GBSCMD V3.5 new features

In the past, we have posted few articles about gbscmd. We have updated the tool with few additional cool features such as clearing offline entries, executing commands on the agents and refreshing TEC EIF Integration component. This article explains how to use these features.

Clearing Offline Entries

This is one of the long requested requirement. Whenever the servers are decommissioned from monitoring environment, one has to remove the servers by selecting "Clear Offline" from TEP. However, there are no CLI equivalent for this function in tacmd, which is a handicap if you want to automate the decommisioning process. You can use gbscmd clearoffline feature to perform this function from command line.

Executing commands on agents

I wrote an earlier blog article about this feature. This feature is very handy to run non-interactive commands on the remote monitoring system. However, this feature does not capture the output of the command.

Refreshing TEC EIF Adapter component

If your site relies on tecserver.txt for setting situation severities or updates the MAP files frequently, any changes to these files require hub TEMS restart. Instead, you can use the refresheif feature of gbscmd to cycle the EIF component alone.

Examples

The following example restarts a Windows OS agent.
gbscmd command --auth ~/itm61.auth --command "net stop kntcma_primary && net start kntcma_primary" --managedsystem Primary:ITM61:NT

The following example restarts a Unix OS agent.
gbscmd command --auth ~/itm61.auth --command "/opt/IBM/ITM/bin/itmcmd agent stop ux;/opt/IBM/ITM/bin/itmcmd agent start ux" --managedsystem uxitm61:KUX

The following example clears an offline entry, which can be handy when servers are decommissioned from the monitoring environment.

gbscmd clearoffline --auth ~/itm61.auth --managedsystem uxitm61:KUX

More Info

You can download the manual from here. Please contact Tony (Tony.Delgross at gulfsoft.com) if you have any questions or need a copy of gbscmd.

TPM SPB Import Automation Package

Posted by: martinc on Mar 06, 2008 - 04:07 PM

With TPM it is possible to import SPBs with the TCM integration, Software Package Editor or manually from the Web UI. I wanted to add another.

What happens if you have a bunch of SPBs that you want to import and you do not want to use the integration? Use the SPE or Web UI? That would take forever!

So I thought I would whip up a quick automation package to do just that. Click here to download the automation package.

The package is made up of 3 workflows

GBS_FindAllSpb.wkf
Function: Retrieves a list of all SPBs based on the FileRepository rootPath and the RelSearchPath

Arguments:

FileRepositoryID - This is the ID of the file repository to use for the search. Yes this could be changed to the name if you want. RelSearchPath - This would be the path to search relative to the FileRepository. For example: if you enter "/" (no quotes) this will search the rootPath of the file repository and all sub-directories for spb files if you enter "/ActivePerl" (no quotes) this will search the rootPath of the file repository and all sub-directories under ActivePerl for spb files Calls: GBS_GetSpbVariables.wkf GBS_GetSpbVariables.wkf Function: Retrieves various package attributes used to define the Software Module to TPM. Arguments: SpbRelPath - This is the relative path to the SPB found in GBS_FindAllSpb. SpbFileName - The file name to retrieve the package attributes from. FileRepositoryID - This is the ID of the file repository to use for root path Calls: GBS_ImportSPB.wkf GBS_ImportSPB.wkf Funtion: Using the variables passed in from GBS_GetSpbVariables.wkf, creates a XML file in the same directory as the SPB and then uses the built-in workflow called DcmXmlImport to import the XML file. Arguments: SpName - value retrieved from the field Name in the SPB SpVersion - value retrieved from the field Version in the SPB SpVariables - value(s) retrieved from the default_variables field in the SPB SpbRelPath - This is the relative path to the SPB SpbFileName - File name of the SPB FileRepositoryID - This is the ID of the file repository to use for root path Extra Notes It is also possible to just run GBS_GetSpbVariables.wkf if there is only one SPB to define. Just pass the required fields into the workflow execution and only that SPB will be defined With this template, it is very easy to make some changes that would suit your environment. Any comments or feedback is appriciated. Martin Carnegie

TPM 5.1.0.2 FP0003 and 5.1.1 FP0001 are available!

Posted by: martinc on Mar 05, 2008 - 04:54 PM

Fix Pack 3 for TPM 5.1 and Fix Pack 1 for 5.1.1 are now available! So what does it do?

The most important thing is that this allows for current 5.1.0 users to upgrade to 5.1.1. In order to do this, you must first be at 5.1.0 FP002. When the install is done, you will be at 5.1.1.1. Also brings the 5.1.1 to 5.1.1.1.

5.1.0 - FP0002 readme
5.1.0.2-TIV-TPM-WIN-FP0003.README.HTM

5.1.1 - FP0001 readme
5.1.1-TIV-TPM-WIN-FP0001.README.HTM

IBM Automation Package for IBM Tivoli Monitoring
There is supposed to be an updated automation package on OPAL, but I do not see it yet. Very curious to see what this one offers as the old one was, um, lacking.

VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 support
I know that there have been a few people asking about this one

Automation package for management of large numbers of zones, regions, and depot servers
This is great! Nothing more tedious than manually creating these.


Here are the list of defects for each version
5.1.0
5.1.0-TIV-TPM-FP0002.DEFECTS.HTM

5.1.1
5.1.1-TIV-TPM-FP0001.DEFECTS.HTM

Unfortunately the one that is missing still is the Vista agent.

I will get these downloaded and see how the install goes. I am keeping my fingers crossed :)

Edit:
To download go to
Tivoli Provisioning Manager Fix Pack 5.1.1-TIV-TPM-FP0001


Tivoli Provisioning Manager Fix Pack 5.1.0.2-TIV-TPM-FP0003

TPM 5.1.1 Classroom Comments

Posted by: martinc on Mar 05, 2008 - 07:42 PM

I recently taught a custom class we developed for TPM 5.1.1 and thought I would provide some feedback on TPM 5.1.1

Performance
Well first of all, I just want to say a word on performance. I taught almost the same class on 5.1.0 FP01 and 5.1.1 using all the same hardware and I was impressed with the performance. I had some students in this class from the class I taught a year ago on 5.1.0 and they stated that everything was running faster. In fact I had more students this time and there was almost no lag when running various tasks.

Comments on the use/functionality
Web Replay - although this was not really part of the class, we had some extra time to look at it. We felt that the tool was interesting and probably good as a training tool and possibly for some tasks. Generally speaking, I (or someone that has been using the interface for a while) can manage to get things done faster than Web Replay. This is still a good addition though.

Computer information
The layout of the Computer information is very clean. The General tab displays a very good summary of important information about the computer.

Compliance and Remediation (also applies to patching)
The 3 step process layout makes the creation of a compliance check very easy.

Here is a snapshot of the Compliance tab for a group (Click on the image to see a larger one).



Notice the easy Step 1 2 and 3. Also under the Step one there is a quick checkbox to add the OS Patches and Updates Check. Simple!

Discovery
The integration of SMB and SSH discovery in one discovery configuration is also a biggy. Seems minor, but it is a pain to set up two seperate discovery scans that hit the same ip addresses.

Another nice feature in the discovery is that it will populate the operating system name. To do this in previous versions, you either had to run an inventory scan or manually add it. This saves some time.

Depot (CDS) Installation
In 5.1.0 in order to install a depot on a system that was already a TCA, you would have to first uninstall the TCA and then run the depot install. In 5.1.1, this has been fixed. The install will recogize that the TCA is already installed and only install the depot subagent.

SOA Rename
One fun thing while developing the course was that I noticed that everything was changed from SOA to SDI. SDI is Scalable Distribution Infrastructure. This name sure makes a lot more sense for the function than SOA.

Other
Just some Acronyms for you to make your day.

CAS – Common Agent Services
CDS - Content Delivery Service
CIT – Common Inventory Technology
DCM – Data Centre Model
DMS – Device Management Service
JES – Job Execute Service (also referred to as DMS)
SAP – Service Access Point
SDI – Scalable Distribution Infrastructure
SIE – Software Installation Engine
SOA – Service Oriented Architecture
SPE – Software Package Editor
TPM – Tivoli Provisioning Manager
TPMfOSD – TPM for Operating System Deployment
TPMfOSDEE – TPMfOSD Embedded Edition
TPMfSW – TPM for Software
WSDL – Web Services Definition Language

ITM 6.2 Workspace Parameter - more portal tuning

Posted by: jlsham on Mar 01, 2008 - 05:00 AM

itm61
If you have more than 200 of any type of agent, you start to see messages in your views about the number of systems being queried is too high.
Well, in your cq.ini - look for

#KFW_REPORT_NODE_LIMIT=xxx

Uncomment this line and set it to a more meaningful value for the number of agents you need to query.

Restart the portal and you're done.

Modified applet.html file to resolve one TEP IE browser connection error.

Posted by: napomokoetle on Feb 18, 2008 - 05:11 PM

This short blog is related to the blog I wrote a while ago title "Upgrade from ITM6.1 FP6 to ITM6.2 may break logon through IE TEP".
I had not posted the applet.html file I'm posting herein with the original blog I wrote on the problem because IBM/Tivoli had insisted the problem was unique to the environment I was working on at the time.




Well I guess the error has proven not to be unique to the environment I was working on since other folks keep seeing the same problem and requesting I pass them the modified applet.html file. Posting the file here will save me from searching all over for the file every time I get asked for it by those who would like to try it out.

TO RECAP:


Environment:
Upgraded from ITM6.1 FP6 to ITM6.2 RTM:

TEPS & TEMS installed on same W2K3 (Dual 3.06 GHz Intel Xeon (Hyper-threaded0) host with 3808MB ram.

PROBLEM: From an XP remote host, TEP in IE 6.0.2800 browser reports “cannot connect” error.
When I clicked on the Java WebStart created icon I got the same error as in IE browser.

Plugin150.trace reports:

(475405aa.0c474f80-(null)AWT-EventQueue-2:Bundle,0,"Bundle.Bundle(String,String,Locale,String)") Resource bundle: id = kjri, baseName = candle.kjr.resources.KjrImageBundle, actual locale used:


(475405b4.10ed7f00-(null)Thread-10:DataBus,0,"DataBus.make()") EXCEPTION: Unable to create DataBus object: org.omg.CORBA.INITIALIZE: Could not initialize (com/borland/sanctuary/c4/EventHandler) unexpected EOF at offset=0 vmcid: 0x0 minor code: 0 completed: No


(475405b4.10ed7f00-(null)Thread-10:QueryModelMgr,0,"QueryModelMgr.QueryModelMgr()") EXCEPTION: InstantiationException --> Unable to instantiate DataBus object


(475405b4.10ed7f00-(null)Thread-10:QueryModelMgr,0,"QueryModelMgr.make()") EXCEPTION: InstantiationException --> Unable to instantiate QueryModelMgr object


(475405b4.10ed7f00-(null)Thread-10:LogonDialog,0,"LogonDialog.processOK()") EXCEPTION: Unable to connect to CandleNet Portal server: java.net.ConnectException


(475405b6.33611380-(null)AWT-EventQueue-2:CNPClientMgr,0,"CNPClientMgr.terminate(CNPAppContext,boolean)") Performing normal exit of TEP Workplace


(475405b6.33611380-(null)AWT-EventQueue-2:UserManager,0,"UserManager.loadPermissionXRef()") Error loading User Permission Cross-Reference tables: KFWITM219E Request failed during creation.

---

Solution:
After some multiple cycles troubleshooting the error with IBM, they eventually made a couple changes to the applet.html for me to try out. Please make a backup copy of your current applet.html, and then replace the version found in your ..\cnb directory with the attachment on the link below. If this makes no difference in your testing, then you will need to open an ITM 6.2 PMR with IBM/Tivoli so that support can work this issue to a successful conclusion with you.

Click here to download the modified applet.html

Adios,
J. Napo Mokoetle

Fine Tuning the Portal Server

Posted by: jlsham on Feb 12, 2008 - 11:34 PM

The following are a few of the parameters used to fine tune the Tivoli Enterprise Portal, the most popular one is the expansion to show more than 25 systems in the navigator.
Tuning parameters can be set in the cnp.bat or cnp*.sh, these are located in the

Windows:
\CNP

or

Linux/Unix

../../cj/bin/cnp*.sh


For example: /opt/IBM/ITM/*interp*/cj/bin/cnp.sh

cnp.databus.pageSize = #of rows to get for any workspace table. Default is 100 rows.

cnp.navigator.branch.pagesize = Navigator Expansion - this is the popular one, default value is 25.

cnp.navigator.branch.threshold = Warning threshold for Navigator branch requests. Default value is 100.