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IBM Tivoli Monitoring > Version 6.3 > User's Guides > Agent Builder User's Guide > Monitor system availability by using Ping IBM Tivoli Monitoring, Version 6.3
Ping configuration files
The agent must be provided with the list of systems to be monitored by using ping configuration files.
The files that are used are not managed or updated by the agent; the user must make all required updates to the files. Both a ping configuration file and a device list file must be created.
The ping configuration file is a text file that must be specified as a runtime configuration parameter to the agent. The contents of each line in this file must be the location of a device list file. Each entry in the ping configuration file causes the agent to start a separate thread for monitoring the devices in the provided device list file. This thread loops through all the devices in the device list file, sending each a ping request. These threads run at intervals of 60 seconds or at intervals of 30 seconds plus the time it takes to ping the list, whichever is longer.
- Each time before the agent monitors the devices in the device list file, it checks the last modification time of the device list file. If the last modification time of the file is more recent than the last time the agent read the file, the agent rereads the file without requiring a restart.
- Each entry to a device list file in the ping configuration file must contain either a fully qualified path or a path relative to the location of the ping configuration file.
A device list file is a text file that contains a LISTNAME definition (optional), and a list of device and host names. For example:
LISTNAME=TivoliWeb www.ibm.com mercury us07 ishtarThe list of device and host names can be separated by spaces and line breaks. In the example, us07 and ishtar are separate devices.
LISTNAME definition. The defined list name becomes the description for the devices in that file. If no list name is defined, the name of the device list file is used. If the list name is defined, the list name definition must take the following form: LISTNAME=listname The list name specification does not need to be the first record of the managed node list definition. However, if the list name is defined more than one time in the description, the last specification is used as the definition for the systems.
Device and host names. There is no limit to the number of network devices and hosts that you can include in a device list file. However, including too many entries defeats the purpose of having a targeted list of critical devices and increases the overall workload. There might also be difficulties in obtaining a status on each device within the 60-second monitoring interval. You can specify one or more network devices in each record.
Duplicate entries in the device list file are filtered only if you enter the same name more than one time. If multiple names resolve to the same IP address, each entry is listed, but only one ping is sent to that device by the monitoring thread. If you specify the same devices in multiple device list files, those duplicate entries are not detected. As a result a device can be pinged by more than one of the device monitoring threads.
Ping configuration properties
After a ping data source is added, the configuration is displayed on the Runtime Configuration Information page of the Agent Editor.
The Network Management configuration section of the Runtime Configuration Information page contains the following property:
Network Management configuration properties
Name Valid values Required Description Ping configuration file Path to a file No. If this file is not provided, the KUMSLIST file is used from the agent bin directory. Path to the file that contains a list of files, each containing a list of hosts to monitor by using ICMP pings.
Parent topic:
Monitor system availability by using Ping