About the mcxa.conf file

The adapters are configured in a single configuration file,installationDirectory\pw\server\etc\mcxa.conf, by default. You can use other configuration files by starting the Perl process with the CLI -c option.

Configuration file structure

The following figure shows the structure of the default adapters configuration file, mcxa.conf.

mcxa.conf file structure

# Unnamed section is considered as [default]
# [default] is optional
<global_parameter1> = <gval1>
<global_parameter2> = <gval2>
# ...
[1st Adapter]
<ada1_param1> = <a1val1>
<ada1_param2> = <a1val2>
# ...
[2nd Adapter]
<ada1_param1> = <a1val1>
<ada1_param2> = <a1val2>
# ...

Generally, global parameters either apply to the adapter engine or serve as default parameters for all specific adapters. Specific parameters for the specific adapters are located after the [eventadapter90trial:...] adapter sections.

The adapters are specified by the Engine parameter:

Engine = <engine_module>

<engine_module> is the name of the Perl module that is loaded by the Engine Manager Perl module. It must be located in the standard Perl library directory or in a subdirectory of installationDirectory\pw\server\lib\perl. It is usually user defined. The predefined default engines are as follows:

Engine = MA::ELogfile for any log file management, including UNIX syslog
Engine = MA::ESnmpTrap for SNMP trap management
Engine = MA::EEventLog for Perl EventLog for Windows management

The IP Adapter definitions vary slightly, with the inclusion of Adapter:: in the path.

Engine = MA::Adapter::TcpClient
Engine = MA::Adapter::TcpServer
Engine = MA::Adapter::Telnet
Engine = MA::Adapter::UdpClient
Engine = MA::Adapter::UdpServer

For example, you can configure several identical adapters in mcxa.conf to monitor several log files or to listen from several SNMP ports.

The name of the destination cell is provided in the common parameter, ServerName. It can be identified in the specific section so that different adapters can send events to different cells. In addition, ServerName can contain the names of several cells, separated by colons. In this case, the adapter tries to send events to one the cells in the list, always trying the first cell (the primary cell) in the list when any other cell goes down.

Other information about the configuration, the parameters list, and examples are located in the header of the mcxa.conf file.

Configuration file definitions

The mcxa.conf file contains comments, sections, and parameter definitions.

Comments

Anything that follows the hash # character on a line is ignored, including the # character, unless it is included inside single or double quotation marks.

Warning

BMC Software recommends that you do not insert comments on lines that contain quoted values. In ambiguous cases, quotation marks take precedence, which might cause unintended results.

Sections

The configuration file is divided into sections beginning with the default section at the beginning of the file. Each subsequent section represents an instance of a specific adapter. An adapter section begins with a section name in square brackets [] and ends at the beginning of another section or at the end of the file.

Configuration file parameters

The configuration file primarily contains parameter definitions in the form of

<param> = <value>

The <param> and <value> variables are defined as follows:

Variable	Description
`<param>`	The parameter name. It cannot contain blank spaces.
`<value>`	The parameter value. The first character of `<value>` is the first character of the line that is not blank and not a pound sign (`#`). `<value>` can be enclosed within double or single quotation marks.

The following figure shows examples of parameters and values. Section headers that indicate the type of entity being described with the parameters.

Parameter and value examples

[TcpClient]
Engine = MA::Adapter::TCPClient
Parser = MySeparatorParser
MapFile = mctcpclt.map
RemoteHost = localhost
RemotePort = 13       # date/time service
RemotePort = 13       # date/time service
[MyTcpServer]
Engine = MA::Adapter::TcpServer
MaxClients = 10
RestartInterval = 30
MapFile = mctcpsrv.map
LocalHost = 127.0.0.5
LocalPort = 1999
Parser = MyFixedWidthParser

msend command configuration

Events produced by the adapters are sent to the cell with the cell msend command. To set up non-default parameters, configure msend with installationDirectory\pw\server\etc\msend.conf or installationDirectory\pw\server\etc\mclient.conf.