Introduction to IBM Tivoli Monitoring
Hi, Habrahabr!
Today, I’ll tell you about one of IBM’s server and application monitoring products. I have always closely followed the publications on the topic of monitoring and according to my feelings they have been drastically reduced recently. Well, I'll try to somehow fill this annoying gap.
Why ITM (IBM Tivoli Monitoring), you ask, it just happened that for several years I have been implementing and setting up this product and want to share my impressions about working with it.
')
If you are interested in getting acquainted with ITM or just want to see what is hidden behind this mysterious window, then I ask under the habrakat.
Let's start with the system architecture.
IBM engineers did not reinvent the wheel and went the proven way.
IBM Tivoli Monitoring Architecture
I do not want to load readers with unnecessary details, so I will outline everything with large strokes. There is a primary monitoring server TEMS (Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server), a portal server TEPS (Tivoli Enterprise Portal Server), monitoring agents and a database (DB2, MSSQL, Oracle or embedded Derby) in which all information is stored.
In the system, everything functions as a Swiss watch, at least in my practice there was not a single case when the system put into commercial operation failed (maybe customers are hiding something?). Agents collect information and transmit it to the monitoring server, then this information is analyzed on the monitoring server, and if thresholds are exceeded, situations are triggered. To the user, all this beauty is available through the client to the portal server, which is called TEP (Tivoli Enterprise Portal) and is available in desktop and browser versions.
Tivoli Enterprise Portal Interface
In general, I will say the following about architecture:
- Good scalability, reliability and ease of distribution / management of agents from the center
- Updating the system in some cases can ruffle even the most serene and peaceful person
Next, I would like to introduce you to the core capabilities of ITM.
It is not difficult to guess that this is the main function of any monitoring system. For the collection of information, as I said, agents are responsible. Most of them are installed on the server that needs to be monitored, however, there are agents that collect parameters remotely. I will not list the list of agents in the article - I can read it on the IBM website and, believe me, there are a lot of them. Well, for particularly sophisticated customers, you can always develop a unique agent that will cover any needs, for this there is an Agent Builder.
Managed systems and agents
After the parameters arrive at the TEMS, their values are compared with the threshold ones, and when the threshold is exceeded, the situations are triggered. Of course, all thresholds can be changed at your discretion and create new situations.
Active situations
All this is good, and when problems arise, administrators will be able to quickly resolve them, and in fact, sometimes problems can be avoided. ITM uses TPA (Tivoli Performance Analyzer) for predictive analysis. I anticipate that most readers will have some doubts about its performance, I was skeptical before becoming acquainted with TPA and believed that everything would work, to put it mildly, not as the manufacturer promises. But I will tell you - it works, yes, a large amount of information is needed for analysis, i.e. On the data for the week, an accurate forecast can not be built, but in general I have a positive impression about TPA.
I will outline the main points for the implementation of the monitoring function:
- A large number of monitoring agents and the ability to develop their own agents. Together with agents, a fairly large set of pre-configured situations is delivered.
- I will not go into details, but when installing some agents, you have to restart the software part of TEMS / TEPS, which can not but upset
A very useful feature because we all know how management likes reporting.
Historical information is collected in the Warehouse database, and then various reports are built on the basis of this information. Summarization & Pruning agent is averaging and clearing historical data. The reporting engine is Cognos, working with reports via the Tivoli Integrated Portal is a single portal for managing all Tivoli products, at least, this is how it is positioned. Historical information is also used for the predictive analysis I mentioned in the previous section.
Configuration of historical data collection
I have no complaints about the collection of historical information, everything works as it should work.
You can integrate with a vast amount of products. It can be monitoring systems, event information processing systems, in general, any systems that, in one way or another, serve to work with situations, events or monitoring parameters. The logical continuation of working with situations is their transfer to the event processing system. In the Tivoli lineup, this is Netcool / OMNIbus.
Event Information Processing System
Next, integration with Service Desk systems and quality control systems for the provision of services, for example, TBSM (Tivoli Business Service Manager) is already possible - there is a small article on Habré.
As for integration, I can say the following:
- A large number of supported systems "out of the box" and, if desired, ITM integrates with almost any product
- Long thought over the minuses. Yes, the integration does not always go smoothly, but in general I can not single out significant shortcomings.
Well, on this optimistic note, I will round out.
I tried to describe the system as concisely and objectively as possible. In order not to bore readers with a large number of technical details, I described the work in general terms and there was a huge amount of interesting solutions behind the scenes, which I may write in the following articles. And in conclusion, I want to summarize - this is my vision of what ITM currently represents.
- Monitoring system of a huge number of heterogeneous components of the information infrastructure
- Suitable for monitoring both small and huge infrastructure
- Contains everything you need to create reports of any complexity
- Seamlessly integrates with most systems.
- Not the cheapest and most demanding software resources
Today, I’ll tell you about one of IBM’s server and application monitoring products. I have always closely followed the publications on the topic of monitoring and according to my feelings they have been drastically reduced recently. Well, I'll try to somehow fill this annoying gap.
Why ITM (IBM Tivoli Monitoring), you ask, it just happened that for several years I have been implementing and setting up this product and want to share my impressions about working with it.
')
If you are interested in getting acquainted with ITM or just want to see what is hidden behind this mysterious window, then I ask under the habrakat.
Let's start with the system architecture.
Architecture.
IBM engineers did not reinvent the wheel and went the proven way.
IBM Tivoli Monitoring Architecture
I do not want to load readers with unnecessary details, so I will outline everything with large strokes. There is a primary monitoring server TEMS (Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server), a portal server TEPS (Tivoli Enterprise Portal Server), monitoring agents and a database (DB2, MSSQL, Oracle or embedded Derby) in which all information is stored.
In the system, everything functions as a Swiss watch, at least in my practice there was not a single case when the system put into commercial operation failed (maybe customers are hiding something?). Agents collect information and transmit it to the monitoring server, then this information is analyzed on the monitoring server, and if thresholds are exceeded, situations are triggered. To the user, all this beauty is available through the client to the portal server, which is called TEP (Tivoli Enterprise Portal) and is available in desktop and browser versions.
Tivoli Enterprise Portal Interface
In general, I will say the following about architecture:
- Good scalability, reliability and ease of distribution / management of agents from the center
- Updating the system in some cases can ruffle even the most serene and peaceful person
Next, I would like to introduce you to the core capabilities of ITM.
Monitoring server and application settings.
It is not difficult to guess that this is the main function of any monitoring system. For the collection of information, as I said, agents are responsible. Most of them are installed on the server that needs to be monitored, however, there are agents that collect parameters remotely. I will not list the list of agents in the article - I can read it on the IBM website and, believe me, there are a lot of them. Well, for particularly sophisticated customers, you can always develop a unique agent that will cover any needs, for this there is an Agent Builder.
Managed systems and agents
After the parameters arrive at the TEMS, their values are compared with the threshold ones, and when the threshold is exceeded, the situations are triggered. Of course, all thresholds can be changed at your discretion and create new situations.
Active situations
All this is good, and when problems arise, administrators will be able to quickly resolve them, and in fact, sometimes problems can be avoided. ITM uses TPA (Tivoli Performance Analyzer) for predictive analysis. I anticipate that most readers will have some doubts about its performance, I was skeptical before becoming acquainted with TPA and believed that everything would work, to put it mildly, not as the manufacturer promises. But I will tell you - it works, yes, a large amount of information is needed for analysis, i.e. On the data for the week, an accurate forecast can not be built, but in general I have a positive impression about TPA.
I will outline the main points for the implementation of the monitoring function:
- A large number of monitoring agents and the ability to develop their own agents. Together with agents, a fairly large set of pre-configured situations is delivered.
- I will not go into details, but when installing some agents, you have to restart the software part of TEMS / TEPS, which can not but upset
Collect historical information.
A very useful feature because we all know how management likes reporting.
Historical information is collected in the Warehouse database, and then various reports are built on the basis of this information. Summarization & Pruning agent is averaging and clearing historical data. The reporting engine is Cognos, working with reports via the Tivoli Integrated Portal is a single portal for managing all Tivoli products, at least, this is how it is positioned. Historical information is also used for the predictive analysis I mentioned in the previous section.
Configuration of historical data collection
I have no complaints about the collection of historical information, everything works as it should work.
Integration.
You can integrate with a vast amount of products. It can be monitoring systems, event information processing systems, in general, any systems that, in one way or another, serve to work with situations, events or monitoring parameters. The logical continuation of working with situations is their transfer to the event processing system. In the Tivoli lineup, this is Netcool / OMNIbus.
Event Information Processing System
Next, integration with Service Desk systems and quality control systems for the provision of services, for example, TBSM (Tivoli Business Service Manager) is already possible - there is a small article on Habré.
As for integration, I can say the following:
- A large number of supported systems "out of the box" and, if desired, ITM integrates with almost any product
- Long thought over the minuses. Yes, the integration does not always go smoothly, but in general I can not single out significant shortcomings.
Well, on this optimistic note, I will round out.
Conclusion
I tried to describe the system as concisely and objectively as possible. In order not to bore readers with a large number of technical details, I described the work in general terms and there was a huge amount of interesting solutions behind the scenes, which I may write in the following articles. And in conclusion, I want to summarize - this is my vision of what ITM currently represents.
- Monitoring system of a huge number of heterogeneous components of the information infrastructure
- Suitable for monitoring both small and huge infrastructure
- Contains everything you need to create reports of any complexity
- Seamlessly integrates with most systems.
- Not the cheapest and most demanding software resources
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/180017/
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