More ITM 6.1 FAQ

Some more questions surfaced on the TME10 list about ITM 6.1 - we will post any additional information here.

Q: Since ITM 6 does not depend on the framework, is the communication used by ITM 6 "firewall ready", i. e. can I open one or two ports on the firewall and all will work fine (just as the framework does when SPBDT is enabled and you have a gateway on the remote side of the firewall)?

A: Firewall communications can be controlled and port restrictions can be enforced. Our experience shows that ITM 6.1 behaves well in this scenarios. Configuration of the port can be done initial setup or afterwards by simply choosing to reconfigure. A single port should be all that is required for typical deployments.

An environment variable called KDC_FAMILIES can be set to control port allocation.

Q: Security: How does the communication used by ITM 6 make sure, that only the TMR (or whatever the central component is called) can talk to the monitoring engine? Is strong encryption supported?

A: SSL encryption is supported, During installation the GSK is installed and
you will created a key that is used for authentication. Internally, this
protocol is known as IP.SPIPE.

Q: How do we migrate Manager for R/3, Manager for Oracle, or ITM 5.x for Databases/Applications?

A: There is no migration path in ITM 6.1 for the ITM 5.x Resource Model, expect to see that next year in a dot release. Other components such as ITM for Databases have an ITM 6.1 counterpart called ITM 6.1 for Databases. The plugin modules are being rolled out by IBM Tivoli as they become available. We have been involved in testing the Database, Messaging and MQ modules.

Q:Will there be an ITM 6.x for Applications and Databases?
A: Yes - the Database module should be available, the Applications module - I have not heard a release date.

Q: I understand that the new web interface is an interface to the monitors, but the "state" of a machine or application is not only determined by monitors, logfile events are very important, too. Will these events show up in the new product?
A: Logfiles can be monitored using the Universal Agent, this data can be represented along side the typical monitoring data and/or forwarded to TEC.

The portal is not a replacement for TEC, simply a new way of viewing data in realtime.