Ssm400rn

Tivoli IBM Tivoli Netcool/System Service Monitors
®

Version 4.0

Release Notes

GC23-6314-00

Note
Before using this information and the product it supports, read the information in“Notices” on page 31.

First Edition
This edition applies to version 4.0 of Netcool/SSM (product number 5724-C04) and to all subsequent releases and
modifications until otherwise indicated in new editions.
© Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 1996, 2007. All rights reserved.
US Government Users Restricted Rights – Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract
with IBM Corp.

Contents
Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v Netcool/ASM for Microsoft SQL Server . . . . 23
Netcool/ASM for Oracle . . . . . . . . . 23
Chapter 1. About this release . . . . . 1 Netcool/ASM for Sybase ASE . . . . . . . 23
Netcool/ASM for WebLogic . . . . . . . . 24
New in this release . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Netcool/ASM for WebSphere . . . . . . . 24
Product fix history . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
programmable subagent . . . . . . . . . 24
Product compatibility notes . . . . . . . . . 10
svrsecurity subagent . . . . . . . . . . 24
Netcool/ASM application support . . . . . . 11
Installing Netcool/SSM . . . . . . . . . . 25
SNMPv1 compatibility . . . . . . . . . . 16
Operating system limitations . . . . . . . . 25
UNIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Chapter 2. Hardware and software Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 AIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Microsoft Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Interaction with other applications. . . . . . . 27
Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Microsoft SNMP Service . . . . . . . . . 27
HP-UX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Kaspersky Anti-Virus software . . . . . . . 27
AIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Microsoft Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Red Hat Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Veritas NetBackup . . . . . . . . . . . 27
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server . . . . . . . . 19 Windows diskperf utility . . . . . . . . . 28
Solaris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Configuration issues . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Tru64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 System resource usage . . . . . . . . . . 28

Chapter 3. Known problems, Chapter 4. Support information . . . . 29
limitations, and workarounds . . . . . 23 Frequently asked questions . . . . . . . . . 29
Netcool/SSM components . . . . . . . . . 23
arithmetic subagent . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
ipconfig subagent . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Trademarks and Acknowledgements . . . . . . 32
Master agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

© Copyright IBM Corp. 1996, 2007 iii

iv IBM Tivoli Netcool/System Service Monitors Version 4.0: Release Notes

Tables
1. Netcool/ASM for Active Directory verified 7. Netcool/ASM for Oracle verified platforms
platforms and versions . . . . . . . . . 11 and versions . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2. Netcool/ASM for Apache verified platforms 8. Netcool/ASM for SAP R/3 verified platforms
and versions . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 and versions . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3. Netcool/ASM for Microsoft Exchange verified 9. Netcool/ASM for Sybase ASE verified
platforms and versions . . . . . . . . . 12 platforms and versions . . . . . . . . . 14
4. Netcool/ASM for Microsoft IIS verified 10. Netcool/ASM for WebLogic verified platforms
platforms and versions . . . . . . . . . 12 and versions . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5. Netcool/ASM for Lotus Notes verified 11. Netcool/ASM for WebSphere verified
platforms and versions . . . . . . . . . 12 platforms and versions . . . . . . . . . 15
6. Netcool/ASM for Microsoft SQL Server 12. Patch IDs for Solaris Operating System
verified platforms and versions . . . . . . 12 Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

© Copyright IBM Corp. 1996, 2007 v

vi IBM Tivoli Netcool/System Service Monitors Version 4.0: Release Notes

Chapter 1. About this release
This information set provides release notes for Netcool®/System Service Monitors™
and Netcool®/Application Service Monitors™ version 4.0.

New in this release
This release includes the a range of both new and changed features.
v NBS 027221 — Transfer SNMPv3 user options from the installer into the
localhost entry in hosts for MIB Explorer.
v NBS 027669 — Write new subagent to expose port to application mapping.
v NBS 029231 — Log pointer position in srLogMon should be settable to the start
of file after failover (agent restart on a different node).
v NBS 029678 — It should be possible to perform log file monitoring on file
statistics as opposed to file contents.
v NBS 030308 — Make ’connecting’ an impossible state in the sqlsvr subagent.
v NBS 030784 — The programmable subagent’s vmConsole mode ignores both the
application and InFile fields.
v NBS 032025 — Add periodical repopulation of the oraInstanceTable.
v NBS 032352 — Behavior of srIpConfigIpChanged notification in Netcool/SSM
version 3.1 doesn’t match its description in the MIB module.
v NBS 032353 — ifTable does not update dynamically on Windows platforms.
v NBS 032748 — Extend the process monitor to threshold on percentSize (the
proportion of system memory occupied by a process).
v NBS 033083 — Create a default SNMP port setting for MIB Explorer.
v NBS 033832 — MIB objects containing long strings cannot be viewed inline (in
cells) in MIB Explorer.
v NBS 034181 — Agent should write an entry to the log file when the process
subagent executes an ActionCommand.
v NBS 034311 — Add an option to record inivar reads to a log file.
v NBS 035589 — programmable subagent should generate a notification when
scripts are being queued.
v NBS 035940 — sysres ifTable does not not return the correct DHCP status on
UNIX/Linux platforms.
v NBS 036255 — Add polling interval scalar object to sqlServerTable.
v NBS 036898 — The agent’s uniqueID should not be stored in the init.cfg file.
v NBS 037299 — Add support for higher-grade (AES/3DES) encryption for remote
console connections.
v NBS 037810 — Extend the programComplete notification to include the
description from programmableControlTable.
v NBS 038118 — Add AIX and HP-UX support to the sybase subagent.
v NBS 038400 — Release the Solaris kstat MIB to allow reporting of ″memory scan
rate″ and ″anonymous page outs″ metrics.
v NBS 038476 — Description of loaded subagents should be more consistent when
listed in the command console.
v NBS 039057 — Match the swap calculations between srSystem and srStorage.

© Copyright IBM Corp. 1996, 2007 1

v NBS 039092 — The agent should save its state as a human-readable
configuration file rather than as ″snmp set″ commands.
v NBS 039442 — Provide integration with HP Insight Manager on Red Hat Linux
AS3.0.
v NBS 039679 — Enable the sqlsvr subagent to connect to a database that is
running on a non-default port.
v NBS 040417 — Provide Sybase 15 support to the sybase subagent.
v NBS 040649 — Complete implementation of OraEffPQTable.
v NBS 040935 — Provide support for Solaris on x86 hardware.
v NBS 041214 — Improve efficiency of the FileTransfer (IP Services module) thread
manager.
v NBS 042274 — Add support for Linux running on PowerPC (ppc64) platforms.
v NBS 042874 — Agent should be able to read and execute configuration files on
any platform regardless of the newline format (CRLF/LF).
v NBS 043052 — Add support for Red Hat Linux AS/ES 4.0 on AMD64/EM64T
platforms.
v NBS 044729 — Extend the ″user remote add″ command to allow the engineID to
be specified explicitly so that it does not need to perform discovery.
v NBS 044750 — Add support for loading Net/UCD-SNMP extension agents on
Linux platforms.
v NBS 044755 — Remove base2 library from agent as only srUserLoginTable uses
it.
v NBS 044909 — Remove legacy traptable.cfg support (left over from versions 2.1
and 3.0).
v NBS 044938 — Remove legacy console support (version 2.x RPC console) from
the Windows installer, as upgrades from version 2.x are no longer supported.
v NBS 045001 — The SNMPv3 engine boot count should be stored as an inivar
and not in a separate file.
v NBS 045002 — The console password should be stored as an encrypted inivar
and not in a separate file.
v NBS 045251 — Update the agent to use Installshield 12 on Windows platforms.
v NBS 045351 — Enhance the loServerTable so that it can be managed properly
using configuration files.
v NBS 045455 — Implement srDiskUtilization and srDiskAccessTime on AIX
platforms.
v NBS 045515 — Enhance the configuration library to support management of
string-controlled tables such as loServerTable.
v NBS 046289 — Add official support for x64 Windows platforms.
v NBS 046313 — Make auto-generated owner strings less cryptic and their origin
more obvious.
v NBS 046432 — The agent should disable any LD_PRELOAD environment
variables after startup.
v NBS 046531 — Add a filter type to the process MIB which allows direct
thresholding of the LastFilterCount as if it were an attribute.
v NBS 046534 — Add a command line parameter to disable the root-user check on
startup.
v NBS 046561 — Add official support for Windows 2003 R2.
v NBS 046627 — SNMP settings dialogs in the Windows installer should be
re-organized.

2 IBM Tivoli Netcool/System Service Monitors Version 4.0: Release Notes

v NBS 046706 — Reimplement the existing monitors.cfg genalarm rules into
arithmetic rules.
v NBS 046963 — Enhance the monitoring solution for MS Exchange to handle
MSCS cluster installs.
v NBS 047153 — Remove the Omnibus-monitors prefix from binary names.
v NBS 047322 — Add Solaris 10 ″smf″ support for service administration to the
UNIX installer.
v NBS 047348 — Make index MIB objects that are not usually accessible readable
when queried internally using either the command console, genalarmvb or
arithmetic MIB.
v NBS 047411 — Remove subagent srnetusage, nuports.cfg, svc-*.cfg and
srnetusage* inivars from the SSM 4.0 installer.
v NBS 047423 — An adConnectControlrow with connectTo set to domainsInSite
cannot be activated.
v NBS 047468 — Add wts.cfg (Windows Terminal Services configuration) to the
Windows installer.
v NBS 047470 — Remove dependency on being root/admin user for running SSM.
v NBS 047471 — Allow the agent to start up with no SNMP ports bound.
v NBS 047472 — Allow multiple instances of the agent to be run at the same time.
v NBS 047525 — The desktop help tool (desktool.exe) should not start on Startup
or automatically when installed.
v NBS 047544 — Add support for multiline commands in the command console
and configuration files.
v NBS 047571 — Quoting is ignored/not yet implemented for old-style
configuration commands.
v NBS 047599 — Comments should be allowed on the end of configuration
commands, similar to UNIX shell scripting conventions.
v NBS 047645 — monitors.cfg to use the new multiline syntax for arithmetic
expressions to make them more readable.
v NBS 047665 — Improve flexibility of SSM lock file behavior.
v NBS 047774 — MIB Explorer should bind to address 0.0.0.0 when listening for
traps - not just on one specific IP address.
v NBS 047789 — Add a new flag (-l) to the console to enable selection of the
console-side listening port.
v NBS 047896 — Windows binaries should be signed before releasing formal
support for Windows Vista in SSM 4.0.
v NBS 047954 — Multiline matches in logmonx subagent are artificially limited to
4096 characters but the regex library can handle arbitrary lengths.
v NBS 047955 — Integrate the logmonx current file position into the MIB design
(logMonXStatsTable) to eliminate the need for file system access
(LogMonXStateFile). Making any modification to the state file should be possible
through MIB.
v NBS 047997 — Add a dropdown menu to the MIB Explorer to provide fast
access for jumping to particular MIB modules.
v NBS 047998 — Add architecture checking to the UNIX setup script.
v NBS 048011 — Installer can’t start second SSM on AIX or Solaris 10.
v NBS 048028 — Extend the SSM console protocol to distinguish between
commands that are complete and those that are incomplete due to unclosed
quotes. When a command is not complete, the console prompt should change to
indicate that.

Chapter 1. About this release 3

v NBS 049404 — Agent should run without init.cfg present.
v NBS CR2666 — MIB Explorer should be able to receive traps on ports other than
162.
v NBS CR7774 — Improve consistency of configuration command syntax help
displayed on the command console.
v NBS CR7850 — Upgrade to lastest version of libpcap (currently 0.9).
v NBS CR8599 — Add a new table to the agent MIB containing inivars so that
they can be viewed and set using SNMP.

Product fix history
This release contains fixes to limitations found in previous releases.
v NBS 030333 — genalarm row should not activate when startup=risingOrFalling
and alarmMode!=hysteresis.
v NBS 033753 — lotus data rows remain after the associated server row has been
removed.
v NBS 033754 — loSampleInterval allows very low sample intervals that cause
excessive CPU usage.
v NBS 034528 — SNMPv2-CONF MIB missing from product distribution.
v NBS 034537 — sqlsvr subagent dbstats table has replica data for separate SQL
databases.
v APAR IY90580 NBS 035024 — Agent does not correctly detect interface speed on
AIX.
v NBS 035564 — sybaseMDASysPlainText table entries should not contain trailing
’n’ characters.
v NBS 036863 — Ambiguous reason for ResultTableRowCount=0.
v NBS 036978 — Default sybase.cfg in version 3.2 produces error ’Unknown
command ″password″.’
v NBS 036980 — Include the new websphere6.cfg configuration file.
v NBS 038053 — Physical memory usage is incorrectly reported as 100% used on
Tru64 platforms.
v NBS 039325 — init.nco_m_ssmagent script fails to terminate native snmpd on
Solaris 10.
v NBS 040536 — MIB Explorer can’t display IMPLIED index strings such as those
in the SNMPv3 MIBs.
v APAR IY90640 NBS 041812 — weblogic subagent logs ″weblogic.kernel.Default″
messages when the servlet is down but the service is up.
v NBS 042909 — Default init.cfg in version 3.2 has RestoreState=off.
v NBS 042993 — Console commands for agentconfig can’t handle file names with
spaces.
v NBS 042998 — Incorrect spelling in Win32 installation: ″priveliges″
v NBS 043059 — Config files are not saved when upgrading the product from
version 3.1.
v NBS 043197 — Problem with InstallShield - install log error ″1: Failed to Invoke
__ISWIInit, error is 0x80004004.″
v NBS 043322 — On Windows platforms, the agent fails to report mounts on
directories those that do not have drive letters.
v NBS 043834 — ntperfmon cannot monitor objects that contain parentheses in
their name.


v NBS 043861 — csh leaves core files on Linux when executed from the
programmable subagent.
v NBS 043863 — On Solaris 7, the product’s installer causes errors by using an
invalid parameter to grep.
v NBS 043954 — On UNIX platforms, the installer ignores the INST_CFGPATH
flag.
v NBS 044251 — Typing errors in oracle-mib.mib.
v NBS 044263 — Swap usage on Solaris 8 does not include RAM based swap.
v NBS 044271 — Many MIB files are missing required IMPORTS from
SNMPv2-SMI and SNMPv2-TC.
v NBS 044396 — transaction subagent crashes when logging to file is enabled.
v NBS 044436 — Agent replies repeatedly to SNMP REPORTs with incorrect type
(a GET) when the security level is authNoPriv, causing it to spin.
v NBS 044912 — Changing the config directory on the command line with ″-f″
does not work on UNIX.
v NBS 045049 — In srIfTable, srIfIPAddr and srIfNetMask return the wrong type:
octetstring (0x04) when they should be IP address (0x80).
v NBS 045050 — The ″snmp match″ command fails on objects that are not
octetstrings.
v NBS 045053 — ntPerfMonControlCounters can be modified while a control row
is active. This should not be possible.
v NBS 045139 — Copyright message in nco_m_ssmagent startup script (and some
other scripts) is wrong.
v NBS 045140 — Windows interface blocking is not working as documented.
v NBS 045196 — LogMonStateFile is ignored if it contains NT event log indexes
that are out of the range of what actually exists within the event log.
v NBS 045283 — support@micromuse.com appears in README.TXT & .MIB on
files during and after installation.
v NBS 045304 — Weblogic servlet dumps exceptions to weblogic logfile.
v NBS 045440 — The INST_COEXIST option for Unix installation is ignored.
v NBS 045450 — ControlIndex is limited to 1..65535 in most MIBs when it should
not be. Only rmon1 has an explicit limitation of the control indexes in its MIB
module.
v NBS 045484 — On Windows, the installer reverts to default configuration when
a copy fails during an upgrade.
v NBS 045504 — lotus subagent log messages require improvement.
v NBS 045514 — On UNIX platforms, LogSize value is reset back to 1000000 after
upgrade.
v NBS 045581 — MIB2 shows the same MAC address for different network
interfaces on Solaris platforms.
v NBS 045663 — sap subagent crashes in the SAP libary (librfc) on some versions
of Linux.
v NBS 045689 — SSM installer and docs both refer to INST_ROOTPATH, which is
no longer used.
v NBS 045714 — Race condition in hipe::ThreadPool could lead to crashes on
extremely busy systems.
v NBS 045718 — websphere subagent’s ws_setup script incorrectly describes the
password field.


v NBS 045754 — On Linux, filetransfer successfully transfers a file yet reports
failure.
v NBS 045776 — LogMonXState behavior is not consistent with sysres state file
behavior.
v NBS 045847 — agentConfig rows are removed prematurely when Control is set
to inactive.
v NBS 045848 — The datactrl configuration command fails to parse the ’delay’
keyword and does not create a control row if the ’delay’ keyword is present.
v NBS 045849 — ntscm.oid does not contain definitions for ntServiceTable.
v NBS 045850 — AgentConfigControl is missing from agentconfig.oid
v NBS 045880 — ntscm is missing console support for setting the
ntServiceControlRunControl object via the ″ntscm″ command.
v NBS 046052 — SNMP GET on logMonXStatsAbsPath does not work, even
though it is defined as a read-only object in the MIB.
v NBS 046055 — sap subagent does not load on AIX.
v NBS 046084 — Cannot connect local console to the agent on Windows x64
platforms.
v NBS 046093 — RMON event table does not update lastTimeSent object correctly.
v NBS 046113 — Terminating the agent after a warmboot does not correctly save
the agent state.
v NBS 046134 — Solaris loopback filesystem mounts (lofs) are incorrectly classed
as hrStorageType ″fixed disk″, which results in duplicate traps when monitoring
all fixed disks on a machine.
v NBS 046197 — The ″trapdest add″ command ignores the owner parameter if
executed from within a config script.
v NBS 046281 — Agentconfig leaves orphan control rows if scripts contain the
″config execute″ command rather than ″agentconfig create″.
v NBS 046315 — Creating contiguously indexed rows in agentConfigTable which
themselves create other agentConfig rows fails, due to poor automatic index
allocation.
v NBS 046343 — It is impossible to pass a community (CONF_DEFCOM) on the
command line of the Unix installer because it will be misinterpreted by the
setup script, no matter how well quoted it is.
v NBS 046344 — Executing invalid commands that contain an equals character
sometimes tricks the console into creating a variable incorrectly.
v NBS 046431 — The ″trapdest list″ command displays trapdests in seemingly
random order.
v NBS 046436 — MonitorRemoteFS inivar is ignored by hostres on Windows
platforms.
v NBS 046590 — Agent crashes when programmable vmConsole output is too
large.
v NBS 046728 — The documentation for the agent config table seems to be
incorrect.
v NBS 046748 — Memory leak in configurator when setting string objects.
v NBS 046754 — vacm remove view comand has inconsistent synatx help.
v NBS 046767 — The documentation for the agentconfigvar table in the reference
guide has a section on trap destination addressing in it.
v NBS 047188 — LogMonStateFile fails to save correctly if subagents are unloaded
before sysres.


v NBS 047189 — Fixed length string returned by the sqlsvr subagent when a
variable length is expected.
v NBS 047195 — Date format used by the sqlsvr subagent changed between build
700 and build 714.
v NBS 047196 — The database contact name is returned by the sqlsvr subagent.
v NBS 047285 — The servlet used by the websphere subagent doesn’t work on
WebSphere 6.x with global security enabled.
v NBS 047401 — All tables should implement Get for all objects, including
indexes.
v NBS 047421 — hrDiskStorageTable fails to show any volume groups other than
rootvg on AIX.
v NBS 047437 — adConnectControlTable row returns ″notInService″ when active
commit fails.
v NBS 047449 — psExceptionTable fails to filter out the ″wait″ process as
controlled by psIdleProcess=hidden on AIX.
v NBS 047452 — Virtual interfaces and zone interfaces are not detected by the
agent on Solaris platforms.
v NBS 047465 — Binding the address/port seems to have no effect on outgoing
SNMP responses on machines with multiple interfaces.
v NBS 047466 — hostres subagent may spin if retrieving network interface
information fails.
v NBS 047482 — On AIX platforms, agent configuration commands sometimes fail
to execute without reason and output the command syntax help instead.
v NBS 047499 — Non-printable characters inside string objects cause an
un-restorable hex string to be written to the agent state file.
v NBS 047523 — Agent sometimes gets stuck in a state where it believes that a
console is connected when it is not, and does not permit further console
connections.
v NBS 047526 — agent.state is written containing large blocks of empty lines,
making it quite unreadable.
v NBS 047530 — Cannot add vacm access entry with security model set to ″any″.
v NBS 047531 — Syntax help for ″vacm add entry″ command is incorrect. Says
″all″ rather than ″any″.
v NBS 047539 — process-mib.mib incorrectly states that PGID will be the value of
the PID on Windows platforms.
v NBS 047540 — vacm add group command allows security model any.
v NBS 047545 — genAlarmControlVariable has an invalid default value.
v NBS 047546 — genalarm control rows should not be able to activated if
genAlarmControlVariable is blank.
v NBS 047567 — Setting logMonXControlDisplayLimit to greater than 512 can
cause buffer overrun and crash.
v NBS 047570 — Memory leak of IMutex object in NetifOpen().
v NBS 047598 — agentIdPlatform reports ’other’ on Windows Vista (RC1).
v NBS 047662 — MIB Explorer reports an invalid OID in the traps tab when a
subagent sends a varbind whose OID lies underneath a known MIB but is not
defined in the MIB.
v NBS 047667 — Only allow a security model of ″usm″ in vacm security group.
v NBS 047676 — Get Bulk VACM returns authorizationError(16) when it doesn’t
make sense for it to do so.


v NBS 047735 — MIB Explorer doesn’t display multiline strings such as complex
arithmetic expressions in tooltips correctly.
v NBS 047751 — MIB Explorer fails to format newlines (linefeed - 0xA) properly
when carriage return (0xD) is absent in DisplayString fields.
v NBS 047787 — A square (representing an unprintable character) appears in the
edit box for arControlExpression in MIB Explorer.
v NBS 047788 — The title of ControlIndex columns is not abbreviated as other
columns are, and should be.
v NBS 047809 — srUserLoginTable contains multiple entries for one (console) login
on Windows.
v NBS 047823 — On Windows Vista, the command console prompts for a
password when a password has not been set
v NBS 047824 — On Windows Vista, the service controller fails to start up,
reporting ’The handle is invalid.’
v NBS 047962 — MIB Explorer crashes when loading/reloading a MIB file.
v NBS 048004 — SNMPV3 auth/priv passwords are stored as plain text in
mibexplorer.cfg.
v NBS 048006 — Per servlet metrics not showing data in WebSphere 6.x.
v NBS 048008 — svrSecurityParamTable allows Parameters to have negative
values.
v NBS 048126 — Cannot connect console to agent restarted after a crash.
v NBS 048151 — On Solaris, all disks are reported as ″running″ even when a disk
is physically removed.
v NBS 048166 — Documentation for the Websphere ASM is slightly incorrect.
v NBS 048220 — Only the first Entry in LogMonXStateFile is recognized on UNIX
when agent is started.
v NBS 048263 — The ″$ccmStatus Enabled″ rule in the shipped ccm.cfg is
incorrect.
v NBS 048321 — SSM installation on UNIX creates files with invalid user-ids: such
as 202, 3332.
v NBS 048337 — sqlsvr tables have missing or incorrect values since the change to
ODBC API.
v NBS 048338 — MIB Explorer crashes if you switch tables too quickly.
v NBS 048339 — UNIX selfinstaller does not clean up tmp directories on failure.
v NBS 048359 — sqlsvr subagent returns a fixed length string when a variable
length is expected.
v APAR IY91779 NBS 048492 — Thresholds within genalarm seem to be
interpreted as 16-bit signed values in comparison.
v NBS 048641 — svrsecurity subagent logs errors when monitoring Windows
event logs that have been rotated.
v APAR IY93088 NBS 048673 — Error ″Can’t read from event log (87)″
v APAR IY93237 NBS 048758 — Memory usage calculation in hostres is incorrect
on HP-UX platforms.
v NBS 048772 — Inconsistent behavior: on HP-UX platforms, the installer shows
tar extraction progress, but not on other UNIX variants.
v NBS 048788 — Console command ″snmp set″ does not set $? with the return
status of the command.
v NBS 048825 — SSM hangs for long periods on a Linux machine with 250+
network interfaces.


v NBS 048831 — In the MIB Explorer, strings that contain ampersands display
incorrect tooltips.
v NBS 048845 — appflowConnHistAppName returning a ’n’ at the end of the
output value.
v NBS 048847 — hrPartitionTable and hrStorageTable don’t understand ZFS
filesystems on Solaris 10.
v NBS 048870 — Mib Explorer crashes when copying OID within the WALK view.
v NBS 048938 — Installer reports symlink errors when upgrading existing agent.
v NBS 048940 — MIB Explorer crashes when starting a walk in arEvalTable from
the righthand pane on Windows Vista.
v NBS 048942 — Console help system has an unused (empty) context named
″subagent″
v NBS 048943 — Installer returns exit code 2 when reporting successful install,
should be 0.
v NBS 048970 — MIB Explorer crash when changing the arEvalTableInstance
Column to ObjectID Named.
v NBS 048972 — silent option during installation is not permitted for non root
users.
v NBS 048986 — Typing error in default agent.cfg prevents mscs.cfg from ever
loading.
v NBS 048995 — Interface bind command needs to be executed twice before it
works.
v NBS 048996 — Interface unbind command just returns an error and fails to
unbind.
v NBS 049013 — Unable to start Service Controller due to Windows manifest
issues.
v NBS 049035 — When sending SNMP V3 Informs with authPriv the agent never
timesyncs with the trap receiver.
v APAR IY93327 NBS 049055 — Version 3.2 (fixpack 727) is sending spurious traps
on Solaris, reporting ″Network mount ... not responding″ for network mounts
which are actually responding.
v NBS 049116 — Running the agent on some network mounts causes incorrect file
permissions to be applied to init.cfg so that the agent cannot be subsequently
re-run.
v APAR IY93511 NBS 049125 — The LogMonStateFile and agent.state can contain
stale position pointers, which can cause unnecessary log re-reads after an agent
restart.
v NBS 049135 — hrStorageTable shows incorrect size/used values for some
network mounts on Windows.
v NBS 049137 — srLogmon outputs incorrect file position values to the
LogMonStateFile on some UNIX platforms.
v NBS 049181 — Agents cores when doing a coldboot if there is an active
loControlTable row.
v NBS 049183 — wsCollectionTable and wsCounterTable are missing some
collection/counter entries that exist on the WebSphere server.
v NBS 049186 — wsCollectionTable and wsDataTable contain rows even when the
websphere subagent is pointing at a host address or port with no WebSphere
server installed.
v NBS 049313 — LogMonX uses excessive CPU when the agent has been up for 8+
months.


v APAR IY94877 NBS 049333 — Under some circumstances the agent will send a
retry for an SNMP-Inform for which an ack has already been received.
v APAR IY95094 NBS 049424 — HrDeviceDescr reports ″Unknown CPU″ on some
POWER5 machines.
v NBS 049437 — websphere CounterTable does not seem to be populated for
WebSphere 6.0+.
v APAR IY95167 NBS 049478 — Mirrored disks on Solaris report hrStorageType as
other(1) instead of fixed(4).
v NBS 049554 — Setting an IP Address object via ″snmp set″ causes a crash in
master agent.
v APAR IY95394 NBS 049560 — In version 3.2 on Windows platforms, time
counters drift gradually (slow down) or stand still when under load.
v NBS 049721 — In the sapControlTable, LastErrorMessage remains even after an
event has succeeded.
v APAR IY95755 NBS 049731 — oracle subagent does not support column changes
for Oracle 9IR2.
v NBS 049818 — Hostres prevents some thumbdrive software from letting you
″eject″ the thumbdrive.
v NBS 049834 — Loading MIB Explorer ignores folders in the host tree when an
empty folder is present.
v NBS 050012 — arithmetic exists() function produces incorrect results.
v NBS 050019 — Scalar arithmetic removed() function returns incorrect results.
v NBS CR3643 — If an interface is disabled/re-enabled on Windows, it is
impossible to retrieve statistics in MIB-2.
v NBS CR7595 — Windows installer honors .iss options in a silent install over
command line options.
v NBS CR8006 — MIB Explorer crashes when creating a chart.
v NBS CR8159 — On UNIX platforms, the installer does not check to see if there is
sufficient space for an install before proceeding.
v NBS CR8189 — SSM seems to be returning different values for Insight Manager
compared to MS SNMP.
v NBS CR8190 — When monitoring CIM agents, some OID values are missing.
v NBS CR8373 — NT event monitor opens Application log if the specified event
log does not exist.
v NBS CR8711 — On Windows platforms, the cursor in the command console
becomes invisible when moving left or right.
v NBS CR8892 — srDisk stats are not reported correctly on Windows 2000/XP if
dynamic disks are enabled.
v NBS CR9120 — srIPDefaultGateway value occassionly changes on HP-UX and
Tru64 even though no changes were made on the box.
v NBS CR9253 — Advancing the clock to 2099 causes the agent crash on startup
(under Windows only).
v NBS CR9318 — Non-thread-safe strtok function is used in a few subagents could
potentially cause a crash.

Product compatibility notes
This information details the compatibility of Netcool/SSM with other applications
and relevant standards.


Netcool/ASM application support
IBM has verified the operation of each monitor in the Netcool/ASM suite on
specific combinations of application and platform versions.

For information about combinations not listed here, contact IBM Support.

Netcool/ASM for Active Directory
Table 1 lists the combinations of application version and platform on which
Netcool/ASM for has been verified by IBM.
Table 1. Netcool/ASM for Active Directory verified platforms and versions
Platform Active Directory
Windows 2000 Server SP4 32-bit X

Netcool/ASM for Apache
Netcool/ASM for Apache has been verified by IBM.
Table 2. Netcool/ASM for Apache verified platforms and versions
Apache version
Platform 1.3 2.0.50+ 2.2.x
Solaris 10 SPARC X X
Solaris 10 x64 X X
RHEL 4.0 ES Update 4 x86 X
RHEL 4.0 AS Update 4 x86 X
RHEL 4.0 ES Update 4 AMD64/Intel EM64T X
RHEL 4.0 AS Update 4 AMD64/Intel EM64T X
RHEL 4.0 AS ppc64 X
SLES 9.0 x86 X
SLES 9.0 ppc64 X
SLES 9.1 x86 X
SLES 9.2 x86 X
SLES 9.3 x86 X
SLES 10.0 x86 X
AIX 5.2 POWER 4/5 64-bit X
HP-UX 11.2 PA-RISC X


Netcool/ASM for Microsoft Exchange
Netcool/ASM for Microsoft Exchange has been verified by IBM.
Table 3. Netcool/ASM for Microsoft Exchange verified platforms and versions
Microsoft Exchange version
Platform 2000 2003
Windows 2000 Server SP4 32-bit X X

Netcool/ASM for Microsoft IIS
Netcool/ASM for Microsoft IIS has been verified by IBM.
Table 4. Netcool/ASM for Microsoft IIS verified platforms and versions
Microsoft IIS version
Platform Windows 2000 Windows 2003

Netcool/ASM for Lotus Notes
Netcool/ASM for Lotus Notes has been verified by IBM.
Table 5. Netcool/ASM for Lotus Notes verified platforms and versions
Lotus Notes version
Platform 6.5.2 7.0.1
Solaris 8 SPARC X
Solaris 9 SPARC X X

Netcool/ASM for Microsoft SQL Server
Netcool/ASM for Microsoft SQL Server has been verified by IBM.
Table 6. Netcool/ASM for Microsoft SQL Server verified platforms and versions
Platform Microsoft SQL Server 2000


Netcool/ASM for Oracle
Netcool/ASM for Oracle has been verified by IBM.
Table 7. Netcool/ASM for Oracle verified platforms and versions
Oracle version
Platform 9.2.0.1 (9i) 9i RAC 10g 10g RAC
Windows 2003 Server SP1 32-bit X X X
Solaris 8 SPARC X X
Solaris 9 SPARC X X
RHEL 3.0 ES Update 8 x86 X X
RHEL AS 3.0 Update 8 x86 X X
RHEL 3.0 AS Update 8 AMD64/Intel EM64T X X
RHEL 4.0 AS Update 4 x86 X X
RHEL 4.0 ES Update 4 AMD64/Intel EM64T X X
RHEL 4.0 AS Update 4 AMD64/Intel EM64T X X
RHEL 4.0 AS ppc64 X X
SLES 9.0 x86 X X
SLES 9.0 ppc64 X X
SLES 9.1 x86 X X
SLES 9.2 x86 X X
SLES 9.3 x86 X X
AIX 5.2 POWER 4/5 64-bit X X
AIX 5.3 POWER 4/5 64-bit X X
HP-UX 11.2 PA-RISC X X X X

Netcool/ASM for SAP R/3
Netcool/ASM for SAP R/3 has been verified by IBM.
Table 8. Netcool/ASM for SAP R/3 verified platforms and versions
SAP R/3 version
Platform R/3 4.0B R/3 Enterprise 4.7
Solaris 8 SPARC X X
Solaris 9 SPARC X X
Solaris 10 SPARC X
Solaris 10 x64 X


Table 8. Netcool/ASM for SAP R/3 verified platforms and versions (continued)
SAP R/3 version
Platform R/3 4.0B R/3 Enterprise 4.7
RHEL 4.0 AS ppc64 X
SLES 9.0 x86 X
SLES 9.0 ppc64 X
SLES 9.3 x86 X
SLES 10.0 x86 X
HP-UX 11i (11.11) PA-RISC X
Tru64 5.1b X X

Netcool/ASM for Sybase ASE
Netcool/ASM for Sybase ASE has been verified by IBM.
Table 9. Netcool/ASM for Sybase ASE verified platforms and versions
Sybase ASE version
Platform 12.5.2 12.5.4 15.0.1
Solaris 8 SPARC X X
Solaris 9 SPARC X X
SLES 9.2 x86 X
SLES 9.3 x86 X
HP-UX 11i (11.11) PA-RISC X


Netcool/ASM for WebLogic
Netcool/ASM for WebLogic has been verified by IBM.
Table 10. Netcool/ASM for WebLogic verified platforms and versions
WebLogic version
Platform 8.1 9.1
Solaris 8 SPARC X
Solaris 9 SPARC X X
RHEL 4.0 ES Update 4 AMD 64/Intel EM64T X
RHEL 4.0 AS Update 4 AMD 64/Intel EM64T X
SLES 9.0 ppc64 X X
SLES 9.1 x86 X
SLES 9.2 x86 X
SLES 9.3 x86 X X
SLES 10.0 x86 X X
HP-UX 11.2 PA-RISC X X

Netcool/ASM for WebSphere
Netcool/ASM for WebSphere has been verified by IBM.
Table 11. Netcool/ASM for WebSphere verified platforms and versions
WebSphere version
Platform 5.0.2 5.1 6.0 6.1
Solaris 8 SPARC X
Solaris 9 SPARC X


Table 11. Netcool/ASM for WebSphere verified platforms and versions (continued)
WebSphere version
Platform 5.0.2 5.1 6.0 6.1
SLES 9.0 ppc64 X
SLES 9.1 x86 X X
SLES 9.2 x86 X X
SLES 9.3 x86 X X
SLES 10.0 x86 X X
AIX5.2 POWER 4/5 64 bit X
AIX5.3 POWER 4/5 64 bit X X X

SNMPv1 compatibility
Some Netcool/SSM MIB modules use the Counter64 data type, so they are not
compatible with SNMPv1. You should only use them with SNMPv2 and later.

This limitation applies to the following subagents:
v appflow
v genalarm
v ntperfmon
v sla
v transaction
v Netcool/ASM for Active Directory
v Netcool/ASM for WebLogic


Chapter 2. Hardware and software requirements
Hardware and software requirements describe the minimum host machine
specifications and the supported operating system types and versions on which
you can successfully install and use Netcool/SSM.

Microsoft Windows
The following system requirements apply to Microsoft Windows host machines.

Hardware
The hardware requirements for Windows platforms are:
v Intel Pentium II processor (400 MHz or greater)
v 128 MB RAM or greater recommended
v Approximately 25 MB free disk space
v 50MB minimum swap space recommended
v Ethernet 10/100 network interface card capable of supporting promiscuous
packet reception.

Software
The software requirements for Windows platforms are:
v Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
v Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Service Pack 4
v Microsoft Windows XP Home, including all Service Packs
v Microsoft Windows XP Professional, including all Service Packs
v Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
v Microsoft Windows Server 2003, including Service Pack 1
v Microsoft Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition, including Service Pack 1
v Microsoft Windows Vista x86 and x64 Editions

HP-UX
The following system requirements apply to HP-UX host machines.

Hardware

The minimum hardware requirements for running Netcool/SSM on HP-UX
platforms are:
v PA-RISC 1.1, PA-RISC 2.0, or Intel Itanium 2 processor
v 25 MB free disk space
v 50 MB minimum swap space recommended
packet reception


Software

Netcool/SSM is available for the following versions of HP-UX:
v HP-UX 11.11 (11i) on PA-RISC
v HP-UX 11.2 on PA-RISC or Intel Itanium

Latest Library Patches

Patches to the HP-UX Operating Environment libraries are available. HP-UX 11.11
(11i) requires the libc cumulative patch version PHCO_29495 or later.

The host machine may be running patches that have been recalled. The
Netcool/SSM installer checks to see what operating system patches have been
installed on the machine. If it detects a problem it provides a warning similar to
the following:
# ./netcool-ssm-4.0-xxxx-platform-arch.installer
Netcool/SSM Installer
Patch PHCO_23919 (patch for printf) detected.
*** WARNING: THIS PATCH MAY CAUSE SETUP TO CRASH ***
Consult your Netcool/SSM documentation for details.
Do you want to continue? [n]

Note: Visit the Hewlett-Packard (HP) IT Resource Center online at
http://www.itrc.hp.com for information on updating or removing this patch. The
Netcool/SSM installer will not do this for you.

AIX
The following system requirements apply to AIX host machines.

Hardware

The minimum hardware requirements for running Netcool/SSM on AIX platforms
are:
v IBM POWER4/5 64-bit processor
packet reception

Software

Netcool/SSM is available on the following versions of AIX:
v AIX 5.2 (64-bit only)
v AIX 5.3 (64-bit only)

Red Hat Linux
The following system requirements apply to Red Hat Linux host machines.


Hardware

The minimum hardware requirements for running Netcool/SSM on Red Hat Linux
platforms are:
v Intel Pentium II processor 400 MHz or greater
v Ethernet 10/100 or Token Ring network interface card capable of supporting
promiscuous packet reception

Software

Netcool/SSM is available for the following versions of Red Hat Linux:
v Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 2.1 - x86
v Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS/ES 3.0 - x86, AMD64/IntelEM64T
v Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS/ES 3.0 Update 8 - x86, AMD64/Intel EM64T
v Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS/ES 4.0 - x86, AMD64/IntelEM64T
v Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS/ES 4.0 Update 4 - x86, AMD64/Intel EM64T
v Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 4.0 - ppc64
v Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 - x86, x64

SuSE Linux Enterprise Server
The following system requirements apply to SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)
host machines.

Hardware

The minimum hardware requirements for running Netcool/SSM on SLES
platforms are:
v Intel Pentium II processor 400 MHz or greater
v Ethernet 10/100 or Token Ring network interface card capable of supporting
promiscuous packet reception

Software

Netcool/SSM is available for the following versions of SLES:
v 9 - x86, ppc64
v 9SP1, 9SP2, 9SP3 - x86
v 10 - x86, AMD64/Intel EM64T

Solaris
The following system requirements apply to Solaris host machines.

Chapter 2. Hardware and software requirements 19

Hardware

The minimum hardware requirements for running Netcool/SSM on Solaris
platforms are:
v UltraSPARC IIi 400 MHz processor or AMD/Intel x64 processor
packet reception

Software

Netcool/SSM is available on the following versions of Solaris:
v Solaris 8 (SunOS 5.8) SPARC
v Solaris 9 (SunOS 5.9) SPARC
v Solaris 10 (SunOS 5.10) SPARC or x64

Latest library patches

Patches to the Solaris Operating Environment libraries are available. Ensure that
the latest patch for the Solaris Operating Environment is installed and running on
the host machine before you install Netcool/SSM.

Table 12 lists the current patch IDs available at the time of writing. Before installing
a patch, check that it is the latest version as patches are cumulative and always
backward compatible.
Table 12. Patch IDs for Solaris Operating System Versions
Solaris Patch ID
8 (32-bit) 108434
8 (64-bit) 108435
9 (32-bit) 111711
9 (64-bit) 111712
10 119963

For further information about patches to the Solaris Operating Environment, see
http://developers.sun.com/sunstudio/downloads/patches/ss11_patches.html.

Tru64
The following system requirements apply to Tru64 host machines.

Hardware

The minimum hardware requirements for running Netcool/SSM on Tru64
platforms are:
v AXP Processor (500MHz or greater)
v 128MB RAM or greater
v 35MB free disk space


v 50MB minimum swap space

Software

Netcool/SSM is available for the following versions of Tru64:
v Tru64 5.1a, 5.1b

If there is no compiler/development environment on the host machine, then apply
the Compaq supplied redistribution kit, CXXREDIST650.

To verify that this kit has been applied, enter the following command:
setld -v CXXREDIST650

The machine should respond with:
Compaq C++ Run-Time Library Redistribution kit (CXXREDIST650)

If it does not respond in this way, apply the kit using the following commands:
root
cd /tmp
tar -xvf CXXREDIST650.tar
setld -l /tmp/CXXREDIST650.kit

To obtain this kit, visit the Compaq C++ site online at ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/
products/C-CXX/Tru64/cxx/cxxredist.htm.

Chapter 2. Hardware and software requirements 21

Chapter 3. Known problems, limitations, and workarounds
The following problems, limitations and workarounds exist for Netcool/SSM
version 4.0.

Netcool/SSM components
Specific functional or operational limitations exist for some components of
Netcool/SSM.

arithmetic subagent
NBS049761: The subagent causes the agent to crash when executing a deeply
recursive function because the stack size is too small.

ipconfig subagent
If the monitored host’s default gateway has multiple network interfaces that share
the same DNS name, the IP address indicated by the object srIpDefaultGateway
may vary. This occurs because the DNS server reports the IP address of each
interface in a ‘round-robin’ manner, resulting in a different IP address being
returned with each DNS lookup. This issue applies to all UNIX platforms except
Solaris.

Master agent
There are several known limitations of the master agent.
v NBS047807: If VACM is disabled, an attacker can get full access to the agent
with any SNMPv3 user name and by forcing the security level to noAuthNoPriv.
v NBS049017: The trapdest add command temporarily blocks the agent during
DNS lookup if an invalid hostname is specified.
v CR8014: The agent crashes when it runs out of memory, rather than reporting an
error and continuing to operate or exiting gracefully.

Netcool/ASM for Microsoft SQL Server
APAR IY95967/NBS049797: The subagent does not monitor Microsoft SQL Server
2005 correctly.

Netcool/ASM for Oracle
On Linux platforms, the Oracle OCI libraries, which the Netcool/ASM for Oracle
uses to interface with the database, contain a memory leak. Apply Oracle 9.2.0.4
patch to the installation.

Netcool/ASM for Sybase ASE
Automated deployment and configuration using Netcool/SM Configuration is not
supported for Netcool/ASM for Sybase ASE. If you deploy Netcool/ASM for
Sybase ASE using Netcool/SM Configuration, you must manually set the
SybaseHome inivar to the location of the target Sybase ASE installation.


Netcool/ASM for WebLogic
This release includes an updated version of the WebLogic performance monitoring
servlet, PerfMonitor.ear. When upgrading an existing Netcool/SSM installation that
uses Netcool/ASM for WebLogic to monitor WebLogic servers, you must redeploy
PerfMonitor.ear on each monitored server.

Using the WebLogic Administration Console, undeploy PerfMonitor on each
WebLogic server, then run the wl_setup script (located in the Netcool/SSM bin
directory) to redeploy PerfMonitor on those servers.

Netcool/ASM for WebSphere
This release includes an updated version of the WebSphere performance
monitoring servlet, PerfServlet.ear. When upgrading an existing Netcool/SSM
installation that uses Netcool/ASM for WebSphere to monitor WebSphere servers,
you must redeploy PerfServlet.ear on each monitored server.

Use the WebSphere administrative console to uninstall PerfServlet from each
server, then run the ws_setup script (located in the Netcool/SSM bin directory) to
redeploy PerfServlet on those servers.

programmable subagent
CR9048: The agent hangs when aborting a programmable control row that is
configured to execute a program which has created child processes (Windows
only).

svrsecurity subagent
There are several issues concerning the operation of the Server Security
(svrsecurity) subagent.

Login files

To monitor logins using svrsecurity, the following files must exist or be
symbolically linked to the real files for the subagent to work correctly:
v Linux: /var/log/lastlog
v Solaris: /var/adm/loginlog
v HPUX: /var/adm/acct/sum/loginlog

Login failure threshold on Solaris platforms

On Solaris platforms, the operation of the svrsecurity login failure detection is
different to that on other platforms. Normally the subagent generates a trap when
three failed logins are detected. However, on Solaris platforms the number of failed
logins that must be observed before a trap is generated depends on the value of
the retries parameter defined in the file /etc/default/login. If the value of this
parameter is greater than 3, a trap is not generated until this value is exceeded
(this occurs because the operating system does not write the number of login
failures to the disk until a breach has occurred). If the value of this parameter is 3
or lower, then the subagent behaves as it does on other platforms.


FIN, NULL, and Xmas port scans on Solaris 9 and 10

The Server Security subagent does not detect FIN, NULL, and Xmas port scans on
Solaris 9 and 10 because these operating systems provide automatic protection
against such attacks.

Installing Netcool/SSM
If the installation option string passed to the installer using the /z switch contains
an equal character (=), it must also contain a space character at some point,
otherwise the parameter string is not passed to install script correctly. This is a
known issue in InstallShield version 8.

Operating system limitations
Operating system limitations relate to the interaction between Netcool/SSM and
the operating system that is running on the machine on which Netcool/SSM is
installed.

UNIX
These limitations apply to Netcool/SSM on all UNIX platforms.

UNIX system date/time

On UNIX platforms, changing the system date/time can cause unexpected
behavior in the agent. This is because many events within the agent are scheduled
to perform actions at certain times. Changing the date/time effectively corrupts the
application runtime environment. Symptoms include hanging or spinning the
agent, data not being periodically updated. Agents running on Solaris platforms
are particularly sensitive to system date/time changes.

Note: This does not include changes made by NTP because these date/time
changes are gradual.

Linux
These limitations apply to Netcool/SSM on Linux platforms.

This section describes the known issues on Linux operating systems.

Core files

On Linux distributions that do not use the Native POSIX Threads Library (NPTL),
core files often do not contain any useful information about the application thread
that has crashed. If Netcool/SSM crashes, inspect the host system’s process status
list. The offending thread may still be resident in memory. In this case, rename the
existing core file and enter the command kill -ABRT <pid>. This produces a core
file for the offending thread, providing information useful for debugging.

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1, more informative core files are generated if you
change the following kernel variable using the command:
echo 1 > /proc/sys/kernel/core_uses_pid

This causes all processes to write core files with filenames core.pid, ensuring that
one thread does not accidentally overwrite the core file of another process.
Applying this change immediately and insert it into the file /etc/rc.d/rc.local.

Chapter 3. Known problems, limitations, and workarounds 25

Bonding driver virtual interface

The agent cannot detect the virtual interface formed by the bonding driver (for
example, bond0). The agent only reports interfaces with an assigned IP address.
Assign the interface a dummy IP address (for example, ifconfig bond0 1.1.1.1).
Ensure that the IP address you assign does not interfere with the routing table.

AIX
These limitations apply to Netcool/SSM on AIX platforms.

Low-level packet capture

It is not possible for the low-level packet capture code to capture the outbound
packets. There is no workaround to this issue at present. This affects all monitoring
activities running on AIX that are configured to monitor that same host’s outbound
network activity.

Terminate configuration command

The terminate configuration command terminates the agent; however, when you
issue this command, the AIX service controller is not informed that the agent has
terminated. Similarly, if you terminate the agent using the AIX command kill -9
on the agent process, the AIX service controller is not informed of this. In both
cases, the AIX service controller is not aware that the service has terminated;
however any attempt to stop it using the AIX command stopsrc -
s <service name> will fail.

If this situation arises, restart the host. To prevent this situation occurring, always
invoke the service controller when terminating the agent by using either of the
following commands:

stopsrc -c -s service name (kill -2 plus kill -9 on the named service)

stopsrc -f -s service name (kill -9 on the named service)

Core files

If the agent attempts to dump core and there is not enough disk space in the
partition in which the core file is being created then it will probably be lost or
useless for debug purposes. To prevent this, ensure that there is sufficient disk
space in the partition to hold a core file.

Windows
These limitations apply to Netcool/SSM on Windows platforms.

Registering the Netcool/SSM service on Windows

Under Windows 2000/XP/2003, registering service mode users that already exist
may cause inconsistencies to appear with the Service Controller, and manual
intervention may be required. This seems to be especially true for Domain users. It
is recommended that you use the default service user (that is, Local System).


Windows fault reports

Windows XP platforms provide a feature Report Faults to Microsoft, which is
enabled by default. If the agent crashes and the operating system creates a Dr
Watson dump, the dump file is often corrupted or truncated when Report Faults to
Microsoft is enabled.

To disable Report Faults to Microsoft:
1. In the Start menu select Settings → Control Panel → System.
2. Select the Advanced tab.
3. Click Error Reporting.
4. Select the Disable Error Reporting option.

Interaction with other applications
These limitations relate to the interaction between Netcool/SSM and other
applications that are running on the machine on which Netcool/SSM is installed.

Microsoft SNMP Service
Under Windows 2000/XP/2003, the Microsoft SNMP service which uses UDP port
161 will prevent the agent from running if it is active. You can instruct the
installation program to disable this service if it is detected at installation time.

Kaspersky® Anti-Virus software
On Windows platforms that are running Kaspersky Anti-Virus software there have
been issues when uninstalling the agent. This seems to happen because as
InstallShield performs the uninstallation operation it touches the executable images
installed, which in turn alerts the anti-virus software, which in turn is detected by
InstallShield. The latter complains that the image being uninstalled is in use but
allows the end user to complete the uninstall successfully. The message is benign
and can be ignored.

Microsoft® Exchange™
When you use the Netcool/ASM for Microsoft Exchange on Windows 2000/XP
platforms to monitor a Microsoft Exchange 5.5 SP3 server, the MTA may log an
event 1016 when it is writing an extensible counter to the Windows 2000 Server
Performance Monitor log. This in turn can fill the NT Event Log causing issues for
the serving host.

The cause of this behavior is not the Netcool/ASM for Microsoft Exchange. The
root cause is addressed by applying Microsoft Exchange Service Pack 4. This issue
is described further in the Microsoft knowledge base article 263112.

Veritas® NetBackup™
Some versions of Veritas NetBackup may hang if the agent is running when a
backup is performed. The agent creates a lock file under /var/spool/locks
containing the PID of the agent; this is normal behavior. It sets the permissions of
this file to enforce mandatory locking. Any attempt to open the file will hang until
the lock is released. To avoid this problem, configure Veritas NetBackup to exclude
this directory from the backup cycle.

Chapter 3. Known problems, limitations, and workarounds 27

Windows diskperf utility
On Windows 2000/XP/2003 platforms, the diskperf utility is configured by default
to never start. Post installation, it will be configured to start at boot. Although
Netcool/SSM does not require the host to be rebooted after installation, some disk
metrics, such as disk IO since the last host boot, will not have accurate data. This
can only be addressed by rebooting the host machine.

Configuration issues
These limitations relate to the configuration of Netcool/SSM and its components.

System resource usage
It is possible to configure the agent and its subagents in such a way that its
resource usage severely reduces the performance of the host system. For example,
monitoring system activity at too high a rate, or specifying resources to be
monitored at too coarse a level of granularity can consume excessive amounts of
system resources. Try to strike a balance between the number of objects monitored,
the polling interval, and the resource usage on the host on which the agent is
running.


Chapter 4. Support information
If you have a problem with your IBM software, you want to resolve it quickly. IBM
provides a number of ways for you to obtain the support you need.
v Searching knowledge bases: You can search across a large collection of known
problems and workarounds, Technotes, and other information.
v Obtaining fixes: You can locate the latest fixes that are already available for your
product.
v Contacting IBM Software Support: If you still cannot solve your problem, and
you need to work with someone from IBM, you can use a variety of ways to
contact IBM Software Support.

Frequently asked questions
What does the diskperfhelper.exe program do?

This program is only required on Windows 2000 platforms and is installed on your
system as a helper service for the System Resources subagent. The service collects
disk performance metrics and is required to load at boot time.

What about Microsoft SNMP service?

This service is provided by Microsoft to provide basic SNMP services.
Netcool/SSM is designed to be a replacement for this service, therefore Microsoft
SNMP must be disabled during or prior to the installation process.

What if I’m using a third-party MIB module which is usually loaded with the
Microsoft SNMP service?

The ntext subagent enables you to use third-party SNMP modules. See the
Netcool/SSM Administration Guide for details.

Why are some elements of the standard and vendor specific MIBs not
implemented (for example, hostres and sysres)?

Some MIB objects are not appropriate to particular platforms or there is no way for
Netcool/SSM to extract the values on that platform.

What is the difference between the ControlRowTimeout specified in the init.cfg
file and, for example, the transactionControlRequestTimeout in a transaction
control row?

ControlRowTimeout applies to all non-active control rows. All control rows consume
resources and over time it is not uncommon for existing ones to be deactivated or
created and forgotten about. Setting ControlRowTimeout controls how long the
agent will wait before purging these. A value of 0 implies all rows will be retained.

The transactionControlRequestTimeout object in a transaction control row covers
the time the transaction sub-agent will wait before deciding to end a transaction. If
packets that the transaction subagent expects get lost or if the application
generating the transactions dies, it can leave the subagent in a state where it is


trying to collect metrics on transactions that will never end. The
transactionControlRequestTimeout object controls that timeout period.

What is the sap.csv file in the config directory for?

The transaction subagent uses this file to map SAP transaction codes to
descriptions of those transactions. If a deployment is intended to monitor more
SAP transactions than are included in this .csv file, you can extend the file with the
appropriate types and descriptions.

Why does my Windows server seem to have several sessions open from
machines running the agent?

This occurs because the hostres subagent is attempting to query network drive
information. You can reduce the number of sessions created on the server by doing
any of the following:
v On the server, reduce the auto-disconnect timeout with the command:
net config server /autodisconnect:<minutes>
v Change the service user account under which the agent executes to be a domain
member.
v Run the agent in application mode.

Why can’t I see any information about network drives in hostres?

This occurs because the agent is running as a service user which does not have
domain privileges and hence can’t query the network drive. To correct this, run the
agent service as a user who is a domain member, or run the agent in application
mode.

Why does transaction subagent stop monitoring some transaction types?

When a control row is created to monitor particular transaction types, the subagent
can fail to capture and display the expected transaction type. The principal reason
for this is that the value of the control row’s transactionControlRequestTimeout
object is too small for the transaction type being monitored or the way the
transaction is configured to operate on the host under test.

For example, if a default transaction row is created to monitor POP & SMTP traffic
between two hosts and there is no such traffic before the request timeout expires
then the connection will timeout. When this occurs, an entry with the following
format is created in the agent.log file (if the agent is configured to operate at log
level 3 or higher):
<DateTime Stamp>: Timed out connection: <Connection endpoints>;
<Application Type> will be created in the agent.log file if it is configured
to operate at log level 3 or higher.

Why does the loopback interface in the MIB-2 interfaces ifTable have a speed of
0?

The agent uses low level system functions to determine the speed of the loopback
interface. The values returned on the different platforms and the semantics
associated with those values vary from platform to platform. By convention, if the
ifSpeed object has the value 0, this indicates ″as fast as possible″ for the platform
being monitored.


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