Using Exclusion and Inclusion Lists

BMC PATROL is designed to monitor all the instances that it discovers. However, some application classes, such as NUK_Disk and NUK_FileSystem, allow the user to select which instances BMC PATROL monitors. BMC PATROL provides this feature through exclusion and inclusion lists.

The exclusion list is a mechanism for ignoring a small number of instances. If you want BMC PATROL to ignore a majority of instances, you can create an inclusion list, which forces BMC PATROL to ignore all but the instances that you specify.

The following topics discuss where PATROL stores exclusion and inclusion lists, how exclusion lists and inclusion lists can be created in PATROL, and other information.

Methods for Creating Exclusion and Inclusion Lists

BMC PATROL provides three different ways to create exclusion and inclusion lists and subsequently create and populate the associated configuration variables. You can create the list by using

  • The Stop Monitoring menu command from NUK_Disk and NUK_FileSystem instances (exclusion list only)
  • The Edit <application> Exclusion List menu command from NUK_Disk and NUK_FileSystem instances (exclusion list only)
  • pconfig tool

Note

When using xpconfig or wpconfig to create an exclusion list, add both entries (pathname-instance and /pathname/instance) for each instance that you intend to exclude. .

Storage Location of Exclusion and Inclusion Lists

BMC PATROL uses variables in the BMC PATROL configuration database to store information about exclusion and inclusion lists. The two variables are

  • /AgentSetup/application.filterList --contains the list of instances to include or exclude depending upon the value ofapplication.filterType
    The format is a comma-separated list of instances or regular expressions. The variable has a limit of 1024 characters. Regular Expressions can be used to alleviate this limitation. The error: Exclusion list too long. Please use regular expression exclusion. is generated when a filter exceeds the maximum size allowed for an Agent configuration variable.
  • /AgentSetup/application.filterType --determines whether the list is an exclusion or inclusion
    If application.filterType does not exist, the list defaults to exclude. Valid values are
    • Exclude
    • Include

Benefits of Creating Exclusion Lists Using Menu Commands

BMC recommends that you use the menu options Stop Monitoring and Edit <application> Exclusion List to exclude application instances. These menu options are accessed from the pop-up menu of the instances. 

The menu commands add two entries into the /AgentSetup/ application.filterList for each instance excluded.

  • The first entry is in the form pathname-instance, where slashes are replaced by dashes and the initial slash is omitted.
Example

mnt-hpserv-users indicates the filesystem /mnt/hpserv/users.

This entry is used by the collector in setting the consumer variables.

  • The second entry is in the form /pathname/instance.
Example

/mnt/hpserv/users indicates the filesystem /mnt/hpser/users.

This entry is used to display the instance in the <application> Exclusions dialog box. If you omit this entry, the instance will not appear in the dialog box.

The exclusion list feature is designed for ignoring a small number of instances. If you want BMC PATROL to ignore a majority of instances, you can create an inclusion list, which forces BMC PATROL to ignore all but the instances that you specify. However, monitoring by inclusion has a few limitations.

 

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