IBM Tivoli Monitoring > Version 6.3 Fix Pack 2 > Installation Guides > Installation Guide > Introduction > Components of the monitoring architecture
IBM Tivoli Monitoring, Version 6.3 Fix Pack 2
Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Agents
Monitoring agents are data collectors. Agents monitor systems, subsystems, or applications, collect data, and pass the data to the Tivoli Enterprise Portal through the monitoring server.
An agent interacts with a single system or application and, in most cases, is located on the same computer where the system or application is running.
There are two types of monitoring agents:
- Operating system (OS) agents that monitor the availability and performance of the computers in your monitoring environment. An example of an OS agent is the Monitoring Agent for Windows OS, which monitors Windows XP and Windows 2003 operating systems.
A special type of operating system agent, the agentless monitor, is also available. It enables a remote node to monitor the health of nonessential desktop operating systems via a standard monitoring API such as SNMP and thus is also called a remote OS agent.
In addition, there is another class of operating-system agents, the System Monitor Agent. These lighter-weight agents (they require a much smaller footprint than full-function Tivoli Monitoring OS agents) are configured locally to the agent node. This configuration enables them to be deployed autonomously (in other words, without the support of a Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server): they send EIF or SNMP event information directly to an event server such as Netcool/OMNIbus. The System Monitor Agents are meant as a replacement for the OMNIbus System Service Monitor agents.
- Other agents (referred to as application agents or non-OS agents) that monitor the availability and performance of systems, subsystems, and applications. An example of a non-OS agent is IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Microsoft Exchange, which monitors the Microsoft Exchange Server.
The Performance Analyzer Warehouse Agent adds predictive capability to Tivoli Monitoring so you can monitor resource consumption trends, anticipate future performance issues, and avoid or resolve problems more quickly. For more information about the Performance Analyzer Warehouse Agent, see the IBM Tivoli Monitoring Performance Analyzer User's Guide.
You can also create your own IBM Tivoli Monitoring agent via the Agent Builder, a set of tools for creating agents and adding value to existing agents. Using the Agent Builder, you can quickly create, modify, and test an agent to collect and analyze data about the state and performance of different resources, such as disks, memory, CPU, or applications. The builder creates a data provider that allows you to monitor three types of data:
With the Agent Builder's customizable Graphical User Interface installer, you can create agent-installation packages for easy agent distribution. A key feature of the installer is its ability to package and distribute extensions to existing agents. This lets you develop new situations, queries, and workspaces for an existing IBM Tivoli Monitoring V6.x agent. For complete information about the Agent Builder, see the Agent Builder User's Guide.
- Availability
- Process and service availability and functionality tests
- Windows event log
- Specific information from the Windows Event Log
- External data sources
- Data from external sources such as Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), Performance Monitor (PerfMon), Simple Network Management Protocol Version 1 (SNMP V1), external scripts, and log files
In most cases the recommended choice for customized agents is the Agent Builder.
The IBM Tivoli Monitoring Base DVD (in addition to providing the Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server and its application support, Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Automation Server, the Tivoli Enterprise Portal Server and its application support, and the Tivoli Enterprise Portal desktop and browser clients together with their application support) also contains the Tivoli Data Warehouse agents: the Warehouse Proxy Agent and the Summarization and Pruning Agent, and the Tivoli Performance Analyzer. This DVD is platform-specific (Windows, Linux, or UNIX).
Use the IBM Tivoli Monitoring Agents DVD to install the monitoring agents in the following list (as well as agentless OS monitoring agents). Note that this DVD, however, is platform-nonspecific; that is, it applies to Windows, Linux, and UNIX environments.
- IBM i
- Windows OS
- Linux OS
- UNIX OS
For z/OS customers, IBM also provides a family of OMEGAMON Monitoring Agents that monitor both the z/OS operating system (as well as its key subsystems: VTAM, CICS, IMS™, DB2, and storage subsystems), and the z/VM operating system (as well as any Linux guests running under it). A complete suite of OMEGAMON product documentation is provided in the IBM Tivoli Monitoring Information Center information center.
See Selecting the correct support media for information on what media to use for installing application support for distributed agents.
Parent topic:
Components of the monitoring architecture