IBM Tivoli Monitoring > Version 6.3 Fix Pack 2 > Installation Guides > Installation Guide > Pre-deployment phase > Understanding Tivoli Monitoring and your network > Determine where to place the Tivoli Monitoring components
IBM Tivoli Monitoring, Version 6.3 Fix Pack 2
Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server
The monitoring server is the first component installed to begin building the IBM Tivoli Monitoring Services foundation. The monitoring server is the key component on which all other architectural components directly depend.
The monitoring server is the collection and control point for alerts received from agents. The monitoring server collects the performance and availability data of the agents.
The monitoring server is also responsible for processing heartbeats to track the online or offline status of monitoring agents. A monitoring agent sends a heartbeat every 10 minutes (this is configurable). If a heartbeat signal is not received from an agent within the heartbeat interval (plus a 3-minute grace period), the monitoring server considers the monitoring agent to be offline. The online or offline status of the monitoring agent is also called the managed system status.
In addition to the roles described in the previous paragraphs, the hub monitoring server also provides the following functions:
- Distributes situations down to the monitoring agents.
- Used for remote deployment and remote configuration and control of monitoring agents.
- Responsible for the processing of CLI and SOAP requests that can be used by users for automation of their Tivoli Monitoring environment.
There are two types of monitoring servers: the hub monitoring server and the remote monitoring server. The hub monitoring server is the focal point for the entire Tivoli Monitoring environment. The hub monitoring server is under a significant load. Work on the hub includes connections from the remote monitoring server, authentication, situations, policies, and workflows.
The hub monitoring server stores, initiates, and tracks all situations and policies and is the central repository for storing all active conditions and short-term data on every Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Agent (monitoring agent). The hub monitoring server is also responsible for initiating and tracking all generated Take Action commands.
The monitoring server storage repository is a proprietary database format, referred to as the Enterprise Information Base (EIB), that is grouped as a collection of files located on the monitoring server. These files start with a file name prefix qa1 and are located in the following directories:
- installation_dir\cms
- installation_dir/tables/tems_name
where installation_dir specifies the Tivoli Monitoring installation directory and tems_name specifies the Tivoli Enrerprise Monitoring Server name.
You can use the CANDLEHOME command on UNIX or Linux and CANDLE_HOME on Windows system to locate the home directory for Tivoli Monitoring.
Place the hub monitoring server inside the data center on a high-performance network (100 Megabits per second or higher). Connectivity between the Tivoli Enterprise Portal Server and hub monitoring server as well as between the hub monitoring server and most of the remote monitoring server must be fast and reliable. For large environments, use a multi-processor server. Some hardware configuration guidance is identified in Sizing the Tivoli Monitoring hardware.
The remote monitoring server is a collection point for the agents that are connected to that remote monitoring server. Certain types of situations run on the remote monitoring server. The load on the remote monitoring server is typically low. Load is driven higher if historical data is collected at the remote monitoring server instead of at the agents.
Placement of the remote monitoring server depends on a few factors. Plan your firewalls early to ensure that communications can be established between the Tivoli Monitoring components with only a modest number of holes in the firewall.
By locating the Warehouse Proxy Agent on the same computer as the remote monitoring server, you can negotiate NAT environments with their historical data collection. For remote locations connected over a slow network, place the remote monitoring server at the remote location if there are significant numbers of computers. For remote locations with just a few computers, it doesn’t make sense to place a remote monitoring server at the remote location.
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Determine where to place the Tivoli Monitoring components