Enhanced Message Source Template for HP 3000 Agents in ITO

Introduction

In a new ITO setup a default set of message source templates is installed on the Management Server for every managed node platform supported by ITO. These default templates are downloaded from the Management Server at the time of Agent installation onto the managed nodes. The purpose of these default templates is two fold:

The default template implementations for the different managed node platforms do not all have the same level of functionality. Some platforms have advanced sets of default templates while some have very little capability. The HP 3000 platform (whose OS is known as MPE/iX) had a very basic default template set. With a view to better help management of environments consisting of HP 3000 systems, a new enhanced default template set has been created.

The default message source templates for the MPE/iX platform can be categorized into the following areas:

OS Monitoring

The OS monitoring templates can be classified as:

Disk Drive Monitor

This template monitors the current status of the disk drives on MPE/iX systems. The executed script, DEVINFO, retrieves the disk drive status information and writes to the file DEVDATA. Messages to the Management Server are generated for the following statuses of the disk drives:

Volume Set Monitor

This template monitors the utilization of volume sets and volume members for MPE/iX systems. The executed script, VOLINFO.MONITOR.OVOPC, calculates the current utilization of PERM space, FREE space, and TRANSIENT space in both sectors and percentage used for each volume set on the system and for each volume member within the set. The information is written to the file VOLDATA.PUB.OVOPC. VOLINFO monitors disk space utilization by volume and volume set. The current utilization is compared against thresholds for volume sets and volume members defined within IT/Operations.

Job and Process Monitor

This monitor verifies if an MPE/iX background job or process is running. The templates have been preconfigured to monitor some of the commonly found background jobs and processes such as FTPMON, JINETD and SCOPEJOB. The monitor program is PROCMON.

Monitor for other Monitors

This monitor checks to see if any background job or process monitors are currently disabled. This template is intended to be used as a reminder that some background jobs are not being monitored because they are disabled. This can be quite normal whenever this is a planned shutdown of background processes or jobs such as before a system backup is performed.

Printer Outfence Monitor

This template monitors the current value of the printer outfence. If an LDEV is specified, it returns the value for that printer. If no printer LDEV is given, the global outfence value is returned. The threshold can be defined as increasing or decreasing depending on how the outfence is normally used for the given device.

An outfence that is higher than expected will result in spoolfiles being deferred that would otherwise print. If the outfence is lower than expected, spoolfiles that should have been deferred are printed. The monitor can be used to monitor either of these conditions.

Printer Queue Length Monitor

This template monitors the number of pending spoolfiles for a given spooled printer. It is useful when a printer is expected to be available to dynamically print a report, such as with a workgroup printer. A large number of pending spoolfiles may signify problems with the printer or that a large print job may be overusing the printer. This can have an impact on service management agreements if responsive printer services are an objective.

Pending Console Reply Monitor

This template monitors the number of outstanding or pending console replies.

While there is a CONSOLE template condition for console replies, this monitor provides notification that replies may not have yet been given a response. This template serves as a useful reminder if the initial REPLY event is acknowledged without the REPLY being satisfied. The severity is higher as more replies are pending.

Message Queue File Monitor

This template is provided as an example for monitoring the number of records contained in an MPE/iX message file. This template is used when the number of records contained in the message queue may result in a delay in process communication, that is, it represents a backlog condition.

Networking Monitoring

These templates monitor the status of the Network Interfaces and the Network Services.

Networking Interface Monitoring

There are three network interfaces which have been found to be the most commonly used ones that have been preconfigured for monitoring:

The monitoring is done by a monitor program called NISTATUS which verifies that the network interfaces are started and running at intervals of time. The status of the network interfaces is sent to the Management Server.

Network Services Monitoring

This template monitors the status of the NS Network Services. The monitor program NSSTATUS returns the status of the Network Services to the Management Server.

Database Monitoring

This template monitors the capacities and database flags for Image/SQL databases. The executed script, DBINFO.MONITOR.OVOPC, retrieves the database information and writes it to the file DBSTATUS.PUB.OVOPC. The input file, DBLIST.PUB.OVOPC needs to be created on each MPE/iX managed node that will be assigned this template. The DBLIST.PUB.OVOPC should contain the fully qualified root file names for each Image database to be monitored.

Console Messages

These templates provide for the interception of MPE/iX system console messages. The conditions defined within these template address the following systems management areas:

Volume Management

These console messages get generated whenever there is a fault in the Volume and Disk Management on MPE/iX are intercepted and received by the Management Server. The messages that have been preconfigured for interception are:

Security

These console messages are related to user logons. The messages that come under this category are:

Backup/Tape Volumes

Messages that come under this category are:

Open View System Manager

All OpenView System Manager messages generated by virtue of their being instrumented in applications come under this class. This template has been accommodated with a view to help customer smoothly transition from OpenView System Manager to ITO without disturbing their existing setup.