. Do this by selecting all the data instances your want included to begin the export process.

To export data
1 Select a data instance and select the File => Export menu option or click on the Export toolbar button to display the Export Policies dialog box, as shown in Figure 95 on page 402. Figure 95: Export Data dialog box

2 In the Format list, select the format for the export file, as shown in Figure 96 on page 402. Figure 96: Export Data dialog boxSelecting the data format

3 With the Visible Slots and All Slots option buttons, select whether you want to include only the visible slots or all slots in the file.
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If you select All Slots, the Filter for Importing check box is available.

4 In the To File box, accept the default or specify the file name and location for the export file. 5 Click OK to create the export file and close the Export Data dialog box. For illustration purposes, in Figure 97 on page 403, the export file mcdata.csv containing information on all the slots for the selected data instance is created in C: \Documents and Settings\zane\My Documents. Figure 97: Contents of mcdata.csv

Figure 98 on page 403 illustrates an export file containing four data instances. Figure 98: Export file containing four data instances

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Creating and using user-defined policies
This chapter describes how to create and how to implement user-defined policy types. This chapter presents the following topics:

Understanding user-defined event policy types


Predefined policy types cannot cover all requirements of different BMC ProactiveNet implementations. To support specialized event processing, you can also define and implement custom event policy types to do specialized event processing not supported by the predefined policy types. For instructions about creating event policy types, seeUserdefined event policy type creation on page 407.

Understanding event processing rules (MRL) for policy types


This section describes the form of policy type rules and discusses how they work.

Format of event processing rules for policy types


A typical event processing rule for a user-defined policy type has this form:
<rule-phase> rule-name: using_policy { <POLICY_TYPE> ($POL) where [ ($POL.enabled == 1) AND

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(($POL.active_timeframes == [] OR tf_active($POL.active_timeframes)) AND NOT tf_active($POL.except_timeframes)) ] } $POL.selector_ecf ($EV) where [ <other conditions> ] { <actions>; opadd($EV, $POL.name, "action name", ""); } END

How a rule for a policy type is processed


The processing of a rule for a policy type is a follows: 1 The using_policy clause finds the applicable policy, that is, the instance of the user-defined policy class (derived from IM_POLICY). These class definitions describe the slots available in a policy class:
MC_DATA_CLASS : POLICY ISA CORE_DATA DEFINES { name : STRING, key = yes, read_only = yes; description : STRING; enabled : INTEGER, default = 1; }; END MC_DATA_CLASS: IM_POLICY ISA POLICY DEFINES { active_timeframes : LIST_OF STRING; except_timeframes : LIST_OF STRING; selector_name : STRING; selector_class : STRING; selector_ecf : ECF EVENT; ordinal : INTEGER, default=0; }; END

2 The tf_active calls evaluates timeframes for the policy. 3 The selector ECF selects the event to process. 4 The actions implement the policy and the opadd call adds an entry to the operations log of the event.

Sources of information about rules


You can get more information about rules for policy types and how to create them from these sources
For... examples of rules for policy types See... the pre-defined policies in .../kb/rules/im_internal.mrl.

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For... definitions of the MRL constructs and primitives for policy rules

See... BMC Knowledge Base Development Reference Guide

User-defined event policy type creation


If you want to create a new user-defined event policy to perform specialized event processing, first, you must define a new event policy type. An event policy type is a data class, derived from that defines the distinct type of event processing to be performed.

Creating user-defined policy types


To define a new user-defined policy type, you must do the following things.
Table 44: Policy Type Creation process Step Task 1 Define a new policy data class that describes the policy type and copy it to the Knowledge Base of each BMC IM instance to use the user-defined policy. Define the presentation names that you want to appear in user interfaces for the policy type in a ix.properties configuration file. Create a new rule that defines the event processing done by the policy type and copy it to the Knowledge Base of each BMC IM instance to use the policy. Topic Defining the policy data class for a new policy type on page 407 Defining presentation names for a new policy type on page 409 Creating the event processing rule(s) for a new policy type on page 410

Defining the policy data class for a new policy type


To create a new policy type, first you must define a data class derived directly from the IM_BASE_CUSTOM_POLICY base class. This policy data class describes the policy types data. It also provides the template of data fields (slots) used by BMC IM to generate the BMC ProactiveNet Custom Policy Details panel in which users specify the processing details for a policy of that type.

To define a new policy data class


1 Using a text editor, open the appropriate BAROC language file in the Knowledge Base.
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Because the IM_BASE_CUSTOM_POLICY base class is defined in .../kb/class/

im_policies.baroc file, you must define the new policy type in a separate file that is loaded for compilation after .../kb/class/im_policies.baroc file (it is listed after the im_policies.baroc in the .../kb/class/.load file list).

2 Define the new policy data class derived directly from the IM_BASE_CUSTOM_POLICY base class. a Create the new class slots. You can create slots of these types:
ENUMERATION INTEGER STRING LIST OF

No other slot types are supported in custom event policies. b Define the class slots in the order that you want them to appear in the BMC ProactiveNet Custom Policy Type panel. The BMC ProactiveNet Custom Policy Details panel created from the policy type will have a field for each slot added to the IM_BASE_CUSTOM_POLICY class. The interface fields appear in the same order as the slots are defined in the class definition.
See the BMC Knowledge Base Development Reference Guide for detailed

information on creating new classes.

3 Save the edited file after defining the new policy type (data class). 4 Add and entry for the new file that you created to the compiler load list in the .../ kb/class/.load file after the entry for the ../kb/class/im_policies.baroc file, which contains the base policy data class that the new policy type references. 5 Recompile the BMC Impact Manager instances Knowledge Base (KB) after defining the new policy data class.
For more information on compiling a KB, see Compiling a Knowledge Base

in the BMC Knowledge Base Development Reference Guide.

6 Finally, you must copy the changed KB to every BMC Impact Manager instance (cell) that will use the new policy.

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Verifying that you created the class successfully


If you created the class successfully, you should be able to see it in the By Policy list and the Custom Policy Details panel. Next, define user-friendly presentation names to appear in the user interface for the policy type and its slots.

Defining presentation names for a new policy type


If you want user-friendly presentation names to appear in the user interface for the policy type and its slots instead of the internal names, you must:
define presentation names for the policy type in a resource file list the resource file for the policy type in the BMC ix.properties file

To define presentation names for a policy type


1 Create a resource file for the policy type to list the policy type and each slot with its assigned presentation name. The resource file name must have the .properties file extension. 2 Edit the resource file to add an entry for each presentation name assignment. a To define the presentation name (label) for the policy type, add a line with the following format to the resource file:
CLASS.< >=<
policy type name policy type presentation name

> Policy

b To define the presentation name (label) used for a slot, add a line with the following format to the resource file.:
SLOT.< >.< >=< >
policy type name slot name slot presentation name

3 Place the resource file in the installDirectory \ admin\lib\lang\kbinfo directory.

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a Add the base name of the resource file to the value of kb_info_resources parameter in the installDirectory \admin\etc\ix.properties file using this format:
kb_info_resources=<resource file name>,kb_core_resource, kb_deprecated_resource

The defined presentation names will display in the Event Management Policies tree, the Policy Type picker window, and in the Policy List panel. Any slot or policy type for which a presentation name is not defined displays its internal name. The event policy details tab for all user-defined policy types is Custom Policy Details.

Creating the event processing rule(s) for a new policy type


Before you can define an event policy based on the user-defined policy type that you created, you must:
create a new Knowledge Base rule or rules to define the event processing done by

the policy type

copy the rule or rules to the Knowledge Base of each BMC IM instance on which

the user-defined policy will run

Event processing rule requirements


The event processing rule or rules that you define for the new user-defined policy type must:
do dynamic selection (use the using_policy clause) reference the policy data class that describes the new policy type

To create the event processing rule for a new policy type


1 , Add a new file in the .../kb/rules directory, for example, my_policies.mrl, for the new event processing rule or rules for the new policy type. 2 Edit the policy MRL file and write the event processing rule for the appropriate rule phase.
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User-defined event policy type creation

See the MRL for the pre-defined policy types in ...\kb\rules

\im_internal.mrl file.

3 Add the file name for the new rule or rules to the compiler load list in the ...\kb \rule\.load file. 4 Compile the cell instances Knowledge Base (KB) after defining the rule for the policy type.
For more information on compiling a KB, see the BMC Knowledge Base

Development Reference Guide.

5 Copy this KB change to every cell instance that will use a policy based on the new policy type. The definition of the policy type is complete and users can now create policies based on it in the Custom Policy Type panel.

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Working with BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management
Infrastructure Management makes it easier for administrators with a Full Access or Service Administrator role to monitor and manage BMC ProactiveNet infrastructure components in a real-time service model. These infrastructure components include cells, servers, and integrations. In the Infrastructure Management interface, you can perform actions on these components, such as editing configuration and log files and packaging support files for troubleshooting purposes. Users assigned to Full Access, Service Administrator, or other Admin groups could remotely manage a subset of BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management components and applications. In the Infrastructure Management tab on the Administration tab of the BMCProactiveNet Administration Console, these users could manually launch remote actions (stop, start, pause, and so forth) by selecting the component, right-clicking to open the pop-up menu, and choosing the action from a list of available ones. The availability of the actions depended on the user role and the type of component or application.

Default BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management service model


The default BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management model consists of logical groupings of BMC infrastructure applications and components. Upon installation certain components send registration events and become automatically registered with the BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management model.

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Default BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management service model

Gray indicates that the object is a logical grouping, components whose status is unknown to the Impact Administration cell. Only registered components are viewable in the Find window and services graph. The arrows indicate the direction (provider to consumer) of the event feed. A dotted line indicates that the relationship is inactive. The following versions of BMC components register with this service model. They can be added as components instances to the respective logical group.
Table 45: Supported application groups Group Id 100 101 102 103 104 105 112 120 121 122 123 124 Name EM_CELL EM_SERVER_1 EM_SERVER_2 SIM_CELL SIM_SERVER_1 SIM_SERVER_2 PS (BMC Impact Publishing Server) Adapter LOG_FILE_ADAPTER SNMP_ADAPTER WINDOWS_EVENT_ADAPTER SYSLOG_ADAPTER

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Group Id 125 126 127 142 152 154 156 160

Name TCP_ADAPTER TELNET_ADAPTER UDP_ADAPTER IBRSD ARS_SD BiiZ SLM EM_Server_Standby

Roles and permissions


The following group roles have full write permission to the components and features of the BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management subtab:
Service Administrators Event Administrators Full Access

Only members of these groups can view the BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management subtab. For information about assigning roles, see Defining or editing roles and permissions on page 216.

Walkthrough
This section provides a walkthrough of BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management, highlighting its main features. You can use this walkthrough to learn about and become familiar with BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management.

Displaying the out-of-the-box real-time service model


BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management automatically deploys a BMC infrastructure service model, called BPPM Infrastructure. It consists of logical
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groupings of BMC services and applications, together with registered components that send all relevant information and latest statuses. The out-of-the-box service model reflects the real-time states of the registered components.

To display the infrastructure service model


1 In the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console, click the Administration tab. 2 In the icon bar at the top of the navigation area on the left, click the BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management icon

(the wrench or spanner icon). 3 Under Find Infrastructure Components in the bottom pane of the navigation area, choose Find to list the services and applications. 4 The logical groupings of components and applications are displayed, along with registered components. Alternatively, you can open the BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management group to display the navigation tree, as shown in the following figure. BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management navigation pane

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5 Locate the BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure object in the Find list, and then, using the mouse, click and drag it into the graph viewing area in the top right pane to reveal the service model. You can also choose to select BPPM Infrastructure in the navigation tree under BPPM Infrastructure Management to display it in the graph viewing area. You may need to click the Orientation icon

at the top of the graph viewing area to reposition it vertically. The gray-colored icons represent logical groupings, components whose status is unknown to the Impact Administration Cell.

Sampling context-sensitive information


The BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management interface offers a range of contextsensitive information that you can access from right-click pop-up menus and multilayered notebook tabs. For example, you can expand the model and select a component under the SIM Cells heading.
Click the leaf component under SIM Cells to select it. Click the Details tab. Click the subtabs such as General, Status, Priority and Cost,

Advanced, RelatedComponents, SLM, and Schedule. These tabs provide component specific information.

Click the Administer tab. Click the subtabs such as Configuration, Logs, and

SupportPackage. You can access the Workload and Components tabs if you have selected either a SIM or an EM cell server. component.

Click Edit Component in the Details=>General tab and change a property of the

Status
In the Status subtab, you can view the applicable status levels of the component: Service Level Agreement and computation statuses.

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Advanced
In the Advanced subtab, you can view information on identification, creation and modification time, and read/write permissions for groups for the selected object.

Related Components
In the RelatedComponents subtab, you can retrieve status causes, possible problems, providers, and consumers of the selected component type. You can modify the relationship by selecting Edit Relationship..., which opens the Edit Relationships dialog where you can add, modify, or remove relationships. Using the right-click menu options, you can highlight a retrieved component in the list, and add a link to the navigation tree by choosing the Add Navigation Link option. This subtab also lets you view other components that have relationships with the selected component.

SLM
In the SLM subtab, you can list and view the details of Service Level Management agreements assigned to the component.

Schedule
In the Schedule subtab, you can view the times when the component is in service together with its priority costs when it is in service and when it is out of service.

Managing files on remote systems


From the BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management interface, you can edit and save the configuration and log files of other applications and services that are running on remote systems.

To edit and save configuration files


1 Click the leaf component under a service or an application, such as a service impact management cell, to select it. 2 From the notebook tabs, choose Administer => Configuration. The drop list reveals the configuration files of the selected component. 3 To modify a file, select it from the list, and click Edit.
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4 In the Credentials dialog box, enter the credentials of the remote system, and click OK. The configuration file is displayed in the editor. The Additional command credentials check box applies mainly to UNIX systems, where you may need to log into the system under one user account, but then switch to another user account (for example, root) to execute the action. 5 Edit the file. 6 When you are done, you can click either of the following:
File => Save a Copy to save a copy of the file to your local system File => Update Original to update the file on the remote system

To edit and save log files


1 Click the leaf component under a service or an application, such as a service impact management cell, to select it. 2 From the notebook tabs, choose Administer => Logs. The drop list reveals the log files of the selected component. 3 To modify a file, select it from the list, and click View. 4 In the dialog box, enter the credentials of the remote system, and click OK. The log file is displayed in the editor. 5 Edit the file. 6 When you are done, click File => Save a Copy to save a copy of the file to your local system. You cannot update a log file on a remote system. You can save it only to the local system.

Packaging support files


You can package selected debug files to help troubleshoot customer cases. BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management automatically packages the selected files into a zipped file.

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To package support files


1 Click on a component in the service model. 2 From the notebook tabs, choose Administer=>Support Package. 3 In the Destination field, enter the file path where the package should be saved on the local system. You can use the Browse button to navigate to the directory. The file name of the support package is created automatically. 4 ( Optional ) Enter a tracking number in the Issue Number field. 5 ( Optional ) Enter a description of the issue in the Description field. 6 Click Create Package. 7 Enter the credentials of the remote system from which you are retrieving the files.

A pop-up progress indicator shows the status of the retrieval. If it completes successfully, go to the specified directory and review the contents of the zipped package. The file contents vary based on the type of component. 8 Repeat steps 1 through 7 for a server component, verifying that the file contents of its zipped package are different from those of the service impact management cell.

Launching remote actions


From the BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management interface, you can execute actions through the right-click pop-up menus on components and applications that are running on remote systems. For this exercise, you must have a registered cell component installed on a remote system.
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To launch remote actions


1 Right-click the leaf component under a service impact management cell or event management cell to select a cell residing on a remote system. 2 Choose Actions to display a list of all possible actions for that component.

3 Choose Stop Cell Server Process, click Stop, and enter the logon credentials for the remote system. If the selected component resides on an Microsoft Windows system, your login credentials should have administrative rights to the system. The Additional Command Credentials are needed check box is disabled. When the component on the remote system has stopped, its status changes to Unavailable. 4 Return to the BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management interface, right-click the service impact management cell component to display the pop-up menu, and choose Actions => Start Cell Server Process. 5 Verify that the cell has started--for example, you can execute an mcstat command to check the cell's status. Then you can verify that the status of the selected component is changed to OK. 6 Repeat steps 1 through 5 for a BMC ProactiveNet Server component, such as publishing server or IBRSD. The actions permitted on the server component are limited to Stop Process and Start Process only.

You can also launch remote actions for selected components by clicking one of the Action toolbar icons of the BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management view.

Depending on the type and state of the selected component, you can choose from among the following actions:

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Start Cell Server Process (Start) Stop Cell Server Process (Stop) Restart Cell Server Process (Restart) Pause Events Admittance (Pause) Resume Events Admittance (Resume) Set to Active Set to Standby

Different actions are enabled based on the status and type of component. For example, if a component in an unknown state is already started and you choose Actions => Start, you receive a status message notifying you that the component is started already. For more information, see Remote actions on page 444.

Common BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management tasks


This section describes the most common BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management tasks.

Navigating the interface


In the Administration tab view of the Administration Console, select the BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management subtab, represented by the wrench icon:

In the Class drop-down list, click All if it is not already displayed. Click Find to open the list of logical groupings and registered components in your infrastructure. Logical groupings and registered components are depicted by different icons:
Icon Definition logical services grouping SIM cell

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Icon

Definition SIM cell server 1 SIM cell server 2 (high availability implementation) SIM cell server standby (high availability implementation) EM Cell EM cell server 1 EM cell server 2 (high availability implementation) BEM cell server standby (high availability implementation) Publishing Server Integration for BMC Remedy Service Desk

Select the BPPM nfrastructure grouping, which contains the default infrastructure model, and drag-and-drop it on to the graph viewing area. You may need to select the Orientation icon to display it along a vertical axis.

Multiple graphs
You can display multiple graph views. For example, you can select registered components from the Results list in the navigation pane, and drag-and-drop them on the graph viewing area, creating new graph views. You can switch from one view to the other by selecting the tabs at the top of the graph viewing area.

Navigation tree
To help organize your model, you can display and manipulate the grouping and component hierarchy in the navigation tree view under the BPPM Infrastructure Management heading. You can select objects in the navigation tree and display them in the graph viewing area.

You can drag objects from the graph viewing area and drop into the navigation tree, creating a navigation link between the two.

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Tip You can press the CTRL or SHIFT key and then click an object in the navigation tree to display the object in the graph viewing area without closing any displayed objects.
You can create customized subgroups under the BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management heading. After selecting the heading, right-click to open the Add a sub group menu item.

After you define your group, you can drag-and-drop component objects into it.

Displaying and understanding the Details and Administer tab data


The Details subtabs display information that identifies the characteristics of the selected component and returns its status. They let you perform common actions, such as changing provider-consumer relationships between components. The Administer subtabs display specific infrastructure information and let you perform unique infrastructure actions, such as editing configuration and log files and collecting debug files for troubleshooting. To view data about an object in the interface, first select it. Then you can scan the corresponding subtabs under Details and Administer. To view information on one of the Administer tabs, the selected object must be a registered infrastructure component, not a greyed-out logical services group icon.

Details tab data


The Details tab displays the subtabs and data

General
In the General subtab, you can view the name, class, and subtype of the selected object. Depending on the subtype, you can also view other slot values, as described in Table 46 on page 425.

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Table 46: Slot values: Details: General subtab


Section Component Slot Name Description Name of the component that you have selected under BPPM Infrastructure in the navigation tree or in the service model in the Service Model View. The type of component that you have selected

Class Subtype Short Description Description Editable Here

contains a Boolean Yes/No indicator that says whether the selected component object can be edited in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console. BPPM Infrastructure Management only contains objects that are not published. Therefore, Editable Here is always set to Yes in BPPM Infrastructure Management.

Master Repository

specifies the data source of the component object. For example, component objects that originate from a direct feed source, such as BMC IX, mposter, or an MRL, are designated in this format: CellcellName. The default name for BPPM Infrastructure Management is Cell-Admin. the current state of the object, which helps to determine its status, its icon shape, the icon's color, as well as which actions can be performed against the object. This slot value is updated whenever the component changes its state, from start to stop, from start to paused, from stop to start, and so forth. host name of the computer where the component is installed Port number through which the BMC ProactiveNet Server communicates with the host where the component is installed

Run State

Host Port

Data Destinations Started Date Role indicates whether a component, such as a cell server, is standalone or, in an HA pair, either primary or secondary. the individual responsible for the component the contact information for the owner of the component

Owner

Owner name Owner Contact

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Section Release

Slot Environment Release Build

Description

Cells and Cell Servers Only

From the General subtab, you can click Edit Component to open the Edit Service Component dialog in which you can modify the component's properties.

Status
In the Status subtab, you can view the applicable status levels of the component: Service Level Agreement and computation statuses.

Advanced
In the Advanced subtab, you can view information on identification, creation and modification time, and read/write permissions for groups for the selected object.

Related Components
In the RelatedComponents subtab, you can retrieve status causes, possible problems, providers, and consumers of the selected component type. You can modify the relationship by selecting Edit Relationship..., which opens the Edit Relationships dialog where you can add, modify, or remove relationships. Using the right-click menu options, you can highlight a retrieved component in the list, and add a link to the navigation tree by choosing the Add Navigation Link option. You can view the events associated with the component. This subtab also lets you view other components that have relationships with the selected component.

SLM
In the SLM subtab, you can list and view the details of Service Level Management agreements assigned to the component.

Schedule
In the Schedule subtab, you can view the times when the component is in service together with its priority costs when it is in service and when it is out of service.
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Administer tab data


The Administer tab for BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management displays the following subtabs.

Configuration
The Configuration subtab lists the editable configuration files of the selected component. You can retrieve these files, even those associated with components on remote systems. Click Edit. Then enter the logon credentials for the system where the component resides. (On UNIX, your login account must have permission to access the target system. On Microsoft Windows, you must have administrative privileges on the system.) The file opens in a default text editor. You can edit any supported configuration file of an infrastructure component. The type of file varies with the component, but the files include:
mcell.dir file .conf files filter files selector files mapping files trace.conf files cell_info.list file

You should know the parameters of the file before trying to edit it. Refer to the component's respective documentation. You can save the edited configuration file to a local or remote system. If saving to a local system, you can specify a different file path. If saving to a remote system, you update the configuration file in its current directory path. You cannot save it to a different file path.

Logs
Similar to configuration files, you can open and annotate log files of components on local systems in the Log subtab. You cannot save an edited or update a viewed log file to a remote system, however. You must save it to the local system.

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Support Package
In the SupportPackage subtab, you can prepare a zipped package of predefined support files for troubleshooting purposes. For more information, see Creating the support package on page 438.

Workload
The Workload subtab dynamically tracks the event activity of the cell server component. It presents counts, averages, and percentages of different event actions, such as sent, received, dropped, and removed. You can refresh the table by clicking the Refresh button.

Components
The Components subtab dynamically tracks the component instances that send events to the selected object. You refresh the table by clicking the Refresh button. This subtab view is available for both service impact management and event management cell servers.

Editing infrastructure relationships


To open the Edit Relationships dialog box, select an infrastructure object in the graph area, and then perform one of the following actions:
Select the Related Components subtab from the Details notebook tab. Click the

Edit Relationship button.

Click Edit => Edit Relationship. Click the Edit Relationship toolbar icon.

The Edit Relationships dialog box is opened. The following figure shows an open Edit Relationships dialog box with a selected service impact management cell opened for editing in the Edit This Relationship subdialog.

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The Edit Relationships dialog box contains the fields listed in the following table:
Table 47: Edit Relationship dialog: field descriptions Field Component Name Related Component Type Description name of the selected infrastructure component identifies the infrastructure component subtype that has a consumer or provider relationship to the selected component and for which you want to search lists the consumer, provider, or both consumer and provider relationships of the selected component subtype and component identifies the infrastructure object related to the selected component indicates the event flow of the object relationship. A consumer direction indicates that the component object receives events and data from the selected component. A provider direction indicates that the component object sends events and data to the selected component identifies current state of the relationship: active or inactive specifies the class that contains the relationship type identifies the status propagation model used for determining the propagated status from the provider's main status indicates whether you can edit the object

Relationships

Component Direction

State Type Propagation Model

Editable

You can search on component types by selecting an Impact Administration subtype from the drop-down list. When you click Search, it retrieves the relationships associated with the selected subtype.

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Creating logical components

Select an item in the Edit Relationships dialog, and right-click to open the pop-up menu. You can perform actions common to all object relationships: View Service Model, Edit Component, Add Navigation Link, and Add Relationship. You can edit any of the component's relationships by selecting it and then choosing the Edit Relationship button at the bottom of the dialog. The Edit This Relationship subdialog contains the following fields:
Table 48: Edit This Relationship subdialog Field Consumer/Provider indicator Description indicates the directional flow of the relationship between the selected component and the component subtype. You can modify the relationship Direct, Increasing, Decreasing, Just_Info, or Just_Warning weight (numeric value) of a relationship used while calculating the status using weighted cluster mode Summary description of the relationship

Type of Relationship Status Weight Description

Creating logical components


You can add logical components to the BPPM Infrastructure Management service model. Logical components in this context refer to components that do not have a predefined registration event associated with them, as do the BMC infrastructure components listed in Table 45 on page 414. Although logical components are not registered with the IAC and therefore do not provide real-time status information, they can help to complement the BMC infrastructure model. For example, you can add logical integrations and server processes to the model to represent an idealized infrastructure environment.

The names of logically created components do not display in Korean in the graph viewing area while its component object does.

Note

Deleting components
You can delete both logical service groupings/objects and live, registered objects from the BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management service model.
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To organize your service model around its real-time components, you can delete logical groupings that do not have registered components associated with them. Generally, you should delete the leaf objects, not objects that lie between other objects. If you delete objects that lie between other objects, some objects that should be deleted because of relationship associations with the other objects will nonetheless remain. BMC recommends that you do not delete components that have been registered automatically with the BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management service model. However, if you delete a live, registered object, it is removed from the BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management service model, and an event of the class Service Model Component Delete is sent to the IAC.

You can recover a deleted registered object by modifying the DATA/ADMIN_DATA/ ADMIN_REGISTRATIONS table of the IAC in the General Administration tab view.

Tip

You change the enable parameter for the specific component from NO to YES in the Edit tab. Then you restart the component to reregister it.

Usage reporting
In the Infrastructure Management tab, you can choose the File => Usage Report menu option to display and print a report that lists the BMC ProactiveNet components that are registered with the BMC Impact Administration cell. These components include:
management servers standalone cells high availability cells Integration for BMC Remedy Service Desk

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By default, users belonging to the user group Full Access, Service Administrators can access these reports. You can save and print the report in a plain text file or a comma-separated values (CSV) file for tabular data presentation.

Note

To display and save a usage report


Be sure that you are connected to the Impact Administration Cell. Otherwise the Usage Report... option is unavailable. 1 In the Infrastructure Management tab of the Administration Console, choose File => Usage Report. 2 Perform one of the following actions:
Save the report in .csv or .txt format Print the report

Executing Remote Actions


Remote Actions can be executed through automated actions and on demand. You can execute the automated actions by creating an event rule. If an action is executed in an event rule, the request is sent to the server. The server in-turn contacts the particular remote devices with the credentials of the specific devices. The server is connected to the remote devices and the command is executed on the remote devices. When the actions are executed for device automatically, you can view the result of actions by clicking the Detailed Diagnostics icon on the Intelligent Event History page or on the Events List page of the BMC ProactiveNet Operation Console. Click the relevant event using Tools menu from the event list of BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console to view the results of the action.

Reloading cell configuration


Use the Reload menu command to access the commands for reloading a cell's configuration. The Reload => All menu option is the equivalent of the mcontrol command's reload all option. This means the default data from the cell's KB\data directory is
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reloaded, taking it back to a default out of the box data state. This removes any custom data that the customer has created. However, the other options, such as Reload => Knowledge Base, Reload => Directory (mcell.dir), etc., do not reload data.

To reload all of the cell configuration


1 Right-click a cell. 2 Select Reload => All. All configuration files and the KB are reloaded.

To reload only the cell's knowledge base


1 Right-click a cell. 2 Select Reload => Knowledge Base. The KB is reloaded.

To reload the directory


1 Right-click a cell. 2 Select Reload => Directory . The mcell.dir file is reloaded.

To reload cell configuration


1 Right-click a cell. 2 Select Reload => Cell Configuration . The configuration files mcell.conf, mcell.propagate, and mcell.modify are reloaded.

To reload trace configuration


1 Right-click a cell. 2 Select Reload => Trace Configuration . The mcell.trace file is reloaded.

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Forcing event propagation

Forcing event propagation


You can use the Propagate Events command to force the selected cell to send the contents of the destination buffers to one or all its destination cells immediately.

To force propagation to all target cells


1 Right-click a cell. 2 Select Propagate Events => All Destinations to force propagation of the buffer contents to all target cells.

To force propagation to a selected target cell


1 Right-click a cell. 2 Select Propagate Events => Select Destinations. 3 In the Propagate dialog box, specify the target cell to which you want to propagate the buffer contents. 4 Click OK.

Collecting metrics
Use the Metrics Collection menu command to access the commands for working with metrics.

To turn metrics collection off


1 Right-click a cell. 2 Select Metrics Collection=> Disable.

To reset collection counters


1 Right-click a cell. 2 Select Metrics Collection => Clear Values. 3 The collection counts are reset to 0.

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Executing other actions


Where appropriate for the component, you can perform the actions that are available in the Services Editor tab view. These actions include
viewing the graph of a selected component and its relationships adding links to components from container folders refreshing the graph view after making an edit to a component or relationship

Audit log parameters


By default, BPPM Infrastructure Management automatically maintains an audit log of all remote actions that an administrator performs on remote hosts. The audit log uses the following format:
IAS_USER SUB_TYPE:OBJECT EXPLANATION TIME_STAMP OS_USER LOG_LEVEL ACTION_ID

Table 49 on page 435describes the audit log parameters:


Table 49: Audit log parameters for Infrastructure Management Audit log parameter TIME_STAMP Description month, day, year, hour, minute, and second that the log entry was created. Uses the format mm/dd/ yyyy hh:mm:ss the severity level of the logged action. Valid values include INFO: informational message SEVERE: error message A typical SEVERE message documents the error exceptions that occur during the execution of a remote action, such as Unable to save file on remote machine

LOG_LEVEL

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Audit log parameter IAS_USER

Description current BMC ProactiveNet user name that has logged on and connected with the BMC ProactivNet Server user name that logs into the remote host's operating system. This is the user name under which the action is executed on the remote host the component or application type on the BMC ProactiveNet administrator is performing the remote action. BPPM Infrastructure Management supports the subtypes listed under Supported component or application types on page 436 user-specified value in the Object slot of the component or application on the which remote action is being executed unique Id associated with the remote action. This unique Id is defined in the corresponding actions.xml file stored on the computer where the BMC ProactiveNet Server resides. It is stored under the BMC PROACTIVENT_HOME/server/data/ admin/actions folder on the BMC ProactiveNet Server computer. short text description of the logged action

OS_USER

SUB_TYPE

OBJECT

ACTION_ID

EXPLANATION

Supported component or application types


BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management supports the following types in this product version:
EM_CELL SIM_SERVER_2

EM_SERVER_1

IBRSD

EM_SERVER_2

BEM_SERVER_STANDBY

SIM_CELL

SIM_SERVER_STANDBY

INTEGRATIONS

PS

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SIM_SERVER_1

Sample logs
A sample audit log for a remote startup action on a service impact management cell might look as follows:
Mon 07/23/2007 16:50:15 INFO iasuser superuser SIM_CELL:PUNE_CELL start_im_windows Executing action

Audit log properties in the ias.properties file


These audit logs are stored by default under the BMC_PROACTIVENET_HOME/ pronto/logs/ias directory on the BMC ProactiveNet Server. You can configure the audit log by modifying the properties in the ias.properties file shown in the table below.
Property com.bmc.sms.ixscomm.util.auditLogEnable Description Boolean true/false value that indicates whether auditing is enabled. The default is true.

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Property com.bmc.sms.ixscomm.util.auditLogFilename

Description specifies the file path and name of the audit log file, using the %g indicator to show that the audit log files are cycled through a numerical sequence. For example, if auditLogFilename=AuditLog%g.log auditLogFilecount=10 auditLogLimit=5000 then the initial audit log is assigned the name AuditLog1.file. When its file size reaches 5000 bytes, a new audit log is generated with the same name but incremented by one: AuditLog2.file. As each log reaches the maximum size, a new audit log is created and incremented by one. When the maximum log file count (10 in this example) is reached, then the process repeats itself because only one cycle of logs is maintained. The first audit log of the new cycle starts at 1 (AuditLog1), overwriting the existing file. As new logs are generated in the new cycle, they overwrite the existing ones in sequence. By default the audit logs are stored in the BMC_PROACTIVENET_HOME/server/log/ias directory. You can specify another directory path in this parameter value: for example, auditLogFilename=log/AuditLog%g.log, provided that the specified directory exists under BMC_PROACTIVENET_HOME/server.

com.bmc.sms.ixscomm.util.auditLogLimit

size in bytes of the audit log file. The default is 5000 bytes (approximately 4.88 kilobytes). While there is no predefined maximum size, BMC recommends that each log file not exceed 5 MB. indicates the number of audit log files that are cycled through during a rotation. After the specified number is reached, the cycle repeats itself, overwriting in sequence the log files of the previous cycle. The default is 1.

com.bmc.sms.ixscomm.util.auditLogFileCount

After you modify any of the properties in the ias.properties file, you must restart the BMC ProactiveNet Server.

Creating the support package


You can create a support package for troubleshooting purposes by collecting files from remote systems and saving them to a specified file path on the local or a remote system.

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The support package contains the following files:


.dir files .conf files filter files selector files mapping files trace files trace.conf files

In addition, it contains
default support files

These are internal files of the infrastructure application. They are not included in the other categories. They vary among the applications, but they include .baroc, .mrl, .wic, and .cmd files. Generally, for a cell server, this package contains the files of its KB directory and its log directory. You can choose which files to include. They also include a sysinfo.text file that captures active port connections, OS and hardware configurations, and network card details. The absolute file path to each file is included.
additional support files

This is a customizable list of files that the user can edit by adding or deleting files to or from the support package. It is designed to enable the user to add other files to the support package.

Slots for specifying support files


You can specify which support files you want to receive by editing the corresponding slot in the Edit Service Component dialog for the selected component. To specify which support files to include, select the component and choose Edit => Edit Component or choose Edit Component from the right-click pop-up menu. The Edit Service Component dialog is displayed. Scroll down the list of slots. You can specify values in the slots specified in the following table.
Slot Additional Support Files Description full path to other support files that you want to include

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Slot Configuration files Dir files Filter files Map files Selector files Trace conf files Trace files

Description full path to configuration files (.conf) full path to *.dir files, such as mcell.dir or admin.dir full path to *.filter files full path to *.map files full path to *.selector files full path to the *.trace file full path to the trace logs

Your support files should be on the system on which the component is running. Enter the full path to the file you want to include. If you are adding multiple files, separate the complete file paths with commas. There is no limit to the number of files that you can add. To compile your support package, choose the Administer => Support Package tab. Browse to the destination folder where you want to save the list of configuration and log files, and select it. You can enter the issue number (maximum of 16 characters) if one has been assigned.

WARNING Microsoft Windows does not support the creation of files that have any of the following special characters in their file names: , \, /, ?, *, ", |, <, >. If the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console is installed on Microsoft Windows, do not enter any of the special characters in the Issue Number slot. Otherwise, the support package creation fails.
If you do enter the issue number, assign it as a prefix to the support package name. You can type a short, but informative, description of the package (maximum of 256 characters). Then click Create Package. The file name of the support package file follows this format:
OBJECT_NAME_support_package_TIMESTAMP.zip

The OBJECT_NAME value is taken from the object slot of the selected component. The time stamp is in the format: MMDDYY_HHMMSS.

UNIX processing note


On UNIX computers, it may take several minutes to create a support package.

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The following causes can contribute to the delay in processing:


whether the component for which you are creating the support package resides in

a different domain from the system on which you are running the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console. If it does lie in a different domain, expect a delay. especially as the file approaches 500 kb or larger.

the size of the zipped or tarred file. The greater the size, the longer the delay,

Reviewing the audit log of the support package


Internally, the process of building a support package consists of these actions: 1 saving the OS-based compression utility (zip or zip.exe) to the remote system 2 creating the support package 3 removing the OS-based compression utility from the remote system 4 executing the get-file action to retrieve the support package from the remote system and putting on the system where BMC ProactiveNet Server resides 5 getting the binary file from the BMC ProactiveNet Server system to the local system where the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console resides Because this is a remote action, the audit log captures the process. If the support package creation is a success, you receive an audit log message that looks similar to the following Windows example:
Fri Aug 17 12:49:25 IST 2007 INFO user ADPROD\slondhe SIM_SERVER_1 :slondhepun-01 saveRemoteFile : zip.exe Executing action. Fri Aug 17 12:49:28 IST 2007 INFO user ADPROD\slondhe SIM_SERVER_1 :slondhepun-01 create_support_package_WINDOWS Executing action. Fri Aug 17 12:49:30 IST 2007 INFO user ADPROD\slondhe SIM_SERVER_1 :slondhepun-01 remove_zip_WINDOWS Executing action. Fri Aug 17 12:49:31 IST 2007 SEVERE user ADPROD\slondhe SIM_SERVER_1 :slondhepun-01 remove_zip_WINDOWS Stderr returned with some error. Fri Aug 17 12:49:32 IST 2007 INFO user ADPROD\slondhe SIM_SERVER_1 :slondhepun-01 get_file : Test1_support_package.zip Executing action. Fri Aug 17 12:49:33 IST 2007 INFO user ADPROD\slondhe SIM_SERVER_1 :slondhepun-01 getBinaryFile : Test1_support_package.zip Executing action.

In a successful support package creation, the audit log does return an error message:
Fri Aug 17 12:49:31 IST 2007 SEVERE user ADPROD\slondhe SIM_SERVER_1 :slondhe-pun-01 remove_zip_WINDOWS Stderr returned with

some error. You can ignore this error because users can still retrieve the zipped

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support package automatically from the remote system without any manual intervention. If you receive a SEVERE error message on any of the other support package actions, such as saveRemoteFile, create_support_package, get_file, and getBinaryFile, it indicates that the support package creation failed. Discard the package, and try again.

Background to BPPM Infrastructure Management


The information in this section describes some of the internal workings of BPPM Infrastructure Management.

How a product component registers and communicates with the IAC


To register with the IAC, the component or application sends a configuration information event. This configuration event contains certain required slots such as mc_event_model_version, mc_object and mc_tool, os_class, and so forth. The component or application sends the configuration information event upon each startup or change in its configuration. After it registers with the IAC, the application or component sends status information such as startup, shutdown, and error events.

Note All event information should be compliant with the event format strictures of version 1.1.00 of the Common Event Model (CEM). for more information, see the BMC ProactiveNet Knowledge Base Development Reference Guide .

Registering a remote cell with the Impact Administration Cell


When you add a remote cell using the mcrtcell CLI command, you need to register the cell with the BMC ProactiveNet Server using the iadmin -ac command.

To manually register a remote cell with the IAC


1 Add the cell using the mcrtcell CLI command, as in the following example:
mcrtcell -as -ba -r -@ hostName/2008 -n sparkles_cell

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2 Next, use the iadmin -ac command to register the cell with the BMC ProactiveNet Server. From the BMC_PROACTIVENET_HOME/server/bin directory, execute the iadmin -ac command as in the following example:
iadmin -ac name=sparkles_cell:key=mc:primaryHost=moondog:primaryPort=2008:failoverHos t=suncat:failoverPort=2008:environment=Production:usergroups=*

The cell is added automatically to the cell_info.list of the BMC ProactiveNet Server located in the BMC_PROACTIVENET_HOME/pronto/conf directory. It is also automatically added to the admin.dir file of the Admin cell located in the BMC_PROACTIVENET__HOME/pronto/data/admin directory, as in the following example:
cell moondog_10 moondog.bmc.com:1828 cell Admin moondog.bmc.com:1827 cell sparkles_cell moondog.bmc.com:2008 suncat.bmc.com:2008 mc mc mc

3 Add the cell entry to the mcell.dir file. By default, the file is located in the BMC_PROACTIVENET_HOME/server/ etcdirectory. 4 Restart the cell that you are registering. 5 Restart the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console. The newly registered cell is displayed in the Infrastructure tab of the administration console. In the Event View of the BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console, you see that the cell that you have registered sends a registration event to the IAC.

Recreating an Impact Administration Cell


If you accidentally remove your IAC, you can recreate it through the mcrtcell CLI command by using the -aa switch, as in the following example:
mcrtcell -aa -ba -r -@ hostName/1827 -n Admin

In this example, you create an IAC with the name "Admin" and assign it to port number 1827.

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Unregistering with the IAC


You cannot formally unregister a component. To remove a component from the BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management model, you must manually delete it. It is removed from the BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management interface, but not from the model contained in the IAC. For example, its .log and .conf files persist in the IAC. The application or service, however, is no longer operational.

Remote actions
While events flow only from the components to the BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management interface, administrators can initiate actions on the components from the interface in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console. Depending on the type of component and its status, you can initiate several actions on the local or remote component.

How context-sensitive remote actions are processed


The current state of a selected component is shown in its run_state slot (Run State), which you can view in the Details => General subtab in the BMC ProactiveNet Infrastructure Management tab. The different run_state values are described in the following table:
Table 50: run_state values for components run_state value unknown active unavailable started stopped paused passive Description state of the component cannot be determined indicates that the cell is the active server component of an HA relationship the connection with the component is disrupted or the component is down the component is online; unable to determine if it's the active component in an HA relationship the component has sent is stopped and has sent a status event indicating that it is stopped the component is in maintenance mode the secondary cell in an HA relationship is in standby mode

The current run_state of the component determines which context-sensitive actions are disabled or enabled from the Actions option on the right-click menu.
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The following table indicates which menu options are enabled (Yes) or disabled (blank) for each run_state of a normal cell or a primary cell in an HA configuration.
Table 51: Component state and menu options for a normal or primary cell in a high availability configuration Menu options run_state Start Cell Server Process Yes Yes Yes Yes Stop Cell Server Process Restart Cell Pause Resume Set to Server Events Events Standby Process Admittance Admittance Set to Active

state_unkn own state_active

state_unava Yes ilable state_starte d state_stopp ed state_pause d state_passiv None e Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

If a component in an unknown state is already started and you choose Actions => Start, you receive a status message notifying you that the component is started already. The following table indicates which menu options are enabled (Yes) or disabled (blank) for each run_state of a secondary cell in an HA configuration.
Menu options run_state Start Cell Server Process state_unkn own state_active state_unava Yes ilable Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Stop Cell Server Process Restart Cell Server Process Pause Resume Set to Events Events Standby Admittance Admittance Set to Active

Note

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Menu options state_starte d state_stopp ed state_pause d state_passiv e Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Exceptions
Generally, most component objects receive the actions Start, Stop, Restart, Pause, and Resume. For cell servers, the Start, Stop, and Restart menu options in the Actions submenu are described as:
Start Cell Server Process Stop Cell Server Process Restart Cell Server Process

For other objects apart from cell servers, the Start, Stop, and Restart menu options in the Actions submenu are described as:
Start Process Stop Process Restart Process

Different actions are available for different types of components. The following table lists the main exceptions:
Table 52: Components and actions Component HA cell Exception all actions. The HA cell is the only component that allows the Set to Standby and Set to Active menu options receives the Restart action only receives the Start and Stop actions

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Displaying remote cells in the Infrastructure Management tab after upgrading the BMC ProactiveNet Server

Component IBRSD normal cell

Exception receives the Stop and Start options receives the Stop, Start, Restart, Pause Events Admittance, and Resume Events Admittance options

Logical components that you add to the BPPM Infrastructure Management service model receive no actions.

Displaying remote cells in the Infrastructure Management tab after upgrading the BMC ProactiveNet Server
If you upgrade the BMC ProactiveNet Server, but do not upgrade any BMC ProactiveNet remote agents, you cannot view the remote cells associated with those agents in the Infrastructure Management tab of the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console. To display the remote cells and manage them from the Infrastructure Management tab, perform the following procedure.

To display remote cells in the Infrastructure Management tab


1 On the computer where the previous version of the BMC ProactiveNet agent is installed, open the admin_rec_options.baroc file. This file is located in the agentInstallDirectory/pw/server/etc/cellName/kb/ records directory. 2 In the section titled Record Admin_Options Defines, change the default value of the attribute IAC_enabled to Yes. 3 Save and close the file. 4 Stop the cell by entering the following command from a command line: mkill -n cellName 5 Compile the cell by entering the following command from a command line: mccomp -n cellName 6 Start the cell again by entering the following command from a command line: mcell -n cellName
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Displaying remote cells in the Infrastructure Management tab after upgrading the BMC ProactiveNet Server

You can now manage the cell from the Infrastructure Management tab in the administration console.

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15
Using the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console for service monitoring
BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console Services Editor tab
The Services Editor tab of the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console is the view that service managers, service administrators, and IT operations staff use to monitor business services. Service managers can view the service models that represent a companys business services. Service models are created by organizing service model components into hierarchical relationships that can then be navigated by operators and service managers from the Services Editor tab in the BMC Proactive Administration Console or in the BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console. In the Services Editor tab, a service manager or operator can see whether a service model component consumes the services of another service model component (consumer) or whether it provides service to another component (provider). From the service model component, IT operations staff can view and manage the underlying events in the BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console.

Monitoring business services in BMC ProactiveNet


You monitor published and manually created service models that represent your business services in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console Service Model View of the Services Editor Tab. The Service Model View provides a graphical representation of the service configuration items and how they relate to each other.
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Figure 99 on page 450shows an example of an Service Model View. Figure 99: Services Editor tab - Service Model View

Depending on whether the default setting is set to horizontal or vertical expansion, the consumer components are displayed on the left or at the top and the direct provider components expand to the right or toward the bottom. A direct consumer or provider component is a component immediately linked to another component. The status of the provider has a direct impact relationship with the consumer component.

Opening a Service Model View


1 Click the Services Editor tab at the top of the navigation pane in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console. 2 Open a Service Model View by using one of the following methods:
From the navigation pane, select a service component instance. See Viewing

service component instances through the navigation pane on page 451.

Click and drag the service component instance from the Results list to an empty

area of the Service Model View. See Finding service component instances to view on page 453.

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Right-click a service component instance and choose View Service Model.

3 Double-click a service component instance to open or close its related service component instances. If you double-click a node that does not have any providers and consumers, the message This object does not have any consumers/providers is displayed.

Viewing service component instances through the navigation pane


Use the navigation pane to view the components associated with a service in the Service Model View. Service managers create the navigation pane tree in BMC Impact Model Designer. If the navigation pane tree does not reflect published changes, log out and log back on to the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console. The navigation pane tree contains service component instances associated with a production cell. To view service component instances associated with a production cell, use the Find tool. For instructions, see Finding service component instances to view on page 453.

Note

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The Services Editor tab navigation pane is shown inFigure 100 on page 452. Figure 100: Services Editor tab navigation pane

Table 53 on page 452 describes the elements in the Services Editor tab navigation pane.
Table 53: Description of elements in the Services Editor tab navigation pane Name Service Views tab My Services group subgroup icons Description shows the available service groups the top level for locally-defined service groups identifies user-created subgroups of components

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Name service component icons Global Services group

Description identifies individual components and subcomponents the top-level node for globally-defined service groups

Find Service Components searches for service component instances that match specific criteria box Use the Show Find button in the toolbar to view or hide the Find Service Components box. Class list box Name contains text box Propagates Priority check box In SLM Agreement check box specifies the component type for the object of the search specifies all or part of the target component name select this check box to show the Priority Propagator service component instances that pass their priority to a causal component when it is impacted These components are considered the important components for your business. select to show the service components that are associated with a Service Level Agreement Note: This feature requires the BMC Service Level Management product to be installed. Results list displays the results of the component search

Finding service component instances to view


Use the Find Service Components tool to locate a particular component in a cell and view it in the Service Model View.

To search for a service component instance


1 If the Find Service Components section of the navigation pane is not open, click the Show Find button on the toolbar of the Services Editor tab. 2 From Class, select a component type, such as Computer System, application service, database, and so on. If you select Base element, all service component instances for all types are returned. 3 In Name Contains, enter a comparison value. If you leave Name Contains blank, the search could take a long time, depending on the number of service component instances. Also, the Results list could be very long. You should refine the search by specifying values in one or both of these fields. 4 To find only those components that propagate their priority to causal components, select Propagates Priority.
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Monitoring business services in BMC ProactiveNet

5 Click Find. All components matching the search criteria appear in Results. 6 Drag the service component to the Service Model View. To uniquely identify each component listed in Results, you can hover the cursor over each component name to display its unique mc_udid slot value.

Tip

Viewing information about a service component


To view information about a service component, click the component in the Service Model View and then select one of the tabs as shown in the following table. .
Table 54: Tab General Services Editor service component information subtabs Purpose shows the value of slots that contain basic information about a service component and the status computation model used for the component, Standard (default), Self-preferred, Cluster, Weighted_cluster shows the value of slots that contain priority and impact information about a service component provides search capabilities to find components that are consumers of the selected component providers of the selected component SLM shows information about the service level agreement associated with the component Note: This tab is visible only when BMC Service Level Management is installed. Schedule Advanced shows the schedule associated with a component shows the value of slots that contain creation and security information about a service component

Priority and Cost Related Components

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Searching for provider and consumer components

Searching for provider and consumer components


Use the Related Components tab in the Service Model View to search for providers and consumers of a component in a service model. 1 Click a component in the Service Model View. For instructions on how to view a component, see Opening a Service Model View on page 450. 2 Click the Related Components tab below the Service Model View. 3 To view impacts or causes, select one of the following Relationship types:
Select Providers - All Providers - Direct Consumers - All Consumers - Direct To view all providers to this consumer provider components that directly impact the status of the consumer all consumer components associated with the provider component components that directly consume the services of the provider component

4 Select a Component type from the drop-down list. To view all related components regardless of type, leave the Component type set to Base Element. 5 Click Search. Components matching the search criteria are displayed in the Components list, as shown in Figure 101 on page 455. Figure 101: Related components - providers search

6 To view a component in the Components list, select the component, right-click, and then select View Service Model.

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Viewing a service components SLM agreements

Viewing a service components SLM agreements


You can view the status of an SLM compliance target for those components associated with a service agreement. You can launch the Service Level Management Console by right-clicking on a component and selecting the task that you want to perform.

To find components with an associated SLA


1 If the Find Service Component section of the navigation pane is not open, click the Show Find button on the toolbar of the Service Editor tab. 2 In Class, if you want to select components of a specific type, select a component type, such as Computer System, application service, database, and so on. If you select Base element, all service components for all types are returned. 3 In Name contains,to select a subset of components by name, enter a comparison value. 4 Select In SLM Agreement to find the components associated with an SLA. 5 Click Find. All components matching the search criteria appear in Results. 6 Drag the service component to the Service Model View.

To view or modify an SLA associated with a component


1 Click a component in the Service Model View with an SLM status indicator. For instructions on how to view a component, see To find components with an associated SLA on page 456. 2 Click the SLM tab below the Service Model View. 3 To view SLM information, click Compliance Details. The component Compliance View Dashboard is displayed, which is view only. The component Compliance View shows all configuration items (CIs) associated with an Agreement. For each component, you can view the Service Target measurement status and the Agreement compliance status related to the component.

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Viewing property and performance data about a cell

If you want to modify or view a SLM agreement or a service target when you are viewing the Dashboard, click the SLM Console tab in the SLM application, then select an agreement from the list to view in the Agreement form.

Viewing property and performance data about a cell


Property and performance information for a cell is maintained in the Impact Manager Info dialog box. To access this information 1 In the Event Management Polices tab or Dynamic Data Editor tab in the Administration tab of the navigation pane, right-click a cell and choose View Manager Info.

The General subtab


The General subtab of the Impact Manager Info dialog box is displayed. This subtab displays information about the cell property data such as the cell name, description, release and build versions, service address, port number, and platform information. In a high availability (HA) environment, use the General subtab to determine whether the server is one of a failover server pair. You can also learn whether the primary server or the secondary server is active. The following fields provide you with the required information.
Currently Active ServerThis field displays the active server and indicates

whether it is a primary or secondary server. is active or is in a standby mode.

Server ModeThis field displays the status of the server and indicates whether it

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Viewing property and performance data about a cell

The General subtab also provides you information about the IP address and ports for the primary and secondary servers. Figure 102: Impact Manager Information dialog box - General subtab

The Workload subtab


The Workload subtab displays performance statistics for the cell, including how much data the cell has received, the number of errors, and how much data has been stored, removed, and propagated. Figure 103: Impact Manager Information dialog box - Workload subtab

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The Components subtab


The Components subtab displays service performance data specifically pertaining to the number of service model components associated to the cell, such as the type of components and the relationships. Figure 104: Impact Manager Information dialog box - Components subtab

Note
To refresh the contents of the Impact Manager Info dialog box, click the (Refresh) icon.

Editing Service Model data in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console


This section provides procedural information about how to work with your service model and its components.

Managing Service Model components


If your user role has the correct permissions, you can create the individual components and compose a service model by using the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console. Service model components can represent anything, such as a hardware device, an application, a service, or a business entity.
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For the various user roles and permissions and the operations possible for various users, see the Default users, user groups and roles on page 210.

Creating Service Model components


You can create components for a service model in the Services Editor tab in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console.

To create a Service Model component


1 Click the Create Component icon on the Administration Console toolbar. 2 In the Create Service Component dialog box, specify the appropriate settings as described in the following table. Table 55: Create component fields
Field Name (required) ID Class Home Cell Site Description Owner Name Owner Contact Impact Cost Per Second During Service Schedule Impact Cost Unit Description specifies the name for the component. Enter a name meaningful to your organization. specifies the unique logical ID for the component, which is how the component is identified in the service model or in event data specifies the type of component (its data class). Select the appropriate value from the list. specifies the cell that will receive events for the component specifies the site where the cell is, if applicable briefly describes the component specifies the individual responsible for the component specifies the contact information for the owner of the component specifies the cost associated with the component during service schedule timing the unit of cost specified in Impact cost per second during service schedule

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Field Status Model

Description specifies the status computation model to use for the component. Values are: Standard (default) Self_preferred Cluster Weighted_cluster

Account ID Category Company Aliases Department DeviceID Floor Home Page URI Host name Impact Cost Per Second Off Service Schedule Item Manufacturer Name Model Notes Priority - During Service Schedule Priority - Off Service Schedule Propagates Priority

account ID category company Each component instance must have a unique Alias. If more than one component instance has the same alias, publishing will fail. department unique identification for a device floor URL of the home page of the business if you are creating a computer system CI, specifies the name of the computer system on which the CI resides; you must enter a value for this field specifies the cost per second associated with the component during off-schedule time item name of the manufacturer model number and details, if available additional information about the model specifies a priority value that you assign to the component. This value can be between one and five, with five being the lowest priority and one being the highest. specifies a priority value that you assign to the component when for the offschedule time. This value can be between one and five, with five being the lowest priority and one being the highest. specify if you want the priority to be propagated to the causal components. The value can be Yes or No.

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Field Read Permission for Groups

Description specify user groups that have read permissions. Type user groups in square brackets, each separated by a comma. While creating a component from BMC IX, if you do not enter any value in the Read Users and Write Users fields of the component properties, by default these fields are populated with a value Full Access when you save the properties

Region Room Schedule ID Self Priority Function

region where the component is located physical location of the component By default, the value is 24X7X365 (always in schedule) the method used to compute the self-priority of a CI. Choose one of the following options: BASE_PRIORITY COST WORST_SLA_STATE

Self Priority Function Param Serial Number Short Description SiteGroup Type Users Affected Version Number Write Permissions for Groups

parameter that you can set to determine the priority of a CI serial number of the component if one exists Default value is n/a details of the business associated with the CI type of CI the number of users impacted if the CI becomes unavailable version number specify user groups that have write permissions. Type user groups in square brackets, each separated by a comma. While creating a component from BMC IX, if you do not enter any value in the Read Users and Write Users fields of the component properties, by default these fields are populated with a value Full Access when you save the properties.

Business Data Comment Enter comments, if any.

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Field Schedule Status

Description Specify if High Demand Low Demand Default value of this slot is High Demand.

After you have specified the mandatory fields, the Apply and OK buttons are enabled. 3 Click Apply and click OK.

Editing Service Model components


Use the Services Editor tab to edit the service model components for service models that you create in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console. You cannot edit service model components that are imported from the BMC Atrium CMDB. You must edit those components in BMC Impact Model Designer, which you can launch from the Services Editor tab in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console. For details, see Launching BMC Atrium Explorer from the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console on page 469.

Note

To edit a Service Model component


1 Select a component and click the Edit Component icon on the toolbar.
Select a component and choose Edit => Edit Component from the menu bar. Right-click a component and choose Edit Component from the menu.

2 In the Edit Service Component dialog box, modify any of the component settings listed in Table 20 on page 210, except for the following fields, which you cannot edit:
ID Class Home Cell Schedule ID

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3 Click Apply to save the changes, or click OK to save and exit the dialog box.

Deleting Service Model components


Use the Services Editor tab to delete the service model components that you create in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console.

To delete a Service Model component


1 Perform one of the following steps:
Right-click a component that you want to delete and select Delete Component. Select a component and click Delete Component on the toolbar.

The Delete Confirmation message dialog box is displayed with the following message:
Do you really want to delete this component?

2 Click Yes.

Managing Service Model component relationships


After you have created the component instances that participate in a service model relationship, you can define their relationships. For each component instance for which you are creating relationships, you must know
whether it is a consumer or a provider for the related component its relationship state value (active or inactive) its status propagation model value (relationship policy)

Adding Service Model component relationships


Use the Services Editor tab to add relationships between the service model components that you create in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console.

To add a Service Model component relationship


1 Open a component relationships pane in the Services Editor tab by using one of the following methods:
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On the navigation pane, select the component. On the navigation pane or from Results, right-click a component and choose

View Service Model.

Drag and drop the component from either the navigation pane or Results onto

the relationships pane.

2 On the Services Editor tab navigation pane or from Results, right-click a component and select Add Relationship. 3 In the Find Service Components pane, select a data class from the Class list. 4 In the Name Contains field, enter a comparison value. 5 If you want the priority to be propagated to the causal components, select Propagates priority. 6 Select the In SLM Agreement check box if required. 7 Click Find. All components matching the search criteria appear in the Results pane. 8 From the Results pane, select the appropriate component and click OK. 9 Optionally, instead of steps List item. on page 402 to List item. on page 80, drag and drop the component from either the navigation pane or Results into the relationships pane on the component to which you want to add the relationship to. 10 In the Edit Relationships dialog box, specify which component should be the consumer and which component should be the provider by selecting the required arrow direction. 11 Specify the type of relationship:
Direct, Increasing, or Decreasing Directthe status of the consumer component may be identical to that of its

provider component, depending on the events directly affecting the consumers status, which is also taken into account.

Decreasingthe status of the consumer component is less critical than that

of the provider component by one level. For example, if the provider status is WARNING, the consumer status is INFO.

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Increasingthe status of the consumer component becomes more critical

than that of its provider component by one level. For example, if the provider status is WARNING, the consumer status is MINOR.

Active or Inactive ActiveAn active relationship is an impact relationship and indicates that

the status of the consumer instance depends in some measure on the status of the connected provider instance. the dependency is irrelevant to the model. The components are only logically and visually linked.

InactiveAn inactive relationship means that no dependency exists or that

12 In the Status Weight box, accept the default value or enter a number for the consumer object. (Status weight is used in the WEIGHTED_CLUSTER status computation model. For more information about component status computation, see BMC Impact Solutions Service Modeling and Publishing Guide.) 13 Optionally, in Description, type a description for the relationship. The default description changes based on the relationship type that you select as follows:
DIRECT relationship (linear impact) DECREASING relationship (reducing impact) INCREASING relationship (increasing impact)

14 Click Apply and click OK.

Note To be able to add a relationship between two components from two different cells, you must create an entry of both the cells in the mcell.dir file for both the cells and then restart these two cells.

Editing Service Model component relationships


Use the Services Editor tab to edit the service model component relationships for service models that you create in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console and those published from the BMC Atrium CMDB.

To edit a Service Model component relationship


1 Open a component relationships pane in the Services Editor tab by using one of the following methods:
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On the navigation pane or from Results, right-click a component and select

View Service Model.

Drag and drop the component from either the navigation pane or Results into

the relationships pane.

2 From the component details pane, click the Related Components tab. 3 Select the required component and click Edit Relationship. Alternatively, from the menu bar, choose Edit => Edit Relationship.
The Edit Relationships dialog box opens. A list of components appears under

Relationships.

4 If required, select the required relationship and click Add Relationship. For details about adding a relationship, see To display remote cells in the Infrastructure Management tab on page 447. 5 If required, select the required relationship for deleting and click Remove Relationship. For details about removing a relationship, see To remove a Service Model component relationship on page 468. 6 If required, select the required relationship for editing and click Edit Relationship. 7 In the Edit This Relationship dialog box, specify which component should be the consumer and which component should be the provider by selecting the required arrow direction. 8 Specify the type of relationship:
Direct, Decreasing, Increasing Directthe status of the consumer component may be identical to that of its

provider component, depending on the events directly affecting the consumers status, which is also taken into account.

Decreasingthe status of the consumer component is less critical than that

of the provider component by one level. For example, if the provider status is WARNING, the consumer status is INFO. than that of its provider component by one level. For example, if the provider status is WARNING, the consumer status is MINOR.

Increasingthe status of the consumer component becomes more critical

Active or Inactive

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ActiveAn active relationship is an impact relationship and indicates that

the status of the consumer instance depends in some measure on the status of the connected provider instance. the dependency is irrelevant to the model. The components are only logically and visually linked.

InactiveAn inactive relationship means that no dependency exists or that

9 Optionally, in Description, type a description for the relationship. The default description is DIRECT relationship (linear impact). 10 Click Apply and click OK.

Removing Service Model Component relationships


Use the Services Editor tab to remove the service model relationships for service models that you create in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console and in BMC Atrium Explorer.

To remove a Service Model component relationship


1 Open a component relationships pane in the Services Editor tab by using one of the following methods:
On the navigation pane, select the component. On the navigation pane or from Results, right-click a component and choose

View Service Model.

Drag and drop the component from either the navigation pane or Results into

the relationships pane.

2 From the component details pane, click the Related Components tab. 3 Click Edit Relationship. The Edit Relationships dialog box opens and displays a list of components under the Relationships heading. 4 Select the required component and click Remove Relationship. The Remove Relationship dialog box opens and displays the following message:
Do you really want to remove this relationship?

5 Click Yes.

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The relationship is removed and the Services Editor view is refreshed.

Launching BMC Atrium Explorer from the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console
You can launch BMC Atrium Explorer from the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console to access the BMC Impact Model Designer so that you can edit the service model components that are imported and synchronized with the BMC Atrium CMDB.

To launch BMC Atrium Explorer


1 In the Service Model View of the Services Editor tab, select a component in the service model. 2 Select the Tools => Launch Atrium Explorer menu command. BMC Atrium Explorer is launched in a separate window, and you can edit the service model components in BMC Impact Model Designer.

Where to go from here


For details about using BMC Impact Model Designer, see the BMC ProactiveNet Service Modeling and Publishing Guide. For details about using BMC Atrium Explorer, see the BMC Atrium Core User Guide.

Using a customized SSL certificate to create a secure connection to the BMC Atrium CMDB
By default, BMC ProactiveNet uses a default keystore BMC Atrium CMDB SSL certificate to establish a secure connection when BMC Atrium Explorer is launched. If you want to use a customized keystore SSL certificate instead of the default, you must import the certificate before you execute the synchronization task. Perform the following procedure.

To import a customized CMDB SSL certificate


1 Open a command prompt. 2 Change to the following directory:

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installDirectory \pw\jre\bin

The variable installDirectory is the location where you installed the BMC ProactiveNet Server. 3 Run the following command:
keytool -import -alias uniqueAliasName -file pathToCustomCertificate keystore installDirectory\pw\pronto\conf\pnserver.ks

The uniqueAliasName variable is the name of the file where the certificate will be stored, and the pathToCustomCertificate variable is the location where the certificate that you imported is stored. 4 When prompted for the keystore password, enter the value get2net. 5 When prompted to confirm that you want to trust the certificate, enter Yes. 6 To verify that the certificate is imported, enter the following command:
keytool -list -keystore installDirectory\pw\pronto\conf\pnserver.ks

The name of the certificate is displayed in the resulting list. 7 Open a command prompt and enter the following command to restart the jserver process of the BMC ProactiveNet Server.
pw process restart jserver

Associate monitors to CIs through the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console


The Associate Monitors feature in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console provides the ability to associate any monitor and its events to any CI by using an alias.

Monitor to CI alias overview


An alias uniquely identifies the CI. A CI can have multiple aliases. Every CI in BMC ProactiveNet has an alias attribute and a value associated with it. The value of the alias attribute is set when you create the CI. If an alias is not supplied, the ID is used as the alias. The CI ID is auto-generated. cases. The alias attribute has the following characteristics:
A token ID integrates the attributes of the CI. The Alias can be the token ID. It can be auto-generated or entered manually. You can only associate a monitor with one CI. 470 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

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A monitor can only use one alias to refer to the CI, even when the CI has multiple

aliases.

This is important in a scalable deployment scenario where the same alias is used on multiple servers.
The alias is used in event to CI associations.

When an event is generated on a metric that the BMC ProactiveNet Server is monitoring, the alias for the event is the alias used for the monitor to CI mapping. This alias is traced to a CI, and the ID slot of the event is filled. If no matching CI is found, based on the alias, the event is associated with a device.

Use cases
By default, BMC ProactiveNet devices are associated to the Computer System configurable instance (CI). Also by default, a native abnormality event is associated with the monitor of the BMC ProactiveNet devices ComputerSystem CI, unless the mc_smc_alias is set for the event. In some cases, the user might want to associate the monitor's event with a different CI. For example, a higher level CI, such as Business Service, or a more granular CI under the Computer System CI. The following examples illustrate how you can use this feature:
Associate a monitor's events to a higher-level CI

A monitor might collect metrics that represent the overall health of a service or application, for example, sales volume per minute. By default, any event on the monitor is associated with the monitor's parent device. However, you might want to associate the monitor to a higher level CI, for example, Business Services.
Associate a monitor's events to a more granular CI

A service model might break a device into a ComputerSystem plus other lowerlevel CI components. However, you might want events on the device's monitors associated to a more granular CI. For example, if BMC ProactiveNet is monitoring a database server, you could associate the database monitors with the Database CI, and not with the ComputerSystem CI.

Associate monitors to CI in Service Model View


You can create a service model by creating components in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console. In the Service Model View, you can perform the following tasks for a CI:
Add monitors to the list by selecting monitor type, then monitor instance.

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Delete monitors from the list by selecting one or more and then pressing delete or

unassociate.

Select a group, and then all monitors in that group are added to the list.

If a monitor added is already mapped to another CI, a warning dialog is displayed. A monitor can only be mapped to one CI at a time.

Note

Associating monitors to a CI and verifying that they are associated


After associating all of the monitors and adapter monitors, verify that the monitors and adapter monitors are associated to the desired components. You cannot associate monitors to a ComputerSystem CI.

Note

To associate monitors to a CI
1 In the Service Model view, right-click on the component and select Edit Component. 2 In the Edit Service Component window, find the values for ID and Alias, and write those values down. The value of an alias can be an array of aliases. 3 In the Service Model view, right-click on a component and choose Associate Monitors. The CI Monitor Associations window is displayed. 4 In the CI Monitors Associations window, in Component, the class (BMC_Application) and name (MyApplication) of the component are displayed, along with a list of the component's aliases. By default, the first alias in the Alias list is associated to the monitors. To associate a different alias to the monitors, select another alias from the Alias list. 5 The Add Selected option is highlighted when a monitor is selected. You can add as many monitors as you want by clicking Add Monitors and Copy From Group. 6 To remove monitors, select the monitors you want to remove (press CTRL +SHIFT for multiple-selections) and click Remove Selected. 7 After making all desired associations, click Apply and Close.

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To verify that the monitors are associated to the desired components


1 Generate an event on the monitor(s), for example, generate a regular Intelligent Event using a threshold. 2 After generating the event(s), inspect the event in the Open Events Event List. 3 To view the mc_smc_id and mc_smc_alias event slots, click the Edit Preferences icon in the top-left of the Objects panel and select the Component ID and Component Alias slots. 4 Click on the event(s) you generated in the event list and for each event, verify that the Component ID and Component Alias match those of the components to which you associated the monitors.

Associate a monitor to a CI when CI Alias is unknown to the BMC ProactiveNet Server


A CI exists but is unknown to the BMC ProactiveNet server when the CI exists in the CMDB, but the BMC ProactiveNet Server has not yet synced with the CMDB. In this case, you can find the alias in the BMC Atrium Explorer, and enter the alias in the monitor edit page. There are some instances where associating a monitor to a CI alias that is unknown to the BMC ProactiveNet Server is desirable. For example,
If you add the data collection (devices, monitors) before you add the service

model, you can set the aliases when the monitors are created.

If you have multiple BMC ProactiveNet Servers with one or more child servers

collecting data and feeding events to a parent or master BMC ProactiveNet Server, you can associate a monitor to a CI alias on a child server. The CI alias need not exist on the child server, either. If the child server does not have a service model, the monitors events are not associated to a CI on the child server. However, when the event is propagated to the parent or master BMC ProactiveNet Server, the CI alias for the event is resolved to a CI alias in the service model on the parent or master BMC ProactiveNet Server.

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Associating a monitor to a CI in the Monitor edit page


You can associate a monitor to a CI alias that is unknown to the BMC ProactiveNet Server through the Administration Console in the Monitor edit page, by using the following steps.

To associate a monitor to a CI when the CI alias is unknown to the BMC ProactiveNet Server
1 In the Administration Console, select a BMC ProactiveNet native monitor or an adapter monitor and click Add or Edit. The Add or Edit window opens and provides fields for CI ID and CI Alias. 2 In the CI ID and CI Alias fields in the Add or Edit window for the selected monitor or adapter monitor, enter the values for the component ID and Aliases. The component is now associated with the monitor or adapter monitor selected.

How aliases are used depends on how the BMC ProactiveNet Servers are deployed
The deployment scenario for BMC ProactiveNet Servers can determine how aliases are used, as in the following examples:
Multiple BMC ProactiveNet Servers using the same CMDB.

In this case, the same service model is shared and the CIs on the BMC ProactiveNet Servers have the same alias.
Multiple BMC ProactiveNet Servers using different CMDBs.

In this case, there are multiple service models. The expectation is that the aliases are the token IDs used by event sources and that the cell or other aliases are the same.
Multiple BMC ProactiveNet Servers using a local cell or Service Model.

In this case, you are expected to set the same alias for the same CI.

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16
Managing cells
This chapter describes how to manage and configure cells.

Production cells and test cells


A production cell is a cell that service operators and service managers use to monitor the events and services associated with your IT resources in real time. A test cell provides senior service managers and service administrators with a test environment. For event management, a test cell provides KB developers with a test environment for defining event classes, event management rules, policies, actions, and collectors and testing their behavior with test event data.

Production and test cell naming and creation


The only way to distinguish a test cell from a production cell is by the cell name. Adopt a naming convention for test and production cells that clearly identifies its purpose. You name a cell when it is created. The default production cell is created when you install the BMC ProactiveNet Server. An additional cell can be created when you install a BMC ProactiveNet Agent on a remote computer. You use the mcrtcell command to create additional production or test cells on a local computer where the cell is being created. For more information about syntax and options available with mcrtcell, see the BMC ProactiveNet Command Line Interface Reference Manual.

Production and test cell configuration


In BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console, assign the production and test cells to a group. The default groups are MyTest and MyProduction.

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Viewing test cell data


You view test data in BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console.
To view test event data, collectors, and actions, select a test cell in the Event

Management Policies view. Management Policies view. select a test cell.

To view and create test event management policies, select a test cell in the Event

To view test service model components, use the Find tool in the Services view and

Cell configuration tasks


The more you customize your cell to fit your needs, the more efficiently the cell works. All configuration tasks are optional. Table 56 on page 476describes the cell configuration tasks.
Table 56: Cell configuration tasks Task 1 Description Create additional cells. When you install BMC Impact Manager on a system, one cell is installed. You can create additional cells by running the mcrtcell command. 2 3 4 If you created multiple cells for an environment, you can create separate configuration files for each cell. For more information, see the BMC ProactiveNet Command Line Interface Reference Manual

Creating cell-specific configuration files on page 480

If you created multiple cells for an environment, configure the Creating a new propagation policy cells so that they can communicate with other cells in the network. on page 342 Events can be processed locally or selectively propagated to Configuring event slot propagation other cells. To configure the event slots that must be propagated on page 481 when they are changed configure the propagation configuration file. If inbound connections to the cell are disallowed in a protected environment, the connection has to be established within the protected zone to allow a connection between an external client and a cell in the protected zone. To add a time stamp to a slot so that the date and time is recorded when the slot is changed, configure the mcell.modify file. Configuring passive connections on page 486

Configuring slots for time stamping on page 487

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Task 7 8

Description If desired, you can encrypt communication among the various components. Set the default client parameters executing CLI commands.

For more information, see Configuring encryption on page 488 the BMC ProactiveNet Command Line Interface Reference Manual

Configuring mcell.conf parameters


The mcell.conf configuration file installed with the cell enables it to run without any additional configuration. You can change the configuration parameters in the mcell.conf file to customize the cell for your particular IT infrastructure and environment. You can override some parameters using command line arguments when you start the cell. For more information, see the BMC ProactiveNet Command Line Interface Reference Manual.

To configure the mcell.conf file using a text editor


1 Open the mcell.conf file in a text editor.
The default location is MCELL_HOME \etc.

2 Create line entries using the format Parameter=Value based on the syntax rules described in Rules for cell configuration parameter syntax on page 477. 3 Save the changes. 4 Either reload the cell configuration or restart the cell for the changes to go into effect. For more information, see Reloading cell configuration on page 493.

Rules for cell configuration parameter syntax


One parameter per line, in the form: Parameter=Value

where the Value extends to the end of the line


Typically, the value for a parameter is a Boolean value, a string, or a path. The

supported Boolean values are Yes/No and On/Off. oN are equally valid.

The Boolean values are not case sensitive, so, for example, On, ON, on, and even

Do not enclose the value in quotation marks unless you want the quotation marks

to be part of the value.

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Times are stated in seconds unless otherwise specified. By default, all parameter settings are disabled, that is, commented out with a #

sign at the beginning of the line of code. Enable a parameter setting by removing the # sign that precedes it.

For more information on cell configuration parameters, see mcell.conf file parameters on page 557

Specification of path values


Parameters that have path values contain the string FileName or DirName, for example TraceConfigFileName or SystemLogDirName. Path values can be stated as:
absolute pathstarts with slash (/) or backslash (\), or on Windows, with a drive

designator (for example, D:)

runtime relative pathstarts with ./ or ../. The path is relative from the cells

working directory. The working directory is the root directory (/) when it runs as a daemon or a service. When running in foreground, it is the directory where mcell is started. file directory, or, for program paths, from the kb\bin directory.

configuration relative pathall other path values are relative from the cells log

Path values can contain the substitution parameters $VAR or %X. Any $VAR parameter is substituted by the value of the environment variable VAR. The following table lists the possible %X substitution parameters. Table 57: Substitution parameters for %X in path value parameters
Parameter
%H %C

Description cell home directory (MCELL_HOME) cell configuration directory (etc/ CellName) variable data directory (var/ CellName) log file directory (log/ CellName) temporary file directory (tmp/ CellName) Knowledge Base binary directory (kb\bin) program name cell name

%V
%L %T %B %P %N

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Parameter %U

Description unique number for process

Modifying SystemLogDirName, SystemTmpDirName, SystemVarDirName, and KBDirName


With the cell configuration parameters SystemLogDirName and SystemTmpDirName, users can specify alternative path locations for the system defined log and tmp directories. Their default values are % H/log and %H/tmp. To enable file name specifications that refer to these alternative locations, use the substitution parameters %L for the log and %T for the tmp directory. They are substituted by the specified path to the log and tmp directory, respectively. If you change the default value for the SystemVarDirName parameter or the KBDirName parameter in the mcell.conf file, you must also change the value in the statbld.conf file. If you fail to do this, the cell loses persistency and the mcdb file is not created, because the StateBuilder is configured from statbld.conf file and has no input from the mcell.conf file. As a result, StateBuilder does not know where to find the log files or the KB directory it requires.

ConnectionPortRange syntax
Figure 105 on page 479 shows the syntax of ConnectionPortRange. Figure 105: ConnectionPortRange syntax
PortRange = PortSequence{, PortSequence} PortSequence = Port[-Port

A range is a number of sequences, each of which is a consecutive range of ports. The cell attempts to access all ports in the specified order. The default is to use any of the ephemeral ports. For example,
18281840 specifies a range of ports 1828 through 1840 1828, 1829, 1840 specifies the sequence of ports 1828, 1829, and 1840

Scale factors for enhancing configuration parameters


You can add scale factors to numerical configuration parameters in the mcell.conf file. Table 58 on page 480 lists the scale factors that are available in BMC ProactiveNet. Scale factors are case sensitive.

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Table 58: Scale factors that can be used for configuration parameters in the mcell.conf file
Symbol s m h d w k, K M G Meaning seconds minutes hours days weeks kilo mega giga Factor 1 60 3600 86400 604800 1024 1048576 1073741824

If you add a scale factor to a numerical configuration parameter value, then that value is mulitpled by the scale factor that you use. For example, if you add the minutes scale factor to the following parameter
#MessageBufferReconnectInterval=2

so that it becomes
#MessageBufferReconnectInterval=2m

then the value for that parameter is equal to 120 (2 times the scale factor for minutes, which is 60). Without the scale factor, the parameter specific unit of measure is used, which is seconds for most time related parameters. So in this example, without the scale factor, the value for the #MessageBufferReconnectInterval is 2 seconds. With the scale factor, the value changes to 2 minutes (120 seconds).

Creating cell-specific configuration files


By default, one set of configuration files is installed during installation of the BMC Impact Manager . These files are located in the MCELL_HOME\etc directory and multiple cells on a host can use them. You can also create unique configuration files for individual instances (cells) as needed.

To create cell-specific configuration files


1 Using a text editor, edit the configuration file and customize it for that cell and save it.

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You can copy and edit any configuration file located in the MCELL_HOME\etc

directory.

2 Either reload the cell configuration or stop and start the cell so that the changes take affect.
When a cell starts, it searches for configuration files in the MCELL_HOME\etc

\ CellName directory. If no configuration file is found, the cell uses the configuration file in the MCELL_HOME\etc directory. For example, if you copy the mcell.conf file into the MCELL_HOME\etc\ CellName directory and modify it, the cell reads that mcell.conf file and all other files in the MCELL_HOME\etc directory.

All cells use the following cell-specific directories:


MCELL_HOME/etc/ CellName contains cell-specific configurations (including

the Knowledge Base)

MCELL_HOME/log/ CellName contains the cells default trace file MCELL_HOME/var/ CellName contains the persistent state of the cell (mcdb,

xact)

MCELL_HOME/tmp/ CellName contains the cells temporary files

Configuring event slot propagation


Events can be processed locally or selectively propagated to other cells. To configure the event slots that must be propagated when they are changed, and in which direction (forward/backward), you configure the propagation configuration file mcell.propagate. The mcell.propagate file lists all of the slots whose modifications will be propagated. In addition, using the gateways, events can be propagated to a third-party program in a specific format that is described in a gateway configuration file, gateway. GWType. The default location for these files is MCELL_HOME\etc. When an event has been propagated to a destination and that event is later modified, the modifications are then propagated to the same destination. The event can be propagated through a Propagate rule. If the destination is a gateway, gateway configuration rules also apply.

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For the mcell.propagate file to be effective, one or more Propagate rules must be running. For information about Propagate rules, see the BMC Knowledge Base Development Reference Guide . The format is Slotname = Value, where: Slotname = slot name or CLASS for class-specific slots Value = sequence of { b = backward f = forward } You can specify a slot in the base CORE_EVENT class. However, if you want to specify a slot outside those in the base CORE_EVENT class you must use the CLASS specifier, which means that all class-specific slots are propagated in the direction given. Table 59 on page 482 lists the parameters in the mcell.propagate file and the defaults.
Table 59: Default mcell.propagate options Parameter CLASS mc_modhist Action Performed propagates changes to the class-specific slots up (forward) within the cell hierarchy propagates changes to the mc_modhist up (forward) within the cell hierarchy This is a system defined slot that requires such propagation. mc_notes mc_operation s mc_owner mc_priority msg repeat_count severity status propagates changes to notes attached to an event up (forward) within the cell hierarchy propagates all of the operations that have been performed on that event propagates the person to whom the event has been assigned propagates the priority of an event propagates any messages associated with the event propagates changes to repeat_count up (forward) within the cell hierarchy propagates severity value changes up (forward) within the cell hierarchy propagates status value changes in both directions, backward and forward, in the cell hierarchy f f f bf bf f f bf Default Values f f

If you have multiple remote cells installed, you might want to use event propagation to distribute the event processing load among the cells or to back up events on another cell for failover.

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Figure 106 on page 483 illustrates a cell network that is collecting and processing numerous events in a distributed environment. Figure 106: Distributed event management using event propagation

In this illustration, the lower-level cells process the source events and then propagate (or forward) the events on to higher-level cells according to a Propagate rule or an Event Propagation policy. As events pass through a series of cells, the cells discard unneeded events, identify and leave behind unimportant events, and resolve some of the problems reported by other events. To enable event propagation, perform the following tasks:
enable cell-to-cell communication in mcell.dir configure propagation parameters in mcell.conf specify the slots whose modification has to propagate in mcell.propagate either write a Propagate rule or define an Event Propagation policy

How unpropagated events are buffered


When the cell is started, the buffers are set to a minimum workable size. The default minimum size is 5000 events for each destination buffer and 5000 requests for the propagation buffer. If the cell cannot propagate events, the cell stores the events to be propagated in the destination buffers and the requests for propagation of those events in the propagation buffer. When the buffers become full, the cell automatically expands the buffer size by a specified percentage (10 percent, by default), unless the buffer has exceeded a maximum size. By default, the maximum buffer size is unlimited,
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although the practical limit of the buffer size is the amount of available memory. Once the maximum defined buffer size is reached, additional requests will fail. When automatic expansion occurs, an MC_CELL_RESOURCE_EXPANSION event is generated. An expanded buffer will contain free space after propagation has resumed. To free memory resources, the buffer will be reduced when it contains more than the specified amount of free space. Reduction will leave enough free space to avoid the need for an immediate expansion. The buffer will never be reduced below the specified minimum size. When the buffer is reduced, an MC_CELL_RESOURCE_REDUCTION event is generated. Parameters controlling the buffer size are located in the mcell.conf file. For information on configuring these parameters, see Propagation parameters on page 570.

About mcell.dir, the cell directory file


The mcell.dir file is created during product installation. It acts as the cell directory file and contains the list of cells, servers, and gateways known on a specific computer. Upon startup, the cell reads the mcell.dir file and associates itself with the appropriate name, encryption key, address information, and port number. In addition, it reads this information for the other cells to which it connects. The mcell.dir file for a cell has an entry for each cell and the servers and integration gateways to which the cell connects. Figure 107 on page 484 shows the format and an example of an entry in the mcell.dir file. Figure 107: Format of an entry in the mcell.dir file
# ## One line per component : # <Type> <Name> <EncryptionKey> <IpAddress/Port> # <Type> = cell | gateway.type # # cell EncryptionKey Host/1828 # admin ImpactAdministrationServerName UserID/Password 3084

Host/

Each parameter in the file is defined as follows:

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Attribute Type

Description type of component. It can be cell cell name gateway. typeGateway of type type gateway.jServer - predefined jServer gateway type admin - named Impact Administration Server (IAS)

Name EncryptionKey

Name is an abstract name for the component. Component names are not case-sensitive and may be any alphanumeric string, including underscores (_). String to be used as part of the key for the encryption of the communication between a cell and the component. Default value is mc. Note: If the string has an odd number of characters, the last character is ignored. For an IAS component, the string must have the form UserID / Password, or be 0. If the value is non-zero, the indicated UserId and Password are used as IAS login credentials.

IPAddress/Port Host name or IP address and port number on which the component is listening. Default port number for a cell is 1828.

Example of the mcell.dir file


Figure 108 on page 485 shows an example of the mcell.dir file with typical component entries. Figure 108: Example of the mcell.dir file and its entries
# ## One line per # <Type> <Name> # <Type> = cell # cell cell admin cell component : <EncryptionKey> <IpAddress/Port> | gateway.type bos-71 local ias1 sim1 mc mc Mac/FreeAI1 bos-71/1828 127.0.0.1/1828 bos-71/3084 pprod001:1828 bprod001:1828

mc

Conventions for mcell.dir file entries


The following conventions apply when creating entries for the mcell.dir file:
Cells may be grouped into separate mcell.dir files readable only by certain users

or groups (domains).

A cell must be configured to communicate with, at a minimum, the cells to which

it propagates events. A cell does not need to be configured to communicate with the cell from which it receives events, even for backward propagation.

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The mcell.dir file may define any number of entries, but each entry must be on a

separate line.

You can place mcell.dir files on remote mountable partitions or distribute them

using rdist, tftp, or any other distribution mechanism.

Configuring passive connections


If inbound connections to the cell are disallowed in a protected environment, the connection has to be established within the protected zone to allow a connection between an external client and a cell in the protected zone. To connect to the cell, the client issues a passive connection; that is, it waits until the cell establishes the connection to the client.

Note A passive connection is only possible with the server type clients, such as the cell and gateway clients.

Configuring the client for passive connections


On the client side, the mcell.dir file has to indicate that the destination cell is located in an isolated protected zone.

To configure the client for passive connections


1 Open the mcell.dir file in a text editor.
The default location is MCELL_HOME\etc.

2 For the destination cell, replace Host:Port with 0 as shown in the following example:
cell cellName EncryptionKey 0

3 Save the changes. 4 Either reload the cell configuration or stop and start the cell. When a cell or gateway client needs to connect to an isolated destination cell, it cannot establish a connection because it does not have the IP address and port number of the cell. Instead, the cell or gateway client registers the destination and waits for a connection from it.

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Configuring a cell for passive connections


On the cell side, an indication is needed that a client could be waiting on a connection.

To configure a cell for passive connections


1 To configure a cell for passive connection, you must create a data object and specify how to control it, as shown in below.
MC_CELL_PASSIVE_CLIENT ISA MC_CELL_HEARTBEAT ; END

The cell slot, as defined in the MC_CELL_HEARTBEAT superclass, gives the name of the passive client. The enable slot in the superclass specifies whether or not monitoring and reconnection is enabled. The cell attempts to connect to passive client targets as configured with the standard connection parameters. As soon as a connection is established, the connection is reversed. At that moment, the client takes up the connection and behaves as an ordinary client.

Monitoring passive targets


The cell may not be aware that a connection has been terminated when a connection from a passive client to a cell is terminated. The passive client cannot try to reestablish the connection, nor can it signal the cell to reestablish the connection. To avoid such situations, the cell monitors the passive client, based on the standard heartbeat monitor mechanism. Then, when a disconnect is detected, the cell attempts to connect to the passive client target.

Configuring slots for time stamping


Each event has an mc_modification_date slot that contains the time stamp of the last modification of the event. Only select slot modifications set this time stamp. To add a time stamp to a slot so that the date and time is recorded when the slot is changed, you must configure the mcell.modify file. The mcell.modify file contains the names of the slots that affect the mc_modification_date slot. When one of the slots listed in the mcell.modify file is modified, the mc_modification_date slot is set with the time stamp of this change.

To configure slots for time stamping


1 Open the mcell.modify file in a text editor.
The default location is MCELL_HOME\etc.

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2 Create a line entry containing the name of the slot whose modification is to be time stamped. Figure 109 on page 488 shows an example of the mcell.modify file. Figure 109: mcell.modify file
# Configuration of slots affecting mc_modification_date when modified # Format : # SlotName # Special name : CLASS : specifies all class-specific slots status severity mc_priority repeat_count CLASS

3 Save the changes. 4 Either reload the cell configuration or stop and start the cell.

Configuring encryption
You can encrypt communication among the various BMC Impact Solutions components. To enable encryption, make the appropriate settings in the following locations:
the cells configuration file mcell.conf the CLI configuration file mclient.conf the BMC Impact Administration server used by BMC ProactiveNet

Administration Console

the cell directory file, which is MCELL_HOME\etc\mcell.dir by default

mcell.conf file settings that control encryption


The primary settings controlling encryption are in the cell configuration file mcell.conf. The following settings control encryption:
Encryption ForceEncryption EncryptionKey

If Encryption is set to Yes, encrypted communication to and from the cell is enabled, but not required. For example, if a BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console does not have encryption enabled, then the communication with that particular BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console console is not encrypted.
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ForceEncryption requires encryption for all communications. If the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console attempts an unencrypted connection to the cell, the connection is rejected. The encryption process uses the EncryptionKey value as part of the encoding key. If there is no encryption, the EncryptionKey value has no effect.

mclient.conf file settings that control encryption


All CLIs can use an mclient.conf file to determine encryption functionality. The parameters are
Encryption EncryptionKey

For more information about the CLI configuration parameters, see the BMC ProactiveNet Command Line Interface Reference Manual.

mcell.dir file settings that control encryption


The mcell.dir file contains a field for an EncryptionKey. At installation, the default EncryptionKey value is set to mc. BMC Software recommends that you modify the value for security. The string specified as the encryption key is transformed to a binary value as follows:
Characters of the encryption key are grouped in pairs. If the string has an odd

number of characters, the last character is ignored.

Each pair is converted to an 8-bit value. The first character of the pair determines

the four most significant bits, the second character determines the four least significant bits.

A character in the hexadecimal range (0-9, A-F, a-f) is converted to the

corresponding hexadecimal value (for example, 8 gives the value 8, B gives the value 11).

Any other character is converted to its ASCII code modulo 16.

Encryption behavior between cells and components


This section describes the encryption behavior of cells and components during communication. The following actions occur when a BMC Impact Solutions component initiates communication with a cell:

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1 The component scans the cell configuration file, mcell.dir, for that cells connection information. 2 BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console retrieves the cells connection information from the BMC ProactiveNet Server. 3 The component opens a connection to the cell. If the cell has Encryption=yes, the component can use encrypted or non-encrypted communication. The component must use encrypted communication if the cell has ForceEncryption=yes and Encryption=yes. If the communication is encrypted, both the cell and the component must use the same EncryptionKey values to establish communication.

Information retrieval
A component must have the address and port of a cell to establish communications with it. To establish encrypted communications, the component must also have the encryption key of the cell. BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console and the CLI commands determine the information in different ways:
BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console acquires the information from the

BMC Impact Administration server (cell_info.list ). location using one of the following methods:
directly from the CLI command

BMC Impact CLI commands obtain the information by determining the server

from CLI configuration parameters in mclient.conf from mcell.dir if you use the -n CellName option

Default values
The default value for CellName is the name of the host (HostName). The default value for the port is 1828. When the mcell.dir file is present, the default value is EncryptionKey=mc at installation. BMC Software recommends that you modify this value for security. If the mcell.dir file is absent on the host and you do not specify an encryption key, the CLI command uses 0 (zero) as the default value for EncryptionKey. This value enables encrypted communications.

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You can disable encryption by setting the configuration parameter to Encryption=No. You might want to use this setting to disable encryption while tracing.

Note

Mandatory key specification conditions


You must specify the encryption key if the following conditions apply:
you execute the CLI command on a host without an mcell.dir file the cell has an encryption key other than 0 (zero)

These conditions apply with the default installation. However, if the mcell.dir file is present on the host, and the file specifies the encryption key, you are only required to specify the cellName.

Limiting cell access


A client is allowed to connect to the cell if its IP address matches the general AllowConnectionFrom as well as the client type-specific Allow*From. Figure 110 on page 491 shows an example of masking syntax. Figure 110: Masking syntax
AddrMaskList = AddrMask {':' AddrMask} AddrMask = Addr ['/' Mask] Addr = Nr '.' [Nr '.' [Nr '.' [Nr]]] Mask = Addr | Nr Nr = 0..255

The following conventions apply:


An abbreviated Addr or Mask is expanded with zeros. A numeric Mask (number without trailing dot) gives the number of 1 bit. An omitted Mask defaults to all bits set to 1. A connection is allowed if the source address ANDed with the Mask matches Addr ANDed with the Mask .

When the Mask is all zeros, any address matches regardless of the value of Addr. For all Mask bits whose value is one (1), the equivalent bits in Addr must match the equivalent bits in the source address. Table 60 on page 492 lists the IP address parameters.

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Table 60: IP Address parameters Parameter


AllowConnectionFrom=0./0

Description all systems allowed (same as 0.0.0.0/0) no system allowed (00.00.00.00 is not a valid IP address) any system from the 198.12. xx . xx network can connect enables any host with an IP address lower than 128.0.0.0, because it indicates there is only 1 bit in the mask Only the highest-order bit is considered and must be the same as 127, which is a 0 bit.

AllowConnectionFrom=0./32

AllowConnectionFrom=198.12./255.255.

AllowConnectionFrom=127.0.0.1/1

AllowConnectionFrom=198.12.33./ 255.255.255.:198.12.92./255.255.255.

systems on the 198.12.33. xx and 198.12.92. xx networks may connect

The default is 0./0, indicating that the server should accept connections from any source. Usually this is useful only for testing or debugging, or for use with a system that is isolated from the network. To specify one single address, specify the address without a mask, or use a 32-bit mask. The following examples are equivalent ways of specifying a single address:
127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1/32 127.0.0.1/255.255.255.255

When you specify more than one address per mask pair, a system that matches at least one of the pairs can accept a connection.

Connection attempt using invalid encryption key


An attempt to connect to a cell using an invalid encryption key or from an disallowed address generates an internal event MC_CELL_UNALLOWED_CONNECT. This event contains a slot, reason, that includes the reason for the refused connection.

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Configuring cell exception handling


Cell exception handling is configured using the CellExceptionHandlingEnabled parameter in the mcell.conf file. By default, CellExceptionHandlingEnabled is set to Yes. This setting ensures that when an exception occurs, the cell:
catches the exception collects dump data for problem analysis, including cell trace files, cell state files

and a core dump, if possible

generates an internal event to report the abnormal termination restarts itself

The generated internal event is of class MC_CELL_ABORT, which is a subclass of MC_CELL_STOP. MC_CELL_ABORT has the following slots:
exception a textual description of the exception that has been caught dump_datathe path of the file that contains the collected dump data

You may send the dump data to BMC Software Support for analysis. If CellExceptionHandlingEnabled is set to No, when the cell encounters an exception, the cell process will terminate and will not become available until the cell process is started manually.

Reloading cell configuration


The cell does not automatically reconfigure itself, but you can customize and reload the configuration after you have made configuration changes without restarting the cell.

To reload cell configuration


To trigger the reconfiguration, perform one of the following actions: 1 Send a hang-up signal on UNIX. 2 Run the mcontrol command on UNIX or Windows. For information about the mcontrol command, see the BMC ProactiveNet Command Line Interface Reference Manual.

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Starting or stopping the cell

Table 61 on page 494 lists the specific instances in which the reconfigure feature can be used and the effect that results from its use. Table 61: Files for cell reconfiguration
Type cell directory Name/Directory a mcell.dir Result of reconfiguration This internal directory is replaced with new contents from the mcell.dir file. Associated data objects are replaced as well. Connected clients and destinations remain connected, even if the corresponding directory entries are modified. Tracing is adapted and has the same effect as through the mcfgtrace CLI. The cell restarts automatically.

cell tracing cell configuration

mcell.trace mcell.conf

mcell.propagate mcell.modify

KB collector KB program

kb\collectors kb\classes \kb\rules \kb\lib \kb\bin

The cell restarts automatically. The cell restarts automatically.

KB data

kb\data \kb\records

The cell restarts automatically.

a For mcell.dir and mcell.trace, a hang-up signal on a UNIX platform performs maximum reconfiguration
without a cell restart. For information about restarting a cell, see Interpreting cell execution failure codes on page 830.

Starting or stopping the cell


The installation process automatically starts a cells service. However, as changes are made to a cells configuration files or knowledge base, you must stop and start the cell to accept the changes.

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Stopping or starting a cell on UNIX computers


By default, a cell runs as a UNIX daemon. You override this behavior with a command line option, not a configuration file parameter.

Before you begin


A cell can be installed as owned by any user. Only users with execute permission on the mcell binary can start the cell. All users with execute permission on the mkill or mcontrol CLIs can stop the cell. However, if a user without root permissions attempts to start the process, the following issues must be considered.
External actions run as the user ID that started the process. Those actions are

defined in %MCELL_HOME%\etc\ CellName \kb\bin on Windows platforms and in $MCELL_HOME/etc/ CellName /kb/bin on UNIX platforms.

Actions are defined in .mrl files located in the kb/bin directory and listed in .load in that directory. The action programs or scripts can be located in the kb/bin/A or kb/bin/ Arch directory. They can also be located anywhere else on the system.
The user who starts the cell must be able to write to log and trace files in the directories specified through configuration parameters SystemLogDirName, SystemTmpDirName, and SystemVarDirName. Default values for these are the log and tmp subdirectories of MCELL_HOME.

To stop a cell on UNIX computers


1 Enter the following command from a command line: mkill -n cellName If no cell name is provided, mkill attempts to stop a local cell whose name is the same as the local host name. For more information about the mkill command, see the BMC ProactiveNet Command Line Interface Reference Guide.

To start a cell on UNIX computers


1 Enter the following command from a command line: mcell -n cellName It is possible to start a cell without specifying a cell name. If you start a cell without any options, the command attempts to start a cell with the same name as the host. You must set the MCELL_HOME environment variable to point to the directory in which the cell is installed. The home directory also can be indicated using the option -l followed by the path to the home directory, instead of defining it in the environment. To learn more about using the mcell command, see the BMC ProactiveNet Command Line Interface Reference Manual.
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Starting or stopping the cell

Note You can change all configurable cell parameters by making changes in the configuration file, mcell.conf. When you start the cell, the cell looks for the configuration file in the default location, MCELL_HOME\etc\cellName \mcell.conf. Use the -c option with the mcell command to have the cell look for the configuration file in a specified location.

Starting or stopping a cell on Windows computers


On Windows computers, you can stop a cell by using one of the following options:
Windows Services the net stop command the mkill command

On Windows computers, you can start a cell by using one of the following options:
Windows Services the net start command from a command prompt window

To stop a cell on Windows platforms by using services


1 Open the Services window by choosing Start => Settings => Control Panel => Administrative Tools => Services. 2 Select mcell_ cellName . 3 Click Stop Service.

To stop a cell on Windows platforms by using the net stop command


1 Select Start => Programs => Command Prompt. 2 Enter the following command from the command line:. net stop mcell_cellName

To stop a cell on Windows platforms by using the mkill command


1 Choose Start => Programs => Command Prompt. 2 Enter the following command from the command line:
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mkill -n cellName

If you do not use the -n option when stopping a cell, the default cell, named hostName, is stopped.

Note

To start a cell on Windows platforms by using services


1 Open the Services window by choosing Start => Settings => Control Panel => Administrative Tools => Services. 2 Select mcell_ cellName. 3 Click Start Services.

To start a cell on Windows platforms by using the net start command


1 Select Start => Programs => Command Prompt. 2 Enter the following command: net start mcell_cellName
.

When used without the -d option, mcell contacts the Service Control Manager to start itself as a service. It uses mcell_%N as a service name. %N is the cell name as specified by the -n option. Without the -n option, the default cell name is the hostname.

Note

Creating and managing cell groups


Your access to additional Impact Managers (cells) depends on the access privileges assigned to you by your administrator. You may be able to add cells to your console that are not currently displayed in the navigation pane. You can view the available cells versus the cells already selected for monitoring on the Impact Managers subtab of the Configure Administration Settings dialog box in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console. Each cell must belong to a group, so when you add cells to your console, you add them to a group. A group can contain just one cell, or it can contain multiple cells, and you can create as many cell groups as you need. Cell groups enable you to organize cells into manageable units.
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Creating and managing cell groups

By default, two cell groups labeled MyProduction and MyTest are created during the installation process. You can edit and delete these cell groups. You can create cell groups and name them according to your organizational needs. For example, you can create a cell group for each of the office locations in your enterprise. Also, as your environment changes, you might need to change the names of the cell groups that you create.

To create a new cell group


1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Configure => Administration Settings. 2 In the Configure Administration Settings dialog box, click the Impact Managers subtab. 3 In the Group text box, enter a new group name. 4 Click Add.
The new cell group is added to Selected Impact Managers.

5 Click OK.
The new cell group is displayed in the navigation pane.

To change a cell group name


1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Configure => Administration Settings. 2 In the Configure Administration Settings dialog box, click the Impact Managers subtab. 3 From Selected Impact Managers, select a cell group. 4 In Group, enter a new name for the cell group. 5 Click Edit. 6 In the Change Group Name Configuration dialog box, click Yes to accept the name change. 7 Click OK.

To remove a cell group name


1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Configure => Administration Settings.

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2 In the Configure Administration Settings dialog box, click the Impact Managers subtab. 3 From Selected Impact Managers, select the group that you want to remove. 4 Click Remove. 5 In the Delete Group confirmation dialog box, click Yes to remove the cell group. 6 Click OK.

To add cells to a cell group


1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Configure => Administration Settings. 2 In the Configure Administration Settings dialog box, click the Impact Managers subtab.
Available Impact Managers lists all BMC Impact Managers (cells) to which you

are connected, as shown in Figure 111 on page 499.

Figure 111: Available Impact Managers list for a user account with administrator permissions

3 From Available Impact Managers, select the cell that you want to add to the console. 4 From Selected Impact Managers, select the group to which you want to add the cell.

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Tip You can select multiple cells at one time, as follows:


To select adjacent cells, select the first cell, hold down the Shift key, and select

the last cell.

To select nonadjacent cells, select a cell, hold down the Ctrl key, and select each

of the other cells.

5 Click the right arrow to move the selected Impact Manager to the selected Impact Manager group.

Tip You can also select a cell from Available Impact Managers and drag it to the appropriate cell group in Selected Impact Managers.
6 Click OK.
The cell that you added is displayed in its cell group in the navigation pane.

Monitoring event performance


Event processing metrics are internal counts maintained on cell performance categories in connection with event processing. These metrics count the following items:
number of events received, including erroneous ones number of events containing errors number of events dropped by rules (Filter, Regulate) number of events removed from the event repository during cleanup number of events propagated, including sendto number of events added to the event repository, that is, entering the permanent

context

Calculation is performed on a 60-second basis, so every minute the counters are restarted. Counts from the last five minutes are retained. Running counters are reset only on demand. The resulting metrics are:

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short termtotal count of the last complete one-minute interval medium termsum of the five last, completed one-minute intervals long termrunning total

Metrics are stored in MC_CELL_METRIC data objects, one object instance for each metric. Each metric mentions the subject. For each of the short-, medium-, and longterm results, it contains the length of the interval, in seconds, and the total count. An average per second is also provided, rounded to an integer. Other averages per second, minute, or hour can be calculated by the application from this information, if needed. A configuration parameter, CellMetricsEnabled , determines whether metrics are collected or not. The mcontrol CLI is used to switch metric collection on and off, and to reset the counters. The duration of the short- and medium-term metrics are configurable using the cell configuration parameters. For more information, see Cell configuration parameters on page 558. Short- and medium-term metrics are reset whenever metrics are disabled. Metrics can be retrieved through rules by data object access, or through a command. The mgetinfo CLI can use that command. The received event counter does not include incoming messages that cannot be parsed as events. It does include events of nonexistent classes or events with erroneous slots. These are added to the erroneous event counter. Internally generated events are counted as received events. Dropped events include those that are dropped when an event with the same universal ID exists. Table 62 on page 501 lists the metrics data objects MC_CELL_METRIC slots.
Table 62: MC_CELL_METRIC slots Slot
description long_average long_interval long_total medium_average medium_interval medium_total short_average short_interval

Description metric description long-term average, per second long-term interval lengths, in seconds long-term total count medium-term average, per second medium-term interval lengths, in seconds medium-term total count short-term average, per second short-term interval lengths, in seconds

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Slot
short_total subject

Description short-term total count metric subject name

Subject names available are:


ReceivedEvents ErrorEvents DroppedEvents StoredEvents RemovedEvents PropagatedEvents

CLI commands for collecting metrics are:


mcontrol metrics on|off|reset mcontrol metrics interval 60 amount 5 mgetinfo [-v] metrics

Monitoring client to cell interactions


Whenever a client connects, disconnects, or modifies an event, the cell generates an internal event to represent this operation. Such events are only generated for certain clients configured by means of the ReportConnectClients and ReportModifyClients settings. The parameter value is interpreted from left to right. Settings that conflict with previous settings override the previous ones. Table 63 on page 502 lists the defaults for these two parameters.
Table 63: Default values for client parameters Parameter
ReportConnectClients ReportModifyClients

Value browser, Console, mcontrol, mkill, mposter, msetmsg, msetrec mposter, msetmsg, msetrec

Every parameter corresponds to a reporting clients set. Such a set has a positive and a negative list. Clients that belong to the positive list will have their operation reported while operations performed by clients on the negative list will not be reported. Clients that are not named in the parameter are considered to be on the default list. The default list initially is the negative list. The default list can be modified through a special setting of the parameter. A value for a reporting configuration parameter consists of a comma separated sequence of client names. Every client name can be prefixed with a minus sign (-) or a plus sign (+). The client name prefixed with the minus sign (-) is added to the
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negative list. When not prefixed, or prefixed with a plus sign (+), it is added to the positive list. The special value ALL in place of a client name refers to the default. Including ALL or +ALL modifies the default list so it becomes the positive list. With -ALL, the default list is the negative list. Both parameters could include - ALL, as this is the default setting for clients that are not explicitly mentioned. The superclass for client operation related events is MC_CELL_CLIENT. The following table lists the slots.
Table 64: MC_CELL_CLIENT slots Slot
client_location client_name client_type

Data the location of the client as IPAddress : Port the client's name, as announced by the client, or noname type of client, such as adapter, CLI, console, cell

There are three subclasses of this class:


MC_CELL_ALLOWED_CONNECT to represent successful client connection MC_CELL_UNALLOWED_CONNECT to represent a refused connection

An attempt to connect using an invalid encryption key generates an internal event, MC_CELL_UNALLOWED_CONNECT, that contains the slot reason, which details why the connection is refused.
MC_CELL_DISCONNECT to represent a disconnect.

Another class, MC_CELL_MODIFIED_EVENT, represents the operation of modification of an event. Table 65 on page 503 lists the slots.
Table 65: MC_CELL_MODIFIED_EVENT slots Slot
event requestor

Data universal event ID of the event being modified identification of the user that performed the modification

Configuring cell tracing


To set up cell tracing, configure

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Configuring cell tracing

the trace configuration file, mcell.trace tracing parameters in the mcell.conf configuration file

You can also configure cell tracing using the mcfgtrace command. For further information, see the BMC ProactiveNet Command Line Interface Reference Manual.

Configuring mcell.trace
The trace configuration file, mcell.trace, configures the tracing of the cells operation. Tracing messages are divided in several levels. Every module of the cell can be configured differently. An output destination can be determined per message level and per module. Messages also can be disabled at the same granularity. The default location is MCELL_HOME \etc. The configuration commands in mcell.trace are incremental. Every new command adds to the configuration, possibly overriding previous commands either completely or partly. Figure 112 on page 504 shows the format of a configuration line in the mcell.trace file. Figure 112: Format of configuration line in mcell.trace file
<Module> SWITCH <Level> <Switch> <Destination> <Destination>

Table 66 on page 504 lists the parameters that must be defined in a configuration line.
Table 66: Trace configuration file parameters Parameter
Destination

Description destination file name or predefined value for the selected trace messages or switch predefined values: nodisables these tracing messages consolesends to the console device stderrsends to standard error stream

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Parameter a Level

Description message severity value level predefined values: FATAL ERROR WARNING INFORM VERBOSE

Module

name of module, each of which corresponds to a particular category of information, such as filtering or configuration; values are as follows: ACTION COLLECT COLLMAP CONFIG CONTROL DATAPROC DBDATAID DBEVTID DBEVTTM EVTLOG EVTPROC EXPORT FILTER HEARTBEAT INTEVT MC2TEC MCBAROC MESSAGES METRIC PROPAGATE QUERY RECOVERY RECTRL REGEX REGULATE RESULT ROLES RULES SERVICE SRVMGT STATBLD SVCMGT SVRCOMM SVRDIR SYNCH SYSPROC TRACE

SWITCH Switch

keyword that enables access to a sublevel or category of messages for a module switch name

a You can also specify ALL or * (wildcard) for these parameters.

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Configuring a destination for cell trace output


You can use the tracing parameters to configure the cell to output information to a specified destination. The destination for cell trace output is determined by the value of the DESTINATION parameter in the mcell.trace file. Possible destinations for cell trace output are:
the console the standard error stream an external file or files no trace output

In addition to sending trace output to one of these destinations, you also can send trace output to another cell. For information, see Sending trace output to another cell on page 507.

Sending trace output to a console


To send trace output to a console, open the mcell.trace file and set the DESTINATION parameter to the value console.

Sending trace output to the standard error stream


To send trace output to the standard error stream of the command window where the cell is running, open the mcell.trace file and set the DESTINATION parameter to the value stderr. If the cell runs as a service or daemon, all trace output that is configured to go to stderr will be redirected to the file specified in the TraceDefaultFileName parameter in the mcell.conf file. If you specify for the trace output to go to stderr, the trace file is truncated every time the cell restarts, and a new trace file is written.

Sending trace output to an external file


To send trace output to an external file or files, open the mcell.trace file and set the DESTINATION parameter to the path and file name of the destination file. The cell keeps the trace file open on both UNIX and Windows systems. On UNIX, any attempt to remove the file will succeed. However, all trace output goes to an invisible file that becomes visible when the cell is restarted.
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A trace destination file can be located anywhere, but the BMC Impact Solutions process must have write access to that location. The MCELL_HOME \tmp\ cellName directory is for temporary files only. A trace file placed in that directory will be deleted by the cell when it restarts. To maintain your trace file across cell sessions, place it in a different directory.

WARNING

Disabling trace output


To disable trace output, open the mcell.trace file and set the DESTINATION parameter to the value no.

Sending trace output to another cell


Sending trace output to a cell enables you to capture the traces of one or more cells in a centralized location. To send the trace of one cell to another cell, the trace of the originating cell should be produced as events. Those events can be sent to the destination cell using a propagate rule. To enable sending cell trace information to another cell, you must
configure which module/level combinations of trace messages will be produced

as events

add a propagate rule to the Knowledge Base to specify which trace log events

have to be propagated to which destination(s)

Once configured, the cell trace module will generate an internal event for each trace log message.

Definition of the class of trace log events


Each trace message is represented through a single MC_CELL_LOG_MSG event, as shown:
ENUMERATION MC_LOG_LEVEL 10 VERBOSE 20 INFORM 30 WARNING 40 ERROR 50 FATAL END MC_EV_CLASS: MC_CELL_LOG_MSG ISA MC_CELL_CONTROL DEFINES { log_time: INTEGER; -- Timestamp log_program: STRING; -- Name of the program generating the message

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log_module: STRING; log_level: MC_LOG_LEVEL; log_src_file: STRING; log_src_line: INTEGER; log_msg_id: STRING; IMCxxxxxxC) log_args: LIST_OF STRING; log_text: STRING; }; END

------

Name of the module producing the message Message level Source file name Source file line number Unique message identifier (form BMC-

-- Message argument list -- Message text in origin's locale

The log_time date and time slot is an integer in timestamp format. The textual representation of the log message log_text uses the originating cell's local message catalog.

Configuring trace messages to be produced as log events


By default, a cell will not produce log events for its trace. This has to be enabled explicitly using the TraceEvents configuration parameter in the mcell.conf file. The value of this parameter is a comma-separated sequence of module:level combinations. Each one is optionally prefixed with a + or a - sign to indicate addition or removal, respectively, from the list. The special value ALL for module and for level indicate all modules and all levels. For example
TraceEvents=ALL:ALL,-ALL:VERBOSE

This setting specifies that events must be generated for messages from all modules, of all but the VERBOSE level. Event tracing should be configured with care, as it may produce an excessive number of events. In particular, VERBOSE level messages should not be configured as events. For more information about the trace configuration parameters in mcell.conf, see Trace parameters on page 581.

WARNING

Adding a propagate rule to the Knowledge Base to specify which trace log events have to be propagated to which destination(s)
The propagate rule syntax is described in the BMC Knowledge Base Development Reference Guide.

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The following is an example of a propagate rule for trace log events:


propagate PropTraceEvents: MC_CELL_LOG_MSG to CentralAdminCell END

Event processing errors


When an error occurs during the processing of an event, the cells trace displays an error message and generates an internal event of class MC_CELL_PROCESS_ERROR. Table 67 on page 509 lists the slots that are associated with the MC_CELL_PROCESS_ERROR event.
Table 67: MC_CELL_PROCESS_ERROR slots Slot
error_code error_goal error_message error_source event

Data the error number the part of the processing command that has the error an error description message the position in the rule source where the error occurred the mc_ueid of the event that was being processed

Automatic notification of trace configuration changes


The cell automatically generates the following MC_CELL_LOG_CHANGED event when trace configuration is modified for a cell:
MC_EV_CLASS: MC_CELL_LOG_CHANGED ISA MC_CELL_CONTROL DEFINES { log_module: STRING; -- Name of the module log_level: MC_LOG_LEVEL; -- Message level log_destination: STRING; -- Destination file name }; END

If the modification applies to all modules, then log_module=ALL. If the modification applies to all message levels, then log_level=ALL. The log_destination slot contains the full path to the destination file, in normalized (UNIX) form. Other possible values are:
noindicates disabling

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Interpreting cell execution failure codes

stderrindicates redirection to the standard error stream consoleindicates redirection to the console terminal

Interpreting cell execution failure codes


When the cell runs as a daemon or a service, it has no standard output or error stream. Tracing that is configured to go to stderr will be redirected to a file in this case. The path for that file can be configured in mcell.conf. The default is MCELL_HOME \tmp\ cellName \trace. If the cell service setup fails, an error file, mcell.err, is generated. Additional service setup failures can be appended to the original file, resulting in a file content of multiple lines. Normally, each line corresponds to one failed service setup. This error file contains exit codes specific to BMC Impact Manager. Table 68 on page 510 lists the exit codes for BMC Impact Manager.
Table 68: BMC Impact Manager exit codes Code
1 2 3 4 5 16 17 19 27 29 37 39 47 49 57

Description invalid command line options used bad home directory specification through option -l no home directory could be determined specified home directory is invalid internal initialization failure tracing configuration failed system process handling module initialization failure logging facility initialization failure service control module initialization failure Knowledge Base load failed message handling module initialization failure internal object initialization failure event processing module initialization failure saved state reload failed query handling module initialization failure

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Code
59 67 69 77 79 97

Description service activation failed internal object module initialization failure metrics initialization failed data processing module initialization failure metrics activation failed service setup failed

Using the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console to manage cells


You can also manage cells by using a pop-up menu in the Event Management Policies tab or the Dynamic Data Editor tab in the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console to perform the following tasks:
connect and disconnect a cell view cell information edit cell alias formulas edit cell properties

Connecting or disconnecting a cell


Use the Disconnect and Connect menu commands to connect or disconnect a cell from BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console .

To connect or disconnect a cell


1 On the Event Management Policies or Dynamic Data Editor tab, right-click the cell icon or name. 2 Select Connect or Disconnect from the pop-up menu.
This menu item toggles between Connect and Disconnect, depending on the

state of the cell when you right-click it.

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Viewing cell information


Use the View Manager Info menu command to view information about and the metrics associated with the cell selected.

To view cell information


1 On the Event Management Policies or Dynamic Data Editor tab, right-click a cell. 2 Choose View Manager Info.
The Impact Manager Info dialog box appears with cell property information

presented on the Info tab.

3 To refresh the information in the Workload tab of this dialog box, click Refresh in the top right corner of the tab.

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Configuring StateBuilder and gateways
This chapter describes how to configure the StateBuilder and gateways for exporting events and contains the following topics:

Understanding the StateBuilder and gateways


The StateBuilder is an executable, statbld.exe, located in the MCELL_HOME \bin directory. It records saved states of the cell at regular intervals. When it starts, the cell loads its last saved state (mcdb). All transactions it performs are stored in a transaction file (xact). As soon as the transaction file reaches a certain size, or after a certain period, the StateBuilder is started. It produces a new saved state from the previous file and from the transaction file. When the cell terminates and restarts, any trailing transaction file is first processed by the StateBuilder to produce a new saved state. A history of saved states and corresponding transaction files can be kept. The mcdb and xact files of that history have their timestamp in the file name. All mcdb and xact files are located in the MCELL_HOME \var\ cellName directory. The StateBuilder runs as configured in the cells mcell.conf file, which is detailed in StateBuilder configuration file on page 514. The configuration of how the StateBuilder itself operates is in the statbld.conf file. Table 69 on page 513 lists the file naming conventions for the StateBuilder.
Table 69: StateBuilder file name conventions File mcdb mcdb.0 mcdb.t Description state file the cell uses at startup new state file being generated saved state history files, where t = timestamp in hexadecimal epoch Timestamp t in the mcdb.t file corresponds to the time when the state is created.

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File mcdb.lock xact xact.n xact.t.n

Description lock file indicating StateBuilder activity transaction file generated by the cell terminated transaction file, where n=1 is the oldest transaction file terminated transaction history file corresponding to mcdb.t Timestamp t in the xact.t file refers to the mcdb.t file to which the transactions lead.

There is also a statbld.trace file for the configuration of StateBuilder tracing. For further information, see Configuring tracing for StateBuilder on page 523. The StateBuilder uses the gateway.export file in conjunction with its statbld.conf file to export event data. For more information, see the StateBuilder configuration file on page 514and Exporting events on page 521.

StateBuilder configuration file


The state configuration file, statbld.conf, is located in the MCELL_HOME \etc directory. Table 70 on page 514lists the statbld.conf parameters, which use the same syntax as all BMC Impact Solutions configuration files.
Table 70: statbld.conf Parameters Parameter Export ExportConfigFileName ExportDiscarded Description Default value

uses Boolean values to specify whether to export data No sets path to the gateway.export file indicates whether discarded events are included in the export file Discarded events are those that were dropped in the first four rule phases: Refine, Filter, Regulate, and New (Update). %H/etc/%N/ gateway.export
No

ExportTriggerArguments

sets the arguments to be passed to the executable serving as the export trigger program Value is interpreted as a sequence of space-separated arguments, so spaces within each argument are not allowed.

blank; no arguments

ExportTriggerProgram

sets the program to execute after exporting data The value is interpreted as a path. See the mcell.conf file for special syntax for a path.

blank

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Parameter StateHistoryCount

Description sets the number of state files to retain in the history Each time a new saved state is produced, the oldest state is removed.

Default value
3

statbld return codes


The following table lists the return codes for statbld.
Table 71: statbld return codes Return code 1 2 10 37 47 57 67 77 87 97 Description failed to build new mcdb failed to update history files early initialization failure process handling module initialization failure StateBuilder specific file access initialization failure transaction file handling initialization failure failed to load KB classes server directory load failure internal table initialization failure detected running StateBuilder (mcdb.lock)

Gateway configuration
This section discusses general message formatting that applies both to StateBuilder export and to gateways. Gateway specific message formats are described in a gateway configuration file. The location of this file for gateway of a particular type is determined from the Gw Type ConfigFileName parameter of the cell. Its default value is %H/etc/gateway. Type where Type represents the type of gateway. Example default parameter values for TEC and jServer gateways:
GwTECConfigFileName=%H/etc/gateway.TEC

which means: $ MCELL_HOME /etc/gateway.TEC

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GwjServerConfigFileName=%H/etc/gateway.jServer

which means: $ MCELL_HOME /etc/gateway.jServer A gateway configuration file contains parameter settings in the form of parameter=setting. Parameters can be specified differently for new events and for event modifications. The parameter name must be suffixed with
.new for new events .mod for event modifications

Without a suffix, the setting is assumed to be on both categories. Both the contents of a message and its format are specified using parameters.

Gateway predefined variables


The following figure lists the parameters that can refer to predefined variables. Table 72: Gateway configuration parameter predefined variables
Variable
$CLASS $CONTEXT

Description class name context name: Permanentevent permanently in DB (until out of date) Processeddiscarded by rule processing Regulateddiscarded by regulation Filtereddiscarded by filter Refineddiscarded by refine Receiveddiscarded immediately

$DATE $TIME $MODNMS $GHANDLE $CNAME

date stamp time stamp names of modified slots (empty for new) event ID in gateway cell name of cell connecting to gateway

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Variable
$CHANDLE

Description event ID in cell value of slot slot selected slot name (only for body parameter) selected slot value (only for body parameter) all modified slots (empty for new) all slots (only for slots parameter) all slots, but limited to class cls(only for slots parameter) val mapped value of val using map val can be a literal or a variable reference

$VALUE slot
$NAME $VALUE $MODS $ALL

$ALL cls $MAP. map

Gateway text parameters


Text parameter values consist of literal text, possibly mixed with references to variables and with escape sequences. Table 73 on page 517 lists these parameters. Table 73: Gateway Configuration Parameter Text Values
Character
\\ \s \n \r \t \0ddd

Name backslash space new line carriage return tab character code in octal (0, 1, 2, or 3 digits d)

References to variables that are not followed by punctuation or space characters must be enclosed in curly brackets ( { } ). For example, $NAMEabc is invalid; $ {NAME}abc is correct. Non-printable characters and hard spaces must be expressed with an escape sequence. String values for parameters are considered from the first non-white space character up to the first (non-escaped) white space character. Table 74 on page 518 lists the gateway.export file parameters.

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Table 74: gateway.export file parameters


Parameter Communicatio n parameters Contents parameters
protocol

Description sets the communication protocol. Both categories, new event and modification, use the same protocol. The last one specified is used. The default value is MCELL. sets the condition for a slot to be included in the $ALL variable. Use always to always include the slot. Use propagate to include the slot if its value is different from the default value for the slot and it is able to be parsed. The default value is propagate for new, and always for mod. lists slots that must be dropped from the $ALL and $MODS variable. List of comma separated slot names. Only real slot names can be used. The default value is [], so no slot is dropped. lists additional new slot definitions. List of comma separated settings in the format slotname=slotvalue. slotname represents the name for the new defined slot and slotvalue defines the value of the new slot. The default value is [], so no slot is added. sets and orders the slot names to be included. Non-base class slots must be prefixed with ClassName: . The list can also contain variable references to include those values among regular slots. The default value is [], so no slots are exported. lists slots whose modifications result in a message. Modifications of slots that are not included in this list are ignored. The default value is [], which means that every slot modification is included. Defines the map table with the name name List of comma separated settings in the format original_value = converted_value original_value represents a value that has to be replaced and converted_value is the replacement value. Both values must be literal values.

cond

drop

add

slots

modify

map.name

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Parameter Format parameters


init

Description text or value to be printed at the beginning of each export message. The default value is blank. At least one of the init, body, or term parameters must be specified to populate the export file. text or value to be printed for every slot to be included; can use the variable, $NAME (name of the slot) and $VALUE (value of the slot). The default value is blank. At least one of the init, body, or term parameters must be specified to populate the export file. text or value to be printed at the end of each event. The default value is blank. At least one of the init, body, or term parameters must be specified to populate the export file. sets the separator character or string to use between slot values. The default value is nothing. sets the characters leading to quotation when appearing in a slot value. If the parameter value is empty, slot values are never quoted. The default value is standard MRL quotation rules. sets the opening quotation character to use for values that must be quoted. The default value is a single quote (). sets the closing quotation character to use for values that must be quoted. The default value is a single quote (). determines how to escape a quotation mark inside a quoted value. The default value is a single quote ().

body

term

separator quotable

openquote closequote escapequote

Gateway configuration value mapping


For some destinations, it is necessary to map values from a cell domain to a gateway domain. You can implement value mapping by defining a map table and using the value mapping function. You define a value map table using the parameter map suffixed with the name of the map table.
map. name =[ original_value = converted value,original_value = converted value, etc.]

name represents the name you give the map table; original_value is the value to be replaced and converted_value is the replacement value. You convert a value applying a map table, by using the variable $MAP.
$MAP. name ( value )

If the specified value cannot be found in the map table, it is not replaced.

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For example: You want to modify the value of the enumeration SEVERITY when it is sent to a certain gateway. Value WARNING will be replaced with LOW, and value CRITICAL with URGENT. To do this, create a map table to define the required mapping:

Example
map.GW1severity=[WARNING=LOW,CRITICAL=URGENT]

All other values of SEVERITY are passed unchanged. To actually replace the values of slot severity, the slot has to be dropped and a new slot, with the same name, has to be added, mapping the value:

Example
drop=[severity] add=[severity=$MAP.GW1severity($VALUE(severity))]

Example of printed events


To print events in BAROC format, set the parameters as shown in Figure 113 on page 520. Figure 113: Parameters used to print event in BAROC format
init=$CLASS;\n body=\t$NAME=$VALUE;\n term=END\n

The BAROC format produces output similar to the example shown in Figure 114 on page 520. Figure 114: Example of printed events
MC_CELL_TICK; server_handle=0; date_reception=1010183001; event_handle=2; source=; sub_source=; ... END

The slots are displayed, one per line, indented by a tab (\t). For every slot, the slot name and value are printed, separated by an equals sign (=) and terminated with semicolon and a new line (\n). To terminate, END is printed on a line at the end of the data. In the example shown in Figure 115 on page 521, the first two lines configure the export file so that it exports new events and modified events differently. Specifically,
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slots.new=[$ALL] exports all slots of new events to the database and slots.mod=[event_handle,$NAME,$VALUE] exports event_handle, slot name,

and value of events that are modified to the export file. Figure 115: Command to configure the export file

slots.new=[$ALL] slots.mod=[event_handle, $NAME, $VALUE]

Exporting events
Events received in the cell can be exported to a flat file that resides on the same computer as the cell. The exported events then can be used in third-party products for archiving and data mining. Also, they can be exported to a program on another computer by using the BMC Impact Solutions Gateway. To export events, you configure the statbld.conf and gateway.export files.

Modifying a statbld.conf file to export events


To modify the statbld.conf file to generate an export file, set Export=Yes and remove the # sign that precedes it. If you retain the default value ExportDiscarded=No, events that were discarded in the first four rule phases Refine, Filter, Regulate, and New/Updateare not included in the export file. Set ExportDiscarded=Yes to include these events in the export file. Use the E xportConfigFileName parameter in the statbld.conf file to set the location of the export configuration file. By default, the location is the gateway.export file in the cell-specific subdirectory of MCELL_HOME \etc. When the data files are generated, the cell can trigger a program, which can be used to import the data automatically into another product, such as a database. This can be controlled using the ExportTriggerArguments and the E xportTriggerProgram parameters, which are set also in the statbld.conf file. The arguments specified in ExportTriggerArguments are passed as arguments to the program, if any. These are always followed by the paths to the new event and modification export files, in that order. The export process produces two separate files that are located in the MCELL_HOME \var\ cellName directory. These two files are exp.TimeStamp.new, which contains all new events since the previous export, and exp.TimeStamp.mod, which contains all modifications of events after they have first passed through all rule phases. The TimeStamp part of the file name corresponds to the timestamp part used in the mcdb and xact file names and enables archiving of multiple export files.
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Exporting events

Because the primary goal of exporting events is to import the data into another format for other use, BMC Software recommends that you remove the export files as soon as their contents have been archived. The easiest way to do this is to have them removed by the program that is triggered at the end of the export.

Modifying a gateway.export file to export events


In a gateway.export file, you can configure what data goes into the export file and how that data is formatted. A default gateway.export file exists in the MCELL_HOME \etc directory. Copy the gateway.export file to the MCELL_HOME \etc\ cellName directory and edit the copy. By default, the gateway.export file has the format shown in the following figure. Figure 116: gateway.export file format
# Export Gateway Configuration # cond=always slots.new=[$ALL] slots.mod=[$MODS] body=$VALUE term=\n separator=, quotable=," openquote=" closequote=" escapequote="

Using the default values in the gateway.export file for new events produces output in the format shown in Figure 117 on page 522. Figure 117: gateway.explore file output for new events
0,1010183001,1,,,,,,,,OPEN,,[admin],1,OK,,,0,0,0,0, mc.exp.000000001,0,['exp:1'],[],[],[],[],[],0,[],exp, 10.0.9.10:1981,28698 0,1010183001,2,,,,,,,,OPEN,,[admin],1,OK,,,0,0,0,0, mc.exp.000000002,0,['exp:2'],[],[],[],[],[],0,[],exp, 10.0.9.10:1981,600

Using the default values in the gateway.export file for modified events produces output in the format shown in Figure 118 on page 522. Figure 118: gateway.explore file output for modified events
mc.exp.000000001 exp 10.0.9.10:1981 28698 mc.exp.000000002 exp 10.0.9.10:1981 600 ACK

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1010183062 mc.exp.000000003 exp 10.0.9.10:1981 28698

Configuring tracing for StateBuilder


You configure StateBuilder tracing in the MCELL_HOME \etc\statbld.trace file. The statbld.trace file uses the same parameters as the mcell.trace configuration file. For details on the cell tracing configuration, see the BMC Impact Solutions: Event Monitoring Operators Guide .

Troubleshooting the StateBuilder process


If the StateBuilder process (MCELL_HOME /bin/statbld) fails to start, try the following solutions:
Check the MCELL_HOME/var/cellName directory for the number of xact. n files,

where n is 1, 2, 3. More than three xact.n files is an indication that the StateBuilder process is failing. If more than three xact.n files are present, follow these steps: 1 Check the MCELL_HOME/var/cellName directory to see if either of the following files are present:
mcdb.0 mcdb.lock

If either of these files are present, delete them. 1 From a command line, manually run the StateBuilder process by entering:
statbld -n cell_name Check the MCELL_HOME/var/cellName directory to ensure that your xact. n

files are named xact.1, xact.2, and so forth. If the file does not have the numeric extension (.n) (the file is only named xact), then rename the file to xact.1.

Determine whether or not the MCELL_HOME/bin/statbld program exists and can be executed by the current user who is running the mcell process.

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Verify your systems available memory and compare it with the actual memory usage of the mcell process.

On some UNIX platforms, available unused virtual memory must equal or exceed the virtual memory used by the mcell process.

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18
Setting up data views for external reports
BMC ProactiveNet provides the ability to create customized reports to suit your specific needs by exporting data from the BMC ProactiveNet database. To prevent the mundane task of keeping up with ongoing schema changes and prevent possible database entry corruption, you can leverage the Database Views feature (also called dataviews) provided by the relational database system.

External reports benefits


Significantly reduces development time to providing data to external tools. No special domain knowledge about data storage is required. The read-only user option helps to prevent data corruption.

Performance considerations
Before using the dataviews feature to access data directly from the BMC ProactiveNet database, you need to consider the performance impact on the BMC ProactiveNet Server. Several factors can affect the server performance, including the following:
Hardware resources (CPU, memory & disk i/o) Number and type of monitored instances Poll frequencies

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Number of graphs in the hourly, daily, weekly views, number of daily, weekly,

monthly reports

Number of users accessing this information Increases to the processing load on the database server/BMC ProactiveNet Server

Note Due to performance impact on the BMC ProactiveNet Server, dataviews should not be used as real-time data feed. This feature is meant for the external reporting.
High volume of data in the database When updates to monitor configuration data are scheduled. By default, this data

is updated as part of daily job that runs at 3.30. This information is not available until the update script is run either as part of a daily job or run manually using the pw dataview update command. SDK monitors; these monitors require that you regenerate the dataviews schema so that they appear in the dataviews.

Use of custom monitors such as Monitor Wizard monitors, MetaAPI monitors, or

Also, though dataviews in general provide information in a usable format, you will have to interpret some of the raw values into corresponding usable values. For example, No data, No response values that are stored as high negative numbers need to be mapped to their respective meanings.

Creating dataviews
Dataview schema and views described in Dataview Tables are created during product installation. You can create the schema manually by using the pw dataview create command line option. For details about this command line option, see the BMC ProactiveNet Command Line Interface Reference Manual. Because custom monitor schemas are created at run-time, you need to use the command line option to reflect this schema in the dataviews. This step is also necessary if you make any updates to the custom monitor definition. Using the command line option, you can generate the Data Dictionary that explains each of the dataviews tables and columns. The configuration information table values described in the Data Dictionary match the configuration information described in the BMC ProactiveNet Data Adapter and Monitor Guide with each of the Monitors. Similarly stats data column description in the Data dictionary matches with the description of the performance data collected for each of the monitors.

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The best way to find out which column represents the data of interest is to cross reference attribute names from the BMC ProactiveNet Data Adapter and Monitor Guide to the description in the Data Dictionary.

Populating dataviews
Configuration information in the INSTANCEINFO_CFG table is populated as part of the daily job. You can use the command line utility to update this info as desired. The rest of the information is populated during normal operation of BMC ProactiveNet Server. Views expose this information from the corresponding data storage tables.

Types of information available in dataviews


The following section describes the different types of dataviews and how they are created and organized:
Configuration Information Performance (stats, raw) information Rate (Rolled up, Condensed) Information Baseline Information Event Information

Default dataviews
The following sections describe the default data views that are available in BMC ProactiveNet.

Thresholds (Absolute, SLO, and Signature)


This view has the thresholds information of type 'Absolute Default Thresholds ( 156 )'.

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Table 75: Global absolute thresholds - ABSDFLTTHRESHOLDS_VIEW


Columns ABSDFLTABOVE ABSDFLTAUTOCLOSE ABSDFLTDURATION Description Above means current value should be greater than the thresholdfalse belowtrue above Tells whether to automatically close the event or not.false Notrue - yes How long the current values should exceed the threshold value before generating an event. 0 means event is generated immediately as one data point crosses the threshold value. Severity of the event: Critical, Major, Minor, Event Only Internal threshold ID Monitor type ID Attribute ID Monitor type name Monitor Attribute Name Threshold value Can work in conjunction with threshold value. If non-zero, raw data points will also needs to pass the hourly, daily or weekly baseline before the event can be triggered. Same thing applies for closing of events

ABSDFLTSEVERITY THRESHOLDID MOTYPE MOATTRID MONAME MOATTRNAME ABSDFLTTHRESHOLD ABSDFLTBLTYPE

This view has the thresholds information of type 'Absolute Instance Thresholds (161)'. Table 76: Instance absolute thresholds - INSTABSTHRESHOLDS_VIEW
Columns ABSINSTANCEABOVE Description Above means current value should be greater than the thresholdfalse belowtrue above

ABSINSTANCEAUTOCLOSE Tells whether to automatically close the event or not.false Notrue - yes ABSINSTANCEDURATION How long the current values should exceed the threshold value before generating an event. 0 means event is generated immediately as one data point crosses the threshold value. Severity of the event: Critical, Major, Minor, Event Only Internal threshold ID Monitor type ID Attribute ID Monitor type name Monitor Attribute Name Monitor instance ID

ABSINSTANCESEVERITY THRESHOLDID MOTYPE MOATTRID MONAME MOATTRNAME MOINST

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Columns DEVICENAME INSTNAME

Description Device name Monitor instance name

ABSINSTANCETHRESHOLD Threshold value ABSINSTANCEBLTYPE Can work in conjunction with threshold value. If non-zero, raw data points will also needs to pass the hourly, daily or weekly baseline before the event can be triggered. Same thing applies for closing of events

This view has the thresholds information of type 'Signature Default Thresholds (157)'. Table 77: Global signature thresholds - SIGNDFLTTHRESHOLDS_VIEW
View Name THRESHOLDID MOTYPE MONAME MOATTRID MOTTRNAME SIGNDFLTTHRESHOLD SIGNDFLTSEVERITY SIGNDFLTDURATION Description Internal threshold ID Monitor type ID Monitor type name Attribute ID of threshold Monitor attribute name Threshold value Severity of the event. Critical, Major, Minor, Event Only How long the current values should exceed the threshold value before generating an event. 0 means event is generated immediately as one data point crosses the threshold value. Whether to deactivate the signature threshold Specify a margin around the baseline values to make it more difficult for signature events to occur. Same as absolute pad factor, but instead of using a number, a percentage of the baseline will be used. Allow threshold to be compared of daily and weekly baseline, in addition to hourly baseline. Above means current value should be greater than the thresholdfalse belowtrue above Tells whether to automatically close the event or not.false Notrue - yes

SIGDFLTSUPPRESSEVNTS SIGNABSPADFACTOR SIGNPERPADFACTOR SIGNDFLTBLTYPE SIGNDFLTABOVE SIGNDFLTAUTOCLOSE

This view has the thresholds information of type 'Signature Instance Thresholds (162)'.

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Table 78: Global Signature Thresholds - INSTSIGNTHRESHOLDS_VIEW


View Name THRESHOLDID MOTYPE MONAME MOATTRID MOTTRNAME SIGNDFLTTHRESHOLD SIGNINSTSEVERITY Description Internal threshold ID Monitor type ID Monitor type name Attribute ID of threshold Monitor attribute name Threshold value Severity of the event. Critical, Major, Minor, Event Only

SIGNINSTANCEDURATION How long the current values should exceed the threshold value before generating an event. 0 means event is generated immediately as one data point crosses the threshold value. SIGDFLTSUPPRESSEVNTS SIGNABSPADFACTOR SIGNPERPADFACTOR SIGNINSTBLTYPE SIGNINSTABOVE SIGNINSTAUTOCLOSE MOINST DEVICENAME INSTNAME Whether to deactivate the signature threshold Specify a margin around the baseline values to make it more difficult for signature events to occur. Same as absolute pad factor, but instead of using a number, a percentage of the baseline will be used. Allow threshold to be compared of daily and weekly baseline, in addition to hourly baseline. Above means current value should be greater than the thresholdfalse belowtrue above Tells whether to automatically close the event or not.false Notrue - yes Monitor instance ID Device name Monitor instance name

Table 79: SLO Thresholds - SLOTHRESHOLDS_VIEW


View Name ABSINSTABOVE ABSINSTAUTOCLOSE ABSINSTDURATION Description Above means current value should be greater than the thresholdfalse belowtrue above Tells whether to automatically close the event or not.false Notrue - yes How long the current values should exceed the threshold value before generating an event. 0 means event is generated immediately as one data point crosses the threshold value. Severity of the event: Critical, Major, Minor, Event Only Internal threshold ID

ABSINSTSEVERITY THRESHOLDID

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View Name MOTYPE MOATTRID MONAME MOATTRNAME MOINST DEVICENAME INSTNAME ABSINSTTHRESHOLD ABSINSTBLTYPE

Description Monitor type ID Attribute ID Monitor type name Monitor Attribute Name Monitor instance ID Device name Monitor instance name Threshold value Can work in conjunction with threshold value. If non-zero, raw data points will also needs to pass the hourly, daily or weekly baseline before the event can be triggered. Same thing applies for closing of events

SLO configuration Info


This view has the information about the attributes sets used in the system in reports and SLO. Table 80: View Name - ATTRIBUTESET_VIEW
Columns MOINSTID ATTRIBUTELIST Description Attribute set ID List of attributes

This view has the information about the schedules. Table 81: View Name - SCHEDULE_VIEW
Columns MOINSTID NAME TIMERANGE Description Internal schedule ID Name of the schedule Time

This view has all SLO information. Table 82: View Name - SLO_INFO_VIEW
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Columns NAME CONTENTID SLOTYPEID SLO_SCHEDULE COMPLIANCE_OBJECTIVE OWNER CONTACT_INFO CREATE_DATE COMMENTS UPDATE_DATE

Description Name of the SLO Content type SLO/instance. Refer to CONTENTID in SLO_CONTENT_VIEW. Refer moinstid in attributeset_view Refer moinstid in schedule_view

This view has all SLO information. Table 83: View Name - SLO_INSTANCES_INFO_VIEW
Columns INSTID SLOID MOTYPEID MOINSTID Description SLO Instance ID SLO ID Monitor type ID Monitor instance ID

This view has all SLO information. Table 84: View Name - SLO_THRESHOLD_INFO_VIEW
Columns INSTID SERVICE_LEVEL_THRESHOLD_ID WEIGHT COMMENTS Description Refer instid in slo_instances_info_view Refer thresholdid in slo_threshold_view

This view has SLO containment information.

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Table 85: View Name- SLO_CHILD_INFO_VIEW


Columns SLOID CHILD_SLOID WEIGHT Description Parent SLO IDRefer sloid in slo_info_view Child SLO IdRefer sloid in slo_info_view

SLO summary data


This view has SLO summary information. Table 86: View Name - SLO_SUMMARY_VIEW
Columns SLOID PREVIOUS_DAY PREVIOUS_WEEK WEEK_TO_DATE PREVIOUS_MONTH MONTH_TO_DATE QUARTER_TO_DATE YEAR_TO_DATE PREVIOUS_DAY_TREND WEEK_TO_DATE_TREND Description SLO ID Compliance value for previous day Compliance value for previous week Compliance value for week to date Compliance value for previous month Compliance value for month to date Compliance value for quarter to date Compliance value for year to date Compliance value for previous day trend Compliance value for week to date trend

This view has SLO summary by day. Table 87: View Name - SLO_SUMMARY_DAY_VIEW
Columns SLOID DATE_TIME COMPLIANCE_VALUE Description SLO ID

This view has SLO summary by week.

Chapter 18 Setting up data views for external reports 533

Types of information available in dataviews

Table 88: View Name - SLO_SUMMARY_WEEK_VIEW


Columns SLOID DATE_TIME COMPLIANCE_VALUE Description SLO ID

This view has SLO summary by month Table 89: View Name - SLO_SUMMARY_MONTH_VIEW
Columns SLOID DATE_TIME COMPLIANCE_VALUE Description SLO ID

This view has SLO summary by quarter Table 90: View Name - SLO_SUMMARY_QUARTER_VIEW
Columns SLOID DATE_TIME COMPLIANCE_VALUE Description SLO ID

This view has SLO summary by year. Table 91: View Name - SLO_SUMMARY_YEAR_VIEW
Columns SLOID DATE_TIME COMPLIANCE_VALUE Description SLO ID

This view has the data for each SLO instance by day.

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Types of information available in dataviews

Table 92: View Name - SLO_INSTANCES_DAY_VIEW


Columns INSTID SERVICE_LEVEL_THRESHOLD_ID MOTYPEID MOINSTID ATTRIBUTEID DATE_TIME TOTAL_VALID_DATA_POINTS TOTAL_VIOLATED_DATA_POINTS TOTAL_UNKNOWN_DATA_POINTS COMPLIANCE_VALUE MINVALUE MAXVALUE MEDIAN AVERAGE WEIGHT Description Refer instid in slo_instances_info_view Refer thresholdid in slo_threshold_view Monitor type ID Monitor instance ID Attribute ID

This view has the data for each instance by week. Table 93: View Name - SLO_INSTANCES_WEEK_VIEW
Columns INSTID SERVICE_LEVEL_THRESHOLD_ID MOTYPEID MOINSTID ATTRIBUTEID DATE_TIME TOTAL_VALID_DATA_POINTS TOTAL_VIOLATED_DATA_POINTS TOTAL_UNKNOWN_DATA_POINTS COMPLIANCE_VALUE MINVALUE Chapter 18 Setting up data views for external reports 535 Description Refer instid in slo_instances_info_view Refer thresholdid in slo_threshold_view Monitor type ID Monitor instance ID Attribute ID

Types of information available in dataviews

Columns MAXVALUE MEDIAN AVERAGE WEIGHT

Description

This view has the data for each instance by month. Table 94: View Name - SLO_INSTANCES_MONTH_VIEW
Columns INSTID SERVICE_LEVEL_THRESHOLD_ID MOTYPEID MOINSTID ATTRIBUTEID DATE_TIME TOTAL_VALID_DATA_POINTS TOTAL_VIOLATED_DATA_POINTS TOTAL_UNKNOWN_DATA_POINTS COMPLIANCE_VALUE MINVALUE MAXVALUE MEDIAN AVERAGE WEIGHT Description Refer instid in slo_instances_info_view Refer thresholdid in slo_threshold_view Monitor type ID Monitor instance ID Attribute ID

This view has the data for each instance by quarter. Table 95: View Name - SLO_INSTANCES_QUARTER_VIEW
Columns INSTID SERVICE_LEVEL_THRESHOLD_ID MOTYPEID MOINSTID 536 BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide Description Refer instid in slo_instances_info_view Refer thresholdid in slo_threshold_view Monitor type ID Monitor instance ID

Types of information available in dataviews

Columns ATTRIBUTEID DATE_TIME TOTAL_VALID_DATA_POINTS TOTAL_VIOLATED_DATA_POINTS TOTAL_UNKNOWN_DATA_POINTS COMPLIANCE_VALUE MINVALUE MAXVALUE MEDIAN AVERAGE WEIGHT

Description Attribute ID

This view has the data for each SLO instance by year. Table 96: View Name - SLO_INSTANCES_YEAR_VIEW
Columns INSTID SERVICE_LEVEL_THRESHOLD_ID MOTYPEID MOINSTID ATTRIBUTEID DATE_TIME TOTAL_VALID_DATA_POINTS TOTAL_VIOLATED_DATA_POINTS TOTAL_UNKNOWN_DATA_POINTS COMPLIANCE_VALUE MINVALUE MAXVALUE MEDIAN AVERAGE WEIGHT Description Refer instid in slo_instances_info_view Refer thresholdid in slo_threshold_view Monitor type ID Monitor instance ID Attribute ID

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Types of information available in dataviews

SLO Violation Records


This view has all the SLO violations. Table 97: View Name
Columns THRESHTIME ENDTIME KEEPALIVETIME VIOLATIONID MOTYPEID MOINSTANCEID ATTRID HOSTID SLTTYPE SLTID SEVERITY LASTVALUE EXCEEDPOINTCNT DESCRIPTION Description

Groups
This view has all the user groups. Table 98: View Name - GROUP_INFO_VIEW
Columns GROUPID GROUPNAME DESCRIPTION Description Group ID Name of the group

This view has groups containing other groups.

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Types of information available in dataviews

Table 99: View Name - GROUP_TREE_VIEW


Columns PARENTGROUPID CHILDGROUPID Description Parent Group ID Child Group ID

This view has monitors that belong to a specific group. Table 100: View Name - GROUP_MONITOR_VIEW
Columns GROUPID MOTYPEID MOINSTID Description Group ID Monitor type ID Monitor instance ID

Using group views


Suppose there are three groups Sample_1, Sample_2, Sample_3. This information can be retrieved from GROUP_INFO_VIEW. Table 101: GROUP_INFO_VIEW
Group ID 1 2 3 Group Name Sample_1 Sample_2 Sample_3 Description Sample group 1 Sample group 2 Sample group 3

Sample_1 and Sample_2 groups are made of monitor instances. This information can be retrieved from GROUP_MONITOR_VIEW. Table 102: GROUP_MONITOR_VIEW
Group ID 1 2 2 MO Type ID 20031 20031 20035 MO Instance ID 1 10 15

This shows that Sample_1 group contains one instance with ID 1 of monitor type web URL (20031). Sample_2 group contains one instance with ID 10 of monitor type web URL (20031) and one instance with ID 15 of type web transaction (20035).

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Configuration information

Lets assume that Sample_3 group is made of other two groups. This group containment information can be retrieved from GROUP_TREE_VIEW. Table 103: GROUP_TREE_VIEW
Parent Group ID 3 3 Child Group ID 1 2

For details of all default dataviews in BMC ProactiveNet, use the pw dataview gendoc command.

Configuration information
BMC ProactiveNet collects performance data from several heterogeneous systems such as Network, Application, Database, and user-defined or custom systems. Defining these heterogeneous systems requires capturing system-specific configuration information. This configuration information resides in various tables and is used during data collection. To simplify access to configuration information, a single table (INSTANCEINFO_CFG) is defined that stores information of all monitor type instances which include application, SNMP, and monitors created by users through the Monitor Wizard, and meta API. Table 104 on page 540 shows the base table for all configuration dataviews for each monitor type that exists on BMC ProactiveNet Server.
Table 104: Configuration information Column MOTYPEID MOINSTID Description Monitor type ID (example, Weblogic, Websphere, etc.) This value is internal and fixed. Monitor instance ID. This is a unique number generated for each instance. The value is assigned by BMC ProactiveNet system during monitor creation. This value is internal and fixed. This number identifies all other data for each instance. Name of the device entered by the user when this instance is created using the Operations Console or via command line. Description of the monitor instance. IP address of the device from where the performance data is being collected. IP address of the device on which this instance is running.

DEVICENAME INSTANAME SOURCEIP TARGETIP

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Performance (stats, raw) information

Column CONFIGVALUES

Description All configuration type of attributes of this monitor type that can be displayed. This is organized in the name=value pairs format separated by ';'. Parse this value to retrieve the associated value for each attribute.

The schema for this table is created at the time of product installation. Therefore, if custom monitors such as MetaAPI, SDK, and Monitor Wizards are created at runtime, you need to regenerate the schema to include these monitors. Since this is a database table and not a view generated from an existing table, values in this table are populated as part of daily jobs. The default run-time for daily jobs is 3.30 A.M. Configuration dataviews named as <tablename prefix>_CFG_VIEW are created for each monitor type using the values in this table. Each of these Config dataviews contains the following information:
Table 105: Configuration information Column MOTYPEID MOINSTID Description Monitor type ID (example, Weblogic, Websphere, etc.) This value is internal and fixed. Monitor instance ID. This is a unique number generated for each instance. The value is assigned by BMC ProactiveNet system during monitor creation. This value is internal and fixed. This number identifies all other data for each instance. Name of the device entered by the user when this instance is created using the Administration Console or via command line. Description of the monitor instance. IP address of the device from where performance data is being collected. IP address of the device on which this instance is running. All configuration attributes with their values that can be displayed for this monitor type.

DEVICENAME INSTANAME SOURCEIP TARGETIP CONFIGATTRIBUTE NAMES

Performance (stats, raw) information


Performance data, also called raw data or stats data, is the attribute performance values collected during every poll of a monitor instance. Creating views for stats data of most monitor types is relatively easy, as data is organized in individual (horizontal) tables, which allow one to one mapping of stats table to a view for each monitor type available in the BMC ProactiveNet system. MetaAPI application monitors stats data is the exception to this rule and is organized in a single (vertical) table by attribute of each monitor. To address this
Chapter 18 Setting up data views for external reports 541

Rate (rolled up, condensed) information

issue, a view for each Stats attribute is created and a view joining these views is created to give the effect of a horizontal table. The final view is the same as views created for other monitors. As a result, accessing MetaAPI monitor views is performance intensive. Accessing stats data from a view is advantageous as values stored in the tables are multiplied by a scale factor that is different for each attribute and monitor type. Configuration data 'Configuration dataviews (<tablename prefix>_CFG_VIEW)' and Stats dataviews can be joined on the MOINSTID column to get all information related to an instance. Stats dataviews are named as <tablename prefix>_ST_VIEW. Each of these Stats dataviews contains the following information:
Table 106: Performance information Column MOINSTID Description Monitor instance ID. This is a unique number generated for each instance. The value is assigned by BMC ProactiveNet system during monitor creation. This value is internal and fixed. This number identifies all other data for each instance. UNIX time stamp when the data point was collected Displays all Stats attributes with their values of these monitor types that are properly converted with appropriate conversion factors. The following values should be interpreted as described below:'No Response' = -2147483647'No Data' = -2147483646

TIMERECORDED Stats Attribute Name

Rate (rolled up, condensed) information


Raw performance data is statistically computed and rolled into hourly data called Rate data. This enables you to retain data for an extended period of time (90 days) without increasing disk storage or having a negative impact on database performance. Creating views for Rate data is relatively easy for most monitor types as data is organized in individual (horizontal) tables. This enables a one to one mapping of a Rate table to a view for each monitor type that is available in the BMC ProactiveNet system. Rate dataviews are named as <tablename prefix>_RT_VIEW. Each of these Rate dataviews contains the following information:
Table 107: Rate Information Column MOINSTID Description Monitor instance ID. This is a unique number generated for each instance. The value is assigned by the BMC ProactiveNet system during monitor creation. This value is internal and fixed. This number identifies all other data for each instance.

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Baseline information

Column FROMTIME TOTIME Stats Attribute Name_AVGStats Attribute Name_HIGHStats Attribute Name_LOW

Description UNIX time stamp for the start of the duration UNIX time stamp for the end of the duration This contains Rate values for the above FROMTIME to TOTIME duration. Each attribute of this monitor type has three Rate values. Refer Administration guide for further details on how Rate values are computed.

Baseline information
Baseline data provides attribute values during each hours of the day of the week. Creating views for Baseline data is relatively easy for most monitor types as data is organized in individual (horizontal) tables. This enables one to one mapping of a Baseline table to a view for each monitor type that is available in BMC ProactiveNet system. Baseline dataviews are named as <tablename prefix>_BL_VIEW. Each of these baseline dataviews contains the following information:
Table 108: Baseline information Column MOINSTID Description Monitor instance ID. This is a unique number generated for each instance. The value is assigned by BMC ProactiveNet system during monitor creation. This value is internal and fixed. This number identifies all other data for each instance. This indicates the hour of the day of the week. BL_TIMESLOT_DESCR_VIEW has textual description of each time slot. This view has two columns: TIMESLOT and DESCRIPTION. This contains Baseline values for the above TIMESLOT. Each attribute of this monitor type has three Baseline values. Refer Administration guide for details on how Baseline values are computed.

TIMESLOT

Stats Attribute Name_AVGStats Attribute Name_HIGHStats Attribute Name_LOW

Event information
There is one event view for each monitor type. The view provides information about events generated for all monitor instances of a monitor type. Event dataviews are named as <tablename prefix>_AL_VIEW. Each of these event dataviews contains the following information:

Chapter 18 Setting up data views for external reports 543

All alarms and events information

Table 109: Event information Column MOINSTID Description Monitor instance ID. This is a unique number generated for each instance. The value is assigned by BMC ProactiveNet system during monitor creation. This value is internal and fixed. This number identifies all relevant data for each instance. Internal ID for this event This is an integer defined as follows: 4 = CRITICAL 3 = MAJOR 2 = MINOR 1 = ABNORMAL 0 = CLOSED DESCRIPTION ASSIGNEDTO THRESHTYPE Reason for the event Assigned person's name This is an integer defined as follows:156 > Crossed absolute threshold. Applicable to all instances of specified monitor type157 > Crossed Signature threshold. Applicable to all instances of specified monitor type158 > External events that are imported using 'pw userevent' > Crossed absolute threshold. Applicable to a specific monitor instance162 > Crossed signature threshold. Applicable to a specific monitor instance UNIX time stamp. Time when this attribute value crossed the threshold the first time UNIX time when the event was closed Time when the state of the event record changes. Time recorded here is typically the time of the next event record that has the same event ID, or time when the event was closed. The ENDTIME column is used in cases where the event changes severity while it is still open. In that case, ENDTIME for the older records contains the start time of the next record - each severity change creates a new event record. Internal ID of the associated event. Every alarm is associated with an event Internal ID of the attribute for which this event is created UNIX time when the event was created

EVENTID SEVERITY

TIMERECORDED CLOSED_TIME ENDTIME

EVENT_ID ATTRID LASTTIME

All alarms and events information


These views contain all of the columns that are described with alarm and event views information. The additional column MOTYPEID indicates the type of monitor instance. There are also two global views, ALARM_LOG_VIEW and
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Command line option

EVENT_LOG_VIEW, which provide information on all alarms and events that are generated on BMC ProactiveNet Server.

Command line option


Command line options are provided to generate dataviews Data Dictionary, create and delete views, and populate instance configuration data. See the CLI description of pw dataview for details on using the command line.

Sample data dictionary


This is a sample Data Dictionary generated by running 'pw dataview gendoc' command. Figure 119: Sample Data Dictionary
Table INSTANCEINFO_CFG Desc : Information related to all the instances in the system is stored here. Columns : MOTYPEID : Monitor type id. This value is internal and fixed. MOINSTID : Monitor instance id. This is an unique # generated for each instance. This value is internal and fixed. All statistics data for each instance is identified by this. DEVICENAME : Name of the device to which this instance is added in the administration console. INSTANAME : Description of the monitor instance. SOURCEIP : IP Address of the device from where the statistics data is being collected. TARGETIP : IP Address of the device on which this instance is running. CONFIGVALUES : Values of the configuration attributes of the monitor instance in the format name=value pairs separated by ';'. Host name : narmada Creating views View BMC_CFG_VIEW Desc : This view has the config information for monitors of type 'Adapter for BMC Patrol ( 29753 ) ' Columns : MOINSTID : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. DEVICENAME : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. INSTNAME : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. SOURCEIP : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. TARGETIP : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. APP_INST : Application Instance Name APP_PARAM : Application Parameter Name APP_TYPE : Application Type Name COMPUTATION : Measure As PASSWORD : Password PORT_NO : Port Number SCALE_FACTOR : Scaling Factor USER_NAME : User Name View BMC_ST_VIEW Desc : This view has the stats information for monitors of type 'Adapter for

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Sample data dictionary

BMC Patrol ( 29753 ) ' MOINSTID : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. TIMERECORDED : unix time stamp of when this data is collected VAL : Application Parameter Value ( # ) View AGENTCONN_CFG_VIEW Desc : This view has the config information for monitors of type 'Agent Connection (27011) ' Columns : MOINSTID : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. DEVICENAME : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. INSTNAME : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. SOURCEIP : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. TARGETIP : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. PW_MON_VER : Monitor Version View AGENTCONN_ST_VIEW Desc : This view has the stats information for monitors of type 'Agent Connection ( 27011 ) ' MOINSTID : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. TIMERECORDED : unix time stamp of when this data is collected STATUSCHGS : Agent Status Changes ( # ) CONN : Agents Connected ( # ) DISCONN : Agents Disconnected ( # ) NOTCONN : Agents Not Connected ( # ) TOTALAGENTS : Total Agents ( # ) View AGENTSTATUS_CFG_VIEW Desc : This view has the config information for monitors of type 'Agent Status ( 28601 ) ' Columns : MOINSTID : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. DEVICENAME : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. INSTNAME : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. SOURCEIP : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. TARGETIP : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. AGENT_IP : Agent IP PW_MON_VER : Monitor Version View AGENTSTATUS_ST_VIEW Desc : This view has the stats information for monitors of type 'Agent Status ( 28601 ) ' MOINSTID : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. TIMERECORDED : unix time stamp of when this data is collected AVAILABILITY : Availability ( % ) View AIXCPU_CFG_VIEW Desc : This view has the config information for monitors of type 'AIX CPU ( 43001 ) ' Columns : MOINSTID : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. DEVICENAME : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. INSTNAME : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. SOURCEIP : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. TARGETIP : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. PW_MON_VER : Monitor Version PROCESSOR_NAME : Processor Name View AIXCPU_ST_VIEW Desc : This view has the stats information for monitors of type 'AIX CPU ( 43001 ) ' MOINSTID : same as described in instanceinfo_cfg. TIMERECORDED : unix time stamp of when this data is collected SYSTIME : % System Time ( % ) USRTIME : % User Time ( % ) WAITTIME : % Wait Time ( % ) IDLETIME : %Idle Time ( % ) CNXTSWTCH : Context Switches ( per sec ) SYSCALLS : System Calls ( per sec )

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Create ASA database interface

Create ASA database interface


This section provides details about how to create an ASA database interface.

Install Sybase ASA driver on the Windows computer


BMC ProactiveNet provides an application on Windows that installs the ASA ODBC drivers and creates a DSN. The following sections provide instructions on how to install the package.

Prerequisite for ASA ODBC driver installation


Microsoft Driver Manager for Windows should be available. To check if this is available, navigate to: Start => Settings => Control Panel => Administrative tools => Data sources (ODBC)

Installing the ASA ODBC driver


Perform the following procedure to install the ASA ODBC driver.

To install the ASA ODBC driver


1 Locate ASA_Client.exe in the Utilities folder on the BMC ProactiveNet DVD. 2 Double-click ASA_Client.exe.
The installation package opens to install the product. The Install Wizard

Welcome window is displayed and then the License window is displayed.

3 Click Next. 4 Follow the prompts. The installation directory will be displayed. Change the location if you want to. After selecting the installation directory click Next.
Summary of the installation is displayed in the next window.

5 Once the installation is complete, click Finish to close the install window.
This completes the ASA ODBC driver installation.

6 Check the ODBC Administrator manager for a DSN 'ASA Client' by following these steps:
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a Select Start => Settings => Control Panel => Administrative Tools => Data Sources (ODBC) => System DSN. b Select ASA Client and click Configure.
The ODBC Configuration for Adaptive Server Anywhere window displays.

7 ODBC tab: ASA Client is populated by default. Modify the DSN to connect to the ASA database of your choice, if necessary. 8 Login tab: The log in panel is configured to user name 'report' and password 'report'. You can change the user name and password if it is different. 9 Database tab: In the Server Name field, specify the server name.
Confirm the database name before filling in the field. You can confirm this by

going to BMC ProactiveNet Server under the directory: usr/pw/sybase/ storm_<hostname>.db

Example: server name is storm_krishna, where krishna is the host on which ASA database is running. For the By default, the database name will be storm_<hostname>. If the database name has been modified, you can find it by the .db extension on BMC ProactiveNet Server. 10 Network tab: Select the TCP/IP option and fill in the host details in the Network panel.
Enter the value: host=<hostname or IP address>:2638

Example: host=krishna:2638. Host specifies the host on which ASA database is running and 2638 is the port on which the database is listening for client connections. 11 Access the ODBC tab and test the connection by following these steps: a Click Test Connection. A message window displays that the connection is successful. b Click OK in the message window. 12 Click OK in the ODBC window.
This completes the process of configuring the DSN that is created by

ASA_Client.exe.

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Downloading and installing Crystal Reports

Downloading and installing Crystal Reports


This section describes how to download and install Crystal Reports and the prerequisites for BMC ProactiveNet.

Before you begin


You need a user name and password for the BMC Software Electronic Product

Download site. You can register and obtain credentials at http://www.bmc.com/ support_home . BMC Software sales representative.

You must obtain a support ID and password for BMC ProactiveNet from your

To download Crystal Reports and the integration components


1 Take the appropriate step:
If you are already logged on to the BMC Software Support Home, click

Downloads & Patches, and then click Product Downloads (EPD).

If you are not logged on, go to at http://webapps.bmc.com/epd and log on.

2 Follow the instructions for completing the Export Validation & License Terms page. You must select I agree in the Export Compliance Disclaimer and TRIAL AGREEMENT panes. 3 Click CONTINUE. 4 If you have previously entered the support for BMC ProactiveNet, go to step List item. on page 549.
To enter the support ID and password:

a In the My Entitled Products page, click MANAGE SUPPORT IDS. b In the Manage My Support IDs page, enter the support ID and password, and then click ADD. c Click BACK TO MY ENTITLED PRODUCTS. 5 If BMC ProactiveNet version 2.0.00 is not displayed, perform the following actions: a Click ADDITIONAL PRODUCTS.

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Downloading and installing Crystal Reports

b In the Search field, enter BMC Service Assurance Reporting, and then click SEARCH.

Tip
Case does not matter in this search. You can enter a substring of the product name, such as assurance rep.

6 Select BMC Service Assurance Reporting 2.0.00, and then click CONTINUE. 7 In the Select Product Version page, select BMC Service Assurance Reporting 2.0.00, and then click CONTINUE 8 In the Download files page, choose the appropriate component for your situation:
If this is a first-time installation If you have Crystal Reports Server XI release 2 without SP2 Crystal Reports Server SP2 (Full Install) Crystal Reports Server SP2 (Incremental Patch-SP1 Customers Only)

If you want to design custom reports, and this is a first- Crystal Reports Designer SP2 (Full Install) time installation If you have Crystal Reports Designer XI release 2 without SP2 To download temporary license passwords Crystal Reports Designer SP2 (Incremental PatchSP1 Customers Only) License Information for BMC Service Assurance Reporting

9 For each item that you choose, follow the instructions to complete the download.

Where to go from here


For information about installing Crystal Reports, see the Crystal Reports Server Installation Guide, currently available from http://help.sap.com/businessobject/ product_guides/ . General information about the product is available from http:// businessobjects.com/ . The following prerequisites must be met for running Crystal Reports:
Crystal Reports should be installed on the Windows computer where you would

run the report.

On BMC ProactiveNet Server, one or more Web URL monitor instances should

have been created.

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Accessing the ASA database through Microsoft Excel

The Web URL monitors should have collected data for at least 24 hours. On the server side, the following command should be running after creation of

instances: (If its already done, ignore.) #runjava scripts.InstanceInfo update

Sybase ASA client drivers should be installed on the Windows computer from

where Crystal reports will be run.

A DSN should be created for the ASA database of BMC ProactiveNet. On BMC ProactiveNet Server computer, the ASA database process dbsrv7 should

be running.

Connect to ASA database through Crystal Reports


1 Start Crystal reports. 2 Select File => New. 3 Select a report type from the available report types. 4 From the Step 1: Tables tab, click SQL/ODBC icon. The Log on Server window, which lists all ODBC driver sources available on the system, displays. 5 Select the DSN that was created in the previous section (ASA Client). This opens the Choose SQL Table window, which lists all tables and views of the connected database.

Accessing the ASA database through Microsoft Excel


This section provides details about how to create sample reports by accessing the ASA database through Microsoft Excel.

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Accessing the ASA database through Microsoft Excel

Creating sample reports using Microsoft Excel


Perform the following procedure to create sample reports with Microsoft Excel.

Prerequisites
Microsoft Query should be installed on the Windows computer. Sybase ASA client driver packages should be installed on the Windows computer. On the BMC ProactiveNet Server computer, the ASA database process (dbsrv7)

should be running.

BMC ProactiveNet Server processes should have been running for at least a day

and data collection should have been occurring for 24 hours.

To create sample reports in Microsoft Excel


1 Open Microsoft Excel. 2 Select Data => Pivot Table and Pivot Chart Report from the main menu. The Pivot Table and Pivot Chart Wizard pop-up window displays. 3 In step 1, select External Data source and Pivot Chart. Click Next. 4 In step 2, click Get Data. The Choose Data source pop-up window displays. 5 Select the data source that connects to the ASA database. Refer to the earlier section that specifies the procedure to create DSN. Select the data source name and click OK. Example: ASA Client.
A new pop-up window Query Wizard - Choose columns displays.

6 Choose the tables/columns you want to use in the report. For the sample report, choose moinstid, devicename, instname columns from SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW view and TOTALCPU column from SOLPROC_ST_VIEW view. 7 Click Next.
A warning message displays, asking to start-up Microsoft query to join the two

tables that are selected.

8 Click OK.

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Microsoft Query opens and shows the column names of the two views that are

considered for the report.

9 Join the moinstid column of SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW with MOINSTID column of SOLPROC_ST_VIEW. A warning may appear indicating that the columns are of different types. Click OK. 10 In Microsoft Query, add criteria to TOTALCPU column.
Use Criteria"Add Criteria of main menu tool bar. The constraint is to choose the

rows that have values of TOTALCPU greater than -1. Usually, the value will be less than 0 in the very first record on creation of monitor instance. Click Add.

11 In Microsoft Query, select moinstid column.


Keeping the moinstid column highlighted, click View "Query Properties

from main menu tool bar. Query Properties window pops up. Select Group Records field and click OK.

12 In Microsoft Query, keeping the moinstid column highlighted, click Records => Sort from the main menu bar. Select SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW.moinstid for column for sorting, use ascending order sorting, and click Add. 13 In Microsoft Query, click View""SQL. The SQL window that contains the SQL Query statement displays.
The statement looks like:
SELECT SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW.moinstid, SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW.devicename, SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW.instname, SOLPROC_ST_VIEW.TOTALCPU FROM DBA.SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW, DBA.SOLPROC_ST_VIEW SOLPROC_ST_VIEW WHERE SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW.moinstid = SOLPROC_ST_VIEW.MOINSTID GROUP BY SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW.moinstid, SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW.devicename, SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW.instname, SOLPROC_ST_VIEW.TOTALCPU HAVING (SOLPROC_ST_VIEW.TOTALCPU>-1) ORDER BY SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW.moinstid

The query statement will retrieve all the records from the SOLPROC_ST_VIEW if time-range is not provided. In order to retrieve records that is in a time-range, edit the statement.
SELECT SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW.moinstid, SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW.devicename, SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW.instname, SOLPROC_ST_VIEW.TOTALCPU FROM DBA.SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW, DBA.SOLPROC_ST_VIEW SOLPROC_ST_VIEW WHERE SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW.moinstid = SOLPROC_ST_VIEW.MOINSTID and DBA.SOLPROC_ST_VIEW.TIMERECORDED between <start-timestamp> and <end-timestamp> GROUP BY SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW.moinstid, SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW.devicename, SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW.instname, SOLPROC_ST_VIEW.TOTALCPU

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HAVING (SOLPROC_ST_VIEW.TOTALCPU>-1) ORDER BY SOLPROC_CFG_VIEW.moinstid

The start-timestamp and end-timestamp are UNIX timestamps.

14 After entering the time-range in the query, click OK.


For future reference, save the query to a file.

15 In Microsoft Query, click File => Return Data to Microsoft Excel from the main menu.
Microsoft Query exits and Microsoft Excel gets back the prompt.

16 In Microsoft Excel, click Next in Step 2 of 3. Step3 of 3 window displays. 17 Click Options. The Pivot Table Options window displays. 18 Disable the following format options and click OK.
Grand totals for columns Grand totals for rows Autoformat table

19 Click Finish in the Step 3 of 3 window.


The report window appears.

20 From the Pivot table fields, drag the following fields to the More Category area (Drop More Category fields here area).
Moinstid Instname

21 Drag the Devicename field to Total area (Drop more Series fields here area) 22 Drag the TOTALCPU field in the Data area (Drop Data items here area)

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Accessing the ASA database through Microsoft Excel

The graph provides maximum CPU utilization by BMC ProactiveNet processes. To change the summary formula to display graph of minimum, average, sum, or other graph, left-click Max of TOTALCPU. Figure 120: Pivot Table

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Accessing the ASA database through Microsoft Excel

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A
mcell.conf file parameters
This appendix discusses all of the parameters in the mcell.conf file, which is installed with the cell enables it to run without any additional configuration. You can view the default configuration parameters, or change them in the mcell.conf file to customize the cell for your particular IT infrastructure and environment. You can override some parameters using command line arguments when you start the cell.

Action result event parameters


Table 110: Action result event parameters

You can view the default values for these parameters in the mcell.conffile.
Parameter ActionResultInlineLimit Description the size limit, in bytes, for an action result to be included directly in the action result event slots This applies to both the output stream (slot "output_val") and the error stream (slot "error_val"). If the respective result is larger than the indicated size, it is stored in a file. Instead of placing the value directly in the *_val slot, the reference to the file is placed in the corresponding *_ref slot. ActionResultKeepPeriod the period, in seconds, that an action result is kept on behalf of a (Browser) client The client should retrieve the result within that period. After the period has expired, the result is dropped. This is independent of the action result event. A generated action result event is not influenced by this parameter. It exists as long as other events. number Type number

Appendix A mcell.conf file parameters 557

Cell configuration parameters

Cell configuration parameters


Table 111: Cell configuration parameters

You can view the default values for these parameters in the mcell.conffile.
Parameter CellDescription Description used as the initial value of the cell_description slot of the internal MC_CELL_INFO record Type string

CellExceptionHandlingEnabled

used to configure how the the cell handles exceptions Boolean Yes - cell catches exceptions, automatically restarts itself, and collects data for problem analysis including cell trace files, cell state files and a core dump, if possible No - cell service is not available until the cell is restarted manually

CellOperationLevel

indicates the level on which the cell must operate The operation level determines from which clients the cell accepts connections and events. The default value can accept connections from any computer.

string

CellOperationRelax

indicates whether the operation level should be lowered in case there is no license available for the desired level, as set by CellOperationLevel Typically, more license tokens are available for lower operation levels.

Boolean

ConnectionPortRange1

specifies the range of ports to use for outgoing connections For forward propagation, this port is used on the client side (or on the propagating cell side). This is useful to pass the event through firewalls with high restrictions. Most firewall configurations ignore source port information but require destination port information. However, firewall configuration usually can restrict the source ports as well.

string

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Parameter ConnectionPortReuse 1

Description

Type

indicates whether or not the ports specified in Boolean ConnectionPortRange should be reused as much as possible By default, the cell or command line interface (CLI) tries to reuse ports from the specified range, in the given order. When ConnectionPortReuse=No, for every new connection within the same session, the next free port from the specified range is used. Only when it reaches the end of the range will it restart at the beginning of the range.

POMEnabled

determines whether or not the cell is a ProactiveNet Boolean Operations Manager cell. This parameter is automatically configured by mcrtcell and should not be changed manually in mcell.conf. Jserver can only communicate directly with POMEnabled cell. A ProactiveNet Operations Manager (POMEnabled=Yes) cell does not accept adapter clients, unless a license key is provided. Note: A ProactiveNet Operations Manager cell

Knowledge Base must not be recompiled, unless license key is provided. msend events to the cell unless you have an Event Management license. events to the cell but the Jserver will not be able to communicate with it.
number

If POMEnabled=Yes, then you cannot

If POMEnabled=No, then you can msend

ProcessingLimit Percentage

specifies limitation of event processing speed At 100% the cell accepts events as fast as it can. At x % it does not accept events during (100-x)% of the time. This limits the cells CPU utilization.

CellMetricsCollectInterval

determines the interval length (in seconds) of a number single collection. Metrics from a single collection are presented in the short term metrics counters. The default value is CellMetricsCollectInterval=60 specifies the number of similar single collections to be taken into account. The combination of that many most recent collections is presented in the medium term metrics counters. The default value is CellMetricsCollectAmount=5 number

CellMetricsCollectAmount

Appendix A mcell.conf file parameters 559

Cell failover configuration parameters

Parameter ServerAllInterfaces

Description determines whether the cell listens on one specific interface or on all available interfaces When ServerAllInterfaces=Yes, the cell communicates on all network interfaces on the host. When ServerAllInterfaces=No, the cell only communicates with the network interface that has the IP address specified in the mcell.dir file of that cell.

Type Boolean

ServerDirectoryName 1 ServerPort 1

specifies the name of the cell directory file specifies the TCP/IP port number at which the cell listens for all in-bound requests from sources, such as the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console, CLIs, and adapters specifies whether the cell is an Event Management cell or a Service Impact Model cell. If ServiceModelEnabled=No, the cell operates as an Event Management cell. If ServiceModelEnabled=Yes, the cell operates as a Service Impact Model cell, if the SIM class definitions are loaded. If these class definitions are not available, the cell operates as an Event Management cell. Note: Do not try to configure a SIM cell unless you have the proper license.

path number

ServiceModelEnabled

Boolean

SystemLogDirName SystemTmpDirName SystemVarDirName

specifies the path to the default system-defined log directory specifies the path to the default system-defined tmp directory specifies the path to the default system-defined var directory

path path path

a Can also be used in the mclient.conf configuration file, which affects the behavior of all of the CLI
commands. These parameters retain the same qualities and definitions in the mclient.conf file as they have in the mcell.conf file.

Cell failover configuration parameters


Table 112: Cell failover configuration parameters

You can view the default values for these parameters in the mcell.conffile.

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Parameter
CellDuplicateAutoFailOver

Description determines whether the primary server automatically fails over to the secondary server. For automatic failover to occur, this parameter must be set to YES on both servers.

Type Boolean

CellDuplicateAutoSwitchBack

determines whether the secondary server automatically switches back to the primary server when the primary server restarts after failover. For automatic switchback to occur, this parameter must be set to YES on both the primary and secondary servers.

Boolean

CellDuplicateFailOverStart TimeOut

specifies the length of time (in seconds) that the secondary server waits to become active after it is started. When the secondary server starts, it expects the primary to connect to it. If the primary server does not connect to the secondary within the time specified by the CellDuplicateFailOverStartTimeOut parameter, the secondary server will become active. The time specified for CellDuplicate FailOverStartTimeOut should be longer than the time specified for CellDuplicateFailOverTimeOut to allow operators to start up primary and secondary servers at almost the same time, in any order.

number

CellDuplicateFailOverTimeOut

specifies the length of time (in seconds) that the secondary server waits to become active after the secondary server loses connection to the primary server. can be used to disable the heartbeat of a high availability cell, to prevent the secondary cell server from becoming active when the primary cell server is active due to VMware clock discrepancies specifies the operation mode of the server. 1 = primary server 2 = secondary server 0 = the server is operating as a non-high availability cell. This is the only parameter that needs a different value between primary and secondary.

number

CellDuplicateHeartbeatEnabled

Boolean

CellDuplicateMode

number

Appendix A mcell.conf file parameters 561

Client communication parameters

Client communication parameters


Table 113: Client communication parameters

You can view the default values for these parameters in the mcell.conffile.
Parameter ClientCleanupInterval Description the interval, in seconds, between clean-ups of pending clients After each such period, clients that did not give the cell a notice of life are disconnected. ClientPollTimeOut ClientSendTimeOut DateFormat the maximum time, in milliseconds, the cell waits for a client request before it continues processing the time interval, in milliseconds, that the cell has to send a packet to a client on the lowest communication level the format used to display timestamps in the date slot A default value of CIM indicates use of the Common Information Model (CIM) format from the Desktop Management Force Group. DateFormat parameters use the syntax of %[ letter ]. Table 114 on page 563 lists the DateFormat parameters for Solaris; for other operating systems, see their documentation. SynchronizeTimeOut the maximum time, in milliseconds, the cell waits for synchronization before dropping a connection number number number string Type number

If the cell receives an event with an empty value for the date slot, it sets the date slot to the textually formatted value of the date_reception slot. That value is determined by the DateFormat parameter. This assignment is performed only once, when the event first enters the cell. If the cell is shut down and restarted, the value of date remains the same even if the DateFormat parameter has been modified in the interval. The CIM format is yyyymmddhhmmss.mmmmmmsutc, where:
yyyy = year mm = month dd = day hh = hour, based on 24-hour clock mm = minutes

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ss = seconds mmmmmm = microseconds s = + or utc = offset in minutes from UTC; UTC is the Universal Time Coordinate system

Table 114 on page 563 lists the parameters from the Solaris platform. Other platforms, including UNIX and Microsoft Windows platforms, may have slight differences.
Table 114: Date and time format parameters for Solaris Parameter
%% %a %A %b %B %c %C %d %D %e %h %H %I %j %k %l %m %M %n %p %r

Description same as % locales abbreviated weekday name locales full weekday name locales abbreviated month name locales full month name locales appropriate date and time representation locales date and time representation as produced by date (1) day of month [1,31]; single digits are preceded by zero (0) date as %m/%d/%y day of month [1,31]; single digits are preceded by a space locales abbreviated month name hour (24-hour clock) [0,23]; single digits are preceded by zero (0) hour (12-hour clock) [1,12]; single digits are preceded by zero (0) day number of year [1,366]; single digits are preceded by zero (0) hour (24-hour clock) [0,23]; single digits are preceded by a blank hour (12-hour clock) [1,12]; single digits are preceded by a blank month number [1,12]; single digits are preceded by zero (0) minute [00,59]; initial 0 is permitted but not required insert a new line locales equivalent of A.M. or P.M. appropriate time representation in 12-hour clock format with %p Appendix A mcell.conf file parameters 563

Encryption parameters

Parameter
%R %S %t %T %u %U %V

Description time as %H:%M seconds [00,61] insert a tab time as %H:%M:%S weekday as a decimal number [1,7], where 1 represents Sunday week number of year as a decimal number [00,53], where Sunday is the first day of week 1 week number of the year as a decimal number [01,53], where Monday is the first day of the week If the week containing January 1st has four or more days in the new year, then it is considered week 1. Otherwise, it is week 53 of the previous year, and the next week is considered week 1.

%w %W %x %X %y %Y %Z

weekday as a decimal number [0,6], where 0 represents Sunday week number of year as a decimal number [00,53], where Monday is the first day of week 1 locales appropriate date representation locales appropriate time representation year within century [00,99] year, including the century. (for example, 2006) time zone name or abbreviation, or no bytes if no time zone information exists

Encryption parameters
The following table describes the encryption parameters that are listed in the mcell.conf file.
Table 115: Encryption parameters

You can view the default values for these parameters in the mcell.conffile.
Parameter AllowAdapterFrom Description specifies the adapters within the range of IP addresses These are adapters that use the BMC Impact Solutions communications protocol. AllowBrowserFrom specifies the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console and the BMC Impact Portal connections within the range of IP addresses specifies the cells within the range of IP addresses string Type string

AllowCellFrom

string

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Event repository cleanup parameters

Parameter AllowCLIFrom AllowConnectionFrom AllowEIFFrom


Encryption EncryptionKey ForceEncryption

Description specifies the command line interfaces (for example, mkill or mcstat) within the range of IP addresses specifies the client within the range of IP addresses that is allowed to connect to a cell specifies the EIF event sources (for example, a postemsg) within the range of IP addresses specifies to use encryption specifies the encryption key specifies if encryption is to be forced

Type string string string Boolean string Boolean

Event repository cleanup parameters


Table 116: Event Repository cleanup parameters

You can view the default values for these parameters in the mcell.conffile.
Parameter EventAutoClose Description automatically closes a duplicate event in the database when an event arrives with status=CLOSED, or it is closed in the Refine rule phase If the default value is left as Yes, the event is dropped and the duplicate is closed. If the value is set to No, there is no duplicate detection and the CLOSED event is not dropped. EventDBCleanupDurationLimit the maximum duration, in seconds, of a single number cleanup After expiration of that period, the cleanup is interrupted. Normal operation proceeds for an equal duration. Then cleanup is resumed, with the same limit again. EventDBCleanupInterval EventDBCleanupPercentage the time interval, in seconds, between periodic number cleanups of the repository the percentage of free space required at termination of an EventDB cleanup With a default EventDBSize of 100000, this means that at least 10000 places must be available at termination of a completed cleanup. number Type Boolean

Appendix A mcell.conf file parameters 565

Event repository cleanup parameters

Parameter EventDBCleanupOnDateReception

Description indicates the preference for deleting events from the repository based on when they were received instead of when they were last modified

Type Boolean

EventDBCleanupPreferClosed

indicates the preference for cleaning up closed Boolean events rather than older events When there is not enough free space after removing all expired events, additional, unexpired events are removed. These are selected, oldest first, either from any events or from the closed ones first. The default is no, meaning that the event status value is not taken into account when selecting events for removal.

EventDBKeepClosed

the minimum age, in seconds, of CLOSED events before they are removed from the repository Note: Any modifications to the EventDBKeepClosed parameter should be carefully considered. Events of these classes remain in the event repository until you manually delete them.

number

EventDBKeepNonClosed

the minimum age, in seconds, of non-closed events before they are removed from the repository the number of events to retain in the repository (the mcdb and xact files located in the MCELL_HOME/var/ CellName directory path The default size is 100000. When the specified number is reached, the cell performs a cleanup procedure, which is described in Executing reboot command via remote action results in timeout messages on page 147 The value of the EventDBSize may have an impact on memory consumption. When increasing the value of the EventDBSize, consider the size of your systems virtual memory and the number of programs running on the system. Contact your system administrator if in doubt.

number

EventDBSize

number

EventDBNoCleanupClosed

list of classes in which closed events will not be deleted from the repository

string

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Heartbeat parameters

Parameter EventDBNoCleanupNonClosed

Description list of classes in which non-closed events will not be deleted from the repository; comma separated

Type Boolean

Event cleanup process


The related group of event cleanup parameters gives you control over which events are removed, limits the duration of the cleanup, and specifies a preference for cleaning up closed events rather than older events. A cleanup first removes expired events. Expired events are those that are older than the times in the EventDBKeepClosed and EventDBKeepNonClosed parameters, for closed and non-closed events, respectively. After this cleanup, if there is still less free space than specified in the EventDBCleanupPercentage parameter, additional, unexpired events are removed. As many events are removed as needed to reach the desired amount of free space. Older events are removed first, with one possible exception. If parameter EventDBCleanupPreferClosed=Yes, closed events are removed first, even if some older unclosed events remain. In EventDBCleanupPreferClosed=No mode, all events are considered, starting with the oldest first. The mc_date_modification slot is considered to determine the time of an event. However, if parameter EventDBCleanupOnDateReception=Yes, the date_reception slot is considered instead. Cleanup is interrupted if it takes longer than the value of the EventDBCleanupDurationLimit parameter. By default, this value is 10 seconds. If the cleanup period was not long enough to remove all expired events, a new cleanup is scheduled for a later time with the same amount of time as the duration limit. If all expired events were removed, the next cleanup is scheduled after the normal interval value of EventDBCleanupInterval.

Heartbeat parameters
Table 117: Heartbeat parameters

You can view the default values for these parameters in the mcell.conffile.
Parameter HeartbeatEnabled Description indicates whether the heartbeat monitoring mechanism is enabled or not Type Boolean

Appendix A mcell.conf file parameters 567

Heartbeat parameters

Parameter HeartbeatInterval HeartbeatMissedCritical

Description the default interval between two beats, if not specified in the data object the default number of consecutive missed beats that are needed to generate a critical event, if not specified in the data object the default number of consecutive missed beats that are needed to generate a minor event, if not specified in the data object the default number of consecutive missed beats that are needed to generate a warning event, if not specified in the data object

Type number number

HeartbeatMissedMinor

number

HeartbeatMissedWarning

number

The heartbeat feature enables a specific cell, called the monitoring cell, to monitor one or more cells, called the monitored cell or cells, for enabled access by the monitoring cell. The parameter in the mcell.conf file of the monitored cell should be HeartbeatEnabled=Yes. By default, the monitored cell sends a beat every 300 seconds. Heartbeats are configured through MC_CELL_HEARTBEAT dynamic data objects in the monitoring cell. An MC_CELL_HEARTBEAT dynamic data object contains information, such as the name of the cell to be monitored, the length of the expected time intervals between the heartbeats, and the number of heartbeats that must be missed to generate corresponding internal events in the monitoring cell. The cell receives the dynamic data object either by loading it from the data directory, receiving it through an mposter call, or viewing it in the Administrative View of the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console . The monitoring cell sends a request to the monitored cell. The monitored cell sends a heartbeat back to the monitoring cell at the specified intervals. If the monitoring cell does not receive a heartbeat in the expected timeframe, the monitoring cell generates an alert that can be viewed in the BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console console. The default settings for missing heartbeats are as follows:
1 missed heartbeat generate a warning event 2 missed heartbeats generate a minor event 3 missed heartbeats generate a critical event

For example, cell 1 is the monitoring cell, which sends a request to cell 2, the monitored cell. If it does not receive a response at a specified interval, then the monitoring cell sends an alert that can be seen in the BMC ProactiveNet Operations Console.

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Internal cell monitor parameters

After a monitoring cell terminates and restarts, it is aware of prior requests for heartbeats because it rereads the dynamic data objects that are stored in the cell repository mcdb. After it rereads the data, the monitoring cell attempts to resend the request to the monitored cell. If the monitored cell terminates, the monitoring cell resends the request for heartbeats at the specified intervals. Table 118 on page 569 lists the MC_CELL_HEARTBEAT slots.
Table 118: Heartbeat slots Slot
cell enable last_time interval

Description target monitored cell name 0 = disabled, 1 = enabled time last heartbeat was received length of interval between heartbeats Specify zero (0) to use the default, as determined by the HeartbeatInterval configuration parameter.

missed_warning

number of missed heartbeats before a WARNING event is generated Specify zero (0) to use the default, as determined by the corresponding HeartbeatMissedWarning configuration parameter. Specify -1 to disable generation of the corresponding event.

missed_minor

number of missed heartbeats before a MINOR event is generated Specify zero (0) to use the default, as determined by the corresponding HeartbeatMissedMinor configuration parameter. Specify -1 to disable generation of the corresponding event.

missed_critical

number of missed heartbeats before a CRITICAL event is generated Specify zero (0) to use the default, as determined by the corresponding HeartbeatMissedCritical configuration parameter. Specify -1 to disable generation of the corresponding event.

missed

number of consecutive missed heartbeats

Deleting an instance of an MC_CELL_HEARTBEAT data object from a monitoring cell terminates the monitoring of the corresponding cell or cells.

Note

Internal cell monitor parameters


Table 119: Internal cell monitors parameters

You can view the default values for these parameters in the mcell.conffile.
Appendix A mcell.conf file parameters 569

KB parameters

Parameter CellEventEnable

Description a flag that indicates whether the cell should generate internal events, such as start, stop, and heartbeat; does not include events generated by the rules indicates whether an event processing error should produce a special internal event to flag that error, or not determines whether metrics for cell performance are collected or not

Type Boolean

CellErrorEvents CellMetricsEnabled CellTickInterval

Boolean Boolean

the time interval, in seconds, between generation of cell heartbeat number events (ticks) The purpose of such heartbeats is to send a sign of life from the cell. A zero (0) value disables cell ticks without disabling other internal events. This parameter operates only if the CellEventEnable is set to Yes.

RuleLoopDetect

a flag that requires the cell to check for certain conditions that can Boolean induce infinite looping of events Setting this parameter to Yes can cause mild cell performance degradation.

KB parameters
Table 120: KB parameters

You can view the default values for these parameters in the mcell.conffile.
Parameter KBDirName KBRecoveryDirName Description the path to the active KB directory the path to an alternate KB directory to be used for recovery from catastrophic damage For more information, see BMC ProactiveNet Command Line Interface Reference Manual. Type path path

Propagation parameters
The propagation parameters allow you to configure propagation and destination buffers. You can configure these parameters for individual destinations and also configure a default value for all other destinations. Use the asterisk (*) to specify all destinations.
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The following parameter definition illustrates how to configure these parameters for all destinations.
DestinationBufferReconnectInterval = *=600

This example specifies that the interval to try to reconnect is 600 seconds for all destinations. If the * is not explicitly defined, the default value for the parameter will be applied to all destinations. To configure parameters for individual destinations, the value for these parameters is formatted as a comma-separated sequence of destination-specific settings in the form of DestinationName=Value. DestinationNames #1 and #2 are reserved to indicate the primary and secondary nodes of a high availability cell. For example,
DestinationBufferReconnectInterval = #1=10,#2=10,*=600,SlowCell=1200

This example specifies that the interval to try to reconnect is 10 seconds for the high availability nodes, 1200 seconds for a cell called SlowCell and 600 seconds for all other destinations. If the * is not explicitly defined, the default value for the parameter will be applied to all unspecified destinations.
Table 121: Propagation parameters

You can view the default values for these parameters in the mcell.conffile.
Parameter
DestinationBufferBaseSize DestinationBufferExpandPercentage

Description the initial number of messages, or events, retained in the buffer percentage of the actual buffer size that the buffer expands when events continue to be propagated after the buffer is full maximum allowed buffer size The default value of 0 means the buffer size is unlimited. In practice, the size is limited to 2^32-1, or to the available amount of memory. If the limit is set to a value lower than DestinationBufferBaseSize, the buffer will not expand beyond DestinationBufferBaseSize.

Type number number

DestinationBufferSizeLimit

number

DestinationBuffer ReducePercentage DestinationBufferKeepSent a

minimum percentage of free buffer size required to perform a reduction the time, in seconds, to keep sent events buffered while waiting for an answer

number number

Appendix A mcell.conf file parameters 571

Propagation parameters

Parameter DestinationBufferKeepWait

Description The amount of time, in seconds, that events are retained in the buffer until they can be sent. Once the specified time elapses, the retained events are removed from the buffer.

Type number

DestinationBufferReconnectInterval

the time interval, in seconds, in which the number cell attempts reconnection to a destination if the original connection failed The cell continues to reestablish a connection as long as there are events in the buffer.

Destination BufferResendCount PropagateBufferBaseSize

the number of times to resend unanswered events the number of requests for propagation to retain in the propagation buffer Such a request corresponds to firing a Propagate rule. There is one propagate buffer per cell with as many places for requests as set by the parameter.

number number

Propagate BufferExpandPercentage

percentage of the actual buffer size that the buffer expands when events continue to be propagated after the buffer is full maximum allowed buffer size The default value of 0 means the buffer size is unlimited. In practice, the size is limited to 2^32-1, or to the available amount of memory. If the limit is set to a value lower than Propagate BufferBaseSize, the buffer will not expand beyond Propagate BufferBaseSize.

number

PropagateBufferSizeLimit

number

PropagateBuffer ReducePercentage PropagateConfigFileName

minimum percentage of free buffer size required to perform a reduction the name of the propagation configuration file

number path

a Can also be used in the mclient.conf configuration file, which affects the behavior of all of the BMC
Impact Solutions CLI commands. These parameters retain the same qualities and definitions in the mclient.conf file as they have in the mcell.conf file.

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Deprecated MessageBuffer propagation parameters


The MessageBuffer propagation parameters described in this section have been deprecated, but are retained for backward compatibility with earlier versions of BMC Impact Manager. These parameters may be removed in a later version of the product. If one of the DestinationBuffer parameters is not specified, or if it does not contain a default setting, the value of the corresponding MessageBuffer parameter is used as default. If the corresponding MessageBuffer parameter is not specified, an internal default value is used.
Table 122: Deprecated MessageBuffer propagation parameters

You can view the default values for these parameters in the mcell.conffile.
Parameter
MessageBufferBaseSize

Description the initial number of messages, or events, retained in the buffer a

Type number

MessageBufferKeepSent

the time, in seconds, to number keep sent messages buffered while waiting for an answer The amount of time, in seconds, that messages are retained in the buffer until they can be sent. Once the specified time elapses, the retained messages are removed from the buffer. number

MessageBufferKeepWait

MessageBufferReconnectInterval

the time interval, in number minutes, in which the cell attempts reconnection to a destination if the original connection failed The cell continues to reestablish a connection as long as there are messages in the buffer.

MessageBufferResendCount

the number of times to resend unanswered messages

number

Appendix A mcell.conf file parameters 573

Reporting client connection parameters

Parameter MessageBufferSize

Description

Type

the number of messages, number or events, retained in the buffer when the cell is unable to send, or when waiting for an answer; a message that is not sent because the destination is down, for example, or a message that was sent but not yet answered, remains in the buffer A cell maintains one buffer for each destination. Such buffers have the same size, as set by the parameter.

PropagateBufferSize

the number of requests for propagation to retain in the propagation buffer Such a request corresponds to firing a Propagate rule. There is one propagate buffer per cell with as many places for requests as set by the parameter.

number

a Can also be used in the mclient.conf configuration file, which affects the behavior of all of the BMC
Impact Solutions CLI commands. These parameters retain the same qualities and definitions in the mclient.conf file as they have in the mcell.conf file.

Reporting client connection parameters


The following table lists the parameters that report on client operations on the cell.
Table 123: Reporting client connection parameters

You can view the default values for these parameters in the mcell.conffile.
Parameter
ReportConnectClients ReportModifyClients

Description reports connect and disconnect of clients reports modifications of events by clients

Type string string

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Service model parameters

Service model parameters


The following table lists the parameters that control the service model.
Table 124: Service model parameters

You can view the default values for these parameters in the mcell.conffile.
Parameter
ServiceModelEnabled

Description

Type

specifies whether the cell is an Event Management cell or a Boolean Service Impact Model cell. If ServiceModelEnabled=No, the cell operates as an Event Management cell. If ServiceModelEnabled=Yes, the cell operates as a Service Impact Model cell, if the SIM class definitions are loaded. If these class definitions are not available, the cell operates as an Event Management cell. Note: Do not try to configure a SIM cell unless you have the proper license.

ServiceModelPublish

controls whether or not Service Model Data is published Note: If ServiceModelPublish is disabled, the ServiceModelDirectFeed parameter has no impact. In this case, Service Model Data is always accepted through direct feed.

Boolean

ServiceModelDirectFeed

when ServiceModelPublish is enabled, ServiceModelDirectFeed controls whether or not Service Model Data is accepted through direct feed

Boolean

State Builder parameters


The running of the State Builder is controlled by the cell, using the parameters in the mcell.conf file. Table 125 on page 575 lists the StateBuilder parameters.
Table 125: State Builder parameters

You can view the default values for these parameters in the mcell.conffile.

Appendix A mcell.conf file parameters 575

State Builder parameters

Para De Type mete sc r rip tio n Sta teB uil dIn ter val th number e ti m e in te rv al, in se co n ds , be t w ee n t w o b ui ld s of sa ve d st at es of th e ce ll

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Para De Type mete sc r rip tio n Sta teB uil dSi ze th number e m ax i m u m si ze , in ki lo b yt es , of a tr an sa cti o n fil e be fo re it is tr an sf or m ed in to a ne w sa ve d st at e w he n th e

Appendix A mcell.conf file parameters 577

State Builder parameters

Para De Type mete sc r rip tio n Sta teB uil dCo nfi gFi leN ame th path e St at eB ui ld er co nf ig ur at io n fil e na m e

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State Builder parameters

Para De Type mete sc r rip tio n Sta teB uil dAt Ter min ate in Boolean di ca ti o n to ru n th e St at eB ui ld er w he n th e ce ll te r m in at es

Appendix A mcell.conf file parameters 579

State Builder parameters

Para De Type mete sc r rip tio n Sta teB uil dRu nTi meO ut th number e ti m eo ut , in se co n ds , to co ns id er w he n w ai ti n g fo r th e St at eB ui ld er to te r m in at e

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Trace parameters

Trace parameters
Table 126: Cell tracing parameters

You can view the default values for these parameters in the mcell.conffile.
Parameter a Trace TraceSrc TraceConfigFileName TraceDefaultFileName Description enables the generation of trace messages includes the file and line number in the trace messages location of the file containing the configuration of the trace messages destination file to redirect trace messages from stderr to, in case the cell runs as a daemon or service Note: If you direct trace files to the temporary directory of the cell (for example, TraceDefaultFileName=%T/trace %T=cell_tmp), the trace file will be removed each time the cell starts because the cell always cleans up its tmp directory at startup. To keep trace files across cell sessions, do not use the tmp directory as the default destination file location. TraceRuleLevel sets the level of rule execution tracing: 0no rule tracing and no cell error catch (not recommended) 1no rule tracing; cell errors are caught in the standard cell trace (default) 2rule tracing enabled
TraceRulePhases

Type Boolean Boolean path path

number

When rule tracing is enabled, lists the rule phases to be traced. The value ALL can be used to specify that all phases are to be traced. Each phase can be prefixed with a + or a - sign to indicate addition or removal from the list. The list is interpreted in sequential order. For example, the following parameter setting:TraceRulePhases=ALL,-refine,-regulate indicates that all rule phases will be traced except for the refine and regulate phases. NOTE: TraceRulePhases and TraceRuleName work together to determine which rules are traced. A rule is only traced if both the phase to which it belongs and the rule itself are configured for tracing.

string

Appendix A mcell.conf file parameters 581

Trace parameters

Parameter
TraceRuleNames

Description When rule tracing is enabled, lists module:rule combinations to be traced. The value ALL can be used to specify that all modules and/or rules are to be traced. Each module:rule combination can be prefixed with a + or a - sign to indicate addition or removal from the list. The list is interpreted in sequential order. For example, the following parameter setting:TraceRuleNames=HelpDesk:ALL, HelpDesk:rule1,SendMail:rule1 indicates that all rules in the HelpDesk module will be traced except for rule1. Also, rule1 from the SendMail module will be traced. NOTE: TraceRulePhases and TraceRuleNames work together to determine which rules are traced. A rule is only traced if both the phase to which it belongs and the rule itself are configured for tracing.

Type string

TraceRuleHeader

enables you to configure the header text of the trace messages. You can configure the header text to contain references to parameters, using the following designations to represent the associated parameters: %I message id %F source file name %L source line number %M KB module name %R rule name %P rule phase %H handle of the main event being processed (event_handle slot) %C class name of the main event being processed For example, the default parameter settingTraceRuleHeader= %F, %L: %P %R: %C #%H: results in a message similar to:mc_intevt.mrl, 42: new StbldStop: MC_CELL_STATBLD_STOP #118: Rule execution starting

text

TraceRuleToXact

indicates whether to include rule tracing in the transaction file, Boolean as well as in the standard cell trace, in module RULES

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Trace parameters

Parameter TraceFileSize

Description When the trace file grows beyond the indicated size, it is renamed with a numerical suffix appended. A new trace file is started. Special value 0 (the default) means no limitation on file size.

Type

limit on the size of a trace destination file, expressed in kilobytes number

TraceFileHistory

number of trace files to be kept in history When this number is reached, a new numbered trace file will remove the oldest one.

number

TraceFileAppend

indicates whether to append to existing trace files or empty existing trace files at startup

Boolean

a Can also be used in the mclient.conf configuration file, which affects the behavior of all of the BMC
Impact Solutions CLI commands. These parameters retain the same qualities and definitions in the mclient.conf file as they have in the mcell.conf file.

Appendix A mcell.conf file parameters 583

Trace parameters

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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Index
A
action result event parameters ActionResultInlineLimit 557 ActionResultKeepPeriod 557 actions responding to an event 141, 143 administering remote cells Administration View (BIX) 511 Administration View creating new data instance 399 edit menu 401 exporting data 402 managing cells from 511 Slot Quick Filter 396 sort multiple columns 397 sort, single-click 399 Advanced subtab 454 alias 474 alias formulas conditional operators 303 functions in 305 AllowAdapterFrom 564 AllowBrowserFrom 564 AllowCellFrom 564 AllowCLIFrom 565 AllowConnectionFrom 565 AllowEIFFrom 565 Atrium CMDB. See BMC Atrium CMDB Auto Bind cell connection property 28 BMC Impact Explorer remote cell administration 511 using to monitor business services 449 BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console changing your password 31 BMC ProactiveNet Publishing Server publication filters 112 viewing publication history 116 viewing service model objects 115 BMC ProactiveNet Server Auto Reconnect configuration parameter 30 configuration parameters 29 Enable Port Range configuration parameter 29 Heartbeat Rate configuration parameter 29 logging out of and in to from the administration console 30 setting connection properties 29 business services monitoring in BMC Impact Explorer 449

C
cell configuration creating files for specific cells 480 cell connection properties specifying ports 28 used to connect to the BMC ProactiveNet Server 25 cell parameters CellDescription 558 CellOperationLevel 558 CellOperationRelax 558 ConnectionPortRange 558 ConnectionPortReuse 559 POMEnabled 559 ProcessingLimitPercentage 559 ServerAllInterfaces 560 ServerDirectoryName 560 ServerPort 560 SystemLogDirName 560 SystemTmpDirName 560 SystemVarDirName 560 cell tracing parameters, list of 581 Index 585

B
blackout policy (standard), creating 308 blackout policy, creating 309, 313, 318, 356 BMC Atrium CMDB integration 109 viewing publication history 116 viewing service model objects 115

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
CellDescription 558 CellErrorEvents 570 CellEventEnable 570 CellMetricsEnabled 570 CellOperationLevel 558 CellOperationRelax 558 cells heartbeats 570 permissions required to start on UNIX 495 production, described 475 reconfiguring 494 remote administration 511 starting and stopping 494 starting and stopping on UNIX 495 starting and stopping on Windows 496 starting or stopping on Windows 496 starting with services 497 stopping with mkill 496 stopping with services 496 test, described 475 view information 512 CellTickInterval 570 central ProactiveNet Server 223 changing your BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console password 31 child ProactiveNet Server 223 Class list box 453 client configuration for passive connections 486 client parameters 570 ClientCleanupInterval 562 ClientPollTimeOut 562 ClientSendTimeOut 562 DateFormat 562 SynchronizedTimeOut 562 ClientCleanupInterval 562 ClientPollTimeOut 562 ClientSendTimeOut 562 closure policy, creating 322 CMDB. See BMC Atrium CMDB commands mcell 495 mkill 495, 496 net start 497 net stop 496 communication and encryption AllowAdapterFrom 564 AllowBrowserFrom 564 AllowCellFrom 564 AllowCLIFrom 565 AllowConnectionFrom 565 AllowEIFFrom 565 encryption behavior 489 ForceEncryption 489 mcell.conf settings 488 mcell.dir settings 489 mclient.conf settings 489 component based enrichment policy 313 component based enrichment policy, excluding slots 317 computer system CIs 117 conditional operators in alias formulas 303 configuration BMC ProactiveNet Server 29 configuration files cell-specific, creating 480 mcell.conf 477, 481 mcell.propagate 481 mcell.trace 504 StateBuilder configuration 514 configuration parameters HeartbeatEnabled 567 HeartbeatInterval 568 HeartbeatMissedCritical 568 HeartbeatMissedMinor 568 HeartbeatMissedWarning 568 configuring clients for passive connections 486 reloading cell configuration 494 setting cell-specific configurations up 480 StateBuilder 514 connecting cells in a protected zone 486 connecting to the BMC ProactiveNet Server, methods used 17 connection protocols, used to connect to the BMC ProactiveNet Server 17 ConnectionPortRange 558 ConnectionPortReuse 559 console dynamic data 399 exporting data 402 Slot Quick Filter 396 sort data fields 397 sort, single-click 399 consumer components searching for 455 correlation policy, creating 325

586

BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
creating configuration files cell-specific 480 Creating_event_correlation_policies 325 event management policies closure 322 component based enrichment 313 correlation 325 enabling and disabling 356 escalation 334 execution order 315 notification 338 propagation 342 recurrence 344 remote action policy 278, 347 standard blackout 308 suppression 347 threshold 350 timeout 354 event parameters EventAutoClose 565 EventDBCleanupDurationLimit 565 EventDBCleanupInterval 565 EventDBCleanuponDateReception 566 EventDBCleanupPercentage 565 EventDBCleanupPreferClosed 566 EventDBKeepClosed 566 EventDBKeepNonClosed 566 EventDBNoCleanupClosed 566 EventDBNoCleanupNoCleanupNonClosed 567 EventDBSize 566 repository cleanup 565 event policy evaluation order 286 types of 278 event propagation enabling 483 illustrated 483 event repository cleanup parameters 565 event selectors defined 283, 297 groups 284 maximum number 284 EventAutoClose 565 EventDBCleanupDurationLimit 565 EventDBCleanupInterval 565 EventDBCleanupOnDateReception 566 EventDBCleanupPercentage 565 EventDBCleanupPreferClosed 566 EventDBKeepClosed 566 EventDBKeepNonClosed 566 EventDBNoCleanupClosed 566 EventDBNoCleanupNonClosed 567 EventDBSize 566

D
data creating new instance 399 dynamic 399 exporting 402 sorting 397 DateFormat 562 deleting event alias associations 306 deployment scenarios 474 Direct, method used to connect to the BMC ProactiveNet Server 17 dynamic blackout policy, enabling 370 dynamic data 399 model 568 dynamic data enrichment policies blackout 370 creating new 357 dynamic enrichment policy, creating 373

E
ECF (event condition formula) 285 edit menu 401 editing event alias associations 305 Editing_slots 401 EM cell production 475 test 475 encryption behavior 489 mcell.conf settings 488 mcell.dir settings 489 mclient.conf settings 489 encryption key 489 enrichment policy, creating 329 error file mcell.err 510 escalation policy, creating 334 establishing inbound connection in protected environment 486 evaluation order of policies 286 event alias associations deleting 306 editing 305 event condition formula 285

Index

587

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
events exporting to a flat file 521 propagating using a gateway 481 responding with an action 141, 143 events, sorting 397 ExportConfigFileName 514 ExportDiscarded 514 exporting event data from mcdb by StateBuilder 514 events to a flat file 521 exporting data 402 ExportTriggerArguments 514 ExportTriggerProgram 514 external data sources 288 HeartbeatMissedCritical parameter 568 HeartbeatMissedMinor parameter 568 HeartbeatMissedWarning parameter 568 heartbeats, cell 570 HTTP Tunnel, method used to connect to the BMC ProactiveNet Server 17

I
icons Refresh 459 Impact/Cause View illustrated 450 opening 450 Index Term 132, 187, 188, 238, 239, 277, 393, 413, 470474 integrating with BMC Atrium CMDB 109

F
files gateway.export 514, 521, 522 mcdb state 513 mcell.conf 481 mcell.err error 510 mcell.modify 487 mcell.propagate 481 mcell.trace 504 propagation configuration 481 statbld.conf 513, 521 statbld.exe 513 statbld.trace 514, 523 StateBuilder configuration 514 trace configuration 504 xact transaction 514 filtering publications 112 Find Service Components box 453 finding service components to view 453 ForceEncryption 489 functions in alias formulas 305

K
KBDirName 570 KBDirName parameter 570 KBRecoveryDirName parameter 570 Knowledge Bases KBDirName 570 parameters KBRecovery 570

L
launching the administration console configuring cell connection properties to the server 25 connection protocols used 18 on Solaris 20 on Windows 18 using multiple consoles on Windows computers 19 using the Search function 21 lazy loading 188

G
gateway 481 gateway configuration 515 gateway.export file 514, 521, 522 General subtab 454 Global Services group 453

M
mcdb state file 513 mcell command 495 mcell.conf file parameter rules 477 path substitution parameters 478 specifying paths 478

H
HeartbeatEnabled parameter 567 HeartbeatInterval parameter 568 588

BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
mcell.dir file configuring clients for passive connections 486 description and usage 484 example file 485 format of entries 484 keywords for entries 485 rules applied to entries 485 mcell.err file 510 mcell.modify file 487 mcell.propagate file 481 default options 482 usage 481 mcell.trace file 504 menu, editing 401 message buffer parameters MessageBufferKeepSent 571, 573 MessageBufferKeepWait 572, 573 MessageBufferReconnectIntervalparameters MessageBufferReconnectInterval 572, 573 MessageBufferResendCount 572, 573 MessageBufferSize 570, 573, 574 MessageBufferKeepSent 571, 573 MessageBufferKeepWait 572, 573 MessageBufferReconnectInterval 572, 573 MessageBufferResendCount 572, 573 MessageBufferSize 570, 573, 574 methods used to connect to the BMC ProactiveNet Server, Direct 17 methods used to connect to the BMC ProactiveNet Server, HTTP Tunnel 17 mkill command 495, 496 monitor to CI alias 474 monitoring business services in BMC Impact Explorer 449 monitoring passive connections 487 multiple ProactiveNet Server deployment 223 My Services group 452

P
parameters ActionResultInlineLimit 557 ActionResultKeepPeriod 557 client 570 HeartbeatEnabled 567 HeartbeatInveral 568 HeartbeatMissedCritical 568 HeartbeatMissedMinor 568 HeartbeatMissedWarning 568 KBRecovery 570 Server 570 state 570 trace, list of 581 tracing, configuring 508 passive connections 486 client configuration 486 monitoring 487 password, changing for the BMC ProactiveNet Administration Console 31 permissions considerations for root user 495

N
Name contains text box 453 navigation pane using to view service components 451 navigation tree, improving performance 188 new data instance, creating 399 notification policy, creating 338

O
opening Impact/Cause Views 450 originating ProactiveNet Server 223

Index

589

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
policies Blackout 308, 356 Closure 322 component based enrichment 313 Correlation 325 creating new dynamic data enrichment 357 dynamic data enrichment blackout 370 Dynamic Enrichment 373 enabling dynamic data enrichment dynamic data enrichment policies enabling out-of-the-box 369 enabling standard out-of-the-box 356 Enrichment 329 Escalation 334 evaluation order 286 new closure 322 new correlation 325 new escalation 334 new notification 338 new propagation 342 new recurrence 344 new standard blackout 308 new suppression 347 new threshold 350 new timeout 354 Notification 338 Propagation 342 Recurrence 344 Suppression 347 Threshold 350 Timeout 354 policy type, user-defined creating presentation names for 409 creating processing rules for 410 creating, task overview 407 defining policy data class for 407 presentation names defining for a new policy type 409 ProcessingLimitPercentage 479, 559 production cells described 475 profile types used in the administration console Admin profile 32 User profile 32 pronet.conf 183 PropagateBufferSize 572, 574 PropagateConfigFileName 572 Propagates Priority check box 453 propagating events using a gateway 481 propagation configuration file, mcell propagate 481 propagation parameters PropagateBufferSize 572, 574 PropagateConfigFileName 572 propagation policy, creating 342 protected environments client configuration for passive connections 486 monitoring passive connections 487 protected zone, connecting cells in 486 provider components searching for 455 publication filters 112 publication history viewing 116 publishing server computer system CIs 117

R
reconfiguring cell files for 494 recurrence policy, creating 344 Refresh icon 459 Related Components subtab described 454 illustrated 455 searching for provider and consumer service components 455 remote actions accessing results of 141, 143 responding to event 141, 143 remote execution policy 138 Remote Action Policy dialog box 123, 127 Remote Action Policy window 122, 140 troubleshooting 147 results of a remote action 141, 143 Results list 453 return codes statbld 515 root permissions considerations 495 rule phases 286 RuleLoopDetect 570

S
Schedule subtab 454 searching for provider or consumer components 455 for service components to view 453

590

BMC ProactiveNet Administrator Guide

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
server parameters 570 CellErrorEvents 570 CellEventEnable 570 CellMetricstEnabled 570 CellTickInterval 570 ConnectionPortRange 558 ConnectionPortReuse 559 ProcessingLimitPercentage 479, 559 RuleLoopDetect 570 ServerDirectoryName 560 ServerPort 560 ServerAllInterfaces 560 ServerDirectoryName 560 ServerPort 560 service component viewing SLM agreements for 456 service components accessing through navigation pane 451 finding to view 453 searching for providers 455 viewing information about 454 service model objects viewing 115 services starting cells with 497 stopping cells with 496 Services Group tab 452 Services View overview 449 subtabs 454 setting cell-specific configuration up 480 SIM cell production 475 test 475 SLM viewing agreements for a component 456 SLM subtab (Services View details) 454 Slot Quick Filter 396 sorting 397, 399 starting cells UNIX platforms 495 using mcell 494 Windows 496 with net start 497 with services 496, 497 statbld return codes 515 statbld.conf file 513, 521 statbld.exe file 513 statbld.trace file 514, 523 state configuration parameters 570 ExportConfigFileName 514 ExportDiscarded 514 ExportTriggerArguments 514 ExportTriggerProgram 514 StateHistoryCount 515 state parameters 570 statbld.conf 578 StateBuildAtTerminate 579 StateBuildInterval 576 StateBuildRunTimeOut 580 StateBuildSize 577 StateBuildAtTerminate 579 StateBuildConfigFileName 578 StateBuilder 513 configuration parameters for event data export 514 StateBuildInterval 576 StateBuildRunTimeOut 580 StateBuildSize 577 StateHistoryCount 515 stopping cells on Windows 496 UNIX platforms 495 using the mkill command 496 with mkill 494 with net stop 496 with services 496 subtabs Advanced 454 General 454 in Services View 454 Related Components 454 Schedule 454 suppression policy, creating 347 SynchronizedTimeOut 562 SystemLogDirName parameter described 560 used to specify log and trace file directories 495 SystemTmpDirName parameter described 560 used to specify trace and log file directories 495 SystemVarDirName parameter described 560

T
test cells described 475 threshold policy, creating 350 timeframes creating 289 timeout policy, creating 354

Index

591

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
toolbar in dynamic data editor 396 trace configuration file 504 configuring 504 parameters 504 Trace parameter 581 trace parameters list of 581 trace, disable encryption to 491 TraceConfigFileName parameter 581 TraceDefaultFileName parameter 581 TraceFileAppend parameter 583 TraceFileHistory parameter 583 TraceFileSize parameter 583 TraceRuleLevel parameter 581 TraceRuleToXact parameter 582 TraceSrc parameter 581 tracing parameters configuring 508 Trace 581 TraceConfigFileName 581 TraceDefaultFileName 581 TraceFileAppend 583 TraceFileHistory 583 TraceFileSize 583 TraceRuleLevel 581 TraceRuleToXact 582 TraceSrc 581

V
view switching, enabling 189 viewing service component information 454 service components with find 453 viewing publication history 116 viewing service model objects 115 views, changing automatically in the operations console 189

W
Windows starting a cell with services 497 starting cells 496 starting cells with net start 497 stopping a cell with mkill command 496 stopping a cell with services 496 stopping cells 496 stopping cells with net stop 496 stopping with mkill 496

X
xact transaction file 514

U
UNIX permissions required to start cells 495 root user permissions 495 starting cells 495 stopping cells 495

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