Configuring SNMPv3 on Linux

The two large differences between SNMPv3 and SNMPv2 (or v1, for that matter), are that:

1. it supports authentication via userid and password., and
2. it supports encryption

v1 and v2 don't support either of these. Their only means of authentication is via a "community string", which is basically like a password, but since it's always transferred over the network in the clear, it's not considered very secure.

On to the configuration:

First, read this post: http://www.linickx.com/archives/246/snmp-v3-on-redhat-linux

It gives you the basics, but leaves out one VERY critical step. Specifically:

You must now edit the line created in /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf. Specifically, I changed it from:

rwuser MYUSER

to

rwuser MYUSER priv .1

This allows this user full access to all SNMP data. You can use a more specific OID to limit access to a specific portion of the MIB tree.

Basic Filters You Should add for ITCAM for Transactions 7.1

The WRT component of ITCAM for Transactions can identify a number of transactions that, when processed by the AMC component, will create Managed System names that WILL corrupt your EIB (and you can't delete them). To guard against this, you should create the following filters (in the Application Configuration Tool):

URL *%* exclude
URL ~* exclude
URL *"* exclude
URL *\* exclude
URL *(* exclude
URL *)* exclude
URL *^* exclude
URL *@* exclude
URL *|* exclude
URL *{* exclude
URL *}* exclude
URL *`* exclude (that's a backtick)

Basically, Managed Systems should only have characters that match this regular expression: [-A-Za-z0-9_:.] (that's a literal "period"). If a Managed System has characters NOT in that expression, then 'tacmd cleanms' will fail. 'gbscmd clearoffline' can be used, and it will succeed in at least submitting the request, but your TEMS will soon crash.

Some other filters you may want to include are:

BrowserDescription msnbot* exclude
BrowserDescription Googlebot* exclude
BrowserDescription *Googlebot* exclude
BrowserDescription WebTrends* exclude
BrowserDescription *Robot* exclude
BrowserDescription gsa-crawler* exclude
BrowserDescription ShopWiki* exclude

Rebuilding a corrupt EIB without completely reinstalling

"Restore from a backup (the /opt/IBM/ITM/tables directory)" is the best option, but that's not always an option. These steps will remove ALL data in the TEMS, HOWEVER, you don't have to reinstall all of the application support; you need to re-apply it, but you don't need to reinstall it. Here are the steps that I went through with ITM 6.2.1 IF2 on 32-bit Red Hat:

1. stop the TEMS and all other agents on the box.
2. remove the /opt/IBM/ITM/tables/YOUR_TEMS_NAME directory
3. uninstall the TEMS component by running /opt/IBM/ITM/bin/uninstall.sh and only select the TEMS component.
4. run the install from the CD/DVD and choose to install the TEMS
5. The install will create a directory named /opt/IBM/ITM/todata. Rename this directory to "YOUR_TEMS_NAME".
6. run 'itmcmd -S -t YOUR_TEMS_NAME ms' to configure the TEMS
7. restart the TeMS and all other agents
8. open up the "Manage Tivoli Monitoring Services" and add all application support (it's all still installed; you just need to re-apply it to the TEMS)

IMO, the reinstall (or re-configure) should recreate the /opt/IBM/ITM/tables/YOUR_TEMS_NAME directory, but it doesn't (it creates the directory, but not the EIB files). So the whole trick is copying the "todata" folder.

IBM JRE or Sun JRE does it matter?

If you are using TEPS Java Webstart client, does it matter which JRE TEPS uses? You should be able to bring up the portal using either one, but in my experience IBM JRE works better for TEPS. With Sun JRE version 1.6.0.11, you may encounter issues with popups. While the situation editor and other tools worked correctly, I had problem with deploying non-OS agents from portal. The popup prompting for agent selection didn't appear at all. I encountered similar issue with the Database agent configuration window. Switching to IBM JRE resolved the issue.

So, how do you switch to IBM JRE? Assuming you're using Windows XP, goto Control Panel->Java->Java Tab->Java Application Runtime Settings -> View. In the list of JREs, disable the Sun JREs and enable only IBM JRE. Can't find IBM JRE? You can add the IBM JRE, by clicking either Find or Add button.

Hope you find it useful.

Enabling the TTAPI feature of the ITCAMfWAS 6.1.0.4 Data Collector on 64-bit Linux

The xLinux 64-bit libttapi.so file for Linux is not included with the ITCAMfWAS 6.1.0.4 data collector, so if you enable the TTAPI you'll get error messages about ttapi not found in java.library.path in your WebSphere SystemOut.log file. You can find this file buried a little deeply in the ITCAM for Transactions 7.1.0.2 Collector Agent installation image, however. It is buried in a file called sdk/examples/linux-64.tar.gz. Untar this file and you'll file lib/libttapi.so and lib/libkbb.so, both of which you'll need to copy to your DC/toolkit/lib/linux-ix64/ directory, then restart WebSphere.

Changing the max connections in FireFox

One of the things that started to annoy me when using FireFox was that it seemed to only allow meI to do 6 downloads from a site at a time. I would click on 6 downloads and they would all start, but when I click the 7th link, it would sit there until one of the previous downloads completed.

So after some digging I found that this is actually quite simple.

1. In the address bar type about:config. This will list all the possible configuration options with FireFox. Be Careful!
2. In the filter type http.max
3. Double click on the network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server. This will display the Enter Integer Value dialog box.
4. Set the value to whatever new value you want.
5. Press OK to set the value

FireFox does not need to be restarted for this value to be set.

I would not set this number too high as it could slow down the overall speed of the download. I set it to 10 as there were 10 files I needed to download and I did not want to wait for one to finish before I started the next. I just wanted to click and walk away and come back in an hour :)

How to find SQL Server Version?

If you need to deploy the SQL Server agents, one of the items prompted for is the SQL Server Version. Most of us know the SQL Server by the year it was released as in SQL Server 2000, 2005 or 2008, but it is not the version number. (Version 2000 of SQL Server would be a rock-solid SQL Server, wouldn't it? :)).

Here is how to identify the version. Connect to the database server in question using Query Analyzer or SQL Server Management Studio and run the following SQL.

SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('productversion')

The above query on SQL 2005 returned 9.00.3042.00 and your result may vary depending on the Service Pack level. Generally speaking, SQL Server 2000 is version 8.x, 2005 is version 9.x and 2008 is version 10.x.

Hope this helps.