File-based configuration

This topic provides an overview on how you can configure devices from files by configuring file based monitoring. BMC PATROL for Light Weight Protocols provides the ability to configure devices from files. You can create your own files to define all devices you want to ping or monitor. The PATROL Agent will read the configuration settings from these files and configures BMC PATROL for Light Weight Protocols to monitor the devices within each file. You can configure multiple files, and these files will be consolidated to a group. 

Configuring network devices to be pinged

You can configure network devices or network segment to be pinged using file-based configuration. The device to be pinged automatically place the files at %PATROL_HOME%\PPM\Conf\ImportDevices\ directory. 

If you do not provide values for the following configuration fields in the text file, it will take its respective default values:

• Protocol
• Dynamic IP
• Poll interval (sec)
• Transmit packet size (bytes)
• Retries count
• Timeout (ms)

You can find the instruction on how to prepare your file based configuration in the %PATROL_HOME%\PPM\Conf\ImportDevice\FileBaseConfiguration_ Instruction.txt file, which is as follows:

#
#
########################################################
## Instructions:
## Create file base configuration to ping multi devices. 
########################################################
#
# Create your own files base configuration to define all devices you would like to ping.
# Patrol agent will read from those files and configure to monitor all of the devices within each file.
# File name should be meaningful, for each configured file, instance will be created, the name of the instance will be the file name. 
# All of the devices within this file will be grouped under this instance.
#
#
# Patrol agent will add new devices automatically from new files.
# Patrol agent will remove devices automatically from files that were removed.
# Patrol agent will add/delete/modify devices automatically from files that were modify.
#
# All files should be located within %PATROL_HOME%/PPM/Conf/ImportDevices directory, on the same location as the instructions file (FileBaseConfiguration_Instructions.txt).
# Configuration files should have the .txt extension, e.g. : adprod.txt 
#
###############
# File content:
###############
#
# DeviceName/IP*Forced IP Address, Protocol, IsDynamic, PollInterval, Timeout, TransmitPackageSize, RequestCount
#
# DeviceName/IP*Forced IP Address =	Device name/IP*Forced IP Address(Forced IP Address is optional, if empty then the Device name/IP should be a real host name or IPAddress) 
# Protocol =				Protocol 1(IPV4), 2(IPV6)
# IsDynamic =				Whether static or dynamic IP addresses 1(Yes), or 2(No)
# PollInterval =			Poll interval time in seconds to ping the device - 10(Min), 3600(Max)
# Timeout =				Timeout in milliseconds to wait for each reply
# TransmitPackageSize =			Bytes to send - 32(Min), 65500(Max)
# RequestCount =			Number of echo requests to send 1 (Min), 10 (Max)
#
#
##################################################################################
# In case of missing configuration details default values will be set accordantly:
##################################################################################
#
# Protocol =             Protocol 1(IPV4)
# IsDynamic =            2(No)
# PollInterval =         300 seconds
# Timeout =              1000 milliseconds
# TransmitPackageSize =  32 bytes
# RequestCount =         4
#
#
##############
### Examples:
##############
#
# myAliasNameServerA*10.128.64.120,1,2,300,1000,32,4
# myAliasNameRealServerB,1,1,300,1000,32,4
# myAliasNameRealServerC
# myAliasNameServerD*10.128.64.120
# myAliasNameRealServerE,,1
#
#
#############
### Warning: 
#############
#Empty line is not allowed, please use '#' as a comment.

Configuring network devices for monitoring

You can configure network devices or network segment using file-based configuration. The device configuration details must be saved in a text file and located at %PATROL_HOME%\PSM\Conf\ImportDevices\ directory. In CMA, you can enable file-based configuration by enabling the Import devices from files option. In PCM,  you can enable file-based configuration by replacing 0 value for the configuration variable, /PSM/PSM_Root/ReadFromFile.

You can find the instruction on how to prepare your file based configuration in the %PATROL_HOME%\PSM\Conf\ImportDevice\FileBaseConfiguration_ Instruction.txt file, which is as follows:

###################################################################
## Instructions:
## Create file base configuration to monitor multi network devices. 
###################################################################
#
# Create your own files base configuration to define all devices you would like to monitor.
# Patrol agent will read from those files and configure to monitor all of the devices within each file.
# File name should be meaningful, for each configured file, instance will be created and the name of the instance will be the file name. 
# All of the devices within this file will be grouped under this instance.
#
#
# Patrol agent will add new devices automatically from new files.
# Patrol agent will remove devices automatically from files that were removed.
# Patrol agent will add/delete/modify devices automatically from files that were modified.
#
# All files should be located within %PATROL_HOME%/PSM/Conf/ImportDevices directory, on the same location as the instructions file (FileBaseConfiguration_Instructions.txt).
# Configuration files should have the .txt extension, e.g.: adprod.txt 
# 
#
#################
### Warnings:####
#################
#
#			1. Empty line is not allowed, please use '#' as a comment.
#			2. The character '/' and '|' are not allowed, device that will be configured with those characters will be ignored. 
#			3. The character ',' is allowed only to separate between settings in the device configuration details.
#
#
#########################
### Security warning:####
#########################
#			
#			File based configuration might contains security settings details such as: community string, V3 user password and privacy password.
#			Security settings details are not encrypted on the file based configuration and exposed to each user with login access to this server.
#			Using the shared configuration feature, you may define the security settings details as shared configuration, and leave those field blanks in the file. 
#
#
#
#
#####################
### File content: ###
#####################
#
# Device name/IP,NativeMonitors*CustomMonitors,Forced IP Address,Port,Poll interval,Retries,Timeout,Community string,Version,Authorization protocol,Authorization user,Authorization password,Privacy protocol,Privacy password
#
# Device name/IP                 =	Real Device name/IP address or an alias name, if you provide alias name then Forced IP address must be provided
#
# NativeMonitors*CustomMonitors  =	Native and custom monitors are separated by the star '*' character (native monitors provided by BMC and custom monitors defined by the end user).
#					For multiple native or/and custom monitors use the semicolon ';' character.
#
#					Select from the list the native monitors you want to configure on the particular network device: 
#					SNMPAgentAvailability;InterfaceMIB;CiscoLocalInterfaces;CiscoRouter;F5BigIP;HostMIB;RMON;TCP
#
#					In case you want to configure few custom monitors (CustomMonitor_1;CustomMonitor_2;CustomMonitor_N), 
#					Append the star '*' character and the list of the custom monitors names to the native monitors list.
#
#					Example: 
#					To configure the native monitors: InterfaceMIB and SNMPAgentAvailability and CiscoRouter
#					And the custom monitors		: CustomMonitor_1;CustomMonitor_2;CustomMonitor_N
#
#					Enter the following:
#					InterfaceMIB;SNMPAgentAvailability;CiscoRouter*CustomMonitor_1;CustomMonitor_2;CustomMonitor_N					
#
#
# Forced IP Address               =     Provide the device IP address only if the device name configured with the alias name
# Port                            =     Port number on which the SNMP agent is running (161)
# Poll interval                   =     Poll interval time in seconds to collect data on the target device
# Retries                         =     Number of times before considering SNMP agent service is not responding 
# Timeout                         =     Timeout in seconds
# Community string                =     Community string of the SNMP agent
# Version                         =     SNMP version: 1, 2(2c), 3
#
#
# Authorization protocol          =     SHA or MD5 (only for V3)
# Authorization user              =     User name, the security name to connect with (only for V3) 
# Authorization password          =     User password (only V3)
# Privacy protocol                =     DES or AES (only V3)
# Privacy password                =     Privacy password (only V3)
#
#
#
###############################################################################################################################
# Shared configuration can be defined through a policy and applied on devices that are having less configuration than required.
# Use this feature in case you are having shared configuration details cross all of your network devices. 
###############################################################################################################################
#
#
#
##############
### Examples:
##############
#
# Example 1.
# Device to configured with SNMP V3 and with monitors InterfaceMIB and Custom monitor named PowerSupply
# myRealServerA,InterfaceMIB*PowerSupply,,161,300,2,1,public,3,SHA,yossi,yossi1234,DES,zadok
#
#
# Example 2.
# Device to configured with SNMP V2 and with monitors CiscoRouter and Custom monitor named PowerSupply
# myRealServerB,InterfaceMIB*PowerSupply,,161,300,2,1,public,2
#
#
# Example 3.
# Device to configured with shared configuration
# myRealServerC,InterfaceMIB
#
#
# Example 4.
# Device to configured with shared configuration and overwrite the community string
# myAliasServerA,InterfaceMIB,10.64.1.124,,,,,public
#
#
# Example 5
# Device to configured with shared configuration and overwrite the port
# myRealServerF,InterfaceMIB,,161
#
#