Configuring and maintaining monitor policy configurations

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.

For instructions on defining monitor policies, see Defining-monitor-policies.

This topic provides information about the configurations that you can specify while defining a monitor policy. You can configure and maintain the following items for a monitor policy:

  • (Mandatory) Monitoring configuration
  • Restricting data collection
  • Polling interval
  • Configuration variables


Before you begin

Define a monitor policy. For instructions, see Defining-monitor-policies.


To configure the monitoring solution

A monitoring solution is a pre-defined set of metrics that monitor the health and performance of a specific device or service. BMC monitoring solutions are composed of monitor types and attributes.

It is mandatory to configure the monitoring solution. After you configure the monitoring solution in the policy, the system understands the monitoring solution to monitor through the policy.

Perform the following steps to configure the monitoring solution:

  1. While creating or editing a monitor policy, click the Monitoring tab.
  2. Click Add Monitor Configuration.
  3. 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. 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.
  3. (Optional) For the KMs that support file-based monitoring, add the configuration files while creating the monitor policy by performing the following steps.
    You can upload configuration files only on PATROL Agents version 23.3.00 or later.
    1. After all the configurations are added, click Yes to the message asking if you want to upload the configuration file.
      If the KM does not support file-based monitoring, you will not see the message.
      The Monitor Configuration Files dialog box opens.
    2. Click Add.
    3. In the Target File Path field, select the path of the target monitoring solution that will use the configuration files.

    4. In the File field, select the configuration file from the local drive. 

      Important

      The file size of all files combined must be less than 1 MB.

    5. Click Add.
    6. (Optional) To upload another file, repeat steps c to f.
      ImportantYou can add or edit the configuration files only for PATROL Agents version 23.3.00 or later. If a PATROL Agent is upgraded to version 23.3.00 after you created and enabled a monitor policy, you must disable the policy and enable it again to be able to upload configuration files from the monitor policy.


To restrict data collection

When you configure a monitor policy, data is collected by the PATROL Agents on monitor types. Monitor types (also referred to as Application Classes) are the object class to which the application instances belong. A monitor type is a way of classifying the data that is to be collected.

The collected data is sent to BMC Helix Operations Management. If you do not want to collect data on all attributes in an instance, you can restrict the data from being sent to BMC Helix Operations Management by deactivating Agent-side data collection. 

You can configure the following types of filters to restrict data:

  • Attribute-level filter - When you apply this filter, only the instance information is sent to BMC Helix Operations Management. Information about the attributes of the instance is not sent to BMC Helix Operations Management.
  • Instance-level filter - When you apply this filter, information about attributes and instances is not sent to BMC Helix Operations Management. If you have instances in a parent-child hierarchy, you must configure instance-level filters separately for each sub-node of the parent and child.

Perform the following steps to restrict data collection:

  1. While creating or editing a monitor policy, click the Deactivate Collection tab.
  2. Click Deactivate Agent Side Collection, and select a solution and its version.
  3. 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"
  4. Save the configuration.

You can also filter monitor attributes after you create the monitor policy. For more information, see Restricting-data-collection-for-monitor-attributes.


To configure polling intervals

A polling interval is the frequency at which you want to collect data. In a monitor policy, you can specify the time interval between consecutive data polls. If you don't specify the polling interval, the default polling interval of the monitoring solution is considered.

Perform the following steps to add a polling interval to the monitor policy:

  1. While creating or editing a monitor policy, click the Polling Intervals tab.
  2. Click Add Polling Interval, and select values for all the options.
  3. Save the polling interval.


To configure configuration variables

The PATROL Agent configuration is saved in a set of configuration variables that are stored in the Agent's configuration database. You can control the PATROL Agent configuration by changing the values of these configuration variables. After you define a configuration variable, the definitions are enabled on the PATROL Agent when the policy is applied to it. Configuration variables that are defined on PATROL agents are retained even after the policy is disabled. However, you can delete the configuration variables by purging the PATROL Agent.

You can add configuration variables in one of the following ways

  • Importing configuration variables from a ruleset file (.cfg)
  • Adding configuration variables from the Add Configuration Variable dialog box.

Importing configuration variables

Perform the following steps to import configuration variables:

  1. While creating or editing a monitor policy, 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.

Adding configuration variables from the Add Configuration Variable dialog box

Perform the following steps to import configuration variables:

  1. While creating or editing a monitor policy, click the Configuration Variables tab and click Add Configuration Variable.
  2. 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

  3. 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"


  4. Save the configuration variable.
  5. Verify the updated configuration variable on the PATROL Agent. Perform the following steps:
    1. Go to 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 select_button.png button.
    5. In the Select Command window, select All pconfig variables and click Apply.
      pa_select_command.png
    1. Click Execute. You can see all the configurable variables in the Results area. Verify the changes that you made.
      pconfig_result.png

Deleting configuration variables

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 configuration after a re-installation or an upgrade.


 

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