IBM Tivoli Monitoring > Version 6.3 Fix Pack 2 > Installation Guides > Agent Installation Guides > Linux Agent Installation Guide > Overview of the agent
IBM Tivoli Monitoring, Version 6.3 Fix Pack 2
Agent Management Services
Two watchdog monitors run as part of the Monitoring Agent for Linux. One monitor runs as part of the OS Monitoring Agent process, which is referred to as the Agent Watchdog. The other watchdog monitor runs as a separate process named 'kcawd'. The kcawd process is also called the Agent Management Services Watchdog. This watchdog watches the OS Agent, so as long as its Availability Status is showing 'Running' in the Agents' Runtime Status view of the Agent Management Services workspace. No setup or configuration is required.
The Agent Watchdog monitors agent processes other than the OS Agent. By using the communication facility of the OS Agent, it is able to respond to Tivoli Enterprise Portal Desktop queries and Take Actions performed against these other agent processes. This is the data that is seen in the Agent Management Services workspace. In the Tivoli Enterprise Portal Desktop, the Agent Management Services workspace lists the agents that can be monitored by this watchdog running as part of the OS Agent. These are non-OS agents, so the Monitoring Agent for Linux is not listed in the workspace, except for in the Agents' Management Definitions view. One of the agents listed in the workspace is the Agent Management Services Watchdog. Its purpose is to monitor the OS Agent's availability.
The Agent Management Services Watchdog monitor is responsible for watching just the OS Monitoring Agent and restarting it if it goes down. It is enabled by default and does not need to be configured. It is started automatically when the Monitoring Agent for Linux is started. This watchdog does not have a communication facility, so it cannot report information to the Tivoli Enterprise Portal or respond to Take Actions. It is not an agent per se, but a separate process that always monitors the OS Monitoring Agent.
You can temporarily disable the Agent Management Services Watchdog using the InstallDir/bin/itmcmd execute lz disarmWatchdog.sh command. This disables the Watchdog process for the OS Monitoring Agent and all Agent Management Services managed agents. If there is local administrative work to be performed, and you do not want the auto-restart of the agents to interfere with it, run the InstallDir/bin/itmcmd execute lz disarmWatchdog.sh command before proceeding. When the work is complete, recycle the OS Monitoring Agent to reenable Agent Management Services, or use the InstallDir/bin/itmcmd execute lz rearmWatchdog.sh command.
If you use the itmcmd interface to stop or start an Agent Management Services managed agent, its watchdog will be disabled if stopping the agent and enabled if starting the agent.
Parent topic:
Overview of the agent