Private situation operation

IBM Tivoli Monitoring > Version 6.3 Fix Pack 2 > Administrator's Guide > Agent-based services > Private situations
IBM Tivoli Monitoring, Version 6.3 Fix Pack 2

Private situation operation

Private situations are created in an XML formatted file that does not interact with the Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server. To use private situations effectively, you need to understand how they are different from enterprise situations.

Tivoli Management Services agent framework
Built into the agent framework of the Tivoli Management Services infrastructure is the ability to create situations that run locally and trigger events on the computer where you have either a Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Agent or Tivoli System Monitor Agent installed.

Enterprise situations and private situations
Enterprise situations are created with the Tivoli Enterprise Portal Situation editor or with the CLI tacmd createSit command. Enterprise situations send events to the monitoring server and can forward events to an Event Integration Facility receiver such as a IBM Tivoli Enterprise Console event server or Netcool/OMNIbus Probe for Tivoli EIF when the hub monitoring server has been configured to forward events. Enterprise situation events can also be sent as SNMP alerts to a receiver such as the Netcool/OMNIbus SNMP Probe
Private situations are created in a local private situation configuration XML file for the agent. Eligible situation definitions that were exported from the monitored enterprise can also be added to the file to create situations. The events generated by private situations can remain local to your workstation or be sent as SNMP alerts to a receiver such as the Netcool/OMNIbus SNMP Probe. The private situation configuration file resides in the agent localconfig/pc directory, one file per agent, and it contains all the private situation definitions for the agent.

Create private situations
This example of a private situation configuration XML file for the Windows OS agent has two situations defined. You can create situations in the file by entering them manually. You can also create situations in this file by exporting existing enterprise situations from the monitoring server, using the CLI tacmd bulkExportSit and then copying the exported situations that are eligible for use as private situations from their XML file to the agent Private Situation configuration file. The last situation (named Disk_Queue) in the example came from an exported situation XML file.
<PRIVATECONFIGURATION>
  <PRIVATESIT>
   <SITUATION>NT_Missing_Scheduler_pr</SITUATION>
    <CRITERIA>
     <![CDATA[ *MISSING NT_Process.Process_Name *EQ ("schedule")]]> 
    </CRITERIA>
    <INTERVAL>001000</INTERVAL> 
  </PRIVATESIT>
  <PRIVATESIT>
   <SITUATION>NT_Paging_File_Critical_pr</SITUATION>
    <CRITERIA>
     <![CDATA[ *VALUE NT_Paging_File.%_Usage *GE 80 ]]> 
    </CRITERIA>
    <INTERVAL>001500</INTERVAL> 
  </PRIVATESIT>
  <PRIVATESIT> 
   <SITUATION>Disk_Queue</SITUATION> 
    <PDT><![CDATA[ *IF *VALUE NT_Physical_Disk.Avg_Disk_Queue_Length
    *GE 0.004 ]]></PDT>
    <REEV_TIME>003000</REEV_TIME> 
  </PRIVATESIT>
</PRIVATECONFIGURATION>
The CRITERIA element contains the formula:

*VALUE or *MISSING function name. Value of expression and Check for Missing Items are the only formula functions available for use in private situations.
attribute_group.attribute_name as they are written in these places:

name element of the agent .atr file, located in the <install_dir>/TMAITM6/ATTRLIB/pc directory
<PDT> element of the <situation_name>.xml file output generated by the tacmd bulkExportSit CLI command
<PREDICATE> element of the Situation Summary report that is generated through the Agent Service Interface

Display column in the attribute definitions portion of the Queries report that is generated through the Agent Service Interface

*EQ, *LT, *GT, *NE, *LE, or *GE Boolean operator.
Threshold for the *VALUE function or comma-separated list for the *MISSING function.

Multiple expressions can be connected by Boolean AND or OR logic, but not both, and only one attribute group can be used in the formula. Up to nine expressions connected by AND are supported; and up to ten expressions connected by OR are supported.

The XML coding is case-insensitive with this exception: text attribute values must match the data sample. For example, missing process notepad is invalid if it is spelled NOTEPAD.

Activation

When the agent is initialized, an XML parser examines and validates the private situation definitions. All XML parsing error messages are recorded in the agent operations log. (See the IBM Tivoli Monitoring Troubleshooting Guide.)
Private situations continue to run until the agent is shut down.
The events that are opened when a situation becomes true can be sent as SNMPv1/v2 traps or SNMPv3 informs when an SNMP trap configuration file is created and a receiver such as the Netcool/OMNIbus SNMP Probe has been configured to receive them; or as EIF events when an EIF event configuration file is created and a receiver such as the IBM Tivoli Enterprise Console event server or Netcool/OMNIbus Probe for Tivoli EIF is configured to receive them. As well, the Agent Service Interface provides a summary report of situation activity. You create a private situation file named pc_situations.xml and save it to the install_dir/localconfig/pc (where pc is the product code). If you prefer to name the file differently or use a different path, the IRA_PRIVATE_SITUATION_CONFIG and IRA_LOCALCONFIG_DIR agent environment variables are provided for you to change the file name and path.

Distribute private situations locally or remotely
To edit or delete a private situation, make the changes in the private configuration XML file where it was defined, then redistribute the situation locally or remotely.

Local distribution

After editing the private configuration file and saving it, you can restart the agent to reload the private situation definitions.

Alternatively, you can log on to the Agent Service Interface and enter private situation requests to start, stop or recycle individual private situations. See Start the Agent Service Interface and Agent Service Interface request - Private situation control.

Remote distribution

Use a configuration load list to specify the private configuration file for the monitoring agent to pull from the central configuration repository and activate. See Centralized Configuration.

Summary
Private situations are agent monitoring requests defined by a local administrator with criteria that is pertinent to the local agent environment. This is a summary of private situation characteristics:

Created at the agent locally through a simple editor.

Emit results and events with agent SNMP traps.

Run from the time the agent starts until it stops regardless of monitoring server connectivity.

Multiple expressions in a formula must have logic connectors that are uniformly conjunctive AND or disjunctive OR; a mix of the two connectors in a formula is not supported.

Support up to nine expressions in the situation formula when connected by Boolean AND logic and up to ten expressions when connected by Boolean OR logic.

All enterprise situation threshold operators are supported: equal (EQ), not equal (NE), greater than (GT), less than (LT), greater than or equal (GE), and less than or equal (LE).

Include support for the reflex automation action command.

Include support for the VALUE and MISSING formula functions only; include no support for group functions or other cell functions.

Wild card characters are not supported in private situations or situation overrides.

One attribute group in a situation. The use of two different attribute groups is not supported.

Run concurrently with enterprise situations when the agent is connected to the monitoring server.

Can run on a Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Agent, whether connected or autonomous, or a Tivoli System Monitor Agent.

Remain unknown to the IBM Tivoli Monitoring centrally managed infrastructure. Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server and other IBM Tivoli Monitoring component are unaware of their existence, including their monitoring data and events. Therefore, private situations do not participate in event caching or persistence across agent restarts while the agent is disconnected from its monitoring server.

As a best practice, enterprise and private situations must have unique situation names.

Parent topic:
Private situations
Related reference:

Situation limitations

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