IBM Tivoli Monitoring > Version 6.3 Fix Pack 2 > Installation Guides > Installation Guide > Pre-deployment phase > Agent deployments > Prerequisite Scanner for IBM Tivoli Monitoring agents > Remote prerequisite scanning
IBM Tivoli Monitoring, Version 6.3 Fix Pack 2
Use remote prerequisite scanning
IBM Tivoli Monitoring has the ability to preemptively check for required prerequisites on a remote computer. This feature uses the same functionality as the tacmd createnode command to transfer and run on a target computer.
By using the new tacmd checkprereq command, you can run a prerequisite scan for a specified agent on a specified target computer by including the -h | --host flag, or on a group of target computers by including the -g | --deploygroup flag.
You can also run the tacmd checkprereq command using the -n | --node flag to perform remote prerequisite checking without endpoint credentials. Both the hub Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server and the Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Agent must be at V6.2.3 or higher to use prerequisite scanning without endpoint credentials. If a prerequisite check without endpoint credentials is run on a target that has a Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Agent older than V6.2.3, the command fails. The -n | --node flag allows you to run a prerequisite check for an endpoint before you attempt a deployment, without specifying endpoint credentials. You can review the prerequisite check results through the tacmd getdeploystatus command or the Tivoli Enterprise Portal Deploy Status workspace. If a prerequisite check fails, you can review the results log on the Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server in the CANDLEHOME/logs/checkprereq_results directory.
The following example shows the execution of the checkprereq command to a single computer for the Windows OS Agent. After running the command, you receive a transaction ID, which is used to track the status of the prerequisite check using the tacmd getdeploystatus command or the Tivoli Enterprise Portal Deployment Status Workspace.
Example:
tacmd checkprereq -h mysys1.mycompany.com -t NT -p SERVER=rtems1.mycompany.com
You are prompted for the remote login credentials. Alternatively, you can use the optional flags to supply the credentials at the command-line.
The following example shows how you can use deployment groups to perform prerequisite scanning for a group of target computers.
Example:
tacmd creategroup -g NewSystems -t DEPLOY tacmd addgroupmember -g NewSystems -t DEPLOY -m mysys1.mycompany.com -p SERVER=rtems1.mycompany.com KDYRemote Execution and Access.Remote Execution and AccessUSERNAME=root KDYRemote Execution and Access.Remote Execution and AccessPASSWORD=mypass tacmd addgroupmember -g NewSystems -t DEPLOY -m mysys2.mycompany.com -p SERVER=rtems2.mycompany.com KDYRemote Execution and Access.Remote Execution and AccessUSERNAME=root KDYRemote Execution and Access.Remote Execution and AccessPASSWORD=mypass tacmd addgroupmember -g NewSystems -t DEPLOY -m mysys3.mycompany.com -p KDYRemote Execution and Access.Remote Execution and AccessUSERNAME=root KDYRemote Execution and Access.Remote Execution and AccessPASSWORD=mypassword tacmd checkprereq -g NewSystems -t LZThe steps in the previous section demonstrate the creation of a new deployment group called NewSystems and the addition of several deployment targets and the execution of the preemptive prerequisite scanning. The first member is using the SERVER property to specify that the execution should be performed by the Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server running on rtems1.mycompany.com. If this specification is not a valid Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server, the prerequisite scanning is performed by the hub Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server. The second member specifies a different executing Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server, and the third member does not supply the SERVER property, therefore the command runs on the hub Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server by default. When the preemptive prerequisite scanning is run, a transaction ID is provided for deployment status tracking. After performing the tacmd checkprereq command, and resolving any prerequisite failures so that the tacmd checkprereq command results in a SUCCESS for all target machines, you can run the tacmd createnode command using the same deployment group, for example tacmd createnode -g NewSystems.
For deployment groups with mixed platform types such as a combination of Linux and UNIX systems, and Windows systems, you can specify the product as ITM. In the case of the OS agents, the correct OS agent type is determined based on the platform type discovered when the connection is established. Even when the incorrect product code is supplied for the OS agents, the correct platform type is detected. This is a special case that applies to OS agents.
After running the preemptive prerequisite scanning command, the example run can result as follows. In the following example, you can see that two of the endpoints successfully passed the prerequisite scan, however the mysys2.mycompany.com endpoint did not pass.
C:\IBM\ITM\bin>tacmd getdeploystatus -g 1282918238453000000000041 Transaction ID : 1282918238453000000000041 Command : CHECKPREREQ Status : SUCCESS Retries : 0 TEMS Name : RTEMS1 Target Hostname: mysys1.mycompany.com Platform : li6263 Product : LZ Version : 062300000 Error Message : KDY4001I: The prerequisite checking operation was a success. Transaction ID : 1282918238453000000000041 Command : CHECKPREREQ Status : FAILED Retries : 3 TEMS Name : RTEMS2 Target Hostname: mysys2.mycompany.com Platform : li6263 Product : LZ Version : 062300000 Error Message : KDY4003E: A failure occurred while checking for required prerequisites for bundle LZ on the target host mysys2.mycompany.com. Review the results from the prerequisite checking execution and resolve the issues found on the endpoint. Transaction ID : 1282918238453000000000041 Command : CHECKPREREQ Status : SUCCESS Retries : 0 TEMS Name : HUB_TEMS Target Hostname: mysys3.mycompany.com Platform : li6263 Product : LZ Version : 062300000 Error Message : KDY4001I: The prerequisite checking operation was a success.To correct the failures found on the mysys2.mycompany.com endpoint you can review the results log that was sent back to the executing Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server (RTEMS2 in this case). The results file is located in the CANDLEHOME/logs/checkprereq_results directory. The naming format of the results file is <SUCCESS|FAILED>_<host>_<transaction ID>.txt. In this instance, the name of the results file is FAILED_mysys2.mycompany.com_1282918238453000000000041.txt. The preceding example shows the output of the prerequisite scan report. To review the results of both SUCCESS and FAILED prerequisite checks, specify the -c | -- collectall flag when running the tacmd checkprereq command. By default, all FAILED prerequisite check results are sent back to the executing Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server.
Parent topic:
Remote prerequisite scanning