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Enable KM with metadata

KM metadata represents the set of characteristics of a KM and its parameters. Starting from the following versions of the product, a KM should be enabled with metadata. A metadata provides valuable information that can be used to perform effective probable-cause-analysis:

  • BMC ProactiveNet Performance Management version 8.5.00 and later.
  • TrueSight Infrastructure Management version 10.0 and later.

For example, for a KM, the MetaKMCategory metadata attribute denotes the category of monitor type (such as SYSTEM, DATABASE, and NETWORK). A KM that provides its category information through metadata, enables the BMC ProactiveNet Performance Management or TrueSight Infrastructure Management analytics engine to determine a suitable heuristic methodology based on its category. For information about the KM metadata attribute specifications, see Application class attribute specifications.

Note

Monitor types in ProactiveNet Performance Management or in TrueSight Operations Management are referred as application classes in PATROL Agent. Likewise, attributes in ProactiveNet Performance Management or in TrueSight Operations Management are referred as parameters in PATROL Agent.

Similarly, for a parameter, the metadata attributes such as Key-Performance-Indicator and Availability enable the analytics engine to determine the nature and type of the parameter and adopt the appropriate probable-cause-analysis methods. For information about the parameter metadata attribute specifications, see Parameter attribute specifications.

If a KM is not enabled with metadata and if the KM is imported into the BMC ProactiveNet Performance Management or TrueSight Infrastructure Management:

  • Adapter-defaults are used to fetch the metadata for the probable-cause-analysis.
  • If the adapter-defaults are not available for the KM, BMC ProactiveNet Performance Management or the TrueSight Infrastructure Management generates the default metadata for the KM for the probable-cause-analysis. However, in these cases, the analysis is not as efficient when a KM is enabled with metadata.

The metadata is stored in the PATROL Agent namespace.

Best practice
Metadata must be set periodically at a minimum time interval of 30 minutes for any application class and instance. Metadata setting must not be a part of application discovery process, but it must be set from a separate KM collector parameter.

 


In BMC ProactiveNet Performance Management or in TrueSight Infrastructure Management environment, you can import knowledge modules (KMs) as Monitor Types through the PATROL adapter and Integration Service combination. While importing, you can select individual KMs whose definitions you want to import. The KM details that are displayed while importing are extracted from the default adapter files that are located in the following directories:

  • For BMC ProactiveNet Performance Management, the default adapter files are located in the <PnServerPath>\pw\pronto\sysdata\adapter-defaults directory. 
  • For TrueSight Infrastructure Management, the default adapter files are located in the <TrueSight Infrastructure Management Install directory> \pw \pronto \sysdata\adapter-defaults directory.

Enabling KMs with metadata has the following advantages:

  • When a new version of KM is available, metadata will be made available automatically to the BMC ProactiveNet Performance Management or TrueSight Infrastructure Management. While new data is getting imported after the upgrade, all the baselines and historical data for the old monitor type are not deleted 
  • In case of updated KMs, you do not need to install the new adapter defaults on the BMC ProactiveNet Performance Management or TrueSight Infrastructure Management.
  • For customized KMs:
    • You do not need to construct the adapter-defaults files manually.
    • You need not update the BMC ProactiveNet Performance Management server or Infrastructure Management server to keep them up to date with the KM.