Defining monitor policies

Monitor policies are a set of rules that enable administrators to deploy configurations to PATROL Agents using monitoring solutions. Monitor policies provide instructions and information about what information to monitor. For example, you want to configure all information about CPU and memory utilization of your Windows environment.

A monitor policy is applied to the PATROL Agents based on conditions such as Agent name, Agent port, Agent version, Agent tag, and so on. PATROL Agents collect performance data and generate events for availability metrics. 

When PATROL Agents are deployed and monitor policies are configured, the Agents receive the appropriate configuration and begin monitoring. When an existing policy is modified, the changes are automatically applied to the Agents.

On the Configuration > Monitor Policies page, the following monitor policies are available out-of-the-box:

• Predefined policy for Linux
• Predefined policy for Windows

To create a monitor policy

On the Configuration > Monitor Policies page, click Create, and follow these steps:

1. On the Create Monitoring Policy page, add a unique name and description for the monitoring policy. 
   BMC recommends that you organize policies according to the precedence numbers when creating and editing policies. You can also include policy-specific information in the policy names. For more information, see Policy precedence.

   Click here to view examples of naming a policy

   • Option 1: To enable easy sorting of policies, include the precedence number of a policy as a prefix in the policy naming as per the following format: <precedence number>_<policyname>.
     Examples:
     
     • 099_Basic_Event_Propagation_ALL_AGENTS
     • 599_Standard_Windows_OS_Monitoring
   • Option 2: To enable easy searching of policies, include policy-specific information in the policy naming. For example, you can easily find all Windows policies if the policies are named as follows:
     • 899_Windows2012_Service_Monitoring
     • 799_Windows2012_Standard_Monitoring
     • 699_Windows2008_SQLSrv_Monitoring

   
   

2. Add the associated user group for the policy. 
   An associated user group is the user group that the logged-on user belongs to. If the user belongs to multiple user groups, select the appropriate user group for the policy.
   

3.  

   If you want to share the policy with the user group that you selected, select the Share with User Group checkbox.
   

4.  

   Add a unique precedence number to the policy.
   You can add a custom value in this field, or use the arrows to increase or decrease the value.
   

5. If you want to enable the policy immediately, select Enable Policy. You can enable it later from the Monitor Policies page.
   

6. Create the PATROL Agent selection criteria based on which the policy must be applied to the Agents.

   Click here to create the agent selection criteria

   

   1. Select a property.

      Click here to know the property details

      Property	Description
      Agent Host Name	Host name of the computer on which the PATROL Agent is installed. Important: The value for the matches property must be a strict regular expression. Refer to the following regular expression examples that can be used: virtual_machine -- To select Agents that match the exact string "virtual_machine" .?virtual_machine.* -- To select Agents that match the sub-string "virtual_machine{*}" ^((?!clm-pun-s).)*$ -- To select Agents that do not match the sub-string  "clm-pun{*}"
      Agent Port	Port number through which the PATROL Agent listens for incoming connections from the PATROL console. Use port numbers from 1025 to 65535.
      Agent Version	Version of the PATROL Agent.
      Agent Operating System	Operating system of the computer on which the PATROL Agent is installed.
      Agent IP Address	IP address of the computer on which the PATROL Agent is installed. If you select the within operator for the Agent IP Address, only IPv4 range is supported.
      Agent Tag	Tag applied on the PATROL Agent. Important:  The agent tag value cannot contain special characters such as single quotation marks ('), double quotation marks ("), ampersand (&), angle brackets (< >), pipe (|), and braces ({ }).

   2. Select an operator to create the condition. The available operators depend on the property that you select.
   3. Specify a value for the selected property.
   4. (Optional) To add more than one condition, click ; to remove an existing condition, click .
   5. (Optional) To group the conditions, use the following parentheses and Boolean operators from their corresponding lists:
      
      • (
      • ((
      • (((
      • )
      • ))
      • )))
      • AND
      • OR

   
   

7. Add other configurations in any or all of the following tabs by clicking them:

   • Monitoring

     Do the following to configure a monitor type:

     1. Click Add Monitor Configuration.
     2. In the Add Monitoring Configuration dialog box, do the following:
        1. Select the monitoring solution name and version.
           A monitoring solution is the KM that you have deployed.
        2. Select the monitor profile and monitor type that you want to monitor.
           To view documentation about a monitor profile or monitor type, click the Help icon next to the list.

     1. 1. Specify values for additional configurations.
           To view information about an option, move the mouse over the option to view the tooltip. Use the monitor type documentation for more information about the configurations.
     2. To add the monitor type, click OK and Close or to stay on the same page to configure another monitor type, click OK.

   • Deactivate Collection

     Do the following to deactivate event and data collection:

     1. Click Deactivate Agent Side Collection, and select a solution and its version.
     2. Select a related monitor type from the list. In Scope, select one of the following options:
        • If you want to specifically filter data and events from an attribute, select Attribute, and then select an attribute from the Monitor Attribute list. The default value is All.

        • If you want to specifically filter data and events from an instance on the PATROL Agent, select Instance, and then enter the instance name in the Instance SID field. By default, the Monitor Attribute is set to All.

          Important

          The instance SID is not the monitoring instance name that is displayed in the BMC Helix Operations Management console.

          For the Instance SID field, you can also use a regular expression.

          If you want to use a regular expression, select the Is a Regular Expression check box.

          Note: The matches property

          The value for the matches property must be a strict regular expression. Given below are some examples of regular expressions that can be used:

          • CPU_0
            To select Agents that match the exact string "CPU_0"
          • .*?CPU_0.*
            To select Agents that match the sub-string "CPU_0"
          • ^((?!clm-pun).)*$
            To select Agents that do not match the sub-string "clm-pun"
     3. Save the configuration.

   • Polling Intervals

     Do the following to add an interval between consecutive polls:

     1. Click Add Polling Interval, and select values for all the options.
     2. Save the polling interval.

   • Configuration Variables

     Do the following to monitor configuration variables:

     1. Do one of the following:
        • Import configuration variables from a ruleset file (.cfg).

          1. 
             
             1. Click the Configuration Variables tab.
             2. On the Configuration Variable page, click the common action menu in the table and select Import.
             3. Browse for the configuration file (.cfg) to be imported.

             4. Click Open.
                The variables from the file are added to the table.
                
                

                Note: Supported operators

                The import operation supports only REPLACE, DELETE, and DELVAR operators. If the .cfg file contains the MERGE or APPEND operators, the file cannot be imported. You must delete these operators before importing the file.

        • Define individual configuration variables.

          1. 1. Click the Configuration Variables tab and click Add Configuration Variable.
             2. Enter the complete path of the variable starting with slash (/).
                The variable names are case sensitive. 
             3. Select one of the following operations:

             • 
               
               • REPLACE: Replaces the current value of the variable on the PATROL Agent if the variable already exists. Otherwise, a new variable is created with the specified value.
               • DELVAR: Deletes the variable from the PATROL Agent.
               • DELETE: Deletes the value of the variable, and the variable remains empty.

             1. Add a variable value.

                Note: Values for the defaultAccount and SecureStore variables

                • defaultAccount
                  For this configuration variable, specify the value in the userName/password format. The password can be a plain text or a PATROL Agent-encrypted string.
                  Examples:
                  patrol/patAdm1n
                  patrol/FA4E70ECEAE09E75A744B52D2593C19F
                • SecureStore
                  For this configuration variable, specify the value in the context/data format. The context and data can be a plain text or a PATROL Agent-encrypted string.
                  Examples:
                  MY_KM1;MY_KM2;MY_KM3/mysecretdata
                  “EDC10278901F8CB04CF927C82828595B62D25EC355D0AF38589CE4235A246F8C63F24575073E4ECD”
                  where “EDC10278901F8CB04CF927C82828595B62D25EC355D0AF38589CE4235A246F8C63F24575073E4ECD” is the encrypted form of "MY_KM1;MY_KM2;MY_KM3/mysecretdata"

                
                

     2. Save the configuration variable.

     Do the following to verify updated configuration variables:

     1. Click Configuration > Managed Devices.
     2. For the PATROL Agent where you want to verify the updated configurable variable, click the action menu and then click Query PATROL Agent.
     3. On the Agent Connection page, enter the PATROL Agent user name and password, and click Connect.
     4. In the Command field, click the  button.
     5. In the Select Command window, select All pconfig variables and click Apply.
        
        

     1. Click Execute. You can see all the configurable variables in the Results area. Verify the changes that you made.
        
        

     Do the following to delete configuration variables after disabling a policy:

     Configuration variables that are defined on PATROL agents are retained even after the policy is disabled. To delete the configuration variables, you must purge the PATROL Agent by using the following command:

     pconfig +PURGE -p <port> -host <hostname>

     By using this command, the configuration variable values of the PATROL Agent are restored to the default state, and the PATROL agent does not retain the previous configuration after an installation or an upgrade.

     BMC best practice

     • Avoid creating a policy with both monitoring configuration and a configuration variables. You can create separate policies for each of them.
     • To keep the PATROL Agent in sync with the policy configuration, change an existing configuration variable's operation to DELVAR instead of deleting it. After a configuration variable is deleted from the policy, you cannot perform any actions on it.
8. Save the monitoring policy.

To view monitoring policies

View all monitor policies on the Configuration > Monitor Policies page. 

If a PATROL Agent (responsible to monitor) is added to the authorization profile that you are a part of, you can view the policies created for the monitoring solution. You cannot view the policies if the PATROL Agent is removed from the authorization profile.

Click a policy name to see the View Monitoring Policy page. This page displays the general properties of the policy and the agent selection criteria that you used while creating the policy. It also shows other configurations that you made while creating the policy. If you have not configured a criterion, you can see the following message in the criterion area:

To edit a policy

1. On the Configuration > Monitor Policies page, click the action menu of the policy that you want to modify and select Edit.
2. Edit the policy and save the changes.

To copy a policy

Before copying the policy, ensure the following:

• The user that you plan to use in the new policy belongs to the associated user group in the original policy.
• The associated user group in the new policy can access the monitoring solutions and configurations of the original policy. Without this, the monitoring solutions and configurations will not be available in the new policy.

On the Configuration > Monitor Policies page, click the action menu of the policy that you want to copy and select Copy. The Create Policy page is displayed with the configurations of the copied policy. You can modify the configurations according to your requirements.  If you have configured credentials in the policy, ensure that you update the credentials to access the host. If you have configured credentials in the policy, ensure that you update the credentials to access the host.

To filter polices and viewing applicable Agent details

Go to Configuration > Monitor Policies to view all monitor polices. You can filter the policies on this page to view applicable Agent details.

• To filter policies, use any or all of the following check boxes:
  • Enabled
  • Disabled
  • Shared
  • Not Shared
• To view applicable Agent details:
  1. Click a policy action menu.
  2. Click View Applicable Agents to view the information on the Selected Agents page.
     Use the Search Agent Name field to search for specific agents.  

To enable or disable a policy

To enable a policy, on the Configuration > Monitor Policies page, click the action menu of a disabled policy and click Enable. 

To disable a policy, on the Configuration > Monitor Policies page, click the action menu of an enabled policy and click Disable.

After enabling or disabling a policy, ensure that you wait for a few minutes before changing the status again.

To delete a policy

On the Configuration > Monitor Policies page follow these steps:

1. If the policy that you want to delete is enabled, disable it.
2. Click the action menu for the policy, and click Delete and then click Yes on the confirmation message window.

Policy precedence

Policy precedence is the priority of a policy and ranges from 0 to 999. A lower number indicates a higher priority. Policy precedence controls the configuration applied to the PATROL Agents and BMC Helix Operations Management servers when there are conflicting or overlapping configurations defined between two or more monitor policies.

If two policies attempt to manage the same variable, such as /AgentSetup/historyRetentionPeriod, the PATROL Agent resolves the conflict by evaluating the precedence of the involved policies. Consider the following examples:

BMC recommends that you define a precedence numbering system. This can help you group related monitor policies to the numeric ranges of the precedence numbers.

See the following table for some suggestions: