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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 documentationMonitoring 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.

Important

If PATROL Agents have been restarted in bulk, there might be a delay in the discovery of PATROL Agents and the time when they appear on the Agents page. For more information, see Starting and stopping the PATROL Agent.


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You can perform the following operations on PATROL Agents:


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
  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


Viewing 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 conditions

      You can use multiple conditions to filter Agents. 

      Example

      You want to filter a PATROL Agent with the following conditions:

      • Agent host name must start with clm.
      • The Agent must have the Linux monitoring solution installed.
      • The version of the monitoring solution must be 22.4.12.

      To get the results, use the following filter conditions:

      agent_filter_conditions.png

      Depending on the output that you need, you can filter Agents based on the monitoring solution name, version, or both.

    • 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




 

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