Attributes

This topic provides information about the types of attributes available and their naming conventions.

Overview

An attribute is the monitoring component of PATROL that is run by the PATROL Agent. Attributes use data collection commands to obtain data on a monitored system resource and then parse and process that data. Attribute values are collected, summarized, and stored on the computer where the PATROL Agent resides.

Navigation to the attributes differs depending on which platform you are using. For navigation instructions, see Accessing a parameter.

BMC PATROL for Microsoft WIndows Servers uses the following types of attributes:

• Collector attributes: A PATROL collector attribute executes commands and gathers data for a consumer attribute to display, often collecting many values. It does not display any values itself. As such, it does not have alarms or run any recovery actions. Collector attributes are defined in the collector's application class rather than in the applications for which they collect data. This avoids the situation in which a separate collector would execute for each application instance and negate the efficiency of the collector or consumer attribute. 
• Consumer attributes: A consumer attribute only displays a value that is collected by a collector attribute. A consumer attribute never issues commands; it is not scheduled for execution, but it has alarms and can run recovery actions. A consumer attribute cannot be updated directly by selecting an option on its display. To update a consumer attribute, you must execute the collector that gathers its data.
• Standard attributes: Standard attributes issue commands to collect data and display the data collected. They contain alarm definitions and can run alarm and warning actions.

Attribute naming conventions

Adding two prefixes to the root parameter name forms a KM for Windows attribute name. The first prefix identifies the application monitored by the attribute. The second prefix indicates which collector attribute gathers the data for the selected attribute.

A KM application attribute has the following form:
application_prefix collector_prefix attribute_name

For example, the attribute FilesSent in the FTP application is named FTPftpFilesSent. The capital "FTP" represents the NT_FTP application. The lowercase "ftp" represents the collector attribute, and "FTPFtpColl" associated with the FilesSent attribute.