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Viewing and filtering Agents

A PATROL Agent is a systems, applications, and event management tool. It provides an environment where you can monitor the status of every vital resource in the distributed environment you are managing.

PATROL Agents monitor the IT environment with the help of knowledge modules or monitoring solutions. A Knowledge Module (KM) or a monitoring solution is a set of files from which a PATROL Agent receives information about resources running on a monitored computer. A KM file can contain the actual instructions for monitoring objects or simply a list of KMs to load.

Related topics

PATROL Agent documentation
Monitoring solution documentation

As an administrator, select Configuration > Agents to view and manage PATROL Agents. An entry for a PATROL Agent is added to the page when you deploy the Agent.

managed_devices_home.png

User interface element

Description

Name

Host name of the server where the PATROL Agent is installed. An icon is shown against each Agent to depict its connection status:

  • pa_connected_icon.png: Connected
  • pa_disconnected_icon.png: Disconnected

Groups

Keywords or labels that identify and categorize or group PATROL Agents

IP Address

The IP address of the server where the Agent is installed

OS

The operating system that runs on the host server

Version

The PATROL Agent version

Deploy Status

The icon that displays the deploy and install status of the Agent. For more information, see Configuring-deployable-packages.
If a PATROL Agent's status remains Disconnected continuously for 60 days, the Agent is automatically deleted within the next 24 hours.

Additional Info

Icon that indicates the following information:

  • pa_mfd_icon.png: Marked for delete
    When the PATROL Agent is deleted from a tenant, the devices or monitor entities that are associated with the PATROL Agent are deleted. Also, any alarm events that are associated with the deleted entity are deleted on the Events page. The reason for the alarm event closure is displayed on the Logs and Notes tab on the Event Details page. For more information, see Viewing-or-adding-notes-to-an-event.
    Important: If a PATROL Agent is in the Disconnected state, the monitored objects and devices associated with it are marked for deletion. If the Agent remains in the Disconnected state for 60 days, the monitored objects, devices, and the PATROL Agent are automatically deleted in the following order:
    1. The monitored objects associated with the devices in the PATROL Agent
    2. The devices associated with the PATROL Agent
    3. The PATROL Agent
  • pa_no_pol_icon.png: Agent not managed by policies

Policy Status

Status of the policies that are applied on the Agent. Hover over the following icons to know the list of policies that are applied on the Agent:

  • pa_pol_applied_icon.png: Policy successfully applied
  • pa_pol_failed_icon.png: Policy could not be applied

You can perform the following operations on PATROL Agents:

  • Deploy and install packages
  • Uninstall monitoring solutions
  • Run a query on the PATROL Agent
  • View the Agent configuration history
  • Manage Agent filters
  • View the deployment and installation summary of all Agents
  • Save the Agent page as preference

To deploy and install packages

  1. Male sure that a PATROL Agent is installed.
  2. In BMC Helix Operations Management, go to Configuration > Agents.
  3. Click the action menu of a PATROL Agent and click Deploy and Install Packages.
    agent_action_menu.png
  4. On the Deploy and Install Packages page, select the packages that you want to install and click Deploy and Install.

To uninstall monitoring solutions

The manage_patrol_agent permission is required to uninstall monitoring solutions. To view a list of all permissions in BMC Helix Operations Management, see Roles-and-permissions. 

  1. In BMC Helix Operations Management, go to Configuration > Agents.
  2. Click the action menu of a PATROL Agent and click Uninstall Monitoring Solutions.
    agent_action_menu.png
  3. Select the solution to uninstall and click Continue.
  4. Click OK to uninstall the solution.

Running a query on PATROL Agents

This option is available only for PATROL Agents that are in the connected state.

You can run Agent Query Tool (AQT) PATROL Script Language (PSL) commands on PATROL Agents by using the Agent Query Tool and view the results in the tool. You can also perform the following actions by using the tool:

  • Restart the Agent. Use the reinitialize_agent_button.jpg button.
  • Reload the Agent. Use the  reload_agent_button.jpgbutton.
  • Stop the Agent. Use the kill_agent_button.jpg button.

You can also view an audit trail of the AQT commands in BMC Helix Dashboards.

To run a query on a PATROL Agent

  1. In BMC Helix Operations Management, go to Configuration > Agents.
  2. Click the action menu of a PATROL Agent and click Query PATROL Agent.
    agent_action_menu.png
  3. On the Agent Connection page, enter the PATROL Agent user name and password, and click Connect.
  4. In the Command box, do one of the following:

    • Manually enter a PSL command.
      In the Command box, type the command and press Enter or click Execute. For example, %DUMP ALL. The results are displayed. For more information about PSL commands, see PATROL Script Language overview and functions.

    • Click select_button.png and select a query from the out-of-the-box PSL commands list.
      In the Select Command dialog box, select a command and click Apply.

      Click here to view a list of available commands

      Command

      Description

      Active/ Running KMs details

      Shows all the knowledge modules (KMs) that are currently loaded on the selected PATROL Agent

      Agent Information

      Shows the PATROL Agent information: host, IP address, port, version, and OS version.

      All pconfig variables

      Shows the PATROL configuration data currently loaded on the selected PATROL Agent

      Disabled KMs

      Shows all the knowledge modules that are disabled on the selected PATROL Agent

      Force Discovery

      Triggers discovery of all instances configured on the selected PATROL Agent

      History Retention

      Shows the number of days that data collection history is saved on the collection PATROL Agent

      Last 20 Parameter Alarm/Warning Events

      Shows the last 20 parameters that were triggered with alarm or warning events on the selected PATROl Agent

      PATROL SID Report

      Shows all of the PATROL Agent's created instances and their SIDs You can use this to easily find the SID you need to create a filter for a specific instance.

      Preloaded KMs - All -Policy+Local

      Shows all the preloaded KMs (local and policy) configured on the selected PATROL Agent

      Preloaded KMs - Locally configured

      Shows all the locally-configured preloaded KMs on the selected PATROL Agent

      Preloaded KMs - Policy configured

      Shows all the policy-configured preloaded KMs on the selected PATROL Agent

      Refresh Parameters

      Rrefreshes all the collection parameters for the KMs configured on the selected PATROL Agent to get the latest data.

  5. Click Execute. The command and its results are displayed.

Viewing the audit trail of AQT commands

Use the BMC Helix Audit Dashboard in BMC Helix Dashboards to view the following information:

  • The AQT login request sent by a user
  • The response of the login request
  • An AQT command sent by a user
  • The response of the command

For instructions on opening the BMC Helix Audit Dashboard and for other details, see BMC Helix Audit Dashboard.

 The following image displays the audit trail of AQT commands in the BMC Helix Audit Dashboard. Note that the selected resource type is AQT COMMAND.

audit_trail_dashboard_aqt.png

To view the Agent configuration history

This option is available only for connected Agents. To view the Agent configuration history, select Configuration > Agents, click the device action menu, and click Show History for Applied Configurations.

The manage_patrol_agent permission is required to view the Agent configuration history. To view a list of all permissions in BMC Helix Operations Management, see Roles-and-permissions.

Managing Agent filters

By default, the maximum number of PATROL Agents that can be displayed on the Agents page is 2000. If you have more Agents, create filters to view them.

To create Agent filters

  1. In BMC Helix Operations Management, go to Configuration > Agents.
  2. Click the Agent action menu and click Create Agent Filter.
    agent_main_action_menu.png
  3. Perform one of the following actions:

    • Click Import Conditions from a Policy and select a policy. Define additional Agent filter properties and conditions if required.

      Details about Agent filter properties

      Property

      Description

      Agent Host Name

      Host name of the computer on which the PATROL Agent is installed.

      Note:

      • The value for the matches property must be a strict regular expression. Some examples of regular expressions 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).)*$  -- To select Agents that do not match the sub-string  "clm-pun"
      • The value of the in list operator can be a comma-separated list of Agent host names. You cannot provide host names exceeding the limit of 4000 characters (including the comma separator and blank space). 
        Example: Suppose you want to add the Agents named, vw-pun-662266, virtual-mc-122, and win-clm-3355. In this scenario, you can provide the following Agent selection criteria:
        Agent Host Name in list vw-pun-662266, virtual-mc-122, win-clm-3355

      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 Agent IP Address in the range condition, only IPv4 range is supported.

      Agent Tag

      Tag applied on the PATROL Agent.

      Note: The agent tag value cannot contains special characters such as, single quotation marks ('), double quotation marks ("), ampersand (&), angle brackets (< >), pipe (|), and braces ({ }).

    • Click Define Conditions and add conditions for the filter.
  4. Save the filter.
  5. Add a name for the filter and click Ok.
    The filter is applied to all PATROL Agents on the Agents page.

To modify filters

  1. In BMC Helix Operations Management, go to Configuration > Agents.
  2. Click the Agent action menu and click View Saved Filters.
    agent_main_action_menu.png
  3. Click a filter action menu, and click Edit.
  4. Make your changes and click Update.

To delete filters

  1. In BMC Helix Operations Management, go to Configuration > Agents.
  2. Click the Agent action menu and click View Saved Filters.
    agent_main_action_menu.png
  3. Click a filter action menu, and click Delete.

To view  the deployment and installation summary of all Agents

  1. In BMC Helix Operations Management, go to Configuration > Agents.
  2. Click the Agent action menu and click View Deployment and Installation Summary.
    agent_main_action_menu.png
    You can view the summary on the Deployment and Installation Summary page.
  3. On the Deployment and Installation Summary page, click the Export export the summary to a .csv file.
    export_button.png

To save the Agent page as a preference

You can save the current Agent page display as a preference. 

  1. In BMC Helix Operations Management, go to Configuration > Agents.
  2. Click the Agent action menu and click Save As Preference.
    agent_main_action_menu.png

 

 

Tip: For faster searching, add an asterisk to the end of your partial query. Example: cert*

BMC Helix Operations Management 24.3