Custom configuration objects

BMC Server Automation provides a set of custom configuration objects that are available on all Application Servers and managed servers running the current release.

This topic includes the following sections:

Custom configuration object distribution

BMC Server Automation provides the following methods for gaining use of custom configuration objects:

Standard agent installation — Some custom configuration objects are automatically installed when you install an agent. These objects allow you to obtain information from managed servers.
Requires distribution — Some custom configuration objects are available in the Configuration Object Dictionary but must be manually distributed to managed servers before you can use them. See Creating or modifying a Distribute Configuration Objects Job.

There are special considerations for custom configuration objects when upgrading agents to a later version. See Upgrading custom configuration objects.

Custom object servers

A process called the custom object server manages actions on the agent for some types of custom configuration objects. See Custom configuration object list for a list of custom configuration objects that use the custom object server. In addition to that list, custom configuration objects that run in conjunction with other products such as BMC Application Automation may also use the custom object server.

Note

To communicate properly with the custom object server, in some situations you must ensure that users on servers to which roles are mapped have write permission to the RSCD agent's installation directory. This requirement is necessary when all of the following are true:

The server is running a Windows operating system.
Agent access control lists (ACLs) have been pushed to the server.
A role defined in BMC Server Automation is mapped to a Microsoft Windows user on the server.
The Windows user is not a member of the server's Administrators group.

Custom configuration object list

The following table lists all standard custom configuration objects. If you are using associated products, such as BMC Application Automation, other custom configuration objects may be installed or available as part of that product.

Object type	Available as part of agent installation	Requires distribution	Uses custom object server
BLPackages	yes; on all OSs
Daemons	yes; on UNIX platforms
Hardware Information	yes; on all OSs
Processes	yes; on UNIX platforms
UNIX Groups	yes; on UNIX platforms
UNIX Users	yes; on UNIX platforms
Active Directory		yes
Global Zone		yes
IBM Configuration		yes
Microsoft SCVMM		yes	yes
RHEV (Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization)		yes	yes
RHEL KVM		yes	yes
VMware vCenter Server		yes	yes
Citrix XenServer		yes	yes

For additional information about setting up the Active Directory object, see Setting up an Active Directory object. Besides the Active Directory object, all other custom configuration objects that are provided in the Configuration Object Dictionary are used for virtual environments. For information about setting them up, see Setting up BMC Server Automation for virtual environments.

Actions with UNIX objects

A standard installation of an agent on any UNIX platform includes custom configuration objects that let you take the following actions:

Kill UNIX processes
Set UNIX passwords and password states
Stop, start, restart, and reload UNIX daemons (including a start with dependencies for Solaris 10)

Where to go from here

See the following topics for more information about custom configuration objects:

For information about jobs to distribute and manage custom configuration objects, see Jobs to manage administrative tasks.