Wednesday, December 18, 2013

APM UI 7.7 and Mobile Support

APM UI 7.7 and Mobile Support

If you currently using APM UI 7.6.x on mobile devices, I would currently recommend keeping the APM UI 7.6.x around and running.  Keeping both running should not be an issue, since APM UI 7.6 uses TIP and APM UI 7.7 uses Liberty.

When testing APM UI 7.7 on an IPAD running IOS 7.0.4 the user interface was not usable.  I saw the following issues:

1.  Everything was not visible on the screen right to left on IBM provided widgets.  This was even after collapsing the left pane.
2.  I could not scroll down to see the data on all widgets.

Based on the following Dev Works post from IBM, I believe true mobile support is not expected till March.
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/forums/html/topic?id=4f6fef3a-b945-4d1b-9bf1-09fb70942e87#2cad1b7a-e075-47c8-b74e-4f7dfbf5634f

NOTE:  We also found the following in the manuals:
To avoid conflicts with the SCR of Tivoli Business Service Manager, do not install SmartCloud Application Performance Management UI and Tivoli Business Service Manager on the same computer. 

This is probably due to the fact the TBSM schema and APM UI are very similar.

Source --> http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v63r1/topic/com.ibm.apm.doc_7.7/apm_ui_docs/apmui_77/install_using_im.html


Sunday, December 15, 2013

APM UI 7.7 is GA

APMUI 7.7 is GA


APMUI 7.7 is GA as of 12/13/13.

Part Numbers for download:
  • Windows - CIR57ML
  • AIX - CIR58ML
  • Linux X - CIR59ML
  • Linux Z - CIR5AML

Quick Highlights:
1.  Requires use of derby or DB2 database
2.  Uses Tivoli Blaze
3.  WebSphere Liberty Core
4.  Does NOT use TIP 2.x as the Application Server anymore.

New Widgets:
1.  DataPower
2.  Exchange 2013 Server
3.  .NET Framework
4.  Plus more ....

New Features Overview:

I will update the GBS blog over the next few days once we get this up and running in the lab.







Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Repairing WMI Errors on Windows systems with IBM Endpoint Manager

One of the issues that I have seen on customer sites are problems with WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation). One of the (many) good things about IEM is that it really does not need WMI to function as IBM uses custom built inspectors to do almost everything. The only issues are mainly around some data collection points (some hardware information for example), but this does not cause the agent to fail and still allows for actions to be taken on the targets. This is a huge advantage for IEM, as other vendor products will not even function if WMI is broken.

To identify systems with WMI issues is pretty simple with a Web Report:
1. In Web Reports go to Explore Data
2. Click the Edit Columns and add the column "Computer Model - Windows" (part of the hardware analysis)
3. Add the filter "Computer" "Computer - Model - Windows (Hardware Information (Windows))" "contains" "Windows Error"

This will show all systems with errors which should be ones with WMI issues. The thing to note is that there are different error codes and some are easier to fix than others.


Now to repair the WMI issues, I created a fixlet that can be used. This seems to address some of the errors that I have seen, but not all. Some systems are so far gone, that it will require manual intervention or even a rebuild of the OS.

I have made this available on the BigFix.me site for downloading and comments:
http://bigfix.me/fixlet/details/3652?force=true

Please note that this has been tested but only in a limited amount as I do not have many systems available to me and I could not simulate all the possible WMI errors.

Let me know how this works for you and we will see if we can get this to fix all errors.

Martin

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Using JScrollPane in Java and getting the contents to actually scroll

This has almost nothing to do with Tivoli, but I hit this stupid problem every few years, and it takes me 30 minutes to figure out the solution each time. So I thought I would post it here:

When creating a fat GUI in Java, you may have a portion of your window that is a JScrollPane, which has a ViewPort and a ViewPortView (often a JPanel) . A common need is to add components to your JPanel (the ViewPortView). However, when you do this, you'll notice that whatever you do with the JScrollPane's scrollbars, it won't scroll in one or both directions. Well, the problem is that the addition of new components does NOT increase the value of the ViewPortView's PreferredSize attribute. So as you add more components, you need to manually update this attribute with code similar to:

myJScrollPane.getViewPort().getView().setPreferredSize(myNewDimension);

I've tried setViewSize(), and that doesn't seem to do anything - setPreferredSize is what you've got to do.


Wednesday, October 23, 2013

TCR 3.1.x and Launch --> Administration and Browser Fun

After installing JazzSM 1.1.0.1, I learned AGAIN all browsers are not created equal.

The browser, version, and java version are becoming more and more important today within the IBM product set and here is another example.

So after having a completed JazzSM/TCR install I went to configure the DB connection for TDW via Launch > Administration and found the following screen appears.  Where is the rest of it?


The troubleshooting starts:
1.  Maybe the installer said the install was SUCCESS, but it really failed.  Better check the logs.
2.  Maybe I need to cycled the application.
3.  Let me check the user permissions.
4.  Lets create another user.
5.  Did the Cognos content store DB get created.

After talking to Venkat Saranathan (the GBS resident TCR expert), he suggests trying I.E (his favorite browser) instead of Chrome.

If you use Firefox or I.E the gui draws correctly or at least the buttons are now there.  I.E. had other issues since I was using version 10 and version 10 is not supported for TCR. So after trying Firefox I was able to complete the configuration.



If you want to see what browsers and version are supported for JazzSM 1.10.1 check out the following link:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/prodguid/v1r0/clarity-reports/report/html/softwareReqsForProduct?deliverableId=1315519207893&osPlatform=Windows#
--> Then Select prerequisites





Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Exporting and Importing TEPS WorkSpaces

Exporting and Importing TEPS WorkSpaces


I have never had great success with exporting and importing workspaces that I have custom built.  I spent some time last night to work through a process that appears to work well.

The key item I have found it is to import the workspace without the queries in place.  This requires you to import any custom queries in advance though.  This allows the IBM provided queries you used to not be touched.

#Admin and Author mode setup for my user on both TEPS servers

#Export WorkSpace with the queries
tacmd exportWorkspaces -x GBS_LZ_HealthCheck_RealTime.queries -w GBS_LZ_HealthCheck_RealTime -t lz -q

#Export WorkSpace with NO queries
tacmd exportWorkspaces -x GBS_LZ_HealthCheck_RealTime -w GBS_LZ_HealthCheck_RealTime -t lz

#Determine Custom Queries
cat GBS_LZ_HealthCheck_RealTime.queries |grep "query name"
    <query name="G_LZ_DiskUsedPercent" type="candle.fw.model.PBasedModel">
    <query name="System Statistics" name_key="Klz:KLZ6828" type="candle.fw.model.PBasedModel">
    <query name="CPU" name_key="Klz:KLZ6802" type="candle.fw.model.PBasedModel">
    <query name="VM Statistics (623)" name_key="Klz:KLZ6844" type="candle.fw.model.PBasedModel">
    <query name="G_LZ_ProcessTop10" type="candle.fw.model.PBasedModel">

#NOTE:  All of the queries I built start with G_ (so they are easy to find)

#Export the Cusom Queries:
tacmd exportqueries -x G_LZ_DiskUsedPercent -q G_LZ_DiskUsedPercent -t lz
tacmd exportqueries -x G_LZ_ProcessTop10 -q G_LZ_ProcessTop10 -t lz

#Transfer Files to the other TEPS
scp * <user>@<host>:/tmp/workspace

#Import the Queries
tacmd importQueries -x ./G_LZ_DiskUsedPercent
tacmd importQueries -x ./G_LZ_ProcessTop10

#Import the WorkSpace without the Queries
tacmd importWorkspaces -x ./GBS_LZ_HealthCheck_RealTime